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McCain Says Dems Not Agents of Change; Candidates Converge on Potomac Primary States; Obama & Clinton Speak in Virginia About Why They're Electable.

Aired February 10, 2008 - 17:00   ET

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

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENTF: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08. Our Sunday edition where in addition to giving you these candidates live, unfiltered and unedited we also are tracking some results for you today. Maine, great state of Maine is having caucuses today. So, we are watching those results beginning to come in.
Right now still just 11 percent of the caucus results, you see Barack Obama with a slight edge, about 50 percent of the vote in the caucusing. Hillary Clinton at about 48 percent, not to confuse you too much, but those numbers to the right of the percentages are state delegates, who will then go on to a state convention where Maine's 24 delegates will be selected to go to the convention in Denver. So, those 24 delegates that are highly important here in this hotly- contested Democratic race.

For now, we are in Virginia, because of course, Virginia is one of three spots holding either elections -- holding elections, primaries on Tuesday, what we call the Potomac primary: Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

So, also some breaking news we want to tell you about. First of all: We know from the Clinton campaign that Hillary Clinton has met with John Edwards who you know suspended his campaign, dropping out, that is. Obviously, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would very much like the support of John Edwards' voters. Obviously, a step toward doing that would be getting John Edwards' endorsement. We are told that Barack Obama, our sources tell us, will be meeting with Edwards tomorrow.

However, one big caveat, our sources also tells CNN that, at this moment, it is not certain whether John Edwards will endorse, when he might endorse or in fact, who. So, very much up in the air. The only thing we really know is how much Obama and Clinton would love that Edwards endorsement, particularly, as they head into the big state of Ohio, lots of working class voters there that were drawn to the John Edwards campaign.

Other breaking news: There has been a shakeup in the hierarchy of the Clinton campaign. Never a good sign in the midst of an election when there are changeovers at the top. So, we want to bring in our Suzanne Malveaux to talk a little bit about this. Suzanne, you've been talking to your sources, obviously, the Clinton campaign has confirmed that the campaign manager, Patti Doyle, is out. Maggie Williams is in. But what does it mean? SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it simply means that what we're trying to do is figure out who's in charge here and where do they move forward with their ground operation. Insiders saying, there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the ground operation, that there were mixed messages going from one state to the other state, that there was a sense of superdelegates as well as some of the surrogates were quite frustrated with Doyle. They felt that they weren't getting their phone calls returned, there was also somewhat of a sense from insiders that there was quite a surprise and dissatisfaction with how the decisions were made over the money, that this money was going too quickly, that the spending decisions were not made wisely.

You may recall after Iowa and New Hampshire, there was a team that was brought in. Maggie Williams being one of those members of the team, and insiders are saying, at that point, she really started to take on the role much more of the duties of the campaign managers. So, you kind of had a split within the campaign itself, some people reporting to Maggie Williams, others reporting to the original campaign manager, Patti Doyle that created a lot of confusion among the staff, and they really felt they needed to sort all of this out.

Insiders saying that it was Senator Clinton who made the decision but as one source put it, they said, both of them are close friends with Senator Clinton and they didn't need to have a dual layer hostile environment. They just needed to sort it out. So, they believe, now, they have a hierarchy of positions in place where people understand who's in charge and perhaps they can move forward with the message that is consistent with a team that is able to get back and satisfy the superdelegates who are critical, very important in moving forward, as well as some of those surrogates who are out there trying to drum up support for Senator Clinton. Candy?

CROWLEY: So, Suzanne, some turnover at the top, but I've been watching a little bit of her where you were, absolutely no sign of that in her campaign. She is still cool as a cucumber.

MALVEAUX: She really was. There was no hint whatsoever that all of this was kind of churning in the background but insiders, they say, they're not particularly surprised by this development. They say that, in some ways, over the last couple of weeks, they could kind of tell that you have Maggie Williams, who was taking on more of the role of a campaign manager, that it was simply kind of a passing of the torch, if you will, but Senator Clinton on the stump, very consistent.

Today, we saw her talking about her economic plan, talking about the mortgage, the housing crisis, what she wants to do. We also heard her in some ways use very similar phrases, the refrains that we've heard from Senator Barack Obama. She was saying, talking about "don't tell us we can't do this or we can't do that". You hear that from Barack Obama a lot. She turns it around and says, this is not a country that is a "can't do" country but rather a "can do" country. She specifically talked about her health care policy and she said, I think it's time that we say, "we can", that being very familiar, similar to Barack Obama that "yes, we can" message. Let's take a listen to Senator Clinton. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We know that health care is such a precious commodity. I think it's a right, not a privilege. I believe that in this richest of all nations, we are smart enough to figure out how to provide quality, affordable health care to everyone. I have put forth a plan that would do that. This is one of the big differences between my opponent and me in the primary on Tuesday.

I think you have to stand for universal health care, because until we get everybody covered, we're not going to be able to lower costs and improve quality, and we have two big problems. We have people who have no insurance at all and they show up in our emergency rooms, don't they, and we have people with insurance except the insurance companies won't pay for what their doctors and their hospitals say they need.

So, that's why I have proposed a plan that would open up the Congressional health plan. It would give to every American what members of Congress and federal employees have, a way of purchasing quality, affordable health insurance, and if it is unaffordable, we can provide health care tax credits, we can limit the amount of the premium to a very small percentage of someone's income, but until we get everybody into the system, we will not be able to take care of people the way they should be, or control the costs, because thankfully, in our country, people do find their way to the emergency room, and they do get taken care of, often at the last moment, and then, those costs get distributed to all the rest of us, like a hidden tax. I think it's time that we say we can provide health insurance.

When we did Medicare, we didn't leave any of our seniors out. We said we're going to have a system to take care of all of our seniors. When Congress created the federal employees health benefit plan, it decided to cover federal employees. If we open up that plan, it will give us a very large group of people that can essentially bargain for lower prices for everything from drugs to services.

Part of the reason health insurance is so expensive especially for small businesses, you don't have enough bargaining power, and that's just the way the health insurance industry likes it. They want to keep people in very small groups, unable to bargain, unable to demand what we all should have, mental health coverage, preventative services -- the kind of health care that will keep us healthy instead of just responding when we're sick. I know that this is a challenging priority, but I think it's worth standing up and fighting for, and if you care about health care for everyone, I hope you will vote for me in the primary on Tuesday.

I also believe that we can start creating jobs again in America. We haven't been creating private sector jobs. The best way to do that is with a clean energy plan that would put people to work weatherizing homes, insulating them, installing solar panels, doing the work for wind and geothermal and biofuels. This is the way to create millions of new good jobs in our country, and I am convinced we can do this, if we start following what worked for us in the past. You know, every time we've had a big problem in America, we finally got together and addressed it. We had to electrify the country, we figured out how to do it. We need an interstate highway system, we figured out how to do it. We needed to win the space race, we did it. The human genome, we mapped it. The information technology revolution, we invented the Internet. We have always stepped up as Americans. The federal government in partnership with the private sector and our great universities (ph) -- that is what we need to do now when it comes to energy. It needs to be the equivalent for this generation that the space race was for mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Candy it wasn't all positive. She did take a swipe at Barack Obama earlier saying that many people ask her why don't you give us rhetorical flourish, get us all whooped up, she says, well I'm going to make sure that you told me accountable and that is the way she dealt with that but clearly, trying to downplay some of the rhetoric and the message of Barack Obama, at the same time, trying to appeal to the voters on those specifics that they're looking for, over her health care plan, over getting and creating jobs, and the one thing that they see on Tuesday is that Maryland is probably not going to go in her favor, neither is Washington, D.C., but they do believe, there are pockets in Virginia that are competitive, and those are the areas where they have federal employees, military families, soccer moms and people who have really been upset, really suffering from what it seems to be this economic recession, and that's who she's addressing today, Candy.

CROWLEY: Of course, Suzanne, thanks very much. You know, some of those federal workers that you're talking about are right here in northern Virginia and the suburbs of Washington D.C. Suzanne in Manassas today, 20 miles east you find us here at Alexandria. This is where Barack Obama was earlier.

Throughout this campaign, there have been two issues that both these candidates have used to sort of differentiate themselves from the other. One of them, as you heard with Hillary Clinton has been health care. She has a universal health care plan. She calls it that mandates that everyone get health care insurance. Barack Obama tackles it from a slightly different angle and says that he would drive down the costs of health insurance and the cost of medicine and therefore, get everyone covered because they'd be able to afford it.

The second issue that the two of them have argued about and it began very early in one of the debates, when Barack Obama said that he would talk to any foreign leader, that he believes that you should talk with not just your friends but your enemies. The Clinton campaign jumped all over this early on and said, it was naive that those sorts of negotiations needed to go on at lower levels but Obama has never, ever backed down from what he said to begin with and he was talking about it again today here in Alexandria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But let me say this about Senator Clinton. She is a smart person. She is a capable person. She would be a vast improvement over the incumbent, so I mean, let's stipulate to that fact. Let's stipulate to those facts. What is also true is, I think that it is very hard for Senator Clinton to break out of the politics of the last 15 years and that politics is basically a politics where 47 percent of the country is on one side, 47 percent is on the other. You got 5 percent in the middle, they all live in Florida and Ohio apparently.

And so you battle it out and you never actually, even if you win, you don't have a working majority for change, and the Congress doesn't change. I mean, keep in mind, we had Bill Clinton as president when in '94, we lost the House. We lost the Senate. We lost governorships. We lost state houses, and so, regardless of what policies they wanted to promote, they didn't have a working majority to bring change about.

Now, one of the strengths of this campaign has been that, although I am a strong progressive, because I believe in reaching out across the aisle, because of the tone I take where I try not to demonize others, we're able to attract independents and disillusioned Republicans and those folks have been voting in Democratic primaries and Democratic caucuses. And so, that is the way you bring a working majority together and by the way, that's the only way we're going to deliver on the policy promises that have been made.

Hillary and I both want universal health care, but unless we can put a working majority together, it doesn't matter what plans are adopted. They will not pass through the Congress. One of the things you can tell your friends is, there is a reason why the last six polls, including this week's "Time" magazine, show that I beat John McCain by six, seven points, and she doesn't. That's where it matters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Obviously, this is not Barack Obama talking about foreign policy, but Barack Obama talking about his electability. He was asked in this town hall meeting today, if he would meet with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who obviously an enemy of the United States and he repeated, yes, he would, that he considers Chavez a dictator but that you don't get anywhere without sitting down and talking to people. So after this break, which we were just about to take, we're going to go back to the Republican side and a little of Mike Huckabee. Stick with BALLOT BOWL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Hi, welcome back to BALLOT BOWL '08: Our effort to give you all of these candidates, Republicans and Democrat -- large portions of their speech unedited, unfiltered for to you see them the way we see them. We wanted to talk a little bit about the Republicans now. Our Mary Snow has been with Mike Huckabee. We are of course moving now into the Virginia primary, the Maryland primary, the Washington, D.C. primary, but Mary, I am told that at this point, Huckabee, at least his team is looking back a little at that Washington state caucus? MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Candy, just within the hour, the campaign chairman, Ed Rollins, campaign chairman for the Huckabee campaign released a statement calling the results from Washington state caucuses dubious, saying that he is sending lawyers to be on the ground in Washington to meet with party officials.

Here's what they're contesting. They're saying that they find it, in their words "deeply disturbing" that the race was called without more of the votes counted, and at this point, the Huckabee campaign saying that it's exploring all legal options to see what comes next. So, unclear exactly what they'll do, but they say that not enough of the votes were counted. They want all of them counted.

Mike Huckabee is fighting for every last delegate that he can, 18 delegates at stake, of course, in the state of Washington. He is far behind Senator John McCain, but keeps vowing to press ahead. He was here at this Thomas Rhodes Baptist church, this is the church of Jerry Farwell, they're getting ready for a service so, it's why a little bit loud here, but he addressed the congregation here.

Also earlier today, he was in Washington, D.C., he did a few of the morning talk shows in D.C. and he spoke to reporters after one of those appearances, taking some questions. One of the questions he was asked about was Karl Rove donating money to Senator McCain. Karl Rove had said that he's not yet endorsed McCain. So, it's one of the things that was posed to Mike Huckabee earlier today. Let's take a listen to his answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're very excited to be in Virginia and we're going to be here over the next several days, this little event going on in Virginia in Tuesday we hear and we kind of want to be around when it happens. So, over the next couple of days, we'll be throughout the state. And I would give you the schedule if I knew it. Somebody in I'm sure in my campaign does but they have not shared it with me.

It's kept pay grades (ph) above mine. So, we'll have it released and all of you in the press will, I'm sure, be kept apprised of it, but we're looking forward to meeting a lot of Virginia voters. We showed yesterday that what the polls predict don't always come to be, decisive, overwhelming victory in Kansas, a shocking victory in Louisiana and as of yet, still undetermined consequence in Washington state. And all three of those, I think, were surprises to most people who were kind of sort of saying, well, the contest is over, but we've said throughout, it isn't, and it isn't because there are a lot of people in the country who have yet to vote. We feel like they've got a right and a responsibility to go vote and we want to give them a choice so we're here today to give the people of Virginia a choice as well. Let me open for some questions.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

HUCKABEE: Yes, it takes 1,191 delegates to get there. Nobody has those yet. Karl Rove has also maxed out personal contributions to John McCain. So, I mean, I'm not saying he didn't doesn't know what he's talking about politically, but he's not infallible either and the point is: Karl is a supporter of John McCain, and I've not had my supporters, who have yet to tell me to get out of the race.

I'll tell you, when the Liberty Flames play football, rest assured that the Flames don't look over at the opposition to see what their cheerleaders are thinking about their game's played to decide whether they're going to play harder. As long as their own cheerleaders are still waving the bomb pom-poms, they're going to stay out there on the field. So, the fact that the opposing team has their cheerleaders and band blowing songs against me, hardly it motivates me to quit. It only motivates me to play harder. So, if they think that what's they're doing is getting a chorus of voices that will make me say, OK, it's time to leave, they don't know me very well.

UNIDENTIFIED: Governor, I know that you were confident in Kansas, but were you surprised with how well you did in Louisiana and Washington?

HUCKABEE: All I can tell you today, of course not, I thought it all along. Quite frankly, we were very surprised and we weren't confident of anything like that victory in Kansas. We felt we were doing well in Kansas, and I thought we would win Kansas. I thought it would be close. You got to remember, John McCain was there the same day we were, and he had two sitting U.S. senators from Kansas standing on the stage with him, had been endorsed by both of them, and that, you know, typically means something.

And yet, when it was all over, what it meant was that the people of Kansas said thanks, but we'll make up our own minds, which is exactly what I think is happening across America. I'm very confident what's going to happen in Virginia on Tuesday. I think there are a lot of voters who are getting a little weary of kind of being told that it's over, why go vote? No bother, don't even show up, and they're saying, well, excuse us, but we'll go ahead and vote anyway and vote what we think, rather than what someone else has told us whether it's Karl Rove or Rick Perry or anybody else.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Governor, Senators Clinton and Obama, (INAUDIBLE) they talked as if Senator McCain will be the nominee. How do you take all of this?

HUCKABEE: With a grain of salt. I mean, I don't expect them to worry about me right now. I'd rather they not. I'd like to come up totally out of the clear blue and take both of them out. That would be a whole lot more fun. You know, I've been ignored through the whole process. If I cried and whined every time that somebody ignored me in this, I'd have quit a year ago. But you got to realize through every stage of this, there is yet to be a time when the pundit said, Huckabee's the guy who's going to pull this off. And that hadn't yet.

In every stage of this had been, Huckabee isn't going to get another month in this deal. And so, I'm enjoying it, if for no other reason just to intimidate the daylights out of all the people that had it figured out. Now, just think about this, the two people six months ago nobody would have said would still be on their feet in the Republican primary, were John McCain whose campaign had imploded and Mike Huckabee who had never gotten off the start block, for what most people thought had to be.

We still never had raised the kind of money that everybody said you had to have. When we started this a year ago, they said if you can't raise $100 million by the end of the year, no reason to even get in. Well, we've raised a little less than that. We're still here. So far, one of the reasons I'm staying in because it's just amazing to me to watch it myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: That's Mike Huckabee earlier today in Washington, D.C., taking questions from reporters, and saying that he wants to defy the pundits. That's a common theme that you hear him talking about on the campaign trail, saying that he's not looking at the map, in his words, he's looking for a miracle, in the race against Senator John McCain.

Virginia, he is concentrating on and its 60 delegates at stake on Tuesday and taking a look at just the latest delegate count to give you a sense of just how far behind he is, behind John McCain, Senator McCain right now has 723 delegates, Mike Huckabee 217, but here in Virginia, where he spoke earlier at the Thomas Road Baptist Church, one of the themes he did not talk about in his political campaign, but he did talk about moral values and also talking about his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, although he really stayed away from a political theme here today, but clearly, he is reaching out to conservatives, the right wing part of this party, hoping that he will have those conservative support, also running some ads in the state that tout him as, in his words, the authentic conservative. Candy?

CROWLEY: Thanks so much, Mary Snow in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Now as you know, we're not only just bringing you these candidates, we're bringing you some actual caucus results. The great state of Maine had caucuses today. We now have some new numbers in. About 44 percent of Maine caucuses reporting. We are seeing Barack Obama pulling out a lead here, about 15 percentage points ahead of Hillary Clinton. Obama, 57 percent, Hillary Clinton 42 percent. Those numbers on the right side of your screen next to the percentages are state delegates. They will go on to a state convention, but at this point, Barack Obama, 57 percent, Hillary Clinton, 42 percent in Maine, holding caucuses today.

There obviously is a lot of other news going on today as well and we're going to take a look at it. Here's a question for you: What does Barack Obama have to do with the Grammy's? Well, we've got a live report from the Grammy's and you'll find out right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Hello I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center. Back to BALLOT BOWL after a look at the headlines.

Homes near the South Carolina coast are being threatened by flames tonight. A wind-blown wildfire around the city of Conway has forced people to evacuate, about 60 homes. The blaze has burned about 250 acres, dozens of area fire departments are on the scene about 15 miles northwest of Myrtle Beach. And they have a tough fight on their hands, winds gusting up to 30 miles an hour and the humidity is low.

Meantime, roads piled high with snow and ice, subzero temperatures and dangerously high winds, treacherous conditions is what a lot of folks in Michigan are facing right now.

Bonnie Schneider is watching the winter blast right now -- Bonnie?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Fredricka. This video is incredible. You're about to see some of the waves crashing on the shore from Lake Michigan, incredible wind. You can hear the water as it hits the shoreline. So we're not only looking at the strong waves but also the wind and heavy snow. This is I-94 in Michigan. This region of southwest Michigan has been so bad that emergency management has said do not even travel under any circumstances, unless it's an salute emergency, because we not only have the snow but we also have the wind-chill factor which is so dangerous to be out and about in conditions like that.

Let's look at some of the lake-effect snow we're also contending with into upstate New York. Plenty of it coming along in areas north of Syracuse, south of Buffalo. We'll keep that in the forecast as well as the bitter cold across much of the northern central part of the country. Right now it's negative five in Minneapolis. The temperatures are also cold in buffalo right at 6. Chicago reporting a current number of zero degrees.

So it's really this vigorous storm system that's pulling colder air across the lakes. It will bring more lake-effect snow and dangerous cold, Fredricka, for tonight and tomorrow as well.

WHITFIELD: Thanks for the warning, Bonnie.

Out West, Hollywood writers could be back at their keyboards by Wednesday. We're getting word of a deal to end their three-month-old strike.

Brooke Anderson is live with the latest.

Brooke, you have the backdrop of the Grammys behind you and did I mention the writers out West but that affects the writers on the east coast as well.

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, there are thousands of members of the Writers Guild who live in New York and east coast cities as well. And this comes at the relief of so many people who have been impacted directly and also affected indirectly since the writers walked off the job November 5th. The board and the council of the Writers Guild have voted unanimously to approve this proposed deal they have struck with the producers, and to send it to their members for ratification vote. Listen to how the president of the WGA, the Writers Guild West, describes the strike effort and this agreement that has been reached.

UNIDENTIFIED PRESIDENT, WRITERS GUILD WEST: It was arguably the most successful strike in American labor movement in a decade, certainly the most important of this young century. It is not all that we hoped for and it is not all we deserve, but as I told our members, this strike was about the future. And this deal assures for us and for future generations of writers a share in the future.

ANDERSON: The members of the Writers Guild are voting on Tuesday to lift the strike possibly, so potentially they could be back at work on Wednesday, and that is good news for everybody.

I'm getting word from the Grammy's pre-telecast, Barack Obama won a Grammy for best spoken word album for his audio version of his book "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream." And guess who he beat out? Former President Clinton, and also former President Carter, both of whom have won that Grammy in the past.

It is the 50th annual Grammys. People are talking politics. That's on a lot of people's minds.

Also people are wondering about Amy Winehouse, the British soul singer, and will she show up. She's been in rehab in the past two weeks, nominated for six Grammys for her break-through album "Back to Black." She as denied a visa to enter the United States and then late Friday granted that visa, but we heard she will not attend -- she is in London -- due to logistics. She will be performing live, though, for the telecast via satellite from a London studio. The recording academy doesn't typically allow this thing but wanted her to participate and be recognized for what they consider a great work, Fredricka. And if she does win an award she can give her acceptance speech by satellite as well.

WHITFIELD: I guess she's lucky to be given the second chance, that's what she said in her statement, too.

ANDERSON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Brooke. We'll watch your reports throughout the evening.

On to Iraq now. A suicide bombing at a market north of Baghdad killed at least 25 people and wounded 40 more. Iraqi police say the bombers sped toward the market in a car and detonated the blast as checkpoint guards opened fire.

Also in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates departed Munich today and made an unannounced landing in Baghdad. On his agenda, meeting with General David Petraeus on troop withdrawal prospects and pressing Iraqi leaders to resolve disputes that have handcuffed the government.

Much more of the BALLOT BOWL right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: It is Sunday afternoon and we are in a special edition of CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08, bringing you of course, as always, large portions of the speeches of the candidates, both Republican and Democratic. They are unfiltered and they are in their own words.

We, of course, are also watching the Maine caucuses as those results come in. And we are giving you both a look at the Democrats and the Republicans.

Now, John McCain, though, of course, he is on the ballot upcoming in the Tuesday contest in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., has pretty much taken the weekend off. He is expected back in the area sometime Monday.

One of the things about covering John McCain, as everyone knows, is that he is almost all access, all the time, whether it is on the bus he calls the Straight Talk Express, he will talk with reporters for hours or whether it's on his campaign plane.

In particular we want to show you a flight from Washington State back east, where John McCain talked about a number of things, including Karl Rove and why the Democrats are not agents of change.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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.

REPORTER: (Inaudible).

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

And again, I would argue that the Abu Ghraib investigation, I was one of the catalysts that brought about some of the ethics of lobbying reform, which I don't thinks that 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 -- savings taxpayer $6 billion on an air force tanker which was a welcome change to some. And so I would continue to do the same things that I've been doing in the Senate and I believe, as the president, I would say I would have more effect.

REPORTER: (Inaudible) and the fund-raising, the overwhelming fund-raising success for Senator Obama and Hillary are having, how does that change your outlook?

MCCAIN: I've said many times in the straight talk, we've got a lot of work to do, to energize our base. I'm sure you've heard me say in town hall meetings that by letting spending getting completely out of control, part of our conservative base, who cares about fiscal discipline, we've been dispirited. And when I say that to our Republicans at town hall meetings and other places, they all agree. There's no disagreement. So we 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 yesterday at CPAC, I said I'll veto any earmark bill with earmarks on it. That was the biggest applause line so you can tell that's really a very important issue in our race.

REPORTER: (Inaudible).

MCCAIN: Yeah, Karl sent us a check. (Inaudible) fly out.

REPORTER: Are there others (inaudible) encouraging you?

MCCAIN: I have. A lot of people and a lot of the fund-raisers from other camps are coming on board. Yeah, we're seeing that coming together really...

REPORTER: Karl Rove?

MCCAIN: Who?

REPORTER: Karl Rove.

MCCAIN: Listen, nobody denies that 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. I don't think I'd want to revisit how he did it. And I mean that was in South Carolina. I mean I don't feel like reliving my defeat.

REPORTER: Aren't you worried about -- I mean, he has very aggressive tactics and strategies.

MCCAIN: But I mean he just...

(CROSSTALK)

MCCAIN: I've always respected Karl Rove as one of the smart, great political minds I think 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 to the White House. We've always had a pleasant conversation.

REPORTER: So his tactics don't -- you don't disapprove of them (inaudible)?

MCCAIN: It's not so much whether I approved of his tactics or not. He has a very good great political mind, and any information or advice in counsel he could 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 counsel. We would obviously decide whether to accept it or not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: There have been many great political story this is season, the first African-American with a real shot at the nomination, the first woman with a real shot at the nomination and John McCain, who last summer was broke down to a skeletal staff, all but left for dead politically, now on the verge of becoming the Republican nominee for president.

We're going to come up again after this break. We will bring you caucus results from Maine. And we'll also be looking a little forward to those Tuesday primaries, the Potomac primary, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. Stick with us.

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CROWLEY: I'm Candy Crowley in Alexandria, Virginia. You are watching CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08, where we bring you the candidates and have been for the past couple of hours.

But we're also bringing you some results. Maine is holding caucuses today. There are 24 Democratic delegates up for grabs. Here's what we're seeing with about 44 percent of the vote totals in from those caucuses. Barack Obama opening up a pretty wide lead, 57 percent to 42 percent. Those numbers you see besides the percentages are state delegates won in these caucuses. Again, Just 44 percent, under half of the caucuses reporting, but Barack Obama with a wide lead at this point.

Now all of the candidates, at least Huckabee on the Republican side, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have been in Virginia today. Virginia a part of that Potomac primary, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland, coming up on Tuesday.

Last night, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were in Richmond, Virginia. Big doings there, a Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. This is always huge in any state. It's where the state Democratic Party picks up a lot of money. They charge a lot for people to come in, and buy a table, and eat.

We were on the campus of the Virginia Commonwealth University. It was a huge auditorium, people that didn't pay that much came in, and were -- filled it up to the rafters, because this was their first and last chance to see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton side by side in the same venue.

Now, they spoke separately but they each came with their campaign pitches, what they would do, why they'd be the better candidate and why they're most electable.

We want to bring you a portion of each of those speeches. We want to start with Barack Obama.

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BARACK OBAMA, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But in this election, at this moment, Americans are standing up all across the country to say, "Not this time, not this year." The stakes are too high, and the challenges are too great to play the same old Washington game with the same old Washington players, and expect a different result. People want to turn the page. They want to write a new chapter in American history.

And today -- and today the voters from the west coast to the Gulf Coast, to the heart of America stood up to say, yes, we can. We won in Louisiana. We won in Nebraska. We won in Washington State. We won north. We won south. We won in between. And I believe that we can win Virginia on Tuesday, if you're ready to stand for change.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Barack Obama in Richmond, Virginia, at a dinner last night.

Hillary Clinton was also there, and we're going to have her coming up right after the break.

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CROWLEY: Hi, I'm Candy Crowley in Alexandria, Virginia. And this is CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08.

We have new numbers from the Maine caucuses to tell you about. Right now we have 59 percent of the caucuses reporting. And what we see is Barack Obama maintaining his 15 percentage-point lead over Hillary Clinton. This was a caucus where the Clinton people thought they might be able to pull it out. It's an area has been friendly to her and there had been hope for this. We don't know which caucuses have not reported yet. They could well be Clinton strongholds, but at this moment with 59 percent of the caucuses reporting, Barack Obama with a 15 percentage-point lead.

We want to take you again back to last night, Richmond, Virginia, a very big Democratic affair. They packed an arena at Virginia Commonwealth University. Some had dinner. Some just waited for the candidates to come on. But these Virginia Democrats, the real activists, got to hear from both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

You heard some of Obama. Here's Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe health care is a fundamental human right, and a moral obligation of the United States of America, finally to achieve for our people.

If I'm your nominee, you'll never have to worry that I'll be knocked out of the ring, because I do have the strength and experience to lead this country, and I am ready to go toe to toe with Senator McCain, whenever and wherever he desires.

I am ready to make the case for the Democratic Party from universal health care, to making it clear that, once again, America is open for business in the rest of the world. The era of cowboy diplomacy will be over.

I am ready. I am ready to make your case because your voices are the change we seek. And together we will take back the White House, and take back America, because I see an America where our economy works for everyone, not just those at the top, where our...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Senator Hillary Clinton in a tight race for delegates with Barack Obama. We are keeping an eye on those Maine caucuses and we'll report through the night.

We will also have all of the primary results on Tuesday, so be sure to tune in for our special election coverage. But right now, we want to go on to "Lou Dobbs this Weekend."

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ANNOUNCER: This is a special edition of "Lou Dobbs Tonight: Independence Day, Awakening the American Spirit." Live from New York, Lou Dobbs.

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