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CNN Saturday Morning News
Snowmageddon; Blizzard Hits Mid-Atlantic; Inside the TEA Party Movement; Marketing Matchup; President vs. Sin City?; Texting While Driving
Aired February 06, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Brooke. How are you?
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm well, T.J.
HOLMES: It's so good -- always so good to have you here.
BALDWIN: Thanks for having me hang out.
HOLMES: It really is.
BALDWIN: Better here than D.C.
HOLMES: Maybe. D.C. is a lovely place, but we can explain.
BALDWIN: Hey, I lived in D.C. before Atlanta. Well, let's take a look at some of the picture, by the way. The big story this morning, this massive snowstorm. Speaking on the nation's capital, look at this. Pretty pictures, snowmageddon 2010, you know we're having a little fun talking to Reynolds Wolf this morning about what he's seeing on the National Mall. But it's not at all fun really if you're living in these areas, you're trying to drive. I see one car trying to do that there. These are live pictures coming out of Baltimore. You can barely see anything. We will be talking also to Karen Maginnis. The wind, snow, will actually stop falling. But in terms of flights, yeah, don't expect anything really coming or going out of Philadelphia, Baltimore, or Washington D.C.
HOLMES: Yes, good luck with that. You can maybe get to Nashville though.
BALDWIN: Hey.
HOLMES: A lot of people have gone to Nashville for a party, a Tea Party, their first ever convention. Exactly what are they trying to accomplish there? Actually they are putting themselves on the map in a major way that could influence a lot of races across the country. We'll explain the step that they announce there at the convention. And also this morning, can you imagine, someone actually saying that no, Mr. President, you are not welcome in my city.
BALDWIN: Someone said that?
HOLMES: Someone actually said that, the mayor of Las Vegas. Take a listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSCAR GOODMAN, MAYOR, LAS VEGAS: I've got to tell you the way it is. This president is a real slow learner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Wow.
HOLMES: Yes, he has never been one to mince words, never a shortage of words from the mayor of Las Vegas. But we will explain exactly why he's so upset with President Obama and now why some people in his town are so upset with him. That's coming up.
We do want to give you a check of some headlines this morning, including out of Haiti, where we're keeping up with the story of those 10 Americans who are now in jail and charged with kidnapping those 33 Haitian children. Well, they do have a bail hearing that's set for Monday. What you're seeing here is video of them leaving court yesterday. Apparently the 10 have now been split up as well with the five men going to one jail, the five women being held somewhere else. Again, 33 children they were accused of trying to take out of Haiti on a bus. The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has chimed in and she says this case is for the Haitian courts to decide.
BALDWIN: And an American missionary detained in North Korea since Christmas Day will be coming home soon. His name is Robert Park. He arrived in Beijing today. He'll be meeting with U.S. officials before flying back home to the U.S. Park was arrested after he crossed into the border into North Korea from China. A State Department spokesman says Washington did not make any deals with Pyongyang to get Park to come home.
HOLMES: And an apology from Toyota's CEO and a promise to fix the company's dented image. The automaker's reputation for safety and quality are taking a pretty big hit right about now since that issue with the gas pedals triggered a massive recall two weeks ago. The hybrid Prius now also being investigated because of problems with its braking system. The recall affected more than 8 million cars, expected to cost Toyota over $2 billion.
BALDWIN: It is a massive showdown -- shutdown for the mid- Atlantic area. Millions of you not going anywhere today. Take a look at some of these pictures. This blizzard bringing record snowfall to much of the region. In fact, here's what we're hearing for just those of you waking up in the Washington, D.C. area. Two and a half feet of snow, that's what they're projecting. Nice to look at, but possibly very dangerous to drive in.
Here's what we know as far as Virginia. A father and son who just helped to -- stopped to help another driver in Virginia that were killed when a tractor trailer hit them.
In terms of air travel, not a lot coming and going. A lot of people just sitting there, hanging out, trying to get on an airplane. In fact, we're hearing major airlines, Southwest, Midwest, United, US Airways, canceling flights to a number of cities up and down the East Coast. As far as cleaning, well, it's pretty tough to do as well for some of these plows and salt and sanding trucks. Many cities and states have already spent their snow removal budget.
HOLMES: Well Reynolds Wolf keeping an eye on things for us. He keeps going back and forth between wearing just that baseball cap and actually putting the hood on. So it looks like he's doing all right right now. Reynolds, you probably don't want to hear this, but stand by. We'll get to you in a second. Our Karen Maginnis is in the Severe Weather Center. She's going to give us a look at exactly what's happening out there. So we're still in the thick of this thing.
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We are and it's going to be at least another 24 hours with near blizzard conditions but my producer Angela and I were looking at some of the information coming out as far as power outages, because those are the two things that we have really been looking at, how the road conditions are, travel situation with the airline as well as the highways, the interstates and that sort of things, as well as the power outages and we can safely say hundreds of thousands of people without power just in the corridor from about Northern Virginia extending towards Baltimore.
Want to show you what's going on, here's the reason why. This is heavy, wet snowfall, Northern Virginia up towards Baltimore, but you can see that snow shield all the way back across the lower Ohio River Valley and spreading on over towards into New Jersey. But New York, you're going to be spared a little bit. But this is going to be a little tricky situation because right across this zone, this is where we're looking at, this one foot, two feet of snowfall possible in the next 24 hours with Washington, D.C., maybe expecting an additional foot on top of the already 10 inches that they have.
Look at some of the wind gusts, 47, 48 in some of those coastal areas. But Reynolds Wolf has been standing by and Reynolds, I just talked about the power outages in that corridor just in Northern Virginia and right around Baltimore, hundreds of thousands and I know that it is probably very quiet where you are because nobody is really moving around a whole lot, right?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. You know, you're right about that. You know, with those power outages, what happens, you have all that snow that gets in the trees and the strong wind gusts that begin to pick up. We had some wind gusts in Northern Virginia that actually reached hurricane force. So when you have the heavy trees, the strong winds, of course you're going to have the branches fall. The branches are going to hit those power lines and boom, widespread power outages. And speaking of snowfall, we found some totals around the area that are pretty impressive.
Let me show you something. America, I want you to meet someone. Jeremy Moorhead is our shooter. Jeremy, get a shot here in the mirror. Let people see. Jeremy's wife called us up just a little while ago to tell us that she had over 30 inches of snowfall at the house. So that is certainly common for a lot of people. They live over in Maryland, live in Maryland. So certainly some heavy stuff there. And the thing is, you mentioned Karen, is that we're not done yet. The snow is continue to fall at least through the mid-day, afternoon, evening hours. The blizzard warning will last until about 10:00 local time. Let me do a little bit out of house keeping here. Folks at home can wipe off your TV set right there to make it nice and clear for you. The snow coming down sideways because you know, remember in a blizzard, wind is a big part of this. It's not just the snow that is falling.
Take a look at the shot behind me. Part of the mall, you see snow as far as the eye can see. Some places it's just a few inches deep, other places well over a foot. And again, we're going to add to those totals for quite some time. Let's send it back to you at the studio.
BALDWIN: You know Reynolds, I was talking to Suzanne Malveaux, she'll be at the White House today, and she was saying there may be a snowman happening there, so maybe we could have a little bit of an actual competition. Just saying, you could start.
WOLF: Absolutely. You know, there have even been some reports of a possible snowball fight on the Mall, so go figure that. They're actually going to have a lot of people coming out and I don't know if they're going to split it up between Democrats and Republicans, but it could be interesting. You never know.
HOLMES: They're fighting about enough.
BALDWIN: Thank you.
HOLMES: All right, thanks Rennie. We're going to turn now to Sarah Palin. She's stepping back into the national spotlight tonight. The former Republican vice presidential candidate is the keynote speaker at the Tea Party convention in Nashville. CNN's deputy political director and friend of our show here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING, Paul Steinhauser, he is at that gallery. Well good morning to you, Paul. We saw the Tea Party movement. We saw the Tea Party protests last year. So we'll get into exactly what they're trying to accomplish there, but what is Sarah Palin trying to accomplish by being there?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Sarah Palin's going to get some primetime exposure, no doubt about it. You know, originally, T.J., her speech, it's about 13 hours from now. A little quiet right now, as you can see. They're just setting up the breakfast, some of the people attending the convention arriving for breakfast. But when she speaks 13 hours from now in primetime, it's going to be carried by a lot of television networks, and she's going to get a lot of exposure.
About a week ago, she put out a letter saying that you know what, she supports the Tea Party movement, the small government conservative values of the Tea Party movement. And she also said that not only will she be here tonight, but she's also going to partake in a cross- country caravan put on by another Tea Party group in March and April. So we're going to see a lot more of Sarah Palin when it comes to the Tea Party movement, it seems, T.J. HOLMES: And the Tea Party movement, how can we exactly define it now. Exactly what are they trying to accomplish at this particular convention and it sounds like are they trying to put themselves on the map in a much bigger way?
STEINHAUSER: Yes, this group is. There are a lot of Tea Party groups national and local. This group is called Tea Party Convention. They're putting on this convention, which as you said, is billed as the first national Tea Party convention. They're holding seminars and workshops yesterday and today and basically it's a chance for these people who are attending the convention from all over the country to come here to learn how to form their own Tea Party groups or build and strengthen those groups. How to use new technologies, how to use social networking like Twitter and Facebook to reach out to others. So it's really a place for these people to learn how to become better activists.
We spoke to a bunch of them and asked why they were here and what they wanted out of it. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIENTIFIED FEMALE: We are very interested in sending a clear message to Washington that we wish for the people that have been there for 10, 20, 30, 40 years to go home and back into the private sector. I don't think that President Washington would have appreciated the idea of a dynasty being built in this country. In fact, he took measures to avoid creating one for himself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the people that rule the government, not the other way around. And that's why we're trying to bring things back to the Constitution. The Constitution limits the federal government, two things that they need to be doing. One is fighting our wars and the other is protecting our borders. The protecting our borders thing ain't happening, and so we're going to make sure it happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: They had two big announcements yesterday, T.J., at a news conference right here. The organizers said, you know what? We're going to hold another convention in July. They didn't say where yet, but they said in July. And also, they're forming a non-profit corporation and a PAC, a political action committee. So Tea Party members of this group can start raising money and endorsing political candidates. They talked about six or seven congressional races here in the Southeast. So they really want to get more involved in the campaign process. Another Tea Party group in Tennessee is coming here today. They say they don't agree with the values of what's going on here and they want to protest. So interesting, stay tuned.
HOLMES: Did I hear you right, that a Tea Party is about to protest a Tea Party?
STEINHAUSER: Yes, a group, another group of Tennessee Tea Party members who have their own organization are coming here. They're going to hold a news conference later today and they want to talk about how they don't see eye to eye with some of what's going on here. So we're going to listen to that as well.
Listen, this movement, T.J., has got a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm. One thing though, it's not a unified movement. There are so many different national chapters and local chapters.
HOLMES: All right, well that is an interesting point there. I know we're going to be talking to you again in a bit to talk about just what Americans think about the Tea Party as well. Thanks so much, Paul, good to see you. We'll check in with you again, buddy.
STEINHAUSER: Thanks, T.J.
HOLMES: All right, we do want to remind you all, CNN will bring you Sarah Palin's keynote speech live this evening. Coverage starts 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
BALDWIN: So if you're still really confused over who the Tea Party is, here is some quick fact check for you. The Tea Party backs the conservative politics, but this is not a group of disgruntled Republicans trying to change the party from the inside out. In fact, activists come from every political party. Now the movement gained movement from a CNBC reporter's rant about the mortgage bailout about a year ago and that video has gotten about a million hits on YouTube. You've probably seen it.
Also, TEA is actually an acronym is for we're Taxed Enough Already. And several recent polls are suggesting Americans view the Tea Party movement in a little bit of a better light than either the Democratic or Republican Party.
And somebody you might be logging on today, Facebook, turning six-years-old. I still can't believe it's been around that long. But in that time, it really has sort of emerged as a leader within social media and for a lot of people, it's a little addictive.
HOLMES: So you can probably answer the question for yourself, but are you in the same category as a lot of folks? Exactly how many times a day are people logging on? We've got the answer.
BALDWIN: But first, let's take a quick look at some of the conditions at the three airports that are seeing a lot of the snow. Let's take a look and see a lot of flights canceled, coming and going. Meteorologists Reynolds Wolf, Karen Maginnis, they're covering the story from both angles to keep us updated this snowy Saturday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A little bit later this morning, President Obama will be talking jobs, a big bullet point in his weekly radio address. And a certain topic when he speaks to the Democratic National Committee at their meeting, a little more than two hours from now. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux live at the very white White House this morning. Wow, she's bundled up. Suzanne, just to have fun with you just for a second, I know the president being from Chicago, granted initially Hawaii, but then Chicago, he was kind of talking some smack to some of the Washingtonians, saying hey, you can't handle the snow.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He certainly was. He was. The first dusting that D.C. had, he gave us a real hard time here, said we have to toughen up, that we're a bunch of wimps here. But I think he's starting to change his tune. I talked to the spokesperson, Robert Gibbs, yesterday, said what about all this snow here? And he said, even someone who was born in Hawaii, grew up in Chicago, has a healthy respect for a forecast of two feet of snow.
So we're out here, a lot of workers who are out here, who are making sure that this president gets to where he needs to be and so he is not going to be deterred. We're not going to be deterred. His motorcade, he's driving of course, he's riding in a souped-up Suburban, there the passengers vehicles that we ride in along with support staff have been replaced with some SUVs, four-wheel drive Aspen Chryslers. So we're going to trek on over, make our way through the snow and make sure that he gets to where he needs to be. Obviously his schedule is not going to change today and we're going to be out here with him.
BALDWIN: Yes and Suzanne, I see a plow truck over your right shoulder and I guess the president will not be out shoveling his walk at the White House. But let's talk about that meeting that he'll be at. I know he will be speaking. We'll take it live here at CNN, 10:30 talking to the DNC, the winter meeting. What are we looking for from him today?
MALVEAUX: Well sure, it's just a couple of blocks away, so his motorcade is going to make its way up 16th Street to a local hotel. He's going to be meeting with Democrats. Essentially what he wants to do in their winter meeting is kind of buck up the troops, if you will, especially those who are having some tough re-election fights, to make sure that look, he understands what they're going through and here's the agenda, here's the priority. He is with them. He wants to pass this bipartisan jobs bill. This is something that is very important to him.
He's trying to show Americans this is top priority. He's also going to be talking about using $30 billion out of the money that went to bailout the banks to use some of that unused money to give business, small business, some loans. That is something else that he is pushing for this weekend that he wants Democrats and Republican support. Republicans don't agree with this. They think he should use that money to cut down the federal deficit. Some Democrats agree with the president. He's going to be talking about that today. But clearly pushing forward his own troops and saying, look, by Monday, as early as Monday, let's put this out there on the table, that bipartisan jobs bill. Let's get something done here. So that's the message that we're going to hear from the president despite the snow, the winter. He wants those folks. Some folks have stayed. They're in that hotel, they've stayed for this convention. Some have left. He wants them back in town next week to get the job done.
BALDWIN: All right, and again, we'll be taking that live, 10:30 in the morning. Suzanne, don't go too far. Stay warm.
MALVEAUX: We'll be here.
BALDWIN: Very snowy scene there at the White House. Suzanne, thank you. And putting the brakes on distracted drivers. We will take a closer look at the push now to ban texting while driving and how some new software might help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Checking our top stories, just a quick reminder, in about two hours from now, the president will be talking at the Democratic National Committee's winter committee in Washington, a very snowy Washington. He is expected to touch on jobs, the economy, health care. You can watch that speech live right here on CNN happening at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
HOLMES: A ninth grader shot and killed at his middle school in Madison, Alabama. The alleged shooter, a fellow ninth grader. The suspect is in police custody right now and charged with murder. Police have not identified him. Also have not released a potential motive. School officials describe it as "a singular incident."
BALDWIN: Los Angeles prosecutors now say they will file charges in the death of Michael Jackson, that happening Monday. Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was scheduled to turn himself into police this past week. But that changed when prosecutors delayed filing those charges.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Put your arm down, now.
BALDWIN: Thank you, Shawna Callebs, we appreciate it.
HOLMES: We give our floor directors here a tough time when they get in the shot. But she's doing her job letting us know that this is the camera I'm supposed to talk to.
BALDWIN: The red light.
HOLMES: Yes, that's another indication. But, we're talking about this texting and driving phenomenon. It is incredibly dangerous and I think we're all guilty of it just a tad.
BALDWIN: Maybe we've done it once or twice, we shouldn't be doing it. But there's newly-developed software that apparently can text somehow when you're in your car, when you're on the move, and it will actually possibly prevent you from texting while you're behind the wheel. Brady Smith of CNN affiliate KWWL explains how this thing works.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRADY SMITH, KWWL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's called attention validation software, developed by the engineering firm PM&L in Rochester, New York. It detects vehicle movement. Once a text message is received, the software requires the cell phone's user to text a series of random buttons. If the user fails, texting is locked until the vehicle is at rest for at least three minutes. It's part of a nationwide effort to find new solutions to distracted driving, according to Dr. Tim Brown.
TIM BROWN, RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA: There's newer technology that's coming out, voice recognition is becoming more prominent.
SMITH: He's a researcher at the University of Iowa's National Advanced Driving Simulator, which is well-equipped to test different anti-texting programs.
BROWN: When you're texting, your odds of being in a crash are 23 times when you're just driving normally. We've got a large full- motion simulator here. We've got a static simulator. We've also got some smaller portable simulators that we use. And so we've got a fair amount of interest from a number of different companies.
SMITH: According to PM&L, they're working on testing their attention-validation software with the U of I. They hope testing will reveal not only the effectiveness, but the safety of their program.
CRAIG LAMB, PM&L ENGINEER: If it's found that it is compounded by whatever variable, we will make adjustments to make sure that we are not causing more distraction.
SMITH: Brown says the simulator will be busy with research projects over the next six months as the texting and driving epidemic has the full attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right. A lot of people are getting behind this movement to ban texting while driving. Are weekend tech guru Mario Armstrong joining us via Skype, Skyping for us this morning from Baltimore. Good morning to you, I see you've got the whole football thing going here.
MARIO ARMSTRONG, CNN TECHNOLOGY COMMENTATOR: That's right.
HOLMES: But we're talking about this movement, a no phone zone. Now we just heard in the piece there, this technology. Does this stuff really work? Explain to us again, give us more of a detailed understanding of just how this thing keeps you from texting.
ARMSTRONG: Yes, so what I did T.J. is I actually downloaded the software right on to my phone. In this case, it was onto a BlackBerry. The software that I tested, there's several different companies. The software I tested is by one called IZUP - I-Z-U-P. And essentially, T.J., what it does is it detects motion. So as soon as the phone travels faster than 5 miles-per-hour, it essentially shuts the phone down from all of its operations that you can typically do on the phone. Typically being able to make text messages or make phone calls. It shuts it down and opens up an application on the device automatically by itself.
HOLMES: Well, it opened up an application. Again, what is that application we're talking about.
ARMSTRONG: Yes, so that application is called IZUP, I-Z-U-P and what it does, T.J., is it basically only allows you to dial three numbers. This can be family or friends or parents and 911. So you're locked. You can't do anything else but those four numbers if you're moving in a vehicle.
HOLMES: Now this is a pretty serious and dangerous thing, we know. We have some numbers here, I believe, of just how dangerous this stuff is. Almost 6,000 people, by some estimates, we're talking about here, almost 6,000 people killed, 515,000 injured. These numbers are coming to us officially.
But Oprah Winfrey getting involved as well in this and people will recognize, but I'm going to show it to them again, people will recognize this particular spot that Oprah has even gotten into. Take a listen and I'm going to ask you about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: If you're as outraged as I am about distracted driving, we need to start our own movement to stop it. Make your car a no phone zone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: She's talking there about a movement. Now there's a movement that of course, and some states have done it, to curb it by passing laws.
ARMSTRONG: Not enough though.
HOLMES: That's not enough. There's technology, you're talking about though, unless the cell phone maker puts it on there, everybody else, it's up to you to go get it on your phone yourself, correct?
ARMSTRONG: You're bringing up a couple of great points. No. 1, we're talking about only 19 states. Look at some of these numbers. Only 19 states and Washington, D.C., banned the use of text while driving. So we've still got a lot of work still yet to go on that. And then when you look at the amount of people that are using cell phones, 276 million people, and then the amount of text messages that are happening, T.J., look at this number. This blew me away and this is just the first half of 2009, 740 billion text messages are being sent. This is almost double from last year.
So people are using these devices more and more, and you know, the thing is T.J., I'm not really for using technology to fight this problem. I really think that this is a problem of discipline and a problem of our culture. But hey, but the technology worked. I tested it and I've got to tell you, if that's what it's going to take to have safer drivers on the road, I'm behind it.
HOLMES: You know, that's a great point, but you're still talking about we have to take our own personal responsibility. Either you can force yourself to take responsibility by getting the software, or you can just use your common sense and use some good judgment and not text while you're driving. One more thing here, how much does this thing cost, to get that software?
ARMSTRONG: You just mentioned it. It would be free if we did it your way. This shouldn't cost anything. But the way this particular program I tested was $4.99 a month. So that's not cheap.
HOLMES: Wow.
ARMSTRONG: And I really think the company should just go to a one-time fee and really, I think car manufacturers should take a step further and require hands free capabilities in all vehicles and help to curb this problem.
HOLMES: That's a good point, there, but man, in $5 a month, you're right, that's not exactly cheap. It's not a one-time fee.
ARMSTRONG: $5 a month. So here's the deal. I use this man, I recommend the Jawbone Bluetooth as a hands-free set. This is the best one on the market that I've tested. I've tested a lot of them out there. And I've got to tell you, if you are going to talk and drive, use the Jawbone icon. It's just one of the best units I've tested out there. So if you have to do it, at least start using some technology to make you a safer driver.
HOLMES: All right, Mario Armstrong is our tech guru and also the newly-paid spokesperson for Jawbone. I'm kidding, Mario. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
Hey good to see you as always, my man.
ARMSTRONG: No phone zone man. Stop messing with me.
HOLMES: The no phone zone. We appreciate you as always. Good to see you Mario.
And of course, we check in with him every weekend, our tech guru, Mario Armstrong, talks about the latest technology as you just saw here. We'll be taking it with him every single Saturday.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Where do you think you're going today? We had snow- mageddon (ph) hitting several mid-Atlantic states today. Let's take a look, a lot of you in these cities -- you just look out your window.
I'm going to bring this out to folks. You're seeing Baltimore in the screen here. They're on the right. So far, record amounts are expected. Forecast is predicted a record two and a half feet of snow for the Washington area. That's the most they've seen in some 90 years.
Free to look at, dangerous stuff however. In Virginia father and son who stopped to help another driver; they were actually killed when a tractor trailer hit them. Air travel, forget about it. A lot of major airports up there are open. Reagan, Dulles, BWI in Baltimore; they're open but the airlines have actually or rather canceled a lot of the flights.
If you go to the Web site for the Baltimore Airport, they had departures listed right there on the front. Everything is canceled. The only 2 flights that are showing on time is one going to Argentina, another one going to London. So everything else is canceled, so you need to check with your airlines.
Now, cleaning all this up is going to be a mess for the next several days. Many cities, states as well, already have spent a lot of their money, all of it for the year in their snow removal budgets; already been used and we are just into February right now. So a lot of people wondering where is the storm? We know where it is, where is it going?
BALDWIN: We know where it is and we want to know where it's going. And Karen Maginnis, I think another great point you made. I mean, tens of thousands of people are without power.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hundreds of thousands of people.
BALDWIN: Hundreds of thousands.
MAGINNIS: In a very narrow corridor from about northern Virginia to Baltimore -- kind of in that stretch there along I-95 and Interstate 81. That's not that broad I-95 corridor.
But this coming to us via Skype; I want to point out one thing. Ben Hampton is showing this to us. These are power lines and he said, yes they're dragging. There's some ice, there's snow; those power lines are almost to the ground. This is heavy wet snow; it's a miserable situation. Once you lose power, it's going to be gone for days.
I want to show you some of the results that we do have. I just got an update from Dulles. They're saying already 20 inches of snowfall; the snow keeps coming down. I don't know if we can show you what's happening at PDI, Philadelphia. Visibility is only about half a mile and it is miserable.
This is Philadelphia and no flights coming in, no flights coming out. Washington, they're saying already about 10 inches, looking at another 12 to 15 inches. And we are looking at near blizzard conditions.
Reynolds Wolf has been standing out there at the National Mall. Reynolds, I hope you can hear me. I'm looking behind you. Can you give us a guesstimate as to how much snowfall you're seeing there? And any activity going on?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There's a little bit of activity here and I'd say snowfall totals in a few places around 10 inches, in some place it's far exceeding that and still it's coming down.
We have CNN photojournalist Skip Nociolo (ph), he's behind the camera so America you're in good hands. Skip you stay in place, I'm going to walk out here and folks, I want you to see some stuff.
I'm in a really weird spot, you do see a few cars, but I'm standing in the middle of 3rd Street in downtown Washington D.C., actually along the mall. And standing here on any other Saturday morning would be almost suicidal but there aren't any cars save for the truck you see down there.
What's interesting, you look over this way, right towards the west and -- well, the Washington Monument has vanished; nowhere to be seen. But as Skip pans the camera around the other direction, what we're going to do is watch out for this truck.
Skip, I love you, I know your family does. We're going to get out of the way and let these guys move on through. There you go. Got to love that 4-wheel drive, good times.
Hey, slow down. He's going way too fast.
Let me show you something else though. Over here at the Capitol, you'd see things pretty well there. You see the grand statue, snow coming down here and it's going to continue Karen, as you mentioned, for a good part of the day into the evening.
Snow blizzard is going to last until say 10:00 p.m. tonight and there's certainly the chance that we could be seeing more power outages as the snow continues to accumulate on the trees. The wind picks up, we're going to see more of those power lines snap and then more issues.
We're waving people on through. Let's send it back to you at the studio.
BALDWIN: Doubling as traffic cop as well this morning. We like that. Reynolds, stay safe as well in the middle of 3rd Street there. Reynolds thanks.
HOLMES: Take care.
BALDWIN: We've been talking about flights being canceled. I just want to give you a quick heads up. Flights are canceled in and out of BWI, Baltimore and then Reagan and Dulles. So technically, the airports are open but those flights in and out Dulles, BWI, Reagan canceled likely through the rest of the day.
Now, another story happening, Nashville, the National Tea Party Convention going on right now in Music City.
HOLMES: And our Randi Kaye is going to take us inside and talk to the people there and get to the bottom of what this movement is all about. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you listen closely to the TEA Partiers here in Nashville you'll hear a buzz word on everyone's lips; the word, constitution.
VIVIENNE PORTER, WILL COUNTY TEA PARTY ALLIANCE: The Constitution is what this country is about. We have a national government that does not believe in the Constitution and would like to shred it and I'd like to see us stick to it. That means smaller government, lower taxes and individual freedom.
KAYE (on camera): Tell me what your shirt says.
JACK SMITH, TEA PARTY MEMBER: It says "We are tea'd. Keep the pot boiling. We're taxed enough already."
KAYE: So what is the answer? What are you trying to accomplish here?
SMITH: What we're trying to do is get conservative constitutional individuals into office that will reduce the size of government. Get our people self-sufficient again and move forward so that governments do not take all of our money and overspend it on things that they constitutionally have no right to be spending it on.
KAYE: How are you?
WILLIAM TEMPLE, TEA PARTY MEMBER: Good.
KAYE: I'm Randi Kaye with CNN. What's your name?
TEMPLE: William Temple.
KAYE: William.
TEMPLE: I'm from Brunswick, Georgia.
KAYE: You even have your teapot there.
TEMPLE: Oh yes.
KAYE: What do you think about the TEA Party movement?
TEMPLE: We're kicking butt. That's American vernacular.
KAYE: What are the values that you stand for?
TEMPLE: We're for limited government and the Constitution. It's very simple, four pages. Not 1,800 like the last health care bill. And we didn't need lawyers to interpret it.
KAYE: I hear a lot about how the federal government is violating the Constitution.
TEMPLE: They are. KAYE: I hear a lot of TEA Partiers say that.
TEMPLE: Oh, yes.
KAYE (voice-over): If Constitution is the most popular word around here, freedom runs a close second.
(on camera): TEA Partiers talk a lot about freedom. And here at the convention you can actually buy what they call an icon of freedom. They're selling jewelry, necklaces, in fact, that are tea bags. It can be yours for about 90 bucks.
(voice-over): That's just a fraction of the $550 price tag for a ticket to this convention.
PORTER: I'd spend more to bring my country back.
KAYE: What is so important about change to you to pay that money?
SMITH: The capitalistic side of our country is under attack, it seems. There's a socialization afoot that I'm just not in favor of.
KAYE: Do you believe the people and the states are being overregulated?
SMITH: Oh, absolutely. There's no doubt about that.
KAYE: In what way?
SMITH: Just from seat belts, seat belt laws to environmental things and everything in between.
KAYE (voice-over): There are 600 people registered here with crowds expected to reach 1,000 for former governor and TEA Party favorite Sarah Palin's speech Saturday. Her message of a big government that's spending too much strikes a chord.
SMITH: The federal government is not supposed to be this all- encompassing welfare state. It is supposed to be small and serve the states and serve the people.
TEMPLE: We want the department of education, labor, energy, all of these shut down. Their money sent back to the states so the states don't have to come hat in hand to the federal government and say, "Could you give us some of our money back?"
KAYE (on camera): The overall message here, "Give me my country back." A battle cry from the average Joe who feels he hasn't had a voice in Washington and has finally figured out how to be heard.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Nashville.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: And this evening in Nashville, who will be giving the National Tea Party Convention key note address? This woman, Sarah Palin. You can watch it live on CNN starting 9:00 p.m. Eastern in the "CNN NEWSROOM".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Despite the snow, all 20, 30 inches of it, slamming the Washington, D.C. area today, aides to President Obama say he will stay on schedule. He is expected to speak this morning at the Democratic National Committee's winter committee. According to its chairman, the president will be talking jobs, health care, his vision for the Democratic party.
You can watch that speech live. We'll bring it to you 10:30 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN. R
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Peyton Manning versus Drew Brees, yes, they're going at it on the field tomorrow for the Super Bowl, but off the field, they're going head to head as well. They are major players in the world of sports marketing.
So it's that time, as you know, every Saturday for Rick Horrow, he's joining me. He's our business sports analyst and also business professor at Harvard Law School because Brooke, when you think Harvard Law.
BALDWIN: You think of Rick Horrow.
HOLMES: Of course you do. Rick.
RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: Wow.
HOLMES: How are you doing? Go ahead and show the tickets, I know you're excited.
HORROW: Yes sir.
HOLMES: Go ahead and show the tickets.
HORROW: Here we go. So people, today is the day where people are being nice to me because they're not sure that I do have them all committed. When you have three and you know you've got two people going, it's like all right, who is the lucky one for the third.
HOLMES: Who is the third?
HORROW: It's not you. You need to be nicer.
HOLMES: Who is the third?
HORROW: We'll just have to see.
HOLMES: Are you going to sell that ticket.
HORROW: I'll let you know tomorrow. HOLMES: Rick, are you going to be out there selling that ticket?
HORROW: Absolutely not.
HOLMES: Ok.
HORROW: Because if I was before, I'm certainly not going to do it now. I guarantee you that.
HOLMES: They'll be watching you now.
HORROW: But...
HOLMES: Yes, go ahead.
HORROW: You can get $2,500 or so for some of these tickets and by the way, 24-seat box behind us, $95,000. Tomorrow morning we'll talk a little bit more about those economics.
HOLMES: We'll get into that.
But we're talking about the economics of Peyton Manning and Drew Brees right now. Why do they love these guys so much?
HORROW: They're likable and people are aware of them. You know Peyton is the king; 4-time MVP. He's number 5 on our power 100 list. You've seen him on Direct TV. You've seen him on Sony commercials.
By the way, his likability index is higher than Diana Ross and Elvis. We don't find Elvis, that's the thing. And the awareness index is higher than people, like Colin Powell and Diana Ross and others as well. The bottom line is they love his marketability.
Drew Brees, no glass ceiling, 25th on the list; regional endorsements, regional commercials. What happens if he's MVP and he takes New Orleans on his shoulders and makes them Super Bowl champions? His $17 million today triples or so next week.
HOLMES: You know it probably doesn't help. They have kind of squeaky clean images. You don't hear too much about them getting in trouble off the field and they seem like, at least on the field, sportsmen, total sportsmen. I'm sure they like that as well.
But also this game adds a little intrigue in their personal stories. You talk about Drew Brees there and how much he's really done for the city of New Orleans. But also Peyton Manning is a New Orleans guy. He's a Louisiana boy.
HORROW: Let's remember that his dad was the first original quarterback of the old expansion Saints when they were the aints (ph). He got a New Orleans-based family who is front and center on Katrina relief playing against a quarterback that has made the Saints the NFC champions that brings more money and more awareness for Katrina relief. So it's a win-win on both sides of this.
HOLMES: Brees as well, his story, how much has he done really for that city as far as helping it recover from hurricane Katrina?
HORROW: It's astronomical. You can't quantify it. The Drew Brees Foundation has raised a significant amount of money as Peyton has too. But he single-handedly lifted the community on his shoulders. The NFC championship is basically icing on the cake.
And he has a lot of regional endorsements. But he could run for mayor of New Orleans -- I know they have a mayoral election. They have a new one. But listen, if Drew Brees wins or loses today, that current mayor better take the oath of office pretty quickly.
HOLMES: All right. One last thing before we let you go. And kind of on a serious note but it kind of touches on something we've been seeing with Gilbert Arenas at least with him getting in trouble with the whole gun issue -- everybody knows that -- with the Washington Wizards.
On players behaving badly if you will, and then being allowed to play again. Donte Stallworth a lot of people will remember, got a DUI, hit and killed a man, only spent 30 days in jail and now he is going to be reinstated by the NFL.
Just give me your thoughts on this move and how it stacks up kind of historically with other athletes who have gotten in trouble for all kinds of things.
HORROW: Hey, you know what? You can make the argument that this is not severe enough but it's also facts of the individual case.
Roger Goodell is known as the no-nonsense commissioner. The last thing he would do is do something that will change that image. On the other hand, he was tremendously contrite, repentant. He has a charitable background. There are others on the other side of this deal without mentioning names that won't have -- take any remorse, who don't feel like it ought to be something that they should be penalized.
So a lot of it has to do with whether the athlete views this as something that he takes very seriously and Roger Goodell makes that decision.
HOLMES: All right. And again, we say he's been reinstated so he can play. We don't know if any team is going to give him a shot.
HORROW: Right.
HOLMES: We appreciate you. Rick Horrow, thank you so much. Good to see you buddy. We're going to see you again soon. But enjoy Miami. Thanks so much.
Quick break for us; we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Got a little sound off for you here -- a sound off. We're going to start doing this every Saturday around this time by letting you listen in to some of the stuff, some of the sound of the week, if you will.
Toyota's troubles are drawing a whole lot of attention. IReporters are talking about one of the founders of Apple computers talking at it as well and the president of Toyota sales in the U.S. is apologizing.
Take a listen to our sound.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANNY DORADO, CNN IREPORTER: Without a vehicle, especially here in southern California, you're pretty much paralyzed. You're immobile, there's nothing really you can do. So it's tough.
It's tough to decide whether get work done, get school done, or take care of this problem that can possibly do you damage by getting you into a car accident. We just haven't found the time of day into which we can just go into the dealer.
OMEKONGO DIBINGA, CNN IREPORTER: I find myself asking, did they really know all along? Did they find out later after they did research that this was indeed a problem?
EGBERTO WILLIES, CNN IREPORTER: This incident, as bad as it is, I hope is capitalized on by American companies to promote their products because I think they're probably just as good.
STEVE WOZNIAK, APPLE FOUNDER: The media's portraying me as saying, oh, I'm worried about the problem. What they've been recalled for is really a software problem. I haven't really said those things. They put those words in my mouth.
What I said is my Prius has a totally different, unrelated problem. It's actually had it two, three months ago. I even tried to report it. Now the reason that I'm on here today is because I was speaking the other day, couple days ago, to a group of teachers for a discovery museum.
And talking about an issue of customer support, how hard it is sometimes to get to the people that can really deal with your problems, you know, and it's frustrating. And I sort of brought up this issue of how I have tried for a couple of months in different ways to get Toyota to hear about my problem. Mine is kind of minor. It's more like a radio button that doesn't work all the time. The car will start to accelerate in cruise control, you can hit the brake to stop it.
You know, and maybe it's scary for the first time for a couple of seconds, but once you know about it it's not like I think it's life- threatening. I've been driving the car all these months.
JIM LENTZ, PRESIDENT, TOYOTA MOTOR SALES, U.S.A.: I want to sincerely apologize to Toyota owners. I know that our recalls have caused many of you concern, and for that, I am truly sorry. Toyota has always prided itself on building high quality, durable cars that customers can depend on. And I know that we've let you down. I want you to know that all 172,000 Toyota and dealership employees across North America will work hard to fix your vehicle properly and regain your trust. In fact, many of our dealers will have extended hours and some will remain open 24 hours a day to get this job done. And we're redoubling our efforts to ensure that this does not happen again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Toyota expects to spend about $2 billion to fix brake problems in their cars that have been recalled.
BALDWIN: President Obama not exactly winning any popularity contests with some people in Las Vegas.
HOLMES: Yes. Including the mayor. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSCAR GOODMAN, MAYOR, LAS VEGAS: I got to tell you the way it is. This president is a real slow learner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Find out why that comment is not staying in Vegas.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Las Vegas, you can bet the mayor of that city will not be rolling out the red carpet for President Obama when he arrives in Sin City later this month.
HOLMES: The mayor is taking exception to President Obama's second comment he's made in his presidency, linking America's gambling oasis to wasteful spending. He's doubling down now on the controversy.
Here now, Nathan Baca (ph), from our affiliate KLAS.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOODMAN: I want to assure you when he comes I'll do everything I can to give him the boot back to Washington and to visit his failures back there. And I got to tell you this, and everybody says I shouldn't say it, but I've got to tell you the way it is, this president is a real slow learner.
NATHAN BACA, KLAS: it's this statement on Tuesday that has some people upset. Goodman quickly left a west Las Vegas town hall meeting when a few residents accused the mayor of racism. The Fifth Ward Chamber of Commerce and west Las Vegas community leaders gathered, they refused to call the mayor a racist but took issue with Goodman claiming the president is not welcome here for a scheduled visit on the 18th.
STANLEY WASHINGTON, WEST LAS VEGAS COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: The President of the United States is always welcome to Las Vegas as far as we're concerned. He's certainly welcome to west Las Vegas and the fact that the mayor has taken the position that he's not welcome. We've stepped away from that. We hope the mayor would go ahead and change that position. And what we want him to do is apologize to the president and extend the key to the city.
BACA: Mayor Goodman did not want to respond on camera. But his office sent this statement.
"He feels that the demonstration is a measure of the outrage in west Las Vegas. The poor turnout, where members of the news media equaled the protesters speaks for itself."
BALDWIN: So, what do you think? Did you pop that on your Twitter page?
HOLMES: We did this morning and put a link to the story to let people read for themselves. It's getting a lot of response. Let's go to what twitter first. We're going to start with Don at the top there. Don says he does not have a legitimate gripe, talking about the mayor. Says, give me a break. He's only grasping attention for his city. It's cheap advertisement.
Tiff fanny, we'll get into that later, Mayor Goodman's gripe is unfounded. Potus (ph) is telling people to be fiscally responsible on hard times. He's not hitting on Vegas. And then Randy says the mayor blows things out of proportion so that the media will cover it and the media will waste our time with nonsense.
And one last one, on the other side, kind of saying, Las Vegas - this is from the Facebook page, Jacob saying "Las Vegas relies on tourists. Obama was out of line and apologize. I wonder if he will campaign with Harry Reid in Nevada later this year."
Some people, and you can find this online and what not, are even suggesting that the president did this on purpose. So that Harry Reid could then come out and sound like he's going against the president because he came down on the president and said he shouldn't have said it. So Harry Reid who is in trouble maybe in his re-election bid, some are suggesting that maybe he did this on purpose. It was all a ploy to sound like he's taking up for the people of Las Vegas.
BALDWIN: Keep your comments coming. I'm also asking about the snow. Maybe I'll read some of those later. But for now, let's get this 9:00 hour started. Shall we?
HOLMES: You are watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING. So glad you could be here with us from the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
BALDWIN: And good morning, I'm Brooke Baldwin in for Betty Nguyen. And thanks for starting your Saturday with us. A very snowy Saturday if you're waking up in D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, lots of snow We have pictures to bring you really all morning long of this.
You can't even see, this is Philadelphia. Snowmageddon is what we're calling it. We're talking about it flights or the lack of flights in a lot of these airports. No airplanes coming or going in a lot of the these airports. The snow is actually out-pacing a lot of the plows. Pretty pictures coming in from the nation's capitol. We have stuck Reynolds Wolf on the National Mall and we will check back with him momentarily as well as Karen Maginnis.
HOLMES: We're also checking in on things happening in Nashville. There's a party going on. And we will be talking about this party, this tea party. You will hearing from the key note at tonight's banquet, Sarah Palin. We will cover that live when she speaks. Expected at 9:00 this evening.
But for now, I'll give you a quick check of some of the stories that are making headlines.
We'll start in Haiti. Those 10 Americans who were jailed on child kidnapping charges have a bail hearing that's scheduled for Monday. CNN's Karl Penhaul in Haiti tells us the country's attorney general considers the charges too serious for bail. The Americans are accused of trying to take 33 children out of Haiti.
BALDWIN: And there has been a deadly school shooting. This one happening in northern Alabama. 14-year-old boy shot and killed at this middle school just outside of Huntsville. The suspected shooter, a fellow ninth grader. Police have arrested him. They have charged him with murder. The police not identifying him or even released a potential motive yet.
HOLMES: The hybrid Prius also being investigated now because of problems with its braking system. The recall affected some eight million cars all together. Expected to cost Toyota more than $2 billion.
BALDWIN: But staying on top of this top story here. The snow, possible record conditions in Washington, D.C. between 20 inches, 30 inches. It's about 2 1/2 feet, folks. So you're not going anywhere any time soon. Karen Maginnis, I know we've been asking you, we've been talking about hundreds of thousands of power outages, issues of cleaning up these roads, budgets. And also just how long is it going to go?
MAGINNIS: Right. Well, already a lot of these states and counties have busted their budget as far as the clean-up effort for the snowfall. Thus far, this year. So if they get another major snowstorm, and it has really been kind of an incredible year with back-to-back snowstorms. They're really going to go way over their budget as if they haven't already.
We're looking at this powerful picture. Here's a window frame. We received this picture. You may remember just in the last few minutes I showed you a picture out of College Park, Maryland. The power lines were lying pretty low. Well, right after I showed you that picture they lost power and they heard the transformers blow. Well, look at this. The snowfall is coming through the windows or up through the windows. You can see just how high it is. They were wondering about going out and shoveling that. Well, I think maybe it's a little bit past the time to do that at this point. I want to show you also what's happening on flight explorer and for Baltimore, Washington, Dulles, and Reagan. Baltimore's right here. Philadelphia right here.
Also Atlantic City, I looked at Atlantic City. Visibility is terrible. Near blizzard conditions. But everybody here looking at between 10 and 20 additional inches of snowfall. All of these planes that you're looking at, they are not headed to those airports. It looks like the railways, the interstates, everything is stymied. Everything is pretty much paralyzed.
We heard that when we talked with Reynolds Wolf who is at the National Mall, Washington, D.C., there's very little movement. And if you have plans to go out on those roadways, we're looking at this beautiful picture of the low visibility as we take a look at Washington, D.C., we looked at images all around the D.C. area.
By the way, hundreds of thousands of people without power. We looked all around the Arlington area, Bethesda, Potomac, (Gaithersburg), they have hundreds of thousands of people without power. I looked at Richmond, Virginia. They've got a few hundred without power. You don't have to go very far before there are numerous trees reported down. The snow is just so heavy. The wind is blowing. And you just asked me, Brooke, about how long this storm system is going to last.
Well, here is what's happening. They've got this area of low pressure. It's moving offshore. This is a classic nor'easter. It's going to push out like this. New York City, are you going to be in on the mix? Not so much. It is that mid Atlantic corridor, Brooke and T.J., that is going to be the hardest hit. Could set some records.
HOLMES: Someone else was talking to my ear on the New York part which I was certainly interested in since I have to go tomorrow. They're going to miss it for the most part.
MAGINNIS: Mostly. You will get a couple of inches there but it's not going to be anything like that two or three feet of snowfall they'll get in Washington, D.C.
HOLMES: OK. Thank you. Karen, thank you so much. We'll see you again here shortly.
Well, return to politics now. A new force possibly in national politics, but less than 1,000 people attending their first-ever national convention. The tea party crew may have a long road ahead. Sarah Palin is their keynote speaker tonight.
However, CNN's deputy political director Paul Steinhauser will be there. He will be watching. And we say it sounds small, a convention, 600 people. But that's all they had room for. Do we have that right? They were only taking in 600 people. There might be a whole lot more who wish they could have gone? PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, the 600 people, T.J., paid about $550 each to attend these seminars and workshops here. and the organizers of the Tea Party Nation. That's the group that's putting this convention on. They say there was a waiting list.
Tonight when Sarah Palin speaks, about 12 hours from now, you're going to have about 1,100 people in that ballroom right next to us.
HOLMES: Wow. That's not - that's not cheap either. We're talking $350 to see her. What's her - what's her point? What's her motivation? What is she expecting to get out of it herself this evening?
STEINHAUSER: You know, she put out a statement about a week ago. And she said that she was very excited to come here, to speak here. She also mentioned that she will be doing some other tea party events later this year, in March and in April, with that cross-country caravan that's being set up by a different group.
But she says listen she said she agrees with the principles of the tea party movement, which is small government, less taxes, bring down the budget deficit. And this is a good chance for her to be seen nationally because a number of networks are going to covering this speech tonight and it's a nice way for her to be associated with this movement. T.J.
HOLMES: And you talked about the movement and some of the things there into smaller government, less taxing. I guess what is the goal? They're there of course to talk about this. But on a grander scale, what are they hoping to accomplish with the national convention?
STEINHAUSER: With this convention, it's less of a protest like we've seen in past tea party movements. This is more like workshops and seminars for people across the country and the tea party movement to come here to learn more about how to use social networking and other skills to build the movement.
One of those people is Jeffrey McQueen. He is coming in from Michigan, from Detroit. You're a tea party member there. Tell me why you're here and what you hope to get out of this.
JEFFREY MCQUEEN, DESIGNED "SECOND REVOLUTION" FLAG: I thought this was my duty to come here. I've been working with the tea party movement since tax day in Detroit April 15th. And basically I thought I would come down here like our founding fathers and figure out where we had commonalities and where we go from here.
STEINHAUSER: Now, what have you learned from these workshops? Any skills that you've learned over the last two days?
MCQUEEN: Yes, a lot of networking skills and a lot of media skills, how to use the internet and the blogosphere as we call it to communicate better. And I think that's critical. STEINHAUSER: Yes, you're holding a flag in your hand. Tell me about this because I know this flag was used in part by supporters of Scott Brown in that special Senate election last month in Massachusetts. Tell me about your connection in that.
MCQUEEN: Well, I drove out from Michigan. It was about 800 miles to join the campaign, actually. I drove with the campaign throughout Massachusetts and was there at the Park Plaza Hotel the night of the rally with 200 of my flags throughout the crowd. STEINHAUSER: What is this flag here?
MCQUEEN: It represents the second American revolution. And that's kind of what started - Scott Brown's rally was really the third battle of that revolution. New Jersey's governor's race was the second battle and of course, Virginia's governor's race was the first.
STEINHAUSER: Jeffrey, thanks a lot. T.J., tea party members did obviously help in Scott Brown, in his victory in Massachusetts. And it will be interesting to see as we move towards these midterm elections in November how the tea party movement, how much of an impact it will have on some races across the country. T.J.
HOLMES: You know, real quick. How is the rest of the country viewing the tea party?
STEINHAUSER: You know, we did a poll, CNN Public Opinion Research Corporation. We did a poll and take a look at these numbers. It's interesting because this movement has only been around for about a year. Four out of 10 people still don't know enough about the movement to really form an opinion. About a third of the people we questioned said they have a favorable view of the tea party movement. And about one of the four, they had an unfavorable view. So I think the jury is still out on this. T.J.
HOLMES: Well, they are certainly learning more right about now. Again, we'll hear from Sarah Palin on this evening. We appreciate you. Thanks so much, Paul. As always.
BALDWIN: I remember "T" is an acronym, taxed enough already. A lot of people talked about fiscal responsibility and some consider really the tea party movement, this grandiose protest against over- spending in Washington.
HOLMES: Now let's flash forward to where we are now. What some may have initially called the fluke, well, the tea party folks, they now call it the future. Last hour we speak with "Newsweek's" Daniel Stone. He described to this evolution.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL STONE, SENIOR REPORTER, "NEWSWEEK": This is a movement that started a year ago when Barack Obama was sworn in and showed itself to be strong. The fact that they are having a convention now really takes it to the next level. They want to be taken seriously. They want to be seen in a fancy location. They want to be seen with money and with organizing potential. And that they can be a force and a formidable one, especially heading into November.
HOLMES: Yes, you mentioned that organizing potential and a part of that, besides just, you know, marches and protests, would make for good pictures. Now they are forming a political action committee. They are, I guess, essentially officially now getting in the game, if you will.
STONE: Right. One of the organizers announced yesterday the intent to pool a lot of the leftover money from the convention and use it for political action committee that was going to be used to really support several races, mostly in the south coming in November.
Now, that's very different from the tea party movement that we saw earlier this year at the Mall which was just for everything that the Democrats and a lot of Washington was against. Now, they're really focusing their anger. They're really focusing their attention and, of course, now their money which you know in politics speaks a lot louder.
HOLMES: And you talked about supporting races. What kind of candidates are they supporting? A lot of people may be under the impression that simply they are anti-administration, anti-President Obama's agenda. But are they willing to support Republicans or Democrats, any candidate out there who are speaking to their issues?
STONE: That's been one of the big surprises of this convention. A lot of folks have told me, of course, they're against the Democrats and President Obama's agenda. They're also against Republicans in Congress. They're not pleased with anyone in Washington these days. So they're going to be focusing their efforts on races to get new people in the Congress. There's going to be a litmus test for folks that are already running.
So when like Marco Rubio, down in Florida, they're going to support him because he passes that test. But they're not just going to throw a blind support behind any Republican because frankly a lot of Republicans in Congress aren't conservative enough or aren't against President Obama's agenda enough or aren't against the ways of Washington enough to really be supported by this movement.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: And you can watch the tea party convention's key note address given by Sarah Palin, live here on CNN. That starts are at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Watch it in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Tea party nation is in Nashville right now. The tea partiers are also taking to the high seas.
HOLMES: Yes. Where else, what better place to talk strategy than -
BALDWIN: A cruise ship.
HOLMES: - in the sun. Jim Acosta joined them on their fantastic voyage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On board this cruise ship easing into the U.S. Virgin Islands, among the thousands of passengers ready for some fun in the sun -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are just not ready for this mad charge to the left.
ACOSTA: Members of a rising political movement are having a meeting of the minds led my former Republican presidential candidate Allan Keys, more than 100 conservative and tea party activists and their families rented out space on this ship for what was billed as the cruise for liberty.
MICHAEL O'FALLON, SOVEREIGN CRUISE PRESIDENT: We believe in free enterprise.
ACOSTA: Cruise organizer Michael O'Fallon markets the seven-day voyage as a chance to talk politics in paradise.
O'FALLON: Right now people are wanting to be with other conservatives. Maybe they feel like they're out on an island someplace by themselves. And -
ACOSTA (on camera): So to speak.
O'FALLON: Yes, so to speak, right. Exactly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to give everybody access to health care. If you don't want it, we'll shove it down your throat.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The pre-cruise kickoff at this Miami Hotel, Keys explained why he believes the tea party is gaining steam.
ALAN KEYES, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's quite obvious that this isn't about Republicans and Democrats. It may be about the failure of both parties and the whole party system.
ACOSTA: Conservative activist Alan Gottlieb sees a golden opportunity.
ALAN GOTTLIEB, 2ND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION: A lot of people have never been in politics before. They knew nothing about politics. They're extremely naive. They're angry and upset and they're venting their frustration by attending these rallies.
ACOSTA (on camera): And so your job is to somehow get them involved?
GOTTLIEB: Capitalize them and mobilize them.
FLOYD BROWN, CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST: We could easily slip back into slavery.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Cruise for Liberty speakers Floyd and Mary Beth Brown have a website calling for President Obama's impeachment.
MARY BETH BROWN, CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST: I know all of us need some encouragement in fighting this battle against Obama who is trying to destroy America, and I know all of you love America and are fellow patriots.
ACOSTA (on camera): When it comes to President Obama, this is no love boat. Liberal critics of these conservative expeditions through the Caribbean say they're another picture perfect example of how the tea party movement can sometimes go overboard.
(voice-over): Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons worries the tone at some tea party events onshore and off is getting out of hand.
JAMAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I would just talking about voting differently or are we talking about something a bill bit more edgy than that?
ACOSTA: Want edgy, Keyes refers to the president as the present occupant of the Oval Office. He still questions Mr. Obama's citizenship, even though the White House and the Republican governor of Hawaii where the president was born have produced evidence reputing the charge.
KEYES: I don't see how you impeach somebody who may not be president in the first place. So - if according to the constitution you are not eligible for the presidency and that does turn out to be the case, then Barack Obama was never president. You got to impeach somebody -
ACOSTA: Oh, come on. How can that be?
KEYES: No, I'm sorry. You don't understand what constitutional government is all about.
ACOSTA: Later this year, there will be more tea partiers in the Caribbean aboard the liberty ship and the news max cruise sponsored by the popular web site. But the founders of one leading tea party group wonder if this is the best use of the movement's time during an election year.
(on camera): Would you go on a tea party cruise?
MARTIN: You know, right now we're working about 20 hours a day. I can't even imagine any cruise, much less a tea party cruise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we have no time for cruising.
ACOSTA (voice-over): But other pea partiers on this trips argue hitting the high seas is just a new way of cruising for the cause.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Jim Acosta reporting from the Caribbean Cruise. Not a bad gig. Feeling a little bit bad for Reynolds Wolf today though because we stuck him in Washington, D.C. HOLMES: He loves that stuff.
BALDWIN: He's doing an amazing job. You know if you've been watching at all, snow really crippling the mid Atlantic area, Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore. But the president is supposed to be on schedule today for the Democratic National Committee meeting so we hear.
HOLMES: We talked about the beast, that's what they call his limo, the presidential limo. But he also has, you know, he has a presidential snow blower and he has a presidential - it's official. We'll tell you what he plans to say at a gathering that he's still not going to miss because of the weather. The Democratic National Committee happening this morning. We'll carry it for you live. We'll have a preview of what it's going to say.
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HOLMES: Got a little bit of a problem in D.C. and the mid Atlantic right now. A blizzard that could leave record amounts of snow. Also two deaths, highway deaths in Virginia reported and blamed on this blizzard. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost power as well from northern Virginia to Baltimore.
BALDWIN: Well despite that virtual whiteout in Washington the president will be out and about talking jobs and a little bit more than an hour from now and our very own Suzanne Malveaux, braving the weather and the cold in the snow there. At the White House this morning, not only are you, you look so cute all bundled, not only are you braving it but the president is as well. Yes?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, absolutely. We're in front of the west wing here. You can see, this is where the snow blowers have already started. They've been shoveling out here all morning. Had a chance to talk to some folks. You guys mentioned those presidential snow blowers as well.
Well, here they are right in front. Right in front, the steps there. Literally some guys who are shoveling some snow out there to make sure that the president doesn't trip and fall. You can see some of the vehicles that have gathered, the motorcade is going to get ready to leave or so. It's about 10:30 is when they are going to be speaking. So we expect that they're going to head on over there and grind through all of this.
Brooke, you know it was just a year ago the president gave D.C. folks a hard time about getting through some of this stuff. But not this go around. I talked to Robert Gibbs, the spokesperson, who said, look, he has a healthy respect, a guy who is born in Hawaii, grew up in Chicago, has a healthy respect of two feet of snow here. But he's going to make his way anyway. You know, he's got that motorcade and obviously some serious souped-up SUV tog get through all of these stuff.
BALDWIN: Right. Right. So no more smack talk from the president. What will he be talking about today at the DNC meeting? Obviously, jobs, health care?
MALVEAUX: Well, certainly. It's one of those occasions where he has a chance to really kind of buck up the Democrats and their annual winter meeting. Obviously he's going to be talking about the number one priority he says now creating jobs.
And one of those things is getting a bipartisan jobs bill pushed through Congress. He is trying to make a case here that the Democrats, despite the fact they lost their super majority they're still the majority here and that they've got some power, they've got some juice to push some things along. He basically previewed what he's going to say this afternoon in his radio address this morning. I want you to take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we have to remember at a time like this is that we're not helpless in the face of our difficulties. As Americans we make our own destiny. We forge our own path. And I'm confident that if we come together and put aside the politics that keeps holding us back, we can do that again.
We can rebuild this economy on a new, stronger foundation that leads to more jobs and greater prosperity. I believe a key part of that foundation is America's small businesses, the places where most new jobs begin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, obviously a lot of folks, they are at that convention but a lot of folks actually went back to their home states and so it's not as well attended as they had hoped. That clearly is the message for Democrats. These also reaching out to Republicans saying look we're going to have to get the bipartisan bill through. The goal is as early as Monday to actually introduce it in the Senate. It's far from certain whether or not you're going to get that kind of cooperation.
The Republicans believe that this idea of putting $30 billion from the money that was supposed to use to bail out the banks should go to lowering the federal deficit, not actually giving businesses loans to small businesses. So we'll see how that goes.
BALDWIN: We'll see how it goes. We'll bring it to you live. There you are, snowy pebble beach, snowy White House. The presidential snow blower, Suzanne Malveaux, thank you. CNN SATURDAY MORNING rolls on right after the break.
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