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American Morning

'Rock the Vote' Recap

Aired November 05, 2003 - 06:32   ET

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

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's bring in our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, for his take on the "Rock the Vote" forum.
Good morning -- Bill.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So, is Dean still bleeding from this?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think he is, although he managed to recover towards the end when he condemned the Confederate flag as a racist symbol. Nevertheless, it was a very foolish thing, clearly a calculated move on his part, to talk about expanding the Democratic Party by becoming a candidate for the people who fly those Confederate flags and put them on their pickup trucks.

COSTELLO: Should he have said he was sorry?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, I think he should have said he was wrong. It did not come out the way he intended to say it. It appeared to be just a political calculation, but he just didn't apologize. And I thought it called for it. A moment from John Edwards, which was very authentic, which was very deeply felt, when Edwards said just after the comments that we just heard, I've seen this, I've grown up with this, I'm here to tell you it's wrong, what it is condescension. I thought that was an effective moment for John Edwards.

COSTELLO: You thought John Edwards did pretty well in this debate, didn't you?

SCHNEIDER: I did think so, principally because of that word, "condescension." He talked about being condescended to by people like Howard Dean as a Southerner, and he talked about young people constantly being condescended to by politicians.

And that was exactly what was happening in that debate. A lot of those 30-second videos were cringe-inducing because they were clearly so calculated to appeal to pander to those voters. The videos were often jittery and self-consciously hit. The one that wasn't was John Edwards, who talked straightforwardly to a young, black man about his future and his goals, and it didn't condescend to them. That's something that clearly John Edwards is very sensitive to.

COSTELLO: Was it my imagination or was this the most spirited debate yet?

SCHNEIDER: Absolutely. It was almost a rollicking debate. Some of the questions were a little bit strange about Macs and PCs. Thanks God nothing about anybody's underwear.

COSTELLO: That's just we're old, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: But I thought some of the questions were very smart, like the woman who asked the candidates, where were you and what were you thinking when you were 20 years old? I really wanted to hear the answers to that. Too many times they gave little set speeches, but it was more free-wheeling and rollicking than any debate I've seen.

COSTELLO: You know what was really interesting? The pot question came up, and nobody blinked an eye. Yes, I smoked pot. No big deal.

SCHNEIDER: It was very interesting. Several of them, Kerry, Dean, Sharpton, said yes. And those who said no, like -- well, Sharpton didn't say yes. Kerry, Dean and Edwards said yes. Sharpton said he didn't smoke pot, but he had an explanation. He grew up in a church. And Kucinich said I never smoked pot, but I approve of decriminalizing it.

It was the people who said they didn't smoke pot who had an explanation. What that suggests is this is no longer a big issue to most Americans. The baby boomers have made it something that Americans can live with.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Bill Schneider, I'm sure you'll be talking about this all day long, but thanks for waking up early with DAYBREAK this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired November 5, 2003 - 06:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's bring in our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, for his take on the "Rock the Vote" forum.
Good morning -- Bill.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So, is Dean still bleeding from this?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think he is, although he managed to recover towards the end when he condemned the Confederate flag as a racist symbol. Nevertheless, it was a very foolish thing, clearly a calculated move on his part, to talk about expanding the Democratic Party by becoming a candidate for the people who fly those Confederate flags and put them on their pickup trucks.

COSTELLO: Should he have said he was sorry?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, I think he should have said he was wrong. It did not come out the way he intended to say it. It appeared to be just a political calculation, but he just didn't apologize. And I thought it called for it. A moment from John Edwards, which was very authentic, which was very deeply felt, when Edwards said just after the comments that we just heard, I've seen this, I've grown up with this, I'm here to tell you it's wrong, what it is condescension. I thought that was an effective moment for John Edwards.

COSTELLO: You thought John Edwards did pretty well in this debate, didn't you?

SCHNEIDER: I did think so, principally because of that word, "condescension." He talked about being condescended to by people like Howard Dean as a Southerner, and he talked about young people constantly being condescended to by politicians.

And that was exactly what was happening in that debate. A lot of those 30-second videos were cringe-inducing because they were clearly so calculated to appeal to pander to those voters. The videos were often jittery and self-consciously hit. The one that wasn't was John Edwards, who talked straightforwardly to a young, black man about his future and his goals, and it didn't condescend to them. That's something that clearly John Edwards is very sensitive to.

COSTELLO: Was it my imagination or was this the most spirited debate yet?

SCHNEIDER: Absolutely. It was almost a rollicking debate. Some of the questions were a little bit strange about Macs and PCs. Thanks God nothing about anybody's underwear.

COSTELLO: That's just we're old, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: But I thought some of the questions were very smart, like the woman who asked the candidates, where were you and what were you thinking when you were 20 years old? I really wanted to hear the answers to that. Too many times they gave little set speeches, but it was more free-wheeling and rollicking than any debate I've seen.

COSTELLO: You know what was really interesting? The pot question came up, and nobody blinked an eye. Yes, I smoked pot. No big deal.

SCHNEIDER: It was very interesting. Several of them, Kerry, Dean, Sharpton, said yes. And those who said no, like -- well, Sharpton didn't say yes. Kerry, Dean and Edwards said yes. Sharpton said he didn't smoke pot, but he had an explanation. He grew up in a church. And Kucinich said I never smoked pot, but I approve of decriminalizing it.

It was the people who said they didn't smoke pot who had an explanation. What that suggests is this is no longer a big issue to most Americans. The baby boomers have made it something that Americans can live with.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Bill Schneider, I'm sure you'll be talking about this all day long, but thanks for waking up early with DAYBREAK this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.