The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight, our summary of the news, then a round up of what President Bush and the Democrats had to say today and over the weekend; a look at the realities and politics of the economy; a preview of tomorrow's Democratic votes in Tennessee and Virginia; the first of two Elizabeth Farnsworth reports on Israel's West Bank barrier; and a Clarence Page essay on the invasion of the Beatles.

NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: President Bush touted the economic recovery today in an annual report to Congress. He said last year's tax cuts helped to revive business activity. The report forecast the economy would grow 4 percent this year, and add 2.6 million jobs. Overall, the country has lost nearly that many jobs since Mr. Bush took office. Democratic presidential front- runner John Kerry dismissed the new report as too rosy. We'll have more on this following the News Summary. In the Democratic race, John Kerry won three more states over the weekend: Michigan, Maine, and Washington State. And he pointed toward two southern states that vote tomorrow, Tennessee and Virginia. Polls showed him leading in both, over John Edwards and Wesley Clark. Their aides said they'd stay in the race, win or lose. We'll have more on the presidential campaign later in the program. A suspected al-Qaida figure in Iraq has appealed for help to al-Qaida leaders to stir up religious war. The "New York Times" reported that today, and later, U.S. Military officials confirmed it. They said they captured a 17- page memo written by the suspect that talked of targeting Shiites. It said: In Baghdad, a U.S. Army general said the writer complained that attacks so far haven't worked. In Baghdad, a U.S. Army general said the writer complained that attacks so far haven't worked.

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. Army: They haven't had the effect he wanted, which is to destroy coalition resolve, prevent the standup of an effective Iraqi security apparatus, and prevent the uniting of Iraq, North, South, and center. He is disappointed, sensing we have been given by both the English reading of it and those who read it in its original languages, in many ways this guy is disappointed in his lack of success.

JIM LEHRER: Also in Iraq today, two U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded as they tried to dismantle explosives. It happened near the northern city of Mosul, and was ruled an accident. The Israeli Supreme Court began hearing arguments today on a security barrier going up in the West Bank. Israeli human rights groups filed challenges, hoping to halt construction. We have a report narrated by Vera Frankl of Associated Press Television News of Associated Press Television News.

VERA FRANKL: A three-judge panel heard the petitions and the two rights groups presented separate cases, but both say the barrier violates human rights by disrupting the lives of thousands of Palestinians.

MICHAEL SFORD: We are going to ask the court to declare that building a separation wall or a separation fence on an occupied territory is illegal, and that it violates basic tenets of international humanitarian law.

VERA FRANKL: It's not clear if the court will issue a ruling before the international court of justice in the Netherlands starts its own examination of the wall's legality. Israel wants the wall in order to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians say it's nothing but a land grab.

SPOKESMAN: We consider we are the Palestinian people. We refuse this fence completely because it is our land. We have to decide what are we doing with our land.

VERA FRANKL: The barrier, which is about one-quarter built, encircles several Palestinian towns and villages. Israel says the wall has already saved lives, but a legal ruling may yet prevent the authorities from ever finishing it.

JIM LEHRER: On Sunday, a government official said Israel would alter the barrier's route to minimize disruptions to Palestinians. The extent of those changes was unclear. We'll have Elizabeth Farnsworth's first report on the barrier later in the program tonight. Armed rebellion spread across Haiti today with growing demands for President Aristide's ouster. Over the weekend, the rebels looted shipping containers and barricaded roadways in the port city of St. Marc. They now control at least 11 towns in western Haiti. At least 40 people have been killed since Thursday. Opposition to Aristide has been growing since he won disputed elections four years ago. He's accused of corruption and human rights abuses. The U.S. Agriculture Department called off the search for more cases of Mad Cow Disease today. The first and only U.S. case was discovered last December, in Washington State. That animal may have eaten contaminated feed in Alberta, Canada, where it was born. Officials wanted to find 25 other cattle from the same Canadian farm. They found only 14. The Ag Department's chief veterinarian said today the remaining animals pose "little risk." On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 14 points to close at 10,579. The NASDAQ fell three points to close at 2060. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to a campaign round- up; the economy as an issue; Democratic prospects in Virginia and Tennessee; the Israeli view of the West Bank barrier; and a Clarence Page essay on the Beatles.

UPDATE - CAMPAIGN 2004

JIM LEHRER: The day before primaries in Tennessee and Virginia, the Democratic candidates and President Bush were out on the stump. Kwame Holman has our report.

KWAME HOLMAN: President Bush chose an engine factory in Missouri to highlight his economic program today, telling workers there that the U.S. Economy is on the upswing.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We're growing. The growth is good. New jobs are being created.

KWAME HOLMAN: The president's trip to Missouri, a state he won only narrowly in 2000, coincided with the release of a white house economic report predicting substantial job growth this year. Mr. Bush cited his tax cuts as a major reason.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: A lot of it had to do with the fact that we cut your taxes, a lot of the reasons why this economy is growing. Make no mistake about it, the main reason the economy is growing because the entrepreneurial spirit of America is strong and we've got the greatest workers in the world.

KWAME HOLMAN: The president cautioned the audience to be wary when the Democratic presidential candidates call for suspending his tax cuts.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Listen to the rhetoric carefully, when they say "we're going to repeal Bush's tax cuts," that means they're going to raise your taxes, and that's wrong. And that's bad economics.

KWAME HOLMAN: Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has pledged to roll back most of the president's tax cuts. He told an audience in Roanoke, Virginia, today that the white house economic forecast cannot be taken seriously.

SEN. JOHN KERRY: In this new report they say they're going to create 2.5 million jobs over the course of the next year. Well, I got a feeling this report was prepared by the same people who brought us the intelligence on Iraq because this president, this president has the worst jobs record of the last 11 presidents combined. He has lost over three million jobs; 2,300 jobs were lost right here in Virginia last month.

KWAME HOLMAN: Throughout the campaign, all the Democratic candidates have blamed the president for the high unemployment numbers.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS: We know that this president is at war with working people.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: He set us back. Three million lost jobs.

HOWARD DEAN: People are working two jobs, longer hours.

KWAME HOLMAN: The president used a rare Oval Office appearance, held by "meet the press" yesterday to counter the Democratic critics.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I've got a vision for what I want to do for the country, I know exactly where I want to lead. I want to lead this world toward more peace and freedom, I want to lead this great country to work with others to change the world in positive ways, particularly as we fight the war on terror. We've got changing times here in America too.

KWAME HOLMAN: Tim Russert also pressed Mr. Bush on his tour of duty in the national guard during the Vietnam War.

TIM RUSSERT: The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terrence McAuliffe said this last week. "I look forward to that debate when John Kerry, a war hero with a hest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard He didn't show up when he should have showed up " How do you respond?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Political season is here. I was... served in the National Guard, flew F-102 aircraft, I got an honorable discharge. I've heard this, I've heard this ever since I started running for office, and I put in my time, proudly so.

TIM RUSSERT: The "Boston Globe" and Associated Press have gone through some of the records and said there's no evidence you reported for duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: It's just wrong. There may be no evidence, but I did report. Otherwise I wouldn't have been honorably discharged. You don't just say I did something without there being verification. Military doesn't work that way. I got an honorable discharge, and I did show up in Alabama.

KWAME HOLMAN: Kerry, a Vietnam combat veteran, reacted to the president's remarks yesterday.

SEN. JOHN KERRY: I've said since the day I came back from Vietnam that it was not an issue to me if somebody chose to go to Canada or to go to jail, or to be a conscientious objector or to serve in the National Guard or elsewhere. I honor that service. But that's not the issue here. The issue here, as I have heard it raised, is was he present and active on duty in Alabama at the times he was supposed to be? I don't have the answer to that question. And just because you get an honorable discharge does not in fact answer that question.

KWAME HOLMAN: Kerry spoke after picking up an endorsement from Virginia Governor Mark Warner, his state and Tennessee both hold primaries tomorrow. Kerry has won ten of the twelve contests thus far, including three this weekend-- Washington State, Michigan, and Maine. North Carolina Senator John Edwards kept his focus on the southern primaries, addressing a community college audience in Norfolk, Virginia.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS: I came here today to ask you to go to the polls, to vote for John Edwards, to get your friends, your neighbors, your family to the polls. I wish we could go right now. You know, I need you. I can't change this country by myself. We can do it together.

KWAME HOLMAN: Retired General Wesley Clark took a break from his campaign push in the South, speaking about Iraq at a rally in Wisconsin on Sunday.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: George W. Bush must be held accountable for taking us to a war we did not have to fight.

KWAME HOLMAN: Wisconsin voters go to the polls February 17. Former Vermont Governor Howard dean, also in Wisconsin, earlier had said his entire campaign rode on winning there. Today he vowed to go on regardless. After failing to win any of this weekend's contests, he urged Wisconsin voters to change the next outcome.

HOWARD DEAN: So Wisconsin we have eight days to go. You have the power to keep this debate alive, you have the power to choose the strongest candidate to represent the Democratic Party. Next Tuesday you have the power to make America work again for ordinary working people.

KWAME HOLMAN: Today Dean lost the endorsement of the 1.5 million member American federation of state, county, and municipal employees. That was the second union to desert Dean in less than an week. Congressman Dennis Kucinich and the Reverend Al Sharpton both campaigned in Virginia today.

FOCUS - BIG ENOUGH BOUNCE?

JIM LEHRER: Now, the economy, topic "A" today for the president and the Democrats who want his job, and to Ray Suarez.

RAY SUAREZ: In his economic report to Congress and in recent appearances like the one earlier today, the president has pointed to new data that he says shows the economy is gaining strength, including a falling unemployment rate, now down to 5.6 percent in January, the lowest rate in two years; the creation of 112,000 new jobs last month; and an increase in the Gross Domestic Product of the final quarter last year. GDP was up 4 percent for that quarter, 3.1 percent for the year overall. But Democrats cite other data that they say point to a so- called jobless recovery and more troubles ahead, including 2.2 million fewer jobs than when the president took office, and a record deficit this year, projected to reach $521 billion by the White House.

RAY SUAREZ: For a closer analysis of these trends, I'm joined by two economists who watch things from different perspectives. Jared Bernstein is with the Economic Policy Institute, and William Beach is with the Heritage Foundation. Jared Bernstein, the economic report of the president looks ahead to 2004, sees a net job creation of 2.6 million jobs, and an overall growth rate of about 4 percent. Do you think that's what's going to be on tap for 2004?

JARED BERNSTEIN: I wish it were so, but I'm afraid not. We have to go back and look at where we've been to get a better sense of where we're going. We are now 26 months into this recovery, and it is the weakest jobs recovery on record. In fact, it's the first recovery where at this point we still have failed to make up the jobs lost from the recession in 2001. Now, the economic report of the president has, I think, a credibility gap working. Back in 2002 they projected that we would add 400,000 jobs. We ended up losing 1.5 million that year. Next year, 2003 they projected that we would add 1.7 million; we were down about 400,000. Now they're talking about, as you mentioned, 2.6 million for the year. The important thing to keep in mind is that in order to reach that goal, they need over 450,000 jobs per month. Now, in the first month of this year we had 112,000. That's the best month of job creation since this jobless recovery turned positive back in September of last year. So it's a very high benchmark, and once again I'm afraid they're going to miss it.

RAY SUAREZ: William Beach?

WILLIAM BEACH: The business that Jerry and I are in of looking at these numbers, we begin to notice some trends. If you compare the first half of 2003, Ray, with the second half of 2003, one of the things you'll notice is a big jump off in the key indicators of economic activity. Gross Domestic Product, which is the total value of goods and services produced in the economy for sale that year, was weak and anemic the first half and it grew significantly in the second half. In fact, we almost had a record at one point. What I'm really encouraged by is the strong growth in investment spending. Investment spending usually precedes employment gain, so the stronger the investment spending, usually later on the stronger the employment gains. And the third quarter and fourth quarters of 2003 we saw investment by businesses, that is their consumption of new equipment to make goods and services, at literally record levels, in the third quarter - in fact, we have to go back all the way to 1950. So I'm in the business of looking at these numbers and I'm saying to myself, "well, this looks like a very solid recovery." We've had a number of shocks to this economy. Besides one of the most disastrous stock market bubbles we've had since 1929, a creature of maybe the new economy, or maybe public policies, and the collapse of investment like we've never seen before except for that disastrous period in the early 20th century, we followed on by a very real cataclysmic economic event which was 9/11, and we can't underestimate how much that affected financial markets, confidence in this economy, foreign investment in the United States. So we've had an exceptionally long recovery, but for some very good reasons. I'd throw some corporate scandals in there although I don't want to say as much about the president wants to say about that. Now, are we going to have the job growth that the president says? That's the big question. Everybody wants to know that answer. But I think there are two things I'd like to say, and then I'll be quiet here: The first thing is, we have a real dispute as to whether or not we have a jobs problem or we have a jobs deficit. There are two surveys, Ray, one that's showing a very significantly slower jobs growth in this recovery. The other survey is, for example, showing some pretty significant job growth. Which one is correct? Both are done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the second thing is, I think with this investment group that we're seeing and the strong demand by businesses and households that those jobs are on the way. By this summer whether we get 400,000 jobs a month, I don't know. But we certainly could get two to three hundred thousand, and that would be consistent with the numbers we saw in the second half of 2003.

RAY SUAREZ: Quickly comment on this difference between the employer sample and the household sample that Bill Beach makes.

JARED BERNSTEIN: I think the important point regarding the two different samples is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Congressional Budget Office, and I thought interestingly in today's economic report all come out in favor of the payroll, survey, the establishment survey, the ones we've been citing so far that documents the worst jobs recovery on record. That's the survey that in fact this 2.6 million is dependent upon, that we've been talking about and it's the survey that all of these government agencies, including the president's own, are saying is the most reliable. Let me get back to a couple of points that Bill made. I think he makes an implicit error that's also in this, in the president's forecast. You can't simply go, in this economy, from growth to jobs, and I think that's really the fundamental problem. We've got -

RAY SUAREZ: Why not? That's always been part of the theory, that employment lags economic growth and then eventually...

JARED BERNSTEIN: Not this much. Not this much. Bill mentioned 6 percent growth in the second half of '03. True. Job growth in the second half of '03, Flat. So why not? The explanation here most commonly is fast productivity growth, American workers and firms are producing that much more efficiently so they're able to make more stuff in fewer hours and so we don't need to add more jobs. But, in fact, that just redefines the problem. What's holding this economy back, what explains the gap between growth and jobs is a sense of caution among employers, regarding hiring, regarding on taking on labor costs that I have never seen this deep into a recovery. It's really quite profound. Why are employers so cautious? Peel the onion back again. It's because this recovery has never really had the legs that it ought to have this far along, especially with the administration throwing over a trillion dollars of tax cuts at it. This recovery has grown in fits and starts. We've had a couple good months, couple bad months. We had a strong quarter in the third quarter of last year, but that was mostly on a sugar high based on tax cuts and mortgage refinancing. Take that out of the system and what you're left with is the fundamental problem, a weak labor market. You simply can't build a robust recovery like we'd like to get, like we need, with jobs lagging and now with wages falling behind. This is another important point. If you lost your job, you're unemployed, you got hurt in this recovery, now job holders are falling behind because their wages are no longer keeping pace with inflation. That's what happens when you sustain such a persistently weak labor market.

RAY SUAREZ: William Beach, how do you explain Jared Bernstein's question about why employers are so reluctant to add jobs when consumers are clearly spending money and tax rebates, you know, have filtered out through the economy?

WILLIAM BEACH: Well, the reluctance that's out there may be in adding jobs inside the firm. I'm not convinced, I'm kind of an old fashioned economist. I'm not convinced that we're adding jobs outside the firm. One of the key things about the survey taken called the household survey that used to be several years ago the survey of choice before the employment survey that we're talking about tonight was chosen, is that it goes and asks people, "are you working now?" And they can answer "yes," and it could be a temporary job or a half time job, but they're working. "Are you working at some business or something?" "Well, I have a business in my bedroom." A lot of dot-com software engineers were unemployed and are operating like consultants today. I'm not convinced the jobs are actually absent. I know that's a radical view, but look, if the unemployment rate is falling and discouraged workers are falling, the number of discouraged workers are falling, that means that just to hold even we're adding 110,000 jobs a month just to keep up with the population growth. So if just to keep even is 110,000 and the unemployment rate is falling, jobs are being done somewhere. But look, there is caution. And I think we've got to make sure we do everything possible to keep a rosy view of the future in the minds of employers. One of the main things we don't want to do at this point in the recovery is to start telling employers, well, look, in order to make the budget in Washington balance we have to raise your taxes and we have to reverse what the Congress did in lowering marginal tax rates and giving you incentives to buy and to equip your plant. That's one of the key mistakes that Congress could make right now, because of this. We know the recovery is real, and now we're waiting, patiently, for the jobs to come back.

RAY SUAREZ: Let me get a very quick political read on how this might play out over the cost of an election year.

JARED BERNSTEIN: It seems to me that the president is falling into the same trap that his father did, and in terms of going out to the public with a very rosy view of the economy, when that's quite dissonant with the experience of so many people in the labor market, I ask myself why would he be doing this - they've told themselves they're not going to make that mistake. I think the reason is, their tax cuts haven't been effective, and if they go out and say we've got a jobs problem now and we need to pass unemployment insurance and we need to help get this labor market back on track, that is admitting that the tax cut has failed to generate jobs, which in fact the numbers show clearly that it has.

RAY SUAREZ: Bill Beach?

WILLIAM BEACH: The president has a growing economy, it's his to lose really. If he keeps his policies in the direction which he has in the past, if he thinks in terms of economic growth and stays the course, economics, experience, history, and I think common sense tells you that we will have a recovery throughout 2004. It may not be the kind that you can write home to your mom about, but will it be a solid recovery that should serve him well politically.

RAY SUAREZ: Gentlemen, thank you both.

JARED BERNSTEIN: Thank you.

FOCUS - PREVIEWING PRIMARIES

JIM LEHRER: Tomorrow's Virginia and Tennessee primaries. Gwen Ifill has that.

GWEN IFILL: And we go inside the last days of campaigning for the 151 delegates at stake in Tennessee and in Virginia with two political reporters who have been out on the hustings. Tom Humphrey is the Nashville bureau chief of the "Knoxville News Sentinel" in Tennessee. And Tyler Whitley reports for the "Richmond Times Dispatch" in Virginia.

Tyler Whitley, what is doing in Virginia and how is it shaping up so far?

TYLER WHITLEY: They've been campaigning back and forth across the state the last week, they've been running TV ads, they've set up phone banks, and getting elected leaders in tow, and it looks like though at this point Kerry is going to win.

GWEN IFILL: Why would that be? Why is Kerry doing well, at least it seems that way at this point in Virginia. Is it just momentum from other states or is there something in Kerry's message that Virginia voters are hearing?

TYLER WHITLEY: I think it's a little bit momentum and part that they think he might be the candidate best able to beat President Bush. And the governor, Mark Warner, endorsed him Sunday, and that probably gave a little push.

GWEN IFILL: Who would be number two if there's possible to figure it out based on what the direction you're seeing here?

TYLER WHITLEY: Well, the poll over the weekend, Zogby Poll, showed Kerry with 47 percent and Edwards with 24 percent, and Clark fading to 11percent .

GWEN IFILL: Tom Humphrey, how does it look in Tennessee?

TOM HUMPHREY: Well, in Tennessee, the poll is also favoring Senator Kerry by an increasing margin actually. General Clark has really sort of bet the farm on Tennessee. He started running TV ads here back on December 31, hasn't let up -- has tromped the state a great deal, has invested more time and money than either of the other candidates, so the polls are fairly disappointing for him in that he is sort of neck and neck or runner up with Senator Edwards.

GWEN IFILL: Let me ask you the same question that I just asked Tyler Whitley, which is what are voters listening for or are they listening for anything that gives John Kerry an advantage?

TOM HUMPHREY: I think they are, Tennessee Democratic voters are really upset that the state went to George Bush last time around, with their hometown favorite al gore on board. They are looking for a winner, they perceive Mr. Kerry as having the national momentum and want to get that over with. Countering that somewhat you have some regional loyalty between, we have one candidate, Mr. Edwards from a state to our east, one Mr. Clark from a state to our west, and that that regional loyalty sort of is split between those two, so letting Mr. Kerry take advantage while they split up the regional loyalty vote.

GWEN IFILL: You just mentioned former Vice President Al Gore who was in the state last night, campaigning sort of on behalf of Howard Dean who he has endorsed and he had quite a lively speech that he delivered last night. Let's take a listen to it and then I want to ask you about it.

TOM HUMPHREY: Okay.

AL GORE: I think there were millions just like me who genuinely in spite of whatever partisanship they may have felt prior to that time, genuinely felt like they wanted George W. Bush to lead all of us in America, wisely and well, and the reason I'm recalling those feelings now is because those are the feelings that were betrayed by this president. ( Cheers and applause ) He betrayed this country! He played on our fears!

GWEN IFILL: Tom Humphrey, that was a fairly lively response he got, he really got the audience going. What does that tell us?

TOM HUMPHREY: It was a really red meat speech for Democrats, and he got far better audience response than either of the candidates who spoke there. I think it tells you that the Democrats in Tennessee are fired up and ready for going after George Bush as best they can with their best candidate they can get.

GWEN IFILL: But not necessarily for Howard Dean who al gore has been supporting?

TOM HUMPHREY: No, in fact... well, gore did not consult or even talk to any Tennessee people in the party. They were as surprised as anyone. And he has maybe not done as well to mend his Tennessee roots, Tennessee fence as he intended to when he first got off the campaign trail last time around. I think he's trying to come back a little bit. Although he spoke kindly of Governor Dean in his remarks last night-- he said, "I commend him to you" -- he also was strongly, saying nice things about the other candidates and saying he would stand with any Democrat who was better than George W. Bush, and he equated the Bush-Cheney administration with the Nixon- Agnew administration.

GWEN IFILL: Tyler Whitley, when we hear these candidates on the stump talking about campaigning in the south, John Edwards and Wesley Clark in particular say, "you've got to send me to the White House because I'm a southerner, I'm someone who can defeat George W. Bush." Is that working? Is there a regional bias that would help these candidates?

TYLER WHITLEY: It doesn't seem to be and I agree with Tom Humphrey that Clark and Edwards are kind of splitting the southern moderate vote, and that's helping Kerry, too.

GWEN IFILL: Why is that, is that just because Virginia voters are just as pragmatic as voters in these other countries?

TYLER WHITLEY: I think they are.

GWEN IFILL: States.

TYLER WHITLEY: And Kerry is running re: Strong in northern Virginia where the southern aspect doesn't mean as much.

GWEN IFILL: You're talking about northern Virginia and you're right, Virginia is a state of many different aspects. One is that it's a very heavily military state. Does that affect, does that help John Kerry because he's a veteran, does that help Wesley Clark because he's a retired general?

TYLER WHITLEY: It probably helps John Kerry more than Wesley Clark, because there's so many privates and non-officers here. John Kerry though is running a very effective TV ad about his bravery in Vietnam, and I suspect that's helped him.

GWEN IFILL: In other states, we've also seen John Kerry on the stump with veterans, people whose lives he saved or people who he served with in Vietnam. Is the Vietnam hot button turning voters out in Virginia?

TYLER WHITLEY: Not that I can see. I think it could be a fairly light turnout.

GWEN IFILL: Tom Humphrey, same question to you, what about the veterans vote in Tennessee?

TOM HUMPHREY: The veterans vote is leaning, I think, a bit toward Mr. Clark, although Senator Kerry, although General Clark has a good bit of veterans working with him, has had some events with veterans. In fact, he attacked Senator Edwards for not supporting veterans enough in his Senate career, falsely of course, Senator Edwards said.

GWEN IFILL: Has there been any sign of campaigning on behalf of the other three Democratic candidates, Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich or even Howard Dean?

TOM HUMPHREY: Al Sharpton...

GWEN IFILL: Well, let me start with Tennessee.

TOM HUMPHREY: In Tennessee, Al Sharpton has made two visits, one yesterday, he's I believe in town today. Mr. Dean has not visited Tennessee at all. He made... has a core of volunteers and some of them very enthusiastic, but he had a cardboard poster standing up at his rally point last night at the Democratic gathering.

GWEN IFILL: And Mr. Kucinich?

TOM HUMPHREY: Mr. Kucinich is curiously coming here tomorrow on Election Day, he's scheduled a little event at noon. Other than that, he has had no presence in this state.

GWEN IFILL: How about that, Mr. Whitley. same thing in Virginia?

TYLER WHITLEY: Yeah, Reverend Sharpton spoke to the Jefferson Jackson Day dinner Saturday night, and he stayed through yesterday to speak to some of the black churches. Dennis Kucinich is in Blacksburg tonight, addressing a student crowd at Virginia Tech. And Howard Dean a month ago was probably leading in Virginia and he's had no presence since.

GWEN IFILL: So what is it now that these candidates have to do in Virginia, for instance-- let's start with you-- to seal this up, or is it already over?

TYLER WHITLEY: I think it's probably already over. They all have these "get out the vote" operations tomorrow, and they hope they can motivate their people to go to the polls, but I'm not counting on a very big turnout. I don't think Virginia has been as excited about this as some of the other states.

GWEN IFILL: Wasn't part of the purpose of scheduling this primary and these caucuses at this time was to get Virginia and Tennessee-- I'll start with Virginia again-- in the middle of this process?

TYLER WHITLEY: Yes, and unfortunately for Virginia, Senator Kerry will start wrapping up things early, and I think Virginia already might be too late.

GWEN IFILL: And I'll ask the same question to you, Tom Humphrey.

TOM HUMPHREY: Yes, that was definitely the case. The Tennessee legislature wanted Tennessee in the thick of things, and we have received a lot more attention from the national media and the candidates than in the past. But the same phenomenon has occurred, I believe Mr. Kerry with his national momentum is wrapping things up down here, and he's got a couple of key endorsements and key people in the Democratic establishment down here who have lined up with him.

GWEN IFILL: You mentioned endorsements. Do they count any more, Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean and it hasn't particularly been helpful to him. You mentioned endorsements in Tennessee, the former governor was standing there in Virginia, we saw Governor Warner. Are endorsements changing anything, turning any tide, starting down in Tennessee?

TOM HUMPHREY: In Tennessee I think Ned McWhirter is a country-talking, big bald fellow that a lot of rural Tennesseans look as the kind of Democrat they want, and it's sort of an odd juxtaposition to see him standing there with your Massachusetts, perhaps liberal by Tennessee standards, fellow. I think that's a sort of reassurance to the Tennessee Democrat those might be a little bit hesitant to support Senator Kerry otherwise. And he also has like Congressman Harold Ford, Memphis, whose family has a history over there and it can bring some votes in a Democratic primary -- African American votes especially.

GWEN IFILL: Same question to you, any endorsements in Virginia which have made a difference?

TYLER WHITLEY: I guess Governor Warner has probably made some difference, but I suspect Kerry would have won anyway. Governor Warner is a cautious politician, and he probably wouldn't have endorsed if he didn't think Kerry was going to win.

GWEN IFILL: I know you'll both be working late tonight. Thank you very much for joining us.

TYLER WHITLEY: My pleasure.

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, Israel's security barrier, and a Clarence Page essay on the Beatles.

FOCUS - THE BARRIER

JIM LEHRER: Israel's West Bank barrier: Today the Supreme Court of Israel heard arguments against its construction. Now we have the first of two reports on it, from Elizabeth Farnsworth. Tonight's is on the view from Israel.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says it is constructing a barrier between Israel and the West Bank to prevent attacks like the suicide bombing in Jerusalem. A Palestinian from Bethlehem had boarded the bus and detonated 15 pounds of explosives, killing 11 people and wounding more than 50. More than 400 Israelis have been killed in suicide bombings since Sept. 2000. Eli Beer is chief coordinator of a paramedic rescue unit.

ELI BEER: People see what terrorism can do. They don't want the options for terrorists to come here, and that's why the people of Israel want the wall. They want to prevent the children to die in these bombings.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom.

SILVAN SHALOM: We have the responsibility to protect our people, and that's why we are building this fence. We are doing it, because it was the recommendation of the security forces. We adopted it, we are building it, and if we reach an agreement with the Palestinians, and I hope we will be in the near future, and we will agree, one with each other, to move it.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Israel began constructing the security fence two years ago. It's projected to stretch several hundred miles through the West Bank when finished. As we'll report in our next story, Palestinian leaders consider the barrier a catastrophe for their people. They condemn it as an "apartheid wall" that is already cutting off large numbers of people in the West Bank from their fields, sources of water, and work. In some places, the barrier consists of armed watchtowers, and concrete walls 25 feet high. Elsewhere it's a fence with electronic sensors flanked by razor wire and a security road. In the North, the barrier-- marked in red on this map-- roughly traces what's known as the "green line," the armistice line between Israel and the Palestinian territories that existed before the 1967 Mideast War. But further South, the path is more controversial. Near the Palestinian city Qalqilya, for example, the fence reaches several miles into the West Bank to incorporate Israeli settlements. From here, the fence is projected to extend 13 miles west of the green line to incorporate the settlement, Ariel. The fence will eventually stretch around the southernmost part of the West Bank. Prime Minister Sharon has also raised the possibility of building an eastern fence, which would leave the West Bank encircled; but no decision has been made on that yet.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: As you know you're under a lot of criticism because you've deviated from the green line in many places. Is the route fixed or can you change that?

SILVAN SHALOM: First, if we had built this fence on the '67 borders, it would have been a political fence. Where we are building it now on this route it is a security fence. And I would like you to know, fence is moveable. Our real experience is... we moved a fence in Egypt after we signed the peace treaty with them.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: 83 percent of Israelis polled lay last year said they supported the construction of the fence. Igal Barazani sells flowers on a street in Jerusalem that has been the target of several suicide bombings.

MAN: I saw them in many places in the city. It's horrible. It's terrifying. I'm a father myself. I don't let my children on a bus, because I'm so afraid. It's very hard. I say this separation can help a lot.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The Israeli defense forces arranged a tour of the northern fence for us with Lieutenant Colonel Dotan Razili, commander of a tank battalion.

LT. COL. DOTAN RAZILI: We keep a high vigil here not because we are afraid, but one of the scenarios is a terrorist crossing over and going to the village.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: To the east of the fence is the West Bank. A bit north is the Palestinian town Jenin, visible through the wire. On the other side are Israeli cities like Afula, where suicide bombers have struck in the past.

LT. COL. DOTAN RAZILI: Without the fence, it's a matter of an hour walking or 15 minutes by car. You can get the explosives, and... the fence is actually better, it has been working since the fence was established it's been working. When you stand here, you understand the reason for the fence. The fence stops the terrorist from coming over from Jenin to Afula, or from Jenin to other parts of Israel.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The barrier here is actually a complex system of razor wire, an electronic fence, a sand path to trace footprints, a security road, and more razor wire.

LT. COL. DOTAN RAZILI: A suicide bomb is a smart bomb. It is the smartest bomb in the world, and we have to use technology or other methods to stop it.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Is it helping so far?

LT. COL. DOTAN RAZILI: Yeah, the fence has been great in helping. This is actually a barrier. Nobody crosses this barrier. Whoever tried to cross it, we catch them.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And we're standing here right now and you've got cameras that can see us?

LT. COL. DOTAN RAZILI: Yes, there's a camera that sees us, watches us right now.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Where could it be?

LT. COL. DOTAN RAZILI: It's far away, --

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: It's far away but it cam see us--

LT. COL. DOTAN RAZILI: -- but it can see us. The reason for building the fence is we have experience in other borders, Lebanon, Gaza, since 1996 if I'm not mistake, no suicide bombers went out of the Gaza because we have fenced it.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: There are some openings in the fence with checkpoints where Palestinians with proper papers are allowed to pass into Israel to trade or work, but here, as elsewhere in the West Bank, the process is slow and frustrating for those trying to cross. Palestinians view the complex of barriers and guarded gates as a humiliating tool of control by an occupying power. But in Israeli towns like Kfar Saba, which is just a few miles from the West Bank, many residents are grateful for the protection. A suicide bombing in this mall just over a year ago killed a security guard.

ESHAI BRENER: We live so close. I'm not talking about the big issues. I'm just talking about my own life as a person. To hear every day that so many people get killed or to see so many people on television, you know, to see the blood, suffering, that's what I care about. I'm for the fence. That's it. It's very simple.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: But nothing is simple in this tortured land, and the separation barrier is no exception. It has generated opposition not only in the West Bank, but in the U.N. as well, and President Bush said the path of the barrier would make it hard for Palestinians to build a contiguous state. The idea for a barrier separating Israelis and Palestinians originated with the Labor Party. Ariel Sharon's Likud Party had long resisted drawing any line in the sand that would necessitate giving up large amounts of the West Bank and moving settlements. Ehud Barak, labor prime minister between 1999-2001, advocated construction of a fence after the failure of his Camp David negotiations with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

EHUD BARAK: When I left power, the intifada, this new eruption of violence, was half a year old. We had 59 people killed on our side. They had some 500. Several weeks later I met Sharon. I told him, "look, there are now 70 people killed. When there will be 700, you will build the fence whether you like it or not. And I know why you reject it, you understand that the moment you delineate the line, it will mean politically... whatever you say about it, that it's a political line." That the beginning of a process that will disengage ourselves from the Palestinians.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Sharon's line, the path of the current fence, is aimed at including as many Israeli settlements as possible on the Israeli side of the fence, but Sharon has also warned repeatedly in recent weeks that most settlements in Gaza and a few in the West Bank will have to be uprooted in order to disengage from the Palestinians if violence continues. During a visit to the coastal city last week, Sharon said: "Not only is this difficult for the settlers, but also it is more painful for myself than anyone in Israel. It pains me a lot, but I've reached a decision and I'm going to carry it out." So far, Sharon is just talking about removing settlements, and there's some skepticism in Israel that he'll actually do anything. But political analyst Yaron Ezrahi said the rhetoric is something new.

YARON EZRAHI: I would say the Sharon government, which is the most right-wing government in Israel's history, has changed its rhetoric in that the prime minister and deputy prime minister have begun to speak against the occupation and about partial withdrawal. This is a very significant development.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: According to former Prime Minister Barak, one reason for the change is demographics. The Palestinian population is increasing at a faster rate than the Jewish population, and Barak said Israeli leaders on all sides are beginning to recognize they will eventually have to give up lands and create a separate nation in order to ensure a Jewish majority inside Israel.

SPOKESMAN: The political realities are such that we have to protect our Jewish majority for generations to come within our borders. If we control the Palestinians, as are the dreams of some of the right-wing extremists, we're going to end up either with a non-Jewish or a non-Democratic state.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Prime Minister Sharon's new rhetoric on disengagement from the Palestinians has infuriated some settlers and their supporters. More than 100,000 turned out in Tel Aviv last month to protest the plan to remove settlements. And on the Israeli left, some peace activists are also protesting the Sharon's governments separation plans. Late last month, activists joined Palestinians in Abu Dis, a village on the border of east Jerusalem, in a demonstrating against the wall. Mary Schweitzer moved to Israel from the U.S. 21 years ago.

MARY SCHWEITZER: There's nothing about security in the wall. It represents humiliation. It represents degradation. There is no reason at all that Jews should be building ghettos. Jews should be the first people to stand against ghettos.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Some of the left critics compared what's happening in the West Bank with the fence to ghettos.

SILVAN SHALOM: It's unbelievable to hear it from Jews. They know it's not true. They are doing it only to picture Israel as the bad guy in the region.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH:: Whatever the disagreements within Israel, construction on the fence continues. Most Israelis still support the barrier. In the north, Lieutenant Colonel Razili said the fence recently played a role in stopping a suicide bomber headed towards an Israeli school.

LT. COL. DOTAN RAZILI: What we understand from that event is that the fence gives us time so we can acquire the target. We understood that someone tried to cross over. We found him before he crossed over. The fence gave us that time. That was important and we saved the kids.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Reporter: With that kind of testimonial, the barrier may be here to stay, at least until there's a major change in relations between these neighbors whose enmity doesn't cease.

JIM LEHRER: Tomorrow night in part two, Elizabeth looks at the barrier from the Palestinian perspective.

ESSAY - THE FAB FOUR + 40

JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, essayist Clarence Page of the "Chicago Tribune" takes us back to when the Beatles came to America.

ED SULLIVAN: Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles. (Cheers and applause)

BEATLES: (singing) Close your eyes and I'll kiss you tomorrow I'll miss you...

CLARENCE PAGE: It is hard to believe that 40 years, two generations, have passed since my own generation was gripped by Beatlemania. In February of 1964, the Liverpool quartet touched off a screaming, raving fury on the "Ed Sullivan Show" opening their first American tour. ( Cheers and applause ) Not since the early days of Elvis, before he got drafted, had such a mass hysteria rolled like a prairie fire through America's teenaged girls, with a passion far too intense to be ignored by us teenaged boys. My generation studied and imitated Beatle hair, Beatle suits, Beatle attitude.

SPOKESMAN: What would you call that hairstyle you're wearing?

MAN: Arthur.

SINGING: It's been a hard day's night...

CLARENCE PAGE: It is not easy to convey to today's young people the revolutionary irony of the Beatle bangs at those times. Like other mods of that era, the Beatles took a medieval, prince valiant style and put it back in the face of our era's stodgy conservatives, who were horrified. Principals at high schools, like mine, would send boys home who wore their hair this long, which only made the boys want to wear their hair even longer. Give us a head with hair, long, beautiful Beatle bangs or defiant ducktails or leaping afros.

SINGING: What's goin' on...

CLARENCE PAGE: As a black teenager in those times, my appreciation for the Beatles was muted, but not by much. American racial and social segregation was only beginning to melt. I held my allegiance to Marvin Gaye, along with James Brown and the Supremes. And some of my white friends clung rigorously hard and fast to the Beach Boys, and other un- Beatle artists like Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

SPOKESMAN: We'd like to thank everybody here in America, Washington.

SINGING: She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah ( cheers and applause ) but there was something infectious, uplifting and downright therapeutic about the Beatles, especially at that time. They arrived less than 12 weeks after the assassination of President Kennedy. Weeks earlier, a Ku Klux Klan bomb killed four little black girls in a Birmingham, Alabama, church. A month before that, Martin Luther King stirred our souls at the Washington march with all of the majesty of a second Gettysburg Address. "I have a dream," he said, and America seemed to be sharing that dreaming. The times they were a-changin' in ways that were exhilarating and frightening. The '60s would grow more complicated, and so would the Beatles. They would outgrow the cartoon image that their handlers created for them, and then they would be gone. As the '60s ended, so did the Beatles. With the death of Lennon to a deranged fan, and later George Harrison to cancer, the Beatle generation was saddened, but also liberated from a delusion.

SINGING: Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away...

CLARENCE PAGE: The Beatles were not coming back. Neither were the '60s. Neither was our youth. Nothing is forever, not even strawberry fields. Obla-dee, obla-da, life goes on, brother. The Beatle boomers are moving on into the Medicare generation, wondering if anyone will need us or feed us when we're 64, and also realizing that maybe 64 isn't nearly as old as we used to think it was.

SINGING: You say you wanna revolution...

CLARENCE PAGE: Looking back 40 years, I marvel at those early Beatles. Their light hearted optimism was infectious. None of them, or us, could know what was going to happen next, except that things would never be the same again. More important, hope was alive, and John Lennon sang it over and over again at the end of his tune "Revolution"-- "don't you know it's gonna be all right."

SINGING: All right all right all right...

CLARENCE PAGE: I'm Clarence Page.

RECAP

JIM LEHRER: Again, the major developments of the day. President Bush touted the economic recovery in a report to Congress, but Democratic front-runner John Kerry said the report was far too rosy. And U.S. Military officials confirmed they've captured a memo from a suspected al-Qaida figure in Iraq. He talks of stirring up religious war between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. We'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you, and good night.