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On the Story

Blizzard Dumping Snow on Northeast U.S.; Stock Market Underperformed in January

Aired January 22, 2005 - 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.


TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now in the news, a howling blizzard is bearing down on the northeastern the United States. Winds at 50 miles an hour blowing as much as two feet of snow. The storm has buried parts of the Midwest and its new targets including Philadelphia, New York and Boston. The blizzard warning takes effect at noon eastern in New York. Let's get you to Rob Marciano now in the weather center for the latest. Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi Tony, not quite snowing in New York yet, but temperatures are definitely cold enough for snow, single digit numbers and they're prepping for it. Take a look at what's going on around New York City. They're definitely getting ready for it in the form of ice. They're going to need it, with temperatures not even getting close to freezing, so hardware stores and grocery stores probably starting to see the shelves empty out as they prepare for what's going to be the worst storm, snow storm this season for sure.

Over in Pittsburgh, same deal going on. Although the snows have begun to fall, you can see that there, road crews getting ready to try to tackle this storm as it moves across the entire Ohio River valley and across the Allegheny plateau as well. A live shot for you of Cleveland, Ohio, where the snows are beginning to fall there. That's at least tape. There are some live pictures for you. Cleveland could easily see a foot of snow.

All right. Here's the latest radar imagery for you, not snowing across northeast. The I-95 corridor yet, but this snow beginning to make its way over that way, Pittsburgh and Cleveland seeing already a half of foot of snow on the ground in Chicago, likely we'll see a little bit more as the day progresses. Detroit seeing some snow as well and then a mix across the Ohio River valley.

Here's how this storm is going to progress from just south of Chicago. Snow totals 6 to 12 inches. That would include just south of Detroit to Cleveland, a mix right in through here. That's kind of nasty. Then you go over the Appalachians and into the Atlantic Ocean where temperatures there on the water a little bit warmer. Late tonight, tomorrow morning the winds increase. The snows increase from Philly to New York. Boston could see two feet of snow and winds over 35 miles an hour. That would make for blizzard conditions. And they have a blizzard warning up through tomorrow afternoon. That doesn't happen very often. We'll keep you posted throughout the afternoon and through the rest of the morning. Tony, back to you.

HARRIS: OK, Rob. Thank you. I'm Tony Harris. CNN's ON THE STORY starts right now.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR, ON THE STORY: Welcome to CNN's ON THE STORY where our journalists have the inside word on the stories we've covered this week. I'm Suzanne Malveaux on the story of the inauguration, the speech and the message sent around the world.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR, ON THE STORY: I'm Andrea Koppel on the story of tough questions from senators this week to Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice.

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN ANCHOR, ON THE STORY: And I'm Kathleen Hays on the story of new evidence that the economy keeps growing as stocks keep falling. We'll go to Iraq where CNN's Jane Arraf is on the story of people there trying to make sense of the U.S. election and their own. We'll go to Saudi Arabia and CNN's Zain Verjee where Muslims are making their pilgrimage to Mecca.

And we'll talk about Harvard President Larry Summers and the fierce debate he stirred up over whether women are really suited for math and science. E-mail us at onthestory@cnn.com. Now straight to Suzanne and the inaugural address.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: President Bush Thursday, high noon, freshly sworn in, launching his administration for another four years and using his inaugural address to talk about what he sees as the U.S. role in the world, promising that the U.S. will stand with those seeking freedom. It was a big, bold message, a lot of reaction.

KOPPEL: And, obviously, the first inauguration since 9/11. Security, I can speak as somebody who was driving through it in Washington, was about as tight as we've ever seen it. What was it like behind the scenes?

MALVEAUX: It was a pain.

HAYS: It was a pain. At the conventions, we already went through this.

MALVEAUX: I know. I should have stayed at a hotel downtown. I did not drive in that morning because I got in, you had to get in before 4:00 in the morning at the north west gate. And it was absolutely amazing to see because you had this perimeter, blocks and blocks and blocks around the White House. You would not recognize downtown Washington, all of the barricades outside, people just milling around, walking around, kind of like a ghost town outside. Inside, people with their passes their tickets, security, I mean it was absolutely amazing. You saw the ceremony where the president is encased, literally encased in his glass beautiful structure, but nevertheless kind of uncomfortable. You see the shots. You see a very intimate look of the president watching the parade and at the same time you realize that this year for the first time, he is completely inaccessible to the public and that is absolutely because of security concerns.

HAYS: Pretty striking though, when he walks down the road along with Laura and all those Secret Service men around them, all the men in black, Laura Bush in her white outfit. It was -- I couldn't help but think, wow.

MALVEAUX: There was a lot of concern about that, too. And you noticed how many people -- there was a certain sense of tension and four years ago, what happened when he had to run because people were throwing things. But there was definitely a lot of tension.

KOPPEL: What can you tell us about the speech? Obviously, the broad themes of freedom and liberty. How much involvement did the president have in crafting the theme?

MALVEAUX: So this was a 22nd draft that he was actually reading from so there was a lot of work that was involved, a lot of practice in the family theater and a big to-do about the message. Now the message, I mean it got a lot of attention here because he's talking about, I'm going to fight tyranny around the world, and even, you know, Reagan's former speechwriter Peggy Noonan said, this is kind of creepy. I mean what are they talking about?

It seems like they are going to go in and perhaps North Korea or Iran are next. Bush aides who I talk to, senior administration officials are saying well, look, this is a continuation of our policy, of our practices. This is a pragmatic White House. They realize they are not going to change countries that are institutions overnight. But at the same time, they were very cautious, I should say, about keeping the military option open when it comes to Iran. But they say that was not necessarily the primary message.

KOPPEL: And yet he didn't mention Iraq once. We know that he alluded to it. But why didn't he mention it?

MALVEAUX: And you know what they say, they say well, look. You know, this is a big speech, and Iraq is a part of this big idea that we're spreading democracy. One of the thinking here among some Bush aides will tell you privately is, look. This is a way of kind of reframing the invasion of Iraq. There are no weapons of mass destruction. The administration has been doing this for months now, where they say, well, this is a humanitarian effort. This is really kind of a looking forward, framing it in that way, telling the world, look, this invasion, so there are no weapons of mass destruction. We're doing good anyway. We'll do good in other parts of the country. I mean it's a reaching out. It's perhaps trying to reframe that argument. HAYS: But certainly a lot of the dust that was kicked up was this sense of fighting tyranny would mean actually going in as we did in Iraq, preemptively because now they are saying, it wasn't because of weapons of mass destruction. It was because we had to liberate the Iraqi people. There's lots of oppressed people in the world. One of the critiques I read of the president's speech this week was is he suggesting that they are actually going to go into powers like China, which many would say oppressed the Tibetans or Russia where there are questions about the treating of Chechnya or they just may be talking about little powers that they could easily go and kick the door open if they want to?

MALVEAUX: That's a very good point too because look at countries like Saudi Arabia, like Egypt, Uzbekistan, Pakistan. I mean these are all the countries that the United States has a very close relationship with and in the war on terror. And at the same time, complaints anti- democratic measures, human rights abuses, all of those things. And it's true. I mean, when you look at -- and it's going to be a critical test to see next month when President Bush goes to Europe and he's going to be sitting down with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. Is he going to come out and publicly chastise him and say, look here's what you need to do to bring about democratic reforms. We doubt that's going to happen. Maybe privately he'll be trying to nudge him but you bring up a very good point. I mean you're not necessarily going to see everyone treated evenly.

KOPPEL: Well, there may have been no mention of Iraq by name in the inaugural speech, but the looming election there is certainly part of the message the president wanted to send. We'll have CNN's Jane Arraf will be back on the story from Iraq right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. MIKE MURRAY: I think it's a sign of what we said all along, is that they will do anything they can to prevent these very important elections from happening as we get towards the end of the month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That was commander of the 3rd brigade, 1st cavalry division, Colonel Mike Murray talking about how insurgents are preparing for the elections in Iraq. Welcome back. I'm Jane Arraf on the story in Falluja.

MALVEAUX: Jane, you have just arrived. You are back in Iraq. I know it's been some time since you've been there. Tell us what it is like, the upcoming elections in about a week or so. What are you seeing? What are you feeling? What is it like there knowing that that is going to happen. It's right around the corner. Is it tense? Are people excited?

ARRAF: You know, we're battling a rainstorm here, which is awfully noisy. I'm not sure if this audio is going through. If it is, I think you just asked about the elections. We're going to try to sort out that audio.

MALVEAUX: Jane, we can hear you. Until we get Jane's audio sorted out, I think we can talk a little bit about what's happening here in the United States. There are five polling places that have been set up in this country alone. The United States is one of 14 countries around the world that is going to have elections for Iraqi expatriates. I was just out at the facility here for the northeast in New Carrollton, Virginia, where actually I have to say I spent almost the entire day there, and people are allowed to register for elections until today. And it wasn't like throngs of people were showing up, but nevertheless, you did see people coming from -- there was a three- car caravan that came from Pennsylvania, three families, all different ages. The parents had lived in Iraq. Some of their children had never lived in Iraq. They were going to be voting if they were over the age of 18. They are allowed to cast their ballots. But believe it or not, they have to register and then they have to come back next week to vote.

HAYS: Who are these people? When did they leave Iraq, under what circumstances? Are they Shias? Are they Sunnis?

KOPPEL: They are all of the above Kathleen. Some of them, I met a couple of men who had - they lived in the south of Iraq where most of the Shia live and they had risen up against Saddam back in 1991 when they thought -- when George Herbert Walker Bush, had sent the message, they thought that the U.S. would support them if they rose up against Saddam. He didn't. They ended up having to flee. They became refugees and eventually settled in the United States.

There was one Kurdish man I met, a Kurdish-American who was actually driving a shuttle car to go and pick up Kurdish-American voters who perhaps didn't want to go to vote. But he was going to help them get to the polls because they viewed this -- they view this election as being so important for Kurdistan in the north of Iraq.

There were others. In fact, I met a couple of young guys, one of whom was born in this country, had lived in Iraq briefly. He wasn't sure if he was going to vote. He was a Sunni. As you know and Jane who was in the northern, who is in the Sunni triangle right now in Falluja, there are a lot of problems in four of 18 of Iraq's provinces and whether or not people actually are going to have the security they need to go to the polls and vote. Other Sunnis saying maybe they don't want to vote because they believe that the Shia are going to dominate the national parliament.

MALVEAUX: How legitimate do they really think the elections are, I mean because there are so many complaints about the fact that people are not going to be voting in certain parts of the country. I mean they are going to cast their ballots. Do they feel like this is really going to be a legitimate election? Here is our leader? This is not someone who is like hand-picked by the U.S. administration.

KOPPEL: Well, first of all you have to explain what this election is about. This is a national assembly that's really only going to be around for one year. And its mandate is, it's a 275-member parliament, essentially. Its mandate is to write the constitution. There's going to be another election at the end of this year supposedly in December of 2005 to elect what's going to be a much more permanent government that will run for the next several years.

But in point of fact, it depends who you talk to. The Shia, who are the majority party in Iraq, 60 percent-plus, say absolutely this is going to be a legitimate election and we're very happy with the way things are, thank you very much. When you talk to many of the Sunni, you hear them say a very different story because they feel that because of security arrangements, some of them are saying for a variety of other reasons, they don't feel that it's going to represent their point of view within the parliament.

HAYS: You've had a busy week. You were on all kinds of stories. And, in fact, we are going to come back with the Condi Rice confirmation hearing, Andrea Koppel all over that. We're ON THE STORY after this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrea Koppel is CNN's State Department correspondent. She joined CNN in 1993. She's a former CNN Beijing bureau chief and Tokyo correspondent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D) CALIF.: I personally believe, this is my personal view, that your loyalty to the mission you were given to sell this war overwhelmed your respect for the truth.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: I have to say that I have never, ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: California Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, going after Condoleezza Rice, the president's friend, close adviser and the woman expected to be the next secretary of state. Boxer was only one of two senators, the other was John Kerry, to vote against Rice in the Foreign Affairs Committee. In the end, she sailed ahead to a certain extent, but we'll discuss that in a minute. Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

HAYS: Things got feisty. Things got tense, but I don't think Condoleezza Rice, chosen by President Bush, who just won by a clear majority would ever, ever, ever got the surprise that she got this week.

KOPPEL: She did. I mean there were some really tense moments there. And I think the sound byte that we just played, the exchange between her and Barbara Boxer is the one that most people will remember from this. It was an electric moment there in the Senate. I think the 11th hour surprise in all of this is that even though she did basically sail through the Foreign Relations Committee, when she got to the full Senate, the expected -- it was supposed to be a quick vote. She was supposed to be confirmed in time for the inauguration and that her first day in the State Department, State Department employees were notified saying be in the lobby on Friday morning because your new secretary of state will be here. Guess what? She's still wearing her old hat and the man who said a fairly emotional farewell, Secretary of State Colin Powell, who thought he was going to be fixing his Volkswagens in his garage is actually going to be heading off today for the Ukraine to represent the United States as secretary of state at the inauguration of another president, this one of Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko.

MALVEAUX: So what does this mean? I mean obviously the transition is awkward. She will be confirmed this coming week?

KOPPEL: Yes, she will. What's going to happen, is this was really more a poke in the eye by Senators Boxer and Robert Byrd of West Virginia who were frustrated but even though Byrd is not a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as a Democrat, in solidarity with other Democrats who felt for four years they put up with a lot of baloney and a lot of miscommunication and what they believe was deliberately misleading the American people, on the war in Iraq in particular, that this was a way to just say, the heck with you, George Bush. You may be spending the next four years in the White House, but we're going to cause more of a symbolic point here and we're not going to confirm your secretary of state. We'll do it next week. She's expected to be in office by the end of the week.

HAYS: Let's get to the substance this because the critics during the hearings and subsequently on talk shows afterwards, the Democrats said, look, here's what we don't see from Condi Rice that we want to see. We are afraid that she will continue to be the condenser, the distiller of a lot of opinions coming from the White House and that will be foreign policy and not someone who goes to the State Department, works with the professionals there, works with the civil servants who have been there for years, listens to them and formulates a policy that way.

KOPPEL: Certainly and people were watching this hearing looking at clues as to whether Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state would be different from Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser. All told, she got fairly mediocre grades as national security adviser, as somebody who didn't really try to sway the president in one direction or another, but rather saw herself as kind of the power briefer. This is what Cheney is saying. This is what Rumsfeld is saying. This is what Powell is saying. Now you decide, Mr. President.

For most of those I've spoken with, they say Condoleezza Rice is -- she's a student of real politic. She is someone who, let's look at the choices she's made for her top deputies as a clue. She's picked Robert Zelleck. He was trade representative, someone who's seen as a Europeanist, also as a pragmatist. The second aide, Nicholas Burns, who comes - he's the U.S. ambassador to NATO. He's also long-time foreign servant. He's somebody who has worked within the State Department also for years, another pragmatist. She didn't choose the hardliners, the other people who think of like minds with Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld.

They also say that you are where you sit. And it's difficult when you have a constituency of one, that is the president, very different when you have a constituency of thousands within the State Department. And the hope is that over time and actually sitting across from those other foreign leaders, when she's hearing it directly from them time and again and she only had a few diplomatic missions as national security adviser, that she will begin to see more of the big picture. That is the hope of many.

MALVEAUX: But how do you (INAUDIBLE) that she's going to be received overseas. Because obviously, I mean there was a certain sense that if you are talking to Secretary Powell, you are not necessarily talking to President Bush, where those leaders say, look, if you are talking to Condi Rice, you directly have an ear to the administration. Do you get a sense that they are excited about her coming?

KOPPEL: I'll give you an example. June of 2003, Condoleezza Rice in one of her rare overseas missions went to Jerusalem, met with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, also met with the Palestinian prime minister at the time. She got a power point presentation from the Palestinians on the routing of this concrete barrier that the Israelis were building between Israel and the Palestinian territories. She saw that in one instance, this concrete barrier was going to go through a field, a soccer field at the Palestinian University. As a former provost of Stanford University she was outraged. She said, how can this be really about security when you are cutting off kids. She went back, spoke to an Israeli diplomat. She gave a very forceful defense that this barrier should not go through the field. It wasn't. Speaks very much to what you said, Suzanne. If Condoleezza Rice says it, it's coming from the president, you listen. If it was coming from Powell, chances are it wasn't.

HAYS: Interesting how she handles the details versus how she handles the big picture is going to be a big question in the next four years.

Now we're going from diplomacy to finance. I'll be back on the story of what rattled the stock market this week.

Also coming up, CNN's Zain Verjee is on the story of Muslims making their pilgrimage to Mecca.

And was Harvard's president putting down women or just provoking debate over women and science? All coming up, plus a check on the headlines after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. We are tracking a major winter storm for you this morning. In just a bit, ON THE STORY is going live to New York where people are battening down the hatches. The midwinter storm blew out of Canada and is icing down the Midwest and dropping temperatures and lots of snow across several states in the northeast. Blizzard warnings go into effect at noon Eastern in New York City and

HARRIS: And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

We are tracking a major winter storm for you this morning. In just a bit, ON THE STORY is going live to New York, where people are battening down the hatches. The midwinter storm blew out of Canada, and is icing down the Midwest and dropping temperatures and lots of snow across several states in the Northeast. Blizzard warnings go into effect at noon Eastern in New York City, and at 5:00 local time in Boston and other parts of New England.

CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is tracking the storm for us -- Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Tony.

Here are those warnings that you mentioned. The red just winter storm warnings. And the white blizzard warnings, meaning winds gusting over 35 miles an hour. Visibility is down to a quarter mile, and heavy snow associated with that as well. Not snowing heavily yet, but the snow is on the way, on the march up the I-95 corridor. This storm is rapidly approaching, and then once it gets to the Atlantic Ocean will strengthen even further and pick up more moisture.

Snow still a factor in Chicago, probably off the lake later on today. The lower half of Michigan, eastern Ohio, the Ohio River Valley has seen significant problems with ice. But the heavier snows are going to be in the major metro areas.

New York, 14 to 20 possible. Boston, 18 to 24 inches by tomorrow night. Philadelphia, 10 to 15 inches of snow likely. And Baltimore and D.C. getting into the act as well, with 8 to 10 inches of snow likely. And that on top of bitterly cold air.

This isn't just 20 or 30-degree temperature. These are single digit and teens for daytime temperatures. Couple that with the wind, dangerous wind-chills. We'll keep you updated throughout the rest of the morning and the afternoon and this weekend.

Tony, back over to you.

HARRIS: OK. Another update at the top of the hour. I'm Tony Harris. Now back to ON THE STORY.

MALVEAUX: Welcome back to ON THE STORY, where wide areas of the U.S. now in a deep freeze. That big storm clobbered the upper Midwest and is now racing east.

CNN's Alina Cho is in New York ON THE STORY.

Alina, we understand that, of course, Mayor Bloomberg just had a press conference about all this. We just heard Rob, who said there was going to be like 20 inches of snow. Is that possible? Is that true? What are you hearing?

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, I know you are planning to come up here.

MALVEAUX: I was.

CHO: Wait until Monday morning. Yes, I mean, from -- by all accounts, the local forecast and Rob Marciano, of course, our resident expert, 14 to 20 inches in the city from noon today until noon tomorrow. It has not started snowing yet, as you can see there, as we take a live picture of the city, and parts of Central Park there in the middle.

I will be in the thick of it tomorrow morning. But I can tell you in the meantime that, yes, the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, did hold a news conference today. He said the city has been planning for this for the past couple of days, got an early warning.

There will be 2,500 sanitation workers working on two 12-hour shifts, 1,800 pieces of equipment, including salt trucks, snow plows and snow melters. Now, these machines actually drive around the streets and melt the snow into water, which then goes down into the drains.

Now, remember that the city has 6,300 miles of streets and highways. And the mayor said that by Monday morning, hopefully by 5:00 a.m., he hopes that every street will have been plowed at least once.

Now, as for the cost, conventional wisdom is about a million dollars an inch. The mayor says he will take care of the city, whatever the cost, and worry about the money spent on Monday morning.

MALVEAUX: And Alina, how disruptive do you think is this going to be? And how are you going to spend the rest of the day? I imagine you're going to be grocery shopping and hunkering down?

CHO: Well, yes. I have been grocery shopping. I went to the grocery store last night, shockingly. And unbelievably, I have never seen it -- in my eight years here in New York City, I've never seen it like this.

The check-out lines were snaked around the store. And for New Yorkers, you know, the big deal is deliveries. And they were saying they could not guarantee deliveries.

This is a big deal. You know, the Home Depots are -- are very busy, the hardware stores. People are buying up snow shovels and it's a big deal. This is the biggest storm of the season, and a classic nor'easter.

MALVEAUX: Well, Alina, good luck to you. I guess we're going to have to grocery shop on this end. I've got a bottle of wine and a jar of mustard in my fridge. So I have a big job ahead of me. I need to get a snow plow as well.

And coming up, of course, Kathleen Hays talking about the economy next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear and make our society more prosperous and just and equal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYS: Polished phrases from the president after taking the oath Thursday and giving another indirect nudge to what he likes to call an ownership society, with more responsibility on the individual less on government.

Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

KOPPEL: So that's just more code for Social Security. And, of course, the White House is saying that within the next 50 years, Social Security is going to run out. HAYS: Well, without getting into the numbers, because definitely Social Security is going to be financially unsustainable. If we can use less charged words, everyone would agree on that. The fixes, though, are very controversial. The president still pushing for personal accounts.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely.

HAYS: That's one of his three basic principals. But already it's so interesting. Other Republicans are saying, ooh, ooh, we don't know if we want to follow our fearless leader down that track...

MALVEAUX: Very cautious.

HAYS: And kind of sending messages back. Bill Thomas, head of the House Ways and Means Committee, a very powerful Republican, saying, hold on, you know, maybe we shouldn't just throw out this Social Security reform proposal. Maybe we should do tax reform, Social Security reform all at once. And I think they really want to test the waters. I think there's a lot of Republicans are nervous about this.

MALVEAUX: It's a really tough sell for the White House. And I just want to ask, how is Wall Street reacting to this? How -- what are we seeing in the stock market now?

HAYS: Well, let me just say, long term, Wall Street is licking its chops on personal accounts, because they're hoping that this would be set up in such a way that people will be able to start investing in the stock market. More money from people maybe who wouldn't have been able to afford to invest otherwise, because now they can take part of the Social Security money and put it in stocks.

So I think a lot of -- a lot of brokerage firms say big bonanza. But they don't want to make too much noise about that. Near term, though, I think what's interesting, when you think about putting your retirement future in the market, the market, starting this year, 2005, on a shaky footing.

KOPPEL: Well, one example would be eBay. The forecasts were way off.

HAYS: Well, you know, and I must say, sometimes Wall Street confounds everybody. But you have to put it in context.

Actually, eBay's earnings are growing very well. They are a booming company. They're trying to expand in China.

But you know what? The estimates on Wall Street were higher. And eBay didn't -- it fell short. Just a bit of the estimates.

And the theme right now is earnings are pretty good. But people are saying they're not quite as good as they were for many companies. And the stock market, you know, had one great year in 2003, a decent year in 2004, particularly at the end. And now people are saying, what are you going to give me now? What's the raw meat I'm going to be fed as a market to keep moving higher?

And there's so many problems in front of it. Or obstacles, anyway: rising interest rates, rising energy prices, the fact that earnings are slowing down a bit.

So right now people are saying, gee, what's going on? Is this what they call a correction, the market moved up, now it's got to consolidate? Or is there just not going to be enough oomph, enough new momentum to keep the market moving ahead? And that's a big question.

Again, January considered an indicator for the year. January, so far, all the major indices down. So this is something to be watching carefully.

KOPPEL: Let's talk about what for me, at least, is a very scary idea. Airbus building the largest plane to date. Over 500 seats. Why?

HAYS: Because they think this is the future of air travel. Air travel is increasing. More and more people are traveling.

The airports can only take so many planes landing at a time. You can only build so many airports. You can only add so many, you know, runways. So they figure, look at this, a bar. There's going to be bedrooms in first class where you can sleep.

MALVEAUX: It's a flying hotel.

HAYS: It is. And you can have a little foot stool. You can have a meeting in there. It's amazing.

MALVEAUX: It puts Air Force One to shame.

HAYS: Indeed. Well, maybe -- maybe President Bush -- I take that back. There's no way he would order one of these because I think there's such a competition between Airbus and Boeing.

Airbus has nudged Boeing out as the number one maker of airplanes. There's all these flights about subsidies because Airbus gets subsidized. Boeing gets contracts from the government. They go back and forth.

But Boeing is not building a big huge Airbus-type plane. It's building a dream-liner. It seats 250 people. Because the future of airlines they see in the United States is people want flexibility.

You are going to have to fly into -- in between small cities. You want to go a lot of different places. You want to carry fewer people more places. And that's what they are betting on. At a time, though, when U.S. airlines are just having a very tough time.

MALVEAUX: Well, that's what I was going to ask. Is it a reflection of the fact that the airline industry is going so bad, it's not doing well at all? HAYS: Well, I think this is -- I think this is a -- what makes it tough for these -- maybe for these big airline makers, these airplane makers, the fact that we had Delta Airlines -- I mean, this is an old story, right? It just goes from bad to worse it seems.

Delta reported fourth quarter earnings, and the loss was three times as big as people expected. Every major airline that reported this week, including Southwest, which has been the successful discount carrier, had its earnings fall so much more than others. And the number one thing is high fuel cost.

And that's something no government can tame. They are at the mercy of this.

Also, many airlines trying to cut wage costs. United Airlines got another 12 percent pay cut out of its pilots. I think one of the most amazing statistics I read this week was right now the senior pilots flying the biggest jets make $178 an hour. The junior pilots coming in across all the flights are making something an average of $31 an hour.

So you can just see how this industry is being squeezed and squeezed and squeezed. We get the benefit now in cheaper tickets. The question is, what kind of industry? What kind of travel potential lies ahead if these big carriers are going out of business?

MALVEAUX: All good questions.

And from money to religion, we're back on that story in a moment with CNN's Zain Verjee in Mecca.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel that this is our duty. And, on top of that, it's our honor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: That was Rashad Hussein (ph), was a civil engineer in Saudi Arabia, making the Hajj. We're going to go to that in just a moment. We're having a few technical difficulties. Hope you'll -- will roll with the punches here.

Instead, we are going to talk about the inauguration, some of the fun behind the scenes, the nine different...

HAYS: Clothes! Beautiful.

KOPPEL: The clothes? OK.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely. The dresses, suits.

HAYS: Man oh man, compared to four years ago, I mean, she looked like nice. But she looked like a middle-aged lady from Texas. I'm telling you, Laura, the whole thing, the shape, the hair, the clothes everything.

MALVEAUX: And -- but there was a little -- you know, people were slightly bent out of shape, the ones from Texas, because she had a Texas designer four years ago. OK, she's moved up a little bit here. But they said, you know, what is this, a slap to Texas?

But, you know, those designers, you can't beat them. I mean, it was just beautiful.

KOPPEL: Suzanne, I was starting to say there were nine balls, and the president and Laura made it to all nine of them. But what is the importance, you know, going behind the scenes, as to why there are so many balls and why the president and the first lady make a point of going to all of them?

MALVEAUX: Well, it's grown. But also, I mean, it's just really just saying thanks to all of these contributors, all these people who have a lot of money. They give a lot of money. This is their chance.

You know, people buy these tickets. They are invited. Very exclusive, by the way.

I mean, you have now very different because of security, these little places they set up so that this is your little public space. And it's very exclusive. So this is just a way to say, thank you, let's get dressed up, let's have a good time.

And, you know, it was controversial. You know, $40 million. Very controversial.

Should they have toned it town down? They said absolutely not. You know, this is for our troops and it's also for big-time supporters.

HAYS: Didn't the polls show that something like 75 percent of the people in the country or 70 percent or something thought they should have toned it down more?

KOPPEL: Right. Well, now we have fixed our technical difficulties with Zain Verjee, who is our international correspondent, who is herself a Muslim and went to Mecca to report on the Hajj, which is the holiest -- one of the holiest pilgrimages that any Muslim can make. And she is joining us now by phone.

Zain, what has the experience been like?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. It's been amazing, although today we had technical difficulties, as you've said. There's an incredible sandstorm this afternoon.

It went almost pitch dark about 300 p.m. It was raining mud. There were floods all over Mecca. And this was the day pilgrims were leaving. So the traffic outside is absolutely awful.

What was the experience like overall? It was amazing. This is the spiritual climax of the life of any Muslim. They are expected to come here at least once in their life and make this Hajj pilgrimage. They undertake a symbolic bunch of rituals over a period of a few days.

You know, I talked to people. They were just moved by seeing the kaba (ph), the black cube-like structure that sits in the middle of the grand mosque. There were tears. It was very emotional.

People were amazed, they said, about the diversity, just how big their religion was. This was actually the largest Hajj ever. There were something like 2.56 million people here.

So for pilgrims it was the emotional Venice (ph) of their life. For a reporter like me, it was an amazing experience, just to see each of the pilgrimage stages evolve from the urban center of Mecca, then into a camping trip among the desert dunes.

MALVEAUX: And Zain, is it any different, the experience for men and women and how they observe this?

VERJEE: Well, actually, that's really interesting because men and women pray together in this grand mosque at the center of Mecca. In many mosques around the world men and women pray separately. As far as in the rituals, no. Everybody does exactly the same thing.

There's one ritual early on that you do first. It's called ahram (ph). And men will wear two unstitched white sheets of cloth, and women will wear modest clothing. And they'll cover their heads.

So it's slightly different in the dressing, but the attitude and the symbolism is the same. It's one of purity, spirituality and humility.

On the gender thing, we ran into a little trouble when we were trying to report on Mt. Arafat, which is the most symbolic day of the Hajj, on the plain of Arafat. And men and women on that particular place couldn't share a tent where the ministry of information had set tents up for journalists to work.

So we ran into a bit of a problem because we were a mixed -- you know, a mixed group working together. So it wasted six hours, but we were able to wrangle a tent and work together and do what we needed to.

HAYS: Zain, I have been struck by some of the numbers on this. Millions of loaves of bread baked a day, 14,000 buses to ferry the pilgrims around. Tell us more about the logistics and how the Saudis have actually done some things to make this a safer, really smoother going experience for people.

VERJEE: Right. Extraordinary to see the logistics here in action. I mean, for 360 days there's nothing, and then out in the desert for five days, more than two million people show up. And they need to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Put it this way. Imagine 1.8 million foreigners flew into Norfolk, Virginia, and then there were 800,000 other people that came in from neighboring states. And you had to move all of them by land to, say, Richmond, Virginia, and then move them further out even to perform a bunch of rituals.

So you need to coordinate transport, security. You've got people from more than 70 countries all speaking different languages. Some people are illiterate. You need to deal with accommodation.

So just organizing that has been amazing. And the thing with the rituals is that you do not perform the Hajj successfully if you are not at the right place at the right time. So that becomes absolutely critical in moving people around like that. And making sure they are safe, as you say, is really key.

KOPPEL: Zain, if there's one moment that will stick in your mind after having gone through this experience, and as a Muslim having gone through this experience, not just as a journalist, what would it be?

VERJEE: Oh, gosh. There were so many.

I guess -- I guess it would be going down to the kaba (ph) in the grand mosque. Nobody can bring in cameras there. So it's always difficult to show people what it's actually like.

But I went in there and spent about 30 or 40 minutes with the rest of the crew, and it was an atmosphere that was emotionally charged. You saw people moved to tears. Some smiling, some laughing. There was a lot of chanting and praying. You saw people in large groups going around, holding on to each other in case they got lost.

There was a moment where I turned around and I saw this old, decrepit blind woman tapping, tap, tap, tap, with a stick, going around really, really slowly. And, you know, there's a lot of people there. So it's difficult to move. There is pushing and shoving the closer you get to the kaba (ph) itself.

I saw a man rubbing a blue velvet piece of material on the kaba (ph), trying to touch it. There's a black stone that's in the kaba (ph) and entrenched there. And when people pass it, they raise their hands. It has some historical significance to that.

So just being there and actually experiencing that and seeing the diversity and the different cultures and the different faces, and everybody is doing the same thing in this emotional (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was quite spectacular.

KOPPEL: Zain Verjee, thank you so much for bringing this incredible experience to life for all of us who probably will never get to see it ourselves.

Up next ON THE STORY, the president of Harvard University talked about women and asked why so few chose careers in math and science. We'll talk about that next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYS: The president of Harvard, Larry Summers, was back in the headlines this week for comments he made about whether biological differences between men and women could explain why more women don't choose or aren't chosen for careers in math and science. One woman who heard his remarks, MIT biologist Nancy Hopkins, walked out on Summers and his talk in protest.

Now, it's interesting that this was a conference sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research. And you don't usually think of the NBER and economic papers, you know, creating this kind of controversy. But Summers claims that he was just trying to be controversial and they told him to do that.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: This is not the first time he's been controversial, too. And this is my alma mater. He wasn't there at the time. But I'll tell you, he has angered people before. You know, the head of the African-American department, Cornell West, left in a huff, went to Princeton because of comments Summers had made before.

KOPPEL: Now, the organizer of this conference said that they had invited him to speak as an economist and not as the president of Harvard University.

HAYS: Right.

KOPPEL: Nevertheless, when you look at this, it's difficult when you look at the numbers of faculty that have been hired in the arts and sciences department who have been tenured. The number apparently has dropped dramatically since Summers came on board. So I think it's difficult for him to have taken one hat off and put the other on and not to have seen it in the big picture.

HAYS: And I think it's disheartening to women in the math and sciences. Because they feel like, gee, this is the kind of thing we always get.

But he said -- what did he say? He thought -- he raised some reasons why maybe women don't get as far ahead. One, he said women aren't as willing to work 80 hours a week. They've got kids.

KOPPEL: After they have kids.

HAYS: After they have kids. That's reality.

He also raised the fact that girls in high school don't score as high in math and science. And I do think, you know, I don't know if it's a biological difference. I think that it's clear that a lot of women have a confidence problem, though, when it comes to math and science, which is I think maybe why this hit such a chord with women, because they feel, if anything, girls should be encouraged to move ahead and not think, well, maybe my brain is different.

MALVEAUX: I guess in defense of Summers as well, though, he did apologize. He did write an open letter to the campus, to the university, to the students saying, "I'm sorry I offended. This is not my beliefs. This is not what I meant to say."

But interestingly enough, Harvard people, you know, they say things and then sometimes you think it's going to open discussion. Sometimes it shuts it down. It seems like.

We're back ON THE STORY after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYS: Thanks so much to all of my colleagues. And thank you for watching ON THE STORY. We'll be back next week.

Up next on CNN, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," focusing this week on first lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Straight ahead, an update on that blizzard bearing down on the Northeast.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired January 22, 2005 - 10:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now in the news, a howling blizzard is bearing down on the northeastern the United States. Winds at 50 miles an hour blowing as much as two feet of snow. The storm has buried parts of the Midwest and its new targets including Philadelphia, New York and Boston. The blizzard warning takes effect at noon eastern in New York. Let's get you to Rob Marciano now in the weather center for the latest. Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi Tony, not quite snowing in New York yet, but temperatures are definitely cold enough for snow, single digit numbers and they're prepping for it. Take a look at what's going on around New York City. They're definitely getting ready for it in the form of ice. They're going to need it, with temperatures not even getting close to freezing, so hardware stores and grocery stores probably starting to see the shelves empty out as they prepare for what's going to be the worst storm, snow storm this season for sure.

Over in Pittsburgh, same deal going on. Although the snows have begun to fall, you can see that there, road crews getting ready to try to tackle this storm as it moves across the entire Ohio River valley and across the Allegheny plateau as well. A live shot for you of Cleveland, Ohio, where the snows are beginning to fall there. That's at least tape. There are some live pictures for you. Cleveland could easily see a foot of snow.

All right. Here's the latest radar imagery for you, not snowing across northeast. The I-95 corridor yet, but this snow beginning to make its way over that way, Pittsburgh and Cleveland seeing already a half of foot of snow on the ground in Chicago, likely we'll see a little bit more as the day progresses. Detroit seeing some snow as well and then a mix across the Ohio River valley.

Here's how this storm is going to progress from just south of Chicago. Snow totals 6 to 12 inches. That would include just south of Detroit to Cleveland, a mix right in through here. That's kind of nasty. Then you go over the Appalachians and into the Atlantic Ocean where temperatures there on the water a little bit warmer. Late tonight, tomorrow morning the winds increase. The snows increase from Philly to New York. Boston could see two feet of snow and winds over 35 miles an hour. That would make for blizzard conditions. And they have a blizzard warning up through tomorrow afternoon. That doesn't happen very often. We'll keep you posted throughout the afternoon and through the rest of the morning. Tony, back to you.

HARRIS: OK, Rob. Thank you. I'm Tony Harris. CNN's ON THE STORY starts right now.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR, ON THE STORY: Welcome to CNN's ON THE STORY where our journalists have the inside word on the stories we've covered this week. I'm Suzanne Malveaux on the story of the inauguration, the speech and the message sent around the world.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR, ON THE STORY: I'm Andrea Koppel on the story of tough questions from senators this week to Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice.

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN ANCHOR, ON THE STORY: And I'm Kathleen Hays on the story of new evidence that the economy keeps growing as stocks keep falling. We'll go to Iraq where CNN's Jane Arraf is on the story of people there trying to make sense of the U.S. election and their own. We'll go to Saudi Arabia and CNN's Zain Verjee where Muslims are making their pilgrimage to Mecca.

And we'll talk about Harvard President Larry Summers and the fierce debate he stirred up over whether women are really suited for math and science. E-mail us at onthestory@cnn.com. Now straight to Suzanne and the inaugural address.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: President Bush Thursday, high noon, freshly sworn in, launching his administration for another four years and using his inaugural address to talk about what he sees as the U.S. role in the world, promising that the U.S. will stand with those seeking freedom. It was a big, bold message, a lot of reaction.

KOPPEL: And, obviously, the first inauguration since 9/11. Security, I can speak as somebody who was driving through it in Washington, was about as tight as we've ever seen it. What was it like behind the scenes?

MALVEAUX: It was a pain.

HAYS: It was a pain. At the conventions, we already went through this.

MALVEAUX: I know. I should have stayed at a hotel downtown. I did not drive in that morning because I got in, you had to get in before 4:00 in the morning at the north west gate. And it was absolutely amazing to see because you had this perimeter, blocks and blocks and blocks around the White House. You would not recognize downtown Washington, all of the barricades outside, people just milling around, walking around, kind of like a ghost town outside. Inside, people with their passes their tickets, security, I mean it was absolutely amazing. You saw the ceremony where the president is encased, literally encased in his glass beautiful structure, but nevertheless kind of uncomfortable. You see the shots. You see a very intimate look of the president watching the parade and at the same time you realize that this year for the first time, he is completely inaccessible to the public and that is absolutely because of security concerns.

HAYS: Pretty striking though, when he walks down the road along with Laura and all those Secret Service men around them, all the men in black, Laura Bush in her white outfit. It was -- I couldn't help but think, wow.

MALVEAUX: There was a lot of concern about that, too. And you noticed how many people -- there was a certain sense of tension and four years ago, what happened when he had to run because people were throwing things. But there was definitely a lot of tension.

KOPPEL: What can you tell us about the speech? Obviously, the broad themes of freedom and liberty. How much involvement did the president have in crafting the theme?

MALVEAUX: So this was a 22nd draft that he was actually reading from so there was a lot of work that was involved, a lot of practice in the family theater and a big to-do about the message. Now the message, I mean it got a lot of attention here because he's talking about, I'm going to fight tyranny around the world, and even, you know, Reagan's former speechwriter Peggy Noonan said, this is kind of creepy. I mean what are they talking about?

It seems like they are going to go in and perhaps North Korea or Iran are next. Bush aides who I talk to, senior administration officials are saying well, look, this is a continuation of our policy, of our practices. This is a pragmatic White House. They realize they are not going to change countries that are institutions overnight. But at the same time, they were very cautious, I should say, about keeping the military option open when it comes to Iran. But they say that was not necessarily the primary message.

KOPPEL: And yet he didn't mention Iraq once. We know that he alluded to it. But why didn't he mention it?

MALVEAUX: And you know what they say, they say well, look. You know, this is a big speech, and Iraq is a part of this big idea that we're spreading democracy. One of the thinking here among some Bush aides will tell you privately is, look. This is a way of kind of reframing the invasion of Iraq. There are no weapons of mass destruction. The administration has been doing this for months now, where they say, well, this is a humanitarian effort. This is really kind of a looking forward, framing it in that way, telling the world, look, this invasion, so there are no weapons of mass destruction. We're doing good anyway. We'll do good in other parts of the country. I mean it's a reaching out. It's perhaps trying to reframe that argument. HAYS: But certainly a lot of the dust that was kicked up was this sense of fighting tyranny would mean actually going in as we did in Iraq, preemptively because now they are saying, it wasn't because of weapons of mass destruction. It was because we had to liberate the Iraqi people. There's lots of oppressed people in the world. One of the critiques I read of the president's speech this week was is he suggesting that they are actually going to go into powers like China, which many would say oppressed the Tibetans or Russia where there are questions about the treating of Chechnya or they just may be talking about little powers that they could easily go and kick the door open if they want to?

MALVEAUX: That's a very good point too because look at countries like Saudi Arabia, like Egypt, Uzbekistan, Pakistan. I mean these are all the countries that the United States has a very close relationship with and in the war on terror. And at the same time, complaints anti- democratic measures, human rights abuses, all of those things. And it's true. I mean, when you look at -- and it's going to be a critical test to see next month when President Bush goes to Europe and he's going to be sitting down with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. Is he going to come out and publicly chastise him and say, look here's what you need to do to bring about democratic reforms. We doubt that's going to happen. Maybe privately he'll be trying to nudge him but you bring up a very good point. I mean you're not necessarily going to see everyone treated evenly.

KOPPEL: Well, there may have been no mention of Iraq by name in the inaugural speech, but the looming election there is certainly part of the message the president wanted to send. We'll have CNN's Jane Arraf will be back on the story from Iraq right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. MIKE MURRAY: I think it's a sign of what we said all along, is that they will do anything they can to prevent these very important elections from happening as we get towards the end of the month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That was commander of the 3rd brigade, 1st cavalry division, Colonel Mike Murray talking about how insurgents are preparing for the elections in Iraq. Welcome back. I'm Jane Arraf on the story in Falluja.

MALVEAUX: Jane, you have just arrived. You are back in Iraq. I know it's been some time since you've been there. Tell us what it is like, the upcoming elections in about a week or so. What are you seeing? What are you feeling? What is it like there knowing that that is going to happen. It's right around the corner. Is it tense? Are people excited?

ARRAF: You know, we're battling a rainstorm here, which is awfully noisy. I'm not sure if this audio is going through. If it is, I think you just asked about the elections. We're going to try to sort out that audio.

MALVEAUX: Jane, we can hear you. Until we get Jane's audio sorted out, I think we can talk a little bit about what's happening here in the United States. There are five polling places that have been set up in this country alone. The United States is one of 14 countries around the world that is going to have elections for Iraqi expatriates. I was just out at the facility here for the northeast in New Carrollton, Virginia, where actually I have to say I spent almost the entire day there, and people are allowed to register for elections until today. And it wasn't like throngs of people were showing up, but nevertheless, you did see people coming from -- there was a three- car caravan that came from Pennsylvania, three families, all different ages. The parents had lived in Iraq. Some of their children had never lived in Iraq. They were going to be voting if they were over the age of 18. They are allowed to cast their ballots. But believe it or not, they have to register and then they have to come back next week to vote.

HAYS: Who are these people? When did they leave Iraq, under what circumstances? Are they Shias? Are they Sunnis?

KOPPEL: They are all of the above Kathleen. Some of them, I met a couple of men who had - they lived in the south of Iraq where most of the Shia live and they had risen up against Saddam back in 1991 when they thought -- when George Herbert Walker Bush, had sent the message, they thought that the U.S. would support them if they rose up against Saddam. He didn't. They ended up having to flee. They became refugees and eventually settled in the United States.

There was one Kurdish man I met, a Kurdish-American who was actually driving a shuttle car to go and pick up Kurdish-American voters who perhaps didn't want to go to vote. But he was going to help them get to the polls because they viewed this -- they view this election as being so important for Kurdistan in the north of Iraq.

There were others. In fact, I met a couple of young guys, one of whom was born in this country, had lived in Iraq briefly. He wasn't sure if he was going to vote. He was a Sunni. As you know and Jane who was in the northern, who is in the Sunni triangle right now in Falluja, there are a lot of problems in four of 18 of Iraq's provinces and whether or not people actually are going to have the security they need to go to the polls and vote. Other Sunnis saying maybe they don't want to vote because they believe that the Shia are going to dominate the national parliament.

MALVEAUX: How legitimate do they really think the elections are, I mean because there are so many complaints about the fact that people are not going to be voting in certain parts of the country. I mean they are going to cast their ballots. Do they feel like this is really going to be a legitimate election? Here is our leader? This is not someone who is like hand-picked by the U.S. administration.

KOPPEL: Well, first of all you have to explain what this election is about. This is a national assembly that's really only going to be around for one year. And its mandate is, it's a 275-member parliament, essentially. Its mandate is to write the constitution. There's going to be another election at the end of this year supposedly in December of 2005 to elect what's going to be a much more permanent government that will run for the next several years.

But in point of fact, it depends who you talk to. The Shia, who are the majority party in Iraq, 60 percent-plus, say absolutely this is going to be a legitimate election and we're very happy with the way things are, thank you very much. When you talk to many of the Sunni, you hear them say a very different story because they feel that because of security arrangements, some of them are saying for a variety of other reasons, they don't feel that it's going to represent their point of view within the parliament.

HAYS: You've had a busy week. You were on all kinds of stories. And, in fact, we are going to come back with the Condi Rice confirmation hearing, Andrea Koppel all over that. We're ON THE STORY after this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrea Koppel is CNN's State Department correspondent. She joined CNN in 1993. She's a former CNN Beijing bureau chief and Tokyo correspondent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D) CALIF.: I personally believe, this is my personal view, that your loyalty to the mission you were given to sell this war overwhelmed your respect for the truth.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: I have to say that I have never, ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: California Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, going after Condoleezza Rice, the president's friend, close adviser and the woman expected to be the next secretary of state. Boxer was only one of two senators, the other was John Kerry, to vote against Rice in the Foreign Affairs Committee. In the end, she sailed ahead to a certain extent, but we'll discuss that in a minute. Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

HAYS: Things got feisty. Things got tense, but I don't think Condoleezza Rice, chosen by President Bush, who just won by a clear majority would ever, ever, ever got the surprise that she got this week.

KOPPEL: She did. I mean there were some really tense moments there. And I think the sound byte that we just played, the exchange between her and Barbara Boxer is the one that most people will remember from this. It was an electric moment there in the Senate. I think the 11th hour surprise in all of this is that even though she did basically sail through the Foreign Relations Committee, when she got to the full Senate, the expected -- it was supposed to be a quick vote. She was supposed to be confirmed in time for the inauguration and that her first day in the State Department, State Department employees were notified saying be in the lobby on Friday morning because your new secretary of state will be here. Guess what? She's still wearing her old hat and the man who said a fairly emotional farewell, Secretary of State Colin Powell, who thought he was going to be fixing his Volkswagens in his garage is actually going to be heading off today for the Ukraine to represent the United States as secretary of state at the inauguration of another president, this one of Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko.

MALVEAUX: So what does this mean? I mean obviously the transition is awkward. She will be confirmed this coming week?

KOPPEL: Yes, she will. What's going to happen, is this was really more a poke in the eye by Senators Boxer and Robert Byrd of West Virginia who were frustrated but even though Byrd is not a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as a Democrat, in solidarity with other Democrats who felt for four years they put up with a lot of baloney and a lot of miscommunication and what they believe was deliberately misleading the American people, on the war in Iraq in particular, that this was a way to just say, the heck with you, George Bush. You may be spending the next four years in the White House, but we're going to cause more of a symbolic point here and we're not going to confirm your secretary of state. We'll do it next week. She's expected to be in office by the end of the week.

HAYS: Let's get to the substance this because the critics during the hearings and subsequently on talk shows afterwards, the Democrats said, look, here's what we don't see from Condi Rice that we want to see. We are afraid that she will continue to be the condenser, the distiller of a lot of opinions coming from the White House and that will be foreign policy and not someone who goes to the State Department, works with the professionals there, works with the civil servants who have been there for years, listens to them and formulates a policy that way.

KOPPEL: Certainly and people were watching this hearing looking at clues as to whether Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state would be different from Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser. All told, she got fairly mediocre grades as national security adviser, as somebody who didn't really try to sway the president in one direction or another, but rather saw herself as kind of the power briefer. This is what Cheney is saying. This is what Rumsfeld is saying. This is what Powell is saying. Now you decide, Mr. President.

For most of those I've spoken with, they say Condoleezza Rice is -- she's a student of real politic. She is someone who, let's look at the choices she's made for her top deputies as a clue. She's picked Robert Zelleck. He was trade representative, someone who's seen as a Europeanist, also as a pragmatist. The second aide, Nicholas Burns, who comes - he's the U.S. ambassador to NATO. He's also long-time foreign servant. He's somebody who has worked within the State Department also for years, another pragmatist. She didn't choose the hardliners, the other people who think of like minds with Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld.

They also say that you are where you sit. And it's difficult when you have a constituency of one, that is the president, very different when you have a constituency of thousands within the State Department. And the hope is that over time and actually sitting across from those other foreign leaders, when she's hearing it directly from them time and again and she only had a few diplomatic missions as national security adviser, that she will begin to see more of the big picture. That is the hope of many.

MALVEAUX: But how do you (INAUDIBLE) that she's going to be received overseas. Because obviously, I mean there was a certain sense that if you are talking to Secretary Powell, you are not necessarily talking to President Bush, where those leaders say, look, if you are talking to Condi Rice, you directly have an ear to the administration. Do you get a sense that they are excited about her coming?

KOPPEL: I'll give you an example. June of 2003, Condoleezza Rice in one of her rare overseas missions went to Jerusalem, met with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, also met with the Palestinian prime minister at the time. She got a power point presentation from the Palestinians on the routing of this concrete barrier that the Israelis were building between Israel and the Palestinian territories. She saw that in one instance, this concrete barrier was going to go through a field, a soccer field at the Palestinian University. As a former provost of Stanford University she was outraged. She said, how can this be really about security when you are cutting off kids. She went back, spoke to an Israeli diplomat. She gave a very forceful defense that this barrier should not go through the field. It wasn't. Speaks very much to what you said, Suzanne. If Condoleezza Rice says it, it's coming from the president, you listen. If it was coming from Powell, chances are it wasn't.

HAYS: Interesting how she handles the details versus how she handles the big picture is going to be a big question in the next four years.

Now we're going from diplomacy to finance. I'll be back on the story of what rattled the stock market this week.

Also coming up, CNN's Zain Verjee is on the story of Muslims making their pilgrimage to Mecca.

And was Harvard's president putting down women or just provoking debate over women and science? All coming up, plus a check on the headlines after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. We are tracking a major winter storm for you this morning. In just a bit, ON THE STORY is going live to New York where people are battening down the hatches. The midwinter storm blew out of Canada and is icing down the Midwest and dropping temperatures and lots of snow across several states in the northeast. Blizzard warnings go into effect at noon Eastern in New York City and

HARRIS: And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

We are tracking a major winter storm for you this morning. In just a bit, ON THE STORY is going live to New York, where people are battening down the hatches. The midwinter storm blew out of Canada, and is icing down the Midwest and dropping temperatures and lots of snow across several states in the Northeast. Blizzard warnings go into effect at noon Eastern in New York City, and at 5:00 local time in Boston and other parts of New England.

CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is tracking the storm for us -- Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Tony.

Here are those warnings that you mentioned. The red just winter storm warnings. And the white blizzard warnings, meaning winds gusting over 35 miles an hour. Visibility is down to a quarter mile, and heavy snow associated with that as well. Not snowing heavily yet, but the snow is on the way, on the march up the I-95 corridor. This storm is rapidly approaching, and then once it gets to the Atlantic Ocean will strengthen even further and pick up more moisture.

Snow still a factor in Chicago, probably off the lake later on today. The lower half of Michigan, eastern Ohio, the Ohio River Valley has seen significant problems with ice. But the heavier snows are going to be in the major metro areas.

New York, 14 to 20 possible. Boston, 18 to 24 inches by tomorrow night. Philadelphia, 10 to 15 inches of snow likely. And Baltimore and D.C. getting into the act as well, with 8 to 10 inches of snow likely. And that on top of bitterly cold air.

This isn't just 20 or 30-degree temperature. These are single digit and teens for daytime temperatures. Couple that with the wind, dangerous wind-chills. We'll keep you updated throughout the rest of the morning and the afternoon and this weekend.

Tony, back over to you.

HARRIS: OK. Another update at the top of the hour. I'm Tony Harris. Now back to ON THE STORY.

MALVEAUX: Welcome back to ON THE STORY, where wide areas of the U.S. now in a deep freeze. That big storm clobbered the upper Midwest and is now racing east.

CNN's Alina Cho is in New York ON THE STORY.

Alina, we understand that, of course, Mayor Bloomberg just had a press conference about all this. We just heard Rob, who said there was going to be like 20 inches of snow. Is that possible? Is that true? What are you hearing?

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, I know you are planning to come up here.

MALVEAUX: I was.

CHO: Wait until Monday morning. Yes, I mean, from -- by all accounts, the local forecast and Rob Marciano, of course, our resident expert, 14 to 20 inches in the city from noon today until noon tomorrow. It has not started snowing yet, as you can see there, as we take a live picture of the city, and parts of Central Park there in the middle.

I will be in the thick of it tomorrow morning. But I can tell you in the meantime that, yes, the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, did hold a news conference today. He said the city has been planning for this for the past couple of days, got an early warning.

There will be 2,500 sanitation workers working on two 12-hour shifts, 1,800 pieces of equipment, including salt trucks, snow plows and snow melters. Now, these machines actually drive around the streets and melt the snow into water, which then goes down into the drains.

Now, remember that the city has 6,300 miles of streets and highways. And the mayor said that by Monday morning, hopefully by 5:00 a.m., he hopes that every street will have been plowed at least once.

Now, as for the cost, conventional wisdom is about a million dollars an inch. The mayor says he will take care of the city, whatever the cost, and worry about the money spent on Monday morning.

MALVEAUX: And Alina, how disruptive do you think is this going to be? And how are you going to spend the rest of the day? I imagine you're going to be grocery shopping and hunkering down?

CHO: Well, yes. I have been grocery shopping. I went to the grocery store last night, shockingly. And unbelievably, I have never seen it -- in my eight years here in New York City, I've never seen it like this.

The check-out lines were snaked around the store. And for New Yorkers, you know, the big deal is deliveries. And they were saying they could not guarantee deliveries.

This is a big deal. You know, the Home Depots are -- are very busy, the hardware stores. People are buying up snow shovels and it's a big deal. This is the biggest storm of the season, and a classic nor'easter.

MALVEAUX: Well, Alina, good luck to you. I guess we're going to have to grocery shop on this end. I've got a bottle of wine and a jar of mustard in my fridge. So I have a big job ahead of me. I need to get a snow plow as well.

And coming up, of course, Kathleen Hays talking about the economy next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear and make our society more prosperous and just and equal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYS: Polished phrases from the president after taking the oath Thursday and giving another indirect nudge to what he likes to call an ownership society, with more responsibility on the individual less on government.

Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

KOPPEL: So that's just more code for Social Security. And, of course, the White House is saying that within the next 50 years, Social Security is going to run out. HAYS: Well, without getting into the numbers, because definitely Social Security is going to be financially unsustainable. If we can use less charged words, everyone would agree on that. The fixes, though, are very controversial. The president still pushing for personal accounts.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely.

HAYS: That's one of his three basic principals. But already it's so interesting. Other Republicans are saying, ooh, ooh, we don't know if we want to follow our fearless leader down that track...

MALVEAUX: Very cautious.

HAYS: And kind of sending messages back. Bill Thomas, head of the House Ways and Means Committee, a very powerful Republican, saying, hold on, you know, maybe we shouldn't just throw out this Social Security reform proposal. Maybe we should do tax reform, Social Security reform all at once. And I think they really want to test the waters. I think there's a lot of Republicans are nervous about this.

MALVEAUX: It's a really tough sell for the White House. And I just want to ask, how is Wall Street reacting to this? How -- what are we seeing in the stock market now?

HAYS: Well, let me just say, long term, Wall Street is licking its chops on personal accounts, because they're hoping that this would be set up in such a way that people will be able to start investing in the stock market. More money from people maybe who wouldn't have been able to afford to invest otherwise, because now they can take part of the Social Security money and put it in stocks.

So I think a lot of -- a lot of brokerage firms say big bonanza. But they don't want to make too much noise about that. Near term, though, I think what's interesting, when you think about putting your retirement future in the market, the market, starting this year, 2005, on a shaky footing.

KOPPEL: Well, one example would be eBay. The forecasts were way off.

HAYS: Well, you know, and I must say, sometimes Wall Street confounds everybody. But you have to put it in context.

Actually, eBay's earnings are growing very well. They are a booming company. They're trying to expand in China.

But you know what? The estimates on Wall Street were higher. And eBay didn't -- it fell short. Just a bit of the estimates.

And the theme right now is earnings are pretty good. But people are saying they're not quite as good as they were for many companies. And the stock market, you know, had one great year in 2003, a decent year in 2004, particularly at the end. And now people are saying, what are you going to give me now? What's the raw meat I'm going to be fed as a market to keep moving higher?

And there's so many problems in front of it. Or obstacles, anyway: rising interest rates, rising energy prices, the fact that earnings are slowing down a bit.

So right now people are saying, gee, what's going on? Is this what they call a correction, the market moved up, now it's got to consolidate? Or is there just not going to be enough oomph, enough new momentum to keep the market moving ahead? And that's a big question.

Again, January considered an indicator for the year. January, so far, all the major indices down. So this is something to be watching carefully.

KOPPEL: Let's talk about what for me, at least, is a very scary idea. Airbus building the largest plane to date. Over 500 seats. Why?

HAYS: Because they think this is the future of air travel. Air travel is increasing. More and more people are traveling.

The airports can only take so many planes landing at a time. You can only build so many airports. You can only add so many, you know, runways. So they figure, look at this, a bar. There's going to be bedrooms in first class where you can sleep.

MALVEAUX: It's a flying hotel.

HAYS: It is. And you can have a little foot stool. You can have a meeting in there. It's amazing.

MALVEAUX: It puts Air Force One to shame.

HAYS: Indeed. Well, maybe -- maybe President Bush -- I take that back. There's no way he would order one of these because I think there's such a competition between Airbus and Boeing.

Airbus has nudged Boeing out as the number one maker of airplanes. There's all these flights about subsidies because Airbus gets subsidized. Boeing gets contracts from the government. They go back and forth.

But Boeing is not building a big huge Airbus-type plane. It's building a dream-liner. It seats 250 people. Because the future of airlines they see in the United States is people want flexibility.

You are going to have to fly into -- in between small cities. You want to go a lot of different places. You want to carry fewer people more places. And that's what they are betting on. At a time, though, when U.S. airlines are just having a very tough time.

MALVEAUX: Well, that's what I was going to ask. Is it a reflection of the fact that the airline industry is going so bad, it's not doing well at all? HAYS: Well, I think this is -- I think this is a -- what makes it tough for these -- maybe for these big airline makers, these airplane makers, the fact that we had Delta Airlines -- I mean, this is an old story, right? It just goes from bad to worse it seems.

Delta reported fourth quarter earnings, and the loss was three times as big as people expected. Every major airline that reported this week, including Southwest, which has been the successful discount carrier, had its earnings fall so much more than others. And the number one thing is high fuel cost.

And that's something no government can tame. They are at the mercy of this.

Also, many airlines trying to cut wage costs. United Airlines got another 12 percent pay cut out of its pilots. I think one of the most amazing statistics I read this week was right now the senior pilots flying the biggest jets make $178 an hour. The junior pilots coming in across all the flights are making something an average of $31 an hour.

So you can just see how this industry is being squeezed and squeezed and squeezed. We get the benefit now in cheaper tickets. The question is, what kind of industry? What kind of travel potential lies ahead if these big carriers are going out of business?

MALVEAUX: All good questions.

And from money to religion, we're back on that story in a moment with CNN's Zain Verjee in Mecca.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel that this is our duty. And, on top of that, it's our honor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: That was Rashad Hussein (ph), was a civil engineer in Saudi Arabia, making the Hajj. We're going to go to that in just a moment. We're having a few technical difficulties. Hope you'll -- will roll with the punches here.

Instead, we are going to talk about the inauguration, some of the fun behind the scenes, the nine different...

HAYS: Clothes! Beautiful.

KOPPEL: The clothes? OK.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely. The dresses, suits.

HAYS: Man oh man, compared to four years ago, I mean, she looked like nice. But she looked like a middle-aged lady from Texas. I'm telling you, Laura, the whole thing, the shape, the hair, the clothes everything.

MALVEAUX: And -- but there was a little -- you know, people were slightly bent out of shape, the ones from Texas, because she had a Texas designer four years ago. OK, she's moved up a little bit here. But they said, you know, what is this, a slap to Texas?

But, you know, those designers, you can't beat them. I mean, it was just beautiful.

KOPPEL: Suzanne, I was starting to say there were nine balls, and the president and Laura made it to all nine of them. But what is the importance, you know, going behind the scenes, as to why there are so many balls and why the president and the first lady make a point of going to all of them?

MALVEAUX: Well, it's grown. But also, I mean, it's just really just saying thanks to all of these contributors, all these people who have a lot of money. They give a lot of money. This is their chance.

You know, people buy these tickets. They are invited. Very exclusive, by the way.

I mean, you have now very different because of security, these little places they set up so that this is your little public space. And it's very exclusive. So this is just a way to say, thank you, let's get dressed up, let's have a good time.

And, you know, it was controversial. You know, $40 million. Very controversial.

Should they have toned it town down? They said absolutely not. You know, this is for our troops and it's also for big-time supporters.

HAYS: Didn't the polls show that something like 75 percent of the people in the country or 70 percent or something thought they should have toned it down more?

KOPPEL: Right. Well, now we have fixed our technical difficulties with Zain Verjee, who is our international correspondent, who is herself a Muslim and went to Mecca to report on the Hajj, which is the holiest -- one of the holiest pilgrimages that any Muslim can make. And she is joining us now by phone.

Zain, what has the experience been like?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. It's been amazing, although today we had technical difficulties, as you've said. There's an incredible sandstorm this afternoon.

It went almost pitch dark about 300 p.m. It was raining mud. There were floods all over Mecca. And this was the day pilgrims were leaving. So the traffic outside is absolutely awful.

What was the experience like overall? It was amazing. This is the spiritual climax of the life of any Muslim. They are expected to come here at least once in their life and make this Hajj pilgrimage. They undertake a symbolic bunch of rituals over a period of a few days.

You know, I talked to people. They were just moved by seeing the kaba (ph), the black cube-like structure that sits in the middle of the grand mosque. There were tears. It was very emotional.

People were amazed, they said, about the diversity, just how big their religion was. This was actually the largest Hajj ever. There were something like 2.56 million people here.

So for pilgrims it was the emotional Venice (ph) of their life. For a reporter like me, it was an amazing experience, just to see each of the pilgrimage stages evolve from the urban center of Mecca, then into a camping trip among the desert dunes.

MALVEAUX: And Zain, is it any different, the experience for men and women and how they observe this?

VERJEE: Well, actually, that's really interesting because men and women pray together in this grand mosque at the center of Mecca. In many mosques around the world men and women pray separately. As far as in the rituals, no. Everybody does exactly the same thing.

There's one ritual early on that you do first. It's called ahram (ph). And men will wear two unstitched white sheets of cloth, and women will wear modest clothing. And they'll cover their heads.

So it's slightly different in the dressing, but the attitude and the symbolism is the same. It's one of purity, spirituality and humility.

On the gender thing, we ran into a little trouble when we were trying to report on Mt. Arafat, which is the most symbolic day of the Hajj, on the plain of Arafat. And men and women on that particular place couldn't share a tent where the ministry of information had set tents up for journalists to work.

So we ran into a bit of a problem because we were a mixed -- you know, a mixed group working together. So it wasted six hours, but we were able to wrangle a tent and work together and do what we needed to.

HAYS: Zain, I have been struck by some of the numbers on this. Millions of loaves of bread baked a day, 14,000 buses to ferry the pilgrims around. Tell us more about the logistics and how the Saudis have actually done some things to make this a safer, really smoother going experience for people.

VERJEE: Right. Extraordinary to see the logistics here in action. I mean, for 360 days there's nothing, and then out in the desert for five days, more than two million people show up. And they need to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Put it this way. Imagine 1.8 million foreigners flew into Norfolk, Virginia, and then there were 800,000 other people that came in from neighboring states. And you had to move all of them by land to, say, Richmond, Virginia, and then move them further out even to perform a bunch of rituals.

So you need to coordinate transport, security. You've got people from more than 70 countries all speaking different languages. Some people are illiterate. You need to deal with accommodation.

So just organizing that has been amazing. And the thing with the rituals is that you do not perform the Hajj successfully if you are not at the right place at the right time. So that becomes absolutely critical in moving people around like that. And making sure they are safe, as you say, is really key.

KOPPEL: Zain, if there's one moment that will stick in your mind after having gone through this experience, and as a Muslim having gone through this experience, not just as a journalist, what would it be?

VERJEE: Oh, gosh. There were so many.

I guess -- I guess it would be going down to the kaba (ph) in the grand mosque. Nobody can bring in cameras there. So it's always difficult to show people what it's actually like.

But I went in there and spent about 30 or 40 minutes with the rest of the crew, and it was an atmosphere that was emotionally charged. You saw people moved to tears. Some smiling, some laughing. There was a lot of chanting and praying. You saw people in large groups going around, holding on to each other in case they got lost.

There was a moment where I turned around and I saw this old, decrepit blind woman tapping, tap, tap, tap, with a stick, going around really, really slowly. And, you know, there's a lot of people there. So it's difficult to move. There is pushing and shoving the closer you get to the kaba (ph) itself.

I saw a man rubbing a blue velvet piece of material on the kaba (ph), trying to touch it. There's a black stone that's in the kaba (ph) and entrenched there. And when people pass it, they raise their hands. It has some historical significance to that.

So just being there and actually experiencing that and seeing the diversity and the different cultures and the different faces, and everybody is doing the same thing in this emotional (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was quite spectacular.

KOPPEL: Zain Verjee, thank you so much for bringing this incredible experience to life for all of us who probably will never get to see it ourselves.

Up next ON THE STORY, the president of Harvard University talked about women and asked why so few chose careers in math and science. We'll talk about that next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYS: The president of Harvard, Larry Summers, was back in the headlines this week for comments he made about whether biological differences between men and women could explain why more women don't choose or aren't chosen for careers in math and science. One woman who heard his remarks, MIT biologist Nancy Hopkins, walked out on Summers and his talk in protest.

Now, it's interesting that this was a conference sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research. And you don't usually think of the NBER and economic papers, you know, creating this kind of controversy. But Summers claims that he was just trying to be controversial and they told him to do that.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: This is not the first time he's been controversial, too. And this is my alma mater. He wasn't there at the time. But I'll tell you, he has angered people before. You know, the head of the African-American department, Cornell West, left in a huff, went to Princeton because of comments Summers had made before.

KOPPEL: Now, the organizer of this conference said that they had invited him to speak as an economist and not as the president of Harvard University.

HAYS: Right.

KOPPEL: Nevertheless, when you look at this, it's difficult when you look at the numbers of faculty that have been hired in the arts and sciences department who have been tenured. The number apparently has dropped dramatically since Summers came on board. So I think it's difficult for him to have taken one hat off and put the other on and not to have seen it in the big picture.

HAYS: And I think it's disheartening to women in the math and sciences. Because they feel like, gee, this is the kind of thing we always get.

But he said -- what did he say? He thought -- he raised some reasons why maybe women don't get as far ahead. One, he said women aren't as willing to work 80 hours a week. They've got kids.

KOPPEL: After they have kids.

HAYS: After they have kids. That's reality.

He also raised the fact that girls in high school don't score as high in math and science. And I do think, you know, I don't know if it's a biological difference. I think that it's clear that a lot of women have a confidence problem, though, when it comes to math and science, which is I think maybe why this hit such a chord with women, because they feel, if anything, girls should be encouraged to move ahead and not think, well, maybe my brain is different.

MALVEAUX: I guess in defense of Summers as well, though, he did apologize. He did write an open letter to the campus, to the university, to the students saying, "I'm sorry I offended. This is not my beliefs. This is not what I meant to say."

But interestingly enough, Harvard people, you know, they say things and then sometimes you think it's going to open discussion. Sometimes it shuts it down. It seems like.

We're back ON THE STORY after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYS: Thanks so much to all of my colleagues. And thank you for watching ON THE STORY. We'll be back next week.

Up next on CNN, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," focusing this week on first lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Straight ahead, an update on that blizzard bearing down on the Northeast.

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