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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Interview With DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe

Aired September 02, 2004 - 23:00   ET

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

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: There they come. The balloons. The balloons are coming down rapidly here at the Republican Convention.
The president of the United States speaking for just more than one hour, in contrast to Senator Kerry who spoke for about 25 minutes at the Democratic Convention in Boston.

The president making it clear what his agenda is for the next four years, an ambitious agenda, an agenda that will be thoroughly dissected by the Democrats, if not already, very, very soon.

In fact, even the president and the vice president and their wives are up on stage to the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) applause of those here.

Senator John Kerry's already getting ready to deliver his own speech about an hour or so from now, less an hour from now at midnight. In Springfield, Ohio, one of those battleground states, he'll be delivering a speech responding very, very rapidly to the president of the United States.

Judy Woodruff, I want to update our viewers on two incidents that we have that happened during the course of the president's remarks.

Two individuals who had tried to disrupt the president were escorted by law-enforcement authorities out of Madison Square Garden. Presumably, they were apprehended. We don't know specifically what happened.

Also, outside there have been some demonstrations -- orderly, relatively large -- but demonstrations against the president of the United States -- Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, this speech caps off the convention, less a convention speech, a typical convention speech, more of a presidential, almost a State of the Union address. It had a -- certainly a bow to the future. He ticked off a number of domestic programs that are going to cost money. He broadly defended his military and his foreign policy.

There was poetry in it, there was humor, and there was humility, which is, I think, something that George W. Bush feels he needed to show in a year when people have accused him of being arrogant.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: I think you could almost summarize this speech, as you said, I know who I am. I know what I believe. I know where I'm going, and we are dissatisfied. If you give me the four more years, we will have a better chance to rebuild it.

It is also interesting that his take on John Kerry is relatively gentle in tone, if not substance. We heard a lot of familiar lines, battle-tested lines about Iraq -- faced with a choice, I will defend America every time. There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops -- and I think -- I think he was deliberately sacrificing the grander colloquy for the sense that he had a specific sense of where he was going.

BLITZER: The president of the United States basking in the glory, the moment, the moment when the confetti is coming down, the balloons are coming down.

The president receiving some young people. Those look like perhaps the Cheney grandchildren who are there, and that would be Elizabeth Cheney. She's got her little baby. She has four children up there with the vice president and Lynne Cheney.

The president of the United States' daughters are there, Jenna and Barbara Bush. His brothers. Of course, his parents, the first President Bush and Barbara Bush. All of them, as is typical of these conventions, coming up to express their appreciation for what's going on.

WOODRUFF: Wolf, we should point out the balloons have come down on time at this convention. The Democrats had a little problem with that in Boston.

BLITZER: And a lot of our viewers remember that. We certainly do as well.

Jeff, let's get back to this speech.

This is a delegate camera, one of those cameras we gave our delegates. The balloons coming down even a bit more rapidly.

Now, Jeff, let's talk about this speech first. The jabs he took at Senator Kerry -- they were specific but nothing that we hadn't heard many times on the campaign trail. He's been saying very similar things, albeit not to a huge audience like the one that's on tonight.

GREENFIELD: Right. The one thing that I think was deliberately showcased here is the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) John Kerry's liberal conservative values. Now the point of that is both to say something nice to his more conservative supporters and once again to paint Kerry really less -- both as a liberal and as a guy who doesn't know where he stands. That's one of the key themes.

I think the other thing -- because it goes all the way back to the start of the Bush reelection campaign -- is this ownership society. The Bush people believe that the American voter, after 9/11 and economic woes, feels out of control of their life, and that's why you heard the president talk so lengthily about the idea of giving people back power. That's a key theme we're going to be hearing all fall -- Wolf. BLITZER: And, Judy, there were some 15 specific initiatives that the president unveiled. You know, several of them he's talked about over the years, but there were 15 specific plans he talked about on domestic issues.

WOODRUFF: That's right, Wolf. And by my count, at least 10 of them cost money. I mean, just for an example, increasing funds for community colleges, providing low-income Americans with better access to health care, funding the No Child Left Behind, doubling the number of people served by job training programs. He was very specific.

And, for a Republican president, a conservative Republican president, you know, for -- who's -- as you -- you know, we've talked about this earlier today, looking at a $450 billion deficit already and growing. This is going to cost money. Where is that money going to come from?

These are some questions that I think are going to come up on the campaign trail in the days to come.

BLITZER: And advisers will be explaining presumably in specific detail how the -- how we would propose to fund those two initiatives included there.

GREENFIELD: I also think there's one area where I'm expecting to hear the Democrats come in very hard is so you've been there four years, now you tell us that you've got some ideas, which is why I think the president was at pains to say we had a lot of problems, we had 9/11, we had go to war, but, believe me, now we're ready to move to the -- the very beginning -- now that we've climbed the mountain, we can see the valley.

He sort of built in an explanation, I think, to try to rebut the obvious Democratic (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of, hey, things are not that well -- not so hot after four years.

BLITZER: You know, right after John Kerry accepted -- delivered his acceptance speech in Boston at the Democratic Convention, we spoke with Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the Republican Party. Now let's turn to Terry McAuliffe. He's the chairman of the Democratic Party.

Terry McAuliffe, we'll give you a chance to respond. The president did unveil a specific agenda. He explained to the American people in very precise terms where he wants this country to move over the next four years.

TERRY MCAULIFFE, DNC CHAIRMAN: Wolf, the first thing I would say is where has George Bush been for four years. He thinks he can give an hour speech tonight and make up literally for four years of failed leadership of this country.

Tonight, he didn't even talk about the 45 million Americans today that have no health insurance. He did not mention outsourcing at all. He didn't talk about many of the issues that people face at home. He didn't talk about the 1.8 million people who have lost their jobs. This is just another litany of empty promises. BLITZER: Well, on the outsourcing of the jobs, he did come up with a new plan, he said, to reclaim people who may have lost their jobs because of economic dislocation. He wants people to have lifelong education, something that you're very familiar with because Bill Clinton used to talk about that during his eight years in the White House as well.

MCAULIFFE: But where has George Bush been for four years. He has talked about these things for the last four years. This reminded me of a State of the Union address, laying out a lot of different initiatives, but -- You know what? -- he never delivers on the promises that he says.

Americans watching this tonight, Wolf, have got to ask themselves do they think this country is headed in the wrong direction or the right direction, and the majority of Americans today think this country is headed in the wrong direction under the leadership of George Bush. John Kerry believes that this nation can do better, and it will do better with John Kerry as president.

But, for George Bush, it's just all happy talk. People are going to turn their television off. They're going to go sit at their kitchen table. And for 45 million people, they're going to sit and be concerned that they have no health insurance at all. People have lost their unemployment benefits.

WOODRUFF: Terry McAuliffe, a consistent theme from this convention -- and we heard it again tonight from the president himself -- is John Kerry's inconsistent positions. He talks about being for and against the war in Iraq, for and against funding for the troops in Iraq. He spoke about John Kerry's not supporting important domestic programs.

When are we going to hear from John Kerry, particularly on the question of Iraq. This is almost like an open sore that the Republicans keep picking at. Is John Kerry going to be able to close that?

MCAULIFFE: You bet. He's going to begin this campaign for the general election in about a half an hour in Ohio.

But I remind you, Judy, it's George Bush this week that had a very bad week. He talked about a catastrophic success in Iraq. Military folks were scratching their heads wondering what is the president talking about. He admitted that he had miscalculated in Iraq, and then -- shocking -- he said we could not win the war on terror. John Kerry can win the war on terror.

So, this week, George Bush has had three statements that people say why are you the commander in chief of this country. If you don't think we can win the war on terror, you miscalculated, we've spent $200 billion in Iraq today, we're close to losing our 1,000th troop over there. He has not shown the leadership domestically, on foreign affairs.

America can do better, and they can do better with John Kerry as president.

GREENFIELD: Terry, in a couple of minutes, John Kerry's going to really lay the lumber on Dick Cheney for his five draft deferments. Is this a good contrast between this soaring speech, the speeches (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and the first thing here from John Kerry is an attack on Dick Cheney's draft record?

MCAULIFFE: Well, Jeff, first of all, you talk about the soaring rhetoric and everything else. We have watched four days of what I've got to tell you is one of the most negative, mean-spirited conventions I have ever seen.

Just take the contrast of Barak Obama, the keynote speaker for the Democrats, who gave an uplifting, positive -- got people excited. You know, the son of immigrants who came to this country. He's now running for the United States Senate. Again, Zell Miller's mean- spirited, hate-filled speech attacking John Kerry. Those two keynote speeches, I believe, really set the table for what our party and what our candidates stand for.

John Kerry is going to respond to the attacks -- the malicious attacks that they have said about John Kerry. He went, he served honorably, he volunteered in Vietnam. He won five medals. That is one of the characteristics that will make him a strong president.

And Dick Cheney and George Bush and John Ashcroft and Don Rumsfeld and all the rest of them who are out there attacking this president -- our candidate John Kerry in one way or the other, John Kerry's going to defend himself.

BLITZER: All right.

MCAULIFFE: But his service is something we're proud of as Democrats.

BLITZER: Terry McAuliffee, thanks very much for joining us.

MCAULIFFE: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: I just want to remind our viewers that after John Kerry's acceptance speech a month ago in Boston, we get -- we gave a similar opportunity to Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the Republican Party, to respond immediately as well. Also at that time, we then spoke to Tad Devine, a senior strategist for John Kerry.

Let's bring in Ralph Reed. He's the senior strategist, someone who's well known to our viewers. He's been supporting, of course, very strongly President Bush and his reelection.

By our count, Ralph, the president had some 15 new initiatives that he would like to get accomplished, domestic initiatives, in a second term. They're going to cost billions, if not tens of billions, of dollars at a time of record budget deficits, $450 billion. Do you want to simply increase that budget deficit?

RALPH REED, BUSH ADVISER: No, not at all, Wolf. I mean, look, this was a great night for the president, great night for our camp and for our party. This speech was visionary. It was optimistic, it was positive, it was forward-looking, and it was substantive. And it's not a State of the Union address. I mean, the president didn't go into details on every policy proposal.

But what we didn't hear in Boston from John Kerry is where has he been the last 20 years in the U.S. Senate and where does he want to take the country. The president went through where he wants to take the country, and he talked about expanding liberty around the world, transforming the Middle East by creating vibrant democracies in the heart of that troubled region.

And here at home, Wolf, what he talked about was extended liberty and freedom by creating an ownership society where seven million more minority homeowners have an opportunity to access the American dream.

WOODRUFF: Ralph Reed, I'm going to speak quietly because we are in the middle of a benediction here. But what about what we just heard from Terry McAuliffe. He said -- this convention, he said, until tonight, he said, was almost relentlessly negative and critical and, he said, mean-spirited.

In other words, George Bush was able to come off tonight as the good cop after three nights of hearing relentlessly negative attacks on John Kerry. His point was the Republicans -- couldn't they have done better than this?

REED: Well, Judy, I just wouldn't agree with that criticism at all. I mean, the fact of the matter is that this is a choice election. You've got two candidates with the starkest competing visions to the future of our country that we've had in modern times, and we want a president who will support our troops once he votes to send them into battle.

John Kerry voted to send them into battle and then voted against the $87 billion appropriation to give them the protective body armor and the ammunition they needed to win the war, and we want a president that, when allies and countries and nations stand with us in this struggle, doesn't call them a coalition of the coerced and bribed.

We want a president who honors our allies and doesn't cast aspersions upon them and insult them.

GREENFIELD: Ralph...

REED: That's a clear contrast, and I think that contrast ought to be talked about. It's fully appropriate in a campaign to talk about those contrasts on the issues, not personality, not personal attacks, but on...

GREENFIELD: Just very quickly, you know well as a political operative there are things beyond your control. Big job cutbacks in GM and Ford. It's going to hit you in Michigan and Ohio. That's not good news for you on the eve of a general election. Aren't those the kinds of things beyond your control or Kerry's that ultimately are going to shape this election? REED: Well, look, Jeff, we -- you know, we've said from the beginning going back to when we formed our reelection committee a year and three months ago that this was going to be a very close election, and in close elections, events you can't control can be decisive.

But, in our campaign, we focus on what we do control, and what we control is this: We've got the best candidate in this race. We've got a winning conservative, optimistic, forward-looking message, and we're building the most effective grassroots organization in the history of presidential politics.

And those three keys are going to bring this victory home in 60 days.

BLITZER: Ralph Reed, thanks very much for spending a few moments with us as well on this night, the last night of the Republican Convention here at Madison Square Garden in New York.

I want to show our viewers very briefly some pictures we have. These are live pictures you're seeing outside. There have been some demonstrations against the president, very peaceful. There have been some arrests. There were two individuals who were escorted outside from inside Madison Square Garden, but, basically, the situation's under control.

There's another picture, a live picture of Springfield, Ohio. In about a half an hour or so from now, John Kerry will be speaking. There it is. There's a rally that's about to take place in Springfield, Ohio. John Kerry and John Edwards. Both will be addressing the crowd in the key battleground state of Ohio.

They're wasting no time making sure they can respond right away, almost unprecedented, perhaps it is unprecedented that the candidates -- the presidential nominee and the vice presidential nominee from the other party are going to go out immediately and deliver this kind of address.

Jeff Greenfield, earlier in the night, we asked you to make some points what you were looking for tonight and give our viewers your bottom line assessment.

GREENFIELD: OK. First, we asked: Will a second term be different? We've heard discussed how much the president was at pains to set out an agenda, how specific we don't know, but it's designed to show voters I can be something different, I will be something different.

How tough on Kerry? Repeated some very familiar criticisms, but he did it with a fair amount of humor, certainly nothing like the zeal, if that's the right word, of Zell Miller.

And third, George W. Bush regular guy? Toward the end of the speech, there was that moment when he talked about his flaws, his problems with English, the fact that he walked with a swagger, which in Texas we call walking, Ed Gillespie told us we were going to hear that George Bush is a good guy, that was what was trying to be done in that part of the speech.

So that's what we did as far as we could tell (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BLITZER: All right. Never a dull moment at these conventions. It's been a pleasure working with both of you, Judy Woodruff, Jeff Greenfield, thanks to both of you very much. We'll take a quick break. NEWSNIGHT a special edition with Aaron Brown. That's coming up and also, remember at midnight not only will John Kerry be speaking together with John Edwards, a special live edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" as well.

We leave you right now with some beautiful songs from (UNINTELLIGIBLE). She's entertaining those delegates still inside Madison Square Garden. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A reminder, a special edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" coming up at the top of the hour, including remarks in Ohio by the Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and John Edwards, the vice presidential nominee. We'll leave it here for now. A special edition of NEWSNIGHT with Aaron Brown. That's coming up right now and in fact, Aaron is standing by to take it over. Aaron.

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSNIGHT: Wolf, thank you very much. Good evening again everyone. We'll talk about in the next 27 minutes or so, what the president had to say, where the campaign -- both campaigns have to go and where perhaps we are after a week here, four days here in New York.

Let's start, go back if we can first to Jeff Greenfield and pick up on some of the themes that Jeff was talking about a couple of moments ago, about the speech, what the speech needed to accomplish and how the president and his speech writers went about trying to accomplish those things. Jeff, good evening.

GREENFIELD: Hi, Aaron. I'll try to do this as quickly as possible. I've picked the two examples. First, how do you explain and talk about voter dissatisfaction with the first term? Take a look at this clip please (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Since 2001, Americans have been given hills to climb and found the strength to climb them. Now, because we have made the hard journey, we can see the valley below. Now, because we have faced challenges with resolve, we have historic goals within our reach and greatness in our future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Get it? The first term may not have satisfied you, but look at all that you had to contend with, war and terror. Now that we've got that under control or at least dealing with it, we can move on. Second, we're going to play you a little -- an ineloquent part of the speech, but it's important. Listen to this talk about how the world has changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Today, workers change jobs, even careers, many times during their lives and in one of the most dramatic shifts our society has seen, 2/3 of all moms also work outside the home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Well, of course, George Bush has more trouble with women voters than men voters. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) but showing the world has changed, by the way, Bill Clinton used to talk about that a lot. He's setting the stage for his notion that he can see what's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) future, most importantly embodied in this notion. Let's hear this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: In all these proposals, we seek to provide not just a government program, but a path, a path to greater opportunity, more freedom and more control over your own life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: This is the 2004 version of his argument from four years ago that I trust the people (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the government. It's also about that notion of an ownership society, saying we know you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you don't have control of your life. I want to put more of it in your hands.

Next, next to last. How does he deal with John Kerry, by repeating one of the most familiar and effective lines of his stump speech. Take a listen about the $87 billion vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: When asked to explain his vote, the senator said I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it. Then he said, then he said he was proud of his vote. Then when pressed, he said, it was a complicated matter. There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: The president (UNINTELLIGIBLE) he's a man of flaws. He made fun of everything from his use of English to how he walks, but the basic notion here Aaron is an attempt to say I know where I stand. I know where I'm going and if you vote for me, they'll be a second term that you will be satisfied with than the first. Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you, good quick work. To our senior White House correspondent John King. The president listed 14 or 15 specific ideas, certainly no detail. How much of that was new and how much of that had been out there in some cases for a while?

JOHN KING, SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The themes are not (UNINTELLIGIBLE) president stressed throughout his first term and especially throughout the re-election campaign. Some of the proposals are new. The president talking about putting a health center or rural community health center to every rural or small community in America. That is specificity. He has talked about the issue before, not that specifically. The president is talking about this flex time proposal. He's discussed that before. He revived his Social Security proposal from the last campaign and he said he would simplify the tax code.

That is new, although we don't know how, said he would work in a bipartisan way if reelected (UNINTELLIGIBLE) all of those aimed at addressing the central arguments of the Democrats. They talk of two America's. They talk of the middle class squeeze. They say this president is not helping the workers who are under so much strain because of outsourcing, because of the loss of manufacturing jobs and other jobs. They say this president is doing nothing. Tonight the president said he would do very much if reelected, aiming at essentially beyond Iraq, the central democratic theme, which is economic anxiety.

BROWN: John, thank you and thank you for your efforts this week. You know, it's been long. Now to Candy Crowley, our senior political correspondent. Candy, where does the campaign go literally and I suppose thematically from here?

CANDY CROWLEY, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on the campaign trail and what you'll here obviously are smaller versions of this, what I call the "Readers Digest" version of this speech cut up along the way and along the trail. Interesting I thought that the most effective part of this speech, at least in terms of these delegates, were the final parts, where he talked about holding the sons and daughters of the fallen, saying your mom or your dad is a hero, but all they really wanted was their mom and dad.

That sort of thing really gripped I think both the delegates, as well as the president, looking at the expression on his face. So what they tried to do here and what they'll try to do as they move on out, because now there is an official Democratic candidate. There is an official Republican candidate. It's the general election and it is full steam ahead here. And I think as they go out, it will be that sort of compassionate conservative that they put back out there showing more of the conservative side because after all, as we've noticed a couple of times, swing voters, which now the battle is about by and large are usually at least the majority of them women, that's the message that resonates with them.

BROWN: Thank you, Candy Crowley. Turn to Bill Schneider. You spend a fair amount of your time dealing with polls. We don't have one yet. Give me a best guess, promise I'll never hold you to it. I mean that. We came into this thing at 45, 47, 47, 45 kind of depends which poll you read and how do we come out of the week do you think? Has the game, the line moved?

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Best guess, I think Bush is going to get a little bit of a bounce, 4 or 5 points and that will bring him up above 50 percent and he'll be in the lead and I think he's -- it'll be a small lead. Is it sustainable? That's going to be tough, but I think he will move into the lead for the first time in this race as a result of what happened this week.

BROWN: And we are really about a month, presumably, if the debate schedule goes on as we think it might, we're about a month from the next major moment in the campaign, where this thing could shift yet again.

SCHNEIDER: Of course. There are many events. There are events in the world that could shift this.

BROWN: Right, the next known event that could shift this.

SCHNEIDER: Exactly right. The reason why I think Bush probably scored some points is a very simple reason. He's very likable and that makes an enormous difference. The voters have to like you to vote for you. That was one of Al Gore's problems. People never really warmed up to him. You know there were a lot of Clinton haters in the 1990s, but when Clinton got up to speed, a lot of people said, you know, how can you hate this guy? People liked Bill Clinton and there were a lot of Bush haters out there right now and when Bush gets up to speak and we see all these people massed against him and the Michael Moores of this world, voters listen to him and they like him and it's hard to understand how there are so many people who hate him.

BROWN: Good to have you with us this week. Thank you very much. We'll talk more in the next couple months, I'm sure.

Joe Klein, from the -- the columnist from "Time" magazine and a contributor of ours is with us tonight as well. Let's try you too. The first one's easy, your impressions.

JOE KLEIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Well, this wasn't the greatest speech that George Bush ever gave, but it was an effective one. The first half of it, the domestic policy part was kind of rote, but he kind of began to catch fire when he attacked John Kerry's statement about having conservative values. And then (AUDIO GAP) stewardship of the war on terror and especially his decision to go with the war in Iraq.

The Democrats want this to be about the economy. George Bush wants this to be about Iraq and that's where we stand.

BROWN: Let me -- does he want it to be about Iraq or does he want it to be about the war on terror?

KLEIN: Well, he wants it to be, he wants it to be on the war on terror. But face it, after this, we didn't hear about Fallujah this week and the fact that America retreated from there and you have an Islamic republic fighting against us from within Iraq. That's going to become obvious in the news on every night over the next couple of months. It's going to be the big issue he's going to have to deal with. And so Iraq, for this moment, as the president has said in the past, is the war on terrorism and how he deals in Iraq is going to be a central issue of this campaign, that really you didn't here from much about this week.

BROWN: Joe, you got great instincts on this. Tell me what you think about the wisdom of Senator Kerry coming out tonight and giving this double barreled response if you will to the attack on him by the vice president yesterday?

KLEIN: Well, I think they had to do it. It's about time they did something real. I mean, this is -- this convention this week was the exact opposite of the Democratic convention, which, in which the Democrats almost seemed lobotomized because they never made the case against George W. Bush.

John Kerry has to make that case starting now. He has to do it in the strongest possible terms. The word that he used time and again in his convention was strong, but over the past month, he has been made to seem weak. He always says he's fighting for working families, but he hasn't seemed to be fighting for himself. And now, he's finally decided to fight for himself and we got a game.

BROWN: We have a game. Joe, it's been good to have you in this game for the week. Thank you very much, Joe Klein.

KLEIN: My pleasure Aaron.

BROWN: "Time" magazine. We'll take a break, Brown table is with us tonight, Maureen Dowd of the "New York Times" but the break comes first. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We'll turn now for the last time at the convention until 2008 when they'll probably all be the anchors to the Brown table. Terry Neal of the washingtonpost.com, John Harwood of the "Wall Street Journal" and Nina Easton of the "Boston Globe." Nina, let's start with the Kerry stuff. He's out there in Ohio tonight, about 15 minutes or so. He's going to come out. What's going on there?

NINA EASTON, THE "BOSTON GLOBE": Well, he's in Ohio, which has lost 230,000 jobs since the start of this administration and he is now finally going to really fire back at the administration, particularly over these ads, not they have been supported by an independent group questioning his record in Vietnam. He's going to attack Cheney for taking advantage of military and student deferments not to serve and likewise, he will be questioning President Bush's credentials on that issue. Whether the timing of this, I mean he clearly wants to pop the balloons that we see in back of us, whether the timing of it is going to look like sour grapes or, I'm not sure how that's really going to play out.

BROWN: Terry, does a speech at midnight in the east, it's going to get -- it'll get cable coverage. You maybe have a couple million, 3 million, 4 million people watching it. Does it matter. Does it -- will it get big play in the papers tomorrow?

TERRY NEAL, WASHINGTONPOST.COM: I think it matters because no matter however many people saw the speech tonight, people will get up in the morning. They'll read the papers (UNINTELLIGIBLE) talked about on your show and I thought that he did a pretty effective job in one area, which was tying together the war on terror and Iraq. Increasingly, as you know, people are saying that they don't see those things as the same thing. He gets good marks on one and not so good in others.

And finally, real quick, on the economy, I expected a lot more stronger case, a lot stronger better case about why his economic platform had worked and why it will continue to do so. He said very little in the speech about that. I expected a little bit more.

BROWN: And finally, John, just give me your best sentence (ph). We talked for a long time actually this afternoon. Do you think the race fundamentally changed this week?

JOHN HARWOOD, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": I don't think it did Aaron. In fact I don't think the race is fundamentally changed since before the Democratic convention. Republican polls over the first three nights of the convention that I was told of this afternoon showed movement for President Bush in southern states but not movement in some of the Midwest states. That suggests that maybe some of his base, particularly white men, is coming back to him, but it may not be working in the battleground states and one thing we have to keep in mind, all of these polls may be more difficult to interpret this year because both parties are doing so much to change the composition of the electorate, we don't know who's going to turn out.

BROWN: Thanks, that's a lot of help. Now I don't even know what to believe Terry and John and Nina, you guys have been terrific this week. Thank you all. You've been very experienced TV people unlike Maureen Dowd, who's dreading the next 4 1/2 minutes, right? Ms. Dowd is a distinguished columnist for the "New York Times" with a great wit and you want to be on the right side of it. She's got a book out called, "BushWorld," which is in truth how we wrangled her with us tonight. Nice to see you.

MAUREEN DOWD, AUTHOR, "BUSHWORLD": Nice to see you Aaron.

BROWN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) came out and I think one of the things he wanted to create today was a sense of big, broad vision. What's that about, do you think?

DOWD: Well, it's more of the reverse playbook, because dad didn't have the vision thing so he wants to have the vision things.

BROWN: Do you think this is a political statement or a psychological statement or both? Is he trying to be different from his dad in total or just he wants a different outcome?

DOWD: Well, I mean he wanted to have two terms, unlike his dad, so in order to have two terms, he's reversed everything his dad did and in fact in his speech tonight, he was again kind of talking more about Ronald Reagan than his dad. His dad was the man who served eight years with Ronald Reagan. That was the main thing. He didn't even let his dad talk, I mean former president should have a speaking slot.

BROWN: I was trying to remember today, other than Nixon, that's a whole different deal, though I think Nixon's name was mentioned more than Osama bin Laden's at this convention.

DOWD: I know. Would you believe that? Bush didn't mention him. BROWN: No one.

DOWD: Lots of the bullhorn scene, but none of Osama.

BROWN: I just don't think, I did not hear his name mentioned once. In any case, I was trying to remember if a former president was ever, did not make a speech other than Nixon and his party.

DOWD: I know someone today was saying where's Gerald Ford, but you know. I just -- this convention was a masterpiece from start to finish in every way, I mean in some ways an Orwellian masterpiece. Everything as usual that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is the opposite of what's true, but I think with the home run and he's standing on that pitcher's mound with the president's seal, so Lee Atwater somewhere is looking up or down or wherever he's from and smiling.

BROWN: So as you look at this, you believe they executed a perfect four days or a darn near perfect four days.

DOWD: Yes, even -- other reporters don't agree with me, but I think even Zell Miller was brilliant because he came before Cheney and he made Cheney seem calm and reasonable. Before Cheney seems sort of like a crazy person and then you have Zell Miller seem crazier and so Cheney comes on and kind of raises his eyebrows like there's the crazy guy. It was brilliant. And they painted Kerry as this beefy Kerry, the French poodle and do you want to leave the security of the nation to Fifi Kerry and the Breck girl?

BROWN: They're pretty tough. They play hardball.

DOWD: Absolutely.

BROWN: Are you surprised by how tough they are? I bet you're not. I wasn't surprised.

DOWD: No, I'm simply surprised that Kerry didn't realize what was coming, that they were going to rip his face off. I mean it's not exactly a new technique, by the Bush family.

BROWN: Just a final question. What is it about Mr. Bush that sort of more than anything seems to get you nuts?

DOWD: The Bushes are the ones who keep talking about the "New York Times." It's quite flattering although at least the father reads the "Times" before he critiques it like the son did tonight.

BROWN: Well, he obviously -- I mean you write about him a lot. You don't write about his kindly. What's going on there?

DOWD: I always tweak power Aaron, whoever's in power.

BROWN: Yes you do. Nice to see you.

DOWD: Nice to see you.

BROWN: Thanks, good luck with your book. DOWD: Thanks a lot.

BROWN: It's a great read.

DOWD: Thanks.

BROWN: Thank you.

Main (ph) story as you know, I mean the weird thing about this week is we've gone four days where we talked about nothing but politics and tomorrow I guarantee you, we're going to talk about nothing but hurricane Frances. I know this. We will now too. We'll take a break first. This is a special and brief edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, all that's been going on in New York, literally tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Floridians have been fleeing their homes. Some of the delegates from here went down there. It's not really clear to us whether Florida, which in the political context a really important state, saw any of what went on here in New York.

Hurricane Frances is bearing down on them. We were talking about it this afternoon. This is an enormous hurricane. Now how it actually, the track it ultimately takes, we'll know more tomorrow. We have some clues tonight. CNN's David Mattingly joins us from St. Augustine and can give us a sense of what things are like in the state, particularly on the east side of the state tonight. David, good to see you.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you too Aaron. Right now in Florida, we're finding out that people are listening to public officials. One official here said that this is no longer the time for hoping. This is the time for action. Again, people are listening. The call has gone out for mandatory evacuations all up and down the coast, 2 1/2 million people are listening to those warnings. They are going to higher ground to safety and there has been and with those warnings the usual run on building supplies and storm necessity as almost the entire state braces for what is expected to be a very tough storm coming through here.

Frances may not be as powerful as Charley when it comes ashore, but it is still listed as a category three tonight, still a very strong storm. It is more than twice the size of Charley. That storm that killed 25 people just a couple of weeks ago. It is roughly the size of Texas we are told and because it is moving very slowly, it is probably going to be very full of rain. There's going to be a lot of rain that everyone's expecting, 10 to 20 inches according to some forecasts as it passes across the peninsula. So again, if you want to call it some good news, it has been downgraded to a category three storm. Landfall expected some time Saturday morning, shaping up to be a very long and difficult weekend for people here in central Florida. Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you. Take care of yourself. We have a lot of colleagues down there who will be covering the storm tomorrow. The first good news we've heard out of this is that they downgraded it. At one point they were talking about a category five so a category three is pretty good news in all of this and hopefully, people will get out and be safe and we'll keep an eye on that. I expect it is the story that will dominate the day tomorrow.

Out in Ohio tonight as you know, the Kerry campaign, Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards are about to address a rally and we've got some shots out of there tonight. I'm not precise. There we go, the senator starting to speak.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ...comes down to a very simple choice. If you believe that this country is going in the right direction and if you believe that you're doing better than you were four years ago, then you go vote for George Bush. But if you believe, but if you believe as John and I do, that we're headed in the wrong direction and that we can do better and that we can do better for the lives of Americans, then we ask you to join us in this effort to change the direction of our country.

For four days, for four days in New York, instead of talking about the real issues that matter to the American people, instead of talking about how we're really going to create jobs and talking about how we really strengthen our economy, how we're really going to expand health care, bring down gas prices, changes the lives of Americans.

You know what? They did everything except talk about that. We've had insults. We've had anger from Republicans and I'll tell you why. It's exactly what John just said. Because they can't come to you and talk to you about having created jobs since they've loss them. They can't come to you and talk to you about creating health since 5 million Americans have lost it. They can't talk to you about standing up and fighting for the American worker as their own Labor secretary talks about exporting jobs overseas. They can't talk about their record, but it is a record of failure and so all they do is attack.

Tonight, tonight the president told you that he has a plan for our economy. That's exactly, that's exactly what he told you four years ago. But most Americans that I've been meeting and John's been meeting around this country don't believe after four years that they've seen, that two months before an election, all of a sudden, they don't come to you and say, look at how we've been fighting.

Look at how far along we are in health care. Look how many jobs we've been able to create because this is the first president in 11 presidents, first president since the great depressions, since Herbert Hoover, who has lost jobs. And this president, this president in fact is quite proud of the fact that not even failure is going to force him to change course. I'll tell you what's going to force him to change course: you're going to force him to change course. We're going to change course this November.

BROWN: John Kerry in Ohio. We'll stay with the Kerry speech. Larry King will pick up the coverage and we'll see you again tomorrow. Good night from NEWSNIGHT.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired September 2, 2004 - 23:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: There they come. The balloons. The balloons are coming down rapidly here at the Republican Convention.
The president of the United States speaking for just more than one hour, in contrast to Senator Kerry who spoke for about 25 minutes at the Democratic Convention in Boston.

The president making it clear what his agenda is for the next four years, an ambitious agenda, an agenda that will be thoroughly dissected by the Democrats, if not already, very, very soon.

In fact, even the president and the vice president and their wives are up on stage to the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) applause of those here.

Senator John Kerry's already getting ready to deliver his own speech about an hour or so from now, less an hour from now at midnight. In Springfield, Ohio, one of those battleground states, he'll be delivering a speech responding very, very rapidly to the president of the United States.

Judy Woodruff, I want to update our viewers on two incidents that we have that happened during the course of the president's remarks.

Two individuals who had tried to disrupt the president were escorted by law-enforcement authorities out of Madison Square Garden. Presumably, they were apprehended. We don't know specifically what happened.

Also, outside there have been some demonstrations -- orderly, relatively large -- but demonstrations against the president of the United States -- Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, this speech caps off the convention, less a convention speech, a typical convention speech, more of a presidential, almost a State of the Union address. It had a -- certainly a bow to the future. He ticked off a number of domestic programs that are going to cost money. He broadly defended his military and his foreign policy.

There was poetry in it, there was humor, and there was humility, which is, I think, something that George W. Bush feels he needed to show in a year when people have accused him of being arrogant.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: I think you could almost summarize this speech, as you said, I know who I am. I know what I believe. I know where I'm going, and we are dissatisfied. If you give me the four more years, we will have a better chance to rebuild it.

It is also interesting that his take on John Kerry is relatively gentle in tone, if not substance. We heard a lot of familiar lines, battle-tested lines about Iraq -- faced with a choice, I will defend America every time. There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops -- and I think -- I think he was deliberately sacrificing the grander colloquy for the sense that he had a specific sense of where he was going.

BLITZER: The president of the United States basking in the glory, the moment, the moment when the confetti is coming down, the balloons are coming down.

The president receiving some young people. Those look like perhaps the Cheney grandchildren who are there, and that would be Elizabeth Cheney. She's got her little baby. She has four children up there with the vice president and Lynne Cheney.

The president of the United States' daughters are there, Jenna and Barbara Bush. His brothers. Of course, his parents, the first President Bush and Barbara Bush. All of them, as is typical of these conventions, coming up to express their appreciation for what's going on.

WOODRUFF: Wolf, we should point out the balloons have come down on time at this convention. The Democrats had a little problem with that in Boston.

BLITZER: And a lot of our viewers remember that. We certainly do as well.

Jeff, let's get back to this speech.

This is a delegate camera, one of those cameras we gave our delegates. The balloons coming down even a bit more rapidly.

Now, Jeff, let's talk about this speech first. The jabs he took at Senator Kerry -- they were specific but nothing that we hadn't heard many times on the campaign trail. He's been saying very similar things, albeit not to a huge audience like the one that's on tonight.

GREENFIELD: Right. The one thing that I think was deliberately showcased here is the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) John Kerry's liberal conservative values. Now the point of that is both to say something nice to his more conservative supporters and once again to paint Kerry really less -- both as a liberal and as a guy who doesn't know where he stands. That's one of the key themes.

I think the other thing -- because it goes all the way back to the start of the Bush reelection campaign -- is this ownership society. The Bush people believe that the American voter, after 9/11 and economic woes, feels out of control of their life, and that's why you heard the president talk so lengthily about the idea of giving people back power. That's a key theme we're going to be hearing all fall -- Wolf. BLITZER: And, Judy, there were some 15 specific initiatives that the president unveiled. You know, several of them he's talked about over the years, but there were 15 specific plans he talked about on domestic issues.

WOODRUFF: That's right, Wolf. And by my count, at least 10 of them cost money. I mean, just for an example, increasing funds for community colleges, providing low-income Americans with better access to health care, funding the No Child Left Behind, doubling the number of people served by job training programs. He was very specific.

And, for a Republican president, a conservative Republican president, you know, for -- who's -- as you -- you know, we've talked about this earlier today, looking at a $450 billion deficit already and growing. This is going to cost money. Where is that money going to come from?

These are some questions that I think are going to come up on the campaign trail in the days to come.

BLITZER: And advisers will be explaining presumably in specific detail how the -- how we would propose to fund those two initiatives included there.

GREENFIELD: I also think there's one area where I'm expecting to hear the Democrats come in very hard is so you've been there four years, now you tell us that you've got some ideas, which is why I think the president was at pains to say we had a lot of problems, we had 9/11, we had go to war, but, believe me, now we're ready to move to the -- the very beginning -- now that we've climbed the mountain, we can see the valley.

He sort of built in an explanation, I think, to try to rebut the obvious Democratic (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of, hey, things are not that well -- not so hot after four years.

BLITZER: You know, right after John Kerry accepted -- delivered his acceptance speech in Boston at the Democratic Convention, we spoke with Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the Republican Party. Now let's turn to Terry McAuliffe. He's the chairman of the Democratic Party.

Terry McAuliffe, we'll give you a chance to respond. The president did unveil a specific agenda. He explained to the American people in very precise terms where he wants this country to move over the next four years.

TERRY MCAULIFFE, DNC CHAIRMAN: Wolf, the first thing I would say is where has George Bush been for four years. He thinks he can give an hour speech tonight and make up literally for four years of failed leadership of this country.

Tonight, he didn't even talk about the 45 million Americans today that have no health insurance. He did not mention outsourcing at all. He didn't talk about many of the issues that people face at home. He didn't talk about the 1.8 million people who have lost their jobs. This is just another litany of empty promises. BLITZER: Well, on the outsourcing of the jobs, he did come up with a new plan, he said, to reclaim people who may have lost their jobs because of economic dislocation. He wants people to have lifelong education, something that you're very familiar with because Bill Clinton used to talk about that during his eight years in the White House as well.

MCAULIFFE: But where has George Bush been for four years. He has talked about these things for the last four years. This reminded me of a State of the Union address, laying out a lot of different initiatives, but -- You know what? -- he never delivers on the promises that he says.

Americans watching this tonight, Wolf, have got to ask themselves do they think this country is headed in the wrong direction or the right direction, and the majority of Americans today think this country is headed in the wrong direction under the leadership of George Bush. John Kerry believes that this nation can do better, and it will do better with John Kerry as president.

But, for George Bush, it's just all happy talk. People are going to turn their television off. They're going to go sit at their kitchen table. And for 45 million people, they're going to sit and be concerned that they have no health insurance at all. People have lost their unemployment benefits.

WOODRUFF: Terry McAuliffe, a consistent theme from this convention -- and we heard it again tonight from the president himself -- is John Kerry's inconsistent positions. He talks about being for and against the war in Iraq, for and against funding for the troops in Iraq. He spoke about John Kerry's not supporting important domestic programs.

When are we going to hear from John Kerry, particularly on the question of Iraq. This is almost like an open sore that the Republicans keep picking at. Is John Kerry going to be able to close that?

MCAULIFFE: You bet. He's going to begin this campaign for the general election in about a half an hour in Ohio.

But I remind you, Judy, it's George Bush this week that had a very bad week. He talked about a catastrophic success in Iraq. Military folks were scratching their heads wondering what is the president talking about. He admitted that he had miscalculated in Iraq, and then -- shocking -- he said we could not win the war on terror. John Kerry can win the war on terror.

So, this week, George Bush has had three statements that people say why are you the commander in chief of this country. If you don't think we can win the war on terror, you miscalculated, we've spent $200 billion in Iraq today, we're close to losing our 1,000th troop over there. He has not shown the leadership domestically, on foreign affairs.

America can do better, and they can do better with John Kerry as president.

GREENFIELD: Terry, in a couple of minutes, John Kerry's going to really lay the lumber on Dick Cheney for his five draft deferments. Is this a good contrast between this soaring speech, the speeches (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and the first thing here from John Kerry is an attack on Dick Cheney's draft record?

MCAULIFFE: Well, Jeff, first of all, you talk about the soaring rhetoric and everything else. We have watched four days of what I've got to tell you is one of the most negative, mean-spirited conventions I have ever seen.

Just take the contrast of Barak Obama, the keynote speaker for the Democrats, who gave an uplifting, positive -- got people excited. You know, the son of immigrants who came to this country. He's now running for the United States Senate. Again, Zell Miller's mean- spirited, hate-filled speech attacking John Kerry. Those two keynote speeches, I believe, really set the table for what our party and what our candidates stand for.

John Kerry is going to respond to the attacks -- the malicious attacks that they have said about John Kerry. He went, he served honorably, he volunteered in Vietnam. He won five medals. That is one of the characteristics that will make him a strong president.

And Dick Cheney and George Bush and John Ashcroft and Don Rumsfeld and all the rest of them who are out there attacking this president -- our candidate John Kerry in one way or the other, John Kerry's going to defend himself.

BLITZER: All right.

MCAULIFFE: But his service is something we're proud of as Democrats.

BLITZER: Terry McAuliffee, thanks very much for joining us.

MCAULIFFE: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: I just want to remind our viewers that after John Kerry's acceptance speech a month ago in Boston, we get -- we gave a similar opportunity to Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the Republican Party, to respond immediately as well. Also at that time, we then spoke to Tad Devine, a senior strategist for John Kerry.

Let's bring in Ralph Reed. He's the senior strategist, someone who's well known to our viewers. He's been supporting, of course, very strongly President Bush and his reelection.

By our count, Ralph, the president had some 15 new initiatives that he would like to get accomplished, domestic initiatives, in a second term. They're going to cost billions, if not tens of billions, of dollars at a time of record budget deficits, $450 billion. Do you want to simply increase that budget deficit?

RALPH REED, BUSH ADVISER: No, not at all, Wolf. I mean, look, this was a great night for the president, great night for our camp and for our party. This speech was visionary. It was optimistic, it was positive, it was forward-looking, and it was substantive. And it's not a State of the Union address. I mean, the president didn't go into details on every policy proposal.

But what we didn't hear in Boston from John Kerry is where has he been the last 20 years in the U.S. Senate and where does he want to take the country. The president went through where he wants to take the country, and he talked about expanding liberty around the world, transforming the Middle East by creating vibrant democracies in the heart of that troubled region.

And here at home, Wolf, what he talked about was extended liberty and freedom by creating an ownership society where seven million more minority homeowners have an opportunity to access the American dream.

WOODRUFF: Ralph Reed, I'm going to speak quietly because we are in the middle of a benediction here. But what about what we just heard from Terry McAuliffe. He said -- this convention, he said, until tonight, he said, was almost relentlessly negative and critical and, he said, mean-spirited.

In other words, George Bush was able to come off tonight as the good cop after three nights of hearing relentlessly negative attacks on John Kerry. His point was the Republicans -- couldn't they have done better than this?

REED: Well, Judy, I just wouldn't agree with that criticism at all. I mean, the fact of the matter is that this is a choice election. You've got two candidates with the starkest competing visions to the future of our country that we've had in modern times, and we want a president who will support our troops once he votes to send them into battle.

John Kerry voted to send them into battle and then voted against the $87 billion appropriation to give them the protective body armor and the ammunition they needed to win the war, and we want a president that, when allies and countries and nations stand with us in this struggle, doesn't call them a coalition of the coerced and bribed.

We want a president who honors our allies and doesn't cast aspersions upon them and insult them.

GREENFIELD: Ralph...

REED: That's a clear contrast, and I think that contrast ought to be talked about. It's fully appropriate in a campaign to talk about those contrasts on the issues, not personality, not personal attacks, but on...

GREENFIELD: Just very quickly, you know well as a political operative there are things beyond your control. Big job cutbacks in GM and Ford. It's going to hit you in Michigan and Ohio. That's not good news for you on the eve of a general election. Aren't those the kinds of things beyond your control or Kerry's that ultimately are going to shape this election? REED: Well, look, Jeff, we -- you know, we've said from the beginning going back to when we formed our reelection committee a year and three months ago that this was going to be a very close election, and in close elections, events you can't control can be decisive.

But, in our campaign, we focus on what we do control, and what we control is this: We've got the best candidate in this race. We've got a winning conservative, optimistic, forward-looking message, and we're building the most effective grassroots organization in the history of presidential politics.

And those three keys are going to bring this victory home in 60 days.

BLITZER: Ralph Reed, thanks very much for spending a few moments with us as well on this night, the last night of the Republican Convention here at Madison Square Garden in New York.

I want to show our viewers very briefly some pictures we have. These are live pictures you're seeing outside. There have been some demonstrations against the president, very peaceful. There have been some arrests. There were two individuals who were escorted outside from inside Madison Square Garden, but, basically, the situation's under control.

There's another picture, a live picture of Springfield, Ohio. In about a half an hour or so from now, John Kerry will be speaking. There it is. There's a rally that's about to take place in Springfield, Ohio. John Kerry and John Edwards. Both will be addressing the crowd in the key battleground state of Ohio.

They're wasting no time making sure they can respond right away, almost unprecedented, perhaps it is unprecedented that the candidates -- the presidential nominee and the vice presidential nominee from the other party are going to go out immediately and deliver this kind of address.

Jeff Greenfield, earlier in the night, we asked you to make some points what you were looking for tonight and give our viewers your bottom line assessment.

GREENFIELD: OK. First, we asked: Will a second term be different? We've heard discussed how much the president was at pains to set out an agenda, how specific we don't know, but it's designed to show voters I can be something different, I will be something different.

How tough on Kerry? Repeated some very familiar criticisms, but he did it with a fair amount of humor, certainly nothing like the zeal, if that's the right word, of Zell Miller.

And third, George W. Bush regular guy? Toward the end of the speech, there was that moment when he talked about his flaws, his problems with English, the fact that he walked with a swagger, which in Texas we call walking, Ed Gillespie told us we were going to hear that George Bush is a good guy, that was what was trying to be done in that part of the speech.

So that's what we did as far as we could tell (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BLITZER: All right. Never a dull moment at these conventions. It's been a pleasure working with both of you, Judy Woodruff, Jeff Greenfield, thanks to both of you very much. We'll take a quick break. NEWSNIGHT a special edition with Aaron Brown. That's coming up and also, remember at midnight not only will John Kerry be speaking together with John Edwards, a special live edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" as well.

We leave you right now with some beautiful songs from (UNINTELLIGIBLE). She's entertaining those delegates still inside Madison Square Garden. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A reminder, a special edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" coming up at the top of the hour, including remarks in Ohio by the Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and John Edwards, the vice presidential nominee. We'll leave it here for now. A special edition of NEWSNIGHT with Aaron Brown. That's coming up right now and in fact, Aaron is standing by to take it over. Aaron.

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSNIGHT: Wolf, thank you very much. Good evening again everyone. We'll talk about in the next 27 minutes or so, what the president had to say, where the campaign -- both campaigns have to go and where perhaps we are after a week here, four days here in New York.

Let's start, go back if we can first to Jeff Greenfield and pick up on some of the themes that Jeff was talking about a couple of moments ago, about the speech, what the speech needed to accomplish and how the president and his speech writers went about trying to accomplish those things. Jeff, good evening.

GREENFIELD: Hi, Aaron. I'll try to do this as quickly as possible. I've picked the two examples. First, how do you explain and talk about voter dissatisfaction with the first term? Take a look at this clip please (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Since 2001, Americans have been given hills to climb and found the strength to climb them. Now, because we have made the hard journey, we can see the valley below. Now, because we have faced challenges with resolve, we have historic goals within our reach and greatness in our future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Get it? The first term may not have satisfied you, but look at all that you had to contend with, war and terror. Now that we've got that under control or at least dealing with it, we can move on. Second, we're going to play you a little -- an ineloquent part of the speech, but it's important. Listen to this talk about how the world has changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Today, workers change jobs, even careers, many times during their lives and in one of the most dramatic shifts our society has seen, 2/3 of all moms also work outside the home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Well, of course, George Bush has more trouble with women voters than men voters. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) but showing the world has changed, by the way, Bill Clinton used to talk about that a lot. He's setting the stage for his notion that he can see what's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) future, most importantly embodied in this notion. Let's hear this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: In all these proposals, we seek to provide not just a government program, but a path, a path to greater opportunity, more freedom and more control over your own life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: This is the 2004 version of his argument from four years ago that I trust the people (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the government. It's also about that notion of an ownership society, saying we know you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you don't have control of your life. I want to put more of it in your hands.

Next, next to last. How does he deal with John Kerry, by repeating one of the most familiar and effective lines of his stump speech. Take a listen about the $87 billion vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: When asked to explain his vote, the senator said I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it. Then he said, then he said he was proud of his vote. Then when pressed, he said, it was a complicated matter. There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: The president (UNINTELLIGIBLE) he's a man of flaws. He made fun of everything from his use of English to how he walks, but the basic notion here Aaron is an attempt to say I know where I stand. I know where I'm going and if you vote for me, they'll be a second term that you will be satisfied with than the first. Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you, good quick work. To our senior White House correspondent John King. The president listed 14 or 15 specific ideas, certainly no detail. How much of that was new and how much of that had been out there in some cases for a while?

JOHN KING, SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The themes are not (UNINTELLIGIBLE) president stressed throughout his first term and especially throughout the re-election campaign. Some of the proposals are new. The president talking about putting a health center or rural community health center to every rural or small community in America. That is specificity. He has talked about the issue before, not that specifically. The president is talking about this flex time proposal. He's discussed that before. He revived his Social Security proposal from the last campaign and he said he would simplify the tax code.

That is new, although we don't know how, said he would work in a bipartisan way if reelected (UNINTELLIGIBLE) all of those aimed at addressing the central arguments of the Democrats. They talk of two America's. They talk of the middle class squeeze. They say this president is not helping the workers who are under so much strain because of outsourcing, because of the loss of manufacturing jobs and other jobs. They say this president is doing nothing. Tonight the president said he would do very much if reelected, aiming at essentially beyond Iraq, the central democratic theme, which is economic anxiety.

BROWN: John, thank you and thank you for your efforts this week. You know, it's been long. Now to Candy Crowley, our senior political correspondent. Candy, where does the campaign go literally and I suppose thematically from here?

CANDY CROWLEY, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on the campaign trail and what you'll here obviously are smaller versions of this, what I call the "Readers Digest" version of this speech cut up along the way and along the trail. Interesting I thought that the most effective part of this speech, at least in terms of these delegates, were the final parts, where he talked about holding the sons and daughters of the fallen, saying your mom or your dad is a hero, but all they really wanted was their mom and dad.

That sort of thing really gripped I think both the delegates, as well as the president, looking at the expression on his face. So what they tried to do here and what they'll try to do as they move on out, because now there is an official Democratic candidate. There is an official Republican candidate. It's the general election and it is full steam ahead here. And I think as they go out, it will be that sort of compassionate conservative that they put back out there showing more of the conservative side because after all, as we've noticed a couple of times, swing voters, which now the battle is about by and large are usually at least the majority of them women, that's the message that resonates with them.

BROWN: Thank you, Candy Crowley. Turn to Bill Schneider. You spend a fair amount of your time dealing with polls. We don't have one yet. Give me a best guess, promise I'll never hold you to it. I mean that. We came into this thing at 45, 47, 47, 45 kind of depends which poll you read and how do we come out of the week do you think? Has the game, the line moved?

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Best guess, I think Bush is going to get a little bit of a bounce, 4 or 5 points and that will bring him up above 50 percent and he'll be in the lead and I think he's -- it'll be a small lead. Is it sustainable? That's going to be tough, but I think he will move into the lead for the first time in this race as a result of what happened this week.

BROWN: And we are really about a month, presumably, if the debate schedule goes on as we think it might, we're about a month from the next major moment in the campaign, where this thing could shift yet again.

SCHNEIDER: Of course. There are many events. There are events in the world that could shift this.

BROWN: Right, the next known event that could shift this.

SCHNEIDER: Exactly right. The reason why I think Bush probably scored some points is a very simple reason. He's very likable and that makes an enormous difference. The voters have to like you to vote for you. That was one of Al Gore's problems. People never really warmed up to him. You know there were a lot of Clinton haters in the 1990s, but when Clinton got up to speed, a lot of people said, you know, how can you hate this guy? People liked Bill Clinton and there were a lot of Bush haters out there right now and when Bush gets up to speak and we see all these people massed against him and the Michael Moores of this world, voters listen to him and they like him and it's hard to understand how there are so many people who hate him.

BROWN: Good to have you with us this week. Thank you very much. We'll talk more in the next couple months, I'm sure.

Joe Klein, from the -- the columnist from "Time" magazine and a contributor of ours is with us tonight as well. Let's try you too. The first one's easy, your impressions.

JOE KLEIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Well, this wasn't the greatest speech that George Bush ever gave, but it was an effective one. The first half of it, the domestic policy part was kind of rote, but he kind of began to catch fire when he attacked John Kerry's statement about having conservative values. And then (AUDIO GAP) stewardship of the war on terror and especially his decision to go with the war in Iraq.

The Democrats want this to be about the economy. George Bush wants this to be about Iraq and that's where we stand.

BROWN: Let me -- does he want it to be about Iraq or does he want it to be about the war on terror?

KLEIN: Well, he wants it to be, he wants it to be on the war on terror. But face it, after this, we didn't hear about Fallujah this week and the fact that America retreated from there and you have an Islamic republic fighting against us from within Iraq. That's going to become obvious in the news on every night over the next couple of months. It's going to be the big issue he's going to have to deal with. And so Iraq, for this moment, as the president has said in the past, is the war on terrorism and how he deals in Iraq is going to be a central issue of this campaign, that really you didn't here from much about this week.

BROWN: Joe, you got great instincts on this. Tell me what you think about the wisdom of Senator Kerry coming out tonight and giving this double barreled response if you will to the attack on him by the vice president yesterday?

KLEIN: Well, I think they had to do it. It's about time they did something real. I mean, this is -- this convention this week was the exact opposite of the Democratic convention, which, in which the Democrats almost seemed lobotomized because they never made the case against George W. Bush.

John Kerry has to make that case starting now. He has to do it in the strongest possible terms. The word that he used time and again in his convention was strong, but over the past month, he has been made to seem weak. He always says he's fighting for working families, but he hasn't seemed to be fighting for himself. And now, he's finally decided to fight for himself and we got a game.

BROWN: We have a game. Joe, it's been good to have you in this game for the week. Thank you very much, Joe Klein.

KLEIN: My pleasure Aaron.

BROWN: "Time" magazine. We'll take a break, Brown table is with us tonight, Maureen Dowd of the "New York Times" but the break comes first. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We'll turn now for the last time at the convention until 2008 when they'll probably all be the anchors to the Brown table. Terry Neal of the washingtonpost.com, John Harwood of the "Wall Street Journal" and Nina Easton of the "Boston Globe." Nina, let's start with the Kerry stuff. He's out there in Ohio tonight, about 15 minutes or so. He's going to come out. What's going on there?

NINA EASTON, THE "BOSTON GLOBE": Well, he's in Ohio, which has lost 230,000 jobs since the start of this administration and he is now finally going to really fire back at the administration, particularly over these ads, not they have been supported by an independent group questioning his record in Vietnam. He's going to attack Cheney for taking advantage of military and student deferments not to serve and likewise, he will be questioning President Bush's credentials on that issue. Whether the timing of this, I mean he clearly wants to pop the balloons that we see in back of us, whether the timing of it is going to look like sour grapes or, I'm not sure how that's really going to play out.

BROWN: Terry, does a speech at midnight in the east, it's going to get -- it'll get cable coverage. You maybe have a couple million, 3 million, 4 million people watching it. Does it matter. Does it -- will it get big play in the papers tomorrow?

TERRY NEAL, WASHINGTONPOST.COM: I think it matters because no matter however many people saw the speech tonight, people will get up in the morning. They'll read the papers (UNINTELLIGIBLE) talked about on your show and I thought that he did a pretty effective job in one area, which was tying together the war on terror and Iraq. Increasingly, as you know, people are saying that they don't see those things as the same thing. He gets good marks on one and not so good in others.

And finally, real quick, on the economy, I expected a lot more stronger case, a lot stronger better case about why his economic platform had worked and why it will continue to do so. He said very little in the speech about that. I expected a little bit more.

BROWN: And finally, John, just give me your best sentence (ph). We talked for a long time actually this afternoon. Do you think the race fundamentally changed this week?

JOHN HARWOOD, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": I don't think it did Aaron. In fact I don't think the race is fundamentally changed since before the Democratic convention. Republican polls over the first three nights of the convention that I was told of this afternoon showed movement for President Bush in southern states but not movement in some of the Midwest states. That suggests that maybe some of his base, particularly white men, is coming back to him, but it may not be working in the battleground states and one thing we have to keep in mind, all of these polls may be more difficult to interpret this year because both parties are doing so much to change the composition of the electorate, we don't know who's going to turn out.

BROWN: Thanks, that's a lot of help. Now I don't even know what to believe Terry and John and Nina, you guys have been terrific this week. Thank you all. You've been very experienced TV people unlike Maureen Dowd, who's dreading the next 4 1/2 minutes, right? Ms. Dowd is a distinguished columnist for the "New York Times" with a great wit and you want to be on the right side of it. She's got a book out called, "BushWorld," which is in truth how we wrangled her with us tonight. Nice to see you.

MAUREEN DOWD, AUTHOR, "BUSHWORLD": Nice to see you Aaron.

BROWN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) came out and I think one of the things he wanted to create today was a sense of big, broad vision. What's that about, do you think?

DOWD: Well, it's more of the reverse playbook, because dad didn't have the vision thing so he wants to have the vision things.

BROWN: Do you think this is a political statement or a psychological statement or both? Is he trying to be different from his dad in total or just he wants a different outcome?

DOWD: Well, I mean he wanted to have two terms, unlike his dad, so in order to have two terms, he's reversed everything his dad did and in fact in his speech tonight, he was again kind of talking more about Ronald Reagan than his dad. His dad was the man who served eight years with Ronald Reagan. That was the main thing. He didn't even let his dad talk, I mean former president should have a speaking slot.

BROWN: I was trying to remember today, other than Nixon, that's a whole different deal, though I think Nixon's name was mentioned more than Osama bin Laden's at this convention.

DOWD: I know. Would you believe that? Bush didn't mention him. BROWN: No one.

DOWD: Lots of the bullhorn scene, but none of Osama.

BROWN: I just don't think, I did not hear his name mentioned once. In any case, I was trying to remember if a former president was ever, did not make a speech other than Nixon and his party.

DOWD: I know someone today was saying where's Gerald Ford, but you know. I just -- this convention was a masterpiece from start to finish in every way, I mean in some ways an Orwellian masterpiece. Everything as usual that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is the opposite of what's true, but I think with the home run and he's standing on that pitcher's mound with the president's seal, so Lee Atwater somewhere is looking up or down or wherever he's from and smiling.

BROWN: So as you look at this, you believe they executed a perfect four days or a darn near perfect four days.

DOWD: Yes, even -- other reporters don't agree with me, but I think even Zell Miller was brilliant because he came before Cheney and he made Cheney seem calm and reasonable. Before Cheney seems sort of like a crazy person and then you have Zell Miller seem crazier and so Cheney comes on and kind of raises his eyebrows like there's the crazy guy. It was brilliant. And they painted Kerry as this beefy Kerry, the French poodle and do you want to leave the security of the nation to Fifi Kerry and the Breck girl?

BROWN: They're pretty tough. They play hardball.

DOWD: Absolutely.

BROWN: Are you surprised by how tough they are? I bet you're not. I wasn't surprised.

DOWD: No, I'm simply surprised that Kerry didn't realize what was coming, that they were going to rip his face off. I mean it's not exactly a new technique, by the Bush family.

BROWN: Just a final question. What is it about Mr. Bush that sort of more than anything seems to get you nuts?

DOWD: The Bushes are the ones who keep talking about the "New York Times." It's quite flattering although at least the father reads the "Times" before he critiques it like the son did tonight.

BROWN: Well, he obviously -- I mean you write about him a lot. You don't write about his kindly. What's going on there?

DOWD: I always tweak power Aaron, whoever's in power.

BROWN: Yes you do. Nice to see you.

DOWD: Nice to see you.

BROWN: Thanks, good luck with your book. DOWD: Thanks a lot.

BROWN: It's a great read.

DOWD: Thanks.

BROWN: Thank you.

Main (ph) story as you know, I mean the weird thing about this week is we've gone four days where we talked about nothing but politics and tomorrow I guarantee you, we're going to talk about nothing but hurricane Frances. I know this. We will now too. We'll take a break first. This is a special and brief edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, all that's been going on in New York, literally tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Floridians have been fleeing their homes. Some of the delegates from here went down there. It's not really clear to us whether Florida, which in the political context a really important state, saw any of what went on here in New York.

Hurricane Frances is bearing down on them. We were talking about it this afternoon. This is an enormous hurricane. Now how it actually, the track it ultimately takes, we'll know more tomorrow. We have some clues tonight. CNN's David Mattingly joins us from St. Augustine and can give us a sense of what things are like in the state, particularly on the east side of the state tonight. David, good to see you.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you too Aaron. Right now in Florida, we're finding out that people are listening to public officials. One official here said that this is no longer the time for hoping. This is the time for action. Again, people are listening. The call has gone out for mandatory evacuations all up and down the coast, 2 1/2 million people are listening to those warnings. They are going to higher ground to safety and there has been and with those warnings the usual run on building supplies and storm necessity as almost the entire state braces for what is expected to be a very tough storm coming through here.

Frances may not be as powerful as Charley when it comes ashore, but it is still listed as a category three tonight, still a very strong storm. It is more than twice the size of Charley. That storm that killed 25 people just a couple of weeks ago. It is roughly the size of Texas we are told and because it is moving very slowly, it is probably going to be very full of rain. There's going to be a lot of rain that everyone's expecting, 10 to 20 inches according to some forecasts as it passes across the peninsula. So again, if you want to call it some good news, it has been downgraded to a category three storm. Landfall expected some time Saturday morning, shaping up to be a very long and difficult weekend for people here in central Florida. Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you. Take care of yourself. We have a lot of colleagues down there who will be covering the storm tomorrow. The first good news we've heard out of this is that they downgraded it. At one point they were talking about a category five so a category three is pretty good news in all of this and hopefully, people will get out and be safe and we'll keep an eye on that. I expect it is the story that will dominate the day tomorrow.

Out in Ohio tonight as you know, the Kerry campaign, Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards are about to address a rally and we've got some shots out of there tonight. I'm not precise. There we go, the senator starting to speak.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ...comes down to a very simple choice. If you believe that this country is going in the right direction and if you believe that you're doing better than you were four years ago, then you go vote for George Bush. But if you believe, but if you believe as John and I do, that we're headed in the wrong direction and that we can do better and that we can do better for the lives of Americans, then we ask you to join us in this effort to change the direction of our country.

For four days, for four days in New York, instead of talking about the real issues that matter to the American people, instead of talking about how we're really going to create jobs and talking about how we really strengthen our economy, how we're really going to expand health care, bring down gas prices, changes the lives of Americans.

You know what? They did everything except talk about that. We've had insults. We've had anger from Republicans and I'll tell you why. It's exactly what John just said. Because they can't come to you and talk to you about having created jobs since they've loss them. They can't come to you and talk to you about creating health since 5 million Americans have lost it. They can't talk to you about standing up and fighting for the American worker as their own Labor secretary talks about exporting jobs overseas. They can't talk about their record, but it is a record of failure and so all they do is attack.

Tonight, tonight the president told you that he has a plan for our economy. That's exactly, that's exactly what he told you four years ago. But most Americans that I've been meeting and John's been meeting around this country don't believe after four years that they've seen, that two months before an election, all of a sudden, they don't come to you and say, look at how we've been fighting.

Look at how far along we are in health care. Look how many jobs we've been able to create because this is the first president in 11 presidents, first president since the great depressions, since Herbert Hoover, who has lost jobs. And this president, this president in fact is quite proud of the fact that not even failure is going to force him to change course. I'll tell you what's going to force him to change course: you're going to force him to change course. We're going to change course this November.

BROWN: John Kerry in Ohio. We'll stay with the Kerry speech. Larry King will pick up the coverage and we'll see you again tomorrow. Good night from NEWSNIGHT.

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