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American Morning
Hillary Clinton Gets Big Win in West Virginia; Violence in Middle East; Another Day, Another Record for Gas Prices
Aired May 14, 2008 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe our party is strong enough for this challenge. I am strong enough for it. You know I never give up. I'll keep coming back. And I'll stand with you as long as you stand with me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: James Carville is a CNN contributor and Clinton supporter. He joins us this morning from Hartford, Connecticut.
James, good to see you. You said in a speech at Fuhrman University in Greenville, South Carolina that Hillary Clinton should fight until the last dog dies and, quote, "You still hear some dogs barking."
JAMES CARVILLE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I did say that.
ROBERTS: Yes. Does she still have a path to the nomination? And if she does, lay it out for me.
CARVILLE: Well, first of all, last night was just a blowout. I don't know if this might have been as big a spread as we've seen in any of these primaries. It certainly was one of the biggest. And I think we still need to hear from folks in Oregon and Kentucky and Puerto Rico. And I think if we've got to keep examining this thing and see what kind of candidate she is. She's proving to be very resilient.
You know, I think she has the absolute superior moral case to seek the Florida and Michigan delegation because after all her supporters, me being one of the prominent ones, offered to pay to have a revote, since Obama and his people decided that they didn't want to do that. So she has a slam-dunk moral case for Florida and Michigan and is rolling up votes.
I think the combination of those things, while difficult, admittedly, Senator Obama has a little better position now, I think she could improve considerably and might be able to pull this thing out.
ROBERTS: What is the path to the nomination? Is it with pledge delegates because she can't pass him in the pledge delegates? Is it with the popular vote? Do you make the case to superdelegates? CARVILLE: Sure. Yes, if she rolls up big -- she has enormous win in West Virginia, she rolls up enormous wins in Kentucky, enormous win in Puerto Rico, she has a good night in Oregon and in the Florida and Michigan delegates will seated because of the superiority of her moral case for wanting to rerun and the Obama people refusing to do that. And people begin to see that she would be the better candidate and has more popular votes than Senator Obama and that would be the fast way to go. I mean, that's the path.
ROBERTS: Despite that, James, you say that you believe that the great likelihood is that Obama will be the nominee. What could change that?
CARVILLE: Well, I say that he is to likely but not certain nominee. That's certainly an observation I made and I think it's a correct observation. Although, it might be a (INAUDIBLE). What would change it is -- some more wins like last night and the dealing in a just way with the Florida and Michigan question and then winning the popular vote could be possible and that could sway it. That's certainly a path to it.
I would have said -- I said to these students at Fuhrman that I thought that it was more likely that Obama would be the nominee but it certainly was not certain by any stretch of the imagination. And I hear a bark out there, a little stronger this morning than I did yesterday.
ROBERTS: The bark is a little louder this morning, is it?
CARVILLE: A little louder. It's still out. It's not -- I mean, I'm not being overrun with the kennel here with something like that.
ROBERTS: You also said at Fuhrman that if and when that you determine that Barack Obama is the nominee, you'll cut him a check. So you will support him. Hillary Clinton also said that she would support him. Let's listen to what she said about that last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I will work my heart out for the nominee of the Democratic Party to make sure we have a Democratic president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, James, give me the case why Barack Obama should be president.
CARVILLE: Well, he's made an enormous improvement to the candidate. He's energized millions and millions of people in this party and around the country. He has a really specific way that he wants us to get out of Iraq. He's had enough of this war. I think he can bring real change to Washington.
I might add I think Senator Clinton could do all of those things, in my opinion, better. Plus I think she's very, very tough. One of the toughest people I've ever seen. But I think Senator Obama would make an outstanding representative of the party and I think he will be a great president. And if he is the nominee, I'm going to be for him.
ROBERTS: James, great to see you. Thanks for joining us this morning.
CARVILLE: All right. Maybe I'll get overrun by the kennel here soon.
ROBERTS: We'll keep listening for those dogs barking, James. Thanks.
CARVILLE: I got them. All right. Thank you, man. Appreciate it.
ROBERTS: Kyra?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton is Wolf Blitzer's guest in "THE SITUATION ROOM" today. That's 4:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Alina Cho, other stories making news this morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Watching the weather, Kyra. Good morning, again and good morning, everybody. We are following that extreme weather this morning. Tornado watch in effect for South Central Texas. At this hour, that includes San Antonio. Strong thunderstorms have caused some roof damage near the San Antonio Airport and heavy rains and flash floods are also in the forecast today from Eastern Texas to Mississippi.
Violence in the Middle East this morning. Four Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza strip. It comes as President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush visit Israel. The president making a new push for Mid-East peace while celebrating the country's 60th anniversary. They touched down at about 4:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Mr. Bush is meeting today with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Tomorrow, he heads to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah where the two leaders will also touch on oil production.
Another day, another record for gas prices. We are inching ever closer to that $4 mark. AAA says the new national average for a gallon of regular is now $3.76. That's up close to three cents from yesterday and 40 cents from a month ago.
And it's small, cute, and affordable, but how does the smart car fare in crash tests? Well, the answer is surprisingly well. It earned the highest rating in front and side crash tests from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.
Now, the car looks banged up, but it's all about how the dummy fared. By the way, it is the smallest car for sale in the United States. Overall, we should mention that bigger cars always are safer, say inspectors. But with gas prices sky-high, the smart car may be an attractive option on the highway. This microcar, not to be confused with a mini car, gets 41 miles to the gallon. Not quite a Prius but, you know, pretty close. Pretty close.
ROBERTS: It's a tough shell. It looks like a ladybug hitting a brick, doesn't it?
CHO: It does. They call it a bread box on wheels, but, you know, fared pretty well.
PHILLIPS: And small than the MINI Coupe. I haven't seen anything to get smaller than that.
CHO: It's two feet smaller than the MINI Cooper. It's incredible, isn't it?
PHILLIPS: How could anyone fit in that car?
CHO: Well, we can.
PHILLIPS: You and I could drive around in that baby.
CHO: That's right.
PHILLIPS: OK.
ROBERTS: Alina, thanks.
You might have notice something on Barack Obama last night. Check out the lapel and hear why he says he has been wearing a flag pin lately.
PHILLIPS: Yes. And what does the West Virginia primary tell us about who eventually win the nomination? Sorry, I snooze off there for a minute. John king, who never puts us to sleep, at the magic wall. Chairman of the board there. He's going to show us why we should look closely at what happened last night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's eight minutes after the hour. You might have noticed something about Barack Obama this week. He is wearing an American flag pin on his lapel. Obama stopped wearing one after 9/11 because he felt it replaced true patriotism for some public officials. But the pin is back.
The decision led some to question his patriotism. Obama says he thought that it was appropriate to wear the pin this week while speaking with veterans and workers.
Kyra?
PHILLIPS: We're at the magic wall once again. John King and he's going to talk about West Virginia. What it's telling us about the national race. The question here is does Obama get it?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the question of the Democratic Party today, because if you look at West Virginia last night, let's zoom out, that's all Hillary Clinton, Kyra. It's a 95 percent white state, and she won sweepingly across a rural states, small cities, white working-class voters. And many say, you know, she does have a point that Barack Obama is not doing very well among those voters. And it's not just in West Virginia.
Let's stretch this map out a little bit. You see the areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, over here in Arkansas and Missouri. She is winning big in rural white America. So, does Barack Obama get it? Well, where was he last night? Not in West Virginia but way over here in the State of Missouri.
He did win the primary here because of his support in the population centers of Kansas City and St. Louis in particular. But that's not where he was last night. He was down here, right -- whoops, where did it go -- right here, exactly. Cape Girardeau County, guess what that is? That's the birthplace of Rush Limbaugh, not exactly an Obama voter, not a guy likely to vote a Democrat in November.
But Hillary Clinton carried this white rural county in the Missouri primary, so Barack Obama was talking to voters who are not voting for him right now. Critical because of the Democratic primary, also critical because of this.
George W. Bush carried this county and carried it big in 2004. So, Barack Obama is going places where he knows he needs to improve. It's not the only place. We will see Barack Obama way up here. Let's move the map over.
PHILLIPS: He's going to Michigan today?
KING: We're going to see him in Michigan today. And where are we going to see him in Michigan? We're going to see him just north of Detroit in Macomb County. What is that? That's the home of the Reagan Democrats. These are blue-collar union workers. Many of them work in the auto industry. They tended to vote for Ronald Reagan. They have left the Democratic Party often in national elections.
This is 19 -- this is 2004, excuse me. George Bush carried this county even though John Kerry narrowly carried the state of Michigan. So, Barack Obama, again, looking his problem in the face, white working-class voters in the state of Michigan.
And he has another big stop this week, Kyra. We're going to swing --
PHILLIPS: He's got Florida later in the week?
KING: He's got Florida. We're going to swing it out here. We're going to open up Florida right here. Where will he be? He will be right here in the critical I-4 Corridor -- Orlando, Tampa, out to Daytona Beach. 40 percent of Florida's registered voters live right here in this corridor.
There are some Latinos. There are some working-class whites. And there are a lot of independents who swing back and forth. This is 2004. Watch these colors change. George W. Bush won Florida by a pretty good margin back in the re-election race in 2004.
But let's go back in time. Democrats don't like to do this, but remember 2000? Al Gore lost Florida by 537 votes. If you look, he did much better than John Kerry in this key area across the Central Florida area. That is where Barack Obama will be thinking ahead to November. He needs to win the Puerto Rican Latinos who live here. He needs to do better with white working-class voters. And he needs to get those independent swing voters.
PHILLIPS: The Latino vote. Very interesting because coming up this hour, we're going to talk to a superdelegate, undecided. And he says, OK, 20 million bucks I'll go -- I'll go for you. So, that's interesting.
KING: And very complicated Latino vote in Florida. You have Cubans, you have Mexicans and Central Americans, you also have Puerto Ricans in this area. There are three or four different segments of Latino voters in the state of Florida.
PHILLIPS: Muchos gracias, mi amigo. All right. John King, we'll talk more about it.
And after last night's win in West Virginia, Hillary Clinton says that she's staying in the race.
John?
ROBERTS: Not everyone believes her. Coming up, we're going to talk with one man who once told us that Clinton would drop out next month. Does he still believe that after last night?
And if Barack Obama does become the Democratic nominee, can he win over the key states that he has been losing to Hillary Clinton? We'll talk with Obama supporter Governor Bill Richardson about these crucial swing states. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": Hillary Clinton big blowout in West Virginia's primary tonight. Yes, she's the big winner of West Virginia, which means that one day she could be president of West Virginia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Jay Leno joins the late night parade using Hillary Clinton for a punch line. He also talked about her rented pantsuits last night. Speaking of pantsuits, here's Kyra?
PHILLIPS: It's not rented. I own this. OK. Let's just make that perfectly clear.
ROBERTS: We believe that. Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: Thank you very much.
Well, Senator Hillary Clinton gets the big win that everyone expected from her in West Virginia, but now what? Lawrence O'Donnell is a contributor to "The Huffington Post." Last week, he said that he had intel (ph) that said that Clinton would drop out of the race by June 15th.
Lawrence, good morning. What do you think?
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, CONTRIBUTOR, "HUFFINGTON POST": Good to be with you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Are you sticking to that thing?
O'DONNELL: As I said and I reported on "Huffington Post" and here on CNN last week, that a senior campaign official, Clinton confidant, has told me that the exit strategy is for her to be out by June 15th. He said they will go through all of the voting, they will take about a week after that to make their case to the superdelegates and then they will basically surrender.
Listen to Hillary Clinton's speech last night. It was a victory speech, but if you read the right lines, you can see that it was actually her concession speech about where this is going. Lines that you never heard before May in Clinton speeches.
For example, "I deeply admire Senator Obama. We have always stood together on what is most important. Our nominee will be stronger because of this primary campaign. I will work my heart out for the nominee." She is very clearly implying in that speech last night that she will not be the nominee.
PHILLIPS: Well --
O'DONNELL: This campaign understands reality. They know where it's going. She will be supporting Senator Obama by June 15th.
PHILLIPS: OK. Listening to what you just said, let's take a listen to another sound bite here and let me get your reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign. Until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. Little different than what you --
O'DONNELL: Kyra, that's exactly -- no, no, no. That was the next line I was going to read to you. What she just said was, "I'm in this until June 3rd." OK. That's when all the votes will have been heard. By May 31st, there will be a decision on how the Democrats are going to handle Michigan and Florida at the convention. So, that will be dealt with.
June 3rd is when the final votes are cast in this primary. She's saying very clearly in that sentence, in effect, echoing what Terry McAuliffe said last week after I reported my information. Terry McAuliffe came out and said that this would be concluded by the middle of June. And there's only one way this can be concluded by the middle of June. There's no way Hillary Clinton can reverse it.
PHILLIPS: So, Lawrence, well, do you think then if listening to what you have to say here, is she now kind of turning around instead of doing any type of negative speeches or advertising, she's caring more about the party now? Is she stepping away from --
O'DONNELL: Exactly. Exactly. "I deeply admire Senator Obama." Yes, that's a new tone and that's exactly what she needs to do. She alienated a lot of Democratic voters with her campaigning style. She's going to win back those hearts and minds through the final weeks of this campaign.
Look, if she had dropped out last week when we all said it was over, the cameras would have been turned off. The CNN camera would have been turned off and no one would have cared what she said after that. She needs to stay in this campaign to rehabilitate her image in a certain sector of the Democratic Party and then also to ease her supporters, especially her more ardent supporters, into the reality that the nominee is going to be Senator Barack Obama, who she admires so deeply.
She's got to do that gradually. That's exactly what she's doing. What she's doing now is extremely helpful to the party, extremely helpful to the eventual nominee.
PHILLIPS: Lawrence, I've been wanting to ask you this. You know, you're executive producer of "THE WEST WING," very successful show. All the drama going on within this election year, it's historical. Do you see a new show?
O'DONNELL: Well, you know, we predicted a lot of this, I mean, quite by accident. We had a minority candidate played by Jimmy Smits, who got our nomination on the Democratic side in what turned out to be a hard-fought, brokered convention with three possible nominees.
So, it's been fun for us to watch how this has developed this year basically following a lot of the story lines we did a couple years ago.
PHILLIPS: Very well. Let's see another show and they will know what will happen four years from now. Lawrence O'Donnell thanks so much for your time.
O'DONNELL: Thanks, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right.
John?
ROBERTS: 19 minutes after the hour now. And you're watching the Most News in the Morning. Governor Bill Richardson used to be a part of the Democratic race. Now he's supporting Barack Obama. We'll ask him what Obama needs to do to regain the momentum from Hillary Clinton. That's coming up. There was an election yesterday that didn't include Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John McCain. But it may be a sign that any state is up for grabs this November. The results and the big picture. Next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: All right. Let's take a look at our "Quick Vote" question this morning. We are asking if Barack Obama cannot win states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio in the primaries, can he win them in November? Here's our latest look at that. 56 percent of you say yes. 44 percent of you say no. Some people are thinking that maybe he can. We'd also like your e-mails on this. Send them in to us www.cnn.com/am. And follow the links that say "contact us."
PHILLIPS: And another big win for Democrats. Mississippi Democrat Travis Childers won a House seat in a special election. That seat has been vacated by Republican Roger Wicker, who had held it since 1949. That win gives Democrats 236 to 199 advantage in Congress. Childers will have to run for the seat again in November's general election.
You're watching the Most News in the Morning. Putting a face on Alzheimer's disease. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will talk about her husband's struggle with that disease on Capitol Hill today.
ROBERTS: And Governor Bill Richardson joins us. We'll ask him what Barack Obama needs to do to get going forward and get his thoughts on the so-called dream ticket. That's story and today's headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
PHILLIPS: And he says the price is peanut of the presidency. Coming up, you may be surprised to find out how much one superdelegate is selling for his vote or his vote for, rather. What he plans to do with that money. We'll tell you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: We know from the bible that faith can move mountains. And, my friends, the faith of the mountain state has moved me. I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton last night in West Virginia after a blowout 67 percent to 26 percent victory over Barack Obama. Bill Richardson is the governor of New Mexico. He's a former candidate for president, now an Obama supporter. Let's talk with him more about what happened last night.
Governor, it's good to see you again.
Thank you, John. ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton last night pledged that she is going to stay in this until every last voice is heard. What do you think about that? I mean, you've sort of been going down this road that it's time for her to stop.
GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), MEXICO: Well, I think she deserves to stay in until the last primary, but that's June 3rd. That's six more primaries. And then I think as Democrats nationally, we have to face reality. Senator Obama so far has won 32 states to 16. He is ahead in the delegate count. He needs 141 more to win. He got 28 superdelegates pledged to him in the last week, moving in his direction. He's got momentum.
She deserves accolades for the victory yesterday, but this was a state that was tailor made for Senator Clinton. But the key thing is what do we do about June 3rd. Are we going to continue this divisiveness, this uncertainty when it is clear that we have a candidate with enough delegate votes while Senator McCain, as I was saying earlier, is out campaigning in Democratic states like Oregon, talking about Democratic issues, the environment and climate change? He's undamaged and we go on flailing at each other.
I think the time has come very soon, after the last vote, and she should stay in until the last -- till the last vote and then we've got to unite behind a nominee and be ready for the fall election.
ROBERTS: Governor, you were suggesting, chatting with Wolf Blitzer yesterday, that this is beginning to hurt the Democrats in blue states. We played that for Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, a Hillary Clinton supporter, in our last hour. Here's what he said in response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED RENDELL (D-PA), CLINTON SUPPORTER: So, I think this has helped him. It's made him a stronger candidate. He's handled attacks. Attacks from the media, attacks from the Clinton campaign. So I think he's grown even stronger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: He's suggesting the prolonged nature of this campaign is actually making Barack Obama a stronger candidate. Do you agree with that?
RICHARDSON: Well, no, I don't necessarily agree. I mean, what I like is that Senator Obama is still very strong among independent voters nationally. He is facing Senator McCain in key battleground states and doing very well, like Colorado, like out west.
But, you know, this prolonged division of the party and supporters of Senator Clinton and Senator Obama going at each other nightly in every state, that isn't good. It's good to have a spirited contest, but eventually I believe we have to unite realistically behind the candidate that has the most delegates and can bring the country together, and that's Senator Obama. ROBERTS: On that point of delegates, the official Democratic National Committee finish line this morning is 2,025 delegates to clinch the nomination. That number will actually go up by one, 2,026, when Travis Childers, who won that special election in Mississippi, is sworn in. But the Clinton campaign and Hillary Clinton herself is talking about a very different number. Let's listen to how she's putting it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Under the rules of our party, when you include all 50 states, the number of delegates needed to win is 2,209, and neither of us has reached that threshold yet. This win in West Virginia will help me move even closer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Governor, is Senator Clinton moving the goal posts?
RICHARDSON: Well, yes, because you can't change the rules right now. She's talking about Florida and Michigan. And the whole Democratic National Committee voted a certain direction. All the candidates abided by it. I remember we didn't go into Florida and Michigan when I was running because of this situation. You can't change the goal posts at the last minute. And the reality is, yes, let's try to seat these delegates in some way at the convention but not change the rules to benefit anybody.
ROBERTS: You know, we talk about whether or not she should be the vice presidential running mate should Barack Obama become the nominee. In a recent Gallup Poll, 55 percent of respondents said yes, she should. Would you encourage him to take her on as his running mate should he clinches the nomination?
RICHARDSON: Well, you know, this is premature. I think Senator Obama has to make that choice. She obviously would be a very strong candidate. But you know, a lot of it will depend, John, on the dynamics between the two of them. And, you know, there's a continuing battle and divisiveness, that's not going to help if you want to promote that situation.
ROBERTS: Governor Bill Richardson from New Mexico, thanks for joining us this morning. All right, have a great day.
Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Democratic candidates are hitting the road again. Senator Hillary Clinton is in Washington today and will sit down with CNN's Wolf Blitzer for her first interview after last night's West Virginia win. That will air on "THE SITUATION ROOM" 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Senator Barack Obama heads for a rally in Michigan and Senator John McCain is holding private fund-raising.
Now, in the next three weeks, there are five primaries with 189 delegates up for grabs. Next Tuesday, it's Kentucky and Oregon with a total of 103 delegates. Oregon is a mail-in vote, by the way, which is already under way. Then June 1st, it's Puerto Rico with 55 delegates. Then on to June 3rd, Montana and South Dakota with 31 delegates total.
Breaking news out of Myanmar right now. Forecasters say that another cyclone is forming off the coast. The United Nations warns that there could be a, quote, "second wave of death." Aid has been trickling in for the 1.5 million people still suffering from the last cyclone more than a week ago. And earlier this morning, I had a chance to talk with Admiral Timothy Keating who is heading the American relief effort. He says that the U.S. is ready with more aid but still needs permission from Myanmar's military government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF ADM. TIMOTHY KEATING, COMMANDER, U.S. PACIFIC COMMAND: We talked to our Burmese host about that option, Kyra, of slinging supplies underneath helicopters and bringing them from the "U.S.S. Essex" group which is off the southwest coast of Burma. They are in position now with a dozen-plus heavy-lift-capable helicopters. But we are not going to, "invade Burmese air space." We will only do this with the approval of Burmese officials.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The U.N. says survivors are depending on rain for drinking water.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Some problems here at home as well as it relates to water. Alina Cho here with other stories making headlines. Good morning to you.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, some big flooding in the south. Good morning, guys. Good morning, everybody. And we are following that extreme weather this morning. A flashflood warning is in effect for another 45 minutes or so in Shreveport, Louisiana. Massive flooding there, up to six inches of rain fell overnight. Flash floods stranded hundreds of motorists. Police say one death may be related to the flooding and more heavy rain is in the forecast today, another two to three inches.
Schools are closed again in parts of Florida as wildfires continue to burn there. The flames have now destroyed at least 40 homes and have charred more than 10,000 acres. Crews in Brevard County say, however, that they have most of the fires contained.
The death toll from Monday's earthquake in China is rising again. Nearly 15,000 people are dead. Another 40,000 missing or buried. And rescuers are now stepping up the efforts to reach survivors, traveling on foot in many cases because many of the roads are closed. 20,000 Chinese soldiers have now made it to the most remote villages. Another 30,000 soldiers are headed there.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will speak out today about her husband's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She'll be part of a panel speaking to a senate committee about the fight against Alzheimer's. More than 5 million Americans are living with the disease.
And a sign of the times. More Americans are apparently cutting the cord on landline phones. A new study says by the end of last year, 16 percent of homes were cell phone only. In 2004, that number was just 5 percent. And users who have landline phone, get this, say they mostly ignore the calls on them. Why? Because they're mostly from telemarketers. Apparently they haven't signed up for that do- not-call list. Anyway, I barely know my home phone number.
PHILLIPS: And I never check the voice-mail.
CHO: No, I'm only on my landline phone when I can't get service on my cell phone in my house.
ROBERTS: And how often is that?
CHO: Well, you know, I would say 60 percent of the time. Inside --
PHILLIPS: Rotary dial.
ROBERTS: I don't know many places in America where cell phones work worse than here in New York City.
CHO: You're right.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Alina. New numbers in on inflation that just came across our desk. And Ali Velshi at the business update desk with that. Good morning, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN, SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Good morning to all of you. We just got the numbers for April inflation. And we are parsing through them. There's a lot of detail in this. Here's the important thing you have to know, compared to last year, inflation in April is up 3.9 percent year over year. That's an important number because that relates to how much you earn and how much you make in your investments. If you're not getting more than that in investments, you're losing money. If you're not getting more than that in a raise, you're being set back. Now, the bottom line is that it has dropped just a smidgen from what we knew it was in March. It was 4 percent in March and now it's 3.9 percent. That's the good news. The bad news, and we are working through the information right now to see if we can confirm this, but we are seeing reports that the jump in food prices is the biggest in 18 years.
Now, John, we have discussed this before. The government likes to talk about a core rate and a headline rate. The headline rate is all of the inflation that consumers pay. The core rate is that number minus food and energy, which is very good for economists to measure and accept the bottom line as we all include energy. Food prices, it is looking like, we may have seen the biggest jump in one month in 18 years in this April report. I'm going to go through these numbers and bring you more information as I get it. But right now, we're looking at just a little under 4 percent, year over year in inflation. John. ROBERTS: All right. That's still a big number.
VELSHI: It is.
ROBERTS: Ali Velshi for us this morning, thanks.
VELSHI: OK.
PHILLIPS: And show him the money. We're not talking about Ali Velshi. We're actually talking about the superdelegate you're going to meet. He's selling his vote for 20 million bucks. You're going to hear why straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton heads into the next contests in Kentucky and Oregon after picking up 16 delegates in West Virginia. She now has a total of 1,713 but still trails Barack Obama. He gained seven new delegates for a total of 1,881. 2,025 the magic number to clinch the nomination, but that's going to go up by one to 2,026 since Democrat Travis Childers won a special election in the state of Mississippi. Barack Obama can reach the magic number in the next three weeks. Hillary Clinton cannot. We're talking about pledge delegates here. But she's not quitting. Her plan is to get Florida and Michigan delegates counted at the convention plus enough superdelegates to put her over the top.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This race isn't over yet. Neither -- neither of us has the total delegates it takes to win. And both Senator Obama and I believe that the delegates from Florida and Michigan should be seated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: With Hillary Clinton's win in West Virginia, the debate over what to do with those delegates from Florida and Michigan is heating up again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD WOLFSON, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, CLINTON CAMPAIGN: I don't accept any math that doesn't include Florida and Michigan. I have absolutely no doubt that the Democratic National Committee, in its wisdom, is going to decide how to seat Florida and Michigan. Those votes are going to count.
DONNA BRAZILE, SUPERDELEGATE: I respect what Howard said tonight in terms of the people who voted in Florida and Michigan. But I also respect the millions of voters in the 48 states that also complied with the rules. We have to insure that the integrity of the process is not messed up in such a way that would hurt us in years to come.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: We should point out that Donna Brazile is not only a superdelegate but she's also on the Rules Committee that's going to meet at the end of this month to determine what to do with Florida and Michigan. Right now, as we said, 2,025 delegates need to clinch the nomination. If Michigan and Florida are included, that number jumps to 2,209. But again, once Travis Childers is sworn in, both numbers will increase by one. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, it's going to take a lot to win the support of one California superdelegate. We're talking $20 million. Here to explain this is the man himself. Undecided superdelegate and Democratic National Committee member, Steve Ybarra.
OK, Steve. Lay it out. How did you come up with this idea and why are you doing it?
STEVE YBARRA, UNDECIDED SUPERDELEGATE: Good morning, Miss Phillips. You know, race, sex, and age are always issues of every political campaign. And the candidate that's going to win this election has to be able to confront those issue. They have to be able to deal with the fact that there's inequality in the United States and that young people and old people and Asian people have to be brought to the table. For years the Democratic Party has earmarked millions of dollars towards specific groups. They have an African-American outreach program, which they call a faith-based initiative. We do rock the vote. But nobody is talking about the Mexican-American voters. CNN has reported that there are 17 million eligible Latino voters. That's on your Web site. 66.67 percent of those are Mexican- Americans. In other words, 11 million Mexican-American voters are going to be eligible to vote in this election and the Democratic Party is not talking to them.
PHILLIPS: All right. So, you say your vote can be sold for $20 million. What will you do with the money?
YBARRA: Well, I won't do anything with the money because I'll be here in California campaigning where we have all the money in the world and we have more Mexican-American members of the legislature than any state should have.
PHILLIPS: So, where would the money go?
YBARRA: The money needs to go to places where CNN has already identified the crucial parts of this race. It needs to go to Arizona, it needs to go to Nevada. It needs to go to southern Florida. It needs to go to Colorado. We have about 300,000 new citizens that should be sworn in and educated on the voting process. See, it costs about $10 a vote to really register a voter. So, if you figure that we've got a million new 17-year-olds who are going to be 18 by the November election, that's about 10 million right there. 300,000 new citizens, that's another 3 million. You still have to deal with the get out the vote issues.
PHILLIPS: Well, has either one of the camps responded to your offer here? YBARRA: Well, you know, it's really funny that you asked that because both camps have responded. And of course, one said, that's a great idea, Steve. We'll get back to you, and the other one said, you know we've been a little anemic in your community. So --
PHILLIPS: Tell me which camp who said what.
YBARRA: Well, you know, I'm not the kind of person that goes off and proves how important I am by telling people who called me. We get calls from everybody, and it's sufficient to say that the guys who are feeding the ponies call me up and talk about what's going on in the race.
PHILLIPS: So, who do you think has been the candidate that has gone after that Mexican-American vote? Who's done a better job?
YBARRA: Well, clearly, Hillary has done a better job in terms of getting the vote. In east Los Angeles, for instance, which has a 21 bellwether precincts for our voters, she got 71.23 percent of that vote. Barack Obama only got 9 percent of that vote. So, he's got a long row to hoe in order to deal with our communities. We have a problem right now in terms of getting the DNC -- the people inside the political bubble, inside the beltway -- to understand this is not a black and white election, that this election is going to be won within the Hispanic community.
PHILLIPS: Could the Hispanic vote make or break for either candidate?
YBARRA: It does make or break. And John Kerry spent a billion dollars to lose and wouldn't spend a million dollars on the Mexican- American vote in the last election. We could have won has had he spent that money in Florida, in Colorado, I Nevada. You will not win this election unless you win Nevada. You have to win Nevada in order to be president of the United States.
PHILLIPS: Steve Ybarra, we're going to track this. We're going to see if you get that $20 million buck. We'll see how it turns out.
YBARRA: We'll look forward to a cup of coffee from CNN.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Steve.
YBARRA: Take care.
PHILLIPS: John.
ROBERTS: 42 minutes after the hour. After her cakewalk in West Virginia, Hillary Clinton says that she is in the race until the very end. Should Barack Obama be worried about that? Our political panel has got some thoughts. They're coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAMES CARVILLE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Some whirlwinds like last night and the dealing in a just way with the Florida and Michigan question and in winning the popular vote, it could be possible that could sway it. That's certainly a path to it. But I would have said - I said to these students at Fuhrman that I thought that it was more likely that Obama would be a nominee, but it certainly was not certain by any stretch of the imagination. And I hear a bark out there a little stronger this morning than I did yesterday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: CNN contributor James Carville earlier on AMERICAN MORNING talking about a possible route to the nomination for Hillary Clinton. He once compared Bill Richardson to Judas for switching to Barack Obama. Now even Carville admits that the nomination race is likely over even though he wants Hillary Clinton to fight until, "the last dog dies," which was his reference there to still hearing some dogs barking after the West Virginia win. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, Clinton is starting - or actually staring into a pretty deep hole of debt right now. Her campaign is now $20 million in the red, $11 million of that she loaned to her campaign. And a senior adviser to the campaign says they have enough cash and that the fund-raising is doing well. But the clock is ticking for Clinton to make her money back.
Here's your "A.M. Extra." If she can hold four fund-raisers but she has to raise $11 million by the convention in August or campaign finance laws say she forfeits that cash. Now, she can transfer the debt to her senate campaign account and use money that she raises for a re-election run to pay it down. Clinton is sitting on $22 million raised for the general election and it's tricky but she might be able to use some of that. And then there's the Obama option. She could make a deal to get out of the race if Obama helps pay off the debt. But the check wouldn't come from him. Obama would have to ask his donors to help her out. John.
ROBERTS: All right. Let's turn in once again to our political panel. We got Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, who is supporting Barack Obama, Julian Epstein who is supporting Hillary Clinton, Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez and our political analyst and chief political correspondent for slate.com John Dickerson. John, give me some news of the day. What have we heard this morning?
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT; Well, I talked to somebody in the Clinton campaign who says their fund-raising is coming in strongly after last night. Now, we have to believe them on this. They haven't released a number. We don't know but remember after last week's victory, they didn't tell us this. So, this is an improvement for them but we don't know how big. Obama has got two new superdelegates today. So bad night for him yesterday, but he's got two of them. The march continues with the superdelegates. And then, it's interesting to see what the two candidates are doing. Hillary Clinton is on every cable station. I think she may even be on the Golf Channel today, pushing her message. She's out everywhere. Obama is in a factory this morning working on those blue-collar voters in Macomb County, the heart of them, showing that as a general election matter, he can deal with this problem.
ROBERTS: So, unlike President Bush, Hillary Clinton hasn't given up golf just yet. Julian and Jamal, what do we know about the money? You know, she does this appeal. She waited until the third paragraph last night, I think, too, to issue the appeal for money. And what about the superdelegates?
JULIAN EPSTEIN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: We don't know about the money yet. We'll hear about that probably midday. I think she's focused on a couple things right now, looking towards Puerto Rico. She is looking at the popular vote and two, trying to get a resolution on Florida and Michigan. If she can persuade the superdelegates at that point, you know, she may have a thimble full of hope here. But if she doesn't, she's going to pull an Al Gore strategy, which will be - she will say to the party at the end of the day, I won the popular vote. I came close to winning the popular vote. I was the stronger candidate in the second half of the election but I have to bow out because that's the magnanimous thing to do in the interest of the party. And she will look good. She stays in as a fighter. People like that. Like Bill Clinton said in New Hampshire. I'll be you if you're with me until the last dog dies. People like that. Voters like that.
ROBERTS: All right but do you think eventually she'll ay I'm out?
EPSTEIN: I think Larry O'Donnell's notion was bunked, reported on the air here. I think superdelegates will make a decision on this before June 15th. She's not going to bow out. This is going to be a superdelegate decision.
ROBERTS: All right. What do you think is going to happen? We saw, as John said, two superdelegates go Barack Obama's way. Do you think he's going to continue to rack up the lion's share?
JAMAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: He will continue to rack up the lion share. There are a lot of superdelegates you're hearing talking about this. Senator Clinton is already starting to lose donors. There was a story yesterday about one of her major donors that had moved to Barack Obama in New York. It's possible she can win this. It's possible I can win the pick six lotto but I'm not looking at summer houses in Lake Como.
ROBERTS: But you can't change that.
SIMMONS: I think everybody is sort of coming to grips that this is where we're headed. Barack Obama is going to be our nominee. And I think Senator Clinton has every night. It's not our place to hold her when she can and can't get out. As long as we're no longer sort of hitting each other below the belt in this campaign.
ROBERTS: And Leslie, I was going to say something else that happened last night. I wanted to talk to you about it. Travis Childers, Democrat, won a special election in Mississippi, a seat that has been held by a Republican since 1994. Third time that's happened in this election season. LESLIE SANCHEZ, POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
ROBERTS: Do we have problems?
SANCHEZ: There's no doubt Republicans have problems. I think there's definitely a kind of come to Jesus moment on the Republican side. You can't doubt that but also look at the fact that he's somebody who's incredibly conservative. A conservative Democrat, it's a platform of strategy that the Democrats used in 2006. In some cases they ran to the right of Republican, the pro-life, pro-gun, you know, in those states.
ROBERTS: Democratic tie in November?
SANCHEZ: Well, I think if the Republicans don't learn to reconnect with the people, I think that's imperative that our solutions are better. You can't just say Democrats are bad but how does our solution work.
ROBERTS: Folks, thanks very much for being with us this morning. Great to have you again and hope to get you back again next week. And get you up early, Leslie Sanchez, John Dickerson, Julian Epstein, Jamal Simmons, thanks very much. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama by a wide margin in West Virginia, 67 percent to 26 percent. And we check in to past landslide victories this primary season. Here's your "A.M." extra. Clinton pulled more that 70 percent in the Arkansas primary on super Tuesday to Obama's 25 percent. Her next biggest showing after West Virginia was in Rhode Island with 58 percent of the vote. Obama has made it past 70 percent in five races -- the primary in Washington, D.C. and caucuses in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, and Kansas. So, why did President Bush stop playing golf? The reason may really surprise you, actually. It's an interview Jeanne Moos found on the internet. We'll explain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): See these stories in the CNN NEWSROOM. A West Virginia landslide. Hillary Clinton courting superdelegates and donors today.
More than 100 wildfires burning in Florida.
The death toll from the China earthquake moves higher. Myanmar threatened by a new cyclone today.
President Bush promoting peace in Israel.
And it's smart, but is the smart car safe? Crash test results. In the NEWSROOM, top of the hour on CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Well, President Bush just gave his first online exclusive interview and now he can find himself on the Google. It's the Moos news in the morning and here's Jeanne.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Googler-in- chief has debut on the internet, coaxed into doing his Dr. Evil impression.
PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: This?
MOOS: Being asked if he's given up golf because of Iraq. The answer is yes.
BUSH: I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf.
MOOS: It's billed by Yahoo! as the president's first online exclusive, but online tends to bring back memories of this slide.
BUSH: And I have filters on internets.
MOOS: Not once but several times President Bush has made the internet plural.
BUSH: I hear there's rumors on the internets.
BUSH: I hear there's rumors on the internets.
MOOS: The President was endlessly mocked.
BUSH: Because we can all agree there's just too many internets.
BUSH Now, I'm no fan of the internets --
MOOS: And things only got worst when asked if he ever uses Google.
BUSH: Occasionally. One of the things I've used on the Google is to pull up maps.
MOOS: The Google was the faux pas that had the Web-savvy charting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He kept referring it to as "the Google," like the Donald.
MOOS: Someone even established a Web site, "the Google" on the internet, dot come, complete with t-shirts. And now the President is putting himself on the line in an online interview.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who does the better impression, Will Ferrell of you --
BUSH: The issue of the so-called global warmings. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Or Dana Carvey of your father?
BUSH: Dana Carvey.
DANA CARVEY, COMEDIAN: No, I didn't. No, I didn't.
MOOS: The President has said that while in the White House he can't use e-mail for security reasons.
MOOS (on-camera): Hard as it is to imagine George Bush sitting at a keyboard typing. Listen to this.
The president is looking forward to using a computer when he leaves office.
BUSH: I e-mail to my buddies. As governor, I could stay in touch with all kinds of people around the country, firing off e-mails at all times of -- all times of the day to stay in touch with my pals.
MOOS: So, take that, all you impersonators implying President Bush can't find his way around the internets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: User name and password.
MOOS: As a former president, he'll be firing off e-mails, so no more giggling about "the Google."
BUSH: The Google. Internets.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: See what our viewers don't know is John is known as John "Google" Roberts because he knows a little bit about everything. So, the President can just call you. He doesn't need Google.
ROBERTS: He doesn't send e-mail because they archive all that stuff and he doesn't want his messages --
PHILLIPS: He doesn't want the track record.
ROBERTS: No.
PHILLIPS: That's pretty smart.
ROBERTS: And by the way, the best impersonation of President Bush, Frank Caliendo. He's got it down.
PHILLIPS: OK. We should have queued that one up.
ROBERTS: Do Americans think that Barack Obama can win the swing states in the general election even though he has been losing them in the primaries. Your votes, your e-mails straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, a final check at the "quick vote" question this morning. If Barack Obama can't win the swing states now, can he win them in the general election. 56 percent of you said yes, 44 percent said no.
ROBERTS: And we have been getting hundreds of e-mails on this this morning. Sonya in New Jersey writes to us "we continue to say that Obama can't win the poor, uneducated, blue collar, white, and senior vote. What about Hillary, how come she can't win the educated, upper class, latte drinking black vote? Is it because the blue collar workers can't see through her lies and same old politics. Fact: a Democrat will win in November no matter who the nominee is."
PHILLIPS: And this one comes from Barbara in West Virginia, "the people have spoken, I don't think they will be swayed to vote for Senator Obama should he be the superdelegates choice over Senator Clinton especially in the swing sates, the voters will not be coerced into voting for just "A Democrat." Let's face it, the person who wins the swing states wins the election. I feel Senator Obama is hurting the Democratic ticket by his attitude regarding the blue collar voter." To those of you who voted or wrote to us, thank you.
ROBERTS: No question that the road to the White House runs right through the swing states. Thanks for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. We will see you again tomorrow.
PHILLIPS: That's right, CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris and Fredricka Whitfield begins right now.
HARRIS: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
HARRIS: You'll see events come into the NEWSROOM. live on this Wednesday, May 14th. Here's what's on the rundown.
WHITFIELD: Landslide in West Virginia. Today, Hillary Clinton courts superdelegates and party donors arguing she's more electable than Barack Obama.
HARRIS: Tracking the fire starters, dozens of homes up in flames in the Florida wildfires.
WHITFIELD: And a half foot of rain and it's still coming down in Louisiana. This morning, flashflood in the NEWSROOM.
