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American Morning

At the Polls; Bush Campaign; Interview With Congressman Richard Gephardt

Aired November 02, 2004 - 8:59   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.


ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. A live picture from Greenbelt, Maryland, Eleanor Roosevelt High School. The lines are long there.

We have seen a number of different locations where a similar picture has come in. And Jack keeps us informed. And a lot of people are telling him that they've got no problem out there.

So good morning. It is Election Day 2004. Been a long road to this day. Finally the day is here.

How you doing today?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Very well, thank you. We should say the long lines, again, it's not how long the line is. It's how fast it moves. And as you pointed out, Jack says lots of people e- mailing him, saying they're in and out in 10 minutes.

HEMMER: And that's good.

O'BRIEN: Good news.

HEMMER: We are here all morning long. In fact, we're going up to noon Eastern Time, which takes us through five hours of coverage today on AMERICAN MORNING.

At this point, all but seven states are voting now, including Texas, where President Bush voted about 15 minutes ago. We saw him at the firehouse in Crawford with his family.

The president saying he is confident in the judgment of the American people and that he's put everything he has in this election. He believes the issue is, "Who do you trust?"

We'll talk about that this hour. We'll also talk about what's happening in Ohio and Colorado.

Also, Congressman Dick Gephardt out of St. Louis, Missouri, he is our guest this hour. And Ken Mehlman, the campaign manager for the president, what will he say the factors are of determining everything by the end of the day? If it's the end of the day. So we'll get to all that coming up this hour.

O'BRIEN: We'll see a big "if," I think, there.

Also this morning, for the first time in a U.S. election, international observers are at polling places. We're going to talk to one of them in just a few minutes about what exactly he's looking for and why the international observers are here.

HEMMER: Jack Cafferty back with us again.

Good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

The "Question of the Day" is, if three hours of AMERICAN MORNING is a good thing, what is five hours of AMERICAN MORNING?

O'BRIEN: Fantastic!

CAFFERTY: The other "Question of the Day," which we are actually reading e-mails about, has to do with whether or not -- what are you going to do if your guy loses? Are you going to be upset? Disappointed?

You'll have an opportunity to suck it up and be grown up about this thing, or whine and kvetch and bitch and moan like the children that you are. It's your choice. AM@CNN.com.

And the best late-night jokes of the campaign. We're revisiting some of the old Leno and Letterman stuff. It's pretty good.

HEMMER: All right. Jack, thanks for that.

Election Day is here. It is today. Voters casting their ballots. Most polling stations open now in 43 states, including Colorado now, New Mexico, Nevada, Washington State, Oregon, Texas, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the entire East Coast, as we have mentioned now for the past two hours.

Some reports now starting off this hour. Some of the key battleground states. We start in Canton, Ohio. Adaora Udoji is there this morning, and Thelma Gutierrez is in Arora, Colorado, which is in Denver.

And let's start there with Adaora.

Good morning in Canton.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

We have just confirmed that after President Bush leaves Crawford, Texas, he will be coming to Ohio. It's a very unusual last-ditch appeal. Clearly a testament to how important his campaign believes the 20 electoral votes are here in Ohio, and how close they think that race is.

Now, the polls have, indeed, been opened here for the past two- and-a-half hours. We understand that there has been so far heavy turnout, and we're beginning to hear a trickle of some problems. But we'll get to that in a second.

Because as you know, Bill, there has been a ferocious legal battle here in Ohio, even this morning. The United States Supreme Court weighing in, supporting a decision favoring Republicans. And the issue is challengers, challengers in Ohio considered volunteers, partisan volunteers who are allowed to go in to polling stations and challenge any voter's legitimacy, ask them questions about citizenship, or their age.

And initially, the Democrats have been arguing for weeks that they believe that Republicans are only intending to try to suppress the vote, particularly the African-American vote. Republicans have denied that. They insist they are only concerned about voter fraud. The bottom line is today those challengers are allowed to go into the polling stations.

And just as another indication of how intense the battle is between the two sides here, each has hundreds of lawyers on standby, ready to pounce on any other legal issues that come up today. And Bill, clearly a lot going on. And we will be here watching it.

HEMMER: Twenty electoral votes in Ohio. Adaora, thanks for that. We'll get you out to Colorado in a moment, too. But first, here's Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Thank you.

Just a few minutes ago President Bush voted in Texas. He spoke with reporters. Said he's confident today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The issue is who do you trust? This is -- this is a campaign of trust. Who do you trust to secure this country?

Who do you trust to lead with firmness and steadfast resolution to protect the American people? Who do you trust to adhere to the values, the values that most people agree with? And who do you trust to keep this economy growing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Both the Bush and Kerry camps maintain a positive spin that they plan to win tonight. Ken Mehlman is the president's campaign manager. He joins us this morning from Arlington, Virginia.

Nice to see you, Ken. Thanks for being with us.

KEN MEHLMAN, BUSH CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Good morning. Nice to see you, too.

O'BRIEN: Let's begin with the latest news -- thank you -- out of Ohio. The Supreme Court rejecting an appeal. Now voters can be challenged at the polls in Ohio. Critics, of course, as you've heard have said this essentially really is intimidation of African-American voters. Do you think there's any validity to that point?

MEHLMAN: There's not at all. This is part of a 51-year tradition, a bipartisan tradition in Ohio that allows both parties to have monitors in the polls to make sure that everybody's who's eligible to vote can vote, that no one is intimidated. And the allegation that it's any kind of suppression or intimidation is unfortunately right out of the Democratic playbook.

As you may recall a few weeks ago, the Democrats put together an Election Day playbook. And in that book they said, even if there's no intimidation, even if there's no suppression, make it up, try to fool the media, divide the American people. That's not what we need today. We need to come together.

O'BRIEN: Republicans don't have a playbook? I've got to imagine everybody's got a playbook, right?

MEHLMAN: Well, certainly our playbook is to make sure every eligible American can vote, can vote without harassment, can vote without intimidation, and hopefully can vote without waiting too long in line.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the battleground states. Here's a list, nine on our list here at CNN: Ohio, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, all very tight. Which state of those do you think is the biggest problem, the biggest hurdle for the president?

MEHLMAN: Well, I think that we're doing very well. I feel very good about where we stand in Ohio, very good about where we stand in Florida. I think New Hampshire we feel good about.

Look, what's interesting is the majority of those states are states that Al Gore in 2000 won, and we're not very competitive in. I think we're in a great position in Wisconsin, a great position in Iowa.

I think we're in a great position in New Mexico. And Pennsylvania couldn't be closer. So I look at these...

O'BRIEN: You're feeling good about -- forgive me for interrupting there. You're feeling good about Ohio...

MEHLMAN: I do.

O'BRIEN: ... when all the polls show that Senator Kerry is ahead? If you look at likely voters, 50-46.

MEHLMAN: I disagree with...

O'BRIEN: If you look at the registered voters -- you think the polls are wrong?

MEHLMAN: I think -- I feel very good about Ohio. I'm confident the president is going to win both Ohio and Florida.

Both states obviously we're taking seriously. But we have an incredible volunteer effort in those states.

One of the fabulous things about this campaign has been the number of volunteers. We have 1.2 million volunteers out today. We have 7.5 million people who are activists. All out today voluntarily without being paid, contacting their friends, saying, "Remember to vote." That's a very powerful thing.

O'BRIEN: Seven rallies in six states in 19 hours. That was the president's schedule yesterday. He goes to Ohio today.

In 2000, though, the president did not campaign very aggressively. Some people read that as anxiousness and nervousness. Do you read into that?

MEHLMAN: I read into it as a president that believes very firmly that this election's critically important. He believes very firmly it's important we take the battle to the terrorists.

He believes for our economy we shouldn't raise taxes, which John Kerry is the first candidate since Walter Mondale to want to do. And he believes we need a candidate who reflects the values of most Americans.

And look where we were yesterday. We were in places that Al Gore won last time, places like Wisconsin and Iowa, places like New Mexico. All states that in 2000 we lost, but we're very -- in a good position to win this time.

O'BRIEN: Ken Mehlman joining us this morning.

MEHLMAN: Thanks a lot.

O'BRIEN: Nice to see you. Thanks.

MEHLMAN: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: And I'm sure we'll chat again when it's all over. Appreciate it.

MEHLMAN: I hope so. Thanks a lot.

O'BRIEN: Bill?

HEMMER: All right, Soledad.

The Democratic viewpoint now. Earlier today I talked with retiring U.S. representative Dick Gephardt. He's back in his home state of Missouri from St. Louis today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: I want to show our viewers a list of battleground states, nine today, that include Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Hampshire, and New Mexico. Of these nine, where do you think Senator Kerry has the best chance? REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D), MISSOURI: I think he has a great chance in all of them. I really think Senator Kerry's going to win this election. I've been in most all of those states in the last weeks. And I see a big surge.

You're going to have a record vote, in my view. You're going to have a lot of new voters. And that gives me a lot of confidence that John Kerry's going to win in most, if not all those states.

HEMMER: There are a lot of analysis going back and forth about this. Maybe 120 million voters today.

If that's the case, the early voting, why do you believe it favors your side? And if that's the case, there are a lot of other people who believe that, listen, the old rules can be thrown out because we have never seen an election like this before.

GEPHARDT: Well, in fact, Bill, I think we have. We've seen it in 1960. We saw it again in 1992, when the numbers got up to over 60 percent of registered voters.

And my supposition is that Democrats tend to be lazier voters. They're the voters who don't come out in a normal election. This is anything but a normal election.

And as those numbers go up, I think it favors John Kerry and John Edwards simply because Democrats are usually the ones that don't have the time to vote. They're hard workers. They're out doing their job, and they just don't get to the polls.

HEMMER: The president today has an op-ed piece today in "USA Today." He makes a number of points, including tax relief to 111 million Americans.

Talks about jobs being created at the rate of 1.9 million over the past 13 months. Better homeland security, the liberations of millions in Afghanistan. And with the ongoing war in Iraq, that continues. Three-quarters of al Qaeda leadership being accounted for, either captured or killed.

Why argue against a change of leadership now, given the points the president lays out there?

GEPHARDT: Well, first of all, the domestic scene is not what George Bush is arguing that it is in that article. We've seen a tremendous loss of jobs here in the Midwest, across kind of the industrial areas of the country.

This is the first president since Herbert Hoover who's seen a net loss of jobs. So that's a startling set of facts.

People have lost their health insurance. People have gone off their unemployment. And when you're in a state like Ohio, or Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, you hear all kinds of stories from people of how they've lost their jobs. On the other front, security, I don't think the president's argument holds either. We've got a mess in Iraq. I wish we didn't. We do.

We're losing kids. We're not getting the job done because we didn't send in enough troops from the beginning.

I don't think the president can sustain an argument that he's done a good job on that. And homeland security has never been what it should be. We're not looking in the containers coming in on the boats. And I just don't think people feel safer as they should feel safer because of George Bush's leadership.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Dick Gephardt earlier today in St. Louis, Missouri.

Want to get back to Wyoming now and Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Wyoming, that is where the vice president is -- I think that's the back of his head right there as he heads into his polling place and casts his vote this morning. Apparently his wife Lynne Cheney -- oh, that looks like she's right in front of him in line, and they're casting their votes.

Of course we just saw the president and Laura Bush voting just a few minutes ago. Really getting that out of the way and then they can continue through the day as much as the campaigning is a little bit curtailed today.

HEMMER: We may get a comment from Dick Cheney once they emerge after the vote. We did hear the president talk. And he was asked very directly why he believes the country is so divided.

He talked about the issues of war and peace. Also said the issue is who do you trust in this election? And his words, "We'll see how it goes tonight." I'm not quite sure where Dick Cheney is headed next, but we do know the president has scheduled a last-minute stop in Columbus, Ohio. He says...

O'BRIEN: Says he's going to talk to the volunteers.

HEMMER: Yes, to thank the volunteers. And Republicans say they have gone to extraordinary measures in places all over the country, especially like Ohio, to get the volunteer effort out. They say upwards of 90,000 in the state of Ohio working on behalf of Republicans, trying to get their supporters to the polls today.

Democrats will come back and say they've done equally as well. And we'll tabulate them throughout the day and figure out later tonight where we stand.

So Dick Cheney there just outside of his home in Jackson, Wyoming.

O'BRIEN: And we'll listen to his comments if he makes any outside of his polling place in just a few moments.

Time now to turn and take a look at the other headlines making news this morning. Heidi Collins has a look at that.

Good morning to you again, Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. And good morning to you, everyone.

"Now in the News" this morning we begin in California, where the jury in the Scott Peterson trial could start deliberating as early as tomorrow. The defense is set to begin its closing arguments in just a few hours from now.

Yesterday, the prosecution said Peterson killed his pregnant wife so he could pursue a bachelor-type lifestyle. Peterson is charged with two counts of murder in the death of his wife Laci and their unborn son.

At least six people are dead following an explosion in central Baghdad. Police say a car bomb blew up earlier this morning near Iraq's Ministry of Education. An investigation is now under way.

Meanwhile, an American is among six people kidnapped from a compound in Baghdad yesterday. There are reports two of the hostages have been released.

The Pentagon, though, says there are no U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq. The U.S. military knocking down an Iraqi police report which said insurgents had captured one American soldier north of Baghdad in Samarra. The Pentagon saying all troops are accounted for.

And we could hear an update in the next hour on the condition of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. A Palestinian official expected to speak outside the Paris military hospital where Arafat is being treated. The Palestinians say it could be weeks before Arafat is released.

And that's the news for now. Now back over to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, Heidi. Thanks.

Time to check the weather now. Chad Myers at the CNN Center with the latest forecast.

Chad, what are you looking at this morning?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Some cities are getting better. And some cities are now falling under this big veil of rain here, Soledad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

HEMMER: I bet Chad is an absentee ballot kind of guy. What do you think?

O'BRIEN: You think?

MYERS: I never do that. I always go to the polls.

HEMMER: Really?

O'BRIEN: You know, I was actually going to guess that he goes to the polls.

HEMMER: I was going to say that exactly. That was my second guess. There are only two options.

Chad, thanks.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Chad.

HEMMER: Dick Cheney voting just outside of his home with his wife Lynne. And just outside of Jackson, Wyoming.

O'BRIEN: That's not Dick Cheney.

HEMMER: No, it's not. But it's Lynne Cheney on the right. And it looked like their granddaughter with them earlier today.

So there as well. So we'll watch that. See if we get a comment in a moment.

Also, big celebrities helping the candidates gather big crowds. Now they have to deliver where it really counts. We'll see if they can in a moment on that.

O'BRIEN: And election monitors, of course, often dispatched to watch over the voting in third world nations. But what are they doing here to monitor our voting?

HEMMER: We will find out.

Also, this election may be decided by what the candidates did not do. Jeff Greenfield on the mistakes and the missed opportunities in this election.

O'BRIEN: Don't forget, CNN's live prime-time election coverage from the Nasdaq MarketSite begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. We're back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: There's the vice president again, as we watch him in Wilson, Wyoming, a small town just outside of his home in Jackson, Wyoming, northwestern part of the state. With his wife Lynne there a short time ago.

We will watch that. See if we get a comment out of Wyoming. In the meantime, though, they have just started to count the votes as the balloting continues throughout the day. We're already digging out from stories about campaign strategies and battlegrounds that are in play. And our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield, has a bit of a different take.

Good morning.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: Good morning.

HEMMER: We're looking at things the guys did not do in campaign 2004. First the challenger. John Kerry's missed opportunities were where, do you believe?

GREENFIELD: Yes, I think they were fundamental in that he never gave us a sense of who he is. And I don't mean biographically, lord knows, because everybody knows he was in combat in Vietnam. But as a thinker, as somebody with a political personality and philosophy.

If you think about the recent successful challengers to incumbents, Reagan and Clinton, they weren't just effective campaigners on technique. They gave us a sense of who they were.

Reagan was the cold warrior who wanted to make the moral offensive against the Soviets to trim the growth of government. And Clinton was the different kind of Democrat. He took on his own party on welfare and free trade and crime.

I don't think there was much of a sense of that with Kerry. There was no attempt to confront the anti-war wing of his own party and tell them what he thinks about the war on terror.

He never went, for instance, to a convention of white evangelicals and said, "Look, we've got differences, here's some common ground." I think the Democratic convention, which was all about that biography, put him well behind the president right up until that first debate because it was really about the one argument that had, "I'm not George Bush and we need someone different."

HEMMER: That was John Kerry.

GREENFIELD: Yes.

HEMMER: What about -- what about the president? Missed opportunities where?

GREENFIELD: You know, I've listened to a whole lot of conservatives with a particular critique of the president. "He doesn't listen. He won't open himself up to a rigorous examination of his ideas."

You're either on the bus or you're off the bus. If you're like Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and you have problems with Iraq, you're frozen out of the White House.

This is one reason why -- what the pro-Iraq war conservative magazine, "The Economist," very influential, it's published in Britain but it's mostly read here, they endorsed Kerry with grave doubts. They weren't at all happy. But they just said that George Bush is just too arrogant and he will not listen.

And even the Republican convention, which I think was tactically successful, you know, you can't afford to change, but they never gave us any real sense of saying, here's what I learned, the president, here's how the second term's going to be different. I think both of them missed.

HEMMER: Marry this all together here for us. Does this say much about how they would govern?

GREENFIELD: Well, I think it says something about the problem. Yesterday we talked about the policy problems that either Bush or Kerry would have. But I'm talking about something else here, the opportunity to set the stage for presidency that begins to reach across these divisions.

Except for the acceptance speeches and the debates, neither of these candidates ever spoke to the nation. They just spoke to the battleground states. This was a tactical campaign on both sides, looking at interest groups.

And I can see how you could win the presidency that way. But it sure makes it harder to govern, I think. So -- of course it's easier to say all this when you're not doing it. I recognize that.

HEMMER: Listen, enjoy your night. I know you're at the Nasdaq with Wolf and the whole gang over there. So it should be a great night of television here on CNN. Never tried it this way before. So good luck to you.

GREENFIELD: We haven't. And, you know, we may be on the air until about 10 minutes before you are tomorrow morning.

HEMMER: We may.

GREENFIELD: Just pop right over.

HEMMER: Thanks, Jeff.

GREENFIELD: OK.

HEMMER: Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, then, Jeff, you might as well just stay until tomorrow then if that's the case.

Still to come this morning, the Supreme Court became an election issue with Chief Justice Rehnquist's illness. What should you know about the health of the rest of the court? A look at that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: That's a picture of John Kerry a little bit earlier this morning. It's Election Day, but the campaigning continues. John Kerry in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, trying to motivate the voters.

He's going to be heading home to Boston to actually vote. And like President Bush, we expect that he'll make some comments when he emerges from his polling place. And we'll bring them to you.

CAFFERTY: Swell. That's all we need are more comments from these guys. We haven't heard them say enough in the last year, right?

O'BRIEN: It's the last day, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Mercifully.

And here's the deal. By tomorrow, or we hope by tomorrow, a lot of you are going to be very unhappy because your guy will have lost. And the rest of you will be happy because your guy is in.

But if your guy loses, how are you going to react to that? And that's the "Question of the Day."

Walt in Las Vegas writes, "If President Bush loses we're moving to Canada. Wait a minute, never mind. Kerry will turn America into Canada."

Joel in Colleyville, Texas, "I'll just wait. Once the formalities of the popular vote, electoral college and ensuing litigation are over, the Supreme Court might appoint him."

And Bill in Charleston, South Carolina, "In 2000, Alec Baldwin said he'd leave the country if his guy, Al Gore, lost. Now if my guy loses, I'll do what Alec did, hang out with the Hollywood crowd, continue to bore people with my opinions and get fat."

HEMMER: Ooh, Nellie!

CAFFERTY: I like that one.

In honor of the election, a look back at some of the better political jokes that have lightened up the campaigns over the campaigns, like this: "We make jokes about it, but the truth is this presidential election really offers us a choice of two well informed opposing positions on every issue. OK, they both belong to John Kerry, but they're still there."

(LAUGHTER)

CAFFERTY: That's Jay Leno.

And "Campaigning in Iowa yesterday, President Bush vowed he would not raise taxes in the next four years. He said, 'I believe it is hard, very difficult, to raise taxes if you are not the president.'" Craig Kilborn on his late-night TV show.

HEMMER: Keep them coming. Good stuff, Jack. O'BRIEN: Very funny.

HEMMER: In a moment here, the campaign not over yet. The candidates still on the move. We have seen them already today.

Back in a moment here. A look at that after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired November 2, 2004 - 8:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. A live picture from Greenbelt, Maryland, Eleanor Roosevelt High School. The lines are long there.

We have seen a number of different locations where a similar picture has come in. And Jack keeps us informed. And a lot of people are telling him that they've got no problem out there.

So good morning. It is Election Day 2004. Been a long road to this day. Finally the day is here.

How you doing today?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Very well, thank you. We should say the long lines, again, it's not how long the line is. It's how fast it moves. And as you pointed out, Jack says lots of people e- mailing him, saying they're in and out in 10 minutes.

HEMMER: And that's good.

O'BRIEN: Good news.

HEMMER: We are here all morning long. In fact, we're going up to noon Eastern Time, which takes us through five hours of coverage today on AMERICAN MORNING.

At this point, all but seven states are voting now, including Texas, where President Bush voted about 15 minutes ago. We saw him at the firehouse in Crawford with his family.

The president saying he is confident in the judgment of the American people and that he's put everything he has in this election. He believes the issue is, "Who do you trust?"

We'll talk about that this hour. We'll also talk about what's happening in Ohio and Colorado.

Also, Congressman Dick Gephardt out of St. Louis, Missouri, he is our guest this hour. And Ken Mehlman, the campaign manager for the president, what will he say the factors are of determining everything by the end of the day? If it's the end of the day. So we'll get to all that coming up this hour.

O'BRIEN: We'll see a big "if," I think, there.

Also this morning, for the first time in a U.S. election, international observers are at polling places. We're going to talk to one of them in just a few minutes about what exactly he's looking for and why the international observers are here.

HEMMER: Jack Cafferty back with us again.

Good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

The "Question of the Day" is, if three hours of AMERICAN MORNING is a good thing, what is five hours of AMERICAN MORNING?

O'BRIEN: Fantastic!

CAFFERTY: The other "Question of the Day," which we are actually reading e-mails about, has to do with whether or not -- what are you going to do if your guy loses? Are you going to be upset? Disappointed?

You'll have an opportunity to suck it up and be grown up about this thing, or whine and kvetch and bitch and moan like the children that you are. It's your choice. AM@CNN.com.

And the best late-night jokes of the campaign. We're revisiting some of the old Leno and Letterman stuff. It's pretty good.

HEMMER: All right. Jack, thanks for that.

Election Day is here. It is today. Voters casting their ballots. Most polling stations open now in 43 states, including Colorado now, New Mexico, Nevada, Washington State, Oregon, Texas, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the entire East Coast, as we have mentioned now for the past two hours.

Some reports now starting off this hour. Some of the key battleground states. We start in Canton, Ohio. Adaora Udoji is there this morning, and Thelma Gutierrez is in Arora, Colorado, which is in Denver.

And let's start there with Adaora.

Good morning in Canton.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

We have just confirmed that after President Bush leaves Crawford, Texas, he will be coming to Ohio. It's a very unusual last-ditch appeal. Clearly a testament to how important his campaign believes the 20 electoral votes are here in Ohio, and how close they think that race is.

Now, the polls have, indeed, been opened here for the past two- and-a-half hours. We understand that there has been so far heavy turnout, and we're beginning to hear a trickle of some problems. But we'll get to that in a second.

Because as you know, Bill, there has been a ferocious legal battle here in Ohio, even this morning. The United States Supreme Court weighing in, supporting a decision favoring Republicans. And the issue is challengers, challengers in Ohio considered volunteers, partisan volunteers who are allowed to go in to polling stations and challenge any voter's legitimacy, ask them questions about citizenship, or their age.

And initially, the Democrats have been arguing for weeks that they believe that Republicans are only intending to try to suppress the vote, particularly the African-American vote. Republicans have denied that. They insist they are only concerned about voter fraud. The bottom line is today those challengers are allowed to go into the polling stations.

And just as another indication of how intense the battle is between the two sides here, each has hundreds of lawyers on standby, ready to pounce on any other legal issues that come up today. And Bill, clearly a lot going on. And we will be here watching it.

HEMMER: Twenty electoral votes in Ohio. Adaora, thanks for that. We'll get you out to Colorado in a moment, too. But first, here's Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Thank you.

Just a few minutes ago President Bush voted in Texas. He spoke with reporters. Said he's confident today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The issue is who do you trust? This is -- this is a campaign of trust. Who do you trust to secure this country?

Who do you trust to lead with firmness and steadfast resolution to protect the American people? Who do you trust to adhere to the values, the values that most people agree with? And who do you trust to keep this economy growing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Both the Bush and Kerry camps maintain a positive spin that they plan to win tonight. Ken Mehlman is the president's campaign manager. He joins us this morning from Arlington, Virginia.

Nice to see you, Ken. Thanks for being with us.

KEN MEHLMAN, BUSH CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Good morning. Nice to see you, too.

O'BRIEN: Let's begin with the latest news -- thank you -- out of Ohio. The Supreme Court rejecting an appeal. Now voters can be challenged at the polls in Ohio. Critics, of course, as you've heard have said this essentially really is intimidation of African-American voters. Do you think there's any validity to that point?

MEHLMAN: There's not at all. This is part of a 51-year tradition, a bipartisan tradition in Ohio that allows both parties to have monitors in the polls to make sure that everybody's who's eligible to vote can vote, that no one is intimidated. And the allegation that it's any kind of suppression or intimidation is unfortunately right out of the Democratic playbook.

As you may recall a few weeks ago, the Democrats put together an Election Day playbook. And in that book they said, even if there's no intimidation, even if there's no suppression, make it up, try to fool the media, divide the American people. That's not what we need today. We need to come together.

O'BRIEN: Republicans don't have a playbook? I've got to imagine everybody's got a playbook, right?

MEHLMAN: Well, certainly our playbook is to make sure every eligible American can vote, can vote without harassment, can vote without intimidation, and hopefully can vote without waiting too long in line.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the battleground states. Here's a list, nine on our list here at CNN: Ohio, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, all very tight. Which state of those do you think is the biggest problem, the biggest hurdle for the president?

MEHLMAN: Well, I think that we're doing very well. I feel very good about where we stand in Ohio, very good about where we stand in Florida. I think New Hampshire we feel good about.

Look, what's interesting is the majority of those states are states that Al Gore in 2000 won, and we're not very competitive in. I think we're in a great position in Wisconsin, a great position in Iowa.

I think we're in a great position in New Mexico. And Pennsylvania couldn't be closer. So I look at these...

O'BRIEN: You're feeling good about -- forgive me for interrupting there. You're feeling good about Ohio...

MEHLMAN: I do.

O'BRIEN: ... when all the polls show that Senator Kerry is ahead? If you look at likely voters, 50-46.

MEHLMAN: I disagree with...

O'BRIEN: If you look at the registered voters -- you think the polls are wrong?

MEHLMAN: I think -- I feel very good about Ohio. I'm confident the president is going to win both Ohio and Florida.

Both states obviously we're taking seriously. But we have an incredible volunteer effort in those states.

One of the fabulous things about this campaign has been the number of volunteers. We have 1.2 million volunteers out today. We have 7.5 million people who are activists. All out today voluntarily without being paid, contacting their friends, saying, "Remember to vote." That's a very powerful thing.

O'BRIEN: Seven rallies in six states in 19 hours. That was the president's schedule yesterday. He goes to Ohio today.

In 2000, though, the president did not campaign very aggressively. Some people read that as anxiousness and nervousness. Do you read into that?

MEHLMAN: I read into it as a president that believes very firmly that this election's critically important. He believes very firmly it's important we take the battle to the terrorists.

He believes for our economy we shouldn't raise taxes, which John Kerry is the first candidate since Walter Mondale to want to do. And he believes we need a candidate who reflects the values of most Americans.

And look where we were yesterday. We were in places that Al Gore won last time, places like Wisconsin and Iowa, places like New Mexico. All states that in 2000 we lost, but we're very -- in a good position to win this time.

O'BRIEN: Ken Mehlman joining us this morning.

MEHLMAN: Thanks a lot.

O'BRIEN: Nice to see you. Thanks.

MEHLMAN: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: And I'm sure we'll chat again when it's all over. Appreciate it.

MEHLMAN: I hope so. Thanks a lot.

O'BRIEN: Bill?

HEMMER: All right, Soledad.

The Democratic viewpoint now. Earlier today I talked with retiring U.S. representative Dick Gephardt. He's back in his home state of Missouri from St. Louis today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: I want to show our viewers a list of battleground states, nine today, that include Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Hampshire, and New Mexico. Of these nine, where do you think Senator Kerry has the best chance? REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D), MISSOURI: I think he has a great chance in all of them. I really think Senator Kerry's going to win this election. I've been in most all of those states in the last weeks. And I see a big surge.

You're going to have a record vote, in my view. You're going to have a lot of new voters. And that gives me a lot of confidence that John Kerry's going to win in most, if not all those states.

HEMMER: There are a lot of analysis going back and forth about this. Maybe 120 million voters today.

If that's the case, the early voting, why do you believe it favors your side? And if that's the case, there are a lot of other people who believe that, listen, the old rules can be thrown out because we have never seen an election like this before.

GEPHARDT: Well, in fact, Bill, I think we have. We've seen it in 1960. We saw it again in 1992, when the numbers got up to over 60 percent of registered voters.

And my supposition is that Democrats tend to be lazier voters. They're the voters who don't come out in a normal election. This is anything but a normal election.

And as those numbers go up, I think it favors John Kerry and John Edwards simply because Democrats are usually the ones that don't have the time to vote. They're hard workers. They're out doing their job, and they just don't get to the polls.

HEMMER: The president today has an op-ed piece today in "USA Today." He makes a number of points, including tax relief to 111 million Americans.

Talks about jobs being created at the rate of 1.9 million over the past 13 months. Better homeland security, the liberations of millions in Afghanistan. And with the ongoing war in Iraq, that continues. Three-quarters of al Qaeda leadership being accounted for, either captured or killed.

Why argue against a change of leadership now, given the points the president lays out there?

GEPHARDT: Well, first of all, the domestic scene is not what George Bush is arguing that it is in that article. We've seen a tremendous loss of jobs here in the Midwest, across kind of the industrial areas of the country.

This is the first president since Herbert Hoover who's seen a net loss of jobs. So that's a startling set of facts.

People have lost their health insurance. People have gone off their unemployment. And when you're in a state like Ohio, or Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, you hear all kinds of stories from people of how they've lost their jobs. On the other front, security, I don't think the president's argument holds either. We've got a mess in Iraq. I wish we didn't. We do.

We're losing kids. We're not getting the job done because we didn't send in enough troops from the beginning.

I don't think the president can sustain an argument that he's done a good job on that. And homeland security has never been what it should be. We're not looking in the containers coming in on the boats. And I just don't think people feel safer as they should feel safer because of George Bush's leadership.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Dick Gephardt earlier today in St. Louis, Missouri.

Want to get back to Wyoming now and Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Wyoming, that is where the vice president is -- I think that's the back of his head right there as he heads into his polling place and casts his vote this morning. Apparently his wife Lynne Cheney -- oh, that looks like she's right in front of him in line, and they're casting their votes.

Of course we just saw the president and Laura Bush voting just a few minutes ago. Really getting that out of the way and then they can continue through the day as much as the campaigning is a little bit curtailed today.

HEMMER: We may get a comment from Dick Cheney once they emerge after the vote. We did hear the president talk. And he was asked very directly why he believes the country is so divided.

He talked about the issues of war and peace. Also said the issue is who do you trust in this election? And his words, "We'll see how it goes tonight." I'm not quite sure where Dick Cheney is headed next, but we do know the president has scheduled a last-minute stop in Columbus, Ohio. He says...

O'BRIEN: Says he's going to talk to the volunteers.

HEMMER: Yes, to thank the volunteers. And Republicans say they have gone to extraordinary measures in places all over the country, especially like Ohio, to get the volunteer effort out. They say upwards of 90,000 in the state of Ohio working on behalf of Republicans, trying to get their supporters to the polls today.

Democrats will come back and say they've done equally as well. And we'll tabulate them throughout the day and figure out later tonight where we stand.

So Dick Cheney there just outside of his home in Jackson, Wyoming.

O'BRIEN: And we'll listen to his comments if he makes any outside of his polling place in just a few moments.

Time now to turn and take a look at the other headlines making news this morning. Heidi Collins has a look at that.

Good morning to you again, Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. And good morning to you, everyone.

"Now in the News" this morning we begin in California, where the jury in the Scott Peterson trial could start deliberating as early as tomorrow. The defense is set to begin its closing arguments in just a few hours from now.

Yesterday, the prosecution said Peterson killed his pregnant wife so he could pursue a bachelor-type lifestyle. Peterson is charged with two counts of murder in the death of his wife Laci and their unborn son.

At least six people are dead following an explosion in central Baghdad. Police say a car bomb blew up earlier this morning near Iraq's Ministry of Education. An investigation is now under way.

Meanwhile, an American is among six people kidnapped from a compound in Baghdad yesterday. There are reports two of the hostages have been released.

The Pentagon, though, says there are no U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq. The U.S. military knocking down an Iraqi police report which said insurgents had captured one American soldier north of Baghdad in Samarra. The Pentagon saying all troops are accounted for.

And we could hear an update in the next hour on the condition of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. A Palestinian official expected to speak outside the Paris military hospital where Arafat is being treated. The Palestinians say it could be weeks before Arafat is released.

And that's the news for now. Now back over to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, Heidi. Thanks.

Time to check the weather now. Chad Myers at the CNN Center with the latest forecast.

Chad, what are you looking at this morning?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Some cities are getting better. And some cities are now falling under this big veil of rain here, Soledad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

HEMMER: I bet Chad is an absentee ballot kind of guy. What do you think?

O'BRIEN: You think?

MYERS: I never do that. I always go to the polls.

HEMMER: Really?

O'BRIEN: You know, I was actually going to guess that he goes to the polls.

HEMMER: I was going to say that exactly. That was my second guess. There are only two options.

Chad, thanks.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Chad.

HEMMER: Dick Cheney voting just outside of his home with his wife Lynne. And just outside of Jackson, Wyoming.

O'BRIEN: That's not Dick Cheney.

HEMMER: No, it's not. But it's Lynne Cheney on the right. And it looked like their granddaughter with them earlier today.

So there as well. So we'll watch that. See if we get a comment in a moment.

Also, big celebrities helping the candidates gather big crowds. Now they have to deliver where it really counts. We'll see if they can in a moment on that.

O'BRIEN: And election monitors, of course, often dispatched to watch over the voting in third world nations. But what are they doing here to monitor our voting?

HEMMER: We will find out.

Also, this election may be decided by what the candidates did not do. Jeff Greenfield on the mistakes and the missed opportunities in this election.

O'BRIEN: Don't forget, CNN's live prime-time election coverage from the Nasdaq MarketSite begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. We're back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: There's the vice president again, as we watch him in Wilson, Wyoming, a small town just outside of his home in Jackson, Wyoming, northwestern part of the state. With his wife Lynne there a short time ago.

We will watch that. See if we get a comment out of Wyoming. In the meantime, though, they have just started to count the votes as the balloting continues throughout the day. We're already digging out from stories about campaign strategies and battlegrounds that are in play. And our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield, has a bit of a different take.

Good morning.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: Good morning.

HEMMER: We're looking at things the guys did not do in campaign 2004. First the challenger. John Kerry's missed opportunities were where, do you believe?

GREENFIELD: Yes, I think they were fundamental in that he never gave us a sense of who he is. And I don't mean biographically, lord knows, because everybody knows he was in combat in Vietnam. But as a thinker, as somebody with a political personality and philosophy.

If you think about the recent successful challengers to incumbents, Reagan and Clinton, they weren't just effective campaigners on technique. They gave us a sense of who they were.

Reagan was the cold warrior who wanted to make the moral offensive against the Soviets to trim the growth of government. And Clinton was the different kind of Democrat. He took on his own party on welfare and free trade and crime.

I don't think there was much of a sense of that with Kerry. There was no attempt to confront the anti-war wing of his own party and tell them what he thinks about the war on terror.

He never went, for instance, to a convention of white evangelicals and said, "Look, we've got differences, here's some common ground." I think the Democratic convention, which was all about that biography, put him well behind the president right up until that first debate because it was really about the one argument that had, "I'm not George Bush and we need someone different."

HEMMER: That was John Kerry.

GREENFIELD: Yes.

HEMMER: What about -- what about the president? Missed opportunities where?

GREENFIELD: You know, I've listened to a whole lot of conservatives with a particular critique of the president. "He doesn't listen. He won't open himself up to a rigorous examination of his ideas."

You're either on the bus or you're off the bus. If you're like Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and you have problems with Iraq, you're frozen out of the White House.

This is one reason why -- what the pro-Iraq war conservative magazine, "The Economist," very influential, it's published in Britain but it's mostly read here, they endorsed Kerry with grave doubts. They weren't at all happy. But they just said that George Bush is just too arrogant and he will not listen.

And even the Republican convention, which I think was tactically successful, you know, you can't afford to change, but they never gave us any real sense of saying, here's what I learned, the president, here's how the second term's going to be different. I think both of them missed.

HEMMER: Marry this all together here for us. Does this say much about how they would govern?

GREENFIELD: Well, I think it says something about the problem. Yesterday we talked about the policy problems that either Bush or Kerry would have. But I'm talking about something else here, the opportunity to set the stage for presidency that begins to reach across these divisions.

Except for the acceptance speeches and the debates, neither of these candidates ever spoke to the nation. They just spoke to the battleground states. This was a tactical campaign on both sides, looking at interest groups.

And I can see how you could win the presidency that way. But it sure makes it harder to govern, I think. So -- of course it's easier to say all this when you're not doing it. I recognize that.

HEMMER: Listen, enjoy your night. I know you're at the Nasdaq with Wolf and the whole gang over there. So it should be a great night of television here on CNN. Never tried it this way before. So good luck to you.

GREENFIELD: We haven't. And, you know, we may be on the air until about 10 minutes before you are tomorrow morning.

HEMMER: We may.

GREENFIELD: Just pop right over.

HEMMER: Thanks, Jeff.

GREENFIELD: OK.

HEMMER: Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, then, Jeff, you might as well just stay until tomorrow then if that's the case.

Still to come this morning, the Supreme Court became an election issue with Chief Justice Rehnquist's illness. What should you know about the health of the rest of the court? A look at that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: That's a picture of John Kerry a little bit earlier this morning. It's Election Day, but the campaigning continues. John Kerry in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, trying to motivate the voters.

He's going to be heading home to Boston to actually vote. And like President Bush, we expect that he'll make some comments when he emerges from his polling place. And we'll bring them to you.

CAFFERTY: Swell. That's all we need are more comments from these guys. We haven't heard them say enough in the last year, right?

O'BRIEN: It's the last day, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Mercifully.

And here's the deal. By tomorrow, or we hope by tomorrow, a lot of you are going to be very unhappy because your guy will have lost. And the rest of you will be happy because your guy is in.

But if your guy loses, how are you going to react to that? And that's the "Question of the Day."

Walt in Las Vegas writes, "If President Bush loses we're moving to Canada. Wait a minute, never mind. Kerry will turn America into Canada."

Joel in Colleyville, Texas, "I'll just wait. Once the formalities of the popular vote, electoral college and ensuing litigation are over, the Supreme Court might appoint him."

And Bill in Charleston, South Carolina, "In 2000, Alec Baldwin said he'd leave the country if his guy, Al Gore, lost. Now if my guy loses, I'll do what Alec did, hang out with the Hollywood crowd, continue to bore people with my opinions and get fat."

HEMMER: Ooh, Nellie!

CAFFERTY: I like that one.

In honor of the election, a look back at some of the better political jokes that have lightened up the campaigns over the campaigns, like this: "We make jokes about it, but the truth is this presidential election really offers us a choice of two well informed opposing positions on every issue. OK, they both belong to John Kerry, but they're still there."

(LAUGHTER)

CAFFERTY: That's Jay Leno.

And "Campaigning in Iowa yesterday, President Bush vowed he would not raise taxes in the next four years. He said, 'I believe it is hard, very difficult, to raise taxes if you are not the president.'" Craig Kilborn on his late-night TV show.

HEMMER: Keep them coming. Good stuff, Jack. O'BRIEN: Very funny.

HEMMER: In a moment here, the campaign not over yet. The candidates still on the move. We have seen them already today.

Back in a moment here. A look at that after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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