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Ballot Bowl 2008

Palin Steps Up Attacks on Obama; Obama Counters with New Ad

Aired October 05, 2008 - 17:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, welcome to CNN's BALLOT BOWL. I'm Mary Snow coming to you live from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The site of the next presidential debate which will be held on Tuesday evening. This is your chance to hear directly from the candidates in the final 30 days before election day. Sometimes the candidates are live, sometimes on tape, always unfiltered and joining me is my co-host Jim Acosta who is in Ashville, North Carolina, and, Jim, the gloves are certainly coming off.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Mary. The gloves are off and the brass knuckles are on and we heard Barack Obama today at this high school football field in Ashville, North Carolina, address some new personal attacks coming at him from the McCain campaign, Sarah Palin, as you know, was out campaigning in the western part of the country yesterday and she accused Barack Obama, in her words of "palling around with terrorists." She was referring back to an association that Barack Obama has had in the past, brief as they may be, with the former Weatherman Underground member William Ayers, who is a college professor in Chicago now. Barack Obama and he served on some boards together in Chicago.

And Senator Obama is taking issue with these personal attacks and he accused the McCain campaign today here in Asheville, North Carolina, of essentially trying to pull a fast one on the American people. He said they're "trying to pull an okie doke on the American voter" is how he described it. And he took issue at one point with what a McCain campaign spokesman described to the "Washington Post" and talking about this new line of attack against Barack Obama saying that they want to, quote, "turn the page away from the economy."

Barack Obama went right after that today here in Nashville.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, ASHEVILLE, N. CAROLINA)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D-IL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Here in Asheville and all across America, you've seen your incomes go down as the price of just about everything has gone way up. It's harder to pay the bills. It's hard to send your kids to college. It's harder to save, it's harder to retire.

On Friday, we learned that we have lost another 159,000 American jobs in September. That was the ninth straight month of job loss, more than 750,000 this year, including 24,000 just here in North Carolina. And it came just as we finished a week in which our financial markets teetered on the brink of disaster. Yet, instead of addressing these crises, my opponent, Senator McCain...

(CROWD BOOING)

OBAMA: His campaign -- I want you all to listen to this -- his campaign has announced that they plan to, and I quote, "turn the page on the discussion about our economy" and spend the final weeks of this campaign launching Swiftboat-style attacks on me.

(CROWD BOOING)

OBAMA: Think about that. Think about that for a second. Turn the page on the economy. We are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and John McCain wants us to turn the page on talking about the economy.

(CROWD BOOING)

OBAMA: I know -- I know the policies he supported these past eight years and the policies he wants to continue for another four are pretty hard to defend. So I can understand why Senator McCain would want to turn the page and ignore the economy, but I also know this, you're trying to pay your bills every week and stay above water. You can't ignore the economy.

(CHEERS)

OBAMA: You're worrying about whether your job will be there a month from now. You can't ignore the economy. You're worrying about whether you can pay your mortgage and stay in your house. You can't turn the page and be distracted from economy.

In 30 days, you are going to elect the next president and you deserve and you need a president who's going to wake up every single day and fight for you. Fight for the middle class, fight to create jobs, and grow on our economy again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So, there you have it. Barack Obama responding to those attacks coming from the McCain campaign. Pretty aggressively out here in Asheville, North Carolina today.

And we want to catch you up on some news that we reported yesterday in our last hour of BALLOT BOWL and that is, we reported that Joe Biden had canceled his campaign appearances this weekend because his mother-in-law had taken ill at a hospice facility in Delaware.

We can report now having just learned this just this afternoon that Joe Biden's mother-in-law did pass away. And -- so, our thoughts go out to Joe Biden and the entire Biden family as they deal with this very difficult turn of events for Joe Biden's mother.

And with that, Mary, I'll toss it back to you and more on John McCain and I believe the economy. Is that right?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. And Sarah Palin has been out on the campaign trail this weekend, taking some pretty sharp attacks against Barack Obama and at a campaign fund- raiser last night in Mesa (ph), California, she said expect the campaign to get more aggressive as McCain campaign tries to draw distinctions between John McCain and Barack Obama.

And yesterday, out on the campaign trail in Carson, California, Sarah Palin went after Obama on the issue of taxes. Here's a little bit of what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CARSON, CALIFORNIA)

GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One mission in our administration, it will be to bring tax relief to every American and cut taxes for businesses so that they can hire more people. That creates the jobs.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

PALIN: Yes, John McCain is a real reformer in this election and he can do this and he has a record to prove it. And so do I as mayor and governor, as I was cutting taxes for the people of Alaska and building up infrastructure. And so many claims in this campaign, you know, I think that the phoniest claim in a campaign that's been full of them is that Barack Obama is going to cut your taxes.

(CROWD BOOIN)

PALIN: I mean, you're smarter than that. Think about it. Think about it.

He's built his whole career on doling out tax money, first as a Chicago politician and then raising taxes as a senator. He's voted 94 times to raise taxes even on...

(CROWD BOOING)

PALIN: ... even on middle-class, everyday Americans making $42,000 a year.

(CROWD BOOING)

PALIN: He tried to waste $1 million a day just on his requested earmarks and now he's committed to almost $1 trillion in new spending and he never bothers to tell you where that money will come from. And no one seems to be asking him how he will pay for this huge government growth that he wants. Yes.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

PALIN: So, since no one's asking him, let's just do the math. You can either do the math or you can just go with your gut and either way you're going to draw the same conclusion. Barack Obama is going to raise your taxes. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: That's Sarah Palin yesterday in Carson, California, while she has been out on the campaign trail this weekend on the attack against Barack Obama.

Senator John McCain has been at his home in Sedona, Arizona. He is prepping for Tuesday night's presidential debate. It is the second of three debates.

But on Friday in Flagstaff, Arizona, he was asked about the $700 billion bailout package that was approved by the House. Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R-AZ) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I commend the House of Representatives for coming together to pass the economic rescue bill today. I'm glad I suspended my campaign and went back to Washington to bring and help bring House Republicans to the table. I believe that the taxpayer protections that have been added have significantly improved the bill.

This rescue bill isn't perfect. And it's an outrage that it's even necessary. But we have to stop the damage to our economy done by corrupt and incompetent practices on Wall Street and in Washington.

The action Congress took today is a tourniquet. It's not a permanent solution. Our economy is still hurting and hurting badly. Further action is needed and it shouldn't take a crisis to get this country to act and this Congress to act in a bipartisan fashion.

Washington is still on the wrong track and we face the stark choice in this election. We can go backwards with job-killing tax hikes and same old broken partisanship and out-of-control spending as senator Obama would have us do, but we can bring real reform to Washington. My focus is to reform Washington and put government back on the side of working families with tax relief, modern job training, energy independence, more affordable healthcare and policies that get spending under control.

That's how we're going to get America moving again and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: John McCain in Arizona Friday, reacting to the bailout package passed by the House. And this financial crisis certainly putting these candidates to the test and it is a financial mess that whoever wins will inherit this as they take off. And so, Jim, this unusual situation of the past two weeks, we saw both of the candidates having to go back to the Senate twice in the two weeks.

ACOSTA: That's right. Not something we're used to seeing on the campaign trail with both of the presidential candidates having to go back to Washington to conduct official business. But this huge bailout package has also come out on the campaign trail with Barack Obama. He has spoken about it at his various events.

And we want to take you now to some sound from Senator Obama in Glenside, Pennsylvania. A state where he is starting to put together a pretty sizable lead over John McCain.

He also addressed the bailout package there in Glenside, Pennsylvania, saying that this package, as he voted in favor of it, he wanted to remind voters that he views this deal as only a beginning, not an end to the nation's financial problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, GLENSIDE, PENNSYLVANIA)

OBAMA: Two things are important now. Number one, that the administration uses the authority that it's been given wisely. So, we have to make sure that Secretary Paulson and others are structuring the purchase of these -- the purchase of these troubled assets in a way that protects taxpayers. That's very important.

The second thing we have to do is we've got to make sure that homeowners are benefiting. Now, the treasurer has authority to work with the modification of mortgages to prevent foreclosure. He's supposed to come up with plans to do that, I want those plans on tap quick so that we start getting some relief to homeowners out in neighborhoods.

And the final thing, is understanding that even if this rescue package works exactly as it should, it's only the beginning, it's not the end, because we still have 150,000 new people who lost their jobs this month, 750,000 since the beginning of this year. We still have a healthcare system that's broken. We're still overly reliant on oil from the Middle East. And so, we still got these structural problems, the fundamentals of the economy aren't sound and we're going to have to do a lot of work moving forward.

So, if we can stop the bleeding with this package, implement it effectively, and then move forward to deal with the broader problems on Main Street, then hopefully, we can start getting our economy back on track.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And you're sure to hear about the bailout package coming up on Tuesday night as these two presidential candidates square off in their next debate. This time in Nashville, Tennessee. And you'll be able to watch it, of course, right here on CNN. So, stay tuned for that coming up on Tuesday night right here on CNN.

And we want to take you out now live because it's happening right now. Bruce Springsteen on the campus of Ohio State University. He is firing up the crowd out there on behalf of Barack Obama. He's not only born to run, he's born to campaign for the senator from Illinois. Let's listen to the boss here for a couple minutes before we get back to the issues.

(MUSIC) SNOW: And we have a lot more coming up on BALLOT BOWL. Barack Obama calls John McCain erratic in a new TV ad. We'll have Bill Schneider join us to talk about negative campaigning and a look ahead at the next presidential debate here in Nashville. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PALIN: Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.

OBAMA: Tired of politics of distraction, and a politics of division, a politics that says somehow we can't come together and the way to win an election is simply to run nasty ads and lie about your opponents and never take the time to think about how are we going to govern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And a tough response there from Barack Obama calling some of these claims from the McCain campaign "lies" and taking Sarah Palin to task there over a verbal grenade that she tossed out over the campaign trail this weekend, basically accusing Barack Obama of having palled around with terrorists in the past, talking about his past association although brief and sporadic at times with the former member of the Weather Underground radical group, and that member being William Ayers.

And just as soon as the McCain campaign and Sarah Palin came out with this new line of attack, the Obama campaign had a TV ad ready to go, and here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, OBAMA CAMPAIGN AD)

NARRATOR: Three-quarters of a million jobs lost this year. Our financial system in turmoil. And John McCain: erratic in the crisis, out of touch on the economy. No wonder his campaign wants to change the subject.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So, there you have it. The Obama campaign coming out with a new ad accusing John McCain of being erratic and lifting that quote of "erratic" from a recent published column about John McCain's handling of the financial crisis. So, that went right into the Obama ad responding to this new line of attacks coming from the McCain campaign.

And we want to bring in now our CNN senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, who is standing by live.

And, Bill, there may be some pitfalls, perhaps, is that right for both of these candidates with going too negative? I suppose we heard it time and again that voters, they say they don't like negative campaigning, but negative campaigning works. But here we are in the tail end of this campaign and the brass knuckles are out.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that's right. The voters do not like it. Sometimes it does work.

Barack Obama is saying that John McCain wants to change the subject. Of course he wants to change the subject. Any time spent not talking about the economy is what John McCain really does want because the economy has not been a good subject for him. The worst the economy has gotten, the bigger the crisis on Wall Street, the more he has slipped in the polls.

He wants to clearly raise questions about whether voting for Barack Obama is a risky vote. I think some of the terrorist charges by association will strike voters as very farfetched and could create a backlash. But, in any case, what it does is it means the campaign is talking about something other than the economy.

Barack Obama could be running a risk, too, when he calls McCain erratic. He was clearly referring to McCain's behavior last week when he suspended his campaign, went back to Washington, tried and failed to broker a deal which eventually did come to pass, then came back into the campaign. But some people are angry because they think erratic is some kind of a reference to McCain's age and that is unfair.

ACOSTA: And it's interesting, Bill, as this line of attack is coming out from the McCain campaign talking about these associations with William Ayers. These attacks are coming just as the polls are showing Barack Obama with huge leads in some of these states that were toss-up states not too long ago, the economy having a lot to do with that. I imagine that all eyes are going to be on much of this during Tuesday's presidential debate, and whether or not some of this personal stuff comes up during this debate, during this town hall meeting.

SCHNEIDER: The candidates may try to do it, and they may try to talk about personal issues. But the problem with that is this debate will be a town hall format. It's the only debate where ordinary voters will be present in the audience asking questions. They've been screened so they are uncommitted voters. They haven't made up their minds yet. They're not staunch partisans.

And those kinds of voters, generally, don't want to hear negative attacks. They don't want to hear personal attacks. And if the candidates start doing that in this debate, there's an audience there and it could show its displeasure. It has happened in the past that the audience shows its displeasure when the candidates become personal, go on the attack and become too negative.

ACOSTA: Bill Schneider, thanks very much. We appreciate that and we want to get to a quick break. But coming after the break here on BALLOT BOWL on CNN, Bill mentioned the financial crisis, Barack Obama and John McCain are pointing fingers at each other over who is to blame for this mess.

That's coming up after a break. This is BALLOT BOWL on CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SNOW: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL. I'm Mary Snow in Nashville, Tennessee. With the bailout package now passed by the House, the financial crisis, of course, is front and center on the campaign trail. And on Friday in Pueblo, Colorado, Senator John McCain talked about who's to blame for this financial mess, pointing fingers at the greed in Washington and on Wall Street.

Take a little bit of a listen of what he had to say on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, PUEBLO, COLORADO)

MCCAIN: Most of you until a short time ago had never heard the words Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and probably didn't even know who they were. But the fact is, that's where this began.

And two years ago, I said we've got to fix what they're doing. Their practices are dangerous to America's economy and our future, and I pushed for legislation to help bring about the fixes.

And, my friends, it was the Democrats and some Republicans in the Congress that pushed back and didn't allow those reforms to take place and that's a major reason why we're in the trouble we're in today and those members of Congress ought to be held accountable on November 4th, as well.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

MCCAIN: So we got to fix the problem. There's a vote going on right now in the House of Representatives that will be an unprecedented rescue plan, as much as $1 trillion, as you know. But it's got to help Main Street. It's got to help people stay in their jobs.

Right now, there are people in this room that are having trouble getting a loan. There are small business people that are having trouble getting a line of credit so that they can stay in business. There's a woman nodding her head right there. We know them. And we've got to fix this problem and it's our obligation.

I am a proud conservative. I am a proud opponent of waste and pork barrel spending. I am proud, but I also have to tell you that government has to step in at this time and save Main Street from the challenges and the disaster that's looming.

So, I am hopeful we get this legislation passed, we restore credit, and we restore people's lives to a large degree.

But I have to give you some straight talk. This is a tourniquet. It's not a cure. It's not a cure, it's a tourniquet. It will stop the bleeding, but now we've got to reform the way we do business in Washington and it's got to be reformed now and we have to fix it and we will fix it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SNOW: Of course, those comments came before the House passed the bailout package on Friday afternoon. But it was also on the same day that the jobless numbers came out, showing that 159,000 people were out of work the month of September. It was the highest jobs unemployment rate that is in five years.

So, certainly, the economy dominating the headlines and the campaign, Jim. And I'm sure Barack Obama, if you asked him, would say, it is the Republicans' fault in terms of where the country got into this financial mess.

ACOSTA: That's right. And Barack Obama and his campaign are careful to say that they're not cheering down this economy but they are using this issue as a way to make the point and hammer it home, that John McCain, in their view, would only be more four years of George W. Bush on the issue of the economy, and you hear that time and again from the Illinois senator.

He said at this event here today in Asheville, North Carolina, and he said it again at a different event we were at in Abington, Pennsylvania, that in his view, John McCain, he says, is not that he doesn't care about the lives of middle-class voters and what they're going through, it's that he doesn't get it, and Barack Obama says he gets it.

So, here's Barack Obama getting it in Abington, Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, ABINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA)

OBAMA: Despite my opponent's best efforts to make you think otherwise, this failed philosophy is what John McCain has embraced for the last 26 years in Washington. I mean, he's now going around saying, "I'm going to crack down on Wall Street. I'm going to really get tough on these folks."

But the truth is, for 26 years, he's been saying, "I'm all for deregulation." For 26 years, he said the market is always king. For 26 years, he has said that we should cut taxes for those at the top. He hasn't been getting tough on CEOs; he hasn't been getting tough on Wall Street. So, suddenly the crisis comes and the polls changed and suddenly he's out there talking like Jesse Jackson.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)

OBAMA: Come on.

It shows how out of touch he really is. How else could he offer $200 billion in tax cuts for big corporations at a time like this? I mean, if you look at his proposals, not his rhetoric but his proposals, he is proposing $200 billion more in tax cuts for the wealthiest corporations out there. How else, if he wasn't out of touch, could he propose giving the average "Fortune 500" CEO a $750,000 tax cut at a time when millions of Americans, when you are struggling to pay your bills. How else could he come up with an economic plan that leaves out more than 100 million middle taxpayers for any relief whatsoever. I'm not sure he doesn't care, I don't think he gets it. Well, Abbington, I do get it and I think you get it. And that's why we're going to win this election so Washington finally gets it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: There you have it. Barack Obama on the economy in Abington, Pennsylvania. It's safe to say we've heard almost everything in this campaign, including John McCain being compared to Jesse Jackson. That comparison being made by Barack Obama there in Abington, Pennsylvania.

Coming up after a break here on "BALLOT BOWL" on CNN, you'll hear from Senator Biden's, Obama's running mate. He saw his son off to the war in Iraq. That's coming up after a break. This is "BALLOT BOWL" on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

As we have reported Joe Biden, the vice presidential nominee on the Republican ticket canceled his campaign activities this weekend because of the illness of his mother-in-law who passed away today. Before that on Friday he spoke at his son's units' deployment ceremony. The National Guard unit his son belongs to is being sent to Iraq.

Here is what Senator Biden had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've come here many times before as a Delawarean, as United States Senator, but today I come as you prepare to deploy as a father. A father who got some advice from his son this morning, dad, keep it short, we're in formation.

I always listened to my general. So, let me simply say like all of the family members here today gathered on this green, my heart is full of love and pride. My wife Jill and I, and our whole family, like every family here, have hearts full of love and pride. We take comfort in the knowledge that you are the best trained, best prepared group of citizen soldiers our country and this state has ever sent to harm's way. We have a proud tradition in this guard unit, in this guard of tracing the history of the guard back over 350 years. Never before has a Delaware guard unit been deployed that is better qualified. You are the best demonstration of both our nation's greatness and equally as important as our people's goodness.

As you serve and look out for your brothers and sisters in arms, your families here at home promise you we'll look out for one another. So, let me simply say thank you. Thank you for answering the call of your country. Thank you for doing what brave women and men have always done in uniform and always do. Stand strong, stand together, serve honorably and come home to your families that love you. May God bless you and may he protect you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: If you missed any part of the presidential debate watch the best parts and best analysis with John king and the best political team on TV tonight at 9:00 eastern only on CNN, your home for politics.

Our next play on the "BALLOT BOWL," now that the bailout bill is passed, what's next? The candidates talk about "Issue Number One," the economy. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARY SNOW, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN's "BALLOT BOWL."

The financial crisis has put the candidates to the test. Each one saying he is the person to be able to fix what's wrong with this financial crisis and move the economy forward.

On Thursday Senator John McCain was in Denver, Colorado, talking about what he hopes will be his reforms to turn things around. Also taking aim at Barack Obama over taxes. This is a battle they've been having for quite some time now.

Let's take a listen to John McCain Thursday in Denver.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac thing could not have happened without the collusion and cooperation of the members of Congress that had that cozy relationship. That's how it began, my friends. The greed on Wall Street and the greed and corrupt practices in Washington bread this problem which affected every single American family and it's not right. It's not right for America and it's not fair for America. (APPLAUSE).

Now I would like to mention to you -- before I go much further, I think you know it is women that are the growing and the fastest growing number of small business owners in America. It is women -- (APPLAUSE). The only bright spot, the only bright spot in our economy is small business and the creation of jobs that's taking place there. and those jobs and that job creation are being done by the women in this room and all over America. So, we will do everything we can to keep your taxes low, to keep your taxes low so that it's not complicated by the government. (APPLAUSE).

Senator Obama voted 94 times to raise your taxes or against tax cuts. (BOOS). You know, he's got this line now where he says he's cutting taxes for 95 percent of the American people and, my friends, he voted to raise taxes for 100 percent of them time after time after time. My friends, you not only have to talk the talk, but walk the walk. (APPLAUSE). And he hasn't walked the walk.

So, let me just talk to you a little bit about this crisis and then a couple things and then I would like to hear from you. Again, I want to thank everybody, everybody who has come here. I am very grateful for your presence and I'm very honored by it. And I'll say that a couple more times before we finish.

But let me say, I went back to Washington when we were facing this physical crisis and, obviously, we had to act, my friends. And I understand why a lot of Americans who are very cynical, they viewed this as a, quote, "bailout for Wall Street." And that was very understandable. So I suspended my campaign, we stopped advertising, I went back to Washington and sat down, particularly with my Republican friends in the House of representatives, who were being left out of the negotiations. And I won't get into the tick talk here with you. But they got into the negotiations, that legislation was improved. And last night, as you know, we passed it through the United States Senate. (APPLAUSE).

And a lot of Americans are still cynical. And I understand that because we're not big government people. We want government least involved in our lives. We want to be free (APPLAUSE) to pursue our own ambitions and our own dreams and our own hopes. But I also tell you because of the greed in excess in Washington and Wall Street, there are people in this room that know very well, credit was drying up. People are having trouble getting loans to buy a car. We know that. There were difficulties in Main Street America and we have to provide them with that relief.

I have to give you straight talk, my friends. If we pass this legislation, which I believe they that will tomorrow probably in the United States House of Representatives, it's like a tourniquet. It's not a cure. It's like a tourniquet. It will stop the bleeding, but then we have to set about fixing the way we do business in Washington, D.C., and fixing the way that things happen. (APPLAUSE). It will take a new broom, my friends. It will take somebody in there to drain the swamp. And I will clean it out and I will fix it and make sure we never have this challenge again. (APPLAUSE).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: That was Senator John McCain in Denver on Thursday saying he would be the person to fix Washington in terms of reform.

But underscoring the challenge Republicans have, John McCain has when it comes to the economy. He also announced that same day when he gave that speech in Denver that he -- that his campaign said they were pulling resources back in Michigan and diverting them to Maine. And this is a state so hard hit by the down turn in the economy, the major automakers are based there, and it is a sign of the times as John McCain decided to shift his resources.

And, Jim, I'm sure the Obama campaign and we know that the Obama campaign is really hitting hard when it comes to McCain and the economy.

ACOSTA: That's right, Mary, they like the sound of McCain pulling out of Michigan. And I have to tell you, besides the economy, one thing we heard from Barack Obama this weekend is the new theme that Senator Obama is trying to introduce out on the campaign trail and that is on health care. Barack Obama yesterday in Newport News, Virginia, and again today in Ashville, North Carolina, described John McCain's health care plan as radical.

And so let's listen in on Senator Obama explaining exactly what he means by that. Earlier today here in Ashville, North Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I want to spend a little bit of time talking about one particular issue, a particular issue we must face and can't ignore and that is the explosion of health care costs that are crushing family and businesses across this country.

Now, I understand this is very personal for me. I'm thinking today about my mother. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 53. She fought and endured the pain and chemotherapy with grace and good humor. But I will never forget how she spent the final months of her life at a time when she should have been focused on getting well and taking stock of her life and taking comfort from her family. She was lying in a hospital bed arguing with her insurance company because they didn't want to cover her treatment. They claimed that her cancer was a pre-existing condition.

So I know something about the heart break it cause, not just because somebody is sick in your family but by a broken health care system. I know something the anxieties of families hanging on by a thread as premiums double and debt piles up and more than half, half of all personal bankruptcies are caused in part by medical bills.

I know about the frustration of nearly 40 percent of small business owners who can't afford to insure their employees. Folks who work day and night, but have to lay people off or shut their doors for good because of rising health care costs. I know the outrage we feel about 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance. Kids who can't see a doctor when they're sick. Parents cutting their pills in half and praying for the best. Folks who wind up in the emergency room in the middle of the night because they have no where else to turn.

But I also know this, that the situation we're in right now, that's not who we are. We're not a country where young women like the one I met should have to work a night shift after a full day of college and still not be able to pay medical bills for her sister who's ill. That's not right. It's not who we are. We're not a country where -- I met a man who had to file for bankruptcy after he had a stroke because he nearly paid $200,000 in medical costs that he couldn't afford and his insurance company didn't cover. That's not right. That's not who we are. That's not who we are and that's not who we have to be.

Ashville, enough is enough. (APPLAUSE). It is time for us to change our health care system. (APPLAUSE).

I understand at this moment when we stand in the midst of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression some might ask how can we afford to focus on health care? Major financial institutions have collapsed. Families across America are struggling. It's clear the rescue package we passed in Congress isn't the end of what we need to fix our economy, it's just the beginning. Because contrary to what Senator McCain says, the fundamentals of our economy are still not strong. We've got to address those fundamentals right now and health care is one of those fundamentals. (APPLAUSE).

The question, the question for you Asheville isn't how we can afford to focus on health care, the question is how can we afford not to? (APPLAUSE). Because in order to in order to fix our economic crisis, we need to fix our health care system, too.

Let's not forget, it's not just small businesses and families who are suffering, some of the largest corporations in America, including major American carmakers are fighting to compete because of high health care costs. They are watching their foreign competitors prosper, unburdened by cost. They struggle to create the good jobs we need to get our economy back on track. So it's clear the time has come right now to solve this problem, to cut health care costs for families and businesses and provide affordable and successful health care for every American and we're going to do it by the end of my first service as president of the United States of America. (APPLAUSE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: There you have it, Barack Obama on the very important subject of health care in Asheville, North Carolina.

We're going to try to lighten things up in the last few minutes of "BALLOT BOWL." Stick with us. Coming up after a break here on "BALLOT BOWL" on CNN, we'll take you to out to Columbus, Ohio. Bruce Springsteen campaigning on behalf of Barack Obama at Ohio State University. And a very funny send up of the vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden on "Saturday Night Live." If you missed it, you want to catch that. It's coming next here on "BALLOT BOWL" on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back to "BALLOT BOWL" on CNN. I'm Jim Acosta in Asheville, North Carolina.

We're running out of time and daylight on "BALLOT BOWL" but we want to take you to Columbus, Ohio where Bruce Springsteen is campaigning on behalf of Barack Obama. The boss is one of the favorites Obama's on the campaign trail. You hear Springsteen playing "The Rising" for Barack Obama at almost all of his events as Senator Obama takes the stage.

Let's let you listen to a little bit of Bruce Springsteen here. Also we want to play some sound from the boss. He worked in some politics here, got out in front of students at Ohio State and talked about what's at stake in this campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, MUSICIAN: After the disastrous administration of the past eight years, we need somebody -- we need somebody to lead us in an American reclamation project. We've got to take it back. And my job -- in my job, I travel around the world. I occasionally play big stadiums just like Senator Obama. And I've continued to find wherever I go, America remains a repository of people's hopes and possibilities and desires, despite the terrible erosion to our standing around the world, we remain for many people a house of dreams. And 1,000 George Bushes and 1,000 Dick Cheneys will never be able to tear that house down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Bruce Springsteen campaigning for Barack Obama in Columbus, Ohio, one day before early registration there in Ohio.

We're going to end on a lighter note. If it is Saturday, that means it's another spoof on "Saturday Night Live." Tina Fey back in her now famous role of Sarah Palin. "Saturday Night Live" did a spoof of the vice presidential debate.

Let's take a listen.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: How will you solve the financial crisis being a maverick?

TINA FEY, ACTRESS, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": You know, we're going to take every aspect of the crisis and look at it and then we're going to ask ourselves what would a maverick do in this situation. And then, you know, we'll do that.

UIDENTIFIED ACTOR: In an Obama-Biden administration, same-sex couples would be guaranteed the same property rights, rights to insurance and rights of ownership as heterosexual couples. There will be no distinction. I repeat, no distinction.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: So to clarify, do you support gay marriage, Senator Biden?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Absolutely not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: "Saturday Night Live" spoof, Sarah Palin asked about her Katie Couric interview, she jokingly said that lousy interview means job security for Tina Fey. That's going to do it from here. I'm Mary Snow -- Jim?

ACOSTA: Mary, one thing we don't need is an SNL send up of "BALLOT BOWL." I can tell you that right now.

That's it from my end in Asheville, North Carolina. Those guys are too good. That's it for "BALLOT BOWL." Thanks for watching "CNN Newsroom" with Don Lemon coming up next. Take care.