American Morning
5.9 aftershock hits Haiti
CNN's Jason Carroll reports from Port-au-Prince after a strong aftershock rocked Haiti Wednesday morning.
Democrats point fingers after stunning loss
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/20/brown.newspaper.art.jpg caption="Republican Scott Brown shows off a headline touting his win Tuesday night."]
Boston, Massachusetts (CNN) - Even before the polls closed on Tuesday night, Democrats were distancing themselves from Democrat Martha Coakley and blaming her lackluster campaign for her stunning loss in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts.
A top adviser to President Obama rejected assertions that Tuesday's vote was a referendum on the president or Democratic policies and instead took a shot at Coakley: "Campaigns and candidates matter."
For weeks, Scott Brown had been the underdog candidate, running behind in the race to finish out the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's term.
Trailing by double digits a little more than a week ago, Brown had edged ahead of Coakley, campaigning as the pickup truck-driving candidate, capitalizing on voter frustrations and vowing to send Obama's health care bill "back to its drawing board."
Coakley, the state's attorney general, had been considered a shoo-in in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, which hadn't elected a Republican to the Senate in 38 years.
But as Brown gained momentum and Coakley's numbers fell, Democrats rushed big guns to campaign for her, including Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
In the hours after Coakley's concession speech, though, Coakley's pollster Celinda Lake fired back at criticism that she ran a weak and misguided campaign and failed to recognize Brown's surge until it was too late.
Read the full story here
"Where's the Love?"
By Carol Costello and Bob Ruff
One full year after a President's inauguration is always a good time to take stock and ask, "How's he doing?"
By all accounts, the inauguration of the nation's first African American president was historic. We asked presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, who wrote biographies of Jimmy Carter and Franklin Roosevelt, to assess what it was like at the start of the President Obama's term.
"He had a bit of a roll for a few months," says Brinkley, "…(and) had a crucial rubicon to overcome, to cross, and that was high expectations in the spring. He had run on change and "yes we can", and there was a feeling that this progressive movement was going to sweep into Washington, D.C."
As we know all too well, it hasn't worked out exactly that way so far.
The love and joy of the inauguration fell prey to federal bailouts, rising unemployment, and tea parties and rancor over health reform.
Jesse Jackson, founder and President of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition,told us "we thought that we were at a new moment and going to a new place, but the level of resistance has been historical and ugly and very divisive."
A leading voice of dissent, radio host Rush Limbaugh, who told a cheering CPAC gathering in late February : "What is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country's so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?"
Drew Westen, Emory University political psychologist and the author of "The Political Brain", was an Obama supporter during the campaign. Now he is critical of much of the President's performance, especially in his dealings with the Republican opposition.
Are you looking for loved ones in Haiti?
(CNN) – Rescuers were still finding survivors trapped in the ruins of collapsed buildings in earthquake-ravaged Haiti on Wednesday, and relief officials said efforts to get aid into the hands of survivors were improving.
A magnitude 5.9 aftershock rattled Port-au-Prince early Wednesday, the strongest since the original 7.0-magnitude quake struck January 12, the United States Geological Survey reported. Meanwhile, complaints about bottlenecks that have hindered the delivery of food, water and medicine to survivors persisted even as U.S. and U.N. officials said the effort has begun to make progress. FULL STORY
Latest updates | Twitter | Full coverage | High-res images | Map | Photos
Are you searching for family members or friends in Haiti? Send us their photos and any relevant information and they'll be added to our searchable files. If you're in Haiti and safe, please take a look through the photos and share any information you may have. See a list of the found who have reconnected with family, and a partial list of the victims. CNN crews in Haiti also are working to relay messages from those affected by the earthquake back to their loved ones. FULL STORY
Search for: Missing | Found | Tributes | Cover the story with CNN, send pics
The U.S. State Department has set up a hotline for information on family members who may be in Haiti: (888) 407.4747. This number is for information on U.S. citizens in Haiti only. For all Nationalities, you can use their online Person Finder Tool.
• Are you searching for a family member or friend? Upload their photo on iReport
To learn more about how you can get involved, visit Impact Your World.
Details on how you can help: Who's doing what, how you can contribute
We Listen – Your Comments 1/19/10
Editor's Note:Tuesday’s American Morning viewers zeroed in on today’s Massachusetts’ election to fill the senate seat held by former Senator Ted Kennedy. Independents were said to play a critical role in the election’s outcome, as many former Democrats, disenchanted by President Obama, were moving to the right of the political spectrum. Others believed that abandoning the Democrats at this time was akin to being “traitors to the poor and working class people.”
- Ginspelts: As a former moderate democrat who got fed up with the bail outs, a 800 billion stimulus bill that did absolutely nothing to help with jobs or the economy and a crappy 2000 page healthcare bill that I do not know a whole lot about except all the wheeling, dealing & sweetheart deals behind close doors to special interest groups and the unions, and the ever mounting debt that our country is in; I can only hope that Scott Brown wins today. Maybe that is the kick in the teeth moment that the democrats in congress need to stop being so arrogant and hateful to the voters and start listening to the voters instead of putting them down and ignoring them. They completely lost me as a democrat in their party. I now considered myself a Independent
- Susan: If the independents vote for Brown because they are not pleased the way Obama is doing things and let health care fail, these people that do this are idiots and traitors to the poor and working class people. Obama is doing a great job for the situation were in. He is not God. Those that are disappointed in Obama should not put him on a pedestal. He is only a man working very hard to continue to bring back America the way it was. He has only been in there a year. If the independents vote for Brown they are letting the American people down. Brown has done nothing for no body and he is a tea bagger who is full of hate and they want him to take Teddy's seat. They are crazy. I don't think America will ever forgive them. Also, the democrats have to get out in groves today. Supporting Coakley for this Seat in Congress. Let's not give up now we have come to far for getting health care. We have some real idiots out there. Mr. Centerfold(Brown) would be a disaster. He has already said he would vote down health care. Now, for the independents to go ahead and vote for him would be just plain stupid!!!
- Joan: Jim Acosta's report on the race in Massachusetts today was disappointing because he is usually fair. He definitely slanted the report positively for Brown and showed negative aspects of the Coakley campaign. There were lots of negative issues in the Brown campaign but as the Republicans like to do, they gloss over that and attack the other candidate. If Mass. votes in Brown and he derails the health care plan, then those voters have a lot on their shoulders. They will be setting health care reform back for years and years and your country will continue to have one of the most one-sided, unfair systems in the industrialized world. Your system is geared for the wealthy and big companies and to heck with the poor little guys who can't afford it. What a shame. I'm not sure that you all realize that a lot of countries around the world are watching to see how your country responds to the health care crises and hope that your moral conscience comes through. Everyone is understandably upset about the horrible circumstances in Haiti and people need health care. You have people suffering in your own country without healthcare but try to cover that up. It seems kind of hypocritical.
The Massachusetts’ senate seat is critical in order for the Democrats to hold power in the Senate. What is your desired outcome of this election? Would having less Democratic power actually drive the senators to work together better, or would such a loss endanger any chance of health care and other reform that exists on the president’s agenda?
Surviving Haiti's tent cities
Thousands of people in Port-au-Prince now fear what's to come as they spend desperate days and nights in tent cities. These makeshift communities now dot the earthquake ravaged city. There is little fresh water and food and safety is now a growing concern. CNN's Jason Carroll reports.
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