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Ballot Bowl 2008

McCain, Obama Speak about the Financial Crisis; Sarah Palin Joins the Did-Not, Did-Too Debate; "Truth Squad" Says Obama Didn't Profit From Fannie, Freddie

Aired September 21, 2008 - 17:00   ET

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

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to another hour of BALLOT BOWL '08. I'm Jim Acosta in Lady Lake, Florida, part of the villages in Sumter County, Florida. We're in a very critical part of the state, the state that swings from election to election.
And this is, again, a chance for you, the viewer, to hear the candidates in their own words on the issues you care about. We just heard Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, wrapped up a speech here in front of a huge crowd in this town a few moments ago. We're going to hear from her coming up in just a moment.

But I want to bring in my colleague, Suzanne Malveaux.

And, Suzanne, this feels less like a political rally and more like a Florida Gators tailgating party -- a lot of signs behind me. I just saw a guy with a t-shirt that said "I kissed a pig wearing lipstick and I liked it." So, that tells you a little bit about the festivities going on out here. They're fired up. They're revved up.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim. You know, they're awfully fired up here as well. There are about 20,000 people who gathered for the Obama rally. This is the third time he's been to North Carolina since the end of the primary season.

It really tells you a lot about what they believe in this state. There are more Democrats than Republicans. But generally speaking, the voters here go for Republicans for president. They have since 1980 or so.

But Barack Obama believes he can turn it around, first, by convincing some of those Democrats who vote Republican, that now is the time to consider change. And also, when you take a look at the state, 22 percent of the voters here are independent.

So what is he talking about? He is talking about the state of the economy, the financial crisis, and he is linking that crisis to John McCain and the Republicans.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D-IL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are now seeing the disastrous consequences of this philosophy all around us, on Wall Street and on Main Street. And yet, Senator McCain, who candidly admitted not long ago that he doesn't know much about economics, wants to keep going down the same disastrous path. He calls himself fundamentally a deregulator -- that's his quote -- when reckless deregulation and lack of oversight is a big part of the problem.

And here is the really scary part. Now, this deregulator wants to turn his attention to healthcare. Yes, he wrote in the current issue of a magazine, the current issue, that we need to open up healthcare to, quote, "more vigorous and to allow more vigorous nationwide competition as we've done over the last decade in banking." That's right. John McCain says he wants to do to the healthcare system what Washington has done to the banking system.

And think about what that means. Over the years, states have come up with common sense rules to make sure that insurance companies aren't just looking out for their own profits but are also looking out for your health.

We can't just toss those rules out the window. As anyone who has healthcare knows, the one thing we don't need is to give insurance companies an ever freer hand over what they charge, who they cover, what they'll cover.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: The radical idea that government has no role to play in protecting ordinary Americans has wreaked havoc on our economy. We can't let this dangerous philosophy spread to healthcare. What we've seen over the last few days is nothing less than the final verdict on this failed philosophy -- this failed Bush-McCain philosophy.

And I am running for president of the United States because the dreams of the American people must not be endangered anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: It's a message that the Obama campaign certainly hopes to resonate with voters, specifically those here in North Carolina. But Republicans believe it really is a long shot to try to get this state. The Obama camp is certainly working hard at it, some 34 offices to John McCain.

Some good news, at least from the North Carolina Democratic Party to the Obama camp saying that they registered eight times more registered voters going Democratic than the Republicans have.

So, Jim, they believe some of these signs really point to the fact that perhaps North Carolina is going to be one of those states that's going to turn in fair favor and that economic message they hope certainly is going to resonate -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Suzanne, we'll see. It will be very interesting if North Carolina somehow falls in the Democratic column.

John McCain feels that the person he had out here today in Lady Lake, Florida, Sarah Palin, is going to have something to say about that.

We're in Florida, which is a very big swing state.

Right now, the latest CNN polling showing this state basically deadlocked with John McCain maintaining just a slim one-point margin.

Speaking of the Arizona senator, he was up in Baltimore earlier today, addressing a National Guard convention. So, it's no surprise that the subject there turned to national security. We heard John McCain go after Barack Obama on the subject of the surge, highlighting the fact that Senator Obama talked about the surge on one recent cable talk show in which he said that the surge has succeeded "beyond his wildest dreams."

So, without further ado, here is John McCain at the National Guard Convention in Baltimore.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BALTIMORE)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R-AZ) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our nation faces many challenges. We've all watched the crisis on Wall Street this week. And I'd like to just say a few words about that for just a moment.

Last Friday, I proposed a plan for comprehensive reform of the broken institutions that allowed this crisis to become a grave threat to our economy. At the center of the plan is a principle: We must keep people in their homes and safeguard the life savings of all Americans by protecting our financial system and capital markets.

Senator Obama has declined to put forth a plan of his own. At a time of crisis when leadership is needed, Senator Obama has simply not provided it. We saw the same lack of leadership on Iraq. Because of the sacrifices and perseverance of all the troops, active duty, guard and reserve, victory in Iraq is in sight, my friends, thanks to you and thank God for it.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

MCCAIN: My opponent, Senator Obama likes to say the surge in Iraq was more successful than anyone could have predicted at the time. He said that the surge succeeded, quote, "beyond our wildest dreams." That's his way of saying that it took him by surprise.

And to this day, Senator Obama still can't blame himself to admit his own failure in judgment. For a guy who talks so much about hope, he didn't hold out much hope for victory in Iraq. Instead, he commits the greatest error of insisting that even in hindsight he would oppose the surge. Even in retrospect, he would choose the path of retreat and failure for America over the path of success and victory.

Behind all these claims and ambitions by Senator Obama lies the ambition to be president. What's missing is the judgment to be commander-in-chief. In short, both candidates in this election pledge to end the war and bring our troops home. The great difference is -- that I intend to win it first.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: So, there you have John McCain in Baltimore talking to a convention of National Guard officers.

And we should mention that we're in Lady Lake, Florida, because Sarah Palin was out earlier today. And I'm surrounded by a few of her supporters who are on their best behavior, I should add at this point.

But earlier today, she was taking the Obama and Biden ticket to task for their response to the financial crisis on Wall Street, making mention of the fact that John McCain came out with a plan late in the week, on Friday, to address the crisis where Senator Obama, as we reported on Friday, decided to hold off so he could take a look at what the Bush administration was going to propose over the weekend.

Well, Sarah Palin, she took advantage of that and talked about that here today in front of a huge crowd here in Central Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LADY LAKE, FLORIDA)

GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But we need real leadership in Washington to help American workers turn today's challenges into tomorrow's opportunities. We need serious reform on Wall Street, and we need better regulation.

And it's like Senator McCain said just yesterday. We don't need a dozen federal agencies doing the job badly, we need the best agencies doing the job right.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

PALIN: This week, when the economic crisis threatened the livelihood of millions of Americans, John McCain took a clear stand and he offered his own recovery plan. Our opponent refused to even take a stand on the position.

(CROWD BOOING)

PALIN: And that's a lot like his tenure in the Illinois state legislature where Barack Obama voted "present" about 130 times.

(CROWD BOOING)

PALIN: This week he voted "present" on the major economic issues of the day. And that is not leadership, America. It's not leadership Americans can afford.

The problems in Washington and on Wall Street are hurting people on Main Street. We need a president who will act quickly to help American workers. We need a president who will stand up for small business owners.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

PALIN: Small business owners like in my family, Todd and I and our commercial fishing business, and my sister and her new service station that they just opened up; and Todd's parents, they own a hardware store. Small businesses all around America. It's small businesses that create the jobs in this great country.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

PALIN: The best way to help them, government, is to take less from them and leave more for them so they can expand, they can grow and prosper and thrive.

Now, our opponents disagree with this. They have some kind of strange ideas about raising taxes at a time like this even. To our opponents, their massive tax increase is about, they quote, "patriotism." They said that just this week, that paying more taxes is patriotic.

(CROWD BOOING)

PALIN: Now, to the rest of America, raising taxes is about killing jobs and hurting small businesses, making things worse. This isn't about patriotism. It's about Barack Obama's poor judgment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So, there you have it -- Sarah Palin talking about Barack Obama's poor judgment. We should mention this was fairly typical of a Sarah Palin speech -- heavily-scripted, teleprompters were present, no media availability after the event and she was off with her husband and family as soon as this event was over, leaving behind throngs of her supporters who remain on the scene, I should mention, Suzanne.

But you heard during Governor Palin's comments that she was taking the Obama-Biden ticket to task, and you heard a dig there at the end where she talked about Joe Biden's comment earlier this week -- this past week in which he said that it's a patriotic duty of Americans to pay higher taxes. She did not let that one go by even though that Senator Biden was referring to wealthier Americans paying more in taxes -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And, Jim, it was interesting, too, because she noted, at least, she accused Barack Obama of not specifically having a plan. It was on Friday when he made himself available to reporters. And when he asked him about some of his ideas, he said that, essentially, he had met with his economic team of advisors, that he was going to be putting out specifics later, but reserving judgment about that.

He has criticized - he doesn't support the administration's bailout plan. But he says this is really just a concept. It is not a plan. And he goes on to talk about some of the principles that he believes have to be a part of this $700 billion bailout, essentially protecting taxpayers and trying to get them back into their homes.

We've also heard as well from Joe Biden, earlier in the week, in Sterling, Virginia, on Friday. And Biden was talking about the fact that he believes the administration is kind of doing this go-alone policy, that this is benefiting big businesses, not working-class families. And in Biden's terms, he called it kind of this "cowboy mentality."

Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, STERLING, VIRGINIA)

SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ladies and gentlemen, there are two things, two things that are clear that we have to do. And we have to do it now. One relates to a short-term need to staunch the bleeding. Because if, in fact, we continue to bleed like we are today, even though it's the big guys, everybody down the line is going to be in real, real trouble.

So, folks -- so, folks, the first thing we have to do is immediate and short term. It's to stabilize the world economy as well as -- as well as keep things from getting worse. We have to require emergency authority granted to the Federal Reserve and the treasury to see to it that people can stay in their homes, to help them protect their life savings, to deal with their retirement. And we're going to have -- we're going to have to give some significant authority to be able to do that.

But equally as important, once we staunch the bleeding, we have to have a major, major, major overhaul of how the financial system works.

Ladies and gentlemen...

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

BIDEN: And there's all kinds of ideas, and Barack and I are putting together a plan. But you can't do this -- you can't do this haphazardly. It's important it be done thoughtfully so we never repeat this again. But let me -

(INAUDIBLE)

BIDEN: It would be useful. It would be useful. It would be useful. But I tell you what? Part of the solution is ending the cowboy mentality -- the cowboy mentality of the Bush and McCain era.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

BIDEN: These guys ripped away -- they ripped away the consumer protections that were designed to help you and your investment. They shredded, they actually had a ceremony, remember, with chainsaw showing how we're cutting through these regulations. They actually denied, as a matter of law, the attorney general of Virginia, the attorney general of Delaware and California, et cetera, under the Bush administration with McCain's support, could not sue national banks for predatory lending. They took away the authority.

Ladies and gentlemen, these guys have worshipped, they have worshipped at the "shrine of deregulation." John McCain proudly said not long ago on Wall Street, and I quote, "I'm always, I'm always for less regulation."

Well, something happened to John on the road to Damascus. I watched him the last three days. Ten a.m. on Monday, he said -- 9:00 a.m. on Monday literally, he said, "The fundamentals of the economy are strong"; 11:00 a.m., he said, "We're in crisis. Like I said, there's been a conversion on the way to Damascus. The boy fell off his horse. But guess what? He got back up on the same horse. You've got to change horses, folks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Listening to Joe Biden talking about the financial crisis, putting the blame on the Bush administration, calling it "cowboy mentality" that is behind the crisis. Also, a spokesman is saying that Barack Obama working the phones the last 48 hours, talking to the treasury secretary as well as the Democratic leadership, and even Bill and Hillary Clinton about the kind of financial mess that American taxpayers are in at this time.

We're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of the break, we're going to bring in our own Bill Schneider. And he's going to be talking about the electoral map, what this all means when you take a look at the country and where voters stand today. This quick break as BALLOT BOWL continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL. I'm Suzanne Malveaux in Charlotte, North Carolina.

We want to bring in our own Bill Schneider who's been taking a look at the electoral map, giving us some sense of where these candidates stand with the voters on a state-by-state basis.

Has there been any movement, Bill, that you've seen recently?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, there has. Two states have moved on our electoral map in the past week, and neither is particularly good news for the Democrats.

Missouri -- Missouri is a critical bellwether state. It always voted for the winner for the past 100 years, at least, with one exception, and Missouri moved its 11 electoral votes from the toss-up category to lean John McCain. Just about every poll in Missouri shows McCain leading, though, by a very narrow margin.

The second state to move with 10 electoral votes was Wisconsin. That moved from leaning to Obama to a toss-up state. Democrats are depending on Wisconsin. That's an important state for them. They carried it last time, though by a very tiny margin.

So, we have put Wisconsin in the toss-up category, meaning, over all -- the election is even closer than it was a week ago.

MALVEAUX: So Bill, what is the bottom line here when you take a look at all of these states, when you add up those numbers, who comes out ahead and who loses?

SCHNEIDER: Yes. Well, McCain -- I'm sorry, Obama comes out ahead, but nobody is winning at this point. Obama lost a few votes by that switch of Missouri and Wisconsin. The total electoral votes in the Obama states right now: 223; the McCain states: 200 -- which means Obama is ahead, but only by 23 electoral votes.

One hundred fifteen states, those are those yellow states there in the map, now including Wisconsin, 115 electoral votes are in the toss-up category including a lot of big ones -- Michigan, Ohio, Florida. Those are all very big states. Virginia, Colorado, Nevada -- all in the toss-up category.

You need 270 electoral votes to win. Obama is ahead, but with 223, he's almost 50 votes short of what he would need to win the election -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: I guess that's going to make those presidential debates even that more important, to see if voters change their mind or if even those independents start to swing one way or the other.

SCHNEIDER: Right.

MALVEAUX: Bill, thank you so much.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

MALVEAUX: We're going to take a really quick break. But on the other side of the break, we're going to be looking at the kind of back-and- forth between John McCain and Barack Obama over the issue that everyone seems to be talking about. And that is the financial crisis, the bailout plan from the federal government, and which one of these candidates knows best how to fix this broken economy.

Stay with us when BALLOT BOWL continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back to BALLOT BOWL. I'm Jim Acosta in Lady Lake, Florida. Senator Palin just wrapped up a huge rally here in front of a very big crowd of supporters. And we want to switch now to her running mate at the top of the ticket, John McCain.

He was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last week and he was talking about this financial crisis that has really been unfolding for the last seven to 10 days and going downhill fast. And it was during this speech that we heard John McCain call for the firing of the SEC Chairman Chris Cox which stoked a lot of controversy out on the campaign trail and in New York and in Washington.

But let's get to that speech now from John McCain as it made a lot of news. Here is John McCain in Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA)

MCCAIN: When I pushed legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Senator Obama was silent. He didn't lift a finger to avert this crisis. While the leaders of Fannie and Freddie were lining the pockets of his campaign and they were sowing the seeds of a financial crisis we see today, and they also enriched themselves with millions of dollars in payments, that's not change. That's what's broken in Washington today, my friends. (APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

MCCAIN: My friends, I've got to give you a little more straight talk. There was no transparency in the books of the Wall Street banks. Banks and brokers took on huge amounts of debt and they hid the riskiest of all investments. Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch. The regulators were asleep, my friends. They were not working for you.

The primary regulator of Wall Street is the Securities and Exchange Commission -- we call the SEC -- kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino. They allowed naked short-selling which simply means you can sell stock without ever owning it. They eliminated last year an important rule called the uptick rule that has protected investors for 70 years. Speculators pounded the shares of even good companies into the ground.

The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president, and in my view has betrayed the public trust. If I were president today, I would fire him.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

MCCAIN: We can't wait any longer for more failures in our financial sis team. Structures like the Resolution Trust Corporation that dealt with the failed savings and loan industry were designed to clean up the system and worked. Today, we need a plan that doesn't wait until the system fails.

I'm calling for the creation of the mortgage and financial institutions trust -- the MFI. The priorities of this trust will be to work with the private sector and regulators to identify institutions that are weak and take remedies to strengthen them before they become insolvent. For troubled institutions, this will provide an orderly process through which to identify bad loans and eventually sell them.

This will get the treasury and other financial regulatory authorities in a proactive position instead of reacting in a crisis mode to one situation after the other. The MFI will enhance investor and market confidence, benefit sound financial institutions, assist troubled institutions and protect our financial system while minimizing taxpayer exposure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: So there you have it. John McCain in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, calling for a new federal agency -- creation of a new federal agency to keep these financial institutions afloat when they get into trouble.

I want to bring back my colleague, Suzanne Malveaux.

As I'm surrounded here by a lot of Sarah Palin supporters who have not gotten ready to go home yet, not just yet, Suzanne. We heard Barack Obama on Friday make the decision to hold back. It was interesting because he had planned to come out on Friday with a big plan with lots of detail in terms of how he would address the crisis. He had that conversation with Secretary Paulson and he decided to go ahead and give the Bush administration's approach a listen over the weekend which was an interesting response to what happened last week.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Jim, it was interesting. I talked to many of his economic advisors who he huddled with about 90 minutes or so before he came out before the cameras to take questions. They said they simply advised Barack Obama not to come out with any type of specifics. There were still a lot of unanswered questions even about how much this whole thing was going to cost. They believe that the responsible thing to do is to be more measured, to get more details, to have additional conversations with the treasury secretary, with other people involved in this, which is what Barack Obama has done over the last 48 hours or so, we're told, reaching out again to the treasury secretary, even talking to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

But he did address this whole notion of whether or not it was a good idea to fire the chair of the SEC, Chris Cox. And they simply responded by saying this is not about one person, but really about a whole failed policy, a philosophy of the Bush administration Republicans. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis. That's who we are. That's what we've always done as Americans. Our nation has faced difficult times before. At each of those moments, we've risen to meet the challenge because we've never forgotten that fundamental truth, that here in America our destiny is not written for us, it's written by us. That's who we are as Americans. (APPLAUSE).

But here is another thing that I know. We can't steer ourselves out of this crisis by heading in the same disastrous direction. We can't change direction with a new driver who wants to follow the same map. And that's what this election is all about.

John McCain, my opponent, his first reaction -- his first reaction to this crisis on Monday was to stand up and repeat the line that he said over and over again throughout this campaign. We counted it. He said it 16 times, and I quote, "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." Now, this comment was so out of touch that even George Bush's White House couldn't agree with it when they were asked about it. They had to distance themselves from John McCain.

But, but the truth is John McCain's attitude is nothing new. It reflects the same economic philosophy that he's held for 26 years, all the time that he's been in Washington. It's the same philosophy he shares with George Bush. It's the philosophy that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down like rain on top of us. It's the philosophy that says even common sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise; we can't mess with the marketplace. It's the philosophy that lets Washington lobbyists shred consumer protections and distort our economy so it works for the special interests instead of working people. John McCain can't decide whether he's Barry Goldwater or Dennis Kucinich. (APPLAUSE). He's not clear about what he thinks or what he believes.

I have a message for Senator McCain. You cannot just run away from your long-held views or your life-long record. You can't erase 26 years of support for the very policies and people who helped to bring in some of the problems that we're seeing. You can't just erase all that with one week's worth of rants.

Instead, today he said that he is -- he's calling for the firing of the Securities and Exchange Commissioner. Well, I think that's all fine and good, but here is what I say. In the next 47 days you can fire the whole trickle-down, on-your-own, look-the-other-way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path. Don't just get rid one of one guy. Get rid of this administration, get rid of this philosophy, get rid of the do-nothing approach to our economic problem, and put someone in who will fight for you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Both presidential candidates claim they'll lower your taxes. We'll see the "Truth Squad," who is actually telling the truth after this quick break as "BALLOT BOWL" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN ANALYST: I'm Bill Schneider in Washington for CNN's "BALLOT BOWL."

Taxes, a big subject in the debate. The issue, will the Democrats raise your taxes? Will, too, say the Republicans, will not, say the Democrats.

Let's listen to a bit of this debate. Here is Sarah Palin speaking in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Thursday saying "are, too."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John McCain, he's going to get our economy and he's going to put it back on track. And the people of Iowa know, it's our small businesses, like in my family our commercial fishing business or my sister's new gas station business or Todd's folks, they own a hardware store. It is the small businesses all across America that actually create most of the jobs in this great country. (APPLAUSE.) Our family knows -- our family knows that the best way to help small business is to take less from them and leave more for them so that they can expand and jobs can then be created. (APPLAUSE). That's exactly what we're going to do in a Palin and McCain administration.

Now, our opponents, they have some strange ideas about raising taxes. To them raising taxes -- and Joe Biden said it again today. Raising taxes is about patriotism. (BOOS). To the rest of America, that's not patriotism. Racing taxes is about killing jobs and hurting small businesses and making things worse.

This isn't about anyone's patriotism. It's about Barack Obama's poor judgment. (APPLAUSE). He wants to raise income taxes and raise payroll taxes and raise investment income taxes and raise the death tax and raise business taxes. He wants to raise taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars. And at a time like this that will make today's bad economy seem like the good ol' days. To grow our economy, to bring new jobs to Iowa and to save the jobs that you have today, John McCain and I will bring tax relief to hard-working taxpayers and small businesses all across America. (APPLAUSE).

Now, what we need is serious reform on Wall Street. Huge financial institutions are going under because of their own bad practices, and now they're asking the public to bail them out. And federal agencies are not defending the public interest in this. Reckless CEOs -- this is what's happening. Reckless CEOs, they are walking out with multimillion dollar severance deals through all of this. If you look at the record, Iowa, you'll see two years ago there was one man who stood up and warned us about the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And in this race, there is one man of action, one proven reformer who will clean up Wall Street and fix our economy and that man is John McCain. [APPLAUSE).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: Raise your taxes? Are not, say the Democrats. Here is Barack Obama speaking on Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida, on the tax issue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OBAMA: I'll stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas. I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in Florida. (APPLAUSE). I'll eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and startups. That's how we'll grow our economy and create high-wage, high-tech jobs. I will cut taxes. Don't believe what those folks say. Don't let them run the okey doke on you. (LAUGHTER). You heard of the okey-doke. Don't let them bamboozle you. Don't be hoodwinked.

I will cut taxes, cut taxes for 95 percent of all working families. My opponent doesn't want you to know this, but under my plan tax rates will actually be less than they were under Ronald Reagan. If you make less than $250,000 a year, if you make less -- that's you? (APPLAUSE). If you make less than a quarter million dollars a year -- that's you? You will not see your taxes increase one single dime. Not one dime. (APPLAUSE).

In fact, I offer three times the tax relief for middle class families as Senator McCain does. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class. Don't believe those commercials. I'm a tax cutter. I'm going to put some money in your pockets so you can spend that money buying groceries and buying gas and you can help that small business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEDIER: In just a minute, John McCain will face the CNN "Truth Squad." We'll see who is telling the truth about taxes. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back to "BALLOT BOWL." I'm Jim Acosta in Lady Lake, Florida, where Sarah Palin just wrapped up a big rally here and she took Barack Obama and Joe Biden to task on the issue of the financial crisis.

Speaking of that crisis, we heard John McCain address the meltdown on Wall Street. He worked in a dig at Barack Obama making mention of the fact that Barack Obama has had some past connections with former executives with Fannie Mae. We'll let Senator McCain say this in his own words. This is from Friday in Green Bay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCCAIN: Two years ago, I called for reform of this corruption at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Congress did nothing. The administration did nothing. Senator Obama did nothing, and actually profited from the system of abuse and scandal. While Fannie and Freddie were working to keep Congress away from their house of cards, Senator Obama was taking their money. He got more, in fact, than any other member of Congress except for the Democratic chairman of the committee that oversees them. While Fannie Mae was betraying the public trust, somehow its former CEO had managed to gain my opponent's trust to the point where Senator Obama put him in charge of his vice presidential search.

My friends, this is the problem with Washington. People like Senator Obama have been too busy gaming the system and haven't ever done a thing to challenge the system. We've heard a lot of words from Senator Obama over the course of this campaign but maybe just this once he could spare us the lectures and admit to his own poor judgment in contributing to these problems. The crisis on Wall Street started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence peddling, and he was right square in the middle of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And I want to bring in Josh Levs, our own Josh Levs in Atlanta for a quick fact check on some of this.

Josh, is there anything wrong with what John McCain is saying?

JOSH LEVS, CNN SENIRO BUSINESS ANALYST: Anything? We have a minute. We're going to "Truth Squad" this. It is really interesting to take a look at this. We are going to show you the anatomy of one of these attacks. What I'm going to focus on right now for you is this idea that Barack Obama has gotten the second most money of any lawmaker from Fannie and Freddie, the whole idea that he may have profited from what they were going through?

I have an answer for you. Let's go straight to this graphic. There is a group called the Center of Responsive Politics that tracks contributions, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is what's behind McCain's attack. On their list they do indeed list Obama, second of everybody in Congress in terms of how much contributions they have gotten from employees of Fannie and Freddie. You can see there about $126,000.

But now I'm going to go to a new screen that will you a completely different picture. The "New York Times" put together figures based on FEC data how much each of them have gotten from lobbyists, officers, and directors linked to Fannie and Freddie, and that's the opposite picture. There you see John McCain getting a lot more, $169,000 vs. Obama getting $16,000 from people who qualify in those descriptions. You can see both sides of this. You can see that that is where John McCain gets his picture.

Let's put this whole thing in context. Fannie and Freddie became symbols of the nation's economic mess in a lot of ways, a lot of people say, the critics say of corporate greed. So linking one of them to Fannie and Freddie could hurt during the election cycle.

But I want to put it in context. Zoom in on the board here. I'm going to show you something else from the Center for Responsive Politics. Let me get out of the way. See that huge green line? This is how much Barack Obama has gathered in his campaign, $390 million. So for McCain to be saying Obama has profited by getting these contributions, in the scoop of things, it doesn't look like profit to me.

There you go, Jim. That is the basic idea. One list kind of backs it up. But in the broader picture, it certainly doesn't look like he has profited from Fannie and Freddie.

ACOSTA: Josh, thanks very much. We appreciate that.

LEVS: Thanks.

ACOSTA: Always good to get the facts in there. It is interesting to look at the numbers from both sides of this campaign.

Coming up after a break here on "BALLOT BOWL" on CNN, we have a quick final word and a little bit more from all of my friends here in Lady Lake, Florida. That's coming up after a break.

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MALVAEUX: Looking ahead to this Friday, please join us on CNN. We will take the first presidential debates, September 26th, this Friday, live on CNN. Also, "BALLOT BOWL" will return next weekend. "CNN newsroom" is up next after this very quick break.