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Barack Obama Speaking Out on Race; Barack Obama's Economic Plan; President Bush Marking Fifth Anniversary of Iraq War
Aired March 19, 2008 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. A lot going on this morning, that is for sure. Watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on this March 19th. Here's what's on the rundown.
President Bush marking five years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq. His speech live right here in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: The Democrats targeting the president's war decision. Today John McCain in Iraq and around the Middle East this week promising to complete the mission.
COLLINS: Flooding, cutting hard through the middle of the country. Hundreds run to safety. Too much water, in the NEWSROOM.
Anniversary of war. Today marks five years since President Bush launched the invasion of Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: We've gone from shock and awe to surge in Iraq. Thousands of people dead, billions of dollars spent. An hour from now, President Bush will talk about the war in a speech at the Pentagon.
We are, of course, covering this story from all angles this morning. CNN's Ed Henry is at the White House and our Kyra Phillips is live in Baghdad.
Ed, we want to begin with you. Good morning.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. At the start of year six, President Bush basically declaring he has no regrets about launching the war, despite the deep divisions within the country, reflected out on the presidential campaign trail. In this speech at the Pentagon he will say that taking out Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do, though he will acknowledge this raging debate right about whether it's worth the fight, to continue that fight is understandable.
But I think the key point is that even as the president declares that the surge of U.S. troops has been a, quote, "success," he will again hedge on how quickly he will bring home more U.S. troops. The president saying, according to an excerpt released by the White House, quote, "the challenge in the period ahead is to consolidate the gains we have made and seal the extremist the defeat. We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast. The terrorists and extremists stepped in, filled the vacuum, established safe havens and used them to spread chaos and carnage."
Now, of course, that will draw the ire of Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who think that the U.S. should start accelerating the withdrawal of U.S. troops, a strategy, of course, rejected by the Republican presumptive nominee John McCain.
I think the other aspect of this as I look back two years ago when I started on this beat, the war was not doing well at that point, and the White House was sort of frustrated that they were not getting credit for a good economy. Now we're seeing essentially a complete reversal. Now things have gotten a bit better in Iraq. But that is being overshadowed by the fact that the economy is now issue number one in the United States, and so the White House is not really getting a lot of credit for some success on the ground in Iraq.
That obviously can have real impact and implications for the president's legacy -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Well, you absolutely hit the nail on the head. That's exactly what's happened, this a sort of reversal priority here, or at least concern.
Thanks so much, Ed Henry, standing by at the White House for us this morning.
HARRIS: And now to the war zone, our Kyra Phillips live in Baghdad.
And Kyra, great to see you. How many thoughts must there be with you on this day given where you were five years ago? And I know that you will probably sprinkle in some of those thoughts throughout the day, but I also know had you an opportunity to speak to Iraq's foreign minister as well.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean it was five years ago this week, Tony, I was on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln as the strike fighters were launching and Operation Southern Watch was over and Operation Iraqi Freedom was in full force. I'll never forget that moment.
I also never expected that five years later that the U.S. and the Iraqi people would be in the situation that they are in right now. We've talked about it a lot over the last five years, just the disorganization and the lack of planning when it came to what was going to happen to this country after the U.S. went to a war with Saddam Hussein.
I will tell you, though, five years later I never expected to be live right here in the international zone. I mean this is a first. I'm usually live in our secure, highly secure area in the red zone, doing live shots. Now I'm out here where you can see Saddam's crossed swords. This is a monument he built to himself after the Iran/Iraq war and over my left shoulder, where Saddam Hussein used to stand, right out there. And remember that infamous shot when he fired off his gun and the U.S. military...
HARRIS: Oh yes.
PHILLIPS: ...come through here and he would brag about the power that he had. So I never expected to be coming live at this point. There was a time when mortars were coming into this area twice a day. Now it doesn't happen quite that often. Obviously, because the security has improved. So this right here is a sign of progress -- Tony.
HARRIS: Yes. You know, I'm wondering, you've spent so much time with the people of Iraq in Baghdad and other areas around the country particularly over the last three weeks. Great reporting from there, by the way. I'm wondering how significantly life has improved for those people in terms of basic services? We're talking about the light, we're talking about the water, we're talking about jobs?
PHILLIPS: Tony, yes. It's tough. It's tough. And I'll tell you, a lot of people will tell you, look, it's not just the terrorism that's a huge problem. It's the corruption. I mean, you know, oil is supposed -- when the revenue started coming in, and we're talking $5 billion a month, that was supposed to go toward all construction. And everybody thought, oh wow, we'll finally be able to live off all this oil revenue and everything will get better.
But corruption has infiltrated that. Corruption has infiltrated the Iraqi police force, the Iraqi army, even the government structure and Iraqis, even key Iraqi leaders will say to you, we know. We know we have that problem and it's something we're trying to figure it out. We've been under a dictator for decades and now we're trying to figure out this thing -- this so-called thing of democracy. And so it's just not that easy. And basic things like electricity is hard to get for so many Iraqis.
Now you mentioned the Iraqi foreign minister. I did have a chance to talk to him today and I talked to him about the corruption.
HARRIS: Yes.
PHILLIPS: I talked to him about U.S. elections and I talked to him about Iran. One of the key problems is Iran, and the president of Iran, and how his forces have been supporting the insurgency here. I asked him about that, Tony, and this is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS (on camera): What about Iran? The fact that Iran's president came here.
HOSHYAR ZEBARI, IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes.
PHILLIPS: You know what that is to President Bush.
ZEBARI: Yes. Yes.
PHILLIPS: That's the axis of evil. He comes into this country where Americans are trying to work with you to develop a democracy.
ZEBARI: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Was that a slap in the face to America?
ZEBARI: I think it was a message to America that you are here, we are here also. But Iran, remember, is our neighbor and destined by geography, by history, by relations. So we, as a government policy, we need to culture that good, respectful relationship with Iran on the basis of non-interference in our own internal affairs, on making life difficult and we have been advocating this dialogue with the United States, Iran and Iraq, in fact, to ease tension, because some of the conflicts are reflected here and we want both sides, really, to be settle the score somewhere else, not here on Iraqi soil.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: So bottom line, the Iraqi foreign minister, Tony, saying they have no choice but to try and talk to the president of Iran, because he indeed is their neighbor and they have to try to get along. It can't be...
HARRIS: Yes.
PHILLIPS: ...a type of relationship like what the Bush administration has with the administration there in Iran.
HARRIS: Absolutely. All right. Kyra, thank you for that. I know that you're back with us next hour around the president's speech today.
Kyra Phillips for us live from Baghdad. Thanks.
COLLINS: Five years in Iraq, a devastating human loss, a tremendous financial cost. So far the U.S. has spent $406 billion. That's according to the Pentagon. 158,000 troops are currently in Iraq. As of yesterday, 3,990 troops have been killed. The U.S. death toll was the worst last year with 901 troops killed. Estimates for the number of Iraqi civilians range from more than 82,000 to nearly 90,000 killed.
HARRIS: New poll numbers today. What do Americans think of the war in Iraq? It's not pretty. More than seven in ten feel war spending had a hand in the economic turn down.
And how about what the next president should do about the war? 61 percent of those polled say he or she should pull most troops out within a few months. 33 percent say the U.S. should maintain current troop level.
President Bush marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war and talking about the global war on terror. He is making a speech at the Pentagon and you can watch it here live on CNN at 10:00 Eastern in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: The Iraq war certainly playing into presidential politics today. Barack Obama gives a speech on the war and national security next hour. He addresses military families and veterans in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Hillary Clinton accuses Obama of standing in the way of a Michigan revote. Aides say Clinton will make the case for moving ahead with the second primary in a speech coming up next hour.
Michigan and Florida were stripped of their delegates for moving up their primary. Plans for a Florida revote fell apart.
Republican nominee to be John McCain wraps up a Middle East visit today. He has a meeting with the Israeli prime minister. McCain is officially part of a congressional delegation but he is also hoping to boost his leadership and foreign policy credentials.
Tonight on CNN, an interview with Barack Obama on a special "ANDERSON COOPER 360." Obama talks with Anderson after his speech today on Iraq and a day after urging America to break its racial stalemate. See the interview at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.
HARRIS: Your money, our money team. We are keeping a close eye on the pulse of the economy. It's issue number one for many of us. We're looking to the bottom of the hour. Can Wall Street keep its rally going? The Dow Industrials surged 420 points yesterday. It was the biggest daily gain in five years. Part of the reason, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates three quarters of a percentage point.
Some say the move shows the government will be aggressive in dealing with the troubled economy. President Bush drives home that message. He said his administration will take the action needed to keep the economy strong. He did not offer specifics, however.
Oil prices are still bouncing around. They jumped yesterday but stayed below Monday's record of $111 a barrel. Today, prices slipped a little. And at last check, were around $108. Next stop, Wall Street, just minutes ahead. The bell rings in a new day.
CNN's Stephanie Elam will show us where stocks are headed.
COLLINS: The rush is on. Water runs wild in the Midwest. Serious flooding. Tell you all about it coming up, in the NEWSROOM.
ANNOUNCER: CNN NEWSROOM brought to you by...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris. Five years of fighting. The Iraq war, the real people, the grim statistic, in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Vicious spring-like storms slamming a big chunk of the U.S. this final week of winter. Today they are moving east. Torrential rains left at least three people dead and two missing in the Midwest.
CNN's T.J. Holmes is checking the scene at Ozark, Missouri, which is right outside of Springfield.
What are you seeing there? Obviously, a whole lot of water, T.J.
T.J. HOMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A whole lot of water where there's not normally a whole lot of water. Behind me is the, today, is the mighty Findlay River. Not usually this mighty but today it is a rushing river. It was described to me as just a meandering stream on most days. You can take a look now. See it has risen to quite some level and it's flowing in a serious and rapid fashion. These are some backyards here actually over to this side here. These are people's backyards now. You can't make out that they're backyards at this point. They're just covered in water.
This is the scene that's playing out in so many areas around the state of Missouri right now, and it's keeping a person like my guest here very busy. This is Captain Gary Haupt, Haupt. He's with the Missouri State Water Patrol.
And, sir, you were telling me that you were seeing levels of water and situations around to a like you've never seen before?
CAPTAIN GARY HAUPT, MISSOURI STATE WATER PATROL: It's almost unprecedented in this contrary in the state of Missouri and all across southern Missouri. We have officers all across the state conducting rescues as we speak.
HOLMES: Now what kind of things are you seeing? And unfortunately, sometimes those -- the things you keep warning, people do not try to drive through that water. You don't know how deep it is?
HAUPT: This is the -- one of the major problems we're experiencing. The water continues to rise, and there's areas that people just haven't seen water inundate the roads before. They're still trying to cross these roads, they're getting into trouble and ended up on top of their vehicles and then rescue personnel trying to get them out of these areas.
HOLMES: And how have those rescues been going? Fairly successful? Or -- have you seen some serious injuries and unfortunately a few deaths around the state as well?
HAUPT: So far they've pretty much successful across the board. There have been a few deaths where -- we're on recovery operations right now on some missing persons. We've had some officers who have also been injured and where we've lost rescue boats in an attempt to make some of these recoveries.
HOLMES: And finally here, the threat going forward, even though it's not raining on us now, you're still on standby?
HAUPT: Definitely. The water continues to rise, and it's not getting any better, and we're anticipating the next couple if days is going to more of the same.
HOLMES: Again, Captain Gary Haupt with the Missouri Water Patrol.
We appreciate you've spent some time with us. Take a look down here, as well, Heidi. This bridge is closed right now, because at the time the water did come up and actually cut this, and was covered in water and cut this bridge off. They're doing this still here right now for safety reasons and will stay that way. So even though it's still not raining the threat will remain for quite some time but they certainly do not need any more rain pretty much in any corner of this state for the next couple of days -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Boy, that's for sure. Obviously, about the looks of what's behind you. I hope people heed those warnings about not driving through it.
Thanks so much, T.J. Holmes, this morning.
HARRIS: Travel troubles in Texas. Airlines are working to clear a big backlog from the storms to Dallas-Fort Worth International, and our Susan Roesgen.
Susan, great to see you. How much of a backlog are we talking here and were some people forced to, you know, camp out in the airport overnight?
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, you better believe it, Tony. I mean look at this. This isn't Thanksgiving. This isn't Christmas, where you normally see weather-related delays in airports, and people standing in line and stuck. This is today at Dallas-Fort Worth airport, which they bill as the world's third busiest, but yesterday, Tony, it was just about shut down. What they had was 100 mile-an-hour wind gusts out here.
The two FAA control towers were actually briefly evacuated when the control tower operators noticed funnel clouds in the area and that basically closed things down. That meant 500 flights were cancelled. More than 100 flights were not allowed to come in here and then again, you've got thousands of people who had no place to go. Many of them spent the night here on cots.
How do you like that? How's that for first-class travel? The airport did everything they could to make people comfortable. They kept the food stands open all night. They had these cots for people, but even the simplest of trips, even, let's say, you wanted to go to Colorado from Dallas for a spring ski trip, even the most simple, straight-shot trips, you could forget about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED TRAVELER: I got cancelled off of that. Rescheduled to 5:45. That got cancelled. So we just went back home and actually we're flying into a different airport today because we can't get into Denver.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: A lot of people, in fact, today are finding that they can't get out today. They won't even be able to get out until Thursday. Many of the people that you see here standing in line are really hopeful, just hopeful that they can get standby on some other flight. And the airports, Tony, are just about -- the airport hotels are just about as bad.
HARRIS: Sure.
ROESGEN: I talked to one woman in -- I talked to one woman in the gift shop of the airport Marriott here where every room was booked and she was trying there buy socks and underwear because she'd run out of clothes.
HARRIS: The necessities.
ROESGEN: Not a fun time today.
HARRIS: Not a fun time. Absolutely.
ROESGEN: I know.
HARRIS: Hey, Susie, do us a favor. Make sure the folks there are watching CNN. We'll certainly keep them informed and maybe we'll provide a bit of a distraction.
Susan Roesgen for us...
ROESGEN: I'll check the monitors.
HARRIS: OK. Thanks, Susan.
COLLINS: Speaking of the best meteorologists working on this and one of them, Jacqui Jeras standing by to tell us more about, gosh, what is going on. And obviously, the first question is always when will they see some relief?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh boy. Well, you know, later today, things will look better in terms of the rain starting to pull out of places like Missouri. But the problem is, as we were hearing from the sheriff there, is that the rivers are continuing to rise. You know it takes a while for all that water runoff to get into the streets and creeks and streams, and then make their way downstream as well. So we're checking into the weekend very likely before a lot of them are going to be back within their banks. So a big concern here. Our i-Reporters have done a tremendous job, as always. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for sending these pictures. We've got a great one. I want to show you from Branson, Missouri which is about where T.J. is. And I want you to take a listen as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE FAIR, BRANSON, MISSOURI RESIDENT: This is Lake Taneycomo here in Branson, Missouri and the lake has spilled its banks. It is flooding at camp ground and at boat launch. As you could see...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JERAS: Fair from Branson, Missouri. Thanks very much. To George, Lake Taneycomo out of its bank there.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: That is -- that's severe weather. That's exactly what that is.
JERAS: I know. I didn't even get to have the travel delays. I got too much today.
HARRIS: Yes.
JERAS: We'll talk more about that when I see you again. I promise.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: And I see looking behind you, quickly, Jacqui, how fast it's moving. Something to talk about?
JERAS: Well, some of the individual storms are moving kind of quickly but actually overall, the storm system is moving kind of slow. And that's why we have these problems with flooding.
COLLINS: Yes.
JERAS: Because it's not moving very much.
COLLINS: OK. All right. We'll watch it.
Thanks so much, Jacqui.
JERAS: OK.
HARRIS: And still to come, testing for baldness.
COLLINS: What?
HARRIS: It's an outrage. What? Can you do anything about it and if you can't, why do you want to know?
COLLINS: I don't know. HARRIS: What are you looking at me for?
COLLINS: I'm not.
HARRIS: We're back in...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: A hair-raising story. Company claims it has a -- everyone laughing. Company claims it has a test that can predict baldness.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with the bulge...
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I wasn't one of the ones laughing. I just want you to know that.
HARRIS: No, you weren't.
COHEN: But why did they choose you instead of Heidi to do the story?
HARRIS: Well, because they think that perhaps -- because Heidi's very busy and perhaps they thought it would be funny. Any who...
COHEN: I think you look fabulous.
HARRIS: I love you. Gees.
Elizabeth, you know, there are a lot of things out there, a lot of products that claim that will help men with their baldness. I'm just curious about this test and whether or not it works. Will it help?
COHEN: This test claims that it can help predict whether or not you're going to become bald. So for example, you...
HARRIS: Yes.
COHEN: ...could have used this test when you were in your 20's and presumably...
HARRIS: Why would I want to know in my 20s?
COHEN: Aha, aha. That is one of the questions. The other question is: does this even work? And I will get to both of those.
But let's first take a look at the Web site for this company that says that they have a DNA test that can predict whether or not you're going to go bald. This company, some would say, is preying on the fears of men, and there certainly are many men who have baldness issues.
In fact, there are 40 million men right now in the U.S. who are bald, and they spend $3.5 billion on -- I know, can you imagine? -- on hair-loss products. And what this test does is you fork over $149. You swab the inside of your cheek, you -- which is painless and easy. You mail it in and in three to four weeks you get a result saying whether or not you have a gene that can make you go bald.
Now we asked geneticists, do you think this works?
HARRIS: Right.
COHEN: Is it worth it? One here's one -- Emery said, he said and I quote, "You would be throwing money down the drain if you bought this test." And he said the reason why is that there's not one gene that predicts baldness, there's many. This tests only tests for one of them. So he said really not so much.
HARRIS: So in this test isn't an accurate predictor. Are there other ways of finding out whether or not you're going to go bald?
COHEN: Yes, I asked. Let's say you really want to know.
HARRIS: Right.
COHEN: And he said, look, you could just book at your father, at your mother's father, at your uncles, right.
HARRIS: Bingo, ding-ding-ding. Bingo!
COHEN: And you need to drop it to give you a better indications, that this test, of all the men in your family look like the scientists guy.
HARRIS: Yes.
COHEN: Yes, you know, you got a pretty good chance that baldness is in your future. You don't need to pay $150 to find that out.
HARRIS: So sum this up. There's going to be more and more of these genetic tests on the market, what do you think of it? Will it work?
COHEN: Here's even a test on the market that says they can match you with your genetically perfect mate. You get swab the inside of your cheek...
HARRIS: Yes.
COHEN: ...send it in, and they will tell you some of your genetically perfect mate and again, asked them, is it smelly? Uh-oh. There is just no proof out there that this works and that this concept even exists. So you have to be very careful. There are some tests that are legit, tests to predict breast cancer, test like, say, for Huntington's disease, things that are much more simple.
But whether or not you're going to go bald...
HARRIS: Yes.
COHEN: ...who your perfect mate is, there is just so many variables.
HARRIS: If I could just get the hair out of my ears and just sort of move it around. Got plenty of hair, just in all the - all the...
I got it. I got it. I got it.
COHEN: In all the wrong places.
HARRIS: In all the wrong places. Behind back, my ears.
COHEN: You're back? OK. Thanks.
HARRIS: Have I grossed out the room yet? I totally grossed out the room.
Elizabeth, thank you.
COHEN: You are welcome.
ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins and Tony Harris.
HARRIS: And welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
A milestone in the Iraq war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq and free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Five years since the start of the U.S. invasion, from shock and awe to the fall of Saddam Hussein, and later the so-called troop surge. President Bush will defend his war about 30 minutes from now in a speech from the Pentagon. The president is expected to highlight what he views as success in the Iraq war.
You can catch the president's speech live on CNN 10:00 Eastern right here in the "NEWSROOM."
HARRIS: More bloodshed in Iraq. Five Iraqi police killed on this the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion. Three of the dead officers were gunned down by U.S. in an accidental shooting in Kirkuk.
The U.S. military says the Iraqi police were speeding into an area cordoned off by American of the U.S. invasion. Three of the dead officers were gunned down by U.S. troops in an accidental shooting in Kirkuk. The U.S. military says the Iraqi police were speeding into an area cordoned off by American forces the troops received a threat open fire.
The other two Iraqi police and another person died near Baquba when a woman detonated the suicide bomb near an Iraq patrol.
COLLINS: The bell rings. Investors watch.
Wall Street begins a new trading day, so can I continue? Yesterday's big rally. Keep in watch CNN's business correspondent Stephanie Elam. She is at the New York Stocks right now.
We are hearing, Stephanie, that opening bell for a Wednesday. Is it just any Wednesday? Or could it be the follow after a really good Tuesday?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's Wednesday that comes after a really good Tuesday and the numbers are starting to trickle in here. The DOW slightly down, S&P slightly up. Look. Now the DOW is in green. So we're continuing to push even higher just one day after the fed-inspired rally. The DOW is up 420 points. That was the biggest point gain in more than five years.
Meanwhile, the NASDAQ and S&P 500, fared even better on Tuesday, jumping more than 4 percent. Of course, the Federal Reserve was in the spotlight yesterday. It slashed interest rates by three quarters of a point in hopes of boosting the ailing economy. The fed fund rates now stand at 2.25 percent.
And today, some solid corporate news is helping the major averages to edge yesterday's gains. In the first few minutes of trading, take a look. The DOW up 10 points, 12,411 there. NASDAQ up by4 points at 2272. And S&P 500 up, too, at 1333. So don't look for those big gains that you saw yesterday.
One area that is really doing well today, investment banks. They are on the rise thanks to better than expected quarterly results from Morgan Stanley. Yesterday, rival Goldman-Sachs and Lehman Brothers set a positive tone by posting solid earnings as well. Results are helping to dispel rumors that other investment banks could crumble under the strain of the mortgage crisis. As Bear Stearns did earlier this week. So that's some good news there as well.
The mortgage and credit crisis wasn't enough to scare away investors from the IPO of the day. It's the world's largest credit card processor, VISA. Their IPO raised nearly $80 billion making it the biggest initial public offering in U.S. history. VISA is counting its stock as a safe haven during these turbulent times because it doesn't carry consumer debt on its book and it makes its money from processing fees.
So as you may have seen at the opening bell there, that was VISA ringing the bell. There's trading under a highly coveted single letter ticker symbol "T". So VISA's stock right now? Oh, look at that, up 47.75 percent. So not a bad day, Heidi.
COLLINS: No, boy oh, boy. Hey, that's pretty nice. And quickly, you know, I think a lot of people, at least a lot of analysts were saying that the fed could cut that interest rate by a full percentage point. Only did three quarters of a percentage point and then saw all that activity, or response, if you will, yesterday. Kind of nice that it was only three quarters of a point and got that response, yes?
ELAM: Yes. But it was, you know, good thing you have to factor in, it wasn't just about the fact that they cut the interest rate less than expected. Keep in mind, those earnings results that we got from Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, those were better than expected. And that was a huge part of the rally we saw yesterday.
COLLINS: Absolutely. Especially, when we're talking about, you know, that "I" word. Inflation.
ELAM: Exactly. So that was the good news.
COLLINS: It's the "R" and the "I." We don't really want to ever say the full words, but, anyway...
ELAM: At least now we don't.
COLLINS: All right, Stephanie, thanks so much.
ELAM: Thanks, Heidi.
COLLINS: And keep watching CNN all this week. Our money team has a special report on your money. It's called "ISSUE #1," the economy. That's at noon Eastern, only right here on CNN.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Feeling the middle-class squeeze. Barack Obama says his economic plan will help you. We take a closer look at Obamanomics, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: It is issue number one on your minds. The economy. So we want to take a closer look at the plans from the presidential candidates. We will hear from the McCain campaign in the 11:00 a.m. Eastern hour and we're waiting for a response from the Clinton campaign.
With us from Washington right now, the senior economic adviser for the Obama campaign, Dan Tarullo.
Dan, great to see you.
DAN TARULLO, SENIOR ECONOMIC ADVISER, OBAMA CAMPAIGN: Nice to see you this morning, Tony.
HARRIS: Dan, we're talking at the senior level here. So it's great to have you on the program. There are a lot of people sitting in the airport now in Dallas Fort Worth International who are listening now and perhaps are considering your guy.
There are a number of issues of concerns for Americans, as you know. We're talking about inflation. We're talking about the price of gas and eggs and milk and butter and cheese. We're talking about jobs, housing and markets.
So when we talk about inflation, those consumer goods, what is your guy saying? What is the plan to help folks on those pocketbook issues?
TARULLO: Well, first thing, Tony, the centerpiece of Senator Obama's campaign from the outset has been oriented towards the middle class, towards improving the lot of the middle class which has been squeezed considerably in the last seven years.
So the first thing that he rolled out last fall was a tax cut. A middle-class tax cut, which would provide $500 per working person or up to $1,000 per family, under refundable tax credit to help with those rising prices that you just identified.
HARRIS: OK. Let me back up just a second here. You mentioned being squeezed. Just a moment to step back, because perhaps people can understand a way to get out of this if they understand how they got into this, what do you mean specifically when you talk about the middle class being squeezed over the years here?
TARULLO: Well, several things have happened, Tony. First, with the changes in our economy, some of the very good jobs that have been produced in America are no longer being produced in such numbers.
HARRIS: Are we talking about outsourcing here now?
TARULLO: We're talking about outsourcing, but we're also just talking about technological change. Even if a job doesn't go overseas, you develop a new technology and all of a sudden it takes only two people to do what used to take ten to do.
So Senator Obama has focused in on the need for creating new, good jobs. And we can do that in two ways. One, is we can pump more good jobs into areas that are already exist.
HARRIS: Define a good job? Really, define a good job.
TARULLO: A good job is a job that allows a family to live at a decent middle-class standard of living, in a fairly secure fashion.
HARRIS: OK. All right. Get back to your point about creating those good jobs.
TARULLO: OK, so first thing we can do is we can deal with the infrastructure problems in the United States, which those people at DFW understand very well right now.
HARRIS: Sure, sure.
TARULLO: We've got strains on our road strain and our highway strains in all parts of our transportation system. So Senator Obama would create an investment bank which would make sure that we invest in upgrading the transportation infrastructure. And, of course, Tony, what does that do? In order to upgrade, you need men and women out fixing the roads, fixing the bridges that are in such bad shape. Helping with...
HARRIS: So there, let me stop you. An investment bank requires an investment. It requires some capital. Where does the capital come from?
TARULLO: Well, we've identified that over -- this would be over a ten-year period, but Senator Obama and in the course of the campaign has identified sources of revenue and sources of revenue that are fully adequate as the "Wall Street Journal" has confirmed to cover all of his proposals. So, for example, selling emission cap permits under the environmental cap and trade system.
HARRIS: OK, housing. The subprime crisis. The credit crunch crisis. A lot of crises out here. What's the plan for the senator to deal with the markets and to what extent does the senator believe that he can actually impact what's going on in that sector. And how much of it is a matter of time and the function of all of this bad money working its way out of the system?
TARULLO: Well, you're absolutely right, Tony. There's no doubt but that this is going to take some time to work its way out of the system. But what Senator Obama has been saying for months now is that more attention needs to be paid to the condition of people who are in homes, who are in danger of foreclosure.
You know, it's good that the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department have taken some steps to try to stabilize the system generally. But what he wants to see is action to deal with the foreclosure problem. He wants and he is supporting legislation that would have the government help to purchase at a discounted rate.
That is, at a lower rate, the mortgages of people who are sitting in homes when they have mortgages that are more than the value of their homes. And then, will provide through the Federal Housing Administration insurance for a new mortgage at a lower amount, and ensure that so that lenders will be willing to provide that mortgage.
You know, it makes no sense whatever to have people thrown out of their homes, through foreclosures, and then basically just move down the street into somebody else's home that is foreclosed. Much better to keep people where they are.
HARRIS: Hey, Dan, let's leave it here. We'll have you back in a few weeks certainly as we progress through this campaign and we'll talk about these issues some more and drill down on them further. Dan, appreciate it. Thanks for your time this morning.
TARULLO: Thank you, Tony.
HARRIS: And we will talk with the senior economic adviser for the McCain campaign coming up at 11:30 Eastern Time. And we are still waiting to hear from the Clinton campaign.
COLLINS: Barack Obama speaking out on race. What are the bloggers saying today? We'll point and click with Veronica De La Cruz in just a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris. Five years ago today...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This will not be a campaign of half measures. And we will accept no outcome but victory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The president recollects on Iraq. His remarks live in the NEWSROOM, at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Barack Obama's speech on race makes a big splash on the Internet. It seems to be everywhere. Veronica De La Cruz is watching the talk online.
Good morning to you. What are people saying, Veronica?
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning to you. Well, you know, the blogosphere is definitely been active. Let's take a closer look, Heidi. We're going to start with left here. Blogger James Fallows from theatlantic.com says "I don't recall another speech about race with as little pandering or posturing or shying from awkward points and as much honest attempt to explain and connect as this one."
On the other side of the coin, Heidi, Kevin Holtsberry, from redstate.com, he disagrees. He sums it up by saying "In the end Obama isn't some brave leader speaking truth to power but a conventional liberal with an interesting story and a way with words."
Now, if you missed Obama's speech, you can read the entire thing online at cnn.com. The transcripts, also some video, available there. You can also see what our own political analysts had to say.
Gloria Borger says politically I believe he had to do it. You cannot be an African-American candidate for the presidency and not talk about race. And then, Roland Martin, tells us the Reverend Wright controversy is now secondary. What Obama did was challenged America at its core.
We're also asking users to weigh in with their thoughts, Heidi. CNNpolitics.com, we are inviting you to sound off.
COLLINS: Obama's rival, Hillary Clinton, is expected to make her own headlines online today. Right? What's that all about?
DE LA CRUZ: Yes. That's exactly right. We're minutes away now. 10:00 a.m. Eastern, the National Archives will make more than 11,000 pages of Senator Hillary Clinton's schedule, available on the web. Now, this is her schedule as first lady.
And the release is in response to a suit by a conservative watchdog group. You're going to be able to find those documents on the Clinton library Web site. That's clintonlibrary.gov. They're also going to be made available on CD, Heidi.
The documents are supposedly going to show Clinton's schedule from part of her tenure as first lady. Also, meetings, speaking engagements, trip activities from 1993 to 1998. And this record release is significant because Clinton has again and again promised voters that she will be ready on day one to lead the country, because she has already spent time on the White House.
Something that Barack Obama has also been calling for as well as her tax records. And the documents will hopefully give everybody a better idea of what she was up to in that time and whether or not she true does have the right experience to lead the country. Again, 10:00 a.m. Eastern is when they are going to be released. Clintonlibrary.gov is a place you can check out, as well as achives.gov. That is the Web site for the National Archives.
Heidi?
COLLINS: Any word on the tax records?
DE LA CRUZ: Not yet. Not that. But so far we are awaiting her schedule and we're about ten minutes away. And archives.gov will be the place you check this out.
COLLINS: All right, Veronica. We know you'll be checking it out for us. Thanks so much. Veronica De La Cruz, thanks.
HARRIS: President Bush marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war and talking about the global war on terror. He is making a speech at the Pentagon. And you can watch it here live on CNN, 10:00 Eastern in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. A lot going on today. Stay informed all day in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the rundown.
President Bush five years after he ordered U.S. troops into Iraq, his remarks live from the Pentagon in just moments.
COLLINS: Iraq and your wallet. Did the war help set the stage for the economic tumble in the U.S.? New poll numbers this hour.
HARRIS: War insurgency and the search for normal life in Iraq. Today, Wednesday, March 19th. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
CNN is committed to bringing you all angles of this war anniversary. Our Ed Henry, live at the White House. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr also standing by live. CNN's Kyra Phillips on the ground in Baghdad. And CNN contributor and former presidential adviser David Gergen is with us.
Ed, first, you give us a preview, if you would, of the president's comments this morning?
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're told, Tony, that the president will speak for about 25 minutes at the Pentagon. He's going to talk about the war in Iraq of course. But also try to put it in a broader context in terms of the war on terror and try to say the surge has been a success in his words. And then, he believes this has been a dealt of blow to Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda more broadly.
One other issue he'll address is the cost of the war. Of course, the biggest cost of all has been that nearly 4,000 Americans have died over the course of the last five years in the war, but also the cost to the U.S. economy, which is issue number one now.
Basically, the U.S. has spent about $608 billion on the war. There have now been democratic economists estimating that the impact over the next decade or so could really turn out to be about $3 trillion, if you look at the impact on the economy. The amount of debt that the U.S. is paying for to fund the war right now, the interest on that debt.
So the president is going to say that he believes these estimates are overstated and add, quote, "War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much. In recent months, we've heard exaggerated estimates of the costs of this war. No one would argue that this war has not come in a high cost in lives and treasure. But those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for enemies in Iraq."
But of course, the next big question is how long is that going to take to achieve that victory for the U.S.? You obviously can see that the president is facing a lot of pressure from the democratic candidates on the presidential campaign trail too, because of the success he's touting, start pulling more troops.
Tony?
HARRIS: White House correspondent Ed Henry for us. Ed, thank you.
COLLINS: President Bush delivering his Iraq war anniversary speech moments from now at the Pentagon. So let's go there live to the Pentagon and correspondent Barbara Starr.
Good morning to you, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi. Of course, the loss of 4,000 American lives in the war in Iraq is very heartfelt here at the Pentagon. But the president's speech, to be clear, is one of optics. He has a message to deliver. What is really going on behind the scenes here at the Pentagon?
A flurry of activity about the next steps in Iraq. In fact, we are told the president will be back in this building one week from today for a secret tank session with the joint chiefs to talk about their recommendations for the next round of troop withdrawals from Iraq.
All of that coming in the next couple of weeks on the table. Cutting the tour of duty length for the army from 15 grueling months on the ground back to a still very serious 12-month tour of duty. General Petraeus, scheduled to be in Washington and testify before Congress, April 8th and 9th about his views about the next steps forward in Iraq. And then, of course, the country expects to hear from President Bush again on what he plans for the way ahead.
Heidi?
COLLINS: All right, Barbara, thanks so much. We will be listening very closely, obviously, here.
HARRIS: And now, to the war zone. Our Kyra Phillips, live in Baghdad. Kyra, I'm just curious. What are the audiences for this speech? The Iraqi people, will this speech even be available to most Iraqis?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. They'll be watching it internationally. It's interesting, Tony, as I've got a chance to spend time with Iraqi soldiers, Iraqi civilians, and that's what I've been spending most of my time doing and also talking to Iraqi leaders. They're paying close attention to the U.S. elections. As a matter of fact, I just talked with the Iraqi foreign minister, and this is what he had to say about the candidates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOSHYAR ZEBARI, IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER: I have met all of them.
PHILLIPS: You've met all of them?
ZEBARI: Yes.
PHILLIPS: And what have you told these candidates? What do you need from the next U.S. president?
ZEBARI: Well, I think continued commitment, really. I think the stakes are high here, and for the United States, leadership, prestige, engagement and for the security and stability of the entire region.
I always see Iraq or the U.S. engagement here as important as during the cold war. Germany was so important, (INAUDIBLE) against communism and so on. I think Iraqis another front against extremism, against terrorism, against all of these evil forces, really, that defy that international will, that anti-democratic in many ways. So the stakes are high. I personally don't believe that there would be any quick withdrawal or advancement of Iraq mission by any of the candidates you mentioned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So Tony, as we wait to hear from the president of the United States, and he's going to be speaking any minute now, I can tell you that Iraqis here on the ground, whether it's the civilians, the soldiers or the leaders in this country, they are paying attention to that speech, because this war, no doubt, is going to be something that the new U.S. president takes over, inherits, and indeed it's been very controversial. They want to see what the next president is going to do. And if indeed, it's going to be a Democrat or Republican.
HARRIS: All right. Kyra Phillips in Baghdad for us. Thanks, Kyra.
COLLINS: Joining us now to discuss the president's speech and it's political implication, senior political analyst David Gergen.
David, nice to see you. You know, if you are the president, you could argue that this has been a good year. Particularly when you look, however dismal as it may be, at the body count.
We have a graphic here to put up for the year of 2007. And looking at these numbers, I mean, you see a dramatic decline for U.S. troop deaths in Iraq. He's going to be talking generally about that and obviously, about many other successes that he sees. But is anybody listening, David?
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