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Candidates Unfiltered; Delegates Race: Texas, Ohio Matter Most; Huckabee Not Quitting; Life on the Campaign Trail with the Candidates; McCain Talks About Energy

Aired March 02, 2008 - 23:00   ET

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

CANDY CROWLEY, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: John McCain brings me back to Dana Bash in Sedona. Dana, you have been there for not a campaign event, but sort of a -- what shall we say this? Cozying up to the press? Or how would you describe what you've been doing today?
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A bit of a charm and fencing (ph), than it's certainly a gracious -- a gracious gesture for John McCain. What he did over the weekend, really, the whole weekend, was he hosted people at his home, not too far from where I am in Sedona. Yesterday, it was his supporters in the Senate, his supporters who were governors, people who endorsed him and helped him publicly and privately along the way, to help him get to where he is. And today, he decided to invite some of those of us who travel with him on the campaign trail.

And, you know, it's very interesting. It was all on the record, I should say. There were no cameras there. It was all on the record. It was a bit of a news-free zone, though. In the very beginning, McCain said that we're not going to have news conferences. But, you know, he greeted us when he was at his grill. He had two grills going, gas grills. He was cooking his baby back ribs. He was very interested in telling us about his recipe, which we can give you online his special recipe for making baby back ribs.

But he did give us, Candy, as you know, because you've been in these situations before with candidates and politicians in their private homes, it gave us a window into what makes John McCain tick. We see him on the campaign trail. We see him in his suit. We see him giving his stump speech, and we see him on his plane. But this was a kind of a different -- a different atmosphere for him and that was interesting to see whether it was pictures of his family, or what kind of trinkets he has on his coffee table. It does give those of us who cover him a bit of a window into the kind of person he is. And this is interesting to do just a couple of days before the day that he hopes, mathematically, he will clinch the Republican nomination.

But even as he tries to do that, we actually -- we should point out before we talk about Mike Huckabee, just what's at stake in terms of Tuesday. The two biggest states that are going to be voting, they are Texas and Ohio. Let's tell you what the delegates are at stake for the Democrats and Republicans.

First of all, let's start with Texas. The Democrats have 193 delegates at stake; the Republicans, 137. Texas is a big state, and those are big numbers when you look at the big picture. And Ohio, also, is going to be very, very critical mostly for the Democrats. The Democrats have 141 delegates at stake. Republicans have 85. And that brings me back, talking about Republicans, to the one Republican that was actually on the campaign trail this weekend and that is Mike Huckabee.

Mike Huckabee is a very, very big long shot. Now, if you look at any of the math, it is pretty much impossible for him to clinch the Republican nomination. But he did get a bit of a boost this weekend. Candy was talking about this earlier. He got a re-endorsement from a Dallas paper, from "The Dallas Morning News." They originally endorsed Mike Huckabee back in December, but they felt that they wanted to this morning, put it back in the newspaper. That they still think that he is somebody who is a rising star, somebody who they called somebody with a sunny disposition, and somebody that they think that their readers should actually cast their ballot for on Tuesday.

I'll read you part of the re-endorsement in this morning's "Dallas Morning News." Here's what it said. "We look forward to having him around to help shape and lead the Republican Party beyond November. That's why we encourage Texas Republicans to mark their ballots for Mr. Huckabee in the GOP primary."

So it's kind of a strategic move by this "Dallas Morning News," newspaper, thinking about the fact that they think that Huckabee is a Republican for the future. Maybe not this time around, but somebody who will, they hope, do well in the future. And that is something that Mike Huckabee was very eager to talk about today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What's the hurry? What is the big hurry here? I guess I failed to see it. The Democrats are still having a primary. And all these people that for the last two or three weeks have been saying, you know, let's hurry and get ours over with.

Well, what's the hurry? It's March. It's barely March. We just turned the page on the calendar. The convention isn't until September. This entire election season for voting has been going on for less now than two months. We have six or seven months before the convention, and another two months after that until we have the election.

So I'm not understanding why some people are in such a rush to get this settled when I don't know that there's, you know, a bomb sitting under anybody's chair that's going to go off if we don't have the nominee all settled before we get through Texas and Ohio. Then, we'd go on to places like Mississippi and Pennsylvania, Nebraska and North Carolina. Now, maybe there's, you know, some urgent need that we have to get this settled, but nobody's explained to me what it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're saying that the party is going to remain fractured, perhaps as long as you're in here with you taking the conservatives and they're trying to -- McCain's tying to pull together the conservatives and moderates. HUCKABEE: Well, first of all, I would argue that the party will come together when the nominee is selected. They haven't been. And we have a long history in our party of not having people bail before the elections and the primaries are early. Ronald Reagan didn't pull out in 1976 just because some people thought he should.

You know, you look at the history of John McCain. There's an example. He didn't pull out in 2000, even when it was pretty inevitable that George W. Bush was going to be the nominee, and he kept his delegates and he kept his campaign going for quite a while longer. So, you know, for us to suddenly ask, act as if there's a different urgency in 2008 than there was in 2000, in 1976, or 1980, anytime we've had a primary, I'm not sure what that is and if somebody can present that to me, I'd be happy to read it. But I haven't seen it yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And that was Mike Huckabee earlier today. And we actually just want to show you a bit of new video that we just got in. Mike Huckabee, everybody who follows politics knows this by now, is a former Baptist preacher. And there you see a video of Mike Huckabee giving a sermon today in Arlington, Texas. He was giving it at the Cornerstone Church there in Arlington, Texas.

It was though we're told from our producer there, it was not much of a political speech. It was more of a typical sermon. You see quite a big church there, and this is a place where Mike Huckabee is clearly very comfortable, right there on the pulpit. And, you know, he says many times that he doesn't just appeal to social conservatives, doesn't just appeal to evangelicals.

But the reality is, as you see there, and as we have seen over the past couple of months, he does tend to campaign, and does tend to appeal, go directly into the churches and into the areas and communities, where there are social and Christian conservatives because that is where he tends to do well. So there you see Mike Huckabee speaking earlier today in Arlington, Texas, at that church there.

And now, we want to go to his opponent in this race, and that is Republican Senator John McCain, from the state where I am, Arizona. He spoke earlier this week in Richardson, Texas, and he likes to talk about the fact that in order to tell the difference between himself and the Democrats, that he is a conservative. And Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, they're both liberals. But he had a bit of a slip of the tongue earlier this week. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a proud conservative liberal Republican -- conservative Republican. Hello, easy there. Let me say this -- I am a proud, conservative Republican. And both of my possible or likely opponents today, are liberal Democrats. Senator Obama has, according to the "National Journal," the most liberal record in the United States Senate. So there will be strong differences of views and policies in the future of America. But I promise you -- I promise you that debate will be a respectful one, and I think that's what the American people want.

And by the way, the next time you see one of these negative attack ads that disparage people's character and principle, look and see if it's one of these "527s." They are distorting the entire political process, and they need to be outlawed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: John McCain speaking earlier last week, I should say, at this point, in Richardson, Texas. Texas is one of the states that you're going to be want -- you're going to want to watch on Tuesday. Tuesday is a very big day, and you're going to want to tune in to CNN. You're going to want to tune in at 7:00 Eastern, in particular, to start getting the results, start seeing how these voters, Democrats and Republicans, cast their ballots.

Again, 7:00 Eastern at the "ELECTION CENTER." That's where our coverage is going to be from in New York. And you want to also tune in after the break because we're going to go back to the Democratic side, back to my colleague, Candy Crowley, in Ohio, who's going to talk about one small town in Ohio who got two very big Democratic candidates all in the same day. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL," the Sunday late night edition. We are here to bring you these candidates as they appear on the stump. Sometimes we take a look at their advertising and other things that go on along the campaign trail. We wanted to mention to you, Dana has said in the previous block, that "The Dallas Morning News," had endorsed Mike Huckabee. It also, we should add, on the Democratic side, endorsed Barack Obama.

Pretty much over the past week or so, both Obama and Clinton have been on a shuttle from Texas to Ohio and back again. Rarely do they sort of meet one another, but we had sort of an exception. A close call, if you will, in a town called Westerville, Ohio. It's outside Columbus. The two of them were there, not together, about two hours and two miles apart. They gave their basic campaign speeches, which are really sort of responses back and forth to one another. Hillary Clinton was talking a little bit about the difference between progress and change. If you don't want to get out your dictionaries, here's her explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, I've given a lot of speeches in my life. Probably, I don't know, hundreds of thousands. You know, sometimes I finish a speech and people come up to me and they say, oh, that was so inspiring and so wonderful, and it made me feel so good. I said, well, that's great. But that's just words. Our job is to make a difference.

You know, change has been talked about a lot in this election. Change is going to happen whether we do anything or not. Change is part of life. The question is, are we going to make progress together? Are we going to make a real positive difference together?

(APPLAUSE)

And you see, when I talk with you, I tell you what I want to do because I want you to hold me accountable. When I come to Ohio and say I think we can create at least five million new, clean energy jobs in America, I want you to say, OK, where are those jobs? Where are we going to start getting them? I don't want you to leave in my event and saying, that was wonderful. But what was said? And what was it about? And what are we going to do? Because we need, once again, a fighter and a doer and a champion for the American people in the White House.

(APPLAUSE)

And say what you will. One thing you know about me, I am not afraid to get into a fight on your behalf; to take on the special interests, to stand up for you, against those who don't share our values, who don't believe in the kind of future we're creating.

So, ultimately, this comes down to the choice you make as to who you want to hire. And I want to thank all of you who are going to go out canvassing for me this morning. You're going to go and talk to voters, and you're going to put forth the reasons why you're supporting me. And I am grateful to you. Many of you have made up your minds, but I know there's a lot of people still trying to make up their minds.

And I ask you, usually in life, the best way you know what somebody is going to do is to look at what they've already done; whose side they've been on, what fights they've waged, whether you can count on them or not. And one thing the people from New York will tell you, people from Arkansas will tell you, people I have worked with over the course of a lifetime, is that you can count on me.

You know that when I tell you I will try to do something for you. I will move heaven and earth to get it done, and I am determined we're going to have progress again in America. We're going to feel good about our country, and we're going to make history together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Hillary Clinton, with a portion of her campaign pitch, which, basically is, he's a talker and I'm a doer. Now, as we told you, Barack Obama was in the same place. A couple of hours later, about two miles from where she spoke, Barack Obama, talked to his supporters, a little bit about how one should conduct one's self along the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to disagree sometimes. What we can make sure of, though, is that we listen to each other, and we're not disagreeable when we disagree. That we can have a calm, honest conversation about how to make this country better. And by the way, you know, I believe that Republicans want to have a better America. I don't think they're terrible people just because they're Republicans.

You know, sometimes we start creating this atmosphere where people just can't work together. We should be able to do that. And finally, and most importantly -- finally, and most importantly, I want to make sure that you know that I will wake up every, single day, while I'm in the White House, trying to make your lives a little bit better. More importantly, your children and your grandchildren's lives a little bit better. That is -- that will be my focus. And I will carry your voices with me when I am president of the United States, if you give me that opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Barack Obama in Westerville, Ohio. As you can see, sort of the center of the Democratic political universe earlier today. Did you ever wonder, as you're watching a candidate, what goes on behind the scenes? What happens as he travels? Well, we have producers with these candidates 24/7. We're going to give you behind- the-scenes look right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL, the 11:00 p.m. Sunday edition, at least 11:00 p.m. on the East Coast. Here is where we try to bring you a little sampling of what these candidates are about, as they travel through Ohio or Texas or Vermont or Rhode Island, the four states holding primaries on Tuesday.

I'm Candy Crowley here in Cleveland, Ohio. You're looking at the remnants of what was a Hillary Clinton campaign rally. You know, there's so much that goes on when you cover a candidate. It's kind of hard to encapsulate it. But we have producers that travel with these candidates, literally 24/7. One of them is Chris Welch. He has been covering Barack Obama for a while, and he gives us this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS WELCH, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): The high-volume rallies and high security that comes with them, might make good TV and stir excitement among the Obama supporters. But the circus-like scene can be less than ideal when you're working on a deadline.

WELCH (on camera): For reporters moving city-to-city and state- by-state, sometimes even filing from four different stops in a day, logistics can get tricky.

WELCH (voice-over): Take getting a hotel room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know how irritating it is at the end of a 15, 16, 17-hour day to come in to a hotel and have to stand in line for your keys? It's crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Obama campaign likes to be frugal. They make sure that reporters or other people booking in a block don't get points on their hotel rooms. That's probably the only perk that we get.

WELCH: And good food is at a premium.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to have some wonderful chicken fajitas, beef burritos and rice and beans.

WELCH: On the trail with a presidential candidate, it can be tough just finding time to chill out. Sometimes, though, it's even harder finding a place to plug in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like the one thing that we all need is the one thing we never have enough of, ever. Ever. Look at this. And it's plugged. How can I be so upset about plugs?

WELCH: Reporting from the Obama campaign trail, Chris Welch, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Don't you believe a word of that? We complain a lot, but there's only one reason political reporters are out here. It's because we are fascinated by it. And overall, it's a great gig.

We want to go back to Atlanta now. Our Jacqui Jeras is there to give us a little look at what we can expect on primary day. The weather always affects turnout -- Gerri.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

CROWLEY: Jacqui. Sorry.

JERAS: That's OK.

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: It's 11:00.

JERAS: Combine the first to the last people (INAUDIBLE). You know, weather having a huge impact on the primaries, and especially, we're focusing in on Ohio, because this is a very powerful storm, even tracking its stay with tornadoes in Oklahoma. Tomorrow, the Gulf Coast states will be at risk. And on Tuesday, we'll be watching severe weather along the East Coast here. Freezing rain and snow into the Ohio Valley.

Most of the state of Ohio is going to see a rain event, but that's, you know, not a great day to get out to the polls. You're certainly going to be needing the umbrellas here. And we're especially concerned about the morning hours for about the northwestern sliver of the state, maybe corner of the state, for waking up to some freezing rain, some ice and some sleet. So bridges and overpasses will likely be very slick in the morning hours.

If you can vote later in the day, you're going to be better off because I think all of this is going to be changing over to rain, before it changes back to snow later that night. But that should be after the polls close. Columbus looks good with 42 degrees. Dayton 38, and Cincinnati should be just fine with the rain and 45 degrees.

As for Texas, looking great here. Plenty of sunshine. Temperatures will be into the upper 60s, so no travel woes there. For Rhode Island, we're expecting to see some rain showers, especially into the afternoon. And for Vermont, we'll likely see a little bit of snow and sleet mixing in. But overall, it should stay relatively light. And, of course, those folks are definitely used to it up there.

So all in all, a big storm system to watch. Candy, a little bit of uncertainty in the exact track of the storm. So if this moves a little farther to the south, we'll be concerned about more freezing rain affecting more of the state. So we'll be watching it very closely here in the CNN Weather Center.

CROWLEY: Quick question, Jacqui.

JERAS: Yes.

CROWLEY: So what I'm hearing from this is, if you want to vote and you're in Ohio, you might want to wait until the afternoon when the roads should be better?

JERAS: Yes, absolutely. Try to avoid the morning if you can, especially if you live up north. If you live down south, though, one other thing to watch out for is that we could see some significant flooding. So use a lot of caution, and don't drive through any of that water over the roadways.

CROWLEY: OK. Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

JERAS: OK.

CROWLEY: Coming up, we're going to go back to the Republican side and hear a little thing about oil, energy and gas from John McCain, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL '08, a special primetime edition. Now, on the campaign trail, we have heard Democrats and Republicans talking more and more about probably one of the main things that voters want to hear about right now. And that is, why are there gas prices so incredibly high and probably going to be even higher? So what we're hearing, again, more and more, is are the candidates talking about oil and energy, and what their prescriptions are to try to fix those high gas prices and high oil prices. And we're going to now take you to what Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been saying about that, speaking this past week in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My friends, we have got to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. And that is a fact and I believe that --

(APPLAUSE)

And I believe that I am convinced that America can do that. Wind, solar, tide, alternate fuels. Automobiles that you can develop a battery that will take a car, an automobile 100 miles before you have to plug it in. Hybrid, hydrogen.

Look, America, if you accept my previous statement about our innovative capabilities, we can do that. And, yes, the government may have to invest in pure research and development to achieve that. And my friends, one of those is nuclear. Nuclear power has got to be part of any real successful effort to reduce that dependence on foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

I believe that climate change is real. I will continue the debate about it, but I think that we ought to give our children a cleaner planet no matter what. And nuclear power is part of that. By the way, my friends, the French -- we always like to imitate the French. The French, 80 percent of their electricity is generated by nuclear power. And by the way, in case you missed it, we now have a pro-American president of France, which shows if you live long enough, anything can happen in this world, and I'm very pleased that we have that.

So, I am convinced that American technology capability, innovation and workers, who are the most productive in the world at this day, and moment and will be, we can bend our efforts to eliminating that dependence on foreign oil.

My friends, it's half our trade deficit. One-half of our trade deficit today is because we have to purchase that oil. And I'd like to tell you that the price of oil is going to go down. But that's not straight talk. You've got two emerging economies here in India and China that are going to suck up more and more of this finite resource. So, it is a national security issue. And as president, my friends, we will achieve that independence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Limit the dependence on foreign oil; that's a mantra of politicians on both sides of the aisle. What John McCain is also saying there is that he wants to expand using nuclear power, nuclear power. That's what the leading Republican presidential candidate is saying. Those of you who spent the weekend filling up your gas tank and watching the price go up, up, up, and wondering what the Democrats are saying about what their prescription is to try to alleviate that pain at the pump, we're going to bring that to you.

We're going to bring both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on this very same issue right after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CROWLEY: Good evening and welcome back to CNN's Ballot Bowl '08, your chance to listen to these candidates on a wide variety of subjects, as they appear on the campaign trail. You pretty much hear them the way we hear them.

As Dana Bash was talking about in the last segment, oil and gas; oil over $100 a barrel, gasoline, at this point, in some states already over four dollars a gallon. So, this has become one of those kitchen table issues, those things that really affect Americans where they live.

So, we've heard all of these candidates talking about oil and energy and what they would like to do should they win the Oval Office. We want to take you back to last Thursday, and a place called Hanging Rock, Ohio. One of the benefits, again, of covering the candidates is you go to places you never knew existed. So this is Hanging Rock, Ohio. Hillary Clinton on energy and oil.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to be serious as a nation about really moving beyond our dependence on foreign oil or we will never get these prices under control. And here is what I believe -- we've tried this a little bit before, but we always back down.

You know that old story about how you boil a frog? If you drop a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. If you put the frog in cold water and you just turn the heat up, you're going to boil the frog. We've been acting like frogs in cold water. When the prices get high, we jump out and we jump around and we say we have to make a change and we demand that something happen.

Have you ever noticed that the price goes down? And everybody goes, oh, good, don't have to worry about that anymore. As president, here's what I want to say: I want to say that we're going to be focused like a laser beam on getting alternative to the oil from oil companies and oil-producing countries. And when we say that, they will drop the price.

But this time, we're not going to stay in the water. We're going to say, thank you very much for dropping the price, we're still going to go after your monopolies, your commitments to these higher prices. We're going to break that, because we're going to have higher gas mileage cars that are affordable for people. We're going to have new alternative to just using gas, both through blending with Ethanol -- and, I believe, you know, electric plug-ins and hybrids are really important. We have to produce more of those.

I saw a demonstration car the other day in Washington. It had gotten -- let's see, 1,500 miles on 10 gallons of gas because it's a plug-in hybrid, with a long-lasting battery. We have to push Detroit to do more, which they are finally beginning to do. I think if we put all those pieces together, and then occasionally, if the price is really outrageous -- you might remember, in the fall of 2000, my husband ordered that oil be released from the strategic oil reserve. That sent a message to the oil companies that we were serious. And the oil producing countries dropped the price.

But we are dealing with a cartel. You know, OPEC, the oil producing companies, they set the price. That should be illegal, but it's international. It's not within our jurisdiction. But make no mistake about it, they set the price. If they are setting the price, that is not supply and demand. That's deciding them how much money they want, and how much oil they'll produce.

So, I will conduct a very vigorous campaign to figure out how we're going to get to the bottom of this, because I think it's got to end or we will not be a strong economy going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: What is amazing about this Democratic race is, despite the differences the two of them talk about on the campaign trail, there are a lot of similarities in the policies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The other day, last Wednesday, in Duncanville, Texas, Barack Obama gave a similar speech, or at least a portion of the speech, also about oil and energy. Here's some of that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you're ready for change, we can have an energy policy that makes sense. This is -- the energy sector, people here in Texas understand, that is a jobs generator. But we have to look forward. We have to look to the future. We have to capture the spirit of American ingenuity.

Just this today this issue came up in Congress. The House debated an energy tax credit that would spur investment in wind and other renewable energies. This is the kind of tax credit that I have supported in the Senate and it's particularly important in Texas, which is, congratulations, the top wind energy producer in the country.

But this is not just a matter of creating clean energy. We have to deal with global warming. We have to clean up our atmosphere. But this is also about jobs. That's the kind of investment I intend to make as president.

I have an energy plan that will put 150 billion dollars over ten years into the green energy sector. And that can create up to five million new jobs all across Texas and all across America.

In a place like Texas, you have the potential to produce eight- times your energy needs with renewable energy. This will create jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced, building solar panels, building wind turbines, creating alternative fuels. We'll provide the funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills that they need for these jobs.

So a clean energy future is good for our economy. It is good for jobs. It is good for the environment. It is good for our national security. We send a billion dollars to foreign nations, many of them hostile, because of our addiction to foreign oil. And by the way, if we just change our fuel efficiency standards to 40 miles a gallon, we would save the equivalent of all the oil we import from the Persian Gulf.

We need to do that. And when I proposed it, I didn't do it in front of some environmental group. I went to Detroit to the auto makers and I told them they had to change their ways. I told them Toyota and Honda are running circles around you because you're not investing in the clean energy needs of the future.

I have to admit, when I spoke, the room was really quiet. Nobody clapped. But that's OK because part of what you need from the next president is somebody that will not just tell you what think they you want to hear, but will tell you what you need to hear, will tell you the truth about how we're going to move America forward.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Lots of new things in the political vocabulary in 2008, green jobs. You heard both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talk about that. Those the jobs they think that can be created as America searches for and develops alternative energy.

We're going to take a right-hand turn here coming up out of the break. Jack Nicholson, Hillary Clinton and the Internet. Stay tuned. We'll put them all together.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to this special prime time edition of Ballot Bowl '08. I'm Dana Bash in Sedona, Arizona. Now, in Ballot Bowl, we bring you the candidates as they are on the campaign trail as they are giving their speeches, trying to convince voters that they should vote for them and they should get their party's nomination.

But it's not just on the stump that these candidates are trying to get their message out, especially in this day and age. More and more, it's on the web. For that part of the story, we go to our Josh Levs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The candidates are always freshening their websites with new videos aimed at getting out certain messages. We picked through some videos that we found here and we pulled out the best clips for you.

Let's take a look.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am one of a million.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am one of a million, right here in Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am not a movement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need a president willing to roll up her sleeves. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And deliver solutions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need solutions --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- that will help me --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- and help my family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am one in a million.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am one of a million --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- who will stand up --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- be noticed --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- be vocal --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- right here in Texas --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- for Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we have to give the Clintons their due. The timing is good. I have to tell you, that was then. This is now. And it's interesting because I think we are seeing a whole sea change in the way we look at our body of politics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it that defines a great leader? Is it his courage? Is it his courage to do the difficult and not just the easy things? Is it the courage to fight? To fight to survive? Faith certainly plays a role, faith in god, faith in your fathers, faith in your friends and band of brothers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have always been the long shot, the dark horse, the David among political Giants. But this is our country, this is our party. These are our voices. And we will not concede or raise that white flag, because until this race is over, this race isn't over.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS: It's really interesting to see the kinds of messages that they choose to focus on in these web videos. Now, how many times have we showed you a celebrity fills video for Barack Obama? But what we have not shown you often is a celebrity video for Hillary Clinton. Well, the Clinton campaign has released a video with Jack Nicholson, in which he's pulled together some clips from his movies. Let's take a look at a little piece of it here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK NICHOLSON, ACTOR: There's nothing on this Earth sexier, believe me, gentleman, than a woman that you have to salute in the morning. I'm Jack Nicholson, and I approve this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEVS: All right. I'm not sure whether we'll be seeing him on the campaign trail very much, but there's a little dose of celebrity power there online for the Clinton camp.

I'm Josh Levs, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: We're going to go from Hollywood and the campaign trail to the lighter side of the candidates. We're going to bring you some of "Saturday Night Live." You saw Hillary Clinton there. And she's not the only candidate whose been on "SNL" recently. That after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Welcome back to CNN's Ballot Bowl. We are in the final minutes for this Sunday edition of Ballot Bowl. I'm Candy Crowley in Cleveland, where they are pretty much shutting down the place around us. We wanted to take a minute to show you another side of the campaign. These Democratic candidates, in particular, have pretty much been on a shuttle from Ohio to Texas and back again.

But yesterday, Hillary Clinton had a bit of a detour. En route from Texas to Ohio, she went to New York City and showed up on "Saturday Night Live."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I still enjoyed that sketch a great deal because I simply adore Amy's impression of me.

AMY POEHLER, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": My ears are ringing.

CLINTON: How are you?

POEHLER: Good, thank you.

CLINTON: Well, I'm -- I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

POEHLER: Thank you for coming. I love your outfit.

CLINTON: I love your outfit.

POEHLER: Why, thank you.

CLINTON: I do want the earrings back.

POEHLER: Oh, OK. Oh.

CLINTON: Do I really laugh like that? Well --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Actually, candidates really seem like they have a lot of fun when they do these things. It's such a departure from the campaign trail, where they're talking serious issues. Hillary Clinton, not the only candidate to show up on "Saturday Night Live." Barack Obama's been there. Mike Huckabee's been there. Now Hillary Clinton.

I understand -- I want to bring in Dana Bash again from Sedona. Dana, I understand that John McCain is looking for a return engagement.

BASH: Possibly. We saw him today here in Arizona. And I mentioned to him that last night on Ballot Bowl, we had to play a clip that was several years old, I think six years old. Remember, the last time he was on, he was singing "Memories," some Barbara Streisand tunes, which was kind of interesting.

I think we have a clip to show. I reminded him that it's been quite some time since he has been on. I asked if he had an invitation. He said, no, they haven't asked. But, obviously, he's eager to go on. So I wouldn't be surprised if we see John McCain and pretty much anybody else go on. Mike Huckabee, remember, he was on last week, poking fun of himself for staying in the race. I wouldn't be surprised to see John McCain on.

Candy, in the clip last night with Hillary Clinton, the other part that I thought was so funny and really, frankly, well-delivered, was when Amy Poehler asked about how things were going, and Hillary Clinton said fine, fine. Then, she quickly said, why, what have you heard? It was pretty good delivery for somebody who doesn't have a lot of comedy background, I think.

CROWLEY: Absolutely. And, you know, it also is sort of indicative, Dana, of -- there really is a lot of tension in these final days. There's so much at stake for Hillary Clinton coming up Tuesday. So, you know, good to make light of it. But you also see the serious side of that. Both these campaigns have really ratcheted it up on the campaign trail and in their ads, as you've seen.

BASH: That's right. I wanted to ask you about that. We've heard all about the ads, the new ads, in particular, from the Democrats, starting with Hillary Clinton, talking about the fact that she wants to be -- she should be on the other end of the red phone at 3:00 a.m., when there's a national security crisis. And then Barack Obama responding.

How have you seen that translate into, perhaps, a different kind of take on the trail and on the stump with these two candidates over the weekend?

CROWLEY: Well, there's certainly a lot of talk about red phones, I can tell you that, not just in the ads, but on the campaign trail. What I have noticed most is that these are a lot tougher campaigns than we have seen. They are really on their game, both of them. Hillary Clinton had a great day. Barack Obama had a great day.

The intensity is very high, but message-wise, even though we have sort of a new rendition of who would be better as commander in chief, that argument itself has been going on for a while. In Ohio, obviously, as well as in Texas, there's a lot of these kitchen table issues that we've heard before.

But, boy, the whole tone is so different and you can really feel that. I know, you know, in the Republican campaign, everybody says well, it's John McCain. It's going to be him, so it sort of lacks that intensity. But you can really feel it here among Democrats, Dana.

BASH: Absolutely. Just even watching it from afar and watching the way you describe it, there's no question. There really is such incredible tension, anxiety, but also, you know, a lot of drama going on there. On the Republican side, you're right, Candy, it's quite different. The drama -- the drama is in that what John McCain and his campaign are hoping, is that on Tuesday night, they actually mathematically get to the point where they are officially the nominee, when John McCain is officially the nominee.

It is going to be really interesting to see how they transition and pivot at that point. I was talking to some of his advisers today, saying, you know, at that point, they are hoping to really try to meld with the Republican National Committee. They are hoping that that apparatus and even the apparatus of the White House will begin to officially stand up and help and be a part of the McCain campaign.

That's just one structural difference that the McCain campaign is hoping that they'll get a lot of help with. But he'll spend a lot of time this week fund-raising, even after Tuesday's primaries.

Candy, I think that's all the time we have for tonight's Ballot Bowl. You want to tune in for Tuesday's election night coverage. That begins at on CNN 7:00 eastern from the election center in New York. After the break, we have Larry King with more politics.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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