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Obama, Romney Prep For Second Debate; Crowley: "Keeping The Voters In Mind"; Pre-Trial Hearings For 9/11 Plotters; Pakistani Teen Activist On Way To Britain; Court Hearing On Costa Concordia Shipwreck; Man Freefalls Into the Record Books; New Prime Minister For Libya; 205 Cases In Meningitis Outbreak; Cuban Missile Crisis Turns 50; Bullied Teen Commits Suicide; Girardi: Expand Instant Replay

Aired October 15, 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: The next hour of NEWSROOM starts now. Stories we're watching in the NEWSROOM, round two Obama and Romney prepping for tomorrow's debate. The big question, will the president come out swinging?

The 14-year-old activist shot last week by Taliban assassins heads to Britain as thousands in Pakistan pray for her recovery and condemn her attackers.

A fireworks show backfires. A celebration ends in tragedy. Dozens injured. Many are now asking how could this have happened.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FELIX BAUMGARTNER, STRATOSPHERE JUMPER: Sometimes you have to get up really high to see how small you are. I'm going home now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Baby, a free fall from near outer space -- he fell at 833 miles per hour. Felix Baumgartner blazes past the speed of sound and into the history books. NEWSROOM starts now.

Good morning. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm Carol Costello in New York today. We start with round two, the big presidential debate, you guessed it. You will not see Mitt Romney or the president on the campaign trail today because the clock is ticking. Romney is in Massachusetts prepping for the debate, Obama is in Virginia. It is their last full day to get ready for tomorrow night, a night that could make or break this year's election. And the campaigns know it.

Here what are the campaign senior advisers, Robert Gibbs and Ed Gillespie, told our Candy Crowley about the face-off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, OBAMA CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: He knew when he walked off the stage and he knew as he watched the tape of that debate that he's got to be more energetic. I think you'll see somebody who is very passionate about the choice that our country faces and putting that choice in front of voters.

ED GILLESPIE, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: The president can change his style and tactics. He can't change his record and he can't change his policies. That's what this election is about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ron Brownstein, CNN's senior political analyst and the editorial director for the "National Journal" is with me now. Hi, Ron.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. We always hear this is a do-or-die debate. Is it really?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I don't think this single moment is, but certainly the president has to kind of reverse the narrative since that first debate. I mean, he seemed to be comfortably ahead moving into that debate. More importantly, he had disqualified Romney in the eyes of many voters, who were somewhat dissatisfied with the president's own performance.

That changed in the first debate. Romney, I think really established himself as a more viable alternative for many voters who were dissatisfied with the president. I think that is a structural change in the race that isn't going away. But the president has to begin to kind of reverse the story here both by returning to the themes that were working against Romney and also showing some passion as Robert Gibbs said about what he would like to accomplish in a second term.

COSTELLO: So this debate is formatted sort of like Oprah style for lack of a better term. That seems to favor Obama over Romney. Am I right?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, yes and no. I think the president came out of that first debate with two distinct challenges, one of which I think is easier to achieve in a town hall debate and one is harder.

The one that is harder is he needs to kind of frame the case against Governor Romney the Democrats had been trying to make since the spring in essence that he is kind of out of touch rich guy who doesn't care about average people. It's hard, Carol, as you know to be very negative in a town hall debate because voters often don't like it and the questions aren't conducive to it.

The other half I think is favorable to what the president has to do, which is display his own empathy. And again show the voters, give them some sense of what he wants to do in a second term that he has big ideas that motivate him because certainly he did not really seem passionate in that first debate about anything except blocking the Republican agenda. COSTELLO: OK, so let's just take it from Mr. Obama's point of view because he's the one that has to do really well to date to, you know, try to shore up his support that's waning. Do you think that he should get up off his chair, get closer to people when he's talking with them? Is that the way to do it?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, first of all, I mean, the polls out today, the ABC/"Washington Post" still have the president ahead. I mean, we're going back and for the in the polls. He still has a slight lead in some of the key battleground states, although there's been undoubtedly movement toward Governor Romney.

Well, look, I think what the president has to convey today above all is a sense that he has an agenda that will make people's lives better if you give him four more years. And whether he does that from sitting in his chair or from kind of wandering around the stage, either way, I think the big hole has been in both of these debates and at the convention, what would he do with a second term?

They've been very aggressive in defending their first-term record. They've been even more aggressive in making a case against Mitt Romney. The kind of hole in the donut has been if you give me four more years, what are you going to get in return that is going to make your life better?

COSTELLO: Ron Brownstein, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome. CNN's Candy Crowley will moderate the debate. She'll be the first woman in 20 years to do that, by the way. I actually talked with her in Washington last week. I congratulated her and said, no pressure, Candy. You just have to make up for Jim Lehrer. She didn't blink an eye. She even laughed and later shared how she's prepping for the big night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION": I think always it's keeping the voters in mind and you try to do that all the time as a political journalist like what is it that's on people's minds?

I think have I a good handle on it because my friends are people that are not just journalists. I know what's on their minds. I know what sort of deep waters they're walking through and what they're worrying about that kind of thing.

You also get a chance to know that when you are talking to folks leading up to our show. So I want to be able to be the person who when you're sitting on your couch watching these debates that you say exactly that's what I want to know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Join us tonight for tomorrow night's debate. CNN's special live coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Pre-trial hearings begin today at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for Khaled Sheik Mohamed. He is the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and also four of his accused co-conspirators will be tried along with him.

The hearing will be to determine if the public has a right to know how the men were treated by the CIA and if the U.S. Constitution applies at Guantanamo. Families of 9/11 victims can watch the proceeding at four military installations along the east coast.

A young Pakistani activist shot last week by the Taliban is expected to arrive very soon in Birmingham, England. That's where Mala Yousafzai will continue her recovery. Her parents and younger brother are with her for the eight-hour flight on a specially equipped plane.

In the meantime, huge crowds in Pakistan and in India, these people have been showing their support for Malala. The teenager, as you know, is an outspoken advocate for the right of girls to go to school and learn and for that she became the target of Taliban assassins.

CNN's Reza Sayah is in Islamabad. Reza, what's the next step for her?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the next step, the next stop is a specialized hospital in the U.K. This morning, 9 a.m. Pakistan time, it's about 10 hours ago, she was airlifted out of here. She made a quick stop in Abu Dhabi. There, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.A. briefly saw her, said she's still unconscious. This is about a 12-hour trip to the U.K. with the stop in Abu Dhabi.

My guess is in the next two or three hours, she'll be landing in Birmingham. Over the past few days, it was the military here in Pakistan overseeing her medical care. They said she's still in critical condition, but in good enough shape that they saw this as a window of opportunity to get Malala to the specialized facility that treats children with severe injuries.

Obviously, she has damage to her skull, probably neurological damage. She has a long way to go to recover. Mom, dad, her brother are with her and so are the prayers and well wishes of a lot of people. Not just here in Pakistan, Carol, all over the world.

COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about the reaction of Pakistan because the crowds that came out there and in other countries, it's astounding. I mean, you were in Karachi. This is a country where women and children can be treated like second class citizens. What does this mean?

SAYAH: Well, it's hard to say how Malala has inspired each and every person, but living here in Pakistan for a long time, I can tell you most people, the overwhelming majority of people think like Malala. They share her values. They're against the militancy, but for one reason or another, they have yet to speak up. They didn't have the courage to speak out. Then they heard this 14-year-old speak out against the Taliban, speak for education. They probably said you know what, she's doing it. Maybe I should do it, too. I think that's why over the past week you've heard so many people rise up against the Taliban and rise up in support of Malala. And I think that's why they say this could be a turning point for this government's fight against extremism here.

COSTELLO: Reza Sayah live in Islamabad this morning.

You know the old saying, excuses are like, well, there's a whole lot of that going on in Rome, Italy this morning. The captain of that wrecked cruiseliner is accused of abandoning ship while many of his passengers who died comes face to face with survivors and victims' families in court.

You remember the Italian ship, Costa Concordia. It struck rocks and capsized in January. Thirty two people died. The captain accused of abandoning ship could be charged with manslaughter at the end of this week's hearings.

Talk about one giant leap for mankind. This is crazy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAUMGARTNER: Sometimes you have to get up really high to see how small you are. I'm going home now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Yes, that's Fearless Felix. Felix Baumgartner broke the sound barrier and jumped into the record books with his 24-mile leap from the edge of space. Here what's he had to say when he finally landed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAUMGARTNER: It's hard to realize what happened right now because there are still so many emotions, you know. I had tears in my eyes when I was coming back a couple of times because you are sitting there and you thought about that moment so many times.

You know, how it would feel and what it would look like? This is way bigger than I anticipated. I got so many messages from all over the world. It feels like the whole world is watching this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And it was. Felix and his team spent five years preparing for Sunday's jump, which had been postponed twice because of the weather.

Something went terribly wrong at a fireworks show. Those fireworks shot into the crowd out of control.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's 15 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories now. A new prime minister in Libya. Ali Zidan has been named to the post after the country's congress rejected a crisis plan by the former leader resulting in his dismissal. Zidan has two weeks to form a new government. Former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter will be laid to rest tomorrow. He died from complications from Non-Hodgkins lymphoma after a long battle with cancer. Specter served five terms in the U.S. Senate as a moderate Republican before switching parties at the end of his political career. He was known as one of the true political wild card. Specter was 82.

A crowd watching a firework display in China had to scatter when the fireworks exploded around them. China's CCTV is reporting 100 people were hurt. Most of the victims were treated at the hospital and then released. No word on why the fireworks went astray this way.

Two Americans have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were given the award for their work in matching different economic actors, for example, students to schools or doctors to hospitals. If you understand that, well, you would have won the Nobel Prize too. The pair will share the cash prize of a little more than $1 million.

In health news this morning, contaminated pain injections have now made 205 people sick in 14 states. Fifteen have died from fungal meningitis linked to those injections. We are talking about people who went for help and they ended up dying.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen spent time with the family of one such man.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lord give us the strength to go forward.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Something's missing in the Lovelace house. Five generations gather in mourning.

Eddie Lovelace, husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, Sunday school teacher at his church, and a circuit court judge in Albany, Kentucky, dead, a suspected case of fungal meningitis.

(on camera): What do you miss?

CHRIS LOVELACE, VICTIM'S SON: He was the center of our universe as a family.

COHEN: Judge Eddie Lovelace was a healthy 78-year-old man, worked full-time, walked three miles a day. When in the middle of September, he started feeling dizzy and slurring his speech.

JOYCE LOVELACE, VICTIM'S WIFE: He was in the kitchen and he said, my legs don't work right. He said there's something wrong with my legs.

COHEN: Lovelace had had a stroke. Lovelace died five days after being admitted to the hospital.

JOYCE LOVELACE: It was a nightmare.

COHEN: Later the doctors put it together. Lovelace had been in a car accident and received three injections with steroids for back and neck pain. The medicine he received was likely made by the New England Compounding Center.

After his death, these injections were recalled because of fungal contamination, which can cause strokes. Now all his family can do is remember the devoted public servant, the grandfather who let his granddaughters play with Barbies behind the bench when they were little, while he heard court cases.

(on camera): What kind of a man was your dad?

CHRIS LOVELACE: He was the most intelligent man that I've ever met. His memory was uncanny. If you needed advice, irregardless of what the subject was, you could always take his and trust it.

COHEN (voice-over): His family looks back and asks why.

CHRIS LOVELACE: The decisions to save money, the decisions not to regulate drugs, decisions not to oversee these facilities, those decisions affect lives every day. And if different decisions had been made at certain points along the way, my father would be here today.

COHEN (on camera): I mean, your father just went in for really a very routine procedure.

CHRIS LOVELACE: He did and he went there for pain relief. He went there to get help.

COHEN: And he got --

CHRIS LOVELACE: Death.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Elizabeth Cohen is here now. So Elizabeth, we just heard the judge's son say his father would be alive if this drug had been regulated properly. Is he right?

COHEN: You know, Carol, it's hard to say. There's no question there's very little federal oversight over these compounding pharmacies. That's the kind of pharmacy that made this drug.

And there's even the state authority over these compounding pharmacies is limited. There's now action in Congress to have more regulation and more oversight because this is not the first time people have died as a result of a product made at one of these pharmacies.

COSTELLO: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

"Talk Back" question for you today: Are the deaths of American diplomats in Libya being politicized? Facebook.com/carolcnn.

(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: "Are the deaths of American diplomats in Libya being politicized"?

Just in case you forgot how ugly politics can be, the loved ones of those Americans killed in Libya are here to remind us. They are pleading stop politicizing their deaths.

In an interview with "Bloomberg News," the father of Ambassador Chris Stevens said, quote, "It would really be abhorrent to make this into a campaign issue before the investigation into the attack is complete."

This comes after the mother of Glen Dougherty, the ex-Navy SEAL killed in Benghazi, asked Mitt Romney to stop mentioning her son on the campaign trail.

As you might expect, all spilled over in a bitter exchange between Obama and Romney campaign advisers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GILLESPIE: There are inconsistencies here. What we're saying is that, you know, as Americans, we deserve to know what really happened going into this attack and what did the administration do after because we want to learn from them obviously --

CROWLEY: There's an ongoing investigation.

GIBBS: We don't need wing-tip cowboys, shoot from the hip diplomacy. When Mitt Romney first responded to what was going on in Libya, his own party called him out for insensitivity. He's done nothing but politicize this issue when what we need to do is find out what happens and Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: But you could argue both sides are doing their very best do that very thing, politicize the tragedy in Libya. After all, Congressional Republicans interrupted their recess not to talk about jobs, but to talk about Libya. The Obama administration initially pinned the murders on a cheesy film and not where it belongs, on al Qaeda. We could debate the why but why? Shouldn't we just try to figure it out together?

"Talk Back" question today: Are the deaths of American diplomats in Libya being politicized? Facebook.com/CarolCNN. Your responses later this hour.

Of course, Libya is a topic that could come up in tomorrow night's presidential debate. We'll preview what each candidate will say in the next town hall style format.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Just about 30 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories now, U.S. stocks opened slightly higher after a strong retail sales report and news of slower inflation in China. In the meantime, Citibank's third quarter earnings exceeded expectations as did media giant Gannett and brokerage firm, Charles Schaub.

A 14-year-old Pakistani activist shot last week by Taliban assassins is expected to arrive very soon in England. Doctors agree it's the best place for Malala Yousafzai to get treatment. The trip follows mass rallies in Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people are praying for Malala's recovery and they are condemning her attackers.

It's been half a century since the Cuban missile crisis took the U.S. to the brink of nuclear war. To mark the anniversary, the JFK Presidential Library is posting thousands of pages of confidential documents online. They include memos between President Kennedy and his brother then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Just 22 days until the election, but you will not be seeing President Obama or Mitt Romney anywhere on the campaign trail today. That's because you know it, they're hold up doing those last last-minute practice sessions for their second debate tonight. President Obama visited a local campaign headquarters yesterday though to drop off some hot pizzas and he said his debate prep was, quote, "going great."

The president is expected to come out swinging tomorrow night after his first, well, let's just call it subdued debate performance.

Joining me now, Democratic strategist Robert Zimmermann and Republican strategist, Ron Bonjean. Welcome, gentlemen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice to be with you.

COSTELLO: It's nice to have you here. So this is going to be a town hall style debate sort of an Oprah kind of thing where the candidates can walk around and talk to people who ask them questions. Who does that favor, Robert, Obama or Romney?

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, of course, both sides are going to say it favors the other to lower expectations. But fortunately for President Obama, he's conquered the high expectations problem.

So I think he goes into this very frankly in a very good position because the town hall form is about connecting with real people and that's his strength. His challenge in this debate is to be assertive and draw the differences with Governor Romney without being negative. I think for Governor Romney his problem is going to be to be able to show he can connect with real people who don't belong to his country club.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Well, Ron let's get in to that because one of us --

ZIMMERMAN: I'm not being partisan.

COSTELLO: Oh, no, not at all but we expect you to be. It's OK. But Ron many critics say Governor Romney is I don't know least effective quality is his inability to connect with real people. Will this -- this kind of you know forum be good for him? Because you know he can look them straight in the eye, answer their questions, touch them maybe.

RON BONJEAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well I certainly think it will be -- it will be great for Mitt Romney. You know the fact that he is so neck and neck in the polls with Barack Obama. And he did so well during the last debate, I think that there are -- all the pressure really is on Obama to do well. And the fact that his surrogates are saying Obama is going to bring energy to the debate, well, that's sort of a predicate, you have to bring energy to these debates.

And the pressure is going to be on him to thread that needle between going after Mitt Romney and not offending the audience. And all Mitt Romney has to do is keep presenting the two vision of how he would lead the country versus the President's record of how they have a failed vision to lead the country. I think there is a lot less pressure on Mitt Romney and a lot more on Obama.

ZIMMERMAN: I think Ron makes an interesting point.

COSTELLO: You know and --

ZIMMERMAN: I'm sorry.

COSTELLO: Go ahead.

ZIMMERMAN: I was going to -- I was going to say, I think Ron makes a very interesting point but I think the challenge for Mitt Romney is he's got to present not just to -- the problem is most of the time he presents two visions, with just two different positions that he takes on two different occasions. He's going to have to be very clear about not showing himself to be yet another person.

He's going to have to answer about whether he's got a $5 trillion tax cut plan or how his health care plan covers people with pre-existing conditions.

BONJEAN: Well --

ZIMMERMAN: Because the Mitt Romney who was on the first debate was not the Mitt Romney we say on the campaign trail.

COSTELLO: Well, he's got a point, Ron. Romney seems to be shifting to a more moderate Republican although, you know when he started running during the primary, he was as conservative as conservative could be and I think some people are confused by that.

BONJEAN: Well, that's exactly what the Democrats are going for. That's they're talking points of the week is trying to divide Mitt Romney instead of talking about their own record or their own vision for the future. What Romney's going to do is keep talking about how he's going to grow the economy, how he's going to cut deficits and debt. And let them go ahead and attack him but Americans are looking for a future forward vision plan. And that's why Romney has done so well in the polls. And if they try that tactic, I don't think it's going to work very well for them.

(CROSSTALK)

ZIMMERMAN: Ron you've got to admit it.

BONJEAN: Because it's already in the last week or two.

ZIMMERMAN: You've got to admit it Ron, it's a pretty good talking point.

COSTELLO: Well, Robert -- Robert, Robert I will say --

BONJEAN: You're delivering the talking points, Robert.

COSTELLO: I know let me just say this.

ZIMMERMAN: But they're good talking points, Ron.

COSTELLO: OK, let's pause for a second. A new poll of polls is out, the race is literally neck and neck. Each candidate has 47 percent.

I think the rub on Obama, Robert, is that he isn't laying out a great vision for his second term. I mean, what's he going to do differently than he did in his first term. A lot of voters want to know?

ZIMMERMAN: By the way I think it's a perfectly fair concern, a perfectly fair question for voters to ask. And in this town hall forum he's going to have the opportunity to project very specifically his plans for the next four years. And I think he's been doing it during the course of the campaign trail. But when you have a debate forum like this with 60 million or 70 million people watching, it's incumbent upon President Obama to articulate his vision for the future, in the same way it's incumbent upon Governor Romney to talk specifically about what tax cuts and tax loopholes he's going to engage in, and what loopholes he's going to close in order to try to make a $5 trillion tax cut a reality.

So I think both are challenged to be specific. I think Mitt, I think the problem, the challenge, the good news for President Obama is the right track/wrong track is improving. People see consumer confidence climbing, housing starts climbing, the jobs number is getting better. That's to his advantage.

COSTELLO: OK so last question and you make it a short answer because we're running out of time. At least my producers say we are. Candy Crowley, debate moderator. Fantastic, Ron?

BONJEAN: Fantastic. We love Candy Crowley. She's great and we think she'll do a great job tomorrow night.

COSTELLO: Awesome, Robert?

ZIMMERMAN: Look, Ron and I are both -- Ron and I are both Candy Crowley groupies, OK.

BONJEAN: Yes that was a softball. ZIMMERMAN: Also I think it's -- it's such a great tribute though to her and what she represents. She's going to make history tonight -- tomorrow night just because she's even-handed, she's fair, she's smart and neither side is going to get away with being vague.

COSTELLO: And she's a nice person, too.

BONJEAN: Absolutely.

ZIMMERMAN: She's awesome.

COSTELLO: Ron Bonjean and Robert Zimmerman, thank you so much.

BONJEAN: Thank you.

ZIMMERMAN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And as we mentioned, CNN's Candy Crowley moderates tomorrow night's presidential town hall debate. CNN's coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

It is a story that's captured attention around the world, a heart breaking story of a teenager's silent cry for help.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A heartbreaking story out of Canada, one that every parent needs to hear. Amanda Todd, a Vancouver teenager, shared her story of bullying on YouTube last month. In seventh grade she made some poor choices, exposing her breasts to someone she met on the Internet. Soon those photos were all over her school and Amanda's life changed forever she was bullied. Amanda switched schools and cities but the bullying never stopped. In the video she describes how she tried to commit suicide.

Amanda Todd was found dead on Wednesday. Authorities believe she finally succeeded in attempting suicide. Since her story got out, there's been an outpouring of support for Amanda and for victims of bullying. Her memorial page on Facebook has nearly three quarters of a million likes.

Catherine Bradshaw, the deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention of Youth Violence joins us via Skype from Annapolis, Maryland. Welcome Catherine.

CATHERINE BRADSHAW, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, JOHNS HOPKINS CENTER FOR THE PREVENTION OF YOUTH VIOLENCE: Thank you very much for having me on.

COSTELLO: Oh, this is just a sad story. Amanda's parents want that YouTube video to remain online. They want people to watch it. Do you think that's good for them and will it help?

BRADSHAW: Well, often when parents are struggling with the stress of this kind of situation, we have to tune in to what we could do to support them and it sounds like they're really trying to reach out to community members. However, we do have to be cautious about the material that we put on the Internet because it might very well reach some other vulnerable youth and send the wrong signal to them.

You know through some research on issues related to suicidal contagion, this might actually trigger some other suicides. So we have to be cautious about these types of issues.

COSTELLO: Well let's talk about that because that's a big concern. So this YouTube video could actually prompt a teen-ager who is being bullied to commit suicide?

BRADSHAW: Well, suicide is a very complex behavior. So we have to highlight the importance of issues relate to mental health that often underlie in most suicidal situations. But what is important to know is that if it goes untreated, mental health concerns, if they go untreated, it could very well lead other youth to commit suicide.

So we need to be very careful about how the media portrays issues and how the Internet posts information that might be read or viewed vulnerable youth that might be considering similar types of acts.

COSTELLO: Oh you know there have been so many efforts to fight bullying last year it's all everyone could talk about but it continues. So are we putting a dent in the problem or is it the same?

BRADSHAW: Well, this is important national attention to pay to the issue. In fact, October is bullying prevention month. And so it's very important that we are covering this issue especially this month and throughout the rest of the year and drawing attention to it.

We do have some inclination from some national data that the rates of bullying have either stabilized or even potentially that their slightly down.

So this doesn't mean that we've gotten rid of the issue, as clearly we see from this particular case, but we do want to make sure that there's awareness that's leading to action and people becoming involved in bullying prevention efforts in their community and schools.

COSTELLO: We hope so Catherine Bradshaw, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.

BRADSHAW: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Twenty-two days until the election and things are getting serious, unless you're the folks at "Saturday Night Live" -- then it's all laughs. In case you didn't see it, here's SNL's take on the vice presidential debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON SUDEIKIS AS JOE BIDEN, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": OK. I'm sorry Martha. Martha -- but with all due respect, this is a bunch of malarkey. All right. This is malarkey.

KATE MCKINNON AS MARTHA RADDATZ, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": A bunch of malarkey?

SUDEIKIS: Yes.

MCKINNON: What does that mean?

TARAN KILLAM AS PAUL RYAN, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": It's Irish.

SUDEIKIS: No, no, no. Irish is I come over there and smack that dumb look off your face.

KILLAM: Our economic plan is simple. We are going to close loopholes, bring down tax rates and erase the deficit.

MCKINNON: Can you please be more specific?

KILLAM: No. Do you know what the unemployment rate in Scranton is right now?

SUDEIKIS: Sure do.

KILLAM: It's 10 percent.

And I just wonder what the vice president would say to the hard working people of towns like Janesville and Scranton.

SUDEIKIS: I know what I'd say to my friend and the people of Janesville. Things may be bad where you live but I guarantee you it is a paradise next to the burning coal heap that is Scranton, Pennsylvania.

KILLAM: Mr. Vice President, I think you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground but I think the people would be better served if you didn't keep interrupting me talk.

SUDEIKIS: You don't scare me, shark eyes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So the SNL crew studies politics to make that skit funny. So some are suggesting the candidates should study acting to prep for the debates. After all they say the base had become more about flair than substance. Here's Nischelle Turner with a Hollywood acting coach.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With an expected audience of more than 60 million people, the second presidential debate will be a show of blockbuster proportions. So perhaps the candidates could use a few Hollywood stage secrets.

(on camera): If you were advising either one of the candidates, is there something they can do to try to focus themselves to get ready to get the game-face on?

JOE ANTHONY, ACTING COACH: Focus would come from knowing who you're with, knowing what's at stake and having a very clear sense of what you need to commit yourself to, to gain ground.

TURNER (voice-over): Veteran Hollywood acting coach, Joe Anthony, says the more personal a message is to an actor, the more effectively they communicate. His top stage secret for the candidates, keep it personal by remembering the people they've met along the campaign trail.

ANTHONY: If it becomes personal for them, like their own personal mission, they can champion these people that they've met, then it's easier to stay focused. It's easier to stay driven.

TURNER (on camera): I mean one of the things we hear so many from actors, especially theater actors is you play to your audience. How do they do that? How do they make themselves believable and then endear themselves to people in the room?

ANTHONY: Going into this town hall meeting, they don't have to try to be believable, they need to have something to believe in. They can be thinking all along of the person they met back in Iowa who needs a better health plan or the person back in Iowa they met needs a better tax plan and they can be speaking on behalf of them.

TURNER: Tap into real emotion?

ANTHONY: Absolutely. Yes. And it's not that difficult to do. Again, they meet all these wonderful people who have real problems and in the same way that we empathize when we reed fictional novels or see movies, they can empathize with the people that they meet.

If they spend a little time every day dreaming about their problems, their heart falls in love with the opportunity to champion them.

TURNER: What does body language say?

ANTHONY: I think body language is a direct result of the relationship you have to the place you're in, the person you're with, how you feel about the circumstances you're living under. Your body responds directly.

So for example, if you believe your -- if they go to the town hall meeting and they walk into an environment they feel is hostile, their body language will respond accordingly. On the other hand, if they walk into the town hall meeting and they remember that these are the people that want them to stand up and speak for them, they'll feel like they're one of them and they'll relax.

TURNER (voice-over): And what can the candidates learn from the only actor turned American president?

(on camera): He was widely known as a great communicator, a good debater -- and did -- was he able to draw off his of acting skills to be able to be that good? ANTHONY: I imagine his years of acting training got him used to the idea that if I've got a strong position, you can throw anything you want at me, you can say anything you want at me. I'm going to find a way to twist it to where I want to take it.

TURNER: With that I take that you're saying the President and Governor Romney need to take acting classes?

ANTHONY: It certainly couldn't hurt.

TURNER (voice-over): Nischelle Turner, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: An umpire blows a call at a critical point in the Tigers- Yankees playoff game. Now, Yankees manager Joe Girardi is making his own call for baseball to expand the use of instant replay. We'll talk about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Just one NFL team remains unbeaten after Sunday's game. The Green Bay Packers dealt the Houston Texans their first loss of the season, 42-24. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw six of those things, that's a career high.

But let's talk about the Atlanta Falcons because they are the remaining undefeated team. The Falcons beat Oakland 23-20 on the last second -- that's a 55-yarder there by Matt Bryant. At 6-0 the Falcons are having their best start in franchise history.

And the New York Giants improved to 4-2 on the season by humbling San Francisco 26-3. Giants picked up 49ers quarterback Alex Smith three times in the three-match of last season's NSC title game.

On to baseball now. The Detroit Tigers are up two games to none on New York in the ALCS after beating the Yankees last night but the play that everybody's talking about is this one. Tigers Omar Infante took a wide turn at second base and then you'll see him dive back to the bag where the umpire called him safe. Poor Robinson Cano. The replay clearly showed Omar Infante was out.

New York manager Joe Girardi argued the call. He was thrown out of the game and later he argued for baseball to expand its use of instant replay to cover plays like that one.

JOE GIRARDI, MANAGER, NEW YORK YANKEES: In this day and age there's too much at stakes and the technology is available. That's what our country has done. We've involved technology to make things better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about this and those empty seats at the Yankees stadium. Carlo Diaz with HLN Sports is here. Let's talk about the instant replay first. That's harder news, I suppose. It's common, right? CARLOS DIAZ, HLN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: If you're a tigers fan this morning, you don't want instant replay. You're fine, that was great call. Oh, my gosh, come on. Tigers fans are quick to point out, by the way, that, you know, the Tigers were still winning when that play happened.

COSTELLO: Yes.

DIAZ: Let's talk about this. They have instant replay in the Little League. In the Little League World Series, they have and utilize instant replay. Why in the world would you not have it in baseball when players are playing as Joe Girardi put it last night, for 235 days leading up to this one game and you have a call that is not even close. I mean, it was instantly (ph) bad.

Jeff Nelson, the umpire, said after the game I blew it. I mean I -- there was a bad call. Why in the world, in this day and age of instant replay, high definition instant replay would you not have it?

Now, some people would say it would make the game longer. Really? Because Girardi was arguing for quite some time out there. It would have made it actually shorter. He would have gone out and said I contend the call. I protest the call. I throw a red flag -- whatever you want to do -- take a look at it. You know what; he's out, innings over and it's 1-0, (INAUDIBLE) to the bottom of the eighth. And that's the thing. You can no longer argue it would make the game longer.

COSTELLO: OK. Well, it could go either way actually. But let's move on to something else because one blown call does not make an entire game.

Another added problem for the Yankees is the stadium wasn't full. There were 3,000 empty seats. Yahoo! Sports reporting that the ushers were moving people around so people wouldn't notice on television.

DIAZ: And the thing is though, if you go to stubhub.com or other ticket places, you're talking about these upper level seats going for $100 apiece. You're talking about seats near the field going for thousands of dollars. I think what people are now saying, the fans are saying we're fed up. We don't want to take it anymore. We're not going to pay these outrageous prices for these seats.

And you're seeing these empty seats. It's the same way in San Francisco, the seats are going for hundreds of dollars in the upper level and this is the way that the fans will strike and say, you know what; we have high definition at home. It's just as great to watch it there.

COSTELLO: And the popcorn is a lot cheaper and so is the beer frankly. Carlos Diaz --

DIAZ: And you have instant replay.

COSTELLO: That's right, you have instant replay. Carlos Diaz, thanks so much. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We asked you to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning: "Are the deaths of American diplomats in Libya being politicized?"

This from David: "We should not be divided on this issue. Being divided on this issue sends the wrong message to the world. This two- party fighting stuff makes us look weak."

This is from Don: "Reminds me of the political ad years ago, it's 3:00 a.m. and who do you want to answer the phone? Well, apparently the President isn't answering the phone."

This from Renee: "The Republicans are politicizing the deaths before the election, instead of waiting for the results of the FBI investigation."

And this from Will: "Everything in this day and age is politicized. With everyone being as divided as they are politically it only takes a spark. Respect the family's wishes, even if you can't respect each other."

If you want to continue this conversation -- Facebook.com/CarolCNN.

Thank you so much for your responses and thank you for joining me this morning.

I'm Carol Costello. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ashleigh Banfield.