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CNN Election Center Campaign Coverage

Aired January 19, 2008 - 14:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Exactly one hour from now, they are scheduled to close the doors at the Democratic caucuses. Juan Carlos in Nevada. And they will begin their process of going into respective corners and deciding which of these candidates they really like. It's very similar to what they did in Iowa. In fact, the Nevada Democratic caucus is modeled largely on the long-term -- longtime strategy of the Democrats in the state of Iowa.
How difficult, Juan Carlos, will it be for union members publicly -- these are not secret ballots at these caucuses. You have to publicly declare before your friends, neighbors and colleagues who your choice is. How difficult will it be for those who, like those culinary workers, union workers, for example, the leadership endorsed Barack Obama. But a lot of rank and file like Hillary Clinton, how difficult will it be to go against the wishes of their leadership?

LOPEZ: What the leadership says is that they want their workers to support the union. But every voter will decide. And that was a conversation we were having with people. They said they weren't sure about how they would react when they got there. And some were saying they probably wouldn't go and take a break from work to go caucus. And they would just stay on their regular lunch break. But the numbers will tell, and you were saying there was a small room in Caesar's palace. That's one of the nine casinos where they have a contract with the culinary workers union and we'll see how the numbers are. It's the first time Nevada has a caucus as significant as this one. So it was a challenge to get every voter to go and participate. Getting Hispanics to learn the caucus process was another issue. And then getting them involved has been a separate issue. Those are all things we'll see today.

BLITZER: Juan Carlos Lopez from CNN Espanol. Thanks very much Juan Carlos for that.

Less than an hour now until the Democrats close the doors at their caucuses throughout the state of Nevada and their process formally begins. The Democrats having a later deadline than the Republicans. Once again, the Associated Press projecting Mitt Romney the winner in the Republican caucuses in Nevada.

Candy Crowley is out in Las Vegas watching all of this unfold for us. Candy, let's get back to the headline we have right now. The AP projecting Mitt Romney the winner in Nevada. We have very early numbers coming in. We're going to put those numbers at the bottom of the screen so people can watch the official tally. We'll wait for more official numbers to come in before we at CNN make our formal projection. Give us a sense of how significant this could be for Mitt Romney, the fact that he campaigned in Nevada, unlike most of the other major Republican presidential candidates. But he will take away a significant number of delegates, which could be very, very important.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He will. And even though, obviously, these Republicans are all saying this is about delegates. In fact, the Democrats are saying that, too. You don't want to underestimate the significance of the headline, Romney wins Nevada. That gives him another one in his column. It means that he can probably sustain a loss in South Carolina, even though that is really Republican territory down there. And it may say something about his appeal in the South.

Nonetheless, it's something that will get him a headline. It does give him a little bump. He can now claim three victories. Michigan, Wyoming and Nevada. So there is something to that. And it also means, of course, that he picks up these delegates, Wolf.

BLITZER: Huckabee won Iowa, McCain won New Hampshire. Those are the two front-runners according to the polls in South Carolina. They are going to be closing their polls around 7:00 p.m. Eastern in South Carolina right now. This is a fierce battle between Huckabee and McCain, Candy, but you can't ignore the fact that for Fred Thompson, South Carolina is very significant as well.

CROWLEY: It absolutely is. In fact, that's where they sort of planted their flag. The Thompson campaign all along had counted on chaos in Iowa, in New Hampshire, so that they could put a stake in South Carolina and win in the South. Sort of the heart of Republican territory. If he does not do that, it is difficult to see where the money comes from. It is difficult to see how he moves on because all along they have said, hey, South Carolina is where we're really going to enter this race.

BLITZER: And as I say, lets less than an hour before the doors close for the Democratic caucuses where you are throughout the state of Nevada. It's a fierce battle, and we can't -- we don't know what's going to happen between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards in the state of Nevada. But we do know that the stakes are significant for all three of them in this state today. And I want you to spell out for our viewers what the impact could be.

CROWLEY: Well, you will see all three of these candidates come out of Nevada and go elsewhere. But the fact of the matter is, if you look at this and say, this is the first time there has been significant minority input, our exit polls showed the last time around eight percent of the voters were African American. Ten percent of the voters were Hispanic. So this really is a test of that voting bloc which they haven't had before. It also means, if Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, one of them comes in first here, that again you chalk up a score there of a state and it gives one of them two and the other one depending on who wins. So there is again a significant bounce out of here. Barack Obama needs to show he's not just a one-state wonder in Iowa. Hillary Clinton needs to sort of solidify and try to get back that kind of, I'm marching on to the nomination. And frankly, John Edwards has got to get a win some place. BLITZER: And Juan Carlos Lopez from CNN Espanol made a point and reminded us that Nevada was supposed to be an important state for the neighboring New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. But he dropped out of the contest a week or so ago. The fallout from Richardson dropping out. Have you felt it out there? Is there an impact?

CROWLEY: Well, it's certainly left the Latino vote up for grabs. It's really interesting. The culinary union, which we've mentioned repeatedly has endorsed Barack Obama. About 45 percent of those union members are minorities. Either Latino or black. So the Clinton campaign, interestingly, has made a very heavy push for the Latino vote, as has Barack Obama. But when we saw the expectations game begin to play out here in Nevada with an eye on that culinary union endorsement, the Clinton camp has been saying, listen. We're hearing reports that some unions are telling their workers, show up and go with X candidate or don't show up at all. Obviously, they mean Barack Obama. Bill Clinton has said he and Chelsea Clinton saw some evidence of voter suppression. So there's an expectations game going on here, a little pushback.

This way, if Hillary Clinton wins, it looks as though, obviously, that she overcame some disadvantages. If she loses, then, of course, you have a built-in excuse. We will say that the polls, and we're not sure how reliable they are because Nevada is such an unknown, but the polls have had her ahead.

BLITZER: They all love to be called the comeback kid, Candy. It's a popular expression for Democrats and Republicans. Stand by because we're ready to make a projection. CNN is now ready to project that Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts will win the Nevada caucuses. We make that projection not only based on the entrance polls results that we've had for some time but on the actual numbers. The official numbers coming in. More than one percent of the precincts have now reported and we feel comfortable projecting that Mitt Romney will win. Mitt Romney will win the Nevada caucuses on the Republican side.

But there is -- there is a significant race underway apparently for second place among the candidates right now. Let's take a look and see what we have right now. Romney, we project, will win with one percent or so of the precincts reporting. He's got 43 percent of the Republican vote so far. McCain coming in second so far but it's very, very early. 16 percent. Ron Paul 14 percent. Fred Thompson 12 percent. So we're watching all of this. It's just changed a little bit now as you can see. Forty-four percent for Romney, 17 McCain, 15 percent for Ron Paul, 10 percent for Fred Thompson. There is a battle under way for second place right now in the state of Nevada. But first place we project will go to Mitt Romney. This is a win. He wanted it. It does mean that he has now captured three states. He won last week in Michigan. He won earlier in Wyoming and now in Nevada.

So he's got three as he will say no doubt three gold medals. He won two silver medals coming in second in Iowa and New Hampshire, and he will see this as significant boost. And it is a significant boost in terms of delegate counts because as we've been noting Nevada actually has more delegates going to the Republican national convention in St. Paul than South Carolina does but there's been a fierce battle in South Carolina. That poll, by the way, the polling will end in South Carolina around 7:00 p.m. Eastern tonight. And we're watching that as well. Let's go to Dana Bash. She's watching all of this unfold. She's been covering the Romney campaign for some time. You are in South Carolina. What's the reaction? I assume they are pretty happy, the Romney campaign, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To say the least. Romney made an interesting calculation in leaving South Carolina, Wolf. He's invested a lot of resources in this state. He went back up in the air with television ads on Monday. But he decided to try to be in two places at once if you will, by actually going to the state of Nevada. Because for obvious reasons. It's a place where he thought he could win and really since the primary in Michigan earlier in the week on Tuesday, what his mantra has been is it's about counting delegates now. And already his campaign is saying that they are very happy. He likes to speak in Olympic terms as somebody who helped reshape the 2002 Olympics and his campaign is saying this gives Romney his third gold medal, more than anyone else. And, also, obviously he's got the claim of the lead in delegates in Nevada, assuming they are seed for him.

So that's really been his strategy. He's been saying for the last couple of days, he does not think he's going to do as well here in South Carolina as some of his opponents like John McCain and like Mike Huckabee who appeared to be vying for the top spot here. Now Mitt Romney will go on to the State of Florida. Another delegate rich state. He's going to be competing in a state that is anybody's guess in Florida what's going to happen next.

But, you know, it's interesting. We've been talking so much about the fact that it's not a traditional year in that no one candidate has seen momentum and has really excelled because of momentum. Mitt Romney realized that. The Romney campaign told us in Michigan they realized that as soon as he won the Michigan primary that they need to go around and gobble up as many delegates as possible because it is so jumbled this Republican race, that that, they think is what is going to matter in the end.

BLITZER: You are in a polling station. It looks like a high school gym in Charleston, South Carolina, right now. Two problems we've been hearing about. The voting in South Carolina. One, the weather. It's snowing in parts of the state, which is unusual for South Carolina on this election day. The Republican primary going forward. Another problem we've been get something scattered reports about some irregularity, some problems with machines, ballots in some places in South Carolina, the McCain campaign has already issuing a statement suggesting, asking that the polls remain open a little bit longer to accommodate folks who couldn't vote earlier. What's going on based on what you can tell?

BASH: Well, that's right. There were some problems with some voting machines. In one of the counties. You are right. The McCain campaign is likely to ask for the polling, which is supposed to close at 7:00 across the state, to be extended. That's just one of the issues. That's obviously technical and very important issue. The McCain campaign among others saying this is critical because voters need to express their constitutional -- exercise their constitutional right here to vote.

The other thing is something that nobody can control and that is the weather. South Carolina is experiencing heavy rain. Where I am in Charleston it's just sort of cold and steady rain. And up in -- and this is sort of John McCain's country, this is his territory. It seems to be the weather is not as bad here. But Wolf up in the western part of the state of South Carolina, they are experiencing more rain and even possible snow. Now if you talk to the Huckabee campaign. Mike Huckabee himself said earlier that he's concerned that that could hurt him. Why? Because this is a state much like the state of Iowa where Mike Huckabee did extremely well, where Huckabee doesn't really have a real mechanical infrastructure to organize the vote. He is relying on the passion of the voters for him. Particularly among the evangelical base.

So if there are problems with the weather, if people can't really get around or are worried about the weather, that could hurt the Huckabee campaign. That is the early thinking. Now you see where I am here. This is a polling station again in sort of McCain country in Charleston. It has been a slow and steady stream of voters. You don't see very many people behind me but that's been the case. Remember, it's Saturday. So unlike normally when you see a voting day on a Tuesday, people rush to vote in the morning before work. They come during lunch and they rush after work. This is a weekend. So you are seeing people come really all day long. It's really hard to tell in talking to the polling officials here how turnout is because of the fact it's an all-day long affair.

BLITZER: All right. Dana, we'll watch with you. A little trickle coming in behind you. We see some folks arriving. But we'll stay on top of both of these issues, all these issues in South Carolina.

Just want to update our viewers on what we're seeing in Nevada. The Republican caucuses right now with about one percent of the precincts reporting. Romney, we've projected he will carry the state, the Republican caucuses in Nevada. He's got 44 percent. But look at this fight going on for second place. Among the Republicans. McCain 16 percent. Ron Paul 15 percent. Fred Thompson 11%. These are real numbers. But only a small number, about one percent of the precincts reporting. You can watch all of this - and get a lot more detailed inside information. Go to cnn.com/politics. A good idea throughout this whole day is watch us here on CNN. Have a laptop with you and go to cnnpolitics.com. You'll get a lot more information simultaneously as well.

We're going to stay on top of this. The Democratic caucuses, they'll be closing their doors throughout the state in about 45 minutes or so. We're going to have all the latest information for you. Much more of our special coverage coming up from the CNN election center. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: You are looking at a live picture. It's raining in Columbia, South Carolina right now. It's snowing in other parts of the state. That could have an impact on turnout in the Republican primary in South Carolina on this Saturday. Let's check the weather with Jacqui Jeras. She's at the CNN Weather Center. What is the forecast? What's going on?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, the temperatures are starting to drop, and we're seeing that now in extreme western parts of South Carolina. It's predominantly rain across the state. But take a look right over here towards Greenville. We're starting to get some of that wintry mix.

In fact, Greenville has just dropped to 34 degrees. And in the last 20 minutes they've transitioned from rain to snow. And we are expecting to see significant accumulations. In fact we could see maybe as much as four inches into western parts of South Carolina. But coastal areas will just stay on the rain side. There you can see Charleston at 46 degrees. It's 42 degrees in Florence at this hour.

(WEATHER REPORT)

BLITZER: Is it unusual this kind of weather in January in South Carolina?

JERAS: Well, it happens, especially in western parts of the state when you start to get into hillier country. They get more ice and snowfall accumulations. So a handful of times a year they'll see this.

BLITZER: All right, Jacqui, thanks very. Weather could have an impact on what's going to happen in the Republican primary in South Carolina. We've projected that Mitt Romney will win the Republican caucuses in Nevada. In fact, let's take a look at what we know right now. With actual numbers, about one percent of the precincts reporting. Romney has got 45 percent. Almost half to McCain's 16, Ron Paul 15 percent and Mike Huckabee is now at 10 percent with about one percent of the numbers -- of the precincts reporting right now.

Let's walk over to john king and the best political team on television. John, you've studied the state of South Carolina. If it's snowy and crummy in the western part of the state, rainy and miserable in the eastern part of the state and maybe they'll be some snow in Columbia, who does that help? Who does that hurt when the polls close at 7:00 p.m. Eastern tonight in South Carolina?

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You had a nice foggy drive to North Carolina last night just to make sure we could get out of there because the weather pattern was coming in. We drove from the Greensville Spartanburg area up to North Carolina to catch a plane here to New York this morning. It is quite striking. And all the campaigns were preparing for it and telling their people yesterday, the weather is going to be bad. You need to get out and vote. It's always hard to project turnout. One of the things you say in politics is passion carries the day. Passion will carry the day. If you really want to vote you'll drive through the rain go through the snow. In that area where it's snowing, sleeting, slushy right now. That is the Bible Belt. Greenville, Spartanburg is where the evangelical community is. It is where both Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee have spent most of their time in the past week. It is critical to their chances.

And Bill is there a magic formula for this? If it snows we think turnout will be lower?

BILL BENNETT, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: I think you'll get a very good turnout in South Carolina. There's a lot of character there. I remember the hurricane hit, he said, we're not going to ask everybody to take care of us, we'll take care of ourselves. They believe until that. Apart from externalities, weather, economies, character matters and the kinds of character of the candidates will matter to people, too.

So you may see some turn down in the west because of older people. They may not be able to get there. But you get three or four inches in the mountains, that's pretty unusual. But I predict there will be a very strong turnout.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But generally Republican voters have been so unenthusiastic in this primary season. They're not exactly knocking down the doors to get into vote. We've seen that the Democratic base is much more enthusiastic than Republicans.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Forgive me for displaying a northeastern bias here. But it's not exactly a blizzard in South Carolina. It's 40 degrees. There's a little rain. Some snow. Go vote if you want to vote. It's not like you need a tractor to get to the polling place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why they left the Northeast.

TOOBIN: Toughen up, folks.

DONNA BRAZILLE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Weather does matter. And, of course, when you are trying to decide if you are going out, if you are enthusiastic, of course, you'll go out. If you aren't, you're more inclined to sit around and start cooking up some beans and rice.

TOOBIN: Civic duty matters. That means something in that state.

KING: Let's move away from the weather to the terrain in which the candidates are competing. We're having a different conversation. We've said for weeks the economy was bubbling up, starting to grow as an issue. As Iraq proceeds, the economy and domestic issues were coming up. But now it's real intangible, you have a proposal on the floor in Washington. The Democrats and the president talking about this. The candidates have to take positions on an actual piece of legislation or actual proposals, which as you know can be dangerous in politics.

You were talking while we were off the air about the pivot of Governor Romney. Some think he's the businessman. He has a reputation as Mr. Fix-it. This is good for him to make the case if we're going to have a national election about the economy, the Republican Party should want me.

BENNETT: Yeah, he seems at home here. I remember Jim Cramer from another channel, Lord knows where it is, this guy is one of the best businessmen in the world. One of the best businessmen in North America. Why is he coming across as this right wing guy all about gay marriage and homosexuality. Business is his strength. The little profile Ali did the guy has a great record.

Well, now this issue is coming to him in terms of the economy. In terms of what people are saying. So it's the second pivot. His first pivot was, I'm going to do Iowa, New Hampshire, build up these early states and slingshot. Now it's about delegates. He was, and people were puzzled, very conservative on the social issues. Not playing to what seemed to be his strength. Now he's talking more about ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, it's the typical want to be all things to all people candidate. He started out as the conservative values candidate, then morphed into the change candidate. Now he's the business candidate. Washington is broken.

TOOBIN: But even with his business expertise, at Bain and Company and Bain Capital, they are ruthless, brilliant capitalists. And the idea that Mitt Romney, as an investor, would start building cars in Michigan anymore, I mean, it's a little hard to believe that he's telling people that their jobs are coming back. I mean, that's not how they do things at Bain.

KING: Mike Huckabee tried that in Michigan with the ad that says, you want a president like your co-worker, not the guy who would lay you off.

Donna Brazile, what does the Democratic oppositiojn research file say if you are running against a Mitt Romney and the economy is the issue?

BRAZILE: No question if you are running against Mitt Romney, you run against all the positions that Mitt Romney has taken against himself at one time or another in his career. But also you run against George Bush economy. You run on how they've skewed the taxes to the wealthy. How they've given tax breaks to corporations that's moving overseas. You focus on the middle class and health care and make it about jobs, jobs, jobs.

KING: We'll have more of this conversation going on. We've spent a lot of time talking about the Republicans. We have a lot more time to do that. We'll also going to have more and more conversation about the critical contests among the Democrats. Round two between Obama/Clinton. Senator Edwards still there saying, don't forget about me. Wolf Blitzer with more on what's going on in Nevada among the Democrats. BLITZER: John, we're going to see a lot of things during this political season that we've never seen before presumably. One thing I can assure you I thought we'd never see outside of Las Vegas. Take a look at this. This is Caesar's Palace. Right at the bottom. These are Democrats. They are arriving at their caucus site at Caesar's Palace on the Strip in Las Vegas. Only about 35 minutes from now, they'll be closing those doors. And the various Democrats will go into respective corners and announce publicly who they are supporting, whether it would be Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John Edwards or any of the other minor Democratic presidential candidates. But there you see them getting ready. Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas on the strip. That's also where Ali Velshi is standing by.

Ali Velshi, we're going to come to you in a moment. I want to get a little lay of the land on what's going on. We're watching all of this unfold. Two states, Nevada, South Carolina, an important Saturday in the selection of a president of the United States. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: About a half hour from now, the doors will close for the Democrats. The Democratic caucuses throughout the state of Nevada and we'll begin to see what unfolds out there. Ali Velshi is over at Caesar's Palace. You're in one of the caucus rooms. We see folks beginning to walk in. They'll be getting themselves ready for these caucuses as the door will close in about a half an hour or so.

Ali, I see chefs behind you, I see a lot of presumably culinary union workers behind you. Any showgirls? Any Elvis impersonators yet?

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: (AUDIO GAP) ...excitement around here. You know, as we've been talking about, this isn't a normal occurrence in Nevada. These caucuses are being held much earlier than they typically have been in the past. They're more influential.

Let me tell you what's going on. As I'm speaking, the chairman of this caucus is speaking, saying that they're probably going to extend the time allowed for people to come in. You'll see people are now streaming in. They're starting to take their seats for the caucus. In this room are mostly what appear to be Obama supporters followed next by a large contingent of Hillary Clinton supporters and a much smaller contingent of John Edwards supporters.

What's happening is you're seeing people coming in. They're in their working uniforms and kitchen uniforms. They have come in. They've registered. We've got, I think close to 100 people registered. others are still in line. A lot of the ones who have registered have now gone off to get their lunch and they've been told to come back within half an hour, by 12:00, which is when the caucusing is supposed to be starting.

Now, the Democratic officials here have told us it may go a little later because they don't know how many people to expect. And the room I'm in is one of nine right on the strip here in Las Vegas. We're in Caesar's Palace. There are 275 seats here, but this may become a lot bigger.

Let me show you a few things here. The Obama workers you can see in the red shirts, the Obama supporters behind me. There are some badges around here that say "Culinary Workers Union supports Obama for president."

Now, here's what the Hillary supporters are giving out, signs that say, "I support my union, I support Hillary." The implication here is that just because the Culinary Union has said support Obama, Wolf, the -- a lot of workers are saying we don't really want the union leadership telling us what to do. In many cases, they're from countries where there wasn't as free a political system, and they're saying we like the idea that we can vote for whomever we want. Hillary Clinton's campaign is trying to capitalize on that.

So, yet to see how this is going to play out. Initially from what it looks like in this particular room, a great deal of Barack Obama supporters. As you said, about a half an hour before we get fully under way, but a lot of energy around here, Wolf.

BLITZER: We focused a lot on the largest union out here, the Culinary Workers Union. They formally endorsed Barack Obama. But the teachers have endorsed Hillary Clinton and the carpenters, I think, have endorsed John Edwards. So the union vote out there sort of split.

VELSHI: That's exactly right. And the teachers actually tried to stop this from happening. Definitely these caucuses on the strip favor Barack Obama.

Now, I should tell you that even though it's the Culinary Workers Union who wanted this to happen, the rules here are that if you are on shift, you've just come off shift or you're starting your shift within an hour, you can prove that you're a shift worker somewhere, whether or not you're a member of the Culinary Workers Union, you can vote here.

So, you could be from McDonald's, you could be from anywhere you like. Mostly it's Culinary Workers Union Members who are the casino workers and the restaurant workers around here. So, that's where you're probably going to see the strength in these particular caucuses.

But a point to note. In today's caucuses across the state of Nevada, there are more caucus locations than there have been polling places in the past. So, this may not be the perfect indication of how things are going, but definitely seems to be unusually strong Barack Obama support here at Caesar's Palace at this caucus.

BLITZER: I just want to point out the Teachers Union did formally endorse Hillary Clinton, but a lot of the leadership of the teachers did endorse Hillary Clinton. You said they're -- what, they're expecting about 100 people at Caesar's Palace in the caucus room where you are. Is that right? VELSHI: We're already at that number. So, there are seats for 275 people. And you know, everybody is sort of wondering, how many people will actually show up? Will they come on their lunch break and do what they've been asked to do? That's going to be yet to be seen.

There are still people in the line registering. There are people who have moved in and there are people who have registered, gone off to grab a bite to eat because this will be a one or two-hour process. They've been told to be back within half an hour, by 12:00 Las Vegas time, 3:00 Eastern time.

BLITZER: And I take it a lot of the Culinary Union Workers and others who are there at Caesar's Palace are Hispanic, Spanish speakers. Give us a little sense of the makeup, and as I've been pointing out to our viewers, the reason the DNC decided to move up Nevada was largely because of the union presence and the Latino presence in that state. Very different than Iowa or New Hampshire.

VELSHI: You're absolutely right. The flavor in this room alone is definitely very different than what we've seen in prior caucuses, particularly since the model here is like the Iowa model in terms of how the caucusing is taking place. You're definitely seeing a different cultural makeup in this room. You're seeing a lot of African-Americans, a lot of Latinos in this room particularly.

They are, by the way, in many cases, in most cases, coming in here in their uniforms from work. Some of them are kitchen workers. Some of them are weight staff. They are coming in the way they're dressed for work. In some cases, this is a lunch break for them or this is the end of a shift or the beginning of a new shift. That's why this was designed so that these people on the strip working in the tourist areas can come and vote.

It is definitely heavily skewing, in this particular room, against what we had seen largely in New Hampshire and Iowa, a heavily white audience. This is not a heavily white audience at all. In fact, it's mostly non-white.

BLITZER: All right, Ali, we'll stay on top of this together with you. Ali is watching this story for us. He's at Caesar's Palace out on the strip in Las Vegas where a caucus is going to be closing at the top of the hour. Not very long from now.

I'm going to go to Abbi Tatton. She's watching all of this as well. You're watching it online unfold, Nevada. Give our viewers a sense of what you're seeing.

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf, this is a state where the majority of people there have not attended a caucus before. So, for the Democratic party of Nevada and for the candidates out there, the onus (ph) has been on them to educate people about what to expect, how to make the voters out there attending a caucus useful today.

From the Nevada for Edwards Web page, John Edwards' page right now, you can see it happening, getting people to their caucus location, ride information, a question hotline. And then, what happens when you get there? This is from the Web site of Barack Obama, a step-by-step guide to what's going to happen in about 25 minutes when the doors close and people get inside. If you look at the guide here, it walks you through it: what happens when you arrive, how to be effective for the candidate once you're inside.

We saw a lot of this going on before the Iowa caucuses. But there's a twist here. Twenty percent of the population in Nevada is Latino. So, you see a lot of the outreach going out there online. It's going to be in Spanish, as well in English. From the Democratic party of Nevada, an entire Web page devoted to getting Spanish language speakers to understand the process, getting them to a caucus location. From the candidates, from the Democratic candidates, for months now, we've seen bilingual pages, Spanish outreach and social networking sites.

And you're seeing it today in terms of the Nevada caucuses, specifically here for the Hillary Clinton Web site where they're telling you that caucusing is easy, but they're making sure that you know that caucusing is easy no matter what your first language is.

We're going to be looking at the results as they come in online here at CNNpolitics.com, county by county as they report -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Abbi, thanks very much.

Want to go back out to Las Vegas, to the strip. Candy Crowley, our senior political correspondent, is out there. And I take it the former president of the United States is making his presence felt in Las Vegas as well. What's going on?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, and up to the last minute, he's making his presence felt. He was out today walking through the MGM Grand talking to workers. Also, went to Planet Hollywood. Obviously, along the strip, look, we are talking about Clark County. This is where most of the population is the Clintons. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, neither one of them giving up on that union vote.

We were told by an official in the Culinary Union a couple of days ago. They said yes, we have 60,000 members. But you have to remember, there are almost twice as many workers along the strip who are eligible to go into these various sites. So, the Clintons have never given up on this union vote. They have, as we mentioned before, said, listen. Regardless of what your union leadership does, you have the freedom to go in there and caucus for Hillary Clinton or John Edwards, whoever it happens to be.

So, right up until the final moment, we are seeing Hillary Clinton in the cafeteria in Mandalay Bay. Again, Bill Clinton out there shaking hands, urging people to go to the caucuses. So, this is one of the things about caucuses is you can very much go in there and be right where the people are going to caucus as opposed to when you have like a primary and a polling place where you go to, Wolf.

BLITZER: It's really amazing to see Bill Clinton out there campaigning so actively, aggressively, for his wife. Nevada, an important state on this Saturday in this contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

CROWLEY: Absolutely, Wolf. I -- you know, he has been a real player since Iowa. You know, at the beginning of the campaign, all the questions were, well, how would she use him? How much of a part would he take? Would he overshadow her? Would he bring up the Clinton baggage? That sort of thing. But they have used him a lot and they have used him strategically, the kind of tag team.

At one point this week, he was in California, she was in Nevada. And then, they switched places, she went to California, he stayed in Nevada. So, they are very much working as a team. He very much is quite popular here in Nevada as he was in New Hampshire and in Iowa. So, they have used him to the fullest extent.

BLITZER: Candy, stand by. We're going to be getting back to you.

Let me update our viewers on the Republican Nevada caucuses. We've projected that Mitt Romney is the winner. Right now with four percent of the precincts formally reporting, he's got 51 percent of the Republican vote. Close contest for second place with McCain at 14 percent, Ron Paul 12 percent, now Fred Thompson with nine percent. We're watching this.

You can always go to CNNpolitics.com. You can see a running tally of all of this unfold. Good idea to watch us here on CNN, have your laptop and go to CNNpolitics.com for some more precise information. All of that we're watching. Big day in South Carolina and in Nevada, Democrats and Republicans helping to choose their nominees for president of the United States.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Only 17 minutes away from the doors closing a Democratic caucus rooms throughout the state of Nevada. And their process will then begin. We already know who's the winner on the Republican side. Mitt Romney we projected will carry the Republican caucus.

Let's show you this live picture of the Democratic caucus room, at least one of them where people are gathering to make their selections for these Democratic candidates.

John King is here. He's going to explain to us how they do it because it's very similar. They've really copied the Iowa Democratic model.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Democrats have copied it almost to a T, Wolf, in fact, actually hiring a veteran of the Iowa caucuses to come into Nevada and help them out.

You see the people going into the rooms now. They have about 15 more minutes to get inside the rooms. On the way in, they'll say hello to Ali Velshi, see if he has any money left over from last night. And then, they'll make their choices. When the doors close, they'll be asked for a show of hands, take your places in the room, who do you support? So, these people will start making their choices. And it'll happen like this, and come on in, help out.

BLITZER: And they'll be ...

KING: People will do this and they'll just move around and we're just doing this randomly, of course, and putting people up this. We know not what's happening inside those rooms. But we'll just throw some people up and we'll throw some up here. But everybody's in, the last few stragglers come in because Ali was very interesting.

BLITZER: All right.

KING: And so, let's assume it is something like this, OK. So, time's up. You pick your point. Are you viable? Same rules as Iowa, you need to have 15 percent. In this case, Mike Gravel here was viable in this caucus. So, this is all that's left. Now, these people have to make a choice.

Here's the one thing that's different from the Iowa caucuses. The Iowa caucus person says, go here. This person says, well, I think I'm going to go here. And you're in. Once you make a choice in the Nevada rules, you're in. In Iowa, you could go in and then look around ...

BLITZER: And change.

KING: ...and if you had the calculations -- say you're John Edwards, and you have all this and you want to get Barack Obama to pass Hillary Clinton. In Iowa ...

BLITZER: And I just want to ...

KING: ...these people could come out and go over. They cannot do that in Nevada.

BLITZER: And I just want to emphasize that in order to be a player, you have to pass that threshold of 15 percent on the first head count in any one of these rooms.

KING: Right, 15 percent, the first head count. And if your candidate that is not viable, you go back into the mix and you have to make a choice. The one difference is when you make a choice, if your second candidate is viable, you're in. If you choose John Edwards, say, you can't then look around the room or the Edwards campaign, say no, we'd actually like to help this candidate or that candidate there.

So, 15 percent is the viablity threshold. If your candidate doesn't make it, you do get to make a second choice. But if you choose a candidate above 15 percent, at that point, you're locked in and they count the totals.

BLITZER: And the doors will be closing in a few minutes right at the top of the hour and then the process will begin. They'll separate themselves into corners, they'll go with the initial head count. We'll see who gets the 15 percent and then they'll make their decisions and we'll report them as we get them.

KING: Results come in and we go from there.

BLITZER: I want you to watch this, John. Take a look at this, this is Caesar's Palace. This is one of the caucus rooms on the strip in Las Vegas.

Ali Velshi is there -- Ali, there was some sort of disturbance that was going on? What can you tell us?

VELSHI: Well, what you're looking at right now, our cameras are on the Obama supporters, about 100 people in this room. They're streaming in. This thing is going to start in about 15 minutes. But we're having a lot of back and forth, Wolf, between the Hillary supporters and the Obama supporters.

In fact, it's getting a little specific. For a while, it was just sort of cheers on either side. But then what happened is members from each group were going over to the other side. They're sort of sitting in separate sections and discussing reasons on a policy basis why their candidate would be stronger. So, it became fairly heated for a few moments.

For a group of people who've not had this sort of a caucus experience before, you know, in prior election years, Wolf, these caucuses in Nevada were held much later, much smaller participation levels. So, this is new to everyone and there's sort of in some sense of how will they respond and how will they participate?

Well, I can tell you, they are participating with great enthusiasm, a great deal of cheering, a great deal of partisan -- politicking in this very room. What this is really about is mainly Barack supporters in this caucus at the Caesar's Palace. We have some indication that most of these culinary workers would be Barack supporters. That's who you're looking at right now.

On the other side of the room, the second largest group tend to be Hillary supporters. And I can see fewer than, you know, three or four John Edwards supporters in the room. About 120 people in this room so far. And they are still accepting registration. This is one of nine sites on the Las Vegas strip. And you're seeing the kind of energy that we've got in this room, Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, it's very passionate. It's a lot different than we've seen over the years in Iowa, where it's pretty tame out there when people gather in their caucus rooms and decide to support some of the various candidates. They're showing some excitement, some passion. And let's hope it just stays like that.

And, in fact, maybe we can just get the microphones open in that room and just listen a little bit and see what's going on. It looks like it's quieted down a little bit. VELSHI: Yes, they're not doing this, Wolf -- by the way, they're not doing this for the cameras. They've been doing this the entire time they've been here. And if you look at that crowd, as we look through the crowd, you'll see people who are wearing their uniforms from work. There are people with kitchen -- chef's hats on, their white kitchen clothes. These are restaurant workers. They're coming in with the insignia of their restaurant.

So, these are people on their shifts. In order to have voted here, you have to be coming off your shift, going on to a shift or in your shift on your lunch break right now. So, there's a great deal of excitement. There's no idea as to how many people across the state will be voting today.

Remember, the last time Nevada had caucuses, under 10,000 people participated. Estimates today are anywhere from 25,000 to over 100,000, depending on how exciting it gets. The seats are not filled here, but the excitement level is very, very high. We'll try and open this up for you, Wolf, and allow you to listen in as it gets closer to caucus time.

BLITZER: And this is one of those nine sites on the strip that -- actually, they had to go to court to get it approved. And the courts in the state of Nevada decided that it was OK to keep these sites in place. It was strongly supported by the Barack Obama supporters. Hillary Clinton's supporters not so excited about having these sites on the strip at Caesar's Palace and elsewhere.

Explain to our viewers, Ali, why this became a contentious issue.

VELSHI: Yes, one of the things that we're seeing here, Wolf, is that the Hillary campaign is, you know, when you've got the Obama sign that says Obama '08. You've got John Edwards '08. The Hillary signs say, I support my union. I support Hillary. Because of the issue that if you were a union worker, you were going to be an Obama supporter.

The Hillary workers here and voters are making the point that you can be a supporter of the Culinary Union, which is the big union here of the casino workers, but also support Hillary. And they're encouraging people to go out here, to come out today and vote for whom they'd like to vote, not come out here because the union says they have to vote.

As you have pointed out several times in the last few hours, Wolf, the issue here is that this is a caucus, not a primary. It's not a private ballot. They are going to, within the hour, be gathering in corners of the room and standing there for the candidate that they believe in. Will these union members want to do that when they know their union leadership has asked them to vote for Barack Obama?

BLITZER: Ali, stand by.

We're only about ten minutes away from when they're supposed to close those doors at all those Democratic caucuses throughout the state in Nevada. And we're going to show it to you as it unfolds.

By the way, if you want to continue to watch what's happening inside these caucuses right now, we have live cameras there. Go to CNN.com. You can see it live streaming as it unfolds on your laptop or your computer, CNN.com.

We'll take a quick break. Only 10 minutes away from the end of -- the end where the doors close and the process begins for the Democrats. We've already projected that Mitt Romney will win for the Republicans. Much more of our coverage from Nevada and South Carolina from the CNN Election Center.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're only about six minutes away when the doors will close at these Democratic caucuses. You're looking at some live pictures from one of the caucus rooms, this one at Caesar's Palace on the strip in Las Vegas. Democratic supporters of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, presumably, Dennis Kucinich. Those are the Democratic candidates who were out there.

We'll see how they decide to vote once those doors close -- in what -- in six minutes or so from now, or six minutes exactly from now. That's when they're supposed to close.

There is passion, clearly. It's the first time they've done it on this kind of scale in Nevada, the Democrats meeting all over the state. You see it unfolding in this one caucus room that we've been showing you for the past several minutes. They're getting ready to make it clear whether they support Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John Edwards or the other candidate.

So once the doors close, the chairperson will go up and give some instructions to everyone on what they need to do to be able to express their preferences and they'll separate into respective corners. And as we explained earlier, if you get 15 percent on the first head count, they'll be able to move on to the second level.

On the Republican side, it's basically over right now. Ten percent of the precincts have formally reported. We've projected that Mitt Romney will capture the Republican caucuses in the state of Nevada. Right now, he's got 51 percent with 10 percent of the precincts reporting to McCain's 13, Ron Paul 12 percent, Mike Huckabee 10 percent. There's a battle under way for second place in Nevada, but Mitt Romney captures first place right now.

Bill Schneider has been looking at the entrance polls, Bill. And tell our viewers what you're seeing based on the entrance polls. These are for Republicans, what they told our people as they were walking into their respective caucuses.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what we found were three reasons why Mitt Romney won the caucuses today. The first one is there are a lot of older voters. About 44 percent of the voters in the Republican caucuses today were over 60-years-old. And as we can see, about half of Mitt Romney's voters were over 60. Ron Paul's voters, he's doing very well there in Nevada. He's doing very well among younger Republican voters. The older voters, Nevada is a center, a lot of retirees are moving there, and that was a heavy vote for Mitt Romney.

Another reason Mitt Romney did well in the Republican caucuses: among people who decided early on before the last three days, Mitt Romney clearly dominated the vote. We can see that board right here. About half the people who decided early were always going to be Romney voters.

And then the third reason was the economy. That was the biggest issue in Nevada and those voters -- well, these are people who decided within the last three days. That's where McCain actually did better. McCain showed some momentum coming out of Michigan. And late deciders, they were a minority, but the late deciders decided for McCain. And as I mentioned, the economy was another reason why Mitt Romney did very well.

BLITZER: Bill Schneider, thanks very much.

We'll take a quick break. Much more of our coverage from both of these states, Nevada and South Carolina, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to the CNN Election Center. We're watching Nevada right now. The doors are closing literally any second now at the Nevada Democratic caucuses. And that's when Democrats will be able to start selecting their nominee, their preference for president of the United States.

We're watching this unfold on the Republican side. By the way, we've already projected that Mitt Romney will capture the Nevada Republican caucuses.

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