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Democrats Gear Up for Convention; Leaders Respond to Urgency of 9/11 Panel

Aired July 24, 2004 - 10:00   ET

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

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


BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen. Now in the news:
President Bush says he'll assemble a task force to review the recommendations made by the 9/11 commission. Congressional leaders are also anxious to hear or at least start talking about that report. They're calling for unusual August sessions. A Washington official urged caution, though, saying the reforms are -- quote -- "not a race."

John Kerry's campaign trek to the Democratic National Convention takes him to battleground state of Iowa today. The soon-to-be Democratic nominee will take part in a rally in Sioux City. He arrives in Boston on Thursday.

In Iraq, negotiators are working furiously to free an Egyptian diplomat and seven truck drivers kidnapped by insurgents. Another person was kidnapped today in Baghdad. This time it was the head to a government-owned construction company.

And in Colorado, a critical development in the Kobe Bryant case and what's being called a huge victory for the defense. The judge ruled the accuser's sexual activity during the week of their encounter can be used in the trial.

Those are the stories for now. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

ON THE STORY begins right now.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN's ON THE STORY, where our journalists have the inside word on the stories we cover this week.

I'm Candy Crowley in Boston, with the countdown to the Democratic National Convention and how John Kerry's been prepping for this week all his life.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Suzanne Malveaux in Crawford, Texas. I'll be back later, ON THE STORY of the incumbent president, George Bush, avoiding one civil rights organization, but asking another for their vote.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kelly Wallace, ON THE STORY of the challenge for vice presidential candidate John Edwards here in Boston, and how former Democratic star Al Gore will be received.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jeanne Meserve, ON THE STORY of tight security here in the convention city and a warning of possible disruption by domestic groups.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kelli Arena in Washington, ON THE STORY of how a prominent Democrat and former national security adviser in the Clinton administration is in the middle of an investigation about missing documents.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Maria Hinojosa, ON THE STORY of the report from the 9/11 commission and how families of the victims of the terrorist attacks are reacting.

We'll be talking about all of these stories. E-mail us at ONTHESTORY@cnn.com.

Now, straight ahead to Candy in Boston and the Democratic National Convention.

CROWLEY: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, tossing a baseball this week. Right now, he's in the final windup to his big pitch next week to the convention here in Boston and to voters watching television.

I'm here in the Boston National Historical Park as the candidate, the city, and all the rest of us prepare for this important stop along the campaign trail.

MESERVE: Candy, apart from the weather -- and we'll try to get over talking about it -- but I've covered hurricanes; this is reminiscent of that.

John Kerry -- what does he need to do? We've got this incredibly competitive race between him and George Bush. Does he really think he can break out of the pack here?

CROWLEY: Well, I mean, he thinks he can begin to do it. I don't they'll say -- they will not say to you, Look, you know, we've got to come out 10 points ahead. We need a big Clinton bounce -- because he got a big one.

They're going to try to soften the edges of him. You know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) he's aloof, he's from the Northeast, he's cool, he's distant. So you see him starting this week, where he was born, in Aurora, Colorado. You know, so he goes to the hospital. So you're going to see a lot of, like, here's where I came from, here's where I'm about. So they're just trying to soften him up around the edges.

And what he's really appealing to are not those, you know, 48 percent of the voters that say, I'm voting for him for sure. It's that kind of 12 to 15 percent in the middle.

WALLACE: Candy, you have covered so many conventions, and you say it's often the candidate himself, the presidential candidate, who kind of defines the tone of the convention. Do you have any sense -- sort of the tone John Kerry is going to bring to this convention and how it will differ (ph) from others?

CROWLEY: Well, you know, every convention has its own special tone (UNINTELLIGIBLE). The wild card is you never quite know. Even though they sort of run these speeches through -- the Kerry campaign, through the DNC, through the convention committee, you never quite know what's going to happen.

But having said that, they very much want this happy, forward- looking, upbeat, positive, you know -- they got hit a lot on that Democratic fund-raiser they up in New York where some of the comedians and some of the singers really joined in a lot of Bush bashing. And Kerry took some heat for it. So they're -- it's kind of an interesting...

WALLACE: Don't expect Whoopi Goldberg be invited...

CROWLEY: No, Whoopi Goldberg will not be here, I don't think. She may be here, but I don't think she'll be a prime-time speaker.

But, you know, they're walking a fine line here because these people that are coming to this convention are the ones that want to hear -- you know, and Bush did this and Bush did that and he's terrible.

On the other hand, the audience, the listening audience, and the ones they want, are less interested in the partisan tone and are turned off by it. So it's a delicate balance, as always.

HINOJOSA: So Candy, I'm just wondering, you know you have -- I've heard from a lot of voters that say, "Well, we don't really quite know John Kerry".

And because you've done this so many years, Candy, give us a sense. Is this usually where we're at, where people across country still don't know the Democratic candidate and is this convention kind of the place where they can really learn about him, or that's just too much to ask?

CROWLEY: There's -- well, there's three big moments in any campaign if you're not the incumbent. That is, if you're not the person holding the office.

And that is first of all, your vice presidential pick -- done, John Edwards. Then the conventions -- that's coming up. And then the debates. Those are the three giant national moments where people can begin at least to get a sense of it.

Any campaign, if they aren't where they want to be, or if they're not -- you know, 10 points ahead, will say, Well, the reason is that they don't really know this candidate.

So of course that's what we're -- it's the one thing that at this point George bush can't claim. John Kerry still can. And so they believe that, you know, not enough people know that -- we're still here. A lot -- not enough people know that he was a Vietnam veteran and that he got all these medals. They don't know where he came from and that his dad was a diplomat.

So you're going to hear a lot of that. You're going to see daughters and you're going to see Teresa Heinz Kerry introducing him. So yes, they do want to begin to put that out, although it's a very -- again, very sort of narrow audience of people that haven't made up their minds at this point.

ARENA: Candy, you spent some personal time with the candidate, with his wife, with his closest, closest aides.

Give us a sense -- I mean, what -- what do you know that we may not know? What can you tell us? What insight can you share?

CROWLEY: Well, you know, it's -- I like the match-up, actually, of Teresa Heinz Kerry and John Kerry, because she is very much a kind of -- I guess in the '60s, '70s thing. It's sort of an Earth mother- type. She's, you know, very warm and she -- she wants to talk about, you know, microbiotic food and sunscreen and she's worried about his health.

And he's all kind of Mr. Policy. What we tried to do -- and we've got a "CNN PRESENTS" that comes up on Sunday -- is kind of get a look at the inner Kerry that you don't always see. And we asked both of them to try to kind of open that window for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: You know this man?

TERESA HEINZ KERRY, JOHN KERRY'S WIFE: Not enough. I mean, I've been married nine years. But, you know, we've had two Senate campaigns and now this campaign. I would like to get to know him a lot better.

CROWLEY (voice-over): In public, he can come across aloof, detached. Even in private, he can seem distant.

His campaign has worked to warm up that Northeastern patrician reserve. Vietnam War buddies help.

DAN PAYNE: The transformation was amazing. I mean, you could see it physically. He just looked different. He talked differently. And when they brought that veteran in, a guy he had pulled out of the drink and saved, it was really kind of like a revolution inside John Kerry.

CROWLEY: Mention his daughters, and the ice breaks.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a dad who even gets talked to about boyfriends, which is tricky stuff. I'm not sure I should have said that. They make -- I may be in trouble with that one.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CROWLEY: His daughters will be happy to know he didn't tell us what exactly he -- advice he gives to his daughters about boyfriends.

MESERVE: You know, he's portrayed as quite an ambitious guy. People say he's been angling for the presidency since he was a youth.

Did you get any feel for that issue?

CROWLEY: Well, I mean, look, his friends -- I mean, you know, there's this great moment when someone talks about how they used to kazoo "Hail to the Chief," you know, in the hallways at Yale, at St. Paul's in his elementary school that -- or in the prep school. That they thought, OK, this is a -- look, he was a serious child with serious interests.

And whether you think, Oh, he's always wanted to be president -- which by the way, he says, No, no. I mean, sure I was looking at politics. But I was looking at other things as well.

I mean, how you see John Kerry's ambition, and whether you see it as a bad thing or a good thing depends on whether or not you like John Kerry. I mean, Ted Kennedy says to us he's a very ambitious guy. He does not mean that as a pejorative.

So is he ambitious? Yes. IS that a good or bad thing? Well, look through the -- look through the prism because that's -- that's how people view (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WALLACE: Well, Candy, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) not just a challenge for John Kerry, as you know, but for his running made, too. Big challenge ahead. One of the most important speeches next week will be the one from John Edwards.

I'm back on that story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am completely loyal to John Kerry, period. And that includes now. It includes in the future. And I am 110 percent about -- Elizabeth and I, my wife and I both -- about making sure he's the next president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: John Edwards talking about loyalty in a recent interview I did with him not too long ago.

We are demonstrating our loyalty to CNN here in the rain.

But clearly, loyalty very, very important for a vice presidential candidate. Edwards facing some big expectations about his speech.

We are back ON THE STORY. Welcome back. CROWLEY: You know, Kelly, you were out there when the two of them were traveling together, right after the VP announcement. I was reminded, obviously, there was tension between them during the convention -- I mean, I'm sorry, during the primaries, especially the whole "he was still in diapers when I came back from Vietnam"

What do you sense -- we saw that hugging and touching and all that kind of stuff. What do you sense about that relationship?

WALLACE: We definitely knew there was tension, so much so that many of us that many were surprised he even picked John Edwards, of course.

But in the beginning, it also seemed like they were trying to overcompensate for the tension, hugging and touching. The late-night comedians were making -- having a field day with it.

But what you sense is they seem to make each other better. John Edwards -- you know, you did a whole piece on John Kerry -- seems to be loosening up John Kerry, making John Kerry feel a little more spontaneous, a little more touchy-feely.

And John Edwards, in his own way, talking about John Kerry, talking about his Vietnam experience, talking about foreign policy (UNINTELLIGIBLE), almost -- he seems to be doing a little better, a little more gravitas.

So, of course, his aides say each is helping the other. But just watching them, it does seem that it's working.

HINOJOSA: Kelly, I'm just wondering, after that interview that you had with John Edwards, was there anything that you yourself just said, "Wow, that was interesting"? Or was it all kind of predictable?

WALLACE: Well, you know, a couple things that were interesting.

Number one, we've tried to press him on this whole issue of his Iraq vote. He and John Kerry both voting to give President Bush the authority to go to war. They have both been asked repeatedly, Do they regret their vote? And they both kind of were dodging that question.

But clearly, they have been talking about it. And John Edwards said No, I don't regret the vote. I thought that President Bush should have had that authority. So it seems like he sort of moved along a little bit in that position.

And also, I guess, something else, Maria. He talked, I thought, candidly about the impact on his family. He says his wife, Elizabeth, is ready for this. His older daughter, Kate, she seems -- seems ready. But he expressed a little bit of concern about his youngest two, Emma Claire, who's 6. Jack is 4. He says Jack the spotlight, but he said Emma Claire is a little bit overwhelmed by all the cameras, all the attention.

So it seemed a candid moment. He was sort of just questioning how his youngest will handle this new role they're all going to have. ARENA: Kel, do you see at all a role for Edwards as the sort of traditional vice-president attack dog at all in this campaign?

WALLACE: Well, it was interesting, Kelli, because one of his first speeches he seemed to take on a little bit of that role. He was talking about how British Prime Minister Tony Blair was taking responsibility for faulty intelligence on Iraq. And he says that President bush, if he were a strong, courageous leader, he would take responsibility, too.

But that was really it. And we even asked him in our interview, "So are you going to be the hard-time attack dog?" And he said no, no, no, he's going to stick to his positive message. But he thinks he can contrast those differences between Kerry/Edwards and Bush/Cheney, but still continue to do it, in his view, in a very positive, optimistic way.

MESERVE: A lot of people are saying that John Edwards is auditioning for even bigger things ahead.

WALLACE: Oh, yes, they are.

MESERVE: How is he responding to that? And is he doing that?

WALLACE: Well, you know, it's interesting, because some people wondered, Did he make a deal with John Kerry about 2008, that if Kerry/Edwards is not victorious in November, did he tell John Kerry, "I won't run against you"?

We asked him that question. He sort of said -- we didn't talk about it. But then he said, I'm loyal. You heard that soundbyte. "I'm loyal to John Kerry now and in the future." So it seems like he's saying, not in 2008, but definitely 2012. Many think his speech here will be almost auditioning for this.

And it's very funny -- I want to share something, because during the primaries, at the end when John Edwards dropped out, Elizabeth Edwards kind of joked to the reporters. She said, "Guess what's the number of our hotel suite?" And we said, "What?" And she said, "2012."

So they're thinking ahead.

CROWLEY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), great segue, because I can't let this go by without mentioning Elizabeth Edwards. Any woman that has a child at 50 gets my mention at any point.

WALLACE: Two, 48 (ph) and 50, right?

CROWLEY: Forty-eight (ph) and 50.

She's kind of turned out to be an anti-star star.

WALLACE: That's (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

CROWLEY: You know, she's sort of like one of those people that you don't look and say, Oh, glamorous. Oh, but she's really been a hit, it seems like.

WALLACE: She has been -- one of our (ph) press aides say she's been the media darling. They can't put her enough places, she has so many requests. There's something so authentic about her, I think, as you say, that she is the anti-star star and the fact of her story, the fact that she says one of the things that she thinks that they can do -- they don't talk about their son Wade who was killed.

But they say that so many people look at their lives and people have been touched by laws, think that they can look at the Edwardses and look how they've sort of moved on, decided to have children, feel like that's bringing joy to their lives, and that people feel a real connection to them.

So she is, I think, going to be a real powerhouse. People respond to her on the campaign trail. And she will be introducing her husband Wednesday night, which should be a pretty powerful moment.

HINOJOSA: So Kelly, how do you think people are going to be reacting when they see former presidential candidate Al Gore at the Democratic National Convention?

Take us behind the scenes. What are the rumblings? Are people excited about this or are people saying, "Oh my gosh"? What are you hearing on the street?

WALLACE: Maria, that is such -- the big key question, because, you know, there's Al Gore. He was the star in 2000. And here he is going to be speaking on Monday night.

There's sort of two schools of thought. One is that just by having Al Gore there, he can really rally the base, particularly African-Americans who are so angry about 2000 and feel that perhaps some Democrats didn't really take it seriously enough. And just standing there, a question of what might have been.

But you also have Democrats who believe part of Al Gore's problem in 2000 was Al Gore himself. So there's a question. The thinking is, as long as Al Gore doesn't make the speech about Al Gore, that he makes it about John Kerry, contrasting with President Bush, than he will be well received and people will give him the applause for what he's done for the party.

MESERVE: Well, the politicians, the delegates, all of us are going to be surrounded by very tight security when the convention begins.

I'll be back on that story when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: Security is tightening at the convention hall on this glorious day in Boston in preparation for next week. The backdrop, of course, new concerns that terrorists have been planning a new strike and that such a large, high-profile event makes an attractive target.

Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

WALLACE: Jeanne, we heard you reporting a lot yesterday about a possible threat from a domestic group against the media covering this event.

What can you tell us about that?

MESERVE: Well, the FBI says it has unconfirmed information that a domestic group may try to disrupt the convention by launching an attack on media vehicles, with either explosives or incendiary devices.

Officials say what they're talking about are anarchist groups. We have seen anarchists before in this country. You'll remember the WTO meetings in 1999 in Seattle, which were -- there was a lot of damage and disruption. Some pitched battles (ph) with police.

But a Massachusetts official yesterday who I talked to said we really don't have to be that frightened or concerned here. Of course, the media should be taking some prudent precautions. I think most of us were planning on doing that anyway. No reason to chew your nails, however.

What was interesting about this story, though, is the way the information was disseminated. We've heard a lot in the run-up to this convention, about coordination, about information-sharing. And one would think that this would have put out rather seamlessly from the top to the bottom.

But it did not, though, I've seen of late. Some members of the local media were told by the local FBI office what was happening. But CNN, for instance, and the other networks, didn't get officially notified. Although we've done reporting on this, we had -- we knew what was coming, we knew what they were saying, there was no official notification, especially to security personnel, until the next day.

So it really raised questions about, is this the way it's supposed to happen? And if it's happening just days before a major national security special event, what does it say about information and how it's shared on a day-to-day basis in this country?

ARENA: Jeanne, there are obviously some protesters that will be there without the intention to do harm. But there's also some wrangling going on between where they should be and security issues.

Tell us what's going on, on that front.

MESERVE: Well, the most controversial area is this pen that's been set up across the street from the Fleet Center. You really have to see it to believe it. It's underneath an overpass. There are double layers of chain link fence on top of jersey barricades. Then there's a heavy, black netting on top of it. Then there's razor wire on top of the overpass.

I think the judge who came to take a tour of this the other day said it best. He said the things he'd read about it didn't do it justice, that to call it an incarceration camp was generous. He said that he thought this really was not conducive to the expression of free speech. However, he did not change the pen area. It is now as the police wanted it to be.

However, the protest groups are going to court once again in an effort to expand this, and have some other features there, that they would like to see, like literature tables and so forth. What they say is, We can't get to the delegates here. They may be able to hear us, but we can't pass them our literature to let them know what we're saying and how we feel about things.

CROWLEY: Jeanne -- and Kelli, too, because I know both of you have been working this story up here -- it is hard to tell when you're not involved in this story how -- where our level of concern should be.

What do you -- I know when you talk to some of these sources, they give you a sense of how uptight they are, how really worried. Where is their concern level?

MESERVE: Well, you know, I think, of course, there's been all this talk about planning, about preparation -- you know, the language has definitely gotten more intense over the last weeks and even over the next -- the last days, as Kelli will tell you in just a minute.

But the people I talked to about Boston say, We're concerned, of course. It's a big event. It's representative of the democratic process. But I don't detect real urgency here. They feel they've got a lot of security in place. They've hardened this target. Al Qaeda is not apt to go for a target that is this tightly protected.

So I think there's concern, yes. Are they chewing their nails and tearing their hair? I would say no.

Kelli, do you agree or disagree with that?

ARENA: No, I totally agree with you, Jeanne. And I think that we've heard so many times that, you know, terrorists strike when they're ready. And if there's a change in plan or a hardening of a target, sometimes that delays or disrupts the plan entirely.

Overall, though, there does seem to be more concern, because we heard from senior CIA officials this week who said that the -- this intelligence coming in has risen above the level of chatter, that there is credible and specific information from detainees who have recently been taken into custody and other sources, all pointing to a plan to attack the U.S. on a large scale. But not specific enough, still, to give us any time, or method, or location.

So overall -- you know, somebody said to me -- actually three terrorism experts said to me this week -- your chances personally of getting killed by a terrorist are less than your chances of getting hit by lightning. So individually, the concern -- you shouldn't be neurotic. But when you're dealing with the country and the chance of an attack, that's a different story. HINOJOSA: So I'm wondering, Jeanne, when you're talking to people in Boston -- hopefully you're not inside a pen and you can get out and actually talk to people. But when you're talking to them, is there a sense on the ground in Boston of "We're scared, we're border- line neurotic?" Or is it much more, everything's under control? And are you seeing anything new in terms of security in this first convention after September 11?

MESERVE: Well, certainly it's a different security than we saw at the conventions four years ago. There's a lot more intensity here. We're seeing a few more technologies. But a lot of this is stuff that they've done before at other high-profile events.

As to the people of Boston, you know, I think their degree of concern varies from one person to the next. I think what's really uniform here is fear of the disruption that this convention is going to cause. There's been a major exodus of people out of town, a lot of companies are telling people to take the week off. That's the thing that I hear the people of Boston talking about, much more than the security situation.

ARENA: Well, we've heard a phrase a lot, right? It's the "new normal," unfortunately.

Well, one bump in the campaign trail came from a Kerry adviser, now former adviser, Sandy Berger. We're back ON THE STORY of Berger and sneaking secrets after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen at the CNN global headquarters here in Atlanta.

In the news, another violent weekend in Iraq. A U.S. Marine dies of wounds suffered in the Al Anbar province. And in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official survives an assassination attempt, but his two bodyguards are gunned down. Kidnappers take at least two more hostages, and an oil pipeline bombed north of Baghdad.

In Turkey, a train official and two conductors have been arrested and charged with negligence in Thursday's derailment. Thirty-seven people were killed and 81 injured when the high-speed train left the rails in northwestern Turkey.

A security sweep got under way last night at the Fleet Center in Boston and it's continuing this morning. Super-tight security surrounds the site of the Democratic National Convention, which opens Monday. A major train station used by commuters has been shut down and eight fighter jets will patrol the skies over Boston.

Well, while the Democrats party, President Bush will be at his ranch in Texas. The president has created a task force to study the report of the 9/11 commission, and he talked about that report in his radio address today.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have already put into action many of the steps now recommended by the commission, and we will carefully examine all the commission's ideas on how we can improve our ongoing efforts to protect America and to prevent another attack.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The president also warned this morning that the danger to America has not passed.

And that's a look at stories making news this hour. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

Now it's back to ON THE STORY.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDY BERGER, FMR. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Last year, when I was in the archives, looking -- reviewing documents, I made an honest mistake. It is one that I deeply regret.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARENA: "Honest mistake," says former national security adviser in the Clinton administration, Sandy Berger, about taking secret documents from the national archives, apparently losing or destroying some later. And the political uproar forced Berger to quit as an adviser to presidential candidate John Kerry.

Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

HINOJOSA: So Kelly, I got to tell you: I'm hearing this stuff about Sandy Berger and I'm suddenly thinking, Gee, I suddenly feel like I'm back in Watergate and people stealing and breaking into offices.

I mean, what is Sandy Berger's motivation? Did he really do something wrong? Was he taking just his own notes or was he actually taking classified documents out? And do you believe this "I made an honest mistake"?

ARENA: Well, I'll tell you what he says. There are two issues here.

They're classified documents that he says he -- first of all, he was tasked to go through thousands of pages of documents. And so as he's doing this, he says he put some aside because they were longer. He knew he needed to give them more attention. And he says that he inadvertently included those in a leather binder that he had on table with him and took them out of the National Archives.

But then there's the issue of personal notes that he took from other documents while he was there -- sort of summaries and notes to himself. Those are notes that, according to Archive rules, are supposed to be cleared, just to make sure that no sensitive information was copied down. Those he put in his pockets and put in his jacket, knowingly, he says, and walked out of the Archives, not getting them cleared.

So in one instance he says he knew what he was doing. In the other instance, he says it was -- it was purely by accident. But then comes the question of, Well, what happened to those documents once they were taken to his home?

He was confronted. He says he returned many of the missing documents that he had, he says, inadvertently taken out. But there were some that were missing. He says he thinks, Well, they could have gotten thrown out. But there were no cameras in the Archive room, there were only Archive staff that observed him. So we will never know what happened to those documents.

CROWLEY: Kelli, let me -- you know, on one end of the spectrum, we have this innocent explanation -- you know, a bunch of paperwork. I folded up my, you know, folder and took it home, Yes, OK, I took notes, too.

What is the other end of the spectrum? The documents -- the secret documents that he took -- were those the only documents, or was that information available in some other place?

ARENA: Well, the information was actually quite available. Those documents had been draft forms, and so it had been handed out to several committees and agencies.

The 9/11 commission -- the bottom line is, when you ask the 9/11 commissioners did you see all the relevant documents, they say, Yes, they had. But these were documents that pertained to the Clinton administration's handling of the millennium terror plot in 2000. And of course, you know, Republicans will say -- some Republicans will argue, Well, this is information that he want to withhold, because his task there was to go through everything and to come to the table with whatever they thought was relevant for the commission to see.

And so the conspiracy theorists would say, Well, you know, here he was, he was dealing with original documents. He took them to keep something away from the commission. On -- the people that are supporting him say, Well, wait a minute. These were documents that had been distributed, you now, to some effect, and the 9/11 commission could get their hands on them in some other way. They didn't have to go to the Archives for these original copies.

MESERVE: Kelli, here's a guy, who's an adviser to the Kerry campaign. He knows this investigation is under way. Why doesn't he tell the campaign?

ARENA: Well, you know, I don't know. We haven't heard from him. Of course, we know some people in the White House were alerted to this, to the fact that there was an investigation. And that criminal investigation is still ongoing, although there hasn't been any determination whether or not to bring charges against him. I guess maybe he thought this would go away quietly. HINOJOSA: Well, Kelli, of course both of us were covering the release this week of the report by the commission investigating the 9/11 terrorism attacks. I was talking to the families of victims of the terror attacks about how they view the report.

We're back on that story in just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Maria Hinojosa is a CNN urban affairs correspondent. She won a Robert F. Kennedy Award and was twice named by Hispanic Business magazine as one of the most influential Latinos in the country. She's written two books.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, as family members, have been asked, "Do you think it could have been prevented?" We absolutely do. We think that the hints were there. The signs were there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: Bob Hughes (ph), whose son, Chris (ph), died in the September 11th attacks, reacting to the report released Thursday by the 9/11 commission. The report spread the blame around, proposed major reforms and the commission members pledged to keep on pushing for change.

Joining us now on this story, White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, from Texas.

Hey, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Hey, Maria.

You know, it seemed as if the initial reaction was that everybody was going to just let this lay low for a while. They said, Let's go ahead with the elections. We can't deal with this right away. And then there was just a surge of pressure. You have the Bush administration, the president, coming out with this task force, saying they're going to take a look at the recommendations. Congress says that it is not going to go on recess, or at least give up part of it, for these hearings and perhaps even legislation, by the end of October.

Now is this a push from the families? I mean, what -- how is their response? Did they think that the government was going to actually move on this? What is their hope for changes?

HINOJOSA: Well, I think that if the families had their way, there would not be a recess and they'd be moving on this immediately. I mean, you have to remember, these are people who have paid the highest price for what happened on September 11. So they don't think there should be any kind of relaxation at all. In fact, they continue to say, Look, these two parties have got to come together and do this now.

I mean, for me, I have to say that -- going back to the families now, almost three years later -- a lot of ways I feel like a lot of these families feel vindicated, that they were able to make this report happen. But at the same time, almost 3,000 people died on September 11. There were just about 20 family members there in Washington, D.C. because people can't afford to be going there don't have the time to be pushing these politicians. So for these families who are there, this is their focus and they want things done now and they're not going to give up.

WALLACE: Maria, you spent time with a number of families, including the Hugheses, who lost their son in the World Trade Center attacks.

I guess I'm questioning how they are feeling now, because the headlines of the New York tabloids were they haven't done anything. They let us down, meaning the government. Still, nothing has been done.

What was sentiment from the Hugheses and others about where we are three years later in terms of changes to try and keep America safe?

HINOJOSA: I mean, I think that they basically feel that there's been a real historical moment with this commission, that they themselves were able to push for this and make it happen.

I asked Bob Hughes -- I said, you know, you've seen so much, you've been -- I mean, so much of the political wrangling over September 11. You know, how do you keep on going and having faith that something's going to happen? And with tears in his eyes, he basically said, Look, if I don't have any faith if I entirely give up now, then what was my son's death all about? I have to do this.

It's almost like they have this very personal commitment. In this particular family, the Hughes family, because their son was an information addict. He needed to know everything. And so this family wakes up every morning and still scours all across Internet to find out anything related to September 11th, reads it all, and continues to do this, really for their son. This is the way they are, in a sense, continuing to mourn, and keep his spirit alive.

CROWLEY: Maria -- and I want to ask Kelli as well. You know, we've obviously been up here, involved in sort of other things. The only recommendation that I've heard that has sort of gotten out there is, OK, we need a superagency, a supercabinet position, to overlook intelligence, to bring it all together.

When you say get something done, what are the other main things? What else do they -- does this report say, "do this right now"?

HINOJOSA: Well, specifically in terms of the families, I think that they did come up with these recommendations. But for me, what I pick up from the families is, will these recommendations, which involve people in political positions giving up power, be prepared to do that?

And, again, when you're talking to family members who have given the lives of their children in this particular case, they're saying, you know, for political wrangling, because you don't want to give up your position on some congressional commission or whatever, you're not going to move forward? And they just say, You know what? This is not about politics.

So I think they'd like to see some particular movement where someone is going to be willing to give up their power that they have and that might be a show of force that they say, OK, well, we can see that at least some people are making movement here.

ARENA: Candy, within that recommendation to have this national intelligence director and then this National Intelligence Center, there's a lot of reform. I mean, you look at the detail in this commission report. It's pretty stunning. And what -- and what Maria alluded to is very, very true.

And what we're talking about is a shift in budget authority and a shift in appropriations, a complete changing of the committee structure in Congress. And -- I mean, for example, the CIA director would become a deputy to this national security intelligence director. So you have a great deal of reform and change.

And Maria's right. When you're talking about money, budget authority, that's when things get very messy here in Washington, as you know, a lot better than I do. And so a lot of issues over what the Defense Department, which controls 80 percent of the intelligence budget right now, because it has most of the intelligence agencies under its umbrella -- there's going to be giving up some power there.

So there is a real restructuring. This was a bold move by the commission to -- it sounds very easy. But when you look at that organizational chart and how things are reformed, this is a great deal of work that they're asking for.

MALVEAUX: Well, of course, the 9/11 commission's report and terrorism concerns, a big part of the Bush administration's concern, as well as the president's. But also President Bush, surprising the National Urban League just yesterday when he addressed them, when he said "I need your vote."

I'll be back on that story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: My opponent looks at all this progress and somehow concludes that the sky is falling. Whether their message is delivered with a frown or a grin, it's the same old pessimism.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MALVEAUX: President Bush on Tuesday in Missouri, hitting, of course, the other side very hard. While the Democrats are going to take the spotlight this week, President Bush (UNINTELLIGIBLE) going to be at that Crawford ranch.

But, of course, his surrogates are going to be out in full force as well as the vice president. They'll be campaigning, they'll be responding to some of the Democratic criticism, and the attacks they anticipate. And also, of course, they will be campaigning in full force.

I'm back on that story.

ARENA: Suzanne, the president chose to speak to the National Urban League, but not the NAACP. Why?

MALVEAUX: Well, last week, as you know, there was controversy. He said he wasn't speaking before the NAACP and their conference in Philadelphia. This is because the leadership of that organization criticized the president.

I talked to the president of the National Urban League, Marc Morial He said the reason the president spoke with that organization -- they asked in January -- that this is a bipartisan, nonpartisan group, that they have different tactics and approaches in dealing with the administration.

But he also agreed he felt that Mr. Bush should have spoken before the NAACP. He says they have a great deal of credibility. This is not a split, he says, in the civil rights movement, in family.. But at the same time, he says he was very pleased to get both sides, as you know, President Bush, and then the day before, his opponent, Kerry.

HINOJOSA: So Suzanne, you were watching this. Before we went on the show, you were saying that you yourself felt that there was a real moment here. I mean, you said that in fact you felt like Bush -- President Bush got a little props here from the audience because he was being quite honest.

But is this going to change anybody's vote?

MALVEAUX: Well, Maria, it really was an extraordinary moment. And yes, was there.

I kind of want to set this up for you here, because here the president went before the National Urban League. Very much it was a courteous, polite response from the audience. He tried to warm up the group. He acknowledged Jesse Jackson, who was in the audience. He made a little joke with Al Sharpton, saying, Eh, you know it's harder than you think to run for president.

Then he went through the laundry list, which was expected, of the administration's accomplishments, talking about home ownership, education, even listing the black officials in his administration. But really, it was about 40 minutes into his speech. That is when he woke up, the audience woke up. He said what so many people were just too polite to say, what everyone was thinking. His relationship with them and the Republicans' party -- their relationship with the black community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I'm here to ask for your vote.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: You know -- No, I know, I know, I know. Listen, Republican Party's got a lot of work to do. I understand that.

(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, it was that moment, afterward, really, about the last 15 minutes of his speech, that is when people were paying attention. They were responding. It was not the same old thing that they were expecting. He laid out this case, asking a number of provocative questions, saying, Why is it -- does the black community believe that they're taken for granted by the Democrats? Is there another approach? Consider my agenda.

This is something, of course, that a lot of people wanted to hear. But the political backdrop, as you know, is that 9 out of 10 of the black electorate voted for Gore back in 2000. Nine out of 10, polls show, are likely to vote for Kerry and Edwards.

CROWLEY: Suzanne, you know, what was the intended audience here? Sometimes, you know, white politicians tend to go into minority schools or go places as a signal to kind of swing voters. Look, I'm not a -- you know, I'm not a right-wing -- you know, I'm inclusive.

I mean, was George Bush's audience actually the black vote? Do they have hope for that? Or was this more about compassionate conservatism?

MALVEAUX: Well, actually, what this is, is it's a very -- it's a very carefully considered political calculation that the administration made. It is part of their strategy. And it really demonstrates how worried this campaign is about whether or not he is going to win this election.

It is very, very close. And with those poll numbers that I mentioned, it is not likely that he is going to change people's minds, or at least not many people's mind. But the political calculus here is that it's worth it if he can try, if he can shave off just a little bit from the black electorate, that perhaps that will tip the balance here.

But I talked to a lot of people after this speech, and the one that I kept hearing over and over, is they said, you know, this time, he did his homework. This time, he took appropriate tone. They felt that he was prepared, And they said they gave him props, essentially, for being courageous enough to go before that group. He did not go before the NAACP, and there were a lot of people in that audience that were also critical of his policies.

WALLACE: Suzanne, of course, we're here in rainy Boston, and we've been talking about the Democrats and their upcoming convention.

But what's the strategy for President Bush this week and the weeks in August as he tries to prevent John Kerry from getting a big bounce from this convention?

MALVEAUX: Well, Kelly, you're probably going to see them all over the place, on the convention floor, outside. These are a lot of folks that have come down from the staff, from the Bush campaign, and they are there to send out the e-mails, to pass out the fliers, to make their views known, to get on television here, to respond to what they believe are going to be the attacks coming from the Democratic side. They are not going to rest this week at all.

While President Bush is politely on the down low at the Crawford ranch, they are coming out in full force. Cheney as well is going to be going to some of those important, critical swing states, and he is going to be making the administration's pitch. The main pitch here, of course, is that they believe America is safer because of President Bush's leadership. They're also going to be talking about jobs; the economy is up. These are the two central themes of their campaign and they're not going to rest.

ARENA: Well, busy week for both sides.

We'll be back ON THE STORY right after this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: John Kerry's daughter Vanessa is taking the podium this week. What's her story? More when we return.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Vanessa Kerry -- what's her story? Along with sister Alexandra, Vanessa will speak Thursday at the Democratic National Convention. She says she wants everyone to know how great her father is.

VANESSA KERRY, JOHN KERRY'S DAUGHTER: This is just the beginning, and I'm very confident that this country is going to love what they see if they get to see anything what I've seen in my 27 years of having him as a father.

ANNOUNCER: The Harvard medical student has taken some time off from school to campaign for her father. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Thanks to my colleagues you see on the screen and to the wet and soggy ones behind the camera as well. And we thank you for watching ON THE STORY. We'll be back next week, and we'll be providing full coverage of the convention as it plays out over the coming days here in Boston.

Still ahead, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," focusing this week on Teresa Heinz Kerry and John Edwards.

Coming up, a check of what's making news now.

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Aired July 24, 2004 - 10:00   ET
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BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen. Now in the news:
President Bush says he'll assemble a task force to review the recommendations made by the 9/11 commission. Congressional leaders are also anxious to hear or at least start talking about that report. They're calling for unusual August sessions. A Washington official urged caution, though, saying the reforms are -- quote -- "not a race."

John Kerry's campaign trek to the Democratic National Convention takes him to battleground state of Iowa today. The soon-to-be Democratic nominee will take part in a rally in Sioux City. He arrives in Boston on Thursday.

In Iraq, negotiators are working furiously to free an Egyptian diplomat and seven truck drivers kidnapped by insurgents. Another person was kidnapped today in Baghdad. This time it was the head to a government-owned construction company.

And in Colorado, a critical development in the Kobe Bryant case and what's being called a huge victory for the defense. The judge ruled the accuser's sexual activity during the week of their encounter can be used in the trial.

Those are the stories for now. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

ON THE STORY begins right now.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN's ON THE STORY, where our journalists have the inside word on the stories we cover this week.

I'm Candy Crowley in Boston, with the countdown to the Democratic National Convention and how John Kerry's been prepping for this week all his life.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Suzanne Malveaux in Crawford, Texas. I'll be back later, ON THE STORY of the incumbent president, George Bush, avoiding one civil rights organization, but asking another for their vote.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kelly Wallace, ON THE STORY of the challenge for vice presidential candidate John Edwards here in Boston, and how former Democratic star Al Gore will be received.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jeanne Meserve, ON THE STORY of tight security here in the convention city and a warning of possible disruption by domestic groups.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kelli Arena in Washington, ON THE STORY of how a prominent Democrat and former national security adviser in the Clinton administration is in the middle of an investigation about missing documents.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Maria Hinojosa, ON THE STORY of the report from the 9/11 commission and how families of the victims of the terrorist attacks are reacting.

We'll be talking about all of these stories. E-mail us at ONTHESTORY@cnn.com.

Now, straight ahead to Candy in Boston and the Democratic National Convention.

CROWLEY: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, tossing a baseball this week. Right now, he's in the final windup to his big pitch next week to the convention here in Boston and to voters watching television.

I'm here in the Boston National Historical Park as the candidate, the city, and all the rest of us prepare for this important stop along the campaign trail.

MESERVE: Candy, apart from the weather -- and we'll try to get over talking about it -- but I've covered hurricanes; this is reminiscent of that.

John Kerry -- what does he need to do? We've got this incredibly competitive race between him and George Bush. Does he really think he can break out of the pack here?

CROWLEY: Well, I mean, he thinks he can begin to do it. I don't they'll say -- they will not say to you, Look, you know, we've got to come out 10 points ahead. We need a big Clinton bounce -- because he got a big one.

They're going to try to soften the edges of him. You know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) he's aloof, he's from the Northeast, he's cool, he's distant. So you see him starting this week, where he was born, in Aurora, Colorado. You know, so he goes to the hospital. So you're going to see a lot of, like, here's where I came from, here's where I'm about. So they're just trying to soften him up around the edges.

And what he's really appealing to are not those, you know, 48 percent of the voters that say, I'm voting for him for sure. It's that kind of 12 to 15 percent in the middle.

WALLACE: Candy, you have covered so many conventions, and you say it's often the candidate himself, the presidential candidate, who kind of defines the tone of the convention. Do you have any sense -- sort of the tone John Kerry is going to bring to this convention and how it will differ (ph) from others?

CROWLEY: Well, you know, every convention has its own special tone (UNINTELLIGIBLE). The wild card is you never quite know. Even though they sort of run these speeches through -- the Kerry campaign, through the DNC, through the convention committee, you never quite know what's going to happen.

But having said that, they very much want this happy, forward- looking, upbeat, positive, you know -- they got hit a lot on that Democratic fund-raiser they up in New York where some of the comedians and some of the singers really joined in a lot of Bush bashing. And Kerry took some heat for it. So they're -- it's kind of an interesting...

WALLACE: Don't expect Whoopi Goldberg be invited...

CROWLEY: No, Whoopi Goldberg will not be here, I don't think. She may be here, but I don't think she'll be a prime-time speaker.

But, you know, they're walking a fine line here because these people that are coming to this convention are the ones that want to hear -- you know, and Bush did this and Bush did that and he's terrible.

On the other hand, the audience, the listening audience, and the ones they want, are less interested in the partisan tone and are turned off by it. So it's a delicate balance, as always.

HINOJOSA: So Candy, I'm just wondering, you know you have -- I've heard from a lot of voters that say, "Well, we don't really quite know John Kerry".

And because you've done this so many years, Candy, give us a sense. Is this usually where we're at, where people across country still don't know the Democratic candidate and is this convention kind of the place where they can really learn about him, or that's just too much to ask?

CROWLEY: There's -- well, there's three big moments in any campaign if you're not the incumbent. That is, if you're not the person holding the office.

And that is first of all, your vice presidential pick -- done, John Edwards. Then the conventions -- that's coming up. And then the debates. Those are the three giant national moments where people can begin at least to get a sense of it.

Any campaign, if they aren't where they want to be, or if they're not -- you know, 10 points ahead, will say, Well, the reason is that they don't really know this candidate.

So of course that's what we're -- it's the one thing that at this point George bush can't claim. John Kerry still can. And so they believe that, you know, not enough people know that -- we're still here. A lot -- not enough people know that he was a Vietnam veteran and that he got all these medals. They don't know where he came from and that his dad was a diplomat.

So you're going to hear a lot of that. You're going to see daughters and you're going to see Teresa Heinz Kerry introducing him. So yes, they do want to begin to put that out, although it's a very -- again, very sort of narrow audience of people that haven't made up their minds at this point.

ARENA: Candy, you spent some personal time with the candidate, with his wife, with his closest, closest aides.

Give us a sense -- I mean, what -- what do you know that we may not know? What can you tell us? What insight can you share?

CROWLEY: Well, you know, it's -- I like the match-up, actually, of Teresa Heinz Kerry and John Kerry, because she is very much a kind of -- I guess in the '60s, '70s thing. It's sort of an Earth mother- type. She's, you know, very warm and she -- she wants to talk about, you know, microbiotic food and sunscreen and she's worried about his health.

And he's all kind of Mr. Policy. What we tried to do -- and we've got a "CNN PRESENTS" that comes up on Sunday -- is kind of get a look at the inner Kerry that you don't always see. And we asked both of them to try to kind of open that window for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: You know this man?

TERESA HEINZ KERRY, JOHN KERRY'S WIFE: Not enough. I mean, I've been married nine years. But, you know, we've had two Senate campaigns and now this campaign. I would like to get to know him a lot better.

CROWLEY (voice-over): In public, he can come across aloof, detached. Even in private, he can seem distant.

His campaign has worked to warm up that Northeastern patrician reserve. Vietnam War buddies help.

DAN PAYNE: The transformation was amazing. I mean, you could see it physically. He just looked different. He talked differently. And when they brought that veteran in, a guy he had pulled out of the drink and saved, it was really kind of like a revolution inside John Kerry.

CROWLEY: Mention his daughters, and the ice breaks.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a dad who even gets talked to about boyfriends, which is tricky stuff. I'm not sure I should have said that. They make -- I may be in trouble with that one.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CROWLEY: His daughters will be happy to know he didn't tell us what exactly he -- advice he gives to his daughters about boyfriends.

MESERVE: You know, he's portrayed as quite an ambitious guy. People say he's been angling for the presidency since he was a youth.

Did you get any feel for that issue?

CROWLEY: Well, I mean, look, his friends -- I mean, you know, there's this great moment when someone talks about how they used to kazoo "Hail to the Chief," you know, in the hallways at Yale, at St. Paul's in his elementary school that -- or in the prep school. That they thought, OK, this is a -- look, he was a serious child with serious interests.

And whether you think, Oh, he's always wanted to be president -- which by the way, he says, No, no. I mean, sure I was looking at politics. But I was looking at other things as well.

I mean, how you see John Kerry's ambition, and whether you see it as a bad thing or a good thing depends on whether or not you like John Kerry. I mean, Ted Kennedy says to us he's a very ambitious guy. He does not mean that as a pejorative.

So is he ambitious? Yes. IS that a good or bad thing? Well, look through the -- look through the prism because that's -- that's how people view (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WALLACE: Well, Candy, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) not just a challenge for John Kerry, as you know, but for his running made, too. Big challenge ahead. One of the most important speeches next week will be the one from John Edwards.

I'm back on that story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am completely loyal to John Kerry, period. And that includes now. It includes in the future. And I am 110 percent about -- Elizabeth and I, my wife and I both -- about making sure he's the next president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: John Edwards talking about loyalty in a recent interview I did with him not too long ago.

We are demonstrating our loyalty to CNN here in the rain.

But clearly, loyalty very, very important for a vice presidential candidate. Edwards facing some big expectations about his speech.

We are back ON THE STORY. Welcome back. CROWLEY: You know, Kelly, you were out there when the two of them were traveling together, right after the VP announcement. I was reminded, obviously, there was tension between them during the convention -- I mean, I'm sorry, during the primaries, especially the whole "he was still in diapers when I came back from Vietnam"

What do you sense -- we saw that hugging and touching and all that kind of stuff. What do you sense about that relationship?

WALLACE: We definitely knew there was tension, so much so that many of us that many were surprised he even picked John Edwards, of course.

But in the beginning, it also seemed like they were trying to overcompensate for the tension, hugging and touching. The late-night comedians were making -- having a field day with it.

But what you sense is they seem to make each other better. John Edwards -- you know, you did a whole piece on John Kerry -- seems to be loosening up John Kerry, making John Kerry feel a little more spontaneous, a little more touchy-feely.

And John Edwards, in his own way, talking about John Kerry, talking about his Vietnam experience, talking about foreign policy (UNINTELLIGIBLE), almost -- he seems to be doing a little better, a little more gravitas.

So, of course, his aides say each is helping the other. But just watching them, it does seem that it's working.

HINOJOSA: Kelly, I'm just wondering, after that interview that you had with John Edwards, was there anything that you yourself just said, "Wow, that was interesting"? Or was it all kind of predictable?

WALLACE: Well, you know, a couple things that were interesting.

Number one, we've tried to press him on this whole issue of his Iraq vote. He and John Kerry both voting to give President Bush the authority to go to war. They have both been asked repeatedly, Do they regret their vote? And they both kind of were dodging that question.

But clearly, they have been talking about it. And John Edwards said No, I don't regret the vote. I thought that President Bush should have had that authority. So it seems like he sort of moved along a little bit in that position.

And also, I guess, something else, Maria. He talked, I thought, candidly about the impact on his family. He says his wife, Elizabeth, is ready for this. His older daughter, Kate, she seems -- seems ready. But he expressed a little bit of concern about his youngest two, Emma Claire, who's 6. Jack is 4. He says Jack the spotlight, but he said Emma Claire is a little bit overwhelmed by all the cameras, all the attention.

So it seemed a candid moment. He was sort of just questioning how his youngest will handle this new role they're all going to have. ARENA: Kel, do you see at all a role for Edwards as the sort of traditional vice-president attack dog at all in this campaign?

WALLACE: Well, it was interesting, Kelli, because one of his first speeches he seemed to take on a little bit of that role. He was talking about how British Prime Minister Tony Blair was taking responsibility for faulty intelligence on Iraq. And he says that President bush, if he were a strong, courageous leader, he would take responsibility, too.

But that was really it. And we even asked him in our interview, "So are you going to be the hard-time attack dog?" And he said no, no, no, he's going to stick to his positive message. But he thinks he can contrast those differences between Kerry/Edwards and Bush/Cheney, but still continue to do it, in his view, in a very positive, optimistic way.

MESERVE: A lot of people are saying that John Edwards is auditioning for even bigger things ahead.

WALLACE: Oh, yes, they are.

MESERVE: How is he responding to that? And is he doing that?

WALLACE: Well, you know, it's interesting, because some people wondered, Did he make a deal with John Kerry about 2008, that if Kerry/Edwards is not victorious in November, did he tell John Kerry, "I won't run against you"?

We asked him that question. He sort of said -- we didn't talk about it. But then he said, I'm loyal. You heard that soundbyte. "I'm loyal to John Kerry now and in the future." So it seems like he's saying, not in 2008, but definitely 2012. Many think his speech here will be almost auditioning for this.

And it's very funny -- I want to share something, because during the primaries, at the end when John Edwards dropped out, Elizabeth Edwards kind of joked to the reporters. She said, "Guess what's the number of our hotel suite?" And we said, "What?" And she said, "2012."

So they're thinking ahead.

CROWLEY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), great segue, because I can't let this go by without mentioning Elizabeth Edwards. Any woman that has a child at 50 gets my mention at any point.

WALLACE: Two, 48 (ph) and 50, right?

CROWLEY: Forty-eight (ph) and 50.

She's kind of turned out to be an anti-star star.

WALLACE: That's (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

CROWLEY: You know, she's sort of like one of those people that you don't look and say, Oh, glamorous. Oh, but she's really been a hit, it seems like.

WALLACE: She has been -- one of our (ph) press aides say she's been the media darling. They can't put her enough places, she has so many requests. There's something so authentic about her, I think, as you say, that she is the anti-star star and the fact of her story, the fact that she says one of the things that she thinks that they can do -- they don't talk about their son Wade who was killed.

But they say that so many people look at their lives and people have been touched by laws, think that they can look at the Edwardses and look how they've sort of moved on, decided to have children, feel like that's bringing joy to their lives, and that people feel a real connection to them.

So she is, I think, going to be a real powerhouse. People respond to her on the campaign trail. And she will be introducing her husband Wednesday night, which should be a pretty powerful moment.

HINOJOSA: So Kelly, how do you think people are going to be reacting when they see former presidential candidate Al Gore at the Democratic National Convention?

Take us behind the scenes. What are the rumblings? Are people excited about this or are people saying, "Oh my gosh"? What are you hearing on the street?

WALLACE: Maria, that is such -- the big key question, because, you know, there's Al Gore. He was the star in 2000. And here he is going to be speaking on Monday night.

There's sort of two schools of thought. One is that just by having Al Gore there, he can really rally the base, particularly African-Americans who are so angry about 2000 and feel that perhaps some Democrats didn't really take it seriously enough. And just standing there, a question of what might have been.

But you also have Democrats who believe part of Al Gore's problem in 2000 was Al Gore himself. So there's a question. The thinking is, as long as Al Gore doesn't make the speech about Al Gore, that he makes it about John Kerry, contrasting with President Bush, than he will be well received and people will give him the applause for what he's done for the party.

MESERVE: Well, the politicians, the delegates, all of us are going to be surrounded by very tight security when the convention begins.

I'll be back on that story when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: Security is tightening at the convention hall on this glorious day in Boston in preparation for next week. The backdrop, of course, new concerns that terrorists have been planning a new strike and that such a large, high-profile event makes an attractive target.

Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

WALLACE: Jeanne, we heard you reporting a lot yesterday about a possible threat from a domestic group against the media covering this event.

What can you tell us about that?

MESERVE: Well, the FBI says it has unconfirmed information that a domestic group may try to disrupt the convention by launching an attack on media vehicles, with either explosives or incendiary devices.

Officials say what they're talking about are anarchist groups. We have seen anarchists before in this country. You'll remember the WTO meetings in 1999 in Seattle, which were -- there was a lot of damage and disruption. Some pitched battles (ph) with police.

But a Massachusetts official yesterday who I talked to said we really don't have to be that frightened or concerned here. Of course, the media should be taking some prudent precautions. I think most of us were planning on doing that anyway. No reason to chew your nails, however.

What was interesting about this story, though, is the way the information was disseminated. We've heard a lot in the run-up to this convention, about coordination, about information-sharing. And one would think that this would have put out rather seamlessly from the top to the bottom.

But it did not, though, I've seen of late. Some members of the local media were told by the local FBI office what was happening. But CNN, for instance, and the other networks, didn't get officially notified. Although we've done reporting on this, we had -- we knew what was coming, we knew what they were saying, there was no official notification, especially to security personnel, until the next day.

So it really raised questions about, is this the way it's supposed to happen? And if it's happening just days before a major national security special event, what does it say about information and how it's shared on a day-to-day basis in this country?

ARENA: Jeanne, there are obviously some protesters that will be there without the intention to do harm. But there's also some wrangling going on between where they should be and security issues.

Tell us what's going on, on that front.

MESERVE: Well, the most controversial area is this pen that's been set up across the street from the Fleet Center. You really have to see it to believe it. It's underneath an overpass. There are double layers of chain link fence on top of jersey barricades. Then there's a heavy, black netting on top of it. Then there's razor wire on top of the overpass.

I think the judge who came to take a tour of this the other day said it best. He said the things he'd read about it didn't do it justice, that to call it an incarceration camp was generous. He said that he thought this really was not conducive to the expression of free speech. However, he did not change the pen area. It is now as the police wanted it to be.

However, the protest groups are going to court once again in an effort to expand this, and have some other features there, that they would like to see, like literature tables and so forth. What they say is, We can't get to the delegates here. They may be able to hear us, but we can't pass them our literature to let them know what we're saying and how we feel about things.

CROWLEY: Jeanne -- and Kelli, too, because I know both of you have been working this story up here -- it is hard to tell when you're not involved in this story how -- where our level of concern should be.

What do you -- I know when you talk to some of these sources, they give you a sense of how uptight they are, how really worried. Where is their concern level?

MESERVE: Well, you know, I think, of course, there's been all this talk about planning, about preparation -- you know, the language has definitely gotten more intense over the last weeks and even over the next -- the last days, as Kelli will tell you in just a minute.

But the people I talked to about Boston say, We're concerned, of course. It's a big event. It's representative of the democratic process. But I don't detect real urgency here. They feel they've got a lot of security in place. They've hardened this target. Al Qaeda is not apt to go for a target that is this tightly protected.

So I think there's concern, yes. Are they chewing their nails and tearing their hair? I would say no.

Kelli, do you agree or disagree with that?

ARENA: No, I totally agree with you, Jeanne. And I think that we've heard so many times that, you know, terrorists strike when they're ready. And if there's a change in plan or a hardening of a target, sometimes that delays or disrupts the plan entirely.

Overall, though, there does seem to be more concern, because we heard from senior CIA officials this week who said that the -- this intelligence coming in has risen above the level of chatter, that there is credible and specific information from detainees who have recently been taken into custody and other sources, all pointing to a plan to attack the U.S. on a large scale. But not specific enough, still, to give us any time, or method, or location.

So overall -- you know, somebody said to me -- actually three terrorism experts said to me this week -- your chances personally of getting killed by a terrorist are less than your chances of getting hit by lightning. So individually, the concern -- you shouldn't be neurotic. But when you're dealing with the country and the chance of an attack, that's a different story. HINOJOSA: So I'm wondering, Jeanne, when you're talking to people in Boston -- hopefully you're not inside a pen and you can get out and actually talk to people. But when you're talking to them, is there a sense on the ground in Boston of "We're scared, we're border- line neurotic?" Or is it much more, everything's under control? And are you seeing anything new in terms of security in this first convention after September 11?

MESERVE: Well, certainly it's a different security than we saw at the conventions four years ago. There's a lot more intensity here. We're seeing a few more technologies. But a lot of this is stuff that they've done before at other high-profile events.

As to the people of Boston, you know, I think their degree of concern varies from one person to the next. I think what's really uniform here is fear of the disruption that this convention is going to cause. There's been a major exodus of people out of town, a lot of companies are telling people to take the week off. That's the thing that I hear the people of Boston talking about, much more than the security situation.

ARENA: Well, we've heard a phrase a lot, right? It's the "new normal," unfortunately.

Well, one bump in the campaign trail came from a Kerry adviser, now former adviser, Sandy Berger. We're back ON THE STORY of Berger and sneaking secrets after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen at the CNN global headquarters here in Atlanta.

In the news, another violent weekend in Iraq. A U.S. Marine dies of wounds suffered in the Al Anbar province. And in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official survives an assassination attempt, but his two bodyguards are gunned down. Kidnappers take at least two more hostages, and an oil pipeline bombed north of Baghdad.

In Turkey, a train official and two conductors have been arrested and charged with negligence in Thursday's derailment. Thirty-seven people were killed and 81 injured when the high-speed train left the rails in northwestern Turkey.

A security sweep got under way last night at the Fleet Center in Boston and it's continuing this morning. Super-tight security surrounds the site of the Democratic National Convention, which opens Monday. A major train station used by commuters has been shut down and eight fighter jets will patrol the skies over Boston.

Well, while the Democrats party, President Bush will be at his ranch in Texas. The president has created a task force to study the report of the 9/11 commission, and he talked about that report in his radio address today.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have already put into action many of the steps now recommended by the commission, and we will carefully examine all the commission's ideas on how we can improve our ongoing efforts to protect America and to prevent another attack.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The president also warned this morning that the danger to America has not passed.

And that's a look at stories making news this hour. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

Now it's back to ON THE STORY.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDY BERGER, FMR. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Last year, when I was in the archives, looking -- reviewing documents, I made an honest mistake. It is one that I deeply regret.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARENA: "Honest mistake," says former national security adviser in the Clinton administration, Sandy Berger, about taking secret documents from the national archives, apparently losing or destroying some later. And the political uproar forced Berger to quit as an adviser to presidential candidate John Kerry.

Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

HINOJOSA: So Kelly, I got to tell you: I'm hearing this stuff about Sandy Berger and I'm suddenly thinking, Gee, I suddenly feel like I'm back in Watergate and people stealing and breaking into offices.

I mean, what is Sandy Berger's motivation? Did he really do something wrong? Was he taking just his own notes or was he actually taking classified documents out? And do you believe this "I made an honest mistake"?

ARENA: Well, I'll tell you what he says. There are two issues here.

They're classified documents that he says he -- first of all, he was tasked to go through thousands of pages of documents. And so as he's doing this, he says he put some aside because they were longer. He knew he needed to give them more attention. And he says that he inadvertently included those in a leather binder that he had on table with him and took them out of the National Archives.

But then there's the issue of personal notes that he took from other documents while he was there -- sort of summaries and notes to himself. Those are notes that, according to Archive rules, are supposed to be cleared, just to make sure that no sensitive information was copied down. Those he put in his pockets and put in his jacket, knowingly, he says, and walked out of the Archives, not getting them cleared.

So in one instance he says he knew what he was doing. In the other instance, he says it was -- it was purely by accident. But then comes the question of, Well, what happened to those documents once they were taken to his home?

He was confronted. He says he returned many of the missing documents that he had, he says, inadvertently taken out. But there were some that were missing. He says he thinks, Well, they could have gotten thrown out. But there were no cameras in the Archive room, there were only Archive staff that observed him. So we will never know what happened to those documents.

CROWLEY: Kelli, let me -- you know, on one end of the spectrum, we have this innocent explanation -- you know, a bunch of paperwork. I folded up my, you know, folder and took it home, Yes, OK, I took notes, too.

What is the other end of the spectrum? The documents -- the secret documents that he took -- were those the only documents, or was that information available in some other place?

ARENA: Well, the information was actually quite available. Those documents had been draft forms, and so it had been handed out to several committees and agencies.

The 9/11 commission -- the bottom line is, when you ask the 9/11 commissioners did you see all the relevant documents, they say, Yes, they had. But these were documents that pertained to the Clinton administration's handling of the millennium terror plot in 2000. And of course, you know, Republicans will say -- some Republicans will argue, Well, this is information that he want to withhold, because his task there was to go through everything and to come to the table with whatever they thought was relevant for the commission to see.

And so the conspiracy theorists would say, Well, you know, here he was, he was dealing with original documents. He took them to keep something away from the commission. On -- the people that are supporting him say, Well, wait a minute. These were documents that had been distributed, you now, to some effect, and the 9/11 commission could get their hands on them in some other way. They didn't have to go to the Archives for these original copies.

MESERVE: Kelli, here's a guy, who's an adviser to the Kerry campaign. He knows this investigation is under way. Why doesn't he tell the campaign?

ARENA: Well, you know, I don't know. We haven't heard from him. Of course, we know some people in the White House were alerted to this, to the fact that there was an investigation. And that criminal investigation is still ongoing, although there hasn't been any determination whether or not to bring charges against him. I guess maybe he thought this would go away quietly. HINOJOSA: Well, Kelli, of course both of us were covering the release this week of the report by the commission investigating the 9/11 terrorism attacks. I was talking to the families of victims of the terror attacks about how they view the report.

We're back on that story in just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Maria Hinojosa is a CNN urban affairs correspondent. She won a Robert F. Kennedy Award and was twice named by Hispanic Business magazine as one of the most influential Latinos in the country. She's written two books.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, as family members, have been asked, "Do you think it could have been prevented?" We absolutely do. We think that the hints were there. The signs were there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: Bob Hughes (ph), whose son, Chris (ph), died in the September 11th attacks, reacting to the report released Thursday by the 9/11 commission. The report spread the blame around, proposed major reforms and the commission members pledged to keep on pushing for change.

Joining us now on this story, White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, from Texas.

Hey, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Hey, Maria.

You know, it seemed as if the initial reaction was that everybody was going to just let this lay low for a while. They said, Let's go ahead with the elections. We can't deal with this right away. And then there was just a surge of pressure. You have the Bush administration, the president, coming out with this task force, saying they're going to take a look at the recommendations. Congress says that it is not going to go on recess, or at least give up part of it, for these hearings and perhaps even legislation, by the end of October.

Now is this a push from the families? I mean, what -- how is their response? Did they think that the government was going to actually move on this? What is their hope for changes?

HINOJOSA: Well, I think that if the families had their way, there would not be a recess and they'd be moving on this immediately. I mean, you have to remember, these are people who have paid the highest price for what happened on September 11. So they don't think there should be any kind of relaxation at all. In fact, they continue to say, Look, these two parties have got to come together and do this now.

I mean, for me, I have to say that -- going back to the families now, almost three years later -- a lot of ways I feel like a lot of these families feel vindicated, that they were able to make this report happen. But at the same time, almost 3,000 people died on September 11. There were just about 20 family members there in Washington, D.C. because people can't afford to be going there don't have the time to be pushing these politicians. So for these families who are there, this is their focus and they want things done now and they're not going to give up.

WALLACE: Maria, you spent time with a number of families, including the Hugheses, who lost their son in the World Trade Center attacks.

I guess I'm questioning how they are feeling now, because the headlines of the New York tabloids were they haven't done anything. They let us down, meaning the government. Still, nothing has been done.

What was sentiment from the Hugheses and others about where we are three years later in terms of changes to try and keep America safe?

HINOJOSA: I mean, I think that they basically feel that there's been a real historical moment with this commission, that they themselves were able to push for this and make it happen.

I asked Bob Hughes -- I said, you know, you've seen so much, you've been -- I mean, so much of the political wrangling over September 11. You know, how do you keep on going and having faith that something's going to happen? And with tears in his eyes, he basically said, Look, if I don't have any faith if I entirely give up now, then what was my son's death all about? I have to do this.

It's almost like they have this very personal commitment. In this particular family, the Hughes family, because their son was an information addict. He needed to know everything. And so this family wakes up every morning and still scours all across Internet to find out anything related to September 11th, reads it all, and continues to do this, really for their son. This is the way they are, in a sense, continuing to mourn, and keep his spirit alive.

CROWLEY: Maria -- and I want to ask Kelli as well. You know, we've obviously been up here, involved in sort of other things. The only recommendation that I've heard that has sort of gotten out there is, OK, we need a superagency, a supercabinet position, to overlook intelligence, to bring it all together.

When you say get something done, what are the other main things? What else do they -- does this report say, "do this right now"?

HINOJOSA: Well, specifically in terms of the families, I think that they did come up with these recommendations. But for me, what I pick up from the families is, will these recommendations, which involve people in political positions giving up power, be prepared to do that?

And, again, when you're talking to family members who have given the lives of their children in this particular case, they're saying, you know, for political wrangling, because you don't want to give up your position on some congressional commission or whatever, you're not going to move forward? And they just say, You know what? This is not about politics.

So I think they'd like to see some particular movement where someone is going to be willing to give up their power that they have and that might be a show of force that they say, OK, well, we can see that at least some people are making movement here.

ARENA: Candy, within that recommendation to have this national intelligence director and then this National Intelligence Center, there's a lot of reform. I mean, you look at the detail in this commission report. It's pretty stunning. And what -- and what Maria alluded to is very, very true.

And what we're talking about is a shift in budget authority and a shift in appropriations, a complete changing of the committee structure in Congress. And -- I mean, for example, the CIA director would become a deputy to this national security intelligence director. So you have a great deal of reform and change.

And Maria's right. When you're talking about money, budget authority, that's when things get very messy here in Washington, as you know, a lot better than I do. And so a lot of issues over what the Defense Department, which controls 80 percent of the intelligence budget right now, because it has most of the intelligence agencies under its umbrella -- there's going to be giving up some power there.

So there is a real restructuring. This was a bold move by the commission to -- it sounds very easy. But when you look at that organizational chart and how things are reformed, this is a great deal of work that they're asking for.

MALVEAUX: Well, of course, the 9/11 commission's report and terrorism concerns, a big part of the Bush administration's concern, as well as the president's. But also President Bush, surprising the National Urban League just yesterday when he addressed them, when he said "I need your vote."

I'll be back on that story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: My opponent looks at all this progress and somehow concludes that the sky is falling. Whether their message is delivered with a frown or a grin, it's the same old pessimism.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MALVEAUX: President Bush on Tuesday in Missouri, hitting, of course, the other side very hard. While the Democrats are going to take the spotlight this week, President Bush (UNINTELLIGIBLE) going to be at that Crawford ranch.

But, of course, his surrogates are going to be out in full force as well as the vice president. They'll be campaigning, they'll be responding to some of the Democratic criticism, and the attacks they anticipate. And also, of course, they will be campaigning in full force.

I'm back on that story.

ARENA: Suzanne, the president chose to speak to the National Urban League, but not the NAACP. Why?

MALVEAUX: Well, last week, as you know, there was controversy. He said he wasn't speaking before the NAACP and their conference in Philadelphia. This is because the leadership of that organization criticized the president.

I talked to the president of the National Urban League, Marc Morial He said the reason the president spoke with that organization -- they asked in January -- that this is a bipartisan, nonpartisan group, that they have different tactics and approaches in dealing with the administration.

But he also agreed he felt that Mr. Bush should have spoken before the NAACP. He says they have a great deal of credibility. This is not a split, he says, in the civil rights movement, in family.. But at the same time, he says he was very pleased to get both sides, as you know, President Bush, and then the day before, his opponent, Kerry.

HINOJOSA: So Suzanne, you were watching this. Before we went on the show, you were saying that you yourself felt that there was a real moment here. I mean, you said that in fact you felt like Bush -- President Bush got a little props here from the audience because he was being quite honest.

But is this going to change anybody's vote?

MALVEAUX: Well, Maria, it really was an extraordinary moment. And yes, was there.

I kind of want to set this up for you here, because here the president went before the National Urban League. Very much it was a courteous, polite response from the audience. He tried to warm up the group. He acknowledged Jesse Jackson, who was in the audience. He made a little joke with Al Sharpton, saying, Eh, you know it's harder than you think to run for president.

Then he went through the laundry list, which was expected, of the administration's accomplishments, talking about home ownership, education, even listing the black officials in his administration. But really, it was about 40 minutes into his speech. That is when he woke up, the audience woke up. He said what so many people were just too polite to say, what everyone was thinking. His relationship with them and the Republicans' party -- their relationship with the black community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I'm here to ask for your vote.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: You know -- No, I know, I know, I know. Listen, Republican Party's got a lot of work to do. I understand that.

(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, it was that moment, afterward, really, about the last 15 minutes of his speech, that is when people were paying attention. They were responding. It was not the same old thing that they were expecting. He laid out this case, asking a number of provocative questions, saying, Why is it -- does the black community believe that they're taken for granted by the Democrats? Is there another approach? Consider my agenda.

This is something, of course, that a lot of people wanted to hear. But the political backdrop, as you know, is that 9 out of 10 of the black electorate voted for Gore back in 2000. Nine out of 10, polls show, are likely to vote for Kerry and Edwards.

CROWLEY: Suzanne, you know, what was the intended audience here? Sometimes, you know, white politicians tend to go into minority schools or go places as a signal to kind of swing voters. Look, I'm not a -- you know, I'm not a right-wing -- you know, I'm inclusive.

I mean, was George Bush's audience actually the black vote? Do they have hope for that? Or was this more about compassionate conservatism?

MALVEAUX: Well, actually, what this is, is it's a very -- it's a very carefully considered political calculation that the administration made. It is part of their strategy. And it really demonstrates how worried this campaign is about whether or not he is going to win this election.

It is very, very close. And with those poll numbers that I mentioned, it is not likely that he is going to change people's minds, or at least not many people's mind. But the political calculus here is that it's worth it if he can try, if he can shave off just a little bit from the black electorate, that perhaps that will tip the balance here.

But I talked to a lot of people after this speech, and the one that I kept hearing over and over, is they said, you know, this time, he did his homework. This time, he took appropriate tone. They felt that he was prepared, And they said they gave him props, essentially, for being courageous enough to go before that group. He did not go before the NAACP, and there were a lot of people in that audience that were also critical of his policies.

WALLACE: Suzanne, of course, we're here in rainy Boston, and we've been talking about the Democrats and their upcoming convention.

But what's the strategy for President Bush this week and the weeks in August as he tries to prevent John Kerry from getting a big bounce from this convention?

MALVEAUX: Well, Kelly, you're probably going to see them all over the place, on the convention floor, outside. These are a lot of folks that have come down from the staff, from the Bush campaign, and they are there to send out the e-mails, to pass out the fliers, to make their views known, to get on television here, to respond to what they believe are going to be the attacks coming from the Democratic side. They are not going to rest this week at all.

While President Bush is politely on the down low at the Crawford ranch, they are coming out in full force. Cheney as well is going to be going to some of those important, critical swing states, and he is going to be making the administration's pitch. The main pitch here, of course, is that they believe America is safer because of President Bush's leadership. They're also going to be talking about jobs; the economy is up. These are the two central themes of their campaign and they're not going to rest.

ARENA: Well, busy week for both sides.

We'll be back ON THE STORY right after this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: John Kerry's daughter Vanessa is taking the podium this week. What's her story? More when we return.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Vanessa Kerry -- what's her story? Along with sister Alexandra, Vanessa will speak Thursday at the Democratic National Convention. She says she wants everyone to know how great her father is.

VANESSA KERRY, JOHN KERRY'S DAUGHTER: This is just the beginning, and I'm very confident that this country is going to love what they see if they get to see anything what I've seen in my 27 years of having him as a father.

ANNOUNCER: The Harvard medical student has taken some time off from school to campaign for her father. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Thanks to my colleagues you see on the screen and to the wet and soggy ones behind the camera as well. And we thank you for watching ON THE STORY. We'll be back next week, and we'll be providing full coverage of the convention as it plays out over the coming days here in Boston.

Still ahead, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," focusing this week on Teresa Heinz Kerry and John Edwards.

Coming up, a check of what's making news now.

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