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Latino Factor in Florida; New Polls Show Obama Uptick; Presidential Race: Debates, Rallies and Speeches Grow Nastier in Tone
Aired October 07, 2008 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Coming at you now. The campaigns are getting nasty, and so are some of the crowds. In Florida, at a Sarah Palin rally, supporters turn on reporters, hurling obscenities, even racial epithets. We'll tell you what happened.
At another rally, she gets heckled and fires back.
GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, bless your heart, sir, my son is over in Iraq fighting for your right to protest right now.
SANCHEZ: Palin will hold another rally in Florida this hour. You will see it live. Three swing states make dramatic shifts. We will tell you where they are.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think that McCain or Obama are very savvy when it comes it to the economy.
SANCHEZ: And those who still haven't made up their minds. See which way they are leaning. Your comments unfiltered on Twitter, Facebook and more. Like nowhere else, your newscast begins now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And hello again everybody, I'm Rick Sanchez.
This is the hour here on CNN where we combine our Internet audience with you watching at home to get reaction to the news of the day, and nothing seems to be more pressing now than what is going on both in two arenas.
First of all the political arena with the big debate that's going to be coming up today. As a matter of fact we have a countdown clock that we're going to be showing you throughout the course of the day, so you actually see exactly how soon this thing is going to be taking place, this debate or town hall forum as some are calling it.
We're also going to be waiting for Sarah Palin, she's going to be speaking at any moment, and we're going to be watching the Dow as we see there, our president spoke a little while ago and while he was speaking, we actually saw those numbers go south. Why is it going south? Why isn't the bailout working?
Also, you see that guy up there on the right? He is someone who is being grilled right now over on Capitol Hill, and that is important no doubt, because it started yesterday. I want to show you something because as we start the newscast of somebody getting grilled yesterday. You'll recall, it was Lehman Brothers and their CEO, in this case, he is getting grilled by Congressman Elijah Cummings, take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS, (D) MARYLAND: Why don't you take responsibility for Lehman's mistakes? Why did you continue to say -- quote -- "We are great and the market doesn't understand?" In your testimony today, right here, right now, you continue to deflect personal responsibility, you cite what you call a litany of reasons for Lehman's bankruptcy. Mr. Fuld, I want to ask you about your personal responsibilities since you have taken it Do you agree that Lehman took on excessive leverage under your leadership? Please answer yes or no.
RICHARD FULD, LEHMAN BROS. CEO: It is not that easy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Took a while to answer, didn't it? Well, that was Lehman Brothers yesterday and so who is getting grilled on Capitol Hill about this economic meltdown today? If you have watched this show and have become a regular, you're going to be accustomed to this particular tape because we have shown it to you before. Here is the answer to that question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The next domino to fall, AIG. Who is AIG?
AIG -- watch this. AIG, AIG, AIG. That says 1, 2, 3 raw girl.
AIG.
AIG.
AIG.
AIG.
AIG.
Speaking of AIG.
AIG.
Why is AIG so important?
Right now we are looking at the Dow --
That square there on the right. Wait. Right there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That's what it's all about once again today. AIG. This time the CEO, his name is Martin Sullivan, he's being pressed here by Congressman Mark Souder, here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARK SOUDER, (R) INDIANA: Do you bear any responsibility? That is what I am asking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be -- well, I want to say responsibility for everything that occurred under my tenure.
SOUDER: Well, you said that you were making profits a little bit ago. You said that you were making profits and you hadn't lost any money, yes, but you had a shell that was anchored in less than secured mortgages that had been leveraged multiple times and the insurance division which also, presumably, has mortgages and other types of investments seemed fine.
But the question is, why weren't you warning yours stockholders? Why weren't you making declarations that you would leave your company?
I have a business background an MBA, just a small town business guy, but at the same time, you took incredible risks without warning people, and the evidence of that risk is that one, accounted to by your own explanation, when accounting rules changed put your company under and the taxpayers putting $61 billion in, how in the world does an executive leave their company so vulnerable that when they leave, all of a sudden they go broke when they were claiming they were making money before and they acted astounded like, well, everything was just fine if they hadn't done this one accounting rule.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: And the theme of this day seems to be anger and grilling, anger because the American people, in fact I was just given a document, I'm going to parse it out in just a minute to let you know exactly how much the American people, the taxpayer, people who are planning to retire within a set amount of years are now going to be pushed back. How much they have lost per dollar. I'll break that down for you in just a little bit.
But the anger and the grilling that is going on, it's the American people who are angry at the politicians. The American people who are angry as well at some of these big company heads didn't tell them exactly what was going on. It's the folks on Capitol Hill who are also angry at some of these big company heads and the grilling that's going on there.
And then there's another set of grilling. A grilling going on between the candidates, the things that Sarah Palin is saying about Barack Obama. The things that now Barack Obama is saying about John McCain and John McCain about him as well. Here now a look at that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALIN: Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country?
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Senator McCain and his running mate talk about job killing that is something they know a thing or two about.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government?
PALIN: I was really interested to read in there about Barack Obama's friend from Chicago.
MCCAIN: Why didn't Senator Obama work to pass this bill from the start?
OBAMA: We are going to turn the page on the disastrous economic policies of George W. Bush and John McCain.
MCCAIN: Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
OBAMA: They would rather tear our campaign down than lift this country up. That is what you do when you are out of touch, out of ideas and running out of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: By the way, and you are angry, too, because I'm not going to go to it right now, because I want to go to some of the best reporters on this beat, but a lot of you have been responding to us on our Twitter board and we're going to share with the audience in just a little bit, how angry most of you are about everything that we just talked about moments ago.
All right, there they are. Ed Henry and Candy Crowley, they're joining us from Nashville to pick up the conversation.
I guess the question to both of you, and Candy, we'll start with you is, given what we have just seen in that video clip of this grilling, this anger between the candidates, how do they stand next to each other tonight at this town hall meeting with smiles on their faces, or do they?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is part performance art as you know, I don't think there is much love loss between these two men, but understand that the arena in which they are doing this, the stage itself is small. The town hall audience is probably three to four feet from these two men.
It's one thing to go to these big rallies that are full of the faithful and pound the other guy, and it is another thing to see a voter one on one and pound the guy standing three feet from you. So, I think they have to do it very gingerly.
The other thing that both of them have to do in particular John McCain, you can't just pound the other guy, you have to say, here is what I am going to do to help you, because in the end, we are having this campaign Rick in an environment in the likes of which we have never seen before. While we always tell you that political 101, negativity works in a campaign, we have not had an economic atmospheric such as we have right now, and the old rules don't always work. So both of these men have to be very pronounced in their here is what I am going to do for you. They are a lot more interested in that than how these two men feel about each other.
SANCHEZ: Ed Henry, let's amplify that point that Candy just brought up, because I think it's important. So the fact is that when you are losing you have to go after the guy. You have to sometimes punch him in the mouth if you have to, but in this particular environment, as Candy said, with people saying, hey, there goes my 401(k), I don't want you guys attacking each other, no matter what the circumstances are.
Does it really change the arena? Does it make it more difficult for someone like McCain who seems to be a few points down today?
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, voters often say, look, I hate the negativity, I don't want them going after each other. Then when they don't mix it up enough, they say well, you know I don't see enough contrast between these two people. So there is always a lot of back and forth like that.
I think Candy has it exactly right, it's a delicate balancing act for John McCain on one hand he does have to hit Barack Obama hard on the campaign trail, especially at those big rallies when he has the faithful to rally the base out, get them to the polls in November, but in the small setting, Candy is exactly right. I was in that room a little earlier and the hall is very small, the seats are going to be right around the candidates, if John McCain goes really hard negative like he has in the last couple of days in that kind of setting, it can really backfire on him, so it's a balancing act.
On one hand, when he is away from debate before and afterwards starting tomorrow, he'll be in battlegrounds like Pennsylvania and Ohio. He's going to really hit Obama hard. But I think in this setting, he has to be much more careful, because Candy is also right, you have to do more than just beat up the other guy, it will help you catch up, but you have to say what are you going to do to fix the economy. Otherwise people are going to be really turned off.
SANCHEZ: It really is a different set of circumstances.
Candy Crowley and Ed Henry, thanks so much, we appreciate that. Hopefully we'll get a chance to check back with you.
By the way, what is the Keating Five? It's a question that we asked yesterday and we're going to be able to answer it today. Yesterday we looked into the past of Barack Obama, since it was brought up, and because there's a documentary. We're also going to look into the past of John McCain. We're going to have an independent analyst tell us exactly what the Keating Five was all about and what John McCain's involvement was in that.
Also this story, which is making a lot of people real angry. Crowds are starting to turn on reporters, racial epithets and some of this is going on today. In fact it happened at a Palin rally in Clearwater, Florida, we are expecting to hear from her again. There is another rally coming up in just a couple of minutes. This one is going to be in Pensacola. We'll take you to that one, but we're going to first break down some of the things that happened earlier today that has a lot of Americans upset about what is going on in this country.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back to the world head quarters of CNN. I'm Rick Sanchez. A couple of things to share with you as we move on to our next segment. First of all, Sarah Palin the last couple of days has been in Florida and she has been coming down hard on Barack Obama. And while she did that, members, supporters of Sarah Palin in the crowd started coming down real hard on some of the reporters who were there. There were even some racial epithets. That story has been crossing today.
Johnny B. Good, let's go ahead and get reaction if we can to some of the folks who've been writing us about this. This is on twitter.com as we get this information, by the way, we have a whole segment on this coming up, but this is the reaction so far from twinky cat. She says: Ugly is an understatement. Dangerous may be a better word for it."
Let's go to the next one. It says: "This whole damned thing has gotten totally insane. What's happened to us and our country?"
So the source of those comments coming to you in just a little bit.
Now, Robert, if you could take this over my shoulder, take a look at this, this came in just moments ago. I remember -- I mentioned a little while ago that we want to quantify what the loss was for Americans because of this economic meltdown that I've been telling you about. There it is Washington AP. Americans' retirement plans, your retirement plan has lost as much as $2 trillion -- $2 trillion in the past 18 months according to Congress' top budget analyst. Can you imagine? We will be working a little bit longer these days.
Let's do something else now. We talked yesterday about Bill Ayers and the accusations that Barack Obama and his relationship with Bill Ayers was something that may be compromising him. So then the Barack Obama campaigned fired off a 13 minute documentary on the Keating Five and John McCain's relationship to the Keating Five. We studied the Bill Ayers thing, and in fairness we want to do the same thing now for the Keating Five. What was it? That's the question.
Let's bring in now Jeanne Cummings. She's a special correspondent joining us now to answer that question.
Jeanne, if you would, I guess we'll start there, what is the Keating Five? JEANNE CUMMINGS, POLITICO.COM: The Keating Five refers to five senators who in the late 1980s were accused of interfering with an investigation of the Lincoln Savings and Loan which was owned or operated by Charles Keating. Keating in turn donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to their pet projects and their campaign coffers and John McCain was one of those five senators.
They were accused of holding two meetings on Capitol Hill with the regulators, the federal investigators that were looking into the savings and loan and its solvency and telling them essentially to back off. Eventually that savings and loan collapsed as did hundreds of others leaving taxpayers with over a billion in costs that they had to recover.
SANCHEZ: So what was the upshot of it for John McCain? Was he compromised? Was he slapped on the wrist? What happened?
CUMMINGS: There was --
SANCHEZ: What was his culpability?
CUMMINGS: Well, there was a Senate ethics investigation that followed. Of the five, there were three that Alan Krantson, the former senator of California, was reprimanded. Two others were told that they had acted inappropriately. John McCain and one other democrat were told that they had demonstrated poor judgment, they had shown poor judgment in going to that meeting.
John McCain, after that meeting and once he was informed that there was, in addition to the regulatory investigation, a criminal investigation of Lincoln Savings and Loan, John McCain severed all ties with Keating. And so he did not continue. The other three continued to try to impose themselves on that investigation.
SANCHEZ: But obviously, it was a problem for him, but I have to ask you this happened what, 1989, 1990, 1991? It does seem to not be relevant to this time, although the Obama spokesman told me yesterday, it is, because of the economic meltdown.
CUMMINGS: Well, that is what the Obama campaign would argue is that this demonstrates that two decades ago John McCain was promoting or allowing the kind of deregulation of the financial industry that led first to the savings and loan collapse and now here he is, you know, a decade or so later and he had been an advocate of deregulation of the banking industry and here we have another meltdown on our hands. That is the narrative they want to sell, and that's in that narrative that they are now pitching this Keating story.
SANCHEZ: Well thank you so much, Jeanne Cummings is with Politico, we thank you so much for putting this in perspective. I'm sure many of the folks in our audience wanted to get a better understanding of this because it certainly has been talked about an awful lot lately. Thanks so much Jeanne.
There's something I want to show you now. I spoke moments ago about some of these rallies that are taking place in the state of Florida with Sarah Palin. Before she was introduced, there was a sheriff who took the stage. Here is what he had to say that may have gotten the crowd excited.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On November 4th, let's leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Hussein Obama. After that, there were some racial slurs, there were some abusive treatment of some of the reporters who were there. It's an interesting story to pick apart and talk about from both sides. We'll do just that and you are not going to believe some of the things that they were talking about today on "The View" when it was mentioned that perhaps it's OK to talk about a candidate's past. Is it? What they say. You will see.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: All right. I want to remind you that you can get in touch with us on twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn, also on Facebook and MySpace.
Let's go to one of our MySpace ads we have right now. See that right there, it says, yes, this is Gena who's watching us right now, and she says: "Too negative. They don't have to agree with each other's policies but it probably wouldn't be this way if both parties could've kept themselves clean to start with."
Well, that's an interesting point that you make, Gena, as you watch us, because we did research today and we wanted to go back and find out if there had been some kind of assurance that we wouldn't get to this point.
Here is John McCain. Watch this, six months ago to the day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: I have pledged to conduct a respectful campaign, and I have urged time after time various entities within the Republican Party to also do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: These things have a tendency to get out of control and that's exactly what Dana Milbank of the "Washington Post" experienced, he was covering that beat in Clearwater, Florida, that rally yesterday. He's good enough to join us now to give us a sense of what happened.
I understand, in fact, your words, I read your article, down right ugly, right? DANA MILBANK, WASHINGTON POST: Well, it was. To some extent you are going to get any of this at any sort of a campaign rally this late in the campaign season, there will be a lot of tension. And the media is no favorite of the politicians, particularly on the republican side. But I have been noticing lately the Clearwater rally was just one example of it, but it really seems to have taken an ugly turn.
I think part of it's in the candidates' rhetoric talking about Barack Obama hanging out in the living room of a terrorist. But the audience seems to be where the true anger really is. There were certainly great venom turned on the media during the event. And even a bit of a racist remark.
SANCHEZ: Let me ask you about two specific references. The second one is going to be about that racist remark I read in your column, but all over the Internet today, there is also a lot of responses to this kill them comment that somebody made in an audience, and I've been trying to nail that down.
Can you help us with that? Who said it and why and where and whom was speaking?
MILBANK: Well, who knows why the guy said it. I mean, it was perhaps 10 feet in front of the press section. The secret service keeps the press from getting in to interview people at these events so we will never know for sure, but Sarah Palin was talking about Bill Ayers and Barack Obama and it was at that moment that the fellow blurted out that rather shocking thing. My hunch is he was referring to Bill Ayers rather than Barack Obama. But I must say the threat was not a specific one.
SANCHEZ: Apparently, some members of the press were abused, I guess, you are used to that, obviously, but then somebody screamed out a racial epithet at a young man who was a sound man who happened to be African-American?
MILBANK: Yes, that is true. I was told -- was called boy and another epithet that we probably don't want out on the air right now. Look, Sarah Palin and John McCain can't be held responsible for everything that any individual who happens to attend one of their rallies does, but I included it in the column today because I felt it was indicative of the very sort of sinister turn things have taken on the trail that people are that angry right now that they'd be turning with venom on somebody who just happens to be sitting there recording the event.
SANCHEZ: And it goes both ways. Just to be fair. As a matter of fact, there was a heckler who went after Sarah Palin as well today. In fact, we have that video, let's put it up if we can.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALIN: He is the only man in this race who talks about the wars that America is fighting. You know, bless your heart, sir, my son is over in Iraq fighting for your right to protest right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Certainly seemed to be a welcomed response from her. Are you -- look, you are out there, you're at the campaign trail. Where are you right now, Dana?
MILBANK: I'm right now in Nashville, waiting for the -- what should be a feisty debate this evening.
SANCHEZ: Are you sensing as you follow these folks around that things are just really heating up, and do you think it's half based on what the candidates' own sense of things is, and also this economic situation?
MILBANK: Yes. I mean, look, the presence of hecklers at rallies obviously is as old as time and I thought in that clip you played I thought Palin handled it very well, really put down the heckler, before this group of 10 guys in black T-shirts hauled him off. But, you know, there's certainly with a month to go before the election, there is always going to be an extraordinary amount of tension and sort of fevers running high on both sides here.
I think things are particularly charged this time, because one of the candidates is African-American. So, the candidates themselves are being quite careful about this, but it does have a tendency to spill out when you just get out there into the crowd.
SANCHEZ: Dana Milbank, one of the best in the business. I have been reading his stuff for as long as I have been reading about politics. Thanks so much Dana. Appreciate you being on.
MILBANK: Thanks Rick.
SANCHEZ: By the way, if you think things are heated out there as we somewhat illustrated with that interview and some of that video, you should have seen "The View" today. Talk about heated conversation about politics and what Barack Obama and John McCain should do. We are going to share that with you in just a little bit. It is spellbinding.
Also, three states, swing states have swung in which direction and by how much? I will show you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: It is now 28 minutes after the hour. Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez looking at the big board. That is what it looks like down 360. Somewhere around where we finished at yesterday, and we will be watching this obviously as is the whole world today to see if in fact the economic situation not only in the United States, but around the world, has this ripple effect on the market. What effect is it having on politics?
Well, that one is easy to show, in fact I can quantify it for you. I want to take the CNN electoral map and break down some of the things that have gone on overnight. Let's start with what's improved for Barack Obama. Very possibly because of the electoral situation or the economic situation I should say, there is New Hampshire right there, it was a toss-up, but now, it is four new points for Barack Obama. That is how many delegates are there.
Now we go over here to Wisconsin, it was a toss-up, but it is now 10 points in the Barack Obama column. So you have 10 plus 14 for Barack Obama that takes him to 264 which is where he is now.
A loss for John McCain. His number is 174. You may ask why?
It's because right here, in North Carolina, a state that has some 15 delegates. It used to be leaning toward John McCain. It is now a toss-up state right there.
So a net loss here for John McCain, a net win for Barack Obama in these two areas right there. And that's what it stands at right now -- 264, 174.
The magic number -- let me write it out for you -- is 270. And, obviously, these are just projections based on polls and we'll continue to follow it for you.
As we go to break, I want to show you something else. That segment that we did just moments ago with the reporter for "The Washington Post," Dana Milbank, a lot of folks are weighing in on this.
Johnny B. Good, if you can get over there, I want to show folks the Twitter board and see some of the responses that are coming on. I mean they just go on and on.
This one says: "John McCain is losing it and it's not weight."
We go down to this one: "Why? What basis do they have to get ugly at Palin events?"
"McCain needs to take control, show his leadership. This is crossing the line very quickly."
"Why do Republicans attack someone's character or patriotism when they don't agree with them?"
"What's more disturbing, that this happened or that I'm not surprised?"
Interesting comments coming from many of you as you watch some of the events unfolding.
And Americans, no doubt, angry. Also angry on "The View". The argument there was does dirt belong in politics -- old dirt.
We'll let you hear that for yourself.
We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
Let's do a check-in now of some of the things that you may have missed if you're just now getting home from work.
One of the things you missed was on "The View." The question was, "Does some of this past political dirt from candidates belong in this campaign so close to the election?"
Well, Elisabeth says yes, it does. Whoopi says no, it does not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE VIEW," COURTESY ABC)
ELISABETH HASSELBECK, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": I believe that. What is concerning to me is not one connection that Barack Obama has had...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
HASSELBECK: It's that time and time again, he has -- he didn't really -- he says he really didn't know these people. He didn't realize for 20 years that Reverend Wright was a hatemonger.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": Reverend...
HASSELBECK: He said he didn't.
GOLDBERG: And he's not a hatemonger. You need to stop (INAUDIBLE)...
HASSELBECK: He didn't realize...
GOLDBERG: You need to stop saying he's a hatemonger.
HASSELBECK: The chickens have come home to roost.
GOLDBERG: This man did not like America. He did...
HASSELBECK: He hated America.
GOLDBERG: No, you know what...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no...
GOLDBERG: ...as a black person, we are very, very lucky.
You don't see where that's relevant?
JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": Well, what about this guy Pfleger...
(CROSSTALK)
BEHAR: Wait a minute...
HASSELBECK: He said he hated -- he did not like America.
(CROSSTALK)
HASSELBECK: He didn't like America.
(CROSSTALK)
GOLDBERG: ...need to be here today.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You deserve to be here.
(CROSSTALK)
HASSELBECK: My point is not...
(CROSSTALK)
HASSELBECK: It's not -- it's not just Reverend Wright.
(CROSSTALK)
HASSELBECK: It's not just Tony Rezko, a criminal. It's not just William Ayers, a U.S. terrorist. It's that time and time again, Barack Obama has said, oh, I didn't realize that William Ayers was a terrorist.
GOLDBERG: I think that's baloney.
(CROSSTALK)
GOLDBERG: Because what is -- what do we care about?
HASSELBECK: So are you a liar or (INAUDIBLE) judgment?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
But can we talk about poor judgment?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Poor judgment.
GOLDBERG: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can we talk about poor judgment?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the woman that McCain -- excuse me.
What about the woman that McCain left that didn't even want him to know that she had been in a horrible, horrible accident. And then he came back, met another woman named Cindy McCain, left the woman that waited for him...
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Strong comments, as you can see.
We'll continue to tell you what's going on during the day.
By the way, I want to catch you up now on some of the other things that we're following for you, this having to do, of course, with some of the other dirt and some of the campaigns that we've been following. We're going to have more on that.
And also, when we come back, the League of First Time Voters -- four strong, independent women who haven't yet made up their minds as to whether or not they're going to vote for John McCain or Barack Obama. We'll have that in just a bit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back to the World Headquarters of CNN. I'm Rick Sanchez.
We talked earlier about the mood of the country earlier and the theme of this newscast as we were preparing it -- nasty, nasty, angry, people getting grilled.
Here's the reaction we're getting from you. Let's go to Facebook, if we possibly can.
Marci, she's watching us now and she just wrote this into us. She says: "Look, I think we, as Americans, are finally concerned about who we put into office. However, I think that the racial slurs, the hating from the candidates, the economy is bringing everyone to their breaking point," she writes.
Also, Runwhenyoucan is over here on Twitter. Let's go to his comment, if we can, too. And he says -- thanks, Johnny: "I hate to go there, but I do hope that the Secret Service has the best (INAUDIBLE) -- sorry about that, as I stand up to work for you -- has the best watching Obama. A crazy with a gun could be out there."
So these are some of the things that people are thinking about as they watch some of the things that are going on right now.
All right, let's do this. Let's check in with CNN En Espanol.
Glenda Umana is joining us now.
She's going to tell us -- you know, we've been checking out all the different states. We talked a little bit about New Hampshire and we talked a little bit about Wisconsin and we talked about North Carolina.
In la Florida, Florida, what's going on? Definitely a swing state, right? GLENDA UMANA, CNN EN ESPANOL: Yes. Hey, Rick, you're from Florida. And over there, many Latinos are voting for the first time. Lots of them originally from your country, Cuba.
And the latest polls show a significant percentage of Latino voters are either undecided or still open to persuasion in Florida.
Now, we spoke with some of them. They say, for example, they like Sarah Palin and think that if she can handle a house with five kids and being a governor, she can handle the country.
Now, Rick, not all of the 10 million Latinos registered to vote in the United States do vote. But because of the economic situation and immigration reform concerns, the numbers could be higher November 4th. So there will be, certainly, more influence of the Latino vote.
SANCHEZ: And it's not a monolithic vote. Some in South Florida tend to vote Republican and many in the Western parts of the United States tend to vote Democrat.
UMANA: Exactly.
SANCHEZ: So we'll see how it parses out this time.
Glenda, mucha gracias.
Excellente.
UMANA: Ciao.
(SPEAKING SPANISH).
SANCHEZ: Thanks so much for doing that.
We're going to come right back and talk about the horse race in general, what's going on in some of the other states.
But first, how about four women who sit down to talk to us exactly about what they think of these two candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama?
Oh, and did I tell you, in the League of First Time Voters today -- they're people who haven't yet made up their minds on who they're going to vote for.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: With so little time left, why are you still undecided?
DIANE WILKES, UNDECIDED VOTER: Well, initially, I was attracted to John McCain because I think he has solid character. That was my perception of him in the beginning.
But as the election goes on, I guess with any politician, they kind of have to play the political game.
SANCHEZ: What do you think of his campaigns, his ads?
ELIZABETH SCOTT, UNDECIDED VOTER: I think he went negative very quickly and I did not like that whatsoever. It was just -- overnight, he was suddenly negative.
SANCHEZ: He is following a president, which polls show is not particularly popular.
So as a Republican, does he almost need to do something to put the attention on the other guy and take it away from himself?
REBECCA BURNOS, UNDECIDED VOTER: I don't know. I mean he did a pretty good job of directing attention to himself by, you know, choosing a female running mate. I don't know how else you can dissuade attention from yourself.
WILKES: That, to me, was just a move on McCain's part to, you know, try to play off, you know, the ignorance of some women out there who will simply vote for her because she's just a woman. Or, two, he thought she could actually do the job, and that, to me, question -- you know, I question his credibility to be able to surround himself with people who are going to help him run this country.
SANCHEZ: Let's move over to Barack Obama, if we can.
Have you been impressed or have you not been impressed, or what do you like and not like, anybody?
WILKES: At times I feel like he kind of beats around the bush on a lot of questions. He kind of stays in that gray area, which I think is a skill that's important for a president to have, especially when you're, you know, relating with other countries. But during the election, I'm kind of like, come on, just tell me what you think. I want to know who you are.
SANCHEZ: We really have two dominant issues in this country.
Which one's more important?
SHARLENE BOWEN, UNDECIDED VOTER: Our whole economy is going to be affected, whether we stay in the war or pull out of the war, if we -- but I feel like we needed definitely to go to war.
SANCHEZ: So you will vote based on both of those issues -- whoever can convince you that they're better able to deal with both the war on terror and the economy is the one who will likely get Sharlene's vote?
BOWEN: Right. I just want to see -- yes. I just want to see America come out ahead.
BURNOS: I can see how, yes, the war in Iraq is kind of intertwined with our economy, because so much -- you know, the price of our food is going up because fuel is so expensive and people have less expendable income, so then travel and tourism suffers. And it's all... SANCHEZ: Let me...
BURNOS: ...it's just kind of a mess.
SANCHEZ: Let me ask you this question.
Do you think the fact that the economy is extremely stagnant is an advantage for Barack Obama?
BURNOS: He is opposite of the party that's in the presidency right now.
SANCHEZ: So he has the advantage?
BURNOS: And so I think he just automatically has an advantage. People sometimes...
SANCHEZ: Too many people will want to change and he's...
BURNOS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: ...he's what they'll see as change?
BURNOS: Exactly.
SANCHEZ: Interesting.
SCOTT: I prefer McCain's economy plan over Obama's anyways. So, to me, the fact that the economy is going downhill says go to McCain.
WILKES: It worries me because I don't feel that McCain or Obama are very, you know, savvy when it comes to the economy, to the extent that I would want a president to be. So that -- that concerns me, as well, because (INAUDIBLE)...
SANCHEZ: But that's the choice you've got.
WILKES: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Maybe that's why you're undecided.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: The League of First Time Voters. We're going to keep bringing it to you.
By the way, Bill Schneider with the horse race. What's going on in some of the other swing states? That is next.
Stay with us, Ohio.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back. I'm Rick Sanchez here in the World Headquarters of CNN in Atlanta. Lots of you have been writing in to us and letting us know exactly how you feel about some of the issues that we have been talking about today -- very heated issues, need we say.
Let's bring in Bill Schneider now, before we do anything else.
He is going to catch us up on what's going on in some of those swing states.
And, by the way, a little while -- my thanks to Sam Fiest (ph). He just sent me an e-mail saying that I had accidentally instead of -- said delegates instead of electoral map when I referring to the electoral map.
I was wrong -- Bill Schneider, take it away with your expertise. What's going on in Ohio, for example?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Ohio -- that's the mother of all battleground states. And our latest poll in Ohio shows Obama ahead. A close one -- 50 percent for Obama, 45 for McCain. So we're listing Ohio as tilting to Obama. That was the key state for Bush in both 2000 and 2008.
Indiana -- this is not supposed to be a battleground. It's voted for the Republicans ever since 1964. Bush carried it by 21 points last time. But now it's a five point margin for John McCain. So it's still tilting to McCain, but not by much.
New Hampshire -- McCain is very popular in New Hampshire. He won the New Hampshire primary twice. New Hampshire did vote for John Kerry last time, but only by one point.
Right now, New Hampshire shows Obama ahead by 8 points. We're putting New Hampshire in the leaning to Obama category.
North Carolina -- this is also not supposed to be a battleground. It has voted for the Republican ever since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Bush carried North Carolina by 12 points. But look at this. The latest poll in North Carolina -- a dead heat, Obama 49, McCain 49 -- clearly, a toss-up state.
And, finally, Wisconsin. This is always a very closely contested state. It did go for John Kerry last time, but by less than 1 percent. Right now, a five point margin for Barack Obama. We're classifying Wisconsin as a leaning Obama state.
In every one of these states -- including Indiana, where McCain is slightly ahead -- in every one of these states, Obama is doing better than John Kerry did four years ago -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: And a lot of it has to do with that little thing on your shoulder right now that you can't see but the viewers at home can. No, it's not a bug, Bill, but it is a little piece of -- a little graphic that says the Dow is down -- let me look at it -- 458 percent.
Really, in the last couple of weeks, as the economy has gone down, what did you say, Chris? I'm sorry?
Four hundred and fifty-eight points. As the Dow has gone down, as the economy has gone south, Obama's numbers have gone up, right?
SCHNEIDER: That's exactly right. They've gone up slowly, but they have gradually increased, to the point where now, nationally, at least, in our latest polls, Obama does have a statistically significant lead for the first time. And that has happened with the growing economic crisis in the country, and, I should add, in the world.
SANCHEZ: Thanks so much, Bill Schneider.
Appreciate you picking me up on that. And my producer Chris. He was talking to me at the same time in my ear.
We're going to be back with the closing bell. And it looks like it could be one of those volatile moments again, so stay with us. We'll hang in there together.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Before we do anything else, we're watching the big board again. And there it is, down 447 points as we speak. It's been dropping over the last hour or so. We're going to stay on top of it. Another eight minutes left before the closing bell. These are the comments that you have been making to us.
Let's start with the Twitter board, if we can, first. I want to show you that one.
Johnny, go ahead and put that up.
This is Coop2u, who says: "I know one thing for sure, I can't take four years of a V.P. saying betcha, golly, gee whiz and winking at me."
He seems to be partisan. He says vote Obama.
Let's go to the other side now. This is on MySpace. And on MySpace, someone's -- Brian from Fresno, California just wrote to us. He says: "All I'd like to see is strong leadership, solid direction and no negativity. I want to feel confident in my president."
That's what people at home are saying.
Let's find out what's going to be coming up in "THE SITUATION ROOM". Wolf Blitzer is joining us now. He's doing so from the Big Apple.
I understand -- are you in New York, Wolf?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right. We're at the CNN Election Center, Rick.
Lots of news coming up. Everyone who works for a big corporation should pay close attention to what's happening right now. It's a move just as big as the Wall Street bailout. The Federal Reserve steps in to help American companies borrow money -- why this is such a big deal and why it matters so much to you. We'll explain.
Plus, Suze Orman -- she's here in "THE SITUATION ROOM," explaining what you should do next about your retirement savings, your paycheck, who you should be worrying about most.
And countdown to the second presidential debate. It's going to be somewhat different this time -- two candidates and a town hall.
Plus, brand new CNN polls. The CNN electoral map is changing. You're going to find out where those swing states are now swinging toward.
All that, Rick, and a lot more coming up in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
SANCHEZ: Good stuff. And make sure you tell Suze Orman I said hello.
We look forward to it, Wolf.
All right, as we follow along here, I want to show you something else now. It's a couple of guys that I got to know pretty well not long ago. We've become real good friends. But there's something we haven't done yet.
These guys are called the red staters. Have you seen them? They're funny and they're smart.
And Mark Preston got a chance to go out and talk to them recently. And here's what they had to say to him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll tell you what?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want Dobbs, Sanchez and Cafferty riding around in a car...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hell, invite them. We'll go out on the town.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a sitcom waiting to happen. I'm going to go write my specs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like old Rick Sanchez. He makes me laugh.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Do you Twitter with Rick Sanchez?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know what Twitter is.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I signed up for Twitter just because of Rick Sanchez.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. He was saying Twitter and I didn't know what it means.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rick Sanchez follows us on Twitter now. So I guess we get Sanchez tweaks.
PRESTON: All right, let me ask you, so do you learn from Rick Sanchez?
What do you learn from Rick Sanchez every day?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We learn a lot, because all Rick Sanchez says is, "I don't understand, what's going on?"
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He always asks...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Explain it to me, please."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm like I'm watching, I'm on this end.
How the hell am I supposed to explain it to you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're the news guy. You tell me what's happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know (INAUDIBLE) on TV is people behind him, they would step (INAUDIBLE).
(CROSSTALK)
PRESTON: If you had one thing to say to Rick Sanchez, what would you tell Rick Sanchez right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd love to see you taser yourself again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Or didn't you sink yourself in a boat?
That was awesome.
We've been on Rick Sanchez's show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We thought we're buddies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a good time. I like -- when folks go fishing...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He never did call us back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what I want to say to him, when the hell we going fishing, Rick?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Big lake, small boat.
Thanks, fellows.
I'll look forward to catching up with you once again.
Obviously, the story today is now turning into -- that's right, the stock market once again.
Let's put it up as we go to the break here. And we'll keep an eye on it. The closing bell is coming up in just a couple of minutes.
So stay with us.
When we come back, we'll take you right through to bell and see how this thing ends up.
Did I just say riot? I guess I did.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, as a pig in lipstick, I've got to tell you, this whole bailout thing is like Kevin Bacon. We're all connected to it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God, I love Kevin Bacon.
Is that wrong?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: This is one of the i-Reports that we've been getting throughout the day. We'll keep sharing them with you.
Let's go over to Susan Lisovicz. I feel guilty laughing, given the situation that's behind you there with the market going down again.
I mean, is anybody ever going to be able to figure this thing out?
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, you know, investors are concerned. The Federal Reserve is doing everything it can. It's making history, it seems, on a daily basis, to try to free up the credit market -- today, becoming the banker of last resort to non-financial businesses.
It's already expanded its borrowing power with investment banks. It did that earlier this year, increasing the amount of funding it'll give.
And but what you have is real concerns about the nation's financial companies. The case in point is Bank of America, considered one of the stronger companies. After all, it's buying Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. Bank of America moved up its earnings report, reporting a nearly 70 percent decline, saying it's going to try to raise an additional $10 billion in capital. The CEO talking about recessionary conditions. And B of A shares are getting -- are being punished. Right now they're down 26 percent.
SANCHEZ: And there we just went over 500. But that's the point.
I mean this thing was supposed to free up credit, but it doesn't seem to be doing that yet, does it?
LISOVICZ: It just doesn't happen overnight. And, as one trader said to me in the past hour, he said does anything work?
I mean now everybody's clambering for a rate cut. There's tremendous pressure on the Fed, tremendous pressure on financial companies and tremendous pressure in the markets. It's the fifth day the three major averages are going to close and they're going to close to the lows that we saw -- or past the lows we saw yesterday. And a truly negative sign, Rick.
SANCHEZ: Under 500 points. Susan Lisovicz, thanks so much for that report.
Let's go over to Wolf Blitzer. He's following things there, not far from where Susan is, in New York City -- Wolf.
