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American Morning
McCain Wins All Primaries; Big Wins for Clinton in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island; Economy at the Polls; Democrats: Who Has the Momentum Now?
Aired March 05, 2008 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: John McCain clinches and heads to the White House for a presidential endorsement today. The "Most Politics in the Morning" on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And it is the morning after junior Tuesday, which turned out to be crucial Tuesday for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Boy, what a night it was.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks for being with us today.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. If you went to bed before the final numbers were out, we have them for you this morning. Hillary Clinton needed some wins, and she certainly got them. She took three of the four states last night, including the two biggest prizes, winning the Texas primary, 51 percent to Barack Obama's 48 percent. Still close and we are awaiting the delegate count from Texas. So one-third of the delegates are awarded based on the caucus results, and the reason that's so key is because the Democratic candidates are so close. I believe 86 delegates separate them in the pledged delegate count.
Senator Clinton also won Ohio, 54 percent to 44 percent. Just a couple of weeks ago her husband, former President Bill Clinton, said she needed to win both states in order to stay in the race and she did just that. There's a look at the delegate map now for you.
The Clinton states are in light blue. She also won Rhode Island last night. States that Barack Obama won are in dark blue. He won Vermont last night, and Texas, again is yellow because, as we said, those delegates are not yet pledged completely. Again, they're still counting up the caucus votes there. Barack Obama is still leading in the delegate count, 86 ahead of Hillary Clinton overall.
Now, Senator Clinton was all smiles at her victory speech. This was in Columbus, Ohio, last night. And she dedicated her comeback to voters in Ohio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know what they say, as Ohio goes, so goes the nation. Well, this nation is coming back and so is this campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: Before Hillary Clinton's three wins, Senator Barack Obama kicked off the night with a victory in Vermont. He spoke to his supporters in Texas and downplayed Hillary Clinton's wins.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate lead as we did this morning, and we are on our way to winning this nomination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So what's ahead? Well, the Wyoming caucuses are taking place on Saturday. Mississippi's primaries are Tuesday. And then, the next big race is Pennsylvania. That's April 22nd. There are 158 delegates up for grabs there -- John.
ROBERTS: Well, the Republican race is now officially over. John McCain's four-state sweep capped a remarkable comeback. He's going to visit the White House a little later on today to get President Bush's endorsement. John McCain won 51 percent of the vote in Texas. Mike Huckabee was 13 points back. Ron Paul came in at five percent in his home state. But Texas also held a Congressional primary last night and Ron Paul was re-elected in his district. So he's claiming victory this morning.
In Ohio, it was McCain with 60 percent. Mike Huckabee at 31 percent. Ron Paul again with five percent. John McCain now has 1,226 delegates, cracking that all-important number of 1,191. You see his states in the red there. Mike Huckabee's are in the pink, and Mitt Romney still got some states up there in the sort of brownish maroon color.
It was just eight months ago that McCain's second White House bid was left for dead. Last night, he celebrated the comeback telling supporters in Dallas that he looks forward to the next fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I understand the responsibilities I incur with this nomination. And I give you my word. I will not evade or slight a single one. Our campaign must be and will be more than another tired debate of false promises, empty sound bites or useless arguments from the past that address not a single of America's concerns for their family's security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And it was a heck of a ride for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee from winning the Iowa caucuses to a winning streak across the south on Super Tuesday. In the end, he fell about 1,000 delegates short of the nomination, though, and last night he cited some personal victories as he bowed out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MIKE HUCKABEE (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe tonight that one of the things that we will be able to say is not only that we fought the good fight and finished the race. We'd like to have finished it first, but we stayed in until the race was over. But I think more importantly, we've kept the faith. And that for me has been the most important goal of all. I'd rather lose an election than lose the principles that got me into politics in the first place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Mike Huckabee also said that he might have lost the race, but he stayed in it until it was over and he said he called John McCain after that to offer his help in the general election. We'll be talking with his campaign manager, Ed Rollins, coming up in our next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
CHETRY: And the best political team on television up early with us this morning. Suzanne Malveaux covering the Democrats in Austin, Texas. Dana Bash with the Republicans in Dallas. Ali Velshi is with the Election Express in Bandera, Texas. And we're going to be hearing from all of them.
We start with Suzanne in Austin. And, Suzanne, Ohio a big key for Hillary Clinton. No candidate ever gone on to win the presidency without the support of that state, but also Texas a big win. It was billed as a must-win for Hillary Clinton last night.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kiran. And the Clinton aides, they are quite ecstatic about how all this has shaped out because they say, look, the momentum is shifting in her direction. And they make the case, this is not only a vote of confidence for Hillary Clinton, but they believe that it is really a slam to Barack Obama. They say that he cannot close the deal in the end.
This is an expression of buyer's remorse, and essentially that they were able to chip away at this idea that somehow they were equal. That they believe Senator Clinton makes a stronger commander in chief, that she has a more consistent position when it comes to trade deals. And the case that they are making specifically to the superdelegates is that she's not only winning these big states like Texas and California, but she's also winning the states the Democrats need in the general election. And that is Ohio, New Mexico, even Michigan and Florida, they're using as an example here. They believe that this is a strong enough case to make to those superdelegates that she is in a position where she should get the nomination. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The question is not whether we can fulfill those dreams. It's whether we will. And here's our answer. Yes, we will. We will do what it takes, and we will, once again make the kind of progress that America deserves. Together, we will turn promises into action, words into solutions and hope into reality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Kiran, the Obama campaign counters that this is all really, when you look at the numbers here, the delegate numbers and that's the important thing to look at here, that it's all really a wash. That essentially while the difference between the delegate count actually narrowed in some way, Obama still comes out quite ahead of the game here. And that's what all this is all about. That they do not believe that Senator Clinton ultimately has the numbers in those pledge delegates to get this nomination.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In the weeks to come, we will begin a great debate about the future of this country for the man who has served it bravely and loves it dearly. Tonight, I called John McCain and congratulated him on winning the Republican nomination. But in this election, we will offer two very different visions of the America we see in the 21st century.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And, Kiran, you can already hear Senator Barack Obama positioning himself to go up against Senator John McCain, essentially putting aside Hillary Clinton. They believe that they are very strong when they go into the contest in Wyoming and Mississippi. But the Clinton camp is countering here saying they believe they can be competitive when it comes to the pledged delegates. Those future contests.
But ultimately, it is going to rely on those superdelegates to weigh in. And if they can make the case here that she's winning the big states, she's got the momentum and she's winning states that they need to capture in the general election, they believe they've got a good shot at convincing those superdelegates and that ultimately in the convention time, that will put her over the edge -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. We'll see if it goes that far. Thanks so much, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: We'll see.
CHETRY: Great to see you this morning. Thanks for getting up with us. Senators Clinton and Obama are both joining us, by the way, right here on AMERICAN MORNING. We're going to be speaking to Barack Obama in about an hour and then right after that, Hillary Clinton will join us.
ROBERTS: On the Republican side, Senator John McCain is the presumptive GOP nominee after going four for four last night. He's now got more than the required number of delegates to secure the nomination.
CNN's Dana Bash is in Dallas this morning. Dana, a big night for John McCain last evening and a big day planned as well.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You can still see the remnants of the big night here in Dallas that John McCain had last night. You know, John, eight years ago, George W. Bush was the Republican candidate that prevented John McCain from getting the Republican nomination. And today, George W. Bush is going to bless John McCain's nomination at the White House today.
The two men, the two old rivals now partners, I think it's the best way to call them. They are going to have lunch at the White House and then the two are going to come out and speak before the press. Now, this is something that the McCain campaign insists is beneficial to him. He has for the past month or two been struggling to really unite the Republican Party behind him. George Bush is still very popular among the GOP base. They hope that helps.
But Democrats have already been absolutely gleeful about the idea of having a picture with a very unpopular president. That's the first thing that the new Republican nominee will have. But there is something that binds them that there's no way that John McCain can or frankly, made clear here last night, wants to get away from and that is the war in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're in Iraq, and our most vital security interests are clearly involved there. The next president must explain how he or she intends to bring that war to the swiftest possible conclusion without exacerbating the sectarian conflict that could quickly descend into genocide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now that is the beginnings of the argument that John McCain is going to really has already been making on the stump about what his candidacy would bring versus what the democrats would bring on that issue of the war. Making the case that he believes that it's important to stay and continue the current military strategy while Democrats, he was making the point there, don't really necessarily have an adequate plan to pull out and still keep the country safe.
Now, this is something that is going to be much easier for the McCain campaign to make that argument once they have the apparatus of the Republican Party behind him. And that is another thing that McCain is going to be doing today, John. He's going to be going from the White House to the Republican National Committee. And that is something that is going to basically be melded for all intents and purposes with the McCain campaign. It is something that the McCain campaign is very, very happy about.
They are still a very, very small staff. Now, they are going to have about 150 staffers inside the RNC to help them out. They're going to have a fund raising base. They're going to have a database, so this is something that is going to -- they hope help -- really begin the national campaign right now against the Democrats -- John.
ROBERTS: So the Republican contest is over and the Democrats like that old pop song, just goes on and on and on. Dana Bash for us this morning. Dana, thanks very much. We'll see you again soon.
BASH: Thank you. ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: Ali Velshi is in Bandera, Texas, this morning. That's where he's been touring the state on CNN's Election Express. Speaking of going on and on and on, he's been all over Texas talking to voters about where they stand, how their votes are going to be decided and really how the economy is influencing votes there. Hey, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. We're here at the 11th Street Cowboy Bar last night. As a result, we're coming in talking to Texans. And, you know, we've been out with the Election Express for about 10 days in Texas. And we have been hearing from everybody that the economy is the number one issue. And that has been born out in poll after poll after poll. Let me tell you what our exit polls show us about the very different stories in the two states that were important last night in the race.
In Texas, among Republicans, the split is the closest between those who think that the economy is excellent or good. Forty-six percent thinking so, with 54 percent saying not so good or poor. But look at Texas Democrats. Only 15 percent of Texas Democrats said the economy is excellent or good while 84 percent think it's not so good or poor.
Now, it's a very different situation in Ohio among Republicans. Even among Republicans, a majority think the economy is doing not so good or poor; 69 percent while only 31 percent are thinking it's excellent or good. And look at the split with Ohio Democrats. Only eight percent of Ohio Democrats thought the economy was excellent or good. Ninety-one percent thinking it's not so good and poor and that also played into the opposition to NAFTA that we're seeing in Ohio. This is an industrial state that's really seen a lot of jobs lost over the last decade or so.
So that's interesting to see how that actually plays out in these two states. It's really it is what we've been hearing while we've been on the Election Express -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, Ali, thanks.
ROBERTS: You're watching the "Most News in the Morning." Hillary Clinton comes through jumpstarting a campaign that appeared to be on the brink of going under. How did she pull it off? And what does she need to do now?
And wild weather. Thunderstorms leave a trail of damage in South Carolina. Where are the storms headed today? We're tracking extreme weather.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The world is paying attention to how we conduct ourselves. What we say, how we treat one another. What will they see? What will we tell them? What will we show them?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Barack Obama remained positive last night after Hillary Clinton reeled off three straight wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. So who's got the momentum now?
Mark Halperin is the senior political analyst of "Time" magazine. He writes the up-to-the-minute blog for "Time" called "The Page." He's also the author of "The Undecided Voter's Guide to the Next President." He joins us this morning.
So, we got a couple of small contests coming up. Wyoming on Saturday and then Mississippi on Tuesday. And then, it's seven weeks until the next big contest in Pennsylvania on the 22nd of April. What can Barack Obama do to get the momentum back and hang on to it?
MARK HALPERIN, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, TIME: Well, seven weeks is an eternity in politics. To give you some idea, it was only eight weeks ago we had the Iowa caucuses and think about how long that seems.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Some days is a lifetime.
HALPERIN: Exactly. Think about how long that seems. I mean, Pennsylvania on paper is a good state for Clinton. It's a lot like Ohio demographically. Like in Ohio, she has the support of the very politically active Governor Ed Rendell. So I think Obama has got his work cut out for him there.
One of the things that has to worry him a bit is one of the things his campaign said, is when we can go some place, Obama can spend a lot of time meeting the voters on the ground, spending a lot of money on television ads, he has done that well. He got a chance to do that in Texas. He got a chance to do that in Ohio. It did not work. So he's certainly still the front-runner. No question. But she has the momentum today when she takes that with her to Pennsylvania.
ROBERTS: Somebody once told me the first rule of politics is when your opponent is down, keep your foot on their throat. And it looks like Hillary Clinton is bound to do that in the next while. Let's listen to what she said last night in her victory speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Americans don't need more promises. They've heard plenty of speeches. They deserve solutions, and they deserve them now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That approach of attacking Barack Obama, at least in Texas, seemed to in the last few days turn things around for her. So can we expect more of that or maybe even harsher?
HALPERIN: Here -- here's the dilemma Obama's going to face. Clinton is going to keep that up on several fronts, the national security front. I suspect her campaign will keep it up on some of the other controversies that they attacked him on. He's got to decide. Does he play at her level, at her game, as some of his supporters would like him to do? Or does he do as he said yesterday? Look, he says, I've run a different kind of campaign. I'm going to keep doing it. That is the dilemma he's going to face, and it's a hard one to solve.
ROBERTS: But he also signaled that he may try to fight back. Let's listen to what he said last night in his victory speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If I am the nominee of this party, I will not allow us to be distracted by the same politics that seeks to divide us with false charges and meaningless labels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That victory speech, we should point out, because he won Vermont. However, he was in Texas, which he lost. He needs to throw a punch. Do you think he's capable of doing it because, as you mentioned, he really has enough until now?
HALPERIN: He is capable. And, you know, it's a little bit wrong, I think, to say he hasn't. His staff is very aggressive. He did run a negative radio ad in Texas. Look, one of the things he said last night that really caught my attention, he lumped Hillary Clinton in with John McCain. He said they're basically both old candidates. He said they both supported the Iraq war.
It is going to be a very tough fight for Barack Obama, but he is going to fight back. I have no doubt about that. He's under attack from her. He'll be under attack from McCain and the Republican National Committee. President Bush, he faces a fight. But you know what? If he's going to be president of the United States, he's going to have to win a fight like this, and his supporters and would-be supporters want to see that.
ROBERTS: It's going to be a long road into Pennsylvania.
HALPERIN: Absolutely. Seven weeks is a long time. It's a big state, and they're going to be running like they're running for governor of the state. There are lots of TV ads, lots of staff. It's going to be something.
ROBERTS: Lots of campaign events in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, places like that.
Mark Halperin, as always, thanks very much.
HALPERIN: Thanks, John. ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: A lot to discover in Pennsylvania. I tell you. I love it. Thanks, guys.
Well, extreme weather tears through South Carolina. Trees knocked down. Cars flipped over and the wild weather is on the move. We're tracking all of it just ahead.
Plus, it's your chance to play campaign manager. Where the delegate count goes next. Our Veronica de la Cruz heading in now to show us with the help of CNN.com ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Twenty-three after 6:00 here on the East Coast, and we're following some extreme weather this morning.
Heavy thunderstorms as well as strong winds leaving behind a trail of damage in South Carolina. Check out some of these pictures of trees knocking down and hitting some buildings. Nearly two dozen counties across the state affected. Sixty-mile-per-hour winds also flipping over cars. There were no serious injuries reported, luckily, there.
Jacqui Jeras tracking the extreme weather from the weather update desk for us. And in some cases, that same system affecting voters trying to head to the polls yesterday in some of the key states.
JACQUI JERAS, AMERICAN MORNING METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. Things are starting to improve a little bit in those states now. And that storm system produced 185 different wind damage reports from Georgia all the way up into Pennsylvania. This thing is still going. Let's go ahead and show you where the showers and thunderstorms are at this hour.
Best thing I can tell you about all of this is see those yellow boxes? Yes, they've all disappeared now. So the severe threat is coming to an end as well as the rain, at least temporarily into parts of New York City. But you're still going to see some pretty heavy downpours across parts of Long Island, on up into Connecticut and even into Boston. You get into upstate New York, particularly right here along the state line with Pennsylvania. We've seen some extreme weather with a lot of ice accumulating as much as one-half of an inch, and that's been bringing down some power lines.
Our heaviest accumulating ice, we think, over the next couple of hours is going to be right around the Rochester area. Most likely east of there and a real rough go along the I-90 corridor. If you're trying to travel into the northeast today with the thunderstorms, rain and wind, we're anticipating over an hour delays at the New York metros, D.C. metros and Philadelphia as well. We'll probably see some delays with Cleveland as Ohio still getting hit after ice yesterday flooding across parts of the south. It's still going to be an ugly day throughout much of the Ohio Valley -- Kiran. CHETRY: Jacqui Jeras for us tracking extreme weather this morning. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Well, the Democrats are fiercely competing to reach their magic number of 2,025, the number of delegates needed to win the nomination. Can they do it? Well, you can try to game it out yourself. You can go to cnnpolitics.com and play the delegate counter game at home just like our CNN analysts do. Veronica de la Cruz here to show us how to play the game as well as what's on the scene in politics page. Good morning.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning. Good morning to you. You know, cnnpolitics.com is such a terrific resource. I know that a lot of people, they went to sleep early last night. They wanted to see what the election results are. Maybe they're headed to the office and they want to take a closer look.
Well, looking at the homepage CNN, Clinton wins Ohio, Texas. Big night for her, as you know, John. McCain secures the nomination. You can go ahead and read the article online. Also, you can take a closer look at the delegate count. As you know, Clinton is still behind Barack Obama. Barack Obama with 1,451. And as you know, big night for McCain; 1,226 is what he ended up with. And you know, John, that magic number, 1,191.
So if you want to take a closer look at all of that, you can do so. Also, how did the vote play out last night? How did people vote? This is a look at Texas. Light blue representing Hillary Clinton. All the dark blue counties going to Barack Obama. That's what kept them competitive.
For example, in Austin, he won the vote. Sixty-three percent of the votes in Travis County. Dallas as well. Somers (ph) 62 percent. We saw the same thing happen, John, in Ohio. Columbus, for example, in Franklin County, he won 56 percent of the vote. Also in Cuyahoga County with 53 percent of the vote.
So, just in case you have more time on your hands and you want to figure out where the race goes next, right? Let's take a look at this delegate counter game where you can go ahead and figure it out on your own. We know that they're still trying to sort things out in Texas. Ohio going to Clinton. Wyoming, some of the next races. Let's say that goes to her. Pennsylvania.
So what does she need to beat Barack Obama? This is something that you can do on your own at home. We already know how the Republican race played out, so that's something that you probably don't want to spend too much time with. But again, this is all available to you online, cnnpolitics.com. That's the homepage.
ROBERTS: It's like a little mini version of our magic wall here.
DE LA CRUZ: Isn't it great?
ROBERTS: The John King magic wall. DE LA CRUZ: Isn't it great?
ROBERTS: Yes.
DE LA CRUZ: I'm no John King, but, you know, --
ROBERTS: Yes. He's going to be here coming up in just a little while that gave us through everything that he's found in this magic wall. So make sure that you stay around for that. Veronica, thanks very much.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, the tight race on the Democratic side has a lot of people wondering what to do about Michigan and Florida. You may remember the Democratic National Committee stripped both states of delegates for holding their primaries before the approved time. There were some 366 delegates up for grabs in both states. And as we look at these delegate counts and see how close they are, things are going to matter.
Clinton won Florida back in January. But again, no delegates were awarded and some of the candidates did not do any campaigning there because of the fact that they knew it was not going to count. No delegates awarded when she won in Michigan either. Obama not even on the ballot in Michigan.
And it brings us to this morning's "Quick Vote" question. With the Democratic nomination likely too close to call, what should happen to the votes in Florida and Michigan? The voters, what should they do? Should they have their delegates counted? Should they be able to hold new primaries or caucuses? Or, as Democratic Party Leader Howard Dean said, he would not be against it, or should their delegates not be counted at all? Cast your vote at cnn.com/am. We're going to get the first tally of votes coming up a little later in the hour.
And still ahead, it's Super Tuesday part two. It turned out to be pretty eventful. One man clinches the nomination. One woman launches a stunning comeback. The best political team on television breaking down the results next.
And still ahead, Democrats divided. Who has the upper hand now as the race for the nomination spills into the spring? Roland Martin is going to be weighing in when AMERICAN MORNING comes back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Pretty blue skies this morning in our nation's capital. It is 55 degrees right now and cloudy. Getting about two degrees warmer for a high today. But it will certainly be a welcome change from the weather we've had over the past few weeks. It's been downright nippy.
Also, a big day in Washington today. It's about 1:00 this afternoon. We're going to hear from the president as he throws his weight behind the new GOP nominee, John McCain. Officially clinching it with last night's voting in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Big day for John McCain.
CHETRY: Sure is.
ROBERTS: And talk about Lazarus. Oh my goodness.
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Six months ago left for dead at the side of the road. Now, the presumptive nominee.
Senator Hillary Clinton finally breaks Senator Barack Obama's winning streak last night. A big night for her as well. Clinton won Tuesday's biggest prize, the Texas primary. 51 percent to 48 percent. As for those pesky Texas caucuses, well, we're still waiting for the results of those. They're going to resume counting this morning. The winner gets one-third of the state's delegates. Two-thirds were allocated in the primary process.
Clinton also won Ohio, 54 percent to 44 percent. One analyst said the controversy over the North American Free Trade Agreement helped her in that state. Taking a look now at the delegate map. Clinton in the light blue also won Rhode Island. Now has 1,365 delegates. Obama in the dark blue won Vermont. And he's 86 delegates ahead with 1,451. He remains, though, 130 delegates ahead in the pledged delegate count. 2,025 delegates are needed to win the Democratic nomination.
Senator Clinton's victory was delivered by undecided and older voters. At least in Texas. With the wins, she lives to fight on for at least the next two months. Serenaded by cheers and Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising," she dedicated her comeback to Ohio voters and promise that she won't talk, she'll act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have big dreams for America's future. The question is not whether we can fulfill those dreams. It's whether we will. And here's our answer. Yes, we will! We will do what it takes. And we will, once again, make the kind of progress that America deserves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Senator Obama's lone victory in Vermont extended his winning streak until Clinton's Rhode Island win snapped it. Speaking to supporters in Texas, he dismissed criticism of his speeches and he took specific aim at the now presumptive Republican nominee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John McCain may claim long history, straight talk, and independent thinking. And I respect that. But in this campaign, he has fallen in line behind his very same policies that have ill served America. He has seen where George Bush has taken our country and he promises to keep us on the very same course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So what's next? Pennsylvania is the next big race. But it's not going to come until April 22nd. The Wyoming caucuses are this Saturday and the Mississippi primary next Tuesday. And then nothing until Pennsylvania.
Kiran?
CHETRY: On the Republican side, the question is settled. John McCain clinching the nomination and Mike Huckabee bowing out of the race. Texas and Ohio put McCain over the top. Let's take a look at the breakdown. McCain took 51 percent of the Texas vote. There it is. Huckabee with 38 percent. And Ron Paul, he is still hanging in, 5 percent of the vote in his home state.
Now in Ohio, McCain won 60 percent of the GOP vote to Mike Huckabee's 31 percent. John McCain now has 1,226 delegates. You can see it on our delegate count over here. That's 35 more than he needed to officially clinch the nomination. And Mike Huckabee finishing with 251.
You can see McCain states are in red. Huckabee is in pink. The maroon states are Mitt Romney's. And it's still up in the air right now. What Mitt Romney is going to do with those delegates that he won before bowing out of the race?
Well, McCain now emerges as the leader of the GOP. Today, he heads to the White House and he's going to get the endorsement of President Bush. McCain also now looking ahead to his competition in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Americans aren't interested in an election where they're just talked to and not listened to. An election...
(APPLAUSE)
...An election that offers platitudes instead of principles and insults instead of ideas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Mike Huckabee conceded the race soon after the polls closed and he thanked his supporters talking about the importance of sticking to his principles and staying in the race to give a voice to his constituents. He then threw his support behind McCain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MIKE HUCKABEE, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's now important that we turn our attention not to what could have been or what we wanted to have been, but what now must be. And that is a united party, but a party that indeed comes together on those principles that have brought many of us, not just to this race, but to politics in general.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Huckabee says he has no plan "B" for his future. Texas Congressman Ron Paul, as we said, still in it. But he only has 21 delegates.
ROBERTS: Well, Hillary Clinton may have built some momentum of her own with big wins in Ohio and Texas. Is Barack Obama's delegate lead still safe? CNN contributor Roland Martin had a late night last night and an early morning today as the results came in.
Good morning to you.
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning.
ROBERTS: Good to see you. Let's play a little bit of what they said last night. Hillary Clinton's three-state victories versus Obama's single state victory speech about the race going forward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: You know what they say. As Ohio goes, so goes the nation.
OBAMA: We have nearly the same delegate lead as we did this morning, and we are on our way to winning this nomination.
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ROBERTS: Both of them are claiming victory here and good positioning going forward. But where does this race going?
MARTIN: You know what, John, I love all of a sudden how the language changes. Early on, Senator Clinton's campaign was saying it was all about the delegates when she was in the lead. Then Obama said, you know what, it's all about the delegates and how many states you win.
Then she says it's all about, forget the red states. It's the blue states. Texas is a red state. But she's claiming the whole deal. Then they say it's all a matter of about how much you win. How many votes and so everybody is switching the language basically to get the upper hand.
The bottom line is it's going to continue. It's going to be tight. And so clearly for Senator Clinton, she wants to argue, if I can win large states and battleground states, Obama is going to say, I've won more states, I've won more votes so therefore, I'm still in this game. So both of them claimed victory last night and to a certain degree, they are right.
But again, I ran three newspapers. It is all about the headline. The headline, Clinton wins Texas, Ohio. The subhead, Obama has more super delegates. I can always tell you, I never sold a paper based upon the subhead, it's always the headline.
ROBERTS: Exactly.
There are a lot of people who do believe that this race this year in November is going to come down to Ohio. So if she can win Ohio is she not better positioned to win the general election?
MARTIN: Not necessarily because Virginia is a purple state. You have a Democratic senator, a Democratic governor. Potentially, Mark Warner could win the senator as well. So Virginia is in play. If you look at what happened in Missouri, Missouri could be in play.
George W. Bush won Iowa four years ago by 10,000 votes. Look at the turnout this year. Iowa could potentially be in play. And so there are several states that were so-called red states that could very well be in play. And so that's one of the issues there.
I just think that, again, as they are going forward, Clinton is going to have to rack up some large wins in order to close that delegate lead. And so that's really what the focus is going to be. From Obama, you can expect some retooling in terms of how they respond to criticisms, because we saw out of New Hampshire.
For her, I think they found the right message in terms of how do you move forward because they were searching all over the place. So it's like a football coach. Throw everything at them. But you know what I think we picture a pay dirt.
ROBERTS: Yes. We should mention again that they are 86 delegates apart when you include the super delegates. But if you exclude those and just go with the pledged delegates, they are 130 delegates apart with Obama in the lead.
And his campaign is making the case that whoever is the nominee, because it looks like they're going to deadlock. Nobody is going to reach 2,025. Whoever becomes the nominee, whoever the super delegates get behind should be the one with the most pledge delegates. Can she make up that deficit?
MARTIN: Well, she can. She can make it up. Again, she has to start racking up large wins. And so the question is, last night in Ohio, she won 54 percent, 44 percent. What she really need a 15, 20- point win. Where are the states where she can win with that kind of margin? Frankly, they got to base this on the super delegates.
Don't forget, the Texas caucus. Those delegates have not been counted in. That thing was a huge mess last night. All the kind of drama how was disorganized. And so Obama is going to pick up even more delegates there. She needs to score major wins.
But look, she's banking on super delegates. She's banking on being within 60, 80 delegates of him going to the convention and then, all of a sudden, that's where the party favors to come in. That's where personal loyalties come in to determine who's going to back him.
ROBERTS: All right. Roland Martin for us this morning. Thanks for getting up early. So you can probably answer the question. Is it better to get a little bit of sleep or just stay up all night?
MARTIN: No. It's better to get a little bit of sleep.
ROBERTS: All right. Good to see you.
MARTIN: Appreciate it. Thank you.
CHETRY: Ask him in an hour (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: He's still got a radio show to do.
CHETRY: I know. Get some coffee.
MARTIN: I need callers so I won't talk.
ROBERTS: His listeners will be doing a lot of a talking.
MARTIN: There you go.
CHETRY: Exactly. Well, the senators, both Clinton and Obama are going to be joining us live, coming up in our next half hour. We're going to be speaking to Barack Obama, actually, just about a half an hour or so from now at 7:15. And right after that, Hillary Clinton is going to be joining us. You want to stick around for that right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Still ahead, which candidate appealed most to the voters who had money on their minds? We're going to break down the exit polling with Bill Schneider, next.
Also, he's traveling by bus. It's the Election Express to be exact. To think, Ali Velshi didn't need to be driving after partying into the night with Texans as they watched the results come in. We're going to talk about how the economy affected voters' decisions there in Texas as well. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. As the economy slows and prices for food, gas, and other things that we need every day are on the rise, voters are focused on the economy. So how did yesterday's primary voters break down on this key issue? Senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, joins us. He's up early with us this morning with a look at some of the exit polling.
Tell us, first of all, what voters who said that they were worried about the economy, how did their votes break down?
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Clinton. Clinton did very well among voters on the economy and particularly their own financial situations were a big concern. Look at Ohio. Voters who said they were worried about their financial situation. That was 75 percent of the voters in Ohio. A huge majority of Democrats. 55 percent to 43 percent for Clinton over Obama.
Texas, two-thirds were worried about their own financial situation. They voted 56 percent to 43 percent for Hillary Clinton. She did very well among those voters who felt tight, squeezed by the poor economy and who wanted someone who can deliver. That's the way Democrats see Hillary Clinton, someone who promises to deliver.
CHETRY: That's certainly good for her as we've seen the turn around in her campaign just over the voting last night. Also, there is much made about who her core voters are in terms of income ranges and where that broke down. Did that follow the same pattern as we've seen in past states?
SCHNEIDER: No, not exactly. She did well yesterday among lower income voters, but she also did well with middle income voters. To find Obama winning, you have to go to incomes in Texas of more than $100,000. That's very high income voters. He did do well among those high income voters. You can see that. 55 percent for Obama.
But among people who made incomes of less than $100,000, including this vast majority of middle income voters, Clinton edged him out. 53 percent to 46 percent. So she captured the middle income voters. He did well among high income voters.
His voters are mostly wealthier, younger, better educated, upper middle class, professional voters. These are people who aren't necessarily looking for a candidate who can deliver. They are looking for a candidate who can inspire.
CHETRY: Very, very interesting. And those were the breakdowns for Texas.
SCHNEIDER: Texas, correct.
CHETRY: All right. Bill Schneider, we'll see more of you throughout the show. Thanks so much for being with us.
John?
ROBERTS: Speaking of someone who can inspire, our Ali Velshi joins us now from Bandera, Texas, where he's been touring the state on board CNN Election Express bus. Last night, you heard the poll results come in at the 11th Street Cowboy Bar.
Ali, I take it they were singing, dancing, and barbecuing, but what were they saying last night?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We were conducting very scientific exit polls of our own at the -- this is the bar right next to me. Actually, I'm retiring the hat today because it's our last day in Texas. But this was a real place to wear it. 11th Street Cowboy Bar is where everybody in Bandera came. We had a few hundred people in a town of about 2,500 people. So they were all here. They were barbecuing and there was a band playing called Almost Patsy Cline Band. It was actually a lot of fun. And people were watching the results coming in.
Now, like the rest of Texas, there had been a lot of early voting in Bandera. About 25 percent increase over last election. It's an overwhelmingly Republican town, but there was some interesting nuances here. There were no Democratic candidates for any local office in Bandera County.
As a result, if you wanted to vote for local office, you would have had to have declared yourself a Republican when you went to vote to vote for local officers and for the Republican primary.
If you were a Democrat and wanted to vote for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, you had to declare yourself a Democrat in which case you couldn't vote for local office. So in fact, the number of Republicans voting in this county was far in excess of the number of Democrats. So that was one interesting nuance.
The other thin is this is a ranching community. We spoke to one man who puts horse shoes on horses. I mean, we wouldn't have thought that the economy was affecting him. He said there's a lot of horses around here, there's a lot of business.
But he has to drive such great distances between his clients that the gas is costing him a lot more and he has passed that on to his consumers. So people are paying more to get their horses shoed in Bandera, Texas than they used to because of gas prices. So interesting stories we've been gathering in some of these small towns about things that up in New York, I wouldn't quite know about.
John?
ROBERTS: What do you call a person who goes around putting shoes on horses?
VELSHI: A shodder. And I didn't know that until yesterday either.
ROBERTS: Or a farrier. All right, Ali Velshi for us this morning.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROBERTS: Ali, thanks. We'll talk to you more soon.
CHETRY: I have some morning pun if you want to hear it. I shudder to think what Ali is going to find out in the next hour. Is that right? It's only 6:49, give me a chance.
Well, older voters went one way, younger voters another. So who voted for Clinton and who voted for Obama? We just heard from Bill Schneider about where the economic breakdowns went. How about race and gender? And what does it say about what comes next. John King is here. He's crunching the numbers for us as well. We're going to get that, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton is back in the game, winning the states that she had to win, Texas and Ohio. But with just a dozen primaries left, she has got a steep hill to climb to catch Barack Obama. Our chief national correspondent John King joins us now at the magic wall with a breakdown of the votes.
So, how did she win Texas?
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's take a look. She wins Texas. That is the Clinton, shade of blue. Let's come over to Democratic primary. She wins it, John, by winning just about everywhere. Look across the state of Texas. The lighter blue is Senator Clinton. The darker blue is Senator Obama.
She's winning just about everywhere. And why is that important? Most of these places like El Paso. It's a very small city. She wins almost 70/30 there. Not a lot of votes but she's winning 70-30 out there.
Let's move across the state. This rural area here. This is, if you will, the Latino belt of Texas from Corpus Christi over to El Paso. She wins with the exception of one county. She wins them all and she wins them big, John. She is winning with big margins there.
In those margins, in the smaller cities and the rural areas were absolutely critical. Because Barack Obama did win in liberal Travis County. That's Austin, the state capital, a university town, a very liberal town. Obama wins pretty big there, 63-37. Obama wins over here in Houston, another big population center, winning 56-43. So, he's running up big numbers. Obama, interior Dallas as well, 62-38.
Obama wins in the major population centers but she just sweeps him across the Latino belt here. And this was a key in Ohio as well. Up here in rural areas, white, rural voters flocking to Senator Clinton. A huge difference in Texas. And he wins where the population is, in the big centers, but she wins everywhere else.
ROBERTS: Right. Let's take it up to Ohio and take a look at how the results there could spell some problems for him going forward. You know, you were mentioning that she wins in rural areas, he wins in the cities. If you were to take these colors and you were to make the light blue, red, and left the dark blue, it would look like the general election.
KING: Well, I can do that for you. This is the primary last night. The light blue is Senator Clinton again. The dark blue is Obama. And she is winning across the state. Cleveland is about the only Democratic area where he's doing very well.
Let's go back and look at the 2004 election. That is the Republican. This is a Republican state in the last two elections. Cincinnati down here, this southwest corner here. So you're exactly right. Columbus and Cleveland, Obama wins in.
But let's come back to last night's vote. Again, she is winning across the board. Where does she win? She wins with rural voters down here. Very important. White, working class, along the river towns that are struggling right now. She won the economic argument here. She also won in the gritty towns, in Youngstown, in Akron, in Toledo, places where the NAFTA debate mattered. Trade debate mattered.
Her husband pushed NAFTA through the Congress. Barack Obama tried to use that against her. That whole controversy about his economic adviser, what did he say to the Canadians? Well, that played out big here. One other key point for Senator Clinton.
Obama again, just like in Texas, wins where the African-American voters, in Hamilton County, Cincinnati, here in the Columbus area and here Cleveland. But if he was to win Ohio and surprise her there, he needed to do it by huge margins. Let's just look at Cleveland. Yes, he won but only 53-46. A 23,000-vote margin right there. If he was going to surprise her in Ohio, John, he needed to do 60-40, 60-40, or better in those metropolitan areas, where the African-American vote exists.
If you carry this over, if you're looking ahead and then, we're going to talk more about that later. If you're looking ahead, if you look at Akron, Youngstown, Toledo, come over next door to Pennsylvania. That's why Senator Clinton is in this race and feeling a bit more optimistic this morning.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, we'll definitely look at that, coming up. John King at the magic wall for us this morning. John, thanks.
Kiran?
CHETRY: As we've been seeing all morning, three big wins for Hillary Clinton. She's calling it a comeback. Barack Obama, though, says not so fast. We're going to be getting reactions from both candidates, coming up.
Also, every state could have its say before the Democrats settle things. So, where do we go from here? The Best Political Team on Television breaks it down and look ahead at some of the other races and what issues will be driving the campaign as we continue with AMERICAN MORNING, in just a couple of minutes.
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ROBERTS: McCain clinches.
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SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now we begin the most important part of our campaign.
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ROBERTS: The presumptive nominee heads to the White House for a presidential endorsement today.
Back in the game.
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SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This nation is coming back and so is this campaign.
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ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton snaps Barack Obama's winning streak. The next battle begins right here.
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