Overseas Markets Rebound; McCain Dials Down Campaign Rhetoric; Biden Says 100 Percent McCain Ads Attacking Obama; A Look at Black Men Supporting McCain
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Breaking news, a worldwide rebound as world leaders respond to an economic emergency.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The key thing is how do we get the banking system lending money again?</s>ROBERTS: We are watching Wall Street after the Dow's worst week ever. And not so black and white.</s>RUFUS MONTGOMERY, REPUBLICAN VOTER: It's about leadership, who's best prepared to lead our country.</s>ROBERTS: First time African-American voters who say they won't pull the leaver for Obama on the "Most Politics in the Morning."</s>ROBERTS: And good Monday morning. Thanks very much for being with us. It's the 13th of October. We hope that this is a lucky 13th of October, and some indications are that it just might be.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. Let's just say this. It can't get much worse than it did last week.</s>ROBERTS: Yes.</s>CHETRY: So we have our fingers crossed this morning.</s>ROBERTS: When you're in the basement nowhere to go, but up, right?</s>CHETRY: Exactly. Well, thanks so much for being with us. And we begin with signs of a bounce back from last week's historic decline on the world financial markets. Asian stocks did finish higher overnight. European stocks are trading in positive territory. And meantime, central banks in the U.S, Japan and in Europe are taking new steps to unfreeze credit markets. All the details on that just ahead. And some good news at the pump this morning. Gas prices have dropped dramatically over the past two weeks, more than 35 cents a gallon according to the Lundberg Survey. The national average now for a self-serve regular gallon stands at $3.31, the tumbling price of crude oil, the reason crude oil falling below $78 a barrel last week. And firefighters are on the front lines just 20 miles north of Los Angeles. So far, flames in the Angeles National Forest have consumed 2,000 acres and at least three homes. More than 1,200 people have been evacuated. Right now, they say this wildfire is only about 20 percent contained but crews fear today's Santa Ana winds expected to top 60 miles per hour could stoke the fire.</s>ROBERTS: Back now to our top story. And finally some encouraging signs for shaken investors that a financial rebound may be taking shape right now in the overseas markets. In Asia, Hong Kong closed up more than 10 percent. South Korea up almost four percent. The markets in Japan were closed for a national holiday, so they're still reflecting Friday's losses. But Europe is also in positive territory. London's FTSE up almost six percent, and Dow futures have been up as high as 400 points this morning. There's a long way to go until our opening. The news follows emergency finance meetings in Washington and Paris and plans to prop out troubled banks and credit markets. Meantime, the U.S. is taking another new approach to the financial crisis. The "New York Times" reporting that federal officials have promised to guarantee a Japanese bank's investment if it goes ahead and buys a $9 billion stake in Morgan Stanley. Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business." They're tweaking around the edges here, not outright throwing out the old plan and starting with a brand new one.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right.</s>ROBERTS: It's going to look like it's going to have any kind of effect.</s>ROMANS: Well, it looks as though the markets at least know that the policymakers are doing everything that they possibly can to shore up the financial system and that's what you're seeing the reaction to overnight. And even the British government pumping billions into the British banks. You've got world leaders promising to shore up the financial system in an emergency meeting in Paris. You've got every kind of photo op you can imagine and press release and communique over the weekend trying to show that listen, our policymakers around the world are on the ball here. And after a hellish week to 10 days in the stock markets, you're seeing a relief rally, as they call it, in Wall Street parlance. The Dow down 2,400 points in just eight days. And overnight, you're seeing Hong Kong up some 10 percent. Australia was the first one to open and really powered higher. Shanghai up 3.7 percent. Keep in mind this has been a really rotten ride. The Dow down 36 percent so far this year. The Nasdaq down 38 percent. The S&P; 500 down 39 percent. John, you're right. Once you're in the basement, you have no place to go but up. So we can see that we're definitely been in the basement. And watching gas prices as well, it's the one silver lining in all of this. Over the past couple of weeks, gas prices have continued to come down. Gas prices at $3.21 a gallon. That's kind of for one of those kind of crazy Wall Street reasons. That is because everyone is expecting some kind of deep, long recession that demand for oil and gasoline will go down and so then that will mean that the prices can go down. So --</s>ROBERTS: In regard to what the federal government is going to do with the $700 billion bailout...</s>ROMANS: Right. Right.</s>ROBERTS: ... is this idea of using it to buy up these toxic securities, these mortgage-backed securities out the window now in favor of buying a financial share in stocks and trying to recapitalize the market that way?</s>ROMANS: Well, a lot of people are saying they hope it's out the window. They think that the recapitalization of the banks to absolutely inject money in them and take preferred shares is a better plan. We're going to hear from Neel Kashkari who's running this, this TARP (ph) program, as they call it. We're going to hear from him at 8:00. I'm very interested to hear what he says about what...</s>ROBERTS: Yes.</s>ROMANS: ... what exactly this plan is starting to take shape. But we talked to several people over the past couple of weeks and you've done several interviews where people have said the facts on the ground are changing much more quickly than the government response has been.</s>ROBERTS: Well, we'll see what Kashkari has to say this morning.</s>ROMANS: Right.</s>ROBERTS: Christine, thanks so much for that.</s>CHETRY: The nation's financial crisis, the dominating issue in the presidential campaign for weeks now. And with just 22 days to go until the election, there are new numbers showing Barack Obama continuing to pull ahead. In fact the latest CNN poll of polls gives him a 49 to 41 percent lead over John McCain. McCain told supporters at his Virginia headquarters yesterday that he's looking forward to Wednesday night's debate.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to be spending a lot of time. And after I whip his you know what in this debate, we're going to be going out --</s>CHETRY: And while McCain is still on the attack, there's been a change of tone. CNN's Jim Acosta joins us now from Washington. Hey, Jim.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran. Let's get ready to rumble. You heard John McCain there. Is it worth noting that he also reminded his supporters to remain respectful, which we should mention, because it's not just the feel of autumn in the air, we're also noticing a momentary cooling of campaign temperatures.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): The man once dubbed "McNasty" may be turning "McNice." In Davenport, Iowa, John McCain's provocative stump question "Who is Barack Obama" was nowhere to be found.</s>MCCAIN: Who's ready to lead? In a time of trouble and danger for our country, who will put our country first?</s>ACOSTA: At a Sarah Palin rally over in Pennsylvania, no mention of Obama's debatable link to former radical, William Ayers.</s>GOV. SARAH PALIN (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Please, it is not negative. It is not mean spirited to talk about his record.</s>ACOSTA: It was a measurable dialing down of the rhetoric from one week ago.</s>PALIN: Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists.</s>ACOSTA: When the floodgates of intolerance were opened at McCain/Palin rallies.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't trust Obama. I have read about him, and he's not -- he's not -- he's an Arab. He is not -- no?</s>MCCAIN: No, ma'am. No, ma'am. He's a decent family man.</s>ACOSTA: By week's end, the GOP nominee met resistance as he tried to stem an angry tide.</s>MCCAIN: He is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared as president of the United States. Now, I just --</s>ACOSTA: The seesawing message left leading conservatives voicing doubts. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FROM ABC'S "THIS WEEK") GEORGE WILL, CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST: The candidate himself saying he's a decent family man. His ad is saying he's a decent family man but a liar. And his running mate says he's a decent man but a liar, and he pals around with terrorists. I mean, the dissonance is paralyzing.</s>ACOSTA: One of McCain's own civil rights hero, Congressman John Lewis, accused the Arizona senator of inciting violence by "sowing the seeds of hatred," a statement Lewis later clarified. Both campaigns rejected Lewis' remarks then started pointing fingers over who crossed the line first.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's absolutely nothing being done on the stage by our candidates, John McCain or Governor Palin, that would incite that kind of thing. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN COMMERCIAL) NARRATOR: McCain is resorting to smears and false attacks. Barack Obama launched his first campaign here not in anyone's living room.</s>ACOSTA: Obama, who has a new ad, addressing the Ayers' controversy praised McCain for turning down the heat.</s>SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I appreciated his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful of each other.</s>ACOSTA: And a McCain campaign spokesman told me the GOP nominee will continue to take questions from voters at town hall rallies saying people remain "angry with the failures in Washington and on Wall Street" -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: So it seems like you're in some ways seeing two John McCains on the stump, as some call for him to really try to showcase the differences and then others say, hold on, you got to help dial it back a little bit with what some of your supporters are saying. So how does he balance that?</s>ACOSTA: Right. He's in a tough spot, Kiran. You know, you're seeing at these town hall rallies the hard-core Republicans showing up and saying go after him, tear into him. And yet at the same time, the respected party elders in the Republican Party are saying, hold on, you don't want to lose ugly. I made a crude list of some of those party elders, Kiran. Bill Kristol, David Brooks, George Will, John Danforth, Tommy Thompson, Dan (ph) Weber and William F. Buckley's son, Chris, all saying that John McCain needs a new game plan.</s>CHETRY: All right. Twenty-two days out, that's a tough spot to be in. Jim Acosta, thank you.</s>ACOSTA: You bet.</s>ROBERTS: Well, do not expect any new economic proposals from John McCain this week despite what McCain surrogate Lindsey Graham might be saying. Graham said on one of the Sunday talk shows that McCain would unveil new proposals to "jumpstart the economy by cutting taxes on investors, capital gains and dividends." But McCain's advisers say they don't know what prompted Graham to say that adding that McCain's economic plan already accomplishes that by extending the Bush tax cuts. Meantime, the Obama campaign is getting some heavyweight help on the campaign trail. Bill and Hillary Clinton appeared with Joe Biden on Sunday at a rally in Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.</s>SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: We can help Americans losing their houses. But we can only do it by if we make sure the Republicans lose the White House come November.</s>WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Who has the best ideas? Who's got the best instincts? Who's got the best ability to understand these challenges? Who's got the best supporting cast? The answer is Barack Obama, and that's why Hillary is here. That's why I'm here. That's why you're here.</s>ROBERTS: Barack Obama holds a rally in Toledo, Ohio, today as he prepares for Wednesday night's final presidential debate. And we'll be hearing from Senator Hillary Clinton tomorrow here on AMERICAN MORNING. The race for the White House in many parts being waged in the living rooms through a blitz of negative ads. But is John McCain solely airing attack ads like Joe Biden's claim? Our "Truth Squad" is on the case.</s>CHETRY: A Supreme Court shake-up?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the American citizen's last chance.</s>CHETRY: How much change could the next president bring to the highest court in the land?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am petrified about what's at stake here.</s>CHETRY: Kelli Arena takes a look at the important campaign issue that's not getting much attention. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."