>> tonight, wyclef jean exclusive. the singer is running for president of haiti speaking for the first time on tv right here about why he's doing it, what his first act as his homeland's leader would be, and how he hopes to change the country for the better. plus, the controversy over his charity and tax troubles that could derail his political dream. then actor sean penn and his commitment to haiti. he's in it for the long haul next on "larry king live." and to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, thanks very much for joining us. i'm wolf blitzer sitting in for

larry tonight. larry has the week off. let's go to port-au-prince. wyclef jean is joining us. we had our "larry king live" cameras following you today. tell us what you did. you formally filed papers. you want to be the next president of haiti, is that right? >> i can't hear nothing yet. >> all right. this is wolf in washington. can you hear me now? >> i don't hear nothing. >> all right. unfortunately, we've got a little problem with wyclef. we'll get to him and clean that up in just a moment. sanjay gupta, our chief medical correspondent, is standing by as well. he spent a lot of time in haiti. tell our viewers what you're hearing about the situation in haiti. it's still a horrible situation. >> it hasn't really changed much. i think on appearances, that's the first thing you notice when you get to port-au-prince and many outlying areas, as well.

still much of the rubble that people recognize from the time of the earthquake, so much of that rubble still there and it will be a very long time before you can move that rubble out. it's just one of the difficult parts of this sort of cleanup effort. but as a result, wolf, just simply navigating the roads, simply trying to get supplies that are located in warehouses that made it into the country of haiti, made it into the city of port-au-prince, they got there, but still so much difficulty simply getting those things to people who need it. wolf, around the country there's fewer than 100 hospitals. more than half of those right now the way that we saw it were actually temporary hospitals. there were private hospitals that existed in port-au-prince and around port-au-prince before the earthquake, but so many of those have gone out of business, as well. and so many doctors simply unable to practice medicine. so there is -- there was a benefit from so much of the relief efforts in the few months after the earthquake, but so much of that is starting to disappear now, as well, so it's tough to say what the next few months look like.

>> i want to remind our viewers, the numbers are horrendous. the united nations estimate more than 230,000 people were killed. 2 million people were left homeless. and of those 2 million, you were just there, a lot of them remain homeless right now. >> there are camps, it's hard to really describe, i think maybe television doesn't do this justice, but these campses are 50,000 people in in size. and these are temporary camps. they are tents. and you'll remember years past just how significant the hurricane season can be, how significant the storm season is. these tents won't be able to sustain that time period. so it's hard to imagine. the other part of it is that port-au-prince obviously a very densely populated city. so many people living there. and now these tent cities outside of port-au-prince, many of them, if you don't have a car and you can't get around the

country, these tent cities may as well be on the other part of the country because people can't get to port-au-prince anymore. so it's a true sort of displacement in the truest sense of the word. >> and as you know, sanjay, there was an enormous outpouring of help for the people of haiti immediately after the earthquake from countries all over the world. they came in, doctors and nurses, and others. you were just there. are they still there or are they basically left? >> one of the biggest public hospitals that many people may identify with, general hospital, the university hospital in port-au-prince, this was sort of the big trauma center, if you will, wolf. took care of many of the patients in port-au-prince again before the earthquake. it got -- it sustained damage during the earthquake, but there were so many relief workers, health care professionals that came there in the weeks and months after the earthquake. so many so that in fact they had to literally triage doctors saying we have too many right

now, we'll need to move doctors and nurses to other parts of the country. i was there just a couple of weeks ago and that hospital is basically a bare bones operation again. not only had those relief workers leftd, but the capability of that hospital even one day before the earthquake, it hasn't returned to that as things stand. so it's a few steps backwards. hopefully for many steps forward. but it's tough going right now. >> anderson cooper will be joining us. sean penn will be joining us. i think we've cleared up our technical glitch, wyclef jean is joining us. wyclef, just want to make sure you can hear me okay. can you hear me? >> i can hear you clear. how are you? >> good. thanks very much for doing this. tell our viewers here in the united states, wyclef, and around the world, are you

running to become the next president of haiti? >> until i do that, wolf, you have to do me a favor. i need you to say in creole, [ speaking foreign language ] >> i don't know what it means. tell me what it means first. >> it means what's up, what's going on, how you feeling. >> what's up, what's going on, how you feeling. i'll say it in english. just go ahead. tell me if you want -- >> haitian people told me, wolf -- >> we'll do it later. i promise our viewers in haiti i'll speak a little creole a little later. but let's get to serious business. you want to be the president of haiti, right? >> yes, this is my first time announcing it live that today i went in and i signed and i'm running to be the president of

haiti. >> the election is scheduled for the end of november. november 28th. you have a few months to campaign right now. you're 40 years old. most of your life you've lived in the united states. you were born in haiti. you feel strongly about haiti. why have you made this decision? >> well, after january 12th, i would say over 50% of the population is a youth population. and we suffered for over 200 years. now that our country has a problem, it's a chance to rebuild from the bottom on up. i'm being drafted by the youth of haiti. right now is a chance for us to bring real education into the school, infrastructure, security and proper jobs. so this is some of the reasons that i'm running. >> what qualifies you to be president of haiti?

>> well, what qualifies me to be president of haiti, when i look at the past 200 years with what our people have suffered, wolf, political instability, coups, i feel that me running brings a neutral situation meaning that wyclef jean can sit with any political party, have a conversation. i'm coming in neutral. i think 200 years we have suffered the exact same thing and what i'm saying is when you vote for wyclef jean, you basically try something new. i represent the voice of the youth which is over 50% of the population. >> i want you to stand by for a moment. we're only getting started. we have a lot of questions i want to go through. this is a momentous moment for the people of haiti right now. they'll get a sense a little bit of what you're all about, why you want to be president of haiti. we'll continue this conversation, wyclef, right after this.

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the grammy winning musician wyclef jean. he has announced that he wants to become the next president of haiti, the election scheduled for november 28th. they were supposed to take place last february, but after the january 12th earthquake, they had to postpone it. now the elections will go forward. we'll go back to port-au-prince in just a moment, continue our conversation with wyclef. sanjay gupta has spent a lot of time as all of our viewers know in haiti. the leadership issue, the government issue, it's been a problem, an enormous problem for this poorest country in the western hemisphere. as far as i know for not only for decades, but for hundreds of years. >> ineffective, inept, corrupt. i think these are all adjectives used to describe it, and i think you see some of the ramifications of this. i remember watching you, wolf, when this earthquake first hit january 12th and i really got a

pit in my stomach because there's been so much poor planning in haiti and so much lack of reserve for something just like this. you have a very densely populated area, port-au-prince, and many of the surrounding areas, as well. and these buildings so poorly constructed, as you saw. they come tumbling down and so many of these crush injuries as a result. but so much of this is about planning, which is why some places around the world can sustain earthquakes better than haiti could. and after the earthquake itself, just a complete lack of medical resources. it's tough as a doc because so many preventable deaths occurred in those first few weeks after the earthquake because people simply couldn't get medical care. now, granted, during an earthquake, it's challenging no matter what. but there was just absolutely no reserve to be able to take care of so many of these challenging problems. >> what's the greatest health related issue facing the people of haiti right now?

>> well, even before the earthquake, about half the country, had access to clean water. items not people in the united states think about, but if you don't have it, it's all you think about. and this is probably one of the areas where you maybe can point to and say maybe there has been some success since the earthquake. they have more clean water in many areas even as compared to a day or two before the earthquake. so that's good. it's not a question of how sustainable is that going to be because it's expensive. they're filling up these big water bladders and camps trying to provide water for people living in these temporary tent cities, but everyone that i've talked to even just as recently as a couple weeks ago say that time is going to come to an end when they can continue to do that. you can also point to a success in that there haven't been the big infectious disease outbreaks that a lot of people expected. you've heard about this, people expecting a second wave of deaths as a result of infectious diseases.

you haven't seen that either. but it's such an interesting thing that has happened because so many of these relief workers came in and they provided free medical care for a period of months. even the private hospitals that were functioning before the earthquake, a lot of them have gone out of business. so people who have completely treatable, completely preventable, in some ways, problems, simply can't get care. so it's an access issue now as far as your question, the biggest health problem. there just isn't enough doctors. there aren't enough hospitals and enough permanent structures to sustain the demand for health care. >> what i worry about enormously and i know you do, and i know a lot of others worry, as well, if there's another weather related issue.you do and i know a lot of others worry, as well, if there's another weather related issue. so many hundreds of thousands of people simply living in tents, the scenario would be devastating for the people. sanjay, stand by. i want to take a quick break. when we come back, we'll go back to port-au-prince, wyclef jean

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we're back with wyclef jean. he wants to become the next president of haiti. he's joining us on the phone. we've had technical problems via satellite. wyclef, i hope you can hear me okay. i know there's a big crowd surrounding you wherever you go in haiti. there's always a big crowd by the folks down there. you've been thinking about this for a long time, running for president of haiti. this is not a decision you just recently made. >> wolf, to be honest with you, the idea of being part of our country was always in my mind. but after january 12th, the day after coming and being out here with my wife and picking up dead bodies from the ground, i felt that because of the youth of haiti and the population, that this is not even wyclef saying that i want to be the president of haiti. i feel like i'm being drafted by the population right now to give them a different face, a different voice. and i want to tell you, despite what you're hearing with the

tent cities, there's a crowd behind me right now with so much excitement because they feel hope is on its way. >> how would you describe your political ideology, wyclef? >> well, basically my political ideology is basically this. i have what's called the four pillars and five points. when i look at the situation of haiti as a kid, i think the focus right now should definitely be on education, job creation, agriculture, security, and health care. and when i say -- when we talk about job creation, i'm talking about which gives to haiti $2 billion per year. that's more money than the donors would give. now, what we need to do is whatever job creation we're creating, we need the deospera outside of haiti to be part of that because a lot of times we're waiting to get help for

haiti. but the true help that we need is we have to galvanize our own people. so this is why i'm running. >> assuming the elections take place as scheduled november 28th, are you going to -- between now and then, are you going to be on the ground in haiti campaigning throughout the country? >> wolf, i tell you, i'm going to be on the ground campaigning throughout the country, but an election won in haiti is not an election. the reason why i'm doing this is because there has to be an election that is won around the world.haitian people have suffered thus far and it's time for people to listen and help bring back success into the country. >> are the international donors that pledged billions of dollars, are those pledges being met?

>> no. i think -- well, let's start with the $5.2 billion. i think only 7% of that was given. if that was me, i would get on my plane and go around the world and i'm looking at the donors and i'm saying what promise, we need it, because we have over 1.5 million people living in tents. we got the rain coming. and the people in port-au-prince is still in a crisis. >> this is a new world for you, politics. unlike others who have made the transition from entertainment to the world of politics, ronald reagan or arnold schwarzenegger, you really don't have a lot of political experience, do you? >> yeah, i mean, really i think coming into this, wolf, being that i am not a politician, so we can speak in terms of logic. what i am is i'm a young youth that have seen my population suffer. and the only way that they're going to get out of this is for

us as haitians who stayed in haiti, who lived in haiti, came to america, got an education, and still kept a haitian passport, went back to haiti and decided, you know what, that piece of the dream that i got in america, i'm going to give you a piece of that dream. i mean, this is what it's about right now. we're talking about 21st century. haiti will not be part of the 21st century if the population cannot read and write. >> let's go through some of the requirements that must be met in order to get certification to an candidate for president of haiti as far as i understand it. the research that i've done, a candidate must prove that he or she has lived for five years consecutively in haiti. these last five year, you haven't lived consecutive in haiti. >> yes, that's one of the points that keeps coming up. i have residency for over five years in haiti. what i would like to tell you is also the president remains that

i voted for five years ago, he elected me as an ambassador, a roving ambassador at large to promote my country. now, how can i promote my country sitting down? that means i have to get up and go out. so if you follow me and you can play all those videotapes back, whether i was with shakira at the world cup or pleading a bill at congress in washington, d.c., i always represented for my country. >> another requirement is that you have to own property in haiti. do you own property in haiti? >> yes, i have property in haiti. my wife is from jeremy. she has houses in haiti. i have business in haiti, yes, sir. >> another requirement is that you only have haitian

citizenship, that you don't have citizenship in another country. you've lived most of your life in the united states. do you have other citizenship beyond haitian citizenship? >> no, once i came to these yufrd of america, i got a green card and i got what i called american dream and basically brought that dream back to my country. i've always kept my haitian passport and a lot of people said why didn't you change your passport. i always felt like this is the place where i came from and this was my identity, and every time i looked at that passport, i always remembered the people of my country. >> so you never became a naturalized u.s. citizen? >> no, i'm a green card holder with a lot of the rest of my friends. i'm an example of what you would call the american dream taking back to haiti. >> wyclef, we have many more questions. you want to be president of haiti, you have to answer serious questions. i want you to stand by. we'll continue our conversation with wyclef jean. he's running for the presidency of haiti. we'll continue the conversation here on "larry king live" right after this.

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i'm wolf blitzer sitting in for larry tonight. we're talking to wyclef jean, the grammy-award winning musician who wants to be the president of haiti. who will pay for your presidential campaigning? >> well, i'm going to go out and i'm going to campaign and i'm going to raise money. what i'm hoping is all my friends that are watching this from hollywood to all the connections that i've made around the world, and we're going to do also a local campaign on the internet, too, which i was inspired after looking at president barack obama's online election. >> so you want to follow in his foot steps in terms of campaign fund-raising. let's talk a little bit about

money, because as you know, there have been questions raised in terms of campaign fund-raising. let's talk a little bit about just in the last few days you stepped down from your leadership role. why? >> well, i stepped down from the foundation, i've been running l.a. haiti for the past five years, i started the grassroots organization. but it was important that the next step that i wanted to take had to go beyond being an ngo. and i felt to take my country to the next level, i needed to create aid that helped the people aid themselves and bring back investment. and this is why i stepped down as the chairman. >> looks like we just got that satellite transmission frozen again. we'll fix that and get back to wyclef in just a moment. in the meantime let's bring back sanjay gupta who is with us. we're listening to a 40-year-old musician who is obviously deeply

committed to his homeland, the people of haiti. he wants to go back there, he wants to be president even though he doesn't have any political experience. and we'll go through some of the tough questions that have been raised already. but i think to put it bluntly, he doesn't need to do this. he's a rich guy. he could go out on tour. he could make a lot of money. but he wants to help the people of haiti, which is a very, very nice thing. >> yeah. who knows what his thinking is exactly. i mean, he's got a really tough job in front of him, wolf. they described to me that even to get haiti back to what it was one day before the earthquake, you're talking about four years of significant reconstruction and that isn't accounting for everything. i'm obviously focusing in on health care which has ten times the infant mortality rate, 50 times the ma ternl mortality

rate as the united states. so there are so many parameters by which you measure a country's success. and haiti just falls terribly short in all of these areas. these are vexing, challenging problems that you pointed out have lasted not only decades but longer than that. so who knows what his thinking is exactly in terms of his inspiration for doing this, but there are so many facets to this, wolf, and i'm just scratching the surface when i talk about this. >> let's go back to wyclef. he's joining us once again. some of the money that was raised by your foundation, now you've stepped down from the l.a. haiti foundation. first of all, how much money did you raise in the aftermath of the january earthquake? >> after the january earthquake, we raised approximately $9 million. >> and there's been questions raised that some of that money was not spent appropriately. there's even been allegations that some of that money went

into your pocket. i'd like you to respond to those allegations. >> well, those allegations are not true. the allegations that are true when it comes to the foundation is the situation of the tax which wasn't filed on time. my governance was questioned and we brought in an accountant firm from washington and cleaned up the tax issue and in addition to that, we produce the in a n produce the in a new ceo. but did wyclef jean every take money to put in his personal pocket? never. >> the other questions that have been raised about your personal income tax returns here in the united states, that the irs put a $2 million lien on taxes that were not paid. have you paid up all of the back taxes to the united states government that you owe? >> wolf, i want to start by telling you i am living in these united states of america, i have great lawyers and i have great

business people that work with me as the life of wyclef jean. there is no situation of wyclef jean that we will ignore. we respect the irs very much. i will not leave these united states of america and come to my country and do not handle the situation with the irs. any personal wyclef matters are being handled as we speak. >> do you still owe money to the irs or is all that paid up? >> everything is paid up. >> and because the question is if you had these personal financial problems, the question is what gives you the qualifications to run an enormous budget which is the budget of haiti, all this foreign aid comes in and all the expenses that a president of a country has to deal with. >> well, god has been good to me and financial problems i do not have. i'm currently on the road. i'm performing. i have great publishing companies. the situation with the irs is a

situation that came up and it will be handled. just to be clear, wolf, when it comes to is wyclef okay, is my wife okay, is my financial situation okay, can i continue staying in america working and making millions of dollars a day, yes, i can. but now the mission has changed. i'm 40 years old and i want to focus on helping the people of haiti. >> i guess some of the other questions that have been raised involve your commitment to being able to deal on a day-to-day basis with the people of haiti. your english obviously is perfect. what about your french and creole? >> that's good, wolf. earlier i tried it on get to you speak creo. we'll get to that. but, wolf, seriously, we've had years and years of politicians speaking french. and where has that gotten us?

so i do believe that this population should speak french and creo and also english. i came to the united states and i'm proud that i learned english and i'm proud when i go back to my country. when i'm communicating with these people -- [ speaking foreign language ] >> that sounds like good creole to me. now, what did you want me to say and i'll say it because i know you're on the phone. i promised our viewers i would speak in creole. speak softly, slowly and i'll do the best i can. >> okay. [ speaking foreign language ] >> you're my man. we love you and want to see you. you see the crowd in the back of me? [ speaking foreign language ]ba

that's a lot of happy people in haiti. haiti has hope. >> bill clinton is in haiti right now. have you met with him, have you dealt with him, bill clinton? >> i look forward to sitting down with bill clinton. i'm a big fan of bill clinton. i'm going to tell you why. because before haiti was popular, bill clinton was always on the map representing for haiti. i know bill clinton has a lot of big ideas and wyclef queen with the youth of haiti, we have a lot of big ideas, too, so i would like to sit with the president of bill clinton and show him some of the ideas that i have. i look forward to doing that. >> he's going to be there tomorrow, as well. so maybe your paths will cross. all right, wyclef jean, the great musician, he now is becoming a politician, he wants to run for president of haiti. it's not a done deal. you got a lot of work ahead of you, wyclef. good luck to you. we'll stay in close touch. more importantly, good luck to all the people of haiti. i've been to haiti. it's a great country. you just need a lot of help. you need strong leadership.

you got to get rid of that corruption over there. if you do it, things will turn around. >> definitely. and i'll tell you like i said on nasdaq, despite that you see us living in these tents, i'm going to tell you, haiti is open for business. >> that's good to know good luck to you and to all the people of haiti. thanks for joining us on "larry king live." we have a lot more to discuss about haiti. anderson cooper is standing by. sean penn, the great actor, is standing by. so deeply committed to the issues in haiti. sanjay gupta still with us. much more to digest right after this. are you suffering from frequent heartburn? heartburn that keeps coming back? then you're ready for new zegerid otc. zegerid otc is the first 24-hour treatment ever

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let's get some reaction to what we just heard from wyclef jean. he's running for the presidency of haiti. joining us now, anderson cooper. also joining us, sean penn, academy award winning actor. his humanitarian group is on the ground less than a week after the earthquake. he has spent a lot of time working in haiti for the people of haiti. sean, stand by for a moment. anderson, i know you've spent a lot of time in haiti. but give us your sense of the popularity of wyclef jean in haiti right now. >> let me point out i've spent a fraction of the time that sean penn has spent on the ground there and having just come back from his camp a couple weeks ago, he runs probably the largest camp in port-au-prince

and probably one of the best well run. so what he's doing is extraordinary. there are people who have a lot of questions, though, about wyclef jean's charity, about what he's doing. clearly there have been stories in the past about financial issues, about a lack of transparen transparency, what he is doing with the money raised. he's now entering the realm of politics and there will be a lot of focus on his organization. there's also the question which he addressed a little bit tonight about those tax liens against him here in the united states. the view of him in port-au-prince and haiti is he's a rich american who is above corruption and can come in and help. bottom line, haiti needs leadership. as you pointed out, it needs leadership at all levels. there are entrenched elites

there, there are, you know, generations of corruption and problems. we can go on and on with the difficulties haiti faces. but if they have some strong leadership, if they have commitment. wolf, more than $5 billion has been promised to haiti from countries around the world. guess how much of that money has actually been delivered so far? about 3% to 5% at the most. it's stunning that the international community which was so focused on this has not written the checks that they promised, the united states being one of those countries. colombia, australia and a few others have written checks, but haiti is still waiting. they have no money to pick up rubble, to really begin the serious work that's going to take years to take place to rebuild that country.

>> you're absolutely right. it is heartbreaking to think about it. they make the pledges and don't write the checks. sean, what's your reaction to wyclef jean deciding he wants to run for the presidency? >> well, i'll tell you when i was asked to be on the show today, i had thought i would reserve judgment. but after paying attention to the things that were said, i feel that it's important to say that while president preval himself has made very clear the value of wyclef's voice as a songwriter, as someone the youth is quite enamored with and appointing him ambassador at large, which does not qualify someone who has had residency for the five consecutive years necessary, but that's a question of law. we are talking on cnn which has primarily an audience outside of haiti. and so i think what's really important is that the last thing in the world haiti needs, and i'm not accusing wyclef queen of being an opportunist.

i don't know the man. but i think it's extremely important that we pay attention to both the individuals in the united states that are enamored with him, maybe not for his political strengths, and in particular corporate interests that are enamored with him. right now i worry that this is a campaign that is more about a vision of flying around the world, talking to people, as he said, certainly not one of the youth drafting him. i would be quite sure that this was an influence of corporations here in the united states and private individuals that may well have capitalized on his will to see himself flying around the world doing that, but haitian people need a leader who is genuinely willing to sacrifice. and one of the reasons i don't know very much about wyclef jean is i haven't seen or heard anything of him in these last six months that i've been in haiti. i think he's an important voice. i hope he doesn't sacrifice that

voice by taking the eye off the very devastating realities on the ground and the very difficult strategic future that it's got in putting itself back together. >> those are important concerns that you have and i want to go more in-depth on some of them. anderson, stand by, sean penn stand by, as well. dr. sanjay gupta will still be with us. we have lots more to assess on this important day right after this. where there's magic. and you now understand what nature's been hiding. ♪ at dow we understand the difference between innovation and invention. invention is important. it's the beginning. it's the spark. but innovation is where we actually create value for dow, for society, and for the world. ♪ at dow, we're constantly searching for how to use our fundamental knowledge of chemistry to solve these difficult problems. science is definitive.

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anderson, tell us what's coming up at the top of the hour on ac 360. >> we'll be looking at a new battleground in the fight of illegal immigration. in virginia after a nun was kilds allegedly at the hands of a drunk driving immigrant. police are calling for police there to do immigration checks like arizona. police officials have said what's new about that, we've been doing that for a long time. the question is, is he just playing politics? we'll ask him. and naomi campbell

testifying at a war crimes tribunal about blood diamonds allegedly given to her by charles taylor who is facing charges for crimes against hu n humanity. and what does he think about those that are praying for him. that's a fascinating discussion tonight. also, lives taken in a deadly rampage in connecticut. >> i want to bring back sean penn because you raised some serious questions about the motives behind wyclef jean's decision to run for president of haiti, and i want you to be more specific if you can, sean. this notice that there are some corporate interests here in the united states that may be pushing him to do this. what do you mean by that?

>> well, the people that i've spoken to related to his campaign and those on the ground in haiti claim these things and so really i'm putting this forward to a very important oversight committee and that's the media. you know, i watched rick sanchez prior to this program talking about himself and his frolic of baseball as a child for a long time. meanwhile on my blackberry a woman of 24 years old is dying because she didn't pay attention to a tooth for the last two months in haiti. wyclef jean could have been influenced by the promise of support by companies. haiti is clearly vulnerable to, in particular, the manufacturing concerns that it so desperately needs and the jobs it so desperately needs but with a history of american interests coming in, underpaying people. this is a culture of $1 to $2 a day that they were making. and we really can't -- if we help with them in fixing this house, if it had a leak before the earthquake, it doesn't make

much sense to rebuild it with the leak again. what i'm encouraging is that we look very hard at all the donors. this is somebody who is going to receive an enormous amount of his support if he continues this campaign from the united states. and i'm very -- i have to say, i'm very suspicious of it simply because as an ambassador at large, he has been virtually silent. for those of us in haiti, he has been a nonpresence. he said earlier he was helping to move bodies and so on in the first days. that may well have been. and everybody's help was very needed. but his voice has really been most loudly that which allegedly has taken over $400,000 money designated for haitian relief for himself and claims he didn't do it. that has to be looked into it. i've been there. i know what $400,000 could do for these people's lives and for a 24-year-old girl right now who

is dying. so, i want to see someone who is really, really willing to sacrifice for their country and not just someone who i personally saw with a vulgar entourage of vehicles that demonstrated a wealth in haiti that -- in context, i felt a very obscene demonstration. >> excellent questions that need to be -- need to be explored and they will be explored if, in fact, he continues this campaign that he has launched today to run for president of haiti. >> i just want to say -- i just want to say. >> hold on, sean. hold on one second. >> this is a very important voice there. >> hold on one second. we're not going anywhere. we'll take a quick break. first i want to get to our heroes, waging war on mississippi's waistline. for the sixth year in a row, it's been called the fastest state in the nation.

they've put the entire hometown on a diet, challenging the city of vicsburg to lose 17,000 pounds in 17 weeks. it was such a success, she couldn't stop there. take a look. >> mississippi has held the title of being the most obese state for six consecutive years. let's walk! i knew that i wanted to do something to help people who wished they could live a better life. my name is linda fondren and i challenged my community for weight loss. i asked people to lose only half a pound. they beat the challenge. i decided to make the challenge permanent because we did not reach enough people. yeah. we have a walking club and a nutrition program. on saturday, the gym is open for free. you have to give them the tools and opportunities to want to do better. and they will jump at that chance to do better. good job!

obesity affects us all. the only way to combat it is to stand together and help each other. we need to make a commitment to change. >> so far vicksburg residents have lost almost 16,000 pounds. to help linda and her continued fight against fat go to cnn.com/heroes. we'll be back, right after this. 20 minutes later, she'll bring one into the world in seattle. later today, she'll help an accident victim in kansas. how can one nurse be in all these places? through the nurses she taught in this place. johnson & johnson knows, behind every nurse who touches a life... there's a nurse educator... who first touched them.

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talking about haiti with sean penn, the great actor. sean, is the obama administration living up to its commitment to the people of haiti? >> you know, that's a very good question. as i think you know, i've been very strong in my support of what the obama administration initially ordered in haiti, certainly the united states military effort there was extraordinary. you know, this is -- this becomes such a political question, because we have to say where are our commitments?

you know, if we had the troops that are deployed currently in afghanistan in haiti continuing the mission of operation haitian relief, i think that the emergency concerns there would be a lot further along. it still is in very many ways in a state of emergency. clearly, there's not been enough pressure on the donors, including the united states, to come up with money. but haiti is a very complex place, which brings us back to the conversation of who will lead the new haiti, where a social revolution is so needed. i'm very hopeful that president preval will address the general assembly and talk about land deeding, for example. what it doesn't need is a social revolution on the back of a cult personality right now. >> sean, we have to leave it right there. thanks to you and your group for everything you are doing. i want to thank larry for letting me sit in tonight. i'm wolf blitzer. see you in "the situation room" tomorrow.