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Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Both in Westerville, Ohio; 'Dallas Morning News' Re-endorses Mike Huckabee; Texas Two-Step

Aired March 02, 2008 - 22:00   ET

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

LARRY KING, HOST, LARRY KING LIVE: I want to remind you about Monday show, "Voting with the Stars." Lance Armstrong, Rosario Dawson, and Josh Groban are among our politically involved guests. And we will be back, Tuesday, with a special primary results edition of "LARRY KING LIVE." It will be a good one at midnight, Eastern, 9:00 pacific.
Stay tuned now for Tony Harris with more BALLOT BOWL. Good night.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi and welcome to CNN's BALLOT BOWL, the Sunday edition. This, of course, is 10:00 p.m. on the East Coast. We have a lot for you over the next hour. These candidates, be they Huckabee, McCain, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. You will see all of them tonight in the way you should see them, in longer form, unedited, unfiltered, for you to be able to make up your own minds as to how you want to vote for these candidates.

Of course, looking ahead, we are talking about Ohio. We are talking about Texas, Vermont, and Rhode Island. I am Candy Crowley. I'm here in Cleveland. You're looking at the remnants of a Hillary Clinton campaign. Just wrapped up here about a half an hour ago. I want to bring in now our Dana Bash, who is in Sedona, Arizona. Helping -- kind of hold down the fork with me, Dana. What's going on out there?

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you know, Candy, we're showing everybody what it's like to watch the candidates. We're also showing everybody what it's like to cover the candidates, as you are there, watching everything get broken down behind you. That has to happen to all of us as we cover the candidates on the campaign trail. But we want to give our viewers a sense of what they're going to see over the next couple of hours.

First of all, on the Democratic side, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Ohio is a rather big state, but they both were in the very same town today campaigning on the same day in Westerville, Ohio. That's the suburb of Columbus, just about 37,000 and that's the population. But they had two big-time Democratic candidates appealing for their votes on the Democratic side there. We'll bring you both of those speeches during the next couple of hours.

Also on the Republican side, Mike Huckabee was on the campaign trail in Texas today. He got a boost from a very influential paper there, the "Dallas Morning News." And "Dallas Morning News" had already endorsed Mike Huckabee. But they felt the need in their newspaper this morning to re-endorse him.

To make clear to their readers that they think that he is somebody who they should vote for on Tuesday, despite the fact that the paper, and pretty much everybody else at this point, seems to know that John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate from the state where I am, Arizona, is hoping Tuesday with those contests, in Texas, in Ohio, in Vermont, and in Rhode Island, that he will mathematically clinch the Republican nomination.

Now, Candy, he's hoping that. But he's not on the campaign trail this weekend. He is here in Arizona. He's playing host, as opposed to real candidate this weekend. And we'll give you a little bit more about who he's hosting. That includes some of his supporters and also some of the press corps.

Candy.

CROWLEY: Thanks, Dana. A little more traditional campaigning here in Ohio today. It is really hard to over exaggerate what's at stake here in Ohio and in Texas. As Bill Clinton, one of the best political strategists in the country had said, his wife needs to win Ohio and Texas. Lots of activity here today, as both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton work the state. Mostly, the eastern part of the state.

But Hillary Clinton was here, again, in Cleveland -- at Cleveland State University, talking to this crowd here, trying to ramp them up. There is an intensity to the campaign in this final weekend before these all-important primary dates.

Now, what's happening with Hillary Clinton right now is she has talked a lot about kitchen table issues, as they call them. But over the past couple of days, she has brought up the commander-in-chief idea. Who do you most trust to answer that red phone at 3:00 at night? She is playing, if you will, her best card here. And the Clinton campaign believes that her best card is experience. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Here's what I would say in our job interview because that's, in effect, what we're conducting. You know, you can come and give a great speech and have people get really excited. And leave the arena. And say, oh, that was wonderful. And then, the next day, you say, but what was it about? What is it that is going to happen as a result of those words? Because when you're making a hiring decision, you want to really get down to brass tacks.

Well, here's what I'm offering. I'm offering an economic blueprint that will turn our economy around. That will give the people of Ohio the opportunities that you rigidly deserve. We're going to have a manufacturing plant because, you see, I don't think we can remain a great country with a strong economy if we don't build anything. If we send all of our production and our manufacturing to other countries, then I believe we will see America weaken overtime. And this is not only about our economy and our jobs, as important as those are. It's about our national defense. We cannot be reliant on other countries to make everything we need to defend America. We've got to have the capacity right here in Ohio and across the country to do that.

So we're going to say, we want a tax code that eliminates every single benefit for anybody who moves a job out of Ohio to another country. It is long past due. We're going to get it done. And then, we're going to change the tax code, so it starts rewarding work again. It is wrong that a Wall Street money manager making $50 million a year, pays a lower percentage of his income taxes, than a nurse, a teacher, or a truck driver making $50,000 a year, right here in Cleveland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Again, the duality of a campaign that has been both on commander-in-chief credentials and on those kitchen table issues. As we mentioned before, both of these candidates, has sort of a confluence of events, showed up in Westerville, Ohio today. Basically, a suburb of Columbus. They were separated by two hours and about two miles in their venues.

Both, at one point, going after each other on a variety of issues. Barack Obama, talked a little bit about Hillary Clinton's criticism of him. That he is all talk and she's the doer. That she has the experience. That all he ever did was give a speech about the war in Iraq. That he doesn't have the experience. Today, he hit back on that. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Clinton continues to insist that we provide speeches and she provides solutions. And I don't know how -- and the press has sort of bought into this. I think because they, you know, want to keep the contest interesting. I understand that.

It's defied by the facts because we've been very specific on every issue under the sun. And now, in the last few days, Senator Clinton has been running around telling people that our entire campaign -- according to her, is only based on the fact that I gave a speech in opposition to the war in Iraq from the start. And that is the only basis of my campaign. And that on the other hand, she has, supposedly, all this vast foreign policy experience.

Now, I have to say, when it came to making the most important foreign policy decision of our generation, the decision to invade Iraq, Senator Clinton got it wrong. She didn't read the national intelligence estimates. Jay Rockefeller read it, but she didn't read it.

(APPLAUSE) I don't know what all that experience got her, because I have enough experience to know that if you have a national intelligence estimate and the chairman of the national -- chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says you should read this, this is why I'm voting against the war, then you should probably read it. I don't know how much experience you need for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: The war in Iraq has been an issue, particularly on the Democratic side since the beginning. And I suspect it will be an issue all the way into November. We were talking a little bit ago about the factors that influence voting. What influences voting momentum, going into voting day. Barack Obama seems to have that at this point. The ground game.

How many people do these campaigns have out knocking on doors saying you've got to get to the voting polls? How many people do they have on the phones? Those influence elections. But one of the things that also influences is the weather, which is why we want to go to Atlanta, in our weather center there with Jacqui Jeras.

Jacqui, is there anything coming up that you think might influence people going to the polls in any of the four states?

(WEATHER REPORT)

CROWLEY: OK, Jacqui, it's a deal. Thanks so much. Sounds like you're going to vote in Ohio on Tuesday. You better to go later in the day, than early when that freezing rain is forecast.

We want to also talk a little bit about surrogates. They can be very important on the campaign trail. Sometimes they can get you in trouble. But sometimes they do a lot of good. Two of Hillary Clinton's chief surrogates, her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and her daughter, Chelsea Clinton. Both of them showed up in the Houston area at church today.

This is the church of Joel Osteen. He is a -- has a mega-church there. He's an evangelical. It's a nondenominational church. This was just a showing up at a meet and greet there. You see Joel Osteen. This is about 30,000 people, I'm told, in this congregation. The biggest congregation in the United States. So, not a bad place to be seen on a Sunday. Nonetheless, Joel Osteen, I'm told is very apolitical. Certainly, not an endorsement, but a good place to be, especially when on Tuesday there's going to be some voting in Texas.

We want to remind you that speaking of Tuesday, beginning at 7:00 Eastern Time, CNN will begin its coverage of primary day. We will be in Vermont and Rhode Island, in Ohio and in Texas. We will also be in New York, where our team of experts will tell you what it all means and pull it together for you.

CNN's BALLOT BOWL will continue. Next up, we're going to talk about Mike Huckabee and an endorsement he got today, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to this special primetime edition of CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08. I'm Dana Bash in Sedona, Arizona. And the senior senator from this state, Arizona, is John McCain. He is the Republican presidential candidate who is hoping that Tuesday's primaries in Texas, in Ohio, in Rhode Island and in Vermont, put him over the top and actually let him mathematically clinch the Republican nomination.

But he understands and he is well aware that this is important because there is still somebody who is very much in the Republican race. His rival is the former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee. And Mike Huckabee got a bit of a boost this morning from "The Dallas Morning News," an influential paper inside Texas. Now, "The Dallas Morning News" originally endorsed Mike Huckabee quite a while ago back in December -- in late December.

But this morning, they felt it necessary to give him a bit of a re-endorsement. Make it clear that they still think, despite the long, long odds, that they think that Mike Huckabee is somebody who their readers should actually vote for in Tuesday's primary. I'll read you part of what this re-endorsement in this morning's paper said. It said, quote, "We look forward to having him around to help shape and lead the Republican Party, be on November. That's why we encourage Texas republicans to mark their ballot for Mr. Huckabee in the GOP primary."

So "The Dallas Morning News" is trying to signal is that they think that Mike Huckabee is a leader for the future. And by voting for Mike Huckabee now, even though it's very unlikely he would actually be the Republican nominee this time around, they think that would help him for a future run. Now, as you can imagine, Mike Huckabee was on the campaign trail in Texas. So he had something to say about this re-endorsement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think "The Dallas Morning News" is probably the greatest newspaper in America. And everybody ought to get a lifetime subscription. Obviously, I'm very pleased, extremely grateful. Not only for the impact of the endorsement and the timing of it. But I was especially grateful for what they represented in that editorial. And that is that I represent the future of the party. And I really appreciate that they recognized that our party has certainly got to begin looking at its long-term future.

And we have to be attracting not only younger voters, but voters who are interested in a broad array of issues. The issues that I have been trying to talk about through the entire campaign. Not only lower taxes, but the issues of sanctity of life. But issues of poverty, disease, environment, education, health care. Issues that touch families every single day in this country and they recognize that. And I'm deeply grateful for their endorsement today and hope everybody pays careful attention to it. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Governor, they also recognize there is probably unlikely that you'll get the nomination. So, do you represent the future of the party? Or do your values and beliefs represent the futures party?

HUCKABEE: Well, I don't know. We'll see. I think certainly the views and values do. But somebody has to articulate those views and values. Somebody has to be willing to lead them. And what I feel like that is important is that Republicans begin to recognize that we have to start talking to voters who are 18 years old. And we can't just assume that because the Republican Party of our grandfathers was good enough for them that it's going to be good enough for the students that we've seen on these campuses, not just here in Texas, but across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So whether or not you get the nomination, you will have the role in the party for a while?

HUCKABEE: Oh, I have no idea. That wouldn't be my decision to make. I will certainly have every reason to continue my efforts within the party. That's why I've rejected any talk of third party. You know, independent effort, absolutely unattractive to me and unappealing. I don't think that that's a realistic way for us to change the political realm of America.

And I got a lot of investment in the Republican Party, since my teenage years. Spent a lot of time, a lot of effort, worked for a lot of candidates. Campaigned for a lot of people. Raised a lot of money for the Republican Party and its candidates. I hate to walk away from it, because I think we're a long way from being done.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) like another Georgia or other places in the south to galvanize Evangelicals supporters. But polls show you're still badly trailing McCain there. What do you think happened? And evidently, will it be about McCain or what?

HUCKABEE: You know, I don't know what will happen until Tuesday night. So I'm not going to buy in on the inevitability issue. I have not bought that yet. If I had bought it, I wouldn't have won Iowa, and I wouldn't have won Kansas, or Louisiana, or Tennessee, West Virginia and a lot of other states that we did win. Because just about in every one of those, somebody indicated already that it was inevitable that I wouldn't win. So I'm not ready to concede Texas yet.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're both ahead in Iowa (INAUDIBLE).

HUCKABEE: You know, the polls have been all over the board. And they've been so consistently wrong in several contests, both on the Democrat and the Republican side, that I would hate to base my whole position over the next 48 to 72 hours on what they already gave.

And you know, again, I'm still moving forward with optimism, not pessimism. And if Tuesday night, they don't come in well, then we'll talk about it. But I'm not going to say today that it's an inevitable thing. I've had to fight that sort of air of inevitability that many people have put forward. And I think it has been quite false.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Governor, what happens next if you lose Texas?

HUCKABEE: Listen, right now, I'm not talking about losing Texas. That's the whole point. I mean, it would be very different for me to say if I lose Texas, because I'm not planning to. If I do, it would be a fair question to ask. But today, since I'm not planning on losing, I don't have plans of what I'll do if, because I don't plan to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Mike Huckabee not even entertaining the idea of losing either or any of the primaries, I should say, that are going to take place on Tuesday especially the state of Texas, which is the state that Mike Huckabee is hoping to do best in. He, of course, is from a neighboring state. He is from Arkansas. And he has been campaigning quite hard in Texas. He's been raising a lot of money there and hoping that his appeal to social conservatives there, just as he has been across the country in every one of this contest states will help him get a good chunk of the vote in Tuesday's primary.

Although it is pretty clear, at least according to our polls of polls, he is still pretty far behind John McCain. Now, as for John McCain, he wasn't on the campaign trail this weekend. He took the weekend off. He instead of playing candidate, he played host at his home here, not too far from where I am in Sedona, Arizona.

Yesterday, he hosted some of his supporters. Some senators and governors, who have endorsed and backed him along the way, that really have helped him over the past couple of months. And today, he hosted some reporters, including myself. We'll give you a little bit of that later in this hour I should say. But before that, we want to go to some of what John McCain has been saying on the campaign trail. Here on BALLOT BOWL, we want to give you large chunks of what the candidates' appeal is on the campaign trail.

And what John McCain has been talking about more and more lately is the war in Iraq. He made pretty clear last week, that that is the issue that is either going to make or break his candidacy going into the fall campaign. So, more and more, he has been really trying to draw a line between himself and the Democrats on the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As you know, Joe Biden's plan is that you basically divide them up into three countries. I think that is kind of lost. As the surge has succeeded and we see some political progress, and I say some, that theory has lost some of its momentum, as you know.

I believe that I've got to give you straight talk. The toughest thing that we need to make the most progress in Iraq right now is rule of law. The rule of law, as we all know, is the hardest thing -- part of democracy. We can have elections every day. And you can see people hold their finger up with that they've had the ink on. And have election after election.

But the rule of law is really the hardest part. The number one target of al Qaeda today in Iraq are judges. That's their number one objective. And obviously, if you think about it, you can understand it. And one of the big problems and they just passed a law for Sunni amnesty is that we've got 20,000 Sunni that have been on indefinite detention in prisons in Iraq. And you can't do that. You can't do that.

Every citizen of a country has got to be entitled to some judicial process. They are making progress. They just passed three laws. And then one of them was vetoed. So as always in Iraq, it's two steps forward and one step back. They passed a budget.

By the way, my dear friends, in case you haven't noticed, in our nation's capital, we haven't passed a budget. So the Iraqis are at one step ahead of us at least there. I think it's long and it's hard and it's tough. There's no Thomas Jeffersons in Iraq. Anytime there was anybody who showed any independents for many, many years, Saddam Hussein chopped their head off. And so, it's hard.

And I think there's a couple of test coming up. One of them is Kirkuk. As you know, Saddam Hussein moved a whole bunch of people, Arabs into the area, and moved the Kurds out. Now, the Kurds are back in. But they've kind of made a little progress on that that's surprised everybody.

Mosul, we are seeing a test of the Iraqi military because it's going to be the Iraqi military that goes in there with support from the United States, as they try to clean up that last bastion or one of the last bastions of al Qaeda's control over an area. I think it's hard. I think it's a hard slog. But no one, even the most optimistic of us predicted the progress that has been made over the last year by the surge, when you look at the progress that they have made.

So, all I can say is the whole scheme of things is the classic counterinsurgency. It's not a new theory. It's an old one that we've used successfully and unsuccessfully. That is the Iraqi military and police take over more and more of the responsibilities. The sectarian violence is way down. The attacks on the pilgrims at Kerbala have still been going on. But they're dramatically reduced. So I think that if we continue this progress, and I think we are, then you will see Americans withdraw the enclaves and then gradually withdraw.

And then we decide, after the war, then we decide the issue of American presence. After the first Gulf War, thanks to Secretary Baker and others, we negotiated a military base agreement with Kuwait. We have one there. We have a base in Turkey. We have troops in South Korea. So, military presence may remain for years. It may not.

It may be like the Saudis. The Saudis decide they don't want any American military presence there. But that's after we succeed in the war. And I think the Americans will show -- will show more patience if we can show them success.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, speaking last week in Houston at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. There, it was kind of subtle, but what he was trying to do, essentially was clean up or rebut the Democrats' line that they are using.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, over and over about what John McCain said a few months ago. That the United States would be in Iraq for 100 years. That is something that McCain said several times last week. That was taken out of context.

There you saw him trying to explain, or at least, be more clear that what he is saying is that he hopes the United States, for the most part, will eventually be able to pull out if there is what he calls success in Iraq. But that's like there is in South Korea and very many countries around the world. That there still will be a U.S. presence, he thinks, for some time in Iraq.

Now, that is something that John McCain wants to talk about, the war in Iraq and national security. But he was thrown off-message last week by somebody who was at one of his very own events. A talk radio host by the name of Bill Cunningham in Ohio who was speaking before he even got to the hall. Speaking in some pretty explosive terms about Barack Obama, using his middle name, saying Barack Hussein Obama.

That was something that John McCain had to disavow or decided to disavow right away. And it certainly ignited some debate about Barack Obama and the whole question of how people and how his opponents may go after him, from here on out, especially in the general election. And we're going to have some of the reaction to the use of Barack Obama's middle name. And what it may mean or not mean. Our Jim Acosta has a story on that, right after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi and welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL, the 10:00 p.m. version on Sunday night. This is your chance to hear these candidates, live, taped, whichever way it is. They are unfiltered, giving you a chance to see these candidates, to hear these candidates pretty much as we do. I'm Candy Crowley. I'm live here in Cleveland.

About an hour ago, Hillary Clinton was here, giving her final pitch to voters of Ohio. Ohio, one of four states having really, really critical primaries Tuesday. In fact, the fate of the Clinton campaign really hangs here in Ohio, as well as in Texas.

Want to talk a little bit about a subject that has come up periodically across the campaign trail. And that is the subject of a name. It was Shakespeare who said, "What's in a name?" The fact is, if your name is Barack Hussein Obama, it often comes up on the campaign trail. Here's our Jim Acosta.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Out on the campaign trail this weekend, Barack Obama, again tried to respond to false rumors on the Internet that he is Muslim. His campaign spent much of its time last week answering attacks on his middle name, Hussein. But as we have found out, there is a different take on that middle name overseas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): What started with an Ohio talk radio host, mocking Barack Obama's middle name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama.

ACOSTA: And ended with a fierce response from the Obama campaign.

MICHELLE OBAMA, BARACK OBAMA'S WIFE: They threw in the obvious ultimate fear bomb that we've been hearing now. They said his name.

ACOSTA: Played out to a much larger audience around the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barack Hussein Obama.

ACOSTA: For Arabs and Muslims watching the campaign unfold on the Dubai-based Al Arabiya, the name Hussein is a positive.

HISHAM MELHEM, AL ARABIYA's WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: In the Arab world and Muslim world, for someone to be named Barack Hussein Obama is a tribute even to United States.

ACOSTA: Al Arabiya's Washington bureau chief, Hisham Melhem says Arabs and Muslims are riveted by the prospect of an American president, who he believes is cut from a different cloth.

MELHAM: That's why there's almost fascination of people in the Arab and the Muslim world, as well as in other parts of the world, with this unfolding American drama. I mean, this is historic in the true sense of the word.

ACOSTA (on camera): In the Middle East, Hussein is a common name, shared not just by the ousted leader of Iraq, but also by the late King Hussein of Jordan, a strong American ally. But Arabs and Muslims see more than just a name.

JAMES ZOGBY, FOUNDER, ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE: It sends a message about America, the values that we have, the openness that we represent.

ACOSTA (voice-over): The president of the Arab American Institute, James Zogby, is a Democratic super delegate backing Obama. He points to Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic national convention.

BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If there's an Arab- American family, being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process that threatens my civil liberties.

ZOGBY: Candidates were running away from us. And here at the podium of the Democratic convention, Barack Obama identifies with the civil liberty concerns of Arab-Americans by name. They were terribly excited. Never forgot it.

ACOSTA: These days, Arabs and Muslims not only see a candidate subjected to assaults over his name and rumors about his religion, Obama is Christian, some also see a side of America they never knew until now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: The Arab and Muslim media are also keenly interested in the Clinton campaign. The notion of a woman president has not been lost on a region that is largely governed by men.

Jim Acosta, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Interesting that when Barack Obama campaigns, he often says that he believes that by becoming president, he almost immediately sends a message to other parts of the world.

We're going to be coming up after a break here. And when we do, we want to talk about a pair of ads that started airing over this weekend, causing quite a bit of stir. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Hi. Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL, our 10:00 p.m. edition on Sunday night. I'm Candy Crowley here in Cleveland, at Cleveland State University.

We'll see behind me the remnants of a Clinton rally. She left here about an hour ago, as both she and Barack Obama campaigned through Ohio. This is your chance, of course, to hear these candidates, sometimes live, sometimes taped. But always unedited, unfiltered so that you can see them as we see them.

Now those speeches, the rallies, the roundtables, those are what's known as the ground game. There is also what's known as the air game, which is, of course, the ads. As the weekend began, quite a controversial one went up. It came from the Clinton campaign, as that campaign tries to focus voters on what they think the stakes are ahead. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep, but there's a phone in the White House and its ringing. Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military, someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world. It's 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm Hillary Clinton and I approve this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Now, while his campaign was putting up a response ad, Barack Obama was out on the campaign trail. He almost immediately responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: And I do want to take a moment to respond because the press is, I'm sure, curious to an ad that Senator Clinton is apparently running today. It asks a legitimate question. It says, "Who do you want answering the phone in the White House when it's 3:00 a.m. and something has happened in the world?"

It's a legitimate question. And we've seen these ads before. They're usually the kind that play upon people's fears and try to scare up votes. I don't think these ads will work this time because the question is not about picking up the phone, the question is, what kind of judgment will you exercise when you pick up that phone?

(APPLAUSE)

In fact, we have had a red-phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq. Senator Clinton gave the wrong answer. George Bush gave the wrong answer. John McCain gave the wrong answer.

I stood up and I said that a war in Iraq would be unwise. It would cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars. I said that it would distract us from the real threat that we face. And that we should take the fight to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

That's the judgment I made on the most important foreign policy decision of our generation. And that's the kind of judgment I intend to show when I answer the phone in the White House, as the President of the United States of America. The judgment to keep us safe.

(APPLAUSE)

The judgment to keep us safe to go after our real enemies. And to provide the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States with the equipment they need when we do send them into battle and the respect and care that they have earned when they come home. And I will never see the threat of terrorism as a way to scare up votes, because it's a threat that should rally the country around our common enemies. That is the judgment we need at 3:00 a.m. And that's the judgment that I am running for as President of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Barack Obama and his initial response to the so-called red-phone ad from Hillary Clinton. It was not his last response. Coming up, we will have the ad put out by the Barack Obama campaign.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Hi. Welcome back to BALLOT BOWL, the 10:00 p.m. edition on Sunday night.

We've been talking about these ads that came out over the weekend -- very tough ads from both sides. The Hillary Clinton campaign began it with the so-called red-phone ad, in which she asks, who do you want to answer that 3:00 a.m. phone call in the White House on the red phone, that being the crisis phone for the president.

Barack Obama, you saw, came out almost immediately on the campaign trail. But it's not the sort of ad that you let go unresponded to. So, the Barack Obama campaign put together an ad with lightning speed and came up with this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone ringing in the White House. Something's happening in the world. When that call gets answered, shouldn't the president be the one, the only one, who had judgment and courage to approach the Iraq War from the start? Who understood the real threat to America was al Qaeda in Afghanistan not Iraq. Who led the efforts to secure loose nuclear weapons around the globe? In a dangerous world, it's judgment that matters.

OBAMA: I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: So, there you have it. The Clinton campaign arguing both on the stump and in their ad that she's the person with the experience. Barack Obama saying I've experience too and by the way, I had the right judgment on Iraq. And that really counts.

Coming up, we're going to take you back to Texas. If you think the Democratic primary and caucus system has been confusing, when you hear about Texas, there's a reason they call it a pray caucus. Coming up after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to this primetime edition of CNN'S BALLOT BOWL '08. I'm Dana Bash in Sedona, Arizona. We are just a couple of days away from four contests, four primaries. We've been telling you about these very important contests for the past hour. They are in Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and also Rhode Island.

Texas is going to be very interesting. Nothing is simple this election year, it seems, and Texas is no different. And Bill Schneider is going to break down now how interesting and perhaps complicated the voting will be on Tuesday, especially for Democrats in Texas. It's a bit of a Texas two-step.

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BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tex-Mex restaurants have these things called combination plates, where you get a little of this and a little of that. Same way Democrats pick delegates in Texas.

PAUL BURKA, TEXAS MONTHLY: We have 126 by election, 67 by caucus and 35 more are what they called PLEOs, which are party leaders and elected officials.

SCHNEIDER: The 37-page menu officially called the "Texas Delegate Selection Plan" explains how it works. First, there's a primary. The results are determined by State Senate district. Simple? Not so much.

BURKA: Senatorial districts do not all have the same number of delegates chosen. The ones with big Democratic turnouts get up to eight and the small ones can be as low as two.

SCHNEIDER: Hillary Clinton is expected to do well in low-turnout Latino districts. Those districts elect fewer delegates than high- turnout African-American districts, where Barack Obama is likely to be strong. But the primary is only the first step.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Texas is the only place in America, where you can vote twice in the same election without going to jail.

SCHNEIDER: On primary night, voters are supposed to go to precinct caucuses, where they can vote again to select more delegates.

BURKA: You go to the primary, but then, you have to have the motivation to go back at 7:15 to the site of the primary, where your precinct election was held, and vote for your candidate and it may be a long evening.

SCHNEIDER: Who runs the caucuses? The guide says if no precinct captain shows up, it's whoever gets there first. Imagine Clinton and Obama voters rushing to grab control. It's enough to give you the same thing you could get from a combination plate, heart burn.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Providence, Rhode Island.

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BASH: And if you didn't get all that, we will be explaining it to you all day on Tuesday, and through the evening on Tuesday, the day of the Texas primary here on CNN. The CNN election center is where you want to tune in for those results.

Now, we want to actually take you away just briefly from political news and talk about the weather. That's going to be after the break. Our Jacqui Jeras in the weather center is going to bring you some information about some tornadoes in Oklahoma and some storm- chasing video. You don't want to miss this. Stay tuned.

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BASH: Welcome back to CNN'S BALLOT BOWL '08, a prime time edition clearly. And we have been talking about politics for the last hour. We will continue to do that in the next hour. But we want to right now go to Jacqui Jeras in the weather center.

And Jacqui, you've been following some tornadoes going on today in Oklahoma and you've got some video of it.

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BASH: Welcome back to this special prime time edition of BALLOT BOWL '08. I'm Dana Bash in Sedona, Arizona. Now, BALLOT BOWL, if you've been watching our political coverage over the past several months, we've been bringing you BALLOT BOWL during the day on the weekends. We've been bringing you the candidates on the campaign trail as they have been appealing for your vote and trying to get their party's nomination.

But as we get closer to very, very critical primaries on Tuesday, those primaries are in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island, we wanted to give you this special edition, primetime edition of BALLOT BOWL, that let you hear even more of these candidates, as we get to hear them. As political reporters, we get to hear them up close and personal.

So, we're going to bring some of that to you tonight as we happen really pretty much throughout the day. And helping me do this is my partner, here in these wee hours of the night, at this point, is Candy Crowley. Candy is in Ohio.

Candy, I think, they've pretty much broken down behind you. But that was a Hillary Clinton event you were at there, isn't it?

CROWLEY: It was. You can barely tell and I think they've taken down the signs. The flags are still there. But those go fairly soon, too. Thanks, Dana.

We do, in fact, have a busy hour up ahead. We'll be doing a little talking about Mike Huckabee, who got a big old -- a re- endorsement, if you will, down in Texas today.

We'll see a reporter behind the scenes, traveling with Barack Obama, from one of our producers who is there 24/7. We will also hear a little bit as Hillary Clinton attempts to explain to voters the difference between change and progress.

After that, we are also going to talk about John McCain, who used the "L" word recently. John McCain brings me back to Dana Bash in Sedona.

Dana, you have been there for not a campaign event, but sort of a -- what shall we say this, cozying up to the press? Or how would you describe what you have been doing today?

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