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Ballot Bowl 2008
Obama Speech Ties McCain to President Bush, Cheney; Arnold Schwarzenegger Stumps for McCain.
Aired November 01, 2008 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The election is now just three days away. This is really your chance to hear directly from the candidates in their own words, the presidential candidates, the vice presidential candidates, sometimes it's live, sometimes it's on tape. But it's always, always unfiltered. As I bring in my colleague Candy Crowley in Pueblo, Colorado, for the game plan today, for this hour, I want to mention that John McCain has left Pennsylvania now en route to New York where he'll be appearing on "Saturday Night Live." Candy, after oh so many months on the campaign trail, I'm imagining that you could use a little comic relief just like John McCain.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You always can at the end of a day, much less at the end of a two-year campaign. So absolutely. We are here in Pueblo, Colorado, because Barack Obama is on his way here to talk to these people. I don't know if you can see behind me, but it's a street, I mean literally in the middle of two streets where people have begun to line up where the automobiles normally go. So as usual, it looks like it will be a big crowd for Barack Obama. He has been talking today a little bit about Dick Cheney's endorsement of John McCain, as you can imagine, having some fun with that. I imagine we will hear some of that. That is our live event today. We obviously will also bring you some things that have been said today that are now taped. But Barack Obama live today, not too long from now, Ed, so I know you'll come back to me. But right now let me throw back to you.
HENRY: Well, thanks, Candy. As you mentioned John McCain spoke just in the last hour. In these final three days we're hearing John McCain essentially with a double-barreled assault. He's trying to continue to make the case that Barack Obama is not experienced enough to be commander in chief to handle the national security issues facing the nation, but also, secondly, obviously he's focusing on issue number one the economy, how to deal with the financial crisis. He's been hitting hard -- Barack Obama hard on the tax issue. Take a listen to how he's making his final case to voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My friends, you know I've been fighting for this country since I was 17 years old and I have the scars to prove it. And so let me thank -- let me thank the veterans who are here today, who have served our country. Please raise your hand. Thank you. You're the best -- you're the best of all of us. And I will make sure you receive the health care that you have earned and you deserve. You are the best of America. And I thank you. You know -- you know, the other day, the more Senator Obama talks, the more interesting it gets. The other day he said that his primary victory vindicated, vindicated his faith in America. My country's never had to prove anything to me. I've always had faith in it. If I'm elected president, I'll fight to shake up Washington, take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last. And I'm not afraid of the fight I'm ready for the fight, my friends. My friends, I haven't been vindicated by anything. I've been humbled and honored to have the great opportunity to serve this nation, the greatest nation in the world, and defend its freedom. And I'll do that until my last breath. I have a plan to hold the line on taxes and cut them to make America more competitive and create jobs here at home. We're going to double the child's deduction for working families. We'll cut the capital gains tax. We'll cut business taxes to help create jobs and keep American businesses in America. Raising taxes makes a bad economy worse. Keeping taxes low creates jobs, keeps money in your hands, and strengthens our economy. If I'm elected president, I won't spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money Senator Obama will. And he can't do that without raising your taxes, digging us into -- further into debt. I'm going to make government live on a budget, just like you do.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: John McCain making his final case to voters here in this critical state, the battleground of Pennsylvania. The reason why he needs it so badly this is really the only big blue state, as we call it, a state carried by John Kerry in 2004 that John McCain is trying to make a late charge in. The reason why he's trying to sort of have a surge in this state is to try to make up for expected losses in some states that George W. Bush carried in 2004. That's why John McCain today was also in Virginia, one of those traditionally red states that may go blue. As I bring in my colleague Candy Crowley in Colorado, yet another state that has not gone to the Democrats since 1992, but Barack Obama really trying to wrest it away from John McCain. It's fascinating to see in these final days how John McCain is defending his turf and Barack Obama is really trying to expand the playing field, Candy.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. He's campaigning solely now in states that George W. Bush won in 2004. It is a very aggressive schedule. It is a very aggressive on the ground operation. Those get out the vote people. And Barack Obama is not just going to red states. He is going to red counties in those red states, really trying to drive away voters from McCain and toward him. So he's really trying to tamp down in natural Republican territory the votes that John McCain might get. Certainly out here in the interior west, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, they see real hope for these three states. It's one of the reasons that Barack Obama in the final days of these campaigns has come back to this region, just recently in Nevada, this morning, now headed for Pueblo, Colorado. I want to go back a little bit to what we just heard John McCain say. You heard him say within all the talk about taxes, that he's always believed in the American people, that he never believed that he didn't need any vindication from the American people because he's always had faith in them. This refers back to something that Barack Obama said yesterday in Iowa. He returned to Iowa. That, of course, was the place where Barack Obama really became a headliner. It was the first contest in the primaries and Barack Obama won it handily, just catapulting him into a head-on-head contest with Hillary Clinton because at the time, before that Iowa vote, everyone thought that Hillary Clinton was a presumptive front-runner. So Iowa really turned Barack Obama into a big contender for the nomination. The rest, as they say, is history. So Obama went back to Iowa and he was talking about when it all started. We're going to give you the context of the vindicated remark. But you should listen for that word as you listen to Barack Obama and his return trip to Iowa, the place that put him in the headlines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But I knew this, I knew that the size of our challenges had outgrown the smallness of our politics. I was convinced that Democrats, Republicans, Americans of every political stripe, they were hungry for new ideas and new leadership and a new kind of politics that favored common sense over ideology and that focused on the values and ideals that we have in common. And most of all, I had confidence in you, the American people, I had confidence in the people of Iowa because I knew that the American people are a decent people and a generous people, willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations. And I was convinced that when we come together, our voices are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyists or the more vicious political attacks, or the full force of a status quo in Washington that wants to keep things just the way they are. Nowhere was that truer than here in Iowa. On the day of the Iowa caucus, my faith in the American people was vindicated. And what you started here in Iowa has swept the nation.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: That is actually a normal part of Barack Obama's closing speech, as he goes through these final days. But his faith being vindicated -- his faith in the American people being vindicated in Iowa is certainly something that the McCain campaign has seized upon and said, well, I never needed to have my faith in the American people vindicated. I've always sensed McCain had faith in the American people. So the fact of the matter is though that around this sniping back and forth and there certainly is some of that at the top of the ticket and with the number twos, the main message has been about the economy and this has been true since early September. It now has been focused on taxes. But nonetheless, almost any economic issue has dominated these campaigns for more than a month, almost two months now. I want to bring in my colleague, Ed Henry who has heard as much economic talk as I have heard in this past couple of months.
HENRY: Absolutely, Candy. It is interesting because as you know at the beginning of this race, John McCain was hoping it would be all about national security. The first open election without an incumbent, post 9/11 that his national security credentials would carry the day. He could talk about Iraq, he could talk about a plan for Afghanistan, he could also talk about homeland security, protecting the homeland. But instead, as you just pointed out, it has been all about issue number one, the economy, this financial crisis on Wall Street. And it's obviously filtered down to the number twos on the ticket. Sarah Palin was in Ocala, Florida today, another huge battleground, really the mother of all battlegrounds because of those 27 electoral votes. And Sarah Palin was hitting Barack Obama once again on the issue of taxes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our economic plan will help our families keep their homes and we're going to clean up the corruption and the greed that brought us the housing crisis to start with there on Wall Street and in Washington. We're going to help our retirees keep their savings and their investments. And we're going help all of us be able to afford health care. We're going to help our students afford college. And as president, John McCain has the guts to confront the $10 trillion debt that the federal government has run up. $10 trillion that we're expected to pass on to our children for them to pay off for us. That's not right and that's not fair. That will not happen on our watch. We'll impose a spending freeze to cover all but the most vital functions of government, like defense, taking care of our veterans, our seniors, all but the most vital of functions so that we can get in there and find the efficiencies that you deserve in every department, every service that's provided by the government. And we will balance the federal budget by the end of our first term. And you can trust John McCain and me to keep our promises because we're the only candidates in this race who have a track record of reform. Now, as governor, I had to get in there and take on the good old boy interests and take on the special interests of lobbyists and I had to veto hundreds of millions of dollars in wasteful spending. You have the scars coming out of such a process like that. But you do it because you know who you are accountable to, it's the people who hire you. Up there it has been the people of Alaska. Now John McCain, with a track record of proving he's not just a patriot in the senate, he's known as the maverick. He's taken on the wasteful spending and the abuses of power, he'll use his veto pen and as governor I can assure him that it works. And here's what we're going to do, we're going to lower your income taxes. And we'll double the child tax deduction for every family. We're going to cut the capital gains tax. And we're going to bring real tax relief to every American and every business, because John McCain and I, we have just a very basic, fundamental disagreement with our opponents on this issue of taxes. We learned just this week that America's GDP had actually fallen again in the third quarter of this year. This is the worst possible time to ever consider raising taxes. But Barack Obama still wants to impose a massive new tax burden.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Governor Sarah Palin there earlier today in Ocala, Florida, assuming the traditional role of vice presidential candidate, pit bull, attack dog. She's been hitting Barack Obama very hard on the stump and she's been taking some shots herself from Democrats saying she's not qualified. Some Republicans as well saying perhaps she's not qualified to be vice president or to assume the role of president if something were to happen to John McCain after he was elected. And so as interesting today that the current vice president Dick Cheney in Wyoming, stumping for Republicans, decided to weigh in and say that he believes that in fact Sarah Palin is qualified to be vice president, had warm words for her and as I bring in my colleague Candy Crowley in Colorado, I also found it interesting that he weighed in on John McCain and this presidential race and is red meat for conservatives of course. But also perhaps red meat for the Democratic ticket when they hear Dick Cheney weighing in. Candy?
CROWLEY: Absolutely. I mean, don't you have any doubt that this ticket is now having a good deal of fun in Cheney's endorsement of John McCain. This is a campaign, after all that has had one kind of string of thought that has gone through the entire thing, and that has been that John McCain would offer a third Bush term. So the fact that Cheney came out and endorsed him just gives them some more fodder. I want to remind our viewers really quickly that we're here in Pueblo because Barack Obama is scheduled to speak here very shortly. We know his wife will introduce him and we will have that for you as well. We know it won't that be long from now because the traveling press corps has just arrived off their buses. So he is in the vicinity. We're going to bring that to you when it happens. But right now, when we were talking about Dick Cheney, the fact of the matter is that this really does help the Democratic ticket because they have long known that tying an unpopular president to John McCain would certainly be something that would bring down McCain's numbers. It has done that indeed and today that Cheney endorsement just gave John -- I'm sorry, just gave Joe Biden and Barack Obama something else to chew on. Here is a little bit of Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Folks, we know and all of you know we're not running against George W. Bush, but we are running against the Bush economic policies that John McCain and Sarah Palin continue to cling to. Continue to hang on to. The same politics that pushed Ohio's unemployment rate to the highest rate in 16 years, while pushing down the average income for middle class Americans $2,000. They're the realities, ladies and gentlemen. And if you ever had any doubt about John McCain and whether he'd continue the Bush policies, you can put them to rest now. Just today, I watched on the bus coming over on the television they have on the bus, just today, Vice President Cheney came out and endorsed John McCain. Folks, do you need any more proof? Look, I love it when John McCain and Sarah Palin get up there and they start calling each other mavericks. Hey, maverick. Hey, maverick. These guys are the mavericks. Well, ladies and gentlemen, to paraphrase a very good friend of mine in your neighboring state of Pennsylvania, the United States Senator Bob Casey, he said you can't call yourself a maverick when all you've been the last eight years is a sidekick. So, folks, we should start calling them the McCain/Palin sidekicks. They are sidekicks to George Bush's economic philosophy. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bush legacy, the one that John McCain would continue is an America where we're divided from each other and a nation divided from the world. John continues to cling to this go it alone international policy, and unfortunately, to my surprise literally, he's been my friend for 33 years, he has also signed on to the practice of the politics of division, made famous by Karl Rove. Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't have to be this way. It can't remain this way. Not if we recognize the urgency of the moment. Not if we have the courage to reject the course which we're on now, that has failed us so badly. And not, not if we're willing to embrace the most enduring of all American beliefs, the thing that I think symbolizes Barack Obama more than anything else, and that is we do not have to accept things the way they are, it is within our power to change them, to change where we are
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: Joe Biden not that long ago in Ohio. He certainly has been a very loyal number two. Joe Biden, of course, a long-time fixture in Democratic circles from Capitol Hill. He ran himself for president earlier. Now number two on the Obama ticket. We're going to take a break right now on BALLOT BOWL but a couple of things coming up. First, Pueblo, Colorado, where I'm standing, Barack Obama will be here soon along with his wife. So we will take you there live. And our Bill Schneider is taking a look at some battleground polls and he'll have a little analysis about that. So, you want to stick with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CROWLEY: Hi, I'm Candy Crowley here in Pueblo, Colorado. Barack Obama is in the house, as they say. Right now his wife Michelle Obama is introducing him and we want to give you a little bit of that.
MICHELLE OBAMA: You have knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors across this state, across this country. You've gotten on the phone and you've called complete strangers and tried to talk to them about the issues. Sometimes you had the phone hung up on you. But you've stayed the course. And we are just at this point in time where we know change can happen. And while I'd like to say that all of this is a result of my wonderful husband who I love so much, what he will be the first to tell you is that this race was never about him, it never should, it never will be about him. He said this race is about all of us. All of you, the millions of you who have become a part of what has been a movement for change. And so now we have three more day days, three more days, three more days. And what I told Barack when he first got into this race, I said, you know, even though you believe that you can do anything, because he does, I said this time you can get us 70, maybe 80 percent of the way there. And when I look at what Barack has accomplished over this year and a half, I'm amazed. He has built one of the most phenomenal political organizations that we have seen, attracting millions of volunteers from all across the country. He has built a strong fund-raising machine, breaking records because of all of you writing, $10, $20, $30 checks. He has picked an extraordinary running mate. He has participated in over three debates and he has performed phenomenally in every --
CROWLEY: Michelle Obama introducing her husband, talking about the millions of volunteers for his campaign. We are going to continue to monitor Michelle Obama. She, of course, introducing her husband. And we will be back with Barack Obama. But right now I want to bring in my colleague, Ed Henry, who is in Pennsylvania.
HENRY: Thanks Candy. Earlier today on BALLOT BOWL I heard you refer to high price talent in the form of Bill Schneider, our senior political analyst. He's standing by once again in New York. We pay him the big bucks obviously to pay attention to all these battleground polls. Bill, as I bring you in, obviously there are so many battlegrounds. Colorado one of them where Candy is. I'm standing here in Pennsylvania, yet another critical state and especially for John McCain if he wants to make up for some potential losses in states that George W. Bush carried, two of those states that he's really worried about, nervous about, that have traditionally been Republican at least in the last couple of elections, Florida and Indiana. You've been taking a close look at those polls. How does it look right now?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Florida, oh, how the Democrats ache to carry Florida. It is the state that made George Bush president. Can they do it? Look at the latest poll of polls. It shows Obama slightly ahead in Florida by four points. 49 to 45 percent, carrying Florida would gladden their hearts. Now Indiana is not a state the Democrats ever really expected to carry. Bush won Indiana by 21 points. But look at where Indiana is right now. A dead heat. McCain 47, Obama 47. They do have an outside chance of carrying Indiana. Either candidate could win Indiana and that really is a surprise, Ed.
HENRY: That's fascinating. What's interesting here, standing in Pennsylvania, as we know, John McCain desperately needs these 21 electoral votes to offset some of those potential losses you're talking about in the traditional red states. Another key state, though, one of those red states, North Carolina, there's a very hot senate race there, where the Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole could lose. She's in basically a tossup dead heat. Take a look for us, Pennsylvania right here, but also North Carolina.
SCHNEIDER: Let's look at Pennsylvania, first, that's a state John McCain and Sarah Palin paid a lot of attention to, been there many times and he's running behind now by eight points in Pennsylvania. But his and Sarah Palin's trips there might have paid off a little bit because he was 11 points behind earlier this week. But eight points is still a sizable margin, it is bigger than John Kerry took in Pennsylvania. He won Pennsylvania last time by three points. You mentioned North Carolina, another state that would be a surprise for Democrats to carry, but Obama is ahead now, four points in North Carolina. A state that George Bush carried last time by 12. So another big surprise. Democrats could carry the state of North Carolina.
HENRY: Fascinating. Two of those states that we'll be paying close attention to Tuesday night. I want to take a step back and look at the big picture and run a little theory by you that McCain aids have been telling us through this past week. They think if they can sort of run the table and keep some of those red Republican states, like a North Carolina and Virginia, they craft a scenario where they can get to about 260 electoral votes, 10 short of the magic number of 270 and then that's why they think it's all about Pennsylvania, trying to get these 21 electoral votes to put them over the top or alternatively if they don't get Pennsylvania, try to cobble together some smaller states like New Hampshire, like Nevada, etcetera. Take us inside that and the big picture, beyond these individual states, does that hold any water? Is there a scenario for John McCain there, big picture on that map?
SCHNEIDER: Well, the problem is that, you know, he's not going to carry all of the states that George Bush took because some of them are clearly going to go for Obama. So he needs to pick up some Kerry states. Take a look at this map. It shows you that those red states are all states that George Bush took, but some states are tossups right now. I think New Mexico is leaning toward Obama. Pennsylvania is leaning toward Obama. There are a number of states there that voted for Bush last time that McCain is likely to lose. He's going to have to pick up some other states to make it up. The total right now if the election were held right now, we're showing 291 electoral votes for Obama. That is 21 more than a majority. McCain he's carrying states with 160 electoral votes. So he's pretty far behind with 87 electoral votes in the tossup states. So if the election were held right now, our projection is Obama would win a majority of the electoral college, but with three days left to go, lots of twists and turns could happen.
HENRY: Absolutely. And, Bill, John McCain keeps saying out here on the stump that he thinks Barack Obama is being a little presumptuous and McCain makes a little joke out of it in his stump speech saying, I'm a little old-fashioned, I still like to let the voters decide. He obviously gets a big roar from the Republican faithful, it's sort of red meat for them. I appreciate you taking us inside those numbers. Let's go now to Colorado, my colleague Candy Crowley has been monitoring Michelle Obama has been there warming up for her husband Barack Obama, she's in Pueblo, Colorado, another one of those key battlegrounds. Candy, what do you know there?
CROWLEY: Ed, absolutely it's another one of those key states. This is Obama's last swing through the western states he hopes to take, one of them being Colorado. The polls here look good for him. And his campaign is feeling very, very good, about taking Colorado out of the Republican column. Obama, as he usually does now, has introduced a number of Democrats that now have been elected in the state, including the governor. That's one of the reasons that it looks good for him here because there has been the changing demographic.
One of the reasons they came out here was because they looked at those and really thought that Colorado, along with New Mexico really are territories that looked ready for a Democratic candidate. Especially in a atmosphere where you have a very unpopular Republican president. You've had eight years of Republican administration, some of them with a Republican controlled congress. You have a very unpopular war and an economy that's in the tank.
So they looked at all of those factors and realized that, in fact, they had many places they could play here in the West, to take away some of these red states that Republicans had begun to count on.
We want to take you now to Barack Obama.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Three days! Three days. After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George W. Bush -- you don't have to boo, you just have to vote. (CHEERS). Twenty-one months of a campaign that has taken us from the rocky shores of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are three days away from bringing fundamental change to the United States of America. (CHEERS). In three days you can turn the page on policies that have put the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street before the hard work and sacrifice of folks on Main Street. In three days you can choose policies that invest in our middle class and create new jobs, grow the economy so that everybody has a chance to succeed, not just the CEO, but the secretary, not just the factory owner, but the men and women on the factory floor. (CHEERS). In three days you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election that tries to put region against region and city against town and Republican against Democrat. That asks us to fear instead of hope. In three days, at this defining moment in history, all of you can give this country the change that we need.
You know, we began that journey in the depths of winter, nearly two years ago, on the steps of the old state capital in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln once served. And back then we didn't have a lot of money, we didn't have many endorsements. We weren't given much chance by the polls or the pundits. and we knew how steep our climb would be. But I also knew this. I knew that the size of our challenges had outgrown the smallness of our politics. I was convinced that Democrats and Republicans, Americans of every political stripe, they were hungry for new ideas and new leadership and new kind of politics (CHEERS). one that favors common sense over ideology. One that focuses on getting things done. One that values what we have in common instead of what drives us apart. (CHEERS). Most of all, I knew the American people, I knew the American people were decent and generous and willing to work hard, willing to sacrifice on behalf of future generations. And I was convinced that when we come together, like we're together today, our voices are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyists or the most vicious political attack or the full force of the status quo in Washington. Nothing can beat the people when they come together. (CHEERS).
Now, 21 months later, my faith in the American people has been vindicated. That's how we have come so far. How we have come so close, because of you, that's how we're going to change this country, with your help. That's why we can't afford to slow down or sit back or let up one day, one minute, or one second in these final three days. (CHEERS). Not now, not when so much is at stake. We have got to win Colorado and we're going to win this election. (CHEERS). Yes, we can.
CROWD: Yes, we can.
OBAMA: (SPEAKS SPANISH).
CROWD: Yes, we can.
OBAMA: We are in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, 760,000 workers have lost their jobs since the beginning of the year. Businesses and families can't get credit. Home values are plummeting. Pensions are disappearing. It is harder and harder to maybe the mortgage or fill up your gas tank or just keep the electricity on at the end of the month. At this moment, the last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired, old, stale economic theories -- (CHEERS) -- that say we should give more and more billionaires, more and more money to billionaires and millionaires and big corporations and hope that prosperity trickles down on everybody else. (BOOS). The last thing we can afford is four more years where no one in Washington is willing to regulate what happens on Wall Street because lobbyists kill it, and so you end up having bankers and financial institutions running wild and dragging down the rest of the economy in the process. See, those economic theories are what got us into this mess in the first place. They haven't worked. It is time for change. (CHEERS). And that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America. (CHEERS).
Now, Senator McCain has served this country honorably. He can point to a few moments over the past eight years where he's broken from George Bush. But when it comes to the economy, when it comes to the issue that is most important in this election, the plain truth is that John McCain has stood with this president every step of the way. He has not been a maverick. He's been a sidekick. (CHEERS). Voting -- voting for Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, that he once said were irresponsible, voting for the Bush budgets that took us from record surpluses into record deficits, calling for less regulation, 21 times just this year, at a time when everyone else, I think, began to understand that we needed to increase regulation in our financial markets, to protect consumers.
After 21 months and three debates, John McCain still has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he would do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy. Not one thing. Think about it. You've been watching a lot of ads from John McCain. You can't tell me that you know what he plans to do with the economy, because he hasn't told you. All he's been doing is talking about me. (CHEERS). That's what he's doing.
But let me tell you, when John McCain wants to give a $700,000 tax cut to the average Fortune 500 CEO, that's not change. That's what George Bush did. It is not change when he wants to give $200 billion to the biggest corporations, $4 billion to the oil companies, even though ExxonMobil made record profits again last quarter, broke their own record from the previous quarter and the quarter before that. $300 billion to the same Wall Street banks that got us into this mess. It is not change when John McCain comes up with a tax plan that doesn't give a penny of relief to more than 100 million middle class Americans.
You know, my daughters, Malia and Sasha, are here with me today and they always have trouble -- they have trouble every year deciding what they want to be for Halloween. John McCain doesn't have that problem. (LAUGHTER). Because he goes out and trick-or-treats as George Bush. (CHEERS).
Now, the truth is actually, president Bush is sitting out the last few days before the election. But earlier today, Dick Cheney -- (BOOS) -- you don't have to boo, just vote. Earlier today, Dick Cheney came out of his undisclosed location -- (LAUGHTER) -- and he hit the campaign trail. And he said that he is, and I quote, "delighted to support John McCain." (BOOS). So I would like to congratulate Senator McCain on this endorsement. (CHEERS). Because really earned it. That endorsement didn't come easy. Senator McCain had to vote with George Bush 90 percent of the time and agree with Dick Cheney to get it. McCain had to serve as Washington's biggest cheerleader for going to war in Iraq and support its economic policies that are no different from the last eight years. So Senator McCain worked hard to get Dick Cheney's support. (LAUGHTER).
But here's my question for you, Colorado. Do you think Dick Cheney is delighted to support John McCain because he thinks John McCain is going to bring change to Washington?
CROWD: No!
OBAMA: Do you think John McCain and Dick Cheney have been talking about how to really shake things up? (BOOS). Get rid of the lobbyists and put Halliburton on the sidelines and put an end to the old boys club in Washington?
CROWD: No!
OBAMA: Come on. Colorado, we know better. After all, it was just a few days ago that Senator McCain had said that he -- that he and President Bush share a common philosophy. And we know that when it comes to foreign policy, John McCain and Dick Cheney share a common philosophy also. One that thinks that empty bluster from Washington is going to fix all our problems and a war without an end in Iraq is the way to defeat Osama bin Laden and the terrorists who are in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and who are the ones that killed 3,000 Americans. So, George Bush made be in an undisclosed location now, but Dick Cheney is out there on the campaign trail because he would be delighted to pass the baton to John McCain. (BOOS). He knows that with John McCain you get a two-fer. (LAUGHTER). George Bush is the economic policies and Dick Cheney's foreign policy. And that is a risk that the American people cannot afford to take. It is time for change. And that's why I'm running for president of the United States. (CHEERS).
Look, Pueblo, we have tried it John McCain's way. We have tried it George Bush's way. We have tried it Dick Cheney's way. It hasn't worked. And John McCain knows that, which is why his campaign said that if we keep on talking about the economy, we're going to lose. That's why I'm talking about the economy. Right? (CHEERS).
On the other hand, that's why John McCain's spending these last few weeks calling me every name in the book, everything but a child of God. (LAUGHTER). Because that's how you play the game in Washington. When you can't win on the strength of your ideas, then you try to make the big election about small things. I expect we're going to see a lot more of that over the next few days, more slash and burn, say anything, do anything politics that's designed to distract us and divide us, to tear us a part instead of bringing us together. Well, that's not the kind of politics the American people need right now. (CHEERS).
Colorado, at this moment, in this election, we have the chance to do more than just beat back this kind of politics in the short term. We can end it once and for all. We can prove that the thing that is more powerful than that kind of politics is the will and determination of the American people. We can change this country. (CHEERS). Yes, we can. (SPEAKS SPANISH).
We can prove we're not as divided as our politics would suggest, that we're more than a collection of red states than blue states. We're the United States. (CHEERS). We can build a future that we know is possible as one people and as one nation. That's why I'm running for president. (CHEERS).
Now, I know these are difficult times. I know many of you are anxious out there about your futures. But I also know that we faced difficult times before. America's story has never been about things coming easy. It's been about rising to the moment when the moment is hard. It is about rejecting fear and division for unity of purpose. That's how we overcame war and depression. That's how we won the great struggles for civil rights and women's rights and workers' rights. (CHEERS). That's how we'll write the next great chapter in the American story.
Now, I understand if we want to meet the challenge of this moment, though, we neat to get behind the old ideological debates between left and right. We need common sense. That's what Bill Ritter is about. That's what the Salazar brothers are about. They understand that the job of an elected official, whether it is a president, or a council member, is to solve problems, deliver for the people. Don't spend all your time bickering. Stay off the cable news shows. (CHEERS).
You know, and I watch sometimes those shows and realize, you know, you're arguing about the past. We need to be talking about the future. (CHEERS). We don't need bigger government or smaller government. We need a better government, a smarter government -- (CHEERS) -- a more competent government. One that upholds the values that we hold in common as Americans. The choice in this election isn't between tax cuts and no tax cuts. It is about who you give tax cuts to. (CHEERS). It is about whether you believe we should only reward wealthy people or whether we should also reward the work and the workers who created it. (CHEERS).
Now, there has been a lot of misinformation, Pueblo. So I want to be real clear. I will give a tax break to 95 percent of Americans who work every day and get taxes taken out of their paycheck every week. (CHEERS). That's my tax plan, to give you a break. I'll help pay for this by asking the folks who are making more than $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rates they were paying back in the 1990s under Bill Clinton. Let me see a show of hands. How many people make less than a quarter million dollars a year? Raise your hand. (CHEERS). What do you think? I think that's the majority there.
So no matter what John McCain may claim, here are the facts. If you make under a quarter million, you will not see your taxes increase one single dime, not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax, no taxes. We don't need to raise taxes on the middle class. But we do need to make sure that we are growing the economy from the bottom up. That's what Bill Clinton did. He created 22 million jobs. and by the way, we created more millionaires and more billionaires because they actually had customers for their businesses. That's what we need to do again. That's what I'm going to do as president of the United States of America. (CHEERS).
We need jobs in America. And when it comes to jobs, the choice in this election is not between putting up a wall around America, or standing by and doing nothing. And the truth is we're not going to be able to bring back every job that's been lost here in Pueblo. Manufacturing's changed. Technology's changed. But that doesn't mean that we should just sit on our hands. We certainly shouldn't do what John McCain is suggesting, keep on giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas. We should be giving those tax breaks to companies that invest right here in Pueblo, -- (CHEERS) -- that invest in Colorado, that invest in the United States of America. (CHEERS).
We have got to compete on the global stage. We shouldn't be afraid of trade with other country (ph), but we should make sure that other countries aren't taking advantage of us. We should make sure that they have got labor agreements and environmental agreements that they're not manipulating their currency, that they're letting our products into their markets. And, you know what, we also have to do is we have got it think about creating jobs through our infrastructure. We need to rebuild roads and bridges, schools, lay broad band lines in rural communities so companies will locate there. (CHEERS). We can create two million new jobs, creating a 21st century infrastructure, and we can invest $15 billion a year, taking a lead from Governor Ritter, in investing in renewable sources of energy, in a new energy economy. (CHEERS). Five million new energy jobs over the next decade. Jobs that pay well, and can't be outsourced. Jobs making solar panels and wind turbines and building the fuel efficient cars of tomorrow, not in Japan, not in South Korea, but right here in Pueblo, right here in the United States of America. (CHEERS). That's our future. (CHEERS).
When it comes to health care, we don't have to choose between a government-run health system and the unaffordable one we have now. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change under my plan is that we will lower premiums. (CHEERS). We'll work with your employer to save you money. Now, if you don't have health insurance, you'll be able to get the same kind of health insurance that members of Congress get for themselves. (CHEERS). We'll invest in prevention and new technologies that can lower costs and reduce errors, make people healthier. And as someone who watched his mother spend the final months of her life arguing with insurance companies because they said that her cancer was a pre-existing condition -- they didn't want to pay for her treatment. I will stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most. It is wrong and it will end when I am president of the United States of America. (CHEERS).
If we want to build for the future, then we are going to have to give every child in America, every child a world class education. (CHEERS). And the choice is not between more money and more reform. Our schools need both. As president, I want to invest in early childhood education and close the achievement gap. (CHEERS). I want to recruit an army of new teachers. I want to pay all our teachers more money, give them more support. (CHEERS). We'll demand higher standards and more accountability. And we will make a deal with every young person who is here, every young person in America. We say to young people, if you're willing to be a part of national service, whatever it is, serving in the military, serving in the Peace Corp., serving in a homeless shelter or a veterans home, whatever national service you choose, we will make sure that you can afford to go to college no ifs, ands or buts. (CHEERS). We will make you -- (CHEERS) -- We will make that investment in you, because you're investing in America.
And, finally, when it comes to keeping this country safe, we don't have to choose between retreating from the world and fighting a war without end in Iraq. It's time to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, while the Iraqi government sits on a huge surplus and we have crying needs here at home. As president, I will end this war. (CHEERS). I will end it. (CHEERS).
I will ask the Iraqi government to step up for their future. And I will finally finish the fight against bin Laden and al Qaeda terrorist that's attacked us on 9/11. They shouldn't be still sending out videos. They should not be training terrorists to attack us. We should have never taken our eye off the ball. (CHEERS). And I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will make sure that our service men and women have the best training and the best equipment when they deploy into combat, and that they receive the care and the benefit that they have earned when they come home. (CHEERS). No more homeless veterans, no more begging for benefits. Treat our veterans with honor and respect. That's what we owe them and that's what I will do as president.
Now, Pueblo, I won't stand here and pretend any of this is going to be easy. Bush and Cheney, they have dug a deep hole. Now they are trying to hand the shovel to McCain. (LAUGHTER). The cost of this economic crisis, the cost of the war in Iraq means that Washington's going to have to tighten its belt just like families are having to tighten their belt, just like businesses have to tighten their belt. We have to put off spending on things that we don't need. As president, I'm going to go through the federal budget line by line. I will work with John Salazar and Ken Salazar, we're going to eliminate programs we don't need. We will make the ones we have work better and cost less. That's Bill Ritter has to do. He has to balance the budget. But as I said from the day we began this journey, the change we need is not going to come from government alone. It will come from each of us doing our part in our own lives, in our own communities. It will come from each of us looking out for each other as well as ourselves and our families. We need a new era of responsibility. (CHEERS).
Now, government's going to have to lead on energy independence but each of us will have to do our part to make our homes, our businesses more energy efficient. We have got to put more money into our schools but I can't turn off the TV set and make sure your child does your homework. (CHEERS). That's your job. We have to have parents taking responsibility to instill in their children a thirst for knowledge.
ED HENRY, CNN NEWS CORRSPONDENT: We have been listening to Barack Obama in Pueblo, Colorado, making his final case to the voters in that battleground state. You heard a lot of talk about President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Barack Obama jumping on the fact Vice President Cheney today in Wyoming had some warm words for John McCain.
Interesting, when we come back, there was a very high-powered surrogate yesterday for John McCain in Ohio and he pumped up the crowd. Who do you think it was? Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger, right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HENRY: Welcome back to CNN's "ballot bowl." I'm Ed Henry in Pennsylvania, one of those key battleground states. Yesterday, I was in Ohio with Senator John McCain and he rolled out one of his big of the surrogates literally and figuratively, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had some tough talk about Barack Obama's policies but also his physique.
BVC
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, (R), GOVERNER OF CALIFORNIA: Now, of course, Arnold's classic is about building up the parties and pumping up. That's why for the next Arnold's classic I want to invite Senator Obama because he needs to do something -- (CHEERS) -- he needs to do something about those skinny legs. (APPLAUSE). We're going to -- we're going to make him do some squats, and then we're going to go and give him bicep curls to beef up those scrawny little arms. (LAUGHTER). But if we can only could do something about putting meat on his ideas. John McCain has long served his country in a POW camp than his opponent has served in the United States Senate.
EVC
HENRY: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, laying out the case as only he can with those jokes about Barack Obama's physique. I think maybe even Barack Obama might have gotten a kick out of that. I don't know. I do think perhaps he did. The policy stuff, though, he probably did not like. Coming back from a short break, we're going to tell you where the candidates are going next in days before Election Day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HENRY: Welcome back to CNN's "ballot bowl." My colleague, Candy Crowley, has already left Colorado. She's heading to Missouri tonight. She will be in the "CNN Newsroom" with myself. I will be in New York, actually. Not a battleground state, but that's where John McCain will be making a cameo on "Saturday Night Live." Why do I feel like there's going to be some sort of Tina Fey moment there as his fake running mate? It will be quite interesting. Obviously, John McCain trying to reach millions of potential voters in a different kind of way. Instead of going after them on policy, he wants a little comic relief. Something I think a lot of us can use after this long, long campaign.
That's it for BALLOT BOWL. Stay tuned right now for "LOU DOBBS THIS WEEK."
