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Indication of How People Will Vote; Cash for College; Threat of More Air Cargo Bombs; The President's Final Push; Boehner Aims at President Obama

Aired November 01, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Brand new hour. I'm Ali Velshi, and I'm here with you for the next hour. Here's what I've got "On the Rundown."

The economy is issue number one. And one of the top money worries for a lot of families right now is paying for college. We'll look into the problems and offer some creative solutions.

Overseas, Yemen is on the alert and on the lookout for terrorists at the airport after bombs were intercepted on flights headed to the United States. We'll find out what investigators did right and what could have gone terribly wrong.

And CNN is counting down the hours until the polls open. Your country is counting on you. If you still need a good reason to vote, I'm going to give it to you this hour.

Just 16 hours to go until voting begins in the midterm elections. Republicans are hoping for a landslide. Take a look at these numbers from a new CNN/Opinion Research poll.

People were asked whether they would vote for a Republican or a Democrat from Congress. They chose Republican by a 10-point margin. Now, compare that with the results of exactly the same question asked of them exactly the same time before the 1994 election. In that poll, they chose Republicans over Democrats as well by a seven-point margin.

What happened in 1994? It was a Republican revolution. The Republicans picked up more than 50 seats in the House, seven seats in the Senate, taking control of both chambers.

Thirty-seven incumbent Democrats lost their bid for re-election including Representative Tom Foley. Republican Newt Gingrich replaced Foley as Speaker of the House. In the Senate, George Mitchell was replaced as majority leader by Republican Bob Dole.

1994 was the year George W. Bush, he was first elected. Look at that. Look at a young George Bush, governor of Texas. It was also the year entertainer Sonny Bono became a Republican congressman.

Publicly, at least, Democratic leaders insist there will be no Republican revolution this year, but some Republicans predict the GOP is going to do even better than expected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM KAINE, DNC CHAIRMAN: Well, right now, you know, they're saying they're going to get both and we're saying that we're going to hold on to both, and it's going to be a nail-biter. And I suspect there's going to be some real close races. But my belief now is we're going to hold the Senate, and I think if we just play our cards right over the next two days, we'll surprise folks and hold the House as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL STEELE, RNC CHAIRMAN: I think that the Republican leadership across the country is going to emerge in a lot of races that people don't even expect right now, and there are going to be a number of surprises in races that folks haven't paid attention to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Senior Political Editor Mark Preston and Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser are here to break down the numbers for us.

Let's start with you, Paul. Let's break this down.

We've got great numbers that give us some indication as to how people are going to vote in the midterms starting tomorrow morning, starting 16 hours from now. Break it down for me.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Ali, you just gave that generic ballot a few seconds ago. That's the 52-42 in the Republicans' favor. That's the standard question we and others asked, would you vote for the generic Republican or Democrat in your congressional district? Let's break it down. Let's talk about those in the suburbs.

And look at these numbers. This is troubling for the Democrats, 60 percent. Sixty percent of the people we've questioned in the suburbs said they were likely to vote for the generic Republican in their district, only 34 percent for the Democrats.

Why is that a problem? Because in 2006 and 2008, when Democrats did very well in those elections, they did very well in the suburbs.

But look at this next number. It's not all about being a pro- Republican election. This is interesting.

Check out the favorable opinion of each party. It's not like Americans are in love with the Republicans any more than the Democrats. Both have favorable ratings under 50 percent. It's just that people are angry right now at the way things are in the country, and the Democrats run the shop -- Ali.

VELSHI: All right.

Mark, what have you got? You're taking a look at some other numbers and the way they break down as well.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SR. POLITICAL EDITOR: I am, Ali.

Look, this could be an election about -- that breaks down among a tale of two leaders. Let's look at Nancy Pelosi's unfavorable rating right now, 53 percent.

Some would say that she is the face of Congress. And look, a lot of Democrats have been trying to run away from Nancy Pelosi. Some have even said they wouldn't support her for Speaker if Democrats were to hold on to the House.

But let's look at John Boehner, ,who would be the Republican Speaker if Republicans take back control of the House tomorrow. He has -- 49 percent of Americans are unsure about their opinion on him at all. They don't know who John Boehner is.

So, some would say he has a lot of room to go up, Ali. Others would say he has a lot of room to go down -- Ali.

VELSHI: Yes. I mean, it is interesting.

Nancy Pelosi was not all that disliked until the Republicans went out of their way to focus on her, and that has worked. But ultimately, most people don't know She speaker of the House before that person becomes the Speaker of the House.

PRESTON: No, that's true. And look, I think Nancy Pelosi, Ali, is really taking the brunt of this election when, in fact, this election is all about President Obama.

I mean, all she did was enact his policies. And, in fact, she is really taking it hard right now. Again, when you look at her favorability rating at only 25 percent, I mean, that's pretty low.

STEINHAUSER: And Ali, you know, when we asked about President Obama in our poll, we said, "Are you more likely to vote for the candidate who supports who opposes Obama?" Well, 39 said supports. Fifty percent, half those we questioned, said they're more likely to vote for the candidate who opposes the president's agenda.

VELSHI: OK. Now, does that necessarily mean, Paul, the Republican? Because what we've seen is a number of Democrats out there who have made it clear that they will stand up against their party, or that in the past they voted against certain things. There aren't too many of them, but there are some. In other words, does that answer say I might even vote for a Democrat who opposes President Obama?

STEINHAUSER: That's a great point. You know, Mark and I are talking about this a lot. There's a bunch of Democrats, especially in conservative to moderate congressional districts, and they are running as fast away as they can away from the president's agenda as they fight for re-election.

PRESTON: Yes. And this could carry over, Ali, into the next Congress.

The fact of the matter is, you're going to have this Blue Dog coalition. You and I have talked about this a lot, these conservative Democrats who might not be voting with President Obama over the next two years. They have got to be concerned about their constituents and, quite frankly, their own re-election if they make it past Tuesday.

VELSHI: OK.

Paul and Mark and I are going to spend a lot of time in that space that's between them over their shoulder, the CNN Election Center. We're going to be living out of this place for the next couple of days.

Guys, we'll talk to you a lot more. Thanks very much.

Mark Preston and Paul Steinhauser. I'm starting to get these two guys confused. They're both my good friends. They do different things, but they do it very, very well together.

With so many people out of work, lots of people are heading back to college to make themselves more attractive in the job market. But how affordable is a college degree?

I'm going to break down those numbers for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: In "Chalk Talk" today we're talking about college.

We normally talk about high school, but obviously part of the reason we want people to do well in high school is so that they can get to college. And how affordable is college?

Paying for college seems to be a big issue. The College Board just released a trends in higher education report which takes an honest look at college tuition costs and levels, financial aid, the amount of debt many students carry during and after college.

Joining me now is Sandy Baum. She's an independent policy analyst with the College Board, joining me from Chicago.

Sandy, thanks for joining me.

Anything particularly surprising that you found in this study?

SANDY BAUM, INDEPENDENT POLICY ANALYST, THE COLLEGE BOARD: Well, what we find is that even though college prices, the published prices or sticker prices, are rising rapidly, in fact student aid, the grants and tax benefits that students get to help pay those prices, have risen so rapidly that, on average, the price of college that students actually pay isn't going up any faster than the rate of inflation. It's in fact more slowly than other prices.

VELSHI: In fact, this has been a big, big push by this administration, the idea that they would sort of revamp the way students were able to get aid and loans. There's been an increase in the number of Pell Grants, I read, that students are getting.

BAUM: A dramatic increase in Pell Grants. In 2009, the federal government distributed about $28 billion worth of Pell Grants. That compares to about $18 billion the year before. It's important to note that Pell Grants go to low-and-moderate-income students, not to all students.

VELSHI: Let's talk a little bit about this point that you make that it's more expensive, but debt isn't increasing the way you would think it is. You would think that if college education is getting more expensive, wouldn't our debt loads be increasing dramatically? They are going up a bit, but not as much as popular mythology might have you believe.

BAUM: That's right. About 55 percent of bachelor's degree recipients at public four-year colleges graduate with debt, and those who borrow owe about $20,000. At private colleges, more students borrow, about two-thirds of them, and they owe on average about $26,000 if they borrow.

And those amounts have also about kept up with inflation. The reason that they're not higher may be because, in fact, there is so much more student aid out there. It may be because students are working more to help finance their education. There are a variety of reasons why even though for some students debt is a very serious problem, that's not true for the typical college student.

VELSHI: Sandy, it seems to me that in this job market, this difficult job market we've got, the opportunity cost of going to school versus earning a salary is lower than it has been maybe in 15 or 20 years.

Do we see that bear out in the numbers?

BAUM: You're exactly right that students do take into consideration what their alternatives are when they decide whether to go to college or not. And because for many people the job market is now so weak, we do see more and more people deciding to enroll in college.

The enrollment in colleges went up dramatically both in 2008 and in 2009, and we assume also this year. Most of those new students who are going to college are going to either community colleges or to institutions in the for-profit sector.

VELSHI: Sandy, what should -- is there anything in the study that leads you to an understanding of what college students or potential college students might do to deal with their fear or the expense or the debt load that they're going to carry? Is there anything they can activity do to try and reduce it?

BAUM: Well, you're right that many people are very nervous about the debt load. And the first thing is that students should understand the difference between borrowing through the federal government and taking private student loans.

The federal government lets all students borrow money. There are limits on how much you can borrow, but those have recently been increased. And they have a lot of protections against running into trouble when you're in repayment.

Not perfect protection, and it still needs to be improved, but under the income-based repayment plan, if your repayment amount should be greater than a certain percentage of your income, you simply don't have to pay then. So it's limited to a certain percentage of your income.

But if you take a private loan through a bank that has nothing to do with the federal government, then you don't have that protection. So you should be very careful about that. You should also look for all the grant aid that you can find, because obviously it's better to get grant aid than it is to borrow.

VELSHI: Right. This is something that's really worth spending a lot of time, many hours, weeks, maybe even months, understanding because there's money out there that is available to certain people.

You mentioned private banks. It made me think of private, for- profit education. That's an area that is growing, schools like DeVry and Phoenix and ITT. Enrollment in those schools is growing as a result of people looking at their options and deciding they want further education.

Is that a viable option for people?

BAUM: You're right about that. A lot of people are going to for-profit institutions these days. Some of the reasons why people may choose those include flexibility scheduling. They also include advertising. And some people make wise decisions and other people don't have adequate information.

You should be very careful and examine all the information that you can get about the institutions available to you. The tuition and fees at for-profit institutions are much higher than those at public colleges, whether those are two-year or four-year public colleges. So it really pays to look carefully and, again, to be sure that you're not borrowing more than you have to borrow, and that you are going to institutions that will give you all the financial aid, the grant aid that you can get.

VELSHI: Sandy, what a great conversation. Thank you for being with us and putting a less daunting face on higher education. I think so much of the discussion is about how onerous it is. It definitely is onerous, but there are some other options.

Sandy, good talking to you.

Sandy Baum is an independent college analyst with The College Board, joining me from Chicago.

BAUM: Thank you. VELSHI: In a minute, I'm going to introduce you to Evans Wadongo. You are going to want to meet him. He has literally given light to thousands of Kenyan students so they can study at night.

He is our CNN Hero of the Week. You're going to want to meet him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Today we meet another one of our Top Ten CNN Heroes.

More than 27 million rural Kenyans have no electricity, and Evans Wadongo worked to create solar-powered lanterns to help these children learn, hopefully leading them to a brighter future. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVANS WADONGO, CNN HERO: I have problems with my eyesight due to prolonged exposure to smoke. I had to use firewood to study during my childhood.

In the rural communities they don't have electricity. It's only kerosene and firewood that they use for lighting and cooking.

It's very, very frustrating. I couldn't compete effectively.

A lot of other kids just drop out of school. The amount of money that every household uses to buy kerosene every day, if they can just save that money, they can be able to buy food.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Evans Wadongo joins me now via Skype from Nairobi, Kenya.

I know there's a bit of a delay between us, Evan, so I'll ask you a question and I'll let you answer it.

I don't understand how you've been able to do this, but you have equated the ability for students to study in the evening when the sun goes down directly with their success and the economic success of their families in the areas.

What got you into this and how did you start to achieve success in gathering these solar lanterns?

WADONGO: Yes. All along I have been dealing with communities that do not have electricity. And recently, with one of our partners, we went into an area where we have (INAUDIBLE) communities. And in this area, because of the culture -- and because of the culture, the kids, normally the bright students, they don't attend class during the day.

So they attend during the evening. The parents cannot allow them to attend class during the day. They have to take care of the cattle and the cows during the day. So, the evening is when they can go to school. So they have (INAUDIBLE) where they attend class in the evening, and they walk about 20 kilometers, over 20 kilometers, one way from their home to the school.

VELSHI: Wow.

(CROSSTALK)

WADONGO: And when they go to this class, it's normally around 5:00 p.m. in the evening to around 8:00 p.m. in the evening. And there's no electricity, it's very dark, and it's very unsafe because we have wild animals and elephants in that area.

And when we get to the school, in this class they use kerosene lamps. And we looked up that, and that's why I decided that I want to provide solar lamps to these particular students so that they can be able to use solar lamps in their class. And they can use it as a torch to light up their way back to their home. And (INAUDIBLE) and their parents can be able to use -- to do their course, their work in the house.

VELSHI: Well, Evans, with this recognition, you're hoping to get these lanterns into 100,000 households by 2015. Not just in Kenya, hoping to expand into other countries.

Thank you for doing what you're doing. Congratulations on being nominated and being a Top Ten Hero. And we wish you all the best.

Remember, by the way, you can all vote for Evans or any of our Top Ten Heroes to be the 2010 CNN Hero of the Year. You can meet your favorite hero, by the way, in person and win a trip to L.A. to see "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," hosted by Anderson Cooper

To enter the sweepstakes or vote for the Hero of the Year, go to CNNHeroes.com.

All right. We could be in for a rare November hurricane. Chad Myers keeping an eye on Tomas. We'll talk to him about it on the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Rising concern at airports around the world. I was in an airport twice this weekend and I could even sense it there.

Could there be more bombs in cargo or passenger planes? The latest on the airplane bomb plot in "Globe Trekking" right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for "Globe Trekking." Our focus is Yemen and that bomb plot that we were all focused on over the weekend. U.S. officials are now saying that the two package bombs discovered on two separate planes on Friday were intended to detonate in flight. Both bombs are linked to Yemen.

Joining us now, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

Paul, what's the latest that we have on this?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, the latest, the British authorities are saying that this was a very viable device, that it would have likely exploded these aircraft, these cargo planes leaving Europe and the Middle East towards the United States. And a conjecture may be it could have been as they were descended down into U.S. airspace, they could blow them up maybe with a cell phone call or an SMS message to those bombs.

VELSHI: Right. And that's because these devices were made up of components of cell phones and printers.

They were addressed to synagogues in Chicago, so this idea that they were supposed to be blown up in space, was that just a -- what's the connection?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, it seems that the target -- that the investigation is going towards the idea that it was planes. The synagogues may have just been a sick joke, something like that, or it may be the way to say, well, actually, our real target was synagogues, a way to rally the base of al Qaeda. They're very anti-Semitic. It's not exactly clear why they were addressed to synagogues.

VELSHI: What do we think about being able to detonate a cargo plane? Why would somebody choose that as a target?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, any time a plane is blown out of the sky, it's potentially quite spectacular -- always very spectacular -- especially if it's over a crowded (INAUDIBLE) on final approach.

VELSHI: Right.

CRUICKSHANK: But they may have hoped that these were passenger jets. You know, these bombs -- and we have to now call them bombs -- actually traveled on passenger jets on the first leg of their journey in Yemen, Ali.

VELSHI: Remind me about why Yemen is so important to us. It keeps coming up in discussions. It came up at Christmas when there was the underpants bomber. In fact, there appears to be a link. They think the guy who made -- designed that bomb designed these bombs.

CRUICKSHANK: Al Qaeda in Yemen is al Qaeda's most active franchise operation against the West. They have a bombmaker there. He's still at large. This bombmaker is the guy who has designed all the bombs like the Christmas Day bomb using PTN, this very explosive mixture. So, there's a lot of concern about al Qaeda in Yemen at the moment. Actually, the Yemeni authorities have just announced they're going to do operations to find this bombmaker, but it's unclear whether they'll be able to do so, Ali.

VELSHI: And when you say the Yemeni authorities have announced this -- Yemen is one of those countries where it's not clear that the government can exercise its authority if these terrorists are working out of there.

CRUICKSHANK: That's absolutely right. Their writ is really just in the capital city, Sanaa. In other parts of the country, the tribal areas, they don't have much control. Everything really depends on the tribes. Winning the tribes over. The worry is if you go in too hard, the tribes may start going more toward al Qaeda. That's a nightmare scenario in Yemen, Ali.

VELSHI: Right, and this is kind of - the way to equate that would be what's happening in the provinces in Pakistan - the border provinces with Afghanistan. That the more the government pushes or the West pushes, it becomes unclear whether they're winning over the residents in those areas who might be giving shelter to those terrorists.

CRUICKSHANK: Absolutely right. There's been a lot of concern of Pakistan and the tribes there. The Talibanization of the tribes in those areas going more towards al Qaeda. Some of those tribes, the Pakistani Taliban, even launching attempted attacks here in New York City. So, a lot of concern over that trajectory, Ali.

VELSHI: Tell me about this bombmaker. It does seem this feels a little more sophisticated than the Christmas Day bombing that didn't detonate. It also, you told me earlier, it involved a lot more of this PETN, this explosive component.

CRUICKSHANK: That's right. Probably the same bombmaker they think, but he may be getting better. This time around, multiple times more explosive than in the underwear bombing attack on Christmas Day, something which could have been even more catastrophic towards Arab planes, Aki. A lot of concerns about this. The British just announced they think this is very viable and likely to bring airplanes down. So this has been treated with great seriousness. and one of the most serious plots, we've got to say, since 9/11.

VELSHI: One key thing about this is because it looks like the parts where cell phone parts and printer parts, it's not clear anybody would have detected this.

CRUICKSHANK: That's absolutely right. Very, very hard to detect. The British when they went in at first, they knew exactly what they were looking for -

VELSHI: Because they were tipped off.

CRUICKSHANK: They were tipped off by Saudi intelligence, but it took a long time, actually -- several hours, it would seem, to find it. So, imagine if you don't even know the thing is coming and you're just doing screening. Even if there's 100 percent screening, which there isn't right now. Even if there was --

VELSHI: You may not look because you don't know what you're looking for.

One of the problems -- or one of interesting things to me is authorities around the world said this is not an imminent concern for us. We didn't see the threat level in the U.S. goING up. I've been through airports three times this weekend. Sure, it looked like heightened security because I was in Newark a couple of hours after this happened, but generally speaking, we're not treating this as a bigger deal than some people think it might be. Why?

CRUICKSHANK: The British are now saying they don't think it's imminent in terms of more parcels coming through. That's why the alert levels have not been ratcheted up.

But there is concern that could be follow (INAUDIBLE). This bombmaker, Alaceri (ph), is still at large. He could still get another device to an operative some way. He can still construct another device. It doesn't have to come from Yemen next time.

Maybe they'll go to another place and send it or find a different way. They're very imaginative. Trying to get through U.S. security and launch attacks here again in the United States, al Qaeda.

VELSHI: Yes. Because on Christmas Day, we didn't all get the impression that, oh, my goodness, this is imminent, there will be a bunch of people with explosives in their underpants. It seemed like a bungled mission. This seems less bungled programs, more sophisticated, perhaps more successful as an attempt.

CRUICKSHANK: They're getting better, unfortunately. And in terms of thwarting the plots, Western intelligence agencies have to get lucky everyday. They only have to get lucky one time, Ali.

VELSHI: Got it. Paul, thanks very much. Paul Cruickshank, CNN's terrorism analyst. We'll continue to stay on this story.

The other story we're staying on is midterms. Tomorrow, a lot of Americans do not care, or at least they don't care enough to head out and cast a ballot. Mr. Roland Martin has something to say to those two folks (sic). His two cents -- or two bucks or 20 bucks, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We've been having a conversation for all last week and this week. Why should you vote? Reasons to go out and vote? Because so many of you are not going out to vote. It stands out for me that our man Roland Martin has always pointed out that in the votes, the elections closest to you, including local elections, municipal elections, voter turn out in the United States can be very low.

We're expecting - if things are good -- we're expecting in the 40 percent range.

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Which is abysmal.

VELSHI: Forty percent of people who qualified to vote. So, I want to know from you again because I've heard it but I want viewers to hear. You feel very, very, very strongly about going out to vote.

MARTIN: First of all because what people don't understand is they keep looking at presidential election, a congressional election, a gubernatorial election by saying well, you know what? They really don't matter to me, they really don't impact my life. The reality is every facet of your life a politician has a hand in. When you talk about environmental laws, when you talk about schools, when you talk about --

VELSHI: Which, by the way, we do talk about these things all the time.

MARTIN: All the time. We talk about whether or not we get a street light or a stop sign or railroad crossing. All those things.

But beyond that, we always focus on the top races. I mean, look, when you watch CNN today, tomorrow night, we'll talk about Congress. We'll talk about governor. We'll talk about the president. But the reality is, when you walk in that poll, if you have issues about your child getting in trouble and they appear before a judge, that judge is likely on the ballot. Or in your state, that judge is being appointed by somebody.

So, even though races in some places you have people over tax districts, who are county commissioners.

VELSHI: But ultimately, somebody on the ballot is going to get elected so what difference does it make whether or not I participate? Particularly in a world where we feel detached, we feel like we don't have a lot of power over things that happened to us. Bad things have happened in the last two years.

MARTIN: Look, look, bad things have happened. But also, I believe that bad things have happened because we're people who are sitting on their butts and not voting. Again, the people who are put into power are the ones who are going to make a decision.

VELSHI: Right. And the decision is going to be made.

MARTIN: It is going to be made one way or the other. So, when people say, I care about education. Well, you better look at the people who are making those decisions.

Look, one of the reasons why the conservatives took over politics in Texas, they didn't focus on the governor's mansion first. You know who they went after? The board of education.

VELSHI: That's exactly right. It took them years to do it -

MARTIN: Right, so now - but they went after the board of education. Well, we've had all thee debates over this year. Why? Because the Texas state board of education, they now determine what goes in textbooks.

VELSHI: And they decided they wanted to rewrite a little bit of history. But they took years to get control of that thing, and they did it.

MARTIN: And that sets the tone nationally because depending upon because of the number of textbooks bought in Texas and California --

VELSHI: It influences other states.

MARTIN: The entire country. So, somebody in Texas right now is saying wait a minute, you mean to tell me I didn't know who what board of education race, it had a national impact? Absolutely. Every facet of your life, somebody on the ballot has a role.

VELSHI: The other issue that you have is the right to vote is hard won. Not everybody in the world has it. We have fought for it. Different groups fought for it.

MARTIN: Have died for it.

VELSHI: You're an opinion guy. You feel we're a country of opinion people. If you don't vote, then you don't really --

MARTIN: My philosophy is if you don't vote, shut the hell up. Because you can sit here and complain all day, but it makes no sense. If you have go to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was assassinated, there's a sign that actually brought me to tears. It was a young black girl and the quote was, "All I want for my 18th birthday is a voter registration card." Because there were a group of people who at that time said -- they said, you cannot vote. They could go to the polls. They would send them back home, and they understood how valuable it was.

And so my point to anybody, whether black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, do not sit here and say it doesn't matter; there's no impact. Because we have seen elections won by people with 50, 70, 100, 1,000 votes. Every vote does indeed matter.

So, if you sit home on tomorrow and say it means nothing to me, please for the next two years, or however long that term is locally, shut the hell up because you are a part of the problem when you keep your butt at home.

VELSHI: Now, the other thing is the thing that you can always connect to your life is municipal and local elections.

MARTIN: Yes.

VELSHI: But even in those, you were saying major cities in America where 20 percent turn out.

MARTIN: Last year, CNN had a poll that showed the majority of people in America believe they're impacted more by local elections than national -- some 54 percent. But when you saw the elections in Houston; in New York; Greensboro, North Carolina; Dayton, Ohio; Atlanta; Detroit, the turnout was between 18 percent and 22 percent in the mayoral elections. Eighteen percent to 22 percent of the people were deciding the fate of the mayor in the city. So, basically --

VELSHI: Which, by the way, decides your swimming pools and libraries and taxes and your garbage --

MARTIN: All of that. All of that! So you're sitting here complaining because your park is being run down and you can't get any resources while the people who actually showed up -- that's why people ask me how do you have feel about the Tea Party? I have no problem with the Tea Party because these are people who are protesting, who are organizing, who are mobilizing --

VELSHI: And they're going to show up and vote!

MARTIN: Right. Yes. So, if you're one of these people who you are mad about or Democrat or Republican activists, moveon.org versus Tea Party.

VELSHI: That's right. They are all groups that say do something.

MARTIN: And they're actually doing it. I believe the problem we have in this country, those people sitting in the middle who do not identify as a Democrat or Republican, they are are sitting at home. They're quiet, and they don't say anything. And I say you have to get involved.

VELSHI: This is your voice. This is where you get it.

All right. Roland, thank you, because I think that's an important message for people to hear. We've been on top of this. We don't have to be partisan to believe you should vote for whoever.

MARTIN: Oh, I don't care how you vote! And again, if you say nobody matters, write it in.

VELSHI: Fine. So, you showed up and exercise your franchise.

MARTIN: So, our slogan is if you don't vote, shut the hell up.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: There you go! Roland Martin, thank you so much.

Hey, listen, busy weekend on the campaign trail for President Obama. That means it was a busy weekend for our man Ed Henry. "The Stakeout," up next with Ed. Stay with us.

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VELSHI: It is that time of day, every day around this time, we check in with Ed Henry.

President Obama was on the road this weekend to make a final push for Democratic candidates.

We talked to Ed on the other side of it. Senior White House correspondent Ed Henry was along for the trip. He seems to be back at the White House right now for "The Stakeout."

Ed, tell us about it.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think Saturday was pretty big because the president, he went home to Chicago. And the rally -- this was just a few blocks from his house. And there were about 35,000 people there.

And I talked to Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois after the rally. And he was saying, look, a month ago, he and other Democratic leaders were here at the White House behind me for a private meeting with the president. He said, at that time, the president told them, look, I've decided to blow up my schedule for the next month. I'm just going to crisscross the country. And I've told my scheduler: when I say I'm tired ignore me.

And he's done that and traveled across the country. And they feel pretty good that he laid it all on the line. But, I think, at the end of the day, when you look even there in Chicago, 35,000 people -- he was trying to pull across the finish line, if you will, Governor Pat Quinn Democratic and Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic candidate for the president's old Senate seat. When you look at the polls this morning, both those gentlemen are still either in a dead heat or trailing slightly.

And so, if the president can't even deliver his home state --

VELSHI: Yes.

HENRY: -- it's going to be a pretty bad night.

VELSHI: What does it come down to?

We saw some -- not approval numbers -- favorability numbers in a new CNN/Opinion Research poll. We saw Nancy Pelosi at 26 percent. We saw President Obama 48 percent or 49 percent.

We saw Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton at 62 and 63 percent, and we know the Clintons have been on this big push.

We know Michelle Obama has a higher favorability rating than the president.

We understand that there are issues with the economy and whether you think the president has done the right thing. But this favorability rating is more like a likability rating. Why is that not -- why the president not getting better marks on that?

HENRY: Well, I think what -- how they feel here is that people may still feel that they like the president personally. But they clearly are frustrated with his policies when you look deeper behind that big picture number.

Someone like Mrs. Obama, who, by the way, is on the trail right now in Las Vegas with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, here is she is trying to lay it on the line a day before the election, leave nothing to chance. I mean, the bottom line is: she doesn't have to deal with the responsibility of actually -- of the policy. She's able to go out there and speak on a couple of key initiatives. She doesn't have the down side of the responsibility of overseeing an economy that still has unemployment at 9.6 percent.

So, the president has got that around his neck. And it's funny that you mention that about sort of his leadership. In this White House, they keep saying that this is not a referendum on him or his leadership, that it's a choice election between Democrats going forward, Republicans going backward. But when I was in Philly on Saturday, I was talking to your friend, Michael Nutter, the mayor of Philly.

VELSHI: Yes.

HENRY: And he was saying, look, this is all about 2012, that voters are looking at 2010 -- and they know the Republicans are trying to go after the president now and soften him up for 2012 and it really is a lot about the president.

That's not exactly the way the White House has been pitching it. They've been insisting it's about a choice between these two parties, not about the president, not about his battles with the Republicans.

So, we'll see on Tuesday what the results are.

VELSHI: Yes.

HENRY: But I think that clearly there is some referendum going on here to some extent. It may not be all about everybody's vote, but he's in office now.

VELSHI: This latest poll that we referred to also said that 50 percent of respondents said they're going to vote for the person who opposes President Obama. They didn't necessarily say that's a Republican or Tea Party person. It could be a Democrat.

But there's definitely something at play here with respect to the president. And I guess there's some issue. Maybe it's a referendum. Maybe it's a decision to send a message.

I mean, you could be doing that without voting the president out of office. You could be sending a message that maybe they're feeling off track.

HENRY: You make a great point. And that one of the Senate races that's going to decide this is West Virginia, where you got the Democratic Governor Joe Manchin. And what did he do? He's now leading a little bit and this White House is confident he's going to win.

Well, what did he do recently? He had an ad where he literally took a gun and shot the cap-and-trade bill and basically said, look, I'm going to go to Washington and make sure the president doesn't pass these kind of policies anymore.

So, there's a Democrat, as you know, who may win, but he's not winning because he's siding with President Obama.

VELSHI: Very interesting. Ed, good to see you as always. We'll be talking a lot over the course of the next couple of days.

You know, I'm going to be handling the exit polls tomorrow night.

HENRY: Can't wait. Certainly my favorite part of Tuesday night.

VELSHI: Well, there are some fantastic graphics. I don't know if you've see them yet but they're very neat. They're 3D. I'm describing things that are in front of me like a wall of numbers and they're not actually there.

HENRY: You mean, like a hologram?

VELSHI: I am not going to be a hologram. I'm going to be real.

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VELSHI: But send me any information you have, inside information to make me look smart.

HENRY: All right. Good, I'll do that.

VELSHI: All right. Ed Henry, at "The Stakeout," our senior White House correspondent. You're going to be seeing a lot of him over the next couple of days.

House Republican leader John Boehner is going after President Obama now, taking sharp aim straight at him in a speech tonight. Brianna Keilar is joining me in a minute to explain what he's trying to do. Our political update is next.

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VELSHI: Congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar is part of "The Best Political Team on Television." She joins me for our political update from beautiful, beautiful Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

And you -- I mean, normally, we go to beautiful places but you can't actually see the beauty of it. You're right there. You're right in the beautiful part of it.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Gorgeous. What a gorgeous place to be talking you from the campaign trail, Ali. And it's so nice to be able to take the Ticker on the road.

Right now on the CNN Political Ticker, one of the stories we have is about John Boehner. He is, of course, the House minority leader, poised to become speaker if the Republicans take over the House. And you should be expecting him tonight in a speech from Ohio to really target President Obama and specifically, he's going to be targeting the president over some comments that he made in a Univision radio interview where he apparently seemed to say that people who disagree with Democratic priorities are, quote, "enemies." You're going to be hearing Boehner saying, no, Mr. President, they're not enemies. We call them patriots. Very sharp-tongued.

Also on the Ticker right now, something coming to us from Delaware -- this has to do with the Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. She's getting into a last-minute kind of fight, if you will, with a local television executive. His named Tim Qualls.

And her campaign bought eight half-hour chunks of time to put a long-form commercial on to really appeal to Delaware voters. They thought it was going to be on this morning at 10:00 a.m. Come 10:00 a.m., it didn't show up and her campaign really blasted this television station via Twitter.

And you now have this television exec, Tim Qualls, saying, "This thing was delivered too late, it's not my fault," and he actually says that she may lose his vote over it.

And then, of course, as we said, you notice that we're coming to you from the road. We're here in wild and wonderful West Virginia, and we're here because we're covering the Senate race between Governor Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and John Raese. And as we speak, President Clinton is supposed to be campaigning or about to start a stump speech for Manchin. This is the first or the second time that he's been here in a few weeks and it comes two days after Sarah Palin was here for his opponent Raese.

It was a neck-and-neck race a few weeks ago. And we were right now. Democrats, I guess I should say, cautiously optimistic that this one could go for them, and Republicans quietly worried it could do the same, Ali. We're going to have that story on the Ticker shortly.

VELSHI: All right. In the meantime, enjoy Harpers Ferry. Brianna, good to see you.

Next political update in just one hour.

Hey, have you braced yourselves for the holiday shopping crunch? You might want to hurry up. The big discounts are starting already. I'll explain why there's no waiting for Black Friday this year.

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VELSHI: Maybe you've got the image burned in your mind of shoppers just about breaking down doors at a Walmart or maybe a Best Buy so they can get their hands on a Black Friday door crasher special. I'm not saying you're not going to see any of that this year, but things have definitely changed.

Let me tell you why? Retailers have broken the Black Friday mold by offering those steep discounts earlier. Some of them were even rolling them out last week ahead of Halloween.

True, what I will call Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has been happening for a few years, or at least Black Friday creep, the idea that it's starting before Black Friday -- nothing on the scale of what we're seeing right now. The discounts are bigger. The sales will last longer. That's because the recession has got consumers saying they want their bargains when they want them now, earlier.

Retailers have got a tough choice of either offering those bargains now or losing out to competitors who do. "The New York Times" says Amazon is starting discounts earlier than ever before. Toys "R" Us and Sears are starting their sales as we speak.

If you're wondering why it's called Black Friday, by the way -- it's the day when retailers, traditionally, historically, have gone from being in the red or unprofitable, to being in the black, making a profit. If you're wondering what the bargain of bargains is this season, experts have been saying the next few weeks is the best time in years to buy yourself a new flat screen television. The discounts are extremely steep. That's it for taking the lead.

CNN NEWSROOM continues with Brooke Baldwin.