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Candidates Preparing for Crucial Primaries on Tuesday; Electronic Voting; John McCain Trying to Rally Republican Conservatives; Candidates' Plans to Fix Nation's Sluggish Economy
Aired February 29, 2008 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning once again, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.
Extra politics on this extra day of the year. Here's what's on the leap day rundown.
Crucial primaries in Texas and Ohio on Tuesday. Look for four days of fascinated campaigning by Obama and Clinton. Early voting on Texas and Ohio on pace to break records. Does it spell turn out trouble for Republicans in November.
And will every vote count Tuesday? New buzz about electronic voting today, Friday, February 29th. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Rallying voters, raising millions. The presidential candidates heading into the final weekend of campaigning before key primaries on Tuesday. And CNN will be here to cover it all for you, of course.
For Hillary Clinton, this could be crucial Tuesday. She's counting on Texas and Ohio for a comeback. Clinton has already seen a record fund-raising rebound. Her campaign says she raised $35 million in February. But she is still playing catch-up to Barack Obama. Some estimates put his February fund-raising at more than $50 million. Both Obama and Clinton are campaigning in Texas today.
So is Republican nominee to be John McCain. He holds a town hall meeting this hour. We will have extensive live coverage of the rallies and the race throughout the morning. The best political team on television is in position. Wow, look at all those people -- to bring you all the latest developments ahead of Tuesday's primaries. Voters will be casting ballots Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. There are 370 delegates at stake for the Democrats, 256 for the Republicans.
John McCain drawing the line against Democrats and trying to rally Republican conservatives. Dana Bash live now from Round Rock, Texas, where McCain is campaigning this hour. John McCain has been hitting Barack Obama hard on Iraq, right? Dana, not sure if you can hear me.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm sorry.
COLLINS: Dana, not sure if you can hear me. Talking about Iraq, the issue of Iraq. BASH: Sorry, sorry, Heidi, I had a little bit of an audio problem there. I do hear you now. I'm actually still having an audio problem but I think you asked me about Barack Obama and John McCain, talking about Barack Obama on Iraq.
And absolutely, this has been really the attack line for John McCain over the past couple of days. We're likely to hear it again when John McCain addresses employees of Dell here at Round Rock, Texas. Because what John McCain is trying to do right now is he's in kind of never neverland. He is test driving his messages against the Democrats. And Iraq is, for better or worse, John McCain knows, the issue that will define this race for him.
And it's really one of the biggest dividing lines between him and whichever Democratic opponent he has. More and more it's pretty clear that they think tat the biggest challenge will be Barack Obama. That's why that's been his biggest opponent in terms of its rhetoric.
Listen to what John McCain said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The fact that we are succeeding in Iraq, something that both he and Senator Clinton refuse to acknowledge. We are succeeding militarily and we are succeeding politically. So yesterday Senator Obama said, well, we shouldn't have gone in the first place. If we hadn't gone in, in the first place, we wouldn't be facing this problem. Well, that's history. That's the past. That's talking about what happened before. What we should be talking about is what we're going to do now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: What we should be talking about is what we should do now, that really seems to be, Heidi, a lesson that John McCain and his campaign have learned from Hillary Clinton in the way she's tried to run against Barack Obama because she has tried to do just what John McCain is doing, which is to say, she just like he has a lot more experience than Barack Obama. But Barack Obama has come back and said, it's not about experience, it's about judgment.
So what McCain is doing more and more is trying to say, Obama does not have the judgment, doesn't have the judgment to be president because, you know, for better or worse, we are where we are in Iraq and Barack Obama is saying that troops should come out. John McCain is saying that's just not logical and we should really think about what we could do in the future.
Now, for McCain, that's staying the course. And the McCain campaign understands full well, Heidi, that that message, stay the course, in this day and age is not going to be easy given the world weary nature of the voters in this country -- Heidi.
COLLINS: That's never easy. That's for sure. Dana Bash coming to us live this morning from Round Rock, Texas. Thank you, Dana. Democrats energized and turning out in huge numbers. Could that spell trouble for Republicans come November? CNN's John McCain -- excuse me, John King is in Ohio.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The turnout is already smashing records. Unprecedented early absentee voting in Cincinnati and across the state.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Barack Obama.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barack Obama.
KING: More than 40,000 ballots requested in southwest Ohio, Hamilton county alone. Four times than the past two presidential campaigns.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's some signs there.
KING: It's in part because of aggressive organizing by the Democrat who knows that come from behind Ohio victory could mean everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
KING: By the numbers, Republicans have a serious case of turnout trouble. Excluding caucuses, more than 22 million Democrats have cast ballots in primaries held to date, compared to just 14 million Republican voters. And Ohio looks to be no exception in a primary season punctuated by remarkable Democratic intensity and some signs of a shrinking or changing Republican base.
ERIC RADEMACHER, UNIV. OF CINCINNATI SURVEY CENTER: More people are telling us they're going to be voting in the Democratic primary, for example. And when we look at our polls over time, we're seeing a little bit of a dip in the number of people who are identifying themselves with the Republican party.
KING: Rally crowds don't always equal success on election day, but here, they have discrepancies, too. 600 or so is a good crowd for this McCain Cincinnati rally. But a day earlier for Obama, the line stretched across the university campus and, in the end, 13,000 jammed into a basketball arena.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really want to get people involved, and get them knocking on doors.
KING: In a big Democratic fund-raising advantage so far and some Republicans are at least a little nervous.
WHIT AYRES, GOP POLLSTER: Every coalition and every party undergoes some transitions over time. I think the Republican party is undergoing a transition.
KING: But despite so many early signs of trouble, Republicans do see an upside. Here in Ohio and nationally, Senator McCain won statistically even or better in early general election polling.
AYRES: John McCain could very well be the next president of the United States based upon current polling. So that suggests that whatever transition the Republicans are going through it may very well end up being a successful transition.
KING: Republicans say their best answer to that Democratic edge in intensity is superior organizing and voter targeting. That effort is already underway here using a sophisticated Republican party database.
Regular church goers, for example, will hear repeatedly about Senator McCain's opposition to abortion and the party is also matching voting rolls up against records for applications of gun licenses, hoping that in the end conservative Democrats and independents can be swayed to support Senator McCain.
John King, CNN, Cincinnati.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Every vote counts but what happens when an electronic voting system shorts out and there are no paper ballots to back up the numbers? Well, those concerns continue to loom large. Next week's primaries in two pivotal states.
CNN' Kitty Pilgrim explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ohio and Texas, tight races, flawed voting systems. A potential problem in counting the votes. In Ohio, the secretary of state insisted on running tests that found critical security failures with the electronic voting systems used in that state. She then urged 57 Ohio counties to switch to paper ballots but she didn't require it, so many candidates still haven't switched and don't plan to.
JOHN BONIFAZ, VOTER ACTION: There is a resistance in the state to making this change. And that's why it's important that she use her power. Her name is Jennifer Bruner. She ran in part on the platform to do something about this.
PILGRIM: Computer scientists who specialized in electronic voting systems say because of high expected turnout in Texas, any problems with electronic machines may result in long lines and chaos. They also say the state is vulnerable to massive vote count problems.
DAVID DILL, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: In the case of Texas, they're still in the dark ages in the number of the big counties where they are using all electronic voting with no paper trails or paper ballots at all. They also don't do manual audits.
PILGRIM: Concerned about the consequences are rooted in bad experiences elsewhere. For example, in the Super Tuesday state of New Jersey, voting machines in six counties recorded inaccurate turnout, sometimes fewer Democratic voters than it should have, sometimes fewer Republican voters.
Tallies did not match up. The state said the election results are not compromised but the manufacturer has no answers yet about what happened, issuing the statement, "Sequoia is currently working to isolate and determine the specific cause of an ancillary reporting issue."
Kitty Pilgrim, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: The nation's bad economy makes for good feature on the campaign trail. But do the candidates have a plan to fix it? A closer look, ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Just like presidential elections, leap day comes once every four years. Today, we marked it with extra political coverage. Our focus right now, the nation's sluggish economy. The candidates plans to fix it. CNN's senior business correspondent Ali Velshi is on the road in San Antonio.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We've been on the road with CNN "Election Express." We're here in front of the Alamo now but we were driving through Texas for over a week now. Talking to people about the economy.
What I want to do though is a lot of voters have been asking about what the candidates are going to do about certain things. We want to take a look at some of the candidates' position on just a couple of issues. The first one is taxes. I went through the major candidates that we've got left.
Let's start with John McCain. He would maintain President Bush's tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, including those for high income earners. However, he would cut the corporate tax rate by 25 percent to help businesses out and he would repeal the AMT, the Alternative Minimum Tax which many Americans are finding themselves falling into and losing deductions as a result of. Interesting point from John McCain. he's a big believer of the Internet. He would ban new taxes on the Internet and cell phones.
Barack Obama's position on taxes is that he would repeal the tax cuts that are taken advantage of by high income earners. He'll keep them in for low and middle income earners. He'll eliminate the tax for low income seniors all together, providing a $1,000 tax credit for working families under a certain income and reform the capital gains taxes. You pay lower taxes on capital gains, investments that have increased in value.
Hillary Clinton's tax proposals are not all that different. She also would repeal tax cuts for high-income earners. She would reduce some personal exemptions that are available to taxpayers and some itemized deductions. She would offer a $1,000 tax credit. Both Hillary Clinton have tax plans by the way that would give credit to working families under a certain amount of income if they agree to save that money for their retirement -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, so I see, you know, some similarities and certainly some differences there on the issue of taxes. What about housing? You know, we've been talking for a long time now about these foreclosures and the mortgage crisis. What do the candidates have to say, what are their differences and similarity on that?
VELSHI: You know, it's an interesting thing. While taxes are actually probably more important in the long term to the health of the economy, the things people think about and things we've been talking about are gas prices and housing. Let's take a look at the candidates' position on housing.
John McCain says he would -- he's really been very lukewarm on these government proposals, calling them bailouts for homeowners. He would help legitimate homeowners who are facing foreclosure but not offer help for speculators. There's a certain percentage, probably as high as 20 percent of people who are in trouble on their home loans, what, you may really, you can call them speculators if you want.
Some of those are investment properties. Barack Obama's position on housing is he would offer a credit on interest for struggling homeowners. He would like us to see a scoring system created to compare mortgages so people can sort of judge the mortgages that they're being offered. He would like new penalties for lender fraud and he want to create a mortgage fund for victims of foreclosure.
Hillary Clinton has been really the clearest and the first out of the gate on her views on housing. She would like a 90-day moratorium on sub prime foreclosures. Right now, the government has imposed a 30-day moratorium. So, if you're in any stage of foreclosure, the legal proceedings start. Hillary Clinton wants 90 days. She also wants a five-year rate freeze on adjustable rate mortgages. That one's a lot tougher because rates are set in the market.
So, government intervention into something that is done in the market is very complicated and meets with a great deal of resistance from the investment community. But she's been clear on her position on housing. So, more of a distinction between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on housing than on taxes.
COLLINS: Important news about your health. Heart disease in women. It is the number one killer of American women. One in three women will die from heart disease. While one in 25 will die from breast cancer.
Dr. Susan Bennett is the clinical director of the Women's Heart Program at George Washington's University's Cardiovascular Center. That's a mouthful. And she is joining us now to talk more about this.
A much-needed issue and when I say much-needed issue, I'm talking about awareness.
We've heard a lot of talk this month, obviously, about heart disease, Dr. Bennett. Is the message getting out? DR. SUSAN BENNETT, CARDIOLOGIST: The message is getting out. The American Heart Association has given us a lot of information from their surveys and awareness back in the late '90s was about 30 percent that women knew that heart disease was the number one killer and now it's about double that. But one of the disconnects unfortunately is that women often think that it's the other woman's risk and not their risk. But we need them to take it personally and seriously.
COLLINS: How do you do that?
BENNETT: Well, there's lots of things you need to know about yourself and then discuss with your doctor. You really need to know your numbers. High blood pressure is a big risk factor in heart disease in women as is diabetes and cholesterol.
So, when you get your blood pressure taken make sure you always ask your doctor or the medical assistant, what was that blood pressure. You want to see numbers less than 120/80. And the same thing with cholesterols, you would never know the dress without buying the dress size. We should walk away from the doctor's office knowing what our numbers are.
COLLINS: Yes. And what an excellent transition you make because I want to talk a little bit about where this segment came from. It was one of the red dress events. Last night, I had the opportunity to go to the Diet Coke red dress event. I'm sure you are very, very aware of -- because I joined with one of the organizations you work with, the Heart Truth, to help raise awareness about heart disease.
I do wonder, it was a great event. A lot of people talking about it. Everybody wearing red. And we heard some personal stories. There are (ph) seven personal stories.
What does it mean to have big corporations like this and celebrities like these, we've all heard about the Heidi Klum dress that was worn to the Oscars and there's the one that she wore on the fashion runway that they're now taking around the country to show everybody. Does it make a difference when these companies jump on board and when celebrities step out?
BENNETT: The more information that can get out the better. Mrs. Bush, for example, has been a wonderful spokesperson for the Heart Truth campaign. She's really raised the awareness level. Women pay attention. Women pay attention to fashion. They pay attention to this beautiful red dresses at these lovely actresses and notable personalities are wearing. It really gets people's attention.
We also find that the men in our community are very aware of the red dress project, too. So, that is such a powerful, powerful influence on making women aware and then empowering them so they can go and talk with their physicians. Because it's really that relationship together that's going to reduce their risk.
COLLINS: Yes, sure. And these are men who are husbands, who could lose wives and fathers who could lose mothers. So it's an excellent point. Quickly, before we let you go, let's talk about treatment and prevention.
BENNETT: Yes. First, the first thing to remember with heart disease is that, it's while we can't give anybody immunity to heart disease, we can make a huge difference in prevention. When we get all of our risk factors lined up, the high blood pressure, not smoking, diabetes, the cholesterol, we can really reduce heart disease and stroke by over 80 percent which is an absolutely huge reduction.
So, in my mind, everybody should be in the prevention mode. Even if you've had heart disease diagnosed, you are at high risk for another episode. So, everybody should really be focused on prevention because it really does work.
COLLINS: Yes. And it is no joke. Last night quickly, one of the personal stories, the woman had gone to the hospital three different times. They kept telling her she had a pinched nerve in her neck or in her shoulder. Really something to obviously take very, very seriously and we appreciate your time this morning on the issue.
BENNETT: You're welcome.
COLLINS: Dr. Susan Bennett out of D.C. this morning. Thanks again.
Well, whether you have vast stock holdings or mere pocket change you probably have questions about your finances. We know somebody who has some answers. Gerri Willis is going to join us e-mails in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Well, maybe this wasn't a surprise but it's never fun to look at the big board and see that. It is only 10:30 Eastern time. Nearly 10:30 Eastern time. The market has been open for about an hour and we are down by 202 points, as you can see there. Industrial averages resting at 12,379. I guess I could say that Wall Street was kind of prepared for this, but I don't think anybody at home ever likes to see it. NASDAQ also down 40 points. So, we'll talk more about this in just a few minutes here.
From college loans to retirement savings, many of us spend our adult lives trying to figure out our finances. And here to make it a little bit easier for all of us and answer your e-mails, CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis.
It's been such a treat having you here in Atlanta.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Oh, it's been a ton of fun.
COLLINS: And also the folks at home are dying for more information. Let's go ahead and look at the first e-mail. OK, here's what it says. This is coming from Katie right here in Georgia. "Do you have any advice for people with private student loans. My husband faces an interest rate of 10 percent attached to his private student loans. Is there any hope to reduce it?" You just call them and tell them to make it lower, right?
WILLIS: Well, I wish that were true. I wish I were too but, Katie, there is a way out of it. If your husband has been out of college for a few years, it's very likely his FICO score has improved if he's been managing his credit well and making his payments on time.
You know, it would be worthwhile for him to apply for a private consolidation loan. He would get a better interest rate and if his FICO score has improved, you know, he can cut the interest rate by threatening to get another loan, a private consolidation loan, from somebody else.
COLLINS: All right. Well, I wouldn't have thought of that. That's why you're here.
This one coming to us out of Illinois. "I bought a town home in late 2006 and want to sell this house in a year. What are some of the things I can start doing to increase the value of it? This is why I watch HGTV.
WILLIS: Well, you can do it here. OK. Well, look, job number one here, I know a lot of folks out there are wondering what can I do to improve the value of our home. This not a time for major expensive renovations. You don't want to plow $100,000 into your town home. You're much better off doing something less expensive, less thorough going maybe repainting, something smaller, something that you know that other folks would also want, too.
One good idea, do some energy efficient improvements like adding insulation to your attic or replacing your furnace. You can also focus on those little things that make a big difference. You know something that buyers like to see, this is going to drive you insane, a wine cooler.
COLLINS: Oh, yes.
WILLIS: Because, it's a cool, hip thing. And people think it's a good thing. If they see it, they remember it. You always want one very special item in your house that the people who are touring it, buyers say, oh, I want one of those.
COLLINS: And then the white ones on the top and the red wine on the bottom, the correct temperature gauge.
WILLIS: You've got it worked out.
COLLINS: I have one of those. Listen, this one is coming Rhona from New York. And it's very interesting because a lot of people are so concerned about their 401(k)s: "I have 35,000 from a former employer's 401(k) plan. I'm 50-years-old. Is it advisable to roll this over into my current employer's 401(k)? What penalties can I expect?"
WILLIS: Well, the thing to do here. It is a good idea to roll it over if only because it makes it easier to manage. The good news is that you won't incur any penalties as long as you do a direct roll over from your old employer's 401(k) into your current 401(k).
Now, if you don't do a direct rollover and you actually touch that money, then you're going to have to pay taxes and penalties. One other thing that I wanted to add here, if your new employer has a far better 401(k), you can leave the money there. And of course, if you have any questions, send them to us at TOPTIPS@CNN.com. We love hearing from you.
COLLINS: Yes. And today -- we're going to talk more about that later, right. But you've got another "FINANCIAL SECURITY WATCH."
WILLIS: Coming up at noon today, 12:00 p.m., join us. We'll take your questions live. We've been doing this all week. We know you've got concerns about your money out there, about your mortgage, your debt, your 401(k).
We're going to be on "FINANCIAL SECURITY WATCH" today. We'll also be talking about the presidential contenders, what do they have for you, what are they going to do that's going to make your life easier. What are they talking about when it comes to the mortgage melt down when it comes to your 401(k). Do they have ideas that will help you?
COLLINS: Yes. Very good and we're going to have you back in just a little while to take some more e-mails. All right. It's Gerri Willis, all day, all time, love it. Thank you, Gerri.
WILLIS: OK. Thank you.
COLLINS: Switching parties, or good strategy? What's behind a Republican crossover in Texas? We'll tell you about it, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Welcome back, everybody -- 10:30 Eastern time now.
Rallying voters, raising millions. The presidential candidates heading into the final weekend of campaigning before key primaries on Tuesday. CNN will be here to cover it all for you.
For Hillary Clinton this could be crucial Tuesday. She's counting on Texas an Ohio for a comeback. Clinton has already seen a record fund-raising rebound. Her campaign says she raised $35 million in February. But she is still playing catch-up to Barack Obama. Some estimates put his February fund-raising at more than $50 million. Both Obama and Clinton are campaigning in Texas today.
So is Republican nominee to be, John McCain; he holds a town hall meet third quarter hour. We will have extensive live coverage of the rallies and race throughout the morning. The best political team on television is in position to bring you the latest developments ahead of Tuesday's primaries. Voters will be casting ballots in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. There are 370 delegates at stake for the Democrats -- 256 for the Republicans.
An open primary, open to interpretation, that is. Why are Republicans voting for Democrats in Texas?
CNN's Ted Rowlands investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill Waters is a Houston businessman who claims he's always voted Republican, until now.
You're a true blue Obamacan?
BILL WATERS, TEXAS REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA: I just call myself a Republican for Obama.
ROWLANDS: Waters is part of the Texas Chapter for Republicans for Obama, a web-based group claiming about 700 members nationally who are Obama converts. Waters says there's one big reason he's crossing the aisle, the economy.
WATERS: The Republican Party has abandoned my principles. They spend like drunken sailors. I don't see Obama saying he's going cut spending but I don't trust the Republicans when they say they're going to cut spending.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm shaking hands, suddenly somebody whispered to me, way, Barack, I'm a Republican but I support you. And I say, thank you. Why are we whispering?
ROWLANDS: It's a good line on the campaign trail but is it really happening in significant numbers? If it is, Texas where the race is close and it's an open primary, is a state where Republicans vote for Democrats could matter.
I don't see a voting pattern to it.
ROWLANDS: Art Brender is the Tarrant County Democratic Party chair which includes historically Republican-leaning Ft. Worth. He says about seven percent of the early votes cast so far in this county's Democratic primaries are from people with a Republican voting history.
ART BRENDER, TARRANT CO., DEMOCRATIC CHAIR: If there was any really significant Republican crossover vote it would be much higher than seven percent.
ROWLANDS: Some Republicans voting Democratic are doing it for strategic reasons.
ALLAN SAXE, VOTED FOR CLINTON: I voted for Hillary Clinton.
ROWLANDS: Republican Allan Fact, a political professor at UT Arlington said he voted for Hillary Clinton because he thinks she's stronger on national security than Obama, but more importantly, he says he voted for Clinton --
SAXE: Because I believe that Senator Clinton will be easier for the Republicans to defeat.
ROWLANDS: Outside an early voting location in Arlington we found a handful of self identified Republicans who claim they had voted for Obama or Clinton for various reasons. Doris Nolen voted for Obama because she doesn't like Clinton.
DORIS NOLEN, VOTED FOR OBAMA: I think he would make a wonderful president. I like him.
ROWLANDS: But she says she's planning on vote for John McCain in November.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Arlington, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Primary colors, racial lines are expected to play a part in Tuesday's primary in Texas. And for the Democrats, long- standing racial tensions could add to the drama.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Texas where black and Hispanic voters are critical to a big win, a dust-off. A prominent Hispanic supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton hurls a loaded charge, that Obama's problem with Hispanics, his race.
ADELFA CALLEJO, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Obama simply has a problem that he happens to be black.
MALVEAUX: The 84-year-old Latino activist, Ms. Adelfa Callejo, says the divisions between blacks and Latinos run deep in Dallas.
CALLEJO: When the blacks had the numbers they never did anything to support him. They always talked that use our numbers to -- fulfill their goals and objectives but never really supported us. And there's a lot of hurt feelings about that. I don't think we're going to get over it any time soon.
MALVEAUX: Before being fully briefed about Callejo's, comments Senator Clinton was asked if she thought about it.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People have every reason to express their opinions. I just don't agree with that.
MALVEAUX: But later after Clinton's campaign verified the details, they issued a statement saying after confirming they were accurately portrayed, Senator Clinton, of course, denounces and rejects them.
OBAMA: I would reject and denounce.
MALVEAUX: Those words denounces and rejects, were used by Senator Barack Obama in Tuesday night's debate, when he tried to distance himself from past anti-Semitic comments made by the leader of the leader of the nation of Islam, Louis Farrakan, who has since endorsed Obama. But this controversy underscores the sensitive nature of Texas politics.
PROF. CHRISTINE LEVEAUX-HALEY, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: In Texas, Latinos and African-Americans were the two warring -- once minority group.
MALVEAUX: With warring political candidates. Analysts say Hispanics lining up for Clinton, African-Americans for Obama.
PROF. BOB STEIN, RICE UNIVERSITY: African-American and Hispanic voters will be about even.
MALVEAUX: While there may be some tension between the groups, Professor Christine Leveaux-Haley says it's being exaggerated to get Hispanic voters to the polls.
LEVEAUX-HALEY: There might be some need to kind of mobilize the Latino vote or galvanize Latinos around some type of issue and that just might be this divide between Latinos and African-American voters.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: CNN's Susan Malveaux reporting. It's an interesting issue and we're going to talk more about exactly that coming up in the next hour. Pardon me, very shortly with our guest.
Meanwhile forget the news weeklies, candidates take their campaigns to the celebrity weeklies.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: As you know, we are covering all of the campaigns and the activities before the March 4th primary. On this leap day, let's take a look at a couple of them. John McCain is in Round Rock, Texas. And he is going to be coming shortly to the microphones there. We will bring that to you, we think around 10:45 or so. About five minutes away.
Also, Barack Obama who is in Houston for an event there. That should be coming about 20 minutes or so from now at the top of the hour. We will keep our eyes on those events and bring you little snippets of them as we go.
Meanwhile, million of you, a guilty pleasure. Now candidates are showing up in tabloid magazines trying to make a voter connection. Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Open a bag of chips, curl up with a dishy talk show and a tabloidy celeb magazine, turn to your favorite midsection, stars, they're just like us. Yes, well, so are presidential candidates. So Barack Obama jokingly adds "Us Weekly."
LAURA COHEN, NEWS DIRECTOR, US WEEKLY: Don't show my cellulite. No embarrassing pictures of me.
MOOS: He really is just like us. I pick up groceries, I ride with my kids. At least they didn't show him yawning with his mouth open like they did Kurt Russell. Instead, they showed him spicing up his gumbo. Thanks to "Us Weekly" we now know answers to questions like his favorite show on TV....
COHEN: "The Wire." He told me that his favorite food was chili.
MOOS: Favorite ice cream, mint chocolate chip. Celebrity magazine is the latest frontier in presidential campaigning allowing candidates to show themselves --
COHEN: Looking like human beings instead of just a constant politician.
MOOS: And gaining access to 12 million mostly female readers. There's Barack, sandwiched in between Brangelina and Owen and Kate dating again. Look who else showed up in "Us Weekly" back around last Tuesday, my worse outfit ever, Hillary playing fashion police on herself. She supplied the self-deprecating caption. Now you know why I stick with pant suits.
COHEN: You can't really go wrong with that carpet coat right there.
MOOS: Captioned, I'm a big believer in recycling, even carpet. Hillary's campaign did "Us Weekly" but blew off "Vogue." They say the campaign thought "Vogue" would be to elitist and too glamorous. Nothing glamorous about this.
And here's Barack Obama answering questions like, does wife Michelle have a celebrity crush? Yes, on Stevie Wonder. Obama says he's been teasing his wife about pushing the performer off the stage when Stevie Wonder fell at an Obama rally. And there was the question the "Us Weekly" interviewer saved for last.
COHEN: It was an interview ender.
MOOS: Question Bill Clinton probably regrets answering.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it boxers or briefs?
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Usually briefs.
MOOS: Obama kept it brief, saying he doesn't answer those humiliating questions, but that he looks good in both. When asked if he's a cool dad, he said, pretty cool, citing his dancing a while back on the "Ellen DeGeneres" show and now he busted a move again on "Ellen." He's just like us, except we're not trying to dance to the White House.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COLLINS: Stocks are certainly not leaping on this extra day of February.
Susan Lisovicz is on the floor of the New York stock exchange to tell us why, why, why?
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, I'm reminded of that Elizabeth Barrett Browning sonnet, how do I love thee, how do I sell-off? Let me count the ways. There are so many culprits these days. It's tough to shop Wall Street days these days, Heidi.
But, AIG, the big insurer, did that just today. Its shares are down seven percent. It announced a more than $5 billion loss in the last quarter. I'm not talking about those billion dollar write-downs of assets that we've seen from so many financial companies. I'm talking about out and out loss, money out the door. AIG is a big insurance company but among the things it insures are mortgage-backed securities.
See the relation there, Ms. Collins?
COLLINS: Oh, yes.
LISOVICZ: I think you do, yes.
COLLINS: No question about that. But I do want to know what role record oil prices are playing? We've been talking about that and they kind of keep inching upward, don't they?
LISOVICZ: No question about that either. That's been another culprit and another factor that sends stocks sharply lower.
Oil, by the way, touched $103 a barrel overnight. It's trading below that now, fortunately below that, record high level. The idea is when the economy slows, that, you know, we're supposed to be less demand and prices are supposed to go down. Obviously that's not a problem. That's really one of the big dilemmas facing the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke. He was talking eight just yesterday yet again.
We do have some good news. Of course, there is, well, it's a twist to it. Consumer spending rose more than expected last month, as did income. The Commerce Department says spending rose .4 percent. When you factor in inflation, spending was black. So you know, you have that to consider. We also have a report that came out at the top of the hour on consumer confidence.
Obviously consumer spending drives the U.S. economy. And it dropped. And it dropped to a level according to the University of Michigan, that has only been this low during the recessions of the mid 1970s, the early 1980s, and the early 1990s. Not good news. And that's why I say there's lots of culprits.
Check it out on the big board. The final day of February looking like an ugly one. Declining stocks right now, swamping advancing stocks to a six-to-one margin. All 30 Dow stocks are down and of course led by AIG whose shares are down seven percent. It's not a good day. It's not good news, Heidi. It's as simple as that.
COLLINS: Maybe there should only be 28 days in February.
LISOVICZ: I think so. That will be the case next year and for the following two years after that.
COLLINS: We like how that works out.
LISOVICZ: The last leap, by the way, the last leap day that we had where there was a trading day, stocks closed higher.
COLLINS: OK.
LISOVICZ: Plenty of trading left.
COLLINS: It's early. All right, Susan, see how things look next hour. Thank you.
One party guy, now swinger. White men could be the deciders in the Democratic race.
Here's CNN's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She carries women and Latinos. He's got African-Americans squarely behind him. Who do observers now point to as a crucial swing vote among the Democrats to determine whether we get the first American female or black presidential nominee?
KEATING HOLLAND, CNN POLLING DIRECTOR: The major group that's left over out of all of that is white men.
TODD: Since John Edwards left the Democratic race, polls show white male voters are the largest block to swing evenly between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, with Obama showing momentum now since he easily won over white men in Virginia and Wisconsin.
Analysts say neither Clinton nor Obama may be able to capture Texas or Ohio without them. Another reason it's critical for Democratic candidates to win support from white men now?
DAVID PAUL KUHN, THE POLITICO: In the general election, they're the most critical swing block because they make up the largest share of independents.
TODD: Analysts are split as to whether Democrats have made a real effort to capture the white guy vote in recent elections. Some believe that Democrats have written them off because the ranks of white male voters have been shrinking while the numbers of well, blacks and Latinos have gone up and the Democrats feel those groups are more their core voters.
But David Paul Kuhn, author of the book "the Neglected Voter," says even more white men have voted Republican in the recent elections, the Democrats shouldn't assume the GOPs cornered that market.
KUHN: They have opportunities here, how unpopular the current president, is still unpopularity of the war in Iraq. These men care about the war in Iraq, they care extremely about change.
TODD: Another factor may signal white men may not be pegged to one party, analysts say in the 2006 midterm election, Democrat ic candidates made big gains among white men and it allowed them to capture the house and senate.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: All right. We are following all of the campaigns. You can see two events that are about to take place. John McCain is in Round Rock, Texas. That event is going to kick off any minute now, we understand. And then also Barack Obama who is in Houston, his event should be kicking off closer to the top of the hour. We will bring a little bit of both of those to you just as soon as they happen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Presidential candidates seek partners. So who's on the short list of running mates?
CNN's Joe Johns has some suggestions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Once the primaries are over, it's the single most important decision for the nominees, who to put on the ticket.
MCCAIN: It would be someone who is prepared to take my place, follows my philosophies, beliefs, principles and priorities.
JOHNS: Washington insiders suggest that governor from outside the beltway to balance McCain's senate experience, South Carolina's Mark Sanford, Minnesota's Tim Polenti, Florida's Charlie Crist. The common advice to McCain is to pick a conservative to mend fences with the base, but former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein says that's a double edged sword.
KEN DUBERSTEIN, FMR. W.H. CHIEF OF STAFF: You're walking a very narrow line with somebody who's acceptable to a broad range of the American people and someone genuflected with the so-called Republican base.
JOHNS: The other advice to McCain, pick someone young, because as he himself says --
MCCAIN: As you may have noticed I'm not the youngest candidate in the race.
JOHNS: Duberstein's caution. DUBERSTEIN: John McCain has to stay healthy, vigorous and everything on the campaign trail, he'll make all of us much younger look and very tired compared to the stamina John McCain has.
JOHNS: On the Democratic side, here's some advice Barack Obama might not like. Take a page from the George Bush playbook.
BILL CARRICK, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: When he picked Dick Cheney he was looking for somebody experienced, somebody with gray hair, somebody with a Washington inside knowledge, and I think if Senator Obama can do that, it would probably enhance his candidacy a great deal.
JOHNS: Someone like former senator and foreign policy expert Sam Nunn of Georgia. Or a military type, like retired marine general and Iraq war critic Anthony Zinni. Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas gets mentioned for her red state appeal, as does first-term Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. And if Hillary Clinton wins -- some advice she may not much like either. Go for Obama's votes, young, upscale African America.
CARRICK: She needs somebody to be an ambassador to those kind of voters, and, of course, obvious person that comes to mind is Senator Obama himself.
JOHNS: But there are others. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Indiana's Evan Bayh. The short lists aren't worth much now but this advice is -- make sure your pick is qualified to be president and is not someone who will drag you down.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Senators McCain and Obama going at it over Iraq all week. The Democrat now opening up a pocket book front in his attacks.
Here's Bill Schneider, part of a best political team on television.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The Iraq issue is back. Obama said in Tuesday's debate --
OBAMA: If al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad.
SCHNEIDER: McCain sprang.
MCCAIN: Al Qaeda already has a base in Iraq. It's called al Qaeda in Iraq. SCHNEIDER: Senator Obama.
OBAMA: There was no such thing as al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.
SCHNEIDER: Senator McCain?
MCCAIN: That's history. That's the past. That's talking about what happened before. What we should be talking about is what we're going to do now.
SCHNEIDER: The debate that's beginning to emerge is over which is the greater threat to U.S. security. For the U.S. to stay in Iraq?
OBAMA: I intend to bring to an end so we can actually start going after al Qaeda in Afghanistan and in the hills of Pakistan like we should have been doing in the first place.
SCHNEIDER: Or for the U.S. to get out of Iraq.
MCCAIN: If we left Iraq, there's no doubt that al Qaeda would then gain control in Iraq and pose a threat to the United States of America.
SCHNEIDER: In two recent polls, Americans give McCain the edge over Obama on Iraq. Not because most Americans support the war, but because McCain is seen as having stronger national security credentials. But Democrats have a new angle, they're linking the war with the economy.
OBAMA: We are bogged down in a war that John McCain now suggests might go on for another 100 years.
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