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Zimbabwe Crisis: Opposition Leader Seeks Safety; Big Breakfasts and Weight Loss; John McCain Addresses Energy Innovation; Obama Holds Town Hall Meeting with Working Women
Aired June 23, 2008 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Days before his first joint campaign event with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama courts working women in New Mexico. We're live at the Flying Star Cafe.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And we'll also take a hard look at a high school left behind. It's Frederick Douglass High in Baltimore. That's the subject of a new documentary by acclaimed filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond. They join us in the CNN NEWSROOM this hour.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips in New York.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Leading our Political Ticker, energy innovation and the candidates for president. John McCain in Fresno, California, today. He says the U.S. has what it takes to break the oil habit. It's just a matter of getting back to our innovative roots.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Energy security is the great national challenge of our time. And rising to this challenge will take all the vision, creativity and resolve of which we are capable.
The good news is these qualities have never been in short supply in America. We're the country of Edison, Fulton and two brothers who were named Wright. It was American ingenuity that took us to the moon and brought them back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, McCain says the government should offer a $300 million prize to whomever develops a better car battery. He also wants to give U.S. automakers tax credits for every zero emission car they sell.
And Barack Obama lashing out at McCain's energy policy, criticizing the Arizona Republican's recent call to lift the offshore drilling ban. Obama's camp calls that a big flip-flop, and the Democratic candidate is campaigning today in New Mexico. And can the former foes be friends on the campaign trail? We'll find out Friday. That's when Senator Hillary Clinton will appear with Obama at a campaign event. Their first time together, by the way, doing that. It's being held in an appropriate place, Unity, New Hampshire.
Check out our Political Ticker for all the latest campaign news. Just log on to CNNPolitics.com, your source for all things political.
LEMON: And it is a scandal rocking a Massachusetts town. Four times as many teens as usual getting pregnant at Gloucester High School. Seventeen in all. The mayor says there's no grounds for the principal's claim that the girls got pregnant on purpose, but the case isn't closed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR CAROLYN KIRK, GLOUCESTER, MASS.: We have not been able to confirm the existence of a pact. We are seeking to understand whether it's based in rumor or in fact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And according to what the school principal told "TIME" magazine, the girls agreed to have their babies and raise their children together.
PHILLIPS: He risked his life to return to Zimbabwe and face autocratic President Robert Mugabe in a runoff election. Now opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has dropped out of the race, and he's holed up in the Dutch Embassy in Harare.
CNN's Nkpile Mubase is in Johannesburg with the latest.
And you'll have to forgive me. I know you're a new correspondent. You must tell me correctly how to say your name.
NKPILE MUBASE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's Nkpile.
Anyway, Morgan Tsvangirai seeking refuge from the Dutch Embassy. We understand that he took this decision after three of his bodyguards were arrested recently.
He's expected to stay at the embassy until Wednesday. He's expecting a breakthrough to be brokered by African leaders here. Obviously Morgan Tsvangirai pushing for African leaders to put pressure on Mugabe to allow an environment where free and fair elections can be held in that country, or a negotiated settlement.
PHILLIPS: Now, Nkpile, we just talked with the opposition leader. And he didn't want to tell me where he was holed up. And I asked him if it was for security purposes. And he just said he didn't want to tell me.
Do you think that he didn't want to talk about the exact location because he fears for his life? MUBASE: Yes, he certainly does fear for his life. But we understand he's at the Dutch Embassy in the capital in Harare, and they have promised that he can stay there for as long as he can. We're expecting him to stay just a couple of days because he is lobbying African leaders to actually take action in Zimbabwe and do something about the deteriorating situation there.
PHILLIPS: So -- and he's very concerned about the future of Zimbabwe. He says if somebody doesn't step in like the U.N. Security Council or some other drastic kind of action, help from the U.S., that the future of Zimbabwe will continue to deteriorate. And people will die and be murdered, and the human rights abuses will just continue.
MUBASE: The solution will have to come from Africa. Robert Mugabe does not care what the U.S. says. He doesn't care what Britain says. He doesn't care what the West says.
His whole election campaign is Britain and the United States want to colonize Zimbabwe, and I'm fighting for you, for us not to be a colony again. So who he will listen to are African leaders, and African leaders need to take a much firmer stand against Robert Mugabe this time around.
PHILLIPS: Nkpile Mabuse, appreciate your live report from Zimbabwe.
Thank you.
And new signs of progress in the multiparty effort to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program. News organizations, including CNN, have been invited to watch as North Korea blows up a key part of a nuclear reactor Friday.
In Beijing, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill says a new round of six- nation talks will start soon. And a U.S. official in Washington says that North Korea could hand in a long-delayed list of its nuclear programs as early as Thursday.
And at least 11 people are dead, hundreds are missing after a ferry capsized in the Philippines. The search is still under way, but so far only about 34 survivors have been found. Some drifted at sea for more than 24 hours before being rescued.
Officials say that 864 people were aboard the ferry when it ran aground and capsized Saturday during a powerful typhoon. It was about a mile offshore, and the crew had reported that the ferry's engines had failed. A U.S. Navy ship is expected in the area today to help in that search.
LEMON: And now to the misery in the Midwest. Drying out upstream, overflowing downstream. We're waiting for the mighty Mississippi to crest this afternoon from Hannibal to Clarksville, Missouri. It will be a couple of days though before the danger passes farther south.
The waters that flooded entire communities last week have gone down, and what's left is certainly a mighty mess. The flooding was one nightmare. The mountain of mess left behind is certainly another.
And CNN's Ed Lavandera takes us back to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a city trying to come clean.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1900 is when it was built. So it's 108 years old now.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Floodwaters destroyed the first floor and basement of Dan Pierce's (ph) home. More than 100 years of family history now sits on the curb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The waterline is about halfway up my first floor. So every room, every room was just packed to the brim with stuff. Underneath this pile someplace is my grandmother's sewing machine that she used in the '30s.
LAVANDERA: Drive the streets of Cedar Rapids and it's an endless stream of trash, block after block of flood debris piling up. There's so much stuff that officials are worried it will completely fill up the city's landfills. Early estimates are that there's one million cubic yards of debris that needs to be removed. That would fill about four football fields stacked 60 feet high.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were pretty shocked when we heard the number. It's certainly going to challenge the local facilities.
LAVANDERA: Landfill officials say this newly-opened garbage pit was supposed to last the city 20 years, but all of the flood debris will likely fill it up in just a few months.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obviously people want to get it out and want it disposed of. You know, for the safety of everyone, we want to manage it as quickly as possible.
LAVANDERA: And the trash just keeps piling up. West Side Sewing (ph) has been a downtown Cedar Rapids fixture for 83 years. The storefront reduced to slush and grime.
DAVID PEREZ, CEDAR RAPIDS RESIDENT: I walk around the corner, I mean, my mouth just drops open. I'm so shocked. It's unbelievable.
You can see so much on TV. You know, you've been seeing it day after day. But until you get down inside of it and see what's happening, you really can't imagine looking at the television screen.
LAVANDERA (on camera): City officials say they will dispatch about 120 dump trucks across this city to clean up this debris. And the goal is to have most of it picked up in 30 days.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(WEATHER REPORT) PHILLIPS: So you want to lose some weight? Well, eat more. Heck, have some chocolate. As counterintuitive as that sounds, experts say it's true.
LEMON: Plus, a hard look at No Child Left Behind. One high school is the subject of a new documentary. The filmmakers join us coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A live event happening -- or about to start, actually, right now in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Barack Obama getting ready to hold a discussion with women there. Obviously working women, a key group that he needs to win over for this election.
We'll monitor it, bring it to you live as soon as it begins.
LEMON: All right, we'll get back to that as soon as it happens.
Right now we want to talk about your health.
Can you bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan -- what was that Enjoli? Do you remember that? -- and drop some pounds in the process? A new study says a breakfast packed with carbs, protein, even chocolate, could help you lose weight.
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University compared two groups of obese women over eight months, one eating a brig breakfast, the other eating a low-carb breakfast. The big breakfast eaters lost an average of around 40 pounds -- that's very interesting -- compared to nine pounds for the low-carb eaters.
What's going on here? Let's ask our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
First of all, what kind of big breakfasts are we talking about? It just -- again, this one sounds counterintuitive as well.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It does sound counterintuitive. So let's go over what happened in this study.
LEMON: OK.
COHEN: What they did...
LEMON: I'm hungry, by the way.
COHEN: And you're hungry. Well, you don't want to eat this. It has been out for many hours.
What they did in this study at Virginia Commonwealth University is they had some women -- these are obese women -- eat a big breakfast and some a little breakfast. And the big breakfast eaters were better off.
Here's the big, here's the little. Let's start on the big. The big breakfast eaters were eating two slices of bread with a pat of butter, three slices of turkey or chicken or roast beef, and three slices of cheese. That's a lot of food. Plus two eight ounce glasses of milk and some milk in their coffee.
Compare that to this -- well, they didn't call it this, but I'm going to call it this, this measly breakfast of three slices of bacon and one egg, some butter to cook that egg, and coffee with no milk. And a little tiny glass of milk. And again, what they found is that folks who were eating that big breakfast managed to lose more weight.
And what's interesting is that some of the women who ate the big breakfast also had a piece of chocolate. The theory is that if you have just a little bit of yummy carbs early in the day -- not quite that much that we're showing, but just a little piece of chocolate -- that it might stave off cravings later on.
LEMON: So not the big stack of a tall stack?
COHEN: No. Well, you can see -- I mean, that's a fair amount of food.
LEMON: Yes, it is. You said, oh, that's a ton of food. That's really not. Maybe for some tiny person like you.
But you know what? What's strange to me is that that sort of goes against what everyone says. Carbs, you know what I mean, and I guess the Atkins folks. When I want to drop a few pounds, I just, you know, cut my carbs back.
COHEN: Well, yes, the Atkins folks aren't very happy about this study. They are really questioning, why would you give lots of carbs to obese women who are insulin-resistant? And even non-Atkins experts we talked to are sort of questioning the results of this study.
But the theory is that if you eat a big breakfast, that your body metabolizes calories more efficiently in the morning. It makes use of those calories. And then also, if you don't eat breakfast, everyone agrees with this, then you're, let's say, at 10:00 in the morning ravenous and you will eat basically anything you can find in the vending machine or some other terrible place to get food.
So those are the theories as to why big breakfast works. Now, does it need to be this big breakfast? A lot of people would say no. But experts do agree you need to have a substantial breakfast. Many will say protein and carbs, get a mix in there.
Don't forget the fruits and vegetables. Eat a little of everything in the morning.
LEMON: So I can't have that bacon. You've had it out for a while.
COHEN: Oh yes, you would become very ill, I'm afraid.
(LAUGHTER) LEMON: But I would lose weight.
COHEN: Well, I don't know about that. Yes, that's true. I guess you would.
LEMON: Elizabeth, always appreciate your information. Thank you very much.
COHEN: Thanks.
LEMON: Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, acclaimed filmmakers take us into Frederick Douglass High. It's a school that was left behind. They're with us in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BUSINESS REPORT)
LEMON: The cost of college tuition has been soaring for years. Now with food and gas prices also skyrocketing, some students are taking a closer look at the presidential candidates to see what they've planned to do for higher education.
CNN's Chris Lawrence visited the Berkeley campus on the University of California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Oscar Mainia came to college to study political science, but he's feeling more like a finance major as he tries to figure out how to afford tuition.
OSCAR MAINIA, CAL. BERKELEY STUDENT: If I wasn't working I doubt I'd be able to pay for it.
LAWRENCE: Mainia has had to increase his work study so much he filed an appeal to qualify for more hours. California recently raised tuition for the sixth time in seven years, and some students plan to hold the next president accountable for higher education.
(on camera): Do you still belief any politician when they say education is the future?
MAINIA: You don't want empty rhetoric. We want rhetoric that's going to be backed up. If you're going to say you're going to back up education, how?
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Senator Barack Obama would give students a tax credit in exchange for 100 hours of volunteer work.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Your country will offer you a $4,000 a year tuition credit if you offer your country community or national service when you graduate.
LAWRENCE: But so far, Senator John McCain has been vague.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to provide a quality education.
LAWRENCE: Since the credit crunch has made it harder for Americans to get loans, McCain has proposed a continuity plan that will make sure student loans aren't disrupted this fall.
MCCAIN: We need to spend more funds in the right way.
LAWRENCE: Obama has only voted for two bills that specifically helped students pay for college. McCain's got a longer track record but mixed results.
OBAMA: He's voted time and time again to stop us from making college affordable.
LAWRENCE: Here are the facts. Last year McCain voted against a bill that increased Pell Grant funding and allowed some low-income students to defer their loans. But that same bill increased the fees students pay to open a loan.
And Obama ignores McCain's 1998 vote to lower student loan interest rates and increase work study aid to $1 billion. But the average cost of textbooks alone soaring to $1,500 a year, students like Mainia plan to hold candidates to their word. First in his family to go to college, he's wondering if he'll have enough money to come home with a degree.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Berkeley, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Looking straight ahead, a group that helps others in times of need needs some help itself. Why the Red Cross is in the red.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips in New York.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
2:30 Eastern time and here are some of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.
More than 800 people still missing two days after this ferry capsized off the Philippines after a typhoon. Only 34 survives have been found. At least 11 people are confirmed dead.
Zimbabwe's opposition leader says that his people are growing more desperate under President Robert Mugabe's regime. Morgan Tsvangirai talked to CNN by phone just last hour, a day after he pulled out of the upcoming presidential runoff. Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe's regime of election violation and intimidation and wants the U.N. to declare the runoff results null and void.
And in Anaheim, California the freeway is finally open again after turning into a crime scene for most of the day. Police shot and killed a gunman who was suspected of wounding an officer. He was also suspected of exposing himself to children near Disneyland.
LEMON: If you have a child in an inner city public school, you should pay attention. Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore has its share of famous alumni. The late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall for one, jazz legend Cab Calloway went there also. You would think kids there would be inspired knowing that other Douglass alums had gone on to greatness, and you might be wrong if you thought that. Ask yourself, is this how a 16-year-old should be talking?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHARNAE, 11TH GRADER: I'm not young -- and I don't have somebody taking care of me no more, so I got to do what I got to do to survive and come to school and survive and pass all my classes. I'm doing it, but yes. It's like I say like most people my age and most kids growing up in my generation, there's not really no home, home is probably not what you think it is. You go home your mother, your father, home is a place where you lay your led. That's what it is for me.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Her story is not rare. Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond join me now to talk about what they found at that school. They've got a new film that's coming out. Tell us about it. Thank you very much for joining us. I want to get this out of the way very quickly because I think it's an important film. It airs tonight on HBO. Tell us about that film and why you chose Frederick Douglass High School?
SUSAN RAYMOND, FILMMAKER, "HARD TIMES AT DOUGLASS HIGH": Well Frederick Douglass High School is both a very special school because it has a great legacy. It's the second oldest African-American school in the United States, built in 1883. At the same time it's also a very typical school of inner city schools and all of the problems and pressures that they're trying to cope with these days.
LEMON: So we see it's kids failing, but really is this the no child left behind act? Is that failing as well when it comes to public schools?
S. RAYMOND: I think the no child left behind law is punishing inner city schools.
LEMON: Why?
S. RAYMOND: Because it's enforcing these mandates. And that's what the film is trying to show you, why this school as dedicated to these teachers are, they cannot meet these demands. These demands may be unrealistic. They have such low test scores in these schools due to an enormous amount of lack of resources. They don't have teachers in this school. They're all substitute teachers. They don't have books in this school, for instance. There are no books for the children to take home to study. The resource problems, there are no computers. It's enormous obstacles.
LEMON: Susan, that brings us to something that I want to show you. I was riveted by this and have seen it twice. Because I don't want to miss anything. But it's so frustrating in the school. One teacher talked about exactly what you're talking about, 25, 30 students and maybe 15 books. Let's take a listen, then we'll talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have classes, 16 books for 25 kids. No textbooks to take home. That's a problem. You talk about resource availability. So you can't just put the thing on the teacher as to whether you're successful or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I can understand both sides. We saw Mr. McDermott, was that the teacher who quit right after his first term? The frustration with all of that -- because he says he gets these wonderful lesson plans and all these great lessons to help the children. Then one person will say something it turns into a fight, it turns into discipline, he doesn't have the tools he needs. How can you blame that on no child left behind? It's trying to get students up to a certain level.
How do you blame that on no child left behind? I want to ask you that, Alan.
ALAN RAYMOND, FILMMAKER, "HARD TIMES AT DOUGLASS HIGH": I think nobody can blame no child left behind. The blame game is a real problem when you deal with urban education. Because you end up with a situation where everyone points their fingers at one another. I think that the real issue is that no child left behind has not ultimately helped these schools, it has mostly hindered them. But I don't think blame is the issue. If you're talking about certified teachers, no child left behind said that it would have a certified teacher in every classroom in America by now. They've certainly not met that challenge.
LEMON: I want to ask you guys this. Because if both the candidates, John McCain, Barack Obama, both of them say that no child left behind needs to be reformed. If you could speak to them and tell them what you found in your film and what you need and how they should reform it, what would you say to each of them?
A. RAYMOND: For one thing I'd say to put some money behind the law. I think President Bush, while he may have felt he was trying to do something with accountability and improving schools on a national level put very little funding behind it. And that is a crucial problem in these schools, especially inner city communities which don't have high real estate value. You have a terrible shortage of, as Susan said, the basic resources to qualified teachers. I think that they should also relax the standards. I think it's pointless to set standards that these schools can't meet. I believe nearly half of the urban schools in America have failed to meet the adequate yearly progress.
LEMON: Thank you both. The film opens tonight, you can see the film at least tonight on HBO. It is called "Hard Times at Douglass High", a no child left behind report card. Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond, we appreciate your time. Thank you.
S. RAYMOND: Thank you for having us.
PHILLIPS: The slow economy hitting a lot of people including one group whose aim is to help people in hard times.
CNN's Kate Bolduan reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like so many homes in Iowa, Josh Clemann's house was under water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The downstairs is pretty much completely lost. Our kitchen ceiling has collapsed.
BOLDUAN: Now Clemann begins the painstaking cleanup, thankful for the food and supplies the American Red Cross has offered.
JOSH CLEMMAN, FLOOD VICTIM: They've already been past here a couple of times this morning already. And they're putting out whatever they can do to help.
BOLDUAN: But that very organization needs help itself. Red Cross officials say they're out of cash and working on borrowed money.
SUZY DEFRANCIS, RED CROSS SPOKESWOMAN: It started with tornadoes throughout the central U.S. We had wildfires on the coast. Now we're having this very significant flooding. The important point is it's only June.
BOLDUAN: Red Cross spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis says this is only the second time in its 125 year history the Red Cross has needed a loan to cover operations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you need a cleanup kit?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need a shovel and a rake?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh yes, that would be great.
BOLDUAN: 3,500 personnel on the ground in the Midwest and about 2,000 people coordinating everything from its Washington headquarters.
(on camera): This is the nerve center of the Red Cross disaster operations. With daily conference calls like this one to get the latest information from the hardest hit areas. Now when all is said and done, they estimate their efforts in the Midwest alone will cost $15 million.
(voice-over): The Red Cross says the struggling economy is also to blame for sluggish donations.
DEFRANCIS: This is a difficult time for people with gas prices and food prices going up. So they have less disposable income.
BOLDUAN: But critics say this may be more about credibility than tough economic times. They point to rapid turnover at the top of the Red Cross which has had five CEOs in just six years.
PAUL C. LIGHT, PROFESSOR, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: Americans have lost confidence in the Red Cross to spend their money wisely. So they're holding off until the next disaster, until they can actually see with their money is going.
BOLDUAN: Red Cross officials know they face a long and threatening hurricane season ahead. Image problem or not, they just hope their financial forecast improves, quickly.
Kate Bolduan, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Live pictures from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee wooing the women today. He's trying to get that woman's vote as he's talking in sort of an open forum, a town hall meeting with working women.
Let's go ahead and take a listen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She worked during World War II on a bomber assembly line. She was one of the original Rosie the riveters. Then even though she never got more than a high school diploma because Rosie the riveter didn't get the G.I. Bill the way my grandfather did, she nevertheless worked her way up starting as a secretary at a bank, and by the end of her career was one of the first women vice presidents of a bank in her state. And ended up being the financial rock for our family when I was growing up.
Of course I'm here because of my wife, Michelle, who is the rock of the Obama family and who worked her way up from modest roots on the south side of Chicago and who has juggled jobs and parenting with more skill and grace than anybody that I know. And looks good doing it, too.
Now, Michelle and I want our two daughters Malia and Sasha to grow up in America where they have the freedom and opportunity to live their dreams and raise their own families. But even as these stories speak to the progress that we've made, we know that too many American daughters grow up facing barriers to their dreams, barriers that their male counterparts don't have to deal with, and have consequences for all American families. For decades we've had politicians in Washington who talk about family values, but we haven't had policies that value families.
Instead, it's harder for working parents to make a living while raising their children. We know that the system is especially stacked against women. That's why I believe Washington has to change.
Now, Senator John McCain is an honorable man. I respect his service to our country. But when you look at our records and our plans on issues that matter to working women, the choice could not be clearer. It starts with something the lieutenant governor just talked about and that's the issue of equal pay -- 62 percent of working women in America earn half or more than half of their family's income.
So it's not like working women are the exception now. They are the rule. And yet, as was already mentioned, women still earn only 70 cents for every dollar earned by a man. In 2008 you would think that Washington would be united in its determination to fight for equal pay. That's why I was a proud co-sponsor of the Lillie Ledbetter (ph) fair pay restoration act which would have reversed last year's Supreme Court decision which made it more difficult for women to challenge pay discrimination on the job.
In case some of you aren't familiar, this was a situation where a woman had been discriminated against on the job for years. She was doing the same work as her male counterparts, getting paid less. She didn't know about it. When she finally finds out about it, not surprisingly, she immediately says this is unfair and she files suit. And the Supreme Court, in its wisdom, in a 5-4 decision says, well, you only have 180 days to file suit when the discrimination starts. And so all that time that they were being -- you were being discriminated against, you can't file suit anymore, which didn't make too much sense.
The majority of the Senate didn't think it made too much sense, but Senator John McCain thinks that the Supreme Court got it right. He opposed the fair pay restoration act. He suggested that the reason women don't have equal pay isn't discrimination on the job, it's because they need more education and training.
Now, that was wrong. Lilly Ledbetter's problem was not that she was somehow unqualified or unprepared for higher paying positions. She most certainly was. And by all reports she was an excellent employee. Her problem was that her employer paid her less than men for doing the exact same work.
So John McCain has it wrong. He said the fair pay restoration act, quote, "Opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems." But I can't think of any problem that's more important than making sure the women are getting a square deal on the job. It's a matter of equality, it's a matter of fairness. That's why I stood up for equal pay in the Illinois state Senate when I was in the state legislature and helped passed a law giving 130,000 more women protection from paycheck discrimination. That's why I've been fighting to pass legislation in the Senate so that employers don't get away with discriminating against hard working women like Lilly Ledbetter. And that's why I will continue to stand up for equal pay as president.
Senator McCain won't. That's a real difference in this election. As the son of a single mom, I also don't accept that an America that makes women choose between their children and their careers. That's one of the biggest burdens that women have to carry. It is not acceptable that women are denied jobs or promotions because they have children at home. It's not acceptable that 40 percent of working women don't have a single paid sick day. That's wrong for working parents. It's wrong for America's children and it is not who we are as a country.
PHILLIPS: Son of a single mother and also bragging about his grandmother who had a big part in raising him, Barack Obama speaking in Fresno, California, or Albuquerque, New Mexico, I apologize. John McCain was in Fresno, California talking about the economy. Barack Obama having a town hall discussion with working women there. Obviously a key group of voters that he needs to win over as he moves into the presidential election. You can go to CNN.com/live and continue to watch this event if you like. Meantime, we'll monitor it and bring you the highlights -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Kyra.
Well he made some question there, believes he challenged what he can say on TV, but most of all he made us laugh. We're remembering comedic genius George Carlin in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Live now to Fresno, California. John McCain taking questions from reporters. Earlier he gave a speech pushing hard for new automotive technology. Now he's taking questions from reporters.
Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... corporation America in the world is located in America that would be very likely that if that car were manufactured in the United States of America, that we would probably automatically extend it to them. I'd like to look at it a little more carefully and get back to you.
Yes, ma'am? Yes.
QUESTION: Hi, Debra Saunders (ph) with the "San Francisco Chronicle." Senator do you think that Californians and Floridians should want to drill off their shores?
MCCAIN: According to a poll just in the last couple of days, the citizens of Florida by a significant majority said that if it's obviously environmentally safe and sound that they would support it. So I don't know about California. I have not seen any polling data, but I did see polling data concerning Florida in the last couple of days, that 60-some percent approved of such a thing. Yes. I think they should approve it? Sure, I'd love for them to. But again, I leave that decision up to them. But obviously, I want the moratorium lifted because I'd like to explore every possible way to get us -- bridge us through this time when we're still going to be dependent on foreign oil. And I'd much rather -- even though it takes a number of years to develop those resources, it's better I think to go ahead and do that. '
Yes, in the back.
QUESTION: A random question for you. In terms of talking to dairy farmers, you know that's the big thing in (INAUDIBLE) county, this area alone, they say that ethanol has basically driven them to the point where they're practically broke because of the fact that the costs for feed has gone through the roof. What would you say to encourage them to possibly support the increase in output that you want to see of ethanol?
MCCAIN: I'm for all kinds of alternate fuels. But I'm opposed to subsidies for ethanol. And I'm opposed to the 55 cent tariff per gallon on the importation of sugar cane based ethanol from Brazil. So I could give them some immediate relief if they eliminated the tariff which is just blatant protectionism on sugar cane based ethanol. I would say to them, whenever we distort the market there are consequences that are intended and consequences which are unintended.
When you distort the market the way we have with ethanol subsidies which by the way I'm confident could do very well on their own, then the inflationary pressures for not only dairy farmers but as you also know livestock and others, any product that's dependent on corn is obviously going to experience significant inflationary pressures.
QUESTION: I'm going to have to ask this with Mr. Jones standing next to you, another Fresno State grad, would he factor in at all in your cabinet -- just out of curiosity?
MCCAIN: Could I just say that as a student body president here at Fresno State, I'm trying to seek the student vote. And so I certainly want to say that Bill Jones would serve in a lot of capacities including as part of my administration because I believe that he's really one of the really great public servants here in California. As we all know secretary of state, majority leader, a number of other positions that he's held. I rely on him a great deal. There's a microphone.
QUESTION: Senator, just of note standing out here in the sun -- and I'm sorry to ask sort of a personal question. But I notice a bandage on your head. Is there any way you can --
MCCAIN: I was getting out of the car in Canada and I hit the roof of it a teeny bit. And the car was much smaller than the one I'm usually being ferried around in by our beloved secret service.
QUESTION: Thank you. Just checking on the skin cancer thing.
MCCAIN: Oh no, it was a brush with a low hanging door. Yes, right behind you.
QUESTION: Senator, with your emphasis on environmental issues you argue that you're a different kind of Republican. But your reversal on offshore drilling last week was seen by some as undercutting those credentials. Are you worried about the political downside now that this has sort of played out for a week that you'll be able to appeal to the same independents that you were trying to reach initially.
MCCAIN: Independents and Democrats and Republicans all over this country realize that we have to --
LEMON: OK, John McCain at Fresno State University talking about earlier -- a little bit earlier he talked about challenging companies to come up with a battery that goes beyond now what the hybrids use in order to get cars to move. He is talking oil and energy, and alternative fuels, and that is a perfect segue to get us to our energy fix desk coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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PHILLIPS: Well the Saudis promised over the weekend to increase oil production again, but that's not having much of an effect on energy prices today. Not much of a surprise. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our energy fix from New York.
Hey, Poppy.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hey there, Kyra.
Yes, not much of a surprise at all. You know a lot of analysts immediately dismissed the Saudi move as just really a token gesture that won't do much at all to alter the math between how much oil is produced around the world and how much is consumed. Now the Saudis boosted production by 200,000 barrels a day. But that is really just a drop in the proverbial bucket.
Globally the market for oil, see it up there on your screen, 86 million barrels per day. So the oil market not calm at all right now. Oil pries higher this afternoon right around $137 a barrel. There's a lot of concerns that other oil producing countries are not increasing their output. There are some supply concerns because of some pipeline attacks in Nigeria and also escalating tension between Israel and Iran.
Now, remember, despite Iran's political isolation, as a major producer of oil. If there is any confrontation between Iran and Israel, it could block what you see on your screen there, the Strait of Hormuz that is a strategic waterway Kyra through which about 40 percent of the world's oil is shipped.
So the question really here is: Is this the magic bullet?
It doesn't sound like the Saudi increase in output is going to help us much. It's going to have to be on the consumer side here in America. How much we're using, how much we drive, etcetera. At least right now, that's the fix.
PHILLIPS: OK, Poppy Harlow, thanks so much. You can follow your fortune to CNNMoney.com. We've got all the days' market info there as well.
LEMON: Thousands of families feel the loss. Homes cherished, memories all under water. We'll have the latest from the ravaged flood zone coming up.
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