Dual in the Desert: Bush, Kerry Go on the Attack; Bush, Kerry Campaign in Nevada
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, we're taking your questions about breast cancer. E-mail us at LiveToday@CNN.com as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.</s>RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And here's a look at what's happening right now. Two powerful explosions rocking the so-called Green Zone in Baghdad today. Authorities say that five people were killed, including three U.S. Department of Defense personnel members. Now, two U.S. troops and two American civilians are among the wounded. The explosions may have been caused by suicide bombers. CNN has learned that 28 U.S. soldiers have been implicated in the deaths of two Afghan detainees nearly two years ago. The investigation found enough evidence to proceed with possible charges against the soldiers. Those charges could include involuntary manslaughter and assault and battery, as well. The base has been turned over to military commanders. Privacy advocates are raising some serious concerns about an implantable microchip designed to provide medical information. The FDA gave the go-ahead yesterday for the company to market this VeriChip. It's about the size of a grain of rice, we're told. The chip is implanted under the skin and contains a code that gives access to a patient's medical information. First there were complaints of price gouging, now a reported theft of a sought-after flu vaccine. Police say more than 60 boxes were stolen from a suburban Denver pediatrician's office. The vaccine was enough to make the supply of shots to 620 children. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news. And here we go. It is 11 a.m. on the East Coast, 8 a.m. out west. From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Rick Sanchez.</s>KAGAN: My new partner, for those of us just joining us at the top of the hour. Welcome once again...</s>SANCHEZ: Thanks.</s>KAGAN: ... to our team. I'm Daryn Kagan. As we look at the news, Word War III is now over.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank.</s>SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order in this country.</s>BOB SCHIEFFER, MODERATOR, CBS NEWS: New question, Mr. President.</s>KAGAN: Both candidates had their share of zingers and clever comebacks. But the final presidential debate came down to drawing contrasts and delivering counterpunches. President Bush, for example, portrayed Senator John Kerry as a far left liberal, ready to raise taxes and increase government. Kerry criticized the president over job losses, rising deficits and soaring health care costs. Both campaigns are declaring victory this morning. A CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, a snap poll immediately after the debate gives Kerry the win. In the poll of 511 registered voters, 52 percent said Kerry did a better job, compared to 39 percent for President Bush. Well, with their political futures on the line, both candidates are taking a gamble on Las Vegas today. President Bush holds a rally there before heading to Reno and then on to Oregon. Senator Kerry speaks to an AARP group in Las Vegas. The recent polls showed the presidential race in Nevada about even. Later, Kerry travels to campaign events in Des Moines, Iowa. And the Dual in the Desert last night in Arizona focused mainly on domestic issues. National correspondent Kelly Wallace has highlights from the third and final presidential debate.</s>KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There was a lot riding on this night and it showed from the opening handshake. Senator John Kerry hammering away at President Bush's record on jobs and the economy.</s>KERRY: Being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order in this country.</s>WALLACE: The president, for his part, trying to paint the Senator as a tax and spend liberal.</s>BUSH: There's a mainstream in American politics and you sit on the far left bank. As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative Senator from Massachusetts.</s>WALLACE: It was a 90-minute duel, mainly on domestic issues, Senator Kerry zeroing in on the middle class...</s>KERRY: I have a plan to cover all Americans. We're going to make it affordable and accessible.</s>WALLACE: ... the president targeting his Republican base.</s>BUSH: It will be the largest increase in government health care ever.</s>WALLACE: It was the most personal of the three debates, especially on social issues like abortion, gay marriage and religion. The president, asked the role his faith played in his policies.</s>BUSH: My faith is a very -- it's very personal. I pray for strength. I pray for wisdom. I pray for our troops in harm's way. I pray for my family, I pray for my little girls. But in a free society, people can worship if they want to or not.</s>WALLACE: At the end of the debate, both men showing their softer side when asked about their wives.</s>BUSH: Not only did she interest me, I guess you could say it was love at first sight.</s>KERRY: Well, I guess the president and you and I are three examples of lucky people who married up. And some would say, maybe me more so than others. But I can take it.</s>WALLACE (voice-over): That moment, a sign of how this debate, not quite as testy as the previous two face-offs. Both men well aware this would be the last time they would have such a large television audience before the election. Kelly Wallace, CNN, Tempe, Arizona.</s>SANCHEZ: So where does this go now? Today candidates are betting on their supporters in Las Vegas for a post-debate boost. Let's get a preview for you. Suzanne Malveaux is in Scottsdale, Arizona. She's covering the president. Ed Henry is with the Kerry campaign, he's in Vegas. And we're going to begin with Suzanne. Good morning, Suzanne.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Rick. It was late last night that President Bush was greeted by 35,000 supporters at a big post-debate rally. He told them that he enjoyed the debate, that he felt it was a chance for him to tell about his visions for the next four years. And while Bush aides say that they believe it was a strong performance last night, they are eager to get President Bush back on the campaign trail, on the road, where there's much more familiar and friendly territory. Those aides saying of course the focus, the strategy now is for him to outline his vision when it comes to growing the economy and protecting a country.</s>KARL ROVE, BUSH CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: Look, it gave us a wind at our back. The president was the clear, commanding victor tonight. And that's going to give us a great momentum going out on the trail here for the last 19 days. The map is somewhere between 10 and 14 states. More of them are states that were blue in 2000, went for Al Gore.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of those is New Jersey. Will you spend money in New York City? Very expensive to target New Jersey.</s>ROVE: Stay tuned for our campaign strategy. I'm not going to cough it up to you tonight. But stay tuned.</s>MALVEAUX: And Rick, President Bush traveling to two very important states. He's making two stops in Nevada. That's a state that he narrowly won back in 2000, about 3.5 percentage points. He goes on and travels to Oregon. He's going to have a little bit more of a challenge here. This is a state whose unemployment rate is about 7.4 percent. They've lost 900 jobs between the months of July and August. But still the Bush campaign believes that this is a state that is very much in play. And as you've heard before from his top adviser, Karl Rove, of course, they believe there are still 14 battleground states that are up for grabs. You're going to see that number, of course, dwindle in the next couple of weeks. And that is when the Bush campaign is going to have to make some critical decisions about resources, where are they going to pull the resources for television ads, for presidential trips and where are they going to invest in them in the days ahead -- Rick.</s>SANCHEZ: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux with the president. We thank you, Suzanne.</s>KAGAN: Vegas is the happening spot today. Senator Kerry will campaign before an influential group there before heading to Iowa. Our Ed Henry is with the Kerry camp. He is already in Vegas this morning. Ed, good morning.</s>ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. That's right. The Kerry camp is claiming victory, with Teresa Heinz Kerry saying that her husband won the Triple Crown. The Senator himself said at a rally in Tempe after the debate that he enjoyed the debate very much, and he's looking forward to the next 19 days. Kerry is vowing that he will show that he is going to fight for the middle class.</s>HENRY (voice-over): Using the final debate as a springboard, John Kerry today launches a ten-day offensive highlighting domestic issues.</s>KERRY: The fact is that take-home pay of a typical American family, as a share of national income, is lower than it's been since 1929. And the take-home pay of the richest 0.1 percent of Americans is the highest it's been since 1928.</s>HENRY: The Kerry camp believes the Senator's recent attacks on the president's Iraq policy have rallied the anti-Bush vote. Now the senator wants to move to the middle and reach out to undecided voters.</s>JOE LOCKHART, KERRY CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: The first two debates really made clear for the public the stark choice on Iraq. I think what they want to hear now is more of how are you going to turn the job situation around? How are you going to get health care costs under control? How are you going to get more people enrolled in health care?</s>HENRY: Yesterday, the campaign was quick to jump on a comment by Treasury Secretary John Snow, who called accusations that the president has a weak record on jobs "a myth."</s>SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wonder if the four million Americans who have fallen into poverty in the last four years, I wonder if that's a myth. What about the fact that folks' income is going down at the same time that the cost of virtually everything, health care, child care, college tuitions, going up? I wonder if they think that's a myth. Well, here's the truth. Come November the 2nd, we're going to send George Bush out of town, and that will not be a myth.</s>HENRY: And Daryn, the choir is just starting to practice behind me for this Kerry event that will be starting soon. But the Kerry camp has been trying for weeks to shift the focus to the domestic agenda. They think the senator may finally have the momentum to do that. It's going to start with a speech to the AARP, where he will talk about Medicare and prescription drugs, as well -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Ed, quick, Ed Henry, question for you. A break in a different battleground state of Pennsylvania, word that Ralph Nader will not be on the ballot there.</s>HENRY: That's something the Kerry camp will be very happy about, obviously. They all know what happened in the year 2000. A lot of Democratic activists are going to be working very hard to try to keep Nader off the ballot in key states. Pennsylvania is one that Gore won in 2000. It looks like it's neck and neck, and it's been neck and neck for weeks. It's a state that John Kerry has to have, and this could help him -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Ed Henry, we'll let you go tune your pipes with the choir there, from Las Vegas. Thank you.</s>SANCHEZ: And once again, the issue of gay marriage and gay rights came up in last night's debate. And now there's some new controversy after Senator Kerry mentioned Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary.</s>KERRY: We're all God's children. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as.</s>SANCHEZ: Well, that line sparked this quick and angry response from the vice president's wife, Lynne Cheney, who's also on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania.</s>LYNNE CHENEY, DICK CHENEY'S WIFE: I did have a chance to assess John Kerry once more. And, you know, the only thing I could conclude is this is not a good man. This is not a good man. And, of course, I am speaking as a mom and a pretty indignant mom. This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick.</s>SANCHEZ: You may recall hat Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards also brought up Mr. Cheney's daughter during the vice presidential debates. Soon afterward, the vice president thanked Edwards for his, quote, "kind words."</s>KAGAN: We'll be bringing you portions of the Bush and Kerry campaign events today. The president's rally in Las Vegas gets under way 12:55 p.m. Eastern. And we'll bring you parts of Senator Kerry's speech to the AARP during LIVE FROM. That's 2:30 p.m. Eastern, 11:30 a.m. Pacific.</s>SANCHEZ: Two Americans are dead, and the Green Zone this morning feels anything but green. This as two coordinated blasts rock Baghdad, leaving behind death and destruction. The latest is next.</s>KAGAN: Also, he was called an enemy combatant by the U.S. government now Yasser Hamdi is free. And he's speaking out exclusively to</s>CNN. SANCHEZ: And later, Bill O'Reilly at the center of a sexual harassment lawsuit. CNN LIVE TODAY is coming right back.