Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Wyoming Primary Wrap-Up; Campaigns Discussed
Aired March 08, 2008 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Very important.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep but there's phone in the White House and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: You remember Senator Clinton's red phone ad? Well one of the little girls in the ad is all grown up now and guess who she is supporting for president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN HAGEE: John McCain will be a strong, courageous and effective leader from the first day he steps into the oval office.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Senator McCain gets endorsed by a televangelist, a man who calls the Catholic Church a cult (INAUDIBLE) divine agent. Will that become a campaign issue? How does it compare to Obama's Farrakhan endorsement?
This is a special election update, the Wyoming caucus. Hello again everybody, I'm Rick Sanchez. Boy, can you believe it the way this thing is going? First it's Obama, then it's Hillary. Then it's Obama, then it's Obama and then it's Hillary and now it's Obama again. And here's something you don't hear very often. Tonight all campaign eyes and ears are on Wyoming. This is the state with the fewest people and only offers 12 regular democratic delegates but in this Clinton/Obama race for the nomination, every single delegate is 100 percent solid gold.
We've got a winner in Wyoming and that winner is -- now declared, Senator Barack Obama. Let's go over the numbers if we can just to parse those out for you if we can. Senator Obama is going to win seven. At least that's how many he definitely takes away here. Hillary Clinton is going to get four. There's going to be one outstanding in Wyoming and there are six super delegates still to be decided. As this breaks down, we've already done the numbers for you.
So you add those seven to Barack Obama, he's now at 1,527. Hillary Clinton is now at 1,428. How many do they finally need in the end? Well, they're going to need 2,025 to win this thing. By the way, it says 2,024 but it's 2,025 because of something that happened tonight in Illinois where the former Speaker Denny Hastert's seat is now gone to a democrat Bill Foster. We'll get into that for you.
But remember this, also and this is important. As you look at this situation. It's important to know that neither of these candidates could get to that magic number, only by regular delegates. They're going to need the help of super delegates in this thing. Let's talk more about that as we go on. As we look at both the delegates here, let's now bring in Jessica Yellin. She's following the situation for us in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Why Obama, the winner in the state in Wyoming, many would ask including myself.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Rick, Barack Obama has done enormously well in all of the caucus states. In fact, Nevada's the only one that Senator Clinton won and one of the reasons is it takes good organization. You don't just turn up to vote as we have been telling everyone. You have to really go and spend time caucusing. You have to devote your energy to it and a good part of your day.
So Obama's organization has been in these states early, very effective. And getting people to turn out, also, because he's so -- brings so many new people in. These aren't just the people who would regularly vote. They get excited by him and they want to go out and vote. This is one of the reasons we have seen him do so well at caucuses. Also he's been doing very well in the west. And his campaign manager today points that out after this win. He calls this, his campaign manager, a huge win for Barack Obama.
Meantime, Senator Clinton's campaign manager is also making the point that Senator Clinton walked away with a healthy number of delegates herself. She has at least four as you said and Senator Clinton competed hard here. She sent her husband, her daughter. She herself was here. They are not going to just give up on these caucus states the way we saw them really write them off in the past. So a little bit of a change in strategy from Senator Clinton.
But this is not a state where Bill Clinton was terribly popular. There are some things he did in office that didn't go over too well here. Barack Obama just has the organization and the enthusiasm and it paid off.
SANCHEZ: In sports though they'll tell you a loss is a loss. It doesn't matter whether it's 9 to 8 or 9 to nothing. And this is what the Obama camp is going to be saying tonight but you bring up an interesting topic. This whole idea of Barack Obama out-caucusing Hillary Clinton not just here in Wyoming but all throughout. We're going to get into that a little bit later.
Jessica, thanks so much for bringing us that update, as we get in more information.
Let's do this now. Let's bring in our panel. We're joined by Baoky Vu, he's a White House adviser and a John McCain supporter we should add. Tom Baxter is the editor for the Southern Political Report. Cynthia Good had it's pink magazine, she's a Hillary Clinton supporter. Cynthia, let's begin with you. I understand Barack Obama out caucusing her early if we can make up that word but why does it continue to happen? Don't you think somewhere along the line the Clinton folks would say, hey, we're not going to let this happen again?
CYNTHIA GOOD, EDITOR, PINK MAGAZINE: Well you made the sports reference. Absolutely, this game is not over yet. Certainly, the odds are stacked against her, they have always been against her but she can still pull out of this.
SANCHEZ: But why does she continue to get out-caucused? Why is he better as our reporter just illustrated at going in and rounding people up and getting their support?
GOOD: Maybe it's easier for him to make a connection with the voters and this is something that I've been concerned about with her candidacy all along, the concept of pink actually is how women are redefining leadership today and part of that is about being authentic and Barack Obama is very comfortable showing that he is compassionate and sensitive and I think there may be some reluctance on her part to show that side of herself because she maybe typecast as the soft woman in the race.
SANCHEZ: That's interesting. Tom, she's going to say and her people are already saying it, look, I can win the big states and that's what makes a difference. He win, I think by my count, by winning Wyoming he gets 28 states now. Caucuses or states that he's won or primaries. But she is going to say I can win the big states. Does she have a good argument?
TOM BAXTER, EDITOR, "SOUTHERN POLITICAL REPORT": Well she's won the big states and now she's got to win Pennsylvania. You know if she doesn't do that --
SANCHEZ: Mississippi doesn't matter then?
BAXTER: Mississippi doesn't matter that much because I think it's already been pretty well discounted in Obama's favor.
SANCHEZ: Do you think that at this point, with the amount of wins that he has, that Obama has the big mo?
BAOKY N. VU, W.H. ADVISORY CMTE. ON ASIAN AFFAIRS: He does not have the big mo. I don't think so. He does certainly have as Cynthia alluded to, the energy and the ability to energize his base so far. If you think about the recent victories for Senator Obama in Wyoming and North Dakota or Mississippi, these are traditionally republican states. So it does bring in to question Senator Obama's ability to play to the machine that is in place for the Clinton campaign in the bigger states.
SANCHEZ: Do you know what we're heading for here? I mean do you know what we're heading for. Look at the map. It doesn't look like either of these candidates are going to be able to get with just regular delegates alone to the magic number. That means that super delegates are going to have to step in and make a decision. How will the loser's side feel if the super delegates come in and choose the other person? And will it divide the party? Start with you Baoky.
VU: Well I think ultimately certainly from now until convention time there is going to be a lot of jockeying for the super delegates. Now, what -- it's not an enviable position that I will want to be in.
SANCHEZ: No, but here's the question. Let's suppose Hillary Clinton is down at the end and the super delegates come in and anoint her the winner. How are Barack Obama supporters going to take that? Your expectation of that.
VU: Could be similar to 1968. A lot of discontent, a lot of feelings of disenfranchise.
SANCHEZ: Will it split the party?
VU: It probably would.
SANCHEZ: Tom?
BAXTER: I think that in order to bring this off, to have the elders of the party step in and really resolve this, you're probably going to at some point have to bring in big daddy. You're going to have to bring in Al Gore or somebody of that stature and I don't think there is anybody else of that stature besides --
SANCHEZ: Cynthia, pardon me Tom, they're telling me we have to get to the break but I have to hear your perspective on this. You're supporting Hillary Clinton.
GOOD: I personally am. I mean I would love nothing more than to see a woman.
SANCHEZ: That's ok. Don't have to be apologetic about this. Suppose that super delegates put her on top, even if she's down in the regular delegate. Would you accept that?
GOOD: Well, I think ultimately it may take someone else coming in and bringing the two sides together. I think it's possible ultimately. Everyone ought to come together here.
SANCHEZ: This is a great conversation. I can't wait to get into it because we have so much more to talk about.
Tonight, a U.S. congressman is implying that if Barack Obama is elected president he will capitulate to Muslim extremists. I want you to hear the statement for yourself. This is a republican congressman. His name is Steve King of Iowa. He's talking on a local radio station. Go ahead. Listen to his comment. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. STEVE KING, (R)IOWA : I'm going to say something here that I haven't said in the public arena and I think it's time to start thinking about and that is that I don't want to discourage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity and their name, whatever the religion of their father might have been. I'll just say this that when you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected president of the United States, I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam? I will tell you that if he is elected president then the radical Islamists, the al Qaeda and the radical Islamists and their supporters will be dancing in streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11th because they will declare victory on this war on terror. They will say the United States has capitulated, because we would be pulling our troops out of any conflict that has to do with al Qaeda anywhere. And additionally, it does matter. His middle name does matter. It matters because they read a meaning in to that and the rest of the world that has a special meaning to them. They'll be dancing in the streets because of his middle name, they'll be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and because of his posture that says pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict. So there are implications that have to do with who he is and the position that he's taken. If he were strong on national defense and said I'm going to go over there and we're going to fight and we're going to win and we'll come home with a victory, that's different. That's not what he said. They will be dancing in the streets if he is elected president and has a chilling aspect of how difficult it will be to ever win this global war on terror.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Did you notice he keyed in on the word optics. He said his optics. What is that code for? Optics? Visual? The fact that he's black? We're going to have a discussion about this. But by the way, here's the response from Barack Obama. Came out not long after this. Let me read it to you. King's comments have no place in politics and should be repudiated by the apparent Republican nominee John McCain. There's a couple of interesting questions that come out of this. One of them obviously is, does this end up helping Obama or hurting Obama? And also this, how many other people out there, Republican or Democrat, are thinking the same things that the congressman is saying but they're just not saying it publicly like he did? We're going to bring our panel back in just a little bit and we're going to get their take on Congressman King's statement.
Also, what are the super delegates going to do if there is no clear winner? We'll stay on that topic and this, Ohio is shivering. And this is why. Streets are white. Flights are canceled. It's a mess. What's next? We'll take you there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: You know, we are sitting here still trying to figure out how these numbers work but this we can now report, Barack Obama apparently looks like the projected winner. Not apparently. He is the projected winner at this point in the state of Wyoming's caucus. He takes away, by the way, this is important, because it's only 12 delegates. He takes away seven. Senator Clinton takes away four. There's still one outstanding and then there are six super delegates to be determined later as they often say. That breaks the break down this way. Senator Obama right now has 1,527, that's including the seven more that he won today. That gives Senator Clinton four more as well and puts her at 1,428. The magic number is at 2,025. Neither one of them appear to be able to get there at least not mathematically without the help of the super delegates. Let's get back to this comments we were talking about just a little while ago. The Muslim thing continues to come back and haunt Barack Obama. This time, it's perhaps and those of you before we went to the break may have heard it. This one seems to be more direct than others that we have heard in the past and it comes from a standing U.S. congressman. Steve King, is his name, Republican from Iowa. In case you missed his entire comment, here's part of it again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING: When you think about the optics of a Barack Obama, potentially getting elected president 0f the United States, and I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam? I will tell you that if he is elected president then the radical Islamists, the al Qaeda and the radical Islamists and their supporters will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11th because they will declare victory on this war on terror.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Let's bring our panel once again. You know what I think? You know what I think? I think that there are many more people who think like Representative King and don't say it than many of us wish to believe. Do you agree with me?
VU: Well, I'd rather tell you that I think it's very unfortunate in this instance because it certainly doesn't help the tone of the campaign.
SANCHEZ: Forget that. That's not the question I asked you. The question I asked you is, do you think his thinking is more prevalent than we'd like to believe?
VU: No. I think that the American people, when it comes down to it, wants to focus on the issues and in this case, this has been played up -- and the reverse is that with Senator Obama, I could tell you moveon.org, it was morally reprehensible for them to come out when General Petraeus came back from Iraq for his assessment, surge strategy, for them to place an ad saying, you know, titling it General Petraeus or General betray us.
SANCHEZ: Which was wrong but my wife comes back from the grocery store the other day and says to me what's this about Barack Obama unwilling to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States? I went on the internet and I found out it was a lie, that they transposed the sound from the pledge of allegiance to the "Star Spangled Banner." Do you think this is more prevalent, Tom, than most of us would want to let on?
BAXTER: Well I think it is more prevalent than most of us would want to believe and for that reason I think in a perverse way maybe Steve King did Barack Obama a favor.
SANCHEZ: Why?
BAXTER: Because he got it out there. And he got those questions that a lot of Americans may be somewhat ashamed to have but they still have those questions.
SANCHEZ: Do you think Barack Obama, you or Cynthia, do you think Barack Obama should just come out and say, look, I am sick and tired of this? I am a Christian. I am not in any way aligned to anybody out there in the Middle East who's an extremist and I am not going to take this anymore? Why doesn't he just come out and say that?
GOOD: He did think the comments were inappropriate and it's not entirely unlike the comments that were made by the Harvard University professor about Hillary Clinton and of course Senator Obama backed up and said I'm going to take the high road here that's inappropriate and unacceptable. Nevertheless I do think this will have a negative impact, I disagree respectfully with you on his campaign just because this election is so tight and maybe it gets people thinking and when they're so jittery already.
SANCHEZ: You're on the record saying you think this guy, King, will convince people that this candidate could possibly have extremist, Muslim tendencies?
GOOD: Absolutely not. I think when he talks about optics, he means the optics in terms of the --
SANCHEZ: What does he mean by optics, the fact that he's black, what does he mean by optics?
GOOD: I think what he is really getting at is he is hoping that he can portray the situation in a negative light when it comes to Senator Obama.
SANCHEZ: Tom?
BAXTER: I think he knows what he is doing but I really do, I still stick to my guns and think that you have a lot of people who secretly have questions about this kind of thing and maybe if those questions are answered in a way that would settle their doubts about Obama, it might not be a bad thing right now.
SANCHEZ: You know, isn't there an old saying that says if you keep saying something or if you keep repeating it enough eventually it kind of becomes true?
BAXTER: But the internet repeats it for you now. The internet keeps saying it for you all the time. This is out there on the internet. A lot of people are getting access to this.
SANCHEZ: Steve (INAUDIBLE) had something on "60 Minutes" last week where he interviewed somebody and that person kept saying he had doubts on national television about Barack Obama because he didn't think he was a true Christian or a true American. Do you think now after this conversation, Baoky, coming back to you, that it's prevalent out there? VU: What I think struck me was the fact that Tom said that, yes, perhaps in the back of the ordinary voter, this instills a sense of a questioning Senator Obama's --
SANCHEZ: How much of this has to do with the fact that he's an African-American?
VU: Well, no, I don't think that is the case and me being a naturalized Vietnamese American citizen --
SANCHEZ: But would they be saying it if he was a white guy with blond hair and freckles?
VU: Well, no. But the fact that he has come out in his positioning on national security issues as being very soft towards this war on terror. And I think it brings in to question --
SANCHEZ: But that's a policy decision.
VU: Sure it is but I think the policy decision --
SANCHEZ: It's not un-American to disagree with the policy of the United States.
VU: No, no, totally not but the policy decision that Senator Obama has accumulated over the years certainly brings other folks to question his core ability here.
SANCHEZ: That's a good point. Cynthia, what's harder? Being a woman in this campaign as is Hillary Clinton or being an African- American whose middle name is Hussein?
GOOD: I mean it's tough. I was thinking you know Hillary Clinton, she has overcome so many odds already. What some of these odds that she's facing now are significant but she's had to deal with this. Certainly Senator Obama, the same thing. They're both trying to overcome and already have insurmountable odds and I think it's very exciting, I mean we're making history.
SANCHEZ: There's no question about it watching this thing --
GOOD: And it shows that peoples' attitudes are changing in a very positive way and people are being more open minded, which is a great thing.
SANCHEZ: Before we go to a break, Tom, you have a little bit of background on this fellow King out of Iowa. Can you give us a couple of graphs on him?
BAXTER: Well, he is one of the most stridently anti-immigration Republicans. He is considered to be to the right of almost the entire republican caucus in congress. And a lot of republicans have already distanced themselves from comments that he's made. So that's why I say if this had to be put out there it was put out in the mouth of the right messenger.
SANCHEZ: To help Obama?
BAXTER: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Interesting point. We're going to come back to you guys in just a minute, we have a lot to talk about. Unbelievable. The latest information in case you haven't heard is that Barack Obama has won or should I say is the projected winner. Always got to be careful with that terminology, in the state of Wyoming. We are not moving far away from the political arena tonight. There's an ugly jobs report that's coming out this week and how that -- I mean, the whole economic issue, who would have thought at this point in the campaign that would be the single most important issue in the minds of voters? So we're going to get into it. And who has big mo again? We'll stay on top of that.
Then next, two college towns, two brutal murders. We're going to bring you up to date on the latest in the coed killings. Stay with us. A lot of news, a lot of politics coming your way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back I'm Rick Sanchez. In case you haven't heard, Barack Obama is the projected winner in the Wyoming caucus. He picks up another seven delegates and Hillary Clinton picks up another four. One still to be determined. There's a lot of news going on tonight. We want to make sure we can catch you up on that. One of the most pressing issues going on involves winter weather in our nation's heartland. Let's go now to Stephanie Elam, she's been following some of these stories for us. Catch us up if you would Stephanie. When's going on? First of all, what's going on in Ohio?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, definitely. I think if you are in Ohio, this is your top story of the day, Rick. Highways, airports, entire towns in Ohio all stood still today when the state got a dumping of snow and these pictures that you're about to see here, they barely do it justice. Take look at this, Cincinnati, nine inches of snow. Of course, that's fun for kids and perfect for building forts on a Saturday afternoon, same for Cleveland. Look at this, nine inches. But the worst of the storms slammed right in between those two cities in Columbus. It snowed, then it snowed some more and then it snowed some more on top of that. 20 inches fell in Columbus Friday and today smashing a nearly 100-year-old record. Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland closed, all flights cancelled. Interstate 71 slowed to a crawl or stop and the snow kept on falling.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ELAM: All right. Major new developments tonight to share as police in two states investigate the slayings of two college students. Let's bring you up to date with the very latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM (voice-over): Two murders. Two investigations. Two breaks. Alabama police have one man in custody. North Carolina police are looking for another. Alabama, police arrest Courtney Lockhart in the murder of Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk and still ironing out the details of a very violent death. They found Burk shot on a street near campus Tuesday night and minutes later found her car ablaze in a campus parking lot. She died at the hospital. She was 18. Lockhart faces charges of capital murder during a kidnapping, during a robbery and during an attempted rape.
ASST. CHIEF THOMAS DAWSON, AUBURN, ALABAMA POLICE: We have the right individual in jail, I'm 100 percent sure of that. Take that for what it's worth but I'll tell you this, with a capital murder charge, I owe it to that family, I owe it to this community and I owe it to Auburn University students on the campus to do everything I possibly can to insure that this trial is done fair, to everyone involved and that the outcome is what it needs to be with a guilty verdict.
ELAM: To Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and a new photo from police. They're looking for this man in connection with the shooting death of University of North Carolina student body president Eve Carson. She was found near the Chapel Hill campus early Wednesday, she was 22. The man in the photo appears to be using Carson's ATM card and driving her car. He had on a retro Houston Astro's cap.
CHIEF BRIAN CURRAN, CHAPEL HILL, N.C. POLICE: This is our biggest break so far in this case and I know we are still just in the first couple of days of this, but this is our strongest lead right now and we are hopeful that we'll be able to get this guy identified.
ELAM: Police don't think the two murders are linked but one thing's for sure, two promising college students both from Georgia are dead. Two families and two campuses are now in mourning.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM: And Courtney Lockhart has not entered a plea. He is set to appear in an Auburn, Alabama court on Monday, and tonight he remains jailed on $250,000 bond. Meantime in Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina trustees are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
And now to Florida where a woman's idea of good mothering got her arrested and slapped with child abuse charges. You probably saw these unbelievable pictures over the past few days. Take a look at this here. It's surveillance video taken in an Orlando car wash. The mother is spraying her daughter with a high-pressure water hose. Just imagine how powerful that is and how painful that would be even to an adult.
The woman said she was disciplining her daughter, who was not hurt. The mother is out on bail tonight. That is a wrap of the headlines right now. Right now, Rick, of course, will take it back to you to get back to you so we can get back the political coverage. Nice in depth coverage you've got going on there.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN, ANCHOR: Hey, thanks so much, Stephanie. If anything change, let us know. We'll get right back to you. You know, it's hard enough to be a candidate because it seems like they work 24/7. Certainly the case of Hillary Clinton and then something happens. Something that sometimes is totally out of your control but painful nonetheless. This is an ad that you may have seen. It helped Hillary Clinton win Texas and Ohio many believe but at least one of the actors now says she's no Hillary backer and, in fact, she's stumping for Barack Obama. All right. It is written a little weird. That's the little girl who is in the ad that apparently says what would you be doing at 3:00 in the morning and the phone keeps ringing? We'll bring you up to date on that.
Also, first, the market's down. Unemployment is up. The economy is bad. What are the candidates planning to do about it? Stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: First order of business, let's bring you up to date on what's going on campaign wise and the results are in, in the caucus in the state of Wyoming. And the winner is Barack Obama. See right there in the corner that says total delegates, 18. Somewhat misleading because that involves a whole bunch of stuff and here's how it really breaks down. Barack Obama tonight in Wyoming has won seven delegates. Hillary Clinton has won four delegates. I know it's not a lot but in an election like this, a half a delegate could end up making the difference. That means there's still one outstanding delegate and there are six superdelegates to be determined later.
There's an explanation which way they will lean but again it's long and complicated. So, here's where we are. Let's add his seven and add her four. That gives him 1,527. That gives her 1,428. That is where it stands. You need to know this too. Neither one of them just with regular delegates are going to have enough to get to the magic number of 2,025. By the way, it was 2,024 before we started this newscast. It changed to 2,025 when the democrat Foster won in the state of Illinois over Denny Hastert's seat.
I know it's complicated. In the end, what you need to know is this. Neither one of them at this point have enough delegates, regular delegates to get to the magic number. Superdelegates are going to have a lot to do with this. And we'll be talking about that in a minute.
By the way, you know what's driving voters more than any other issue these days? We thought at this point it would be the Iraq war. Right? Maybe health care, maybe social security. But above all else, it seems to be the economy. As they say, and jobs. Jobs. It seemed to be going away. Yesterday, some horrible news came out. The worst jobs report in almost five years. Another 63,000 jobs lost. It's got people afraid. That we're already in the middle of a recession. Some economists say we are. Others say we are not. Christine Romans with this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: It's the end of the work day for Mark Bolden. Just a few weeks on the job after two and a half years of scrambling for I.T. work.
MARK BOLDEN, TECHNOLOGY WORKER: I've done a ton of consulting. I worked for miscellaneous companies. Done a lot of temporary positions. As you know, temporary is just that. It's temporary, it's nothing permanent. It's not like a regular career position where you're going to hang your hat and retire some day.
ROMANS: He finally found work but making significantly less money. He's not alone. Many of the jobs this economy creates pay less. And overall, the economy is losing jobs in manufacturing and construction, and even last month in retail. Alarming since consumer spending drives economic growth. And according to the Labor Department, the number of long-term unemployed remains high, especially in the Midwest and northeast. Those are people out of work for at least six months. At this New York City career center, the number of people looking for work has skyrocketed 50% during the past year.
LADESSIA JOHNSON, NEW YORK STATE DEPT. OF LABOR: I am noticing that there are more people coming in certain sectors of the economy. I noticed that people in the service industries are coming in. People in retail sales are coming in. More than normal.
ROMANS: In Washington, a picture emerges of what middle class Americans have known for a while.
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: So there are a lot of people apparently who don't have jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CUMMINGS: And when we look just as the unemployment rate we don't necessarily - with just looking at the unemployment rate, we don't get a true picture. Do we?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. You need to look at other things besides the unemployment rate. That's correct.
CUMMINGS: And that's because so many people have probably given up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That happens. Yes.
CUMMINGS: And perhaps the jobs are not there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Grim jobs news, a new record high in oil, a housing market deteriorating by the day. According to new data from the Fed, consumers are increasingly turning to their credit cards to get by. And now the Central Bank is making available billions of dollars to banks to encourage them to keep lending so the economy can grow. Christine Romans, CNN, New York. SANCHEZ: Candidates, of course, are jumping on this jobs report. Here's what Senator Hillary Clinton had to say about the economy. Let me read it to you. She says, "these are painful reminders that we need a president who is ready to be a steward of our economy, starting on day one."
What she is doing here, Cynthia, is she is saying, and I'm the person who can do that.
CYNTHIA GOOD, EDITOR, PINK MAGAZINE: Well, that's true. But unfortunately, whoever becomes the next president of the United States is going to inherit this situation, right? So they have to deal with it.
SANCHEZ: But doesn't she have an advantage here because she can say, even though -- how can I say this? She wasn't really a steward of those times. But during her husband's administration, where most people would argue, she was powerful in that administration that we may have had some of the best economic numbers that we have seen forever.
GOOD: Absolutely.
SANCHEZ: By the way, how does she make that argument without saying, by the way, I was his wife?
GOOD: Well, I think she said the Clintons were in office during those robust economic times and I think she has used to that to her advantage already.
SANCHEZ: But she was not the vice president. Al Gore was the vice president. "Vanity Fair" writes that she was really more of a vice president than Al Gore was. Was she?
GOOD: Possibly. I mean, she is a very strong woman. She is very powerful woman. Certainly, President Clinton, Bill Clinton at the time listened to her.
SANCHEZ: I can't get you to commit on that, can I? Tom, I saw you do that little thing with your eyes. What were you thinking?
TOM BAXTER, "SOUTHERN POLITICAL REPORT": The word supposed to be back then that Al Gore was the most vice presidential vice president in history. That he accomplished more and was -- had a bigger role in the administration than any other vice president before that. He's just now overshadowed by Cheney, I guess.
SANCHEZ: If you read recent reports including the one that I just quoted in "Vanity Fair" not long ago. It actually said that she really kind of outmuscled him for the most part.
BAXTER: You know, I'd be willing to bet that the first ladies had a lot more clout than the vice president in almost every administration going back a long way.
SANCHEZ: But is it compare all first ladies with her? After all, she really is more of a policy wonk than most first ladies.
BAXTER: Hence, it's the reason why is the first one to run for president herself, I think.
SANCHEZ: Does that make her, Baoky, more capable?
BAOKY N. VU, W.H. ADVISORY CMTE, ON ASIAN AFFAIRS: No, no. And I think that in this case with the downturn of the economy, certainly, we're like a bunch of drunken sailors that are trying to sober up. It's been --
SANCHEZ: Those are republicans, by the way, that acted like drunken sailors, Are they not, to be fair?
VU: No, no. What's happened is...
SANCHEZ: More borrowed than any, all presidencies combined according to reports?
VU: No. What's happened is that we have had a period of easy access to credit and capital and in trying to keep up with the Joneses, we've been eager to take on more and more risk. And now it's a time of sobering up and retrenching and paying off some of our debts. So I think it's - in terms of the economy, certainly, it's going to be painful for a lot of folks to go through this.
SANCHEZ: But the spending and the borrowing has been bipartisan, you argue?
VU: The spending, yes. But I will tell you that, as John McCain has said, he's -- he wants to eliminate earmarks, he wants to reduce spending and bring in economic reforms and the only way to do that is to lower taxes, not increase taxes. We don't grow the economy by increasing taxes.
SANCHEZ: Got it. We're going to let you go. We're going to come back to this conversation in just a little bit.
Candidates chase endorsements from all types of prominent people but sometimes they come back to bite you in the rear. Two case studies. Reverend John Hagee and Minister Louis Farrakhan. Also, this 3 a.m. phone call, remember? The ad that helped Hillary Clinton win in Ohio and Texas. Some say it was brilliant, others say not. The little girl in the video, it now turns out, first of all, is no longer a little girl and guess who she is supporting for president? We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back to our special election coverage. This is Wyoming night. I'm Rick Sanchez. You have heard all week long about President Bush's big endorsement of the presumptive GOP nominee John McCain. There's also been a lot of buzz these days about McCain's endorsement from this man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PASTOR JOHN HAGEEE, TELEVANGELIST: John McCain will be a strong, courageous and effective leader from the first day he steps in to the Oval Office.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): John Hagee is a televangelist who wrote "Jerusalem Countdown, a prelude to war." He believes the world will come to an end fewer than 30 years from now with a war between Iran, the Arab Nations and Israel, signaling the second coming of Jesus Christ. But what's infuriated so many is this, he has repeatedly called the Roman Catholic Church "a great whore." That is a direct quote and "a false cult system." That is also a direct quote.
HAGEE: It says the day is going to come when I'm going to cause this beast to devour this apostate system. So you can say very clearly that while the church is in heaven, this false religious system is going to be totally devoured by the anti-Christ.
SANCHEZ: Well, Hagee is a huge supporter of protecting Israel from the second coming as a nation. His book clearly states that Jews will burn in hell if they don't accept Jesus and that Jews themselves are responsible in some ways for anti-Semitism. He's also got a few choice words about Muslims and gays.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: So I guess here's the question -- why did John McCain accept such a controversial endorsement? It's not like any of that stuff that I just read to you was a secret. Did the media also let John McCain let off lightly? Let's bring in Rachel Sklar. She's a media and special projects editor for the "Huffington Post." And also David Kuo, a Washington editor of "belieftnet.com." Kuo had also served as a special assistant to President Bush for his faith based initiative.
David, let me start with you. I mean, sometimes you can take a person's quote and not get a true representation of them. Are these quotes that we read and these things that we just reported and have been reported by others a true representation of the man? Is that what he really believes?
DAVID KUO, BELIEFNET.COM: Let me say two things. First, I repudiate everything that Pastor Hagee has said. And also, second, I mean, it's interesting because the quotes that he has made are quotes from the book of revelation. These are not quotes that he came up sort of with all on his own. All that being said, you know, the repudiation of Pastor Hagee for these sorts of remarks is very important. The second thing is it's about John McCain's judgment. All right. All of these things are about judgment. What was John McCain thinking by standing up there with this sort of man and his anti- Catholic bigotry and what does it say about him as a presidential candidate about his judgment? About his advisors' judgment? I think that's really what's so fundamentally wrong.
SANCHEZ: Rachel, let's bring you into this then. Because it really comes down to a question maybe not so much about Hagee but about John McCain. After all, there's a difference between the Farrakhan endorsement of Obama and the Hagee endorsement of John McCain. Does it seem to me or does anybody reported that in any way Obama sought the endorsement of Farrakhan and he also said after he received it that he repudiated it.
RACHEL SKLAR, "HUFFINGTON POST": Right.
SANCHEZ: In this case, we have McCain embracing the endorsement. That's a difference, isn't it?
SKLAR: Absolutely. And McCain following the endorsement said that, you know, he embraced Hagee because they stood for the same things. And he supported things that McCain supported. So it's --
SANCHEZ: Yes, yes. But no, no. That's not fair. That's not fair. What he said was he believes in many of the things he believes but then he held a news conference afterwards and said I don't --
SKLAR: Following that initial endorsement --
SANCHEZ: But let's be fair.
SKLAR: I mean that speaks to but he did say that after when he welcomed, you know, when he welcomed Hagee's endorsement. I think that speaks to a lack of preparation on his part and perhaps a lack of awareness but it's hard you know when you see the full report of the type of things that Hagee said. It's not just the anti-Catholic comments. You know, David said that he was quoting from the book of revelations. Apparently, he came up with, you know, saying that god had visited Katrina down on New Orleans because it was a sinful city that held a gay pride parade.
SANCHEZ: Let's do this. Let me stop you just for a minute if you could. I think we got John McCain's statement. Let's let the folks listen to it for themselves. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What it means is that he has been a very strong advocate and a leader in the support of the state of Israel and its freedom and independence. And that's one of the major reasons why I feel -- I'm glad that he endorsed my candidacy.
When he endorses me, it does not mean I embrace everything he stands for and believes in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: See, David, can you parse an endorsement that way? I mean, can you go out and seek the endorsement of someone who's this controversial and then say, I'll take this half of the pie but I don't want the other half?
KUO: Well, it's interesting because, you know, John McCain again has come out in a speech council for national policy and formally repudiated the endorsement of Hagee. I think that was yesterday but you know, it's interesting because part of it speaks to McCain's very uneasy relationship with the religious right and you know, perhaps McCain was right to sort of have this suspicion that he had with the religious right to begin with. Not going to go there.
SANCHEZ: So wait. Wait. Wait. David, what you're saying is that John McCain was willing to swallow this bitter pill and accept this endorsement even though it goes against his own beliefs because he thinks it will help him win that part of the party that was fervently against him a couple of months ago?
KUO: You know, absolutely. The only reason he goes and stands there with John Hagee isn't because he really wants part of Hagee's salary or he wants to be part of Hagee's church. I mean, he is there because he's trying to appeal to the religious right. Now, Senator McCain, obviously. hopefully obviously, just didn't know about these statements. But the only reason he's there is to try to reach out to the religious right.
SANCHEZ: Well...
SKLAR: I mean, as soon as he finds out about them, I do think that as a presidential candidate looking to, you know, seeking to lead not only the religious right or represent the religious right but also the entire nation, there's a moral imperative to repudiate comments that are, you know, that are hate mongering.
KUO: Absolutely.
SANCHEZ: David, Rachel.
SKLAR: And he didn't repudiate the actual, he didn't repudiate Hagee. He just said very carefully that he repudiated the anti- Catholic comments.
SANCHEZ: David, Rachel, we're going to have to leave it at that. Thank you so much for joining us, guys. Great conversation. Interesting. Something I have a feeling we'll be hearing more about.
KUO: No problem.
SKLAR: Right.
SANCHEZ: A fervent Obama supporter ends up featured in a Hillary Clinton campaign ad. She is not exactly pleased with the ad it turns out. Stay with us. We're coming right back. A lot more on this Wyoming night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. You know that 3:00 a.m. phone call thing that both democratic camps are knocking around? Well, the Clinton team made a TV ad around that point. It features an actress, a little girl. She is not so little anymore though and there's one other thing. It turns out she is not exactly thrilled about who's using her image. Elisa Hahn from our Seattle affiliate KING TV has this report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing.
ELISA HAHN, KING-TV, CORRESPONDENT: It's the political ad that helped turn the tide for Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do you want answering the phone?
HAHN: Thursday night, the Knowles family at Bonnie Lake, Washington, was watching "The John Steward Show," saw the ad for the first time.
BRADY KNOWLES, CASEY'S BROTHER: I looked in and saw a girl that looks a lot like my sister. I'm not sure if it's my sister.
CASEY KNOWLES, ACTRESS: It actually really funny.
HAHN: The first girl in the ad is young Casey Knowledge, stock footage from eight years ago when she worked as a TV extra. Footage now owned by Getty Images and used by the Clinton campaign, who couldn't have picked a more unwilling star.
CASEY KNOWLES: It was really sort of ironic that my image would be used to advocate for Hillary when I myself do not.
HAHN: She may only be 17 but Casey has some very strong political opinions. She turns 18 legal voting age in April. Plenty of time before the general election.
CASEY KNOWLES: It's just perfect time because I have a candidate that I really identify with. I've been campaigning for Barack Obama for a few months now. I was actually a precinct captain at the caucuses a few months ago, and I attended his rally in February and I'm a very, very avid supporter.
HAHN: The Knowles family admits they have no control over how the footage is used and while Casey sees the humor of it all, she is mildly annoyed.
CASEY KNOWLES: I think it would be wonderful if me and Barack Obama could get together and make a nice counter ad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Wyoming night. Barack Obama wins the Wyoming caucus. More on that and a whole more. Stay with us. We'll be right back to close things down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. The big news today that in Wyoming Senator Barack Obama has won the caucus. He gets seven more delegates. Hillary Clinton gets four and there's one still being determined. OK. We got two big caucuses coming or primaries coming up. We got Mississippi and Pennsylvania. Cynthia, let's start with you. Who are the winners?
GOOD: Pennsylvania, absolutely Hillary Clinton. Mississippi, I think she'll do better than expected but I think Obama will take it.
SANCHEZ: OK. You got Obama in Mississippi and you got Hillary in Pennsylvania. Tom?
BAXTER: Mississippi, Obama. Again, probably by a narrower margin than he had thought. Maybe also Clinton wins Pennsylvania by a narrower margin.
SANCHEZ: Baoky, you?
VU: Agree. Pennsylvania Clinton and Obama, narrowly in Mississippi.
SANCHEZ: That keeps things continuing to go then. Again and again and again. Thanks so much for being with us. This weekend's weekend run down. I'm Rick Sanchez. Where we call them as we see them. See you again tomorrow, right here 10:00 a.m., 10 p.m., sorry.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN, HOST: Hello and welcome. I'm Miles O'Brien. Maybe the last things on earth you'd expect to find a fierce political fight over are values like clean air, clean water.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxantshop.com
