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CNN SUNDAY MORNING

'Newsweek' Shows Bush, Kerry Tied at 46 Percent; 'Columbus Dispatch' Endorses Bush; 'Des Moines Register' Endorses Kerry

Aired October 24, 2004 - 08:00   ET

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


TONY HILL, CNN ANCHOR: And from the CNN Center this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is October 24th, 8 a.m. in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 3 p.m. in Baghdad. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Thank you very much for being with us today.

Now in the news. A mortar attack today at the Baghdad airport claimed the life of an American diplomat. Ed Seitz was an assistant regional security officer with the U.S. State Department. In a statement, Secretary of State Colin Powell praised the official as a quote, "Brave American dedicated to his country."

Also in Iraq nearly 50 newly trained Iraqi soldiers were ambushed and killed near the Iranian border. Iraqi officials say the recruits were returning home from basic training yesterday afternoon when their mini buses came under attack. Forty nine bodies were found several hours later. We do have a live update from Baghdad. That is just ahead.

In Afghanistan a U.S. military official confirms that a 23 year old American woman was among the fatalities after a suicide bombing yesterday in Kabul. The attack at a popular market also killed an 11 year old Afghan girl and wounded three international peace keepers from Iceland.

And in the Middle East a carrot-and-stick approach to vacating 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza. Under the plan approved today by the Israeli cabinet, settlers who leave voluntarily could receive up to $500,000 per family. Those who refuse to leave would be subject to up to five years in jail. The proposal goes before the Knesset next month.

HARRIS: And coming up, Dolly Pardon sang about it and the candidates arrived doing it, working 9 to 5 and even overtime. George Bush and John Kerry are blazing through the battlegrounds just nine days, nine days, Betty, before the elections. We'll tell you who's where, when and why.

And it's the fight for the faithful. We'll preview a CNN special that looks at the role of evangelical Christians in this year's election.

And Ashley Simpson starts one of her songs with the words "I'm waiting." Thing is, that's what millions of her fans did during a TV performance, wait. We'll tell you exactly what happened.

Our top story this hour, the poll position. A "Newsweek" poll taken Thursday and Friday shows President Bush and Senator John Kerry tied at 46 percent. Each among registered voters, but among likely voters Bush has a slight edge leading Kerry 48 to 46 percent.

After we plug those numbers into our poll, the polls which averages all major national polls, the results are just about the same. In that survey the president holds a slim three point lead over the Massachusetts senator.

President Bush surely knows what the polls know. That is this is still a very tight race. After a morning at his Texas ranch Mr. Bush will rally supporters in New Mexico. But yesterday in Florida it was all about grand entrances and rock star welcomes. Here is CNN's White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush made the kind of dramatic entrance that only the incumbent could make. The commander and chief swooped down onto the Ft. Myers ball park in Marine I.

Ironically his chopper landed in left field in the park where John Kerry's hometown Boston Red Sox, headed to the World Series, hold their spring practice, but none of that seemed to phase this audience, who burst into applause when the theme tot he movie "Top Gun" signaled the president's arrival.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States.

MALVEAUX: Like the last election, Florida is critical to a Bush win. Travelling with the first lady and his brother, Florida's governor Jeb Bush, the president hit four big rallies across the state to energize his base.

In Melbourne, during the president's speech, a small plane inadvertently violated the restricted air space there. Two F-15 fighter jets patrolling the skies quickly intercepted the Cessna and escorted it to a nearby airfield. The White House says the president was never in any danger.

Mr. Bush crisscrossed the Sunshine state hitting Ft. Myers, Lakeland, Melbourne, and Jacksonville, home to many military families. His message remained the same, Kerry cannot be trusted to be commander in chief.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He needs to understand that Saddam was a major source of instability in the Middle East. After all, he said so. The senator seems to have forgotten all of that, as his position has evolved during the course of the campaign. You might call it election amnesia.

MALVEAUX: The Kerry camp shot back at Mr. Bush's new attack line saying, the voters won't have amnesia when it comes time to vote on election day. The Bush campaign is hoping voters will remember the president's quick response to the state's hurricane crisis. And Mr. Bush is counting on seniors, Hispanics and Jewish voters to put him over the top.

But political analysts say the wild card will be how the dramatic increase in Florida's registered voters impact the election. One point five million new voters have registered since the last presidential election, an increase of 18 percent. Registered independents grew a whopping 41 percent.

PROFESSOR ALLAN LICHTMAN, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: I've got three words of advice for Mr. Bush to in Florida, turn out, turn out, turn out. Turn on your base and get them to show up at the polls.

MALVEAUX (on-camera): While President Bush continues his get out the vote effort in half a dozen battleground states, according to one Republican official who I spoke with, it is now mano a mano time, competing road shows on who can turn out the most votes.

Now Tony, later today President Bush travels to New Mexico specifically to try to target the Hispanic vote.

Tony.

HARRIS: Susan Malveaux from Crawford this morning. Suzanne, thank you.

HARRIS: The Sunday morning papers are out and so are the endorsements. Ohio's "Columbus Dispatch" is endorsing President Bush, though not enthusiastically. The conservative leading paper says Bush would stand a better chance of leading the nation up the difficult road that lies ahead.

Now the paper criticizes the president's borrow and spend fiscal policies and bush's handling of the war in Iraq.

NGUYEN: Senator John Kerry has also gained some newspaper endorsements. Kerry will be campaigning in Florida today. Our Ed Henry is travelling with the campaign is up early in Ft. Lauderdale.

Good morning to you.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Betty. That's right. Senator Kerry in just a couple of hours will be speaking at the black church behind me here in Florida, the mother of all battlegrounds. As you just heard from Suzanne, President Bush was here yesterday.

John Kerry and President Bush each have been in the state of Florida at least a dozen times a piece since the primaries. Just yesterday Senator Hillary Clinton was here stumping on behalf of John Kerry. Later today and tomorrow Al Gore will be here. Also yesterday John Edwards was here in Florida, south Florida, and that's the sixth time this month along that John Edwards has been here.

Both campaigns focusing very hard here. But John Kerry also in the final nine days will be focusing on about 10 or 11 other battleground states around the country. Yesterday he was wrapping up a western swing through Colorado and New Mexico.

And at a large rally in Las Cruces last night, Kerry spoke some Spanish to try to turn out the Hispanic vote in New Mexico. Five electoral votes there at stake. Al Gore only carried New Mexico by 366 votes. Those five electoral votes obviously could tip a very close election.

And Kerry was charging that while the president has been going negative warning of dire consequences if John Kerry is election the senator said he wants to bring the country together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So we have a chance in these next days to unite America. Some people want this country to be blue states and red states and they'll find any hot button issue and they'll just try to then divide America. I don't want to divide America. I want us to be one America not red states blue states, one America red, white and blue for everybody. All of us together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: And Betty, as you mentioned a moment ago, some big newspaper endorsements for John Kerry he wakes up to this morning, including the "Washington Post." Not an unexpected endorsement but still a large newspaper, something he wanted to have.

Also, "Chicago Sun Times," which endorsed George W. Bush in 2000, now endorsing John Kerry this morning. That's a little bit of a boost, although Illinois is very safely in the Democratic column.

Perhaps the biggest one this morning is from the "Des Moines Register." Iowa a battleground that Al Gore had last time is neck and neck this time. John Kerry wants to make sure it's in his column. And the key there is that John Edwards back in the Iowa caucuses got the endorsement of the "Des Moines" register and it really produced a surge for Edwards.

This morning the "Des Moines Register" says quote, "Yes, Kerry is liberal, but what's to fear from a liberal president? That he would run big deficits? That he would increase federal spending? That he would expand the power of the federal government over individuals' lives? Nothing Kerry could do could top what President Bush has already done in those realms."

That from the "Des Moines Register" this morning. Again, a big newspaper in a key battleground in the Midwest. That's something Kerry wanted to have and he has gotten.

Now after a full day of campaigning here in Florida Kerry will be moving on tomorrow morning to New Hampshire, another battleground in the northeast, and then to Philadelphia. He needs to hold Pennsylvania and he's going to get a boost there from Former President Bill Clinton, making his first campaign appearance after heart surgery.

Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. Ed Henry in Florida this morning. Thank you.

Two reverends, on a Sunday Jerry Falwell and Jesse Jackson will be guest on CNN's "LATE EDITION" with Wolf Blitzer. That begins at 12 noon eastern.

In Iraq a U.S. diplomat is killed in a mortar attack. And some of Iraq's newest soldiers fresh from training camp have been executed.

CNN's Karl Penhaul is live in Baghdad with all of these details.

Good morning to you, Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Betty. At least 49 Iraqi soldiers have been killed according to sources within the Iraqi Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry. All these 49 were heading home for a few days leave with friends and relatives after a period at a training base.

Now the area where the attack took place, three mini buses that these men were travelling on were intercepted apparently by a group of heavily armed insurgents, and the point at which this occurred is about 70 miles east of Baghdad, some 15 or 20 miles from the border with Iran.

It seems that all these men were made to lie down on the ground and were killed execution style. This obviously fits into a growing pattern whereby the insurgents are taking on full front the Iraqi security forces. The Iraqi security forces still very much in the training phases and as proved here unable to defend themselves.

It must be said though that these men were unarmed and in civilian cloths because they were heading home on leave.

Now the other incident here in Baghdad, a mortar attack on Camp Victory one of the main U.S. bases here. In that attack a U.S. diplomatic security agent was killed. He was killed, in fact, while he was sleeping. And U.S. embassy officials tell us that this was the first full time State Department official to die in Iraq.

Betty.

NGUYEN: CNN's Karl Penhaul with the latest deadly developments in Iraq for us. Thank you, Karl.

Keep up with all the rapidly changing events in Iraq on our Web site. All you have to go to is CNN.com.

HARRIS: Helicopters relied on the Coast Guard for emergencies, but the choppers seem to be having too many emergencies of their own. Is something wrong with this Coast Guard fleet?

NGUYEN: Plus was it live or a memory lapse? Something seemed a little out of sync for Ashley Simpson.

HARRIS: And later fighting for a younger look. "HOUSE CALL" takes a close up look at new face lift techniques. Find out if they really work.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well sure you've seen plenty of political ads this season. But in the next hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING wait until you see the homemade versions we found. It's what's hot on the Web coming up next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: I want to say good morning St. Louis. Well, the birds were battered in Boston, but it is only game one. Not to worry. Back home in St. Louis we are attacking weather. Jacqui Jeras will have you complete weekend forecast in about three minutes from now.

HARRIS: The Coast Guard's fleet of search and rescue helicopters fly in all kinds of weather helping many people every day. But recently engine problems have been hampering the Guards ability to fly to the rescue. Here's CNN's Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi. Everyone ready?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Coast Guard HH-65 suffers a power loss in one engine. The pilot dumps fuel even a life raft to make a risky emergency landing on a cutter deck one third the size of a basketball court.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice Job. Nice job. All right let's sit this pig down.

MESERVE: Robert Makowski was piloting an HH-65 during the Gulf War when it had the same problem. Given the choice of landing in unfriendly Syria or ditching, he was forced to make a cutter landing at night and he hasn't forgotten.

CMDR. ROBERT MAKOWSKI: U.S. COAST GUARD: When I take off I'm always thinking where can I land if I lose an engine. Every time I'm coming in for a land where would I go, what would I do in this situation.

MESERVE: Engine power loses in the Coast Guard's HH-65s have been spiraling upward at an alarming rate. They used to average about 10 a year, but climbed to 171 in the last 12 months.

READ ADMIRAL GARY BLORE, U.S. COAST GUARD: It's capable of flying on one engine. You just can't stay in a hover or do a maneuver on one engine.

MESERVE: Crippling to a helicopter critical to search and rescue and described as the backbone of the Coast Guard aviation fleet. Because of the engine problems, the choppers are no longer allowed to land in tight quarters like hospital helipads and the distance and duration of their flights have been limited.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It affected us actually going out and saving lives or helping those in great distress.

MESERVE: The problem with the engines and their control system has not been pinpointed, but among the contributing factors age, modifications that have increased the choppers weight and increased flight hours resulting from the Coast Guard's expanded homeland security mission.

The Coast Guard has begun replacing the engines, though some believe it would be more economical in the long term just to buy new helicopters.

REP. BOB FILNER, (R) CALIFORNIA: And we're wondering why they've made a decision which just doesn't meet a common sense test.

MESERVE: Replacing the engines on the fleet of 96 HH-65s will cost about $290 million and take two years, two years when there will be risks to the chopper crews and those who need their help.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN Atlantic City, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Checking our top stories now. A State Department security officer is killed in Baghdad this morning. Ed Sykes was killed during a mortar attack at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport. The State Department says a U.S. soldier was also wounded in the attack.

About 80 miles east of Baghdad a mass killing. At least 49 Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush near the Iranian border. Iraqi police say they were on their way home after graduating from training school.

And look at this. Those three earthquakes that hit northern Japan yesterday tore apart highways, destroyed homes and left thousands of people huddle in emergency shelters.

HARRIS: Wow!

NGUYEN: At least 15 people were killed, more than 460 others hurt. It also derailed a high speed train there, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) train in the areas. It caused lots of damage, three earthquakes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: An appearance on "Saturday Night Live" can be a real, well, it can be a boost for one's career, but not when it goes like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once again, Ashley Simpson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Listen closely, everyone. She's not singing here. See?

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: OK. Here's the deal. A musical miscue left pop singer Ashlee Simpson at a loss for words. So, what did she do? She did this little strange little dance. A little hop in here and then -- basically what she does is she says oh, let's call the whole thing off. I'm just going to sort of wiggle off the stage here. I'm a little embarrassed, oh, head down. I'm going to go, and I'm going to blame my band, my misbehaving band.

NGUYEN: Who stayed and played obviously just for a little while. At least they stayed out there.

HARRIS: They're smiling. Look at them, what the heck just went on there?

NGUYEN: Oh well. Hey, things happen. Poor Ashlee.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The question is I thought for SNL you had to play live.

HARRIS: We were talking about that, yes. I mean how...

NGUYEN: Well it could have been live and maybe they're - like you said there's that little tape version and...

HARRIS: Yes. It's live. You should it live.

NGUYEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

JERAS: I think so.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was actually...

NGUYEN: She could have been singing over the tape version though.

HARRIS: OK.

NGUYEN: I don't know. We've never been on SNL.

JERAS: Right.

NGUYEN: We're going to take a break. We'll be back. We'll try to hash this out.

HARRIS: It's live. It's called "Saturday Night Live."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: One of George Bush's strongest political basis is born again Christian. With some 100 million evangelicals in America they have emerged as a potent social and political force. That phenomenon is the focus of tonight's "CNN PRESENTS."

In this excerpt from the "Fight Over Faith" correspondent Carol Marin examines the conservative nature of the Evangelical movement and the rift it is causing with more liberal Christians.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL MARIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the church doors open the Carlyle are there, Catlin and Rick, Cassidy and Robin who have instilled their faith in their children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ask that you bless it in Jesus name, amen.

MARIN: For people who don't embrace Jesus what happens to them?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: They go to hell.

MARIN: For sure?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: For sure. There's no other way to heaven except through Jesus. If you don't accept Jesus as your savior and you don't believe it in your hear that he has died for you then you're going to go to hell and there's no alternative.

REV. WELDON GADDY, FMR. SOUTHERN BAPTIST: I think Christianity is more exclusive now than it was at its inception.

MARIN: In 1998 Reverend Weldon Gaddy quit the church he grew up in and left the Southern Baptist faith because of its increasingly conservative beliefs. He still however, calls himself an Evangelical.

GADDY: Some of my critics would not like me calling myself an Evangelical.

MARIN: Why not?

GADDY: Because I am open minded. I believe in the importance of interfaith relations.

MARIN: He said it's the kind of exclusivity found in Spartanburg (ph) that is a danger to America's religious diversity.

If you believe in Buddha or Mohammed in your faith there is no salvation?

GADDY: There may be a lot of things about the Bible that I don't understand. But I'm not really given the choice of what I can believe and what I can't believe. I accept the scripture there, believe that Jesus is the only way to God.

I don't trust a religion that causes a person to write people off rather than want to embrace them. Our future will either be marked by inter religious cooperation or a conflict that will weaken the nation and destroy the integrity of religion.

MARIN (on camera): Are we headed towards the more negative consequence right now?

GADDY: We're running toward it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK. Be sure to tune in tonight for this all new "CNN PRESENTS." "The Fight Over Faith" airs at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m Pacific.

We want to quickly get to our e-mail question and a response. The question is electoral or popular vote, which system do you prefer?

NGUYEN: Well, Judd in Athens, Georgia says I have felt for a long time that the electoral college has long since out lived its original intent. I don't really understand what the original purpose was. I'm not sure anyone does. Every other official in this country is elected by popular vote and this should apply to the presidential election as well.

Of course we're going to keep reading those responses on the air throughout the morning. So send them in to wam@cnn.com

So, is traffic bad for your health? It sure is frustrating.

HARRIS: Yes.

NGUYEN: According to a new study there appears to be a link between traffic jams and heart attacks.

HARRIS: We'll have that story and all of the other news of the day when we see you back here at the top of the hour for the last hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

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


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