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Will Sarah Palin Run for President?; Sarah Palin Speaks at Tea Party Event in New Hampshire; Talk Back Question; Border Agent Turned Whistle-Blower

Aired September 05, 2011 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed.

Will she or won't she? Sarah Palin keeps the pundits and the public guessing about whether or not she's going to run for president.

Palin will be speaking shortly at a Tea Party Express rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. We're going to bring that to you live.

At a rally in Iowa over the weekends, Palin, she took some swipes at President Obama and Republican front-runner Rick Perry.

And then there were five. Rick Perry pulls out of today's GOP forum in South Carolina. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, they're all going to take part. Perry says he is returning to Texas to focus on the wildfires there.

The form is hosted by South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint. He is a leading voice in the Tea Party movement. We're going to have live coverage of the forum today. That is at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

And President Obama gives his Labor Day speech in Michigan. That's going to happen this next hour. He is appearing at a union event in Detroit. The city, as you know, has been hit hard by the unemployment crisis, and the president's remarks comes just three days before he outlines his plan for turning the job market around.

Now, you can see the president's speech on jobs live, Thursday, 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Tropical Depression Lee is slogging its way north today after dumping as much as a foot of rain on parts of Louisiana. Now, pumps in New Orleans helped prevent any major problems there. That is the good news, but the storm caused flooding in other towns and cities along the Gulf.

In Alabama, Lee spun off possible tornadoes. Strong winds damaged at least 20 homes in the town of Lillian, Alabama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYRNA FLETCHER, LILLIAN, ALABAMA, RESIDENT: Well, I heard the television say tornado warning. About that time, you jut heard an ungodly clap of lightning. I mean, it just lit up the whole House, and then you just heard the hard wind go by.

DAN MATTSON, LILLIAN, ALABAMA, RESIDENT: As soon as the lightning hit, the lights went out, they came back, and then everything opened up. It was like a machine gun going off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Fighting breaks out between Egyptian police and families of people killed in the uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak. The families tried to push their way into the building where Mubarak's trial resumed today.

Mubarak was again wheeled into court on a stretcher. He is charged with ordering the killing of protesters during the revolution in February. However, senior police officials testified today that they were ordered to use tear gas, not live ammunition, on demonstrators.

Libyan rebels push to the outskirts of Moammar Gadhafi's last remaining strongholds. Negotiations on a possible cease-fire have now broken down. The rebels had given Gadhafi's forces until Saturday to surrender or face attack. Well, they have targeted the cities of Bani Walid and Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The remains of an airplane crash over on Lambertsville (ph) Road, and probably had a terrorist bomb on board. It blew up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: New video from September 11, 2001 has surfaced almost 10 years later. It was taken just minutes after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a Pennsylvania field. Now, you can see the smoke there in the distance in this video. The man who shot the video has since passed away, and his family does not want to be identified.

Sarah Palin is making a splash out on the campaign trail, but it is still not clear whether or not she is actually going to run for president.

Wolf Blitzer, part of "The Best Political Team on Television," he's joining me now.

Wolf, you and I are both waiting to hear from Sarah Palin in New Hampshire today. She is headlining this rally sponsored by the Tea Party Express.

So, what do we make of this? She has not yet declared herself a candidate. Some people think she will. A lot of people think, not really, that's not going to happen.

What do we expect?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, she has been really giving some substantive speeches over the weekend in Iowa, New Hampshire. She's not just doing a whole bunch of little platitudes, if you will. You can agree or disagree with her substance if you want, but she has been getting into some of the issues, and obviously she's blasting the president of the United States and his policies. But she's making it clear she is not necessarily happy with the Republican candidates already in the field.

She is not mentioning them by name or anything, but she's suggesting that there is some criticism of the Republican candidates as well, which would lead those who are watching, or carefully to think, well, maybe she is going to throw her hat in the ring. She has got 100 percent -- virtually 100 percent -- name recognition already, so she doesn't have to worry about that part of the equation like almost all of the other Republican candidates have to do.

When Rick Perry -- he's the front-runner, as you know, Suzanne, right now, the governor of Texas. He's well known in Texas, but not necessarily all that well known outside of Texas. So he has work to do.

Sarah Palin, if she were to announce that she's a Republican presidential candidate, everybody knows who she is, everybody certainly in the Republican Party has some thoughts about her. So, she would have a lot less advance work, if you will, to prepare herself as a candidate than some of the others, even a front-runner like Rick Perry.

So, the answer is, I don't know if she is going to run. I suspect very few people do know if she's made up her mind. Maybe she hasn't even made up her own mind yet and she's still weighing the pros and cons.

MALVEAUX: Yes. We just don't know. It's too hard to figure out here.

You know, it's a big week for Republicans, Wolf, as we know. We've got debates scheduled all week, starting today in South Carolina.

How does it impact that debate, the fact that Governor Rick Perry is not going to be there running against some of the other big-name candidates?

BLITZER: Well, he will be at our debate a week from today in Tampa, Florida, the one that I am moderating. We are co-sponsoring a debate with the Tea Party Express. So, as of now, unless, God forbid, there are horrendous developments in Texas -- he decided at the last minute to go back to Texas to deal with the fires in Texas right now and avoid -- it's not really a debate, it's a forum that Senator DeMint is hosting in Columbia, South Carolina, later in the day today.

But he will be participating -- at least he is scheduled to participate in our debate next week. There's another debate on Wednesday night he is scheduled to participate in.

It's going to be his first -- these are his first debates, and a lot riding. He's doing well right now, but he hasn't been tested nationally in this kind of formal setting. And I assume the other Republican candidates are going to be making their points against him, they're going to be going after him.

So he's going to be on the defensive to a certain degree. There's no doubt he'll be on the offensive in going after President Obama's policies.

I'll be curious to see how hard he fights back if a Mitt Romney, let's say, or a Michele Bachmann, or some of the other Republican candidates really hit him hard. I will be curious to see how hard he fights back. As the front-runner, he may want to stay above that Republican fray, but I also suspect that's not in his instinct, as you know -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Wolf, just keeping a close eye on President Obama and what he is doing for the holiday, as well as the week ahead, I had a chance to talk to David Gergen about whether or not the president is really being tough enough, whether he's compromised too much, given too much to the Republicans. There are a lot of President Obama's supporters who think that he has rolled over on a couple of very important issues.

We know the president has got a big speech on a jobs planned for Thursday evening. What do we think that the president needs to come out and say to try to win back some of the support that he has lost?

BLITZER: He's got to come out with a specific plan to create jobs, even though a big chunk of that is almost certainly not going to win Republican support in the House of Representatives, or in the Senate, for that matter. He's got to lay out his agenda.

He's not only got to deliver a good speech with a lot of substance, he then has to put it on paper and submit formal legislation, a document, if you will, that the Congressional Budget Office can then assess, or what they say, score, if they will, to see how many jobs it might create, how much money it would cost, how it would affect the deficit, what would it do to taxes. He's got to be that specific.

He's been hammered, as you know, not only by Republicans, but even from some Democrats, especially on the left, who have been disappointed that he hasn't been as tough or specific as he should be. This is his moment on Thursday, 7:00 p.m. Eastern, when he's got that chance to come up with a specific Obama plan to create jobs, not just more talk, but action, if you will.

And he's got to realize that, yes, most of it probably won't be accepted by the Republicans, but it will then lay the groundwork for his re-election campaign. It will be the basis of trying to differentiate where he goes on jobs creation, which is issue number one, as opposed to the Republican challengers.

MALVEAUX: All right. Wolf, thanks.

We'll be keeping our eye on all of those developments, the forum, the debates as well. And you don't want to miss Wolf's one-on-one interview with former vice president Dick Cheney. That is tomorrow afternoon, 5:00 p.m. Eastern, in "THE SITUATION ROOM." And here's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories. "Patriotism," it's a word that you hear candidates say on the campaign trail a lot. Well, now some American companies are under fire, accused of not being patriotic.

Our Carol Costello, she joins us from New York with today's "Talk Back" question.

Carol, that's a pretty strong accusation there when you talk about not being patriotic.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is. So here's the question for you on this Labor Day, Suzanne.

Who is more patriotic, the American worker or the American boss? It depends on who you're asking. Teamster's Union leader James Hoffa is calling out companies like Apple, Pfizer, and General Electric for sending money and jobs overseas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES HOFFA, PRESIDENT, TEAMSTER'S UNION: I think the president should challenge the patriotism of these American corporations that are sitting on the sidelines saying, why do we have high unemployment, but I'm not going to hire anybody? They have an obligation just like the federal government, just like Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Hiring American workers, patriotic? Sort of like going shopping was patriotic after 9/11? That was how many Americans interpreted President Bush's remarks days after the 2001 attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When they struck, they wanted to create an atmosphere of fear. And one of the great goals of this nation's war is to restore public confidence in the airline industry, is to tell the traveling public, get on board, do your business around the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: He added, go to Disney World.

Getting back to Hoffa's charge, though, it is true big American companies are making record profits and they're sitting on gobs of cash. But companies say, why should we part with our money if the economy is still a mess? And does it make good business sense to hire American workers at a higher wage when workers can hire cheaper labor overseas?

Maybe that's not patriotic, but it smacks of good old-fashioned American capitalism.

So, the "Talk Back" today: Is it unpatriotic for U.S. companies not to hire?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Carol.

Here's a rundown of some of the stories up ahead.

First, the latest on wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes in Texas.

And he was wheeled in on a stretcher. Hosni Mubarak on trial. We're going to check in on the murder and corruption case against Egypt's former leader.

Then, GM drives aggressively into the market for subcompact cars.

Plus, Pakistan arrests a senior al Qaeda operative. We're going to see how that impacts Islamabad's strained relationship with the United States.

And almost six months after Japan was hit by one horrific disaster after another, a victim remembers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "I was caught in the whirlpool. The bus, cars and houses were over my head. I felt pain, but I kept swimming and saw the light from the sky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here are your choices for today's "Choose the News." Text "23360" for the story that you would like to see.

First, Border agents bored? An agent who guards the Washington State coast is speaking out now. He says that agents are getting paid to do nothing, and that's wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.

Second, Gadhafi's former nurse, one of the women who watched after Gadhafi's health, gives a firsthand account of her duties and describes the unique gifts that Gadhafi gave to his closest workers.

Third, Coney Island makeover. The New York beach known for its old roller-coasters, sea-front stores, getting a new look. See the multimillion-dollar makeover and whether or not it's led to more tourists.

You can vote by texting "23360." Text "1" for "Border Agents Bored"; "2" for Gadhafi's Former Nurse"; and "3" for "Coney Island Makeover."

The winning story will air in the next hour.

Right now want to focus on the efforts to contain raging wildfires in Texas. I want you to take a look at these live pictures here. This is really just the billowing smoke. Kind of unbelievable when you take a look at the massive area that we're talking about here. The worst of it is in the east of Austin.

All right. We're going to take a different direction here. We're going to go back to these pictures, but we want to bring in Sarah Palin now out of New Hampshire, who has just taken the podium.

Let's listen in to what she has got to say before the Tea Party Express event.

(BEGIN LIVE COVERAGE)

SARAH PALIN (R), FMR. ALASKA GOVERNOR: Hello New Hampshire! It's so good to be here. I am absolutely honored to get to be with you.

Here I was introduced as somebody who inspires -- no, you inspire me. You keep me going, and I thank you. I thank God for you. Thank you, Tea Party Americans.

(APPLAUSE)

Awesome.

Well, it's really good to be spending Labor Day weekend with you -- Labor Day with you. And here you could be anywhere else. You could be out there grilling up some steak with friends and neighbors, and just kicking back. And instead, what you are doing, because you are concerned about your country, you are taking a stand for what is right, you're taking a stand for the needed reform in our country. You're ready, you're willing to fight for what is right about America.

I thank you for that. Again, that is what inspires me, it inspires the rest of the country, as we see what is going on in this Tea Party movement.

Now, on my trip here from Iowa, I was thinking about your state's motto: "Live Free or Die."

(APPLAUSE)

And I said, what an honor it is to be in a state where I tell you, you have the boldest motto in the entire nation. It really -- it says it all.

I thank God for America's freedom. I thank God for Tea Party Americans who are ready and willing to fight for our freedom. And if you love your freedom, then you thank a vet. And that's what we're going to do right now.

Raise your hand if you have served past or present in our United States military, because we salute you. God bless you.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you! We honor you. Thank you, vets. Thank you. Well, for some of you this may be your first Tea Party. Others, we're going on a couple of years now in a grassroots movement that really has awakened America.

And we needed that awakening, because we're up against now Barack Obama's very strange fundamental transformation of the country that we so love. And it is a strange transformation that he would attempt.

We don't need a transformation. As you know, we need a fundamental restoration of all that is good and strong and free in America.

(APPLAUSE)

You're doing it, Tea Party Americans. You are allowing, creating the change, the real change that is needed.

Tea Party independent, commonsense constitutionalists who love this country in good times and in tough times, who are always proud of America, and never apologize for the red, white and blue. It's Tea Party Americans who are making the change that is needed.

So whether you're here for the first time -- in Alaska, we call a first-timer -- we call them chachacos. Or maybe you're a sourdough now like Sal Russon (ph). And we thank him for putting all this together. He, being a sourdough in this movement.

Whether you're first time or not, I believe that all who are sincere in the effort to reform our government and restore our country, you are welcome here. And it's time now to grow the Tea Party movement.

Let's talk straight about how we can do that, and let's talk straight about some of the problems in trying to grow this movement that is so needed. It's media-incited internal squabbles, unfortunately. And we can nip some of that in the bud right here, right now, because we've got a lot of work to do, constitutionalists.

Our challenges today are too great. We simply don't have time to be bogged down in internal conflicts and friendly-fire conflicts. The time to secure our future and preserve the blessings of liberty and restore our economy, it's now.

The Tea Party movement is bigger than any one person, and it's not about any one candidate. And thank goodness we don't have any one single leader.

The movement is about bringing together debate and discussion of solutions from we, the people, not the politicos. Not those inside- the-beltway types that are part of that permanent political class that has fought the Tea Party movement.

As was said in the introduction, this is about everyday, hard-working, individual Americans and empowering the individual. This is what the founders intended for this country. It is you who run our factories and own our small businesses. You teach our children, you fight our wars. You, who build our communities with a servant's heart, that's we, the people. That is our country. That is America.

(APPLAUSE)

Solutions come from you. And America's hope is in you.

It's not that nebulous, hopey-changey stuff we heard about in 2008 like one of the posters say over here. No, that's what has led us into the mess that we're in, with tripling of the deficit, and more crony capitalism than ever, and more taxpayer bailouts, and more of the left's big government agenda via that mother of all unfunded mandates called Obamacare.

(BOOING)

And for the first time in history, a credit rating downgrade that happened because our president has no plan to tackle the politicians' self-induced debt and deficit problems. No. Obama's hope has changed us from a country of hope to one of anxiety.

And we are at a tipping point. So I want to talk truthfully about where we are with failed policies and incompetent leadership, but more importantly, what we can do about it.

And some of us saw this day coming. I explained in Iowa that it was three years ago that I spoke at the GOP convention and I asked America that night of the speech, I asked America, "When the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, what exactly is Barack Obama's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he is done turning back the waters and healing the planet?"

The answer is to make government bigger, to take more of your money and give it to more special interests, and to give you more orders from Washington, and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. I spoke of this, but back then those were only words of warning, and the media sure wasn't asking those questions. The media sure didn't do its part in vetting candidate Obama. But now you have seen the proof yourself in President Obama.

See, candidate Obama didn't have a record while in office, but President Obama certainly does, and that's why we're here today.

(APPLAUSE)

Here is some proof of a failed policy, a failed economic policy, and proof of not having a plan in leading our country. It's coming from our president.

Earlier this summer, on one of the first legs of our "One Nation" bus tour, we stopped at a struggling business here in the Granite State, the Yankee Fisherman's Coop in Seabrook. And there I heard first hand yet another story of how the burdening federal regulations and high taxes are literally killing our small businesses and our jobs.

The hard-working water men and their families at that co-op, they weren't concerned about political labels and inside baseball political games that are played. They're concerned about massive government burdens that are choking their way of life.

Their freedom to make a living on the water, as some of these families, like our own commercial fishing family, some of these families have been proudly doing this for generations. And they just want to fish and responsibly harvest a natural resource to provide for the families, but that's all under attract now. It's tragic.

Like these fishermen, we patriots should not focus on petty political squabbles and media game sound bites. The Tea Party has got to be focused on the broader, much more important goals of this movement -- replace Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

And return power back to we, the people, and grow this movement without compromising principles.

Friends, the needed reform away from the good old boy politics as usual, it falls greatly on the Tea Party's shoulders. Look how successful you have been. As much as the media would love to ignore the fact, it was Tea Party Americans who won the November 2010 election.

(APPLAUSE)

It was you who sent that new governing class to Washington, D.C. Granted, the permanent political class tried to co-opt them and there's on going challenges there, but it was the Tea Party movement that shifted the entire fiscal debate in Washington, D.C. And now we're seeing more and more folks realize the strength of this grassroots movement and their wanting to be involved.

I say, right on, better late than never, for some of the candidates especially. OK? You're converting them over.

And you know why? Because you have truth and you have logic on your side. And when you have that on your side, you win. And you have the time-tested truths on your side, truths that we believe in.

We believe that the government that governs least governs best.

(APPLAUSE)

We believe that it's the Constitution that is the perfect blueprint towards making us a more perfect union.

(APPLAUSE)

We believe that America's finest are men and women in uniform. You are a force of good in this country, and for that we don't apologize!

(APPLAUSE)

We believe that we can't get out of debt by incurring more debt. And we're telling Washington, my kid is not your ATM. We believe that we are taxed enough already. And friends, we believe that freedom is a God-given right. Freedom is worth fighting for.

Bottom line, I believe that God has shed his grace on thee, America. And we're not going to squander what it is that we've been blessed with.

(APPLAUSE)

We need to grow this movement. We can grow this movement to restore power to we, the people, because we have truth and we have logic on our side. And now we have this record of success.

So, let's grow. Let's convert more of them over.

You have already withstood the wrath and the disdain and the lies from the media, and the permanent political class looking down on us, mocking us, making things up about us, telling us to go to hell. You have already withstood that. We're still standing, right? You're here today, standing strong, committed to restoring all that's good about America.

(APPLAUSE)

It's with a still spine that you are still standing. You are here today standing tall because you know what is at stake, and it's our children's future that is at stake.

So we refuse to retreat. We're not just going to just sit back on the couch and throw stones from afar, maybe like Washington would just love for us to do, just kind of waiting for America to be transformed into something unrecognizable, just sort of going with the flow.

No. It's like those Yankee fishermen. They watch where a fish is headed in the current. They know that only dead fish go with the flow. That's not us.

(APPLAUSE)

PALIN: So I say let's invite those candidates in, who are bold enough to take on the tough challenges caused by an out-of-touch, out-of- control centralized government, and those who are humble enough to admit they need you and they've seen the light, they who are willing to confront the challenges that are resulting from Washington's failed policies and incompetent leadership, mainly crony capitalism, because that is the root that grows our economic problems.

That's what grows this unsustainable immoral debt. It is what causes housing markets that have gone in the tank with 30% of our mortgages underwater and unemployment numbers so high that some parts of our country, they haven't seen these numbers since the depths of the Great Depression.

Yes, our nation is at a tipping point. So let's invite candidates, who will refudiate (sic) the crony capitalism and the corporate welfare and the waste and the corrupt politics and the government bailouts for their buddies.

We need to hear from them directly. And we need to hear from those who can do more than just talk, because we tried that, didn't we, voters? Been there, done that, with a candidate who can just talk, but doesn't have any kind of record of accomplishment and success, successfully reforming those things that are wrong.

What we need is we need people with a proven record of reform, and who are willing to take on the tough challenges, to run into danger, if you will, not run away from it. We need a pro-growth agenda.

(JEERING)

We need a pro-growth agenda.

(APPLAUSE)

I appreciate your encouragement. I do. Friends, we need that pro- growth agenda, one that is all about cutting tax rates and that's -- realizing that is how we incentivize job creation. America needs an agenda that attracts industry here instead of continuing to chase industry off our shores, an agenda that doesn't pretend that a centralized government can successfully manipulate and plan our economy for us.

Like your poster said over here. If you -- your poster talks about the private sector can do anything, everything, better than government can. That's just a given. That's a fundamental part of those time- tested truths.

We need an agenda that allows robust domestic energy production, a true all-of-the-above approach to energy independence, and a robust, aggressive energy independent agenda. That's a real jobs plan. And that's the real stimulus that we have been waiting for. And that doesn't cost government a cent.

Can you imagine that, a stimulus plan that actually helps dig us out of debt instead of digging us into debt? That's some of that economic fantasy that President Obama is engaged in, things that just don't make sense, more stimulus when the first stimulus didn't work, digging more debt, trying to convince the people that that's how we're going to get out of debt.

No, we need an agenda of government reform, and that takes courage and that takes honesty in our leaders, not entrenched, inside-the-beltway politicians, who just say what they think we want to hear. And, see, that's who we have, still, running the show right now.

We have a permanent political class, led by an unvetted candidate, who became our president. And he has ramped up crony capitalism with his bailouts and his takeovers and this permanent political class. They're busy looking out for their own interests and special interests, and that's the reason that nothing ever really gets done for you in Washington.

Do you ever ask yourself why nothing ever really is reformed? They talk about the problems, yet things keep getting worse. They talk about the debt problem, and yet they keep incurring more debt. They just gave themselves permission to incur more debt.

They talk about the spending problem, and yet Obama keeps spending more. They talk about an out-of-control federal government, and yet Obama keeps growing more. Well, I say we say enough is enough, and the message from Tea Party Americans as the status quo is no longer acceptable. We can't tolerate business as usual.

(APPLAUSE)

We can't tolerate business as usual because $14 trillion later, we can't afford business as usual.

(APPLAUSE)

Friends, our commitment to restoring what's right about America, free men and free markets, it's why the powers that be just do not like the Tea Party movement.

You shine a spotlight on what the problems are, what the challenges are and what the solutions are, and you demand results from your employees. And you know, those are the people that you elect to represent the will of the people. Those are your employees. If you are not satisfied with them, you fire them.

(APPLAUSE)

Our insistence on returning power to the people is driving them crazy and, you know, I warn you that the cynics, the elites, they're going to keep mocking you. They're going to keep making things up about the Tea Party movement and independent, conscientious Americans, just concerned about protecting our Constitution and not letting our country go bankrupt.

They're going to keep mocking you. But you know what, throughout history, the cynics, the naysayers, they've always denounced those who have stood for truth and fought for what is right.

When Abe Lincoln led, they mocked him and ridiculed him. It was the elites of his day saying that he was a clown, a hick, a fool, who was unfit for office. But who has history redeemed? Not the naysayers. Not the cynics. History is on the side of bold and courageous reform. And this movement is reform.

(APPLAUSE)

It is empowerment of the people, empowerment of the individuals against the vested interest of the permanent political class that got us into the mess that we're in. They can mock us, they can call us names, they can make things up, but they can't stop us.

(APPLAUSE)

Let them laugh while we get about the business of saving our country. Our nation is facing this precipice. We have no time to just hunker down and kind of preach to the choir. Now really is the time to grow, and I'm encouraged seeing different candidates, different campaigns represented here. I think that's very important.

Now is the time to grow this movement. We need to understand that there are more and more independent Americans who are looking for a place to hear and to be heard, and it's the Tea Party movement that can work with these independents to build up the ideas that work, to get America back to work.

And one way to do this more aggressively is to hear from candidates directly, not through the filter of the media. We've learned that lesson.

That's why the Tea Party rallies and Tea Party events are so important. Friends, we are one nation, and this can be one movement, active in every last corner of this nation to restore America and to replace Obama in 2012.

(APPLAUSE)

Our unity is going to be so important here in these coming months. Remember, the people's movement is not red America or blue America, it's red, white and blue America.

(APPLAUSE)

And we do have a lot of work to do, friends. The challenges before us, they can seem daunting, but we must not lose our optimistic spirit. It's with optimism that America has always come through throughout our history.

And what a history it has been. Remember, our founders declared that we were born the heirs of freedom. We are the sons and daughters of that greatest generation, who stormed the beaches of Normandy and raised the flag at Iwo Jima.

We made America the strongest, most free, most exceptional nation in the history of mankind. We owe it to those who have gone before us. It is our duty to honor those who have sacrificed all yesterday, so that we can be here today, free and proud and strong Americans.

We will continue to fight for what is right. We will continue to fight for what is right. Thank you so much for being part of the solution. God bless you, Tea Party Americans. God bless you, New Hampshire. God bless the United States of America. Thank you.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: You are listening to Sarah Palin at the events there, a Tea Party rally in New Hampshire. I want to bring in my colleague, Wolf Blitzer, to talk a little bit about this.

Some of the things that I noticed that stuck out was that she essentially was going back in time, if you will, some of the points that she made when she -- three years ago, she was before the GOP convention. She became quite the celebrity and the Republican star among some of her greatest supporters. And she took you back to that time, and she used some of the same arguments that she'd been building back then, going against Obama, saying there was just talk, no record of accomplishment.

She blamed the media for much of the statements that she believed were not accurate, and accused the president, ironically, Wolf, of, you know, being part of this old-boy political network. That was something that President Obama, candidate Obama, campaigned against.

What do you make of what her highlights were? And what does she do with this political capital among this group that really seems to enjoy her, really honestly love her?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN: Well, they loved everything -- the Tea Party Express, the Tea Party supporters, they love all her general statements that she makes about less government, reducing taxes, less federal regulation, less federal involvement in people's day-to-day lives.

But in this speech, you know, she had strong words, but she really didn't back it up with any specific program, if you will. She didn't give us any specifics, what she would do if she were in a position to do something about reducing tax rates, for example. She didn't go into details on that.

She didn't go into details on less regulation, for example. She didn't go into details on how to remove the government. She also obviously was catering to the Tea Party movement. She avoided any substantive discussion at all on any national security issues -- Iraq; Afghanistan, for that matter; the war on terrorism; didn't get into that. That's not necessarily the highest priority for the Tea Party supporters.

She didn't mention -- she -- you know, she said that -- she said that there has to be less government, and government does everything worse than the private sector. But she didn't spell out how she would change Social Security.

Does she want to privatize Social Security and have the government step away from its involvement in Social Security or Medicare benefits? If you speak to Tea Party supporters, they all say, you know what, we don't want the government involvement, unless it deals with Social Security, which is what is very popular, unless it's -- deals with Medicare, health care for the elderly, which is very popular; unless it deals with the military, defense spending, which is very popular among so many of these supporters; all government programs.

But she wants the government out of these kinds of things, presumably, if you listen to what she has to say. So, you know, to a certain degree, I came away from this particular speech -- which did have a little substance in it, saying, you know, she gives a good speech.

She was criticizing President Obama for simply giving good speeches, but not backing it up with substance. Here she gave a pretty good speech, and clearly what the crowd likes, but she didn't get into the kind of specific details that so many people would like to hear from her, especially if she's going to be a serious candidate for the Republican nomination.

MALVEAUX: No, and I think that's what people are waiting for, to hear from -- if she has some ideas and some details to back it up.

Thank you, Wolf. Appreciate your time.

Well, 90 miles per hour, no brakes. You got to check out the dramatic conclusion at the Baltimore Grand Prix.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got out of the car and...

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MALVEAUX: Some of the stories our affiliates are covering across the country, a storm chaser who happened to be driving home captured this huge tornado as it crossed over New York State's thruway. The storm touched down in the town of Amsterdam, knocking down trees and tearing roofs off homes. Amazingly, no one was injured.

And unbelievable video from Baltimore's Grand Prix. Check it out. A driver lost his brakes and flew right over another car, almost clipping the driver in the head. No one was hurt. In fact, the driver who was almost clipped ran out of his car to check on the one who had lost his brakes.

An Ohio man is suing to get a share of the $99 million jackpot with his co-workers they won in an office pool. He says he is entitled to it, because he has been paying into that pool for eight years. But he had a back injury and wasn't at work the day they won.

Well, we're getting a lot of responses to today's TalkBack question. We asked, is it unpatriotic for U.S. companies not to hire? Terry Boden (ph) says outsourcing jobs overseas is unpatriotic. The current economic system is not working. Americans need to focus on Americans first. Carol Costello is back with more of your responses.

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MALVEAUX: We're going to bring you some live pictures now. This is out of Detroit. This is where President Obama is going to be speaking shortly, and you see Aretha Franklin. She is warming up the crowd there, as they are preparing for the president. Let's listen in.

Oh, just in time.

That's a warm-up act there for the president. You've been sounding off on our TalkBack question. Carol Costello is here with what you are saying.

Carol, you got to love Aretha Franklin, huh, warm up the act a little bit?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN: I know. I'm just glad she finished singing, because I wouldn't have wanted to interrupt that. That was fantastic. (Inaudible). Good for you, Aretha, you go, girl. TalkBack question today, is it unpatriotic for U.S. companies not to hire? We got a good response to this question.

This from Joe: We have given corporations way too much power and now we're being held hostage by them. I'll give you a hint, outsourcing and too many tax loopholes, now we're talking about giving them a zero percent tax rate? We just love abuse, don't we?

This from Antonio: These companies are looking to hire engineers and scientists, but ours (inaudible) some of the lowest science and match scores in the world. It is our individual responsibility to do what's need to make our country stronger.

This from Ron: Absolutely. Look how German companies and the economy have weathered the economic downturn. German companies realize that they depend on a strong economy to grow and thrive. American companies couldn't care less.

This from Michael: It isn't unpatriotic, but it's downright stupid. Companies are looking for short-term profits and killing their golden goose, i.e. the U.S. middle class. In the end, everybody loses.

And this from David: I don't remember the professor talking about patriotism in Business 101. Just the bottom line, and the other "P" word, profits.

Keep the conversation going, facebook.com/carolcnn. Suzanne will be back after a break.

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MALVEAUX: This coming weekend marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks, and those attacks prompted the United States to go to war with Afghanistan. But the planned withdrawal of all 100,000 U.S. troops by 2014, the fight for the country's future, is vital.

And heading to Afghanistan today to report on what is going on there. (Inaudible) fly from Atlanta to Washington, then another flight takes me to Dubai. Then from Dubai, I head to Kabul, where I'll be talking to the Afghan soldiers and the American forces who are training them.

They are prepared -- or are they prepared -- to take over, once U.S. troops have gone home? I'll also be talking to American men and women about how they feel about the mission 10 years after 9/11. Don't miss my live coverage from Afghanistan, starting on Friday, September 9th, through the weekend of September 11th.

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MALVEAUX: You told us what you wanted to see. Here's your "Choose The News" winner. A border agent who patrols part of Washington state says that paying agents there is just a waste of taxpayer money. CNN's Patrick Oppmann explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Washington state's Olympic peninsula, a remote and rugged environment where an increasing number of border patrol agents keep watch for smugglers, drug traffickers, terrorists, and illegal immigrants.

JOSE ROMERO, BORDER PATROL: So you keep driving through. You're just always looking. And it really comes down to our agents out here, not just patrolling and being vigilant as far as what's happening currently, they have a lot to do as far as gathering their own intelligence, analyzing that information and formulating ideas and concepts about where the smuggling might be occurring.

OPPMANN: But another agent stationed here says agents are guarding much of anything at all and are, quote, "bored."

CHRISTIAN SANCHEZ, BORDER PATROL AGENT: Up in the northern border there's nothing to do. There are no gangs or any activity -- doing cross border activity. I haven't seen it. And it's rare. In the two years that I've been there, a lot of the agents are really just going stir crazy.

OPPMANN: Agent Christian Sanchez spoke in July at a Washington, D.C., conference on government whistle-blowers. He said millions of dollars for this new facility and a tenfold increase of agents since 9/11 are a waste of federal spending.

SANCHEZ: The taxpayers are paying us all this extra money to do nothing on this peninsula where it's a water-based border.

OPPMANN: The border patrol wouldn't comment on Sanchez or his allegations, but other agents retaliated against him for speaking out. But, they say, agents have plenty to do.

HENRY ROLON, BORDER PATROL: The area of responsibility that they have is tremendous. The challenges that they have is tremendous. We've had individuals that have tried to exploit vulnerabilities and so that's why we're there. We're there to protect America, to make America safe.

OPPMANN (on camera): The border patrol says they need a strong presence here. And that's because just over there, about 15 miles away, is the Canadian coastline. The border patrol says anyone from a terrorists to a drug smuggler could take advantage of these largely uninhabited shores to sneak into the country.

OPPMANN (voice-over): But critics of the border patrol here complain agents have mainly targeted migrant workers from Mexico and central America.

LOIS DANKS, STOP THE CHECKPOINTS: They park across the street from Hispanic grocery stores and taco stands and watch who come and goes and sometimes follow them to find out where they live.

OPPMANN: Despite criticism, the border patrol says plans to bolster its presence on the peninsula are moving forward. Agent and self- described whistle-blower Christian Sanchez still works here, but his attorney tells CNN he is seeking a transfer to guard the more active U.S. Mexico border.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Port Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: If your choice didn't win or you just want to check out the runners up, I have links to them on my page at facebook.com/suzannecnn.

CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ted Rowlands, who's in for Randi Kaye.

Hey, Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Suzanne.