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Why Does this Election Matter?; The Election and Your Wallet; Details of Cholera Outbreak in Haiti
Aired October 25, 2010 - 12:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: You have a great afternoon, my friend, Tony. Thanks very much.
I'm Ali Velshi. And for the next two hours today and every weekday, I'll guide you through the maze of information coming your way. Together, we will learn what's going on at home and around the world. You'll get access to folks who can best explain what it means today and the impacts beyond today. We'll showcase the best ideas and n innovation, philanthropy and public education.
My mission is to help you figure out how what is going on around you fits into your life.
So, let's get started. Here's what I got on the rundown.
Caught in a Texas tornado with debris flying and the camera rolling -- and this storm system is still on the move. We're on the lookout for more dangerous weather this hour.
A big idea that had fans cheering -- using the sun's energy to power pro-sports and stadiums.
And baseball's Cinderella team, the Texas Rangers, going from bankruptcy to the big show.
But, first, the midterm elections. Voting day eight days from now, a week from tomorrow. Today, we're going outside the Beltway to tackle a question that has an impact on all of us: Does this election matter?
I know. I know -- a lot of you are probably saying, what are you talking about? Admit it -- some of you have asked. Does this election matter? For some of you, clearly, it doesn't because you haven't gone out there and registered. You haven't gone out there and shown any indication of wanting to vote.
It's obvious here. Obviously it matters. It matters to the president, for instance, as you can see from this map that I'm going to show you. He's hard on the campaign trail today. He's making a stop in Rhode Island.
The first lady will be on the stump in Seattle and San Francisco. And Vice President Joe Biden is in Florida.
It matters to the president. It matters to Republicans, fighting like crazy to gain control of the House and capture as many seats in the Senate as possible. I can't help but mention the real phenomenon of this campaign, the Tea Party movement.
But back to the question -- let's go back to our question for a second: does it matter? When all the stump speeches are done, all the name-calling and mudslinging is over, almost $3 billion will have been spent in issue ads in this election. Does it really matter?
If the GOP does indeed capture the House -- never mind the Senate -- if it captures the House, will it make a difference, a positive difference or will it mean more gridlock? And is gridlock good or bad? You have two opinions on that.
What about key issues, like the economy, like markets, like houses, like jobs? What about taxes and health care?
Are we likely to see any significant change?
Well, joining us now with their take on this election and its importance: CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger is in our Washington studio. And coming to us from Memphis: Mark Skoda, the founder and chairman of the Memphis TEA Party, a key player in the movement.
Both of you, welcome. Thanks so much for being with us right now.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks.
VELHSI: Gloria, let's starts with you.
BORGER: OK.
VELSHI: Let's just start with what people likely think, I don't know whether we got poll numbers on this. I only know anecdotally from what I've -- from what I've heard from people. If you are not a member of the Tea Party movement or maybe a conservative Republican or somebody who's mad about something or maybe a very liberal voter who's worried about the outcome of losing the House, do -- does most of the middle of America care?
BORGER: You know, it's interesting -- midterm elections that are not in a presidential year, Ali, don't generally get a tremendous turnout because people are naturally not as motivated as they are when they are voting for president of the United States.
Having said that, what we're seeing in this country -- you know, we asked voters, do you think the country is headed in the right direction, or do you think it's on the wrong track? And by a two to one margin, people tend that the country is headed in the wrong direction. And that makes people think, you know what, I think I got to get out there and vote -- because what I think this is turning into, Ali, is a yes or no election.
VELSHI: Yes.
BORGER: And you vote "yes" if you want -- if you want Barack Obama and the Democrats to continue what they're doing. And you vote "no" if you don't like the direction or if, in fact, you think maybe we need to put the brakes on. So, it comes down to yes or no.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: And people when they're angrier tend to turn out more.
VELSHI: OK. Let's talk to Mark for a second.
Mark, I'm going to lump you in with the Tea Party movement for the moment because you -- you are one of those disparate people who were involved in it. And now, you guys have your moment in the sun, to some degree. You will have great influence on this election. May be that you continue to have influence in future elections. It may that this is as good as it gets, we don't know.
But if you -- if the movement that the Tea Party has pushed ahead does meet with some success in this election and the GOP takes the House of Representatives and is influenced heavily by the Tea Party, what in your opinion changes?
I asked that question on Facebook. Before you answer, Mark, I'm going to give you a couple of responses. Let me tell you what -- on Twitter actually, Reginald Walter said, it will mean the "repeal of health care, the repeal of tax cuts, it seems that the GOP wants to repeal and doesn't have a plan to replace or improve." There's one thought.
The other one -- and I think this is from Brett. This is from Facebook. Brett is saying -- he's expressing an opinion. He thinks that the government should "repeal health care, halt stimulus monies from being spent, eliminate most government agencies that don't work, halt all adding of bogus laws to legitimate ones. If they can't stand on their own two feet, they shouldn't be law. Eliminate all handouts or at least use some accountability measures to get people to get off their lazy cans."
Mark, you heard that before -- is that going to happen?
MARK SKODA, FOUNDER, MEMPHIS TEA PARTY: Boy, I'll tell you, Ali, and I agree with Gloria. First of all, there's a lot of animation here. I mean, people in the heartland are really interested in this election. We have about 60,000 early registered voters already in Shelby County, for instance -- 55 percent are Republican voters. They're very interested.
I don't think anybody -- and this morning I was at a campaign meeting. No one has any unrealistic expectations about what a Republican Congress can do. I think what they can do is begin to exemplify, one, in the budgeting process and, two, in their pledge the intent to govern.
(CROSSTALK) VELSHI: But, Mark, exemplify doesn't get me a job. It doesn't make my home go up. It doesn't change the taxes that I pay.
But some people are going to vote for Republicans and Tea Party- backed candidates because there's an implication out there that if you guys win, the world's going to change a little bit, and maybe get better for me.
SKODA: Absolutely. First of all, I mean, the very fundamental issue, the Republican Congress will determine a budget -- which is a good start since we haven't had one for a year. Secondly, that will establish the priorities. Third, I think there will be less regulation. There will be consistency in trying to forestall any further regulation which will allow business to have some certainty.
I think, fourth, they will defund areas of government that they can defund without a presidential override or presidential veto. Fourth, I think at the end of the day, they can also begin to address in the longer term what the Republican government is going to do as a governance body. And more importantly, I think ultimately explaining to people that they're going to listen to them.
People are frustrated right now. Look, it is not only about --
VELSHI: Right.
SKODA: -- having a magic wand and being able to suddenly changing the way government operationalizes, that's not possible. We have a Democratic president --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: You're saying the biggest change might me that people feel listened to.
Gloria, I want to ask you.
BORGER: Yes.
VELSHI: He used the words -- he used the words "certainty," does a mixed House -- does a Republican House and a Democratic Senate maybe and a Democratic president, is that more certainty or is that less certainty?
BORGER: Well, it -- you know, it honestly depends on how people behave. You know, first of all, you have to ask a question about Barack Obama. Does he behave more like Jimmy Carter? Or does he behave more like Bill Clinton?
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: And don't forget, Bill Clinton passed welfare reform, took him a year to get there but he did it.
Then it depends on the Republican Party. There's going to be a big split in the Republican Party. I'm sure Mark will acknowledge this.
There's going to be some Republicans from the Tea Party who say, I'm not going to vote for any spending bill. I'm going to vote -- I'm going to start guerrilla warfare against health care reform. I'm not going to vote to fund those IRS agents, to enforce mandates in health care reform, for example.
There may be some Republicans who say go slower, we can't do that.
So, it depends on how the Republicans behave, how the president behaves.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: I'll tell you one thing, though, people want Congress and the president to start governing this country together. And I'm not sure that's going to be possible.
VELSHI: OK. So, that's a great -- I want to take a quick break. I want you both to come back. So, you're so good at this. Thank you.
I want you, Mark, to pick that conversation up about governing together.
Right now, we got two parties that aren't working together. And we might just have a Republican Party that's made up of two parts. The devil you know or the devil that you may vote for?
Stay with us. What changes if the Republicans the House or more in this election? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Continuing our conversation. We're going to talk about why voting matters. And we're going to do that a little later on. There's a whole different set of reasons about why you should go out there and vote, regardless of what you think about the political system or who you support.
But does this election matter?
Obviously, if you thought the election mattered, we'd have higher turnout, and you'd know why you needed to vote. So, I want to get down to this question that people are asking. Does this election matter, and if so, how? What will it change? How will it change the things that I'm doing?
CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger in our Washington studio. Coming to us from Memphis, Mark Skoda, the founder and chairman of the Memphis Tea Party movement and a big player in movement.
Let's go to Facebook for a second, Mark. You know what your job is. But before you answer, I want to -- I want to go to Facebook. Brenda says, "Absolutely nothing will happen for the next two years as the gridlock will tighten, so it doesn't matter what I would like to see done."
And then Linda on Facebook says, "The Republicans will finally be equally accountable for failure. All they have been doing for the last two years is halting progress and blaming the Dems. If they run half of Congress, they will have to take ownership for our country's problems."
You said earlier, Mark, that -- a Democratic win -- a Republican win in the House of Representatives will give some certainty to the political situation. Tell me if that is good or bad.
There will be gridlock, we know that. We've had a partisan Congress even with one party in control -- will only get more partisan next.
SKODA: Well, let me say this. First of all, this whole idea of gridlock in the current Congress is nonsense. I mean, we have had a House that passed immediately cap-and-trade. We have an EPA that wants to enact legislation to support cap and trade. We passed the Obama health care bill. We passed the Financial Reform Act.
The fact of the matter is there's been no gridlock. There's been a run over the opposition positions on a lot of these issues, which is why people are animated. Why 55 percent to 60 percent of the early vote is Republican right now.
I think the truth of the matter is that the Republicans, if elected and governed as they've suggested in the pledge, will do a few things. One is they'll be able to restrain elements of the EPA trying to legislate when they have no authority to do so. Two, they'll be able to restrict funding to Obamacare and, indeed, to hiring those 16,000 IRS agents. And supporting the states in their -- in their legal challenges to Obamacare, which I think is the most immediate opportunity to overturn. And three, I think, no regulatory changes in the Financial Reform Act.
Think about this: for the first time in history, we have passed a bill that institutionalizes never to be revoked an agency within the Financial Reform Act. I mean, this is antithetical to what we believe as Republicans.
VELSHI: Gloria?
BORGER: You know, the president -- it's going to be a very interesting situation if they do win the House. It depends by what majority, by the way. But don't forget: the president and the Democrats are not going to give up here. The president had a veto pen, which he can use.
There can be, as we were talking about in the last segment, guerrilla warfare on health care reform. I doubt there would be a complete repeal, because, of course, the president could veto that. And I don't know where the votes would be.
There are some people, Ali, who also believe that gridlock might be a decent thing for right now while you work a bunch of -- a bunch of things out. You know, we have a tendency in this country when we swing in one direction, we correct ourselves, right?
VELSHI: Right. Right.
BORGER: That's I think what the public might be saying. But I do think there's a danger here on the Republican side, because if they do win a majority, they have to actually look like they can govern.
VELSHI: Yes. And by the way, Christine Romans will be with us in a moment, and she's going to argue that the run-up we've seen in the stock market is because markets like gridlock actually.
Thank you to both of you --
BORGER: Right.
VELSHI: -- for such a great discussion.
Gloria, we always rely on you for that.
And, Mark, I appreciate you coming in here and giving us some very clear perspective on where people from the movement in which you're involved in are seeing this.
Mark Skoda with the Memphis TEA Party, founder of the Memphis TEA Party.
Gloria Borger, our senior political analyst.
While they've been talking about it, elections are almost here eight days away. Are they -- will the results, will the outcome make a difference to your wallet? What is in store for things like health care, taxes, spending, housing, jobs? I'm going to tell you about it when we come back with Christine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: But I can do something.
All right. Elections are eight days away. Police -- people -- police, there's no police involved in this thing. That's the great thing about this election. They go through usually without the help of police.
People are worried about how the impact -- how the outcome might have an impact on their money. What can these elections actually to do for the thing that matters most to you, your economy? When I say "your economy," I mean jobs, markets, the value of your home, credit, taxes, to some degree health care.
Christine Romans, my co-host at "YOUR $$$$$," she's here with me.
Let's talk about this, Christine. First of all, we lead off -- we just finished a conversation with Gloria and -- Gloria Borger and Mark Skoda where we were talking about the possibility of gridlock.
And you saying to me that these markets in part have been forging ahead because they think there's going to be gridlock and markets kind of like that. That is certainty to markets more so than we've seen in the last couple of years.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, "YOUR $$$$$": The first thing that I learned covering markets when I was a cub reporter at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at the Chicago Board of Trade, I learned, all this people said, gridlock is good. When Washington can't screw something up --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- we get very, very happy. And now, what people are telling me in the market today, is one of the reasons they think that the market is above 11,000, there are several reasons. But one of them is that there's finally going to be -- the sand has been shifting for two years.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: New regulation, new ideas, stimulus, how's it's going to be implemented --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: And some of them are good.
ROMANS: Oh, yes.
VELSHI: Some of those new ideas are good. But it's just change. Right.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: And when they can just -- just absorb what's happened for the last couple of years --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- that could be a good thing for the business community. And that certainty will help.
You know, corporate profits are returning, too.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: So, a little bit of confidence can come in. Maybe the ground's not going to shift. They can figure out, as Gloria was saying, now put the regulations into place and work out -- you know, you pass the laws and then got to write the regulations. And the agencies have to actually start to do it.
VELSHI: But ultimately, the things that our viewers are immediately concerned about, and some are small business owners so that is of concern to them -- but jobs --
ROMANS: Right. VELSHI: -- markets are continuing to go higher because that's their retirement investment.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: And the value of your home.
Will a Republican-controlled House of Representatives fundamentally change those three things?
ROMANS: The things that you and I feel will not change right away. They won't change November 3rd or January 3rd or -- these things take time.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: And there's a bigger economy. And I think sometimes, in Washington, they like to think -- they like to think that they have more of this under control than they really do.
VELSHI: They don't -- nor does the president.
ROMANS: They can probably do more harm than they can do good, many people say. But it's going to take some time. I think the only thing that will really change is a feeling that voters are going to have. Right now, everything is out of their control.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Everything is out of your control. When you walk out of that ballot box, you --
VELSHI: You can do something. You control something.
ROMANS: -- can say, I did something. I could control this one thing that I did. And that was the vote that I cast.
VELSHI: If you think that there are things that are going to happen that are going to improve the economy, the Federal Reserve may actually have more power over that than -- than the government does.
ROMANS: If there's going to be another stimulus, it's going to be Federal Reserve stimulus in the very near term. We know there could be some changes on taxes. Maybe tax cuts would be extended for everyone instead of just high earners.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: You look at health care. There's going to be a lot of talk about -- what do they call, it repeal and replace, what Republicans are saying.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Well, maybe what could -- if they could repeal it in the House, is there any expectation of it passing in the Senate? VELSHI: Not if the Republicans aren't controlling the Senate.
ROMANS: Right. And how do -- you know, that's a difficult -- that's more I think -- I don't know. I think that's more -- symbolic, the whole health care discussion.
Government spending -- look, Republicans always say they want to spend less money.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: But there's also this real concern that cutting back on spending could hurt the economy. And Republicans saw that too.
VELSHI: Right. We saw the government move in because consumers weren't spending.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: So, that's an issue.
ROMANS: So, there's some concern about, yes, philosophically, Republicans say they want to cut back spending, but how will do it, where, when, without hurting the economy. Still, a big discussion there.
Cap-and-trade, something you and I have talked about many, many times.
VELSHI: Which the Republicans called job-killing energy policies or something of that nature.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: So, they're very clear on the fact that they don't like that.
ROMANS: It could -- it could struggle. That could struggle.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: -- already doesn't have a clear road ahead of it.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: And that could continue to struggle.
Talk to me about Social Security.
ROMANS: Social Security --
VELSHI: Social Security.
ROMANS: This is something at the core this fiscal commission that the president has embarked upon to try to figure out how to fix some of our deficit problems. CBO analysis, the Congressional Budget Office analysis, really fascinating showing that, believe it or not, if they run 500 different simulations, the younger you are, most likely the less you're going to see back from Social Security. Something that makes progressive economists crazy because they say it's just not fair to cut the benefits.
But under all of these different CBO simulations, somebody born in the 1940s will probably
VELSHI: We'll get (INAUDIBLE).
ROMANS: Yes. Somebody born in the '60s would get --
VELSHI: Wow, look at how this drops.
ROMANS: Yes. And, then look, by the time you get to the 2000 --
VELSHI: This is, by the way, if they don't fix it. If they don't do something to fix Social Security, meaning that it doesn't bring in more than it takes out, than it gives out.
ROMANS: Right. So, that's something that feeds into there discussion of do you raise the retirement age. Look at what's happening in France, talking about raising the retirement age, folks --
VELSHI: To 62. From 60 to 62.
ROMANS: Raise the retirement age, do you cut benefits, do you index benefits to how much money, do means testing (INAUDIBLE) -- lots of different things being discussed. People get very angry --
VELSHI: But that graphic was a clear view that we all have to be agreed on one thing. It's not working as it is. It needs to be fixed.
ROMANS: And you can look at the Congressional Budget Office Web site, you could see some of these different -- how they've run it differently and you can just see how the older you are, the safer you are. The younger you are, the more you need to think about saving in other ways.
VELSHI: The Congressional Budget Office, actually, I know it sounds really nerdy because Christine says things like that, but you guys should check it out. They do really good stuff.
Thank you. Good to see you.
ROMANS: It takes one to know one, Ali.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: It usually does.
We will spend our whole week together. Christine and I are here together every day at this time. We're also on "YOUR $$$$$," Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Christine Romans is also the author of a great new book called "Smart is the New Rich: If You Can't Afford It -- Put It Down." It's on bookshelves right now. You really should give it a read. "Smart is the New Rich" and the book will help you with that.
One-hundred-and-twenty-five-mile-per-hour winds tearing buildings apart right in front of him. But this guy kept the camera rolling. Check this out -- as a tornado roared. Chad talks us through this amazing footage. You're going to want to see this. It's out of Texas. I'll show you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Just before the break, I was showing fascinating footage from Texas. Somebody who was videotaping a tornado didn't stop, by the way, when it looked like it was upon him.
Let's go right to Chad in the severe weather center to tell us about that weather and about the video -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: An emergency manager for the county out there, literally being a storm spotter. And the storm was right there to his left. And it went all the way across the street.
Let's just go to it because it's better than looking at me. The video here, amazing. Here he is, Eric Myers -- spelled the same, no relation. Going across here in -- I'm going to stop talking so you can hear him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in the tornado!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: His last comment you heard, we are in the tornado.
VELSHI: Wow. Wow.
MYERS: And yes, he was.
And look at the debris flying. And this is what I want people to recognize, that people really don't get sucked up by a tornado and, you know, dropped in Kansas. The debris hurts people. Kills people --
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: -- more than, let's say, the suction or the pressure change. And then we move you to around to -- this Rice, Texas, from KTXA -- another piece of video here.
We know that this can't happen with straight-line winds unless the house was, you know, under construction or whatever. So, the tornado did tear through this town. And there were even tornadoes east of here. There were tornadoes down into central and western Alabama last night. And now that weather has kind of slid farther to the east.
I want to take you to what's going on right now, Ali. The weather was -- Texas, this was the whole cold front. This is cold air trying to push away the warm air of summer.
In the spring, we think of severe weather because it's the warm air trying to push back the cold air of winter. So, we do get two severe weather seasons. One in the spring, one in the fall, but the one in the spring is certainly more significant with more tornadoes by a factor of about 20 or so.
We had a couple tornado watches. Now, we only have one for north part of Florida. And the severe thunderstorm watches for the Carolinas, which means there could be wind damage. There could be hail. But so far, none of those storms are spinning.
VELSHI: Strikes me for first time if history, I dodged the weather, being in New York.
MYERS: Yes. You're in good shape up there.
VELSHI: All right. Chad, good to see you. We'll talk to you later in the show. Chad Myers in our severe weather center.
A tight Senate race in a state that is known sometimes for shady politics. We're checking in with Illinois voters as Election Day approaches. CNN's Don Lemon hits the Chicago institution that's known for pastrami and politics.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All week we're going to be rolling through the Midwest ahead of midterm elections. Candidates have been cramming their views down everybody's throats for months. Now we want to sample voters' appetites.
CNN's Don Lemon is back at a town he spent a lot of time in. He's busy at Manny's deli in downtown Chicago, a place known for -- what do you got there, a pastrami?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You caught me in the middle of my order, Ali. So, you want to help me out? I like the spaghetti. I know everybody talks about the corned beef at Manny's. I used to come here a lot. I'm not a big sandwich person, not huge. But I like this, and the I like the stuffed grown peppers. I'm not sure if you would like that. Should I try the stuffed green peppers today?
VELSHI: I think you should. should. That looks good.
LEMON: Give me one of those, Rory. That's Rory. Yes, Rory hooks me up every time I come here. You know, I had one of those mornings, Ali, where everything was late. The plane, everything delayed. So look at that. Look at that. VELSHI: You need to eat. I don't want to interrupt you or anything.
LEMON: Doesn't that look awesome?
VELSHI: That looks sweet.
Any politics get in the way of your lunch?
LEMON: You got all -- oh, yes. We're going to talk politics. But look at this corned beef. Awesome, right? That looks good. Show them right here, Chris.
So listen, we came out here because we want to talk to voters. This is what they're doing for their lunch break here. They're at Manny's. Manny's has been here since the 1940s on the southwest side of Chicago. If you get a piece of apple pie with it, they call it the -- or you can get the cherry pie, they call it the special presidential, right there.
VELSHI: Nice.
LEMON: All right. I'll come back and grab my ticket, all right? And then I'll pay you.
All right. So come this way, Chris. So we got our food here. We're going to walk over and talk to some ladies. They visited here.
How long have you been here in Chicago? They're from Indian, and they invited me to come finish up with them. They're having dessert now. But they're from -- you're from Indianapolis, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
LEMON: We're kind of talking to them, Ali, about how contentious the election has been, what's been going on. All the interest. They're a church group.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.
LEMON: And you guys came down to Manny's because you love it, and you're here on a church trip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.
LEMON: So you said you are -- what's your name, first of all?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Betty McFarland (ph).
LEMON: Betty, you're sick of all of this back and forth?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am.
LEMON: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because, as you've mentioned, everything has been so contentious and mean-spirited and the issues have not been discussed, those kinds of issues that are affecting people in general. And you get so caught up in what this person or that person is doing and not what that person needs to do for the country.
LEMON: Yes. And you talked about all the negative ads that you've been seeing where you are. It's Evan Bayh's old seat that's (INAUDIBLE).
What do you think of that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm tired of it. It's a bunch of baloney. You know, tell the truth as the truth is. And don't try to pacify it.
LEMON: yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they're just going all around it, and not saying the truth.
LEMON: Yes. Ali, and one thing that they've been saying, as well, is that they think people are scared. They think a lot of this outrage is fear.
Do you think it's warranted, all of this outrage that you've been hearing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it's warranted at all. I think the fear factor is losing control. Losing control of the party that they're with. And right now we see people just backstabbing other people just so that they can make that party look bad. And we don't want it.
What we want is the issues. We're former teachers, some of us. And we just want to see what's real. We want to know what's going to happen with our school systems. We want to know what's going to happen with health and all the issues.
LEMON: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not the backstabbing.
LEMON: One thing I did find interesting because we've been, Ali, talking so much about the divide, about the Tea Party, about Republicans, about Democrats, about race. And I thought it was interesting to have these ladies here in a very diverse group of women.
And said you do that on purpose and that's what the rest of the country should be like, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diverse? Yes, definitely. Had to be all mixed and all -- I don't know.
LEMON: So what's the lesson here for voters, for people watching, for the politicians watching, for the people who are yelling back and forth at each other. What's the lesson? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just stop it and listen to each other. Talk about what matters and go for that. And -- so we can trust people again and get to real relationships and know who the voters are and who the politicians are.
LEMON: All right.
VELSHI: Is it too late to get them on the ballot, Don? Is it too late to get them on the ballot? Because everything they've said, we want to talk about the issues. What's the future of our schools and health care? They should run. Listen to each other.
LEMON: Yes. They said you should run. Ali Velshi said you should run. Is it too late to get you on the ballot?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. A little bit too late.
LEMON: They're retired. You heard them say that they're retired schoolteachers. But I think that Ali, they'd be great on the ballot.
You know what, speaking of contentious, you know the president's old Senate seat is up for grabs here with Mark Kirk and then Alexi Giannoulias. And that seat could go to a Republican. In the papers this morning -- I left my paper over there. But the papers this morning are showing, oh, there's -- Mark Kirk has a small lead now. There's been a lot of back and forth at the debates and yelling at each other.
We're going to talk about that when we come to you next. We're going to find some people who are here in Illinois, and from Illinois or Chicago, and find out what they think about that particular election.
But in the meantime, I'm going to have my bell pepper and spaghetti and then these ladies are going to have dessert.
VELSHI: I love seeing you back in Chicago because you love it. That's a city you and I love equally.
LEMON: I love being back here.
VELSHI: Yes. I know, I know. Well you have a good time; Enjoy your lunch and tell everybody hello for us. We'll be back to you in a little while.
Don Lemon at Manny's in Chicago.
All right. Another story that we've been covering. Ever since that January earthquake in Haiti, there have been fears, Sanjay talked about them way back then, fears of a cholera outbreak. And now, sadly, it is happening. Paula Newton is there. We'll talk with her next. We're going Globe Trekking.
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VELSHI: OK. I want to take you Globe Trekking right now to Haiti. Ever since the January earthquake there have been fears of a cholera outbreak. 1.3 million people are still living in tent camps. By the way, you can get cholera even if you're not there.
Let me just show you some of the details about cholera. It's a bacterial infection of the intestine. It's spread through water and food that's contaminated with that bacteria, often because water is not clean or people are using drinking water that others have used for human waste. What it does is it causes severe diarrhea and vomiting and it can lead to dehydration and death, sometimes within hours. That's the problem with it.
Let's go to Haiti now, to St. Marc, or near St. Marc, Haiti, where CNN's Paula Newton joins me on the phone.
Paula, what's the latest?
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, we're hearing Grand Saline, which is a little bit further north from St. Mark, but it's where the majority of the cases came from. This is a rural area. And a lot of them had been using the water from the river. The key thing here if this outbreak is to be contained is for people to stop using contaminated water.
I'm right here at a local well that is actually not clean but is now being treated. And I can tell you, people are getting their water, they're washing themselves, they are really heeding the advice. The government has been working hard to make sure it doesn't spread.
I just left the hospital, Ali. I was happy to report that they had a much better evening there. As borne from the figures, they didn't have as many deaths. Still a bit chaotic, I have to tell you. Still very heartbreaking, but not as bad as when I arrived -- Ali.
VELSHI: Obviously during the earthquake, we were all worried about the response. It was hampered by the fact that infrastructure had been destroyed.
How is the response to this cholera outbreak?
NEWTON: I think by every measure, and I was speaking to people from the Centers of Disease Control everywhere, they say the Haitian government should be congratulated. Now, they have a lot of people pulling their weight right now. There are dozens of aid organizations, the U.N., the U.S., the WHO, everybody here, pulling in the same direction.
They immediately decided they were going to start making up these isolation units -- we just saw one -- for the cholera treatments. They have these sanitation centers. There is, in fact, more infrastructure in place than there would have been. But that's not to say, Ali, I mean, when you look at some of these tent cities, it's not tough to figure out how something like cholera would spread very quickly, if indeed, they did have an outbreak there.
VELSHI: But not in Port-au-Prince yet, in any significant way. And are they confident that it's not going to get to Port-au-Prince? NEWTON: They're not confident. In fact, they say the very opposite, that it's inevitable, it will go to Port-au-Prince. The point is, the magnitude. And they do not believe the magnitude will be all that significant.
First thing is, they say less than one percent will die from it. And they will not see people who are violently with cholera. They are hoping that will happen is that these people, as soon as they get sick, will get to those treatment centers, they'll stay in isolation, they'll get the treatment that they will need, they will get better in a few days. And that's what they are hoping.
When I was speaking to the Haitian health minister just a few minutes ago, he told me, look, he is sure that the situation has -- health minister, he told me he is sure the situation is stabilized and not escalating. But they will not go as far as to say that the outbreak won't reach the capital. In fact, they say it most likely will but in small numbers, not the crisis, the heartbreaking crisis that we have seen in this region in the last few days.
VELSHI: Good to talk you to, Paula. Thank you very much. You'll keep us posted on this.
Paula Newton, joining us from near St. Marc in Haiti.
Actor Sean Penn, by the way, will join "AC360" tonight to talk about his humanitarian efforts in Haiti. "ANDERSON COOPER 360" tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Today's Big I is about an energy-saving idea that will have thousands of sports fans cheering. We're going to talk about your favorite sport and how it's cutting down on energy usage.
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VELSHI: Today's "Big I," big idea. We bring it to you everyday. Today it's about sports and solar panels. Didn't know if they went together.
Well, first, let's talk about solar panels and your home. Harnessing the power of the sun to power your home. There are two uses for solar energy. You can convert solar energy into heat and/or electricity. With heat, you can heat water and also heat parts of homes or businesses. You can also convert it into electricity using solar cells on buildings or full solar power plants.
There are some drawbacks, obviously. Sunlight is not constant. It depend on location, time of day, time of year, and the kind weather you typically get. We don't really have good ways of storing large amounts of electricity. So, it's hard to depend on a nonconstant source of electricity. It also requires a large surface area to get enough solar energy to make it worth the money. So the larger the area, the more power you're going to be able to harvest from the sun. This all seems quite logical.
Now, let's think about your typical city skyline. What type of building normally has the largest roof in a city? Typically, it's a stadium or an arena. Look at it from the air. That's what you see. And there are two guys pushing for more solar panels on stadiums. They're here with me live.
First, we've got Gary Bettman. You will know his face. He is the commissioner for the National Hockey League. Allen Hirshkowitz, also with me here in New York, is the senior scientist for the National Resources Defense Council.
Gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us. Alan, let's start with you. This is something that our viewers will think is obvious. There's -- there are stadiums and arenas around the country, around the continent that have space that have clear lines of sight to the sun. What are you trying to get them to do?
ALLEN HERSHKOWITZ, SENIOR SCIENTIST, NATIONAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: Well, businesses pay millions, hundreds of millions of dollars collectively every year to affiliate with professional sports. More people, twice as many people, pay attention to professional sports in the United States as pay attention to science.
So, by getting the message out that renewable energy is something that could help national security issues, help us reduce dependence on foreign oil, help us deal with global warming. By using professional sports as the message, I mean, literally hundreds of millions of people pay attention to professional sports --
VELSHI: Yes, that makes a lot of sense.
HERSHKOWITZ: -- so, getting -- the Staples Center has solar panels on them, there are seven stadiums and arenas. The National Hockey League and Major League baseball and NFL and the NBA have all distributed solar guides to all teams throughout the country. Educating stadium owners, arena operators, team owners, about the possibility for installing solar at their arenas.
Sports is iconic, people pay attention to sports. If they're not paying attention to science, if they're not paying attention to the science of global warming, maybe they'll pay attention to the marketplace. And again, the supply chain of professional sports. The Cokes, the Pepsis, the Fords, the Chevys. Every industry meets at a hockey game. By having the league embrace solar, it's sending an important message. And perhaps most importantly, it's saying that this is not a political statement.
VELSHI: Yes.
HERSHKOWITZ: Say what you want about the National Hockey League or the NBA, but one thing we could assure you, our viewers, is they're not political.
VELSHI: I agree. A -- it gets to everybody. Gary, tell me about this. What can the NHL do?
GARY BETTMAN, COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE: Well, we can raise consciousness, make people more aware. It's good business. And in our case in particular, we don't like seeing the ice melt. That's not good for our game. So many of our players learn to play outdoors in rinks and frozen ponds. And we think we have an obligation and responsibility to focus people on the importance of renewable energy.
VELSHI: That's a two-part thing for the NHL. Because there can be money saved in the running of stadiums, and the carbon footprint can be lowered; at the same time you can use hockey stars to make this a sexy topic amongst hockey fans.
BETTMAN: Well, as with so many important causes, sports, as Allen said, can be a great vehicle for raising awareness. But in our case in particular, we think it's the right thing to do for the environment. And making our clubs aware through the solar panel guide book as to what the opportunities are, it's good business in addition to everything else.
VELSHI: And has anybody as a response to that, any of the stadiums or teams said hey, we can do this? I mean, is the guide book telling you how to retrofit your stadium or arena?
BETTMAN: We have two stadiums, arenas already. Staples in L.A.,, Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. And this is, again, our chance to tell our clubs how to go about doing this and why it makes sense.
VELSHI: But ultimately, these are privately owned organizations. They're going to have to make that decision.
Allen, is it viable, is it feasible to do a big retrofit to get a stadium to at least generate some of their electricity through solar?
HERSHKOWITZ: Yes. There's no question that it's feasible. And there are subsidy programs. It's important to remember, people talk about solar not necessarily being cost-competitive with fossil fuels which is something we have to get off of. What people need to remember is that the United States and countries around the world literally subsidize to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars every year the extraction and use of fossil fuels.
So, it's not a level playing field. This is --
VELSHI: I hear you , I hear you, but is that going to make -- is that going to have one of these teams or a stadium owner say it's worth my while? Because that politics that you're discussing is sort of outside the business planning of a hockey team.
HERSHKOWITZ: Fortunately, there are many subsidies. There's subsidies at the local level, at the state level and at federal level to help teams and businesses in general install solar.
And in some cases it's not difficult to find a sponsor. The Boston Red Sox, to use an example from a different league, installed 28 solar panels on its first base line and had their energy supplier National Grid pay for it as a sponsorship.
The same thing went on with the Staples Center. It got subsidies from the state and federal government to help pay for the installation of solar there. So, it's important that we invest -- subsidies are essentially investments by the government. We should invest in clean energy, green jobs, producing clean energies, not subsidizing fossil fuels.
VELSHI: All right, Allen. Good to talk to you. We'll have to do another show, Allen, if you want to talk more about this. But you're welcome to come back anytime.
HERSHKOWITZ: All right.
VELSHI: Allen Herskowitz is the senior scientist with the National Resources Defense Council. Gary Bettman is the commissioner with the National Hockey League. Thanks to both of you for being here. I appreciate it.
Good discussion. Let's hope we can get some of that sun into some of our stadiums and arenas. You can find out ways to use solar energy in your personal life. Head to my blog, www.CNN.com/ali.
Vice president Joe Biden has been a busy campaigner for the Democrats. He is hitting a campaign milestone today. Wolf Blitzer has the headlines from the political ticker up next.
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VELSHI: There are just eight days left until the midterm elections, so we want to get you updated on all the developing stories from the campaign trail. CNN's Wolf Blitzer, part of The Best Political Team on Television, the heart and soul of The Best Political Team on Television, joins us from Washington.
And Wolf, you have something about just how busy Joe Biden has been in this campaign cycle.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": He's been a very, very busy vice president. Now, 100 specific campaign events he's attended. He's campaigning for Democrats across the country. He's trying to energize that base, get the Democrats motivated because as you know, the polls have shown the Republicans, the conservatives right now, the Tea Party activists, they have been so much more energized than the Democrats, although he's been trying to change that.
He's been in Florida a lot. That's a critically important state. More on that in just a moment. But also in New Hampshire, for that 100th specific event, even much more busy on the campaign trail than the president himself.
Speaking of Florida, 7:00 p.m. Eastern tonight right after "THE SITUATION ROOM," our own John King, he will moderate a debate between the two gubernatorial candidates Alex Sink the Democrat, Rick Scott the Republican. It's very close in Florida. This is very important for President Obama; Florida a key battleground state in any presidential election, given the number of electoral votes it has. If there's a Democratic governor as opposed to a Republican governor, that could be very decisive as far as the 2012 presidential contest is concerned. So, they're going all out, the Democrats, to help Alex Sink right now.
Finally, something else moving on our political ticker and involves Christine O'Donnell. She's the Republican senatorial candidate in Delaware. She's facing the Democrat Chris Coons. She gave an interview to David Brody, the White House correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network. And she spoke out at some length about the role that God plays in her life, the role that prayer has played, and she still firmly believes that prayer will help her come back from behind in all of the polls. Some of those polls double- digit leads for Chris coons and win the contest on November 2nd.
It's a fascinating interview. We're going to be speaking to David Brody, by the way, in "THE SITUATION ROOM" later. We'll go behind the scenes, get more insight in what's going on with Christine O'Donnell. But that's always an exciting race, as you well know. Ali.
VELSHI: Yes. And if you are at least interested in politics, "THE SITUATION ROOM" is chock full of it. We'll have, of course, another update on this election in the next hour. Stay with us.
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VELSHI: Won their first American League pennant over the weekend, knocking out the team that has won the most number of pennants ever. That'd be the Yankees. They went down looking. Just like that, Texas makes its World Series debut on Wednesday.
No other team has taken as long to reach the fall classic as the 50-year-old franchise, and they did it two months after emerging from bankruptcy and after a brutal battle for control of the club. Turns out money isn't everything on the diamond.
Check this out. The Yankees - the Rangers' payroll is $65 million. The Yankees? $200 million. As one sportswriter put it, the Yankees spent $65 million on jockstraps and confetti. Well, they can pack both of those away, sadly. The Rangers head west for game one of the series versus the San Francisco Giants. Rangers catcher Bengie Molina will be facing his former teammates. He spent half the season as a Giant. So he is going to get a championship ring no matter which team ends up winning.
That's quite a curveball there.
