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Senate Looks to Pass Modified Bailout Bill; Vice Presidential Candidates Gear up for Debate
Aired October 01, 2008 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again everyone, I'm Tony Harris. And here are the headlines for this Wednesday, October 1st.
The Senate will try to do what the House couldn't, approve a $700 billion financial bailout.
Just hours before the critical vote, counting down to the first and only vice presidential debate, Biden/Palin. They're saying meet me in St. Louie.
I'll meet you in the CNN NEWSROOM.
With the apologies from the great Gary Cooper, high noon on Capitol Hill, but the shootout won't come until sunset. The Senate has tweaked the financial bailout bill and plans a vote tonight. At its core, it is the same $700 billion rescue the House rejected Monday, but negotiators hope consumer-friendly tax breaks will give House members enough cover to pass the measure. The Senate version would also increase government insurance on bank deposits from $100,000 to $250,000.
Wall Street is watching this play out. Investors feel anxious. And as you can see, the Dow -- is that 14 points? 114. That's better, full screen, take that picture full. The Dow down 114 points. You know, Dow stocks actually recovered more than half of Monday's near 800-point loss yesterday.
Presidential politics and economics, both candidates heading back to Washington later today to vote on the financial bailout bill. They're also battling out for support in key swing states today with just 34 days until the election. Barack Obama rallied supporters in La Crosse, Wisconsin, last hour, while John McCain spoke to backers in Independence, Missouri. Both talked about the need to fix the current financial mess.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Following September 11th, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. Now with this measure, we have another chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country. If the financial rescue bill fails in congress yet again, the present crisis will turn into a disaster.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: La Crosse, while there's plenty of blame to go around to many in Washington and on Wall Street who deserve it, all of us now have a responsibility to solve this crisis because it affects the financial well-being of every single American. There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now's the moment for us to come together and put the fire out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Our national poll of polls out today shows Obama leading McCain by five points, 49 percent to 44 percent. The poll incorporates four different surveys.
Former President Bill Clinton drumming up support for Barack Obama in another battleground state Florida. It's his first campaign rally for Obama.
CNN's John Zarrella live from Ft. Pierce, Florida.
And John, many Obama supporters may be saying, you know, it's about time. Some may be saying, thanks, but no thanks. I apologize for that last bit, I'm just stirring up trouble.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, I think that you could really say that for the Democratic Party in Florida, this is the beginning of the full-court press, getting the former president down here. He is expected to speak at a rally here at about 2:45. And, of course, the theme of this rally here is to get people to register to vote before Florida's October 6th deadline to register for the presidential election.
Now, the former president is right now, as we are speaking here, he is in Orlando, and I can tell you that there was expected to be such an enormous turnout today that they had to move the venue to a larger one to accommodate all the people they expected in Orlando, which, again, you know, goes to emphasize the point that the former president who carried Florida in 1996 is still hugely popular in the state of Florida.
You know, they mentioned the polls, well, the polls in Florida, a new Quinnipiac poll shows Obama is actually up in Florida by eight percentage points now. And an American Research Group poll shows Obama up by one point.
This is a pivotal state, and for John McCain, it is certainly a pivotal state as well. He's got tremendous support in Tallahassee, the state capitol. Of course, everyone knows the governor Charlie Crist was a huge supporter of McCain, probably instrumental in getting McCain to victory in the primary, Republican primary here in Florida. So, it's going to be interesting to see how often Governor Crist is out there on the trail in the next 30-plus days in support of John McCain, because the governor is hugely popular here and can certainly make a difference -- Tony.
HARRIS: Good stuff. John Zarrella for us.
John, good to see you, thanks. The vice presidential candidates getting ready for their moment in the spotlight, their first and only debate of the campaign tomorrow night. Republican VP hopeful Sarah Palin has been preparing for the match up at John McCain's ranch near Sedona, Arizona. Democrat Joe Biden has been prepping at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden returns to Washington this evening for the Senate vote on the financial rescue plan. He may have the edge in experience, but Joe Biden's not playing that card.
In the run-up to tomorrow night's debate with Sarah Palin, our Tom Foreman looks at Biden's strategy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He thoroughly knows international affairs. She doesn't. He spent decades learning the ways of Washington. She hasn't. Yet, Joe Biden is furiously lowering expectations for his debate with Sarah Palin.
SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have great respect for what I hear and watch some of the debating skills of Governor Palin. I think it's going to be a really tough debate, but I think this is all about where we are.
FOREMAN: Biden has reason to be cautious. His running mate, Barack Obama, beat Hillary Clinton by making her Washington experience a weakness, and Palin is calling Biden an insider every chance she gets.
GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm looking forward to meeting him, too. I've never met him before, but I've been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in like second grade.
FOREMAN: What's more, Biden is notoriously known for speaking his mind and sometimes putting his foot in his mouth, like recently when he said his helicopter was forced down during a visit to Afghanistan earlier this year. It was, but by the weather, not by enemy attacks. He attacked his own campaign for a recent ad criticizing McCain's computer skills.
BIDEN: I thought that was terrible, by the way.
KATIE COURIC, CBS NEWS: Why did you do it then?
BIDEN: I didn't know we did it and if I hand anything to do with it, we would have never have done it.
FOREMAN: That tendency could make him go for the jugular against Palin, and since previous attacks on her have brought accusations of sexism, Ken Vogel with Politico.com says watch out.
KEN VOGEL, THE POLITICO: If I'm Joe Biden's people, I am telling him, don't go after her too aggressively, make sure you're respectful, call her Governor Palin, not Sarah, and don't point out if she makes a major gaffe. The media will do that for you after the fact. FOREMAN (on camera): Joe Biden was already in the Senate 20 years ago, so he knows personally about the last vice presidential debate to shape up this way. That's when the first George Bush picked a young senator as his running mate.
(voice-over): When Dan Quayle invoked the spirit of John Kennedy while debating Lloyd Bentsen, the more experienced senator steam-rolled him.
LLOYD BENTSEN, (D) FORMER U.S. SENATOR: I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.
FOREMAN: But Joe Biden also knows the punch line that followed, although the Democrats won the debate.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, George Herbert Walker Bush, do solemnly swear --
FOREMAN: The Republicans won the White House.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Are you ready? OK, join us for live coverage of tomorrow night's vice presidential debate. The debate starts at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, and be sure to tune in early for opinions and analysis from the best political team on television.
You know, we are getting some new numbers in for you today, numbers that you'll want to take a look at. A new CNN/"TIME"/Opinion Research Corporation poll looks at what likely voters are saying in some of the key battleground states, and you can see those numbers on "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer today at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time.
You know, they have tricked out the $700 billion financial bailout bill with a few taxpayer treats. The Senate heading for a vote tonight. CNN's Kate Bolduan is on Capitol Hill.
Yes, tricked out, my words, not yours, obviously there, Kate. But you know, this is a different bill than the one that was voted down on Monday, isn't it?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, and they prefer the word modified, maybe updated, if you will. The House Democratic leadership, they just in the past hour had a conference call to really figure out what they're going to do next following that failed -- the failed vote this week.
But here on the other side, the Senate side, as you said, they're set to vote on the modified bailout bill later this evening. Now, the modification, these changes include probably the headline here is raising the cap that the FDIC will insure for bank accounts from $100,000 to up to $250,000. They are also in this bill extending some tax breaks for businesses, individuals as well as offering some tax relief on alternative energy use and production.
A third portion of this new, modified bill is a provision requiring that health insurance companies treat mental illness the same as physical illness in terms of their coverage. Now, Senate leaders today say they are confident that they've finally struck the right balance here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID, (D) MAJORITY LEADER: Now is our time to work, not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as guardians of the public trust to forge a better day ahead.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R) MINORITY LEADER: The question is not how we got here, but how we get out and to get our economy back on its feet. So, after extensive consultation between the majority leader and myself and the leaders in both parties here in the Senate, we believe that we have crafted a way to go forward and to get us back on track.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Back on track, and that's what these provisions were for. They're trying to win over, win more support among House Republicans when, if this bill passes in the Senate and gets sent back over there, but the big question is, how will the votes line up in the House, Tony? It's not a done deal there.
HARRIS: Boy, you know, we're hearing that a lot, that it is not a done deal. I guess we'll just have to wait and see when the vote happens this evening.
BOLDUAN: It was proved two days ago when we kept saying they were optimistic and then the vote failed. So there really is not a done deal.
HARRIS: That's right. Kate Bolduan on Capitol Hill for us, thank you.
BOLDUAN: Thank you.
HARRIS: You know you can follow the crisis on Wall Street, the bailout, the buyouts -- I'm sorry, the rescue plans, falling oil prices, what's happening with the price of gas, all of it at CNNMoney.com. Get all of the day's market news, the numbers plus expert analysis. Log on any time. Log on now.
All right, want to give you a quick update on the developing story we've been following for the last hour or so here in the CNN NEWSROOM with the latest pictures that we have for you. Several homes have been evacuated in northwest Washington, D.C., after a grenade was found at a park, a maintenance worker apparently found this grenade at Rock Creek Park, and a bomb squad is working to remove it right now. The grenade found a few blocks south of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. We don't know how many homes have been evacuated at this time, but we will keep an eye, obviously, on this developing story. The president and his Treasury secretary have been saying for months the economy is strong. Well, what changed?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: You know, the nation's financial crisis has been churning for years. Deregulation of the financial industry combined with cheap and easy money set the stage for this meltdown, but Washington didn't seem to see it coming until we were on the edge of catastrophe. CNN's Christine Romans takes a look at what was said then and now.
And Christine, it really is a fascinating look at what our leaders were saying to us.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Tony.
You know hindsight is 20/20, but this is just a look at where we've come in their own words. Dire warnings today about what happens without a bailout, but not long ago, both President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson were using entirely different words to describe this economy. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (voice-over): It's about as dire as a president can get on the economy.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're facing a choice between action and the real prospect of economic hardship for millions of Americans.
ROMANS: This from an administration that for months said the economy was vibrant, the financial system strong. The president didn't acknowledge "storm clouds" until last December. By then, it was raining.
GEORGE W. BUSH: There's definitely some storm clouds and concerns, but the underpinning is good. And we'll work our way through this period.
ROMANS: Then, with each disastrous job report or capital market crisis, an upbeat assessment. In January --
GEORGE W. BUSH: Our economy's flexible. It is resilient.
ROMANS: In February, the president surprised by spiking gas prices.
GEORGE W. BUSH: What'd you just say? You're predicting $4-a- gallon gas? That's interesting. I hadn't heard that.
ROMANS: In March, Bear Stearns was in a death spiral, and the fed brokered its sale.
GEORGE W. BUSH: We're in challenging times, but another thing is for certain, that we've taken strong and decisive action.
HENRY PAULSON, TREASURY SECRETARY: Our financial institutions are strong. Our investment banks are strong. Our banks are strong. They're going to be strong for many, many years.
ROMANS: In July, Indy Mac bank failed.
GEORGE W. BUSH: I believe we will come through this challenge stronger than ever before.
ROMANS: The three trying to sell this $700 billion rescue didn't see it coming. The treasury secretary told NPR last year of the global economy --
PAULSON: It's as strong as I've seen at any time during my business career.
ROMANS: And again, last October --
PAULSON: This is happening against the backdrop of an economy that which in other respects is very solid. So far, there is very little evidence that it's bleeding over into other areas.
ROMANS: As the subprime crisis devolved early last year, the fed chief --
BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: We do not expect significant spillovers in the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.
ROMANS: And now?
BERNANKE: This plan is an emergency plan to put out a fire, to resolve a serious crisis which has real Main Street implications.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Slowly over the last 10 or 11 months, the administration has been acknowledging the problem, always with the caveat that the underlying financial system is vibrant and flexible and the economic fundamentals strong. It might be one reason why so many are pushing back against Washington's bailout plan. If they didn't see it coming, how can they lead us out?
Now, a quick point -- it is not the job of the Bush administration or any presidential administration, of course, to talk down the economy. That, of course, can be catastrophic for the banks and for markets and the like, but many say that all along the way, when many people were talking about some real pain for the American consumer and for the American worker, the Bush administration was saying again and again that that pain would be contained in subprime and it wasn't going to spread over and that our banks are very, very sound.
HARRIS: No need to talk it down, just give it to us straight. Just give it -- that's fascinating. Christine, appreciate it. Thank you.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
HARRIS: You heard him, real Main Street implications. Let's go now to economist Diane Swonk.
Diane, great to see you again. Love having you on the program.
DIANE SWONK, ECONOMIST: You too.
HARRIS: Look, you heard it just a moment ago in Christine's piece, Paulson and Bernanke last year saying the underpinnings of the financial system strong. Explain the disconnect, would you please? Why didn't our leaders more accurately represent what was going on in the financial sector, part B of this question, and do you believe Bernanke and Paulson now when they say we need this plan?
SWONK: You know, there are two issues here. One is the acknowledgement of where the economy has been for some time now, and that is whether or not we technically hit a recession. It's been feeling like one to the majority of Americans for over a year now. And the president definitely turned a deaf ear to that, and that's undermined the credibility of a lame-duck presidency that has turned out to look even lamer in light of that. And that's, I think, an important issue.
The other issue is, you know, Hank Paulson came out, seems like forever ago now, but when Fannie and Freddie were put into conservatorship and taken over by the government, he came out at that point in time and actually admitted that Fannie and Freddie lied. They did something legal with accounting, but they actually, the leaders or these CEOs actually said they were better capitalized and when they got in there and the treasury actually saw their books they said, oh my God, you guys are not telling us the truth.
So, the issues, the deception here is many levels, and I think you know in terms of our economic leadership in particular, many of them were misled. And at the same time, some cascading events that one couldn't have predicted ahead of time, like Lehman and then AIG and then WAMU and then Wachovia.
HARRIS: Got you.
SWONK: I mean all of that came up so the ground is moving faster than people can keep track of it.
HARRIS: Do you believe we need the plan?
SWONK: I think we need the plan. Whether this is the right one or not is kind of irrelevant at the moment. We need a rulebook to go forward with to restore confidence both on Wall Street and Main Street. And the Main Street implications here are huge.
If you're a good homeowner servicing your debt and the guy down the street from you goes into foreclosure, you just lost 3 percent value on your home. If another person down the street that's less responsible than you are goes into foreclosure, it's now 10 percent off the value of your home. Your balance sheet just got damaged because they did irresponsible behavior. It puts us all in the same boat.
HARRIS: Got you. How does raising the insurance cap help solve this crisis? Is this just psychological? Or more than that?
SWONK: It is psychological -- this is more than psychological, but it is psychological, especially for smaller banks. There is a too big to fail, all these big banks are getting bailed out, big banks are getting help, but local neighborhood banks where someone who has their own restaurant, they often have two or $300,000 in a checking account just to pay for their ongoing payroll, the food coming in, all of those costs. It's just a local family restaurant. If all of a sudden, that bank, the fear of that bank going under caused people to run on the bank, they would only have $100,000 in their account and wouldn't be able to make payroll the next day. It really could be a serious overnight change in employment for, you know, these microcosm of the small businesses that make up the backbone of our economy.
HARRIS: Got you.
Hey Diane, I'm thinking about the people, you mentioned just a moment ago bringing it back home for folks, I don't know who live in cities where I've worked. I'm thinking about folks in my hometown of Baltimore. I lived and worked in Cleveland for a lot of years, and Los Angeles and New York. I'm wondering -- we're talking about families and businesses who are really hurting right now. We've heard stories of people with businesses in decline, they can't pay for gas, they can't get a line of credit.
How is this bill going to help them?
SWONK: Well, the key issue here is, I think, first of all, you know, they have done cosmetic surgery to it, which we hope it doesn't look like Priscilla Presley in that process, but the cosmetics are important because they're more sellable for Main Street, but more importantly things like increasing deposit insurance that helps Main Street. Things like they're talking about changing the bankruptcy laws, allowing people to negotiate their loans so they can stay in their house when they go into bankruptcy rather than dumping the house on the hands of the bank.
The bank doesn't want it anymore. They would rather have everybody work out at a lower loan level and renegotiate these terms. That can really help businesses. The real issue is that this is only one step. It's one step in the right direction, but without it, we sort of face a major step backwards, and you know, it's really hard to sell something when there is no silver bullet and all you're doing is mitigating losses, but the losses we're mitigating are fairly large.
HARRIS: Diane, it's great to have you on the program. Come back and see us often, would you please?
SWONK: Absolutely. HARRIS: Giving it to us straight, Diane Swonk, appreciate it.
This just in to CNN, Britain has just announced it will bring the children of diplomats home from Pakistan. The move triggered by the recent suicide truck bomb attack at the Islamabad Marriott. Britain's foreign office says about 60 children are actually involved in this. They will leave the country in the coming days.
The candidates talked plenty about the economy. How much of what they're saying is actually accurate? Our "truth squad" has been checking them out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Let's take you to Orlando, Florida right now. There you see the picture. Former President Clinton campaigning for Barack Obama. And later today, about 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, he'll continue his tour of Florida, actually, with another stop in Ft. Pierce.
Did I say on the campaign trail stumping for Barack Obama?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think we got that. I think they got the picture. Certainly not stumping for John McCain.
HARRIS: All right. In the latest set of attacks on the campaign trail, John McCain is saying, guess what, Barack Obama agrees with me. McCain's campaign is calling Obama a hypocrite. Breaking this down for us now is Josh Levs from the CNN "truth squad."
How many jobs do you have, man?
LEVS: OK. A lot less than you realize. Issue number one, dude, a lot of jobs these days. We're going to break this down, right?
HARRIS: Yes.
LEVS: OK we're going to start off on that side because this is obviously one of the most recent things. You remember, John McCain came under criticism recently for talking about strong fundamentals in the U.S. economy. Now he's saying look at what Barack Obama just said the other day. This right now is part of an ad from the McCain campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We've got the long-term fundamentals that will really make sure this economy grows.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Strong fundamentals? Is Obama saying McCain's right or is Obama saying his own attacks are shameless? Either way, Obama's a hypocrite.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Not according to the CNN "truth squad" on this. That clip of Obama actually comes from a speech he gave Monday in which he did not agree with McCain. In fact, he criticized McCain again on that point, saying it shows McCain "doesn't get it."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: That's the only way that he could say "the fundamentals of the economy are strong."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: It was in that same speech. Now Obama did also say that after dealing with the immediate problems, the nation has long-term fundamentals that will make sure the economy grows, but he did not refer to strong fundamentals. So, the "truth squad" looked at that ad from McCain and found it false. Flip side now, we're going to go to what we've got here from Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: He said in a recent interview that he thought deregulation has actually helped grow our economy. Senator McCain, what economy are you talking about?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Well, McCain did recently tell "60 Minutes" he thinks deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy, so that line from Obama is technically true there, but to be fair to McCain on a broader picture, he is also recently supporting government oversight as part of the solution to the mess on Wall Street.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: The McCain/Palin administration will replace the outdated, patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight and bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street. We will bring transparency and accountability, and we will reform the regulatory bodies of government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: So, you can see, he's talking about regulation in that sense. The "truth squad" ruling on that line from Obama is true, but it's also important to look at McCain's specific position on the current financial mess, which does include regulations. There we go, we got both sides. Look at that first one, that web ad we were looking at.
HARRIS: That was a web ad.
LEVS: Yes, they're putting up these new web ads every day.
HARRIS: Most of those end up getting play in the newscast, you know?
LEVS: Yes, and also people e-mail them to each other like crazy.
HARRIS: Oh do they? LEVS: Oh big time. His Internet traffic is ahead of John McCain's, so his web ads actually get really good Internet traffic as well. I traced some of his traffic along the way, he gets a good deal. But yes, it's also for us. We talk about it and then it gets attention that way.
HARRIS: Thank you, Josh. Appreciate it.
LEVS: Thanks.
HARRIS: You know with Washington unable to come up with a solution to the financial crisis, we want to know, how confident are you in our nation's leaders? It doesn't have to just be about the economy. Consider any topic when you're answering this question. Then e-mail us your thoughts at cnnnewsroom@cnn.com. We'll begin reading some of your responses in Kyra's 1:00 p.m. Eastern hour.
As government leaders search for a financial fix, they may want to fix a couple of their official Web sites.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: What do you say we take you to the New York Stock Exchange right now, where we are in the middle of a nice little rally right now. It must be said. Boy, the Dow started in negative territory from the very start of the business day, down over 200 points at various points throughout the day. And now, as you can see, the Dow off session lows, down just 19 points. The Nasdaq down about 25 as well. We will keep an eye on the Dow, on the markets, throughout the day for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Overwhelmed and overloaded. A government web site goes crashing down. Our Veronica De La Cruz joins us now to explain what web site we are talking about and what happened.
Good to see you, Veronica.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, it's good to see you, Tony.
The web site we are talking about is house.gov, Tony. So many people tried to log on to the site ahead of the House vote Monday. It caused, in a sense, Tony, I want you to think of it this way, a digital busy signal. People logging on to the site. They could access it. They were getting a blank page. It's actually the top story right now on our political ticker.
And that's what happened. It started Sunday. Administrators say that they posted the bailout bill online and that's when it started. They announced it. So many people wanted to get a look at this bill, Tony, the servers couldn't handle it.
The other thing it did, Tony, is it disabled the e-mail feature. This is house.gov. It took us a while to load the page this morning. We were finally able to get on. And this is what you would have gotten on Sunday or Monday if you were trying to log on to the page. People were clicking on this link right here, "write to your representative." And apparently so many people wanted to do that, the system could not handle the amount of e-mail that came in. A spokesperson, Tony, said that he estimates that number to have been in the millions. Millions of e-mails were coming in.
So what they've done, Tony, is they installed this digital traffic cop which limits the flow of e-mail. Right now, if you click on this link and you try to send your representative an e-mail, you may or may not be able to send one. You might get a message that says "try again later."
So ahead of the vote today, CNN.com -- that is a web site that is definitely working -- we have posted this explainer. Lots of people still have questions about this bill. They want to know what's next for the bailout plan. So this explainer online is going to walk you through that plan. It's going to ask and answer a lot of different questions.
What revisions have been made to the bill ahead of the Senate vote? You know, what this means for you and me. And also, that pdf file for that bill is online, just in case you want to take a look. We have posted this discussion draft of the bill online.
We're also asking you to vote in our Quick Vote today -- should the Senate pass this bill, yes or no? We're asking that question. Right now results look like this. More than 120,000 people have voted, Tony. Twenty-eight percent of people are saying, yes, it should pass. Forty-nine percent, Tony, say no, it shouldn't.
And, get this, Tony, 23 percent of people are saying, I still don't have enough information to decide. A lot of people want to make an educated decision. Of course, you can do so by logging on to CNN.com and reading the bill yourself.
HARRIS: I love it.
DE LA CRUZ: So, you know, Tony, that's been a big issue. A lot of people are saying, I really don't understand the bailout plan. You know, and it's not just constituents. Do lawmakers understand this thing?
HARRIS: Will they read it?
DE LA CRUZ: I mean this whole thing has been unraveling so quickly. Do people understand what's going on?
HARRIS: Right. And the shape of the bill is changing, too. I love that so many people around the country, a, are trying to find the bill online and read it, and . . .
DE LA CRUZ: And the revised bill is online, as well. That explainer completely breaks it down for you.
HARRIS: Oh, it is?
DE LA CRUZ: All the bells and whistles.
HARRIS: I also love that people are actually trying to reach out to their representative and have their voices heard. America really seemingly finding its voice in this whole debate. I love it.
All right, Veronica, appreciate it. Thank you. Good to see you.
You know, they're competing to be number two, but the vice presidential candidates go one on one tomorrow in their first and only debate. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider is with the Election Express in St. Louis, Missouri, where the match-up will take place.
Bill, good to see you.
Hey, if you would, give us a bit of a preview. Talk about the expectations for each of these candidates and really what seems to me to be the battle to tamp down those expectations.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course, the expectations for Sarah Palin are not very high. The expectations for Joe Biden, they are pretty high. He's been around a long time, 30- some years, experienced in Washington. She's new to the national scene. So each side, of course, tries to lower expectations, hoping that however they do, they'll do better than expected. That's what happens in every debate.
But this is a serious crisis the country is facing now. The election in the last couple of weeks has taken on a new seriousness, a new reality, because we have a real issue, a real problem, a real crisis, and the voters want to know, are these candidates up to dealing with a crisis of this magnitude?
HARRIS: And it's interesting, Bill, I've got to ask you, the presidential debate last week was essentially about foreign policy, but it certainly turned and pivoted to the economy. I'm wondering, is this likely to be the same kind of debate, or is it wide-ranging, where Gwen Ifill can ask essentially anything she wants of the candidates?
SCHNEIDER: Anything she wants. There's no specific subject because this is the only debate between the vice presidential candidates. People don't normally vote for vice president. We've seen that in the past.
Remember, 1988, that moment when the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Lloyd Benson, asked the devastating question of Dan Quayle, who, like Sarah Palin, the polls showed many Americans did not think he was qualified to be president of the United States. And he asked -- he said to him, you're no Jack Kennedy, and everyone laughed. And it was supposed to be devastating. Here's a little secret. Dan Quayle won the election because people don't vote for vice president.
So the debate will mostly be the two candidates talking not about each other. They'll be talking about McCain and Obama, the top of the ticket. HARRIS: You know, I'm wondering, what are you seeing in the latest poll of polls there, Bill, and on the presidential side? And I'm wondering if there's a bit of a bounce that is attributable to the performance last week in the first presidential debate? And I guess the real question is, is there a potential bounce available to either of these VP candidates?
SCHNEIDER: Well, what we're seeing, you see it on the screen now, is a five-point lead for Obama over McCain. That's just about the lead that he had going into the debate last week. The debate doesn't seem to have made a great deal of difference. Obama got some momentum. He got a real lead when the financial crisis hit, but not so much because there was a surge of confidence in Obama, but there was a real decline of confidence in President Bush, in the Republican Party and in the Republican ticket, and that put Obama ahead. And the debate seems to have sustained his lead. I think that's what the Democrats are hoping will come out of the debate tomorrow night.
HARRIS: Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider for us.
Bill, good to see you. Thank you.
And join us for live coverage of tomorrow night's vice presidential debate. The debate starts at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. And be sure to tune in early for opinions and analysis from the best political team on television.
Is there any end in sight to the gas shortages across the south?
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HARRIS: Can we talk about the gas crunch? Lines at the pumps starting to get a bit shorter. Officials say supplies are slowly returning to normal in the Southeast, but some truckers say they're still having a hard time getting the gas to you, partly because of inconsiderate four-wheelers.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you pull up to a store, before the stores are even open, the people are just coming into the pumps and they're blocking the trucks in. And it just takes more time for us to do our job properly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Truckers say you can help end the crisis by simply staying calm and getting out of their way.
How about this. Gas on the cheap. A station in Topeka, Kansas, selling regular unleaded for $2.99 a gallon yesterday. When was the last time you saw that, gas under $3? Drivers, of course, lined up to fill up, but the bargain price didn't last long. By afternoon, it was up to $3.03.
Let's get to Chad Myers here in the weather center. You know what, Chad, driving into the big CNN world headquarters here in Atlanta this morning, I felt a little bit of fall, sir. A little chilly.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes, absolutely.
HARRIS: Right?
MYERS: Yes. Temperatures were in the 50s this morning all the way as far south as northern Florida. And that's some good -- I mean, really, this may get rid of the ragweed. I know a bunch of people in this building are going, ah. And that's probably all over the country as well.
Rain showers washing a little bit of that away across parts of the Northeast. And a little bit of airport slowdown activity going on here from Boston down to New York City. But so insignificant, it's just worth a mention. Twenty-five minutes and about 30 minutes at LaGuardia right now.
The ground stop means that they're not allowing planes to take off from LaGuardia. From you're close to LaGuardia, they're not going to let you take off from maybe from Albany to LaGuardia. You're just going to back you up just a few more minutes. But other than that, it's pretty good.
The wind, though, coming all the way down the Plains, across the Great Lakes, and it gets all the way south into south Florida. Orlando will feel the fall. Miami will feel the fall this weekend. It is just going to be fantastic all across the deep South and even into the Southwest as well.
There goes what's left of Laura. Just kind of going up there in the middle of the Atlantic. All you see here is water. Literally, there's nothing left on this map except for water. And that's some good news. Didn't hit anything. We got another name out of the way. That makes 12 named storms now. Still have a few more to go, Tony, but not much warm water left out there. Not much very warm water left and these big cold fronts help out a lot.
HARRIS: Look, we'll take that bit of good news.
MYERS: I got gas yesterday, too, by the way. So that's great news.
HARRIS: You did?
MYERS: Yes.
HARRIS: What did you find it for, three what?
MYERS: $3.97.
HARRIS: Gees, man. All right, Chad. Thanks, man.
MYERS: No $3.03 (ph) . . . HARRIS: Were you able to top off at least?
MYERS: I did. I don't even think the car stopped by the time I was actually putting gas in the car. I got out of the car so fast, I was afraid I was going to run out.
HARRIS: They don't want us to top off, but, look, I've got to do what I've got to do.
MYERS: I had a quart left. That's not topping off. It's almost (INAUDIBLE).
HARRIS: All right, Chad, thanks.
Remember your first car? Our i-Reporters sure do.
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HARRIS: No kidding, really. Do you remember your first car? Mine, Kyra, I'm not kidding you, a yellow 1972 Chevy Nova. An out and out tank. I'm telling you. It really came in handy, too. My first car and my first accident. Forty-five miles an hour. Not a scratch on me. Bumped my head a little bit, but, you know, that was the place to bump. I mean, come on, not going to do any damage.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Monte Carlo, baby. Monte Carlo right here.
HARRIS: Monte Carlo?
PHILLIPS: Monte Carlo.
HARRIS: Really?
PHILLIPS: Maroon.
HARRIS: That was a hot car back in the day.
PHILLIPS: It's still hot.
HARRIS: Maroon? It really is, isn't it?
PHILLIPS: Just can't afford it because of the gas.
HARRIS: You know, it was the right place to bump my head. I wasn't going to do any damage there, was it.
PHILLIPS: So that's what happened.
HARRIS: That's why I'm so twisted.
Enough about us. We want to hear your stories. To do that, let's hit the road, the road down to CNN.com's i-Report desk. Yes, that was the bomb car there, that Monte Carlo, Kyra.
Got to tell you something. One of the guys helping run things down there at our i-Report operation, producer, Tyson Wheatley.
PHILLIPS: Tyson drove a Monte Carlo.
HARRIS: I don't know what he drove.
TYSON WHEATLEY, PRODUCER, IREPORT.COM: I drove a '92 Ford Hatchback. It was a (INAUDIBLE) Hatchback.
HARRIS: A Hatchback?
WHEATLEY: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Note, he said '92. See how young he is.
HARRIS: '92, yes, young guy.
PHILLIPS: Whippersnapper.
HARRIS: Golly gees. You know, that was the assignment, wasn't it, Tyson, for folks to send in their i-Report, their love stories, their horror stories about their first cars.
WHEATLEY: Yes.
HARRIS: How'd we do?
WHEATLEY: We did great. We got more than 200 responses. And they've been fantastic. And I wish we could share them all because there's so many fantastic stories.
HARRIS: Yes, we don't have time for that, Tyson.
WHEATLEY: We don't. I was going to highlight three for you.
HARRIS: OK.
WHEATLEY: Yes, take a look at this first one. It comes to us out of Kansas. So this is from Julie Hanschu and she's . . .
HARRIS: What is that?
WHEATLEY: Tony, that is a Daihatsu Trimobile.
HARRIS: Trimobile.
WHEATLEY: Yes. And you don't see these around much these days.
HARRIS: There's probably a good reason for that.
WHEATLEY: She grew up on a farm in western Kansas, in the middle of nowhere, as she puts it. And, Tony, you can't believe this. She learned to drive when she was eight years old.
HARRIS: Come on now.
WHEATLEY: Her grandpa bought this from a neighbor for $250. She's now 26. She says, it still runs. She's still got it. And, you know what, she hopes one day to pass it down to her kids.
HARRIS: All right. How about this. Julia has got to prove to us that that still runs. She needs to send us another i-Report of her actually driving that thing. You think so, Chad? You've got to see it to believe it. So let's have Julie send us an i-Report of her actually driving that vehicle.
WHEATLEY: OK.
All right. Check out this next one. This one comes to us from, I believe, Knoxville, Tennessee. Yes, Janie Lambert. She's from Knoxville.
HARRIS: Wow.
WHEATLEY: Now this is an incredible picture. This comes to us -- when she was 19, all right? This is a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle. Now her . . .
HARRIS: You can feel the tie-dye, can't you?
PHILLIPS: Back when she was following The Dead.
WHEATLEY: You know, we've been getting so many Beetle stories. And they're always great. This is really interesting. Janie told us she had -- when she got this car she was only 19. She had to learn how to drive a stick shift. She said she was having a few problems rolling backwards, but did pretty well. And, get this, Tony. Back in 1971, only $3 to fill up this Beetle.
HARRIS: Oh, God that hurts. That really hurts. You got one more, Tyson?
WHEATLEY: Got one more. This comes to us from Michelle Cruz. Michelle lives in Spring Valley, California. Now she says she worked several summers at a local theme park riding two buses and a trolley each way to save money for her very first car. This is a 1990 Ford Festiva. She got it for $1,200 from a used car lot. She says, you know what, it didn't matter that it didn't have air conditioning, that the radio was broken, and that all her friends teased her for driving half a car, because it was all hers.
HARRIS: And, you know, she probably had to put her feet down just to stop it, huh, like the Flintstones. But, OK.
All right. Tyson, you know what, we're going to work on some things for your set, your location there. We want to jazz that thing up a little bit and maybe -- we're going to brand it "Tyson's Corner." What do you think of that? Does that work for you?
WHEATLEY: Tyson's Corner?
HARRIS: You're not feeling it? You're not feeling it? All right, we'll work on it. You know, we've got time and we've got a -- well, no, we don't.
All right, Tyson, appreciate it. Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow.
WHEATLEY: All right. Take care.
HARRIS: OK. You know we've heard a lot about grim news lately. Our Josh Levs has found some of those positive stories that have been overlooked lately.
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HARRIS: You know, the news lately has been pretty tough and a lot of folks are stressing out, particularly over their money in their accounts. Is everything being protected.
LEVS: Right. We keep slamming it to you.
HARRIS: And, we do. We're hitting you pretty heavy with this stuff because it's news you need to know and you're responding to it and you've really found your voice in all of this. But there's some stories that have gone untold and you found some of the lighter moments that we have missed over the last few days, right?
LEVS: It just felt right today, didn't it?
HARRIS: Yes, sure.
LEVS: We need to just take some of the lighter stuff and appreciate it for a moment.
HARRIS: Breath for a moment.
LEVS: Exactly. It's close to the end of the hour. We want to lighten things up a little bit.
HARRIS: Yes.
LEVS: And we're going to start off with this next one. I really like this story. This is from Salida, Colorado. It comes to us from Dave Delozier at KUSA. And I'll just tell you what you're about to see. There's a man who is a farmer, who decided to start giving all of his crops to the homeless years ago. This year he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which is sad, and he couldn't do it. So something happened in the community that's pretty incredible. Take a look.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of our volunteers answered the call. They all knew. And they all wanted to see the success this year as well.
DAVE DELOZIER, KUSA REPORTER: They've harvested enough corn, cabbage, broccoli and squash to supply more than 35 food banks. And a chance for Tony to see something more than crops come out of these fields.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch what happened with the community. I mean the farm to table is stronger now than it was a year ago simply because of a hardship of the cancer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Two hundred fifty people all came together. They're working with him now, pulling this together. So all the food banks are getting all the food they would have gotten anyway. So he can recuperate and hopefully totally overcome that cancer. It's a beautiful story down there.
HARRIS: That's a great story.
LEVS: See.
HARRIS: Yes, and one we might have missed.
LEVS: One we might have missed. And since we also have a little bit more time, just a moment of adorability. It can't hurt.
HARRIS: OK. Sure.
LEVS: Some ducks trapped in a sewer. Today's the day to do this. This guy was out walking his dog in south (ph) Miami. And, guess what? He saw these ducks trapped in a sewer. So he called fire rescue. They came along and out came ma duck, a bunch of baby ducks and a turtle that was down there.
HARRIS: Really?
LEVS: And now, look at that.
HARRIS: Now that's just one, big happy family.
LEVS: You can't not be happy. See what I'm saying.
HARRIS: Cats and dogs living together. What is happening on the planet.
LEVS: And, by the way, you want to know something else to laugh at. I still drive my first car.
HARRIS: You do?
LEVS: I still drive my first car.
HARRIS: What is it?
LEVS: What is -- I'm not going to announce what kind of car I drive. What if someone in Atlanta is watching.
HARRIS: Oh, please!
LEVS: It works. It's an American-made car. And it works. And it's fine.
HARRIS: And it works.
LEVS: Yes, and it works. And it's fine.
PHILLIPS: Why don't we move from ducks to cows?
HARRIS: You want to?
PHILLIPS: You want to move from ducks to cows?
LEVS: OK, let's go to cows.
HARRIS: What do you have, Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Just when I thought Nick Nolte, you know, had the worst mug shot.
LEVS: Oh, no.
HARRIS: Oh, the mug shot? Yes.
PHILLIPS: Yes. This woman makes him look like a prince.
LEVS: Oh, Lord.
PHILLIPS: God bless her.
All right. Now we're a little worried about her mental state, of course.
HARRIS: Sure.
PHILLIPS: You know, we're being sensitive to that. But apparently when they arrested her running through the neighborhood harassing little kids to pull her utters, she had a high level of alcohol on her breath.
LEVS: To pull her utters?
HARRIS: To pull her utters?
LEVS: To pull her utters?
PHILLIPS: Yes. We were thinking she was making Brandy Alexanders.
LEVS: She was telling kids to pull her -- oh, my goodness. OK.
PHILLIPS: Chick-fil-A commercial gone bad.
LEVS: Weren't you feeling good until that? OK.
HARRIS: As we say here in the south, bless her heart.
The CNN NEWSROOM with Kyra Phillips starts right now.
