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Selling the Bailout; Public Anger Over Bailout; Candidates' Plans; Gunman Opens Fire in Finland

Aired September 23, 2008 - 12:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good day, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
Here are the headlines for Tuesday, September 23rd.

Selling the bailout. The Treasury secretary warning Congress to move quickly or face financial calamity.

A gunman opening fire on a trade school campus in Finland. Ten people and the gunman lose their lives.

Palm Beach County, ground zero for the Florida recount eight years ago. Are we headed for deja vu in November?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Wall Street and the rest of the country are watching Washington today pushing the plan for a $700 billion bailout using your tax dollars. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson making his case on Capitol Hill. He says taxpayers' interests must be protected, but lawmakers need to act quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY PAULSON, TREASURY SECRETARY: This troubled asset relief program has to be properly designed for immediate implementation and be sufficiently large to have maximum impact and restore market confidence. It must also protect the taxpayer to the maximum extent possible and include provisions that ensure transparency and oversight while also ensuring the program can be implemented quickly and effectively.

And let me give you another ad hoc comment there.

When we all met Thursday night, as you'll recall, Chairman, with the leaders of Congress, you all said to us, "Don't give us a fait accompli. Come in and work with us."

We gave you a simple three-page legislative outline, and I thought it would have been presumptuous for us on that outline to come up with an oversight mechanism. That's the role of Congress, that's something we're going to work on together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right. Our CNN money team, poised and ready to get to bottom line on today's developments on the bailout plan. Brianna Keilar is covering the hearing on the Hill for us, and Susan Lisovicz is watching the market reaction, and we will get to Susan in just a moment.

Let's start with you, Brianna.

What kind of reaction is Secretary Paulson getting on the Hill, and are we any closer to a rescue package?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, the reception really runs the gamut and it defies party lines. For instance, on one hand, you have a Republican, Mel Martinez of Florida, who basically came to the defense of the Bush administration and said that Congress has not upheld its end of the bargain on reforming financial markets. But then some of the harshest criticism for Secretary Paulson came from other Republicans.

Here's what Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky said about the Treasury Department's proposal for a rescue package.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JIM BUNNING (R), KENTUCKY: The Paulson plan will not help struggling homeowners pay their mortgages. The Paulson plan will not bring a stop to the slide in home prices. But the Paulson plan will spend $700 billion worth of taxpayers' money to prop up and clean up the balance sheets of Wall Street.

This massive bailout is not a solution. It is a financial socialism, and it's un-American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, he is the ranking Republican on this Banking Committee, he also had scathing criticism for Secretary Paulson as well. But meantime, negotiations continue on this rescue package between Congress and the Bush administration. On the House side, Congressman Barney Frank, who is heading up the effort in the negotiations in the House, says he's been able to find some common ground with the Bush administration on some of the additions the Democrats want to make to this rescue package -- Tony.

HARRIS: So, Brianna, there are so many here, but what are the main, the biggest sticking points?

KEILAR: Well, the two main sticking points basically revolve around the fact Democrats want more government involvement than the Bush administration, and many Republicans want. One of the big ones, limits on CEO salaries so that the corporations that benefit from this bailout money can't turn around and give millions upon millions of dollars in golden parachutes and annual salaries to their CEOs. And then the other thing, the other big thing that's a sticking point is that Democrats want to allow bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of mortgages. And that's something the Bush administration doesn't want to see in this package.

HARRIS: Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill.

And Brianna, if you hear more standout material from this hearing, just give us a heads up and we'll get right back to you.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

HARRIS: Let's talk a little bit more about the Treasury secretary.

Rarely has one man become so prominent, so powerful, so fast. This week's "Newsweek" calls the Treasury secretary "King Henry." It describes Henry Paulson as a Rockefeller Republican, not an ideologue, a free market thinker who is pushing the biggest government bailout in U.S. history.

Paulson is pure Ivy League. A football standout at Dartmouth, an MBA from Harvard. He went to work in the Nixon White House in 1972, but was quickly lured into the lucrative private sector.

Paulson joined Goldman Sachs in 1974 and became CEO in 1999. His stake in Goldman Sachs was $500 million when he cashed out in 2006.

CNN's Anderson Cooper will have a full profile on Paulson later in the hour.

You know, most of Congress is about to head home to ask voters to reelect them. They might as well walk into a hornets' nest. Voters are angry about the bailout

Here's CNN's Mary Snow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So what do taxpayers have to say about the government's $700 billion to save banks?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is exactly not what I want to happen. I would like my tax dollars to go some somewhere else.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're expecting us taxpayers to bail out Wall Street?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sounds to me like if they didn't bail it out, that things would be much worse.

SNOW: On CNNMoney.com's page, one reader didn't mince words. "Not just no, but hell no," was one response to the bailout. "Let these companies die," read another.

PETE SEPP, NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION: This is almost a populist revolt against what has been some very careless behavior not only on the part of Wall Street, but the government as well.

SNOW: Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union is urging lawmakers on Capitol Hill to fight for a smaller package, but he acknowledges there needs to be some government action. What might the consequences of not passing a bailout be? Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was quoted by "The Wall Street Journal" as saying, "If it doesn't pass, then heaven help us all," while he met privately with lawmakers last week.

Among those congressional leaders, Senator Chuck Schumer.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Well, basically, they described a financial system where the arteries are clogged, and if you don't unclog the arteries -- these are my words -- the patient could get a heart attack.

SNOW: If banks don't lend money, companies don't have money to spend, businesses grind to a halt, workers are laid off, and a potentially disastrous downward spiral follows. While many think the bailout may have averted a brush with massive disaster, one economist says underneath it all is an economy that is still struggling.

LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, ECONOMIC CYCLE RESEARCH INST.: When the dust settles -- and it's starting to settle now as we discuss this -- the fact remains we're in a recession.

SNOW (on camera): And to prevent things from getting worse, the Treasury Department is stressing the need for speed in getting the bailout passed. But critics of the plan say they believe within the next few days enough changes could be made that would be more acceptable than the current plan.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: You can follow the crisis on Wall Street, the buyouts, the bailouts, falling oil prices, rise in gas prices. All of it at CNNMoney.com. Get all the day's markets news and numbers, plus expert analysis. Log on right now.

President Bush trying to reassure the world he is taking decisive action on the financial crisis. The president this morning gave his farewell address to the United Nations General Assembly. He told world leaders he is confident the U.S. will act in an urgent time frame to prevent broader problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE. W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of the things I've heard here in my stay thus far in New York is from world leaders wondering whether or not the United States have the right plan to deal with this economic crisis. And I've assured them that the plan laid out by Secretary Paulson is a robust plan to deal with a serious problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: President Bush also discussed terrorism and he met, you saw just a moment ago, with Pakistan's new president. Tonight, a Larry King exclusive, a revealing face-to-face interview with the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on ""LARRY KING LIVE," CNN tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

As voters watch what's going on with Wall Street and the efforts on Capitol Hill to agree on a solution, the presidential campaigns are talking about their own plans. Find out what they're saying.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well, the financial crisis reaching from Wall Street to the campaign trail. Earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," John Roberts talked with the chief economic adviser for Senator Obama, Austan Goolsbee, and the top McCain economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, about the candidates' plans and their response to the crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you this morning.

Doug, let's start with you.

In a week, Senator McCain has gone from saying that the fundamentals of the economy are strong, to now saying that the economy is in a major crisis. What would he do to stop the bleeding on Wall Street?

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN, MCCAIN ECONOMIC ADVISER: Well, John McCain laid out a plan last Friday that took a proactive approach to institutionalizing the kind of help these troubled financial institutions seem to need, instead of waiting and doing it in a reactive fashion. Set up a system where they can come, get some help, get a little bridge loan, work out their distressed assets and protect the taxpayer, have some genuine oversight of what's going on, minimize the amount of Main Street dollars we throw into this Wall Street problem. He's laid out a complete plan.

ROBERTS: So very similar to what the Treasury Secretary suggested.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Well, he's trying to make sure that when the final legislation is agreed to, the taxpayer is protected. As he said yesterday, what he saw out of Secretary Paulson was the ability to write a trillion-dollar check with no oversight whatsoever. That's unprecedented in American history. Senator McCain would like to see some oversight and some genuine checks on the ability of one person to have that kind of authority.

ROBERTS: Austan Goolsbee, the McCain campaign has been criticizing Senator Obama for not coming forward with a plan. So what is the plan?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, OBAMA ECONOMIC ADVISER: Well, look, two days before Senator McCain outlined his "specific plan," Barack Obama laid out a six-point detailed plan of how we needed to re-establish oversight in the financial markets. It followed on six months in which he had been putting forward further detailed ideas and talking with experts like Paul Volcker, Warren Buffett, et cetera.

Now, I went on the Web site of John McCain to look at the detailed plan because I was a little surprised when I heard Doug talking about that. And I printed it out. And it is this.

That is the detailed McCain economic plan. It is literally 10 lines long. That's the whole details of the plan that they presented.

ROBERTS: But let me stop you there for a second, Austan, because we want to know about Senator Obama's plan. It is true, is it not, that he has been holding off on releasing many details of his plan, waiting to see what happens in Congress?

GOOLSBEE: No. Hold on.

On Tuesday of last week, Barack Obama put forward a very detailed six-point intricate plan of exactly how to reestablish public oversight. And I can go through with you each of those six points if you'd like.

What he said regarding the Paulson plan, just as McCain has been looking at the details of what Paulson put forward, each of them is putting forward conditions that we both recognize the crisis. And we're saying what needs to be added or subtracted from what they have put forward. That is quite different from their own economic plans, which Obama's has been detailed and McCain's has not.

ROBERTS: Of course, one of the big issues that this bailout raises is, will either one of the candidates be able to fulfill their campaign pledges? You know, we're adding another $700 billion at least to the national dealt.

And Douglas Holtz-Eakin, will John McCain be able to afford to go forward with his tax cuts should he become president?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Well, I think the good news is John McCain understands that we have to get this economy going and that his plan to create jobs is what we need past this immediate crisis.

ROBERTS: But can he go ahead with those tax cuts?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Oh, that's the most important thing is to get the economy going. I want to point out that it would be a bad idea if Senator Obama fulfilled his pledge to raise taxes on small business, which is our only source of job creation, and raise taxes on dividends and capital gains. The market has already gone south 370 points. We don't need those additional bad influences on the outlook right now.

ROBERTS: All right.

Let's point out too that Senator Obama, Austan, also wants to cut taxes on the majority of American taxpayers, raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000 a year, raise the FICA withholding for those people as well.

Austan Goolsbee, though, can you afford to go forward with those tax cuts?

GOOLSBEE: Well, Obama's plan is fully paid for and before this ever happened would have reduced the deficit, according to the Tax Policy Center in Washington. And John McCain's plan would add almost $350 billion a year to the deficit. The correct question is, is John McCain's plan going to be abandoned because it would run up the deficit?

ROBERTS: All right. Austan Goolsbee, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks very much for being with us.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Thanks, John. Appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: A lot to piece through in that back-and-forth. A lot of -- plenty of spin, Josh Levs. A lot of, in my view -- and I know the e-mails are coming -- sound and fury from the campaigns and their economic advisers signifying absolutely nothing in real time, because the action is happening in Washington, D.C.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HARRIS: Let's talk about the national debt. No one has talked about that.

LEVS: You want to talk about the national debt first?

HARRIS: Yes. Can we talk about that?

LEVS: This is what we started to talk about before, because it's incredible what we're talking about.

HARRIS: What happens when you lump this $700 billion...

LEVS: Right. And this is one of the reasons that we know, and Ali Velshi has been saying it, they can't possibly do everything they say they're going to do.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: Let's actually go to this graphic, because you heard someone mention what would happen to the national debt. So this is the Tax Policy Center which they were specifically talking about. OK?

Under the plans that both have put forward, before all this happened -- but just recently this was updated -- so both would add trillions of dollars to the national debt. Obama's would add $3.6 trillion, they're estimating. McCain's would add $5.1 trillion.

HARRIS: Which means you have to change your plans.

LEVS: You know what else? Leave it up there for a second, because I want to read you the entire quote.

HARRIS: What else do you have? LEVS: Just so that you understand what the Tax Policy Center is saying.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: They are saying that these figures that they're giving are under optimistic versions of both what the candidates are promising. This is if the candidates promises about revenue reduction pull through. So obviously, if you look at the full package of what both candidates are saying, there's no way that you can tackle these trillions of dollars in debt that we're adding to now with this.

HARRIS: So you have to change the plan. You have to revisit your plan at this point given the realities of today and what's happening on Wall Street right now.

LEVS: Right. And then politically, this is what you had over the last week, and this is what you were just talking about.

What you've had over the last week is both campaigns at some point acknowledging, we cannot possibly tell you everything we would do for this economy until we see what happens. And then they go after each other for not having a plan, or for not having a detailed enough a plan.

HARRIS: The plans mean absolutely nothing in the current environment. You're not going to be -- Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama, you're not going to be able to get a line of your plan into this discussion right now.

LEVS: That's right, yes. I mean, your Shakespearean analogy before about signifying nothing is really what we have got going here, because you're going to hear so many promises. But we know -- I mean, look at these figures -- they cannot do everything they said they were going to do based on the best analysis that's out there and still tackle this unbelievably huge debt. By the way, $9.8 trillion today.

HARRIS: So you're talking about -- the campaigns are talking about A, B and C. When one of these guys assumes office, you're having to deal with then D, E, F...

LEVS: And then you're on to the Greek alphabet. I'm sorry, we've got to go. But I know, it's crazy.

HARRIS: That was good. That was fun. Thank you. I got to rant a little bit.

OK. Let's talk about oil. Do we have to?

Oil is up. Oil is down. What does it all mean for you at the pump? Not good news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Motorists running on empty. Stations running out. Three southern cities dealing with pumps running dry and long lines at the stations that have gas.

Atlanta, Nashville, and Tallahassee, Florida, have been caught in a supply squeeze. Nine major Gulf Coast refineries that shut down before Hurricane Ike are still off line, and patience, like many gas tanks, is running out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We get pushed out. We get -- somebody punched the glass this morning. Luckily, it was bulletproof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yesterday, I had to have my truck towed home, and I'm looking for gas now to get to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: You know, analysts say the gas, the shortages, should disappear in the next week, once refineries resume normal production levels. For the rest of the nation, an improved gas outlook. Prices fell for the sixth straight day. The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded, around $3.73.

Did you see what happened with oil prices yesterday? Soaring by the largest amount ever, $16. So what prompted the surge, and what does it mean for gas prices?

CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Energy Fix" from New York.

Hi, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hi there, Tony.

It was unbelievable yesterday. We have never seen anything like it.

At one point on Monday afternoon, crude prices jumped $25 a barrel. That is unprecedented.

Now, a big factor in that, the $700 billion bailout package that Congress is currently debating. If that does what it's supposed to, that will support our economy and the world economy, and demand for oil should pick up. But there are some other factors at play here too that had nothing to doing with market fundamentals.

Some are saying we saw unusual trading tied to the expiration of what's called the October Contract. That ended yesterday.

Some analysts say there may have been some illegal manipulation -- we talk about that a lot -- possibly by a major player, like one big oil company, or a hedge fund. Now, regulators, as you know, Tony, they're certainly investigating.

HARRIS: Yes, that's for sure.

You know, it seems that we have had prices in a bit of turmoil for a while now. Not just yesterday. But the whole year, right? HARLOW: You know, it's really been the story of the year up until now, right up until the failure of a lot of the banks, and the bailout package. It has been this story making the year.

Crude started the year around $95 a barrel. Prices soared to more than $147 a barrel in July. Just last week though, we saw prices fall down to about $91 a barrel. That happened on Tuesday.

Take a look at that chart there. That gives you some idea of what's been going on since January.

The past week, we've seen another stunning spike in oil prices. Oil jumping 33 percent in just four days.

Right now what oil traders are dealing with is the November Contract. That right now is down about $2.50, Tony. So not at all what we saw yesterday, but still staggering, the volatility.

HARRIS: So, the recent surge, what does it mean for gas prices?

HARLOW: You know what it means, Tony. Generally, we see gas prices go up when oil price goes up. The price lagged, oil prices, by about two weeks, but it's likely, of course, right now to trickle down to gas prices. That's especially bad news for people in the Southeast, which you just mentioned, Tony. They're still experiencing fuel shortages following...

HARRIS: Oh, tell me about t.

HARLOW: ... following Hurricane Gustav. It's really tough for them, getting those refineries back on line. That's what's key. It's a complex process, it takes a lot of time.

AAA says the shortages, they're the worst in Nashville. Right now we see gas in Nashville averaging at $4.06 a gallon, whereas the national average for the rest of us is $3.73 a gallon. So they're really feeling it hard -- Tony.

HARRIS: And there she is, Poppy Harlow. CNNMoney.com is where you can get all kinds of information, and certainly an "Energy Fix."

So Poppy, great to see you. Thank you.

HARLOW: You're welcome.

HARRIS: You know, he's the man with the plan and he could soon be a man with a lot of power. Who is Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris. It's about 9:32 a.m. in Los Angeles. And good morning, Angelenos.

Boy, just into lunchtime in New York City and Wall Street barely with a moment to breathe right now. As you can see, the Dow is still in positive territory, up nine, but that is definitely in rather dramatically off of session highs. The Dow at one point closed in triple digit territory, and positive territory, and down now, but still in green territory. The Dow up nine. The Nasdaq, at last check, up five.

He uses phrases like illiquid assets and capital stress. Henry Paulson, a veteran Wall Street executive turned street cleaner.

CNN's Anderson Cooper looks at the Treasury secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Last September, Henry Paulson painted an optimistic picture of the nation's finances.

HENRY PAULSON, TREASURY SECRETARY: U.S. economic fundamental are healthy, unemployment is low, wages are rising and core inflation is contained. Although the recent reappraisal of risk, coupled with the weakness in the housing sector may well result in a penalty, the fundamentals point to continued U.S. economic growth.

COOPER: His confidence remained intact in February.

PAULSON: The U.S. economy is fundamentally strong and diverse and resilient.

COOPER: Now, a complete reversal. With dire warnings of an economic tsunami. Paulson's message is one of fear and fate.

PAULSON: We are at entrepreneurial people. A hard-working people. And we will work through this. We always do. I wouldn't bet against the American people.

COOPER: But are you willing to bet on him? That's the $700 billion question. And before you answer, you should know more about the man at the middle of this financial firestorm.

Born in 1946, Paulson was a standout student and football star at Dartmouth. After receiving his MBA from Harvard in 1970, Paulson served as staff assistant to President Nixon. In 1974, the Republican took a job at Goldman Sachs, climbing the ranks of the invest banking giant until he was chairman and CEO.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: When a company wants to go public on the stock market, they'll go to a Goldman Sachs. When a company wants new financing for a project, they'll go to Goldman Sachs. The brightest and the best on Wall Street go into and come out of Goldman Sachs. And Henry Paulson was the brightest and the best at Goldman Sachs.

COOPER: In 2006, had left his estimated $40 million a year income on Wall Street to serve as the 74th secretary of Treasury.

VELSHI: The Treasury secretary deals with policy about the government, whereas the fed deals with monetary policy. They deal with interest rates and money supply. The Treasury secretary deals with the larger matters of the economy, the regulation of the financial economy, the types of policies that keep America going on its financial track.

COOPER: That's all changed now. And not since Alexander Hamilton has the position been so vital, so influential. Now, Paulson is asking all of us to take a tremendous leap of faith, basically trusting him and his successors with nearly a trillion dollars in taxpayer money.

VELSHI: That's not typically the role of the Treasury secretary. But he was brought into this administration to solve a problem. And he's getting right down in there and trying to solve it. History will judge whether or not he's done this well. But he's fully, fully engaged in this financial crisis.

HARLOW: He's essentially asking (INAUDIBLE) to get those ill liquid assets or those assets that are really hard to value right now, off the books of those banks and brokerages so that they can have sort of a clean slate, if you will.

COOPER: It's a sweeping proposition and one he is ready to gamble on. The question is, will you?

Anderson Cooper, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Votes early. About one-third of you are expected to do just that, before the election. It's relatively convenient and it saves time. Election officials are predicting double the turnout in places like Virginia, which is now welcoming early voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANNE FOGARTY, EARLY VOTER: I'm a flight attendant and the travel to Europe. And especially because of Thanksgiving, I'm getting around certain day and I'm probably going to be working that Tuesday. And I really believe that other than my first time I voted when I was 18, this is probably -- and I voted every election -- this is the most important one since the first time I was able to vote in a presidential election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, the nation's financial crisis is playing out in the polls and on the campaign trails. CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): As the Wall Street mess dominates the headlines, Capitol Hill and the campaign, new polling finds that by a two to one margin, registered voters blame Republicans, political gold (ph). SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I guess they think that you don't have much sense because they can stand up with a straight face and say, we're going to clean it all up. They made the mess. They have been running the government.

CROWLEY: It is the underpinning of the Obama campaign, a persistent attempt to tie John McCain to George Bush. Working just as persistently to break loose, McCain needs to convince voters, like those here in working class Pennsylvania, that he has the reformer credentials to fix what's wrong.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me offer a little advance warning to the big spending, greedy, do nothing, me first, country second crowd in Washington and on Wall Street, change is coming, change is coming to a neighborhood near you.

CROWLEY: The latest CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll also shows while McCain holds a 12 point lead when the question is about judgment during an international crisis, Obama is up six points when voters are asked about judgment during an economic crisis. So the issue likely to dominate the conversations between now and Election Day plays to Obama's perceived strength. And he pushes it.

OBAMA: We need a plan that helps families stay in their homes and workers keep their jobs. A plan that gives hard working Americans relief, instead of using taxpayer dollars to reward CEOs on Wall Street.

CROWLEY: The bailout brings a peculiar conundrum to the campaign. The candidates don't want to stand in the way of avoiding economic calamity, but don't want to fully embrace a plan that seems to save the elite. So the trail rings with populism as both candidates generally accept the need for $700 billion in help for the nation's top financial institutions, even as they speak to the resentment it stirs among struggling taxpayers footing the bill.

MCCAIN: We can't have taxpayers footing the bill for bloated golden parachutes.

We need to put our country first and focus what's best for main street. It's the excess and greed of Washington and Wall Street that got us in this situation to start with.

CROWLEY: In the end, when it comes to the bailout, Obama and McCain agree more than disagree. Both want more oversight in how the money is spend and limits on CEO payouts. Both want to see the final package before embracing it and both are likely to be campaigning when the vote is taken.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And for all the latest campaign news, check out our Political Ticker. Just log on to CNN.com/politics. Your source for all things political. A school shooting in Finland to tell you about. At least 10 victims dead. An undetermined number of people wounded. It happened at a vocational college northwest of Helsinki. Police say the shooter turned the gun on himself and died a short time later. Finish police believe the shooter uploaded four videos on YouTube. They show a young man firing a pistol at shooting range targets. Police say -- yes. Police say they questioned him about the videos yesterday but they say they had no legal reason to hold him. YouTube took the videos down within hours of the shooting.

Security fears after a suicide attack proving costly to Pakistan's economy. British Airways announcing today it will ground its three weekly flights from London Heathrow to Islamabad. A tremendous truck bomb at the Marriott killed more than 50 people Saturday. Pakistani police suspect al Qaeda is behind the attack.

Searching for gas and paying a high price. You've been telling us your stories at ireport.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Boy, flattened fields as far as the eye can see. Have a look at what the remnants of Hurricane Ike did as far north as Illinois and Indiana. Farmers estimate the strong winds and heavy rains have ruined about 40 percent of their crops. So brace yourselves. How often have you heard that this year? Brace yourself for higher grain prices?

And, boy, as we go to Chad Myers in the severe weather center -- will we need to brace ourselves for what's developing in the tropics, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No. I don't know. The water's cooling down a little bit. The farther you get into September and October, and finally into November, the water's not as hot. Certainly there's plenty of potential water here. There's plenty of potential. And in many of the models that I'm looking at now are taking this thing all the way to be a category one hurricane.

The deal is, I think this thing is not where the models are. The models are saying it's over here. And I believe it's probably south of Santo Domingo. So, Tony, here's the problem. You know what GIGO means?

HARRIS: No.

MYERS: GIGO means garage in, garbage out.

HARRIS: Oh, I thought that was a little salamander kind of -- oh, I'm sorry.

MYERS: No, that's a gecko.

If you put the low in the wrong place to begin with, it's garbage in, so the rest is garbage out, if you don't really know where this thing is in the first place. The hurricane hunter aircraft in the storm right now. They will figure out where it is. We'll get all of that data back into a real model that runs tonight and then we'll have a much better idea.

This has nothing to do with that low pressure down there, but rip currents are just plowing into the East Coast, all the way from Sandy Hook, all the way down even into Florida, south Florida places. And so I know that seems like that's a great idea. Oh, we've got lots of wind and we've got waves coming in, let's go surf. But you have to know what to do because as water comes over those sandbars and it goes out in one spot, you can really get taken out. Really taken out.

A beautiful day in Atlanta, 81. Gorgeous in D.C., 75. Seeing the colors now in New England. And how about this? Boston high of 66. No need for the air conditioner anymore. Can't believe it's almost time for the heat -- Tony.

HARRIS: And the oil prices to go along with heating the homes in the Northeast.

MYERS: Absolutely.

HARRIS: I'm sorry. I took this back to brace yourselves.

All right, Chad, appreciate it. Thank you.

Hey, remember the vote counting in Palm Beach County? Have things been fixed? Some say it may be worse than ever.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Running on empty. Frustrated drivers facing severe gas shortages across the southeast due to Hurricane Ike, and I believe Gustav as well. That's just my view of it. Veronica De La Cruz has been checking out your I-reports.

Veronica, hey, good to see you.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi.

HARRIS: What have you seen? And I would imagine folks pretty outraged.

DE LA CRUZ: Yes. Lots of long lines is what we've been seeing. Lots of frustration. And we're going to go ahead and start in your backyard, Tony, in Atlanta, Georgia.

HARRIS: Nice.

DE LA CRUZ: Take a look at this. Cory Pryor shot some pictures around the Buckhead area of Atlanta after passing by six stations, Tony. .

HARRIS: Oh, yes.

DE LA CRUZ: Six different stations he says were bone dry empty. He says that he almost ran out of fuel. He finally found a station that had a decent sized line around midnight, Tony. Around midnight. Took him that long. And he says he found it interesting, the station was rationing its gas, limiting people's purchase to about $50. He filled his tank. Said he would probably ride his bike so that he can save what was left in his tank. So just look at all of those lines.

HARRIS: Well, forget about it. Really, Veronica, forget about going during rush hour. The afternoon rush or the morning rush. Just forget about it. Really you're better off going somewhere late in the evening, close to midnight, early hours of the next morning, maybe, because otherwise it's insane.

DE LA CRUZ: And even then it doesn't really matter because you saw those lines.

HARRIS: That's right.

DE LA CRUZ: And, you know, Adriana Maxwell said that those lines are reminding her of what happened back in the '70s with the gas shortage. And she says that she too spent her day driving around looking for gas. So these are a couple of pictures that she, too, sent to us. And you see there that pumping station has a bag over the handle.

So I heard that you, too, have a story to share. That you've been riding your bike into work, or maybe it was your skateboard, because you couldn't fill your tank? What that it?

HARRIS: If I could find a segue, I would ride a segue to work. Do they even make those things anymore? It's just insane. I mean, you know, my experience wasn't that bad. It takes a while. But you know how we're telling folks you need to plan your trip so you get the most fuel economy. It's what you have to do now if you're trying to find gas in the northeast. Now you just have to plan and strategize and call ahead. It's insane right now.

DE LA CRUZ: I know. I know. It is absolutely insane. But definitely a lot of great stories coming in to us. And we want to ask people to keep sending them to us. All you have to do is log on to our web site at ireport.com. You can read Tony's story about how he got to work by riding his segue.

HARRIS: I am blogging like crazy. What's the new thing with the kids, the twitter thing?

All right, Veronica, good to . . .

DE LA CRUZ: You're twittering.

HARRIS: Good to see you. Thank you.

Six weeks and counting to Election Day. And fresh from stomping in battleground state Wisconsin, presidential hopeful Barack Obama in Tampa, Florida, today. His running mate, Senator Joe Biden, is greeting supporters right now in Virginia.

Senator John McCain got an early start this morning on the campaign trail. He held a rally in Ohio and heads to Michigan next. His running mate, Sarah Palin, meeting world leaders at the United Nations.

And remember the hanging chads? The pregnant chads? And the butterfly ballots from the 2008 presidential elections? Well, Florida still may not have gotten its act together for voters.

Here's our John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Some images of Palm Beach County are peaceful, relaxing. Others, not so much. And with this year's presidential race so close, headlines like these stir both painful memories and present day worry. The current recount drama involves a local judicial race, hardly a state-wide or national concern. But the confusion and sometimes contradictory statements of county election officials are raising all too familiar questions.

SID DINERSTEIN, PALM BEACH CITY GOP CHAIRMAN: Managerially, software wise, procedure wise, training wise, there is no confidence that those people will be ready in less than 50 days for the election that we're all going to have.

KING: Never again was the county's promise after the butterfly ballots and hanging chad of the 2000 presidential recount. By 2004, the county had switched to touch screen machines and there were no major controversies. But for this cycle, Palm Beach County has switched again to a system of scanned paper ballots. County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein says the touch screen were more reliable but local Democrats insisted on switching.

DINERSTEIN: We could have had a nice, reliable computer counting votes and giving us all an honest count.

KING: County election officials insist the new system is reliable and say they'll be ready for November 4th. The drama here eight years ago, some would say debacle, led to major changes. More than 40 states made adjustments in their machines or their audit trail.

TODD ROKITA, INDIANA SECRETARY OF STATE: We've had more change in our election process since 2000 than we've seen since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

KING: Todd Rokita is Indiana's top elections official and the past president of the association of secretaries of state. Indiana spent $67 million on new equipment and Rokita challenges those who don't trust the computerized systems.

ROKITA: You know, we use technology in every one of our financial transactions and social transactions. Why are we not putting -- why until 2000 do we not put that technology to use when it comes to our most sacred civic transaction? You know, the voting process.

KING: Indiana has a record number of newly registered voters. And with the possibility of heavy turnout, Rokita advises those who don't like long lines or maybe don't trust their local election system to take advantage of any opportunity to vote early, either in person or by mail.

John King, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Do you know someone who's a genius? He or she may have gotten a call saying, it pays to be smart. Waiting for my call.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So here's the question, are you a genius? Do you deserve half a million dollars for it? Wow. Over the past week, 12 people got calls out of nowhere saying, guess what, you are brilliant and rich.

Maybe they just don't have my number, Josh Levs. Tell me more about this.

LEVS: I know. You and I go through this heartache every year, right?

HARRIS: Every year.

LEVS: Every year we hear the MacArthur Foundation is putting out their genius grants. Where are we?

HARRIS: Yes, where are we.

LEVS: It's so unfair. Yes, trust me, we don't think that way. And, by the way, they're not officially called genius grant but everybody calls them that. Look who got them this year. Let's see. This is a pretty cool list. You got a saxophonist, a stage lighting designer. Lots of doctors. Experimental neurobiologist. Let's see if I can scroll away up here. This is how not a genus I am. There you go. The ones that they're leading with. Look, this is a fiction writer. And over here, Will Allen is an urban farmer. Let's listen to what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL ALLEN, MACARTHUR FELLOW: It's the future of our food system. If we want healthy, local food, our new generation of farmers are going to come -- they're not going to come from rural communities. They're not going to come from traditional farm families, because those things don't exist in our system anymore. These new farmers are going to come from folks that live in the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: So we're giving everybody a chance to weigh in on this. Let's just quickly go to a graphic. We're going to ask you, who do you think should get $500,000 for being a genius? Just let us know your thoughts right at cnnnewsroom@cnn.com.

HARRIS: Tony Harris and Kyra Phillips and Josh Levs.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Are you calling yourself a genius?

HARRIS: Absolutely.

LEVS: Thanks. Thanks.

PHILLIPS: I'm the first to say I ain't a genius. Are you kidding me? That's just setting yourself up for trouble, Tony.

HARRIS: It really is. It really is.

PHILLIPS: I'll tell you who is, though, a genius, in many way, Mayor Shirley Franklin here in Atlanta.

HARRIS: Did you talk to her?

PHILLIPS: Sure did. Talked to her about a lot of things. I mean she's just a fascinating woman as we well know. We see her at so many functions here around Atlanta, Georgia. But we're talking about the gas situation, why Georgia's getting hit so hard.

HARRIS: Yes.

PHILLIPS: She had to go to six different gas stations to fill up her tank the other day.

HARRIS: She doesn't fill up at the city trough?

PHILLIPS: No, it was very impressed (ph).

HARRIS: I love it. Can't wait.

PHILLIPS: She works like all the rest of us.

HARRIS: Have fun, lady. Have fun.

PHILLIPS: All right.