Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

People Are Casting Their Vote Early This Weekend; Last Weekend Left for Candidates to Campaign

Aired November 01, 2008 - 09:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there, from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, I'm T.J. Holmes and this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is November 1st, three days away ...
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: ...from that big election. Where is the clock? We usually have a clock that's ticking down. We will show it to you, don't worry. It will be there. There it goes.

HOLMES: That's pretty good, Betty.

NGUYEN: Three days, eight hours --

HOLMES: Fifty-nine minutes.

NGUYEN: Fourteen seconds.

HOLMES: The polls will be closing at that precise time.

NGUYEN: And in fact, people are up early trying to vote in early voting today. Those lines are also very long, as we mentioned, a little bit to go with this vote, Florida, take a look at this live picture, folks. These people got up early thinking that they would get to vote early. Well, unfortunately, they got up a little too early. They've been waiting in line for, what, two, two-and-a-half hours now?

HOLMES: Some of them got there at 6:00, like it's a new "Harry Potter" movie or something like that. Now, that's good to see. Democracy at work. People really involved in the process. We're glad to see that.

Something else to see, a lot of polls coming out. You know our Bill Schneider, you know one of our analyst here, he does a lot of poll. We got another poll. It has to do with the Halloween costume. There's a candy vote.

NGUYEN: There it goes right there. You see Barack Obama, John McCain. Well, we're going to announce the winner of this unofficial presidential election and we'll show you where the votes -- where they rested in that little box right there as part of a costume. And actually, we're bringing on a little boy that wore it yesterday and did all the polling.

HOLMES: We don't know who won yet. I'm very curious to know who got -- I guess who candy lovers prefer.

NGUYEN: Right.

HOLMES: All right. We are -- also getting ready for John McCain right now. He is actually in Newport News, Virginia, on the left there. Yes, that is a live picture we have been keeping an eye on. The picture on the right is Obama. That's not a live picture. On the left, a rally getting under way for John McCain here in a just a little bit. He is going to address the crowd at Christopher Newport University. As soon as he gets started there at that rally, we expect that at the top of the hour and right about now we will dip in and take a listen to him.

Also, Obama has a rally around noontime out at a high school in Henderson, Nevada. We will be checking in on him as well.

For the rest of the day, the rest of the candidates and their surrogates, there's -- whoo. They got a lot going on today. Why not? Only got three hours -- three days, eight hours, 57 minutes to go. After Virginia, McCain is going to head to Pennsylvania. Obama follows his Nevada visit with trips to Colorado as well as Missouri.

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is going to be opening her day in Florida, and then heading to North Carolina and Virginia. Joe Biden meanwhile is in Ohio and Indiana. You see the theme here in these crucial states, which ones they're hitting. Hillary and Bill Clinton, they are on the trail for Obama. Mitt Romney as well hitting the trail for McCain. He will be in Colorado.

NGUYEN: The last two Democrats to win statewide in Virginia took the Hampton roads area. Now, Newport News is smack in the middle of that particular area and McCain calls his rally in Newport News this hour the road to victory. Well, our Dana Bash is there. She joins us now live.

Dana, just how important is Virginia in this race?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, I'm sorry, Betty, it's a little bit hard to hear because they just cued John McCain's music. And I'm actually hearing myself in my ear so if we can fix that, that would be great.

Well, look, this is absolutely crucial for John McCain. I know it's kind of like, wait a minute, don't you say that about every state that you go to with John McCain? But this one we actually really mean it. And that is because that's coming from the McCain campaign itself, Betty.

What they say is they realize that a Democrat has not won the state of Virginia since LBJ in 1964. It is just not a place where Republicans on a presidential level have had to battle at all, but it is, obviously, quite different this time. Barack Obama has been here umpteen times with tremendous crowds, and to be honest with you, John McCain really hasn't spent a lot of time here. His national headquarters is in the northern part of this state. He actually has a condo in this state.

But in terms of campaigning, he hasn't done a lot of it here. And that is much to the chagrin of some of the local Republicans who are quite worried about this state. We're going to be looking at the map election night, this is going to be one of the states we are going to be looking extremely closely at because, as you said, this particular area and the area in the northern part of the state, those are areas that are trending more Democratic which is what is making it more difficult for Republicans to win this state.

So, you're likely going to hear John McCain appealing to some of the crucial voters in this area. This is the Hampton roads area, so he's going to be talking a lot to his fellow -- his brethren in the military, specifically the Navy. And then we're going to head up to northern Virginia, to Springfield, Virginia, where he is going to likely be really giving the same kind of argument we've been hearing along the way, through his bus tour in Ohio and that is on the economy, specifically just kind of a tried and true message for a Republican, that Barack Obama will raise taxes, that he won't raise taxes.

And then the fundamental question about experience, insisting that Barack Obama doesn't have the experience and he does. The name of the game right now, Betty, is to convince undecided voters and there are a lot of undecided voters that they shouldn't take what they call a risk with Barack Obama and that is really the crucial goal for John McCain right now, Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. And we hear the music playing. Eventually, we will see John McCain step onto that stage. And -- we still have an introduction to come from Lindsey Graham. But when John McCain does start speaking, we will bring that to you live. Thank you, Dana -- T.J.

HOLMES: I want to turn out to news out of the Obama camp, a possible immigration issue for a member of Barack Obama's family. "Associated Press" reporting that a Kenyan aunt that Obama speaks about in his memoirs has been living in the U.S. illegally. A.P. says she remains in government housing in Boston even though an immigration judge denied her request for asylum four years ago and, therefore, ordered her to leave.

The "Times" of London has photos of her on their Web site. What you're seeing -- there's the Web site there. You are looking at pictures of the house where she now stays up in Boston. The refusal to leave the country considered an administrative matter, not a criminal matter. Often times that is the case when you're dealing with immigration issues. Not necessarily being handled by a criminal court.

Well, CNN not able to independently verify the aunt's immigration status, although we are looking into it. We have also asked the Obama campaign for a comment on this. Don't know if we will get one. We haven't gotten one yet. But we again are looking into that matter.

NGUYEN: Well, more than half the states allow early voting, and it's proving to be quite popular. Now, some long lines and some long faces out there, but let's see how it's going right now in Florida. Our Sean Callebs is in Plantation, which is north of Miami. I hear a lot of noise out there, Sean. How's it going? Because I know people have been in line for hours.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, I don't know what to tell you. I mean, all I can say is this is Florida. There have been people waiting patiently out here for hours and hours. An election worker, you can see him up there with the apron on, with the flag on it, he just made everybody move so the people who have been out here waiting for hours and hours suddenly have to line up along a different wall. He's walking through here, pointing through -- OK.

Now, he's telling me we have to move down here. This is the first time voter, though, we're chatting with her a short while ago. What dragged you out here on this morning?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Actually, I want to go vote yesterday, but unfortunately the lines were extremely long, so I'm just excited to vote today. My first time. And the lines were really good.

CALLEBS: You probably made a lot of friends. Are you surprised that it's this chaotic out here this morning?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm surprised, yes. This is my first time, but I'm excited. So, that's -- I'm just eager to vote.

CALLEBS: We are going to let you slide through because we don't want to rile this guy anymore. A lot of these folks have been out here waiting, and they really don't understand -- keep going, keep going. You guys are doing your civic duty. We're just trying to explain what's going on.

There are hundreds of people out here, T.J., at this hour of the morning. It's really kind of staggering. To give you an idea how early voting has gone in Florida, more than two million people have voted already. A lot of those through absentee ballots, but a lot of these folks came out here knowing they were going to have to wait a long time in line. There are cars that are looped all the way out here this morning.

Look, I expected it would be crowded here, I really did, but I didn't anticipate this. We have been down here three weeks following the election in Florida. There is tremendous interest. There's also some confusion, again. As I said, this is Florida. So, you kind of have to cope with what you're dealt with. What happened was there was so much early voting that the governor chose to extend the hours, so he asked -- he told all the polling precincts they had to be open 12 hours on weekends.

Some of those precincts, there's tremendous autonomy. Every county can operate differently. Every polling precinct can operate differently. So some are open from 7:00 to 7:00 say on one day on the weekend or two days on the weekend. And some are open like this one, where we are now, this one is open from 10:00 a.m. Eastern time, closes at 4:00 p.m.

You know, people are doing what they can. They got books, they got water. They got newspapers. They got patience, and they are going to need that here on this day. But you know what? The Secretary of State called it a healthy sign of democracy. Some people may call it something else. But, you know what? It's working.

NGUYEN: Some people might call it confusing, especially when the lines keep moving on you. Let me ask you this. How is the patience out there? I know you say people are coming and they're packing that, but are they getting a little testy because they have been waiting in line since, what, 6:00 a.m. this morning Eastern?

CALLEBS: Well, there were some people who were frustrated this morning because when the polls were extended -- when the hours were extended, they thought every polling precinct was open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. sot the people who got out here, more than three dozen at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time.

So, they're waiting four hours before they even had a chance to get in the building. Others thought the way the polling precinct folks came out and told them to move could have been done in a little nicer way. But I think that they're just trying to do what they can, get people through there. And you know what, I wouldn't want to have that job right now, but they're doing what they can.

NGUYEN: Well, you're having a tough enough job trying not to get mowed over by the people getting in line, and going past you and trying to really figure out where their place is as the lines have moved. All right. Sean Callebs. Stay safe out there. We'll talk to you shortly.

HOLMES: And Sean is actually helping out there, helping people get to where they need to be.

NGUYEN: Ushering them along.

HOLMES: Yes. Good to see there. So hopefully, we'll get him back here shortly.

What you are seeing on your screen on the left side, I want to explain, that's a rally in Virginia that McCain is having. You see there Cindy McCain introducing him. Soon she will be introducing him right now, going through her introduction.

When that gets done, and he steps into that podium, we will tune in to him and see what he has to say this morning with three days to go, three days, eight hours, 49 minutes to be precise when the first polls will be closing. We've been counting this done for quite some time and giving you a better look at where the candidates stand on some major issues.

Now, our own top 10, if you will, of issues go a little something like this. We started this last Saturday. We looked at the economy, we've taken a peek at taxes. Looked at energy, health care, education, the housing mess, relief for homeowners, Homeland Security. And today, we are tackling foreign policy. Getting to that point, November 4th, election day.

Well, the top two foreign policy challenges are, of course, Iraq and Iran right now. Here's where each candidate stands on Iran. Barack Obama says he would approve talks with Iran's leaders, but would leave military options on the table. McCain also believes in leaving all the military options in place. On Iraq, John McCain voted for the war. He had said the original plan was flawed but was a big supporter of the so-called surge strategy that many said did work. Barack Obama has been on the opposite side of that. He has opposed the war, also opposed the surge.

NGUYEN: Well, the votes have been cast and the candy, yes, the candy has been counted. We now have a winner in the race for president.

HOLMES: See, some of the voting and some of the voting has already taken place.

NGUYEN: Yes. Last night. Halloween.

HOLMES: They counted it and it's done. The deciding votes hinged on the sweet tooth of one little guy.

NGUYEN: Check him out, though.

HOLMES: There he is.

NGUYEN: Is this a costume or what?

HOLMES: The Halloween candy machine. Give us a wave there. How you doing? Good morning.

NGUYEN: Look, he's just doing his best to hold up the costume right now.

HOLMES: You had to walk around with that thing last night. He took a little poll, a candy poll, the candy man. We will see what he has to say in a little bit. Stay here with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: A live look right now of Newport News, Virginia. You see there Senator Lindsey Graham doing an introduction to the man on his left, the right of your screen. That being Senator John McCain. He will be speaking momentarily. When he does, we will bring it to you live.

HOLMES: All right. We've seen a lot of presidential polls the last few days, we'll probably see a few more over the weekend. But we've got one.

NGUYEN: Unlike any other.

HOLMES: It's a little sweet, a sugary sweetness to it, this particular presidential poll.

NGUYEN: Josh Levs is over there with a savvy nine-year-old who took Halloween night and he really made it his own, and he created this poll. We're going to find out who won, according to him.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Best poll of the whole season. Let's take a look at a piece of video that he, this nine-year-old boy with me, put up on his Web site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOEY ROJAS, CANDY POLLSTER: This Halloween, I will be trick-or- treating in my neighborhood in Decatur, Georgia, as a candy voting machine. My costume will allow neighbors to vote for Barack Obama or John McCain with their candy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: This is Moey Rojas right here. Let's get a shot of him. Can we get a shot of him? Just so everyone can see again how awesome this costume is. All right. Check that out. So basically, Moey, tell me how it works. So you went up to different houses, right, and people could vote by putting candy in one of the holes here?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: What did they do exactly? What happened?

ROJAS: Well, lots of people were voting for Obama than McCain -- and it was a big landslide by the end.

LEVS: It was a big landslide for Obama?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: What was it like? What kind of candy did you get? Who gave you how much candy?

ROJAS: Well, Obama had 111 votes. And McCain had 27.

LEVS: 111-27.

ROJAS: And Bob Barr had one vote.

LEVS: Oh, Bob Barr got a vote somehow. Somebody said they want to vote for Barr?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: We have video of you trick or treating last night. Let's take a look at what it was like when you were trick-or-treating last night. There you are. So we see you going up to some houses. So you get to some house, right? And you say, how do you want to vote?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: What would happen? Did anybody say to you, you know what? I don't want to tell you. I don't want to announce how I'm going to vote. Did anyone say that?

ROJAS: Yes. I just closed my eyes but I can tell like when they dropped it in, I could feel which side.

LEVS: You could feel which side it was on? ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: I tell you what. Let's come over here for a second. Because we have a shot of all the candies that he managed to get last night. Can we lift this off of you? I don't want it to get too heavy. There you go. Let's put this one down on the floor. We are going to show everybody the kind of candy that he got last night. Come around with me. We are going to show you -- let's get a shot of the candy over here. Moey, come around right here. This right here is all the Barack Obama candy you got, right?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: It was 100-something?

ROJAS: 111.

LEVS: And what's this over here, is these the John McCain candy?

ROJAS: Yes. 27.

LEV: But if we're going quality, you told me the piece that you got, the best piece of everything was on the McCain side. What is that?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: What was that?

ROJAS: This.

LEVS: So, this is the best piece of everything you got last night?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: OK. So, you're going up to these houses. I understand some other kids out there told you they wanted to play, too.

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: So what happened? What did the other kids do?

ROJAS: They took candies from their own stashes and put in the candy poll they wanted to be president.

LEVS: So, this is pretty savvy. So basically people are putting extra candy in whichever side they wanted to vote for, right?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: And that's why you got so incredibly much more on one side. I like Obama so I'm pouring it in, right?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: All right. So what about you? Do you want to be president some day? What do you think?

ROJAS: No.

LEVS: Why not?

ROJAS: Because I think it's too much of a responsibility.

LEVS: Too much of a responsibility. Who would you vote for this year if you were going to vote?

ROJAS: Obama.

LEVS: You would vote for Obama. All right. I know that we have something in here that we're going to share with our anchors, right? You have a favorite piece of candy somewhere here, is that right?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: Somebody is going to get some licorice?

ROJAS: Yes.

LEVS: And over here, what's the first thing you are going to dig into?

ROJAS: Over here, probably these Lifesavers.

LEVS: OK. The Snickers are the first thing you're going to dig into?

ROJAS: No. I'm saving those for last.

LEVS: OK. Well, I'll tell you what. Look, this -- one last shot. This is a brilliant costume of the year. This is all the candy for Barack Obama. This is the candy for John McCain. I understand we got some news. So, this is what we're going to do. So, Moey Rojas, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

ROJAS: You're welcome.

LEVS: All right. We're going to talk to him again. See you in a bit.

HOLMES: All right. Sounds like that was a bit of voter fraud there.

NGUYEN: I was going to say a little skewed because people voted more than once.

HOLMES: Yes. You can't do that.

NGUYEN: No. Not legally.

HOLMES: OK. All right.

Well, I guess we'll turn to this live picture. We have been keeping an eye on Senator John McCain here. He's hoping to win next week's poll. He lost the candy poll. There he is. He is stepping up to the microphone right there. We're going to get a quick break-in and then head back and check in with him at that rally he is having in Virginia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. Take a look, two live events taking place right now. You see there on your left, Senator John McCain speaking live in Newport News, Virginia, and down in Florida, Governor Palin speaking as well. But we do want to take a listen to Senator John McCain. So let's do that.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, my country never has had to prove anything to me. I've always had faith in it. If I'm elected president, as I said, we'll fight to shake up Washington. We'll take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last, I'm not afraid of the fight. I'm ready for the fight.

I have a plan to hold the line on taxes, cut them, make America more competitive, and create jobs here at home. We're going to double the child deduction for working families. We'll cut the capital gains tax. We'll cut business taxes to help create jobs and keep American business in America. Raising taxes makes a bad economy much worse. Keeping taxes low creates jobs, keeps money in your hands, and strengthens our economy.

If I'm elected president, I won't spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money. Senator Obama will. And he can't do that without raising your taxes or digging us further into debt.

I'm going to make government live on a budget just like you do. I will freeze government spending on all but the most important programs like defense, veterans care, social security and health care until we scrub every single government program, get rid of the ones that aren't working for the American people and I will veto every single pork barrel bill that comes across my desk. And I will make them famous and you will know their names.

My friends, my, my friend Senator Tom Coleburn of Oklahoma calls ear marking a gateway drug. Look at the corruption that has spread in Washington. It's disgraceful. We have lost confidence in our government because there is corruption. And I'll clean it up.

Look, I've never asked for pork barrel project. Senator Obama has asked for nearly $1 billion. Nearly $1 million for every day he's in office. Let me give you an example. He asked for a $3 million for an overhead projector in a planetarium in, guess where, Chicago.

Can you afford that? No. I'm not going to spend $750 billion of your money just bailing out the Wall Street bankers and brokers that got us into this mess. Senator Obama will. I'm going to make sure we take care of the working people who were devastated by the excess, corruption and greed of Wall Street and Washington.

And my friends, the first is the American dream. I have a plan to fix our housing market so your home value doesn't go down when your neighbor defaults. So that people -- so that -- so that people in danger of defaulting have a way to stay in their home, give them a mortgage they can afford to meet. That's the American dream, and I'm going to protect it. If I'm -- when I'm elected president --

(APPLAUSE)

MCCAIN: We're going to stop spending $700 billion and sending it overseas to buy oil from countries that don't like us very much. You know, Senator Obama, as I noted the other night, is very eloquent, but listen carefully to his words. He said he will, "consider drilling offshore." When I'm president, we'll drill offshore and we'll drill now.

We'll invest -- we'll invest in all energy alternatives -- wind, solar, tide and safe nuclear power. You know, Senator Obama doesn't think that nuclear power is safe. Ask, ask our men and women who have served on our ships with nuclear power plants in the United States Navy who sailed all over this world. Built right here.

We will encourage the manufacture of hybrid, flex fuel and electric automobiles. We will invest in clean coal technology. We -- we are sitting on the world's largest reserves of coal. We'll lower the cost of energy within months, and we will create millions of new jobs and get this economy out of the ditch that it's in.

You know, my friends, we've learned more about Senator Obama's real goals for our country over the last two weeks than we learned over the past two years. And that's only because Joe the plumber asked him a question. God bless you, Joe. That's when Senator Obama revealed he wants to, "spread the wealth around."

Senator Obama is in the far left lane of American politics. It's not -- it should surprise no one. He's the most liberal senator in the United States senate, even more liberal than a senator who used to call himself a socialist.

Now, my friends, that's where he began, that's where he is now. You know, Joe didn't ask for Senator Obama to come to his house, and he didn't ask to be famous, and he certainly didn't ask for the political attacks on him from the Obama campaign.

Joe's dream is your dream, to own a small business that will create jobs, and the attacks on him are an attack on small businesses all over this nation. Small businesses employ 84 percent of Americans, and we need to support these small businesses. Taxing small businesses will kill jobs. We can't let that happen.

You know, Senator Obama is running to be redistributionist in chief. I'm running to be commander in chief. Senator Obama is running to spread the wealth. I'm running to create more wealth. Senator Obama is running to punish the successful. I'm running to make everyone successful. And, you know, you've got to admire the rhetoric.

First, made a lot of promises. First he said people making less than $250,000 would benefit from his plan. Then last weekend, he announced in an ad that if you're a family making less than $200,000, you'll benefit. But this weekend, Senator Biden said tax relief would only go to middle class people making under $150,000 a year.

HOLMES: There you go, listening in to Senator John McCain, Newport News, Virginia, in a rally there, trying to keep the red state red, but some of the polls suggest he has a tough, tough hill to climb in that state. We'll be checking in with all the candidates today. His running mate Sarah Palin also making an appearance in Florida. So, we got our eyes and our people all over the place.

NGUYEN: Yes, speaking live right now.

And you know with just three days left, what does each candidate have to do to win? We have some last-minute answers next hour.

HOLMES: Also, back to that McCain speech, if you would like to continue to listen to that, you can go to cnn.com. We are streaming that live so you can continue to listen.

Also, did you know your rights as a voter? Did you know that what you wear to the polls could actually keep you from casting your ballots? Yes, the voting rights advocate that you need to listen to, a lot of rumors and stuff out there. You need to -- I get some of this cleared up. But that person is going to be joining us next hour to clear some of that up.

But right now, we want to turn over to "OPEN HOUSE" and Gerri Willis. Starts right now.