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American Morning
Clinton Wins Pennsylvania Primary; Reactions on the Blog on Clinton's Victory; What's Next for Hillary Clinton?
Aired April 23, 2008 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: With all of the results now in, Senator Clinton earned 55 percent of the vote, a 10-point win over Senator Barack Obama. A look at the polling map shows Obama won the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding area but not much else. All that light blue there including heavily blue-collar areas went for Hillary Clinton.
The numbers are still coming in for CNN's up to the minute delegate count. The latest estimate shows Barack Obama leads 1,694 to 1,556. Clinton gaining a few delegates so far with her win in Pennsylvania. Last night, both candidates were already talking about the fight ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The status quo in Washington will fight. They will fight harder than ever to divide us and distract us with ads and attacks from now until November, but don't ever forget that you had the power to change this country.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The fight for everyone who has ever been counted out, for everyone fighting to pay the grocery bills and the medical bills, the credit card and mortgage payments, and the outrageous price of gas at the pump today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Over the course of the seven-week battle, controversies and comments surfaced that could haunt the candidates all the way through to November. After everything including the kitchen sink was out there, Hillary Clinton was still standing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a long road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and it runs right 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 weeks, Senator Obama and I have crisscrossed the 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 pledged 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.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now it's up to you, Indiana.
ROBERTS: He spent primary night in Indiana, which along with North Carolina, 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, CAMPAIGN COMMERCIAL)
ANNOUNCER: It's the toughest job in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: But he railed against a 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 up 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: Senator Obama outspent the cash strapped Clinton campaign by as much as three to one in Pennsylvania. He dumped $7 million more into advertising alone than she did.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Last night's 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.
Hillary Clinton will join us coming up in the next hour, 7:00 a.m. Eastern. You won't want to miss it. Here's a closer look at the primary calendar.
The next contest for the Democrats, the Guam caucuses on May 3rd, where four delegates are at stake; 187 delegates will be up for grabs on May 6th when voters in Indiana and North Carolina go to the polls. Then it's West Virginia, one week after that, May 13th; 28 delegates there. Then Kentucky and Oregon. Those primaries are on May 20th with 103 delegates in play.
The primary season will wrap up in June. On the 1st, Puerto Rico, with 63 delegates; 55 of those pledged delegates, the third biggest prize left in the race. And on June 3rd, a combined 31 delegates are up for grabs with Montana and the South Dakota vote.
Now, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain praising his Democratic counterparts this morning for running successful campaigns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), 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'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)
PHILLIPS: And McCain heads out on a cross-country tour today, including a stop in east Kentucky where former President Lyndon Johnson launched his war on poverty campaign more than 40 years ago. McCain also spoke out about the North American Free Trade Agreement on the campaign trail telling voters in Youngstown, Ohio, NAFTA is good for the economy.
ROBERTS: Brand new overnight. Gas prices hit another record. It jumped up more than 2 cents in the past day. AAA says the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is now $3.53. It was $3.26 a month ago. A year ago the price of gas was at $2.86.
And in some places, gas is already above $4 a gallon. We're going to show you where and how it's impacting life coming up in our next half hour.
Against that backdrop, a proposal for new fuel efficiency standards for carmakers. The Bush administration announced a plan to require new cars and trucks to get an average of 31.6 miles to the gallon by the year 2015. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters calls the plan historically ambitious yet achievable. Automakers warn that the new standards will likely boost car prices for consumers.
Well, get ready for fewer flights and more expensive tickets. The parent company of United Airlines announcing plans to reduce flight capacity and lay off 1,100 workers. United is the nation's second largest airline. It lost $537 million in the first quarter of this year.
United blames the spike in fuel prices and relentless pressure from low-cost rivals. Other airlines are feeling it too. The CEO of Delta Airlines says under current conditions airlines will need to raise fares by 15 to 20 percent just to break even.
President Bush is talking about issue number one, the economy. Speaking in New Orleans, the president said despite a number of grim economic indicators, the U.S. economy has not yet tipped into a recession. He says the economy is just going through a rough patch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not in a recession. We're in a slow down. We grew in the fourth quarter last year. We haven't had first quarter growth statistics yet, but no question we're in a slow down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The Democrats quickly pounced on that proclamation. New York Senator Charles Schumer said the president's legacy can be "summed up in a single word -- denial."
PHILLIPS: Hillary Clinton taking Pennsylvania by a 10-point margin yesterday, but is it enough for her to remain in the race? A look at what the blogs are saying about it all, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up at 10 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Let's have a quick look at the results from last night's Pennsylvania primary, just in case you went to bed before 8:00 when the results started coming in.
Hillary Clinton keeps her campaign alive with a 10-point victory. She won 55 percent of the vote to Barack Obama's 45 percent.
That thing was over really quick last night.
PHILLIPS: Very quickly. It didn't take long for her to start asking for a lot of money, too.
ROBERTS: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Speaking of money --
ROBERTS: Thanks for pushing me to victory. Send money.
PHILLIPS: Yes, exactly. Ting, ting, ting, ting. Money, gas, the economy, it all folds into Ali Velshi.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you in person.
PHILLIPS: Good to see you, too.
VELSHI: It's been a long time.
PHILLIPS: We're not allowed to sit together? Is that what --
VELSHI: Yes, we got to work that out. We got to, you know --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Got to keep you two apart.
VELSHI: I like working with John.
PHILLIPS: We're in trouble.
ROBERTS: Who knows what would happen.
VELSHI: You know, Kyra, it's been a very long time since we've worked together. Back in the day when we did, I was a fun guy. I was generally thought to be funny, fun. Now, it's all doom and gloom and woe, and once again record high gas prices.
Now, if not for the fact that the numbers actually changed, I would just record this and sleep in in the morning. But the fact of the matter is we are now up to $5 -- I know we're not up to $5. We're up to $3.53. That's a two cent jump, by the way, from yesterday.
Now, I'm kind of concerned about one cent jumps on a daily basis because there are 365 days in a year. So that's not good. To have a two cent jump is actually pretty dramatic; 2.86 a year ago. So we're seeing that now.
Yesterday, oil came within 10 cents of $120. Now, if you look at oil this morning, you get a nice treat. It's only 117 bucks and change. Why? Because when you buy oil, we always talk about, did you buy them in futures? You buy it so that on a particular day you actually have to take that oil.
Well, yesterday was the end of the contract for May futures. So if you were caught holding the barrel yesterday, I mean you really were caught, you owned oil. In between, like today if you and I buy oil futures, we're just trading. We're speculating. We're thinking we can make some money out of it.
But if you owned an oil future at the close of business yesterday, you own the oil. You got to take that oil. So what's happening is at the beginning of the contract, which is now, this is for June. Today, we start trading. Yes, it's all play money like you can really just speculate on it. The day you have to take delivery are the people who actually use the oil, the actual oil companies. That's who bought yesterday.
So you get a bit of a break on the price of oil today. A fairly substantial break. What a great thing, it's only $117.
ROBERTS: Not getting any kind of break though in the price of gasoline at the pump.
VELSHI: No. And diesel $4, and what is it? 21 cents. And again, as I constantly say, if you don't drive diesel, you still have to worry about this because all the trucks and all the farm equipment --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: They pretty much use diesel.
VELSHI: Use diesel.
ROBERTS: Delivered to the stores, they --
VELSHI: Touches diesel. Yes. Yes.
ROBERTS: Ali, thanks for the good news again.
VELSHI: OK. Yes.
ROBERTS: I hope to go back to Pennsylvania.
Wake up to the threat of tornadoes this morning. Rob Marciano tracking the extreme weather for us. He's in Atlanta. Good morning. Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John. And good morning, everybody. We have a little bit of action on both sides of the country and then later on today, things will begin to fire up right in the middle. A pretty decent threat of seeing tornadoes pop tonight. Details coming up in your complete weather forecast when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARCIANO: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Rob Marciano. Last night, Baton Rouge, parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, all getting clobbered with a lot of rain, a lot of wind, and a lot of big- time hail. All quiet for now, but later on this afternoon similar spots may get hit once again.
Meantime, North Carolina, check out the radar scope here, continues to get hit with rain showers. Finally, this storm is weakening and beginning to drift offshore, but still the outer banks will continue to get the rainfall throughout the day today. But north parts of like Cape Hatteras saw over two inches of rain yesterday. That's on top of what they saw the day before.
All right. Back to the West Coast we go. Extreme cold continues to pour into the Pacific Northwest, as does the moisture, rain in the valley, snow in the mountains. And we told you over the weekend they saw snow in Seattle and snow all the way down to the beaches in parts of Oregon. And we're seeing snow in the mountains right now across parts of the cascade and it's drifting eastward.
This is just adding to the incredible snow pack that's been piling up across much of the western mountains. Great news because it just stockpiles that water for later use in the morning.
All right. Here is the threat for severe weather later on today across the central plains, especially northern Texas and through western parts of Oklahoma. And if the skies stay clear this morning, which it looks like they're going to do that, that will give the atmosphere even more energy later on today and we'll have to watch that very, very closely for the possibility of tornadoes touching down in Tornado Alley. Kyra and John, back up to you.
ROBERTS: All right, Rob, thanks very much. Hey, stick around, Rob. You're going to want to see this.
Top dog in your "Hot Shot" now. Meet Buddy. King Buddy to you as we pull out here because he was crowned the Most Beautiful Bulldog at the contest in Des Moines, Iowa. The contest is held every year to find a mascot for Drake University.
PHILLIPS: How is it that a bulldog is beautiful? Can we just use a different word?
ROBERTS: They're just so classic, don't you think?
PHILLIPS: Yes, they are.
ROBERTS: Very churchilian (ph). And if you got a "Hot Shot," send it to us. Go to our Web site at www.CNN.com/am and follow the "Hot Shot" link.
PHILLIPS: And you're watching the "Most News in the Morning." The fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama remains fierce. So does the discourse about it on the blogs. A look at what people are saying about the ongoing battle for the Democratic nomination straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Hillary Clinton's victory over Barack Obama came after a bruising seven-week buildup. Clinton called last night's victory a deeply personal win. It will allow her to pick up a majority of the state's 158 delegates and make a small dent in Obama's overall lead.
And that brings us this morning's "Quick Vote" question. Is Clinton's win in Pennsylvania enough to make her the comeback kid? Right now, 45 percent say yes, 55 percent say no. Go ahead and cast your vote, CNN.com/am. We will tally your votes throughout the morning.
And we want, of course, to get your e-mails as well. What do you think will happen with Clinton's campaign? Go to our Web site CNN.com/am and follow the link that says "contact us." We'll be reading your e-mails throughout the morning.
ROBERTS: Getting some interesting opinions on that already. So --
PHILLIPS: Hundreds of them.
ROBERTS: Share this with you. Yes, which is always great. It's great to hear from you.
Hillary Clinton celebrating her 10-point win in Pennsylvania last night, but she's still behind in the delegate count and the popular vote count, the number of contests won. Does last night's victory mean anything for her? Should she still keep running?
Our Veronica De La Cruz has been online reading what political bloggers have got to say about all of this. She joins us. Good morning.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, it's nice to see you. Of course, lots of speculation over who is going to win this thing, who is electable, whether or not Hillary should just give up at this point.
So let's go ahead and do a quick blog roll call this morning starting with the Democratic Daily Stuart O'Neill who offers up an outline on why this one was important for Hillary. He says one, it stops the calls for her to drop out. Two, it boosts her online fund- raising, something that Barack Obama has been really successful with. And three, it highlights a deficiency in Senator Obama's campaign.
Now, in the meantime, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish bashes Senator Clinton. Something we have seen a lot. He is an Obama supporter, and he calls Clinton shameless for her continuing fight. He says that, "If Obama thinks he has a right to actually be nominated by the Clinton Democrats because he was won more votes, more states, and more delegates, he's sadly mistaken. I'll never let such a person win without a death struggle.
And then from the "Huffington Post" this morning, Greg Mitchell has this explanation for Obama losing by a larger margin that some expected. He says, "That difference is largely the racial vote, I guess. I call them the true late deciders. They decide to show their bigotry in the privacy of the voting booth."
And then, finally, some are just frustrated that this isn't going to be ending anytime soon. This is from the blog Wonkette. "Ten points? That's like a million points in the sense that Hillary will keep running rather than let us all take vacations on beaches away from this."
So there you go.
ROBERTS: Here at CNN, we appreciate the discourse of the length of this campaign, you know.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, we do. ROBERTS: It's great.
DE LA CRUZ: But a vacation on the beach sounds good as well.
ROBERTS: Not yet. Veronica, thanks very much.
DE LA CRUZ: Of course.
ROBERTS: You're watching the "Most News in the Morning." We'll look ahead to the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, just ahead, and the challenges for both the Obama and Clinton campaigns.
And the world's food crisis. Is a silent tsunami threat to nearly 100 million people? CNN is live from a port that is key to the crisis to see what's being done to help. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-four minutes after the hour. Hillary Clinton's win in the Pennsylvania primary sends the Democratic race for the nomination now into May. With all the precincts counted, Clinton took 55 percent of the vote, a 10-point win over Barack Obama.
The up-to-date CNN delegate estimate shows that Barack Obama leads, and that was here and it changed. Well, it was 1,694 to 1,556, but it keeps on changing as the delegate count comes in from Pennsylvania. Last night, both candidates talked about the tough battle ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), 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-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can 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)
ROBERTS: Pennsylvania gave Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign new life and new momentum going into Indiana and North Carolina. CNN's Jim Acosta joins us now live from the CNN Election Express in Philadelphia.
Jim, what are the results from last night? Tell us about the road ahead, which now looks like it's going to be an awfully long road.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. But the Clinton campaign is claiming that it is now flushed with more cash saying it raised $2.5 million during last night's primary results as they were coming in. And her big victory, according to many analysts, is because of the fact that she was able to crush Obama in those blue- collar counties between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and by convincing those last-minute undecided voters to support her in the end as Obama was conceding defeat last night in Indiana, where he was looking forward to the next big contest there. She was here in front of a big crowd in Philadelphia telling her supporters here that the tide is turning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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 doubt is yes, we will! Thank you and God bless you.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now it's up to you, Indiana. You can decide -- 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: And Hillary Clinton's big 200,000 vote plus margin of victory here in Pennsylvania means that she will put a sizable but perhaps not important dent in Barack Obama's delegate lead. She also cuts into his popular vote margin that he has carried over the last several weeks in this campaign.
Many analysts will point out that that may not be enough for her to make a difference in the end and secure this nomination. But nonetheless, this race does move on to North Carolina and Indiana, John. And John, we're up in Indiana the weekend that those bitter remarks from Barack Obama broke. And when Hillary Clinton was putting down that shot of Crown Royal Whiskey, I think we can look forward to Hillary Clinton taking that blue-collar pitch that worked so well here in Pennsylvania to Tar Heel and Hoosier voters over the next couple of weeks.
ROBERTS: Let's hope they don't drink too much though, Jim, because they got to stay sharp on this. I just got this memo a little while ago from the Hillary Clinton campaign that says that this is a turning point in the nominating contest. There's still some 250 superdelegates that are undecided.
Will pitches like this and what happened in Pennsylvania last night be enough to sway some of those superdelegates to finally throw their support behind a candidate? Or do you think they'll continue to keep their powder dry?
ACOSTA: It sounds like for now that this is enough to keep those undecided superdelegates, at least the vast majority of them, on the fence, which is exactly where she wants them at this point. But let's keep in mind even though Pennsylvania was the big cheesesteak, if you will, not the big enchilada left in this campaign, North Carolina and Indiana combined have more delegates than Pennsylvania.
So Barack Obama, who is running strongly in North Carolina, if he can somehow pull off some kind of victory in Indiana, he can go back to Democrats, go back to the DNC and say, look, she may have won Pennsylvania, but I picked up more support here in Indiana and North Carolina combined. That makes it difficult to move forward to those other states upcoming in Kentucky and West Virginia where he may be vulnerable there.
ROBERTS: And for Hillary Clinton, it looked like it was a cheesesteak with, because she got that double-digit margin that she was looking for. Jim Acosta for us this morning outside the Museum of Art.
ACOSTA: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: Thanks very much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Hillary Clinton's Pennsylvania win was a much-needed one, that's for sure. Last night, she credited that victory also to her supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Today here in Pennsylvania you made your voices heard, and because of you the tide is turning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Is the win enough to keep her competitive with Barack Obama? Joining me now from Washington, Democratic strategist Steve McMahon. What do you think? Is it enough because the math still isn't there?
STEVE MCMAHON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, it's enough to keep her in the race. It's enough to keep the chattering class relatively quiet. It's enough to keep the superdelegates on the fence, and it gives her an opportunity to go to North Carolina and Indiana and demonstrate what she said last night. That maybe this is a turning point.
I happen to think that the math is still a very big problem for her, but she got the 10-point win that many people thought she needed in order to make a plausible case for the nomination. And so, you know -- at this point, she did what she had to do, and she goes on.
PHILLIPS: Well, Clinton's campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, of course, is right there behind her saying this is exactly what she needed. It's going to help her and the momentum is not going to stop. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRY MCAULIFFE, CLINTON CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: We want to beat John McCain. We need someone who's a fighter out there. Hillary Clinton has proven that she's winning the states that we have to win. Senator Obama, they couldn't put us away here. They couldn't put us away in Texas, Ohio, New Hampshire. She's out there fighting. I think people really want to help her succeed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, she's out there fighting, but can she woo those undecided superdelegates like you just mentioned.
STEVE MCMAHON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I mean, at some point the superdelegates are going to have to make a decision. They're going to be faced with a choice between a candidate, Barack Obama, who won more primaries, who probably won more popular vote, and who won more delegates than Hillary Clinton. And the question for them is going to be are they going to take the nomination away from an African-American candidate who played by the rules and did everything right and seems to have won the election?
On the other hand, Senator Clinton has a point. He has not been able to put her away in Pennsylvania and Ohio and Texas and in other places, and, you know, that has given her campaign momentum today, and it's given her reason to go on, and the longer it goes on, I think the more of a challenge it becomes for Democrats to get together after it's over.
So we're all hoping, many of us, that there's a nomination or a nominee shortly after the primaries conclude June 3rd. It looks like it will now go to June 3rd, and the superdelegates are going to be called upon quickly thereafter to make a decision.
PHILLIPS: I want to ask you something, you mentioned about Obama and his campaign playing by the rules. And this caught my attention yesterday. Senator Obama telling a Pittsburgh radio station, quote, "I'm not predicting a win. I'm predicting it's going to be close and that we're going to do a lot better than people expect."
Why would he come out and say something like that before such a big night? I mean it sounds like he's sort of giving up in a way or at least lowering his expectations.
MCMAHON: I think the Obama campaign believed and based on the early exit polls, there was some reason to believe, that this was going to be a single point -- not a single point, but a not double digit victory for Senator Clinton. That turned out not to be the case.
So I think he was projecting perhaps what their hopes were rather than predicting what the outcome was, because the outcome obviously as it turned out was a ten-point victory, which is a great victory for Senator Clinton. Which she deserves to be congratulated and, you know, she has picked up a little bit of momentum today. I think the math is still the math. It's still a problem, but she has every right to go on.
PHILLIPS: And Obama still has one more state. Steve McMahon, Democratic strategist. Appreciate it.
MCMAHON: Thank you. JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: The United Nations says soaring food prices could force more than 100 million people worldwide to go hungry. The executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme calls it a silent tsunami.
The World Health Organization calls the food crisis a main threat to public health. In Africa, Kenya is a staging point for getting food to millions of people, but food costs are making it hard for those trying to help the poorest of the poor.
CNN's David McKenzie joins us live from the port of Mombasa in Kenya.
David, good morning to you. What's the situation like on the ground there?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, good morning to you, too. I'm here in Mombasa in the port, on the East African Coast. Right behind me they're loading corn. They're loading corn from the United States to different parts of this region.
This is really the center point for food aid going out to the region to Somalia, to Uganda, and to the rest of this part of Africa. People here, the poorest of the poor, have been really struggling to get by. They are earning $1 a day sometimes and food agencies are really struggling to reach those people in Africa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Kennedy Ombuki was a proud farmer. Now he's just a bitter man. After December's disputed election in Kenya. Tribal rivals attacked his farm during the night. They burned his crops and destroyed the family home. He normally harvests enough to feed 25 families. He's now forced to live in a camp dependent on handouts.
KENNEDY OMBUKI, DISPLACED FARMER: You know, all the necessities and I had come to stay here. In fact, (INAUDIBLE), I am a beggar now, you know, now.
MCKENZIE: Kenya's reserves of grain are running low. Particularly, a national crisis with global increases in food prices and the aid agencies are getting squeezed.
(on camera): This is ground zero for food aid in Africa. 7 million people depend on food coming from here in Mombasa Port. With food prices rising and people getting pushed off their land, aid agencies are struggling to keep up.
(voice-over): The World Food Programme is asking urgently for $500 million in the next few weeks. Otherwise, it will be forced to reduce rations to the poor who already have little to eat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now with rising food prices, it looks like the numbers will just go up and up unless something is done about it to help these people before they fall over the edge. MCKENZIE: Kennedy and his family will only climb back if he can rebuild his farm and plant again. Until then, they are caught in a vicious circle, unable to feed themselves but relying on handouts that may run out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCKENZIE: Well, John, it is obviously a lot of buzz right now about food prices and how it's affecting our wallets. But for those people who really are struggling day to day to get by, they can fall off the edge unless groups like the World Food Programme get that money in the next few days even.
Back to you.
ROBERTS: David, of course, you said that they were loading corn there and it's a big issue because a lot of corn in this country. And that is corn from the United States, as you said, is made into ethanol which has driven up the price of corn. The United Nations officials called the production of biofuels, quote, "a crime against humanity."
What are they saying about it there on the ground in Kenya, which is this distribution point to all of this needy people?
MCKENZIE: Well, that's true. I mean, biofuels have pushed up the price of corn. In general, it's making people like and groups like the World Food Programme struggle to buy it for food.
But one has to remember in this region they've got a whole lot of other things to worry about including conflict and climate change. So these farmers who have been pushed off their land probably they're not exactly thinking about biofuels per se. They're just feeling the effects of this vortex of food prices that is affecting the common man in Africa.
John?
ROBERTS: David McKenzie live for us from Mombasa, Kenya this morning. David, thanks very much.
PHILLIPS: Ali Velshi everything comes down to fuel, doesn't it?
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, it all comes back. I mean, first of all, this inflation issue, and we've discussed the fact that the biofuel issue in the United States. How does that affect all the other grains in the world?
Well, when you need to replace or have one kind of starch in front of another, you can't make that exchange when everything is higher price. Now, here in the United States, it's not a crisis situation but a lot of you are very worried about the inflation and the price of gas and the housing crisis. Many of you think there's a recession out there.
Guess what? The president of the United States doesn't agree with you. We'll talk about that when we get back, AMERICAN MORNING is back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Ali Velshi. President Bush cleared it all up yesterday. He says we're not in a recession. Listen to him in his words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not in a recession. We're in a slow down. We grew in the fourth quarter last year. We haven't had first quarter growth statistics yet, but there's no question we're in a slow down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: OK. Now, let's talk about what you all said. We keep a close eye on these exit polls because they're very new and they're exactly what you think.
In Pennsylvania, I don't know about the rest of you, but in Pennsylvania here is what folks said when they were asked is the national economy in a recession? 88 percent of you said yes. 11 percent said no. We'll just let that one go for a little while. Let's talk about some else.
We also asked Pennsylvania voters as they came out, Democratic voters I should point out or people voting in the Democratic primary. We wanted to know what the most important issue is for them. Mostly because we do this thing called "ISSUE #1" and we're really hoping it is issue no.1, and it is.
The economy, 55 percent of those voters said the economy is issue no.1, 27 percent said Iraq, 14 percent said health care, which is interesting because under the economy and when we talk about issue no.1, many people mention health care within that segment. So that sort of comes out to the numbers that we understand which is that more than two-thirds of American voters think that the economy is the no.1 issue.
I guess at some point it's splitting hairs about whether we're in a recession or not, because --
ROBERTS: But just to be clear. Alan Greenspan says we're in a recession.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Oh yes, most folks say so. Most folks say so. But George Bush...
PHILLIPS: Look, I'm looking it up right now, recession. The act of receding or withdrawing, that's slowing down to me.
VELSHI: Right, right. So I guess it's a little bit of a battle because if you're the boss and you talk down the economy, then everybody says, oh, my God, even the president thinks we're in a recession, now it must be really bad. So you know, whatever. The bottom line is you know what you're paying for gas and food.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Well, in December of 2000, he was warning about the looming recession when there wasn't one and then it came true. All right. Ali, thanks very much.
Violent storm threats in the Midwest this morning. Our Rob Marciano tracking extreme weather for us.
Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, John. Hi, guys. Yes, we're going to look at the possibility for seeing tornadoes pop up across parts of the Midwest today. Plus, more record colds in the Pacific Northwest. It's all working together to make for a turbulent weather day again. Complete details coming up when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: Well, unfortunately, the price of gasoline climbing once again. Another record high. But some people are already paying more than $4 a gallon. A live picture now from one station where, look at that, $3.99 is the lowest price. We'll take you there to see how it's changing commutes and people's daily life.
And Senator Hillary Clinton rejuvenating her campaign and drowning out calls for her to drop out after a double-digit win over Barack Obama. We're going to talk to Senator Clinton about her victory live, straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up now on 12 minutes to the top of the hour. Another day, another record for gas prices. This morning AAA says the average price for gas is now $3.53 a gallon.
That is up more than 2 cents in the last day. But some are already handing over $4 a gallon. AMERICAN MORNING's Chris Lawrence is live in San Francisco to see how rising prices are changing lives.
You know, Chris, a lot of people say that psychological barrier is $4 a gallon. Are you seeing that there in San Francisco?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, it's so bad. You know, you don't even want to turn around and look at it. You know, people here have sold their trucks. They have canceled vacations. Some companies here have even started to run shuttles to pick up and take their employees to work. And there's a feeling here that we haven't even seen the worst of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: San Francisco drivers are getting past the shock. Now they're changing their lives to live with $4 gas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't take our expedition out usually.
LAWRENCE: People have permanently parked their SUVs. Traffic is down on Bay Area Bridges, and the trains have 7 percent more riders than this time last year.
MARLOWE DOUGLAS, SWITCHED TO RIDING TRAIN: That's why I'm riding BART today because of the price of gas right now.
LAWRENCE: It's also changing when people drive and what. Overall car and truck sales are down, but hybrids are up almost 40 percent.
SCOTT DOUGLAS, PRIUS DRIVER: I used to have the luxury of not really even worrying about the price. Partly because I got the Prius, but now $43.
LAWRENCE: Think that's bad?
S. DOUGLAS: Oh, my God. Wow.
LAWRENCE: Scott Roberts just saw what the guy before him paid to fill up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When was the last time you saw $115 spent on gas? Jesus Christ, it's unreal.
LAWRENCE: Especially for taxi drivers who buy their own gas.
DIDDY DENNIS, TAXI DRIVER: When I first started, you know, it was like two something.
LAWRENCE: Now every press on the pedal eats into his wallet.
(on camera): Why don't you just raise the rates to make up the difference?
DENNIS: Well, that would be a good thing if I could, but unfortunately, I don't have any control over that.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Only the city can raise taxi rates to keep customers from getting gouged. But it's killing the cabbies and will probably force Diddy Dennis to quit.
DENNIS: It seems like I'm bringing home almost 60 percent less doing what I was when I first started.
LAWRENCE: And a lot of bay areas families say there's no end in sight.
DEBBIE JASMIN, CANCELED VACATION: I don't think we'll be doing any big travels this year or this summer, at least by car. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Yes. Not when you're paying $60, $80, 100 bucks a pop just to fill up. It's like at 4 bucks we have passed and broken some sort of psychological barrier, even though there's not much difference between $3.80 and $4, people here seem to be making permanent changes in how they live.
John?
ROBERTS: And if you want a real psychological barrier go north of the border to Canada where it's about $5 a gallon. Chris Lawrence for us this morning. Chris, amazing story.
LAWRENCE: Or talk to our friends over in the UK. That's right.
ROBERTS: Yes. Above $6 a gallon there. Chris, thanks, very much. We'll see you a little bit later on this morning.
PHILLIPS: Hillary Clinton's victory in Pennsylvania last night comes after a bruising seven-week buildup. Clinton called last night's victory a deeply personal win. It will allow her to pick up a majority of the state's 158 delegates and make a small dent in Obama's overall lead.
And that brings us to this morning's "Quick Vote" question. Is Clinton's win in Pennsylvania enough to make her the comeback kid? Right now, 44 percent yes, 50 percent say no. Cast your vote at cnn.com/am. We will tally your votes throughout the morning.
And also we've been asking you for your e-mails as well. This one comes from Marie in Newnan, Georgia. She writes, "I would have been totally surprised if she had not won Pennsylvania. She is on home turf there. We need to wait to see what happens in North Carolina and Indiana though.
ROBERTS: Timothy from Rotterdam in the Netherlands says -- we did get some international e-mails. "Senator Clinton may indeed be coming back but if the Democrats want the White House, they must choose Obama. She just cannot win against John McCain."
PHILLIPS: And Anita from Peoria, Illinois, "I don't think that the Pennsylvania win will help Hillary at all, but the math is still the same. She's still behind. Hopefully Indiana and North Carolina will end this thing." Thank you all for your e-mails.
ROBERTS: You know, it's funny I was joking with our producer who does these e-mails. I said did we get one from Denmark, and low and behold, we did.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: All right. We'll do more of those, coming up in the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING.
Denver or Bust. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: More than ever, I need your help to continue this journey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton gets her double digits win. The Democrats battle on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's get to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Does she have the money to go the distance. Senator Clinton joins us live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Today here in Pennsylvania you made your voices heard, and because of you the tide is turning.
OBAMA: I want to start tonight by congratulating Senator Clinton on her victory this evening, and I want to thank -- I want to thank -- no, no, she ran a terrific race. I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians who stood with our campaign today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And the race goes on. Senator Hillary Clinton has captured Pennsylvania and vaulted the race into May, maybe way beyond that and with all the results now in, Senator Clinton earned 55 percent of the vote, a ten-point win over Senator Barack Obama.
Let's bring in John Dickerson, once gain, political analyst for CNN. Also, chief political correspondent for slate.com.
As you put it, very directly, she's alive. She's come back from the dead four times.
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: She is alive. She's come back from the dead four times. She is alive. She's coming from the dead and now we'll see what happens.
She's raised some money very quickly. Will she raise enough and has the slow trickle of superdelegates to Barack Obama, has that stopped? That's what was happening before this. The superdelegate momentum kind of was with Barack Obama. She needs to stop that. We'll see in the coming days if she has them.
We'll see how this race shapes up. She ended on a positive note last night. Of course, she would, she won. Barack Obama was a little more critical than he has been. Set up some sharp contrasts with Hillary Clinton. We'll see how much he presses those.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's take a listen to Hillary Clinton last night.
(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: And she can't quit. She still has a lot more to do.
DICKERSON: She does. And you heard in her remarks there that she's basically trying to say her struggle isn't over. She keeps getting knocked down, she's coming back. But she's turning to voters and saying I know that's what you're going through in your life.
Why is this important? Because these are the voters. She's grabbing the voters who are having the toughest time. The voters who make less than 50,000. The voters with only a high school education. And that's the group that Barack Obama has had some trouble with.
The economy is now the no.1 issue. She and the exit polling did much better than Barack Obama on that issue. So she wants to kind of wrap her personal behavior into her message and she did it obviously effectively in Pennsylvania.
PHILLIPS: And Barack Obama still has one more state, already looking to the next, Indiana. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Can Hillary Clinton overcome still what he has with regard to an advantage?
DICKERSON: No. I mean, she can't beat him on the pledge delegates, and she's not -- she's inching closer on the popular vote, and that's very important for her, her spin to the superdelegates.
But, no, she's not going to beat him and she's not going to win more states than he has, but she's got to make this case to the superdelegates. And that will be based on her performance in the popular vote. If she can shrink that margin or even surpass him, and also on this argument that Barack Obama is fundamentally flawed. That he cannot win with these important constituencies that will be important in the general election.
Of course, Barack Obama will make the same case about her, that she is flawed, that voters don't think she's trustworthy and that she's too negative.
PHILLIPS: Well, you know, they have been going at each other. Obviously, we've been talking about this bitter rivalry. Yesterday, he comes out on this Pittsburgh radio station, basically lowering his expectations. He sounded so humble. He is saying well, I'm really not expecting to win. It was very bizarre in a way. It was the complete opposite of how he has been approaching things thus far.
DICKERSON: Well, he knew he wasn't going to win. And so the best thing to do is to kind of try and get that storyline out of the way and say, OK, let's move on.
So he was trying to do what the candidate who is going to lose often does, which is mess with expectations and the hopes that we, in the media, don't all go bunkers when in fact the -- what we were expecting comes to pass.
So that is just a little bit of gamesmanship. Now, he's going to try and turn the page very quickly and we'll see today if he can start a new conversation. He doesn't want to talk about Pennsylvania anymore. He wants to start talking about how he's going to swamp Hillary Clinton in the next two contests.
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll be following it. John Dickerson, thanks so much.
DICKERSON: Thanks.
ROBERTS: She's just like that Chumbawamba song or wasn't she. She gets knocked down but she gets up again. Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania even though Barack Obama outspent her by a wide margin. Clinton not only addressed the issue in her victory speech last. She used the occasion to appeal for campaign contributions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I hope you'll go to hillaryclinton.com and show your support tonight because the future of this campaign is in your hands.
CROWD: Yes, we will! Yes, we will! Yes, we will!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, her supporters responded last night. The Clinton campaign says it raised $2.5 million in the hours just after the race was called last night. The campaign says some 80 percent of it came from new voters.
And fresh off her win last night, Hillary Clinton is going to be joining us live at 7:20 Eastern. That's in about 20 minutes time here on AMERICAN MORNING.
