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Campbell Brown

Campaigns Move on to Montana

Aired June 01, 2008 - 16:00   ET

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

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The governor there, Brian Schweitzer, has said he will support whoever wins that primary on Tuesday night but more importantly it seems at this point according to one recent poll Barack Obama leading there.
So if Obama can somehow pull off a sweep of these last two western states that would at least give those undecided superdelegates who were sort of sitting on the fence wondering whether or not Barack Obama can finish this contest, this race strongly that they can go ahead and jump over and give him that support but Hillary Clinton is giving him a race for the money here, Wolf. We're seeing big ad buys by Senator Clinton here in South Dakota and Montana. She is running an ad basically making that disputed claim once again that she has had more primary votes for her and her candidacy than any other democrat in presidential history that is of course the claim that Barack Obama's campaign which is strongly disputable.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right then. We're going to await Barack Obama. He's going to be speaking there soon. Once he starts speaking, we'll go there live. Let's get one more look at that corn palace, the Mitchell corn palace and then let Jim Acosta get back to work for us. Jim Acosta reporting for us from Mitchell, South Dakota. Stand by, Jim. I want to walk over to John Roberts. Have you ever been to Mitchell, South Dakota, John and seen that Mitchell corn palace?

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: I have thus far not had the pleasure of going to the Mitchell Corn Palace but it's definitely...

BLITZER: We got to go there. We got to go there.

ROBERTS: ...you got to - it's a destination now.

BLITZER: I think it's going to be a hot place to go.

ROBERTS: It's a good place to take the Harley to.

BLITZER: Yes. You were just there to Sturgis.

ROBERTS: Go to Sturgis and then the Mitchell corn palace.

BLITZER: We're doing some P.R. work for Mitchell, South Dakota. All right. Let's talk a little bit about what's going on today in Puerto Rico. I see we do have 1 percent of the precincts now reporting.

ROBERTS: We do have 1 percent of the precincts reporting now and it's not really showing up well on the map here. What you're seeing there is in blue here are just water but the way that these returns are going to come in is that there are 78 municipalities across Puerto Rico but they have been broken down in terms of these eight senate districts. San Juan is the largest district here. San Juan, the center of the city, the main campus of the University of Puerto Rico here. So, this is expected to be an area where Barack Obama would draw perhaps much of the vote that is going to come from him from the island. Some of it may come in Mayaguez as well, where there is a large satellite campus of the University of Puerto Rico.

For Hillary Clinton, a lot of the support is going to come from district number two which is the city of Bayamon which is district number eight which is the city of Carolina. These are areas where the new progressive party, the leader of which backed her, has had a stronghold. It's also interesting to note, Wolf, when you break down the exit polling, you've got the popular democratic party which is called the PPD and then you got the new progress which is the PNP.

How many people from each or what percentage from each one of these parties, people who identified with these parties, voted for each particular candidate? Well for Barack Obama, the Popular Democratic Party, 51 percent of the vote went to Barack Obama. Now, from the other party, the new progressive party, 84 percent went to Hillary Clinton. I think that Barack Obama needed to have more of a percentage from the popular democratic party than he got in order to be more effective which is probably why we're seeing the numbers that we're seeing coming in but at this point the results are still a little slow to come in our map here, Wolf. Keep watching.

BLITZER: Well, it show all and let's see what we're getting. Yes, right there. Well, actually, it's not working. We'll get back to that and we'll take a look as I think about 1 percent of the precincts are now in. She's got a 2-1 advantage right now. Remember, you can go to cnnpolitics.com and get all of these numbers as they come in plus our exclusive exit poll numbers, as well.

Anderson Cooper, we're watching to see how big the turnout is, what her margin of victory will be. Because there will be bragging rights, bragging rights potentially that could affect some of those still undeclared superdelegates.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: No doubt about that. let's also talk a little bit about what we expect to hear from Barack Obama and also probably even more importantly perhaps Hillary Clinton. What does Hillary Clinton come out and say today? I mean, there are several tacts she could take. What do you expect, Jeff Toobin?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think it's electability. That's her big argument. That's what the superdelegates care about. I think she will say this is further proof. The Puerto Rico primary is further proof that she can win with Hispanics, which is critical in Colorado, in New Mexico and all these swing states that are going to be so important. Whether anyone is ready to listen to that at this point, I don't know but I think that's what she'll say.

GLORIA BERGER, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I do too. I also think we've heard, you know, over the last few weeks more of the unifying message from Hillary Clinton. You know, the attacks on Barack Obama are gone. She'll talk about herself. She'll talk about the democratic party. She'll talk about how important it is to beat John McCain and she'll try and throw some ambiguity into a process that quite frankly isn't very ambiguous anymore by talking about the popular vote.

COOPER: Let's go back to our panel right here. Hillary Rosen, is that the tact you think Hilary Clinton will take?

HILARY ROSEN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Yes. It is a tact that I think she'll take. Electability is it. And, you know, as I said before, we are all going to be there and I think Barack Obama can win the general election but right now Hillary Clinton's electability argument is this. Of the 19 identified battleground states that exist, Hillary Clinton is leading Barack Obama in a majority of them. Barack Obama's only ahead in three of those states, above Hillary Clinton. And that, you know, of the map where democrats expect to win in November, that's the realities that exist. You can believe the polls or not but that's the analysis that superdelegate are going to have to make.

COOPER: But some of the tough talk we heard from Harold Ickes yesterday, you don't think we're going to hear any of that in the speech from Hillary Clinton today?

ROSEN: I think she is going to echo a little bit of her complaint that Michigan didn't get seated the way she thought it would. Remember, the rules committee, it's a very insider focused thing. All of those committee members want to be re-elected to their positions by the chairman that Barack Obama would appoint so I think that in some respects Gloria and Donna are right. They want to have that argument but really they want to get passed this to the electability argument because they know that's really where the most delegates are, at the superdelegates.

COOPER: And for Barack Obama, he what? Comes out, does his usual general election speech?

JAMAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think he's going to do the general election speech. He's going to make the case that he's the democrat that's best to take on McCain. I understand Hillary's point about Hillary Clinton being ahead of Barack Obama in many of the states but that ignores the fact that Barack Obama is still ahead of John McCain. So maybe Hillary Clinton's doing well --

ROSEN: No, not at all. If there are several where she beats McCain and he doesn't.

SIMMONS: Right. But there are several others where he is doing better --

ROSEN: Only three.

SIMMONS: If you look at the map though and if you look at the national polls, the national polls show Barack Obama ahead of John McCain, as well, by one or three points. Let me get back really quickly to the issue of Michigan. When we talk about happened in Michigan, we can't forget that there were a lot of democrats who did not vote on that election day because they were told the contest didn't count. So how do you account for those democrats? I think we may be getting down to the question of deciding how you allocate these percentages. You got to reflect the will of the voters and you can't forget the people who we told that their vote wasn't going to won't count so they chose to do something else.

ROSEN: I'm hoping that -

ALEX CASTELLANOS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: This is so great. I've never heard this before. Democrats are now counting nonvoters. If we had only thought about this year 2000 in Florida --

ROSEN: You had the votes. You owned the Supreme Court.

SIMMONS: Well, you guys thought about everything else. I was down there. Those folks in West Palm Beach, I got to tell you. We saw very closely this is nothing to do with what happened in Florida. What happened in Florida was a completely different case. Donna spoke a lot of the rest of it. We had serious irregularities but what happened, that was a real election. What happened in Michigan and in Florida, they weren't elections because they weren't sanctioned by the DNC. People were told they are not going to count. So, you got to find a way to reflect the role of voters.

The reality here, though, is we are in the last few minutes of game four and Barack Obama is ahead by 200 or by 100 delegates. We know that he is probably going to be the one to win the election. So, we got to play out these last few minutes so we can get to the general election.

LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I really have a hard time believing that's the case. I mean, it's one thing to say Harold Ickes is a lone wolf making this big cry yesterday and there was nobody else joining that bandwagon. And then you hear Terry McAuliffe come out very strong, very forceful language. You know, basically they're drawing that line in the sand. They're building their case, Alex has insinuated this and especially this issue that you do get, the reverend issue, the shared values issues, the competitiveness issue, is a serious concern. I see it on the republican side. Something that we look at.

COOPER: So you're saying it's going on? It's not - this is not --

SANCHEZ: I'm saying it's going and I do want to address one point with respect to Hispanic voters. Seriously, Hispanics are going to be crucial because a lot of them tend to be swing voters and split ticket voters. There's more open minded independents but that being said this is the democratic primary. Hillary Clinton did incredibly well because her husband has a strong legacy. They've had a lot of support. She visited Puerto Rico after the hurricanes. I mean she has something to run on there.

ROSEN: Senator Clinton is going to do the best tonight if she focuses her arguments on electability and the superdelegates because it's the practical matter, complaining about the process of democratic party leaders when your audience are democratic party leaders voting those superdelegate votes is probably not going to get her very far.

CASTELLANOS: That's probably one of the key things to look for in her speeches. In poker, it's the tell. It's a little sign that tells you what they're really holding. And tonight let's see if Hillary Clinton leaves the door cracked. Let's see if she actually says something about Michigan, about the unfairness of the process or that other people went to the convention. If she does what Harold Ickes did or what Terry McAuliffe has done, if she leaves the door cracked just a little bit, who knows?

COOPER: We're going to take a short break. Our coverage continues. Cnnpolitics.com. Also, you can see the results come in. And also, those exit polls that we have exclusively. Some fascinating information in that. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: 3 percent of the precincts in Puerto Rico have now reported. Hillary Clinton remains her approximately 2-1 advantage over Senator Barack Obama. 67 percent for Hillary Clinton to 33 percent for Barack Obama. Remember, they count the ballots in Puerto Rico by hand. These are paper ballots. So it takes a little bit longer than some of the electronic machines. Let's zoom in on the actual numbers. Still a relatively small number of the people of - the votes in Puerto Rico. 3,500 or so for Hillary Clinton. 1,700 or so for Barack Obama. You can see here the light blue. These are areas where Hillary Clinton is ahead of Barack Obama.

So far, none of the reporting has come in from San Juan yet. There he is. There is Barack Obama. He's walking in to this rally in Mitchell, South Dakota. South Dakota, one of two last states that holds its primary Tuesday, south Dakota is where he spent sometime. We heard earlier from the chairman of the Clinton campaign, Terry McAuliffe saying that they have some reason to believe that it's been tightening in South Dakota right now between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. So earlier polls showed that he had a significant advantage over Hillary Clinton but that may or may not be tightening right now. We'll wait and see what happens on Tuesday. He did not do well in Puerto Rico on this day but by all accounts he is going to be doing better in South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday. These states both largely white. There are significantly native American populations there but let's listen in to Senator Obama.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's give a big round of applause to Cathy Frank. Thank you so much. What a beautiful day to be at the corn palace. Yes, corn. It is just wonderful to be here in Mitchell. Thank you so much, all of you, for taking the time to be here. I have had a great bunch of days traveling throughout South Dakota, and I want to tell you. I don't know another state where you've got warmer, nicer people than you do here in South Dakota so thank you, everybody, for your wonderful hospitality.

You know, I have been running for president now for about 15 months. That's a pretty long time. That means there are babies that have been born and are now walking and talking since I started this campaign, and when I announced that I was running, there were some people that said, you know, Barack, you are a relatively young man. Why are you running so soon? You can afford to wait and I had to explain I am not running because I think it's my turn. I'm not running because I think it's somehow owed to me. I'm running because of what Dr. King called the fierce urgency of now. The fierce urgency of now. Because I believed then and I believe now there's such a thing as being too late. And that hour's almost upon us.

You know, we're in the middle of two wars. A war in Afghanistan that had to be waged and has to be won against those who killed 3,000 Americans. But we're also involved a war in Iraq that I believe should have never been authorized and should have never been waged. And we've got struggles here at home. Cathy talked about them and I know that all of you are experiencing them. You see them in your day- to-day lives. People are finding it harder and harder just to get by. You know, our - the average wage, the average income for families has actually gone down by a thousand dollars since George Bush has been in office. Meanwhile, your costs of everything from health care to a college education, to a gallon of milk to a gallon of gas have all skyrocketed. And this means that it's harder to save and it's harder to retire.

47 million people don't have health insurance in this nation. And there are millions of children who despite the slogans aren't getting the kind of education that they need to compete in a global economy. So in such circumstances we can't afford to wait. We can't wait to fix our schools, we can't wait to fix our health care system. We can't wait to bring good jobs, good wages here to South Dakota and all across America and we can't wait to bring this war in Iraq to a close. We cannot wait and that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America. Right here and right now.

But, you know, I decided to run also because I have faith in you. I have confidence in the American people. I am convinced that the American people are tired of a politics that's all about tearing each other down. They want a politics that's about lifting the country up. I think the American people are tired of politicians that are all about spin and P.R.. And they want straight talk and honesty from their elected officials and most of all I believe that the American people are tired of being divided. They're tired of being divided by race. They're tired of being divided by religion. They're tired of being divided by region or even by party. I believe that when blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, young, old, men, women when we come together as Americans there's no problem we can't solve. There's no destiny we cannot fulfill.

So that was the bet I was making when I announced I was running for president 15 months ago. And now 15 months later on the brink of the last primary here in South Dakota, after visiting 48 states and speaking to hundreds of thousands of people and shaking hundreds of thousands of hands and kissing hundreds of babies, I am here to report that my bet has paid off because the American people have had enough. They are ready for something new. They're ready to turn the page. They're ready to write a new chapter in American history.

Now, I just got off the phone with Senator Clinton. She is -- she is going to win Puerto Rico and I wanted to congratulate her for that. And, you know, I know that there are a lot of democrats who have been concerned about whether or not the party's going to be able to come together after this long contest. And whether Clinton supporters will support Obama, whether Obama supporters will support Clinton's. First of all, Senator Clinton is an outstanding public servant. She has worked tirelessly in this campaign. She has been a great senator for the state of New York and she is going to be a great asset when we go into November to make sure that we defeat the republicans. That I can promise you.

And whatever differences, whatever differences Senator Clinton and I may have, look, those differences pale in comparison to the other side. Here's one thing we know. No matter what else happens, come November, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot when you go into that polling place. The name George Bush won't be on the ballot. But George Bush's policies will be on the ballot. Because John McCain is a genuine American hero. He is a war hero and he deserves all of our honor and respect for that but he is running for George Bush's fourth term. He is running to continue George Bush's policies.

On his economic policies, John McCain has said he had reviewed George Bush and his policies and concluded that we had made great progress on the economy. That's what he said. Now, I know he wasn't talking to the 260,000 people who have lost their jobs since the beginning of this year. He's not talking to the woman I met who had to quit her teaching job at the Pine Ridge Reservation because the drive was too long and she couldn't afford the gas. I know that John McCain hasn't been talking to all the young people I meet who want to go to college and have the grades to go to college but can't afford it or those who have seen their jobs shifted overseas and have lost not just their jobs but their pension and their health care and their sense of dignity and self worth.

John McCain hasn't been talking to you and he hasn't been talking to me and that's why we can't afford to let John McCain continue four more years of these failed economic policies that George Bush has been perpetrating on the American people. Same is true on - his foreign policy. John McCain has said he wants to continue the war in Iraq. Thinks we've been successful. Said the other day that we have actually had drawn our troops down to below surge levels, even though we haven't, we got 20,000 more troops than before the surge and even at the end of the summer, we are still going to have thousands more before the surge. The Iraqi government still has not stood up. We have still been distracted from going after Al Qaeda. Bin Laden sending out audio tapes. I have said we are going to end this war in Iraq.

John McCain wants to continue it. There can't be a clearer difference between our foreign policies and that's what the American people are going to be debating come November. We need to bring the war to a close. Bring our troops home in an honorable way. And initiate diplomacy, start talking even to folks we don't like. Because that is the way that America has always operated. We are not afraid to talk to people. We're not afraid to use diplomacy to resolve conflicts. And when we complete this war, let us make sure that we are treating our veterans with the honor and the respect they deserve. John McCain - John McCain and George Bush decided the other day that they would oppose a G.I. bill for the 21st century that would give full college benefits to our returning veterans.

My grandfather, my grandfather when he came back from World War II, he went to college on a G.I. bill. Today, young people coming back they can't even go for a full year on the benefits they're getting. That has to change. We've got a bill in the senate right now that I voted for. John McCain was opposed to. George Bush was opposed to it. We have to make sure that we are treating our veterans with the honor and the respect that they deserve. That's what's going to be on the ballot come November. That's what this election is all about.

But if we are honest with ourselves, you know, the changes we need don't just have to do with the republicans. You know, the problem we have is not just one person or one party. We have to change how Washington works because Washington has lost touch with you, the American people. It isn't hearing your voices. And if we're going to really change how business is done in Washington, there are two things that at least we have to change. Number one, we've got to end the dominance of special interests in Washington. That's why at the beginning of this campaign I said I would not take pac money. I would not take money from federal lobbyists. They have not funded my campaign. They will not run our White House and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I'm president of the United States of America.

I don't want the drug companies and the insurance companies running our health care bills. I want those bills to be written to make sure that you are getting a fair deal in health care. I don't want no oil companies writing our energy legislation. I want to do what's good for our national interest, not the special interest. So we have to break the dominance of special interest in Washington. The second thing we got to do is we got to be honest with the American people about how we're going to solve these problems. Some of you heard the debate I was having with John McCain. He wanted to institute a gas tax holiday to solve the gas problems. Now, this gas tax holiday for three months was going to amount to 30 cents a day for 90 days, for a grand total of $28 in savings. But that's only assuming that the oil companies actually lower gas prices when we took away the tax.

How many people would actually think the oil companies would lower gas prices? They would have pocketed that money in a hot minute. Not only that, it would have taken money out of the highway trust fund that's used to rebuild our roads and our bridges and put people back to work. And so I said this is a gimmick. This is designed to get a politician through the next election, not to solve a problem and we've been talking about energy for decades now. Through democratic and republican administrations. At least since the '70s. And it is time we started doing something about it.

Now, people need real relief right now. So what I've said is not a $28 savings, I've said let's give a tax break to the middle class for all the difficulty that is they're having paying their bills. I want to provide $1,000 middle class tax cut to working families, $1,000 that they can spend to offset higher gas prices but also higher food prices and higher medical costs and we're going to pay for it closing those tax loopholes and tax break that are going to corporations that don't need them and shouldn't have gotten them in the first place so we are going to pay for the tax cuts.

But if we're serious about ending our energy crisis, then they're only a few ways we got to do it and that is to - we've got to increase the use of alternative fuels. And we've got to raise fuel efficiency standards on cars. We got to make sure that we are investing in solar and wind and bio diesel and we can put millions of people to work right here in South Dakota by having a real energy policy. It is time we made that happen right here and right now and we will do it when I'm president of the United States of America.

Now, before I keep on going, I think somebody may have fainted. That happens sometimes when people aren't hydrated so let's get somebody in the shade here. And if we have a paramedic on the scene or EMT, can we get some help right up here in front? And if you guys are feeling hot and faint, go in the shade. And get some water. All right. I tell you. I think we have some folks coming right here. All right.

So let me just talk again about energy real clearly. I want everybody to understand this. If we invest $150 billion that I have proposed over 10 years, if we create a Manhattan project, an Apollo project for clean energy, not only can we put a stop to global warming, not only can we make sure the polluters are paying for the research and development in clean energy, but we can also stop sending a billion dollars a day to foreign nations. That's making us weaker. When George Bush says that he's going after Iran, but he doesn't do anything to help us reduce our consumption of oil and that makes Iran richer and allows them develop nuclear weapons, that is bad foreign policy and it is going to change when I'm president of the United States of America. That is the kind of truth telling that we need and if we combine an end to special interest lobbying with some truth telling in Washington, there is nothing we can't do.

We can stop talking about solving this health care crisis and actually start doing something about it. I proposed a bill that says if you already have health insurance, we are going to lower your premiums by $2,500 a year. If you don't have health insurance that we are going to make sure that you can buy health insurance that's as good as the health care that I have as a member of Congress. Nobody will be excluded for preexisting conditions. We'll negotiate with the drug companies for the cheapest available price on drugs. We'll invest in prevention.

That shade feels good. We'll invest in prevention so that we are having people getting regular check-ups and screenings instead of going to the emergency room for treatable illnesses and we won't wait 20 years from now to do this or ten years from now to do this. We'll do it by the end of my first term as president of the United States of America. If you're ready for change, if you are ready then we can start making our economy fairer for all Americans. I already told you, I want to give you a tax break but I want to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas. I want to give the tax breaks to companies that invest in Mitchell, South Dakota. In America. That's what I want. I want to make sure that our trade agreements are fair. I believe in free trade but I don't believe in a situation where Korea is sending hundreds of thousands of cars into the United States and we can only sell less than 5,000 in Korea. It's not fair. When China's manipulating it's currency to make our exports more expensive and their exports cheaper. We need someone to stand up for the American worker and we also need somebody who is going to be willing to invest in the infrastructure of this country, rebuilding our roads and our bridges.

Rebuilding our electricity grids so wind farms in South Dakota can deliver electricity to folks in Illinois and other parts of the country. And if people tell you we can't afford to rebuild our infrastructure, you just remind them that we're spending $10 billion a month in Iraq. We can spend a few billion dollars here in United States of America rebuilding this country and putting people back to work. I want to give every young person in America the best education we have to offer. From the day that child is born to the day that child is graduating from college.

We know how to do it. If we invest in early childhood education, we can close the achievement gap to make sure every child is prepared when they start school. I don't want to just talk about how great teachers are. I want to reward them for their greatness by giving them higher salaries and giving them more support. And I want to make sure that every young person in America is going to be able to afford to go to college and that's why we're going to put in place a $4,000 tuition credit. Every student, every year in exchange for community service or national service if they join the peace corps or work in a veterans' home or work on an Indian reservation. Teaching school or being a doctor. Then I promise you we'll guarantee their education. We'll invest in them and they'll invest in America. That's how we'll move this country forward.

We can do all these things but there's one last ingredient. We have got to come together. We have to stop being divided. You know, I'm proud about the beginning of this campaign when I said to my staff, we'll run a positive campaign. We are not going to spend time tearing the other candidate down. We're going to spend time talking about what our vision is for the country. How we want to move it forward. We haven't been perfect. There have been sometimes where we were getting knocked around a little bit and I had to say, all right, enough.

We have to punch back a couple times. But, but generally speaking, you know, I'm proudest of this campaign when we have been positive and we have tried to unify the country. When we have tried to appeal to what Lincoln called the better angels of our nation and the reason is, you know, you know, when we end up getting in these back and forths, snippy, you know, negative campaigns, then we lose focus on what this campaign is supposed to be about. This election is not about me. It is not about Hillary Clinton. It is not about John McCain. It is about you. It is about your hopes. It is about your dreams.

It's about all the people that I have met during the course of these 15 months. Who are struggling but are proud and are convinced that they can achieve the American dream. That they can make their lives and their children's lives and their grandchildren's lives better than they were before. That's what America is all about and so let me just say this. Mitchell, you know, I'm reminded every day of my life if not by events than by my wife that I'm not a perfect man. I won't be a perfect president. But I can promise you this. I'll tell you what I think. I'll always tell you where I stand.

I'll be honest with you about the challenges we face as a nation. And most importantly, I will spend every day working hard to make your lives better. I will think about you when I'm in the White House. I will spend every waking moment trying to make your lives better but let me tell you, I need something in return. I need you to participate. I need you not just to vote but get your friends to vote on Tuesday and even after you vote, I need you to be involved in the campaign. I need you to pay attention to the debates. I need you to follow the issues. We need an engaged citizenry to bring about the changes that are necessary in this country. And so, I just want to close by telling you a quick story.

I used to tell this story a lot at the beginning of the campaign and lately I haven't been telling it. It's a good story. It's a good place to end my campaign this primary phases because it's about you. It's about the American people and how important you are.

You know, way back at the beginning of this campaign I went down to South Carolina to a legislative dinner. I had been invited to go speak there. Nobody knew me down in South Carolina. I was still pretty new and, you know, we hadn't got a lot of publicity yet. I went to anyplace that would take me. And I went to this legislative dinner and I was sitting next to this legislator and I wanted her endorsement so I said, representative, I want your endorsement.

And she said, Obama, I'll give you my endorsement if you come to my hometown of Greenwood, South Carolina. And I thought, fine. I must have had a glass of wine or something. I didn't ask any questions. I'm there. I'm coming. We shook on it. Come to find out that Greenwood is about an hour and a half from every place else. I mean, it is out in the sticks. It is in the middle of the nowhere in South Carolina. A month later I returned to South Carolina. And I've been campaigning hard in Iowa and other states and so it's been ten days straight haven't seen my family or kids. I'm exhausted. We get into the airport about midnight. Get to the hotel about 12:30. I'm dragging my bags into the room looking forward to that bed and that pillow and it's my staff person saying, senator, we have to be in the car at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. I said why is that? They said, because we have to go to Greenwood like you promised.

So the next morning I wake up. And I feel terrible. I feel worse than when I went to bed. And I stagger over to the window to try to get some light in the room and I pull open the shades and it is a miserable day. Pouring down rain, looks awful. I stagger over to the door and I pull open the door and pick up the newspaper and start drinking some coffee and there's a bad story about me in "The New York Times."

I pack up my belongings and go down stairs and as I'm about to get in the car my umbrella blows open and I get soaked. So by the time I'm in the car I am mad, I am sleepy and I'm wet. And we start driving out to Greenwood. And we just drive and we drive and we drive. We keep on driving, seems like it goes on forever. Finally, we get to Greenwood although you don't know you are in Greenwood right away. You know? There are a lot of fields out there. We pull alongside a park and go inside a field house. And lo and behold after this drive after waking up that early, there are 20 people inside this field house, 20 folks. But, you know, I say to myself, every vote counts. I start shaking hands. How do you do? Nice to meet. What you to do you do? I hear a voice shout out, fire it up! A few people have heard this story. So I am -- I don't know what's going on. I look back. Well, first of all, I hear this voice say fire it up and everybody else acts like this is normal. I'm sort of startled and a voice says ready to go. Everybody says ready do go. So I don't know what's going on. I look back and there's a little woman there. She can't be more than 5'1", 5'2" about 60 years old. Looks like she just came from church, she has a big church hat on and looks at me and smiles and says fire it up. I don't know what the heck's going on.

Come to find out, this woman is a member of the city council of Greenwood who is famous both for her hats and for her chants. She -- they call her the chant lady because everywhere she goes she starts this chant. Fire it up. Ready to go. And then so for the next five minutes, she keeps on with this fire it up ready to go thing. And I'm standing there and I don't know what to do. I look at the staff, they shrug their shoulders. I'm upstaged by this woman. Here I am presidential candidate came all the way to Greenwood.

She is getting all the attention. But here's the thing, Mitchell. After about a minute or two, I'm feeling kind of fired up. I feel like I'm ready to go. So I start joining in the chant. And it feels good. And for the rest of the day, even after we left Mitchell, you know, even as we left Greenwood, we're in Mitchell now. Even after we left Greenwood for the day, every time I saw the staff, I'd say are you fired up? They'd say we're fired up. They'd say, are you fired up, boss? I'd say, I'm ready to go. It goes the show you how one voice can change a room. And if one voice can change a room, it can change a city. And if it can change a city, it can change a state. And if it can change a state, it can change a nation. And if it can change a nation, it can change the world. One voice can change the world. So I want to know, Mitchell are you fired up? Ready to go? Fire the it up. Ready to go. Fire it up. Ready to go. Let's go change the world. Thank you. God bless America.

BLITZER: There he is in Mitchell, South Dakota. Barack Obama the Democratic presidential front-runner right now speaking to a big crowd right outside Mitchell Corn Palace. Very warmly received by people in South Dakota right now. This is a contest that will take place on Tuesday. The last two contests of this long, very long presidential campaign. South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday.

Today, the focus of attention was in Puerto Rico where Hillary Clinton had a very impressive victory in Puerto Rico. She's going to be speaking shortly in Puerto Rico, as well. Once Hillary Clinton starts to speak there, we'll be anxious to hear what she has to say. What will she say, if anything, about a possible challenge to the Democratic National Committee's Rules Committee a decision on Michigan? We are watching this very closely. Jim Acosta is on the scene for us right now in Mitchell, South Dakota. He is watching what is going on. Tell us about the crowd there. It is a big crowd. When's the makeup?

ACOSTA: Well, Wolf, according to the Obama campaign, there is a crowd of roughly 2,200 people which is a sizable crowd in a state as sparsely populated as South Dakota is. We heard there at the end of the campaign event that Barack Obama going back to a golden oldies but it was interesting to know that he said very early on when he conceded the Puerto Rico primary and congratulating Senator Clinton on her victory there. He said that Senator Clinton is an outstanding public servant and a great asset to make sure that we go out and beat the Republicans almost speaking of Senator Clinton there in the past tense as if she is no longer a candidate in this race very much longer.

And then he heard your standard stump speech from Barack Obama which is really pivoted away from the battle against Hillary Clinton and to the general election fight against John McCain. You heard Barack Obama once again hit John McCain on his issue of the enhanced GI Bill. That is being proposed in Congress. That is obviously an area where Barack Obama sees vulnerability with John McCain. Knowing obviously that Senator McCain is a war hero and it is again an opportunity for the Illinois senator to try to tie the Arkansas senator to an unpopular president.

But Barack Obama is hitting South Dakota at a time when this campaign is winding down. There are just two days left in this campaign. You heard Barack Obama acknowledge, returning back to the line about babies walking and talking after 15 months of this campaign. You sort of heard almost a Barack Obama attempt there to sort of wrap up this campaign and tie it up with the votes saying that he's been proudest of this campaign when it stayed its most positive and he is pledging to do that in the fall campaign, Wolf.

BLITZER: Jim Acosta on the scene for us. Jim thank you very much. There's Barack Obama in the crowd in Mitchell, South Dakota, where he has been warmly received. Take a look at this. This is several thousand miles away in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the crowd is gathering to hear from the winner of the Puerto Rico primary, Hillary Clinton. We'll go there live once Hillary Clinton starts to speak to hear what she has to say and we will be trying to understand a little bit better reading between the tea leaves how far she is willing to go to challenging the decision yesterday by the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Committee to go ahead with the compromise on Michigan. All right. Lots of stuff going on. Here at the CNN Election Center.

Right now, the polls show that Hillary Clinton will have a wide victory in Puerto Rico. Right now, our exit polls and the actual numbers coming in, also, show a 2-1 lead, as well. CNNpolitics.com where you can follow this all very closely. Go there. We'll take a quick break. More of our coverage right after this.

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BLITZER: Let's update you on what we know in Puerto Rico. They held their primary today. The polls have been closed now for what, almost two hours, 27 percent of the precincts have reported. Hillary Clinton maintaining her sizable advantage over Barack Obama. We have projected she will be the winner by a wide margin 67 percent to his 33 percent, 2-1 advantage for Hillary Clinton.

Let's look at the actual numbers that have been recorded so far. More than 50,000 for Hillary Clinton. Almost 25,000 for Barack Obama. That would be precisely almost a 2-1 advantage over Barack Obama right now. If you take a look at the senate districts, they're not called counties in Puerto Rico. She is ahead in every one. The light blue are colors where she leads. He doesn't lead anywhere in Puerto Rico right now. She is doing remarkably well in Puerto Rico. Let's walk over to John Roberts. He is taking a closer look at all of this, as well. John, what else are you looking at as far as the Puerto Rico primaries concerned?

ROBERTS: We are seeing the vote come in by the senate districts and we are seeing how Hillary Clinton is doing in relation to Barack Obama. Here in the district, you can see that -- push that here. District number three, she got him 69 to 31 right now. She is slamming him there and same thing here 68-32. The area where it was thought he would do fairly well, you remember the big parade that he had a couple of weeks ago. Still getting slammed, 69-31. This is the real swing state here in Puerto Rico. It's a same story that the margins a little narrower. Here margins about 60-40 and the western suburb, 69-31.

BLITZER: Looks consistent as of right now, 20 percent out precincts reporting.

ROBERTS: Watch this. San Juan where it was thought he maybe do all right 72-28.

BLITZER: Only 8 percent reporting.

ROBERTS: And this is unusual. In the eastern suburb of Carolina, he is doing best. It is about 60-40 which is what the early polling was showing including the island and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have said that they will work to clean up of that. Why is this important in terms of the margin? You have got delegates that are awarded in relation to the senate district. The larger the district, the more delegates. You have a bunch of districts here with four delegates being awarded and you need to a threshold of 63 percent in order to get the majority of those delegates so in these areas, Hillary Clinton is running that majority and so she will get three delegates in those districts.

Right here, she is not making that threshold and only gets two. And we'll see the rest of them are divided up. That's important because in the overall calculation here in the delegate map, Hillary Clinton needs to get as many delegates as she can out of Puerto Rico in order to try to make it to that new finish line which is 2,118. At present with 67 percent of the vote, that is going to give her 37 delegates leaving Barack Obama with 18 and over here to Montana, and we basically give Barack Obama maybe a couple more delegates because he is leading right now. This one is a little closer, South Dakota, 12 delegates for Barack Obama, 11 for Hillary Clinton. Plot that out on the linear graph. Barack Obama is very, very close here to the finish line. John Edwards' delegates are left over. A portion some those here and we'll give you a few to Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama now, only about 25 of these super delegates, 205 left. Two more went to Barack Obama just this afternoon. So if he gets about that many superdelegates, he is across the line and he is the nominee for the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton, here in Puerto Rico, has to rack up as many delegates as she can and she has to try to rack up as much of the popular vote as she can to make the case to those remaining superdelegates. I am the stronger candidate. I'm the one to carry the party into the November election and beat John McCain.

BLITZER: We are going to watch this closely and see what happens. We are going to get some new information, Bill Schneider going through the exclusive exit poll numbers. He is going to be sharing those numbers with you. You can go to CNNpolitics.com to see those exit polls. The exclusive look there at CNNpolitics.com. We're also waiting to hear right now from Hillary Clinton. She is getting ready to address her supporters at rally in San Juan. We just heard from Barack Obama. We're going to be listening very carefully for signals from Hillary Clinton, what is she going to say? That and a lot more coming up from the CNN Election Center right after this.

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COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the primary in Puerto Rico. We have been on the air none stop for the last 20 hours and we will continue for several hours more. Let's check in with Bill Schneider who is looking again at the exit polls, CNN exclusive exit polls. No one else bothered to go for exit polls for Puerto Rico but we are. We are that committed to this race. Bill, what are we learning in terms of what the issues are for the voters in Puerto Rico?

SCHNEIDER: Well, as reported earlier, the economy was the top issue and that was an issue that paid off quite well for Hillary Clinton. Those voters, who said the economy was their number one concern and this was a majority of the voters in Puerto Rico, voted very heavily for Hillary Clinton, 72 percent for Clinton, 28 percent for Barack Obama. Clinton delivers and they believed she would do better in managing the economy.

Did Barack Obama have any issue? Well he usually does well among anti- war voters. Look at the one quarter of voters in Puerto Rico who said their top concern was the war. Obama's vote jumps to 42 percent. He only got 28 percent among those who said their big concern was the economy. It's 42 percent among those who said Iraq was their big issue and the more anti-war you were, the more you voted for Barack Obama. But Hillary Clinton still carried those voters who said the war was their top concern so it did help Obama but not enough. Anderson.

COOPER: All right. We'll have more from Bill Schneider coming up. Let's talk with the panel a little bit. We were talking before about what Hillary Clinton wants. Gloria, it's like reading tea leaves.