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Ballot Bowl 2008

More Speeches By Candidates; Powell Endorses Obama

Aired October 19, 2008 - 16:00   ET

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


DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN's "Ballot Bowl." I'm Dana Bash, coming to you today from Toledo, Ohio, where as you can probably hear behind me John McCain is about to start speaking. He's holding a rally. Now, on "Ballot Bowl" we give you the candidates in their own words, sometimes we do it on tape, sometimes we do it live, but we always bring you these candidates unfiltered. Luckily we are beginning our "Ballot Bowl" today with John McCain as I just mentioned, he just began. So before we do anything else, let's tune in and listen to McCain right now.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ...we're going to turn it out and we're going to win. We're going to bring change to Washington, D.C. and by the way, did you happen to catch Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live"? She did a great job, didn't she? And you know, she's been introduced to America, I can hardly wait to introduce her to the old boy network in Washington, D.C. and clean up the mess and bring real change and reform to Washington.

So my friends, we had a pretty good debate this week, didn't we? We had a good one, didn't we? I thought we did pretty well. Let's have some straight talk. The real winner this week was one of Toledo's own Joe the plumber. You know, the reason why Joe won is because he's the only person to get a real answer out of Senator Obama about his plans for our country. Congratulations to Joe. That is an incredibly impressive achievement.

You know, I think you all know very well that Joe didn't ask for Senator Obama to come to his house. Joe certainly didn't ask to be famous. He certainly didn't ask for the political attacks from the Obama campaign. So if you're watching, I'm sorry you're being put through this. No American should be attacked for asking questions of a presidential candidate. No person. No one.

Joe's dream and your dream to own a small business that will create jobs here in Ohio and the attacks on him were an attack on small businesses all over this country that employ 86 percent of Americans. Those are the jobs. You know, we learned more about Senator Obama's plans from Joe's question than we've learned in months of speeches by Senator Obama. After months, after months of campaign trail eloquence, we finally learned what Senator Obama's economic goal is and he told Joe, as he told him, he wants to spread the wealth around, my friends. Spread the wealth around.

And while I'm talking about it, how many small business people and employees of small business are here? Thank you and god bless you. I'm not going to redistribute your wealth. You know, he believes that redistributing wealth, but not in policies that grow our economy and opportunities for all Americans. Senator Obama is more interested in controlling who gets your piece of the pie than he is in growing the pie. This explains some big problems with my opponents claim that he will cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans.

You know, you might ask, how do you cut income taxes for 95 percent of Americans when more than 40 percent pay no income taxes right now? How do you reduce the number zero? Well, that's the key to Barack Obama's whole plan. Since you can't reduce income taxes on those who pay zero, the government can write them all checks called a tax credit and the Treasury will have to cover those checks by taxing other people including a lot of folks just like you and Joe.

In other words, Barack Obama's plan to raise taxes on some in order to give checks to others. It's not a tax cut, it's just another government giveaway. And why would you want to increase taxes? Why would a tax increase would come at a worst possible time for America? And especially for small businesses like the one that Joe dreams of owning. The small businesses that Senator Obama wants to tax would provide - those small businesses that he wants to tax provide 16 million jobs in america and a sudden tax hike will kill some of those jobs at a time when we need to be creating more jobs in America. I'm not going to let that happen. I'm not going to let that happen in Toledo, Ohio or any place else in America.

Friends, America has an alternative to the phony tax cut that my opponent started talking about only months ago, the McCain-Palin tax cut is the real thing. We're going to double the child reduction for every family. We'll cut the capital gains tax. We'll cut business taxes to help create jobs and keep American businesses in America.

As Joe is now reminded us all. America didn't become the greatest nation on earth by giving our money to the government to spread the wealth around. In this country, we believe in spreading opportunity for those who need jobs and those who create them. That's exactly what I intend to do as president of the United States of America. So my friends, this is the choice that we face. A little straight talk here. These are hard times. I don't have to tell anybody in Toledo. Our economy is in crisis.

Thanks to the corruption, greed and excess in Wall Street and Washington, D.C., Americans are in trouble. Americans are fighting in two wars. By the way, I will bring our troops home in honor and victory and not in defeat. I'm proud of them. My friends, we face many dangerous enemies in this dangerous world and many challenges here at home and next president won't have time to get used to the office. He will have to act immediately. We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight waiting for our luck to change. We have to act immediately and I said it at the last debate, I'm not George Bush. If Senator Obama wants to run against George Bush, he should have run for president four years ago.

We need a new direction now and we have to fight for it, my friends. I've been fighting for this country since I was 17 years old and I have the scars to prove it. If I'm elected president, I will fight to take America in a new direction from my first day in office to the last. I'm not afraid of the fight, I'm ready for it. I'm not going to spend $700 billion of your money just bailing out the Wall Street bankers and brokers who got us into this mess. I'm going to make sure we take care of the people who were devastated by the excesses of Wall Street and Washington. I'm going to spend a lot of money to bring relief to you and I'm not going to wait 60 days to start doing it.

So - so, my friends, what was the start of the crisis the collapse of the housing market, I have a plan to protect the value of your home. Get it rising again by buying up bad mortgages and refinancing them so if your neighbor defaults, he doesn't bring down the value of your house with him. My friends, we've got to help Americans realize the American dream of owning a home and staying in their home and this administration is not addressing this issue. We will not see a real good recovery until we start seeing home values come up again. So let's go in, keep people in their homes so they can afford to do it. And realize the American dream. I promise you, that's my highest priority.

I have a plan to let retirees and people nearing retirement keep their money in their retirement accounts longer so they can rebuild their savings. We've got to do that for people who have retired. I have a plan to hold the line on taxes, and cut them to make America more competitive, and create jobs here at home. Raising taxes makes an economy a bad economy much worse. Keeping taxes low creates jobs, keeps money in your hands, strengthens our economy.

The explosion of government spending, over the last eight years, has put us deeper in debt to foreign countries who don't have our best interest at heart. It weakened the dollar and made everything you buy more expensive. If I'm elected president, I won't spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money as Senator Obama proposes because he can't do that without raising your taxes or digging us further into debt. I'm going to make America live on a budget just like you do, like every family in Toledo, Ohio.

BASH: And you have been listening to John McCain speaking live in Toledo, Ohio. You heard him talking extensively about taxes and the fundamental differences he sees between himself and his policies and Barack Obama, but also spending a large part of his speech as he has been doing lately, talking about Joe the plumber. The difference is that Joe the plumber is from not too far from here. In fact, this is pretty close to Joe the plumber's hometown. John McCain was hoping that his new famous friend would be here with him on this stage, but unfortunately for McCain, he's actually in New York doing a round of media interview. So that didn't happen here. But John McCain continues to speak and we continue to monitor that.

We're going to take a short break and after the break, we'll take you to some other big news on the campaign trail and that is Colin Powell and his endorsement today of Barack Obama. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to "Ballot Bowl." I'm Dana Bash in Toledo, Ohio where John McCain is speaking live. He is spending his day in the state of Ohio. In fact, it's his second stop here in Ohio and Ohio is a state that could not be more critical for the republican candidate. Why? Well, the cliche goes, as the saying goes that Ohio, so goes Ohio, so goes the White House for republican. In fact, no republican has ever won the White House without winning the state of Ohio. And so John McCain is pushing hard here. In fact, CNN's new poll of polls show it is virtually tied that Barack Obama just has a one-point lead over John McCain here. It is something that John McCain will have to turn around if history is any guide.

Joining me for this edition of "Ballot Bowl" is our colleague, Bill Schneider, our senior political analyst. Bill joins us from another important state, the state of West Virginia. And Bill before we get into what we're talking about now and that is Colin Powell. I want to actually play for your viewers what Colin Powell said today. The big news as our viewers I'm sure know at this point is that Colin Powell decided to break his silence, two weeks before election day, and yes the republican decided to go ahead and endorse not the republican speaking behind me, John McCain, his friend of 25 years, but Barack Obama. Listen to what Colin Powell said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think that Senator Obama brings a fresh set of eyes, a fresh set of ideas to the table. I think that Senator McCain, as gifted as he is, is essentially going to execute the republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the republican agenda with a new face and with a maverick approach to it. And he'd be quite good at it, but I think we need more than that and I think we need a generational change and I think Senator Obama has captured the feelings of the young people of America and is reaching out in a more diverse inclusive way across our society.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you talk about when your decision was final? When did you finally set your heart to Senator Obama?

POWELL: I have been watching as I said in there, for a long time. And then within the past couple of months, I really said you know, you just can't keep watching. You got to kind of settle down. And frankly, it was in the period leading up to the conventions and then the decisions that came out of the decisions and just sort of watching the responses of the two individuals on the economic crisis, give me an opportunity to evaluate their judgment, evaluate their way of approaching the problem, to evaluate the steadiness of their actions. And it was at that point that I realized that, in my mind anyway, that Senator Obama has demonstrated the kind of calm, patient, and electoral steady approach to problem solving that I think we need in this country.

We have two wars. We have economic problems. We have health problems. We have education problems. We have infrastructure problems. We have problems around the world with our allies. And so those are the problems the American people wanted to hear about, not about Mr. Ayers, not about who is a Muslim or who is not a Muslim. Those kinds of images going on Al-Jazeera are killing us around the world. And we have got to say to the world, it doesn't make any difference who you are, or what you are. If you're an American, you're an American. And this business of, for example, congressman from Minnesota who is going around saying let's examine all congressmen to see who's pro-America or not pro-America. We have got to stop this kind of nonsense. Pull ourselves together and remember that our strength is in our unity and in our diversity. And so that really was driving me.

And to focus on people like Mr. Ayers, these trivial issues for purposes of suggesting that somehow Mr. Obama would have some kind of terrorist inclinations, I thought that was over the top. It's beyond just good political fighting back and forth. I think it went beyond. And then to sort of throw in this little Muslim connection. You know, he's a Muslim and a terrorist. And it was taking root and we can't judge our people and we can't hold our elections on that kind of basis.

And so yes, that kind of negativity troubled me. And the constant shifting for the argument. I was troubled a few of weeks ago when in the middle of the crisis, the campaign said we're going to go negative and attack his character through Bill Ayers. And now I guess the message this week is we're going to call him a socialist. Mr. Obama is now a socialist because he dares to suggest that maybe we ought to look at the tax structure that we have. Taxes are always a re- distribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those who pay it.

In roads, and airports, and hospitals and schools. And taxes are necessary for the common good. And there's nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be paying more or who should be paying less. And for us to say that makes you a socialist I think is an unfortunate characterization that isn't accurate. And I don't want my taxes raised. I don't anybody else's taxes raised. But I also want to see our infrastructure fixed. I don't want to have a $12 trillion national debt. I don't want to see an annual deficit that's over $500 billion heading toward a trillion. So how do we deal with all of this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That is Colin Powell speaking this morning in Washington, explaining why he decided to go ahead and endorse Barack Obama. Again, not the man who he had been friends with for a quarter a century, the man speaking behind me, John McCain. And Bill, I want to ask you specifically about not just about that he endorsed Obama, but the fact that he really had some serious criticism of John McCain.

Just there you heard Colin Powell say that he doesn't think McCain's argument against Obama as "a socialist," the fact that he's seizing on this, spreading the wealth comment which is what McCain is talking about right behind me, that that really has any place here. Not just that he said he was very upset about the fact that McCain has seized on William Ayers and other things. How much of an impact do you think this endorsement is going to have on Barack Obama or maybe the other way to look at it is how much of a negative is it going to be for John McCain?

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, certainly it was a double barreled statement because he not only praised Barack Obama, but he criticized the negative campaign being run by John McCain. You know, all this year, there's been one weakness in the Barack Obama resume and his campaign. And that is, and the voters say this in the polls, he doesn't have any military experience. People wonder can be an effective commander in chief. He's fairly young. Not terribly experience in world affairs and that gives some people hesitation about voting for Barack Obama.

Well, this endorsement, full throated as it was from Colin Powell, says I want to reassure you, I think he's ready to be president. I think he's prepared. He also mentioned in his statement that it would help improve relations with the rest of the world. They take another look at their relations with the United States and it was extremely reassuring for this experienced military leader, a general, someone who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who was secretary of state, to endorse Barack Obama and say his world experience, his commitment and knowledge of national security are fine. You can vote for him without those kinds of reservations.

BASH: No question. I mean, he really did seem to try to undermine some of McCain's central arguments against Barack Obama like he was just talking about, particularly, the whole idea that Obama just doesn't have the experience to be commander in chief. But I also want to ask you about, you know, Colin Powell himself, Bill. The fact of the matter is he doesn't exactly have a clean slate, with regard to some of the hot button issue particularly the war in Iraq. I mean, his armor is a little bit tarnished for the fact that he was a lead spokesman and advocate for the war in Iraq. Obviously, famously and maybe now infamously when from the United Nations and argues for war.

So how much of an impact is Powell going to have particularly on democrats and independents who might look at that and say you know he's not exactly somebody who doesn't have problems of his own, at least recently, on the issue that has been the dominant issue on foreign policy in this election?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think that that argument might hold sway with some democrats and some liberals who continue to resent and certainly remember Colin Powell's role in selling Bush's war in Iraq at the United Nations. And they continue to resent that but look they are already with Barack Obama. And the fact that Powell has given such a strong endorsement of Obama may mean that they're willing to set those reservations aside. Not talk about them for the time being. Powell's message was not targeted at democrats and liberals. They're already on board. It was targeted at some people who are reluctant to support Obama because they worry about his military qualifications, his foreign policy qualifications.

People who may have been supportive of the war in Iraq or were angry about it the way many democrats and liberals were. Some of them, many of them oppose the war, but they probably see Colin Powell as something of a reluctant warrior although how much he was reluctant the historians will have to sort out but Powell's statement was targeted at a far larger audience.

BASH: Absolutely, it was. And Bill, we should say that John McCain himself said this morning that he clearly seemed to be disappointed although he tried to kind of down play this announcement by his old friend, Colin Powell. And said that he has been endorsed by other Secretaries of State and just said that the two men are going to agree to disagree. As you can imagine though Barack Obama had quite a different reaction. In fact he spoke about this endorsement that he got this morning on the campaign trail in the red state of North Carolina. We want to bring that to you right after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHNEIDER: I'm Bill Schneider for CNN "Ballot Bowl" in Martinsberg, West Virginia. Today, Barack Obama was in a Fayetteville, North Carolina, a town with a strong military presence. So what did he talk about? His endorsement by the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell. Let's hear what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd like to acknowledge some news that we learned this morning. With so many brave men and women from Fayetteville who are serving in our military, this is a city and a state that knows something about great soldiers. And this morning, a great soldier, a great statesman, a great American has endorsed our campaign for change.

I have been honored to have the benefit of his wisdom and his council from time to time over the last few years. But today, I am beyond honored. I am deeply humbled to have the support of General Colin Powell. General Powell has defended this nation bravely. He has embodied our highest ideals through his long and distinguished public service. He and his wife Alma have inspired millions of young people to serve in their community and their country through their tireless commitment and trail blazing American story. He knows as we do that this is a moment where we need to all come together as one nation. Young and old, rich and poor, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Republican and Democrat. This is a moment to stand up and serve because it's a moment of great uncertainty for Americans.

The economic crises we face is the worst since the great depression. Businesses large and small are finding it hard to get loans which mean they can't buy new equipment, or hire new workers, or even make payroll for the workers that they have. 760,000 workers have lost their jobs this year. Wages are lower than they've been in a decade at a time when the cost of health care and college has never been higher. It's harder to make the mortgage, fill up the gas tank or even keep the electricity on at the end of the month. The question isn't just are you better off than you were four years ago, now it's better off than you were four weeks ago?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: We're going to hear from the vice presidential hopefuls Sarah Palin and Joe Biden just after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL. I'm Dana Bash in Toledo, Ohio where John McCain just wrapped up his second rally of the day. He's in the tour of red states that went Republican in 2004. He's spending four straight days basically defending his own turf. Ohio, perhaps one of the most important states that he is trying to defend because Ohio is the state that at least historical speaking a Republican has to win if that Republican wants to win the White House.

While he's on a tour of red states, his running mate Sarah Palin is in the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has gone Democratic for the past couple of election cycles and right now, CNN's poll of polls shows that there is a double digit deficit for the Republican ticket. Barack Obama has a pretty substantial lead there, but the Republicans say that they are not going to pull out there. In fact, Sarah Palin took their message over the past couple of days of the fact they believe Barack Obama will raise the American people's taxes. The taxes of people who are in the quote unquote middle class, people like Joe the plumber who we have heard about and that is the message that Sarah Palin took to Lancaster, Pennsylvania yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Joe the plumber and millions of Americans struggling to sustain a small business and grow this economy by creating jobs. John McCain will cut taxes for every American and our opponent wants to raise them. And you know, I've really got to hand it to Joe the plumber. Somehow, he got Barack Obama to finally state his intentions in really plain language.

Senator Obama said, he said he wants to spread the wealth. Which means -- which means he wants government to take your hard earned money and dole it out however he sees fit. Now, Joe said to him that sounded like socialism. To me, it sounds like real bad medicine for an ailing economy and whatever you call it, Senator Obama will do to these who want to create jobs what shouldn't be done and we're calling him on it. Here again, Americans, you have such a clear choice on November 4th because john McCain and I, we have a different view on this. We believe in creating new wealth and spreading opportunity. So when he left Joe's neighborhood in Toledo, our opponent didn't look real happy.

Seems that the staged photo op there got ruined by a real person's question. So here's the guy working, standing there in his neighborhood, when a candidate for president shows up and he wanted more than just a handshake and a campaign button. He wanted some answers. Joe had asked our opponent a simple question and he spoke for so many other Americans. The Obama campaign know that they didn't appreciate it and now, bless his heart, Joe the plumber is being investigated, he's being attacked for asking a question.

Now what about the other unanswered questions that are out there? Questions about Obama's tax increases and his voting 94 times for higher taxes? Ninety four times having the opportunity to be on your side and instead, 94 times for higher taxes. Even higher taxes on middle class, hard working Americans, making $42,000 a year. And now, the unanswered question about how is he going to pay for his nearly trillion dollars in new government spending he's proposing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Sarah Palin is heading west, she is heading to the state of New Mexico and her counterpart of the Democratic side, Joe Biden, was there this week as well. And for that I'm going to kick it over to my colleague Bill Schneider in West Virginia. Bill.

SCHNEIDER: Thanks Dana. Is there a duck running for president this year? There sure is Joe Biden says. Let's hear how he explains that in a talk he gave in Mesilla, New Mexico on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One of the most resent debates; John McCain felt the need to declare that he was not President Bush. There's that old expression. He duth protest too loudly. He may not be George Bush, but my mother, when I was a kid and you have heard me say this before, but when I was a kid you want to go hang out in the corner, you would say mom I know those guys, I'm not like that. She said, honey if it looks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, it's a duck.

Ladies and gentlemen, in these last three debates, looks like a duck to me. After 23 months of campaigning, eight years of failed economic policy, there's not one fundamental economic issue on which John McCain has challenged the policies of George Bush. He always turns to Barack and says, when you challenged your party. And Barack asks, I turn to John and say, John, when did you challenge President Bush on any major economic initiatives? Ladies and gentleman he voted for four out of five -- I like it, man. Don't jump, I need you.

Folks, four out of five of Bush's budgets he voted for. He voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time. In one recent newspaper article four days ago, it is the best way to sum it up and I'm going to read it. Said it's a shame that Mr. McCain hasn't come up with policies that will actually help American workers. Instead, he served up the same old trickled down theories and government is wrong and markets are always right fefr (ph). I couldn't have said it better folks that is exactly what he has done.

I love John. I love John talking about, well, you know, Barack Obama wants to redistribute income. Let me talk about redistribution ladies and a gentleman, the fact of the matter is, the biggest redistribution of wealth has taken place under Bush. "Wall Street Journal" Joe Biden points out not since 1921, right now, the top 1 percent of American people make over 22 percent of all the income in America. The bottom 50 makes less than 13 percent. Ladies and gentleman that is redistribution the wrong way, let's set the record straight.

Let's help the middle class. I got a woman on my staff who handles policy. She is a blood relative, a member of the Maverick family. Y'all know about Mavericks down here. You got real Mavericks. Well John and Governor Palin like to refer to themselves as mavericks. Well, a good friend of Jeff's and mine is the new senator from Pennsylvania his name is Casey, from my hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. I'm going to paraphrase Casey. He said, you know, you can't be a maverick when all you've been the last eight years is a side kick. So much for the maverick. Give me a break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: And our next play on the BALLOT BOWL, Joe Biden has tough words of his own for Sarah Palin on patriotism. Right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHNEIDER: I'm Bill Schneider for CNN BALLOT BOWL from Martinsburg, West Virginia. Last week, Sarah Palin said she liked to visit pro- American parts of the country. Here's what Joe Biden had to say about that comment in Nevada on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Serious about the politics for just a moment beyond the substance. Its reported last night at a fundraiser in North Carolina that Governor Palin, John McCain's running mate, made a point of saying that she likes to visit pro-American parts of the country. Ladies and gentlemen, I was told by the press today one of the networks interviewing me told me that she has tried to clarify her words. I'm being serious. This is a big deal, at least to me it is. She says that what she meant was she accepts and she knows what we all know. That every state in fact, is pro-American. Well ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, every state that I've been in, every state in this nation has sent their sons and daughters to die and to serve for this country, 2300 sons and daughters of Nevada are currently deployed in Iraq, 35 have given their lives. It doesn't matter where you live; we all love our country, Governor Palin! Barack Obama put this country first, I put my country first, and these people put their country first! Ladies and gentlemen, Governor Palin may have stepped back from some of the rhetoric today, but the republican campaign has stepped up its attack. You may have seen Harry Reid's comments today or heard about the phone calls that are coming into Nevada, New Mexico and Virginia where I'm going that question Barack Obama's character and the implication. Let me tell you, they don't hurt Barack Obama. They don't hurt me, but they hurt the American people because they're an attempt to distract you from the issues that matter to your daily lives. Ladies and gentlemen, Barack is a tough guy. He can take three more weeks of these attacks, but our country can't take four more years of Bush- McCain policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: Our next play on the BALLOT BOWL, not quite live from New York, its Sarah Palin. The Republican vice presidential contender, the lady takes a little poke of fun at her self and her portrayal on the late night comedy show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): I need to talk to you. You can't let Tina go out there with that woman. She goes against everything we stand for. Good lord, Lorn. What's that name?

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): Caribou Barbie.

PALIN: The only poll I care about is the North Pole and that's melting, not great. What? The real one?

Hi. Thank you. Thank you. Now I'm not going to take any of your questions, but I do want to take this opportunity to say, live from New York, it's Saturday night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I don't need to say what that was last night. I think it's fair to say that almost every political junkie on the planet was watching that. We have ratings from that appearance last night 14 million people watched the opening skit but more than that it was the highest rated "Saturday Night Live" in 14 years. You know what record it broke? Bet you can't guess, 1994, Bill, Nancy Kerrigan came on. That was the highest ratings so far that Sarah Palin's appearance broke. Maybe this is heresy, but the expectations were pretty high I should say, I'm not sure that her appearance met those expectations. What do you think?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think some people wanted to see her together with Tina Fey and there wasn't a great deal of that. Some wonders why she did this because she needs to be taken more seriously as a contender, not less. Interestingly when Colin Powell made his endorsement with Barack Obama today, he very explicitly said he did not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president of the United States. A devastated statement from Colin Powell and one that she's going to have to deal with.

BASH: One she's going to deal with and the McCain campaign is going to have to deal with. Obviously, they've realized that Sarah Palin has given Tina Fey a different lease on life than before. Her impression of Sarah Palin has been so incredibly, really pretty much spot-on. She's gotten so much acclaim for that. It was pretty hard for the McCain campaign for Sarah Palin not to go on "Saturday Night Live," but Bill we're going to have Sarah Palin back on the campaign trail. She is actually on her way to Roswell, New Mexico. New Mexico is one of those states out west that they're hoping that Sarah Palin can actually help bring them along. It has been neck and neck over the past several election cycles. We'll also have Joe Biden. He's in the state of Washington, not Washington, D.C. but the state of Washington off on the west coast. Those are two live rallies we're going to have and a lot more on BALLOT BOWL right after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)