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'Ballot Bowl '08'

Aired January 30, 2008 - 12:00   ET

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

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon and welcome to a special edition of "Ballot Bowl '08." Over the next 60 minutes you'll have a chance to hear from the presidential candidates themselves. But first, we have some big news on the campaign trail.
Two major candidates are expected today to call it quits. On the Democratic side, John Edwards is expected to make his announcement in New Orleans. That's the same place where he launched his candidacy.

And on the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani's big gamble on Florida failed. He is expected later today in California to toss his support behind Senator John McCain, the winner of last night's primary here in Florida.

A lot to cover.

I'm Mary Snow in Tampa, Florida.

Joining me in keeping tabs on the Democratic side is my colleague, Jim Acosta, in New York.

Hi, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Mary. Thanks very much.

(AUDIO GAP) in the upcoming Super Tuesday. Also in our game plan, if you're keeping score at home, two live events coming up in this next hour.

Democratic Senator Barack Obama has a gathering in Denver, Colorado. We'll take you out live there just as soon as the Illinois senator gets started. And rival Senator Hillary Clinton is holding a town hall event in Little Rock, Arkansas. Little Rock, Arkansas, being the place that she knows very well. Being a first lady has two meanings down in Arkansas, as she was the first lady down there when her husband was governor of Arkansas, well, a few years back, that's right.

Anyway, first we want to get the latest on the stunning news from John Edwards' camp. The Democratic presidential hopeful is expected to exit the race today.

Jessica Yellin is live in Los Angeles with the details.

Jessica, you've been following John Edwards for some time now. This is coming as a big surprise, is it not? JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is coming as a surprise. Even though John Edwards has not won a primary yet, and there were those who speculated he would have to drop out at some point before the Democratic convention, Edwards' people were insistent all along that he planned to stay in, because if nothing else, he wanted to make sure that his message of focusing on poverty becomes part of the Democratic platform this year.

And it seemed that he has succeeded in ensuring that that does -- that message gets carried on, because we understand he reached out to both Senator Barack Obama and Senator Clinton in advance of making this decision to make sure that they agreed to keep his focus on helping working Americans and helping the poor, a key part of their message going forward. But still, his real calculation, we're told, was that he just did not have the support or the delegates to make a difference and to justify staying in this race all the way through the convention.

And so we're expecting him to announce at 1:00 Eastern Time today that he is dropping out of this race -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Interesting to watch, because for John Edwards this essentially means that his presidential ambitions kind of come to an end. I suppose he could run again. There's no law against running a third time, but that would be highly unlikely, wouldn't you say, after everything that has happened?

And also, he was saying down in South Carolina, after that rough and tumble debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, that he was the "grownup" in the race, and without the grownup in the room, this does sort of shape the rest of the campaign in sort of an interesting -- in sort of an interesting way, don't you think?

YELLIN: Yes. Just imagine the fireworks to come, especially at the debate tomorrow night between senators Clinton and Obama, now that they will be going head-to-head unmediated, without anyone else there.

But for John Edwards, I would agree that this seems, not only on the presidential front, but he has made it clear that he is not interested in being vice president. Of course in politics you never say never, but he has said in the past that he tried that once before and he wasn't looking to go back there again.

He really did want to focus on this message of poverty and see if he couldn't promote that in some other venue. And there has been talk floated among, you know, the punditry that he could become perhaps an attorney general, but that's certainly nothing that's come out of his camp. And he has, you know, plenty of options before him to pursue this message of helping the little guy and fighting the special interests in Washington in any number of ways.

ACOSTA: And he remains a very popular figure in the Democratic Party, as we heard from Ted Kennedy earlier this week.

Jessica Yellin, thank you very much, live in Los Angeles. Next we want to send it out to -- also in California -- I've got to get this gig. I've got to get out to California. Roland Martin, CNN contributor, is in Los Angeles, getting ready for the upcoming debate that is going to take place out there.

And Roland, we were just talking to Jessica about this. This race gets all the more interesting now. And you've just got to wonder, after the gloves came off in South Carolina, and the gloves sort of went back on, what's going to happen when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama go head-to-head?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You're going to see a far different debate. And I don't think you're going to see the level of attacks. Here's why.

The setup Thursday, frankly, between Clinton and Obama is now going to look like a debate that we normally see in September, October, approaching a November election. You're going to have two candidates standing next to one another basically trying to operate as presidents. Who can look presidential? Who can lay out their platform?

And so I think they don't want to go into this really attacking one another. They have to score their points based upon their points, based on the issues. They will take some shots, but I don't think it will be as contentious as we saw January 21st in Myrtle Beach.

ACOSTA: And Roland, you know, all the talk in Washington Monday night was not so much about the State of the Union address, but about the so-called snub. And I'm not calling it that, but that's how it's been written about. Maureen Dowd wrote about it in "The New York Times" today and sort of accused Barack Obama about being disingenuous for saying that, well, Claire McCaskill tapped me on the shoulder, or something like that, and that's why I wasn't really responding to Hillary Clinton when she was extending her hand to Ted Kennedy.

The vibe between these two candidates is not very good right now. And you've got to wonder, Roland, you know, is it going to stay personal, or can these two go back into their corners and come out fighting fairly?

MARTIN: Well, look, I mean, bottom line for the Obama campaign, what they were saying is, look, we got hit pretty hard all week in South Carolina, they say, about the southern strategy being played by former President Bill Clinton. The Clinton campaign said, wait a minute, we also took some blows because we were accused of being racist. And so you have hard feelings going on there.

You also had the hard feelings, frankly, of Ted Kennedy, a senior statesman from Massachusetts, endorsing Obama the same day. And so let's not pretend that you didn't have some friction there.

They clearly have some friction. They don't get along. And so I think this whole notion of a snub is ridiculous.

It has nothing to do, frankly, with how to improve people's lives. That's sort of the whole Washington insider thing.

People I talk to in Chicago and Texas and across the country, on my radio show in Chicago, nobody was talking about this so-called snub. And so that's a lot of insider stuff.

What's going to happen on Thursday is, Clinton is going to be looking for the knockout punch. She wants to establish that she is indeed the top candidate.

Obama, he has to do well on Thursday. In fact, he cannot have a good performance, he cannot have an average performance. He must have a great performance.

He has not done well in debates in the past. And so I really believe that he has to really show himself to be above her or he will have problems on February 5th.

Jim, this is going to be the largest -- the most watched debate in history on Thursday. There's no doubt about it. The numbers have gone up as we've had debates.

ACOSTA: Yes, it's...

MARTIN: And so, a lot more people are going to be watching. It's going to be huge on Thursday.

ACOSTA: It's going to be fascinating. It is going to be fascinating.

And you mentioned you've been all across the country. I wanted to ask you, what issue is coming out in your mind as you're talking to voters across the country, and how do you think these two candidates when they go mano-a-mano, how are they going to stack up with each other?

MARTIN: Well, again, both -- on many of the issues they are pretty much, you know, even. The question is, who can articulate their message better? Because the whole issue.

Obama has gotten a rap that he's somebody who has change and hope and lots of rhetoric but not enough specifics, even though he's laid policy positions out. Clinton, we've heard people say, well, she's robotic, she spits her information out, she's on the point there, but she also cannot inspire. And so they have to do a dance in a sense on those two particular points there.

Clinton, she has to target her low to middle class voters, older voters. That is her base. Obama is trying to pull those people, younger voters, pull in the disenfranchised, and so they are going to have to articulate very clearly issues.

People do not want to hear about snubs, they don't want to hear about race, they don't want to hear about gender. They want to hear, how can you fix the economy, how can you deal with the Iraq war? But also, how can you get all of us involved in this to change? That's what's going to be the focus. And so if they go on the attack, they're going to turn a lot of people off and people are going to say you're playing the old game.

ACOSTA: Yes, I think you're right.

Roland Martin, thank you very much in Los Angeles. Appreciate it very much.

And as you can see, as you are watching at home here, we are almost at kickoff at two different events. Hillary Clinton in Little Rock, Arkansas. Barack Obama out in Colorado.

And also, we've got a full plate this afternoon because, of course, we'll be bringing you John Edwards' withdrawal speech live as it happens. It's set for 1:00 p.m. from New Orleans, and CNN will bring it to you just as soon as it happens in the "NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips and Don Lemon.

But now back to my colleague, Mary Snow, who is also in better climates down in Tampa, Florida.

I don't know how this keeps happening, Mary, but take it away.

SNOW: Hey, you know, it's a lot better than the cold of Iowa and New Hampshire. I'll take it down here in Florida -- a beautiful day.

ACOSTA: You've earned it.

SNOW: And you know -- thank you. With so little time before Super Tuesday, February 5th, these candidates are wasting no time at all.

Republicans are heading to California after Senator John McCain won last night's primary. On the plane this morning, he talked about what he thought really helped boost him here, saying that he believed that he hit hard national security and the economy. He actually won on the economy issue, which was seen as Mitt Romney's bring strong point. He also, though, said he believed he got a boost from two critical endorsements -- one from Governor Charlie Crist that just happened on Saturday, and one that also happened late from Republican Senator Mel Martinez.

Here's what Senator McCain told us on the plain traveling out to California to, of course, CNN's debate at the Reagan Library later today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think the key was in the Florida campaign? What was the turning point for you?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know. I'm not very good at analysis. But obviously Governor Crist and Mel Martinez, who were very helpful. People also look at the issues.

We did well on both the economy, as well as the nation's security. There's a lot of military (INAUDIBLE) a lot of patriotism.

I don't know, I'm sure that those who observe these things are more objective than I am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel like the front-runner today?

MCCAIN: I'd like to say it was charisma...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you surprised that you beat him so badly on the economy?

MCCAIN: No, but I was surprised at the margin of our victory. All of our tracking polls had so many up by a couple of points and we won by five. So I was a little surprised.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you letting yourself think of yourself as front-runner today?

MCCAIN: I'm trying not to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Now, on the flip side of Senator McCain's big win was Rudy Giuliani's big loss. He had gambled everything here in Florida, reasoning that this would be his firewall in order to spring him to Super Tuesday. It did not happen. He trailed in the polls, had a very poor showing.

Last night, Rudy Giuliani did not withdraw, but he spoke in the past tense. Of course, he is expected to withdraw from the race later today, but take a listen to what he had to say last night as he conceded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They are all truly honorable, honorable people, honorable men, who are fighting for what they believe in. They have different strengths, they have different things to contribute, like I do, and I believe that our party will be stronger as a result of the competition that we're going through. But win or lose, our work is not done, because leaders dream of a better future and then they help to bring it into reality.

(APPLAUSE)

The responsibility of leadership doesn't end with a single campaign. If you believe in a cause, it goes on and you continue to fight for it. And we will.

(APPLAUSE)

I'm proud that we chose to stay positive and to run a campaign of ideas in an era of personal attacks, negative ads, and cynical spin. We ran a campaign that was uplifting.

(APPLAUSE) You don't always -- you don't always win, but you can always try to do it right. And you did. That's what the American people deserve, a return to honesty and substance in our political discussion.

I believe that the ideas of our campaign, the 12 commitments that we made to the American people when in New Hampshire first, clearly identify the great challenges of our time. First, America needs to stay on offense to win the terrorist war on us.

(APPLAUSE)

It's not optional. We can't wish it away. We can't hope it away. It's there. It is a reality. And America must always remember that the best way to achieve peace is through overwhelming strength.

(APPLAUSE)

America also needs to stay on offense to achieve economic security. We need to embrace the global economy, not shrink away from its challenges, but turn them to our advantage. We can compete and we can win through a commitment to pro-growth policies like lower taxes, less government spending, reasonable regulations, and less lawsuits.

Please, less lawsuits!

AUDIENCE: Rudy! Rudy! Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

GIULIANI: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: That was Rudy Giuliani last night talking about his campaign in the past tense. He is expected to officially call it quits later today.

He is right now on his way to California, and later he is expected to throw his support behind his long-term friend, Senator John McCain. And after last night's victory here in Florida, that puts Senator John McCain as the front-runner.

Let's take a look at the latest count of the Republican delegates. Senator McCain, 97. Mitt Romney, 74. Mike Huckabee, 29. Ron Paul, 6. Rudy Giuliani, 2 delegates.

This is a look at the number of pledged delegates and an estimate of the unpledged delegates who are going to the Republican convention and expected to give their support.

We still have yet to hear this hour from Mitt Romney, who is vowing to go on to Super Tuesday, believes he has a strong shot in what he now says is a two-man race.

But first, I'm going to go back to my colleague, Jim Acosta -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Hi, Mary. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

There should be a little more elbow room on stage as the shrinking number of presidential candidates continues and they go head-to-head in the California presidential debate. The Republicans take the spotlight tonight, and tomorrow night, the Democrats' turn. Both begin at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN, your home for politics.

And now, coming up over the next 45 minutes or so, we're going to be taking you out live to Hillary Clinton, who is talking to supporters in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Barack Obama is also getting ready to address supporters in Colorado.

And of course, just as soon as we can, we're going to take you out to New Orleans, and we are seeing some live pictures of New Orleans now, where John Edwards is about to announce that he is getting out of the race and making more room for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to go head-to-head, which should be very interesting.

So stay with us on "Ballot Bowl." Lots more to come right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back to "Ballot Bowl '08."

Talk about diminishing returns, New York Senator Hillary Clinton cleaned up last night in the Florida primary, but she has nothing to show for it in terms of delegates. Armed with her victory in Florida, Senator Clinton campaigns today in much more familiar surroundings. She knows this terrain. This is North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Let's listen to the New York senator, who is talking to supporters right now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... going on, which is really important to get everybody to vote. And I think it was Mike Ross (ph) who says, well, yes, she knows where Lewisville and Hampton are.

I do. I know where Paragould and Conway and Russellville and Mena and Van Buren -- and, you know, I was privileged to travel this state constantly. And when Bill asked me to work on the Education Standards Commission, we went to every county and we held meetings, and we listened to teachers and principals and superintendents and school board members and students and families and business people to figure out what we could do to make sure we could make a difference.

That's what I want to do now for our country. I want to take the 35 years of experience that I've had and put it to work for America, because I believe we have a lot of tough challenges ahead that we need to solve.

You know, I believe so strongly that there isn't anything America can't do if we make up our minds to do it. We just have to set our goals. We have to decide we're in this together, and then we go forward, like we've always done here in Arkansas.

And if we do that, we can meet our challenges and we can seize our opportunities. Because, you see, I believe the economy has to work for everybody.

I believe that it's got to create good jobs with rising incomes for people willing to work. And I believe that if you work full time in America, you should not be below the poverty line. We want you to be able to lift yourself and your family out of poverty.

(APPLAUSE)

And I believe that if you want to buy a home, of course you should take responsibility for paying your mortgage, but you should not be subjected to abusive lending practices and predatory lending that puts you and your home at risk. That's why I believe we should have a moratorium on home foreclosures for 90 days and help people work out a way to stay in their homes.

And I think we could keep a lot of people safe from losing their homes and losing the American dream. And it's why I believe we should freeze interest rates for five years, because the interest rates are going up too high. And we've got to give people a chance to maintain their home.

I believe that credit cards are a real help for most people. You know, we all use credit cards. And that's a question of shared responsibility.

We have to take responsibility for paying off our credit card expenses. But the credit card companies have to take responsibility for treating people fairly and not misleading them and not having such high rates of interest.

(APPLAUSE)

That's why I believe that we need to change the way credit cards operate. We need to be clear that we should begin to try to require the credit card companies to lower interest rates. Let's start at least with a cap of 30 percent and say they cannot go above that, and then let's work to get it lower.

And let's be sure we get rid of the fine print. You know, you can't even understand half of what you're being charged for on credit cards. And a lot of people today are putting other costs -- I've met people -- I met a woman who put her home mortgage on her credit card. A lot of people put their medical expenses on their credit cards.

And so we need more disclosure, more transparency. And we've got to go after all this predatory lending so that it doesn't force people into these impossible situations.

And I believe the tax code has to be fair again. I don't think it is right that an investment manager on Wall Street making $50 million a year pays a lower rate of taxes than a teacher or a nurse making $50,000 a year. (APPLAUSE)

And I believe we've got to get energy costs down. You know, when you're paying so high at the gas pump and you're also seeing your utility bills go up, folks can't afford that.

Now, we've got to get tougher on the oil companies and on the oil producing countries. They've got to know that they're not going to be able to get away with it. That's why I have said we need to invest in clean renewable energy, like solar and wind and geothermal and biofuels, right here in Arkansas.

(APPLAUSE)

And we've got to be more energy efficient. We've got to get higher gas mileage in our cars.

I want to start a strategic energy fund to invest in these new, clean, renewable energy sources and technologies. And here's how I would pay for it -- let's take the tax subsidies away from the oil companies and put them to work on behalf of a new energy future.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, other countries are doing this. Germany's made a big bet on solar power. And they have employed a couple hundred thousand people installing solar panels.

These are good jobs that can't be outsourced. These are jobs that can be done right here. And the last time I looked, Arkansas had more sunny days than Germany.

So I think there is a lot we can do if we have a president who is a partner with a governor and a legislature. Now I know we can't do any of this until we get the two oil men out of the White House, but as soon as they are gone, I will be ready to lead!

ACOSTA: And there's Hillary Clinton in North Little Rock, Arkansas, addressing supporters there.

The candidates on the Democratic side, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, getting back to some of their roots this week. Barack Obama out in Kansas, and Hillary Clinton in Little Rock, although she didn't grow up there. She grew up outside of Chicago. She did spend some time in Little Rock and knows where all the good barbecue joints are.

So that was Hillary Clinton in Little Rock, Arkansas. And one of the things that we are expecting to hear from her at this event and later on today is some conversation about John Edwards jumping out of the race, as the race for his endorsement will be quite intense. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would like to get that under their belt certainly.

But coming up here on "Ballot Bowl," we're going to be going out to Barack Obama. He is standing by to address reporters in Colorado, one of the big Super Tuesday states. And also coming up, we're going to hear from Mitt Romney, who had that strong second place finish in Florida last night. He is fond of saying that, you know, we don't want to send the same old Washington politicians back to D.C., but put them in different chairs. An obvious slight at John McCain. But Mitt Romney's still going strong in the race for Super Tuesday.

So, all of that coming up. And much more right here on "Ballot Bowl" on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARY SNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, I'm Mary Snow, live from Tampa, Florida, for this Wednesday edition of BALLOT BOWL '08. And joining me is my colleague, Jim Acosta, in New York.

Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Mary.

And more from Mary in just a moment, who's following the Republicans after that dramatic night in Florida.

But first, let's go to today's unexpected news regarding former North Carolina Senator John Edwards hanging it up and bowing out of the race. Who will get John Edwards' supporters? That's the big question now, now that the North Carolina Democrat is pulling out. He's expected to make that official at any point in the next hour.

But first, let's go out to Jessica Yellin who is following these developments for us out in Los Angeles.

And, Jessica, this is very interesting because earlier this week we thought Ted Kennedy's endorsement was huge in this race. But all of a sudden, where John Edwards falls after today will make this race very interesting in that he could really help one of these two candidates still in this, with all apologies to Mike Gravel, of course, but he could certainly help Hillary or Barack Obama.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right. I mean, it would be a tectonic shift if he were to choose one candidate or the other that could really decide where his support goes, his supporters go and who gets the nomination.

But, you know, the makeup of his support, base of support, is such that it could really go either way. And today John Edwards' camp has made it clear that he's not going to endorse anybody because he really wants to focus and he wants all of us focused on his message, which is the need to help those who are still dealing with poverty and the working Americans who don't have the health care and the economic support that they need.

And to that end he's going to be giving a policy address. He'll be giving it in New Orleans. The very same place where he made his announcement that he would be running for president. And I should note, he'll be surrounded by his children and his wife, Elizabeth, who we're told by the campaign is doing well and will be at his side.

And they've emphasized that this really has absolutely nothing to do with Elizabeth or her health. This is really a decision that John Edwards came to based on the math before him and that he really felt it wasn't possible for him to get enough delegates in the coming weeks for him to make enough of a difference and to become the nominee. So he wanted to get out and let the race take shape as it will. But no endorsement today is expected from John Edwards.

Jim.

ACOSTA: And, Jessica, do you think that for the Clinton camp and Barack Obama's campaign that perhaps their message might be shaped somewhat by Edwards' exit because, after all, John Edwards announced his campaign down in New Orleans where he said, you know, this is all about how sometimes the least of us are forgotten by this government. He made that poverty tour reminiscent of RFK's swing through the south so many years ago. Do you think we're going to start seeing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama tailoring their message aimed at Edwards supporters?

YELLIN: I'd two things. One is a simple yes. I mean Edwards called both Obama and Clinton, before making this decision, and we're told asked them to make sure that they incorporate his message into their campaign themes. And I'd also say that he's already done that to a certain extent. He was the first to come out with the universal health care plan before Senator Clinton came out with one and Obama came out with a different version. He was the first with an economic stimulus package. So he has already shaped this race and some of the issues they focus on.

And we want to play a moment of some of the comments he made yesterday talking about why New Orleans in particular is so important to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN EDWARDS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The same reason that I've been there multiple times during the course of my campaign, because I think it's a living, breathing example of the heart of my message, what I'm talking about. I mean it's the failure of government to be there when people need it. It's the perfect indication of the conditions of poverty that exist in America, particularly in the ninth ward in New Orleans, which is where I'll be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: So those are the themes we expect him to hit in his comments today and that we expect he will continue to encourage both Senators Clinton and Obama to incorporate even more in their campaign speeches as he decides whether he will endorse one of them.

Jim.

ACOSTA: Jessica Yellin, thank you very much. So much for a down day after the Florida primary. Appreciate it very much. And, of course, we'll bring you John Edwards' withdrawal speech live as it happens. It's set for 1:00 p.m. from New Orleans. And make sure you join Kyra Phillips and Don Lemon next hour in the "Newsroom" for that, plus all the day's news and more.

SNOW: And while there are dramatic developments on the campaign trail in terms of dynamics, there's also a lot of anticipation ahead of tonight's debate on the Republican side. This is a debate hosted by CNN at the Reagan Library. Tomorrow night it will be the Democrats' turn at the Kodak Theater. Both of those debates beginning at 8:00 p.m. And they will be the final debates before Super Tuesday.

Coming up shortly, we are awaiting word from Senator Barack Obama. He is speaking in Denver, Colorado. We'll be going there live.

We'll also be hearing from Mitt Romney. What he had to say after Florida's defeat here last night and looking ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SNOW: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08. A chance for you to hear directly from the presidential candidates in the 2008 race unfiltered.

And right now we're going to go to Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate. He lost here last night in Florida, but he is vowing to go on. All the Republican candidates are heading to California, their next big state.

Mitt Romney is vowing to fight hard there. He is hoping to tap in to the discontent among conservatives surrounding Senator John McCain. And he believes that conservatives are rallying around him.

He is also trying to make himself the candidate who is the Washington outsider, saying that the country needs someone who is not an insider in Washington. Here's a little bit of what he had to say after last night's defeat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've looked to Washington for leadership, but Washington has failed us. We've asked them to fix illegal immigration. They haven't. We've asked them to get the tax burden off our families and businesses. They haven't.

We asked them to end our dependence on foreign oil. They haven't. We asked them to maintain high ethical standards. They haven't. We asked them to fix Social Security. They haven't.

We asked them to stop spending money on pork barrel projects. We asked them to balance our budget. They haven't. We asked them time and time and time again and they just haven't gotten the job done. You see, Washington is fundamentally broken. And we're not going to change Washington by sending the same people back just to sit in different chairs. I think it's time for the politicians to leave Washington and for the citizens to take over.

It is time for a change in Washington and here's some of the things we're going to do. First, we're going to strengthen our families. We'll make sure that every citizen in our country has affordable health insurance that they can't lose. Private, free- market insurance, not socialized medicine, not Hillary care.

We'll make sure our kids have great schools. We'll treat teachers like the professionals they are. And we'll put our kids first and the unions behind. And to build strong families, we'll teach our kids that before they have babies, they should get married.

So we'll strengthen our families and we'll strengthen our military. We need more troops. We need better funding. We need better equipment and we need better care for our veterans. And let's point out to all those who criticized President Bush that it's thanks to him that we've been safe these last six years. So strengthen our families and strengthen our military.

And, finally, we need to strengthen our economy. I spent my entire life in the real economy. I know why jobs come. I know why they go. I've been doing business in 20 countries around the world. I've run small business and large business. The economy is in my DNA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: And while Mitt Romney is making the economy his strong point, one big challenge he's going to have to answer to is the fact that the economy was the big issue here but he did not win. He also has deep pockets. He's a millionaire many times over and has invested millions of his own money into his own campaign.

We have lots more coming ahead, including Senator Barack Obama is expected to enter a stage, talk to supporters in Denver, Colorado. We'll be going there live.

And we are also going to be going out to New Orleans at the top of the hour. John Edwards is expected to drop out of the presidential race and we will be going there live as well.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back to this edition of BALLOT BOWL '08. I'm Jim Acosta. It's d-day, as in drop-out day, for two presidential hopefuls, one Democratic, one Republican. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani expected to bow out and throw his support behind Senator John McCain's campaign after Giuliani's loss in Florida. And next hour Senator John Edwards is expected to drop out as well, leaving it effectively a two-person race for the Democratic nomination. So here's the question of the hour. Who is helped by Edwards' departure, Senator Obama or Senator Clinton. Right now Senator Obama is campaigning in Denver. We're expecting to see him at an event in Denver shortly.

But we first want to offer you some sound from Barack Obama in Kansas yesterday. His mother's home state. And as we say here on BALLOT BOWL, this is a way for you, the viewer, to experience things as us, as political reporters. And having said that, we should mention, we political reporters spend a lot of time waiting for these live events to start. So without further adieu, here's some sound from Barack Obama last night in his mother's home state of Kansas.

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SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have been told for many years that we are becoming a more divided nation. We've been made to believe that differences of race and region, of wealth and gender, party and religion have separated us into warring factions, into red states, that would be Kansas, and blue states, made up of individuals with opposing wants and needs and with conflicting hopes and dreams. And it is a vision of America that's been exploited and encouraged by pundits and politicians who need this division to score points and win elections.

It's an easy shorthand that a lot of people use to describe our political landscape. But it is a vision of America that I am running for president to fundamentally reject. I reject it, not because of blind optimism, but because of a story that I've lived.

Now, it's a story that began here in El Dorado, when a young man fell in love with a young woman who grew up down the road in Augusta. We got some Augusta folks here? There you go.

So they came of age in the midst of the depression. And this young man found odd jobs on small farms and oil rigs, always dodging the bank failures and foreclosures that were sweeping the nation at the time. The young couple married just after war broke out in Europe. He enlisted in Patton's Army after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She gave birth to their daughter on the base that Fort Leavenworth, and she worked on a bomber assembly line when he left for war.

In a time of great uncertainty and great anxiety, my grandparents held on to a simple dream, that they could raise my mother in a land of boundless opportunity. That their generations' struggle and sacrifice could give her the freedom to be what she wanted to be. To live how she wanted to live.

I am standing here today because that dream was realized. Because my grandfather got the chance to go to school on the G.I. bill, buy a house through the Federal Housing Authority, and move his family west. All the way to Hawaii. The weather was a little warmer in Hawaii. Where my mother would go to college and one day fall in love with another young man from Kenya. It is a varied and unlikely journey, but one that's held together by the same simple dream. And that is why it's an American story. That's why I can stand here and talk about how this country is more than a collection of red states and blue states, because my story could only happen in the United States of America.

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ACOSTA: So there's Barack Obama emphasizing his biography in his mother's home state of Kansas. We'll be getting to a Barack Obama live event just as soon as we can. But if we can't, you can always catch it on cnn.com where they will run streaming coverage of Barack Obama in Colorado, one of the big Super Tuesday states.

Also, you want to keep it tuned here to CNN because coming up within the hour, you're going to see John Edwards down in New Orleans. He is dropping out of this race. And all ears will be on the former North Carolina senator to see exactly how he exits this race gracefully and whether there are any hints there as to where his support might go or where his supporters might go down the road.

But stay with us. This is BALLOT BOWL on CNN.

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SNOW: In just a few minutes, we're going to be going live to New Orleans where John Edwards is expected to drop out of the presidential race. Our Suzanne Malveaux is in New Orleans where he's about to make that announcement. She's joining us by phone.

Suzanne, what can you tell us about what we can expect?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Mary, it really has come full circle. We're expecting John Edwards very soon to end his campaign right where it began, and that is the ninth ward in New Orleans. Obviously devastated by Katrina. He will highlight his central theme, as he has done all along, fighting poverty and corporate lobbyists. In the end, those themes did not gain the kind of traction that he needed to win in those early voting states, not even in South Carolina, where he was born.

Aides say that he did decide to call it quits just within the last 24 hours. He recognized he didn't have the votes or the delegates. Still he can make a difference.

And aides tell me that yesterday Edwards called both of his rivals, Senator Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, to tell them that he was considering bowing out and aides say that they -- that he asked them to make a pledge to make fighting poverty central to their campaigns in the general election and part of their administrations if they end up winning. We are told that they did accept it and Edwards is not going to be endorsing any candidate today but he's leaving the door open for possibly later.

Mary.

SNOW: Suzanne, thank you. We're going to let you get to that event.

That will do it for this edition of BALLOT BOWL on a very dramatic day on the campaign trail. I'm Mary Snow in Tampa, Florida.

Jim, now back to you.

ACOSTA: And I'm Jim Acosta in New York.

Mary, I'll check on your office for you and water the plants. How does that sound?

Much more political news ahead on CNN. Stay right here with CNN for John Edwards. Take care.

And a reminder tonight, the Republican debate here in California on CNN. So stick with us. This is BALLOT BOWL. We'll see you next time.

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