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American Morning
Clinton Victory Tightens Race; Senator Casey Downplays Clinton's Win; Ballot Trends and Voting Factors in Pennsylvania; Higher Airfare
Aired April 23, 2008 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. From Baghdad to the big apple, we want to welcome our international viewers this morning. What a big night in Pennsylvania.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Ah here it is. Wednesday, it's the 23rd of April, and things have changed yet again.
She got her must-win. Now the historic race for the Democratic nomination is more intense than ever with all of the precincts now in. Take a look at the numbers here. Senator Hillary Clinton captures Pennsylvania with 55 percent of the vote, a 10-point win over Senator Barack Obama. And that could be significant. Will it make the difference though?
Look at the polling maps shows Barack Obama won the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding area, not much else, though. All that light blue including heavily blue-collar areas were Hillary Clinton territory.
The up-to-date CNN delegate estimate shows now leads. He's got 1694 delegates to 1556 for Hillary Clinton. Last night both candidates were already talking about the fight that lies ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The status quo in Washington will fight. They will fight harder than ever to divide us and to strike us with ads and attacks from now until November. But don't ever forget that you have the power to change this country.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We'll fight for everyone who's ever been counted out, for everyone fighting to pay the grocery bills or the medical bills, the credit card and mortgage payments, and the outrageous price of gas at the pump today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That was a gritty campaign that included the kitchen sink and more. And it may have set the tone for a heated race right through the summer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLINTON: It's a long road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and it runs through the heart of Pennsylvania. ROBERTS (voice over): Hillary Clinton survives again to fight another day.
CLINTON: Some people counted me out and said to drop out. But the American people -- well, the American people don't quit and they deserve a president who doesn't quit either.
ROBERTS: The senator from New York scores a crucial victory in Pennsylvania following a month and a half of tough campaigning.
CLINTON: For six week, Senator Obama and I have crisscross this state, meeting people up close, being judged side by side, making our best case. You listened, and today you chose.
ROBERTS: Exit polls suggest Clinton won Pennsylvania by winning big among her core voters -- women, senior citizens, blue-collar workers and Catholics. And late-deciders also swung towards her.
The victory allows Clinton to make a small dent in Barack Obama's lead in pledge delegates and the popular vote in the primaries so far this year. But for Clinton, a plea for more help.
CLINTON: Tonight more than ever I need your help to continue this journey. We can only keep winning if we can keep competing with an opponent who outspends us so massively.
ROBERTS: Obama is also moving on.
OBAMA: Now it's up to you, Indiana.
ROBERTS: He spent primary night in Indiana which, along with North Carolinas, votes in two weeks' time.
The senator from neighboring Illinois gave Clinton credit for her win.
OBAMA: I want to start tonight by congratulating Senator Clinton on her victory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the toughest job in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: But he railed against the new ad of hers that uses a visual of Osama bin Laden.
OBAMA: We can use fear as a tactic, the threat of terrorism to scare off votes.
ROBERTS: And it wasn't just Hillary Clinton on Barack Obama's mind. He spent part of his speech talking about the man he hopes to face off with in the fall.
OBAMA: John McCain has offered this country a lifetime of service, and we respect that. But what he's not offering is any meaningful change from the policies of George W. Bush.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Barack Obama outspent the cash (INAUDIBLE) Clinton campaign by as much as 3-1 in Pennsylvania. That'll be $7 million more into advertising alone. And she went out there literally asking for cash last night.
PHILLIPS: That's right. You heard the rattle of tin cup, isn't that what she said?
Well, last night's big victory bringing in big bucks for Hillary Clinton. Her campaign says it raised nearly $2.5 million in less than three hours after the polls closed, with 80 percent of the cash coming from new donors.
Clinton appealed for campaign contributions in her victory speech telling supporters the future of the campaign is in their hands.
Now the next showdown. Indiana and North Carolina in less than two weeks.
Let's bring in John Dickerson. He's a political analyst for CNN and chief political correspondent for Slate.com.
ROBERTS: And it was John's line of tin cup. It's a very Dickersonian line, I have to say.
PHILLIPS: $2.5 million, that's amazing.
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is amazing especially since she needs it so badly. You know, the campaign was dying and she was being -- and people were saying, get out of the race, you know, let Barack Obama go on. They were pressuring here, and now she's alive. But she's alive just for a little bit. She needs to get as much money and try to keep this rationale for her candidacy alive because she's still is behind in the numbers game, and the numbers is in this case means...
PHILLIPS: The math isn't there.
DICKERSON: ...the delegates. That's right. The math isn't there. She's behind among the pledge delegates and in the popular vote. So she needs that money quickly to keep making this case and to keep talking about her surprise win and surprised by the margin.
PHILLIPS: And -- now the margin, we're talking about 10 points. Why -- how did that happen? Because everybody was talking about how much closer they thought it was going to be.
DICKERSON: Well, 10 points, at one point, didn't seem like that big a deal. She was ahead in the polls in Pennsylvania. The state was a good one for her. It had older voters, it had a lot of these blue-collar voters that she's done well. But Barack Obama has spent a great deal of money, and of course, he was the frontrunner. He had all the momentum and things were really going his way. And so he started to inch closer to her. It was getting tighter and tighter.
And everybody thought the Clinton win, but they weren't quite sure about the margin. And she got that 10 points and she also won among these key constituencies. Why are they key? Because she wants to be able to make the case that Barack Obama is fundamentally broken, as a general election candidate, that he cannot win with Catholics, that he cannot win with older voters, that he cannot win with blue- collar voters. And she got some evidence to keep making that case to these all-important superdelegates who are going to decide this race.
PHILLIPS: Now looking ahead to North Carolina and Indiana, we're going to talk more coming up in the hour. Actually for the next four hours. Sound good?
DICKERSON: That sounds good.
PHILLIPS: All right. I think Obama already has an advantage because he's a great basketball player and he's heading to Indiana so.
DICKERSON: Yes, he'll have many advantages.
PHILLIPS: All right. John, thanks.
All right. Well, straight off now from her big victory, Hillary Clinton will join us live in the 7:00 hour.
ROBERTS: Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain praising his Democratic counterparts this morning for running successful campaigns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have seen Senator Clinton having been certainly if not written off certainly an underdog. But I also respect the incredible campaign that Senator Obama has run. He's galvanized thousands of people. He is -- he's run a very excellent campaign as well -- both of them. I give credit to both of them for running excellent campaigns and they had a large number of competitors just like I did in the Republican primary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: McCain is out on a cross-country tour today including his stop in Inez, Kentucky where former president Lyndon Johnson launched his War on Poverty campaign more than 40 years ago. McCain also spoke about the North American Free Trade Agreement on the campaign trail, telling voters in Youngstown, Ohio that NAFTA is good for the economy.
And how did last week's debate go over with Pennsylvania primary voters? We'll see if that changed any minds, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And welcome back to a special early edition of AMERICAN MORNING. A quick look now at the result of the Pennsylvania primary. Hillary Clinton keeps her campaign alive with a 10-point victory. She won 55 percent of the vote. Barack Obama has 45 percent.
We also want to hear from the candidates in their own words, from the speeches they gave last night. Senator Clinton rallies supporters in Philadelphia, saying the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue runs right through the heart of Pennsylvania, and it comes to the war in Iraq, Clinton made the case that she's the commander in chief America needs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: All across the world our men and women in uniform, some on your second, third, or fourth tour of duty. You deserve a commander in chief who will finally bring you home and who will rebuild our strained military, do whatever it takes to care for our veterans wounded in both body and spirit. Today here in Pennsylvania you made your voices heard. And because of you the tide is turning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Clinton also said her win proved that she gives Democrats the best chance to win the White House in November.
Now -- Senator Barack Obama already campaigning in Indiana, the next primary battleground. He told supporter in Evansville that despite coming in second in Pennsylvania, he's still the one to solve the country's economic crisis.
OBAMA: We're here because there are families all across this country who are sitting around the kitchen table right now trying to figure out how they're going to pay their insurance premiums and their kids' tuition, and still make the mortgage, so that they're not the next ones in the neighborhood to put a "For Sale" sign in their front yard. People will lay awake tonight wondering if next week's paycheck will cover next month's bills.
We're not here to talk about change for change's sake. But because our families and our communities and our country desperately need it. We're here -- we are here because we can't afford to keep doing what we've been doing for another four years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Voters in Indiana and North Carolina go to the polls on May 6th, less than two weeks away.
ROBERTS: Well, here's a closer look at the primary calendar. The next contest for the Democrats, the Guam caucuses. That's on May 3rd, where four delegates are at stake there. And bigger prizes follow. 187 delegates will be up for grabs on the 6th of May when voters in Indiana and North Carolina go to the polls. Then it's West Virginia one week after that, May the 13th, 28 delegates there. Kentucky and Oregon follow, those primaries on the 20th of May with 103 total delegates in play. The primary season wraps up in June, on the very first day of June. Puerto Rico, with 63 total delegates, 55 are those pledge delegates, the third biggest prize left in the race pulls the trigger. And then on June the 3rd, a combined 31 delegates up for grabs when Montana and South Dakota vote.
With all those races ahead of us, be sure to get the facts from the campaigns. Join "The League of First Time Voters" at CNN.com. Get accurate, easy-to-access information about voting, express yourself and connect with others. It's sort of a political social networking site. Check it out. Become a member.
PHILLIPS: And we're going to break down Hillary Clinton's victory, who voted for her and why. Bill Schneider joins us with a look at the secrets to her success. That's coming up.
And breaking news overnight, gas prices hit a new record high. $3.53 a gallon. That's up more than two cents from yesterday, and it's the rising cost of fuel that's likely to give you and other travelers a bit of a headache this summer. Why the airlines are now planning to do or what they're planning to do, straight head on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Sixteen minutes after 5:00 here on the East Coast, and welcome back to the most news in the morning. We're breaking down Hillary Clinton's victory of the Pennsylvania primary last night. And joining me now with a look at the exit polls is CNN's political analyst Bill Schneider.
Good morning, Bill.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, John.
ROBERTS: Any surprises last night?
SCHNEIDER: Surprises? Well, 10 percent was about what she got in New Jersey and Ohio. I suppose the big surprise is, this isn't so much of a surprise, every month, Hillary Clinton is the comeback kid. She came back in New Hampshire after she lost Iowa. She came back on Super Tuesday on February. She came back in Ohio in March. And now here it is, April, and she came back to life again in Pennsylvania. How about that?
ROBERTS: How did she do it? How did she do it with the exit polls?
SCHNEIDER: White men or critical group, because people say they're going to vote for the African-American or for the woman. They voted for the woman. Clinton, 56 to Obama 44. That's -- they're about a third of the voters. This was a crucial swing group. That's just about the same way they voted in Ohio.
ROBERTS: In some states in the south, he actually won among that group, didn't he?
SCHNEIDER: White men, don't think so, but I'm not certain with that.
ROBERTS: Right. And she won among senior citizens as well?
SCHNEIDER: Senior citizens was a major group.
ROBERTS: One of her groups that's been there all along.
SCHNEIDER: That is her base group. Reliable for her. She carried -- voters 65 and older, 63 to 37 percent. What's interesting is Obama actually did pick up in that group. He got 26 percent of the vote in Ohio, 37 in Pennsylvania. But here's what's important. In Pennsylvania, they were much bigger group. Pennsylvania has the second oldest population after Florida.
ROBERTS: Really? Interesting.
What about late-deciders? We've seen in past states that there's this block of undecided votes. They were between, you know, 9 and 12 percent, and they have, in many cases, broken for Hillary Clinton. Did they do that again last night?
SCHNEIDER: In a word, yes, they did indeed. A quarter of the voters decided in the last week. That was after that debate, that controversial ABC News debate. And what happened is they voted 57-43 for Hillary Clinton. That's where she really built up her margin among those who decided. Earlier the race was very close. What does that suggest is that the debate may have done her some good because Obama was on the defensive. The debate (INAUDIBLE) was very controversial but people who've decided after the debate went for Hillary Clinton.
ROBERTS: Yes, some people have described that as not Barack Obama's best performance.
SCHNEIDER: That's right. But others have said it gave Barack Obama an issue as he raided against Washington, the media machine and the whole system. So it's unclear how that debate -- what impact it had but it seems sort of helped Clinton.
ROBERTS: He did very well among African-American voters as he typically does. I think (INAUDIBLE), 92-80, something around that.
SCHNEIDER: 92-80, overwhelming among African-American voters. And one other the group he did very well with, and that's the newly registered Democrats. About 13 percent of those Democrats were not registered as Democrats on January 1st. But those who registered this year voted 62 percent for Barack Obama. So he does bring new voters in. Look at that overwhelming margin among people who just registered to vote.
ROBERTS: All right. Lots of other information from the exit polls as well. Let's bring you back a little while. We'll talk more about that. SCHNEIDER: OK.
ROBERTS: Bill Schneider, thanks very much -- Kyra?
PHILLIPS: You're watching the most news in the morning.
Hillary Clinton comes up big in Pennsylvania but can she carry that momentum into the next primary contest?
And President Bush talking about the number one issue to you, the economy. We'll tell you what he's saying about the possibility of a recession and raising taxes, straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Pennsylvania gave Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign new life and new momentum going into Indiana and North Carolina.
CNN's Jim Acosta joins us bright and early from the CNN Election Express in Philadelphia. Hopefully he got some coffee.
What are these results tell us about the road ahead, Jim?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, Hillary Clinton kept her comeback kid candidacy alive by scoring a big victory here in Pennsylvania last night. She did it by crushing Obama in those blue- collar counties across the Keystone state and by convincing those undecided, last-minute voters to support her. Obama conceded last night in Indiana where he is looking ahead to the next contest there, while Hillary Clinton, in front of a big crowd, savor her triumph, telling her supporters the tide is turning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I believe with all of my heart that together we will turn promises into action, words will become solutions, hope will become reality, so my answer to any who doubts is yes, we will. Thank you and God bless you.
OBAMA: Now it's up to you, Indiana. You can decide -- whether we're going to travel the same worn path or whether we will chart a new course that offers real hope for the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Now Clinton's huge 200,000-plus vote margin of victory means she will cut into Obama's delegate lead and into that popular vote lead that Obama has right now, throughout all of the primary and caucus contest thus far. Those are two factors that will keep those undecided superdelegates on the fence for the most part, and that is exactly where she wants to keep them, so now it's on to Indiana and North Carolina, the next two big contests, we're told, primaries on May the 6th. So, Kyra, it will continue to be Groundhog Day, just not here in Pennsylvania.
PHILLIPS: OK. Jim Acosta there live from Philly. Thanks, Jim.
ROBERTS: Well, she got the win that she was looking for. But is a 10-point win big enough for Hillary Clinton to stay in the fight with Barack Obama? And what did Obama learned from the voters in Pennsylvania? We'll have that for you.
Plus John King at the magic wall, crunching the numbers to see if Clinton's win in Pennsylvania puts her one step closer to Pennsylvania Avenue.
That's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton's 10-point victory in Pennsylvania keeps her campaign a flood of guarantees and another round in the fight and it's another big state that Barack Obama could not quite clinch. So what happens now?
"New York Daily News" columnist Errol Louis joins us bright and early this morning.
Errol, great of you to get up, come in this morning because we appreciate your expertise and your analysis on this. Now let's ask you right off the bat here. Where does Hillary Clinton find herself this morning? Did she get a big enough victory to change the dynamic in this race?
ERROL LOUIS, COLUMNIST, N.Y. DAILY NEWS: Well, she is certainly arguing that. In fact, her early message is to supporters who already gone out and they're saying that basically the race is started over again. Where she finds herself is that she's going to be behind in the delegate count, the pledge delegate count, but this all-important superdelegates, this 800 uncommitted delegates, she's trying to make a case with them that she can win and she made a big step forward with that by winning 200,000 more votes than Obama did in Pennsylvania.
If you start to add in the contested Florida votes and the Michigan votes, she actually starts to come close to him in the number of human beings who actually voted for her during this season. That's the basis of her case going forward, that she's not just a strong candidates, she's not just a strong candidate, she's not just somebody who's a known quantity and so forth, but that, you know, that a lot of Democrats and possibly a majority of Democrats actually did vote for her.
ROBERTS: And last night in her victory speech, she presented herself almost as the underdog. And the tone of it was almost like a come-from-behind victory. Let's take a listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: We were up against a formidable opponent who outspent us 3-1. He broke every spending record in this state trying to knock us out of the race. Well, the people of Pennsylvania had other ideas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: She definitely was at a disadvantage financially because he had a whole lot more money than she did. And she said earlier in the day, why can't he close the deal with this extraordinary advantage from a financial standpoint. Does she has a point there?
LOUIS: Well, she has a bit of a point. You know what, one reason he needed to have more money to even be in this race is, he was running against the former first lady who had 100 percent name recognition -- 90 to 180 days ago, it's fair to say that most people in Pennsylvania had never heard of this guy named Barack Obama. So he had to get himself known in a hurry.
The fact that he could do so, the fact that he could close a more than 20-point gap and bring it down to 10 points in such a short time, is actually a testament for money can do. It wouldn't have happened if he didn't have the money for sure.
ROBERTS: In his concession speech last night, he didn't mention her by name, but definitely took some shots at her. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We can calculate and poll test our positions, tell everyone exactly what they want to hear, or we can be the party that doesn't just focus on how to win but why we should.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: As you were saying earlier, Errol, this has really now become appeal -- it appeals to these superdelegates. Does any one of them, either one of them, have a clear-cut argument to say to superdelegates, I'm the one who can win in November, vote for me?
LOUIS: Well, yes, sure. I think the one who gets the most votes and the most delegates. And as long as...
ROBERTS: But (INAUDIBLE) at this point. At this point.
LOUIS: Well, you know...
ROBERTS: Because they're trying to shut the race down now.
LOUIS: Sure. Well, look, at this point, it's going to very difficult, I think, for Obama to say we need to shut this down, because when you see a victory of a kind that Clinton staged last night, what it means is that there are a lot of core Democratic constituencies that aren't comfortable with Obama yet. And until he could make clear that he is the overwhelming favorite of all of these people, there's no particular reason to select them. So the superdelegates would be perfectly within their rights to say, let's go -- let this go a little bit further. Not too much further, but a little bit further.
The real question, I think, though, John, is going to be whether or not it goes all the way to August to the convention. There's a long sorry history, in both parties, but especially in the Democratic side, of brokered, divisive conventions leading to a defeat in the fall.
ROBERTS: Yes. Howard Dean, certainly, that's his worst nightmare. But some superdelegates that we're talking to, some undecided superdelegates were saying, that's the worry. This has happened in the past.
LOUIS: Well, yes, they should go back and look at some of the footage from 1972 and from 1980 and these other contests where ...
ROBERTS: Or '84 when Mondale lost 49 of 50.
LOUIS: Exactly right. I mean this is how it happens and it's not exclusive to the Democrats. It happens on the Republican side.
ROBERTS: This was an appropriate convention.
LOUIS: Yes. Exactly.
ROBERTS: Errol Louis, thanks very much you. Get you back here. Appreciate it.
LOUIS: Yes.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And here's a look a results from last night. All precincts now counted in Pennsylvania. Clinton took 55 percent of the vote, a ten point win over Barack Obama. The up to date CNN delegate estimate shows that Obama now leads 1,705 to 1,570. So Clinton picked up a few delegates thus far with the results in Pennsylvania.
Now last night, both candidates talked about the tough battle ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We still have a lot of work ahead of us but if you're ready, I'm ready. Now I might stumble and I might get knocked down, but as long as you'll stand with me, I will always get right back up.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We seek to regain not just an office but the trust of the American people that their leaders in Washington will tell them the truth. That's the choice in this election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, says that her victory is proof that voters are listening to her message. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRY MCAULIFFE, CLINTON NATIONAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER: What happened is I think with the voters here in Pennsylvania decided, they trusted Hillary Clinton on the issues of healthcare, job creation, to deal with the international crisis that may come about.
And I think secondly, we were outspent three to one. They did a lot of negative advertising against us in the mail, on TV and with all of that, Hillary Clinton was once again able to win one of the key Democratic states that we need to win in the general election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey and Obama supporter downplayed Clinton's win. He says what happens in April can't be used to cure out what will happen during the general election in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BOB CASEY (D), PENNSYLVANIA: I've been in a lot of elections. I've been in seven elections in Pennsylvania in the last decade, both primaries and general elections. It's very difficult, if not impossible, to predict based upon a voter - how you do with a voter group in the spring as opposed to the fall. I think Senator Obama when he's the nominee of our party will be able not just to unite the party but to do very well with those very groups that Senator Clinton was stronger with and I don't think there's any question about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Casey says Obama's campaigning issues such as healthcare and the economy, "Put down roots with Pennsylvania voters for the general election."
ROBERTS: So what voting trends did we see across Pennsylvania yesterday? And is Senator Clinton's win enough to help her pull ahead of Barack Obama in the popular vote in the next few contests in pledged delegates?
CNN chief national correspondent John King is tracking the trends.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Senator Clinton thumped Senator Obama in this state and the Obama campaign will say well, it's built for her. It's an older state, the second oldest state in the country. Only Florida has more elderly voters. It is a heavily Catholic state. That has been a Clinton base. It is a white blue collar working state. Clinton has done best with those voters. So the Obama campaign will say well, she was supposed to win. The Clinton campaign will say if you want to win in November, these are the voters you need to win. Look across the state. The light blue is Senator Clinton. The sweep of her victory is dramatic and it is impressive. I'll start down here in Philadelphia. The one place where the Obama campaign can be happy, the predominantly African American Democratic turnout in the city, a big win, big, big win, about 130,000 votes for Senator Obama in central Philadelphia. They had hoped a margin that big would give them a cushion when she won in the more rural areas and the smaller cities. They got a cushion in Philadelphia. They did OK in the suburbs just to the south of Philadelphia, Delaware County and Chester County but not by huge margins. They won but not a very high Democratic turnout there.
Clinton's big victory came first because she did better than the Obama campaign had expected here in Bucks County, big suburb outside of Philadelphia. Montgomery County, another Clinton win, more narrow there. Look across the state. These are blue collar cities, Scranton, Allentown, Bethlehem, Reading. Come out here to the west. Erie, down the old steel and coal corridor, Pittsburgh, communities out here, most of our here in the center smaller, not so populated, rural communities. She won big in all these smaller cities, out here in the blue collar cities. She won the elderly vote. She won the Catholic vote.
Her message now to the Democratic Party is the math is still fundamentally, some would say convincingly in Senator Obama's favor but she will go to the superdelegates now and say at least wait. Give me a chance. Let this race go on to Indiana and the nine other remaining contests, eight other remaining contests including Indiana. She will make the case that she is performing very well among the voters that are the swing voters come November that John McCain will try to get to turn Pennsylvania back Republican for the first time since 1988. George H. W. Bush back in 1988 was the last Republican to carry this state. It matters in November and it will matter now, Hillary Clinton's argument to the superdelegates.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: John King with analysis this morning from the now famous magic wall and stick around because John will come back with us a little later on this morning. That thing is super famous.
PHILLIPS: Well, and he has about four different names.
ROBERTS: Profile in the "New York Times" yesterday.
PHILLIPS: And Larry was asking him, Wolf was asking him about it. He said he's in love with it. We'll talk about it more.
All right. Other news or other stories rather making news this morning, gas prices hit another record high overnight, a jump of more than two cents in the last day. AAA says that the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is now $3.53. It was $3.26 just a month ago and a real bargain one year ago at $2.86.
Now President Bush says that despite all the grim economic news, current conditions don't meet the technical definition of a recession. Speaking in New Orleans, the president says that the economy is just experiencing a "slowdown." He also echoed his view that taxes shouldn't be increased especially when the economy is going through a rough patch right now.
And get ready for fewer flights and more expensive airline tickets, a parent company of United Airlines announcing plans to reduce flight capacity and lay off 1,100 workers. That move comes after America's second largest airline had a punishing first quarter loss of $537 million. The airline pinning the blame on fuel prices and pressure from low cost rivals.
And the CEO of Delta says under current conditions, airlines will need to raise fares by 15 to 20 percent just to break even.
ROBERTS: More than 100 of the 437 children moved from the polygamist compound near El Dorado, Texas are in foster care this morning. Officials say the children removed have already had DNA samples taken. Tuesday the children's parents began giving DNA samples so authorities can begin to determine which children belong to which parent.
A $20 million failure, federal officials are scrapping the new virtual fence system on the Arizona/Mexico border. They say the system hasn't been effectively notifying agents about illegal crossings. In its place, the government is installing new towers, radar, cameras. The system drew heavy criticisms when customs and border officials say it was only a demonstration project.
And a woman in Florida found an unexpected visitor in her kitchen. Sandra Frosty says that she heard a noise on Monday night. When she went to check it, she discovered an eight foot alligator. After convincing a 911 operator that indeed she did have an alligator in her kitchen, authorities made it to the house and removed the reptile. Police think that the gator was probably following Frosty's cat when it climbed through a screen on her back patio. A lot of gator stories coming out of Florida in the last week, the guy with the 6 foot gator in the back of his car last week. Now an eight foot gator in the kitchen.
PHILLIPS: Living in Florida, one more reason not to have a cat.
ROBERTS: The gator is lucky that he didn't crawl into a kitchen in Louisiana.
PHILLIPS: That's a good point. Gator soup, have you ever heard of that? It's not bad. You'll have to try it. I'll make it for you.
ROBERTS: Thanks.
PHILLIPS: All right. Hillary Clinton's campaign is alive and moving into Indiana and North Carolina. We're going to take a look at the challenges ahead for her and the Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Welcome back to a special early edition of AMERICAN MORNING on this Wednesday. Hillary Clinton got the double digit win that she was looking for last night, a 10 point victory in Pennsylvania, 55 percent of the vote to Senator Barack Obama's 45 percent.
Now it's on to North Carolina and Indiana for the next big prizes in the Democratic race. By the time last night's results came in, Senator Obama had already moved onto Indiana, renewing his message of hope to supporters there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Now is our turn to fall on the footsteps of all those generations who sacrificed and struggled and faced down the greatest odds to perfect our improbable union and if we're willing to do what they did, if we're willing to shed our citizenism and our doubts and our fears, if we're willing to believe in what's possible again then I believe we won't just win this primary election, we won't just win here in Indiana, we won't just win this election in November, we will change this country, we will change the world, we will keep this country's promise alive in the 21st century. That's our task. That's our job. Let's get to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: There hasn't been a whole lot of polling that's taken place in Indiana. Some polls show Hillary Clinton with the lead. Some show Barack Obama with the lead. Some others show it's dead even. We'll find out soon.
Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania even though the Obama campaign outspent her by a wide margin, three to one by some accounting. The Obama camp raised more than twice what Clinton backers pulled in last month. Clinton addressed not only the addressed the issue after her win last night, she also used the occasion to say send money.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I need your help to continue this journey. This is your campaign and this is your victory. Your support has meant the difference between winning and losing. Now we can only keep winning. If we can keep competing and an opponent outspends us so massively so I hope you'll go to HillaryClinton.com and show your support tonight because the future of this campaign is in your hands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Guess what? They did. Her supporters responded. The Clinton campaign claimed late last night they had raised $2.5 million since the race came to a halt. The campaign says that 80 percent of that money came from new voters.
PHILLIPS: Well, the next contest on the Democrat's schedule will be the Guam caucuses on May 3rd where four delegates are at stake. Back on the mainland, 187 delegates will be up for grabs on May 6th when Indiana and North Carolina voters go to the polls. West Virginia next on May 13th, 28 delegates available there and then it's on to Kentucky and Oregon. Those two states hold their primary May 20th and 103 delegates at play. Primary season will wrap up in June 1 with Puerto Rico, 63 delegates, the second biggest prize left in the race and on the 3rd, a combined 31 delegates are up for grabs when Montana and South Dakota vote.
ROBERTS: The Democratic nomination fight now rumbles onto Indiana and North Carolina. CNN political analyst John Dickerson joins us with a look at the race and what yesterday's win means to the Clinton campaign.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLINTON: We are up against a formidable opponent who outspent us three to one. He broke every spending record in this state trying to knock us out of the race. Well the people of Pennsylvania had other ideas.
OBAMA: Whether they were inspired for the first time or for the first time in a long time, we registered a record number of the pollers and it is those new voters who will lead our party to victory in November.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in their own words following Clinton's double digit win in Pennsylvania. Both candidates now focus on Indiana and North Carolina, the primaries there less than two weeks away.
Back again John Dickerson, CNN analyst, chief political correspondent on Slate.com. I love what you wrote. Hillary has come back from the dead four times. She's got a good oxygen.
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. That's right. Well you know she came back first it was in New Hampshire on Super Tuesday and then it was Ohio and Texas. People were saying get out of the race, even let Barack Obama go forward. He's got the momentum. He's got the pledged delegates and she battled back and you know lived to fight another day.
PHILLIPS: Let's listen to what she said again after that battle back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Some people counted me out and said to drop out but the American people, well the American people don't quit and they deserve a president who doesn't quit either.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Can she keep the momentum? What's next?
DICKERSON: Well, the momentum basically depends on her putting forward this fighting message. She's using her own personal ambition or her own personal story to then translates to voters, particularly these blue collar voters that she's done well with and these working class folks where she basically says look you've had a tough time. I've had a tough time. We're in this sort of together and so she'll keep pushing on that message. She was very positive last night. She barely mentioned Barack Obama. She was sort of focusing on issues. He by contrast had some - a long string of digs for her.
PHILLIPS: He did including the ad that she has been airing, some of it. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We could use fear as a tactic, the threat of terrorism to scare up folks, or we can decide that real strength is asking the tough questions before we send our troops into fight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Your reaction?
DICKERSON: Let's decode that. What he's talking about is the ad that she ran the day before the election in Pennsylvanian and when he talks about you know reading the or preparing the - beforehand he's talking about her not reading the intelligence estimate before voting to support Bush's war in Iraq and so he is basically knocking her and saying that she's following Bush tactics.
Another dig he had was he said we can try and outdo George Bush in terms of talking tough which is a reference to her recent remarks on Iran. So he's drawing these distinctions about Hillary Clinton and saying basically to Democratic voters we can go her way which is the disastrous way that he outlines or we can go my way, this hopeful visionary way forward. It is a much sharper message than he's been offering for and it's a sharper message in contrast to her. She was all positive.
PHILLIPS: It's a sharper message. Define that. Is that desperation or is he - is this more of a confident comeback?
DICKERSON: No, it's not desperation because this is what campaigns are about. They're defining yourself against your opponent. What they've noticed in the Obama campaign though is that they have to walk voters up to this decision and say there really is a choice here and here's the distinction and this is to get those voters at the very end of the line here. He's gotten a lot through his positive hopeful message through inspiring them with his vision of a new kind of politics but now he's got to grab that last bit. You know Hillary Clinton tries to say he claimed the can and closed the deal. Well this is a part of closing the deal with that remaining bit of voters by saying here's what the real choice is and that means both offering his vision but it also means it's knocking Hillary Clinton and saying this is the kind of vision she's offering which is obviously quite different than the one she puts forward for herself.
PHILLIPS: John Dickerson, thanks so much. John?
ROBERTS: Even though the fight for the nomination is still up in the air, the Democrats are looking toward the general election in November. Who are they turning to now for support? We'll have that for you coming up.
Plus, we asked Democratic voters what they would do in November if their candidate wasn't a choice. We'll tell you what they said. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 53 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to a special early edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
Hillary Clinton needed a decisive win and she got it last night. 55 percent of Pennsylvania voters cast their ballots for her and her campaign now stays alive. 45 percent backed Barack Obama.
It brings us to this morning's Quick Vote question. Is Hillary Clinton's win in Pennsylvania enough to make her the "Comeback Kid"? Cast your vote. Go to CNN.com/AM. We'll have the first tally of your votes coming up in our next hour and we want your e-mails on this as well. What do you think will happen with Clinton's campaign? Go to our Web site, CNN.com/AM. Follow the link that says contact us. We'll be reading your e-mails throughout the morning.
Now typically that appeal goes to North America but with our CNN international viewers watching us this morning, maybe we'll get some opinions from around the world.
PHILLIPS: That's right. All the way from Baghdad to the Big Apple. We're glad that you are all with us this morning of course and what we can learn from the Pennsylvania primary about the upcoming Democratic contest. That's what we're going to talk about straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And welcome back to the most news in the morning. We are a little deeper this morning into Hillary Clinton's victory in the Pennsylvania primary. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider joining us now.
Let's talk about those blue collar workers and how this made such an impact here and how the vote breaks down.
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what he did not do was break into the blue collar vote. Barack Obama tried but he did only marginally better than he had done in Ohio. Voters without a college degree, blue collar voters, how did they go? 58 percent for Hillary Clinton, 42 percent for Barack Obama. In Ohio he had gotten 40 percent so not much of a change. That is the big barrier to him. That's a core Democratic constituency and he can't seem to break into that group enough to really make a difference. PHILLIPS: You wonder if his bitter comments and the Reverend Wright and all that played an impact on how that turned out because at the beginning, we really didn't see a change in the polls. Then we saw this change last night.
SCHNEIDER: Well, he didn't do worse among blue collar workers. He did a little bit better than he had done in Ohio. It just looks like nothing much changed.
PHILLIPS: All right. Look ahead to November; what are Clinton and Obama supporters saying?
SCHNEIDER: Well, how about this? The voters in Pennsylvania who voted for Hillary Clinton by a 10 point margin, we asked them who do you thick is going to win the Democratic nomination in the end and they said Barack Obama, 55 percent. They believe Obama's going to win the nomination but there's no Obama bandwagon going on. You'd think if they see a winner they'd want to be with the winner.
We also asked them if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee running against John McCain how would you vote and take a look at what Obama supporters said. Well they said they'd vote for Clinton, more than two thirds of them, 16 percent for McCain and 13 percent said hey, I'm just not going to vote if that's the choice. Clinton gets two thirds of the vote amongst Obama supporters.
Now let's reverse that. Let's say Obama's the Democratic nominee running against McCain, what would the Clinton supporters do? In this case, barely half, 53 percent of Clinton supporters say they would vote for Barack Obama. Over a quarter, 26 percent, say they'd vote for John McCain and 17 percent said they wouldn't vote. That's a big problem for the Democratic Party because a lot of Clinton supporters right now say they won't support Barack Obama.
PHILLIPS: After last night, what are you paying attention to now?
SCHNEIDER: The Democrats are in a tough place. He can't close the deal and it's hard to see how she's going to win the nomination because while the margin in delegates in popular votes is very small, Democratic rules make it very difficult for her to catch up to him. So I don't know how they're going to resolve this.
PHILLIPS: Bill Schneider, thanks.
SCHNEIDER: All right.
PHILLIPS: John?
ROBERTS: We want to thank our viewers from around the world for joining us on CNNI. We're going to leave you now but for our North American audience, stay with us because the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
New momentum.
CLINTON: My answer to any who doubt is yes, we will.
ROBERTS: Pennsylvania gives Hillary Clinton a push.
CLINTON: More than ever I need your help to continue this journey.
ROBERTS: This morning the race for dollars and delegates moves back to the Midwest.
OBAMA: Now it's up to you, Indiana.
ROBERTS: Who can close the deal? Hillary Clinton joins us live on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome back. Thanks very much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. It's Wednesday, the 23rd of April. John Roberts along with Kyra Phillips filling in for Kiran Chetry for a while.
PHILLIPS: Pleasure to be here. It's going to be a busy summer. It's going to go on and on.
ROBERTS: This could go all the way to the convention. A lot of people are hoping it doesn't go all the way to the convention, the chairman of the democratic national committee being one of them, but who knows now.
PHILLIPS: It keeps us busy. It keeps our analysts busy.
ROBERTS: Because things are back perhaps in balance yet again. The race goes on heading into Indiana and North Carolina after Senator Hillary Clinton captured Pennsylvania and vaulted this race into May. As we said maybe way beyond that. With all the results now in, Senator Clinton earned 55 percent of the vote, a 10-point win over Senator Barack Obama.
