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Ballot Bowl 2008

Campaigning Continues in West Virginia and Oregon

Aired May 10, 2008 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: And I would start with two bills that are very near to my heart. You know there is a wonderful friend of mine, I guess he is still in the back, Alan Rosenfield (ph), and some of you know as the dean of the Columbia Medical School, he has been an expert in public health. Particularly on behalf of women's health and stricken with ALS a year ago. I would ask the Congress to send me the stem cell bill and I would sign it immediately. I would also ask the Congress to send me the children's health insurance bill that Sherman Wrangle (ph) wrangled through the Congress. Figured out a way to pay for it and would have it extend health care to millions of kids. I was yesterday in Portland, Oregon and visited a children's hospital and we had the most wonderful experience. I met young women whom I first met back in 1994; she was a Make a Wish child.

When you are a Make a Wish child that usually means that your odds of survival are not very good. And usually when a Make a Wish child ask what the child wants, they usually want to go to Disney Land, or they want to be the sports star, or famous movie star. Well this little girl wanted to be me. So she came to the White House and we spent about an hour together. Well fast forward here it is 2008 most of her surgeries she has had a kidney transplant, she has fought cancer, had chemo therapy. She got to finish high school, now she is in college and she is just a remarkable young woman. And so she is now working at my campaign in Oregon. I got to meet her again and we were talking about healthcare and there were two other families there because Jordan's family had health insurance.

There was another family where the son who was just diagnosed with diabetes. They have no health insurance; the husband makes a little bit over the limit as to how much is available to the eligible for the children's health program in Oregon. And the father has health insurance but it doesn't cover the wife or the two children. And the mother can't work anymore because she has to take care of her son, because that is a full time care giver job.

So here we are sitting in the courtyard of this hospital, listening to this story and then the second story, young woman who works at Starbucks, son has spina bifida, daughter has bipolar disorder, husband and she divorced often happens when have you a severe condition like spina bifida, husband has insurance but there's a limit on it. They're fast approaching the limit, and then they will be uninsurable. And it just reminds me how out of touch President Bush and the Republicans have been with what goes on in the lives of hard work Americans who deserve more from their government. So that's something else I will do right away, Hannah, sign that bill. What about the high gas prices? This is from Bob. When will the working man get help? Or when will the working woman get help?

Well, Bob, I would like to say that help is on the way, but it's a little difficult with a Republican president and such a narrow majority in the house. But here's what I would do if I were president right now. Number one, I would ask the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to immediately begin an investigation into market manipulation and speculation by the energy traders. And I would ask Chairman Wrangle (ph) to look at closing something called the Enron loophole. And look to see how we could figure out a way that would rein in these energy traders.

Because some of you remember back during Enron, the energy speculators and traders drove up the price of electricity artificially on the west coast. They did it by manipulating supply, by causing shortages for refineries. And now there is no doubt that something similar is going on in terms of supply and demand in the global marketplace. And I think it is wrong and we should figure out how we're going to combat that.

Secondly, there's something called the strategic petroleum reserve, where we have this huge pool of oil in case of a catastrophe. It's 97 percent full. I would stop filling it and I would even release some because that would have a downward pressure on oil prices.

Number three, I think it's time that the United States has a strategy to take on OPEC. I think, I really believe that they have had a free ride and you want to bring those chairs up. They've had a free ride. I believe that 9 of the 13 countries in OPEC are members of the WTO and I would have the United States file complaints against them and I would change our laws so you could use the antitrust laws to go after OPEC.

And then finally, you know, this has become controversial in this campaign, but let me tell you why I believe that we should, if we pay for it, have a gas tax holiday. Senator Obama doesn't want to do it; he says it's a bad idea. Senator McCain is all for doing it he doesn't want to pay for it and that would increase the deficit; he wants to take money out of the highway trust fund. Neither of those are good.

It's important to tell people who are facing $4 a gallon gas, who will probably have $5 a gallon gas by July who are really hurting. It's not a big deal to you, in no, we're lucky, you can take public transportation, and you can get around. But come with me to West Virginia or Kentucky or southern Oregon, I mean there are just lots of places in America where you've got to drive. We've not been smart about providing public transportation and you've got to commute to work maybe 60 miles one way, you've got to get into town, you've got to be able to make a living as an independent trucker, we've got to figure out some immediate relief.

And there are other ways of doing it. And I am open to other ways of trying to provide some financial relief. That doesn't mean we should not continue to try to get long-term solutions so that we become less dependent on foreign oil. That has to happen. And I am, I'm very excited that I have such a long-term comprehensive plan and I invite you to go to my Website Hillaryclinton.com. You can read about what I want to do to increase gas mileage forty miles per gallon by 2020, let's get to 50 by 2030. There are cars being test driven on the American roads right now get between 100 and 150 miles per gallon and these hyper hybrids, we should have a tax credit.

I propose $10,000 so we can create a market and get the auto companies moving more quickly. You know, in order to help American manufacturers retool their plants. We should be investing through what I propose green vehicle bonds that would help them figure out how better to catch up with not just other companies, but you have to understand that other countries invest and subsidize so many of their industries. You know, the Japanese government invested in long-term lithium batteries, and then they turn it over to the Japanese car companies.

Well, we need to be doing the same. There's just a lot that is not being addressed that could make a huge difference within the next decade. And we need to do more on bio fuels, but not just corn based ethanol, we've got to use different source of other kinds of plant material. Look at what Brazil has done. They're energy independent when it comes to transportation because they used sugar cane. They stayed with it for 30 years. They never got discouraged. They stayed with it. So now you have American cars being sold in Brazil that are flex fuel, oil companies all have pumps at the gas station that have the ethanol blended in. So we've got a lot of work to do. And we will get a ahead in doing that we will doing 'do that until the two oil men leave the White House, that is abundantly clear, but as soon as they do we will get to work..

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLAND: Senator Hillary Clinton at a private fund-raiser in New York addressing the crowd there. This is her only campaign stop. Her next will be in West Virginia tomorrow. Barack Obama just taking the stage here in Bend, Oregon. We'll take a quick break, when we come back, we'll listen in on what he has to stay. You're watching BALLOT BOWL stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Welcome back everybody to BALLOT BOWL, I'm Ted Rowlands in Bend, Oregon. We listened to Senator Clinton in New York for about ten minutes. Senator Barack Obama has just taken the stage here. Let's listen in to what he has to say.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to thank the facilities staff because my understanding is there's a prom coming up. You're going, huh? You got your dress all picked out and everything, you're all set. Who's your date? Where is he? There he is right there. All right. There you go. You're a lucky guy, she seems really nice.

Anyway, so I know that there's all kind of scrambling that has to take place for the prom and to put this together with the prom and all that stuff, I really appreciate. Finally, I want to thank our wonderful field organizers here, Jonathan Menn and Gilchrest McCrary, please give them a round of applause. Where are they? There they are. There's Jonathan. Thank you. We have some of the best staff, young people all around the country who are simply pouring their hearts whole into this campaign. So I am just so grateful to them for their dedication and hard work because they're not getting paid a lot of money, but hopefully they're getting wonderful experience and really enjoying making history.

Finally, I would be remiss; I would be a poor presidential candidate if I did not remind everybody that your ballot has to be in by 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday the 20th. So some of you may have already mailed it in. But if you haven't, make sure to drop it off at the clerk's office or the official drop spot by next Tuesday. And I hope you vote for me. I've been running for president for 15 months now. That is a long time. It means there are babies who have been born and are now walking and talking since I announced for the presidency.

And when I first announced that I was running, there were people who said, Barack, why are you running this time? Why are you running so soon? You're a relatively young man, you can afford to wait. And I described for them what Dr. King called the fierce urgency of now. The fierce urgency of now, because I believe there's such a thing as being too late. And I think that hour is almost upon us. We are at a defining moment in our history. Our nation is involved in two wars. One war that has to be won, the war against al Qaeda and the terrorist networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

One war that was a war of choice and I believe should have never been authorized and never should have been waged, the war in Iraq that I want to bring to an end. But it is not just what's going on overseas that present such a challenge, because we are challenged here at home. I don't have to tell you this. I'm sure the people of Bend are going through what people all across the country are going through. People are working harder and harder just to get by. We just went through an economic expansion in which for the first time in our recorded history, the incomes of the average family actually went down during this economic expansion.

The average family had $1,000 less while the economy was growing and corporate profits were up and the stock market was up, never happened before. And it's a signal of something wrong here in America. There's something wrong when people work as hard as they can and yet still can't live out their American dream. There's something wrong when you've got 47 million people without health insurance and if you've got health insurance you've seen your co-payments and deductibles and your premiums going up and up and up. There's something wrong when people have worked all their lives have a retirement and a pension they think they can count on and suddenly a bankruptcy court erases everything that they've worked for and they find themselves vulnerable.

There's something wrong when we see jobs shift overseas and people who had put 20, 30 years of their lives into a company, not only lose their job but lose their health care, their pension, and lose their sense of place, lose their sense of meaning, their sense of dignity because they no longer have work that can support a family. There's something wrong when children all across the country who, despite the slogan, are being left behind because they can't afford a decent education.

So, in such circumstances, I decided we could not afford to wait. We couldn't wait to fix our schools, we can't wait to fix our health care system, we can't wait to end global warming, and we cannot wait to save our rivers and our streams and our forests. We cannot wait to end this war in Iraq. We cannot wait and that's why I'm running for president right here and right now. Can't wait. We can't wait. We can't wait.

But not only did I think we couldn't afford to wait, I also believe that the American people were ready. They were ready for something new. I believe that the American people were tired of a politics that was about tearing each other down; they want a politics that was about lifting the country up. That I was convinced that the American people were tired of spin and pr; they wanted somebody who was going to talk straight to them about how we were going to solve problems.

And most of all, most of all, I was convinced that the American people wanted to be able to come together and be reminded of what we hoped, we hold in common, that we're not just a collection of red states and blue states, we're not just black or white or Hispanic or Asian or native American or young or old or rich or poor, that we are American and that when we can unify, when we come together and recognize those common hopes and common dreams and common struggles that we have, there's nothing that can stop, there's no dream we cannot achieve and no destiny we cannot fulfill.

I was convinced that the American people believed that. And after visiting 47 states and speaking to hundreds of thousands of people and shaking hundreds of thousands of hands and kissing hundreds of babies, I'm here to report that my faith in the American people has been vindicated because everywhere I go, people are standing up and they are saying we are ready for change, we want something new, we want to turn the page, we want to write a new chapter in American history and now, Oregon, it is your turn. It is your turn to go ahead and stand up and say it's time for a change. So we're ready.

Now the primary is not over. And you know, Senator Clinton has been extraordinary and formidable candidate. And because this contest has lasted so long, I know that there are Democrats who are concerned about whether the party is going to be able to come together. They say oh, you know, are the women going to vote for Barack, will the blacks vote for Hillary, this or that. I know there's a lot of concern about division. Let me assure you, this party will be unified come November. The reason I know that is because one thing is for certain when you go into the polling place next November or you mail in your ballot next November here is one thing we know, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot. We know that.

ROWLANDS: Barack Obama talking to the folks in Bend, Oregon, at a high school gymnasium, full high school, full of enthusiastic supporters. We heard from Hillary Clinton. We're going to monitor Barack Obama in the next hour. We'll take a break, when we come back, we'll talk to Bill Schneider. Stay with us. You're watching BALLOT BOWL. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Welcome back, everybody to BALLOT BOWL, I'm Ted Rowlands, we're in Bend, Oregon, where Barack Obama is addressing a crowd of supporters here at a high school. Hillary Clinton is also on the campaign trail at a fund-raiser in New York. Bill Schneider is our CNN senior political analyst; he's also in New York. He joins us now. Bill, this is an incredibly close race, but over the past week, a lot of people have been talking about the fact that it doesn't seem mathematically possible for Hillary Clinton to pull this thing out give us a scenario where Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it would be a very dramatic scenario with sudden shifts and surprises. Those things have been known to happen, where Barack Obama does something, says or something or something is revealed about his past or his record that suddenly disqualifies him from being president because too many Democrats believe he cannot be elected.

Well, that's why there are such things as super delegates. The super delegates are there to make sure that if there's some late breaking news or information that throw the nomination into doubt, they will be able to save the party. This is very unlikely, it's never happened before. That looks like the only way she can do it.

He doesn't have the nomination yet, according to our count. He is 170 delegates shy of the 2,025 that you need to get the nomination. There are 483 delegates left to be chosen, 217 pledged delegates in the six upcoming contests and 266 super delegates who have not made their preferences known, 483 left to be chosen. It ought not to be difficult for him to get fewer than half of the remaining delegates.

ROWLANDS: West Virginia coming up on Tuesday, I know you were in the state this week. Hillary Clinton is a huge lead according to initial polls. What do you expect to take place? Is anything that Obama can do, I know he'll be there Monday, to hack away at that lead or is this a done deal?

SCHNEIDER: It looks pretty strong for Hillary Clinton because West Virginia is the kind of voters she normally does very well. A state with a lot of older voters, rural voters. Very few African- American voters in West Virginia. So everyone, including Barack Obama, say they expect her to do very well in West Virginia. That's the kind of warning to the party and to Obama supporters that still a lot of Democrats out there in states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, possibly in Kentucky, which votes another week after, that they still have to bring in line if Barack Obama is the nominee, they have to work hard to get those voters.

Obama is going there and he's going to make a big pitch on jobs, jobs, jobs, which is precisely what Hillary Clinton has been campaigning on. He's got to stress those economic issues and a lot of economically distressed states.

ROWLANDS: Let's talk about the super delegate race. At the beginning of this year, Hillary Clinton had a 100-plus lead; it's now shaved down to depending on who you talk to, three or four. Is there anything that Hillary Clinton can do to stop it? I know she sent out a power point presentation to members of the house. Is there anything she can do at this point of the game to woo over or at least hold the ones she has.

SCHNEIDER: What she's got to argue and she's doing this every day, she's more electable than he is. I'm not sure she says she's unelectable. She said yes quote, yes, yes, yes, Barack Obama can be elected. But she's got to argue she's an easier candidate to elect and hope that message gets through to the super delegates.

The problem is the super delegates feel, most of them, they are there to ratify the choice of the voters in the Democratic caucuses and primaries that there really to put it into effect. So if Barack Obama has a lead, the super delegates feel their responsibility is not to contradict the view of the voters, but to ratify it.

As I mentioned, there's one possibility and that is that something suddenly happens to throw everything up in the air in which case they can intervene to throw the nomination to someone else and save the party, but imagine if the super delegates decided to give the nomination to Senator Clinton after Barack Obama was leading in pledged delegates. There would be a revolt, there would be an uproar and a lot of the obama people would claim that it was a fraudulent nomination. The party can't afford that kind of division.

ROWLANDS: But would there be enough time, Bill, if they did do that, a that would be an extreme example, November in politics is still a long way away, would there be enough time if that did happen to unite the party?

SCHNEIDER: Yeah, there's enough time. Look, this is fairly early. I can remember seasons, you might not, but I can, where the nomination wasn't decided until June, I mean Walter Mondale didn't beat Gary Hart until what was then the California primary held in the first Tuesday in June. It's happened many times that it goes to June. The conventions are not until early August and early September, so there is plenty of time to try to unify the party.

The problem is that the record shows that any party that is literal divided, openly split at the convention, fighting over the nomination, whether it was Carter versus Kennedy, Reagan versus Ford in 1976, any party that shows these divisions, stands a very good chance, usually loses the election in November. That is what John McCain wants to avoid, by making peace with conservatives who are critical of him and that is what Barack Obama wants to avoid and the Democratic leadership by making sure the nomination is decided well before the convention.

ROWLANDS: All right, Bill Schneider, thanks, we'll check in with you a little bit later.

And when we come back after a quick break on BALLOT BOWL, we'll listen in to some more of Senator Barack Obama's speech here in Bend, Oregon. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: And welcome back everybody to BALLOT BOWL, I'm Ted Rowlands in Bend, Oregon, where Senator Barack Obama is addressing supporters. Let's listen in

BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ...tuition credit, every student, every year in exchange for community service, those are the kinds of proposals we can move forward if we change Washington.

Now, to do all this, we're also going to have to end the war in Iraq, because not only are we losing precious American lives, but we are spending $10 billion a month in Iraq -- $10 billion a month. Which, imagine what we can do in providing healthcare for Americans or making college more affordable or rebuilding our infrastructure -- $10 billion a month. And it has not made us more (INAUDIBLE), it's distracted us from the war that has to be won in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda is stronger now than at any time since 2001. This was a huge strategic error, that's why I was opposed to this war in 2002, that's why I will bring this war to an end in 2009.

(APPLAUSE)

And by the way, when we end the war, we can start recalibrating our foreign policy, to lead not just on terrorism but also on diplomacy, to lead not just in hunting down terrorist, but also locking down loose nuclear weapon, to talking not just to our friend, but to our enemies about resolving conflicts peacefully.

(APPLAUSE)

Investing, helping poor countries to invest in their public health infrastructures, so they're not developing diseases that could be transported to our shores. Helping people learn math and science instead of hatred of Americans around the world.

Ending the genocide in Darfur. Upholding human rights everywhere, which means we've got to uphold human rights by closing Guantanamo and restoring habeas corpus and respecting our civil liberties and our Constitution, that's part of our agenda for change.

All these things we can do if we push aside the special interests, if we tell the truth. One last ingredient though, if we come together, if we're unified. And not only do we have to unify Democrats, we have to unify the country. There are a lot of Republicans out there who I think are disenchanted with what's happened over the last seven or eight years. They, too, want change. And part of my job as president will be to reach across the aisle and say to these folks, you know what, we may have differences, but if we disagree on 10 percent of stuff and we agree on 90 percent, let's work on the stuff we agree on. Let's move this country forward, let's get this thing going.

So, let me just close by saying this, I'm reminded every day, if not by events then by my wife, I'm not a perfect man. I won't be a perfect president, but I can promise you this, if you give me the opportunity, when I'm president I will always tell you what I think, I'll always tell you where I stand, I'll be honest with you about the challenges we face, I will listen to you, even when we disagree. And we're going to disagree sometimes because people -- Michelle and I don't agree on everything. But most of importantly, I will spend every single day in that White House wake up and thinking how can I make lives of the people in Bend, Oregon, a little bit better?

How can I make that single mom a little more secure with her insurance? How can I make sure that person who's lost their job that they can retrain for a better job? How can we make sure that our environment is protected and that we're passing on this extraordinary natural resource to the next generation? I will be spending every ounce of every fiber of my being trying to figure out how to help break down the barriers that stand between all of you and your own personal American dream.

But, I need your help. I need to you vote for me and I need you to mail in your ballots and if you give me this chance, we'll win Oregon, we will win the nomination, we will win the general election, you and I together, we'll change the country, we'll change the world. Thank you.

ROWLANDS: All right, Senator Barack Obama finishing up his initial remarks here in Bend, Oregon. Coming up on BALLOT BOWL," we'll hear more from Senator Hillary Clinton, plus we will go to West Virginia, the site of the next battle on Tuesday and check in with our own Paul Steinhauser. Stay with us. You're watching BALLOT BOWL on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: And welcome back, everybody, to BALLOT BOWL. The next battleground state is West Virginia. Voters will go to the polls on Tuesday. Hillary Clinton has a very large lead at this point according to polls, over Barack Obama. Paul Steinhauser, CNN's best political team on television member, station id were the CNN Election Express is here for us today on this Saturday.

Paul, this is a huge lead, it looks like, give everybody a sense to what extent this is really truly is Clinton country.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You've got it, Ted. You know, I mean, right now, in the latest polls here in West Virginia, Hillary Clinton is up by 43 points, an American Research Group poll came out just the other day and shows her with a very, very large lead, and it's a lead that we have seen that she has in some of the other polls, as well. West Virginia seems like a state tailor- made for Hillary Clinton a lot of middle class workers, you got a lot of blue collar workers, not many upscale voters here in this state, not many African-Americans, she does very well so far today in the primaries with these kind of blue collar workers, we expect her to do well here again on Tuesday. Twenty-eight delegates at stake here on Tuesday.

This is a state that voted for George W. Bush in the last two elections. This is a state the Democrats would dearly love to take back. Hillary Clinton's here on Thursday and she talked it. Here's what she had to say about West Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In fact, I think it's fair to say that West Virginia is a test. It's a test for me and it's a test for Senator Obama, because for too long, we have let places like West Virginia slip out of the Democratic column. And you know, it is a fact that no president, Democratic president, has ever won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia. That's how important the voters of West Virginia are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: Hillary Clinton is going to be back here tomorrow, Ted. You're right thick of it today with all the action, it's kind of quite here, today. But we're going to have Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton campaigning here tomorrow and Barack Obama is going to make his first appearance in West Virginia in quite some time on Monday. He'll be visiting the state and campaigning here on Monday. So the action is heating up here. You're seeing campaign commercials from both candidates on the air, here. And people of West Virginia are pretty excited because this state really hasn't played a very large role in primary politics in generations -- Ted.

ROWLANDS: Paul, you talked to voters there, you mentioned that Barack Obama hasn't made a lot of stops in West Virginia, it seems as though the campaign is sort of conceding the state. Is there any way in your mind he can erode this lead of Senator Clinton's or do you think that this is just really a done deal and there's nothing he can do about it?

STEINHAUSER: She's got a pretty large lead in the polls, Ted. I mean, when you're talking over 40 points, it's going to be hard to win in this state. But, I think coming here Monday, maybe energizing voters and also first-time voters. We've seen so far in this primary process, first-time voters, new voters tend to go more for Barack Obama, so if he can get those people out and generate some excitement here, maybe he can lose by less than 40 points, but he's not expecting to win here. And I don't think you're going to see him here other much than Monday and he's got -- he'll move on to Oregon and Kentucky are coming up next and you'll see him again out your way in Oregon probably a lot -- Ted.

ROWLANDS: All right, Paul Steinhauser, thanks from Charleston, West Virginia.

Coming up on BALLOT BOWL, we'll hear more from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Right now, we're in Bend, Oregon, where Barack Obama continues to talk to supporters. You're watching BALLOT BOWL on CNN. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Hey, welcome back, everybody, to BALLOT BOWL, I'm Ted Rowland's in Bend, Oregon, we've heard from Barack Obama twice this hour. We've heard from Hillary Clinton once. It's time to hear from Senator Clinton again. We're going to hear a little bit about what she said last night at a Democratic dinner in Louisville, Kentucky. Among other things she told the folks there that she is somebody that never quits. Twice this hour. We've heard from Hillary Clinton once. It's time to hear from senator Clinton again. We're going to hear a little bit about what she said last night at a Democratic dinner Louisville, Kentucky. Among other things she told the folks there that she is somebody who never quits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: There will be an enormous amount of work to do. The only way we can have a Democrat in that White House come next January is to win in November. And we cannot win unless we can win 270 electoral votes. Look at the map, figure out where we're going to get those votes and which candidate is more likely to be able to win those votes in November against John McCain.

I have taken on the Republicans before and I have won. I have taken on the special interests before, the drug companies, the insurance companies, to try to bring healthcare to every American and I helped to bring it to six million children. I've stood up to Wall Street, calling for an end to the home mortgage crisis by freezing foreclosures and interest rates.

I stood up to the oil companies and voted against the best energy bill money could buy, the Dick Cheney energy bill in 2005. I have done it before and I will do it again because I believe that I have what it takes to stand up and fight for you when you need a president on your side. And I know what it takes to create good jobs and make this economy work for middle class families. And I will do what it takes to keep good jobs here, to lower gas prices to provide health care and to set us on a path to long-term solutions that will be in the best interest of our children.

One thing you know about me is I am no shrinking violet, if I tell you I will fight for you, that is exactly what I intend to do. Now, I may stumble and I may get knocked down, but I will always get right back up. And I will never quit until this job is done.

(APPLAUSE)

We're going to fight for America because America is worth fighting for. We're going to build an America that reaches out to all of our people, an America where the next generation is always better off than the last, an America that lives up to our highest ideal, that we are all created equal, all entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Neither senator nor I, nor many of you, were fully included in the vision of our founders. But we've been blessed by men and women in each generation who saw America not as it was, but as it could and should be. The abolitionist and the suffragettes, the progressives and the union members, the civil rights leaders, all those who marched, protested and risked their lives because they looked into their children's eyes and saw the promise of that better future.

Because of them, I grew up taking for granted that women could vote. When my own mother was born before women had that right under our Constitution. Because of them, my daughter grew up taking for granted that children of all colors could attend school together, because of them, Senator Obama and I are in this race, because of them and because of you, this next generation will grow up taking for granted that a woman or an African-American can be the president of the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

I am asking for your support in this primary. I'm asking to you look at my record, to look at my plan, to look at what I can accomplish for you. I'm the only candidate with a universal healthcare plan. I am the only candidate with a plan to go right up against Wall Street to try to stop this tide of foreclosures from engulfing more than two million households this year. I am the only candidate who stood against that energy bill and said, we do not need to give more of your hard-earned tax dollars to the oil companies. I am the only candidate who has been endorsed by those admirals and general whose know me and understand what I will do as your commander- in-chief. And I am the only candidate here tonight in Kentucky with all of you on behalf of your Democratic Party and the future of this party in this commonwealth.

We are the heirs to an extraordinary tradition of progress, now it falls to us to keep the promise of America for the next generation, together, we will reach out to those on the margins and in the shadows because that's what we do in America, we break barriers, we open doors, we make sure every voice is heard. Together, we will protect our country and preserve our constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: That's Hillary Clinton last night in Louisville, we're going to wrap up this hour of the BALLOT BOWL. We're going to be back at 5:00 Eastern and 2:00 Pacific Time. When we come back, we'll hear more from Senator Barack Obama, more from Senator Hillary Clinton and from Senator John McCain, he's not actively campaigning today, but he had a busy week, we'll have that coming up in an hour, we hope you join us then.

Coming right now, though, after the commercial break, severe weather hitting the southeast, we'll have the very latest as CNN NEWSROOM continues. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Right now in the NEWSROOM, extreme weather. We saw deadly tornadoes this week and there could be more in store today. Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is in the Severe Storm Center and we'll join her in a moment. Meantime, also, things go from bad to worse in Myanmar. We'll take you inside the cyclone zone.

And get me too the ranch on time. All those limos and the guests are already starting to arrive there at Jenna Bush's wedding.

All right, at this hour, we're keeping our eyes out for bouts of severe weather. You're looking at live pictures from Atlanta, Little Rock, Arkansas as the afternoon and evening progresses. Dangerous storms could rattle parts of the South, that has been the threat all day long.