Transcripts For CNN Campbell Brown 20100110

eureka california. can you see a lot of bottles on the ground in a store. it appears to have caused some minor damage, some downed power lines, a few pictures coming in, we're also told that -- there's another one there from the eureka times standard newspaper. we're being told that st. joseph's hospital in eureka is reporting, it's treated one person for a broken hip, others for bumps and bruises. they have not had to call in any extra staff. i'll see you back here tomorrow night at 6:00, 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern. good night. tonight, hear the questions we want answers. how far is president obama willing to go to stop terrorists. >> we're at war against al qaeda. we'll do whatever it takes to beat them. the white house raises the stakes and puts it all on the line. >> the buck stops with me. when the system fails, it's my responsibility. >> intelligence fell through the cracks. >> what will it take to stop the next terrorist from striking here at home. is this american man the next osama bin ladin? a special investigation, the radical cleric born in the u.s.a., find out his connection to 9/11, the accused ft. hood shooter and other terror suspects. also tonight our cnn special investigation, a chain of yoga and wellness centers, two dozen former employees say it's a cult, they were abused. >> people were screaming, throwing up. people were running away. >> reporter: don's lawyers say it is not a cult and no one was abused, who's telling the truth. this is your only source for news, cnn prime time begins now. here's campbell brown. >> we're going to start tonight, as always with the matchup. the week's top story, a scathing white house report on the christmas day bomb plot. president obama outlined how his administration dropped the ball and the commander in chief made one thing crystal clear, he fully understands we're fighting a war on terror. >> for ulgt mtimately, the buck stops with me. >> president obama took full responsibility for mistakes that failed that stop the christmas day bombing plot. >> the u.s. government had sufficient information to disrupt the al qaeda plot. the intelligence community leadership did not increase analytic resources working on the full threat. the watch listing system fails and needs to be strengththenned and improved. >> what's new here and what's important and dramatic is the fact that you have an al qaeda affiliate trying to hit the homeland directly. >> we are at war. we are at war against al qaeda, a far reaching network of violence and hatred. >> reporter: the president issued 16 new reforms he wants implemented, including review how u.s. visas are issued and revoked. homeland security, pursue new technology and procedures for screening airline passengers. strengthen procedures on terrorist watch listing review and distribution. fbi, conduct a thorough review of the terrorist screening database. >> the president also pledged to provide more agencies access to intelligence reports involving threats on the united states. moving to afghanistan the suicide bomber who killed seven cia agents, we learned this week that the terrorist was a double agent and we found how he managed to slip through security. >> reporter: a jordanian doctor, a former senior u.s. intelligence official says he was providing very important information on some very high level targets. the double agent was brought on to the cia base in afghanistan without first being given a polygraph test, one of the basic tools in establishing a spy's trustworthiness. he had provided bona fide information, including the location of al qaeda leaders killed by cia drone strikes. a u.s. intelligence official says there were still questions about his reliability and the access he claimed to have to senior al qaeda leaders. >> reporter: he had already been to the base about a half a dozen times, because of the information he claimed he had, the cia officers told the local guards not to search him as he went past three layers of security. >> reporter: 13 cia officers and contractors from the company formally known as black water had gathered to hear the informants report when the bomb went off. >> american and jordanian officials believed the bomber had been rehabilitated. they hoped he would lead them to the top lieutenant of osama bin ladin. over to the world of politics now, and a big blow to democrats hopes to hold on to their super majority in the united states senate. two veteran lawmakers said they are calling quits. >> one of president obama's closest and most powerful allies has essentially decided you won't have him to kick around any more. we're talking about chris dodd, and he's not the only democratic senator bowing out. >> in the past 24 hours, two veteran senate democrats announced they're retiring, chris dodd who was facing a tough re-election bat nell connecticut and byron dorgan of north dakota. >> he said he didn't have a republican opponent yet, he said he wants to do other things, his retirement will mean an uphill battle for democrats to hold on to that seat. >> that means the democrats will be defending four open senate seat this is year, it's increasing the pressure on them and the president to get their agenda including health care approved this year. usually presidents in their first term lose seats in their midterm elections, it's clearly going to happen to obama. >> these democrats drank the obama kool-aid, and they're committing political suicide. >> have some perspective here, four democratic senators are retiring this year, but so are six republicans. on the weather front an arctic blast caused havoc across the country this week, two thirds of the nation experiencing record low temperatures. snow has been piling up from kansas city to the carolinas, here in memphis, at least three fatalities have been attributed to the bitter cold. iguanas plummeting from their tree top perches. it is cold, it's snowy, and it is terrible traveling here in the midwest. we're dealing with windchills of between 0 and 15 degrees below zero, and while that is more commonplace up north, here in the memphis area, it's not so common. word of the day my friend, layers. gloves, lots of pants and ugly hats to stay warm here in oklahoma. the bad news is, it's going to be this way for several more days. >> yes, indeed. but there's hope on the horizon, forecasters say temperatures in the south will be closer to normal next week, there could be 10 feet of snow in the northwest. good news for the winter olympics. no official word yet on the late night shake-up that has got the tv world buzzing. the new york times is reporting nbc plans to move jay leno back to its 11:30 time slot and push conan to midnight. officials met with both hosts on thursday, the network spokeswoman was tight lipped. both late night hosts refusing to comment on what's going on behind the scenes. leno himself made light of the situation. >> it's katie couric's birthday today. she left nbc for another network, i have to give her a call, see how that's working out. as you may have heard, there's a rumor floating around we were cancelled. i heard it this morning on the radio. kevin, you know, if we did get cancelled, it would give us time to do some traveling. >> that would be wonderful. >> i understand, fox is beautiful this time of year. >> it really is. >> what does nbc stand for? >> never believe your contract. but you know, hey, i want to tell you. >> leno's 10:00 p.m. show isn't giving network affiliates the boost they needed. and the tonight show stats have fallen since he passed the baton to conan o'brien. when it comes to fighting terrorists, president obama doesn't get it, john daly's punch line. >> yesterday president obama responded to concerns that he was too slow to address the christmas terror plot. >> no, you're playing right into their hands. >> jon stewart, everybody. and that is the mash-up. still ahead tonight, president obama ordering new security measures after a series of government failures led up to christmas day's attempted bombing of the u.s. airliner. in a moment, we're going to hear from two former top homeland security officials as the president's national security team struggles to fix this system. it was not the failure of a single individual or a single organization. yes, there was some human errors, but those errors were not the primary or fundamental cause of what happened on december 25th. rather this was a systemic failure across agencies and across organizations. my muscles feel like they've been pounded... my muscles just ache... ..all over my body... ...it just doesn't go away. it's so baffling. 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( click, click, click ) mistakes that led to the christmas day terror plot coming dangerously close to succeeding, there were a number of blund irs, tracking the suspected bomber, they didn't realize how big a threat the u.s. was facing through the small chapter of al qaeda in yemen believed to be involved in the plot. >> in the intelligence we have acquired over the last several years, it's been rather inspirational. it's said things, promoted a certain view as far as bringing the fight to us, all of the activities we were focused on were happening in yemen. in hindsight now, in 20/20 hindsight gives you much better opportunity to see it. at the time we didn't know they were talking about sending mr. abdulmutallab to the united states. >> underestimating al qaeda in yemen is it one of the conclusions, but there are others. there was a failure to assign anyone to follow up on the threat even with the information they had. shortcomings on the watch list kept umar farouk abdulmutallab's name from causing the radar to go up until he was already in the air. initial search of the suspect's name used the wrong spelling, that's just what we're learning from the initial report. this week i spoke to a former director of intelligence under george w. bush. welcome to you both. mr. ambassador, administration officials had told us last night that the american public would find this report in its glory pretty shooking. what in it did you find most surprise something. >> well, first of all, you use the phrase in the leadup here that the system is broken, and i don't think that's really true, and i think in the statement the white house issued today they made clear there have been a lot of successes since the reforms took place after 9/11. as john brennen said, hindsight is 20/20 vision. we've had this terrorist now in custody for a couple weeks time, we've learned the narrative of what he was plotting to do. so sure it looks a bit shocking looking in retrospectively, but i didn't find it too surprising, and i think it's fortunate that we dodge this particular bullet. >> i just want to -- obviously, we all feel that way, i just want to clarify here, given all of the many many sort of warning signs that were apparently there along the way, you don't find this to be. >> there was noise in the system. well, i think concerning, of course, and it was a near miss. but i think that there was noise in the system. there was the ratcheted up threat from al qaeda in the gulf, and there was word of an effort to carry out some plot against the homeland. i don't think there was anything that specifically would cause this man's name to automatically pop out. >> noise in the system, the guy's father went to our embassy and warned -- isn't that just a little more than trying to decipher a noise in the system in. >> right, that's probably the most disturbing part, although this is something who had no terrorist record in the past. so all i'm saying is, when you're looking at this kind of information in realtime, there are always ambiguities and judgment calls that need to be made. we missed this particular one, but i do believe there was a lot of ambiguous information. >> list thing to the president today, what was your take? do you think he gets it, that they're focused in the right direction and in the right place? >> he does. he's a president who's very reflective. he said himself there was a systemic failure in the system. he's willing to admit problems. all systems breakdown. i think i agree, there's a great deal of ambiguity, contradictions, here it's very refreshing, very assuring the president, the commander in chief, he said he expects security measures to be iron clad, he's willing to take responsibility for what's happened. >> ambassador, let me ask you about some of the specifics, obviously. the whole point of intelligence sharing after september 11th was the redundancy to stop things from falling through the cracks, and in this case, multiple agencies knew about the threat, nobody took responsibility necessarily for following through about i know you think that it could have been a lot worse, i guess, the president did outline some additional steps that are going to be taken now, do you think that that goes far enough to try to close these holes? >> well, if i -- i would hope so. i certainly think it's a good thing that he's announced these measures, i think that clearly there's going to be a tightening up of what's done. and i think that everybody up and down the system is going to be more vigilant, and i suspect the president himself is going to become more engaged in overseeing this entire process. that's to the good as well. he's going to be more of a national security oriented president -- he. >> you think this could be a larger plot unfolding? you could be losing bone strength. can i get it back? 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explain what you mean by that. and if that's the case, what do we need to be doing to stop it? >> what i was referring to was back in 1994. there was an incident on an airplane, flying out of the philippines, where a bomb went off, and it turned out to be a precursor of a much larger plot to blow up 11 airliners over the pacific in early 1995. a plot that ended up being successfully foiled. that was called the bo jacob plot. it just occurred to me that one of the hypotheses that needs to be looked at here is, is this part of a larger plot? is this just the first step in something broader? clearly, that's the kind of thing that in the interrogation of this individual and in the analysis of the intelligence, people are going to be looking into. >> one of the things the president said, you just heard in that sound bite, he talked a little bit about it, the challenge of dealing with this lone terrorist attacker. seemingly lone terrorist attacker, depending on what we may learn in the future. it seems like a new front or a different way of fighting this -- we're not in the hills of afghanistan, going out -- >> yes. >> going after members of al qaeda, as we had been previously, it's now this kind of potential threat. how do you address that differently? >> you know, campbell, the ability of al qaeda to carry out multiple spectacular attacks along the 9/11 lines appears to have undermind greatly al qaeda, several major military set backs, american security measures are much stronger than before 9/11, so al indicate de c al qaeda can no longer send 19 suicide bombers, you have al qaeda traveling ideology that ressionates with some political- >> that can be just as deadly? >> absolutely. >> it's very difficult to deal with this particular trend that's taking place. one particularly radicalized individual, who basically this particular traveling al qaeda resonates, he meets with radical clerics, he gets training, bombs, arms and he tries to infiltrate america. >> this isn't a one time -- we've seen this repeatedly. how would you address this, given this peers to a new threat. >> i think the president's right, we have to find ways to deal with that, it is more difficult. the incidents are not on the scale as the professor was suggesting of 9/11. one thing i would point out is, they seem to continue and have been interested in a long, long time in blowing up airliners, that seems to be one of their main objectives in life, and they keep trying, i wouldn't be surprised if they try that again. and we got to be on the lookout for that. >> campbell, the president said, we need to appeal to muslims worldwide, think, militants in the last 10 years have used social networks to recruit, mobilize. here you have the father of the christmas day bomb er, the muslm community could serve as the first line of defense. here you have a father and other incidents where the muslim communities, where the relatives, the neighbors -- >> are already playing that role. >> and this is why in a way, you really need to turn the table on the militants, as the president says, two major points, we must really make sure, we must reach out to muslims and also make sure we do not undermine america's open society. if we undermine america's open society al qaeda wins. >> i appreciate your time together. ambassador, thank you, good to see you. an american born cleric who is sin spehring a new generation of terrorism. >> al awaki can't come back into britain. he's getting his message out. his books are selling for about $100 each, the store keeper says they're among his hottest selling items, most people buying them believe he's mainstream. >> our special investigation into a nationwide chain of yoga and wellness centers. more than a dozen former employees call it a cult. you'll hear from both sides. they is just a peel away. explore all the delicious flavors. yoplait. it is so good. the suspect in the botched christmas bombing pleaded not guilty to six federal charges friday in detroit. now it appears he may have been motivated by the radical preaching of an american-born muslim cleric. al awaki is reveered among some jihadists. nick robinson has our special investigation. >> hezbollah was victory. rain was mers very. >> reporter: the radical yemen-based preacher seen here online. his followers in britain say he's like osama bin ladin. >> hand me over your scrolls. >> reporter: this is the same anwar al awaki who exchanged e-mails with major nidal hasan. al awaki called him a hero. seven-years ago he moved from the u.s. to london and was still here when the alleged christmas day bomber umar farouk abdulmutallab began university here. intelligence agencies are investigating the possibility they met. this is is the mosque where anwar al awaki did his study. abu abass was one of those who flocked to al awaki's classes. for these radical muslims in london, they shared a hatred of the united states and the war in iraq, he was god's messenger. osama hasan was once a radical himself. he met al awaki and heard him spoke, telling the congregation police had mistreated people of islam. >> if they don't know how to chann channel, the anger will take over. >> reporter: hassan later walked away from extremism. >> he conducted closed studies justifying suicide bombing, including in the west. >> justifying suicide bombings? >> justifying suicide bombings. >> reporter: al awaki was eventually banned from visiting the u.k. even though he can't come back into britain, he's still getting his message out. his books are selling for about $100 each. the store keeper says they're among his hottest selling items, because most people buying them believe al awaki is mainstream. weather on dvd's the internet or behind closed doors, he's inspired people to terrorism. in london court transcripts reveal that at least some of the group that conspired to blow up passenger jets enroute to the u.s. in 2006 were al devotes, so too, terrorists in toronto, planning to blow up targets in canada and the united states. the six men arrested in may 2007 and convicted of planning to kill soldiers at ft. dix in new jersey. >> reporter: what you are hearing are three of the four ft. dix bombers praising al awaki. he was born in the united states, his father was a minister in the yemeni government, he is smart and privileged, he preached at a mosque in virginia. >> young, handsome, californian, has the benefit of english without an accent. and who also is proficient in the arabic language. in fact, he is technically an arab. what better mix? >> reporter: the imam doesn't agree with al awaki. what's on everyone's mind now is what influence al awaki may have had on a young nigerian either here or in yemen. nic robertson cnn, london. >> in a moment our special investigation of a nationwide chain of yoga and wellness centers, two dozen former employees say it's a cult. they prey upon people like me who are ignorant about the way money works. >> dahn's lawyers say it's no cult, it's a business. in your legs causing you pain. ok. what is it? dad, it more than doubles your risk of a heart attack or stroke. you'd better read about plavix. if you have p.a.d., plavix can help protect you from a heart attack or stroke. plavix helps keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots- the cause of most heart attacks and strokes. talk with your doctor about plavix? i'll do it. promise. (announcer) people with stomach ulcers or other conditions that cause bleeding should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines, including aspirin, may increase bleeding risk, so tell your doctor when planning surgery. certain genetic factors and some medicines, such as prilosec, may affect how plavix works. tell your doctor all the medicines you take, including aspirin, especially if you've had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, reported sometimes less than two weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. a nationwide chain of yoga and wellness centers which promises its members healthier and happier lives is under attack by more than two dozen of its former employees. they claim that the organization is a cult. the chain is called dahn yoga, its lawyers and public relations representatives denied all the assertions made in a federal lawsuit filed by those ex-employees. here now, kyra phillips, with a cnn's special unit report. most americans have probably never heard of dahn yoga, nor its founder, a korean businessman. that's why this event is packed. it's the dead indication of dahn yoga's mago earth park, meaning mother earth. according to this video, il chi lee is the messenger of a new creation story. >> he set out for america. >> reporter: this was part of the spiritual message that drew in college students like jade harrelson and liza miller. they started out as members and soon became employees, they began to question what they believed, what had been promised as the path to enlightenment began to look like a cult. >> they prey upon people like me who are ignorant about the way money works. >> what started out as a few hundred dollars grew into payments of thousands as their training advanced. and to pay the bills they took out student loans, giving them money, straight to dahn yoga. >> they encouraged me and taught me how to take out these student loans. >> how much in total? >> my expenses for dahn were $40,000. >> were you able to pay that back? >> no, i'm still paying it back, and i'll be paying it back for another 20, 25 years. >> the organization tells us no one was told to spend money they didn't have. >> they have misinterpreted natural business cycles, natural business goals as undue pressure. >> as far as i can tell the need for growth is designed and intended to provide more money to mr. lee rather than any spiritual goal. >> reporter: ryan kent represents 27 former dahn yoga employees who are suing the organization, calling a totalistic high demand cult group which manipulates its members to serve il chi lee's businesses. >> they've injected cult like action u sayings. >> reporter: dahn's attorney says the accusations are a money grab. >> what's bow training? >> a series of representative motions to over and over again -- >> bowing over and over again like this. it drove her to the brink of exhaustion, just to reinforce her dedication to the group. >> we actually had to do 3,000 at one point which took about 10 hours. and we didn't eat or drink during that time. >> 10 hours of bowing, no eating, no drinking. did people pass out, did they get sick? >> people were rolling around mooning, crying, wailing. there was a lot of emotional distress. >> and nobody at any time said, this is crazy, this is ridiculous? >> if we were to come out and say things like that we would again be refocused to ourselves and our problems. >> reporter: alexander says that depiction is simply untrue. >> generally people do a smaller number of bows and they build up to more. i know of no one who does 3,000 bows on a regular basis. >> reporter: but allegations against dahn yoga don't stop at money and abuse. there's much more. >> we just want your side of the story, sir. i want to personally thank you for 100 calorie hearty chicken rotini. well, it's not just me. you're so funny. i like you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. ( clicking ) ( laughs, click ) when you hear a click, ( clicking ) you know it's closed and secure. that's why hefty food bags click closed. hefty! hefty! hefty! so you know you've helped lock in freshness and lock out air... to help prevent freezer burn. be sure it's secure with hefty food bags. just one click and you know it's closed. hefty! hefty! hefty! ( click, click, click ) tonight we're looking at a nationwide chain of yoga centers run by a korean national. it's under assault for being a cult, in a federal suit filed on behalf of 27 forminger members of dahn yoeg garks one of the central allegations is that the chain's founder sexually assaulted a woman who devoted herself to the organization. dahn yoga and its founder deny all the allegations. here now, kyra phillips. >> reporter: jade harrelson says she was honored by the extra attention paid to her by the founder of dahn yoga. he even gave her the spiritual name of dahn sun lee. >> he was profit like, and so i took his word as holy almost. >> reporter: lee encourages his followers to think of him as a profit, just listen to him in the spring of 2009 as he rallied his supporters comparing his book brain wave vibration to the bible. >> brain wave vibration is a scripture, a holy scripture. do you all understand? >> reporter: jade harrelson says she not only understood, she believed, even following her new guru to seoul, south korea to his request, and to his apartment every time he called for her. >> you trusted him? >> i trusted him. >> were you attracted to him at all? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: that trust abrupt livanished after a night in 2006 at his korean apartment. propelling her into a life changing world of doubt. >> he just slowly took my clothes off of me and pushed me where he wanted me to go, and i numbly, like a robot just responded. >> why didn't you tell him to stop? >> i had been so taught and trained that he was a holy person, a holy object and he was my connection to d divinity, an to refuse him was to refuse everything i wanted for myself. >> she never filed a police report and waited more than two years to file a civil suit. we asked for an on camera interview with il chi lee we were turned it down. we followed him here to this 39 foot statue representing what his followers call the sole of mother earth. >> mr. lee, i'm kyra phillips for cnn, we want your response to the allegations of sexual assault against one of your former dahn masters. we want your story, sir. >> yes need a translator. >> so our cnn photographer who speaks korean translated. >> please don't touch me. >> and then his bodyguards knocked down the camera. >> don't touch the camera. >> all claims of sexual assault are false. >> mr. lee has denied all those allegations, and we are confident we will get those claims dismissioned in court. >> reporter: there's no question dahn yoga have a devoted and loyal membership. current members say it's not a cult. if you look at the daln yoga websi website, there are testimonies, from the president of costa reeg ka to a prominent new york scientist. he's also seen in photographs with al gore, hillary clinton and joe biden. liza miller says she was once a believer too. >> when i found dahn, i felt like, this is it. now, liza is one of the 27 former employees filing a lawsuit claiming dahn yoga is a cult. >> i feel it's my duty to come forward and share my stories so that people are aware of the truth about the organization, because having been in the organization, you know, people that are still in believe something completely different. they are being deceived. >> the attorney for mr. lee says the only deception involved is on the part of the former employees who filed the lawsuit, he insists all they want is money. the next legal step in this case comes toward the end of the month, when the attorney for the former employees has to file a response in federal court opposing dahn yoga's attempt to dismiss the lawsuit. we will keep you posted. >> you struck a nerve. there has been an outpouring about the story on the internet on both cnn.com and here on our blog. >> i talked to you about that after the first night, it was incredible. we were inundated with e-mails and response, proand con, a lot of the acting members and employees of dahn yoga were saying, hey, this is not a cult, this organization has been fantastic for us, then we got inundated with other stories, it's been deinstructive for me, my family, we found out they were talking about our investigation on the korean blog, so it's gone overseas as well. >> thank you, kyra. a new book just out has new information about the 2008 campaign. find out what brought hillary clinton to tears. and later, tonight's guilty pleasure. a book worth reading. "washington post" white house correspondent ann kornblut made some surprising discoveries in her new book, "notes from the cracked ceiling." hillary clinton, sarah palin, and what it will take for a woman to win. so ann, welcome. full disclosure, we have known each other a long time and have been friends for a long time. i did get an early peek at the book. but it is an amazing read. and let's start with an overview. the 2008 campaign, you had hillary clinton came so close to getting her party's nomination, sarah palin, the gop's first vice presidential nominee, and yet you argue 2008 was not a great year for women in politics. explain. >> well, look, we don't give points for second place in this country. we don't say john kerry came in second place for the presidency. hooray. that was historic. so i think it was folly for some of us in the wake of 2008 to say it was the year of the woman. because they both lost. and at the same time they also lost after undergoing a really rough time in first the primary for hillary clinton, then in the general election for sarah palin. they exposed some of the problems that i think any woman who's going to run for president going forward is going to experience in terms of harsh treatment, being ridiculed, their credentials being dismissed right off the bat. >> there's a moment where you reveal for the first time in the book of hillary clinton breaking down in tears when she's on the telephone on a conference call with some of her staff. explain what happened. >> well, as you probably remember during the campaign, there was a rival cable network, one of the anchors said that chelsea clinton had been pimped out. she was calling some of the big donors and some of the superdelegates. and when that word got back to the candidate herself during a conference call within the campaign, she either broke down and cried or she got extremely angry. a couple of her aides told me different versions of the story. but in any event, she was very emotional in a way that none of her aides had ever really seen her be during the campaign. and what it reflected to me was this difficulty that she'd had as a mother, as a woman running for office in how to use her daughter. candidates all the time, male candidates bring their children out. they're part of the fabric. but she really struggled with whether to use chelsea, whether to talk about the fact that she was a mother on the trail, which some people thought, me included, could have helped her, shown her as a woman. and then in the end when she did and she was attacked for it, it made her very emotional. this is one of the sort of inherent problems of a woman running for higher office. >> let's talk about the republicans and sarah palin. and you write, this is so interesting, that not one female strategist was involved in choosing her-n selecting sarah palin to be john mccain's vp. and in many ways the mccain campaign was caught off guard by some of the issues and some of the attacks, frankly, that she had to deal with as a woman. explain sort of what was going on there. >> well, it was a very small circle of mccain aides who made the decision, and they were all men. but some of the things that they later experienced such as the focus on her looks, for example, or the obsession with her young baby and whether it was hers, which turned out to be a ridiculous question. but some of that stuff, if there had been a woman in the room she might have been able to raise her hand and say hey, wait a second, guys, we know from past experience that female candidates who look too perfect, who are too attractive, that can sometimes count against them with female voters. the men didn't realize that sometimes female voters, they want somebody who's older, who seems a little more serious. maybe doesn't look so perfect or so beautiful. and that's something that female candidates in other races have experienced. so maybe if there had been a woman in the room she could have raised her hand and alerted them to that. >> and you also talked to a lot of political strategists in the research, and they explain how women actually need to campaign differently to address some of this stuff. >> look, it may not be fair and a lot of it i don't think is, but what they have found, talk toying allot of strategists, have found is voters don't necessarily want to see a woman all the time in her campaign ads. some advisers recommend that women drop the caliber of their voice. if they've got a very high voice, bring it down a notch so people can't accuse you of being shrill. and it's not fair. and people say oh, that's a double standard. but all of that and the focus on looks, it just happens. so you can deny, it you can say you don't like, it but when you're running for office you have to appeal to people, and that's sort of the frustrating game that a lot of the strategists i've spoken to say they've encountered. >> ann kornblut. the book is called "notes from the glass ceiling." a fantastic book. congratulations. >> thank you. up next, tonight's guilty pleasure. politicians upstaged by their kids. >> and check out the older daughter going gaga at the mention of her name. >> these young children of mine. grace, who's 8 -- new breathe right extra. the only strip with an extra spring-like band, it's 50% stronger for congested noses that need extra help in opening nasal passages... so you breathe even better. and now get two free samples... and experience a better night's sleep for yourself. go to breatheright.com to try new breathe right extra. [ female announcer ] yoplait's perfect blend of real fruit and the goodness of dairy is just a peel away. explore all the delicious flavors. yoplait. it is so good. politicians and celebrities have no trouble playing to the cameras. so sometimes it's more fun to watch what's happening over their shoulders and behind their backs. case in point, senator chris dodd's kids this week stealing the limelight as he announced he won't run for re-election. jeanne moos has that and more in tonight's "guilty pleasure." >> reporter: sure, you can tell everyone where to stand, but getting kids to stand still, good luck. >> i'm still driven by the same passions. >> reporter: we were more interested in what senator chris dodd's daughter was whispering. >> so many, many years ago. >> reporter: than we were in his speech. 4-year-old christine had her hand on dad's shoulder -- >> wishing that i could have seen -- >> reporter: and on mom's nose. >> the political shape of my career. >> reporter: and check out the older daughter going gaga at the mention of her name. >> these young children of mine, grace, who's 8 -- >> reporter: when her dad kisses her, she wipes it off. judging from her parting words, grace would rather be saying grace. >> i'm starving. >> come on in here, gang. >> i'm starving. i'm starving. >> reporter: but beware what they eat. the man voters picked to be new jersey's next governor wasn't the only thing picked at his acceptance speech. >> government could fix every problem. they just want to give a hand up -- >> reporter: we've seen enough of the lieutenant governor-elect's son getting his hand up. remember chief justice john roberts' son? he made the papers for escaping his mom's clutches and crawling around as the president introduced his dad. >> he's an honors graduate of both harvard college and harvard law school. >> reporter: young jack graduated to hand signals and fancy footwork. >> after he was nominated for the court of appeals in 2001 -- >> reporter: eventually, jack had to be marched off the stage. >> i received good advice from both republicans and democrats. >> reporter: even older kids can't stand still. letterman made this kid famous. >> if you're worried about the quality of education in the community in which you live -- we stand for the fair treatment of faith-based groups who receive federal support for their work. >> reporter: of course there was rudy giuliani's son all grown up now. but will he ever live down his dad's swearing in as mayor? blowing kisses -- >> to our city. >> reporter: joining in the oath. >> i rudolph giuliani. >> reporter: you know, it's one thing when your kids steal a show, but how about when it's a couple of koalas? and we do mean a couple. tennis star andy roddick was talking to reporters at an australian koala sanctuary. >> because we were fighting about a 35-mile-an-hour cross-wind. >> reporter: who cares about the tennis court? you can watch koalas

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