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American Morning
Cain on the Fence; Day Two of Obama's Road Trip; Hillary Clinton in Libya; Captive Israeli Soldier Released in Prisoner Exchange; Ron Paul Interview; Blackberry Maker Offers Free Apps; Apple's IPhone 4s Sales Record
Aired October 18, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is 5:00 a.m. in Las Vegas, 8:00 on the East Coast. I'm Carol Costello live in Las Vegas. The stage is set for the Western Presidential Debate.
What happens in Vegas tonight could tilt the race for the party's nomination. Herman Cain and Mitt Romney now locked in a statistical dead-heat and the gloves could come off just 12 hours from now.
Take a look at that. Isn't that fantastic?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: It is, Carol. It really is.
I'm Christine Romans.
President Obama drumming up support for his jobs plan and pushing Congress to get on board. But Republicans say his road trip is about one thing, saving one job alone: his.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Ali Velshi.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton making a surprise visit to Libya to help map out their political future -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
ROMANS: All right. Good morning, everybody. It's Tuesday, October 18th.
And tonight is the big night in Vegas, where we're going to see, you know, how this field is standing up.
VELSHI: Yes. Almost, almost all the GOP candidates debating tonight. We sent Carol Costello out there. She is live out there this morning for the pregame and then again tomorrow morning for the post game -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh, it's a little windy out here. I'm glad I'm not out in the middle of the desert because it could be one wicked sandstorm.
But I'm here right in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip. What happens tonight in Vegas could go a long way towards determining who will run against President Obama in 2012 because Mitt Romney and Herman Cain are now locked in a statistical dead heat for the GOP nomination.
And just 12 hours from now, they will take the stage with five other candidates for the Western Republican Presidential Debate.
Look at the latest numbers from a CNN/ORC poll. This poll was just released about two hours ago. If you're wondering why Cain is surging so dramatically, here is the answer. He is likable, 5 percent more likable than Romney among Republican voters.
But when those same Republican voters are asked who the likely nominee will be, it's Romney. No contest -- 51 percent to 18 percent over Cain. And who has best chance to beat Barack Obama? A landslide, again, Republican voters choosing Romney over Cain by a 17-point margin.
One candidate you will not see tonight in Las Vegas is Jon huntsman. He is actually boycotting the debate, choosing instead to hold a town hall meeting in New Hampshire.
Herman Cain may have the most to gain and the most to lose in tonight's Western Republican debate. He's been skyrocketing in the polls, but he's a misstep or two lately, most notably on immigration.
Jim Acosta is here with more in what could be a very challenging test for Cain tonight.
I would assume, Jim, that the other candidates are going to pounce on Herman Cain tonight.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would think so.
And, Carol, the poll you just showed was just the perfect example of how Republicans are becoming like Vegas odds makers. They are starting to see Mitt Romney as the safe bet for the GOP nomination and Herman Cain as a bit of a long shot and part of that is because of Herman Cain's outspoken style.
Take his most recent comments on immigration. It is likely to be the subject of tonight's debate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I'm in charge of defense, we're going to have a fence.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Herman Cain insists these comments on immigrants crossing the border did not cross the line.
CAIN: It's going to be 20 feet high. It's going to have barbed wire on the top. It's going to be electrocuted -- electrified. And there's going to be a sign on the other side that says, "It will kill you." Warning.
Mr. Cain, that's insensitive. No, it's insensitive for them to be killing our citizens, killing our border agents.
ACOSTA: The outspoken conservative businessman says he was only kidding.
CAIN: It was a joke, John. And, yes, I haven't learned how to be politically correct yet. So, yes, it probably wasn't the right thing to say. And I did not mean to offend anybody.
ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: This is the education of Herman Cain. He's learning the difference between being a minor league candidate and all of a sudden being at the top of the heat. There are things you say when you just try to get attention that you can't say when people are looking at you as a serious contender.
ACOSTA: Cain made the comments just a couple of days before meeting Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who's become the Donald Trump of illegal immigration politics. Arpaio who is getting visits and calls from several Republican contenders e says Cain was right on message.
SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA: I kind of like this guy because he's unconventional, controversial, telling it like it is, kind of like me.
CAIN: Yes.
ACOSTA: But Latino Republicans worry that tough talk will backfire.
MARIO LOPEZ, HISPANIC LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE: This is the type of rhetoric that has turned off a lot of Latino voters in the past and I think that's a bit unfortunate from the Republican point of view. But, the fact that he's trying to walk back his comments now, I think, is telling.
NARRATOR: Illegals sneaking across our border, putting Americans' safety and jobs at risk.
ACOSTA: In Nevada, Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle outraged Hispanics with this attack ad, showing Latino actors portraying illegal immigrants. Angle's opponent, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid went on to capture nearly 90 percent of the Latino vote.
But the latest CNN/ORC poll finds Cain's style is catching fire. He's neck and neck with frontrunner Mitt Romney and has nearly traded places with Rick Perry, who is seen by some Tea Party activists as weak on illegal immigration.
Cain is also a major worry for Romney, and poll after poll, it appears the former Massachusetts governor has peaked in support among Republicans.
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is a natural ceiling and if you go back and look at the race last time, he ran into a natural ceiling.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And one of the big questions for tonight's debate is whether the other candidates on the stage will actually challenge Herman Cain on these comments on immigration. Carol, as you know, the race for the GOP nomination is very much a race to the right on this issue of illegal immigration.
So, it's possible they may try to be more like Herman Cain in some of these comments.
COSTELLO: I was just going to say that because Herman Cain's comments certainly resonate with the Tea Party.
ACOSTA: You heard that applause in that video.
COSTELLO: Absolutely. Most of Cain supports comes from the Tea Party, not from more moderate Republicans. So, why would the moderate Republicans attack Herman Cain at this particular time?
ACOSTA: Well, they've got to attack him on something.
COSTELLO: Well, his 9-9-9 plan.
ACOSTA: Exactly. I think they will hear that. Michele Bachmann did say on the campaign trail that perhaps the issue of illegal immigration is not a laughing matter, not a joking matter. So I think that there will be some attempts to challenge Herman Cain on this issue and the other candidates have, you know, big reason to challenge Cain.
Time is not on their side. As we saw with the day for the Iowa caucus being moved up to January 3rd, the possibility that the New Hampshire primary could be in December, that puts us, Carol, two months before the voting begins. These other candidates have to start doing something if they want to get in Herman Cain's spot. It looks pretty good from up there.
COSTELLO: It is great.
The interesting thing about Mitt Romney, he's here, too. I mean, he was here yesterday and he held an event in a parking lot where he talked to voters, but he did not talk to reporters. Herman Cain, on the other hand, he's talking to everybody. So, Mitt Romney is certainly playing it safe. Herman Cain, he's still going for the gusto.
ACOSTA: That's right. Mitt Romney's strategy at this point is to let the other candidates do what they do. You know, Michele Bachmann comes up. She's sort of the un-Romney at the moment. And then Rick Perry comes along, he's the un-Romney. Now, Herman Cain is in that role.
It's not bad when you're Mitt Romney when everybody else is trying to be the un-Romney. So, really, at this point, play it safe. Don't try to go out there and do a lot of interviews with reporters where you could have a major gaffe that could, you know, put some doubts out there as to whether or not you could capture this nomination. Fifty- one percent of Republicans say he's likely to win the GOP nomination.
COSTELLO: Yes.
ACOSTA: That's not a bad number. COSTELLO: Not a bad number at all. Jim Acosta, many thanks. We'll talk again.
ACOSTA: You bet.
COSTELLO: Stay with us for the best political coverage on television. In just a few minutes, we will be joined by Jon Ralston. He's a columnist with the "Las Vegas Sun." He's considered by many to be Nevada's most informed political reporter. We'll get his take on tonight's GOP debate.
And at 8:45 Eastern, Ron Paul will join us live. The Texas congressman has released his economic plan and claims he can balance the budget in his first year in office, if he is elected president. Wow. We'll ask him to explain how exactly he's going to do that -- Ali and Christine.
VELSHI: We'll be watching very -- I'll be watching very carefully. So is Christine.
ROMANS: You take a chain saw and you take the budget and you chain saw it in half.
COSTELLO: You have it just about right.
VELSHI: Well, like Herman Cain, people like Ron Paul for how forthright he is and how he says it and how it might not actually be something that sounds likable or huggable. But he will say it and I look forward to hearing it. Carol, we'll be back with you.
COSTELLO: But it's true to his libertarian roots. At this point, that's exactly what you would expect Ron Paul to come up with.
VELSHI: Right. That's absolutely right. See you in a minute, Carol.
ROMANS: They're warming up the high-tech jet black presidential coach this morning for a second day in a row. President Obama will take his push for the stalled jobs bill on the road. He's going to, again, make stops in North Carolina and Virginia, and while Republicans accuse the president of campaigning on the taxpayers' dime, the president insisted he's just trying to put Americans back to work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I appreciate -- I appreciate the four more years, but right now I'm thinking about the next 13 months. Because, yes, we've got an election coming up, but that election is a long ways away and a lot of folks can't wait. A lot of folks are living paycheck to paycheck. A lot of folks are living week to week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: President's re-election campaign also reaching a milestone Monday. The campaign announced it received financial contributions now from a million grassroots donors. VELSHI: Live pictures now from New York City's Zuccotti Park. That's where the Wall Street protesters have been camping out for more than a month. Later today, some of them are planning to walk uptown and occupy Lincoln Center on the city's upper west side, right near where we are.
The group is also reportedly planning a worldwide rally against police brutality on Saturday.
ROMANS: Lincoln Center is where the opera is, right?
VELSHI: Yes. That would -- that stands to reason given some of the complaints that they've got. The opera tends to be a gathering of the most wealthy. Well, the opera, by the way, will tell you that that's not the point.
They're trying to access -- and the opera, the opera in New York has actually gone out of its way to do free concerts and put stages out in parks so that people who are not the wealthy can watch. But somehow I think that's going to get lost in the discussion today. I think it's more symbolically --
ROMANS: I think so, too. The center of wealth.
VELSHI: It's the ballet, it's opera, it's the theater, it's a concentration of generally people with money.
ROMANS: OK. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a mission to Libya. The secretary arriving in Tripoli this morning with an offer of economic and political assistance for the leaders of Libya's new transitional government. She's the first U.S. cabinet level official to visit the country since Gadhafi was driven from power in August.
VELSHI: And Moammar Gadhafi's home town of Sirte, the only stronghold left standing. Libyan's new government troops say they have taken control of Bani Walid. Meantime, in Tripoli, troops began bulldozing the outer walls of Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound. The compound was seized by rebel fighters back in August.
ROMANS: All right. It's a day of celebration in the Middle East and Gaza. A huge welcome home for nearly 500 Palestinians freed in a landmark prisoner exchange with Israel. Five hundred more will be set free in two months from now. In return, Hamas released Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who has been held now for more than five years.
Shalit said he hopes the deal is a stepping stone to peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
VELSHI: And still ahead, amazing pictures. An epic dust storm -- what some of you might call a haboob, blackens the skies in Texas, whipping through with winds of up to 75 miles an hour.
ROMANS: You're like a little kid. You want to say that word over and over and over.
VELSHI: Yes, I really wanted, yes. A lot, yes. ROMANS: And Apple's new iPhone setting a sales record. Guess how many new phones were sold in just three days?
VELSHI: It was like a sales haboob.
ROMANS: It's 12 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Little Florida love this morning. Wake up, Miami. It is quarter after eight. You don't have to wake up. It's light rain and 81.
ROMANS: It's 81.
VELSHI: it's free thunder showers and 84. Actually, Florida is getting a rough time today, Rob.
ROMANS: I know. That's the worse when you go to Florida, and then, suddenly it's not sunny, and you're here from some place like up here where isn't (ph) raining --
VELSHI: I know. And Florida, you know, other than when they get these little tropical storms or depressions, it's usually a nice place.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I mean, you know, get rain every once in a while, get to feed the rain forest or at least the everglades.
(CROSSTALK)
MARCIANO: Good morning, guys. Hey, where they haven't seen a lot of rain, they got a couple, a little bit a couple of weeks ago, but when you get a dry area and you get wind, this is what the result is. Dust storm. All right. West Texas, Lubbock, famous for its wind and its dust, but not like this. Come on.
I mean, visibility is dropping to lower than 100 feet. This thing was hundreds of feet into the air. Winds gusting at times over 70 miles an hour, knocking down trees and power lines and even doing some damage. Some of the planes at the airport were tipped over. A classic haboob is the technical term.
And this is what caused this line of thunderstorms now and through parts of Louisiana and some of the rainfall stretching all the way up as far north as the lower Great Lakes. That will couple with this rainfall that we showed you in Miami that's been raining there for the last day and a half.
Some of these heavier rains now beginning to move into the Ft. Myers area, will get up towards Sarasota and Tampa before the day is done. This is part of what might be a tropical depression before the day is done. Just a small chance of that happening. It's getting picked up by the upper level winds. That's the moisture source, and that will teaming up with what's coming through and out of Texas and in through the mid south. So, these two systems will get together and have themselves a little bit of party along the east coast. Beginning today, across Florida, and then eventually, across the mid-Atlantic and the southeast into the Delmarva, and yes, all the way up into the northeast before the week is done here.
Some heavier rains in front of and behind this system and notice a little bit of white mixing in there, as well. Decent amount of cold air behind this, as well. Froze and freeze watches are up for parts of the plains. Temperatures could drop as low as the upper 20s in some of these areas and for game one of the World Series tomorrow night.
It's going to be windy, and temperatures were probably knocked it out of the 40s. If you're traveling today, some thunderstorms may slow things down, but we shouldn't see too much in the way of red on the map. Ali, Christine.
VELSHI: Christine was asking me what the word haboob in Arabic -- what it means. I think it just means dust storm.
MARCIANO: Yes, pretty much. I'm pretty sure that's what it means. I don't speak Arabic, but --
VELSHI: But I recall, we last talked about this. It didn't mean like it wasn't some kind of unusual meaning that might be a dust storm. I think it was some variation of that.
MARCIANO: The term derived from the Mideast where they get a fair amount of dust storms.
VELSHI: It's a great word. It's a great word. Rob, thanks, buddy.
ROMANS: All right. Over to Carol now in Las Vegas.
VELSHI: Who's got -- it doesn't have any dust, but it's
ROMANS: It's windy. It is windy.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I know. Like I said, I'm glad I'm not out in the middle of the desert. I'd be in big trouble.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: In less than 12 hours, seven Republican candidates for president will take the stage here in Las Vegas for a crucial nationally televised debate, and it will happen right here. Live pictures for you now outside the Venetian Hotel. The stakes are quite high.
For Mitt Romney, it's a chance to prove (INAUDIBLE). For Herman Cain, an opportunity to build on his remarkable momentum. Let's bring in Jon Ralston. He's a columnist with the "Las Vegas Sun" and knows the state of Nevada like few other people do. John, welcome. JON RALSTON, COLUMNIST, LAST VEGAS SUN: Morning.
COSTELLO: Thanks for waking up so early.
RALSTON: My pleasure.
COSTELLO: Because it's really early here in Las Vegas.
RALSTON: It is early. It is early.
COSTELLO: Although, for the strip, it's not so early, because there are plenty of people --
RALSTON: And the wind is keeping us awake, too.
COSTELLO: It's kind of a chilly wind, too. It's interesting.
RALSTON: It is.
COSTELLO: Before we talk about the Republicans, I'd like to talk about the Democrats as in President Obama. He won here in 2008, but he's not so popular any more.
RALSTON: He won the state fairly decisively by 12 points, but he's been having trouble ever since. We have the worst economy in the country, highest unemployment rate. It was up close to 15 percent at one time. Sixty percent of the people who live here have their houses under water.
This great boom economy, right? We were growing in population. Suddenly, we're losing population. People are looking for somebody to blame. They're blaming the president whose numbers here aren't good.
COSTELLO: So, his big jobs bill campaign tour across America isn't resonating here in Nevada?
RALSTON: Well, I don't think it is yet. I think the problem for the president is a lot of people, especially in places like (INAUDIBLE) they're not listening any more. They've heard it all. They're disgusted with Washington. Congressional approval is at record lows, and the president's suffering that too.
They had all these promises when he first came in, right? That the unemployment was going to drop. We haven't seen it here. We even had the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, who made similar promises and just got re-elected. And so, I think there's a double whammy there.
COSTELLO: So, people are probably looking for some big, bold plan to create jobs because that's what Nevada needs right now in the short term. Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan, is that resonating at all?
RALSTON: Not yet. I don't think so. Herman Cain hasn't been a factor in this state, although, his surge nationally is reflected here. There was a poll that came out last week that showed he was only five points behind Mitt Romney here in the state. Mitt Romney won the state in 2008. He's the only one who really has an infrastructure here, but I think, down at the grassroots level, there is some support for Cain. People are looking for an alternative, right? There's a segment of the Republican Party still looking for anybody but Romney. And so, I think Cain is now the flavor of how long, a month, a week, six months, we'll find out.
COSTELLO: Yes, we will. I was talking to the Las Vegas mayor, Mayor Goodman, yesterday. And she said, when she sits down to listen to the Republican debate tonight, she wants to hear a candidate give her a plan that will create jobs right now and, like you said, Herman Cain's plan probably doesn't do that.
Mitt Romney's 59-point plan probably doesn't do that. Ron Paul came out with a plan. He's going to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget. That's probably not going to create jobs in the short-term either. So, as Nevada voters sit down and listen, will they be looking for the same things as Mayor Goodman?
RALSTON: People are impatient, right? They're just as Mayor Goodman is they want to see some change right away. They've been waiting. This economy has been in the tank for a couple of years now. So, I think that, again, I think tuning out is the real problem that the president certainly has, maybe even some of the Republican candidates. 9-9-9 might have some visceral appeal for a while.
Mitt Romney, no one is going to read all 59 points in that book. I just don't think they're listening, and there is no instant way to create jobs, right? People here talk about diversifying the economy. They don't just want gaming any more. They know we need more here in Nevada. They talk about solar energy. The sun is out, usually.
(LAUGHTER)
RALSTON: Not at this time of day, unfortunately. And so, they think that maybe that will help diversify the economy, but there's no instant fix and that's the problem mostly for the president, I think.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about the Latino vote, because that's very important in Nevada and in the west. Herman Cain, we've all heard his comments by now. He talked about that deadly electrified fence he wants to put along the border. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERMAN CAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was a joke, John. And yes, I haven't learned how to be politically correct yet. So, yes, it probably wasn't the right thing to say, and I did not mean to offend anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Yes. Well, some things last, especially when you're targeting a specific population. So, how -- so will the Latino voters here forgive? RALSTON: Well, first of all, whenever a candidate says something kind of goofy, they say, oh, I can't be politically correct. He knows he said something kind of goofy. The scary thing, though, I think about the Republican electorate is there's -- some percentage of it, it will be OK, you're right, Mr. Cain. That's right.
Now, the Hispanic population, as you mentioned, is very important here. The Republicans have gotten crushed here in the Hispanic population. President Obama in 2008 won the Hispanic population by 50, 5-0, points.
COSTELLO: Wow!
RALSTON: And so, that was -- it was a huge deal in 2010 when Harry Reid was dragged to re-election essentially against a flawed opponent. The Hispanic vote again was huge for him. The Republicans now here have elected a Hispanic governor, Brian Sandoval.
But even he did not do well among the Hispanic population, I think they're counting on him in the state to reach out to the Hispanic population, to bring more Hispanics over to the Republican Party. Brian Sandoval who's endorsed Rick Perry, by the way, still must cringe when he hears Herman Cain talking that kind of language.
COSTELLO: Well, Rick Perry, he endorsed Rick Perry, but Rick Perry is going nowhere. Why do you think he's fallen off the map so to speak?
RALSTON: Well, certainly, the fact is there've been so many debates this time, and Perry, even by, and people who like him, any measure has performed abysmally in these debates. People are saying, you know, where is the Rick Perry that we hope to see. His only hope really is that he raised so much money, $17 million.
That can make up for a lot, and you can do a lot more with a 30-second ad than you can having to appear in a debate. It'll be interesting to see how he does tonight, because a lot of people think he just can't afford to keep just either disappearing or not being articulate in these debates and still stay in the race.
COSTELLO: Yes. And you can't go on and say, I'm just not good at debating. It's not my thing.
RALSTON: Right.
COSTELLO: Because that really doesn't fly either.
RALSTON: I don't think it does, ultimately, because there are so many people watching these debates, and let's hope for CNN, a lot more people watching tonight. People are getting something out of these debates. And so, I think that Perry has to do something tonight better than he's done in the past.
COSTELLO: It will be interesting. Thank you so much for joining us, Jon Ralston.
RALSTON: My pleasure. COSTELLO: We appreciate it, as always.
Coming up in just about 20 minutes, Ron Paul will join us live. He's just released his big economic plan. He's going to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget in his first year in office. He will explain it all. We're back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It's 27 minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Goldman Sachs just announced its first quarterly loss since 2008. The company losing money for the first time since 2008 largely because of a huge drop in its investment banking revenue.
But Bank of America's earnings beat estimates showing some signs of recovery despite running up billions of dollars in mortgage-related losses. Other earning reports out this morning. Coca-Cola says its earnings beat estimates. Johnson & Johnson said its earnings were in line with forecasts.
Let's checking in on the market. They're poise to open lower this morning. Investors waiting for tech giants, Apple, Yahoo! and Intel to release their profit reports later today. And Wall Street still hoping for some good news out of the euro zone about the debt crisis there.
The maker of the Blackberry announcing it's giving users $100 in free apps as a way to say sorry for last week's service outage, but here's a thing. This is not an automatic refund, and the bonus only applies to a list of certain applications.
Apple is breaking sales records with the iPhone 4s. The company sold more than four million of them since it launched on Friday.
And Lowe's announcing plans to close 2,000 performing stores and let go 2,000 employees by next month. The cuts will take place in 15 states.
Up next, John McCain uncensored. The Arizona senator has harsh words Monday for President Obama's choice of transportation. AMERICAN MORNING back right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right, top stories now. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a surprise diplomatic mission to Libya. She arrived in Tripoli this morning. A State Department officials say she is there to congratulate the Libyan people on ousting Moammar Gadhafi and to help the ruling National Transition Council with any transitional issues, including providing medical assistance.
ROMANS: The celebration is on in the West Bank and Gaza after Israel released 477 prisoners in exchange for one Israeli soldier. The Palestinians are returning home as heroes, and so is that Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. He was held captive by Hamas for more than five years. Shalit has now been reunited with his family.
VELSHI: The Republican primary season is starting to come into focus. Break out the calendars. Look at that. Iowa Republicans have decided to move up their caucuses from February to January 3rd. That move comes on the heels of an announcement by Florida that its primary will be held on January 31st.
ROMANS: And in less than 12 hours, seven Republicans will take the stage for the Western presidential debate. A lot of preparation has gone into tonight's event. It's co-hosted by CNN and the Republican Western Leadership Conference. In just three days a 45,000 square- foot set has been built from the ground up at the Venetian Sands Expo and Convention Center. That includes two huge monitors, an enormous chandelier, and seating for 1,500 of your closest friends.
VELSHI: This lists seven people in the debate, but there are eight candidates. Jon Huntsman is not participating tonight.
President Obama turning up the heat on Congressional Republicans. He's making another appearance today in North Carolina. Then he's going to Virginia to pressure lawmakers to pass his $447 billion jobs plan which, of course, didn't pass. He's saying break it up into pieces and pass them one at a time.
ROMANS: And how does something like this happen? A truck carrying lots of President Obama's stuff, including the presidential podium, his teleprompter, reportedly stolen in Richmond, Virginia, in a hotel parking lot, we're told, ahead of an appearance tomorrow. NBC affiliate WBT says that there was about maybe $200,000 of presidential equipment inside. It was recovered somewhere else, but it was not clear whether everything was there or if anyone was arrested.
VELSHI: So, imagine this. I imagine the truck doesn't say presidential stuff inside. So it's some kind of unmarked stuff, you steal it and you break open the lock and you open it up and you're like, whoa, back away from the truck.
ROMANS: You see in your mind's eye Secret Service with guns, and go away.
VELSHI: Yes, not what he thought it would be.
Senator John McCain is not a fan of President Obama's tour bus. McCain, who has seen his fair share of campaign buses, slammed the president's bus and his three-day bus trip on the Senate floor yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: So, the president has taken to the road and, I mean, he spent a number of minutes attacking our plan. And I understand that. I think he has certainly in a political venue the right and privilege to do that. I think the question might be, though, is that appropriate on the taxpayers' dime, since it is clearly campaigning. And I must say, again, I've never seen an uglier bus than the Canadian one. He's traveling around on a Canadian bus touting American jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: We should note that the Secret Service actually bought two of the buses, one for the president, one for the Republican presidential nominee.
ROMANS: So, John McCain can soon be able to complain about two ugly buses at once made in Canada.
About five months ago Claire McCaskill in Missouri tweeted that she needed a change. She says she's tired of, quote, "looking and feeling fat." She wanted to shed 50 pounds. This is what she looked like at the time. Since then she used twitter to stay motivated. She started hitting the gym and eating healthy. August 11th she tweeted she passed up funnel cake at the state fair. On September 9th she announced her divorce with bread and pasta.
And take a look at the result. Here is a before and after, side by side. The senator tweeted that she reached her goal on October 8th. And they always say that when you're trying to lose weight you need to sort of bring in your friends and say, look, I'm really trying to lose weight. Help me out here. That's what twitter is. It must be tough for politicians.
VELSHI: For the 10 years we have known each other and I have been telling you about things like that.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: And no matter what, I respect Clare McCaskill for this, but not having funnel cake at the state fair?
ROMANS: It's that your job as a politician? It's in the job description.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: All right, let's head to Carol in Las Vegas. Good morning, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I think she had a corndog if that makes you feel any better, Ali.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: They're delicious, too.
VELSHI: That's right.
COSTELLO: Still ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul joins us. In fact, he's right over there. Hello, Mr. Paul. He says if he is elected he will balance the budget in his very first year in office. Ron Paul right after a break.
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COSTELLO: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Ron Paul has a plan. If he becomes president, he claims he will balance the federal budget in his first year in office, and he will do that by cutting $1 trillion in government spending while eliminating five cabinet level departments or government, that includes the Department of Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior, and the Department of Education, and also the TSA. He also wants to eliminate all foreign aid and all war spending.
Presidential candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul joins us live here in Las Vegas. Thank you so much for getting up early.
RON PAUL, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nice to be with you.
COSTELLO: You have amazing energy. How do you do it?
PAUL: Well, sometimes I think I'm lucky and blessed and other times I work on it by trying to follow some good health habits. I exercise every day.
COSTELLO: That's good. You should talk to Ali Velshi.
PAUL: Except when I have to be on TV early in the morning.
COSTELLO: I know, but I appreciate that.
Herman Cain is riding this wave of popularity right now. People are really into his nine-nine-nine plan. What will be your strategy during tonight's debate as far as Herman Cain is concerned?
PAUL: I'm going to do exactly what I have been doing for as long as I can remember, trying to get people to understand how we got into this mess, what we have to do, why free markets are better than government managed markets, why sound money is better than printing press money, and why we need to change our foreign policy so I can concentrate on policy, economic and foreign policy and monetary policy. And that is what I talk about.
COSTELLO: But sometimes you can't get a word in edge wise unless you attack the candidate who is popular at the moment because everybody is going to be concentrating on him.
PAUL: Yes. And I have had some advisors tell me that, go after him, attack him. But that's my least favorite thing to do. I will when I'm pressed and I'm challenged, or when they challenge my supporters. Then I get annoyed and I feel offended when they do that. So I take that personally.
COSTELLO: Yes, and your supporters are very passionate and I'm sure they appreciate that.
Herman Cain's nine-nine-nine plan. What do you think about it?
PAUL: I don't think it's a good plan. I think it's a dangerous plan.
COSTELLO: Why? PAUL: For years and years we had this debate in Washington the flat tax versus the sales tax. And just like what we do in Washington, liberals want to spend, conservatives want to spend, and they're bipartisan. They come together and they spend both.
And what nine-nine-nine does is it compromises in the worst way. It issues a sales tax and a flat tax and opens up the door to a value added tax. I think it's very, very dangerous.
And the way I see it, I don't think it's going to tax those who have bigger incomes. It's going to tax -- it's a regressive tax. People who are going to get a nine percent sales tax and they don't even have jobs right now? So I think because it's so regressive that it's going to, if we ever came close to it, it would be very, very unpopular. And, as matter of fact, I think the more people know about it, the more questions will be asked.
COSTELLO: Is Herman Cain qualified to be president?
PAUL: Oh, sure. I think everybody on the stage is qualified. The big question is, what do they believe in? What are they going to do as president? Qualifications have a lot of variations to it.
COSTELLO: I ask you that because Herman Cain has no government experience. When you look at his economic plan, I mean, the guy who helped him come up with this is a financial guy. So he hasn't taken the usual road. And on foreign policy, he says, you know, I haven't really thought about it quite yet.
PAUL: Well, but you would say that, you know, you could charge me with not having a lot of high-paid economists tell me what to do, but I figured I've read about economics for 30 years so I don't have to go out and depend on a key adviser.
So that in itself doesn't bother me as much as what does he believe in? I mean, if he believes in a value added tax and sales tax and flat tax and all these things, that, to me, is very important. But the fact that he hasn't had this experience isn't necessarily negative. What worries me is he's had a lot of political experience because he's in the Federal Reserve system. And you can't do that without being very political. They haven't invited me to become part of the Federal Reserve system. So he's part of that banking establishment, and no wonder, because he defended the bailouts and TARP funds and all this. So he's part of that system.
COSTELLO: And he did embrace Alan Greenspan in the last debate, and I know you had an issue with that.
Let's talk about your economic plan. You say that in your first year as president you will cut $1 trillion in federal spending. How?
PAUL: Of course, you have to get support. People have to know what you're doing. They have to know why they're doing it. Congress has to give its support. But if elected president, you have to have support of the people and support of the Congress to do it. But, you could do a lot on overseas spending. That's where my number one attack is. Where -- because of all the overseas spending in the last ten years, our national debt went up $4 trillion. That's a big hunk.
So, I want to bring the troops home and have them spend their money here at home and change our foreign policy.
COSTELLO: Well, part of your plan would be to eliminate all foreign aid, but foreign aid is really a tiny teeny part -- it's less than one percent of the federal budget and it does build good will. After all, if we hadn't helped out Japan after World War II, if we hadn't helped out Japan during the tsunami and earthquake there, that wouldn't have built the good will that we need to have with countries like Japan.
PAUL: Yes, I'm working on good will with the American people. And people hate it and besides all those programs after World War II, (INAUDIBLE) they were never what they were played up to be. There were a lot of shortcomings, everybody says it's magic. But no, recovery came from the markets being recovered.
So no overseas spending is more than foreign aid. I'm talking about all the -- as money and the DOD department spent and going in Uganda and Libya and all these places without even congressional approval. That kind of stuff has to quit. If we don't, we're not going to solve our problem.
COSTELLO: Just -- I have to ask you one more question about this plan. Is the plan cuts out five cabinet departments and the TSA, but you don't mention anything about Social Security or Medicare. And those are the two big things that people are concerned about right now.
PAUL: Right.
COSTELLO: It's really busting our federal budget.
PAUL: On the campaign, I've always said we have enough places to cut, we don't need to attack the elderly. We have made promises that was a contract. Even though it's not the best program in the world, I would work real hard and this is what my program does; cuts elsewhere in order to take care of the people who have become dependent.
But I do deal with Social Security because I let the young people opt out and that's a big deal. And but I think if we cut elsewhere, we don't have to put people out on the streets. So, I have no regrets about cutting all this money overseas and protecting the people who are dependent, the Social Security beneficiaries.
COSTELLO: Ok, I have to say that, that if you get Congress to agree with you, I would be amazed and you would be one heck of a politician.
PAUL: But you've to get the people on your side and they influence Congress because Congress really just are political people. If they think they can stay in office only by supporting cuts, how can we solve the problem of debt? By increasing debt. It doesn't make any sense. And I think the American people understand that.
COSTELLO: We'll hear much more in the debate tonight. Thank you so much for joining us so early. We appreciate that.
PAUL: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: I hope you can take a nap in between, thanks.
"Morning Headline" is coming your way next, we'll be right back.
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ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Fifty minutes after the hour. Here are your "Morning Headlines".
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, arriving unannounced in Tripoli overnight. She is there for meetings with leaders of Libya's National Transitional Council and to offer American support for the Libyan people.
Markets open in 45 minutes. Right now U.S. stock futures are mixed after quarterly losses from Goldman Sachs were worse than expected. Also worrying some investors, China reporting its economy slowed during the third quarter, although still slowed to 9.1 percent GDP growth.
New developments in the case of four mentally-challenged adults found locked in a basement in Philadelphia. Police say one of the three suspects may have done the same thing to more than 50 people in Florida, Virginia and Texas in order to steal their Social Security checks.
The mother of 11-month-old Lisa Irwin who vanished from her home two weeks ago now says she was drunk the night her daughter went missing. But Deborah Bradley insists her drinking had nothing to do with the disappearance. Local police and FBI are still searching for Baby Lisa.
The coroner's office is now saying Indy Car driver Dan Wheldon died of blunt head trauma in a fiery crash involving 15 cars on Sunday. Some racers now questioning the safety of the track.
That's the news you need to know to start your day. AMERICAN MORNING back right after this break.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At 18 Taylor LeBaron is already an accomplished author. Last year he wrote a book called "Cutting Myself in Half" it's about his battle with childhood obesity. You see LeBaron was always a chubby kid. In grade school he was constantly teased and picked on.
TAYLOR LEBARON, AUTHOR, "CUTTING MYSELF IN HALF": People just put me down for no real reason other than the fact that I have a weight issue.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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COSTELLO: Doesn't the Venetian look beautiful this morning? Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. We are live in Las Vegas. In just over 11 hours, seven Republican candidates will participate in the Western Republican Presidential debate.
A lot of preparation has gone into tonight's event co-hosted by CNN and the Republican Western Leadership Conference. In just three days, the 45,000 square foot set has been built from the ground up at the Venetian Sands Expo and Convention Center. That includes two huge monitors, an enormous chandelier and seating for 1,500 people.
There is a lot at stake tonight. Herman Cain and Mitt Romney now locked in a statistical dead heat -- that's according to the latest CNN ORC Polls. A big performance by other candidate could go a long way towards securing the Republican nomination for president.
The live coverage, by the way, begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Anderson Cooper will moderate and I'll stay here too so we can bring you the best host debate analysis tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. Eastern on AMERICAN MORNING.
And Ali and Christine, it'll be interesting to see if the other candidates pile it on Herman Cain because he is so popular right now with his 9-9-9 plan.
VELSHI: Right.
COSTELLO: Yes, everybody is kind of like looking to -- Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm sorry to interrupt you. We're you -- will be trying to get out there for themselves. Instead of reacting to Herman Cain or jumping on Herman Cain, will they try to get out there and put the spotlight on -- on them to get it away from Herman Cain finally?
VELSHI: Here's my question to you, Carol, if you were just walking by where you are right now, would you have any way of knowing that Anderson Cooper was moderating that debate?
COSTELLO: What, if I were just walking by this beautiful stage we have set up here?
VELSHI: Yes. Is that the biggest thing you've ever seen of Anderson Cooper?
COSTELLO: That's a very large Anderson Cooper head.
ROMANS: Is that two stories of Anderson Cooper?
COSTELLO: Yes, it's actually -- that is two stories of Anderson Cooper and there are big CNNs everywhere which is good. Hey, good promo for us, right? Right?
VELSHI: Anderson for president.
COSTELLO: And inside the venue -- inside the venue it is so beautiful. I can't wait to go inside tonight and sit among the audience and watch that debate and see how the audience reacts because that's really been the most fun part about these debates. If the audience boos or claps or laughs, it's all interesting.
VELSHI: Well, you've brought us some very interesting stuff with your interviews this morning in a perspective, tomorrow morning, of course, we're going to be able to get even more of that. We'll get more analysis, more post-game and the bottom line is a lot of people are saying there have been a lot of these debates, but it does seem to be moving the needle for some of these candidates.
Who would have thought a month ago or six weeks ago, we would have been talking about Herman Cain being on top of some of these polls. So it's going to be interesting, Carol. We look forward to seeing you again bright and early and a little tired tomorrow morning.
ROMANS: Bye-bye Carol. I'll talk to you soon.
"CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now. Good morning, Kyra.
