Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Ballot Bowl '08: On to New Hampshire
Aired January 05, 2008 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN KING, CNN, CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to the CNN "Ballot Bowl." I'm John King on the grounds of the Bedford Village Inn in Bedford, New Hampshire. All day long we are giving you the candidates for president in their own words. Unvarnished snippets, some from live events, some from taped campaigning events here in the state of New Hampshire. Just three days of campaigning to go before the leadoff presidential primary. You see the candidates there, Edwards, Romney, Obama, Clinton, Huckabee, McCain, among those out campaigning feverishly throughout the weekend.
We here at CNN giving you a chance to see the candidates in long form, to learn about their positions on the issue from Iraq, and health care, the economy, and so on and so forth. Most of the action in the presidential campaign right here in New Hampshire this weekend but not exclusively. Out of the state of Wyoming, republicans caucusing, making their choice for president today, and CNN now can project that the former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney will win the Wyoming republican caucuses. 12 delegates at stake out in Wyoming. By CNN's count, Governor Romney will win at least six of those delegates. Romney six, Congressman Duncan Hunter of California, one and former Senator from Tennessee, Fred Thompson, one so far. Eight of the Wyoming delegates now decided six for Romney, one for Hunter and one for Thompson. The others still at stake. But CNN now projects Governor Mitt Romney will win the Wyoming republican presidential caucuses.
The Romney campaign will say this is a sign they are running a national effort but the stakes for Romney, huge here in the state of New Hampshire. He's the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts. He owns a vacation home in the New Hampshire lake town of Wolfeboro. A disappointing finish, second in Iowa after being in the lead there throughout the summer months and spending millions of dollars campaigning and on television ads. The stakes for Governor Romney, enormous here in the state of New Hampshire. For a bit more on the flavor and the mood in the Romney campaign, let's bring in CNN's Mary Snow. Mary.
MARY SNOW, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, as the pressure turned up on Mitt Romney, who once had a comfortable lead here in New Hampshire, you can really see his campaign has gone into high gear in terms of fine-tuning his message. As one person in the campaign pointed out, they are focusing in his words like a laser on the message that Washington is broken and Mitt Romney has been trying to portray his chief rival here, republican Senator John McCain, as being too much of a Washington insider. Romney is trying to play out his experience in the private sector as someone who could bring about change.
Now, earlier today, he has been campaigning, had a couple of events, but one was an "Ask Mitt Anything" event. These are forums he's been doing around the state where people can come and ask questions, obviously. One topic that comes up often is illegal immigration. We have a portion from today's forum in Derry, New Hampshire. Take a listen to a portion of that town forum.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Governor Romney.
GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIATE: Good morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm part of the Irish community, based in Massachusetts. I know your great record of dealing with the communities. Your great record as a governor of dealing with the immigrant communities. And I'm wondering why, Governor Romney, have you moved away from that great human idea of being very conscious of the plight of some of the undocumented?
In our community there are 50,000 or 60,000 undocumented Irish immigrants. Today, we are continuously being referred to almost as criminals. They are mothers and fathers of American children. They are - they are sisters and brothers and cousins of mine, my neighbors. When you sit down tonight, Governor Romney, will you do me a favor, please remember that they are human. I ask you, please, Governor Romney, to show some respect for those human beings, god's creatures. I feel Governor Romney, that you've turned your back on god's creatures and I ask you tonight in front of god, in front of this nation, have you have no shame in the way you talked about our citizens. They are Irish children, American children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are illegal! They are illegal!
ROMNEY: Let me offer some thoughts. Let me offer some thoughts. How many people do you think want to emigrate to the United States of America in the world? No, no. From the world. A billion? More than a billion. There was a survey done in Columbia that I heard about that as many as 60% of the people in Columbia if they could come to American would they would. Now, we simply cannot take all of the people in the world that want to come to America. We just can't do it. And so we have to have - we have to have a process to say who we can bring in. Legal immigration is the great source of vitality and opportunity for this country. Always has been. We welcome legal immigration. We welcome legal immigration. But then the question is, do you stay in addition to having legal immigration, where people line up and say, I've got family in the United States, I want to get reunited with them, instead of saying, yes, we are going to let you come in or I speak English and I got skills that you need. Instead of selecting them on that basis, we say, if you happen to come over as a tourist but then just say, we are going to let you stay. Or if you cross the border illegally, and it's a crime to cross the border illegally, if you come in, violate a law, we will let you stay anyway.
In my opinion, to show respect for the law, which is a fundamental principle for a nation that wants to have liberty, then you have to say - then you have to say we're going to enforce the law. We're going to welcome people here legally. I do not sign up with those. And there are in my own party, those who say stop legal immigration, shut it off. There are too many immigrants here. I disagree. I love legal immigration. But I want to end illegal immigration. And that - [ applause ] and so what do we do with the 12 million or so who are here illegally today? What I say with regards to that group is to say they should be able to get in line with other people who want to come here to get permanent residency. They should get in line if they want to become a citizen. But there should be no special pathway placing them ahead of the millions and millions who are waiting legally in line around the world to come here. That's my view.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: And, John, on the campaign trail, just about everywhere Mitt Romney goes, he does bring up the topic of immigration. Such a big issue for republicans and that's an issue where he's really taking aim at his rival Senator McCain because Senator McCain's support of the illegal immigration reform bill and had advocated for the guest worker program. Mitt Romney has been saying that amounts to amnesty. John McCain says no, it doesn't. And he has had many people bring it up at his own meetings where John McCain said he gets the message about the need for a tight border, a tight security at the border. That is just one issue where the two candidates here have really been at each other and that is only expected to intensify as Mitt Romney has been releasing ads and plans to up until the very end before primary day. John.
KING: Mary Snow for us in Manchester. And dead on, illegal immigration perhaps the most emotional of all of the issues in this campaign and either number one or number two with republicans. First in Iowa, now in New Hampshire, have been asked the issue that mattered most to them and the subject as Mary just noted of attacks in the mail and on television by the Romney campaign. The McCain campaign likes to know that just a couple of years ago, Governor Romney said it was reasonable when asked about the proposal Senator McCain was pushing through the United States senate.
Governor Romney now says that was an amnesty bill. The debate continues and likely immigration will be a topic in the weekend debates here in the state of New Hampshire. Governor Romney placed second in Iowa. A great deal at stake for him here in the state of New Hampshire, not only because it borders Massachusetts but because he invested so much on an early state strategy, trying to win Iowa, win New Hampshire, get momentum to carry on for the republican nomination. Another candidate who expected to win early and build momentum was Senator Hillary Clinton. Obviously, disappointed with her third place showing in Iowa. So much at stake for Senator Clinton here in the state of New Hampshire.
For more on that dynamic, a fascinating dynamic in this campaign, let's bring back our Suzanne Malveaux.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX: John, it really is a lot at stake for her. And her aides can see that they have lessons learned from Iowa. First that they really underestimated the importance of the undecided, the young voters. Barack Obama went after them and got a large majority of those voters. So they are redoubling their efforts here in the state. You can tell just by the fact they added at the last minute a round table with young, undecided voters today. They are adding on Facebook an "Ask Hillary" section. So you can ask here questions there. They are courting them on her campaign bus today, obviously reaching out to that critical mass.
One of the things they say that they are going to continue to, however, and they think it's going to work, and that is stressing her experience over Barack Obama. Today I went to an event, where it was two hours, unprecedented, two hours where she answered questions, more than 20 questions from members of the audience and aides say this is to show she can talk about anything. She knows about all of the issues. She's got plans. She's got policy. She's had ideas in place for these issues. Let's take a listen at last night she addressed a lot of those concerns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: New Hampshire voters are going to be weighing and assessing everything in the next five days. It's a short period of time but it's enough time. Time for people to say, wait a minute. Number one, who will be the best president for our country? On day one, walking into the Oval Office after you're sworn in on January 20th, 2009? And who will be able to withstand the republican attack machine to get elected in the first place? To go into the White House.
Now, I am - now I am - I am confident that those two questions lead to one conclusion. But I'm also very well aware that there's been a lot of static in the air and a lot of unanswered questions about all of us as candidates and so for the next five days, I want to know from all of you those who are supporting me, those who are undecided, and those who may at this moment in time think they are supporting somebody else. What do you want to know about us so that you can answer these two questions? Who will be the best president, based not on a leap of faith, but on the kind of changes we have already produced. Because you see, that's the best evidence as to what we will do if you entrust us with the White House.
If you want to know what changes i have made, look at the changes that I have worked on in the past as an evidentiary point as to what I will make in the future. And then how can we choose the candidate best ready to win? Because, you know, I don't think the republicans are going to wake up after we nominate our candidate and say, you know, we have messed up this country so much we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. That's what they should say, but I somehow don't think that's what they will say. I think instead they will say, OK, pull the play book down off the shelves, we know how to do this. One thing you know about me is that after 16 years of taking all of their incoming fire, I am still here, much to their dismay.
Nobody wants to end this war more than I do. But I also know that as president, you've got to do it right. And some of people that have been running have said we can do it immediately, we can do it in 12 months. We can do it in 10 months. Well, the truth is, we got to do it quickly and responsibly because withdrawing troops is dangerous, and, you know, if you look at what we have to do, it's not only getting our troops out, and I started worrying about this last spring when I said to the Pentagon, I want to know what you're doing to plan to bring to troops home? I was the person who said that. Nobody else running. Everybody else would rather talk about it. I was trying to figure out what it was going to take to do it.
And, you know, the Department of Defense came back and said, we're not going to tell you. I said, yes, you are. And I forced them to have a hearing. So they had the full panoply of the military and civilian leadership come over and in a closed, classified hearing basically told us nothing. They said, oh, well we are planning. What are you doing? We're planning. So I said as soon as I'm inaugurated, on day one, I'm going to get the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of Defense. I will get all of the security advisors together, and I will say, find out how quickly we can start bringing our troops home. Because withdrawing troops and their equipment is going to be dangerous, along the same roads that have been the source of so much of the loss of life and injury by attacks.
And then I said, you know, we also have to think about all of the civilian Americans who were there. We have over 100,000 American citizens there working for the embassy. They are working for government agencies. They are working for private companies. They are working for aid groups. What are we going to do with them? And then I said, what about all of the Iraqis who sided with us? We had translators. We had drivers. We had people who literally risked their lives to help American troops.
And I went into Fallujah in 2005, shortly after the battle there that took it back, and I know a young marine captain quite well. And he told me if it had not been for his Iraqi translator, he and his men would not have survived. And then he said to me, and now because he's a marine corps translator, he's a target. What are we going to do with them? All I can tell you is I have tried to set forth what will be the decisions a president has to make, not a candidate. And I will begin to withdraw them as soon as I possibly can. And I think we can get one to two brigades home a month. And I think, you know that's 3,500 to 7,000.
I think we can do it within a year. I believe that. But I m not going to promise you. I'm not going to claim beyond what I think a president will have to actually accomplish. And I know that, that's not maybe the politically correct position, but I'm running to be president. And as president, I want you to know that I'm going to protect the lives of every one of our American troops as they come home and get them here as soon as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And John, if you listen closely to the language, you may hear some familiar language from the Bush administration and his re-election campaign. She often uses the word danger. She talks about dangerous, the risk that is involved here and what is at stake in terms of being ready as president to take over from day one. She also mentioned as well, she said, a leap of faith. Obviously, that being an oblique reference or maybe not so oblique to Senator Barack Obama. Her husband, Bill Clinton earlier saying he thought voters would be a roll of the dice to actually vote for him. So, obviously, there are some references there if you read between the lines. What is she saying? But aides are focusing tonight, they say, on this all- critical debate. It is going to be important and they believe that if they hammer this idea, this notion of experience being able to enter the office day one ready for the job, that she will get the kind of support that she needs to win the state. John.
KING: Simply fascinating. Suzanne, thank you very much. You notice behind Senator Clinton there, all those volunteers from the American Federation for Teachers. That is one of the dynamics in the final weekend here in New Hampshire, labor unions, other organization that have endorsed candidates flooding the zone, if you will, for volunteers hoping to try to energize the grassroots movements here.
It is a fascinating time. Three full days left of campaigning before the New Hampshire primary. Two after the sun sets today and that is beginning here in New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton one of the big questions here, can she rebound after her disappointing third place in Iowa? Another big question, can Governor Mike Huckabee, the republican who came from nowhere to win the Iowa caucuses capitalize? He's from underdog now to contender. Can he capitalize and do well here in the state of New Hampshire? Far away from the south and far away from his evangelical base. More on the fascinating and interesting campaign of Mike Huckabee when the CNN "Ballot Bowl" continues. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Welcome back to the CNN "Ballot Bowl." I'm John King in Bedford, New Hampshire. A remarkable campaign. Three days away now from the New Hampshire presidential primary. We are just a few days removed from the Iowa caucuses. The big surprise in Iowa, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, former southern Baptist preacher, coming from virtually nowhere to stun better financed candidates, better known candidates, with a victory at the Iowa caucuses. The question now, can he capitalize? Can he do better or win here in New Hampshire? Can he move on to South Carolina and elsewhere? Will he have the resources and can he build a national organization? Tracking the Huckabee campaign for us as it moves from Iowa to New Hampshire and the many challenges ahead our Dana Bash. Dana, for Governor Huckabee, this has to be a fascinating moment but also a moment where you're thinking, whoa, how can I build? Where do I go?
DANA BASH, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There's no question about it. How can I build? You know, you talk to the campaign, they insist that their under funded campaign is suddenly getting a lot more money since the Iowa win that tends to happen. Voters as well as many people, they tend to like a winner and Governor Huckabee himself said that ever since his win, he's been getting a lot more donations online. We are told from one of the senior advisors that they are also getting calls from serious fund-raisers around the country, particularly in South Carolina and Florida saying come on down and I will hold the fund-raiser for you. I will raise you a lot of money.
It's a challenge for him now in this late point in the game is do you go and raise money and help your campaign succeed in the long term, or do you do what you really need to do, which is what Governor Huckabee did here today in New Hampshire, get out and talk to voters. So, it's a difficult thing for him. But one of the reasons why Governor Huckabee is here in New Hampshire is not necessarily because he thinks he's going to be able to win here in New Hampshire. In fact, he does not necessarily think he's going to will even place second, if you will. He's not playing the expectations game.
We hear that a lot from politician saying I'm not going to do that well, in order for them to actually come in and everybody saying it's a surprise. He really actually means it here in New Hampshire. Apart primarily, the reason for that is because unlike in Iowa, where the base there, many of the republican voters understood and liked him because of the issues that he really pressed, the issues that he really stands for. His opposition to abortion, his opposition to same-sex marriage. Those are the issues that really propelled his victory with evangelicals in Iowa. Here in New Hampshire, that kind of republican base simply does not exist.
So, what we have seen in the two events that he has had where he has actually spoken to voters here in New Hampshire is him drop that language. He's dropping that intense language about his stand on social issues. Instead, he's speaking more to New Hampshire republicans, talking about libertarian ideas. That sort of live free or die sensibility that you see here in New Hampshire. And that is what he did earlier today in Londonderry, New Hampshire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One of the things that makes America a really great country, Not a good country but a really great country, is its people act like neighbors to each other. The great news of this country has never been in its government. The greatness of this country has always been in the extraordinary things that its ordinary people are willing to do for their neighbors. That's why today - [ applause ] - we celebrate what others are doing because it's exemplary of the heart of America. Someone a lot wiser than me said greater love has no man than this than a man who lays down his lives for his friends.
A lot of different ways we lay down our lives for our friends. And sometimes we lay down our lives for our friends in little ways. Giving money to help feed people, like these good folks are going to do. I think it's important to realize it while many of us have come to a place in life where we are pretty sure we're going to have food tonight. There really are millions of fellow Americans who do not know whether they are going to have food tonight. As hard as it is to believe, there is hunger in this country. There is poverty in this country. And yet when you think about the poverty and hunger in this country is nothing compared to the hunger and poverty that exists all over the world. One of the things that makes this country so very extraordinary is when calamity happens anywhere on the planet, who shows up first? Who shows up most? The United States of America, that's who shows up. The thing that makes this country a remarkable place to live is from its inception, when our founding fathers put their names on that document that declared our independence, and they understood that they would either live as free citizens or they would die for what they have done. This country has always been about recognizing that our greatest purpose in life is not what we receive, it's what we give.
We are called upon in this country to write our own names on the future, by writing our names on checks and making it so that when we see hungry people, we feed them. When we see people without clothes, we put something on them. And I personally believe that the best way for that to happen is if long before the government ever gets involved, we take care of it at the family level and neighborhood level, at our church level. If we did that, we wouldn't need the government getting involved in those things because let's remember - [applause] - that anytime the government gives something to us, they first have to take something from us. And it's a lot more efficient when we do it ourselves. And I would love to see a day when we as individual citizens and as charitable organizations like you have here in New Hampshire and its churches, when we did such an incredible job of taking care of the needs of our neighbors, that we can tell the government, thanks, no thanks your handling charges are way too inefficient for us to ever trust you for therapy.
So today we do not celebrate what the government does, because what the government does often is they do something to us before they can do something for us. What we celebrate is the spirit of this country, the spirit that makes us great, its the spirit of volunteerism, the spirit of sacrifice. Frankly, if every person who went to any church in this country or even who didn't, who give a dime out of a dollar just to help their neighbor, there would not be any need whatsoever of government assistance.
I dream the day when the spirit that is in this room and the spirit that is in New Hampshire to help these causes, whether it's soccer balls to kids in Iraq or whether it's food for the people right here in your own community who really are not sure they will have food this weekend. I dream of the day when we are doing such an efficient and effective job of taking care of our families and our neighbors, that the government can do what it does best, and that is protect us, not have to provide for us. That's the America that we all love and cherish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: And there you heard former Arkansas governor, former Baptist minister, preacher, I should say, Mike Huckabee speaking earlier today in Londonderry, giving some of the themes that really have helped him in general talking about the need for charity, talking about sort of optimistic terms. And that is the kind of thing I actually went, John, into the crowd tonight and talked to several people who were there to hear him. The independents and the republicans, many of whom simply have not made up their minds. As you can imagine, out of Huckabee's big win, Iowa, they wanted to come and see what all of the buzz was about.
Talked to many afterwards who said, you know, I like his style. I like the fact that he is sincere. I like the fact that he is authentic. A word we hear over and over and over again about Mike Huckabee that is really helping propel his success. A lot of people I talked to said, you know what, I don't agree with him on social issues. There are a lot of abortion rights republicans in New Hampshire, unlike Iowa, where he had his big win. But they said they still are willing to give him a chance, perhaps give him a shot because they like what he was saying about getting government out of your life. They like the idea of the fact that he is very, very intent on lowering taxes. The way he does it is through a so-called fair tax, which is to abolish the IRS.
Unclear how that really sits with New Hampshire republicans for the most part because it would also mean a consumption tax of about 23%. Not clear how that would fare here in a state with no income tax. But the bottom line is, Mike Huckabee, his aides know, he's not going to do as well here as well as he did in Iowa. They are really looking ahead to the very next test where they think he can do well, and that's in about two weeks in South Carolina. Again, that's a state with a pretty big evangelical base, much like the one in Iowa that helped him win there. John.
KING: And Dana, the main focus of our "Ballot Bowl" is let our viewers see the candidates in the speeches, long, extended portions of the speeches, the candidates in their own words. But you have been with Governor Huckabee quite a bit in the past few weeks. Take us behind the scenes and peel back the curtain, if you will. Many presidential candidates you cannot get up close to them, you can't ask them a question everyday. You can't spend 10 or 15 minutes with them between events. How much different is Governor Huckabee? How accessible?
BASH: He's very accessible, he had been very accessible, I should say. In Iowa where I covered him a lot, went to a lot of different events with him, you could get up and talk to him after an event. You could go up with your camera; you could go up and just talk to him one on one.
Just for example, obviously, he was in a very good mood and he had a reason to want to talk to the press. But he invited some of the press on his plane, myself included, coming from Iowa to New Hampshire. I know a lot of the other candidates who did the same, they didn't -- first of all, they were exhausted but they didn't really talk to the press. Mike Huckabee did.
In fact his aides were pulling him back saying enough, governor. Let's go. Let's get some rest. But he just wanted to talk. Sometimes he makes jokes. Sometimes it's not necessarily translated out there in the way he wants it to be. But you know, some candidates go off the record. They say, I will tell you this but I'm not going to do it on the record. He doesn't do that. He tends to be open. Again, sometimes that has not served him well in terms of saying things that he doesn't necessarily want out there the way they are perceived. But certainly he has in the past given reporters access. It is going to be very, very interesting to see how that changes from here on out, as if his organization expands and becomes more traditional like the other campaigns and the other candidates are, John.
KING: Dana Bash, with more perspective on Governor Huckabee. Dana will be with us as the CNN Ballot Bowl continues. Governor Huckabee very different philosophically. But in his campaign style and his communication style, often very much like another man from Hope, Arkansas, the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.
When the Ballot Bowl continues, a Democratic candidate with quite a bit at stake. A second place showing in Iowa, but is it enough to propel him to the Democratic presidential nomination? Is it enough to help him get past all of the buzz about Barack Obama, all of the attention on the struggles at the moment of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton? When CNN's Ballot Bowl continues, the former North Carolina senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Welcome back to the CNN Ballot Bowl. We call it the candidates in their own words, unvarnished. From their speeches here in the state of New Hampshire. We did this earlier in the week in the state of Iowa. A chance and an opportunity for you to hear from the candidates on Iraq, health care, immigration and other issues.
In this case, just three days before the critical leadoff presidential primary here in the state of New Hampshire. More from the candidates in just a moment.
But while most of the action is here in the state of New Hampshire this weekend, there's also some voting under way out in the state of Wyoming today. Republicans holding presidential caucuses across the mountain west state of Wyoming. Preliminary results into CNN. We have now projected that Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, will win the Republican caucuses in the state of Wyoming. There are 12 delegates at stake, eight of them accounted for so far, six going to Governor Romney, one going to Congressman Duncan Hunter, Republican from California, one going to former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson. So the Wyoming caucuses going to Governor Romney. An early victory for him, a modest number of delegates at stake, but at a point when you're just starting to campaign, any victory is a good victory.
CNN projecting Governor Romney to win the Wyoming caucuses. More of the CNN Ballot Bowl to continue out of the break. Senator John Edwards, the Democratic candidate for president and the former vice presidential nominee. And before our Ballot Bowl ends this afternoon, we will also have for you the CNN/WMUR/University of New Hampshire poll -- the first gage of voter indications and preferences here in New Hampshire after the Iowa caucuses. Please stay with us. A very busy day in presidential politics. CNN's Ballot Bowl continues right out of the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to CNN Ballot Bowl. I'm Jessica Yellin at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire where just a few short hours from tonight, Democrats and Republicans will take the stage for a debate, back-to-back debates. Crucial debates for both parties.
With such a compressed schedule just days until the New Hampshire elections, candidates are struggling to define themselves, either to change impressions after disappointing losses in Iowa, or to keep their front-runner status.
And among those who will be struggling to make his case heard, John Edwards. What we are expect to hear from him tonight, he is a man who is going to fight, fight the special interest, fight for change. He insists he's the one who will do this more than any of the other Democratic candidates and he's been making that point on the stump today. Let's listen to some of what he has to say on the campaign trail here in New Hampshire earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We ran against two candidates who had over $200 million between them. They had the national media saying they were the only candidates in the race, but the voters, the caucus goers, said no, we have a candidate who may not have all of that money; a candidate who is speaking the truth; a candidate who will stand up for working people and the middle class and for jobs in this country and somebody who will fight with every fiber of their being for us, and that candidate is John Edwards.
And they showed up to vote for me. And what we have to remember, all of us together, is to the extent I was an underdog there and I continue being an underdog here. To the extent we are engaged in this fight. It is not for me, because the real underdog in America is the middle class, the low-income families in America who are struggling just to survive and there are billions and billions and billions of dollars being spent in Washington every single year against their interests, money arraigned against their interests, and it affects everything that's happening in America -- everything.
I mean, why don't we have universal health care? We don't have it because of drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists. Why do we have that mess of a Medicare prescription drug law? Because the drug company lobbyists literally wrote the thing. Why don't we have trade laws -- I heard Elizabeth mention this -- like NAFTA and CAFTA? They have cost Americans millions of jobs. What reason? To glorify the profits for the biggest corporations in America. That's why.
Why don't we have tax laws that send Americans to give tax breaks to American companies that are sending jobs overseas? This is complete insanity. And it's not just what's happening here in America.
Look at what's happening in the war in Iraq. We've got a bunch of paid mercenaries roaming around in Iraq, getting paid ten times what our men and women in uniform are making. We have got Halliburton right getting billion dollar, no-bid contracts in Iraq.
And even just in the last few days, I don't know how many of you have seen this letter agreement between President Bush and Maliki, the leader of the Iraqi government. But one of the things on the list of things agreed to is to make sure that foreign investment and foreign companies are being treated well. And the agreement is between America and Iraqi government.
So what they are really saying under the surface is, make sure that American contractors are being treated well. Why are we in Iraq? I mean really? This affects every single thing that's going on in your government, every single thing. And it affects real people's lives. There is nothing abstract about this.
We are faced with an epic fight. We are, against these entrenched money interests that are stealing your democracy. And in many ways, taking away your children and your grandchildren's future. And that's what is at stake in this election.
Do you want to know what is at stake? That's what is at stake. Some of you saw the story a few weeks ago of Nataline Sarkisyan, 17- year-old girl who needed a liver transplant. She had health insurance, but the health insurance company said they would not pay for the transplant operation. Finally the nurses and doctors intervened on her behalf and ultimately, most importantly, the American people began convening on her behalf because they literally began marching and picketing outside the offices of one of the biggest insurance companies in America.
So the insurance company finally caved in and notified the family they would pay for the liver transplant operation. The problem was, she died just a couple of hours later because it was too late.
You know, I met a guy names James Lowe just a few months ago who is three years younger than me, 51-years-old. He was born with a severe cleft palate and because of it, he couldn't speak. A simple operation would have fixed it. But he had no health care coverage. So he lived literally for 50 years and somebody fixed it for him voluntarily. But he lived literally for 50 years in America not able to speak because he had no health care coverage. 50 years in the richest nation on the planet.
You know, these stories go on and on and on. Elizabeth and I met a woman here in New Hampshire and her name was Nancy. She told us she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, just like Elizabeth. But unlike Elizabeth, she had trouble -- we have great health care coverage. She had trouble paying for all of her health care treatment and she literally had to rob her child's college fund in order to pay for her own health care.
I mean, this gets to be a pretty simple idea at the end of the day. How long are we going to let insurance companies, drug companies, oil companies, run this country?
(END VIDEOTAPE) YELLIN: John Edwards there promising to take on entrenched interests. Again, he has made so much of his campaign a discussion of the powered interests in Washington. In the way, in his view, they work against the working man and the middle class Americans. And so much talk of health care reform. Like Senator Clinton, John Edwards promising universal health care reform in this nation.
A distinguishing factor from Barack Obama, who is promising a variation on that, expanded but not universal health care reform. One of the big agenda differences between Edwards, Clinton and then Obama.
Also coming up on Ballot Bowl, we are going to have for you the latest numbers, the latest poll results out here in New Hampshire. How are the candidates doing? And on the other side of the break, Dana Bash will bring you sound from Rudolph Giuliani. It's all coming up so stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BASH: Hi, this is Dana Bash, reporting from Manchester, New Hampshire, and we are bringing back to you what we are calling the Ballot Bowl. We are giving to you some of the uncut, raw video and sound bites from all of the candidates across the campaign trail, Democrats and Republicans.
We have been doing that all day. And one of the more interesting dynamics of this incredibly volatile, unpredictable race, particularly on the Republican side, has been the phenomenon of Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York.
He is somebody who right out of the gate had incredibly high poll numbers, primarily because he is such a well-known man. He is one of those superstar candidates that is known across the country really on a first-name basis.
But what we have seen, especially over the past month or two months as we have gotten closer to the actual voting and as voters in these early contest dates have been playing closer attention to what they like and don't like about the policies of these candidates, is Rudy Giuliani's poll numbers seem to have dropped a little bit. And in the very first contest date of Iowa, a place where somebody like Rudy Giuliani, who is a supporter of abortion rights, a supporter of gay rights, does not do well among the Evangelical race. That really bore out. He really did not do well at all. He had a very poor showing, as expected, in the state of Iowa.
Now we are to New Hampshire. New Hampshire is a place that should be very fertile ground for Rudy Giuliani, primarily because he preaches fiscal responsibility and low taxes. Those are words of gold to New Hampshire Republicans. But he is not doing as well as the leading candidates here, his rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney. However, he is here in the state of New Hampshire today. He's campaigning. Let's hear what he had to say on the stump in Litchfield, New Hampshire, earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need a president who can get big things done. We need a president who can give this country the kind of energy to solve problems that are right there to be solved, but we just haven't done it.
It reminds me so much of what was wrong with New York City. So many things hadn't been solved. Crime hadn't been handled. The condition of the streets hadn't been handled. Pornography hadn't been handled. So many things. Times Square hadn't been turned around. Everybody was trying but nobody could do it.
Let me give you two like that -- energy independence. Everybody knows that America has to be energy independent. The real question is not how to do it, but there's an obvious game plan as how to do it. It's been true for the last 20, 30 years. First one to talk about it was Richard Nixon and then Jimmy Carter. Just hasn't happened.
What we need right now is a president that can get things done, a president that is good at -- people have been talking about it for years, now let's do it. Let's get it done. And I can get energy independence done and I will. And getting energy independence done will help our economy. It will help us have a great way of dealing with the rest of the world and it will give us a lot more national security because a lot of these people who are getting oil money, who are using it in ways that are dangerous to us, we really should have to find a way to cut them off and have more leverage.
And I will make sure that our economy keeps growing by lowering taxes. You don't just have my promise I'll do that, you'll have my record in which I have done that. Of all of the Republicans running - (APPLAUSE) -- of all of the Republicans running, I have the best record in lowering taxes. I may have the only record in lowering taxes. I'm not sure if that's correct but I have the best record by far in lowering taxes, reducing the growth of government.
These are things America needs right now. We need to lower taxes. We need to reduce the growth of government. We need to look for private solutions to our health care, rather than the direction the Democrats want to go in.
That election in Iowa, someone viewed it talking on the Democratic side, they voted for change. That's good. Change is good, right? Is change good? Doesn't it depend on how you change?
I will give you an example. Here's a change, big change - 25 percent tax increase, that's a change. Is that a good change? No, that's a bad change. A tax decrease, that's a good change.
Let's create six or seven government bureaucracies to handle medicine so we can move towards socialized medicine with mandates and taxes and the government telling you what you can do and that you have to have insurance and it has to be so much and has to be this and that. That's a change. Is that a good change, moving towards socialized medicine? No.
So we are both for change. They are for change for the bad and we are change for the good. Here's another change, pull out of Iraq. Just pull all the troops out of Iraq. That's all the Democrats were debating all summer. Let's pull them all out, give a timetable of retreat for the enemy. That's a good change? Giving the enemy a timetable of your retreat? Has any army in the history of war ever been asked to give the enemy a timetable of their retreat? Well, that is a change but that's a bad change.
And they want to go back to the tax rates of the 1990s. And they want to go back to the defensive posture that we had against Islamic terrorism in the 1990s. I don't know if that's change. That's a step backwards in time. Got to move the clock back up. Well, we're for change. The change that we are for is being on offense against Islamic terrorists and winning, how about that as our goal? How about that as a big change? How about winning in Iraq?
(APPLAUSE)
How about these goals, winning in Iraq? Containing Iran's ambition, nuclear ambitions. Making sure that we finish the job in Afghanistan, and crush al Qaeda and the Taliban and capture bin Laden. That should be a major goal. That should be a major goal and that would be a real big change.
If we got that accomplished, and not just symbolic. Not just for symbolic purposes. Admittedly, it has a lot of symbolic value but for purposes of justice and for strategic advantage. Removing a charismatic leader, even a charismatic leader for bad is enormously important in dealing with organizations like this. Leaders have more significance than I think people realize in these kinds of organizations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: That was Rudy Giuliani talking serious policy earlier today. But it's not all serious. There is some fun on the campaign trail. Rudy Giuliani later here in Manchester rode a segue at a robotics competition. He actually joked about the fact that he could use more of that on the campaign trail. You can shake more hands and cover more ground. That is probably an important thing for Rudy Giuliani to think about because covering the most ground possible is a key part of his strategy. His strategy is banking on doing incredibly well in Super Tuesday, the Super Tuesday primaries -- 24 primaries across the country from California to New York.
That is what Rudy Giuliani is banking on, doing well in many of those states which have a more moderate Republican base that maybe would like somebody like Rudy Giuliani, who tends to be more moderate, particularly on the social issues.
Now he is just one of the many, many candidates we have been covering all day, bringing you their stump speeches, bringing you them on the stump and talking to voters uncut and unedited. But we are going to have more of that later, as well as more information about the storm out west and brand new poll numbers coming to you from New Hampshire. The first poll numbers since the Iowa caucuses. That's very important to look at. More of that continuing. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
