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Candidates Vie for Votes; Huckabee and Obama Speak to Crowds; McCain Answers Questions

Aired February 09, 2008 - 16:00   ET

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

DANA BASH, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: This does help Mike Huckabee certainly in the race for delegates a little bit. But to be sure he is still very, very far behind in the big picture in terms of the delegates needed to be the republican nominee. John McCain is still very, very far ahead in that race. But in terms of Mike Huckabee, he is campaigning today. He is campaigning in one of the contest states we're going to see in the area where I am, in Maryland. That's going to be on Tuesday. Tuesday is going to be Maryland, Virginia and the district of Columbia. Mike Huckabee was speaking in College Park, Maryland a short while ago. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It doesn't make sense to me until the game is over. It would be like, if the New York Giants had left the field midway through the fourth quarter because they said, you know, all the prognosticators have it that the Pats are going to win. All the odds-makers in Vegas they've already said the Patriots are a sure shot. And after all that's gone ahead of us so what's the point of finishing out the game? Let's go get in the showers and go to dinner and call it a season. We've had a good year, it's been a good run coming in second. Hey, it's not bad. We've been to "Super Bowl." Will have a nice consolation prize. That's not what they did. They finished the game and they surprised everybody. They won. And I've seen a lot of amazing finishes. And I believe that there could still be one more left in the political arena this year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, did you get a recent phone call from Governor Rick Perry asking you to drop out of the race?

HUCKABEE: You know, I never like to discuss specific calls that were personal. If he wants to discuss it and believes there was a phone call, then I'll let him do so. Did he tell you there was?

OK. Then, we'll let it live out in there cyberspace somewhere. All right. I'll just say I have calls from people, you know, and I have not had any calls from my supporters. I've had calls from some McCain backers. And you know, why should I listen to them? I mean, you know, they're McCain backers. I would imagine what I should do is have some of my people call Senator McCain. But that means nothing to me, nothing at all because they don't have credibility when they call from the perspective of, I'm supporting the other guy and I'd like for you to drop out. Of course they would. I mean, that's kind of an easy one. Give me somebody with total objectivity. But more importantly, when my supporters, the people that have stood out in cold weather and in rain holding my signs up, when people have written $20 checks they couldn't afford, when people who have, you know, come to events and driven like some folks out here that I met, four hours to be here, when those folks come up to me and say it's time to give it up, I'll start listening.

But you know what, those folks didn't come here to give me that message today. They came here to give me the message to stay in, hang on and keep going. Our website has been lit up the last week and especially the last few days. Record contributions yesterday alone on our website, quarter of a million dollars in one day. You know, those aren't the signs of people telling me to quit. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor, in terms of going forward in strategy, where do you find the biggest contrast between you and Senator McCain? Where will you stress the contrasts?

HUCKABEE: I think the big contrasts are that he doesn't support a human life amendment and I do. We have difference of opinion on the immigration issue and what we ought to do there. Differences on embryonic stem cell research. Differences on the McCain-Finegold campaign finance act. Those are I think some of the key differences. These aren't what I called the differences of liberal conservative. They're the difference of people in the same party. The reason that I think you've seen an unusual race this year is because the two people that have been most civil are the two people that are still here. That's probably going to be a first in political history. McCain and I have not had harsh words, we've not attacked each other. We've had mutual respect and we generally I think like each other as human beings.

There are contrasts. And I'm sure he'll point out some that he sees, I'll point out some I see. But you're not going to see some vicious, sword-swinging battle going on, I think between us because I don't think that's what this election is about. We'll save that for the general election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And that's former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaking earlier today to reporters in College Park, Maryland, explaining his rationale for staying in the race. Of course, you see on the screen, you saw on the screen there a bit of information that perhaps explains, in part, why he is staying in the race, because he can still win some of the primaries and caucuses around the country, at least today he has. He has won the Kansas caucuses. CNN has projected that Mike Huckabee is the winner there. I want to bring in my colleague Mary Snow who has been covering Mike Huckabee, covering all of the republican candidates as I have during this fascinating primary season.

Mary, I want to ask you, you just heard Mike Huckabee explaining the contrast between his candidacy and his campaign and John McCain's and explaining why he wants to stay in this race despite the fact that he is way behind in the delegate count. But you've been talking to his advisors, you've been talking to him. What do you think the story behind the story is in his decision to soldier on here? MARY SNOW, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Dana, that is a great question. Because, you know, he even said today it's not so much about math in terms of catching up with John McCain. It's about a miracle at this point. And with these 36 delegates from Kansas, he's still lags far behind. And really what he is trying to do is position himself as the conservative candidate and draw those contrasts. You just heard him a minute ago. He was careful to say that he and John McCain have gotten along so well during this whole race. There have been some heated exchanges with Mitt Romney, of course, he dropped out on Thursday. But he's really trying to bring home some of the issues that he feels he can gather support around. Mike Huckabee will say, I am in it until there is 1,191 delegates and there is a republican nominee. He is also, though, because there's been so much speculation whether he's just staying in this to become John McCain's running mate. He's repeatedly saying and his advisors are saying no, that is not the reason why he still is in this race at this point. Dana.

BASH: Mary, thank you very much. It's fascinating to see how much of an impact Mike Huckabee really will have on John McCain who, you know, says himself, and if you look around at other republicans, they say John McCain does seem to be the presumptive nominee despite the fact that Mike Huckabee is staying in the race and despite the fact he is proving once again today he can win very important, very red republican states, like the state of Kansas. Thanks, Mary.

I want to go back to the democratic side and to my co-anchor, Candy Crowley who is in Virginia right now. And Candy, I want to talk about the contest on Tuesday, the so called Potomac primaries in Washington, D.C., and Maryland. This is totally anecdotal and may not mean anything at all. But driving through Washington whose going to have it's primary on Tuesday, I saw a lot of Obama signs, a lot of kind of seemed like a lot of energy for him. I didn't see a lot out for Hillary. But I'm not sure what that means if anything. What do you think it sort of says about what's going to happen on Tuesday?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been really interesting because for the past week, since super Tuesday, we have heard a lot of talk from the both campaigns arguing over who is the front-runner and who is the insurgent. Both of them, both Clinton and Obama want to be the insurgent, want to be the underdog. But the fact of the matter is, in Washington, D.C., which has a heavy African- American population, in Virginia and in Maryland, and you have a territory that looks very much favorable to Barack Obama. The problem for the Obama campaign is that sets the expectations pretty high for a sweep.

Now, obviously she will get some delegates as well. But if he doesn't win the state, the states and the city, it's going to look like a loss for him. So, it's been this jockeying back and forth between the Obama people saying, listen, she's got the name, she's got the machine, she's the front-runner, everything we do is from the position of the underdog. And you have Hillary Clinton saying he is the one picking up all those mainstream endorsements, he's the one that right now really is the front-runner, and he's running the establishment campaign. So we have the two of them arguing, no doubt, because we are getting into some unknown territory here. These are states having caucuses and primaries that here to for haven't mattered much. Because usually by this time we have a nominee. So a lot of jockeying going on in the expectations game.

We, in fact, do believe that after this break we will have Barack Obama. He is up in Maine which has caucuses tomorrow. We heard earlier from there from Hillary Clinton. So, stick with us. We expect Barack Obama right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Welcome back to CNN and our "Ballot Bowl '08" where we give you these candidates as they race down to the wire for delegates. There are contests today. There is a contest tomorrow. And of course, there is the Potomac primaries, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. So, they are crisscrossing the state. We want to take you now to Barack Obama. He is in Bangor, Maine fighting for those 24 delegates up for grabs tomorrow.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... college or gas at the pump. Those mills that used to employ people and give good jobs, the good wages and the good benefits have all closed down, and nothing is there to replace them and nobody seems to care. It's harder to save. It's harder to retire. Our healthcare system leaves 47 million people without health insurance. I had a little round table discussion with some residents of Bangor over at Nicky's Diner, and it's a good place, good burger, by the way. But almost everybody around the table was trying to figure out how they were going to be able to afford to keep up with their healthcare costs.

Our school system, despite the slogans leaves millions of children behind, unable to compete in a global economy. So, given the challenges that we face, we cannot afford to wait. We can't wait to fix our healthcare system. We can't wait to fix our schools. We cannot wait to create good jobs with good wages and good benefits. We can't wait to bring an end to global warming. We cannot wait to end this war in the Iraq and bring our troops home. We cannot wait. So when I decided to run, it was because I believe that the size of our challenges had outstripped the capacity of a broken and divided politics assault. And I was convinced that the American people were hungry for something new, hungry for something different, that they wanted a politics -- that they wanted a politics that wasn't about tearing each other down, but was about lifting the country up. That people were tired of ideology. They wanted practical common-sense solutions to problems. They were tired of spin and PR. They want straight talk and honesty and truthfulness from their president and from members of Congress. That's what the American people were looking for.

But most of all I decided to run because of you. I was betting on you. Because some of you know, I now live in Chicago but I'm not originally from Chicago. I moved there after college to work as a community organizer with a group of churches to set up job training programs for the unemployed who had been laid off from the steel plants. And it was the best work I ever had, because it taught me ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they're given a chance. And so I've always believed that change does not happen from the top-down. It happens from the bottom-up. It happens because the American people are a decent and generous people, willing to work hard and sacrifice on behalf of future generations. And what I believed if we could come together, if we could bridge those division that are so much part of our politics so that black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, north, south, east, west, if we could come together to challenge the special interests that have come to dominate our politics in Washington, but also to challenge ourselves to be better, that there was no problem we could not solve and there was no destiny we could not fulfill.

That was the bet that I made over a year ago. I have to say, after 12 months of crisscrossing the country, after shaking hands with thousands, after eating hundreds of chicken dinners, after racking up frequent flier miles everywhere I go, I have to tell you that my bet has paid off, my faith in the American people has been vindicated because the American people are ready for change right now. They understand that we have to turn the page and write a new chapter in American history. I'm telling you everywhere we go we've been seeing turnout double in this election. People have been paying attention. Young people especially have been coming out in record numbers. They understand this is their chance to make their mark.

Now, I would like to take credit for all of this. I will have to admit that I'm not the only cause for all this interest and excitement. Part of it has to do with the fact that people know that next November they're going to be selecting the next president of the United States. And no matter what else happens, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot when they choose. They know that. No Bush, no Bush. The name of my cousin, Dick Cheney, will not be on the ballot.

Some of you may have read about this. It turns out he's like a distant relative. You know, when they do these genealogical surveys, you're hoping to be related to somebody cool. With Dick Cheney, that's a letdown. So, but his name won't be on the ballot. So we know that the era of Scooter Libby Justice and brownie incompetence and Karl Rove politics will finally be over next year.

But that's not the only reason you're here today. You know, it's easy to be against something. But part of what the American people are looking for is to be for something. People want to feel like we can come together and make a real difference, to dream big dreams and accomplish big things, fix the problems that face so many families who are struggling day in, day out. I know this because I've been having a conversation with the American people, and I know what hearing isn't what I think America should be. I mean, all across the country I hear people who have worked 20 years in a factory and suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them, and they're trying to figure out how to survive on a $7.00 an hour job at the local fast food joint.

All across the country, you know, I meet retirees who watch the companies they used to work forego through bankruptcy, drop their pensions even though the CEO is getting a million-dollar bonus or a golden parachute. All across the country I meet teachers who are - I love teachers. My sister is a teacher. My mother taught. But these teachers, they tell me they're having to work second jobs just to make ends meet, or they're having to dig into their own pockets to buy school supplies for their classroom because the schools are under funded.

All across the country I meet people without healthcare, and if the they've got healthcare they've seen their co-payments and deductibles and premiums go up-and-up and up. They can barely afford to hang on to the health care they've got. All across the country I meet young people who have the grades, the will, the desire to go to college, but they don't have the money. They don't have the money. And so they're borrowing, 20, 30, $40,000 worth of debt. They've got a mortgage before they even graduate from college, before they even buy a house, they've already been loaded up with debt. All across the country I meet veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who are proud of their service, and rightfully so, because they have done everything that has been asked of them.

CROWLEY: Stick with "Ballot Bowl." We'll have more of Barack Obama after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to "Ballot Bowl '08." I'm Dana Bash in Washington, D.C.. We've been monitoring Barack Obama speaking to voters in Maine. But while we monitor that, we want to bring you more information about what we told you just before the break and over the past several minutes, and that is news out of the state of Kansas on the republican side. That news is that Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, has won the Kansas caucuses. And what we can project now is that, of the 36 delegates at stake, CNN projects that he has won 33 of those delegates. The last few we're waiting to hear back and we're waiting to see results from one of the key congressional districts that hasn't given its results yet. So, once we do that, we'll be able to give you the full picture of what's going on in Kansas, a full picture where all of those 36 delegates go. But as of now, 33 of those 36 delegates up for grabs in the state of Kansas do go to the former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee. And on that note I want to bring in our Mary Snow who has been covering Mike Huckabee today in the state of Maryland. Mary, you've got some reaction from the Huckabee campaign.

SNOW: Dana, one of the senior advisors to Mike Huckabee just released a statement saying winning is big and winning big is bigger. These results show that all the voters in all the states want to fully participate in choosing the next republican nominee. And we are expecting to hear from Mike Huckabee later this afternoon. His campaign has just added another event to react to what they're calling a strong victory in Kansas. You know, he spent the whole day there yesterday. He had some nine events in four cities. And it is delegates, he said today, that he is going after saying that is really what it's all about at this point. He does not believe that he has to get out of this race, even though his delegate count is so far behind Senator John McCain. He's really trying to position himself as the conservative candidate. And in Kansas, that is exactly what he did. He plans to do that again in Virginia with its primary coming up on Tuesday to try to show that he is the conservative candidate of the republican party, really tapping into the anger among conservatives against Senator John McCain. So again the Huckabee campaign really hailing this as a strong victory for him in Kansas. Dana.

BASH: Mary, thank you very much. And for those with their calculators and their pens and pads at home looking at our board here, we want to clarify that there are 36 delegates at stake in Kansas today, 39 ultimately overall. The other three will be allocated at a later date. And before we go to break, I also want to add some reaction from the McCain campaign that I just got speaking with the senior adviser. They say is that they're not surprised at all by the results in Kansas and one of the advisors I spoke to even said there will be more caucuses that the McCain campaign will probably lose, but this adviser for McCain insists that although they respect the process, they respect Mike Huckabee, they insist that John McCain will be the republican nominee. They're already looking ahead to the general election.

And speaking of the general election, we're going to go back to the democratic side and Barack Obama who is still speaking live in Maine. We'll have more of that back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for joining us here at CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08 when we bring you these candidates, Republicans and Democrats, sometimes taped, sometimes live but always unfiltered. I'm Candy Crowley in Richmond, Virginia. Later this evening both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be speaking here. Right now both of them are in Maine. That takes us back to Barack Obama live now from Bangor.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's talk about colleges for a second. I mentioned how burdened young people are. What I've said is this, we'll have a $4,000 tuition credit, every student, every year, so they're able to reduce the amount of money they have to borrow for their college education. Every young person needs it. But we're going to ask something in return from young people. You're going to have to, for that $4,000 a year, you're going to have to participate in community service, work in a veterans' home, work in a homeless shelter, join the Peace Corps. We will invest in you. You will invest in America. Together we will move this country forward if you're ready for change.

If you are ready for change, then we can start having an energy policy that makes sense, because the one we have right now makes no sense. It starts with recognizing that climate change is real. I know we've gotten a lot of snow this year. But the weather patterns are shifting in ways that could fundamentally alter the planet and harm millions, billions of people, including our children and our grandchildren. So we're going to cap greenhouse gases. We're going to charge -- we're going to charge polluters for all the greenhouse gases, all the carbon they send in the atmosphere. That will generate billions of dollars that we will reinvest in clean energy, wind and solar and biodiesel.

And we will use that to create the green jobs of the future. We will reopen these mills using wood pulp to create energy that and alternative fuels that can power this economy for generations to come. We can create good jobs. I was just in Seattle visiting with a company that is employing thousands of people. Most of their tradesmen, all unionized, getting paid close to $100,000 when you include benefits. And this company works just to make buildings more energy efficient.

I'm those are the kinds of green jobs in the future we can create if you've got a president who has the vision and the sense of urgency about solving our energy problems in this country. We're going to increase fuel efficiency standards on cars. We can't keep on driving gas-guzzlers and think that sometimes gas prices are going to go down and home heating oil prices are going to go down. The only way to reduce prices is to reduce demand. And that means we have to have more efficient cars.

If we increase fuel efficiency standards to 40 miles per gallon, we would save the equivalent of all the oil we import from the Persian Gulf. Imagine what that would do for our economy, for the environment, for our national security. By the way, when I made that proposal, I didn't do it in front of the Sierra Club or some environmental group, I did it in Detroit in front of the automakers and told them where America - told them where they needed to be.

And I have to say that the room was really quiet. And nobody clapped. But that's OK, because part of what you need from your next president is somebody who will not just tell you what they think you want to hear, but will tell you what you need to hear, will tell you the choices that we face and how we're going to solve our problems. And will talk about sacrifice once in a while. Because none of this is going to be easy, but it can be done. And that's what I'm going to do when I'm president of the United States of America.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Barack Obama in Bangor, Maine. As you can hear from him, what we have now really are kitchen sink speeches. Hillary Clinton, whom we carried before, doing the same thing. Both of these candidates have laid out pretty specific policy papers prior to this in sort of the year-long run up to Iowa.

But now is the time for some real campaigning, sort of doing a broad brush to all of their issues, energy issues, the Iraq War, student loans, as you heard here today from Barack Obama. So coming up next after this break, we have Suzanne Malveaux, she is in New Orleans, Louisiana, they've got a primary there today. We'll also hear from senator john McCain on the Republican side. Stick with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08. You are looking at some pictures inside a caucus site in Seattle, Washington. They're holding caucuses, expecting an enormous amount of people to participate because, of course, the stakes are so high and certainly the Democratic race is so close. We have our Jessica Yellin there. And we are going to talk to her in a minute.

But we want to go to another place that is also holding a contest here today, and that's New Orleans in Louisiana where we find our Suzanne Malveaux. Suzanne, it strikes me that so many of these states really have never had a say-so before. Certainly Louisiana among them. Is there any sense of kind of heightened importance there?

Well, you know, you talk to people and there's a sense that this Louisiana really could make a difference in the primary. But that, of course, really depends if people end up voting and coming out here, what the turnout is. You've got 56 delegates that are up for grabs, a good shot that Barack Obama will do quite well here if you look at the breakdown of the population, nearly 50 percent of the Democratic voters likely to come out, African American. But taking a look at the folks who have arrived here. We've been here for hours. Very, very light turnout in the beginning of the day. It's increased somewhat. We've seen mostly older voters, mostly women who are here. So state officials are saying they don't predict the turnout is going to be that high. Maybe the high is 15 percent or so.

And they look at that -- that is based on kind of the early voting that ended last week, not high numbers. So you've got to see by the end of the day whether or not folks are going to come out. Not a scientific poll. I've got a lot of relatives here. I asked them myself if they voted. A couple who are very motivated said they came out early to vote. There are others who are a little bit more doubtful, a little more cynical about the role of the federal government, whether or not their vote will make a difference this time around. They're in FEMA trailers. They have a sense of not a lot of confidence in the federal government, that they need to do it on their own.

And so there's a whole group of people who don't necessarily believe that getting involved in the process is necessarily going to pay off. So that's what we're looking at here today, whether or not people are actually going to come out and vote and make a difference this time around. Candy?

CROWLEY: Suzanne, you mentioned that this is a state where Barack Obama ought to do fairly well. While you were talking we showed CNN's current estimate of the delegate stand here between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, about a hundred delegates separate them. So every delegate obviously really important. I wonder, as we look at the state of Louisiana what the Obama campaign has been saying about its chances.

MALVEAUX: Well, what they've been saying is that they feel pretty strong, pretty encouraged that they are going to get the majority of the delegates here. They feel like when you take a look at the population, that they will be stronger, particularly leaning on the African American community. But what we have seen as well is, even from Senator Clinton's camp, they concede that they believe he's going to be a strong candidate there.

That is why we saw it was former President Bill Clinton who was here in Louisiana crisscrossing the state yesterday, not Senator Clinton. Two days ago you saw Barack Obama, a very well-attended rally at a local university, clearly a lot of enthusiasm, but still some concern whether or not those young voters are actually going to be here, going to actually turn out and vote today, whether some of that enthusiasm is going to translate into some real numbers here. So that's what we're looking at. CROWLEY: Suzanne Malveaux in New Orleans, keeping track of that Louisiana primary today. We're going to hear from John McCain. We're going to take a quick break. Stick with BALLOT BOWL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08. I'm Dana Bash in Washington, DC. In BALLOT BOWL we bring you the candidates live on the campaign trail, sometimes taped. We try to bring you what we as political reporters get to hear while we cover them on the campaign trail, extended portions of their stump as they appeal to voters at this point in the game to try to get their party's nomination.

And we've been telling you through the last couple hours about contests going on across the country today. We do have results once again to remind our viewers in the State of Kansas on the republican side. The caucuses there brought a big win for Mike Huckabee today. He won 33 delegates there. So let's just update our viewers in terms of where the delegate count is on the Republican side. John McCain at this stage of the game has 714 delegates. And Mike Huckabee, even with his win today in Kansas, we calculate he has 214 delegates. So still John McCain is still well on his way and is doing much better towards getting the number he needs, the magic number on the Republican side is 1,191.

John McCain about 60 -- between 60 and 65 percent of the way there towards getting the nomination. That is why, despite the win today that Mike Huckabee has in Kansas, the McCain campaign spin, if you will, is that they still believe that John McCain is the presumptive nominee. That is the way he is going to continue to act, to present himself to voters. And he's going to act and he's continuing to act behind the scenes as he tries to unite the Republican Party with whatever it takes really to do in order to have -- to prepare itself for what is going to be a bitter, bitter contest against whichever Democrat wins on the Democratic side, either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. About John McCain, he is not campaigning today, but he had intense campaigning yesterday. And he flew across the country from here in DC all the way to Washington State. When he was on his plane, he had an extensive Q and A session with reporters as he is wont to do that went almost an hour. We want to bring you a portion of that, as he is talking about his challenge in looking forward -- of course as he looks forward, he is looking straight at the Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When they say they're the agents of change, both of them, I didn't see any change that they brought about in Washington. All I saw was a continuation of pork barrel spending and earmarking.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

MCCAIN: I think that the fact is that I did a great deal -- more importantly, I've been responsible for change in a long time. The greatest change, of course, is the strategy in Iraq which is now succeeding, as everybody -- what they acknowledge.

And again, I would argue that the Abramoff investigation was one of the catalysts that brought about some of the ethics and lobbying reform which I don't think has gone far enough, obviously. I think it's clearly not gone far enough. And there are loopholes that have been created that are being exploited as we speak.

So there's been a number of saving taxpayers $6 billion on an Air Force tanker was I'm sure a welcome change to some. And so I will continue to do the same things that I've been doing in the Senate. And I believe as the president, obviously I can have more effect.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) And the fundraising, the overwhelming fundraising success that both Obama and Hillary Clinton are having. How does that change your outlook for a general?

IMCCAIN: t doesn't change my outlook. But I have said many times in the straight talk, we've got a lot of work to do to energize our base. And as I'm sure you've heard me say in town hall meetings, by letting spending getting completely out of control, part of our conservative base who cares about fiscal discipline became very dispirited. When I say that to our public at town hall meetings and other places, they all agree.

There's no disagreement there. So we've got to have fiscal responsibility, restraint in spending and go back to that commitment. I think when I say I'll veto any earmark, certainly yet at CPA when I said I'd veto any earmark, and that was the biggest applause line. You can tell that's really a very important issue in our base.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

MCCAIN: Yeah. Karl sent us a check. I saw the moths fly out.

QUESTION: Are there other signs you see that are encouraging to ...

MCCAIN: A lot of the fundraisers from other camps are coming on board. Yeah. We're seeing that coming together really. We're seeing it.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

MCCAIN: Who?

QUESTION: Karl Rove.

MCCAIN: Listen, nobody denies he's one of the smartest political minds in America. I'd be glad to get his advice. I get advice from a lot of people. I'd be happy to have his advice.

QUESTION: I was wondering about that, right.

MCCAIN: He beat me, I certainly would be glad to get his advice. I don't think I'd want to revisit how he did it. And I mean that -- I mean that -- I don't feel like reliving my defeat.

QUESTION: Are you worried about, he is very aggressive tactics (Inaudible).

MCCAIN: I've always respected Karl Rove as one of the great smart political minds in American politics. I've always respected him. We never had any ill will after the initial South Carolina thing, after we had the meeting with President Bush. We moved on. I've seen Karl Rove many times when I've been over at the White House. We've always had pleasant conversations.

QUESTION: His tactics don't, you don't disapprove of them?

MCCAIN: It's not so much whether I approve of his tactics or not. It's that he had a very good, great political mind. And any information or advice and counsel he can give us, I'd be glad to have. I don't think anybody denies his talents. So I'd be glad to get any advice and council. We would obviously decide whether to accept it or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: John McCain speaking on his campaign plane yesterday talking about Karl Rove and the fact that Karl Rove has actually now given out of his own personal wallet campaign money to John McCain's campaign. That is significant and symbolic. For those who know sort of the back story, those political junkies out there of the Karl Rove slash George Bush relationship and John McCain and some of his advisors, back in 2000 was a little less than cordial to say the least when those two were bitter, bitter rivals.

But the fact that Karl Rove has decided to give money to John McCain, has decided to make that public, is very indicative, the McCain campaign says, of the fact that McCain is on his way towards becoming the Republican nominee because people like Karl Rove are rallying behind John McCain. So that is sort of a noteworthy moment that John McCain was talking about on his campaign plane yesterday. That is part of the dramatic political coverage that we've been bringing you for the past several hours.

But as we bring you that, there is a lot more news around the country and the world. And for that I want to pass it over to Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. Hi, Fredricka.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Dana. Much more of BALLOT BOWL '08 with Dana Bash, Suzanne Malveaux and Mary Snow in a moment. First a look at the headlines. Firefighters in Savannah, Georgia say they've identified two possible location ins the search for four missing people in a sugar refinery. Authorities are trying to pin down the massive blast that left four workers dead and 20 badly burned.

Investigators are still trying to figure out the motive of the killing of two students at a college. Fellow student Latina Williams walked into a classroom at Louisiana Technical College, shot the two women to death and then killed herself.

Overflow crowds are packing funerals for victims of this week's tornado outbreak. At least 59 people were killed when twisters tore through five southern states. Nearly half of those fatalities were in Tennessee. There were dozens of serious injuries. And many people were left homeless.

Hundreds of homes inundated by water in northwest Ohio, the result of three days of heavy rains and melting snow. It's the second time in five months the area has had to clean up from devastating floods like that.

And a deadly attack in northwest Pakistan. Police say a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a political rally organized by a secular party that Islamic extremists oppose. There is conflicting information on the number of deaths. One police report says 13 people were killed, another puts the death toll at 20.

And Hollywood writers are getting a first look at the details of a proposed deal to end their three-month-long strike. Included is a provision to compensate writers for material streamed on the internet. That was one of the key demands. If the deal is ratified, Hollywood could get back to work as early as Monday.

Much more of BALLOT BOWL '08 straight ahead after this.

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CROWLEY: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL, I'm Candy Crowley in Richmond, Virginia.

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