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Key Races to Watch Tonight; Trial for Radical Cleric Anwar al- Awlaki Beings Today in Yemen; Al Qaeda Blows up Pipeline in Yemen; Michelle Rhee on Importance of Voting for Education; Flash Videos Soon Viewable on Apple Products
Aired November 02, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi in New York -- Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: You have an excellent afternoon, Tony.
HARRIS: You, too, sir.
VELSHI: It's been a great show. Thank you very much.
I'm here for the next two hours today and, of course, we'll be here for a lot longer throughout this election. But I'm here every day and every weekday at this time.
I'm going to help you get through that maze of information coming your way. Together, we're going to learn what's going on at home and around the world. You will get access to the folks who can best explain what it means today and the impact that these things will have beyond today. We'll showcase the best ideas in innovation, philanthropy and public education. We're going to have some good detail on that today.
By mission is to help you figure out how what's going on around you fits into your life.
Let's get started right now. Here's what's on the rundown on this Election Day:
After listening to the pundits, the politicians, you finally get your say at the polls. "The Best Political Team on Television" is spread across the country, tracking all the trends and the hottest races here for you all day, all night until the dust settles. This hour, we'll examine how your vote could directly affect your children's future by bringing great changes to the school system.
Overseas, Yemen launches an all-out search for a Saudi bomb maker accused in the plot to slip bombs on the U.S.-bound planes.
But, first, let's get back to the election.
The polls have just opened in Hawaii, meaning, the 2010 midterm election is under way in all 50 states. Republicans are widely expected to win control of the House of Representatives. The big question today: will they take over the Senate, too?
Here are some key states to watch for the answer, close contests where Republicans could take Democratic seats. Pennsylvania, Republican Pat Toomey hopes to defeat Democrat Joe Sestak in a race for the seat currently held by Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter, who lost the primary and isn't running again.
Next door in West Virginia, Democrat Governor Joe Manchin is in a close race against his Republican challenger for the seat formally held by the late Senator Robert Byrd.
In Illinois, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias is battling Republican Mark Kirk for the seat once held by President Obama and temporarily filled two years ago.
In Colorado, Republican Ken Buck has a good chance of unseating Democratic Senator Michael Bennet.
In California, incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer battling a challenge from Republican Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
But Nevada, the site of the most closely watched Senate race of all, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid fighting for his political life in a brutal contest with Tea Party-backed Republican Sharron Angle.
Jim Acosta is in Las Vegas where the voting started three hours ago. Many people have already voted in that state, but the victory may be decided today by the late voters -- Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Ali. And we're standing outside the Aria Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip where Harry Reid is going to be holding what he hopes will be his victory party tonight.
And how confident is the Tea Party movement in taking down Harry Reid? Well, the Tea Party Express, which has essentially put a bull's eye on Harry Reid's head, they're also holding their victory party at the Aria Hotel tonight.
Just down the street, at the Venetian Hotel, that is where Sharron Angle will be tonight. So, this is sort of a showdown on the Strip. Place your bets at this point.
And you could not have a more stark contrast between Harry Reid and Sharron Angle. Harry Reid is one of the architects of the Obama agenda, a strong defender of health care reform.
Sharron Angle, on the other hand, she wants to take that agenda apart. She wants to repeal health care reform. She's also has talked about eliminating the departments of energy, education, talking about eliminating the EPA.
So, you could not have a more stark contrast in this case.
And both of these candidates are already talking about expectations today. Harry Reid was at a get-out-the-vote event earlier this morning. He said that he feels pretty good about where things stand right now, even though Sharron Angle is up in the polls by a couple of percentage points.
And Angle sent out an e-mail earlier this morning to her supporters earlier this morning, Ali, that I think is quite striking. She accused Harry Reid in this e-mail of trying to steal this election, as she says that Senator Reid has his, quote, "union henchmen" out on the Strip right now trying to influence the outcome of this election.
So, this is just another taste of how ugly this race has been so far. Negative ads have been flying back and forth for months.
I tried to watch the World Series last night, Ali. It was essentially a three-hour campaign commercial that was occasionally interrupted by a baseball game. That is how nasty this race has gotten.
VELSHI: Yes. In the state you're in right now, in particular, it has sort of topped everything else in terms of the number of ads. Very interesting though that this back and forth about the effort to get out the vote because, really, in some states, that is what it's going to come down to right now. We know what the polls say about how people feel --
ACOSTA: That's right.
VELSHI: -- but the result may be different because of the varying success either side will have in getting their vote out.
ACOSTA: That's right. And Harry Reid has a legendary ground game that is basically on the field, trying to get out the vote right now. And keep in mind, this is -- this is a senator who is use d to close elections. Back in 1998, he won his Senate seat and held on to his Senate seat by less than 500 votes.
Sharron Angle -- she's also been in a recount situation in the past.
And both campaigns are sort of gearing up for a potential recount if this thing is that close in the days ahead.
And just one little in the weeds, inside political baseball note, the general counsel for Harry Reid's campaign worked on that Minnesota recount that Al Franken and Norm Coleman went through for months and months and months.
So, both of these camps are geared up for a battle that could last way beyond today, Ali.
VELSHI: All right. Jim, thanks very much. We'll check in with you later on today. It's going to be an exciting place to be -- Jim Acosta for us in Las Vegas.
Let's bring in our deputy political director, Paul Steinhauser, now.
Paul, first, polls close about 4 1/2 hours, about five hours. It's probably going to be about six hours before we start seeing final polls closing in some states and we'll get some early reads, including from Georgia, the state of Georgia. That will be one of the early options to see how things are going to go in the country.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: And you got it, Ali. A lot of people are asking: well, if there is going to be a Republican wave, where is it going to start?
And you're absolutely right. You look at those states where the final polls close at 7:00 Eastern. One of those states, you just said it, Georgia.
Two Democratic congressmen we're keeping our eye on, Democratic Congressman Jim Marshall, facing a very tough re-election. Couple of months ago, he was considered a pretty safe bet to win re-election. But right now, it's considered a very competitive seat.
Same thing with Congressman Sanford Bishop. You go back a few months, he was considered safe. Now, he is fighting for his political life to a degree.
So, you look at these two gentlemen, if they go down, it could be the beginning of a big wave, Ali.
Some other states that we're looking at early like Kentucky, Indiana, and Virginia. We're looking at some Democratic congressmen there. If they go down, it could be the start of that wave, Ali.
VELSHI: Right. And Kentucky, obviously, there's been some impact of the Tea Party there with Rand Paul running in that state.
But let's just go back to Georgia for a second. Marshall -- this is a Democrat who has come out very squarely and said if he gets elected, he will not -- and if the Democrats were to control the House, which is very much in doubt -- he will not support Nancy Pelosi as speaker. We talked about some polls that came out on the weekend showing the favorability rating for Nancy Pelosi at 26 percent.
So, we've got Democrats who are saying, we won't support Nancy Pelosi, in order to, what, try to get more of those votes from people who might want to vote Democrat, conservative Democrats who just don't want to deal with Nancy Pelosi in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party?
STEINHAUSER: Absolutely. You're seeing it from a lot of -- bunch of Democratic lawmakers in conservative to moderate districts, running for reelection, facing tough ones. And you're seeing them break with their party on the issues. They're breaking with the White House and with the Democratic leadership in Congress, including their speaker, Nancy Pelosi. So, we -- not a lot of Democrats but there are a number of them that we're keeping our eyes on who are trying to distance themselves from their party -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right. So, we just talked to Jim Acosta in Nevada. Obviously, all eyes are going to be in Nevada. Close races or tight races or influential races in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, Colorado, California, Alaska -- but there's one that's going to keep us up very late tonight and that is the state of Washington.
STEINHAUSER: Yes. You're absolutely right. In the Senate, as you've talked about, 10 seats. That's what Republicans need, a net gain of 10 seats to win back the chamber.
It could come down to maybe Washington state, which the polls close pretty late there, and you've got three-term Senator Patty Murray there, and she is facing a tough re-election against Dino Rossi, the Republican nominee. We keep our eyes on that race. You've seen the president, the vice president and the former president, Bill Clinton, all out there, Ali.
So, we'll keep our eyes on that and a couple of those other late- closing polls to see if Republicans have a chance at winning back the chamber.
And, Ali, I'm upstairs here. I'm a floor up from you.
VELSHI: I know.
STEINHAUSER: Behind me is the election center. You're going to come up here, you're going to be playing up here all night long in prime time, Ali.
VELSHI: Get the Red Bull, Twizzlers and Snickers ready. We're going to be spending a very long evening together with you.
It's always a pleasure, my friend. I'll see you in just a little while -- Paul Steinhauser, political director here at CNN.
A lot of money that's been spent on this campaign -- $3.5 billion and counting, if you count the issues that have influenced this midterm election. That makes it the most expensive off-year election on record. We're going to break it down with our senior political analyst Gloria Borger -- up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: So much money has been spent on this election, it boggles the mind. We are talking about more than $3.5 billion. That's not just candidates. That is other groups that have influenced issues, taken out ads. It is still flowing as voters go to the polls today, making this midterm election the most expensive on record.
We've broken down some of the numbers for you.
Take a look at this first graphic. It shows three general tides of money flowing this election. House/Senate candidates themselves who have reported raising $1.7 billion. Political parties reported raising about $1.1 billion. And here's the wild card: outside interest groups have hauled in at least $400 million.
Now, this other graphic I'm going to show you shows spending by outside groups in three categories. Here is where all the money comes from that pays for those robo-phone calls, television and other ads and brochures that pop up in your mailbox, in many cases having to do with issues without not naming candidates.
In total: $115 million. And it breaks down this way, $31 million in independent expenditures, $82 million for electioneering communications and $1.6 million for communication costs.
This final one is going to show you the top five races that received the most outside spending, outside money -- meaning not from the candidates or the political parties.
The Arkansas Senate race: $12.6 million. The Colorado Senate race: $9.7 million. The California Senate race: $6.3 million. Massachusetts, the Senate race there: $5.8 million. And Nevada, the Senate race there: $4.5 million.
But on top of that, there's a lot of money that is being spent by the candidates, by the political parties themselves, by groups that are on the inside of the whole thing.
So, a lot of money is spent on this and a lot of Democrats, Gloria Borger, saying this has been unfair, undue influence. It has bought the election and they're very concerned. They're tying it back to the Citizens United --
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.
VELSHI: -- Supreme Court case which allowed companies and groups to give as much money as they'd like in terms of issues.
BORGER: Anonymously.
VELSHI: Anonymously, right.
BORGER: Anonymously.
There is a huge infusion of money. And, you know, you talk about the economy. What bad economy, right?
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: Look at what's going on in political campaigns. The Democratic line of argument is that this infusion of money took a bad playing field for them and made it lethal, OK? Because that outside money, because of the Citizens United case, is going more frequently to Republicans, right?
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: And Republican candidates.
So, the Democrats already have a bumper sticker ready. If they lose the House, for example, special interests bought you the Congress.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: They want it. This is the special interest Congress, not your Congress.
I don't necessarily buy that, Ali, to a great degree. Democrats have an awful lot of special interest money coming their way -- labor.
VELSHI: Right. Some of the unions for instance, labor -- if you look at individual, large donation groups, labor is right up at the top.
BORGER: Labor, right up at the top.
VELSHI: Yes.
BORGER: And when you have a wave and when you have an election that's not going your way, sometimes all the money in the world isn't going to help you.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: And if this were an absolutely equal playing field -- and, by the way, in money raised by the campaign committees, there's no inequality there.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: In fact, the Democrats maybe raising more.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: But if this were a totally equal playing field with outside money, I still say the Democrats would have a large number of losses, given the fact that the public is angry, upset and didn't like the way they were running Washington.
VELSHI: And maybe working around the margin. It might not be centrical (ph).
BORGER: Right.
VELSHI: Let's go -- let's take that point a little deeper though. Let's go back two years ago.
The economy was absolutely terrible. This administration had come in. President Obama had promised before he ran, he was going to put in a stimulus bill.
It's one of the first things they did.
BORGER: Yes.
VELSHI: They promised health care. It was one of the early things that they did.
What happened? Why -- where did they go from thinking that they had this mandate to do these things into becoming public enemy number one today?
BORGER: You know what? When you win a presidency, you have a tendency -- particularly with the healthy margin that Barack Obama won by -- you have a tendency to think that people elected you for the reasons you ran.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: Not because the other guy was bad and they didn't like George W. Bush. Barack Obama was no different, saw himself really as a transformational figure.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: Two years ago, he was at 62 percent in the polls.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: "TIME" magazine runs a cover, "Are Republicans Extinct?" Then what happens? Stimulus package, as you mentioned. Republicans make a strategic decision they want no part of that spending because they had to prove to their base --
VELSHI: Right, that they're not free spenders.
BORGER: -- that they could hold back spending.
VELSHI: Right. Because they were not -- there were free spenders in the last administration.
BORGER: Right, and they had just been shellacked.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: Right. So, they -- OK, we're not going to spend.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: Then came health care and I believe that that gave birth to the Tea Party, put meat on the bones.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: Anti-big government. Deals made behind closed doors.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: We don't know what's in this bill.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: And suddenly, public opinion started shifting away from Barack Obama, trusting government at record lows right now, 20 percent. Even after Watergate, it was at like 35 percent or 36 percent.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: So, Barack Obama was asking the public to buy big government when it didn't trust government to take out the garbage --
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: -- right? All of that together --
VELSHI: Are we going to fall into the same thing if Republicans have big wins tonight? The idea that we know they're mad at the guys in power now.
BORGER: Right.
VELSHI: Is that the same thing? And that's an interesting way of looking at it. When you win you think you won as opposed to the other guy --
BORGER: It's all about my issues, right?
VELSHI: Yes.
BORGER: It's all about me.
VELSHI: Yes.
BORGER: It's usually about the other guy.
I think the danger there -- and Republicans know this -- the danger is over-interpreting their mandate.
VELSHI: Yes.
BORGER: Because the polls show people aren't exactly in love with the Republican Party either.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: They just don't like the way Democrats have run Congress. Democrats have not changed Washington.
VELSHI: Right.
BORGER: So, what they have to do is say, as Republicans, OK, we heard you on the anti-big government. We're going to try and deal with cutting the deficit. We're going to try and trim back health care reform, if not repeal it. They probably won't succeed on repealing it, but they have to make a stand and say, we heard you.
But if this ends up in gridlock --
VELSHI: Yes.
BORGER: -- watch out again. It's not like the public is changing its mind every two years. What's really happening is they're not getting what they want.
VELSHI: Yes. OK. We will be watching this closely. You and me and Paul Steinhauser with the Red Bull and Twizzlers and all that stuff.
BORGER: We'll have fun.
VELSHI: We'll be here all night for you.
BORGER: I love those graphics, that wall.
VELSHI: Right. Well, I'm going to be doing these exit polls with these 3D graphics that we've got. We'll be having whatever happens out there --
BORGER: You get to have all the fun.
VELSHI: We will be having some fun in here, there's no question about that. Thanks, Gloria. We'll talk to you later.
BORGER: Sure.
VELSHI: Issue number one at the voting booth today, what do you think it is? It's the economy. How bad is the economy and which party do people trust to make it better? We've got some numbers for you coming up next with my friend, Christine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. Let's take a quick look at how the stock market is doing today. Stocks are up, ahead of this midterm election. Look at that, the gain. The market has been doing well, though -- 11,200. We've been doing particularly well in the stock market.
And you've heard me say endlessly, more than you want to, that there are few things that affect your ability to feel prosperous -- and one of them is your investments. The stock market, you're looking at it right there.
One of them is the value of your property, your home. And, in fact, no matter what anybody tells you, home prices have stabilized and have gone up a little bit in the last year.
The third one is the most important one. It's your job. And without a job, the economy feels pretty lousy.
So, CNN poll that was just released once again confirmed what we all know and that is that the economy is the number one concern for most Americans. Look at it there. We divided it up into little people. Fifty-two percent, 52 red people -- that's 52 percent of the voters out there saying that the economy is the most important concern. After that, the deficit at 8 percent, education at 8 percent, health care at 8 percent, wars at 8 percent, illegal immigration at 8 percent and terrorism at 4 percent.
It makes me feel like there's something wrong with that poll. How can there be that many 8 percents? But that's what you folks are all saying about the most -- you know, the most important issue.
People do not have an optimistic view of the economy right now. The same poll showed that only about 25 percent, one in four people, thinks things are going well.
Compare that to past years where there was a major shift in the control of the House of Representatives. In 2006, 49 percent thought things were well. 1994, when they threw 52 people out of the House and changed parties, 50 percent thought things were going well. Even back in 1982, Reagan's midterm, 40 percent thought things were going well or very well. So, very interesting.
People want things to get better. So, who do they trust to make it better? Fifty-seven percent say they are confident in Republicans' ability to handle the economy, 45 percent say they're confident in the Democrats' ability to make things better. This, by the way, is a shift from what we saw two years ago when Barack Obama was elected president.
Christine Romans, my friend and co-host of "YOUR $$$$$" joins me now in New York.
What do you make of all of this?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, "YOUR $$$$$": It means, Ali, that even if you have a job, you know somebody who doesn't have a job.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Even if you have a job, you're worried about your kid getting out of school and not having a job. Even if you have a job, you know somebody who's found themselves over the past 10, 15 years squeezed out of the economy and you're really worried about that.
And I'm going to concur with Gloria Borger who said that, look, it might be change that people are looking for, or it might be they're getting what they want.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: And that might be the message that's happening.
VELSHI: Right. And when you vote, you only have one choice. You vote for this one or you vote. I mean, that's the only choice you can make, you can't sort of vote. There's no vote that says I'm not generally happy with how you're doing it. I'd like you to tweak it. You either vote for the Democrat or you vote for the Republican. (CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: I think this time people might very well be voting against the economy.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Not for or against a person who -- they're voting against the economy.
VELSHI: We showed the stock market when we came in here. We showed the Dow. Just give me some picture of this over the last couple of years.
ROMANS: OK. Major chart. Want to look at what has happened since the president took office. This election is being called a -- you know, a referendum on his -- on his leadership, the economy under his watch. The Dow is up sharply and the S&P, the Standard & Poor 500, that's the chart that is most likely to reflect your investments at the stock market. Look what he's done since the president took office.
VELSHI: OK. So that -- the beginning of this chart, on the left is where the president took office. It continued to dip into 2009 -- you'll remember that, the spring of 2009 is where we hit our low. And then that's been, you know, quite a climb.
ROMANS: And some of this climb is due, in part, because the market was anticipating that Republicans were going to do well --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- and that you would have a divided, a more divided situation in Congress and they were going to be able to get the shifting sands of all these changes would slow down and they were going to be able to -- you know, the business community would be able to absorb all this.
But why hasn't the White House been able to capitalize on all this?
VELSHI: Fascinating.
ROMANS: I guess, maybe, it's an impossible argument to make that look, the stock market may be better, but jobs are still a real problem. But look, things are not getting worse.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: You know, TARP -- TARP has been paid back largely.
ROMANS: That's right.
VELSHI: But you don't hear them talking about it because it's a lightning rod. The administration doesn't want to go out there and say, see, we got all this money back. They won't talk about it. Health care: there must be -- there must be 30 million people out there who are going to get health care who weren't previously going to get health care. How come they're not a block of people who are moving out there and saying, "We don't want Republicans coming in and dismantling this"? It's very interesting that this administration has not been able to capitalize on this.
ROMANS: But it's still all about jobs, because you can't go back to TARP and draw a straight line, in the public's mind --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- about how that created jobs. Or even critics can say, with the president talking about jobs, health care reform, you know, the long-time Democratic strategy of health care reform (ph), what does that do? We still need jobs.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: You know? So, even some of the successes for Democrats, as they would see them, are hard for them to sell because --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: And you pointed out something yesterday, an anomaly in this poll that we've been looking at. It's a very thorough poll.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: And that is -- well, a whole lot of people think that the economy is not doing well -- 78 percent of people said their personal situation looked good.
ROMANS: I think that's fascinating.
VELSHI: And that's not translating into votes.
ROMANS: And I still think that is the job situation because everybody knows somebody who's been squeezed out of this economy, can't find a way back in and they're really fearful it's going to happen to them.
VELSHI: Yes. And you and I have always said, always said, jobs trump everything else, no matter what.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Because it's the engine of your personal economy. If you don't have a job, you don't have a paycheck. If you don't have a paycheck, you can't put food on the table. And you're relying on the government.
The government's social safety net is bigger than it's ever been in our lifetime. Forty -- I think 40 million people are, what, on food stamps --
VELSHI: Unbelievable.
ROMANS: -- you know, supplemental benefits for food. It's just really, really interesting time.
VELSHI: Yes. All right. We'll be working on this all together.
ROMANS: Sure.
VELSHI: You'll see one of us on TV constantly for the next 24 hours.
But if you want even more of it, if that's not enough Christine and Ali for you, tune in Saturdays at 1:00 pm Eastern, Sundays at 3:00. Christine is the author of a new book which were going to start quizzing you on, "Smart is the New Rich" is available now.
OK. A manhunt under way in Yemen for an al Qaeda bomb maker believed to be behind the cargo bomb plot. He's also the guy believed to be behind the underpants bombing effort on Christmas Day. We'll have details in "Globe Trekking" after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. It's time now for "Globe Trekking." In Yemen, a manhunt is underway this hour for an al Qaeda bomb maker accused of being behind the failed airplane cargo bomb plot that we saw unveiled on Thursday, unraveled on Thursday.
Saudi national Ibrahim al-Asiri is believed to be in Yemen. Officials say he probably made the two bombs discovered in two separate cargo planes on Friday. They had the same material, by the way, as the bomb that was made on Christmas Day. He is also believed to have made that so-called underwear bomb in bid to blow up a jetliner as it landed in Detroit, last year.
In a related move, Yemen, today, began the trail in absentia of American-born, radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. He's wanted by the U.S. government for links to al Qaeda.
And also today, suspected al Qaeda militants blew up an oil pipeline in southern Yemen, operated by a South Korean company. No injuries or deaths have been reported from that.
OK. Michelle Rhee was hired to fix the schools in Washington, D.C. Her reforms led to the firing of hundreds of teachers, even some school closings. You're going to meet her and find out what she thinks can be done to fix schools across this country.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Despite years of promises to fix our schools, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty saw the schools in his district as failing miserably. He saw them as among the worst performing and most dysfunctional in the country. At one middle school, only 16 percent of students could read and do math at grade level. Not surprisingly, the district had gone through six school chiefs in ten years. Mayor Fenty reached out to Michelle Rhee, who had founded the New Teacher Project, where she had pushed education reform in more than half a dozen cities across the country. Her quick and dramatic changes to the D.C. system resulted in hundreds of teachers dismissed, some schools closed and, yes, test scores in the system rose pretty much throughout her tenure.
This is her from the recent documentary about the American education system, "Waiting for Superman."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE RHEE, FORMER CHANCELLOR, D.C. PUBLIC SCHOOLS: There's a complete and utter lack of accountability for the job that we're supposed to be doing, which is producing results for kids.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Yesterday was Michelle Rhee's last official day on the job as Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools. She joins me now live from Washington.
Michelle, thank you for being on the show with us.
Let's talk a little bit about what happened in your career. In June of 2007, you were appointed school chancellor. You took some swift action. By July of 2008, a year after you took office, D.C.'s test scores in reading and math were rising across the board. In 2010, three years after you took office, you had a groundbreaking contract with the D.C. Teachers' Union.
But a month later, you fired 241 teachers, you put 737 of them on notice for being rated minimally effective. And then by September, Adrian Fenty lost the battle to be the Democratic nominee for the mayor of D.C., essentially ending his career. And a lot of people think it has something to do with those reforms.
What was the tie between what you were doing and what voters in D.C. -- how they reacted?
RHEE: Well, you're right, absolutely. A lot of people in the city said that this was a referendum on education. And I think in many ways, it was.
We made a lot of hard choices and the mayor led an effort to close a large number of failing schools, to make sure that we could not only reward the highest performing teachers, but we could swiftly remove the lowest performing ones. We did different things, like making sure that we were doing layoffs by quality instead of seniority. And that definitely shook the status quo up and a lot of people didn't really feel invested in the reforms that were happening.
VELSHI: And the unions, the teachers' unions, you say -- you've written in an op-ed in the "Wall Street Journal," went out of their way to sort of target you and Mayor Fenty as using the D.C. School System and students there as guinea pigs.
What's your response to that?
RHEE: Well, the union obviously was not happy with a lot of the reforms that we made. In fact, along the way they protested quite a few of the things that we did. And even though we did end up with incredibly groundbreaking contract that makes tenure and seniority in lockstep pay nonissues in this city, it wasn't something they were interested in continuing. And that was shown by the million dollars they threw into the mayoral election to see Mayor Fenty de-seated.
VELSHI: What will outlast you? You're now not going to be the school's chancellor and Mayor Fenty will not be the mayor. What will outlast you, in terms of the reforms that you've put into place?
RHEE: I think the most important things are the pieces that we put in and around human capital. So that new Teachers' Union contract that makes tenure and seniority non-issues, that continues on even without us.
The new teacher evaluation tool that we developed, which ensures that the highest -- the most highly effective teachers can get paid bonuses and the lowest people can swiftly be moved out, that outlives us. And then my entire team actually is going to stay in place and I have a tremendous amount of faith that if they have the political support behind them, that they'll be able to continue the reforms.
VELSHI: How closely can you tie the changes, the increases in the test scores that you first saw in 2008, a year after you took office, to some of the changes that you were making? And have you seen a constant increase in those test scores as you have continued to make reforms?
RHEE: I mean, I think that, without a doubt, you can say that our reforms had a direct impact on the test score growth in the city, simply by the fact that if you look over the three-year period what we saw in terms of, for example, secondary school growth for our high school students; 14 percentage points in reading, 17 percentage points in math. That was unprecedented in any three-year period, any time in the history of Washington, D.C. And it was unparalleled anywhere else in the country.
And so, I think the bold moves that we made to make sure that teacher quality was number one on the agenda in the District, actually impacted the quality of instruction that was going on in classrooms every day.
VELSHI: OK. I mean, this is such an interesting story. Obviously, the entire country has watched what you have done. Because in one way, the mayor did what he thought we are all carrying on about wanting to be done -- reforms to the school system. But something about how you did it attracted the ire of teachers and turned this apple cart upside down.
I want you to stay with me because a lot of people who have not voted yet, education is the most important thing they want to deal with right now. So I want you to stay with me. We're going to come back and talk about how voters should be dealing with this in the education crisis.
Stay with me. Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the D.C. Public School System.
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VELSHI: OK, it's fitting that on Election Day we're talking education with Michelle Rhee. She was the chancellor of D.C. schools. She undertook one of the most dramatic reforms in the modern education system.
I want to talk about why voting matters to education. For anybody who hasn't found a reason to vote, and frankly, there are many, why this hasn't happened.
Michelle, first of all, thank you for joining us.
When voters are going to the polls today, and they want to make a decision about somebody who they think is going to put the necessary focus on education -- and by the way, that can be at the local level, it can be at the state or it can be at the federal level, because education is now an issue that everybody is dealing with. Who do they side with?
Because you found yourself in the midst of an early battle where teachers and teachers' unions often say one thing, government says another, parents say another, charter schools say another, and results say something entirely different.
How do you know when you're voting for somebody who makes education a priority that they're going to deal with it in a way that you're going to find acceptable and that is going to be useful to your students?
RHEE: All right. So I think, first of all, what people need to understand is that it's incredibly important to vote today because we're not just facing an economic crisis in this country right now, we're facing a crisis in the public education system.
And because of the economic problems in the country, we're looking at a year where we're going to see massive budget cuts in school districts. And we want politicians who are going to have good policy as it pertains to these budget cuts.
So, for example, what often happens in the time of budget cuts and layoffs is that school districts will lay teachers off by seniority. So, last in, first out. The newest teachers all get fired. That's not good policy for kids. It doesn't make any sense and enrages parents oftentimes when they see their great, new teachers being fired just because they don't have seniority.
And so we have to be looking for politicians who are going to make a stand, take a very strong stand against policies and practices like that. We need politicians who are going to say, we are not going to allow kids to be in failing schools, trapped in failing schools without options any longer.
So we need to make sure that there are policies out there that allow for more highly effective and high-quality charter schools to come into existence. And I think the American people now realize that the status quo in education is not working and they're going to demand more from their politicians. And we need to know --
VELSHI: So let me ask you this, though. They do demand more. They got Adrian Fenty. They got you. And now you're out. Would you -- knowing what you've been through in the last three years -- would you have approached it differently? Is there something you would have done differently so that the unions didn't mobilize to ensure that you couldn't continue to do your job?
RHEE: Absolutely. Our failures were not failures of policy. They were failures of politics and communication. And just like the Teachers' Union mobilized the forces, we should have done the same in terms of mobilizing the parents and people in this city who actually liked the changes and saw the results and wanted more of those, to realize what was at stake in this election. So, that was a failure on our part.
But it should not be a lesson to other politicians in other communities that you shouldn't move as aggressively as we did. That shouldn't be the lesson at all. Because if we're going to change what's happening in American education today, we have to make these tough decisions. Those are a nonnegotiable.
VELSHI: Can these changes take place, Michelle, without it being pitched battle between teachers' unions and reformers?
RHEE: I think it can, as long as the unions are willing to listen and work with us.
And I think it's important to make a distinction between teachers and teachers' unions because lots of teachers across the country that I hear from agree with all of the policies and reforms that I'm talking about. It's the teacher union leadership that's often against these policies.
And so, I think they should be listening to their rank and file a little bit more and knowing that effective teachers don't think that a last-in, first-out policy is the right one either. They also agree that we should be making those decisions based on performance.
So, I think that they potentially could be made without a lot of contention, but at the same time, I think it's important for us not to be afraid of a fight once in awhile because, frankly, you know, they're not going to change the status quo unless there's a demand for that.
VELSHI: Let me ask you a final question. You're not in this job anymore. You are clearly very passionate about this. What are you doing next?
RHEE: I haven't decided that yet, but I'm looking at a lot of options right now. And a lot of these issues that we're talking about, Ali, today are the things that are really interesting to me and that drive me to want to see more significant change in our country. So, I'm just trying to figure out how best to make that happen.
VELSHI: are we likely to see you in the school system somewhere else in America?
RHEE: Potentially. I'm looking at lots of different options right now.
VELSHI: All right, Michelle, thanks for taking the time to join us. We appreciate you talking to us. And on whatever side of this issue one falls, we always appreciate people on this show who are passionate about the shared goal of improving education for students.
Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public School System.
We are now less than 48 hours away from being able to get Flash on your iPhone and iPad. You thought I was going to say something about the election, didn't you? There's a catch to this, though. It's our "Big I" and I'll tell you about it when we come back.
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VELSHI: In today's "Big I", which we do every day, a Web browser for the iPhone and iPad that allows you to view videos in Flash. We pulled this story from our friends at CNNMoney.com. Now Apple still does not support content that is encoded in Adobe's Flash if you're trying to play it on a iPhone and iPad or an iPod Touch.
Adobe says nearly 75 percent of online video is encoded in Flash, but Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said that Flash performs poorly on mobile devices and sucks up battery life. He's not wrong about that, because I use it on my BlackBerry and it does do that. It's not good and it does suck up battery life. So Apple and Adobe have been in this huge fight over whether to allow Flash on mobile Apple products.
Now to get around Apple's restriction, no deal has been made, but to get around it, a startup company called Skyfire came up with this innovative solution. When users click on a page that is embedded with Flash video, Skyfire's servers download, render and translate that video into HTML 5, which is what Apple can read. Skyfire then displays a thumbnail that users can click on to stream the video right from the Skyfire's servers.
Skyfire's the first application to receive Apple's approval for distribution in its App Store and it goes on sale Thursday at 9am. That means people with Apple devices can now see video that's done with Flash.
One major website that Skyfire will not have an effect on, by the way, is Hulu, which blocked the app from downloading it's videos. So if you want to see things on Hulu on your Apple device, you're still out of luck. Hulu hosts TV shows and movies from the major networks and studios. It's free for PC users in the United States, mobile users have to pay $10 a month for a subscription to Hulu plus. But Skyfire estimates that the number of Web sites and videos that Skyfire will open up to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users is in the millions.
Skyfire says the app received a rigorous review from Apple, but it was approved in less than two months. Apple did not return a CNNMoney request for comment on why it approved Skyfire for its App Store.
Skyfire first debuted on Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Nokia phones in 2008. It surpassed 3 million downloads, but the program was criticized for bugginess, sluggishness and for privacy concerns. The company now insists that those problems were fixed with its new release of Skyfire 2.0.
Worth trying out. See if it works.
OK, we're heading over to the CNN Politics Desk straight ahead for some very last minute polling efforts. We'll see what voters were thinking in the home stretch.
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VELSHI: All right, "CNN Equals Politics." Paul Steinhauser, our deputy political director, is standing by at the CNN Political Desk just one floor above me, keeping track of last minute polls that we're getting in.
What's it looking like?
STEINHAUSER: Yes, Ali, we moved the desk from D.C. up here. And you're going to be up here a little later tonight.
But yes, people are asking what were the final poll numbers. Check this out, this is a CNN Poll of Polls. We took them, six final generic ballot polls by CNN and five other organizations, we averaged it all together. This is that standard question, would you vote for the generic Democrat or Republican in your congressional district. Look at that, an eight-point advantage, 51 percent for the Republicans, 43 percent for the Democrats.
That eight-point advantage, Ali, pretty close to what the Democrats had four years ago in the final polls before they swept back and took control of Congress and also comparable to what the Republicans had in '94, those final surveys before they swept back into control of Congress.
One other thing, let's look at the final forecast by two the top nonpartisan political handicappers. For the House of Representatives, the Cook political report was predicting or forecasting a net gain of 50 to 60 seats for the Republicans. The Rothenberg report, 55 to 65 net gain seats for the Republicans. Remember, the GOP only needs a net gain of 39 to reclaim control of the chamber. What about the Senate? Both Cook & Rothenberg predicting six to eight net gain for Republicans. Republicans need ten seats to win back control of the Senate.
And, Ali, I got to say one thing. I'm standing here alone. Where is my partner Mark Preston?
VELSHI: Where is Mark, yes?
STEINHAUSER: He should be here. You know what happened? This guy has been working nonstop. He's not been getting much sleep. He lost his voice . He lost his voice, my friend.
VELSHI: Well we miss him and I hope he's watching or resting when we do that.
Tell me, are there any outliers, Paul? Are there people who think -- Cook and Rothenberg who track these both think 50 to 65 seats. Is there anybody who thinks there's a chance that, A, the Democrats can hold the House and, B, that the Republicans will take the Senate?
STEINHAUSER: Yes, there are a few outliers on both sides, mostly partisan handicappers, though, who we normally don't use. But yes, Democrats think they may be able to control the House, Republicans the Senate. Yes, exactly.
VELSHI: Yes, because we still hear about some of that on the cable shows.
But you know what? You can watch this show tonight, this channel and Paul and I will be there with our Red Bull and Twizzlers and Snickers and any other snack we can get our hands on? We and the entire team will be here till it's done
Paul, we'll see you later. Thanks very much.
Paul Steinhauser, our deputy political editor. And, Mark, we miss you. Get better and see if you can get better and get back in this place.
We'll be right back after this.
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