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CNN Saturday Morning News
Bin Laden Releases New Audiotape; Hands Free Gadgets; Leaving the White House; Flooding in North Carolina; LeBron: The Race Factor; Ryder Cup Under Way
Aired October 02, 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.
Another purported audio message from Osama bin Laden, the second one in two days. In this one, he's rallying Muslims, but for a humanitarian cause.
Also, it is cleanup day along the east coast. Our Reynolds Wolf is standing by to show us the aftermath of what was just a nasty couple of days of rainfall on the east coast.
Hello to you all from the CNN Center. This is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING on this October 2nd. I'm T.J. Holmes.
Let's begin with that audiotape. Another tape that many are presuming is from the al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden. Again, this is the second message we have seen in just the past two days. This one surfaced on the Internet.
I want to go ahead and bring in our Peter Bergen. He's our security analyst who is on the line here with me.
Peter, hello to you. What certainty do we have? Is it ever possible to get certainty that this, in fact, this message and the one we saw yesterday are, in fact, from the al Qaeda leader?
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST (via telephone): T.J., good morning. There's no doubt in my mind that this is him. We've had probably something like more than 30 audiotapes and videotapes from bin Laden since 9/11.
None of them have been proven to be fakes. He has a very distinctive voice that even I can recognize without speaking Arabic. And, you know, everybody has a distinctive voiceprint you can match the voiceprint, to you know, existing sounds of his voice and they match. So I mean, there's no doubt in my mind that this is him.
HOLMES: So you said about 30 since 9/11. That's 30 in the past nine years or so. We've seen two now back-to-back days. Why is he speaking now?
BERGEN: I think part of it is a proof of life, T.J. He's been keeping pretty quiet, he and his number two, Aman (ph) al Zawari have been releasing fewer tapes, I think partly because they're concerned about their own security, maybe the drone attacks in the area where they're presumed to be living are interrupting their operations.
But for them, getting a tape out around the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is important. We saw, Aman al Zawari has got a tape out a few days after the attacks and here is bin Laden now with two. And I think it's just a reminder that they're still alive and that they are -- you know, they want to show that they're still in the game.
HOLMES: What do you make, Peter, of the message, humanitarian message of sorts?
BERGEN: Not entirely surprising. Because bin Laden in more recent videotapes and audiotapes has sort of been positioning himself as more of an elder statesman, talking about climate change, talking about offering truces to countries that aren't presumed to be attacking Muslims.
You know, he's been a little less banging the table, shouting about holy war and jihad. Although it is surprising, I think, T.J. that these tapes are completely about a humanitarian issue rather than about, you know, usually he makes some reference to you know kill the Jews or the Americans. But there's none of that on these.
HOLMES: So why? Even like you say, not surprising to hear him kind of want to act like an elder statesman. Like you said, these are kind of long tapes, I think 10 to 13 minutes or something like it and he is talking strictly about, hey, help out your brothers in Pakistan.
BERGEN: Part of it is this guy is living in Pakistan, has been living in Pakistan for almost a decade now and this is obviously the biggest -- arguably the biggest event in Pakistani history when you've got 20 million people who are homeless.
And, you know, this is obviously, I think, weighing on his mind. And, you know, I think perhaps this is also an effort to gain some sympathy in the area where he is now based, he and his organization.
HOLMES: All right, our Peter Bergen on the line. Again our national security analyst who as you certainly can say an expert on Osama bin Laden telling us this morning, Peter, that you, in fact, have no doubt that this is bin Laden on these tapes.
Peter, we always appreciate having you here with us on CNN Saturday and Sunday morning. Thank you so much.
BERGEN: Thank you.
HOLMES: I've got to turn to a couple other stories that are making headlines today including while we're in the region of Pakistan, what looks like a drone attack in Pakistan, a couple that have killed 14 suspected militants today, getting that from our Fred Pleitgen who is covering this for us in Islamabad. Intelligent sources say it happened in north Waziristan, a chronic trouble spot near the border with Afghanistan, three missiles hit a militant hideout.
Let's turn to some politics now. The Senate's top Republican accusing Democrats of holding the middle class tax cuts hostage and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Democrats will turn out the vote during the midterm elections.
Joining us now from the CNNPolitics.com desk in Washington, D.C., our Paul Steinhauser. A little lonely there on the weekends, always bustling during the week. But that's all right, man, it just means you got more to cover.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I'll get some more people here in a few minutes. I promise. But T.J., let's talk about tax cuts. You know, back in July, nobody was even talking about them really. Now it has become one of the top issues on the campaign trail.
And as you mentioned, the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell from Kentucky blasting the Democrats in the Republican's weekly radio and Internet address over tax cuts. Remember, all the lawmakers, they cleared out of here two or three days ago. Congress is done. They're back on the campaign trail and nothing was done about tax cuts. McConnell is blaming the Democrats. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: Too preoccupied enacting the rest of their agenda, they neglected to pass or even propose legislation that would prevent one of the largest tax hikes in history. As a result, at the stroke of midnight on December 31st, every American who pays income taxes is set to get a tax hike the Democrats have had two years to prevent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: Now Democrats obviously don't share that opinion, as you can imagine neither does President Barack Obama. They say it's the Republicans that are holding the middle class hostage for tax cuts because they say Republicans are insisting that the wealthy is 2 percent of the nation. Those people get tax cuts as well. Democrats say we'll get it all done in the lame duck session when we come back after the elections -- T.J.?
HOLMES: Yes, they're not giving themselves much time. They high tailed it out of there trying to get back to their districts to hold on to their jobs. Now when they come back, they're not going to have a whole lot of time between then and when it's time to go home for Christmas to try to get this done. Paul, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, how is she firing back or just firing if I can say that at Republicans these days?
STEINHAUSER: Yes, some new comments from the House speaker. I'm going to ask our cameraman Martin Dougherty to zoom in here. It's brand new on the CNN political ticker. Pelosi was talking to a couple of journalists yesterday, including our over Gloria Borger, our senior political analyst. She was very defiant in a way. She said, you know what, we're going to keep control of the House of Representatives even though a lot of people are predicting that Republicans may take it back. And she was also very confident the Democrats will get out and vote in the November elections. A lot of polls suggest that Republican voters are much more enthusiastic right now about voting the Democrats. Pelosi says, we'll get the base out -- T.J.
HOLMES: One last thing here in what I thought was a fascinating race and people have big problems out in California with the high unemployment, also $19 billion in their budget deficit, but the race for governor now all hinges on a woman that one of the candidates used to employ?
STEINHAUSER: Yes. And we're probably going to hear a lot more about that today because there is a debate by Univision, the Spanish language network today and that includes of course the two gubernatorial candidates out there, Jerry Brown, the former who's running for his old job and Meg Whitman, the billionaire former eBay CEO and it's all about - you're mentioning her. It's all about her right now. A controversy surrounding her and her former housekeeper and whether Whitman knew that her former housekeeper was an illegal immigrant. I bet you anything, that'll be a big topic today in that debate T.J.
HOLMES: What time's that debate? That's some must-see TV.
STEINHAUSER: Later on this afternoon.
HOLMES: We'll be sure to check that out. We'll bring those highlights tomorrow morning. We appreciate you as always, we'll talk to you soon, Paul. Thanks so much. A reminder to our viewers for all the latest political news, you know where to go, cnnpolitics.com.
We turn back to the severe weather we have been seeing for the past couple of days. The weather system at least kind of moved out of there, but just the misery has left behind. The flood recovery is on right now all up and down the eastern sea board. This tropical weather system dumped what you could call deadly amounts of rain in some places this week.
Pennsylvania state troopers say one person died after driving into a rain-swollen creek. This was near Philadelphia. Then parts of Maryland are under water, as well. We're seeing one report from the National Weather Service that recorded 14 inches of rain in 20 hours in St. Mary's County, Maryland.
Also this morning, National Weather Service confirming a tornado touched down Thursday south of Baltimore. Half of the eight weather- related deaths happened in one accident in North Carolina. A family of four killed when their SUV skidded off the highway and went into a ditch.
Bringing in our Reynolds Wolf now. Reynolds, just a mess of a couple of days. The weather system, like I said, is gone. But they're still going to have to deal with the mess of this water for a little while.
(WEATHER REPORT) HOLMES: You know you can get just about everything out there on the Internet. You got a question, you just Google it. Some people have questions about their health, questions that could possibly save their life. Josh Levs looking at that for us this morning. Good morning, Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, good morning again to you too, T.J. Our Elizabeth Cohen in her new book lays out some strategies that you've probably never heard of like use the Russian novel approach and avoid "cyberchondria." She's about to join me with guidance to revolutionize your health care, T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Josh. We appreciate you.
Also this morning, dozens of brides are hoping that their grooms show up today for the wedding. But they have a good reason not to be there, a sporting event.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Thirteen minutes past the hour now here on the CNN SATURDAY MORNING. We were talking just before the break, you can do just about anything on the Internet, possibly save your life with a search, as well.
Josh Levs looking into that for us. Hello again Josh.
LEVS: Hi again to you, T.J.
When you or a loved one faces a serious medical condition, you want to learn as much as you can about it. So what do you do? You turn to the Internet. Once you get there, what should you trust and what can you actually get done with the information you find?
Well, CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here with that. You write about this in "The Empowered Patient," which everyone should check out and I have to start out right the section. Folks, you have to hear.
Listen to what she says. In many ways the Internet has become the great divide between doctors and patients. You say doctors hate it more than they hate managed care, declining insurance reimbursements and patients who stiff them and they won't tell you basics. Do doctors just need to get over it?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They do need to get over it. But you can understand why they hate it right? You come in with a stack of Internet printouts, Dr. Levs has 20 patients today. He's got 10 minutes per patient. Here could you read this? Do you mind reading this? Could you tell me what this means? It's a lot. And especially when patients say I read this on the Internet, I think you're wrong. Here's what the Internet says.
LEVS: So it's about how you handle it. Let's start off, you go to the web and you need to know what to do in the first place. You lay out some keys for what people should do. And one of the first things you say is go beyond Google.
COHEN: Right. I want to say that I love Google. I'm probably their best customer. I probably pay all their salaries, use it every day constantly, but there are times when you need to go beyond Google. What I mean is that you need to get to the original research. You want to see the actual studies that were done. That can be tough to get to them on Google. So there are a couple of other websites you can use. -
LEVS: And you offer some links to these, right?
COHEN: Yes.
LEVS: And these are original medical journals. You get there, you see these and then you want to decipher what you're seeing and one of the next things you say is use the Russian novel approach. What's that?
COHEN: You go and find your original studies. And people say to me all the time, Elizabeth, there's no way I can understand a study. And I say yes, there is. I think many of us remember in high school or college, you're assigned to read a Russian novel and there are all of these names that are like this long and 27 syllables and we just bleeped over them, didn't we?
LEVS: A million letters.
COHEN: So you just bleep over them. That's what you should do when you see an abstract in the study. You bleep over what you don't understand, and shall we demonstrate?
LEVS: You have an example here. Let's go to this quote that we have. I think you can show it. It has all good things in there like in situ and case reports and there you go.
COHEN: There's been some case reports and case series reporting successes treating squamous cell carcinoma in situ with (INAUDIBLE) which is a drug. So let's say you don't understand the case reports or case series or squamous cell means. Let's say you're looking up something about carcinoma. You don't know what this word means. What you get when you do that is you get...
LEVS: Put some red Xs through these words. Just basically you're ignoring the big words in this stuff and you'll end up with something simple.
COHEN: This makes sense. There have been some reports, reporting success treating squamous cell carcinoma with (INAUDIBLE).
LEVS: Ignore the big words.
COHEN: Ignore the words you don't understand and you'll see we tried a drug, we're reporting success with it. And then you can go to your doctor, say I read this, what do you think?
LEVS: So the message here is ignore the incredibly complicated words. And let's get to that quickly. (INAUDIBLE) You get this information, you're taking it with you, what do you do with it? How do you make sure it's going to lead to better medical care for you?
COHEN: What you don't do is you don't say see, doctor, I see that this report shows that I should have this drug and I saw it on television too. How about that? You don't do that. You try to explain to him that, hey, I read this and I'm curious. Another thing you can do is that when you become an Internet medical detective, you can learn to e-mail doctors you don't know. So for example that study that was done on squamous cell carcinoma, you can look at who wrote it, you can find their e-mail on the study and you can e-mail them and say, hey, this is interesting. I'd like to talk to you and you know it's incredible. Patients who do this tell me they actually get e- mails back. And these are not famous people, none of that.
LEVS: And they can save their lives and get better medical care. That's what all this is about.
COHEN: Right. Because you don't necessarily go to that doctor, but then you get information from him and you bring that to your doctor.
LEVS: Thank you so much for doing this. And there's so much more that people should be finding out. First of all, be sure to tune in tonight. You've got Elizabeth's special "The Empowered Patient." That's going to be at 7:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN also tomorrow night. And you can check out the book, why don't you check out the book right here, "The Empowered Patient" available in bookstores and online right now, packed with great advice that could save your life. We'll be right back in the newsroom.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Brides might just naturally have this concern on their wedding day. Is the groom going to show up? Well, a lot of brides have that concern today in Australia and they've got good reason for it. No team won Australia's football, the final last week. The game had to be replayed today. The problem is, think about having your wedding day on Super Bowl weekend. Of course, you wouldn't do that.
Nadia Bilchik, a lot of these women intentionally plan their wedding for today.
NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Today in Australia is one of the, if not the biggest wedding day. Why? It's the start of spring, so the weather is beautiful. And secondly, it's post Super Bowl or so they thought. So many, many brides planned their weekend wedding for today.
And what happened was last weekend instead of there being a win, there was a 68-point tie between Collingwood (ph) and Saint Kilvers (ph). And this is the third time it's ever happened in the history of Australia rules football, much to the absolute horror of these brides because the game was rescheduled and you know, Australia is 15 hours ahead of us here in Atlanta, so the game has already taken place. But what happened was some people even canceled their nuptials and other brides were very concerned because certain guests called in and said, unfortunately, we can't come. It caused family rifts and some people even wanted to have a screen above the ceremony. Imagine that.
And remember we did that story about popular songs in Melbourne and we said the number one funeral song is Collingwood, that's how crazy football they are. So if the number one funeral song is Collingwood, you can imagine that they ain't going to miss the game for a wedding.
HOLMES: And again, you say they do this every year, this weekend is usually the most popular to get married.
BILCHIK: It's the most popular and the last Saturday of September is the game. So nobody ever expected and today you've planned your wedding.
And all of a sudden, but it's so interesting, because you're seeing all of these stories arising, from guests who suddenly were ill, I'm so sorry. I know I said I was coming to your wedding. But it's a religion. I think for those of us who are not football crazy - I live in a football crazy house, but I am not one. Are you?
HOLMES: I'm a football nut yes.
BILCHIK: OK. So for you maybe you get this mentality that this is more than just a game. This is an entire religion. So having this game is a big deal. It may not have been good for the brides, but let me tell you it was very good for the Australian football league. They made about an extra $20 million in ticket sales and merchandise. So they've made a fortune, brides are upset, but they did make sure that today's game had an extra 10 minutes so that it didn't happen again for next weekend's brides. That was very considerate, wasn't it?
HOLMES: You kind of mentioned a couple, but what are those stories out there? You said some people canceled and you got some people calling in.
BILCHIK: They said caused family rifts. Some people literally said we'll come to your wedding, but please can you make sure there's a screen? Have you ever been to an event - I certainly have -- where you go and people are sneaking away to watch whatever game's going on? And again, if you get it, you get it.
And I suppose the smart bride said, guys, we're going to have the wedding, but we'll have the game up. I don't know quite what they did. But just to tell you, if you want to know who won, Collingwood won. There's some very happy folks out there.
HOLMES: And some very lonely brides as well. Nadia, this is a great story.
BILCHIK: Tomorrow we're going to go to Germany because do you know that tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the reunification of east and west Berlin?
HOLMES: We love the stuff you bring. It's Nadia Bilchik. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning, as well. She's with us every Saturday and Sunday.
BILCHIK: On the couch with T.J. That's a nice thing.
HOLMES: We should go ahead and stop now. 23 past the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Coming up on the bottom of the hour here now. A lot of people like to keep it moving when they're talking on the phone. You need to hear what we've got to say here now. Last year the National Safety Council reported 1.6 million crashes were caused by drivers using their cell phones, talking on them or texting. Give you some perspective here, that's 28 percent of all crashes.
Eight states plus Washington, D.C. have laws that actually ban handheld cell phones while driving. That means you can't have that thing up to your head talking on the phone while you're driving. Thirty states plus Washington have laws saying you can't text and drive. That's kind of common sense. Nobody should be doing that.
If you want to stay connected while driving and be safe at the same time, you likely need to get a hands-free mobile device. Our tech guy Mario Armstrong not coming to us by satellite, not coming to us from a studio in Baltimore, coming to us from the studio right here. It's so good to have you here with us.
MARIO ARMSTRONG, CNN DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: So good to be at world headquarters. This is my first time on the brand new set. You look better in person.
HOLMES: Better in person. I get that all the time, man. You look better from Baltimore. Let's start. Before we even get showing this stuff here, there's a debate even about is it safer to have a hands-free? Some say when you're driving, it's just the distraction of that conversation.
ARMSTRONG: Just the phone call itself. No, absolutely. So distracted driving in general is an issue that we need to deal with. But people are doing things in the car anyway. They're reading newspapers, eating food, music could be considered a distraction in the car.
So there are other things that could be distracting you in a vehicle. The main concern is people using their phones. We need to communicate, we want to communicate more and more often. We're talking about 11 percent of people with cell phones are using them consistently in the car constantly talking.
HOLMES: All right. So there are a bunch of options out there. And we see people walking around with these things on their head all the time. But when you start out, when you start shopping for these things, the more you spend, the better gadget you'll get. Is that a fair rule?
ARMSTRONG: That's a fair rule. It really is because if you look at a lower end Bluetooth headset, what we're talking about here, you're not going to get the sound quality that you're looking for. And over time you're probably going to buy more of those devices at that low end. You may, as well if you can, step it up a little bit, around 65 and higher is what you want to aim for for a really solid Bluetooth.
HOLMES: So is it just sound quality we're looking for? What about static? What about -- can you be dropped on these things? Because I don't have one and I don't think I understand how they work.
ARMSTRONG: Is that right, OK, all right.
So yes, I'll break it down for you. So you want to look for a couple of different things, depending on your use, T.J.
HOLMES: Yes.
ARMSTRONG: So what you see here is typical of what most people are used to seeing. You know, you hold these around your ear and they -- and they connect with your phone wirelessly up to about 30 feet.
Now, they can drop calls because they have nothing to do with the connection of the call. So we can drop it. The call drops, the connection to that device will drop.
But here's the difference, I want people to really think about voice activation. To be truly hands-free, a lot of these hands-free devices that you have on your ear still require you to look down at your phone to see who is calling or still require you to initiate a phone call.
HOLMES: OK.
ARMSTRONG: We don't want people doing that.
So what I'm holding here in my hand is a blue tooth speakerphone --
HOLMES: Oh wow.
ARMSTRONG: -- that you can put --
HOLMES: That's not a phone?
ARMSTRONG: This is not a phone. It's a blue tooth headset that's hands-free that you can clip to your visor of your car and you can talk to it. I could give it voice commands. I could say Blue Ant speak to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say a command.
ARMSTRONG: I could say dial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The LED light is on. Do you want to turn it off?
HOLMES: Technology I love it. I love it.
ARMSTRONG: There's too much stuff going on in there. Dial, it -- it does work, trust me it does work. But this is a great feature from Blue Ant. I think this is good for the person in the car who doesn't want to look down at the phone who wants to be able to hear the caller I.D. and be able to make those calls via their voice.
So other commands --
HOLMES: Will you need that? Something this large of a -- of a device, if you will -- most of them don't have that. Everything else, you're going to have to look down at your phone. I mean most of these on the market you will be looking at.
ARMSTRONG: Most -- most of these, yes not this Blue Ant Q2.
HOLMES: OK.
ARMSTRONG: This one as well, you can also look at, I mean, you also can use just your voice to make calls or make other commands. So that's my point. When you're shopping, if that's a real concern for you, you don't want to look down at the phone, then you want to look for voice-activated blue tooth headsets.
HOLMES: How expensive are these devices?
ARMSTRONG: So these range from about $89 to $110.
HOLMES: It's not too bad.
ARMSTRONG: So it's not too bad. Now, you have Jawbone, you have blue tooth. You have varying models that are out there. The Jawbone one is great for style. People love this style with a Jawbone.
But it also has --
HOLMES: The style?
ARMSTRONG: -- yes, man, these things are accessories now. Look at your gray suit. This would rock right now with that gray suit that you have on right now.
HOLMES: Oh my goodness --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: people walk around with these things. Just walking around and not even talking. And just have this up -- are you one of those guys?
ARMSTRONG: No, I'm not one of those guys. I think there's a difference in between the people that are walking around and trying to look important --
HOLMES: Yes.
ARMSTRONG: -- and us trying to save lives in the vehicle. We're talking about how do you use these devices when you're in the car. And I think that -- the -- the motor companies, the manufacturers need to do more with blue tooth in the vehicles.
HOLMES: The vehicles.
ARMSTRONG: Like Ford is doing phenomenal innovation with Bluetooth in the vehicle.
HOLMES: So not even -- and I mean, not even that -- on the safety issue, as well. Even if you don't want to do it for safety, it's illegal in some places to have your phone up to your head.
ARMSTRONG: That's right, absolutely. And tickets are being -- you're seeing more and more tickets on the rise for drivers that are not doing it.
HOLMES: My man, it's good to have you here in Atlanta.
ARMSTRONG: It's good to be in Atlanta.
HOLMES: It's good to have you with us.
And again, we have him with us every Saturday, our tech guy, Mario Armstrong giving us the scoop on all the latest technology. Usually not here in studio with us, but it's good to have him here today, at least.
Thirty-two minutes past the hour.
Quick break, we're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, taking a look now at some of the stories making headlines.
Intelligence officials telling CNN that a pair of U.S. drone missile strikes have killed 14 suspected militants in Pakistan's lawless tribal area today. This was on the North Waziristan district. The targets were insurgent hideouts there.
Also in southern Mexico where people there are reeling from serious flooding; 35 municipalities declared disaster areas, the Mexican authorities now estimate 100,000 people or more have been impacted by the flood waters.
Also, we have plenty to deal with here in the U.S. as well. Eastern Seaboard recovering now from days of heavy rains triggered by a tropical storm; eight deaths being blamed on the severe weather, four of those fatalities happening when a car hydroplaned in Washington County, North Carolina, and went into a ditch.
Well, he's now the former White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. He's gearing up now for a shot at the top political post in his hometown of Chicago. But Rahm Emanuel's take-no-prisoner style of politics, did that really serve him well in the campaign? Can it?
Our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry, takes you to the streets of Chicago.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: T.J., Rahm Emanuel's legacy will be a series of big legislative victories on everything from health care to Wall Street reform. And those grueling fights may have been good practice for what's sure to be a brutal battle here for mayor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice-over): Not everyone in Washington has liked Rahm Emanuel's combative style.
RAHM EMANUEL, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I'm sure you've learned some words that you've never heard before and in any -- and in an assortment of combination of words.
HENRY: But voters here say it may be perfect for the bare- knuckles world of Chicago politics.
SYLVIA ALSTON, CHICAGO RESIDENT: I think if you're going to be mayor of the city, sometimes you have to be nice, and sometimes you have to be not so nice. So maybe he's got the personality for it.
HENRY (on camera): Mayor Richard Daly has ruled this city from City Hall here for a couple of decades, now Rahm Emanuel wants this perch. So we decided to come to the farmers' market across the street in order to get a flavor for what people think.
There's been a lot of people who think Rahm is too much of a Washington insider but a lot of other people think that he will bring a lot of clout to this job, that his style is brash, but it will work here. And they also think he'll bring some other characteristics to the table.
So what do you think about Rahm Emanuel?
MARGARET YANG, CHICAGO RESIDENT: I think he's very handsome.
HENRY: But what about him as a politician?
YANG: He got the experience. He got the ability. And I think he should be an awesome mayor. He has all the connections, all the network, all the money. All the, you know, power. He should be fine.
HENRY (voice-over): But friends of Emanuel privately acknowledge this is no slam dunk. The field is wide open with about ten candidates already running in the February Democratic primary and more than a dozen more mulling it. And critics who charge that Daly has been more focused on courting the powerful than helping the middle class believe Emanuel will be more of the same.
LEALAN JONES, U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: We don't need another corporate mayor. We need somebody who understands the citizens.
HENRY: But others here may be swayed by at least the informal endorsement of their former senator's administration.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On the one hand, we are all very excited for Rahm as he takes on a new challenge for which he is extraordinarily well-qualified. But we're also losing an -- incomparable leader of our staff, and one who we are going to miss very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: That's why losing Emanuel now right before the election is a huge blow for a president who has already lost a series of people from his inner circle. And if Democrats take a hit on Election Day, Emanuel and his legislative experience would have helped the president pick up the pieces.
Now Mr. Obama turns to another trusted aide, Pete Rouse, highly respected but not as high-powered and high-wattage as Emanuel. Some Democrats say that's just fine. Rouse will be quietly effective without some of the drama -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. As always, thanks to our Ed Henry.
And for the latest political news, you know where to find it, CNN.com/Politics.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Its 41 minutes past the hour now.
Seven people are dead, and several towns are still dealing with heavy flooding after a storm system moved through North Carolina.
Alina Machado of affiliate, WTVD is with us from Windsor, a hard- hit town. Alina hello.
ALINA MACHADO, REPORTER WTVD: Hey, T.J., good morning.
I want to show you something. This is still the preferred method of transportation here and that is why. About 80 percent of the town of Windsor remains under water thanks to nearly 20 inches of rain that fell and caused the Cashie River to overflow its banks. Water levels in the area you're looking at reached eight feet. Right now they're at about six.
Town officials here say the police department, the post office, even the library are all flooded out. Emergency crews here have rescued about 200 people by boat. And they say about 150 homes have been damaged by all of this.
And I want to show you something. This is the morning paper and the headline sums this all. It does look like Venice here. The good news at this hour is that the river has crested and water levels are going down. But there is still a lot of work to be done here -- T.J. HOLMES: All right. Alina Machado, from our affiliate, we appreciate you this morning. Thanks so much.
Let me bring Reynolds on in here. And I think we heard it from her, the water's going to go down pretty quickly.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It's going to drop very quickly and then, once it recedes. What do you have left? You've got mess everywhere.
HOLMES: Yes.
WOLF: I mean, it really is, I mean, from tree branches to too flooded-out homes, and you've got furniture that has to be replaced. I mean, it's going to take a long time to clean this up.
HOLMES: Yes.
WOLF: It really is. The good news is that the water is going to recede. The bad news is that we're going to see possibly, some more development farther out to the west. Probably not going to bring any heavy rainfall to parts of the Carolinas but still a rainy day for much of the Eastern Seaboard at least for parts of the eastern and half of the Great Lakes.
Let's go right to the forecast and show you the reason why we saw the flooding in the first place, T.J. It really is mind-numbing to take a look at these numbers. The accumulations that we had since Tuesday morning, wow, take a look at this number. Especially in Wilmington, North Carolina, 22.54 inches of rainfall, it's hard to believe; nearly a foot of rainfall in Norfolk; Baltimore and Allentown, significantly less.
But still on any day you have seven inches of rainfall. That's pretty significant and even New York, 2.9 inches of rain.
Now, what's next for us? Well, we're going to be seeing more cloud cover moving into parts of the Eastern Seaboard later on today. And the reason why is because of what you see over parts of the Great Lakes. We have an area of low pressure, bringing (INAUDIBLE) of curling cold fronts, some scattered showers and storms.
From Ft. Wayne this morning over to Muncie, Indiana, you're going to hear the rumble of thunder, and you're going to look at the window and see the clouds coming through, the scattered showers expected, the wind will pick up too. All of this driving off toward the east.
And what it's going to do eventually bring in more cloud cover for much of the Eastern Seaboard by late afternoon. But in terms of heavy rainfall, this should not be a big rainmaker, not a whole lot of moisture left at the surface in the places along the Eastern Seaboard. So clouds and maybe some scattered showers, circling that heavy rainfall.
Now, back out to the west, what we'll be seeing is high pressure building in. With that, much of the nation's midsection from the Dakotas southward into the plains of Texas, even into Oklahoma, fairly dry conditions and fairly comfortable today too.
Out to the west, scattered showers possible for southern California northward through about the Bay Area and in terms of your high temperatures in L.A. and in places like San Francisco, your highs are going to settle mainly into the 70s and 80s in many spots and back into say Phoenix, we're in the 100s again; 104 is the expected high.
For Dallas, 84 degrees, not bad for the Texas/Oklahoma game -- it should be interesting, 57 degrees in Minneapolis, 67 in Boston, 68 in New York, and Raleigh, 72 as things dry out, 88 in both Miami and Tampa, 84 in New Orleans.
That is a quick snapshot of your forecast. Coming up, we're going to take a look at your football forecast some moments away. You're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Did you even know the Ryder Cup was going on right now? Chances are you might not. It's been starting at like 2:30 in the morning, they've been rained out a bit, as well. But it's going on right now. A lot of people are watching because Tiger Woods is competing.
If you're not familiar, this is the tournament that happens once every two years; the U.S. versus Europe. Tiger Woods is on the team.
Also, another story that was making headlines this past week, NFL rookie Des Bryant, he didn't want to carry the pads as a part of a hazing ritual in the NFL during training camp, so his team got him back. They hit him with a dinner bill for many of his teammates. The bill came up to about $55,000.
Also, there's LeBron James, image taking a bit of a hit after that whole decision in moving from Cleveland to Miami. But he and his manager are now telling our Soledad O'Brien that they believe race may have played a role in all the negative backlash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's a role that race plays in this?
LEBRON JAMES, PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER: I think so at times. There's always, you know, a race factor.
MAVERICK CARTER, CEO, LRMR MARKETING AND BRANDING: It definitely played a role in some of the stuff coming out of the media and things that were written for sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Our business sports analyst Rick Horrow joins us now from West Palm Beach, Florida.
Rick, good to have you back with us. Good to be back with you here on SATURDAY MORNING.
LeBron James has the right to feel however he feels about how he was treated during that whole thing. But how does he come across now by saying race was a factor in how he was treated?
RICK HORROW, CNN BUSINESS SPORTS ANALYST: Well, I'm not sure if you listened it says it's always a factor. I don't know if that's the biggest factor. The biggest factor from my perspective is there were five or six cities competing for this multimillion-dollar industry and he can only play for one team at a time. Miami won and all of these other teams and all these other cities lost.
I suspect he would even agree that the decision to show where he made the decision on national television was a bit in-artful, let's say. And by the way he's 42 percent less popular than he was last year. Eighty percent of the people are aware of LeBron.
This is not cynical, this is factual. The Heat played their first game Tuesday night, they play for real in a month. If he starts sinking free throws and the team starts winning, this is not as big an issue as some of the other problems we've seen.
HOLMES: Not as big an issue. And the part you just raised there was that the issue was the decision and how he handled. And you say you think he would admit that some mistakes were made. Some were saying, including our guys, Charles Barkley. He's not coming out just saying, you know what, that was kind of silly of me. I'm sorry. You know what, I'm sorry, I should have called the owner of the Cavs first and told them what I was going to do. You know what? I owed Cleveland more.
A lot of people are saying that is more part of the problem than anything else with his negative favorability ratings now.
HORROW: Charles Barkley has a lot of experience saying I'm sorry. So when he says you should say I'm sorry, you probably want to say I'm sorry. But in all seriousness I don't think this is pretty deep.
I think the bottom line of all of this is that America loves contrition and LeBron James may be the best basketball player on the planet today, maybe one of the best ever. And he has been a significant corporate spokesman. Look, he's got Nike. He's got State Farm. He's got a lot of these deals, $40 million worth of deals that have to get right. So he has some time to think about this, but he ought to move on this pretty quickly.
HOLMES: All right. Tiger Woods on the team, the Ryder Cup team. He was a captain's pick. As a team, has he helped or hurt the team? Has he helped or hurt himself by being in this thing?
HORROW: He helped the team because he and Steve Stricker won their first match to even though that's a deluge (ph). Now, I know you don't play golf but nobody ought to play golf in that weather they had yesterday and they have the same forecast today and tomorrow in Wales. So he's helping the team. He's helping golf whether he's winning or not just by showing up. You like him, you hate him, people watch him.
And the other thing is, Nike, $19 billion in revenue last fiscal, 42 percent increase in the next five years, and the golf business at Nike is solely related to Tiger. So he better have made the team from Nike's perspective. And he also better play well.
HOLMES: Reynolds, I'm supposed to bring you in for this forecast.
WOLF: You are.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: I had another story here that I'm told we're running out of time for. Give me the game-day forecast. We have to have our priorities in order.
WOLF: Yes. I mean let's get right to it.
First and foremost, Alabama, unfortunately, I've got to talk about them. Sorry Alabama fans. Alabama and Florida they're playing at Tuscaloosa. It's an 8:00 p.m. start, game time, 68 degrees, a little bit of hazy sky. That should be a great game between the Tide and Gators.
Ohio State and Illinois, it's going to be the Buckeyes playing the fighting Zuckers (ph). It's going to be 58 degrees, again, kind of a noontime start.
Auburn also starts at noon against Louisiana, 76 degrees.
Oklahoma and Texas, this should be a very interesting game, 83 degrees, playing in Dallas.
And then we have the undefeated Northwestern Wildcats (INAUDIBLE) team playing in Minnesota, 50 degrees in Minneapolis; should be a cool one. Hard to believe they're undefeated.
HOLMES: Yes. Everybody's scratching their heads. Rick scratching his head as well -- NORTHWESTERN guy. Arkansas's not up there this weekend.
WOLF: No, no. Who did you guys lose to this weekend?
HOLMES: No, we didn't play this weekend. That's good if we're going to win this weekend.
WOLF: Oh, check out the hat.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Congratulations there, Rick, from Northwestern. HORROW: Look, I'm a journalist, it's totally objective. Oh, yes, Northwestern, 4-0, T.J., congratulations. Your team is by this week, they remain unscathed. You don't lose this weekend.
HOLMES: No, we won't.
Rick, always good to have you. Congratulations on 4-0.
HORROW: Yes.
HOLMES: Thank you, as well, to my buddy Reynolds.
Quick break, we're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Have you all seen this? Let's just go right to the video here. You guys have seen this one?
LEVS: Haven't seen it yet.
HOLMES: Mike Tyson, and you all remember him in "Hangover". He was funny in hangover when he danced a little bit. But you can see what he is supposed to be doing here.
LEVS: Is he singing?
HOLMES: He's not doing the actual singing, I don't think.
LEVS: Pump up the volume, will you?
OK. Yes, there's no way that's his voice.
HOLMES: But you all remember this, Bobby Brown back in the day had this video, very popular, every little step. This was back in the '80s. Who knew, it was so long ago.
This is Wayne Brady back there, as well. It's nice to see, quite frankly, as mean as Tyson was always in the ring to see him actually in this role is just hilarious.
LEVS: He was pretty funny in "The Hangover", but this is actually funnier than he was in "The Hangover".
WOLF: That was Iron Mike. It's hard to believe. Singing like a different person.
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: He really is.
HOLMES: Mike has been through a lot in his day. Got the tattoo on the face now -- a scary-looking guy; still has a mean right hook, I'm sure. But to see him in that kind of role -- I mean that's --
LEVS: Got a light side to him. Good for him. WOLF: Good spirit having as well.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Wayne Brady, you can't really recognize him. He's back on the left there doing his thing. He's hilarious.
Let's move over to this next bit of video.
WOLF: Oh, Wayne Brady, right.
HOLMES: Yes. Wayne Brady back there, jamming a little bit.
This is security here. The Commonwealth Game starting next week in New Delhi.
WOLF: That's security?
HOLMES: That is it.
(CROSSTALK)
WOLF: These are these Languor monkeys, they have 38-trained monkeys that are going to try to maintain the peace here. Now, they're not giving them weapons. Reynolds, I know you -- you look familiar there -- you look confused right now. They're not giving them weapons or anything, but what they're doing is putting them in different spots around the Commonwealth Games and hopefully they will keep away other pests.
LEVS: Other monkeys.
HOLMES: Smaller monkeys.
LEVS: Smaller monkeys.
(CROSSTALK)
WOLF: It's the version of Curious George. I mean it's the Curious George story gone wrong. Hand them a taser and let them go. It's crazy like that.
LEVS: But apparently they have every reason to believe it's working. These are specifically trained to scare away these other wild monkeys and apparently other wild monkeys look at these, trained Languor monkeys and just want to run.
WOLF: I would want to run. That's not intimidating. It really isn't.
LEVS: Well, it's because it's small. I mean if it's small, it's cute. But if it's that huge, I would run the other way.
HOLMES: Now, on that point, we said the Commonwealth Games. This is kind of an Olympics type thing they do with some European countries, I do believe it is. But three years ago, guys, New Delhi's deputy mayor was killed when he fell from a balcony because he was attacked by some of these stray monkeys that they're trying to keep away.
WOLF: I have that problem all the time.
HOLMES: Stray monkeys. Where do you live, man?
WOLF: You've been there, it's out in the middle of nowhere.
HOLMES: OK, you're right.
WOLF: We get lions, tigers, bears, everything. You know, it's always out there.
HOLMES: All right. We've got just a couple of minutes until the top of the hour. We're going to be talking about food coming up. Super food, slow food, Four Square, badge, food -- you've got to stick around to figure out what that's about. Quick break -- we're right back.
LEVS: Badge?
HOLMES: Badge food --
WOLF: Badge.
HOLMES: Like you wear it.
LEVS: You wear it and you take it off when you eat?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
