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American Morning

Storms Hit New York and Midwest; Warren To Organize New Financial Oversight Agency; Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to Organize Marches on Washington; Relief Well Completed: BP Proceeding with Bottom Kill; American Nuns vs. the Vatican; Spending Big for Midterms Elections; A Republican Civil War; Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?

Aired September 17, 2010 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Drew Griffin. It's Friday, September 17th. John Roberts has the day off.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us this morning. A lot to talk about. We're trying to figure out whether it was actually a tornado. We know it was severe weather.

The damage and destruction in a New York minute -- a fast, furious, and fatal storm hit New York City and the surrounding region yesterday. The Big Apple is still trying to recover this morning. They're trying to clear some of the tracks on a long island railroad as well as a lot of people still without electricity. Many don't have a way to work or school.

So was it a tornado? We'll show you the video, the iReports coming in throughout the night.

GRIFFIN: Well, she is the new sheriff of Wall Street, we're told. Harvard law professor Elizabeth warren picked to build a new consumer protection agency to keep the big banks and predatory lenders in line. It's a tall order coming from the White House. Can she deliver?

CHETRY: Also ahead, drilling is now complete. BP finishing work on drilling that relief well in the Gulf of Mexico. Now they're moving forward with the bottom kill. It's the procedure that would have BP's blown out well permanently cemented shut by the weekend.

GRIFFIN: Up first, though, this was really bad -- thousands still reeling this morning. Some scrambling for a way to work in the dark after a powerful and deadly storm tore through New York City last night.

CHETRY: Yes, the national weather service has yet to confirm that it was, indeed, a rare New York City tornado that touched down. But a lot of residents say we don't need confirmation, we know what we saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: It seemed to hit out of nowhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see the rain just coming down in sheets now.

CHETRY: A fast-moving, ferocious storm exploded over New York City and the surrounding area just as people were headed home in the afternoon rush. Commuters became storm chasers, and in a matter of minutes, sheets of rain, dark, black clouds, 80-mile-an-hour winds powerful enough to rip the brick off storefronts.

And for block after block, from Brooklyn to Queens, trees came down, crushing cars, blocking roads, ripping down power lines. One woman was killed when a tree came down on her car after she pulled over on the highway.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, (I) NEW YORK: The only thing that's important is that people are safe. We'll get power back, the trees will re0grow, but you lose a lot when you never get that back.

CHETRY: Severe weather also slammed parts of the Midwest. People in Ohio say they saw a funnel cloud leave this trail of debris. And high winds tipped over this tractor-trailer as neighbors looked on in shock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I thought it was going to take our house and my family, but it didn't. We were lucky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I looked at my wife and said we've got to run right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: Smart thing to do. Rob Marciano in the extreme weather center. What happens, though, you know, in a place like Brooklyn where you're not used to seeing any type of activity like this?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, it's a scary proposition. That's for sure. And with this line that came through yesterday, you know, we expected to see severe weather roll through the Ohio River Valley. And we certainly saw that with numerous storm reports. One tornado that turned deadly across the border there in Western Virginia.

But look at all these storm reports here in New York City and Jersey from just the wind, and winds gusting over 60 to 70 miles an hour at times. Here's the line that really -- it didn't really march down -- it kind of explode over the Delaware and heading into New York Harbor and down Long Island.

This really popped. We said yesterday this is a pretty strong storm for this time of year. And you couple that with, you know with what's pretty strong sun angle this time of year, as well. So I think the daytime heating certainly got a hold of this, and they're going to go out there with the storm survey team and they're going to check it out and see if, indeed, it was a tornado. Certainly the damage looks like it could have been. But straight line winds of 70, 80, 90 miles an hour can do that, as well.

And 120-mile-an-hour winds, this is hurricane Karl, now a category three storm. It's going to make landfall later on today and track towards Mexico City, implications for the highly populated area. We'll talk about that plus Igor later on this hour. Guys?

CHETRY: All right. We're going to check in with you, Rob. Thanks.

GRIFFIN: Other news, every predatory lender and banker on Wall Street being warned there's a new sheriff in town. Her name, Elizabeth Warren. This afternoon, the president plans to introduce her to America. The Harvard law professor will be setting up a new consumer protection agency.

Ed Henry live at the White House this morning. Ed, doing a little check-in, we've got the federal reserve, the FDIC, the FTC, the Treasury, and the SEC, and now this. What is her job?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, gosh, that's a pretty big alphabet soup there, Drew. You're right, there's one agency after another. And yet a lot of them were asleep at the switch during the crisis.

And maybe that's the point here -- will this bureau finally have the power to step in and prevent another big crisis? Elizabeth Warren this morning, new this morning, is talking pretty tough. She posted on the White House blog as saying there's a new cop on the beat. She's going to bring real accountability and says, quote, "The time for hiding tricks and traps in the fine print is over."

Now, we talk a lot in Washington about the alphabet soup, those agencies, and also these powerful jobs that may or may not really have a powerful impact on people's lives.

But this job that Elizabeth Warren is getting could very well touch the lives of many, many of our viewers because if we go through what this new consumer protection agency is going to do, it's going to be overseeing various lenders, as you mentioned, making sure implementation of this new credit card law, all the new disclosure requirements, protect students over student loans, also, providing free credit scores to consumers, things the president has promised.

They were in that Wall Street reform bill. But the key now is there really going to be a tough cop on the beat that's implementing what the president promised and what's written into law?

Interesting, the president decided to not name Elizabeth Warren, nominate her to the formal head of this new agency. That would've required Senate confirmation, as you know. Republicans have blocked many of the president's nominees. There were some potential roadblocks to her getting that.

So instead, she's going to be a top adviser setting up the new office. This has cheered liberal groups who think she's a real watchdog. She's been tough on the big banks. But the question is, whether she's really going to have the power to get this office up and running, and who is the president ultimately going to pick to actually run the agency? That's going to be really important in the days ahead.

GRIFFIN: All right, Ed, thanks a lot. The president's scheduled to introduce Warren at a 1:30 p.m. news conference at the White House. Ed, I'm sure, will be there. And you can see it live on CNN.

CHETRY: Well, fear and sanity sweeping through Washington. Comedy Central funny men Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announcing yesterday they're holding competing marches on the National Mall. Stewart dubbed his event a "rally to restore sanity" and not to be outdone, Colbert, as you'll see, pulled out all the stops for his announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": My fellow Americans, two score and four days from now on October 30th, 2010, I am calling for the nation to join me on the Washington Mall for the March to Keep Fear Alive!

(APPLAUSE)

Remember, government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth, but you might.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Well, Jon Stewart's, by the way, is restoring sanity. He's holding his rally, as well. And they'll be held October 30th. That's some good editing, huh?

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: That's hilarious. OK, "CNN Equals Politics" and comedy. Coming up in less than 30 minutes -- big political stories of the day, senior political editor Mark Preston.

CHETRY: And also a Washington state woman says she was attacked with acid that someone just threw it in her face. Americans were outraged, heard her story everywhere. There was an outpouring of sympathy.

Well, now police have discovered after interviewing her further she apparently did it to herself. Why? It's eight-and-half- minutes past the hour.

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GRIFFIN: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. A Washington state woman who claimed an unknown attacker threw acid in her face now, well, admits she made up the story and did it herself. Police say 28-year-old Bethany Storro initially told them she was about to walk into a Starbucks when an African-American woman said to her, "Hey, pretty girl, do you want to drink this?" And sprayed acid in her face.

Not clear this morning if Storro will face charges for lying to police, and we don't know why she did it.

Pope Benedict continues his historic visit to Britain, speaking today to some 4,000 students at a Catholic school in London. The Pope urged them not to be content with second best in their lives and said there were some future saints of the 21st century in that audience.

CHETRY: Well, an Egyptian newspaper is taking a creative approach to try to improve the president's standing on the world stage with the help of Photoshop. The paper doctored the image showing Egypt's Hosni Mubarak at the head of a procession of world leaders during the launch of the Mideast peace talks.

The original image on the left-hand side of your screen shows Mubarak clearly behind President Obama and some of the other leaders on the stage, and then, the photo-shopped image has him right front and center there leading the procession. It's since been removed from the Web site.

A relief well has now been joined to BP's blown out well in the gulf of Mexico. Officials releasing a statement overnight saying that drilling has now been completed and that BP can proceed with the bottom kill procedure. That process involves pumping the heavy drilling mud and cement from the new well into the bottom part of the original well, which would then permanently seal it.

BP expects that whole mission to be completed Sunday.

And coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, we're going to be speaking to Professor Don Van Nieuwenhuise about the newest development on the effort to kill the BP well. It's 13 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Welcome back, this is the Most News in the Morning. The last phase finally of work to kill BP's blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico could be done. Well, on the international talk like a pirate day, Sunday.

CHETRY: That's right. And I'm sure they're going to be very relieved to finally have this behind them. Is this the end, though? BP's moving forward but the bottom kill operation would then permanently seal the well. But we're going to get some insight on this now by Don Nieuwenhuise. He is the petroleum geoscience professor at the University of Houston.

You've been watching all of this closely, so what does it finally mean come Sunday, Don?

DON NIEUWENHUISE, PROFESSOR OF PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: Well, what it means is that the very last step, the last corner that had been cut early on is going to be completed and finalized. It means they will seal the annular space around the well, the production pipe that they had that had a significant potential for a leak in the future. They'll have that sealed. And once this is done, that well will be sealed just about as well as the rocks around it.

GRIFFIN: Don, what does that mean for the oil that is still down there in that reserve? Are they ever going to go back, drill another well and try to tap all that oil?

NIEUWENHUISE: Certainly when the economy is appropriate and the price of oil's appropriate, people will be motivated to do so. It costs a lot to drill wells in this area. And the size of the reservoir is not that big. And so, they will do this cautiously and make sure that it's economic. They have lost a significant amount of oil from that reservoir, but there still should be somewhere on the order of 80 to 125 million barrels of oil there. And that seems like a lot of oil, but these wells are very expensive to drill and also to produce the oil. In other words get the oil out of the ground and get it to pipelines.

CHETRY: Hmm, so that's interesting, so there is a chance that this could be it for that well?

NIEUWENHUISE: Yes. From what I understand, they're not going to do anything with this well. But they could drill another well in the future. They could also sell this property to other parties, including the partners if they want to get rid of this acreage just in case it's not going to make enough money.

GRIFFIN: All right.

CHETRY: You know, one of the other interesting things that they've been talking about is the potential discovery of this layer, perhaps one to two inches thick, coating the sea floor in the area near the Deepwater Horizon spill. There's been a lot of concern that, oh, 75 percent of the oil's gone or collected or burned off. The other 25 percent isn't doing any harm. If this is indeed the case, the environmental impact is not going to be known for a very long time. What happens now? And what is BP's responsibility in this?

NIEUWENHUISE: Well, I don't know if anybody has any plans to excavate the oil that's sitting at the bottom near the wellhead. From what I understand it's not that extensive in terms of area. But you would expect to have some of the heavy components that did not get dispersed properly to settle out nearby the well where you had so much oil coming out of the well and out of the ground for so long. It will biodegrade, but it'll take a little bit longer since it's concentrated. So in that immediate area, I think you probably will have an environmental problem. But in terms of a widespread problem, I think the greatest danger has been reduced because a lot of the oil is dispersed. And, of course, people say it's dispersed and therefore it's gone.

It's not completely gone. It still needs to be biodegraded. It's just in lower and safer concentrations in the Gulf of Mexico. And eventually the bacteria will digest most of that and it won't be too much of a concern. But we will have probably a small situation right around that wellhead for some time to come because the water's relatively cool. The bacteria act better when you have smaller droplets, but not so well when you have large concentrated masses.

CHETRY: All right. Don Nieuwenhuise for us. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

GRIFFIN: And coming up --

NIEUWENHUISE: Thank you.

GRIFFIN: Thanks, Don.

Coming up, nuns versus the Vatican. Catholic nuns across the country fighting back in the face of investigations into whether they have strayed too far from the teachings of the Catholic church. Carol Costello with an "A.M. Original." That's next.

It is just about 21 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Welcome back. The Most News in the Morning happening right now.

Day two of Pope Benedict's historic trip to Britain. And this morning, he addressed students at a Catholic school and then met with religious leaders in London.

CHETRY: For the first time the pope admitted that the church failed in handling priest sex abuse cases and he's actually expected to meet with victims tomorrow.

GRIFFIN: Here in this country, the Vatican squarely at odds with American nuns. Many feel, the nuns that is, that they're under siege from the church, which is questioning the quality of their religious life.

CHETRY: And the sisters are having their say about it. Carol Costello is live in Washington with an "A.M. Original."

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. Good morning, Drew.

The Vatican is now conducting two sweeping investigations of American nuns. The latest round of investigations will start very soon. The Vatican hopes that these investigations will help them understand the way nuns live in the United States. Of course, the nuns see it in a completely different way. They think of it like some -- they think of it like an interrogation designed to take away all they've gained.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of my friends ask me why their Vatican officials suffer from a deep-seated hatred of women.

COSTELLO (voice-over): On Sister Maureen Fiedler's Washington radio show --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could they be serious?

COSTELLO: The role of women in the Catholic Church is a popular one. The talk has been heated ever since the Vatican ordered two sweeping investigations into the religious views and lifestyles of American nuns. Investigations that have alarmed many sisters like Marlene Weisenbeck whose organization represents thousands of American nuns across the country.

SISTER MARLENE WEISENBECK, LEADERSHIP CONF. OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS: We weren't quite expecting to walk into this kind of a process that would test our authenticity and our integrity.

COSTELLO: One of the investigations involved a two-part questionnaire consisting of 120-detailed questions, like, what is the process for responding to sisters who dissent publicly from church teaching and discipline? How does the manner of dress of your sisters lend to the dignity and simplicity of your vocation? And this, what are the procedures for dealing with matters such as civil disobedience, criminal activity, sexual improprieties, et cetera?

SISTER MAUREEN FIEDLER, HOST, "INTERFAITH VOICES": I think that they want to be able to control what nuns do. They -- you know, in every aspect of their lives.

COSTELLO: At this year's Leadership Conference of Women Religious, some nuns say these investigations feel like an inquisition and are fighting back by boycotting all or part of the questionnaire.

FIEDLER: OK. Are we ready for prayer?

COSTELLO: Fiedler says many nuns who haven't lived in convents or worn habits since the 1950s, fears the Vatican wants to force them back into both. She also fears Rome wants to silence nuns when they disagree with the pope on issues like gays and the church or women's rights, something the church now allows them to do.

REV. FATHER JOSEPH TOBIN, "CONGREGATION FOR RELIGIOUS": Some of it might be a very deep-seated misunderstanding.

COSTELLO: The Vatican is hoping that Father Tobin who was just appointed the number two official for religious life can help calm the fears surrounding these investigations.

TOBIN: There is a need for dialogue. And I think dialogue means that two parties are honestly conversing and in search of the truth.

COSTELLO: Sister Marlene hopes that's true, but --

WEISENBECK: There is no turning back. I don't think that that happens in any kind of living organism. God doesn't turn the church, doesn't turn creation in opposite directions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: In other words, there is no turning back the clock for American nuns. I was just reading through some of the blog comments that we got in earlier this morning. CNN.com/amFIX if you would like to comment on this story. And Drew and Kiran, many interesting comments are coming in as usual.

This from Peter. Is this just a ploy to divert attention from the problem priests have? Should that questionnaire have been sent to the priests, perhaps the church should start focusing on bringing back its block.

And this one from Lauren (ph). She says, "As a young practicing Catholic woman, I support the church in its investigation of religious sisters. The investigation itself should not be taken defensively as if the church assumes religious women are doing something wrong, but rather it should comfort Catholics that the church cares enough to make sure that Women Religious are being held accountable."

And I think one of the problems surrounding these investigations, it's all quite mysterious. The Vatican really hasn't given nuns a reason that they're conducting these investigations. And I think that's where all of the tension and anxiety is coming from.

CHETRY: It's interesting to read these comments. A lot of anger, but a lot of really well thought out discussions about how strongly people feel about this and the Catholic church in general. So we welcome other people to get in on it. CNN.com/amFIX to join the conversation.

Great stuff, Carol. Thanks so much.

COSTELLO: Thank you.

GRIFFIN: All right. Twenty-eight minutes past the hour. Time for the morning's top stories.

It could finally be over. A couple of day's drilling has been complete on a relief well intersecting with the damaged BP well that triggered the gulf oil disaster. BP is now proceeding with that bottom kill. The process of dumping the cement and heavy mud from the new well into the bottom part of the original well. It's in the end it's a permanent seal and means it will never leak again. Officials expect that to be completed by Sunday

CHETRY: New York City and the surrounding areas recovering from a short, but extremely violent storm, killed one commuter during the evening rush last night when a tree fell on her car. Many witnesses say they saw funnel clouds forming. Tens of thousands of people lost power. Some of the commuter trains into the city are still suspended or even canceled this morning as crews try to clean up all of that debris.

GRIFFIN: And more rallies in D.C., but these are interesting. Jon Stewart announced last night he plans to host a rally to restore sanity, as he says. And "The Daily Show" host won't be alone. His partner in crime, Stephen Colbert, also announced he'll be holding a march on that same day, same location.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART": For tonight, I announce the rally to restore sanity. We will gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. A million moderate march where we take to the streets to send a message to our leaders and our national media that says, we are here. We're only here, though, until 6:00, because we have a sitter. A clarion call for rationality.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": My fellow Americans, two score and four days from now on October 30th, 2010, I am calling for the nation to join me on the Washington mall for the "March to Keep Fear Alive."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Hey, the hosts say the rallies will have some comedy elements. Do you think?

CHETRY: Just some.

GRIFFIN: You think? And guest stars, as well.

CHETRY: There you go. Well, time now for the latest news from the best political team on television, crossing the political ticker this morning. There's a lot of money being spent on political TV ads.

GRIFFIN: Yes, more to come, our CNN senior political editor Mark Preston live in Washington with the details on this. Hi, Mark.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Drew. Hey, Kiran. I'll tell you what, I suspect a lot of people will be setting their tivos over the next seven weeks because we expect perhaps up to $1 billion to be spent on political commercials just in this 2010 midterm election, if you can believe that. An eye-popping number.

Up to this point, we've seen about $285 million spent. But as history dictates, probably about 75 percent of all ad spending in an election occurs in the last 60 days. And our friend Evan Tracy over at campaign media analysis group tells us that.

So moving on, our own Dana Bash spent some time with Olympia Snowe yesterday in Senate hallway. Olympia Snowe, really one of these national moderates, centrist Republican. She's very upset about Mike Castle, that Delaware centrist who lost to Christine O'Donnell in that primary just a few days ago. Olympia Snowe says, "look, the tea party has some very good ideas, but the fact of the matter is, this shouldn't be a purity test in the Republican Party." Certainly if the Republican Party wants to become a majority and closing it out with everyone's darling or at least every social conservative Republican darling.

Sarah Palin heads to Iowa to headline a fundraiser tonight. In fact, at least 1,000 people will appear at this Reagan dinner fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party. Our own Peter Hamby has the story up on that on cnnpolitics.com. Kiran, Drew?

GRIFFIN: Iowa, Palin, always interesting when you put those two together, Mark.

PRESTON: Yes, no question. Look, a lot of people said that Sarah Palin is really not thinking about running for president, maybe she's just trying to milk it, maybe try to get a radio career. Maybe that's the case. But I tell you what she's heading to Iowa. And when people who head to Iowa are certainly looking ahead to 2012.

CHETRY: It was fascinating also to see Senator Olympia Snowe because she got very fired up yesterday. And she said, you know, "I don't know if people want this ideological test, this utopia, we don't live in utopia." And you know, she was very candid about whether or not there's room in the party for people like her who will cross party lines on certain issues.

PRESTON: You know, and Kiran, this is the fight that has been going on for decades in the Republican Party. Are some Republicans not conservative enough? You know, the real social conservatives consider Olympia Snowe a rhino, a Republican in name only. They don't accept her in the party, but she is right if the Republican Party wants to regain the majority, if they want to be a ruling party here in Washington, D.C., they just can't be a party that appeals to a certain segment of the party.

So Olympia Snowe is absolutely correct about that. But as we've seen over the past year or so, we've seen a lot of moderates get drummed out of office. We saw Bob Bennett who is not considered conservative enough lose his primary. We see Lisa Murkowski lose her primary up in Alaska and, of course, we see Mike Castle who can't even win the Senate primary.

Mike Castle had been in Washington since 1993 and he was a former governor of Delaware. So yes, there seems to be some kind of purity test going on right now in the Republican Party.

GRIFFIN: All right. Thanks, Mark. We're going to check back in with Mark next hour. For all the political news, you can always go to our web site at cnnpolitics.com.

CHETRY: So if the tea party causing a "civil war" within the GOP? CNN's senior political analyst David Gergen and Ed Rollins join us to talk about it, up next. It's 34 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Welcome back. I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center and hurricane headquarters today. We want to talk about Hurricane Karl. If you checked in yesterday, this was just sprung up to being a category one, after being a tropical storm. Now it's a cat three and about to make landfall in Mexico. Obviously, hurricane warnings are up here. They're already beginning to feel the effects of this. The eye wall will likely be onshore later on this afternoon and the full brunt of it this evening.

And actually, this thing is heading right up the mountains into Mexico City. Will probably still be that tropical storm by the time it gets to Mexico City early tomorrow morning. They're going to see a lot of wind, obviously, but a ton of rain. And those are mountainous areas, mudslides are going to be a huge concern. So there's your major hurricane number one that we have in the Atlantic basin.

Major hurricane number two, which is Igor, category three storm now with 125-mile-an-hour winds. And the forecast track still brings it up towards Bermuda during the day on Sunday into Sunday night. So we're hoping this thing shifts a little bit more to the east. If we do, Bermuda may be spared. But computer run after computer run continues to bring it over that tiny, tiny island.

All right. Severe weather yesterday across Ohio, West Virginia and New York City. Getting hammered with winds and a couple of tornadoes. That front now pushing offshore. It will be slightly cooler and more calm today. And we've got a serious front coming down from Canada. Severe storms possible across the plains and then temperatures behind that will be a good 15, 20, 25 degrees cooler than they are right now.

That's your check on weather. AMERICAN MORNING is coming right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in The Morning. Vice president Joe Biden is headed to his home state of Delaware today trying to defend his home turf. He'll campaign with Democrat Chris Coons who is taking on tea party superstar Christine O'Donnell. Up for grabs is the vice president's old Senate seat. O'Donnell tells CNN that her campaign raised nearly $1 million in the 24 hours that followed her upset win this week in Delaware's GOP primary.

It's a win that has a lot of Republicans wondering about the party's direction. And joining us now to talk more about this as well as some of the other political hot topics, two of the best political minds in the business, CNN's senior political analyst David Gergen and Ed Rollins.

Great to see both of you.

ED ROLLINS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning. How are you.

CHETRY: I want to ask you about Christine O'Donnell. So Christine O'Donnell with tea party support pulled off this upset win and now it looks like there's a big chance that this seat's going to go Democrat simply because it's a blue state and she's quite conservative. What's going on within the Republican Party? Is this civil war being overplayed? ROLLINS: The civil war's being overplayed. The civil war has occurred on many, many occasions in the past when the Christian right became a part of it. when Reagan took on Ford, people said the Republicans are never going to get back together again, they obviously have.

This is one race, this is one race we may not win when we thought we were going to win. But there's other places we're going to win where we thought we were never going to win before like we're now in a real competitive race in West Virginia. Angle has come back in Nevada. She's dead even with Harry Reid. So I mean, this is an election that's obviously got lots of movement, lots of change.

CHETRY: David, as Democrats sit back and watch this taking place, I know that there were some very interesting statements made after Christine O'Donnell won from Democrats. What's the thinking right now of where the party needs to go to set itself up for wins in November?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the Democratic Party -- I think is fundamentally right. This election campaign has shown that there's a very, very heavy rebellion out there against the status quo. And that will favor the Republicans in the fall. In some of these individual races on the Republican side, there are clear splits within the party, and tensions within the party that are going to have to be addressed over time.

But the Democrats overall are still, you know, go into this, the underdogs, especially in the House of Representatives. I think they've got -- now got with Christine O'Donnell's win, they've got a very, very good chance of keeping the Senate in Democratic hands. But what they have to do, what Democrats have to do, you know, I don't think they can nationalize this race very well. They have to win state by state, district by district by going after the other -- the opponent or trying to make the case you've got a better candidate.

CHETRY: For Republican leaders --

GERGEN: That's why Joe Biden is going into Delaware. He's going to go in now because they think they can hold this. He thinks he's going to go in to pump in Coons as the Democratic candidate.

ROLLINS: The one even Joe Biden going in there today he can't raise $1 million in 24 hours. What basically is happening --

CHETRY: You're referring to Christine O'Donnell being able to do that?

ROLLINS: There is a movement out there, David, unlike anything we've seen in a long time. And my sense is she may be a credible campaign by the end, we've got seven weeks to see. Today, I would say probably not.

CHETRY: Go ahead.

GERGEN: The first poll out of the box was 16 down. They went from a situation of having Mike Castle as a Republican nominee who was up and looked like a prohibitive favorite because she's 16 down. So this is -- this looks like a net loss. But you can't look at her in isolation, you've got to look at the bigger picture. And I think Ed's right about that, the bigger picture continues to favor the Republicans.

CHETRY: But Ed, the question is, though, for Republican leaders, do they want ideological purity? Or do they want to win back control of the House and Senate?

ROLLINS: First of all, they're not going to win back control by Republican leaders. The National Senate Committee -- when David and I were in the White House, Ronald Reagan never endorsed candidates. We let the primaries take place. When I ran the congressional committee, I never endorsed a candidate. The Senate Committee has endorsed eight candidates that have lost, created chaos, tried to be a top down party.

The grass roots is a very powerful entity. It's alive, it's well, and my sense is they're going to be outmobilized. And by Democrats calling them a bunch of (INAUDIBLE) and what-have-you is only going to mobilize them more.

CHETRY: Right. There is something (INAUDIBLE) certainly of that element, David.

GERGEN: Can I come back on that?

CHETRY: Yes.

GERGEN: I think there are dangers lurking here for Republicans and I think there are dangers for the country and that is it's not just Christine O'Donnell.

The number of people who -- these insurgent candidates on the Republican side who have knocked off incumbents, especially moderate type Republicans mean that when after this election is over Republicans will go back to the Senate and go back to the house are going to be very, very leery of working with Democrats on anything because that's what's knocking off these incumbents.

When that means is when it comes to solving the deficit problem, which has ballooned over to the country, we have to do that with bipartisan support. You cannot get it from here to deficit reduction without bipartisan support.

If it means a death sentence for a Republican to work with a Democrat, I don't see how we solve the deficit problem. I also think, Ed --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll never get the deficit problem unless the president deals with the leadership. The problem is they're trying to pick off the Olympia Snowe's and what have you.

When Reagan was successful, he dealt with Wright Rustinkowski. When Bill Clinton was successful, he dealt with Trent and he dealt with Newt.

And it's going to be up to Obama to sit down with these people and give them something, otherwise he's going to get no support.

CHETRY: And David, on that note. I want to ask you about the situation that's happening in the House right now. We heard Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, yesterday seemed perhaps seemed to keep the door open to extending the tax cuts at least temporarily for all Americans.

Because this is a debate that's gone back and forth whether or not anything gets done, this will be blamed on the Democrats who are the party in charge, right?

If they leave on recess or they leave in December, the tax cuts. They couldn't work some of their own conservative, you know, party members, it couldn't work with them to get middle class tax cuts instated.

GERGEN: I think the most important thing for middle class Americans is, the chances are 99.9 percent that some time before Christmas, the Congress is going to enact and extend these tax cuts for the middle class.

I think the big question is, are they going to extend them for everybody else and what's going to happen to dividend taxes, state taxes, and everything else. Those are very contentious.

As a general proposition, you would think this whole effort to extend middle class taxes would favor the Democrats. Polls say that most Americans want to extend middle class taxes and they don't want to extend them.

However, in many districts, conservative districts, it is a loser for Democrats to say let's raise taxes on the upper income. And that's why 31 of them have signed a letter in the House of Representatives saying we want to extend them all.

And that's what's putting pressure on Nancy Pelosi to saying maybe we should extend them all. The Democrats could mishandle this. There's no question about it so could the Republicans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raising taxes before an election, the prospect of that gives every Republican an opportunity to beat the daylights out of Pelosi and any Democrat that supports her.

CHETRY: And David, these are the other questions though, these 31 Democrats and we talked to one of them yesterday. Congressmen have basically tied Nancy Pelosi's hands, right?

Because if they say they're not going to vote if it indicates it's not going to pass without extending it to everyone, at the end of the day, the Democrats are going to be blamed.

GERGEN: I think the chances of getting done before the elections are diminishing and part because, as Gloria Borger reported yesterday on CNN, there's no majority for any plan right now in Congress.

Whether it's, you know, there are five or six variations of this tax plan and there's no single one of those variations has majority support.

So this could well go over, be pushed over till after the elections, but for middle class taxpayers, I think there should be assurances that it will get done. I don't know how, but it's going to get done. They're not going to go home and raise taxes on everybody. They will not do that.

CHETRY: Do you agree?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree.

CHETRY: All right, well -- we went on consensus then. Always great to talk to both of you, David Gergen and Ed Ronalds. Thanks.

GRIFFIN: Hey, if your kid's going out to school this morning taking a test, forget about studying, you might want to have them run around the block. We'll be back with that story.

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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Some developing news to tell you about just in to CNN.

Police in London saying they have arrested five men this morning. There are reports they're being held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack possibly linked to the ongoing state visit of Pope Benedict. This is according to Scotland Yard.

Again, five men arrested Friday morning in London by counterterrorism officers on suspicion of terrorism. We have calls out. We will get the latest on this developing story and bring it to you in just a couple of minutes. Drew --

GRIFFIN: All right, Kiran. There's new evidence this morning that exercise can boost a child's brain function actually make them score higher on a test.

Joining us now from Irbana, Illinois for today's nation report, Dr. Charles Hillman, professor of Kinesiology at my alma mater, Chuck, the University of Illinois.

He has also authored a number of studies on how exercise can impact children's brains. So, I mean, exercise makes kids smarter or exercise makes kids perform better?

CHARLES HILLMAN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF KINESIOLOGY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH: Well, I think it might depend a bit on how you look at it, but if your definition of smart is your ability to perform tasks and hold them in your working memory.

Or your ability to pay attention to relevant items in the environment and ignore distracting items or process information more quickly or perform multiple tasks simultaneously I think we could talk about being smart. But certainly, we could definitely talk about your ability to perform tasks.

GRIFFIN: And that's what is so interesting I found about this study because in preparing for a test you may actually -- I teased it. You might want to run around the block but that is, indeed, true. You basically exercise these kids and then tested them.

HILLMAN: Yes. We've conducted research in the laboratory where we had children walk on a treadmill and after the treadmill walk, they then performed cognitive tasks and academic achievement tests.

And these same kids on another day also just sat quietly for the same period of time and what we found was that after exercise they performed the tasks better, they were able to allocate more of their attention towards these tests and higher academic achievement.

GRIFFIN: There's science behind this. We're going to show a couple of slides you sent about brain scan of, I guess, it's a kid at rest and a kid after exercise. I think we're going to have those up on the screen now. Tell me what I'm seeing. I'm seeing, like, a warmer brain, I guess.

HILLMAN: Yes. You are actually seeing the same group of children in both. So we compared them against themselves and after exercise the red areas are related to their ability to allocate their attention to -- outwardly towards their environment -- after exercise, they're better able to allocate those attention resources.

GRIFFIN: Right and translated into better test scores, which we also can show -- you tested the kids before and after exercise and they just -- they did better.

HILLMAN: That's correct.

GRIFFIN: So, you would suggest -- I mean, to teachers who want to improve scores or improve the -- get the most out of their kids in testing, literally, send them out to recess and test them after that, right?

HILLMAN: Yes. I think that, you know, kids need that natural break and -- but more importantly I think that our work shows that they need to be active and following that bout of activity to perform at closer to cognitive peak.

GRIFFIN: Yes. Are you doing anything or have you done anything long term to show that physically fit kids just kids in general who are fit and exercise and get that daily energy boost are doing better in school, in tests?

HILLMAN: Yes. We've conducted a number of studies that have shown that more physically fit kids, those that exercise frequently have healthier brains. They perform better on tasks and they perform better in school.

GRIFFIN: All right, Chuck Hillman, University of Illinois, interesting stuff. Thanks for joining us this morning.

HILLMAN: Thanks for having me.

GRIFFIN: Our top stories coming your way right after this break.

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