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Michelle Obama Gets Personal; Thursday DNC Speeches Moved Indoors; Hollywood Star Power At DNC; The Democrats' Rising Stars; Democratic Fact Check; SEALs Commander "Embarrassed, Concerned"; Hackers Claim To Steal Apple IDs; Ryan Gets Ready To Speak In Iowa; Bill Clinton Back at the DNC; Betty White Not Speaking at DNC; Toddler Burned on Toy Tractor; MBA Program for Pro Athletes

Aired September 05, 2012 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Stories we're watching right now in the NEWSROOM. It's been almost 12 years since President Bill Clinton was in charge, but he is as popular as ever among Democrats. Now the 49th president is back at the DNC with a big role tonight.

A security breach involving some of Apple's most popular products, a million unique codes released online by hackers. More trouble could be on the way.

Scary moments caught on camera when a boat in Missouri filled with passengers gets rocked by a huge wave. As you can see, everyone tossed around like rag dolls. We'll tell you what happened next.

And Clint Eastwood made quite an appearance at the Republican National Convention, so why not Betty White for the Democrats? There is a growing push to get her to Charlotte.

NEWSROOM starts now. Good morning. Thank you very much for joining us. I'm Carol Costello. We start this hour in Charlotte with a party faithful are still basking in the glow of last night's rousing kickoff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: The 46th national convention of the Democratic Party will now come to order!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And as soon as the gavel came down, the rallying cry went up. Soaring primetime speeches from three big layers, Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick, San Antonio's Mayor, Julian Castro, and the first lady, Michelle Obama.

So let's start with the first lady, in a very personal speech that many critics are raving about. The president watch from afar nestled between their two daughters as Mrs. Obama spoke of their shared struggles, devotion to family and basic values.

No word that the president got misty as he predicted he would. Here's part of Mrs. Obama's tribute to her husband.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: And he reminds me that we are playing a long game here and that change is hard. And change is slow and it never happens all at once, but eventually we get there. We always do.

We get there because of folks like my dad, folks like Barack's grandmother, men and women who said to themselves, I may not have a chance to fulfill my dreams, but maybe my children will. Maybe my grandchildren will.

So many of us stand here tonight because of their sacrifice and longing and steadfast love, because time and again, they swallowed their fears and doubts and did what was hard.

So today, when the challenges we face start to seem overwhelming or even impossible, let us never forget that doing the impossible is the history of this nation. It is who we are as Americans. It is how this country was built.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Mrs. Obama at last night's DNC. We just learned that Thursday's speeches will move inside because of the threat of rain. CNN's Dana Bash has more. Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is really big news. Maybe not expected because of the way the weather has been going here in Charlotte, but bad news for the Democratic organizers of this convention.

Because tomorrow night's big speech was supposed to be at an arena -- or stadium, I should say, Bank of America Stadium where they had given away, they said, about 65,000 tickets. It's a very, very big venue and they wanted to try to recapture the same kind of feeling.

And do the same kind of organizing that the Obama campaign did in 2008 with this big outdoor arena. That has been scrapped, and they just announced to the DNC they're going to move the president's speech back inside to the convention hall, the Time Warner.

You can see a picture of the original space and I think we have a picture of what the space they've been using yesterday and today. That is now where the president is going to speak. He is going to speak indoors. Talking to officials who have been trying to feel this out, there were lots of reasons why they had to make the call before tomorrow's security logistics.

Carol, they were bussing thousands of people in for this event and they weren't going to have hotel spaces. They were going to come. They were going to listen to the president. They were going to help organize and they were going to leave.

So they had to make this call. It is certainly bad news because we're talking about a 50,000-person differential in terms of who they can fit in the stadium and who they can fit in the convention center. So Mother Nature is simply not cooperating.

COSTELLO: We know President Obama is a much more effective speaker in a huge arena like that. What about the people who have already come and want to get into the stadium and watch the president speak? What happens to them?

BASH: That's a good question. We're going to be trying to figure out the answer to that. You know, I believe it's about 18,000 people who can fit in the convention hall where they held the meeting last night and they will tonight.

Whether or not they're going to try to find some kind of accommodations for overflow, that is to be determined, but organizers have told us the past couple days as they've been trying to gain this out that they do have, you know, rain locations perhaps they have them around the city.

We're just not sure, but we certainly will try to get the answers to those questions. My guess is that the people they were planning on bussing in, they simply won't be bussed in. They'll have to watch it from some other way.

But we talked to the Obama campaign and they are touting the fact that they are going to have all kinds of live stream and they're going to handle this speech technologically like it has not been handled before at a convention.

COSTELLO: It won't be the same though. Dana Bash, thanks so much reporting live from Charlotte today.

BASH: Thank you.

COSTELLO: It looks like Hollywood will provide some star power tomorrow on the final night of the convention. According to a tentative schedule provided to CNN, all three of these actresses are lined up to speak, Scarlet Johansson, Natalie Portman and Kerry Washington.

A DNC official is not commenting on the supposedly secret plans. Now a couple rising stars, at least in the Democratic Party. San Antonio's Mayor Julian Castro is the first Latino to deliver the DNC's keynote address.

Deval Patrick, the first African-American governor of Massachusetts, together the men shared a common message of the American dream and what they view as a threat from the Republican ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JULIAN CASTRO (D), SAN ANTONIO: We all understand that freedom isn't free. What Romney and Ryan don't understand is that neither is opportunity. We have to invest in it.

Republicans tell us that the most prosperous among us do even better, that somehow the rest of us will, too. Folks, we've heard that before. First they called it trickle down.

Then they called it supply side. Now it's Romney/Ryan or is it Ryan/Romney? Either way, their theory has been tested. It failed, the economy failed, the middle class paid the price, your family paid the price, Mitt Romney just doesn't get it.

GOVERNOR DEVAL PATRICK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: If we want to win elections in November and keep our country moving forward, if we want to earn the privilege to leave, my message is this. It's time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe!

Quit waiting for pundits or polls or "Super PACs" to tell us who the next president or senator or congressman is going to be. We're Americans. We shape our own future and let's all start by standing up for President Barack Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: If Castro and Patrick represent the Democrats' future, few names evoke the party's past like Kennedy. Last night the convention paused to honor long-time Senator Ted Kennedy who, as you know, died from brain cancer three years ago. Here's part of the tribute to him from former President Bill Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: No matter who writes the history books, when people look back on this century, they would say that Edward Kennedy was one of the ablest, most productive, most compassionate and most effective man who served in the United States Senate in the entire history of politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It also contained jabs Romney who Kennedy defeated in the 1994 Senate race. The tape highlighted the debate in which Romney supported abortion rights, a position he now opposes.

Just like we did during the RNC, we're committed to keeping the Democrats honest during their convention. Last night, the same messes came up over and over, the creation of jobs. Tom Foreman has our fact check.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For weeks all over the country, Democrats have been making one cornerstone claim about the economy and they repeated it over and over and over again here, that the president has created more than 4 million jobs. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL (D), CHICAGO: Today our economy has gone from losing 800,000 jobs a month to adding 4.5 million private sector jobs in the last 29 months.

PATRICK: We added 4.5 million private sector jobs in the last two and a half years.

CASTRO: We've seen 4.5 million new jobs --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: On the face of it, that is correct, 4.5 million jobs have been created in the private sector. Here's the problem, though. All that's being counted here is the jobs created. Being ignored is all the jobs that were lost.

When you look at it that way, the president is still about half a million jobs in the hole. He hasn't been able to offset the losses while he's been president. If you include government jobs, it gets even worse.

If you look at the unemployment rate, still a problem there. It's worse than it was on Election Day. It's worse than it was on inauguration day. The only silver lining is it's probably not as bad as it was at the peak.

Another big claim is the quality of these jobs. Listen to what the first lady said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA: That's how he brought our economy from the brink of collapse to creating jobs again, jobs you can raise a family on, good jobs right here in the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: The problem with saying that these are good jobs is the facts just don't seem to support it. Some of the jobs are temporary paid for by the stimulus or perhaps census work, that sort of thing, so they didn't really last.

And some jobs weren't worth the jobs we lost. A variety of studies have said that we lost more middle and upper income jobs and we have gained more lower level jobs.

The simple truth is that the numbers may be technically correct in some of these claims, when you look at all the details, there's an awful lot more that needs to be seen. This is Tom Foreman, Charlotte.

COSTELLO: CNN's primetime coverage continues, the Democratic National Convention at 7:00 Eastern with Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper.

Disappointed, embarrassed and concerned? That's what the commander of the Navy SEALs wrote to troops after the release of the book "No Easy Day." The Pentagon says the book written by a former SEAL Matt Bissonnette contains classified information about the Osama Bin Laden raid and SEAL training.

The tell-all book is already a hit though outselling "50 Shades of Grey." Part of the controversy is that a SEAL is even writing about his work. Members of the Special Forces units are normally very tight-lipped.

Rear Admiral Sean Pybus wrote a sharkly worded letter to the SEAL saying, quote, "We do not advertise the nature of our work nor do we seek recognition for our actions," end quote.

The author, Bissonnette, denies breaking secrecy agreements or disclosing any classified information.

The popular Apple gadgets may be part of a security breach. It appears hackers have gotten a hold of millions of unique Apple identifiers. Those are the codes used to identify iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Alison Kosik is live at the New York Stock Exchange. How worried should I be?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, you really shouldn't be that worried because it's not as bad as if they let's say stole your password. So this is actually coming from, Carol, the branch of the hacking group that called itself anonymous.

And reportedly it's claiming to have stolen 12 million unique device identifiers or UDIDs from Apple. As I said, it's not as bad as having your password stolen. The UDID, when you take it by itself, it really winds up having limited value to a hacker.

Now the group said, interestingly enough, that it lifted these IDs from an FBI agent's laptops and released one million of the UDIDs right back to Apple to prove that they had done it.

But here's the thing with it, the FBI said, you know, none of this even happened. The FBI issued a statement saying they're unaware of public reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple's UDIDs was exposed.

At this time, the FBI says there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI sought or obtained this data.

Now it is unclear, Carol, what these hackers would have used these IDs for. You know, it's possible that they're doing it to expose security problems to Apple maybe as a favor to company, maybe this group is getting jollies watching us talk about it on national TV, who knows -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ew, that just sounds like a big Ew. There is word -- the rumor has it that the new iPhone is about to come out soon. Do we know a date?

COSTELLO: So everybody is salivating. Wednesday is the day, Carol. Apple is going to hold one of its famous events on the 12th. It sent out invitations to the press with a not so subtle hint of what they'll be introducing.

Let's go ahead and show that invite. I don't know if we can show it because you can see the shadow of the 12 at the bottom. We know what that means the iPhone 5 is on the way.

It's expected to have a bigger screen, faster processing power, who knows what else? Maybe it will cook dinner for me. I've been asking for that since the iPhone first came out.

But, you know this, Apple keeps most of the details a secret. We are one week away. I can't wait to see the bells and whistles on this thing.

COSTELLO: I have heard the charging mechanism will be different so if you have the new iPhone you can't use your old chargers.

KOSIK: More money out of us, right?

COSTELLO: Yes, exactly. I don't know if that's true, but I'm just saying. Alison Kosik, thanks so much.

What's supposed to be a happy historic event, but it ends in tragedy. A gunman in Canada opens fire during the politician's first speech.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The news just in to CNN, President Obama was set to speak at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, a great venue for him. He's a very effective speaker in big arenas like this, but there is a threat for rain on Thursday.

So DNC organizers thought it was best to move the event inside so President Obama will be speaking inside the Time Warner Cable arena just like everybody else, and Democrats are hoping the speech will be just as rousing.

Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan are on the campaign trail today. He is getting ready to speak at an event in Iowa. Ryan will address voters in a tiny town in Iowa just about 15 miles west of Des Moines.

The area is friendly territory for the Romney/Ryan campaign. As you can see, the Republicans are not taking any time of during the Democratic convention.

So let's head to Charlotte to talk about what's going on in Iowa. That's where our CNN political expert Paul Ryan is -- I'm sorry, Paul Steinhauser. Did I just call you Paul Ryan?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: That's OK, Carol.

COSTELLO: So many Pauls to talk about today. So just like the Democrats did at the RNC, the Republicans are out there campaigning during the Democratic National Convention. STEINHAUSER: Yes, exactly. We saw the same thing last week with President Obama and Joe Biden, the vice president on the campaign trail. You know, Carol, Mitt Romney is kind of down for a day or two up in Vermont doing that debate so Paul Ryan carrying the load for the Republican ticket.

Second day in a row now in Iowa for Paul Ryan, his message today the campaign tells us he's going to continue to make that comparison to the Republicans love to do between the former President Jimmy Carter who was a one-term Democrat who struggled with the economy and President Obama.

And also Paul Ryan is once again going to bring up that, are we better off now than we were four years ago? Take a listen to what he said yesterday in Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: President Obama can say a lot of things, and he's very good at that, and he'll do that at Charlotte. But one thing he cannot tell you, he cannot tell you you're better off.

After getting the run around for four years, it is time for a turnaround. And the man for that turnaround will be our next president of the United States and his name is Mitt Romney.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: You know, Paul Ryan has been using that line over and over and over the last couple days. The Democrats, Carol, the Obama campaign kind of fumbled a little bit on answering that over the weekend.

Now they're saying, yes, the answer is absolutely yes, we are better off than we were four years ago. As for Iowa, Carol, such important battleground state, a lot of campaign traffic there.

In fact, the president, Carol, he was there last week. He was there last Saturday. Guess where he's going on Friday after this convention in Charlotte? Iowa is his second stop -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ohio.

STEINHAUSER: Not Ohio. He will be in Ohio but Iowa.

COSTELLO: OK, let's talk about the RNC and whether Mitt Romney got any bounce at all.

STEINHAUSER: That is such a good question everybody wants to know. Let's take a look at our poll. This is a CNN/ORN national poll. We did it Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday right after the Republican National Convention.

Take a look at this. The horse race it was 49/47 with President Obama over Mitt Romney before the convention. This is among likely voters. Now it's 48/48. It is dead even.

Is there a bounce there? Not really. But you know what, in the most the recent cycle, the last couple elections, there really hasn't been much of a bounce for either side.

Carol, one thing Republicans tell us they like our poll in this aspect. Mitt Romney's favorable numbers have increased a little bit since last week -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Paul Steinhauser reporting live for us from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Risk or reward? Former President Bill Clinton is the keynote speaker for the Democratic National Convention, but does Mr. Clinton still carry the clout he used to?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, should Michelle Obama run for public office? The accolades are still pouring in for the first lady's speech last night, not just from Obama lovers. Even some conservatives say Mrs. Obama nailed it.

Carl Rose said it was a very well delivered speech. Townhall.com called it a masterful showing, one that delivered a not so subtle message. I love my husband and he's nothing like Mitt Romney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA: Barack knows what it means when a family struggles. He knows what it means to want something more for your kids and grandkids. Barack knows the American dream because he lived it.

And he wants everyone in this country, everyone, to have the same opportunity no matter who we are or where we're from or what we look like or who we love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: She was so good. There is even talk of her running for office. Michelle Obama, 2016?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You heard some great speeches, and that one by the first lady is going to be hard. You know, Bill Clinton is a good speech giver. Barack Obama is a good speech giver, but that one will be hard to top. If there is an open ballot, now would be a good time to sign up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: During the speech, Twitter verse exploded with 28,000 tweets per minute, nearly double that of Mitt Romney's and also the president's speech at state of the union.

With speeches like that in a nearly 70 percent favorable rating, who knows? Maybe Michelle Obama is the next Hillary? Doubtful. "Parade" magazine asked Mrs. Obama if she would ever run for office and they got an emphatic no.

Of course, Mrs. Obama's job last night wasn't to sell herself but her husband. Still, you can't escape the question this morning, should Michelle Obama run for public office? Facebook.com/carolcnn. Your responses later this hour.

Presidential campaigns used to worry how many people showed up at rallies. Now it's how many Twitter followers they have. I'll tell you who comes out on top, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Investors in a pretty good mood this morning. The Dow is up just about well, almost 58 points. Of course, it's early yet, but we see, we stay beyond this 13,000 number.

Bill Clinton will take center stage tonight at the Democratic National Convention and already there are whispers he could slip up and give the Democrats a Clint Eastwood moment. I doubt he'll talk to an empty chair, but Obama's people have not seen Mr. Clinton's speech because the President won't let them.

CNN analyst Hilary Rosen is here to talk about all things Clinton. Welcome, Hilary.

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, Carol and I just talked to somebody on the Clinton team who told me that the President is in fact, still writing his speech. So if anybody wants to see it, that's going to be quite a while.

COSTELLO: Before we jump into the Bill Clinton topic, I understand you like my "Talk Back" question this morning about whether Mrs. Obama should run for public office.

ROSEN: I did.

COSTELLO: What do you think?

ROSEN: Well you know I -- I sort of wanted to remind people that when Hillary Clinton, who I obviously know better than Mrs. Obama, but was First Lady and had a lost career before that similar to Mrs. Obama, nobody ever imagined really that she was going to have a political career because she was interested in policy, because she was more focused on the -- you know, the sort of day-to-day work of the First Lady and frankly, didn't really love the public scrutiny quite so much which is natural for a First Lady.

And we see a lot of that in Mrs. Obama, but the other thing we see in Mrs. Obama is actually, in some respects, a more natural people-to-people connection. You know, Hillary Clinton grew into that and when she ran for president, she ended up loving meeting people and spending time with them on the campaign trail, you know whereas Michelle Obama actually goes in for the hug right away. And you know, she does have that kind of natural political instinct.

So I'm in the never say never camp. She's only going to be 53 when -- when the Obamas leaves the White House from President Obama's term after he's re-elected and so she's got a career ahead of her.

COSTELLO: Yes you never know. You never say never in the land of politics.

ROSEN: You never know.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about President Clinton and his keynote message tonight.

ROSEN: Right.

COSTELLO: He has some problems staying on message. I mean, remember when he lauded Mitt Romney's career at Bain? What will we hear from him tonight?

ROSEN: You know, I think Bill Clinton actually is going to be able to bridge a fundamental question very gracefully tonight in a way that only Bill Clinton can which is, if you are instinctively very pro-business, if you're -- if your -- see yourself as the reason that jobs are going to grow in this country is because business has to succeed, not because government has to grow, but yes, you care fundamentally about the values and lifting up people who need a helping hand from government, nobody kind of has that message framed better than Bill Clinton.

And those are the voters that Barack Obama needs to reach to, to convince them that he understands that as well. And I think that messenger is Bill Clinton you know above all.

COSTELLO: Politicians have a tendency to toot their own horns, to list their own accomplishments. If Bill Clinton gets lost in his own presidency, won't that just remind people that President Obama's economy is still in the tank?

ROSEN: No I think in fact the opposite, you know when -- when President Clinton took office, it was a -- it was a little bit of a slog to get to job growth. We -- we gave him the chance for -- for eight years and -- and the country benefited from it.

I think he's going to make the same case with President Obama, that you know, we're on a good path. It's not good enough, but we have to stay on the path we're going because if we go back to the policies that got us into the mess in the first place, we have no hope.

COSTELLO: Ok, so Bill Clinton was right by Hillary Clinton's side in 2008 and she lost. ROSEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: So is everybody overestimating Clinton's power?

ROSEN: You know, I think, that you know, it was sort of like watching Ted Kennedy last night in the video. That there are certain people in the Democratic Party who were always going to both have tremendous affection for and a huge amount of respect for. Bill Clinton tops that list.

COSTELLO: Hilary Rosen thanks so much for -- thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us this morning. We appreciate it.

ROSEN: Ok, Carol. Take care. See you later.

COSTELLO: CNN's prime time coverage continues at 7:00 p.m. Eastern with Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper. They're at Charlotte covering the Democratic National Convention.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It turns out Betty White will not be making an appearance at the Democratic National Convention this week. We've been telling you about this on-line campaign to get her there, but no.

A.J. Hammer is here to tell us why not.

A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Yes, a lot of people are very upset about this, Carol. Despite the calls for her to speak at the DNC, her rep is telling "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" that Betty White is simply too busy to appear. The 90-year-old starts currently in production for her two shows "Hot in Cleveland" and "Off her Rocker," so she just doesn't have time to head to Charlotte right now.

Petitioners were asking her to say a few words at the conventions in sort of a response to Clint Eastwood's appearance at the Republican convention, they said Eastwood gave a bad name to older Americans everywhere with his speech and White would be the perfect person to counteract what he said, and more than 40,000 people seemed to agree with that according to the petition on Facebook page that are pushing the idea.

Remember it was an online way of support that helps strengthen Betty's career and got her that hosting gig on "Saturday Night Live", but it may be time to let it go, Carol. There are at least 10 Facebook pages right now dedicated to bringing Betty White to various TV shows and causes there only so many hours in the day.

COSTELLO: Oh she is an awesome woman, you have to admit.

Let's talk about Chad Johnson now. He got a big old tattoo on his calf.

HAMMER: Yes perhaps, you know he's known for being outrageous, and he had TMZ posted a photo of Johnson with a new cast-size tattoo of his estranged wife Evelyn Lozada. TMZ says that they found this image on his Twitter page.

Apparently it's been taken down because we couldn't find it this morning. So at this stage we don't know if it's a permanent tattoo, maybe it's a temporary one, but the "Basketball Wife's" star left him after she accused Chad of assaulting her during a domestic dispute. And she doesn't appear to have any interest in reconciliation, but Chad doesn't seem to be willing to let her go.

People have been asking him on Twitter what the deal is with their relationship. His response has been this: "Divorced? Child, please, that's my wife and I don't give a flying pretzel and skittle rainbow hell what she's filed for." When somebody else posted that he's lost it. His response is, "I never had it, I march to the beat of my own drum."

And Carol I think when you toss around expression like "I don't give a flying pretzel or skittle rainbow in hell." It kind of proves his point.

COSTELLO: Well the lesson here is if you want to keep your wife don't head butt her.

HAMMER: Yes that would be the simple way of putting Carol.

COSTELLO: Ok, thanks A.J.

HAMMER: You got it.

COSTELLO: Join A.J. on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," 11:00 Eastern on HLN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Back in June, two-year-old Wyatt Buckley was having a great time as only toddlers can. He was riding a toy tractor made by Peg Perego. It looked just like a John Deere, a real John Deere. And then the unthinkable, Wyatt's dad said the tractor somehow caught fire. Wyatt suffered second and third-degree burns over more than half of his body.

Joining us now Wyatt's parents Marlon and Heather Buckley and their lawyer Andrew List. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

MARLON BUCKLEY, WYATT'S FATHER: Good morning thanks for having us.

ANDREW LIST, ATTORNEY FOR BUCKLEY FAMILY: Good morning Carol, we appreciate your time.

COSTELLO: Marlon, I -- oh we're glad you're here. Marlon, I want to start with you. You were there when the tractor caught fire. Can you describe to us what happened?

M. BUCKLEY: It was a Sunday afternoon. The kids had just come back from church and stuff and little Wyatt wanted to ride his plastic tractor. And I got it for him and he was out riding in the yard and we were doing our Sunday afternoon thing in the yard. We had people coming over we were just picking up and getting things ready in the yard. And one thing led to another, and he started screaming and I looked over toward him and the tractor had just caught on fire.

COSTELLO: Just suddenly? It's battery-powered, right?

M. BUCKLEY: Correct.

COSTELLO: And then, Marlon, you had to get your son off of that tractor. Can you describe to us how you did that?

M. BUCKLEY: I did. He jumped off and ran toward me and I ran towards him and put him on the ground and rolled him and helped extinguish the fire and stuff. It was a pretty horrific scene for a little bit.

COSTELLO: Heather, I know that Wyatt was in the hospital for, what, more than a month? He's out of the hospital now. We have some pictures of him and they're pretty graphic, I want to warn people of Wyatt's injuries. Tell us about his injuries and how he's doing now.

HEATHER BUCKLEY: Well, as you said, it was burns to over half of his body. He spent most of his summer in the hospital. It was more than a month. At the hospital he had to undergo multiple surgeries. He had to be, you know, multiple different medications, different therapy he had to undergo, and then as a result -- or now he's diabetic, so he's doing well now.

Daily baths are about two-hour-long, you know. I mean it's just day in and day out we're dealing with everything. The family, it's just a lot for all of us, you know. With bathing and stuff daily, he screams the whole time, and his brother and sister obviously are there, too, so it's a lot of emotional toll on all of us daily.

We do range of motion daily, we do dressing changes daily of t. He has to have his blood sugars done and stuff like that because of his diabetes as well.

COSTELLO: Andrew, describe this toy to us. Can I still go into a Wal-Mart and buy it?

ANDREW LIST, BUCKLEY FAMILY ATTORNEY: You can certainly buy something similar. The model numbers different, but it looks just about the same as the toy that the Buckleys bought for their young son. And the thing that concerns us, Carol, is that back in the late 1990s, this same company recalled approximately 270,000 similar battery-operated riding toys after they had received nearly 200 complaints of sparking, shorting and fires. So we're concerned that -- you know, we hope that this is a limited matter and that Wyatt's case is unique, but we're concerned based on the history that there may be a problem with the toy in general.

COSTELLO: We did get a statement from the manufacturer, Peg Perego. I'm just going to read you some of it. It said, "Our thoughts and concerns are with Wyatt Buckley as they have since June 5 when we first learned about this incident. From our brief access, we did not see any evidence that the toy had malfunctioned since the materials of our toys cannot suddenly burst into flames. We are confident that other extraordinary external factors were involved to cause such a sudden fire."

How do you respond to that?

LIST: Well, the family has hired us to get to the truth as to what happened here Carol. And a few weeks ago, we had written to Peg Perego asking them for the design specifications, the materials that were in this product and any safety tests that have been involved. And unfortunately, they refused to provide those materials. And so it appears as though we're going to have to try to get to the truth through a lawsuit, which we are preparing at the family's authorization.

COSTELLO: Thank you all so much for joining us this morning and sharing your story. We appreciate it. Marlon, Heather, Andrew, thanks so much.

H. BUCKLEY: Thank you, Carol.

M. BUCKLEY: Thank you. Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: And our best to Wyatt. Poor little guy.

Happening right now, we've been telling you about Paul Ryan's campaign appearance in Iowa. Here he is on the campaign trail. He's speaking in Iowa just about 15 miles west of Des Moines, the area friendly territory for the Romney/Ryan campaign. We'll bring you more of his speech a little later.

Also a short time ago, we learned that the Democratic National Convention is moving tomorrow's big speeches indoors. That's because rain is now in the forecast. Tomorrow's schedule of course, includes President Obama's acceptance speech. Tonight the headliner is former President Bill Clinton.

And three out of four NFL players go bankrupt just five years out of the game. But now a new NBA program aims to help them be wiser with their money.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Move over, salt and pepper. Today we're talking about a few extra spices that not only taste great but can also make you look younger.

Here's Dr. Nicholas Perricone, the famous anti-aging expert and dermatologist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. NICHOLAS PERRICONE, DERMATOLOGIST: One of my favorites is turmeric. It's that bright yellow spice that we see sometimes in Eastern Indian food. And it's a powerful anti-inflammatory and can prevent the wrinkling and sagging we see with (inaudible) formation.

Another one is ginger. Ginger is a powerful anti-inflammatory. It blocks the production of a certain chemical and a certain protein called NF Capa B which tells our genes to turn out some very bad things. So think of ginger as a preventive method.

Another spice I'm absolutely crazy about is cinnamon. It tastes good but it also is a natural (inaudible) but works a little bit differently than the others. It can actually make us turn on good genes that suppress the wrinkling and sagging and at the same time turn off bad genes that can accelerate the aging process. So cinnamon's the key, I use it on my tea in the morning and sprinkle it on food.

Spices for long life and beautiful skin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Dr. Nicholas Perricone.

Still ahead, we ask you to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question, should Michelle Obama run for public office? Facebook.com/carolcnn.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Bit of a news just in to cnn, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake measured on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. That's about all we know. Of course, we'll continue to monitor this for you.

We asked you to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question or you this morning, should Michelle Obama run for office?

This from John, "I'm sure those who enjoy style over substance were enthralled last night."

This from Frank. "Why not? She would be a great-looking president and she's smarter than her husband."

This from beau, "Absolutely. However, I think after this coming term she'll want to focus on being a mom and spending time with Barack. But after that we can always dream."

Facebook.com/carol cnn if you'd like to continue the conversation.

Peyton Manning is flying high, and not just because he's on a new team. He'll make $96 million over five years, and while he appears to be as crafty with his money as he is with his play, not many NFL players can boast of that. They go bust. But thanks to a new MBA program, maybe not.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE; I'm living my dream right now, but when this dream ends, there is another one that's going to have to take place.

COSTELLO: Brendon Ayanbadejo is a linebacker with the Baltimore Ravens. He's got his eyes on his opponent when he's on the field, but he also has his sights set on life off it.

BRENDON AYANBADEJO, BALTIMORE RAVENS: I want to be the athletic director at UCLA, but also I want to be proficient businessman. I want to be hire-able. I want to be somebody that has a long resume of accomplishments.

COSTELLO: To make that happen, Ayanbadejo is going for a master's degree in business administration. What makes this MBA program unique is that nearly everyone in it is a pro athlete or former pro.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our goal is to really help these individuals make the transition from a very specific occupation that has given them a lot of access and a lot of resources in their lives.

COSTELLO: This is George Washington University's star executive MBA program, a customized program where celebrity students meet for eight hours a day in two-week modules. They'll take six modules over two years with plenty of homework and projects in between.

AYANBADEJO: We all have businesses we want to do once our careers are over, and we need to learn in fundamental ways how to grow those businesses and do them the right way. You're still going through those trials and errors, but you're going to be a lot smarter, a lot more efficient and just go about it a better way.

COSTELLO: Spouses are also encouraged to apply.

Kimberly starts to attend with her husband, former NFA player Dwayne Starr. There's a lot of class time, and in add to the class time, there's assignments. You know, you think like oh you come in and you sit down and you listen to a couple of lectures and it's over. That's not quite the case. There are a lot of papers that are due, homework assignments, blogs, exams and it's high paced.

COSTELLO: A modular curriculum to the MBA isn't new, but tailoring it to students worth tens of millions of dollars is a new approach. The strategy is to help them hang on to their money and build upon it so it benefits not only them but everyone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want them to be able to channel those resources into becoming great business leaders in society.

COSTELLO: Ayanbadejo says it's simple. If you want it bad enough, go get it.

AYANBADEJO: Time waits for nobody. I have to get it done now. And you know, there's a dream after football. And that dream is not going to wait for anybody. Whoever goes out there and seizes it is going to get it. So now is the time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Now's the time. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me today. "CNN NEWSROOM" continues right now with Ashley Banfield.