Kerry Gains Ground in Two Swing States; Bush Campaigns in the Heartland
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening from New York. I'm Anderson Cooper. John Kerry gains ground in two swing states, but is it enough to give him the edge? 360 starts now. John Kerry sits down for an exclusive one-on-one with CNN. Find out his strategy heading into the home stretch. The president hits the heartland, hoping to recapture the Big Mo, but is he giving up on certain states? An American platoon in Iraq accused of refusing a mission. Tonight, the military has them confined. We'll have details. Bill O'Reilly on the ropes, accused of sexual harassment. He says it's extortion. Tonight we go 360 with the woman who's made the charges and hear her side of the story. Martha Stewart speaks out. What she thinks of the prison and her guards.</s>ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.</s>COOPER: Good evening again. Two Fridays more, three days after that, and there we are, the second of November. Push is rapidly coming to shove. If it's electoral votes you're counting, a new CNN survey finds John Kerry gaining ground in the swing states of Ohio and New Hampshire, with the president clinging to a narrow lead overall, 277 electoral votes to Senator Kerry's 261, with 270 guaranteeing election. Still, if a state as small as Iowa goes from Bush to Kerry, the candidates will be tied at 269 electoral votes each, and the election would have to be decided by the House of Representatives. CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley sat down with Senator Kerry for an exclusive one-on-one today, and White House correspondent Dana Bash has been following the president's footsteps. We're going to hear from Dana shortly. First, Candy Crowley. Candy?</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, the view from inside the Kerry campaign is looking good. His trend line, they say, is going up, and they are so excited about their get-out- the-vote effort, they say they can't talk about it, but it's unprecedented. So what now? First, no mistakes. Second, no distractions, which is why John Kerry would very much like to stop talking about Mary Cheney.</s>CROWLEY (voice-over): He seemed relaxed and confident and misunderstood. (on camera): Do you understand why the Cheneys are upset, that this feels like an invasion of their privacy?</s>SEN. JOHN KERRY, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They have talked about it themselves publicly.</s>KERRY: I think the point I was trying to make -- I've said, really, Candy, I've said everything that needs to be said yesterday about it. It was meant entirely constructively.</s>CROWLEY: In what way? How was it constructive?</s>KERRY: It's respectful of who she is, and they've embraced her, and they love her.</s>CROWLEY (voice-over): Campaigning through Milwaukee, John Kerry sat down with an interview with CNN, trying to put Mary Cheney behind him and brush Ralph Nader aside.</s>KERRY: If people want a change, and they want responsibility for the middle class in America, don't throw away your vote. There's only one choice here. Either George Bush is going to be president, or John Kerry, and that's the vote.</s>CROWLEY (on camera): Nader is on the ballot in 30 states, including nine battlegrounds, where he could make a difference. (on camera): Are you worried?</s>KERRY: I'm confident the American people are going to look at this race as the most important election of our lifetime.</s>CROWLEY (voice-over): Kerry has it down pat now, the words and thoughts perfected over a two-year campaign and three thought-focusing debates. Asked to name a mistake he's made over the past three years, he said he's sorry the deficit got so bad, that there won't be enough money to do all the things he originally proposed. (on camera): You never once said to yourself, I wish I hadn't voted for the war resolution?</s>KERRY: No, I -- because, you see, what we did, we gave the president the authority to load the gun, to pull the trigger, so to speak. We didn't tell him to shoot himself in the foot.</s>CROWLEY: On the economy, when I asked the senator what a unemployed worker from Wisconsin, which was where he was this morning, could expect in a Kerry administration in, say, February or March or April, he said, We could make some changes fairly quickly if Congress goes along. Anderson, I can tell you, having covered Capitol Hill, that's always the rub.</s>COOPER: Candy Crowley, thanks for that. More of that interview playing on "PAULA ZAHN" at 8:00. With the polls showing the race tighter than ever, President Bush is pulling out some of the buzzwords from races past. Today, for example, use of the L-word, not lesbian, that's another story. Liberal is the word we're now hearing a lot of. CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash tells us why.</s>DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the post-debate world of sifting through what worked and what did not, the president's team put attacking John Kerry's health plan in the it worked column. So he's stepped it up in Cedar Rapids.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Studies conducted by people who understand small businesses concluded that his plan is an overpriced albatross. I have a different view. We'll work to make sure health care is available and affordable.</s>KERRY: God bless you all!</s>BASH: Bush aides know Kerry's constant reminders that millions lost health insurance or saw premiums skyrocket on the president's watch resonates with voters, but they say internal research shows labeling Kerry's health plan too costly strikes a nerve with swing voters.</s>BUSH: My opponent takes the side of more centralized control and more government. There's a word for that attitude. It's called liberalism.</s>BASH: Plus, attacking the senator's plan, as one top aide said, is the perfect way to put some meat on the John Kerry is a liberal bone, a bone the president is throwing to his GOP base these final days to make sure they vote.</s>DAVID GERGEN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Let's face it, what the Bush campaign is trying to do right now is to get as many voters up and out of their chairs and out of their offices into the polls on election day as they can.</s>BASH: Two thousand election results in Iowa and Wisconsin, the two states on this leg of the final sprint, show how critical that is. The president lost both by the narrowest of margins. The difference in Iowa, 3/10 of 1 percent, a mere 4,1144 votes. In Wisconsin, 2/10 of 1 percent, just 5,708 votes.</s>BASH: Right now, it's a dead heat still in Iowa, but polls here in Wisconsin show the president has lost some ground to John Kerry since the debates. So the question now is whether or not the president's campaign continues to invest Mr. Bush's time and energy that he has been investing in traditionally Democratic states like Wisconsin, or whether or not it's still worth it, Anderson.</s>COOPER: Dana Bash, thanks for that. President Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, testified today before a grand jury looking into the leaking of a name of a CIA officer. The leak of the -- of officer Valerie Plame's name came as apparent retaliation for her husband writing an article questioning President Bush's reasons for going to war in Iraq. Now, while the investigation into that leak continues, there are some concern that other leaks are becoming an even bigger problem for the White House. Here's national security correspondent David Ensor.</s>DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While President Bush campaigns around the country, he leaves a U.S. intelligence community back in Washington where many are frustrated, even angry.</s>REVEL GERECHT, FORMER CIA OFFICER: They are in pain, and I imagine they will remain in pain as long as there is serious discussion on Capitol Hill and the White House about reorganizing the institution.</s>ENSOR: They are also upset by all the charges of intelligence failures. But the frustration may cut both ways. For over a month now, President Bush has had to dodge intelligence curveballs.</s>KENNETH POLLACK, FORMER CIA ANALYST: In the midst of a very tight presidential election, I think the Bush administration is probably very unhappy with the leaks that are coming out of the intelligence community.</s>ENSOR: First, the leak of a CIA estimate about Iraq, with three scenarios for the future, all of them gloomy. Next, word of a prewar CIA warning to the president that Ba'athists, terrorists, and nationalists would join forces against the Americans, which is exactly what they've done.</s>DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This report is one I asked for.</s>ENSOR: The next leak put Vice President Cheney on the defensive, about a CIA report that he'd requested, warning that there was no proof Saddam knowingly harbored the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before the war, despite Cheney's longtime public assertions to the contrary. After the first leak, the president reacted with irritation.</s>BUSH: They were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like.</s>POLLACK: Exactly the kind of remark that has rankled many people inside the intelligence community.</s>ENSOR: One former senior CIA official says the atmosphere between Langley and the White House is, quote, "about as poisoned as I've seen it."</s>ENSOR: A knowledgeable senior official says he doesn't believe for a moment that CIA personnel systematically leak stuff to embarrass presidents. He says the leaks are likely coming from Congress or elsewhere in the executive branch. But the White House is left to wonder whether any more bad news will leak out before election day, Anderson.</s>COOPER: David Ensor in Washington. Thanks, David. The cold of winter looms ahead, and the price of oil is hotter than ever. That story tops our look at news cross-country right now. In New York, oil smashes a record yet again. The price of crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange actually hit $55 a barrel for a little while today before falling back, closing at $54.93. Washington, D.C., pediatric warning labels on antidepressants. The FDA rules those medications must now carry a black-box warning, the strongest alert available, that children and adolescents face an increased risk of suicidal thoughts when the drugs are prescribed. The agency says antidepressants are beneficial to young patients, so the risk has got to be balanced with need. Cheyenne, Wyoming, now, snowmobilers, start your engines. A federal judge has thrown out a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. He called the rule prejudiced and a political -- politically sneaky way to try and ban snowmobiles from all national parks. Buffalo, New York, now, jailhouse admission from John Lennon's killer. Mark David Chapman says he wanted to steal Lennon's fame when he fired the deadly shot in 1980, that he always felt like a big nobody. Chapman said this to a parole board this month. Parole denied, and he's still a big nobody. That's a look at stories cross-country tonight. 360 next, under investigation, U.S. troops in trouble for refusing to go on a mission they say was too dangerous because of bad equipment. We'll have their story. Plus, Martha Stewart speaks from prison. Her first letter out, and a book in the making. Former inmate and Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss joins us live to talk about that. And "The O'Reilly Factor," dueling lawsuits over extortion and sexual harassment. We'll talk to the woman at the center of it all and hear her side. First, let's take a look, your picks, the most popular stories right now on CNN.com.