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Hurricane Isaac Threatens Gulf Coast; President Obama Courting Young Voters
Aired August 28, 2012 - 15:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now this. As we roll on, top of the hour, I'm Brooke Baldwin live here at the CNN Grill in Tampa, Florida, adjacent to the big forum, the Republican National Convention happening. This is the first full day here of the RNC. We're going to of course bring you the highlights live.
But I want to get to a single name that's really dominated the headlines all week long. It's not Mitt Romney, but Isaac. Here is what you need to know now. We're not talking Tropical Storm Isaac now. We're talking Hurricane Isaac. We are hours away when it will be making landfall at some point tonight.
In the next couple of hours, we're watching closely but take a look at what Isaac is doing right now. You can see here whitecaps, waves and even the camera bobbing up and down. Why? Obviously that's the wind. These are pictures just off of Canal Boulevard from New Orleans. For the last several hours we have been watching the posts disappear in the city.
See the posts there on the front part of your screen, these wooden posts? They are disappearing because the water is going up, up, up. This is Bay St. Louis in Mississippi and those black dots are the posts of a walkway that was visible just several hours ago.
In terms of the wind, Isaac winds are clocked at 75 miles per hour for now, but it's the water that's supposed to bring really the major concern of folks that live there. Take a look at this map and it shows the areas with a 90 percent likelihood of a storm surge of at least two feet. That's the least that can happen here.
Worst-case scenario, Isaac could create a storm surge of 12 feet and drop 20 inches of rain.
We have Jennifer Delgado and she's standing by with the most up to date situation here when it comes to Hurricane Isaac, also David Mattingly on the ground for us with a crew in Gulfport, Mississippi.
But I want to begin with you, Brian Todd. Let's begin with you in New Orleans, because the Army Corps of Engineers set to close the floodgates to the world's largest pumping station. Has that happened yet, Brian?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, we're told it's not happened yet. They say it will not close until it reaches flood trigger points. They don't anticipate that until probably tomorrow, maybe in the overnight hours.
Many of the floodgates around this area either have been or are being closed as we speak. That particular one not yet. That's the West Closure Complex, the world's largest pumping station. It's designed to not only keep water out, especially of the west bank area of New Orleans, but to also pump water out of that area if need be.
It can pump 20,000 cubic feet of water per second, a massive pumping system. It will probably close in the next several hours we think when it reaches those flood trigger points. I'm going to show you something a little deceiving. Take a look. A little peek of blue sky. Very deceiving. We know that's not going to last.
We're going to be inundated here with rain and wind in the coming hours. Already the port operations are closed down. Everybody is just girding for this at the moment. It's a real time of anticipation. It's going to arrive in the next few hours.
BALDWIN: Do not be thrown off by the blue skies. We all know that will soon go away.
Tell me about New Orleans evacuating. How many people are sticking around? Are they heeding the warnings to stay safe?
TODD: Most people are sticking around, actually.
There's been mandatory evacuations in seven parishes but those are most in low-lying areas where is a lot of storm surge occurring. The city of New Orleans,no mandatory evacuation. The mayor has said for those city residents who are outside the levee protected areas in low-lying areas you should leave just to be safe, but they don't anticipate a mandatory evacuation. They don't think it's necessary for this storm.
We want to maybe show you some pictures if you can roll them. We were at Lake Pontchartrain a little while ago. What the mayor is warning about is a situation like what we saw at Lake Pontchartrain. It was a impressive looking storm surge coming off that lake. There were people right there by the lake there to get a glimpse of it and the mayor saying do not do that. We saw plenty of people out there.
There was one guy sitting on a beverage that was just surrounded by water and he finally left, but a very impressive storm surge by Lake Pontchartrain as the initial bands of Isaac really start to sweep up off that lake. That's what they're worried about, the water levels on that lake spilling over but again very confident that the levees are going to hold.
BALDWIN: Talking to a hurricane tracker earlier saying a lot of folks and wrongfully so saying it's only a Category 1 and that's such the wrong mentality. Brian Todd, thank you for reminding all of us about that.
I want to go now to David Mattingly. David Mattingly is in Gulfport, Mississippi.
David, just talk too me about what you're seeing. You are soaking wet. I imagine the rain very much so coming down.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not just seeing it, but feeling it.
I'm afraid we will have to get used to it here. We're expecting possibly over a foot of rain landing along the Mississippi Gulf Coast throughout this storm. It's getting harder and it's getting more frequent as the hours go by. The surf is up. The tide is up. Everyone anticipating some sort of surge that's coming in with this storm. Not exactly sure how high that water will push in.
But back behind me the beach area here in Gulfport, you can beat that that's going to be underwater in the next few hours. We're going to be watching to see if it actually comes up on the highway this time as well. But right now to build on what Brian Todd was talking about, no one is taking the storm for granted.
In fact, the last time I heard anyone talking about a "minimal hurricane" they were referring to Hurricane Katrina when it came ashore first in Florida as a Category 1. At that time, the power it amplified quickly as it came ashore and caught everyone by surprise. We know what happened after it went into the Gulf and then went here and into New Orleans after that. Again, nothing minimal about a hurricane whatsoever.
BALDWIN: None whatsoever. I know we talk Katrina. A lot of along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi very much so hit as well, some of them the first. I know a lot of Katrina survivors moved to Gulfport, where you are. What's their take on what's happening?
MATTINGLY: A lot of people that have chosen to stay here and chosen to rebuild have decided to be smart about what they were doing.
The houses they rebuilt, the businesses, the buildings have all been reinforced with concrete and steel made to withstand storms like this. I asked one homeowner who now has walls of six inches thick in his home and windows that can sustain an impact of 200 mile-an-hour winds. I asked would that house stand up to Katrina. He said it probably would, just not with him in it.
They are building their buildings to last, but they are still treating the storms with respect. When people have an opportunity to get out of the way of these storms, they feel like they might be in danger, believe me they're going to do it.
BALDWIN: David Mattingly, thank you so much, Gulfport, Mississippi.
(WEATHER UPDATE)
BALDWIN: The president issuing warnings about Isaac today both in Washington, D.C., this morning and then just this past hour at a campaign rally in Iowa just a short time ago. Here he was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now is not the time to tempt fate. Now is not the time to dismiss official warnings. You need to take this seriously.
Our thoughts are with our fellow Americans down on the Gulf. They are preparing for the New Orleans guy right here. They are obviously preparing for a big storm, Hurricane Isaac. We have been getting ready for this storm for days.
We have got response teams and supplies in place. America will be there to help folks recover no matter what this storm brings because when disaster strikes we're not Democrats or Republicans first. We are Americans first.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: We can tell you now FEMA already in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and ready with emergency supplies once this hurricane hits.
Courting young voters -- just ahead, the president's message today to college students in two crucial swing states. You have Iowa and Colorado and this is before he heads onto Virginia.
Plus, a reminder for voters that President Obama and Mitt Romney are not the only presidential candidates. Ron Paul delegates show up in full force on the convention floor here in Tampa.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Here in Tampa, time for some smart talk, some smart political talk with John Avlon and Margaret Hoover. John is Margaret's favorite CNN contributor and a senior political columnist for "Newsweek" and The Daily Beast. Margaret is Jon's favorite CNN political contributor as well.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Deeply biased.
I first want to begin with you, sir, because you are putting this piece out on Daily Beast about Chris Christie. Have a little inside scoop before the big keynote address.
JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We do.
Sort of big picture, everyone is expecting Chris Christie to go attack dog.
BALDWIN: Be the bully that many people are criticizing him for being.
(CROSSTALK)
AVLON: Chris Christie will be going positive tonight. He's going to make a positive case based in policy for what a Republican agenda could look like. It's very much against that stereotype of the keynote role that always plays the attack dog.
Chris Christie instead will take the high role and go positive. I think it really says a lot about the tone that team Romney wants to send forward in this.
BALDWIN: Positive.
(CROSSTALK)
AVLON: Positive and someone that can appeal to swing voters. Remember Chris Christie, in New Jersey, there are more registered independents than Democrats and Republicans and he's had to work with the Democratic state legislature to get his agenda through.
BALDWIN: This is prime time, baby. They're trying to appeal to those undecided and independent voters.
(CROSSTALK)
AVLON: That's it.
BALDWIN: You want to jump in.
MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: The independent voters have not made up their minds about Mitt Romney. They are going to know Mitt Romney. They will trust Chris Christie, the guy who talks even, plays it straight, says it like it is to be positive and make a positive, proactive case to independent Americans who haven't made up their minds.
BALDWIN: Let's talk education because this is where the conversation is also turning today.
You have President Obama in Iowa, Colorado, Virginia. You also have Mitt Romney taking on this full-page ad in the college daily paper in Ames today basically highlighting unemployment rate for young people, tuition hikes and so here they are battling it out. What does Mitt Romney do to get the youth vote?
HOOVER: What does Barack Obama do to get the same amount of youth vote he had last time? Remember last time he won 2-1 the youth vote, 66 percent for Barack Obama, 32 percent for John McCain.
They are the largest generation in American history, by the way, and 65 million of them will be eligible to vote this time. If half of them turned out just like last time, about 51 turned out, they would be 24 percent of the electorate.
BALDWIN: I was just talking to Robert Gibbs a moment ago, senior adviser here to camp Obama, and I said are you worried? He said, no, not at all.
(CROSSTALK)
HOOVER: The enthusiasm isn't there. The enthusiasm isn't there. The question is, are they going to turn out for President Obama? Mitt Romney needs to make the case that he's the guy for them. And he needs to make it along the same lines that Chris Christie is going to make his case as independents. They like President Obama. They are disappointed in him.
BALDWIN: I feel a but coming on.
(CROSSTALK)
AVLON: I got a big but.
Let's get real on both sides here. First, well, no, the Obama camp is not going to get the same level of enthusiasm as they did during the historic hope and change election in 2008. This is not a hope and change election right now. Let's be real on the side.
(CROSSTALK)
AVLON: On the flip side, let's be real that Mitt Romney has not inspired a lot of love, inspiration or devotion from young people and young voters. They got a lot of ground to make up. He can point out youth unemployment, but he's also got to offer a specific solution, not just attack and distract. That's not going to get the job done.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Can we talk about Mia Love? Mia Love, so many people are so excited.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: I know Chris Christie is getting all the airtime. Everybody is anticipating his keynote speech. But here she is, this small-town mayor from Utah. She's speaking tonight, by the way. That's why we're talking about this.
This will be the biggest political night of her life.
AVLON: That's right.
HOOVER: It will be. And it actually can make a significant difference in the race. This is how convention speeches can actually make a difference in local races. She's running in Utah. She's the mayor of Sarasota Springs, which is a small town in Utah. She's running as a six-term incumbent Democrat.
BALDWIN: The only Democrat in all of Utah.
HOOVER: In all of Utah. But she will be also the only African- American elected to Congress from Utah.
BALDWIN: On the Republican side.
HOOVER: On the Republican side. It's a remarkable story. She's a Haitian-American immigrant, a great American story the Republicans really want to hold up.
AVLON: It is.
But the reason they're are putting her forward is because demographics are destiny. Republicans have a real problem when it comes to diversity. She would be the first African-American woman as a Republican to serve in Congress. That's a pretty significant deficit. But, look, these star turns can make a big difference. Just ask Senate candidate Barack Obama about what the results were out of his. But let's be real. Republicans have a fundamental diversity deficit. And that's what they're trying to address last night.
HOOVER: But it's worth noticing the next generation of Republican stars really has much more surprising diversity than has been acknowledged.
BALDWIN: People are definitely the buzz around here. They are excited to hear her speak. A little preview. She's going to be talking as you mentioned about her parents and she will be saying how she's going to be talking basically about how this is the America her parents knew. They didn't turn to Washington for help. They turned within themselves.
So, Mia Love, we will be watching for her tonight. Guys, thank you very much. See you tomorrow.
AVLON: Absolutely.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Meantime, let's talk about this. Coming up next, more here from Tampa as some Ron Paul delegates they are making darn sure their candidate is not forgotten. We're going to show you what just happened after Congressman Paul showed up on the floor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We are keeping one eye on Hurricane Isaac as it nears the Gulf Coast but here in Tampa the Republican National Convention is finally getting under way.
That means party leaders from all around the country, they're arriving on the convention floor really here as I speak.
Dana Bash is there in the thick of things. In fact, just a little while ago, she caught up with House Speaker John Boehner.
Dana, what did you ask him about?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He's going to be here on the convention floor.
He's going to be speaking at 7:00 tonight. He's actually also the permanent chair of this convention. But he also obviously is a top Republican who has in the past few weeks said something quite interesting about Mitt Romney. He said something along the lines of you don't have to love him. You just have to -- you don't have to love him to vote for him. And what he was trying to say was that he believes the electorate, people will vote against President Obama because they're voting against President Obama and that that is the key thing. I asked him about that and in general what he thinks about Mitt Romney and his likability factor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The point I was trying to make -- a lady asked a question. Make me fall in love with Mitt Romney.
I said, no, this election is about a referendum on the president's economic policies. That's the whole point that I was making. This is an election about the economy and jobs. As a result, I think our team has got a great shot at winning.
BASH: But Mitt Romney, if you look at polls and you talk to his advisers, he does have a problem when it comes to the empathy factor and favorability. Is that a problem for Republicans?
BOEHNER: Listen, he's a very shy guy. He's a humble guy, doesn't like to talk about himself.
That's just who he is. But I have known Mitt Romney for a long time, decent, honest, hardworking guy. And I think Thursday he will have a chance to what I will call reintroduce himself to the American people.
Never really had that chance. He's been locked in this Republican primary and then locked into this battle with the president. As a result, people have all different kinds of views of him. So I think Thursday night is clearly an important speech for him. I think he will have his chance to reintroduce himself to the American people, most of whom are just paying attention now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: The other thing I asked Speaker Boehner about is the female problem that Republicans have, the big, big gender gap between President Obama and Mitt Romney. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOEHNER: The Democrat Party has a problem with men. If you look at us, we have had this gender gap. Democrats have had it with men and Republicans have had it with women now for the last 20 years.
It's something I think both parties need to pay attention to and clearly we do as well.
BASH: And obviously it's exacerbated by your colleague Todd Akin saying what he said about rape and abortion, and then just the other day another Republican candidate for the Senate made a remark about rape that offended women.
BOEHNER: I made it clear that I disagree with those remarks. I thought they were wrong. Frankly, I thought they were harmful.
This is not -- their views don't reflect the broad views of the Republican Party. Listen, I'm pro-life. Our party is pro-life. I believe in the sanctity of life. I have got 11 brothers and sisters. I'm glad my mother had all of us. But having said that, that's a very divisive issue in American society. My job is to bring people together, not push people apart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: And again, Brooke, Speaker Boehner is going to address this convention in about three-and-a-half-hours. What is he going to say? He's going to say something that those of us who cover him hear him say every single day. He's going to say, where are the jobs?
He will try to turn the conversation back to the economy. That's where Republicans want it -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: So much of the focus on the economy here in Tampa, as many Americans would say it should be.
Dana Bash, our congressional correspondent on the floor of the convention center.
Hey, Congressman Ron Paul, remember him, not going quietly. His supporters are famous for making noise far beyond their actual numbers. Congressman Paul, he got a hero's welcome a little while ago from supporters when he arrived inside that convention center. There he is flanked with an orchid lei around that neck of his.
His backers actually chanted, "Let him speak." They are also very, very angry about this change in party rules that the Romney camp is pushing here. That change would make it more difficult for future insurgent candidates, i.e., Ron Paul, to win the party's nomination. We're watching that.
Also, health care reform a huge, huge topic here on the campaign trial. So, question, what happens if the Romney/Ryan ticket wins and they make good on their promise and repeal Obamacare? We're take a closer look at what the GOP health care plan would mean for people with preexisting conditions. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Now on to the latest here on Hurricane Isaac, which is set to make landfall in the Gulf region right around 10:00 Eastern tonight.
Right around 12:30 this afternoon, right around lunchtime, that is when it was officially declared a hurricane, no longer a tropical storm, a hurricane with now winds were clocked in at 75-miles-per- hour.
Now, as far as evacuations go, mandatory evacs they are underway throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, but many, as we've been talking to our reporters and crews on the ground, they are riding this one out. They are staying put, especially in New Orleans which opted not to order those evacuations.
Right now, I want to tell you about three airports. You have New Orleans and Mobile and Gulfport/Biloxi airports. They have stopped all commercial flight operations, cancelling close to 1,500 flights in anticipation of this hurricane.
Mitt Romney has said it very plainly. If elected he will absolutely act to repeal - his words, act to repeal ObamaCare, beginning day one in office and I want to just keep in mind here Democrats consider the healthcare reforms their biggest achievement in decades.
It's landmark legislation and that includes the provision that bars insurers from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions, people like Ann Romney who is to address this convention this evening.
Ann Romney is a breast cancer survivor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis back in 1998.
So, with me now from New York is our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, here. And, Elizabeth, just beginning with you, when we talk preexisting conditions, where specifically is Mitt Romney on that?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, Mitt Romney is very clear that he will repeal ObamaCare and that means people with preexisting conditions would not be guaranteed the ability to get insurance. Insurance companies would not have to take them.
Instead, what Governor Romney wants to do is he wants to make it so that someone with a preexisting condition would be able to get health insurance, if -- and this is a big if -- if they have had continuous coverage in the past.
So, let's listen to Mitt Romney in his own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's say someone has been continuously insured and they develop a serious condition and let's say they lose their job or they change jobs. They move and they go to a new place.
I don't want them to be denied insurance because they've got some preexisting conditions, so we're going to have to make sure that the law we replace ObamaCare with assures that people who have a preexisting condition, who've been insured in the past, are able to get insurance in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: So, if someone then has not had continuous coverage in the past and they want to get insurance and they have a preexisting condition, then there would be no guarantee at all. Brooke? BALDWIN: Then what does it mean - Mitt Romney, what does he mean when he says, he talks about continuous coverage as in people will not the denied access to a health plan while they have continuous coverage. Is that a qualifier?
COHEN: Right, it is definitely a qualifier. He says if you have a preexisting condition and you've have had continuous coverage in the past and then let's say you lose your job, he says, yes, you should be able to get new insurance even though you have cancer or heart disease or whatever.
Now, we asked what does continuous coverage in the past mean? What does continuous coverage mean? And we didn't get an answer on that. We don't know if that means you have to have been insured for the prior one year or two years or five years or ten years. We just don't know.
BALDWIN: OK, Elizabeth Cohen, stand by because I want you to throw a question at the good senator sitting next to me.
We have Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming. Also, we should point out, goes by Dr. Barrasso. So nice to see you here in person.
SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R), WYOMING: Thanks for having me.
BALDWIN: I want to just begin with this. You know, ObamaCare really gives a lot of financial assistance to folks, middle-income folks, when it comes to buying insurance.
If Mitt Romney makes good on the promise that he will be repealing ObamaCare on day one, how will Mitt Romney help people find insurance?
BARRASSO: Well, first of all, you may have seen "The New York Times" editorial on Sunday that showed that a glitch in the law says that what the president has promised is very unlikely to happen, which is why I thought people actually should have read the healthcare law before it got signed into law.
As Nancy Pelosi said, first, you have to pass it before you get to find out what's in it, which is why today this is still a very unpopular law. Americans across the country more would like to have it either fully repealed or partially repealed.
BALDWIN: But then how - but then with regard to Mitt Romney, so, if he wins and if he does repeal ObamaCare, for the people who are watching and thinking, how will I get insurance, how will he help those people?
BARRASSO: First of all, what I'm saying is that with the promises the president made, it would lower the cost.
BALDWIN: I understand. I understand what you're made.
BARRASSO: That's been broken. And when the president said, if you like what you have, you can keep it. They cannot. BALDWIN: But what does Mitt Romney do?
BARRASSO: What he wants to start over in a step-by-step way to let people buy insurance across state lines. Let people who buy their own insurance have the same tax breaks as those who get it through work. Deal with the lawsuit abuse that's out there. Let small businesses join together to get better prices on insurance, all of those things.
But the president continues to confuse the words "coverage" and "care" and he talks about sending out 17 million Medicaid cards for people, but those people aren't able to find doctors to take care of them.
There is a huge difference between the coverage that the president talks about and care that people need.
BALDWIN: If I may, Elizabeth Cohen go ahead and jump in. You're - go ahead and throw a question to the senator.
COHEN: Senator, I have a question about children and preexisting conditions. Let's say, if Romney is elected president, let's say there's parents who work hard, but like many people their employer does not give them insurance.
They don't qualify for Medicaid, so they are not buying insurance. They're uninsured and then that child, let's say, gets diabetes or cancer.
If Mitt Romney were elected president, how would that child get insurance?
BARRASSO: Well, I will tell you. My wife is a breast cancer survivor. She's been through three operations, two bouts of chemotherapy, so, as both a doctor who's practiced for 25 years, as well as a husband, I will tell you it's important that we help people with preexisting conditions.
In Wyoming, we did that with a high-risk pool that worked well. Absolutely, there were subsidies for folks with preexisting conditions.
But I will tell you definitely it worked in a lot better way and fairer way and cheaper way than what the government is proposing, which is unworkable, it's unaffordable and it continues to be very unpopular.
COHEN: Senator, if I could ask. Not all states have high-risk pools and even the ones that are out there don't always work very well. So what would happen if that child were in a state without a high-risk pool?
BARRASSO: Well, I think that if states would model what they have over the states that are successful, like the ones that we have in Wyoming, there's a lot to be done to help people. The problem with the Obama health care law is he does something called "guaranteed issuance of insurance." So, we're not even talking -- he defines preexisting condition as if somebody wrecks their car today and is being driven to the hospital and this is somebody that doesn't have insurance because they haven't followed his mandate, well, then the insurance company has to sell them insurance while they're on the way to the hospital with their bone sticking out through their leg.
And that is not what most people think of as a preexisting condition. We need to help people with preexisting conditions.
BALDWIN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much. And I wish I had more time with you. Come back.
BARRASSO: I will.
BALDWIN: It's always meaningful to have you on the show. Senator Barrasso, thank you.
BARRASSO: Good to be with you. Thank you.
BALDWIN: And back to the weather as we're all watching, all eyes on Hurricane Isaac, the storm taking aim straight at Louisiana. We're going to get the latest for you on the evacuation order next for the - really the last road, the final road out there. This is a barrier island Grand Isle, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The first part of Louisiana to really feel the brunt of Hurricane Isaac is Grand Isle. Today, there are mandatory evacuations for the 1,500 people who live there currently.
CNN's Ed Lavandera is live there on this tiny barrier island where I know winds have been picking up. Take a look at this. Ed, tell me what you're seeing right now.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brooke. Well, we are definitely seeing some of the strongest winds we have felt all day and, right now, the latest calculations we've seen show that Hurricane Isaac is about 55 miles or so away from the mouth of the Mississippi River.
And that means that over the course of the next five to six hours we will begin seeing the strongest effects of this storm start begin to come onshore and this is definitely some of the hardest we've seen.
Oddly enough, what we haven't seen a great deal of is really rain that lasts for a long time. It's been coming through in short bands, but we haven't seen the torrential downpours that have lasted a really long time and which we anticipate will happen here in the coming hours, as well.
But as you mentioned, 1,500 people on this island, most of them have evacuated. The mayor here in Grand Isle told me that he thinks there's only about 30 people left on the island and many of those people include the emergency management officials and police officers and fire officials that have stayed back.
So, as you can see here, the conditions beginning to deteriorate. We're about 60, 70 miles out of New Orleans and we're going to be seeing the eye of the storm, essentially, come right over us here, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Thirty people close to you three, the crew there for us, covering this hurricane. Ed Lavandera, please stay safe. We appreciate you. We'll check back later.
A firsthand look at the damage and the death and destruction inside Syria's capital of Damascus. In this exclusive report, we will see the devastation as a neighborhood transforms, really, into a war zone as people who live there fight to survive. Please, don't miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: An exclusive look inside Syria, images you will not see anywhere else, CNN has obtained an extraordinary account of life in Syria over the course of the last two weeks.
For safety reasons, we are not naming this journalist who's about to give us this report, but you will see fighting in neighborhoods very, very close to the capital city there of Damascus. Trapped by the fighting are civilians who cannot even bury their dead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED: There is a checkpoint on every road into Damascus. Soldiers like this one checking I.D.s and scrutinizing faces and I'll admit my heart stops a little every time we have to go through them.
This time we were especially tense because, after several weeks of hearing mortar fire and shells falling in the central Tadaman district, we've finally been able to travel into the neighborhood itself.
We were the first outsiders to do so since the bombardment began. What we find is a war zone, but this isn't Homs. This isn't war-torn Aleppo. This is Bashar al-Assad's seat of power, Damascus.
For the last two weeks, there's been no electricity or running water in Tadaman. Many of the families fled to Daraya on the outskirts of Damascus, but now Daraya itself is under government bombardment and those that remain, like this old man, are trapped with no choice but to try and survive amidst the rubble of their homes.
In a little corner of one of the side streets, they've even had to set up a makeshift graveyard. Funeral processions are regularly targeted, so the dead are quietly brought in the early morning hours. Just that morning, they dug a fresh grave.
One of the local residents agreed to show us around. From a distance, Damascus looks almost unchanged. It's only as you wind through this no-man's land that you see that peppered between apartment buildings are craters. It's like a moonscape.
Pro-Assad militia patrol these streets in civilian cars and, very quickly, we're spotted.
We're having to head back because we're worried that we're being followed. It makes you realize what kind of risks these activists take as they move in and around these areas, trying to document what's going on.
It's impossible to verify how many activists have been picked up off these streets, but every activist I meet has been detained more than once.
It's very difficult to get female activists to talk about what exactly it is that happens after they're detained by Syrian authorities in anything other than the vaguest of terms, but they admit that the specter of sexual violence looms large.
An hour and three more checkpoints later, we're at a vantage point where we can see the city. Back in the direction of where we've just been, smoke was once again visible on the horizon. The shelling had begun again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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BALDWIN: Welcome back here to the CNN Grill. We are adjacent to where everything's happening at the Republican National Convention.
And with me now is Charlton McIlwain, the associate professor of media, culture and communication at New York University, and we should point out, Charlton, your area of expertise is the use of racial appeals in political communications.
CHARLTON MCILWAIN, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDIA, CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION: That's correct.
BALDWIN: So, on that, welcome.
MCILWAIN: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Nice to see you in person.
MCILWAIN: Absolutely. Thank you.
BALDWIN: I just want to begin with we'll call it a joke, Mitt Romney joking last week, saying, hey, you know, no one asked me for my birth certificate. You know, no one is certainly questioning his citizenship.
So, someone - let me just read this quote for you. Someone actually remarked, quote, "Well, that's funny. It's the first joke that Romney's made in the whole campaign."
Just curious, your reaction, do you think it's funny or do you think he's playing with fire?
MCILWAIN: I really think he's playing with fire and I'm not sure if he meant it as a joke. When you go back and watch the video, you actually notice that he's not smiling when he tells it.
And, so, maybe he meant it that way. Who knows? But the way it comes out is simply that he is appealing to a narrative that has been out there for a long time about Barack Obama.
And the subtext is primarily about race and about "otherness" and about Obama not quite being an American, not quite being one of us.
So, I think he is walking a very fine line in really appealing to that.
BALDWIN: In saying that last Friday.
MCILWAIN: Yes.
BALDWIN: I want to talk about racial code words or veiled appeals to racism, right? So, we have Newt Gingrich, once upon a time, called Barack Obama the "food stamp president."
Now, he still, by the way, as we know, he's still criticized for that. Now, Newt Gingrich says this. Quote, "Why do you assume that food stamp refers to black?"
My question to you is, does he have a point? Because there are plenty of white folks on food stamps.
MCILWAIN: Right. But the prevailing image in the United States when you hear welfare is black folks. And that has a long history, beginning primarily in the '80s with Reagan, the welfare queens, where the image of those who are on government assistance were people in the ghetto or -- and black and that has persisted over this time.
And, so it's not a matter about, well, aren't there whites on welfare? Aren't there Latinos on welfare? And, so, this could mean anything. When you look at the association, that is clear over history and those two things are almost one and the same.
BALDWIN: Let me take you further back to Nixon because I know a modern template for Republican victory was Nixon's "Southern strategy," built around Southern states. Do you see that changing any time soon? Sixty seconds.
MCILWAIN: I don't see that really changing very much. I think the same racial attitudes that were there then, though there's been some progress, I think they're still there.
In the last election as I recall, the polls showed that people, Democrats, Republicans, those in the South, especially, but across the United States, still believe in a lot of racial prejudices and stereotypes about African-Americans.
BALDWIN: Charlton McIlwain, I have to go. I thank you.
MCILWAIN: Thank you.
BALDWIN: A professor at New York University.
And that's it for me here, live in the CNN Grill. We're back here at this time tomorrow.
We're going to turn things over to Wolf Blitzer. He is next door at the forum. "The Situation Room" begins after this quick break.
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