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Up close and personal with the presidential candidates. Speeches by Republicans Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. Also, Romney and McCain get nasty about the Iraq War.

Aired January 26, 2008 - 17:00   ET

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

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That was John Edwards yesterday in Columbia, South Carolina. Candy, if I can make one other point, today the polls close here in South Carolina about two hours from now. I'm in a Democratic strong hold at a polling place. It was expected that there would be a record high turnout this year. That's what the Democratic Party predicted. And I'll tell you we have not seen that here where I am. I spoke to the polling manager who tells me he's covered polling places for 20 years. He says the turnout he's seen today is average, not higher than normal, just what they expect in any other year. We'll see if that bears out statewide.
Candy?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Thanks, Jessica. I know you and the team are packing up from the polling place and headed over to Edwards headquarters. So we will see you over there. Thanks again.

I'm Candy Crowley. We're outside the state capitol here in Columbia. The candidates of course waiting to see what the voters have to say here in South Carolina. Now, in Florida, the Republicans are doing the talking at this point, and that's why we want to go back to Dana Bash who is in Miami. Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Candy. Well, you said you were very confident that Rudy Giuliani would finally start speaking here in Florida, and you were right. Rudy Giuliani has started speaking in Orlando, Florida. He's speaking at a "Women for Rudy" event. Let's listen.

RUDY GIULIANI, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The charges going back and forth, but we don't want to become like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, right? They're trying to work their way out of it. We don't want to work our way into it, right? The -- if I can understand the debate, the debate is that Senator McCain doesn't believe that Governor Romney has enough security and safety and national security experience. And Governor Romney doesn't think that Senator McCain has enough experience on the economy. Well, you know something? I've got both. I've got both.

That's why I'm the best choice. That's why I'm the best choice. America needs a president who can lead the country at a time in which we are involved in Islamic terrorist war against us. We need a president who can keep us on offense. We need a president who can keep us firm and not give into the frustrations that sometimes happen when you're engaged in an effort like that.

And I think you know and the American people know that I would be a president like that. I would be a president that would keep us on offense in the Islamic terrorist war against us, keep us strong militarily. I've committed to increasing the size of the military, increasing the Army, increasing the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, the Coast Guard, giving us the kind of military that can take anything that's thrown at us, and one that will dissuade our enemies from ever thinking about challenging us. And we'll make sure we remain strong here at home.

I've traveled throughout Florida as you know from the northern parts of Florida, southern, to the west coast, east coast, all over Florida. We've had a great time. John has been on a lot of those with me. And Pete, the people you see here, and Paul, we've had -- we've learned a lot. We've learned a great deal about Florida.

I know that there are many people in Florida who are having difficulties finding insurance. They're having difficulties being able to buy it, sometimes even having it available. That's why the federal government needs to have a national catastrophe fund that will allow you to have accessibility to property insurance.

And it has to be part of our planning. It has to be part of the planning that we have to be ready for whatever it is the terrorists may do to us which we hope doesn't happen and which we hope we can prevent and which our government, by being on offense, has been successful in preventing. But we can never count on that. We have to have homeland security back-up to that.

The catastrophe fund is part of making sure that we're ready for whatever terrorists might do or whatever nature might do. And I think people in Florida understand it maybe better than most other places. But the reality is this is necessary for the whole country. And I will make it happen, and I will get it done if I'm president of the United States. You can be sure of that.

But there is more to being president than just national security. That's the most important. That's why my first commitment is to be on offense in the Islamic terrorist war against us. But there is more to being president than national security. There's also economic security, which is something that all of us want, all of us need. And the United States right now, we have people that are really concerned about our economy. They're worried about our economy. You're shaking your head yes. I think a lot of people are shaking their head -- pardon me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible)

GIULIANI: People are worried about many things. She's worried about the notch years, which we have to fix, but people are worried about many things, they're worried about the value of their homes, they're worried about whether wages will continue to increase. They're worried about the cost of health insurance. They're worried about the things they read about in the newspapers with the markets and what's happening with the markets. They're worried about America's place in the global economy.

I would be the very best president to lead America at a time like this. And the reason is, as mayor of New York City, I had to deal with this on a smaller scale, but still on a very big scale. And none of my opponents has had that experience. Curtis Sliwa can tell you, he remembers what New York was like -- thank you for being here, Curtis. Curtis Sliwa can tell you. He remembers what New York was like when I became mayor. We had 10.5 percent unemployment. We had lost 350,000 jobs.

We were a city that had 1.1 million people on welfare. And we were a city that more people wanted to leave than wanted to stay there. And everyone thought our economy was in bad shape. Some people even described it as a crisis. Now, I turned that around, I turned it around with the same principles that I would use to make sure that our economy here in the United States grows. I turned it around by pro-growth principles, by understanding you have to be competitive.

This is really the key to America's economy continuing to grow. America has to be competitive. And here is when you're not competitive, when you over tax, over spend, overregulate and oversue.

Too much of that leads to an economy that becomes contained and then an economy that begins to shrink. The reason that's so important in a global economy is people and money have choices now. They can go other places. If we're overspending, overtaxing, overregulating, they go look for someplace else to put their money or put their jobs that's not doing that.

So these ideas that the Democrats have of wanting to raise taxes by 30 percent or 40 percent would be the absolute worst thing to do. It would make us even more anticompetitive. It would mean we would lose even more jobs, and it would mean that they would have to tax even more to make up for the deficit that that creates.

It's a cycle that I know really well because it's a cycle New York City was in for about 20 to 30 years that I put the brakes on and changed.

And that's why, as Mary pointed out, we have announced a major tax program which would amount to the biggest tax reduction in American history, and the biggest simplification of our taxes, I believe, in American history.

How would you like -- let me make sure I've got the right form out now. I have it here with me. It's just a one-page form. How would you like to be able to fill out your taxes -- I know you don't like filling them out. But how would you like to be able to fill out your taxes on one page?

What do you think? This is not our entire proposal, but it's part of it. You can fill it out on one page. It retains the deductions and exemptions that are critical to our economy. It retains the home mortgage. You certainly wouldn't want to take that away now with what's going on in real estate and the mortgage market. It contains the deduction for charities, it contains the deductions for state and local taxes, and it contains a new exemption for encouraging you to buy your own health insurance rather than get it from your employer. It gives you the ability to use tax-free money to buy your own health insurance, which is the way we should go.

And then we cut the corporate tax from 35 to 25 percent so we can bring more jobs to the United States. We cut the capital gains tax from 15 to 10 percent so we can bring more investment to the United States. This is how you grow an economy. This is how you bring more money here.

And we do away with the death tax. We do away with the death tax ...

BASH: There you hear Rudy Giuliani speaking to voters, republican voters in Orlando, Florida, talking as most of these candidates are doing time and time again these days about the economy, specifically talking about what Rudy Giuliani likes to talk about which is his plan to try to reform the tax code and put it on just one page. That is part of his plan for trying to stimulate the economy. We're going to take a quick break and we'll come back to more of Rudy Giuliani live in Orlando, Florida. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to CNN's "Ballot Bowl." I'm Dana Bash in Miami, Florida, three days away from the Republican primary in the Sunshine State. One of the most important things to look for on Tuesday is what it means for the fate of former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani. Today is his 55th day of campaigning in the State of Florida. He did not in the end compete heavily in the six early contest states. He spent a total of about $30 million. He's yet to win one of these contest states.

He has made Florida what he has called his firewall. He has e put everything into this state, into winning this state. But he is now neck in neck in third place with Mike Huckabee. He's there now speaking live in Orlando, Florida trying to get every last vote he possibly can. Let's continue listen.

GIULIANI: Set up a tamper proof I.D. card so if you want to come into the United States, you can do it. There's a right way and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way is to try to come in and not identify yourself. And the Border Patrol and the technological fence and the border stat system will stop that. But there is a right way to do it. And the right way is to go get fingerprinted, get photographed, get a tamper-proof I.D. card. You're welcome. Come in. You can work, pay taxes. You can be part of America. You can bring to us the benefits of the various cultures and civilizations of the entire world which we need. That's good for us. It's good for us to be challenged that way. But it's important that it be done a right way. It's important that it be done legally.

And then if you want to become a citizen, you get online, you follow all the rules, the regulations. And when you become a citizen, you demonstrate you can read English, write English and speak English. We can get this done. We can do this. We can get this done.

I believe I'm the candidate that can get this done. There are good people running in this race. They have one thing or another that they can argue that they can do, but I think I'm the one who can do all of these things. I think I'm the one that can do all of these things because I think I'm the one who has the experience of having done things like this before, reducing crime in New York, reducing welfare in New York, turning around the economy of New York, cutting unemployment in half. I've accomplished big things.

And we need a president who can accomplish big things. Ending immigration is a big thing, getting energy independent is a big thing. Taking our economy and embracing the global economy is a big thing. I want to change the way we look at the global economy. Instead of sitting here worried and pessimistic about all these people competing with us, you know, 20 million people coming out of poverty in China and 20 million coming out of poverty in India. The Democrats sit here and they worry about that and say they're going to take jobs, we have to erect tariffs and we have to be protectionists.

And I look at it differently. I want to get Americans, young Americans, all Americans to look at this differently. Just think about this for a minute. Twenty or 30 million people coming out of poverty in China and India. First of all, that's a good thing.

Second, you know what I think of immediately when I think about the United States then? When I think about that? Here is what I think about immediately. Twenty or 30 million more customers for the United States of America. We have to think big.

We have to think big. We have to think broad. We have to think about our future. We have to think about great goals for this country like putting the first person on Mars and re-establishing our space program. We have to think big like we are going to -- we are going to take advantage of the global economy. We're not going to worry so much about what we buy, except from the point of view of safety and security. We're going to worry about how much we sell. And we're going to sell more. We're going to sell energy independence to the -- those parts of the world that need it. We're going to sell health care solutions. We're going to sell information systems. We're going to sell security systems. We've got so much that we have here that the rest of the world needs that we shouldn't be worrying about what we're buying except from the point of view of safety and security. We should be thinking about how much we can sell. This is a great opportunity for America.

This is what America has always dreamed of, a world in which people want to trade with each other, a world in which people want to do business with each other. Countries that are trading with each other, countries that are doing business with each other, usually don't make war on each other. They get to understand each other better. We should be doing more of this with the Middle East. We should be doing more interchange, more understanding.

BASH: That's former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani talking about the need to be a competitive America, the need for free trade, for, of course, classic line from a Republican candidate, as he tries to win votes here in the State of Florida among Republican voters.

This is such a crucial day on Tuesday for Rudy Giuliani because he had hoped that this would be a springboard for February 5th, for Super, Duper Tuesday when more than 20 states have their primary election. And this is the last race on Tuesday on the Republican side before that big primary.

And Candy Crowley, my colleague is in South Carolina, where on the Democratic side, of course, Candy, today is the last day for Democrats to go to the polls before their Super Duper Tuesday.

CROWLEY: Absolutely. I mean, pretty soon South Carolina is going to be in the rear-view mirror for these candidates. In fact even tonight they are most of them moving out of here. Hillary Clinton is going to Tennessee, Barack Obama to Georgia, John Edwards is going to North Dakota of all places. What this tells you is what a huge challenge February 5th is going to be for both the Republicans and the Democrats. What they have to do now, as we delegate count -- because after all this is about accumulating enough delegates to go to Denver for the Democrats and have enough delegates to become the nominee.

So what these candidates have to do is take a look at this map, more than 20 contests on February 5th, and say where do I have a chance? Where can I pick up the most delegates? And it's not just about states at this point. It's not just about saying I have a good chance if I'm Barack Obama in Illinois because I'm from there. It's also to look at states like Missouri and even New York where Hillary Clinton, obviously that's her home state. There are pockets in New York that might vote for Barack Obama, that might pick him up some delegates.

So this gets very, very strategic. One other thing, Dana, I think Florida will be very interesting to watch. Even though, as you know, there are no Democratic delegates at stake in Florida because Florida, like Michigan, was punished by the national party for moving their primary dates up. So there are no delegates at stake here.

But yesterday Hillary Clinton said, well, when I go to Denver with my delegates, I'm going to tell them to vote to seat those delegates in Florida. So the Barack Obama campaign said, hang on a second. Tuesday coming up, she's looking good in those polls in Florida. So even though no delegates are at stake, she's trying to make this look more important, Florida, than it actually is.

So I imagine there will be some attention, at least by the Clinton campaign, paid to that primary that primarily so far has been a Republican Party down there. They're looking at their candidates, Dana.

BASH: It's interesting, Candy, because that speaks to part of the question mark here in Florida is because the Democrats have really boycotted, by and large, the State of Florida in the primaries because they really have had to because, as you said, the Democrats here were sanctioned for moving the primary up to Tuesday. The question has been whether or not it is going to hurt the Democrats here in the general election because Florida, as we all remember, has been very, very much of a swing state and a crucial state in the general election. So that would be something to watch for. Perhaps it's a little bit early. Perhaps by the time we get to the general election, the Democrats here will be so fired up for the Democratic candidate it won't matter.

But it certainly will be something to watch for in this important swing state in the general election as well. We're going to have, Candy a lot more of our "Ballot Bowl," we're going to hear a lot more from the candidates on the Democratic and Republican side in South Carolina and here in Florida coming up. Stay with us after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to CNN's "Ballot Bowl." I'm Dana Bash in Miami. And "Ballot Bowl" is something that CNN has been trying to do for the past several weeks. We're trying to give you, our viewers a chance to see what those of us who get to cover these candidates on the campaign trail get to see. The candidates appealing to voters unedited in an unfiltered way.

And now we're going to take you to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. He was speaking to Florida voters earlier today here in Orlando, Florida, talking about food, fuel and national security.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a nation we can only be as free as we have three things going to work for us. One, we can feed ourselves. Agriculture is important, the capacity to put our own food on the table keeps us free.

Secondly, it's important that we are able to fuel ourselves. This nation has got to come to the position that lit be energy independent within 10 years. It's no longer just a matter of improving the environment and a matter of stabilizing our economy. It's a matter of national security.

We would not be as deeply involved in the Middle East if it were not for dependence on the oil of the Middle East. And currently we finance both sides of the war on terror. Tax dollars pay for the military side every time you fill up at the pump, you're helping to pay for the terrorists because oil money is what funds the madrassas that train the terrorists in the Middle East. Let's not kid ourselves, the sooner we extract ourselves from that enslavement, the freer we're going to be.

And there's no excuse for us, to continue to put off the inevitable break from dependence upon foreign oil that needs to come sooner rather than later, for your generation and the ones that will come after you.

Then the country has got to be able to fight for itself. A country that can't manufacture its own airplanes and tanks and bullets and bombs and armored vehicles, that has to outsource for manufacturing, is a country only as free as the country who manufacturers those things are willing for it to be.

The fact that we've lost 3 million manufacturing jobs is not just a matter of anxiety about the loss of jobs and the erosion of the middle class. That's a problem. But it's also a matter of national security because when we cannot form our own weapons to defend ourselves, then we've not just outsourced jobs. We've outsourced freedom.

While I appreciate the stimulus package that's come out of the Congress this week and I salute the president for actually coming up with something that it appears that even the Democrats in Congress might go along with. The symbolic nature of that is a little refreshing since they've barely agreed on anything, including what kind of weather they're having in Washington on any given day.

By the same token I'm a little concerned that the prospect of what they're doing to stimulate the economy appears to be that we'll borrow $150 billion from the Chinese, we'll turn around and give it off in rebates and most people who get those rebates will buy products that we've imported from the Chinese making me wonder whose economy will we stimulate the most through the package.

I'm convinced that one of the great neglected areas of this nation is our infrastructure. I alluded to it in the debate the other day. Our roads, bridges, airports are choked and clogged. Texas A&M University did a study that showed every time you put a billion into highway construction, you create 47,500 jobs. We lose $78 billion in a year in lost productivity just from urban dwellers stuck in traffic and who can't get to work or can't get from work because of the traffic clogs.

To put it in another pretty stark way, the average urban worker loses 38 hours -- 38 weeks -- excuse me, 38 hours a year, which is a full workweek just stuck in traffic because of congestion. So means a week out of every worker's life is not spent working or spent with the family, not spent on vacation recovering from work. It's spent sitting behind the steering wheel punching radio buttons, dialing cell phone calls, waiting for the traffic to clear. In virtually unproductive time.

If you've been in an airplane lately and many of you have, you know the only thing worse than getting on it and going through this hideous process of taking off your shoes and waving your toothpaste around in a clear plastic bag is the hassle of sitting on the tarmac for sometimes hours waiting on the plane to actually take off.

And you feel like you're being held hostage and you are. And the tragedy is I often listen to people on the cell phone conversations, not because I'm eavesdropping but because they force you to with their loud conversation. And sometimes what I hear is people telling their sons and their daughters good night and sorry they're not going to make it home and maybe they eat get there tomorrow and wake them up, but they're not going to be there to put them to bed. I wonder how much social capital do we loose in this country. Nobody has been able to calculate that. We can figure out how many gallons of gasoline we're putting in the air just polluting the environment for no particular purpose. Nobody can really calculate what do we lose in social capital when moms and dads aren't with their kids when they're sitting in traffic or sitting on an airport tarmac?

My point is we need to start looking at some of the challenges that would not only help reshape our economy, but that would help reshape the future of our country and give us back time to work, time to be with our families and time to be Americans again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: That's former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee speaking earlier today in Orlando.

I'm glad our viewers got a chance to hear him talk about that because it is something that is definitely unique, perhaps unorthodox to hear from a Republican candidate, his idea -- part of his idea, I should say, of stimulating the economy, he says, is to actually expand and upgrade I-95, the I-95 corridor from Bangor, Maine, all the way to where I am in the city of Miami. He says that would help families, would help the commerce and so forth. And he says that is his idea for helping the economy to essentially help build more roads.

We actually have on the phone now our producer, who has been doing yeoman's work with Governor Huckabee's campaign, Eric Beegal (ph).

Eric, you're on the phone with us from Birmingham, Alabama. Just the fact you're in Birmingham, Alabama, and not here in Florida is quite telling as to what Mike Huckabee's strategy is, isn't it?

ERIC BEEGAL (ph), CNN NEWS PRODUCER: It is, Dana. I talked to him earlier today at an orange grove in the Florida. He still believes -- he's a force to be played with in the south. He's the former governor of Arkansas, a conservative from the south. He thinks he can play in the south as well.

I'm at Sanford University, a Baptist School, standing room only, the crowds winding down the street, hundreds and hundreds of people. They've had to add venues to this event because there's so many people here.

This is a place where he's going to be very well received. I'm sure he's going to be playing up a lot of what you just heard. Probably won't play up that I-95 because obviously it doesn't come through Birmingham. He'll be playing up the social issues to this crowd. I'm sure his opinions on abortion and the marriage amendment. This is going to be a very friendly crowd and by far the biggest crowd I've seen since he left South Carolina -- Dana?

BASH: Eric, it's interesting that you say what he's doing and where he is right now. As you know, Mike Huckabee often complains that he, because he's a former Baptist preacher, he always gets the questions about faith. And he complains that people think of him as somebody who just has appeal in the evangelical community and he's really limited to that, and that he has a much broader appeal.

But if you look just at what he's doing right now, his schedule and who he's going to campaign with and trying to appeal to, that sort of belies that, doesn't it?

BEEGAL (ph): It really does. In South Carolina, leading up to the primary in South Carolina, I think in one day we did four Christian universities, played to huge crowds there. He was very well received.

He is trying to broaden himself. I think that's why you start hearing him talk about the traffic situation in Florida. That's the first time I've heard that stump speech since I've been with him in the last couple weeks. I hadn't heard about that. He tried to broaden himself to hunters and fishermen in South Carolina. That was only one event.

This is definitely where he does the best. This is the crowd that he feels he plays to the best. You go with your strong points and this is definitely one of his strong points.

BASH: Eric Beegal (ph), our producer, who has been traveling and covering Huckabee's campaign, doing an excellent, excellent job covering Huckabee's campaign, now looking ahead already to the Super Tuesday state of Alabama.

Eric, thank you for joining us.

When we come back, we'll have a lot more on "BALLOT BOWL." In fact, we'll catch up with Ali Velshi who has been traveling across the country on the CNN "Election Express" bus, talking to voters about the issues dominating the campaign trail, and that is the economy. Stay with us after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to CNN's "BALLOT BOWL." I'm Dana Bash in Miami, Florida.

We're just three days ahead of the Republican primary here. What we've been trying to do on this "BALLOT BOWL" today is to let you hear from the candidates as we get to hear them, raw, unfiltered, on the stump.

One of the candidates who, at this point, appears to be vying for the top spot here in the state of Florida is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. What he has been trying to do on the campaign trail is make the case that he is somebody who is outside of Washington, from outside of Washington. And he is somebody who understands business, therefore, he says he is in the perfect position to help turn around the economy.

Let's listen to Mitt Romney from earlier today in St. Petersburg, Florida. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MITT ROMNEY, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to start by strengthening our families, making sure our kids get the values they need that are enduring values. I want them to have great schools. By the way, I'd pay better teachers better pay. I think our best teachers are underpaid.

I also want better healthcare for our kids and all of our families. When a Republican talks about healthcare, a lot of people in the room raise their eyebrows, isn't that a Democratic issue? Actually not. There's a Democratic approach to getting people healthcare, and that is having government give it to everybody. As the old comedian, P.J. O'Rourke said, if you think healthcare is expensive now, just wait till it's free. You'll be taxed to death.

The right answer to get people healthcare is the way we found how to do it in our state, which is to help everybody get private free market insurance. And so we've got everybody on track to have private free market insurance that they own, that's portable, goes with them from job to job. They don't have to worry about if they got sick or lost a job, somehow losing their insurance. So we found a way to get everybody insured the conservative way. So strengthening families.

Number two, strengthening our military. You know, there are bad people in the world. Following the collapse of Saddam Hussein, a lot of folks thought life was going to be easy. It's been tough. I don't think the war was highly effectively managed after Saddam Hussein's government collapsed, but I do believe we're doing the important work that has to be done now, which is to make sure that Iraq doesn't become a safe haven for al Qaeda. It would be unthinkable for al Qaeda to dominate Iraq or the Sunni portion of Iraq and be able to recruit terrorists, and launch attacks against us or against our friends around the world. I salute the fact that our president has kept us safe these last six years.

Then, not only a strong military -- by the way, in terms of strong military, I'd add at least 100,000 troops. I think we're understaffed in terms of our military. I want to increase funding to get better equipment, modern equipment and better care for our veterans as they come home.

I said strong family, strong military. You know I'm going to end with a strong economy. I want to keep underscoring the fact that right now in particular we need to get our economy back on track short term and on track long term because we're going to be competing around the world. Right now you compete, I imagine, entirely with U.S.-based companies. That won't always be the case. My guess is in the next decade or two your competition will be from overseas. For America to be strong, we have to be the most innovative, most productive in the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: That's Mitt Romney speaking earlier today in St. Petersburg about the issue he thinks is going to help him get the nomination at this point, which he says is his ability, because of his experience in the private sector, to start turning the economy around.

I want to bring in our colleague Mary Snow who is in Sun City, Florida.

Mary, I know yours is, too, my Blackberry is basically smoking right now with the back and forth between John McCain and Mitt Romney, not on the economy but on the issue of the Iraq war because of some pretty strong statements earlier today from John McCain accusing Mitt Romney of, back in April of 2007, calling for a timetable for withdrawal, something that Mitt Romney says is patently false. Tell us about that.

MARY SNOW, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: It's really getting intense, Dana. We're in Sun City. Senator McCain was here a short time ago speaking to a crowd. And he addressed this. He is pretty much saying that Mitt Romney called for, in his words, a secret timetable for the withdrawal of troops in Iraq. He's pointing to an April 2007 interview with "ABC News."

I might as well just give Mitt Romney's statement there. He said during that interview, there's no question the president and the Iraqi prime minister have to have a series of timetables and milestones they speak about. It shouldn't be for public pronouncement. His reason, you don't want the enemy to understand how long you have to wait in the weeds until you're going to be got. He was saying a private arrangement, not a public one.

But Senator McCain has really been hammering away at this theme that he has been calling for secret withdrawal -- secret timetable for withdrawal. Mitt Romney has said -- come back with strong words saying it's dishonest. He wanted Senator McCain to apologize. Senator McCain here in Sun City addressing the crowd saying the only apology he's going to offer is to the men and women in uniform. It's pretty much underscoring the escalation of tension here ahead of Tuesday's primary.

The Romney campaign has been hitting this hard saying this is really stunningly false in terms of the statement that was made. Senator McCain was actually asked about it on his bus by reporters who were traveling with him saying, did he really ask for a withdrawal, and John McCain saying he thinks that Mitt Romney should have said the only timetable should be victory. So this is one of the themes that has really been coming to light here.

And Mitt Romney has said that he thinks John McCain is desperate to get the focus back on Iraq and away from the economy. You were talking about, Mitt Romney was trying to portray himself as the businessman who could help an economic turn-around. That has been his theme. He's been campaigning at various companies. We were with him this morning when he did that. Senator McCain has been hammering away at the point that his strong point is Iraq -- Dana?

BASH: Mary, as you said earlier, what had been a very polite discussion and competition between John McCain and Mitt Romney has absolutely exploded today on this issue of the Iraq war. The Iraq war hadn't really been front and center essentially until the past 24 hours or so when John McCain decided that he was going to campaign in Florida as the commander in chief and as the person who has stuck to the Iraq war and stuck to support of the Iraq war from the get-go. Going after Mitt Romney, as you said here.

Mary Snow, thank you for joining us.

We're going to go back to the issue of the economy after the break. We'll go back to our Ali Velshi who has been on the "Election Express" talking to voters about the economy. That's right after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to CNN's "BALLOT BOWL." I'm Dana Bash in Miami, Florida.

The primary here in Florida is three days away. The South Carolina primary is well underway. If you stay with us, we have live coverage to begin to give you the results of that primary coming up at the top of the hour. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to CNN's "BALLOT BOWL." I'm Dana Bash in Miami, Florida.

The Republican primary is just three days away here, and the issue that has been dominating the campaign trail, Democrats and Republicans, has been the economy.

And I want to go now to our Ali Velshi. He has been rolling across the country of CNN's "Election Express" bus. He is now just outside of Tombstone, Arizona on I-10.

Ali, as you've been traveling across the country talking to voters, what are they telling you that they want to hear most about from these candidates?

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, most people in Tombstone, Dana, were telling me that I needed to get a hat, which is why I did. Tombstone is unusual. As we worked our way through the South, there were different concerns. In some places it was housing prices and jobs. Other places it was the markets.

In Arizona and Tombstone in particular -- Tombstone is a tourist destination where everyone has to drive to get there. They are really feeling the pinch from the high price of gasoline. They're also feeling that because people are feeling it in other parts of the economy, they're not coming there to spend it. We have some people telling us that sales were down 20 percent to 25 percent over the previous year. They're...

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BASH: We have fabulous technology on that bus with Ali Velshi traveling across the country, but sometimes it fails us temporarily. We'll get back to Ali as soon as we can.

In the meantime, we want to check in the other top stories going on around the country and the world. I'll take it to Tony Harris joining us from Atlanta.

Hey, Tony.

TONY HARRIS, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Dana, that happened with us a couple times yesterday with Ali. He always seems to pop back.

Good to see you, Dana.

BASH: Good to see you.

HARRIS: In other news now, Chicago police say remains found yesterday are not related to Stacy Peterson or Lisa Stebick disappearances. An autopsy found the victim died of stab wounds. But the medical examiner couldn't determine age or race.

California's wild and deadly weather forecast to get worse tonight. Authorities have evacuation orders in effect already. In orange county heavy rains in fire ravaged canyons. Marin county, flooding is already a concern. In L.A. County, avalanches have killed three people, a fourth person declared missing was found earlier today.

So let's get you straight to Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras.

Jacqui, are you kidding me? No relief tonight?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The relief really came in play today. It's been much quieter after a very active week. The ground is very saturated. We'll have another round of showers and thundershowers coming late tonight and through the day sun and probably lingering into Monday morning. You can see the little curlicue swirl on the satellite image. Notice how it's dropping southward. As it does that, it will touch into this subtropical moisture and head right up into southern California and bring an incredible amount of rainfall. We're talking about several inches into the coastal areas, 4 to 8 inches up into the mountains and we'll likely see heavier snow into the higher elevations, too.

See, a couple of sprinkles trying to come in. It's been kind of an overcast day. This really isn't amounting to anything just yet. We think the heavy stuff will come late tonight. There you can see how much rain we're expecting over the next 48 hours. It's solid there across the state of California. More mudslides, land slides, debris flows of great concern as well as the threat of avalanches -- Tony?

HARRIS: We know that's an area living with a drought right now. But you don't want it all at once. Jackie, appreciate it.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused yesterday's fire at the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Five floors saw some damage, but only minor injuries were reported. The Monte Carlo remains closed today as safety inspectors check the building.

A U.S. spy satellite might soon fall from the sky. The problem is no one knows where it might land and if there's anything hazardous on board. The satellite lost power and can't be controlled. It could hit in February or sometime in March. Officials are keeping an eye on it in case evasive action is needed.

The "BALLOT BOWL" and CNN's special coverage of the South Carolina primaries continues after a break.

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BASH: Welcome back to CNN "BALLOT BOWL" coverage I'm Dana Bash and in Miami, Florida. And what we have been doing all afternoon is to bring you the candidates as they are speaking, raw, unfiltered on the stump, the way that we as political reporters covering the campaign get to see them pretty much everyday, all day long.

One of the things that we have been able to show you live as it happened today, particularly on the Republican side here in the state of Florida, is a fascinating thing unfold between John McCain and Mitt Romney, two of the Republican candidates who appear to be vying for the top spot in Tuesday's Republican primary here in Florida.

The two men really shifting from what had been quite a polite discussion in competition on the issue of the economy, and shifting into a very nasty, if you will discussion of the issue of Iraq. John McCain going after Romney saying he called for a timetable for withdrawal and Mitt Romney insisting that is not what happened and that is something that is distorting his record. Just one example of what unfolded today on the Republican side.

Another thing that we were able to bring you is Rudy Giuliani in his own words. Rudy Giuliani has staked everything on the state of Florida, so we were able to bring you that.

"BALLOT BOWL" is again unfiltered and the candidates unfiltered. We will continue to do that tomorrow, Sunday, at 1:00 eastern.

But as we have been talking about Florida, there is actually voting going on in the state of South Carolina, and the Democratic primary going on there, and now polls close in about an hour.

And I'm going to kick it up to my colleague, Wolf Blitzer, up at the election headquarters in New York.

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