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Vice Presidential Candidate Showdown in St. Louis; Alaska Senator Trial; Borrowing During a Credit Crunch
Aired October 02, 2008 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It is Thursday, October 2nd. And here are the headlines right now on CNN.
Showdown in St. Louis. The vice presidential candidates face to face tonight for their only debate. Live coverage for you.
The Senate tossing a $700 billion hot potato back to the House. The loaded-up bailout bill grows from three pages to nearly 500.
A thousand dollars cash, three IDs. A mountain hiker finds a spot where adventurer Steve Fossett crashed a year ago.
Good morning everyone. I'm Tony Harris. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And here we go, countdown to two political showdowns. And we've got you covered.
Suzanne Malveaux and Dana Bash live from the site of tonight's vice presidential debate, now less than 10 hours away. And on Capitol Hill, the House gets ready for round two, a vote on the sweetened up version of the massive financial rescue bill.
Debate night in America. In this corner, the long-time senator from Delaware. In the opposing corner, the newcomer and governor of Alaska. Biden versus Palin tonight.
Suzanne Malveaux live from the debate location in St. Louis.
And Suzanne, you know, I've got to tell you, you've been talking to everyone in camp Biden. Is he ready for tonight? What is the fine balancing act for Joe Biden in this debate, 9:00 p.m. Eastern?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, I like the analogy, the whole boxing analogy there. I think it works, actually.
I just spoke with Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass, who says they perfectly expect some real sharp blows from Sarah Palin this evening. They say that he is not necessarily going to buy into that game, that he is not going to attack her. Rather, she says he is going to focus on substance, that there's going to be a lot of meat on the bone, and that what he's going to try to do is deflect any kind of those one- liners or those zingers and try to speak directly to the voters. That really is going to be his strategy. She says there's not going to be anything personal, these type of attacks. And she also wanted to make the point, too, a lot of people have been talking about the fact that he's debating a woman. And she says that's really not all that significant for him.
She says that he is around strong, smart women all the time. His wife has a Ph.D., one of his closest advisers.
HARRIS: Yes.
MALVEAUX: But he's also debated Senator Feinstein and Clinton, and a whole host of people in the Senate. So she says he's really going to stick with the issues, the substance.
I want to show you really quickly here, we are actually in the hall where it's going to take place. They've set up the podiums. You can see they have the table set there in the middle. That's where Gwen Ifill is going to be sitting, the moderator, doing some sound checks.
We expect about 2:30 or so Eastern, that is when Gwen Ifill will go ahead, do her walkthrough. Then we'll see Sarah Palin an hour later, followed up by Joe Biden. All of them trying to prepare for this very big moment -- Tony.
HARRIS: You know, Suzanne, let me go back to that fine balancing act that I believe he has to actually be successful with tonight. How does he attack Governor Palin without appearing to be attacking Sarah?
MALVEAUX: Well, what they're going to do is, he is not necessarily going to attack her. What he's going to do is associate her with John McCain and associate John McCain with George Bush.
So it's all essentially their alliance, it's all one in the same. So, by attacking George Bush and John McCain, linking them to Sarah Palin, they believe they're going to be effective in showing that she's not the reformer or the maverick that they have all been talking about, that they have been portraying this team to be.
HARRIS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning.
Suzanne, appreciate it. Thank you.
You know, Governor Sarah Palin hoping to silence critics who question whether she is ready for prime time.
Dana Bash now is covering Governor Palin, and she joins us live from St. Louis.
And Dana, same question for you. What are you hearing? Is Sarah Palin ready? Is she feeling good, feeling strong, as we like to say around here?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Wolf Blitzer.
HARRIS: Yes.
BASH: You know, this is what I'm hearing from those who have been in and around her in Arizona. They say that the fact that they took her out of this hotel that she had been in the middle of Philadelphia and brought her out to John McCain's creekside cabin -- it's a beautiful site right near Sedona, Arizona -- that that really did change her disposition, changed kind of her approach, it made her much more relaxed, which was the whole point in doing that. She had her family around her and a small group of advisers.
Having said that, you know, they understand that the stakes are incredibly high. What they've also been trying to do is kind of warm her up not just with the kind of debate prep she's had, but over the past couple of days they have taken some outside advice, and they've been getting a lot of outside advice on how to deal with some of the tough interviews that she's had lately.
And they've had her call into a couple of conservative radio hosts. That has allowed her to do a couple of things.
One is, as people are saying, let Sarah be Sarah with these people who were not asking her the toughest of tough questions, but also allow her to really continue to stoke and energize that conservative base that came alive when she got on John McCain's ticket. That is still the kind of area of the electorate that they need to keep excited about Sarah Palin.
They understand Independents, women, that is not exactly the sector of the population that they might get at this point. It might turn around tonight. But really, the key is for them not to lose that base.
HARRIS: Right. Right.
Hey, Dana, where are the potential sweet spots for Sarah Palin tonight to actually score some points against Joe Biden? I mean, does she paint Biden as part of the old boy network? Does she ask the question pretty directly, what have you done, Joe Biden, to change the Washington culture?
BASH: I think we certainly could hear some of that. You heard her the last time she was on the stump on Monday make a joke about the fact that she was in second grade when Joe Biden went to the Senate.
HARRIS: Yes.
BASH: And that was kind of, you know, a way of trying to take away the experience -- try to take experience off the table. But the thing that I'm hearing also from several of the advisers who have been working with her is that they really want her to try to play up the connection that she can make to average voters out there who are feeling a lot of pain right now, economic pain.
You heard her do this over the past couple of days in those radio interviews I was talking about, talk about the fact that she's worried about her 401(k). There have been times in her life where she hasn't had health care. That kind of connection, they think, is something they think she can make, which Joe Biden, certainly more than others on the ticket can, but make in a way that others can't.
HARRIS: Can't wait. Really can't wait.
Dana Bash for us.
Dana, good to see you. Thank you.
BASH: Thank you.
HARRIS: Senator John McCain speaking up for his running mate ahead of tonight's debate. He talked about his belief in Sarah Palin's abilities earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" with Kiran Chetry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know that there have been attacks on Sarah Palin that have been remarkable to me in many ways. But I have total confidence in her. She's very comfortable in her own skin, she's had more experience in leadership than Senator Obama and Senator Biden put together.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: You said that she's comfortable in her own skin. Some of the criticism has been that Sarah isn't allowed to be Sarah, that she's been tightly managed, that she's been holed up and maybe given too much information.
What can we expect to see tonight as she debates Joe Biden?
MCCAIN: Well, I'm sure that all of those critics that you're talking about have been -- look, the fact is that she'll do fine tonight. She has experience, she has talent, she has leadership.
She has a great inner strength. She has an ability to lead that's been proven, taken on her own party. Joe Biden and Barack Obama have never taken on the leaders of their party on any issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The economy and the financial meltdown, foreign policy and national security. We will get into the issues of tonight's VP debate next hour with CNN's Frank Sesno and Gene Cummings of politico.com. You'll want to stick around for that.
And you can see the match-up between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin live, tonight, 9:00 Eastern, here on CNN, your home for politics.
The $700 billion financial bailout bill. The House gets a do- over vote probably tomorrow. The question today, will enough House members switch their "no" votes now that the bill has been sugarcoated with tax breaks?
The Senate approved the bailout bill last night, the vote 74-25. Both presidential candidates voted for it. Stocks slumping again today despite the Senate vote. And credit markets are getting even tighter today. The bank-to-bank loan rate surged again as institutions hoard cash.
And billionaire investor Warren Buffett shoring up GE. He is investing $3 billion in an iconic American company battered by the financial crisis.
A leading House Democrat says the bill has a better chance to pass this time, but Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank says the vote will remain close.
CNN's Anderson Cooper asked if Democrats could come up with additional "yes" votes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), FINANCIAL SERVICES CHAIRMAN: I think the hope we have is that the switches will come among the Republicans. And again, I want to say on both sides, reality bites. And reality bit on Tuesday and today, so that members who were figuring there was no downside politically to voting no, some of them have now encountered one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, one of the richest men in America is talking about the congressional rescue package. Hear what Warren Buffett has to say about the bailout this hour on CNN.com.
And log on to CNN.com to hear more from Ali Velshi. He is doing a radio show right now. You can have a look at him. There he is.
We're going to make that connection with Ali in just a couple of minutes right here.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And we have some breaking news now on the corruption trial of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.
Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena joins us now from Washington -- Kelli, great to see you -- with the latest on this.
And this has everything to do with a hearing that is set for later this afternoon that could result in the dismissal of all the charges against...
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Can you believe that?
HARRIS: Pretty stunning stuff here.
ARENA: It is. And this is not at all what we were expecting for today. I mean, the trial this morning came to an abrupt halt when Stevens' defense attorneys went and said, you know, we just got information from the prosecution about an FBI interview, notes regarding Bill Allen who, as you know, Tony, is the government's star witness. Up front -- I mean, it's called discovery -- prosecution is supposed to give the defense all the information it has.
There was an oversight of some sort, that the defense did not have this information. So they went to the judge and they said, no fair, we want a mistrial. The judge just stopped everything dead in its tracks, sent the jury home, said I want to -- you both get to file motions. I'll see you at 4:30. We're going to figure this out.
For those who, you know, sort of have put this out of their mind for a little while, the senator is charged with lying on disclosure forms about hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of renovations that were done on his Alaska home by Bill Allen and his former company Veco, which is an oil company. The charge is that the senator didn't write down, didn't disclose these as gifts.
The senator has pled not guilty and said that he's paid every single bill that Allen ever sent him. And so that's what this whole trial is about.
Today, Tony, was supposed to be the big day...
HARRIS: Yes, that's right.
ARENA: ... because we were supposed to hear audiotapes that were played that were -- it was an FBI wiretap that Bill Allen was wearing while he was having conversations with Senator Stevens. And so today was going to be the day that we were going to hear those conversations. Nada. We got nothing. We'll see what happens at 4:30.
HARRIS: Boy, can't wait.
All right. Kelli Arena for us.
Thank you, Kelli.
ARENA: You're welcome.
HARRIS: And a sad twist this morning in the police taser death of a Brooklyn psychiatric patient. The police lieutenant who ordered another officer to use a taser on Iman Morales committed suicide about five hours ago. The taser shot caused Morales to fall 10 feet from a building onto his head.
Officials say the taser was used in violation of procedure. The police lieutenant is identified as Michael Pigot. Morales' funeral is scheduled for later today.
In Florida, Casey Anthony is now an official suspect in the disappearance of her daughter Caylee. Police say Anthony has been uncooperative and misleading. The 3-year-old vanished, as you'll recall, in mid June. Caylee's mother waited nearly a month before reporting her missing. Police say they are frustrated by Anthony's actions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. ANGELO NIEVES, ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA, SHERIFF'S OFFICE: She is our person that we continue to go to and hope that she will step forward, finally that she'll wake up and say, let me provide the information to bring this to an end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, police say Anthony has not provided any credible information about the last time she saw her daughter.
You need cash fast? So where do you go? A bank, a lender? Your personal finance editor, Gerri Willis, has today's top tips.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA RADEMACHER, BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS: All those things the reporters and economists had talked about came rushing into my mind about how all the ATMs would be empty. And who knows, all the banks would be padlocked. And I immediately went crazy. I ended the class, got in my car, drove across the street to my bank, and immediately took out $5,000.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Boy, you didn't listen to Gerri Willis, that's for sure.
So here we go. You need cash, and you need it fast, but credit obviously is tight, the bank said no. So what do you do?
Good question for our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis.
Gerri, great to see you.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Good to see you, Tony.
HARRIS: And let's start with the things you don't do. And please say something about these payday loans.
WILLIS: Right, exactly.
Well, Tony, first of all, my heart goes out to that woman...
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
WILLIS: ... because that's really, really scary. But there are places to go and places not to go for money right now with the credit crunch on. Payday loans, don't go there. A payday loan is basically a cash advance, and it's expensive. Fees can be $15 to $30 for every hundred you borrow. And that is a lot of interest. Interest and fees accumulate on these payday loans.
Cash advances on your credit cards, you get the offer in the mail, don't do it. It's not a good deal for you. Again, interest rates are really, really high.
Finally, liquidating your 401(k), also a bad idea.
HARRIS: Yes.
WILLIS: I know a lot of people losing jobs out there, Tony.
HARRIS: That's right.
WILLIS: But you don't want to cash out that 401(k) when you leave because you'll pay penalties, you'll have to rebuild that nest egg over decades to come. It's the wrong choice.
HARRIS: Give us some more positive choices, some good places where people can go.
WILLIS: Well, OK, we're assuming first that you've gone to family and friends and they've said no...
HARRIS: The friends and family network.
WILLIS: ... or you don't have that emergency fund, right?
HARRIS: Yes.
WILLIS: All right. You can take a loan out of your 401(k). Not my favorite thing to do. But you can do that.
You must pay the loan back within five years. And you can generally take up to half of your 401(k) value.
Now, the bad news here is that if you lose your job, you have to pay it back immediately. So it can be very tough to do.
Also, think about -- this is a good one. Tap into your investments. Do you have a certificate of deposit with a bank? That is the thing to go for. Yes, you'll penalties, you'll lose some interest you were expecting, but I have to tell you, that's probably the best of all these options.
Finally, if you're over 62 years old, consider a reverse mortgage. It's basically a loan against your home that you don't have to pay back as long as you live there. But keep in mind there can be lots of fees.
And there's one kind of creative solution, Tony, you should know about, peer-to-peer lending Web sites like prosper.com, zopa.com. This is a new industry, we really don't know that much about it quite yet. And I don't believe they have to live up to the regulations that banks do.
HARRIS: Right.
WILLIS: But it's worth a look if you're really stretched and really need that loan.
HARRIS: No -- very good.
Hey, Gerri, we haven't talked about it for a while. Give us a bit of a preview what's coming up on "OPEN HOUSE" this weekend.
WILLIS: You're really going to want to join us Saturday. Look, we're going to tell you how to protect your money from your 401(k), to your bank account. You'll want to tune in Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN -- Tony.
HARRIS: Appreciate it. Gerri, great to see you, as always.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
HARRIS: And, you know, you can track your fortunes at cnnmoney.com. We have got all of the day's market news, the numbers, expert analysis and much more.
It is anchors away in New York for an old warship given new life. The USS Intrepid aircraft carrier, a live picture now from Staten Island. The floating museum moving back to the Hudson River Pier and the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
The Intrepid has undergone 22 months of scrubbing, cleaning and repairs. Lots of history here. Intrepid survived five kamikaze attacks in World War II. It served in Korea and Vietnam, and also plucked our astronauts from the ocean after two space missions.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The $700 billion financial bailout, the bill does boomerang and lands back in the House. Lawmakers plan to vote tomorrow on a revised version of the bill.
It passed the Senate last night 74-25. Senators spiced up the bailout bill with tax breaks and other incentives.
Despite approval in the Senate, the Dow is taking another dive today. Maybe we'll take a look at the Big Board here very quickly.
We are certainly down in double-digit territory so far. As you can see, the Dow down 255 points in the first two hours of the trading day.
Ali Velshi is in New York hosting his weekly radio show and taking a lot of questions on the bailout bill. We will get to Ali and hear what he is hearing from some of his...
Hey, Ali, can you speak to us now?
Or he's -- OK. So we'll get to Ali in just a couple of moments.
Investors are waiting to see if the government bailout bill actually moves forward in the House, but Americans are opposed to it. So what do people want?
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
HARRIS: The homebuilder blues. Some construction companies say they can't finish building the homes they started because the banks won't give them credit.
Here is Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They built these houses but couldn't finish them. The money dried up. These 12 unfinished homes outside of San Diego are a symbol of the nation's financial crisis.
MICK PATTINSON, CEO, BARRATT AMERICAN: This would be the kitchen area here, family room over there.
SIMON: Mick Pattinson is the CEO of Barratt American, a California home builder. He says his company had to stop construction in March after his bank, Bank of America, froze the company's $125 million credit line. He claims they were current on their payments when the funding stopped.
PATTINSON: I'm angry with the way we've been treated. We, and many other home builders like us, have been good customers to these banks for decades. And the way we've been treated is unconscionable.
SIMON: Pattinson calls himself a classic victim of the mortgage meltdown. He says his lender, like a lot of other banks, got spooked by the home real estate market.
PATTINSON: The banks have made a bad situation worse. Let's not forget that this subprime crisis was created by America's lending industry.
SIMON: We called Bank of America. The company didn't get back to us.
Barratt American was one of the top 200 home builders in the country. It received numerous industry awards, built 500 homes and brought in $250 million in revenue. Now its offices are empty after laying off 100 of its 140 employees. Pattinson would like to see language in Congress's bailout package that would help companies regain lost credit.
PATTINSON: Home building is one of the key drivers of the American economy. And if we just bail out banks and the banks do what they've been doing, and just sit on that money, then we didn't achieve anything. SIMON: Dan Simon, CNN, Carlsbad, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And we are sorting out fact from fiction. CNN's truth squad takes on the vice presidential candidates.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Try to make our connection with Ali Velshi. I think we've got it all worked out. He's talking bailout on CNN radio right now.
Let's drop in again and see what kind of calls and e-mails Ali Velshi -- hey Ali, OK, so you've got the microphone.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it works. You can hear me, I can hear you.
HARRIS: So you've got your megaphone -- I can hear you -- so you've got your megaphone. I know you've got your computer opened --
VELSHI: Yes.
HARRIS: -- which means you're taking calls, you're getting e- mails, all on this bailout. What are you hearing?
VELSHI: Listen, people want to know how it affects them. For all the political talk we've been having about the machinations in Washington, people want to know -- what will it do for me in my business? I've had calls from people who say they've got two months worth of money left, or three months worth of money. I had a call from a hotel owner in Florida who said that they can't get the financing that they need at a fixed rate. The bank will only lend money at a variable rate, and they're scared to do that. That's the kind of stuff -- is this bill going to help me? What's in that $700 billion? People are frustrated.
Now I'm telling you, Tony, things have changed a little bit through the course of the week. I'm getting more callers who are wanting to know how it affects them and understanding they're connected to this credit freeze than I'm getting angry people who don't want to have a bailout.
HARRIS: Is that -- have you seen this change since Monday, since the House vote?
VELSHI: Yes. It's been ebbing and flowing all week, depending on sort of where the mood has been. People were very angry on the weekend and on Monday about this bailout. But what has happened is, I think, there have been lots of efforts trying to explain, you can like it or not, you can be mad at Washington if you want, you can get mad at Wall Street, but you are intricately tied to the credit crisis that we're in right now, the credit freeze that we're in. That's --
HARRIS: That's a question that I want to ask you. What -- give us your best thinking on this. The bill passes in some way, shape or form, the president signs it. OK -- do you believe that we will see a loosening of the credit markets?
VELSHI: All right. There's two schools of thought on this. I just had Christine Romans in with me on the radio, and Christine says, look, we don't know what they're buying and how many weeks it will take for them to buy the companies and the bad loans that they need to buy in order to loosen it up. But I think instantly you will see some loosening of credit because there are some people who have been hoarding their money like squirrels, big banks and investment -- pools of money who are --
HARRIS: There you go.
VELSHI: -- ready to loan it out. If they think the system is going to get better, I think, if this bill passes tomorrow afternoon, you will immediately see a loosening of credit on some levels. Whether that's going to help you with your mortgage, or this hotel owner who needs a loan, that's -- we don't know how fast that will be. But I think you'll see some immediate loosening of credit.
HARRIS: That is very interesting.
I'm just wondering if some of these banks might just hoard some cash because their cash position has taken such a beating here recently.
VELSHI: Yes. They're scared.
HARRIS: And they're scared. But I love your viewpoint on that.
Ali, we're going to check in from time to time during the course of the rest of the hour.
VELSHI: Now we know we can hear each other.
HARRIS: Good deal. All right, Ali, thank you sir.
VELSHI: And anybody who wants to call in, this is your chance to rant or ask questions. Thanks a lot, Tony.
HARRIS: Very good.
VELSHI: Talk to you in a bit.
HARRIS: OK. Thanks, doc.
VELSHI: Let's go back to --
HARRIS: Gaining ground in key battleground states -- new polls show Barack Obama making strides. Senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, live from St. Louis.
Bill, it's always great to see you. You've got some new numbers, the latest numbers from some crucial states. WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. We're looking at three states. Every one of these three states voted for Bush in 2004. How are they doing now?
Well, take a look at Ohio. That was the key state for Bush, a state that's been devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs and competition from foreign trade. Right now, in that key state of Ohio, Obama is leading McCain by eight points. That would be a real turnaround and a real objective of the Obama campaign if they could carry Ohio.
Florida, this state was supposed to be good for McCain. It's got three groups that McCain was relying on. It has seniors who have been voting for him in large numbers around the country, some southerners do live in Florida, the northern part of Florida, and Cuban Americans, which is a Republican-leaning Latino group. Nevertheless, right now the latest poll of polls in Florida shows Obama leading McCain by five points. That's an average of several different polls, three different polls, taken recently in Florida. Again, battleground state was for Bush, now for Obama.
And finally, Missouri. Missouri is a bell weather state. It has voted for the winner in every presidential election for the last 100 years save one, in 1956. How does Missouri go? Well, that one isn't clear. One poll, the CNN/"TIME" Opinion Research Corporation poll shows Obama leading here in Missouri, but only by one point. Another poll by the "St. Louis Post Dispatch" also shows a one-point margin. But in that case for John McCain. So here in Missouri, it appears to be still up for grabs -- Tony.
HARRIS: Fascinating numbers. Senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, for us from St. Louis.
Bill, good to see you. Thank you.
And with just hours to go before the big vice presidential debate, the CNN truth squad is busy looking at the latest attacks on the campaign trail involving Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Josh Levs is with me now.
And Josh, if you would, talk us through this new ad that is suggesting that Obama partisans are behind the investigation of Sarah Palin in Alaska.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And remember yesterday you and I were talking about web ads and what a big deal they are?
HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes.
LEVS: And here is a good example of one that's getting a lot of traffic, and it's an opportunity for them to put out their view out on something without doing the same kind of thing through paid media.
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: You know the background here. Since Governor Palin hit this national scene, the media has been following this probe into her firing of the state public safety commissioner. And the question is whether she fired him for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She says she did not. Well, the McCain-Palin campaign has now posted this web ad that says this about the people behind that investigation. Here is a clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: Secrecy, collusion and October surprises. It's nothing more than a three-ring circus, MC'd by Obama partisans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: MC'd by Obama partisans they're saying.
Well is that true? This story involves a complex web of characters. So what I'm going to do now -- I'm going to give you a few basics. Let's start with this -- the lawmaker who is managing the investigation, state Senator Hollis French, is a Democrat and Obama supporter, and did say the probe could yield an October surprise for the GOP ticket. Also here we'll show you the chairman of the legislative council that authorized the probe, Kim Elton is a Democrat and an Obama supporter.
However, the investigation reached a turning point three weeks before Palin was named as McCain's running mate. And that was after she disclosed members of her administration had contacted the Public Safety Department about her ex-brother-in-law. Also, some Alaska Republicans support the probe and in the House Judiciary Committee a Republican cast the deciding vote to subpoena Palin's husband, among some other witnesses.
So we took a look at all of this. We'll kind of distill it down to a basic verdict. And here you go, the verdict of the CNN truth squad is that it's misleading. The investigation is led by Democrats who support Obama, but several GOP lawmakers, Tony, support that probe as well. So there you go.
HARRIS: And there's always the very real possibility, it is an investigation, that chips fall where they may, that the October surprise for the GOP could be -- there's no there-there.
LEVS: It could be nothing.
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: And that could benefit --
HARRIS: It could --
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: Anything that happens from that probe could ultimately lead to anything. We have no idea if, in the end, there will be any wrongdoing found at all. All we know is what each incremental step of this investigation has been. And absolutely, we don't now know exactly when we'll get any final results from this thing, but you're right. It could lead to that. It's totally possible.
HARRIS: All right, Josh.
LEVS: And maybe that wouldn't be a surprise to them, though. Maybe that will be the October expected if they had that.
HARRIS: Exactly. All right, Josh, appreciate it. Thanks
LEVS: Thanks.
HARRIS: Solving a year-old mystery. Whatever happened to adventurer Steve Fossett? We're taking you live to California for some answers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett's plane found on the side of a California mountain more than a year after disappearing. No signs of a body, though. The site west of Mammoth Lakes in California. Our Dan Simon is in Mammoth Lakes.
And Dan, once again, I've got the pictures in my hands here. We're going to try to get those produced so that we can show them to everyone at home. And now we have the positive identification?
SIMON: Yes. Hi, Tony.
The crash site is about 12 miles behind me, deep in the Sierra here. And authorities say right now there are about 60 people looking for Steve Fossett's remains. Tony, this is a mystery that has been going on for well over a year. The question was -- what happened to Steve Fossett, what happened to his plane?
When he first went missing, again over a year ago, the search involved more than a thousand volunteers and covered 20,000 square miles. You can see the pictures right now of that aircraft that they found. But again, we're talking about how long this search went on for. It went on for more than a month and covered a great deal of territory. And of course, he was presumed dead, but there was always this lingering question.
Well we now know the answer. What happened to that plane? And it happened as a result of a hiker finding some identification that had Steve Fossett's name on it. This is a hiker, went on for a day hike, and found three pieces of I.D. with Steve Fossett's name on it, along with $1,000 in cash.
Well, that triggered a new search, if you will. Yesterday the crews set up some airplanes and they found the crash site. No human remains were found. But looking at that site, authorities say there's no chance anyone could have walked away. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF JOHN ANDERSON, MADERA COUNTRY, CALIFORNIA: It was a head-on crash into a side of a mountain into a rock. The plane moved in an upward direction for 100 feet or so and disintegrated. The engine was found about 300 feet farther than the fuselage and the wings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating this crash. Some crews from the NTSB just arrived at the scene. We're expecting them to have a press conference in, perhaps, just the next few minutes. Hopefully one day they'll be able to figure out exactly what happened to Steve Fossett's plane.
Again, Tony, right now the question is -- where is Steve Fossett's body? And there are 60 people up there in the mountains looking for the body. They also have about five search dogs as well -- Tony.
HARRIS: OK. And Dan, you're -- let me just repeat that again. You're expecting some kind of a news conference from the NTSB it sounds like within the next hour or so?
SIMON: Right. The NTSB -- the plane just got here. We understand that the chairman from the NTSB is on the ground, and we're expecting them to at least give some sort of preliminary statement about how the investigation will take place, Tony.
HARRIS: OK. Dan Simon for us.
Dan, appreciate it. Thank you.
Let's get a check of weather now. Our Reynolds Wolf is in the weather center.
And Reynolds, it looks like the possibility exists here for some significant snow for some parts of the country and particularly good news for some skiers.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Yes. That really is the case.
OK, Reynolds, appreciate it. Thank you.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Any time.
HARRIS: And I believe we're just moments away -- just sort of giving you a bit of an idea -- pretty close to hearing some comments from the president. OK. Pretty close to hearing some comments from the president. The president is speaking to the National Association of Manufacturers today.
And he is also encouraging House members to pass the financial rescue plan. And we're going to get to those comments from the president in just a moment. He, again, is going to use this opportunity to talk about efforts to move forward with this plan, how difficult it is right now for businesses across the country to get loans to keep their operations going, to make payrolls. We're going to take a quick break and come back with the president's comments in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And let's get you quickly to comments made a short time ago from President Bush speaking to the National Association of Manufacturers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... we're here today to talk about the state of the economy and the need for the House of Representatives to pass the bill that passed the Senate last night with an overwhelming bipartisan majority.
Our discussion today is centered around credit. I know there's a lot of discussions in the newspapers and on TV about the credit freeze. Well, let me tell what you this means. It means that if you're running a small company and you need to make payroll, or you need to make sure you've got inventory to be able to sell a product, or you want to expand so you can hire somebody, you need to have credit. You need to be able to have money on a regular basis from your local banker.
And the problem is because of -- people are worried about the future, they're worried the government won't act, credit is frozen. People aren't lending money from bank to bank, or they're not lending money to our medium and small-sized businesses. And that means people's jobs are in jeopardy. And the bill that's before the House of Representatives tomorrow is a bill that has got the best chance of providing liquidity, providing credit, providing money so small businesses and medium-sized businesses can function.
A lot of people are watching the House of Representatives now to determine whether or not they will be able to act positively upon a bill that has been improved. People say, what do you mean by that? Well, insurance for the FDIC goes up to $250,000. That's an improvement to the legislation, not only for banks but for credit unions as well.
And so I'm talking to people who are, you know -- who come from the heartland that understand what's taking place in our economy today. People who understand that the House of Representatives needs to pass this piece of legislation. And I want to thank you all for going up and telling these members of Congress what's on your mind, and how this affects your businesses at home, and how it affects the communities in which you live.
This thing -- this issue has gone way beyond New York and Wall Street. This is an issue that's affecting hard-working people. They're worried about their savings. They're worried about their jobs. They're worried about their houses. They're worried about their small businesses. And the House of Representatives must listen to these voices and get this bill passed so we can get about the business of restoring confidence. Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: There you have it. The president making comments this morning. Again, pushing Congress, pushing the House, to pass the language that was passed by the Senate last night on this financial rescue plan. Encouraging that vote. It's possible that the vote could happen tomorrow. It will be a tough slog, though, as there is still a lot of opposition in the House to the proposed language, the core of the bill, the $700 billion financial rescue plan, as it's being referred to these days.
Obviously, the economy continues to be front and center on the mind of many voters.
Veronica De La Cruz has been looking through the material coming in from our affiliates and from the web as well, watching for ways the financial crisis has been affecting you.
What are you finding, Veronica?
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Tony, we're going to go ahead and start in Colorado with affiliate KUSA. And unfortunately, like we just heard from the president, small business owners are already feeling the brunt of it. Take a look, this toy store in Breckenridge says it's already started to cut back on inventory and labor.
Also ski resorts, Tony. Ski resorts in the area are doing the same. They're worried that skiers will not be showing up this year. In fact, Tony, the owner of the ski resort says reservations for the upcoming season are already down.
Also, in Charlotte County, Florida, Tony, it is animal lovers who are feeling the squeeze. Our affiliate, WWSB, reporting the Animal Welfare League has noticed an increase in the number of pets being dropped off simply because their owners cannot afford them.
James McCurry (ph) is a small business owner who says his boat cleaning business has run dry. He says he's given up his two dogs in hopes that they'll receive the vet care that he cannot afford. He says its a choice he didn't want to make, but his priorities are putting food on the table, food for his two children.
Also on the web, Tony, one of the top stories on CNN.com right now, also having to do with the economy. Mexicans in the U.S. sending home more than 12 percent less then they did around this time last year. Banco de Mexico blaming tough economic times in the U.S. for decline. They have posted this message on their Web site, Tony.
"The prolonged deceleration of economic activity in the United States has adversely affected the opportunities for employment in that country, and consequently, those of the Mexican migrants."
Some economists, Tony, are saying they expect that number to increase from 12.2 percent to 20 percent. After oil exports, remittances are Mexico's second most largest source of foreign currency.
So there you go, Tony. Home and abroad people are being affected by this. And of course, if you want to get more on this story, plus more on affiliate stories, you can always logon to CNN.com.
HARRIS: You know and we've been hearing this morning that it -- Ali Velshi was telling us just moments ago that he has seen a shift in the tone of the calls that are coming into his radio show. Last week he was really fighting back against so many callers who were saying that no way, no how should this move forward. And he is suggesting today that since the House voted it down on Monday, there's been a subtle shift in the tone of the calls.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, there has.
HARRIS: Are you finding some of that on the web as well?
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, and you can take a look at the quick vote and vote yourself. Those numbers have gone up like you just said. So if you want to vote on that, if you now support this bailout bill, now that the House is going to take it up tomorrow, you can logon to CNN.com.
And in the next hour, Tony, what do you think we're talking about?
HARRIS: Let me see. Probably -- my guess is something from the web. Is that correct?
DE LA CRUZ: And the vice presidential debate. Will you --
HARRIS: And questions that people might have.
(CROSSTALK)
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, so you can vote on that as well -- CNN.com.
HARRIS: OK, Veronica, appreciate it. Thank you.
The vice presidential debate -- what can we expect? Frank Sesno and Jeanne Cummings talk about the issues likely to come up. It is in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
That starts right now.
