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Ballot Bowl 2008

Presidential Candidates Discuss the Economy; Vice Presidential Candidates Become Attack Dogs; Obama Offers Small Business Recovery Plan; McCain Talks About Homeowners Resurgence Plan

Aired October 11, 2008 - 14:00   ET

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

DANA BASH, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN's "BALLOT BOWL." I'm Dana Bash, coming to you today from Davenport, Iowa.
Well, Election Day now is just 24 days away. That's right, 24 days away. So on this program what we are going to do is bring you the candidates in their own words. Sometimes it is live. Sometimes it's on tape. But always what we do on "BALLOT BOWL" is bring you the candidates unfiltered.

I am now in Davenport, as I said. John McCain wrapped up a rally here a little while ago but my co-anchor for this edition of "BALLOT BOWL" is Suzanne Malveaux, where it is quite different. Barack Obama just wrapped up his live event moments ago, right?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Dana, a very exciting crowd here. Obviously, Barack Obama focusing on Philadelphia, four different stops in one day. It really kind of underscores the importance of voter registration, getting that out that is so important for Obama to keep his lead in the state of Pennsylvania.

We heard from the Governor Rendell who said that in Philadelphia only 53 percent of the registered voters showed up and turned out for the primary. He said it has to go up to 75 percent if they want Obama to get into the White House. So obviously Barack Obama making a very big push to just get the crowds out in these final weeks. And he is focusing on the economy but he is also taking some shots at John McCain, specifically making the case that he believes he doesn't relate to the people, that he doesn't understand their economic struggles.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want everybody to notice that my opponent sees things a little differently than I do. I want to give him some credit. (BOOS). Yesterday Senator McCain tried to tone down the rhetoric a little bit. And I appreciated his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful of each other. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Senator McCain has served this country with honor. He deserves our thanks.

But when it comes to the economy, what family is here in Pennsylvania are going through, Senator McCain just doesn't get it. He's out of touch. And that's why he's out of time. (CHEERS). Yesterday Senator McCain's campaign manager said that the reason Senator McCain wasn't talking about the market was he wasn't sure what to say.

Last week, in the midst of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression, his campaign announced that they are going to try to turn the page on the discussion of the economy so they can spend the final weeks of this election attacking me. (BOOS). They said if we keep on talking about the economy, then we'll lose.

Listen, I'm not worried about losing a campaign. I'm worried about folks losing their jobs. (CHEERS). I'm worried about folks losing their homes. Folks losing their pensions. (CHEERS).

In the last few days we've seen this barrage of nasty insinuations, these attacks. I'm sure we'll see more in the next 24 days but here's the thing. They're not going to work this time. The times are too serious. The stakes are too high. People will not be hoodwinked. You will not be bamboozled. (CHEERS). They can run all the misleading ads, pursue the politics of distraction all they want. They can try to change the subject. They can try to run, but they cannot hide because we've got eight years of disastrous economic policies. That's what we're going to change when I'm president of the United States of America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Barack Obama here in Philadelphia making those remarks, four different places in Philadelphia today, trying to get out voter registration to turn out. But also trying to convince those who went for Hillary Clinton, you may recall she won Pennsylvania by nine points, some of the white working class voters to also get onboard. It's notable that traveling with Barack Obama is the governor, Ed Rendell, as well as the Mayor Michael Nutter. Both of them were big-time Hillary Clinton supporters during the primaries. but now general election is just weeks away from voting day, they are all onboard trying to get as much excitement and as many people out as possible -- Dana?

BASH: Well, Suzanne, it's so out there. It's interesting just to sort of see the different stages of what we do, which is cover rallies. There you can barely hear yourself think. Here, we can barely hear ourselves think because people are already trying to break down because John McCain's event here in Davenport have actually wrapped up about an hour ago.

But what John McCain is trying to do here in Iowa is a bit different from what Barack Obama is trying to do in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Iowa is a place in which John McCain in most polls is down by double digits. It is a state that was red and went for George W. Bush the last time around so because they were the neighborhood, the McCain campaign says, and they're not going to give up on some of these very important states, he decided to come here to Davenport to the quad cities. And his message just like we have heard for the past week has been about the topic that voters care most about, obviously, the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My friends, the stakes couldn't be higher, not only for our nation's security but for our economy. We need to get the American economy back on the path of recovery and growth and job creation for American workers and middle income families. And, my friends, I've traveled all over this great country and one thing I hear from Americans at every stop is that they're angry.

CROWD: Yes.

MCCAIN: They're angry. (CHEERS). They are angry. They're angry about the mess in Washington and Wall Street. They're angry about the failure of leadership at this hour of national crisis. They are angry that our leaders are more interested in pointing fingers at each other and advancing their own political interests than in coming together, Democrats and Republicans, to solve the big problems we face.

You're angry and I'm angry too. And when Sarah Palin and I get to the White House we'll turn Washington upside down. (CHEERING). We'll change this culture of greed, corruption and incompetence. I have a record of reform and a plan for our future. I will fix our economy and getting our country back on track. I know how to do that. (CHEERING). My friends, at this...

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

MCCAIN: At this time of crisis, you know the heart of the problem. And right now that problem is a housing crisis, which has spread to all of our economy. And so in the debate this week with my opponent I proposed a plan to help homeowners across America. As president of the United States, I would order the secretary of the Treasury to carry out a homeownership plan. The United States government support the refinancing of distressed mortgages for homeowners and replace them with manageable mortgages. The funds aren't new but the priorities would be. When we put the financial strength of our government back on the side of working families and homeowners. That's the American dream is owning your home, staying in your home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: There you hear John McCain speaking just a short while ago. Where I am really, the site where I am in Davenport, Iowa, talking about an idea that he first pushed in a debate that he had this past week with Barack Obama, an idea that has become quite controversial. It's changed a little bit frankly from the perspective of the McCain campaign but it's controversial because he is now saying that homeowners should basically get government money to pay back bad debt that they had.

And many conservatives, in particular in his own party, are saying wait a minute, that isn't our conservative credo. He is pushing that in Davenport and elsewhere on the campaign trail despite that. The economy was really just part of the story this past week with regard to John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin. The other was the very different tenor and tone that we've heard from the crowds at those rallies and even his town halls. Many of them really were angry. We heard a lot of rage from the supporters that were in John McCain's crowds.

Yesterday, he actually came here to Iowa from the state of Minnesota. And last night John McCain did something he hadn't done all week long, when he got very tough, in some cases very interesting questions from the crowd from his own supporters at a town hall he changed. He tried to tamp please down some of the anger. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's not -- he's an Arab. He is not?

MCCAIN: No, no, ma'am. He's a decent, family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about. He's not. Thank you.

First of all, I want to be president of the United States and obviously I do not want Senator Obama to be, but I have to tell you, I have to tell you, he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared as president of the United States.

Now, I just -- now, look. If I didn't think I wouldn't be one heck of a lot better president I wouldn't be running. OK? That's the point. That's the point. I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments. I will respect him and I want -- no, no. I want everyone to be respectful. Let's make sure we are. That's the way politics should be conducted in America so let's make sure that we're all respectful.

Now, I don't mean that has to reduce your ferocity. I just mean you have to be respectful OK? And I would say that 99 and 44 one- hundredths of the people coming to my town hall meetings have been respectful. And I'm proud you're here and I'm grateful for it. And I appreciate your enthusiasm.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: There you see John McCain walking a very fine line trying to not tamp down on the energy and enthusiasm he absolutely needs from his supporters to get out and go vote. But also yesterday and last night in particular, at that event in Minnesota, you saw him try to calm some of the anger that has been at some of his events directed at Barack Obama.

Suzanne, it's interesting we're hearing some of that but we're also hearing frustration from people at his events, basically at McCain at the state of affairs in this race. And many times we heard over the last week these voters say to McCain, you need to be tougher and take on Barack Obama. Several times yesterday they said we're looking forward to the next debate next week, Suzanne, and they said you need to really go after Obama.

So very interesting to see the dynamic and really the frustration across the board at this event, yesterday from McCain and several others throughout the week last week.

MALVEAUX: Dana, it was interesting because you and I covered that last debate between Barack Obama and John McCain and could kind of see in the body language, the tone, that there was some tension between the two candidates but it certainly wasn't the ugly face-off a lot of people perhaps anticipated or were even talking about.

Something very interesting to see what happens this coming Wednesday night. That is when it's going to be the third and final debate between these two candidates. It is Wednesday night. Watch it live on CNN. Obviously, it's not an event you want to miss because everybody expects there to be talk about national security but the economy, everybody is wondering what is the next step? What is going to happen in terms of their bills, housing, their jobs, that type of thing? Obviously, that will be on the mind of voters. Also going to be main talking points from the two candidates. That is Wednesday night, the final face-off between the two candidates, live on CNN, the home of politics -- Dana?

BASH: We've been talking about the two men at the top of the ticket but the vice presidential running mates have been playing their traditional roles in particular over the past couple days, traditional roles of attack dogs, both Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. We'll bring you some of them on the campaign trail your a he not going to want to miss. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to CNN's "BALLOT BOWL." I'm Dana Bash in Davenport, Iowa.

You can probably see behind me starting to break down, I was covering John McCain who had a rally here not too long ago.

Speaking of John McCain, his running mate, we had some interesting news that came out last night from the state of Alaska, her home state. Remember, part of one of the questions that was immediately raised with regard to Sarah Palin is something that happened in her state, which is whether or not she abused her power. That was the question that a team of investigators, a bipartisan panel investigating her, whether she abused her power as governor by firing the head, basically the head of the police commission. Why? Because of the fact she allegedly had a vendetta against her brother-in-law.

Well, yesterday that bipartisan commission came out with their findings and the gist of their findings were that she did unlawfully abuse her power to have her former brother-in-law fired. However, it was kind of a split decision in that they also said she was within her right to have the head of the police commission fired because that is the right of the governor to do that.

Sarah Palin commented on that shortly after that report came out yesterday. She commented in Pennsylvania. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, did you abuse your power? Governor, did you abuse your power?

GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. And if you read the report, you will see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member. You've got to read the report, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Well, you can read what she said. It was a little hard to hear her but she did respond to reporters there in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, yesterday, shortly after this report came out.

Now, speaking of Sarah Palin, all week long we have been reporting something that she initially brought up one week ago today. Last Saturday she initially brought up for the first time at least in this general election campaign in a very vocal and vociferous way, this idea the McCain campaign believes there is something to the fact Barack Obama knew the former radical, 1960s radical, William Ayers. He knew him much longer after this, the 1960s and the Vietnam War, where he was involved in a group that basically helped bomb a U.S. government building. Barack Obama knew him in the 1990s. He helped him launch his political career. That is something the McCain campaign says is fair game. And they say it's fair game because of the fact they insist Barack Obama hasn't been truthful about the relationship.

Listen to the way Sarah Palin continues to talk about this at pretty much every single stop this past week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PALIN: There's a pattern here and it's of a left wing agenda that may be packaged up and prettied up to look like mainstream policies. Now, everybody knows, everybody knows that we have got to get our country put back on the right track. But the problem with our opponent's plan, his agenda, it's higher taxes and bigger government and activist courts and retreat in war. That's not the right track for America. That's just another dead end. CHEERS). And talk about patterns. I see a pattern, too, in how our opponent has talked about one of his most troubling associations. I see matters of judgment and truthfulness and ambition.

One of Barack Obama's earliest supporters is Bill Ayres. (BOOS). Bill Ayres was part of a group that launched a campaign of bombing against our Pentagon and our own United States capital. Recently, Barack Obama remembered Ayres as just a guy in my neighborhood. Then the other day, though his campaign claimed for the first time that Barack wasn't aware of Ayres' radical background. Yet just two days later, they're saying that he knew about the background after that first meeting. And then last night again Barack Obama, on ABC, he left out some key details of his relationship and work with Ayres yet again, so we have to try to keep this all straight that he didn't know that he had launched his political career in the living room of an unrepentant domestic terrorist until he did know about it.

CROWD: Go Sarah go!

PALIN: And this is all about patterns, and I'm going to talk about the patterns and, you know, I'm sure that some will say, geez, they're getting kind of negative. No, it's not negativity. It's truthfulness. And American voters deserve to know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: That was Sarah Palin in Ohio this past week.

Now CNN and other news organizations have concluded that the two men didn't really know each other that well. As you know, Suzanne, in the 1990s, when Ayres at that point was already a college professor in Chicago.

However, the McCain campaign insists they're not going to let go this of, particularly Sarah Palin, that this is going to continue to be her role because, as you heard her make the case, they say this is a point they can make to say to voters, do you really know Barack Obama? No. You don't know him very well.

John McCain doesn't say this really at all unless he is asked about it. But the campaign just yesterday launched a pretty tough, perhaps the harshest campaign ad on television in the battle ground states yet. And it has to do with William Ayres -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Dana, it's interesting the Obama campaign, Barack Obama himself responding to his relationship with William Ayres but they're certainly not focusing on it. What they're trying to do is focus on his economic plan to really kind of come back here. We've talked to aides who say essentially if he gets punched, he'll punch back, and that was really the approach they were going into for that second presidential debate.

But there wasn't the discussion the back and forth. There was a lot of anticipation that William Ayres and some of the other stories would come out. They did not. So that is why we heard from Joe Biden this week in liberty, Missouri where he took on McCain and Palin for not addressing those issues, not making those criticisms face to face. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This election is about the fact that here in Missouri 70,000 manufacturing jobs were lost under this administration. It's about the fact that here in Missouri the unemployment rate is the highest it's been in 17 years. The fact that an estimated 137,000 Missouri families are living in poverty. You and your challenges are what Barack Obama and I want to talk about, not about the other guy, about your challenges. What are we going to do? (CHEERS). But folks, but folks, they seem to be the last thing that John McCain's campaign wants to talk about. On Monday, one of John's top strategists told "The Washington Post", and I quote, "We're looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis." Well, guess what? He didn't mean solving the crisis. He meant ignoring it and attacking Barack Obama. That's what he meant. (APPLAUSE).

Folks, most Americans don't have the luxury of ignoring this economy, ignoring the cost of gasoline, of groceries, of tuition, of health care, of whether or not you can simply pay your mortgage. We don't think he can turn the page until we have a leader with the ideas how to write a better ending to this story than the one being written now. (APPLAUSE).

Folks, folks, when McCain's guy starts saying things like, "We want to turn the page," you know where they're going. You've seen it before. They're going to try to take a very low road to the highest office in the United States of America, the highest office in the land. And that's exactly what they're doing.

A recent analysis of all the campaign advertising out there showed that 100 percent of advertisements John McCain's campaign is running now, 100 percent are negative, attacking Barack Obama. Not one positive add on. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I guess when you vote with George Bush 90 percent of the time your best hope is to attack 100 percent of the time because you have no option in defending where you've been the last eight years. (APPLAUSE).

Folks, don't be distracted by all of this. Don't be distracted. These attacks don't hurt Barack Obama or me. They hurt you. They hurt the American people. Every single false charge and baseless accusation is an attempt to get you to stop paying attention to what's going on in this country.

Ladies and gentlemen, and by the way, all of the things they said about Barack Obama in rallies and on TV before the debate and all of the things they're saying right now after the debate, John McCain couldn't bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say at the debate. (CHEERS). And folks, in my neighborhood, in my neighborhood, where I came from, you got to say something to a man, look him in the eye and say it to him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Joe Biden essentially criticizing John McCain for not taking on Barack Obama over some of those controversial issues. Obviously, both the candidates Joe Biden and Barack Obama trying to shape this debate dramatically in the final weeks to focus on the economic crisis. They believe that is the winning strategy here, the winning message in dealing with this.

A lot of voters paying very close attention to it so obviously our next play on CNN's "BALLOT BOWL" we'll be taking a look at those economic plans from both candidates and specifically what Barack Obama is talking about when it comes to helping small businesses. Stay with us. You're watching "CNN BALLOT BOWL." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL. I'm Suzanne Malveaux in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Barack Obama is crisscrossing the city. We heard from Barack Obama talking about his economic plan earlier in the week. Just yesterday he was in Columbus, Ohio, and that was when he was talking about ways to help small businesses. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we're going to rebuild this economy from the bottom up, it has to start with our small businesses on Main Street. Not just the big banks on Wall Street.

Small businesses, Columbus, employ half of the workers in the private sector in this country. They count for the majority of the job growth. But you know what's happening with this credit crunch, that's dried up capital and put the jobs of people who work in small businesses at risk because shops can't finance their inventories. Small firms can't make the payroll. It's harder to get a new idea off the ground or to provide health care for your employees.

If we don't act, we'll be looking at scaled back operations and shuttered shops and laid-off workers. And that's why we need a small business rescue plan so that we're extending our hand to shops and restaurants, the start-ups and small firms that create all these jobs that make our economy grow. Main Street needs relief and you need it now.

We won't grow government. All we're going to do is work within the small business administration to keep folks afloat, to keep these businesses open while providing tax cuts to lift the tide. It's what we did after 9/11. We were able to get low cost loans out to tens of thousands of small businesses. It's one of many steps we can and should take to help stop job losses and turn this economy around.

This is going to start with a nationwide program to provide affordable, fixed rate loans to small businesses across the country. We can run this through the SBA's disaster loan program, provides loans to small business owners and they will get the help they need to maintain their inventory and meet their payroll.

We'll also make it easier for private lenders to make small business loans by expanding SBA's loan guarantee program. And by temporarily eliminating fees for borrowers and lenders, we can unlock the credit that small firms need to move forward, to pay their workers, to grow their business. And just as we make lending more available, we have to relieve the tax burden on small businesses to help create jobs and that's why I propose eliminating all capital gains taxes on investments in small businesses and start-ups.

That's why I'm proposing an additional temporary business tax incentive through next year to encourage new investments because it is time to protect the jobs we have and to create the jobs of tomorrow by unlocking the drive and the ingenuity and the innovation of the American people. That's what I intend to do when I'm president.

Bottom up, economic growth.

(APPLAUSE)

Bottom up, economic growth.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Barack Obama with his own prescription to try to help people who are suffering in this financial crisis.

Our next play in CNN's BALLOT BOWL, we're going to be taking a look at John McCain, his own plans to fix the economy and he is specifically talking about ways of addressing the needs of seniors and their 401(k) plans.

Stay with us. You're watching CNN's BALLOT BOWL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL. I'm Dana Bash in Davenport, Iowa. This is the site of John McCain's rally just a really short while ago. But as you can see behind me, they're already breaking down getting ready for the next event here.

But John McCain when he was here talked about various subjects but in particular, he mentioned this idea that he first brought up yesterday, an idea that perhaps it is time at least for one year for the government to suspend rules that force people who are reaching the age of 70 to start selling off their 401(k) plans and IRAs. The reason is probably obvious, because of this horrible, horrible market -- stock market that people are being forced to sell their stocks in.

Listen to John McCain when he first brought up this subject yesterday in Wisconsin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am here this morning to ask your help in a tough and hard-fought election and it's tough, and we're the underdogs and we're going to come from behind like we have every time in the past. How many times, my friends, have the pundits written off the McCain campaign? We're going to fool them again. We're going to fool them one more time.

(APPLAUSE)

When I said I supported -- when I said I supported the surge and 30,000 additional troops because we could not afford to lose the first war of the 21st century, then they said I was finished. And, my friends, I said then I would much rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. And I mean that today.

(APPLAUSE) So, my friends, we have 25 days until the time of choosing. Are you ready to help me and Sarah Palin carry the state of Wisconsin?

(APPLAUSE)

You know, you know, you know the stakes couldn't be higher not only for our nation's security but for our economy. We need to get the American economy back on the path of recovery and growth and job creation for American workers. Times are tough. This is a time of crisis.

We must go to the heart of the problem and right now, that problem is the housing crisis. And so in the debate this week with my opponent, I proposed a plan to help homeowners across America.

Under my orders as president, the secretary of the treasury will carry out a homeownership resurgence plan. The United States government will support the refinancing of the stressed mortgages for homeowners and replace them with manageable mortgages so people can stay in their homes. You have to realize the American dream.

(APPLAUSE)

The American dream -- the American dream of owning a home. The funds aren't new but the priorities will be when we put the financial strength of our government back on the side of working families. There's so much on the line. With so much on the line, the moment requires a government act and as president, I intend to act quickly and decisively.

My friends, we have to protect investors, especially those relying on their investments for retirement. Current rules mandate that investors must begin to sell off their IRAs and 401(k)s when they reach age 70 1/2. To spare investors from being forced to sell their stocks at just the time when the market is hurting the most, those rules should be suspended.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And that was John McCain in the state of Wisconsin yesterday. The blue state of Wisconsin, one of the few blue states or Democratic states in the states that went for the Democrat last time around that the McCain campaign is hoping that they can turn around in this game of chess, or maybe even checkers that they are playing with 24 days left trying to figure out just how they get to that magic 270 electoral votes that they need in order to win the presidency.

Now, talking about Wisconsin, something else happened in Wisconsin yesterday. That was kind of a rather tame rally that we just heard from John McCain, but he had a town hall there earlier in the week with his running mate Sarah Palin that was anything but tame.

You want to stick around to see what happened at that town hall. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BASH: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL. I'm Dana Bash coming to you today from Davenport, Iowa. You know, I've been covering Senator McCain throughout the entire year and one thing that had been a staple of Senator McCain's events is that they have been rather tame events. In fact, one of the things that people used to look at was the fact that there was a big difference between his rather sedate affairs, whether it was a town hall or a rally, versus the energy and excitement and enthusiasm that we saw from Barack Obama, and back during the primaries even Hillary Clinton.

Well, that has changed dramatically and in particular what we have seen over the past week isn't just energy and enthusiasm. As John McCain has started to slip at some of the key polls, we have seen actual rage, rage at the situation, rage at the media, rage at the candidate himself for what many supporters think is not enough of a fight against Barack Obama.

Listen to some of that how it played out in Wisconsin this past week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're all wondering why that Obama is where he's at, how he got here. I mean, everybody in this room is stunned that we're in this position.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are all a product of our association. Is there not a way to get around this media and line up the people that he has hung with?

MCCAIN: Well, sir, with your help -- with your help and the people in this room, we will find out just as Senator Clinton said in the primary that we should find out about this association.

Look, we don't care about an old, washed up terrorist and his wife who still at least on September 11, 2001 said he still wanted to bomb more. You know, that's not the point here.

The point is Senator Obama said he was just a guy in the neighborhood. We know that's not true. We need to know the full extent of the relationship because of whether Senator Obama is telling the truth to the American people or not. That's the question.

GOV. SARAH PALIN (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are Americans having an opportunity to ask all the questions and are we receiving straight answers from our opponent? The questions about the war and the strategy in the war, why would it be that Barack Obama can give speech after speech about the wars that America is fighting, and you never hear him utter the word victory? And why is it that he would have voted not to fund our troops as they're already over there in the war zone after he had said that he would never do such a thing? In fact, Joe Biden called him on it and had told him, you know, this could cost lives and it's a political thing that you're doing there, and he voted anyway against funding our troops. It's questions like that that lead us to be frustrated and impatient, also. And, you know, I can't pick a fight with those who buy ink by the barrelful. So, you guys are going to have to start asking the questions even more adamantly also and holding people accountable when they're in a position also to get those answers from the opponents.

And I know, you know, it's dangerous territory whenever I suggest that mainstream media, perhaps, isn't asking all the questions. You guys have to help us do that.

(APPLAUSE)

And then one more thing. And then one more thing. I know when my impatience through interviews or anything else shows. I know when that happens that some of you may think that I'm just trying to provide job security for Tina Fey.

(LAUGHTER)

Well, no. It's because I am like you and I wonder, too, when will the questions be asked and when will we get the answers?

(APPLAUSE)

MCCAIN: One small additional point, my friends. Do you know how many times the political pundits in the last few years have written off my campaign? They were wrong when I supported the surge and said I was finished when I said I would rather lose a campaign than lose a war and some of them are wrong now. And we'll win. And we'll win the state of Wisconsin and we'll win this election. And you can count on it because we'll go to the American people and take our message to them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And there you heard both Sarah Palin and John McCain this past Thursday in Wisconsin responding to voter rage basically about the state of the race, about the fact that many think that they're not doing enough to hit back at Barack Obama. You heard Sarah Palin use a favorite target, that is the mainstream media, but also a very interesting theme at the very end there from John McCain which we heard right here in Davenport not too long ago.

John McCain trying to state to his supporters, hold on a second. We've been here before. I have been left for political dead several times before. Don't rule me out. Again, trying to speak to the frustration amongst people who want John McCain to win about the fact that he is down in the polls.

Well, you heard the voters there say that they want John McCain to get more tough against Barack Obama. Well, what does Barack Obama have to say to that? You're going to find out right after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MALVEAUX: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL. I'm Suzanne Malveaux in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Barack Obama taking on John McCain, talking about numerous things earlier in the week in Ohio, the critical state of Ohio in Dayton, and that is where he is trying to turn the corner, turn the page from what they are calling personal attacks back to the economy and also talking about that they believe that John McCain is just another four years of George Bush. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Even as we face the most serious economic crisis of our time, even as so many Americans are worried about keeping your job or paying your bills or staying in your home, Senator McCain's campaign announced last week that they are trying to turn the page on the discussion about our economy and spend the next final few weeks in this election attacking me instead.

I don't know if you noticed but they're not -- they don't seem to want to talk about the economy. They want to talk about me. And his campaign actually said this. I quote them. They said, "If we keep talking about the economy we're going to lose."

Well, I've got news for John McCain. This isn't about losing a campaign. This is about Americans here in Dayton who are losing their jobs and losing their homes and losing their life savings. This is about young people losing hope and losing direction. That's what we should be worrying about.

I can take four more weeks of John McCain's attacks, but America can't take four more years of John McCain's George Bush policies. We can't afford four more years of the same. We can't afford four more years of the economic theory that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down on everybody else.

We can't afford four more years of John McCain's call for less regulation so that no one in Washington is watching anyone on Wall Street. We've seen where that's led us, and we're not going back.

John McCain is wrong about turning the page on talking about the economy. What we need to do is turn the page on eight years of economic policies that put Wall Street before Main Street and ended up hurting both.

We need policies that grow our economy, Dayton, from the bottom up, so that every American everywhere has the chance to get ahead. Not just corporate CEOs but their secretaries, too. Not just the person who owns the factory, but the men and women who work on its floor.

Because if I've learned anything from this economic crisis, it's that we're all connected. We're all in this together. We rise or fall as one nation as one people. It doesn't matter, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, native American, young, old, rich, poor, Democrat, Republican, we've got to work together to move this country forward. And that's what I intend to do when I'm president of the United States of America.

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MALVEAUX: Barack Obama in Dayton, Ohio. Both of the candidates speaking out. You'll hear them live on tape but always unfiltered as CNN BALLOT BOWL continues.

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