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Campbell Brown

The Republican National Convention

Aired September 03, 2008 - 19:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sharon Clahchischilliage from Farmington, New Mexico and Mary Leavitt from Columbus, Ohio for the Pledge of Allegiance.
(APPLAUSE)

(PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To sing "America the Beautiful," please welcome from Phoenix, Arizona, John Schillington and Ruby Brown.

(APPLAUSE)

(SINGING AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. To offer tonight's invocation, please welcome, from Phoenix, Arizona, Father Edward Reese.

(APPLAUSE)

FATHER EDWARD REESE: God of all people everywhere, we gather this evening trusting in your mercy and love for all peoples. Be present here so that your work may be ours. Be with all those in the Gulf who are facing difficulties because of violent storms. Bless John and Cindy McCain and all those who give to their country through public service. And, Lord, help us continue to pay close attention and serve the underserved wherever they may be. Help us understand the importance of love and charity. And give us the strength to fill the needs of those who struggle, especially those in the Gulf region. And most importantly, Lord, help us remember that by loving one another as you have loved us, we will succeed at making the beautiful world you created a better place for us all. In your Holy name, amen.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please remain standing while the colors are retired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colors. (INAUDIBLE) Forward. (INAUDIBLE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: This third day of the Republican National Convention has now been called to order. We're going to try to give you a flavor, as we do every night, whether here at the Republican Convention in St. Paul or last week at the Democratic Convention in Denver.

Not only the political speeches, and there will be plenty of those, but we want you to get a sense of what it's like to attend one of these conventions and as a result we'll show you some of the video highlights, some of the music, some of the excitement that goes on, which is normal at these political conventions. Let me, once again, bring in our team so that everybody knows what's in store for all of us as we go forward with this night.

Campbell Brown is here with us on the convention floor. John King, of course, is here. Gloria Borger, Bill Bennett, let's tell our viewers who our analysts are joining us from the CNN Election Center in New York. And we'll go from left to right as soon as we see who's there. It looks like Jeff Toobin and Amy Holmes, Paul Begala, the Democratic strategist, Leslie Sanchez, Ed Rollins is there.

David Gergen is there as well. Here, upstairs, in one of the sky boxes is Roland Martin and Donna Brazile. They're standing by. And down on the floor we've got Dana Bash and we have -- who else do we have? We have Ed Henry and Candy Crowley is up on the podium.

You know, Candy, let's start with you. I know you've been digging, trying to get some information what we can expect from Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. We've got a clock there showing. We're about three hours and 23 minutes away before she's scheduled to address this group of about 20,000 inside. The hall is still not full. It will be full in the coming hours. Go ahead, Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean she is definitely the crescendo of the evening. We've even forgotten to mention that, in fact, there will be the nominating process later tonight. But yes, everyone obviously looking toward this speech because so little is known about this woman.

Because so many people have not even heard her voice. So tonight she has to do a couple of things. One of them is to, as Bill Bennett mentioned earlier, she has to somehow connect with people. She has to have people like her. That's sort of bottom line for politicians.

But more than that, she has to talk about her credentials. What is it that makes her qualified to be vice president? As they say, that heartbeat away. We have gotten some excerpts that have come out. I just noticed them here on my computer, what I was looking at.

And she's also going to show that she can throw a little bit of a punch. She's going to describe her experience. And there is this one line here that says talking about her experience as a mayor, I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer except that you have actual responsibilities. So I don't think we have to tell you that Barack Obama was a community organizer and that's been a large part of his biography as he talks about his experiences, so this is not just going to be her reading her resume. It looks like she's going to obviously be taking some shots, Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, Candy, as we watch what's going on -- and, Campbell, you know, we've got these excerpts. She's obviously going to have a challenge to convince the American public she's ready for the job. But she seems like she's poised and she's capable of delivering a pretty good speech.

CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, we certainly saw that when she made her announcement, event with John McCain. And I want to ask Dana Bash -- she's down on the floor for us as well -- Candy mentioned that one excerpt from the speech. She also, Dana, takes a shot at the media here in the other excerpts releases, saying here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators, I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion, I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country.

And Dana, I don't have to tell you it's been part of the McCain strategy to try to make the media sort of the bad guy in all of this, almost as a distraction to get a little more time, to have her be more prepared for this moment of being in the national spotlight. How are they feeling about tonight?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well they're actually, surprisingly, starting to raise expectations about how they feel about how Governor Palin is going to do in this speech, Campbell. I've been talking to people who have been in the room, really hunkered down for a couple of days now, and they say she's practicing -- she's probably still practicing even as we speak her -- about her speech.

But as you mentioned, the whole idea of stoking the whole media controversy, if you will, that is playing hugely, as you can imagine, here on the floor, with these conservative activists. It is no accident that that is in her speech. One of their key goals they know that they have inside the McCain campaign is to reach people outside this hall, so that's going to be another one of the challenges in this speech. Campbell.

BROWN: And Ed Henry I believe is down on the floor as well. Let's check in with Ed Henry. And Ed, are you -- I know you've been talking to a number of the delegates. People are obviously focused entirely on this, dying to hear what she has to say tonight, huh?

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Campbell. The delegates here in the Alaska delegation are telling me they're wondering how she is going to respond to this intense pressure, for the first time, introducing herself to millions of Americans. I spoke to Governor Palin, one of her cabinet members.

And this cabinet member told me that as a hunter Governor Palin always says that when she has to go out there, she basically relaxes, takes a deep breath and then gets the job done. We'll see if she can do that tonight, Campbell.

BROWN: All right, Ed. And we should mention -- I know, John, you were pointing to this final line, I just caught it, too about John McCain. She's tough tonight.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She has a high burden tonight. She has to prove to the American people that she can be a vice president and a president. And she also has to prove -- she's among friends here. They love her on this floor, but she has to prove to them that has the relish and the spice for the campaign ahead.

Well what does a vice presidential candidate do? Attack sometimes. Let's listen to this line. Here's how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers and then there are those like John McCain who use their careers to promote change. That is a little bit of a 2x4 as Paul Begala would call it to the head of Barack Obama.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: As Bill Bennett was saying one of the things she has got to do is be likeable. So she's got to be likeable, but she's clearly also on the attack here. Remember the nickname, we've all been told her name was Sarah "Barracuda" right? So I think we're seeing a little bit of that in these comments they've released. And she also talks about being -- living in a small town, being a hockey mom, who is now attacking Barack Obama and defending John McCain, so it should be a very interesting speech.

BLITZER: We should point out that her name was Sarah "Barracuda" when she was a star point guard on her high school basketball team.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAM BENNETT, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: With elbows.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Yeah, let me set the stage...

BENNETT: With elbows.

BLITZER: Let me set the change for we're about to see a video. There are different themes every night at this Republican Convention. The overall theme is "Country First." Tonight, it's "Prosperity." Robert Duvall narrates this video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT DUVALL, ACTOR: You can't really touch your country, but you can serve it. You can't really see your country, but you can love it. America is a love story. A love all Americans share. And from our midst rise extraordinary men and women who lead her to greatness. Americans who found their love of country so profound that it naturally came first in their lives. Before work. Before friendship. Before self. Through war. Through peace. Despair and success. Our country is here. We are here. Because of their belief in all of us. My name is Robert Duvall.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please welcome...

BLITZER: They've been opening up these convention nights here in St. Paul with these videos. Robert Duvall, the actor, narrating. Obviously doing an emotional and beautiful job in the process. The theme is "Prosperity" as we go forward tonight and Campbell, among the speakers, Meg Whitman, the former -- the founder, if you will, and the former CEO of eBay. And Carly Fiorina, the former chairman and CEO of Hewlett Packard. So they're going to get some women speaking up there as well. And obviously, they'll have a major woman, vice presidential candidate...

BROWN: Right.

BLITZER: But so far we've been hearing from a lot of guys. And I think they want to showcase some of the women, which they should do as well, major supporters of John McCain.

BROWN: A fair point because you'll recall at the Democratic Convention, there were nights entirely devoted to that. Where you had all the woman members of Congress, all the women senators coming out on stage and taking a bow. And it was more overt I guess in terms of their direct appeal. They're making that appeal tonight. And obviously Sarah Palin was certainly chosen to rally the base and get everybody excited about her position on social issues, but there's no question they are trying to reach out to those Hillary Clinton supporters.

BLITZER: There will be, Bill Bennett, plenty of men speaking. Last night we heard from Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman. Tonight, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee...

BENNETT: Right.

BLITZER: ... so there's no shortage of men who will be speaking...

BENNETT: Yeah, I want to make clear with all this excitement about Sarah Palin, we're not anti-men in this party. We really have not...

(LAUGHTER)

BENNETT: We have not you know gone that far. Also, by the way, good speakers. This should be a pretty good night for rhetoric, for the spoken word. Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, these guys know how to talk and others.

BLITZER: And Rudy Giuliani...

BENNETT: Rudy Giuliani, not too shabby either.

(CROSSTALK)

BENNETT: A nice spread, too, for the Republican Party.

BLITZER: All right.

BENNETT: Nice political spectrum.

BLITZER: All right, so we're only a couple of three hours away or so from hearing from the Republican vice presidential candidate, the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. You see the clock there, three hours and 14 minutes away. But between now and then, there's a lot happening on the floor behind me.

Here's another idea, you can watch us with us your laptop. Go to CNNpolitics.com and you can -- we're streaming everything live what's happening up on the podium. There's other useful information there as well. Our special coverage from St. Paul, Minnesota, of this, the Republican National Convention, continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're here in St. Paul, Minnesota. We're waiting for the start -- actually, the convention has started. But we're waiting for Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, to deliver her speech. She'll be preceded by several big name speakers including Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. Sarah Palin, until last Friday, outside of Alaska, largely unknown. That has dramatically changed. Abbi Tatton, our Internet reporter, is standing by. Abbi, I take it that people around the United States, around the world, are pretty fascinated. They're intrigued by this governor.

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf, we just wanted to take you right now online to what people are searching for. Looking at Google, some of the top searches around the country right now, this is something that would have really surprised me last week. In the top 10 now, Republican National Convention schedule. Go up, Palin speech time. All the things related to Palin. The RNC schedule of speakers. This is what people around the country are searching on right now. These are people who just want to hear what Sarah Palin has to say.

And we used to -- this election has been very exciting. People have been generating a lot of buzz about it online. But analysts say the amount of attention online in the last couple of days on Sarah Palin goes above and beyond. In the last two days, the amount of searches on her has reached a peak that far surpasses that of any other politician in the last three years. So all these people waiting to hear what she has to say, I know we've got a count-down clock over there, just over three hours from now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It's amazing how many people are fascinated, Campbell about this woman. They want to know more about her. They may like her. They may not like her. They may not know anything about her. They're open-minded about her. But they're, I think it's fair to say, there's going to be a huge viewing audience watching her speech later tonight.

BROWN: And it is an introduction to the country for the most part. And let's talk to some of our folks in New York about that. Let me go to Jeff Toobin. And Jeff, I know she's going to be trying to strike a bit of a balance here between sort of the biography, which is so interesting, I think, and also policy issues. Because there are many policy issues where people don't know what her positions are, where she stands. How does she strike that balance? What's more important tonight?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Well I think the biography is very important. And in terms of policy, I think her job is really to embrace John McCain's position. I think the larger challenge that the Republican Party has in this convention, last night, tonight and certainly tomorrow, is how are they going to make things better? How is the economy going to improve?

What do they propose to do about it? Now we know we are going to hear about small government, low taxes. Those are the traditional winning Republican arguments. But it will be interesting to see if Sarah Palin has anything specific to say about how -- the tough times are going to get better with four more years of Republicans in charge at the White House.

BROWN: Ed Rollins, it will be interesting to see whether she does address those issues that Jeff just mentioned or whether she talks about the social issues, abortion, gay marriage, that are very appealing to the base here. And that frankly John McCain doesn't like to talk about, even though they may share the same positions, those are not the issue that he has been out there promoting on the stump.

ED ROLLINS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: She may very well hit on some of those issues. I think what she's going to talk about is reform. The most important thing she does is her presence. She's going to walk out before 20,000 people and a television audience of multimillions. And this is really the first impression most people are going to get. It's kind of her composure, her style.

She's a very attractive woman. I'm sure she's very articulate, and we're going to see that tonight. I think the substance is going to be just an added part to it and I don't think anybody is going to measure her tomorrow by whether she gives the most substantive speech or not. They're going to basically say, I saw her. I liked her. She had real composure. I think she can do the job.

BROWN: Paul Begala, do you agree with that? There have been questions certainly raised about her experience and there are lines in the excerpts that have been released about her comparing her own experience to Barack Obama's, taking a shot at him with regard to that. Does she need to make some references to foreign policy or make some references to certain domestic policy issues to show that she is ready to play in the big leagues, for those who are questioning her about that?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL STRATEGIST: I think that's risky because she has so very little experience. Look, a lot of Democrats didn't think Barack Obama had enough experience. But we have a way to resolve that in a democracy. It's called voting. Eighteen million people decided that he did.

And so that's why he's the Democrat Party's nominee. I think Ed has got a point when he says that the governor has to convince people she can do the job. I think what he means by that -- what I mean is the job of vice president, the job of president. In other words, they need to elevate her.

Can she be an effective surrogate on the campaign trail? Of course she can. But this was a political pick and to make it a governing pick, she's going to have to really transcend the politics. I mean it's not just me. Peggy Noonan (ph), who has one of the greatest gifts for words in the Republican Party was caught on an open mike at another network, calling this pick, with her gift of worlds, and I quote, "political B.S."

That's what this pick was in the eyes of some of the most prominent Republicans. So the governor's got her work cut out for her to show that she's not just there for politics, but somehow could actually run the country.

BROWN: So, David Gergen, how does she do that? How does she convey that tonight that she is ready?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Campbell, for starters, she remains a very, very high-risk choice. And tonight she's in a very low-risk environment. You know, they've been working on this speech for two or three days. All she has to do is get up and deliver it well. It will be a well-written speech, I can guarantee that. It will have some sharp elbows.

I think if she can convey a likeability, as Ed Rollins said, so that people feel warm toward her, then they're going to start giving her more the benefit of the doubt as we go through this campaign and additional questions arise. Beyond that I think that if they can begin to feel comfortable with her in a position of potential enormous power that will obviously help. I think the first barrier tonight is simply get people to warm up to her.

I do think she's in a situation now where the country's rapidly polarizing about her. That people on the Republican side have rallied to her. Her numbers are going up among women on the Republican side. But people on the other side are falling away quickly. And women on the other side have moved away. She's losing a little ground among independents for the ticket. Americans are dividing very rapidly. There's not a lot of waivers out there, as I can tell. But for tonight if she can simply say, I've got an interesting character, I've got a lot to offer here. Then she may get the benefit of doubt.

BLITZER: All right, David, and everybody else, stand by. I know James Carville is very anxious to get into this conversation, so is Bill Bennett, Amy Holmes is standing by, Donna Brazile and Roland Martin. They're here. We're just beginning our coverage. Lots of speakers coming up. Good music, more excellent video tributes to our country. Much more from St. Paul and the Republican national convention right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The Republicans have gathered here in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is day three of their convention. We're watching it every step of the way. Lots of excitement, lots of anticipation as they await the arrival of the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, who is going to be the vice presidential nominee, the running mate for John McCain.

Welcome back to our coverage. Lots of our analysts are anxious to assess what's going on.

Bill Bennett, you're here. You're watching what's going on. She's got a challenge ahead of her that is formidable, but by all accounts, she's poised, capable of delivering a well-written speech.

BENNETT: She can walk and chew gum. This is not her first appearance in public life. She was elected governor. She's got about an 80 percent approval rate or something. I want David Gergen to stop being so gloomy. This is a big country. And it's just starting. You know many historical -- an historical record coming out of conventions, one party's still ahead. This is really exciting. But the real convention race begins after this convention and we'll see --

BLITZER: Let me let David Gergen respond to that. Go ahead, David.

GERGEN: I -- how can one respond to Bill Bennett? Bill, aren't you from New York?

BENNETT: Brooklyn, Brooklyn, the upper west side.

GERGEN: As a kid from North Carolina, let me just say, there's nobody gloomy here. I think she'll probably give a bravo performance tonight. Does that mean she'll dispel all the doubts about her readiness to be in the White House? I doubt it. Do you think so? Do you really think one speech is going to change all of this?

BENNETT: No, but you said people were falling away and positions were hardening -- it sounded kind of like it was over, like --

GERGEN: No, I don't think it's over --

BENNETT: Good, good.

GERGEN: -- I do think people are dividing over her. This is a choice that is forcing people to make decisions. You know, she is --

BENNETT: -- forcing people to make decisions --

GERGEN: The very reason she's rallied the Republican faithful, all the different aspects of her that rally the Republican faithful are not very appealing to people who do not share that faith. That seems pretty obvious and the numbers bear it out.

BENNETT: How can we know that out, until she makes her case, until she gets out on the stump, until this campaign gets going for a couple weeks? I think a lot of people's opinions are not in cement and they're willing to keep an open mind at least into October --

BLITZER: Well, our polls show -- by the way our polls show about 9 percent or 10 percent. At least say they're unsure right now.

Let me bring James Carville into this discussion. You're an excellent Democratic strategist, arguably the best in the business. You've got one little-known governor from Arkansas to be elected president twice so you know this business. How worried are you that this woman not only will succeed in rallying that conservative religious evangelical base of the Republican Party around John McCain but will attract angry or disappointed women voters? Hillary Clinton supporters who were disappointed that Barack Obama didn't select Hillary Clinton to be his running mate.

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, first of all, she is going to be rally her conservative base. She has already done that. She is very popular with the creationist movement. She's very popular with those people. Global warming deniers. All these people are going to rally around her. Will she disaffect Hillary Clinton voters? I'm not worried about that.

By the way, I think she'll do quite well tonight. Speech is written, on a teleprompter. She's a very articulate woman. She'll do quite well. Tonight is going to be the easiest night of this general election campaign for their vice presidential nominee.

By the way could somebody tell me the last time they've heard a bad acceptance speech? We have four every season. I'm thinking to myself, who's ever given a really bad acceptance speech? I don't remember very many if any, to tell you the truth.

BLITZER: That's a fair point. Bill, you were shaking your head.

BENNETT: I remember some bad acceptance speeches but I don't like the --

BROWN: They were Republicans --

BENNETT: I'm not going to say it -- James makes it sound this is the flat earth society candidate. Appeals to the fringe, so on, so on. Can we wait and see? You know, citizens of Alaska have elected her. They think she's quite terrific. A lot of people are forming their impressions. Let's give this lady a chance as we'd give a guy a chance.

BORGER: It's not so much women the more I think about the Sarah Palin candidacy, it's the cultural divide in this country.

BENNETT: That's right.

BORGER: I think what McCain has done on purpose is tap into that cultural divide because he needs those voters. Some of them are women and some of them aren't. But clearly she has struck a chord and there's great division in this country over her candidacy.

BROWN: But Gloria, she did talk directly to women when she was introduced.

BORGER: She did. BROWN: She paid tribute to Geraldine Ferraro, to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Do you think she'll make direct appeal in her remarks tonight to women?

BORGER: I wouldn't be surprised because they need women voters.

BENNETT: That's right.

BORGER: Women voters are swing voters. We all get that. We all understand there's a huge gender gap for John McCain. He needs women. That was part of the strategy. The more you come to understand what this candidacy is about, I'm not so sure that women are more important in her appeal in a way than the cultural conservatives, many of whom are women. They're not Hillary Clinton voters.

BLITZER: John King, let's not lose sight of the historic nature of tonight. Last week, we referred to the historic importance of the Democrats nominating for the first time ever an African-American candidate. Tonight the Republicans for the first time in their party will nominate a woman to be the vice presidential candidate nominee, even though Geraldine Ferraro got that honor in 1984 on the Democratic side.

KING: And the McCain campaign hopes that the prospect of history does at least bring some extra attention and get her a second look even from women who might disagree with her on some of the issues and I'm told one of the ways she'll appeal to women is to introduce her family. And say I face many of the challenges out there face. I'm juggling with those challenges, a career, and a family, and the struggles all of you face around the kitchen table. That's one way.

To one other point though. One of the things we're getting pushback from, from delegates on the floor, and I've received hundreds of e-mails from conservatives I've met over the last 20 years, is they hear things about, like what was just on the air, well, she's got a teleprompter, and she has good poise, so of course she can give good speech. A lot of these emails are saying where was that during Barack Obama's speech? Because he had a teleprompter and he has poise and they think she's being held to a different standard, either because she's a woman, or because she's a conservative or from a far-away distant state. Some of the emails say, Alaska's exotic. Isn't Hawaii? So you're getting a lot of the feedback from conservative base. Some of it is tactics, Campbell. You're a first hand example of how they're using tactics. But some of it is legitimate criticism that she's being held to some different standard.

BORGER: She's going to say it's because she's not a part soft called Washington establishment and because she's from outside Washington and an outsider, that she is being held to a tougher standard because people didn't know who she was.

BLITZER: All right. I have pointed out on a few occasions that in all the years I've covered politics I've never seen a politician as effective with a teleprompter as Barack Obama. When he delivers that speech, the viewers out there have no idea he's reading a teleprompter because he's so smooth and so good at doing that and I assume she's going to be good tonight as well. We'll see because we're open-minded about what we're going to be anticipating.

I want you to look at this picture, coming in from Anchorage, Alaska right now. It's a live picture. This is the Peanut Farm Restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska. We sent our own Kyra Phillips up to Anchorage. They'll be watching the speech tonight of the governor, Alaskans in Anchorage and we'll have live coverage of that as we continue to show you what's going on here on the floor of the Republican National Convention. Major speeches Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and the night will be culminated when Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, speaks and accepts the Republican vice presidential nomination.

CNNpolitics.com, you can see everything that's going up on the podium right now. We're streaming everything live. Stay with us. Our coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're back at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. 270 -- that's the magic number you need to be elected resident of the United States. We're talking about the Electoral College. John King is here. We've got the magic map. We've made some changes based on our new CNN/"Time" Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. Two battleground states and we've decided to move them in one direction.

KING: When I show our viewers how we've moved them, Wolf, it underscores the challenge not just for Governor Palin but for the Republican Party and Senator McCain tonight.

Let's take a look at the map and let's start with the math. You need 270 electoral votes to win the White House. Senator Obama came into the day leading in states ahead or leading in states that have 226 electoral votes. Senator McCain ahead or leading with states, 189. Our new poll shows Minnesota, the state we are today, it's 10 electoral votes, Obama a pretty healthy lead there. We're going to give that state over -- switch over - we've got to get it to tap, there we go, red. Now we get it to blue. We give that one blue.

Also our poll today in the state of Iowa, 7 more electoral votes. We'll tap that one over. It will go red, then it will blue. Look what it does, puts Barack Obama at 243 electoral votes. Wolf, that's a simple 27. Even I can do that math. 27 electoral votes away from being the next president of the United States. He could get that if the map stayed the same just by going down and winning Florida or he could get it through a combination say of Michigan, 17 votes there, and the state of Virginia, that has 13 electoral votes there.

This map, if you look at it now, underscores the huge challenge for McCain and the Republicans. Of the eight toss-up states left, almost all were states carried by George W. Bush. The Republicans are defending in many more states that are in their electoral basket, if you will, than Democrats are defending. So John McCain needs to change some of these blues to red if he will bet very competitive down the road but if even the map stays just like this coming out of this convention, he has so little room for error. One other quick footnote, let's go now to the convention floor. One way we can look at the convention floor, these are all the delegations in red. Let's do this. Let's tap the Electoral College. These states are now put where we believe they are in the electoral race. Gold are toss-up states. Look at the real estate. Front and center. This is the podium up here. This is where the speakers will be. Those who are in these key swing states, the undecided states, they get prime seats and they get it for a reason. These are the key battlegrounds in the nine weeks between now and the Election Day.

BLITZER: Those are the nine states where John McCain presumably will be spending most of his time but spending most of the money that he has. He got what, about $85 million in federal matching funds just the other day. He will get $85 million once he formally accepts the Republican nomination. That's why he got to go through all this process.

KING: It will be fascinating to watch. Since we know Governor Palin, for example, is going to Florida this weekend. She's the governor of Alaska. Why's she going to Florida? There are rural voters up in the panhandle of Florida. They're evangelical Christians, they own guns, they fish. This is a first weekend test of her appeal right out of this convention in a state if you're going by the way the crow fly, as far away from Alaska as you can get.

BROWN: Where else John where you can send her given her appeal as you outlined in Florida what other states do you think that they will keep her focused on?

KING: You'll see her in Southeast Ohio, again a rural area. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton became president of the United States by taking Ohio out of the Republican basket. They won in the small rural communities along the river like Portsmouth, Ohio, down in the counties there. She'll go there. Again, gun rights matter there; mega churches, any place with a mega church, outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. That's a state Barack Obama wants to put in play. You'll see her there. She will go to places where there's a Republican base, evangelical Christian base. She'll go to places where there are gun owners and sportsmen. That's a key constituency usually of the Republicans as well. Colorado, out in the mountain west.

The key test will be, will they send her to say, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, will they send her into the moderate Republican suburbs around Philadelphia, around St. Louis? That will be a key test of whether she is helping beyond the base. We know from the reaction in this hall, she's helping within the base. Can she broaden the appeal of the Republican Party and put places in play that George Bush lost which are those key suburbs. In our battleground state polling, the suburbs are a huge battleground and Obama/Biden -- I almost made them one word there -- Obama/Biden are doing pretty well in the suburbs right now and that's a warning shot to the Republican Party.

BLITZER: Bill Bennett wants to weigh in. Go ahead.

BENNETT: Well I bet they will send her to Bucks County. I was going to say Pennsylvania and I'll bet they send her to a lot more places too.

One more thing on the speech thing, little bit of the back of the hand someone said about the speech and teleprompter, so on. Barack Obama isn't the candidate because of how he speak, let's face it.

BORGER: Not what he says?

BENNETT: Certainly not on his leadership in war and peace, not on his legislative record. But what he says and how he says it. It's not on any record of accomplishment. You've got these huge crowds. People like what he was saying. The differences between him and Hillary were not great. We had 19 hours on this many millimeters in universal health care. He is a orator and a great speaker -- let's not diminish --

BLITZER: Let Roland Martin react to that. Roland is joining us as well. Roland what do you think about that last point that Bill Bennett made?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well that's nice and cute but show me a Republican who wouldn't mind speaking in front of 90,000 people.

The reality is, you do have to have some substance. Look, this is not her first rodeo, OK. She's going to give a good speech. There was a song called "How to Mend a Broken Heart." I think what Governor Palin needs to talk about is how mend a broken wallet and that's really what this issue is. We can sit here and talk about family, we can talk about narrative, things along those lines how many kids you have, you know, in terms of how you grow up. People care about issue number one. And what you're seeing is, you're seeing the Obama campaign pivot away from this whole issue of experience to the issue of the economy.

Last night, President Bush talked about John McCain, how wonderful he is. President Bush made no mention last night about jobs, economy. Tonight, the whole issue is prosperity. President Bush didn't mention prosperity last night. They need to confront that issue. If they want to win in November, they can talk all day about abortion, about gay marriage, about appealing to evangelicals. When you're broke as hell it don't matter if you love Jesus, it don't matter if you love Allah, you're just broke.

BLITZER: All right. Quickly Bill.

BENNETT: Let's remember what the founders said. The American people tend to pick their president for the most part based on none of the things Roland said but on character. That's what the founders recommended and that's what the American people consistently do.

BLITZER: I want everybody to stand by because we've got more coming up including two women who will be speaking very soon. Not the governor of Alaska. We're waiting for her. She's coming up as you can see in about two hours and 41 minutes. But Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, two titans in the business community. They're going to be speaking here at this Republican convention. Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage. Dana Bash is down on the floor of this Republican National Convention in Ohio. We'll get to her in a moment.

But first, there's a developing story that I want our viewers in the United States and around the world to be aware of, a hurricane out in the Atlantic. Chad Myers is standing by.

This hurricane, Ike, it's called, and it's been upgraded, Chad. Update our viewers on what we know.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: What happened Wolf was that in the past three, four hours basically this thing went from a category 1 to a category 3 hurricane. A significant development here because in five days it is now forecast to be a category 4, 130 mile per hour storm in the Bahamas. It could turn to the right and miss Florida altogether. It could jump into the Gulf of Mexico.

It is still tracking right there in the middle of your screen, that very impressive storm with the eye right there, gusting to 140 miles per hour now. It is still five days out. We need to make preps with this. You need to understand the consequences if this thing doesn't move into the gulf or it moves into the Bahamas or it turns up to the United States. This is going to be a significant storm. The third major hurricane of the year so far.

BLITZER: We heard obviously we just got through Gustav but then Hannah was supposed to be next. What ever happened to Hannah?

MYERS: Well Hannah is just about the words just in right there and that storm really was torn apart by Haiti and the Dominican Republic as it moved very near those countries in the last couple of days. They're very mountainous countries, they tear up storms rather quickly. But it is still forecast to get stronger and move into the Carolinas by Friday into Saturday as a category 1 storm. Now, not the veracity of a category 3 or 4, but still as an 80-mile-per-hour storm. We'll be watching that all the way from Savannah maybe on up towards Cape Hatteras.

BLITZER: And shortly behind not far out behind is Josephine, another tropical extreme weather situation out in the Atlantic. What do we know about Josephine?

MYERS: Yes, just off the right side of your screen right there, I believe Josephine is actually going to move to the north in the colder water and the Hurricane Center has this by five days down to only 30 miles per hour storm. So really killing itself in colder water. Hurricanes need hot water and Josephine is going to move up into the colder water and kill itself.

BLITZER: How extraordinary is the growth of Ike, this hurricane, that we're watching? It's been upgraded from a category one to a category three in this very, very short period of time. MYERS: Well there was just a new paper put out about the research of what happens to this. This is - I'll back you up to a couple years ago when this happened a number of times in '04 and '05. But there is almost like what we call a marsupial pouch kind of like a kangaroo's pouch where there's no shear whatsoever. There's no wind from any direction trying to tear it apart and this marsupial pouch is just a perfect breeding ground for it to exponentially strengthen all of the sudden. And you can see in three hours, it went from a fairly disorganized storm to a storm with a significant eye now at 115 miles per hour.