[Kyra Phillips, Cnn Anchor:] Live from Coral Gables, Florida, it's debate day, the first face-off between the presidential candidates and Dan Lothian peeking in the corner there just hours away.
[Drew Griffin, Cnn Anchor:] we'll have the strategies heading into tonight's showdown. This hour, President Bush, Senator Kerry in the "
[Crossfire." Phillips:] Risky relief. A popular pain killer taken off the market after evidence it increases your risk for a heart attack and stroke.
[Griffin:] And even if you never pour a second cup of coffee, one may be all it takes to make you a caffeine addict. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Drew Griffin, in today for Miles O'Brien.
[Phillips:] And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now. They're as primed, pumped and prepared as they'll ever be, and the voting population is waiting. Seven hours from now, the two major candidates for president will step on the same stage at the same time, and 90 minutes the very election may be decided. How's that for pressure? The focus is foreign policy, and the setting is the lovely campus of the University of Miami, where CNN's Dan Lothian is spending a lovely afternoon. Hi, Dan.
[Dan Lothian, Cnn Correspondent:] Lovely afternoon, very hot, certainly a lot of pressure, though, for both of the candidates tonight. Some 50 million viewers expected to be watching the debates. And as you mentioned, they are facing off for the first time. Of course, they have been debating, but from afar, all across the country, on the campaign trail and also in those television ads. Now, this takes place even as the talk continues about all those debate rules.
[Lothian:] The devil is in the debate details, a 32- page agreement between both campaigns. But television networks are refusing to accept some of the rules. In particular, this item, barring TV cutaways while a candidate is answering a question. It's the kind of shot that embarrassed Al Gore in the 2000 debates.
[Unidentified Male:] The candidates don't like the cutaway thing. They wanted the of course, the commission to try to stop that. Well, of course, it's not within our power to stop that. We don't own the feed.
[Lothian:] The debate commission says it won't sign the agreement, and no moderator has either. FOX News, which is handling camera feeds for the media in the first debate, said in a statement, "Because of journalistic standards, we're not going to follow outside restrictions." CNN and other networks issued similar statements. NBC saying, "We're not subject to agreements between candidates." Another issue, timing lights. The agreement says the TV audience must be able to see when a candidate's answer goes too long. But again, the networks have signaled they'll decide what to show.
[Unidentified Male:] Those details of television production that lawyers really don't have any knowledge of. And they shouldn't be involved in doing them.
[Lothian:] The questions that keep popping up around this controversy, is this even a debate? Is the agreement getting in the way of what voters should be seeing and hearing?
[Unidentified Male:] There's no question, this is not the classic debate you saw in college or in high school in debate society. But it's better than nothing. And when you realize that there's no way you can force these candidates to debate if they don't want to...
[Lothian:] What do both of these candidates have to do to knock a home run? Well, the strategists say that President has to stay on message, which he has been able to do in other debates. He also has to give a very clear explanation for his reasoning going into Iraq. As for Senator Kerry, everyone's saying that the needs to be very clear and concise and give the American people to want to make a change Kyra.
[Phillips:] Dan Lothian, thanks so much. Well, there's a lot more about tonight's debate on our Web site. You can find debate facts, a guide to the format, and running commentary from our analysts. That's at cnn.comamericavotes.
[Griffin:] Well, it may or may not come up tonight, but the president's on-again, off-again service in the Air National Guard is a subject of yet another newly uncovered document. This one comes from the White House. It's in response to state and federal lawsuits by The Associated Press. Bush's resignation from the military dated November 1974. That is a year after he gave up flying first to work for a Senate campaign in Alabama, then to go to Harvard Business School. In the letter, Bush says he's leaving because of inadequate time to fulfill possible future commitments. One phrase we'll lay odds on you will hear tonight is flip-flop. The Bush camp jokes that John Kerry could spend 90 minutes debating himself. CNN's Dana Bash spends two minutes digging for the truth behind one common Republican refrain.
[Dana Bash, Cnn White House Correspondent:] It's the Republican rallying cry, one the president hopes the debate will cement.
[George W. Bush , President Of The United States:] My opponent's had seven or eight different positions on Iraq.
[Bash:] Perhaps the most devastating flip-flop fodder is Kerry appearing to contradict himself, explaining his vote against a bill funding troops in Iraq.
[Sen. John Kerry , Presidential Candidate:] I did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.
[Bash:] President Bush, hitting Kerry for voting for the war and against funding, seized on his opponent's explanation and uses it every chance he gets.
[Bush:] Not a lot of people talk like that here in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I don't know here on the town square of St. Cloud whether many people talk that way. I don't think a lot of people speak that way in Bangor, Maine. There's nothing complicate about supporting our troops in combat.
[Bash:] The reality, the senator did vote for an amendment approving Iraq funds only if paid for by repealing tax cuts. When that measure failed, he voted against the bill to protest a flawed and costly war plan. Now, in some pre-debate damage control, Kerry admits his voting for and against it line was an inarticulate moment. [on camera]: How hard it is to explain those votes?
[Robert Dole , Fmr. Presidential Candidate:] You can't.
[Bash:] Bob Dole was the last senator to challenge an incumbent president and says he can relate. Thousands of votes to defend legislative lingo that's hard to translate.
[Dole:] I think it's just it's hard to be a senator and run for president. You've got this thing you vote for bills, you vote for this, and, you know, I can be attacked if it's there. So, if you can explain it, if Kerry can explain, he's a better man than I was. So I couldn't explain it.
[Bash:] Senator Dole says he tried to use his debates to explain the votes President Clinton's campaign use against him, but admits even with that kind of forum and that kind of time, it was too late to change public perception. And that's exactly what the Bush campaign is banking on with Senator Kerry. Dana Bash, CNN, Miami.
[Griffin:] And we're going to have more pre-debate pregame with "CROSSFIRE'S" Paul Begala and Robert Novak. That will be at the bottom of the hour right here on LIVE FROM Kyra.
[Phillips:] It was a godsend to millions, a danger to some, and a cash cow for its manufacturer. Today, though, Vioxx is a write-off, a multibillion dollar migraine for the Merck corporation, which is pulling its hugely profitable arthritis drug, one of the world's most popular prescription medicines, off the market. The issue is research showing Vioxx increases risk of heart attack and stroke in some patients. We get some insights on what might be considered a ton of prevention from Cathy Arnst, a senior writer with "BusinessWeek" Magazine. Cathy, good to have you. It's interesting. Talking about the fact that the issue is research, well, this is a company known as the premiere research company, right, at the very beginning?
[Cathy Arnst, "businessweek":] That's right. Merck was always a research powerhouse. It always prided itself on doing most of its drug discovery in-house, rather than acquiring it from outside. But in the last year, that pipeline has really dried up. They've had four very important drugs that have failed in clinical trials for arthritis, depression, anxiety and asthma. And they really don't have anything near term. Meanwhile, their most important drug, Zocor, Statin is coming off patent in 2006. There's a lot of concern about what they're going to replace it with.
[Phillips:] So, when did the trouble begin? When did safety become an issue, and when did this company start having problems?
[Arnst:] There's been concerns about Vioxx all along, and then in August there was a big report finding the same problems about heart attack and stroke. At that time, Merck disputed those findings and felt that they weren't the trial wasn't the tests weren't done accurately. This trial, though, was their own trial. It was particularly devastating for them, because they were testing the drug as a prevention for colon cancer. It would prevent polyps which often lead to cancer, and that was a very promising avenue of additional revenue for this drug. And now, not only will they not be able to seek that, but they've had to pull the drug completely.
[Phillips:] Well, we know how research goes. Sometimes it's very successful, sometimes it just doesn't work out. What does this mean for Merck now? Is it going to be a reputable research company, or is this company toast?
[Arnst:] Well, it's hard to say toast. It's still a very big company, and it has some important drugs. But it's definitely got some problems. It's got a drug out now, a combination Statin which was just approved this summer that it's marketing with Schering-Plough, but it only gets 50 percent of the revenues for that. It's a real problem. There's a lot of speculation that it's going to be a big merger candidate now. The stock, of course, dropped considerably in value. So, that makes it a cheap stock. Or that it's going have to go outside and really look for some acquisitions itself, which is going to be hard, because most of the best companies and drugs have been picked off by the other big pharma companies.
[Phillips:] Now, Cathy, I know your background isn't in personal finance, but I do want to ask you maybe can you answer this if you have a mutual fund or even if you have stock, do you need to reconsider having Merck in your portfolio, or do you just leave it alone?
[Arnst:] Well, it's not a very promising outlook for Merck. I mea, certainly, this has been a big boon for Pfizer today. Their stock is up. They make a competing so-called Cox II drug. I would have to say one would have to very seriously consider hanging on to Merck at this point. There isn't anything at least in the near-term that is going to rescue it.
[Phillips:] Well, it's going to be interesting to see the effect on the competitor, Celebrex, with Pfizer. Senor writer with "BusinessWeek" Magazine, Cathy Arnst, thank you so much for your time.
[Arnst:] Thank you.
[Phillips:] Drew.
[Griffin:] Other news "Across America" now, something else to blame on Florida hurricanes: jobs. The number of Americans seeking jobless benefits jumped by 18,000 to 369,000. The government attributing that to the rise to the effects of storms in the southeast. And talk about a shot in the dark. Cleveland Indians pitcher Kyle Denney shot in the leg while riding on the team bus. The shot fired into the side of the bus late last night, while the team was heading to Kansas City International Airport. The bullet didn't go very deep, it was removed by the trainers there. Natural gas prices set to rise. An industry trade group says demand expected to rise 4.4 percent this winter from last. And that could push prices higher. The Natural Gas Supply Association says an expanding U.S. economy is driving up demand. And it's official, you do really need that coffee in the morning. Johns Hopkins researchers say as little as one cup a day can produce caffeine addition. If you don't get it, you will be in withdrawal.
[Phillips:] Rebuilding after a disaster...
[Kristina Griffin, Hurricane Victim:] All my clothes, all the furniture I had left, TV, radio, everything.
[Phillips:] Ahead on LIVE FROM, dealing with the emotional strain of one hurricane after another. A deadly day in Iraq. Bombs turn a celebration into a nightmare. We're reporting live from Baghdad. Rumblings from the volcano. Signs that Mount St. Helens may be ready for an eruption. We're live from the shadow of the mountain.