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Campbell Brown
Two Days to Go Until the Election
Aired November 02, 2008 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the CNN Election Center. We're covering THE NEXT PRESIDENT of the United States, now less than 48 hours until the first polls close in six states on the East Coast of the United States, including Virginia, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Tuesday night.
We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer at the CNN Election Center.
We're standing by, Senator Barack Obama getting ready to speak before a huge rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. We go there live once he starts speaking. We expect that to begin fairly soon.
We also have correspondents all over these battleground states. I want to walk over to John King, because, John, we've been tracking our correspondents, and show us this new technology that we're using to make sure these correspondents are where they're supposed to be, doing what they're supposed to be doing.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now that's not the point of the tracker, Wolf. The point of the tracker is that in the final week of a campaign, you know, the candidates are everywhere.
And we want to show you -- this is one of the reasons it's so fun to work here. We have amazing resources dedicated to this campaign. Now it gets a little crowded here in the Midwest right now.
So I'm going to stretch the map a little bit and you can see Mary Snow up here in Ohio, Jessica Yellin, Candy Crowley, the Election Express is up there in Chicago, Illinois. I'll show you just why in a minute.
Dan Lothian here in Virginia and Henry in Florida. A few of us here in New York. I'm on the front of the correspondents there. Dana Bash is up in New Hampshire, Dan Simon out in Colorado and Suzanne Malveaux in the tip of Nevada, the southeastern tip of Nevada.
But watch this. As you watch -- this is where everyone is tonight. I want to take you back in time to show you how crazy it has been covering a campaign in its final week. This is a week ago. And I'm going to move slowly across and you can follow where we are up here.
That's October 26th, 8 o'clock at night. Well, let's watch us go forward over the last couple of days as we move forward in time. And you see everybody moving around as we go.
And one of the things I can use this technology quickly, Wolf, for one more second to show you where the Election Express is. It's up here in the city of Chicago. But let me show why it there real quickly. We'll use our map feature here and zoom on in.
And it is down here along the waterfront because it is in place for the big Barack Obama rally right here, coming up on election night, right here along the lake front in the park. The Election Expression in place for that.
But we use this technology, yes, to keep an eye on our correspondents, but mostly so we can show you the breadth of our coverage and the depth of the campaign as we go. Everybody is moving around and you'll see them move quite a bit more in the next 24to 48 hours.
BLITZER: Yes, there'll be a lot of excited Democrats, supporters of Barack Obama there in Chicago at Grant Park, Tuesday night if, in fact, if, in fact, he's elected president of the United States.
All right, John, we're going to get back to you.
I want to check in with our correspondents right now. Candy Crowley is in Cincinnati, Dana Bash in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Dan Simon is in Denver, Colorado. Brian Todd in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Let's go around to all of them.
Candy, he's getting ready to speak right behind you. Set the scene for us, the Democratic candidate.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, this looks a lot like other rallies. I mean, you see people all the way up. We're in a football stadium here at the University of Cincinnati. But you can get -- there's like two tiers full of people, the ground tier about half full.
There are still seats in the back but it's a large crowd, a typical Obama crowd. And they can tell I'm on TV so that's why you're getting all the yelling at this point. But they've had speakers.
Look, this is his final run through Ohio. He ends it here tonight. Obviously, we've talked about how important Ohio is.
What's his pitch? As he goes through the states or for that matter, any of the other states?
Really, it comes down to two things. First of all that there needs to be a wholesale change in Washington, and second of all that John McCain cannot be that wholesale change.
So you're getting a mix of what we've learned to know about Barack Obama, that he gives a good inspirational speech. But you're also getting some good old-fashioned political pounding in between.
John McCain is George Bush, they've taken -- they've done a lot with Dick Cheney endorsing John McCain, put up an ad, he talks about it in these rallies. That kind of thing.
So that has been his sort of closing message. It's time to change Washington and the people can do it. And he needs their help. But that it can't be John McCain -- Wolf?
BLITZER: And we'll come back to you, Candy. We'll come back to Cincinnati once Barack Obama starts speaking there.
I want to go to New Hampshire right now -- Peterborough, New Hampshire, because John McCain -- he went to New Hampshire earlier today to thank all the folks. We took his speech as town hall meeting, Dana, live here on CNN.
Our viewers saw him answering individuals' questions at that town hall. You were there, obviously as well. Is he done for the night or does he still have anymore activities going on?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He is not done for the night, which actually is unusual for John McCain. He has been ending his nights early as Barack Obama has been going through the 11:00 local news in these key battleground states.
In fact, he's on his way to Florida and he's going to have a midnight rally in the city of Miami. So certainly that will be unusual for John McCain. And what is his message? What has been fascinating is that he's actually been sticking to message over the past several days.
And it is pretty simple. It is -- he's trying to sow doubts in any undecided voters minds or even try to pull some of the soft Obama supporters back over to John McCain by saying, he's too liberal for you and he's not experienced enough. It's as simple as that -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Dana, thank you.
Let's go to Colorado, Denver, specifically Dan Simons out there. Colorado, emerging as a major battleground state as well, Dan. What's going on?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this weekend it's all about trying to get out the vote. And I talked to the Obama campaign. They said they knocked on -- get this -- 1 million doors in the state of Colorado just this past week. And I confirmed that number with them twice because it seemed like a lot.
The McCain campaign did not provide us with a number but also said they have knocked on an extraordinary amount of doors.
In terms of what is happening tomorrow, both Michelle Obama and Governor Palin -- both making a return visit to the state to try to shore up the base. But we should tell you that about half of Colorado voters have cast their ballots with the mail-in ballots and with the early voting.
Right now Barack Obama showing steady -- showing a steady lead with about a 6 percent lead here in the state of Colorado. It appears, it appears that he's trying to step on the gas. He made a return visit to the state this past week and in pretty much every time you turn on your television, you see a Barack Obama ad. It is worth noting that the McCain campaign feels like they can still win this state if they get the Colorado Springs vote and also the rural areas of Colorado.
Wolf, we're going to send it back to you.
BLITZER: All right, Dan, thanks. Let's go from Denver to Scranton, Pennsylvania. Brian Todd has been all over Pennsylvania over these past few days. Both of the candidates -- they're fighting very hard in Pennsylvania.
Set the scene for us there, Brian.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, probably no one's pushed harder in the recent days than John McCain and Sarah Palin. This is the ninth out of the past 14 days that one or the other of them have traveled to Pennsylvania to push for votes here. You can make it 10 out of 15 tomorrow.
John McCain was at a rally in Scranton today, crowd very ruckus in welcoming him there. The McCain team feels they've got a shot. Their efforts here seemed to have paid off at least for the moment.
Barack Obama's lead in most polls has shrunk in this state from double digits to between 5 percent and 10 percent, depending on the polls you look at. The McCain team feels that outside those, kind of, liberal, metropolitan areas, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, that they can really target the cultural conservatives in this state, the Hillary Clinton Democrats. Others who have been undecided.
They really are going after those people. They think that they can get them. They're pushing hard. John McCain comes back here tomorrow. 21 electoral votes at stake. He is really making a hard push to get those.
But Obama has a great ground game here as well. So they really got their work cut out for them.
BLITZER: And Obama has the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. He'll be in Pennsylvania tomorrow as well. We'll be covering that part of the story. There's no doubt about that.
All right, guys, stand by. We're only getting started here.
THE NEXT PRESIDENT, we're taking a closer look and we're setting the scene for the next developments in this race for the White House. We're here at the CNN Election Center. We're standing by to hear from Senator Barack Obama in Cincinnati.
We'll take a quick break. We'll check in with the best political team on television right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures right now. Cincinnati, Ohio. Senator Barack Obama is getting ready to speak before a huge rally. A lot of folks have gathered there in Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the key battleground states. Once Senator Obama starts speaking we're going to go and listen to hear what he has to say.
Ohio is important but so is Pennsylvania. And I want to show you right now some of these poll numbers that have been coming in. Our average of the polls, our so-called Poll of Polls.
If we go back to October 1st, at that time, Obama had about a 10-point lead over McCain in Pennsylvania. By mid-October, October 16th, specifically, that 10 points went up to 13 points.
But take a look right now, as of today, in our final Poll of Polls, in Pennsylvania, it's gone down to 7 percent. The Poll of Polls in Pennsylvania. It's narrowed somewhat. Seven points, still significant for Barack Obama but it's, obviously, not as significant as 13 points which was the case in mid-October.
Is there any analysis, John King, that we can get from this -- this narrowing in Pennsylvania?
KING: There's a narrowing because the McCain camp says he's doing better among suburbanites and he's doing better among white rural voters.
I want to show you something about Pennsylvania which I think is quite instructive. This is 2004. John Kerry carried the state of Pennsylvania, 51 percent to 48 percent. And yet, look. Look at all this red across the state of Pennsylvania. This is the what they called a "t," this is a very conservative part of the state.
Inside of the state they call this the "t" and that is Republican territory with the exception of the city of Erie up here on the lake. But Republicans win out here, one of the problems is, the population is quite small out there, only 0.3 percent of the population in that one county.
In fact the key to winning Pennsylvania is, of course, the smaller city of Pittsburgh out here but, Wolf, 35 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania will come from this corner right down here. 35 percent of the vote.
Now I want to go back in time and pull this out. First, I want to show you this. These are the suburbs. The city of Philadelphia, Barack Obama will win it by a bigger margin than that probably. And John Kerry got 80 percent of the vote in the city of Philadelphia. Big African-American population.
But look at this blue right here, and remember this. John Kerry won Bucks County, 5 percent of the population, the first suburb outside the Philadelphia. John Kerry won Montgomery County, another suburb, 56 percent to 44 percent, a big edge there.
John Kerry won Delaware County, another 5 percent of the state population, and John Kerry played pretty close out here in Chester County, which just barely losing to George W. Bush there. Now I'm going to shrink this down a little bit. Remember this corner and watch these colors. Let me pull it out a little bit so you can see it. Watch those colors. And I'm going to cross the map, excuse me, and go back in time to the last time a Republican carried Pennsylvania for president.
It was George H.W. Bush in 1988. Watch the Philadelphia suburbs, they go red. George H.W. Bush carried all of the Philadelphia suburbs, the whole corridor around there, including Bucks county by a huge margin.
Look at that, 60 percent to 40 percent there. 60 percent to 40 percent in Montgomery County, 67-32 in Chester County, 60-40 again in Delaware County.
What has happened, Wolf, is over the last 20 years, the suburbs in Philadelphia and all across America have trended to the Democrats to the point where Bucks County, even four years ago, had more registered Republicans than Democrats. And let's go back to that race. It now has more Democrats than Republicans.
The same for Montgomery County. Four years ago there were more registered Republicans than Democrats. Now more registered Democrats. Chester County is still more Republicans but by a very narrow margin.
So John McCain can do better with working-class voters up in the Scranton area, better in the rural areas. But if he cannot outperform what George W. Bush did in the Philadelphia suburbs, it's almost impossible to win because, again, more than a third of the vote statewide will come out of this little corner right here in southeast Pennsylvania.
BLITZER: He had to make a major decision a few weeks ago, whether or not to fight for Pennsylvania. He gave up on Michigan, a state very similar to Pennsylvania. But Pennsylvania, he was not ready to give up on, even though at that point, two weeks ago, there was that 13- point advantage that Barack Obama had.
KING: They believe if you look at the demographics of Pennsylvania and the demographics of Michigan, the reason they had to pick one is they need votes, they need a lot of votes, 17 there, 21 here, electoral votes.
It's a bigger part of electoral votes, number one. Number two, demographically, the rural part in the middle, there are some Christian conservatives there. You do have gun owners, you have blue- collar white -- they call them Casey Democrats in Pennsylvania, but they're like the old Reagan Democrats who tend to vote Democrat on the economy but you can beat -- you can win them over on the tax argument.
You can win them over in the gun argument. You can win them over in the security argument. John McCain thinks the profile of Pennsylvania is a little better for Republicans and he is closing the gap in the final days.
But if he cannot improve his standing in the suburbs, and that is one place Sarah Palin helps out in the middle of state, hurts in the southeast corner. We're going to learn a lot Tuesday about whether she's a net plus or a net drag on the Republican ticket by studying the suburbs.
BLITZER: And whatever she is, she's been a phenomena, there's no doubt about that.
KING: No doubt about that.
BLITZER: Since we all learned about her in early -- in late August, that is fact.
Thanks very much for that, John King. He's not going anywhere. We're going to take a quick break.
Remember we're standing by to hear from Senator Barack Obama in Cincinnati. He's at a huge rally there. Once he starts speaking we'll go there live. We'll hear his closing argument on this Sunday night.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: All right. Welcome back. We're standing by to go to Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio, where Senator Barack Obama is getting ready to speak before a huge rally there.
We'll hear his closing arguments now less than 48 hours away from the first poll closings in his race for the White House.
On this day, we also learned here on CNN that there's a new robo-call coming in from the Republican National Committee in coordination with the McCain/Palin campaign. I'm going to play a little clip, a little excerpt of what these calls are going out and what they're saying.
Listen carefully to this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC. Listen to what Hillary Clinton had to say about John McCain and Barack Obama.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: In the White House, there is no time for speeches and on-the-job training.
Senator McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign and Senator Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002. I think that is a significant difference.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right. So there it is. That call going out in several states, including Pennsylvania and Ohio.
John, it's not surprising but it's a little late. You would have thought they might have wanted to use that kind of negative campaigning earlier on.
KING: Wolf, there are Republicans literally ripping their hair out at some of the strategic, or they would say, bad tactical decisions made by the McCain campaign. Two weeks ago, three weeks ago and four weeks ago, when they were talking about William Ayers, this domestic terrorist, Barack Obama.
Even -- Republicans would say even if you have something on that, this is an election dominated by the economy. This is a much more powerful argument they would say. If you're going to play this card, play -- the rule of politics is repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition.
Pulling it out in the last 48 hours, maybe it will sway some people but...
BLITZER: Sort of like the rules of -- it's like selling toothpaste as well, you got to do it over and over and over again.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: You got to do it over and over again. And there -- you know, there are people who also say that Reverend Wright should have been used by John McCain. John McCain -- there are some Republican sponsored that are using Reverend Wright right now.
John McCain has said -- has said no. And on this particular -- I'm just surprised they didn't do it earlier. I don't know what kind of an impact it has.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Another fact about...
BORGER: At this point.
TOOBIN: About this ad, is that, you know, he's gotten criticism for his robo-calls. But that's a completely fair ad. There's no distortion there. Hillary Clinton said it, it's a point she made. She made it several times during the campaign. It is both an ethically and, I think, tactically good ad.
BLITZER: There's no distortions there as far as I could tell.
Alex, you've done a lot of these kinds of ads. You know why didn't they do this earlier?
ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR AND GOP CONSULTANT: Wolf, if you want to work for the next Republican campaign, that would be a great place to start.
Look, Hillary was actually scoring points on Barack Obama with this kind of attack late in the process, even after it was almost certain that Obama had early won enough votes to get the nomination.
She was winning in states, you know, Ohio and Texas, with exactly this kind of attack. Now if you can beat Barack Obama with this in a Democratic primary, why not a general election? It should have been done earlier. BLITZER: Anything wrong -- anything wrong, Hilary, with that ad?
HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think it's a practical matter. It didn't work for Hillary Clinton and that's why you're seeing...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you have a she switched to this she started to win.
ROSEN: This is the point. When you have a campaign that is from beginning to end on a single message which Barack Obama's is, change. You know, this experience issue -- what Barack Obama did in this campaign was he took what people assumed would be his greatest weakness and turned it into his strength.
He said I am not of that crowd. I am not an insider. You need somebody fresh at this. You -- it's not about how many years you've been there. It's about your ideas and your judgment. And he has been successful on that message.
That's why I don't think this last-minute attack using Hillary ends up working, because it didn't work for John McCain for the last six months, this experience matters, and it -- didn't work for Hillary Clinton.
CASTELLANOS: Well, we should note that when the RNC started putting up their ads against Obama, one of the first ads that they did was Hillary Clinton making this attack. And again, we all know that if Hillary had not ignored...
ROSEN: Because it feels good.
CASTELLANOS: Excuse me.
ROSEN: It's because it feels good.
CASTELLANOS: Did not ignore those early caucus states she would have gotten the nomination. This attack was working against Obama.
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, look. At the end of the day, you can sit there and talk about this strategy or that strategy. But here's the other piece that jumps out at you. John McCain shows Sarah Palin, the moment he chose her, he destroyed his own experience argument.
Well, you can sit here and run that ad all day. Look at the polling numbers, OK? He was winning with the experience argument. They tightened it. He had jumped into the lead. He chooses her, you can't use it anymore. So you can run Hillary Clinton all day long.
ROSEN: He wants it...
MARTIN: Go right ahead.
BLITZER: Quickly...
ROSEN: He wants it on the change (INAUDIBLE).
ED ROLLINS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Sixty-five percent of the people, when they get a robo-call, hang up. If you get 2,000 or 3,000 people or 3,000 people who hear get this call and vote for John McCain, it's well worth whatever they pay for it and that's the target. So very small, it's not a big deal.
BLITZER: All right. Guys, stand by.
Barack Obama, we're told he's getting ready to speak in Cincinnati, Ohio. We'll go there, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: All right. Welcome back. We're waiting for Senator Obama to walk into this huge gathering in Cincinnati, Ohio. The crowd there, obviously, very, very enthusiastic, very excited. We're going to listen in and hear what he has to say. We'll watch him walk in. That's expected to be coming up very shortly.
We've got a lot of reporters all over the battleground states. Candy Crowley is there, by the way, over at the rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. Let me go to Candy right now as we're awaiting the senator, Candy.
Tell us how big -- if we have an estimate of how many people have gathered in Cincinnati to hear the Democratic candidate.
CROWLEY: Well, you know, it's a little hard when you're in these huge places to tell you how many folks are here. I am told that this stadium seats about 30,000 people. And I can tell you that there are sections that are not full. On the other hand there's a bunch of people on the field.
Generally the way we get the estimate for this is ask a local official. And they tend to wait until people are completely in and at this point they've stopped coming in and are waiting as they have been for a couple of hours for Barack Obama to come through.
I don't know if you can see -- which camera you're looking at at this point, Wolf, but it is a two-tiered -- it is a two-tiered stadium, not full all the way around. But I can tell you, that's a quibble there because it's a sizable crowd as all of them have been -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And we're told he would deliver his closing argument speech now. We're well within 48 hours before the first polls close on the East Coast of the United States, Tuesday night, 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
Mary Snow is our battleground reporter. We've sent her out to Ohio. She's been there for quite a while, like getting a sense of what's going on in the battleground state.
Tell our viewers, Mary, what you're finding. Has there been any shift in the mood as you go from town or city to city? MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Wolf, what you really sense is nervousness on both sides because this race is so close. You're also sensing enthusiasm especially when you look at the early voters.
You know, there have been long lines here in Columbus, Ohio throughout the weekend. And we were just told a short while ago that tonight, probably voters won't finish voting until 11 o'clock. The polls close at 5:00 but the lines were so long.
But there also has been a massive turnout-the-vote effort on both sides. And both sides talking about 2004, Democrats urging people to get out, because they say it was so close the last time around, George Bush won by 118,000 votes.
Republicans are also mentioning that last race, saying that their get- out-to-vote effort will be successful in a last-minute search.
One county to watch, Wolf, where Candy is right now, tonight, in Cincinnati, Hamilton County. That county has not voted for a Democrat in the presidential race since 1964. Democrats are feeling hopeful about that county, turning it blue, but they are very cautious because they say they have been let down before. But they are cautiously optimistic that they can make a change there.
And, of course, this is going to be such a tight race. No one really is -- one that is across the board, nobody is predicting any kind of landslide -- Wolf?
BLITZER: In Ohio, and as we -- as I have often pointed out to our viewers, no Republican has ever been elected to the White House without carrying Ohio. That's why John McCain is spending so much time, so much energy, so much money in that state, and for the same reason, Barack Obama doing exactly the same thing.
We're watching and waiting for Senator Obama to show up. Let's bring in the best political team on television as we do.
John King, you spend a lot of time in Ohio over the years. And it goes without saying that I don't see how -- maybe you see some way, some magic formula -- John McCain can win without Ohio.
KING: No.
BORGER: No.
KING: The answer is no. The shortest answer you'll ever get in television.
He cannot. He needs that, not just because he needs Ohio and he needs the 20 to help him get to 207. But just because of what Ohio is. It's a bellwether state. You have the urban area of Cleveland. You have a much smaller, Midwestern city in Cincinnati.
You have Columbus, which a Democratic city right in the city itself. But as stretch out from Columbus and you start going -- some suburbs, then you hit the farmland pretty quickly. It's a great bellwether and microcosm of America. It has rural, it has suburban, it has a city. He cannot win without it, period.
TOOBIN: And look what has happened to the Republican Party in Ohio. You had the governor thrown out effectively in a corruption scandal, Ted Strickland elected governor. Sherrod Brown, a very liberal Democrat elected to the Senate two years ago.
So the Democratic Party is resurgent in Ohio. Big help for Obama.
BLITZER: All right. Stand by, guys, for a moment. We're going to wait for Barack Obama in Cincinnati. And as we wait, we take a quick break.
Our coverage continues of THE NEXT PRESIDENT right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. We're watching and waiting for Senator Barack Obama to show up at this rally. About 25,000 to 30,000 people, we're told, have gathered in Cincinnati to hear the Democratic presidential nominee. He's making the so-called final arguments in this race for the White House.
Earlier we were in New Hampshire with Senator McCain. He was at a town hall meeting thanking the people in New Hampshire, effectively, for what they did for him in helping him get the Republican presidential nomination.
Let's walk over to our analysts over here. They're all part of the best political team on television.
You know, with McCain right now thanking the folks in New Hampshire, on Friday we saw Obama in Iowa thanking the folks in Iowa. It got started for him last January in Iowa.
McCain did really well in New Hampshire. It looks like they're just going through the motions right now in these final few days of saying thanks to all the people who helped them.
ROLLINS: I would be shocked if McCain wins New Hampshire. And New Hampshire is a state that's changed dramatically when he won in the primary. It was the dependents -- it was a crossover state. It was a very important victory for him.
But I think when you look at John Sununu, a great senator who's behind, substantially, it's a state that's going to be very, very hard for him to win. I think he's wasting his time.
BLITZER: You expect that a major surprise, either in the presidential contest or in the Senate or House races, that you're looking at, Roland?
MARTIN: In terms of presidential, not necessarily. Look, I don't think they'll win Indiana and North Carolina.
BLITZER: You don't think Obama will win (INAUDIBLE)?
MARTIN: No, I don't think so. I don't think so. There's certainly a fight there. But this whole notion -- I got wait this New Hampshire. It's interesting. Obama staying thank you, it's a state that he's likely going to win. McCain going to New Hampshire right now, dude, what are you doing? You might want to get -- that's right, that's right, John King, dude.
I mean you might want to go somewhere where you have a shot at winning. I mean time is fight night right now. And so, so what is this? Like...
BORGER: Sentimental.
MARTIN: Sentimental? It's a campaign going on, Gloria. Might want to go to where you got a shot.
CASTELLANOS: Here's another way to look at it, though, dude. And that is...
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: Dude.
CASTELLANOS: I got to learn. I'm learning, I'm learning.
It's all on cable television. There's a cable primary and a cable election here. As long as he's on cable television, he's in New Hampshire. He's -- but he's also in Florida. He's also in North Carolina. And so you know...
BLITZER: And we did cover him -- he's taking New Hampshire live. So everybody was watching.
CASTELLANOS: He's got to keep moving. He's got to keep going as many places as he can because every opportunity he can create out there gets him on the news. And that's what he needs.
ROSEN: And -- but you've got to look at where these candidates are going in the last two days. You know Barack Obama is not going back like John McCain is to try and re-affirm the blue states.
MARTIN: (INAUDIBLE)
ROSEN: He's in North Carolina. He's in Florida. He's in Virginia. That's where he's pressing. So he is continuing to press.
BLITZER: Well, let me talk about North Carolina, because, Alex Castellanos, you're from North Carolina. You know this state. Has it really changed that much over the past 10, 20 years?
CASTELLANOS: It's changed a tremendous amount. You know not only the growth and the research triangle but the tremendous suburban growth. You know, you're in a traffic jam in Raleigh, North Carolina now at 5:30 in the morning. So it's become less old south and more new south, suburban, affluent and this state is a very different state than the state that Republicans have won with getting, you know, blue dog Democrats to cross over for years.
BLITZER: All right, guys, hold on. Hold on for a moment because it sounds, the way you're describing North Carolina, you could describe Virginia sort of like that as well.
But hold on, we're going to take another quick break and continue our coverage.
Once again, we're waiting for Barack Obama in Cincinnati, Ohio. We'll go there after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: And welcome back to our coverage of THE NEXT PRESIDENT. We're here at the CNN Election Center. We're standing by to hear from Senator Barack Obama. We'll go to Cincinnati once he's there.
But I want to go to Richmond, Virginia right now. Our battleground correspondent in Virginia, Dan Lothian, has been watching this state. We've just been saying how it's changed over the past 10, 20 years.
You went to church with some folks today in Richmond. What were they saying there? What was the -- mood that you felt and that you saw, Dan?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly a lot of enthusiasm but some people at the church of the First Baptist Church here in Richmond are glad that this election is almost over.
They're not used to being in a battleground state, bombarded with all the television ads. One parishioner telling me he's tired of all of the ads, in particular, all of the negative ads. Another couple of parishioners telling me that they also believe that once this -- Election Day is all over, that the nation as a whole, because of this tough campaign, will have to go through a healing process.
Now, Wolf, earlier John King was talking about how critical the state of Virginia is for Republicans. Senator John McCain really is trying to hang on to the state, in fact, along with Sarah Palin, they made three visits to the state over the weekend.
And it gives you a sense of how critical it is for them. They haven't lost the state in decades. They want to keep this state red. Right now, though, Senator Obama leading in the state, up by six points -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And, Dan, you've been doing some reporting in Virginia over the past several days. And voter irregularities, I know the NAACP was getting ready to sue the governor, Tim Kaine.
He was on our show earlier and he insisted everything is basically been resolved. Is that -- is that right? LOTHIAN: Well, from the state they do believe it has been resolved. They believe that they have all the resources in order to handle the large number of voters expected to turn out on Election Day.
But the NAACP, which earlier last week, said that they were essentially tabling that lawsuit, now say that that lawsuit will be moving forward. There is a hearing that is planned for tomorrow afternoon. And also state officials planning to hold a press conference.
So tomorrow we should get a little bit more information about how that lawsuit is shaping up and perhaps what it will mean just one day before Election Day.
BLITZER: I know you'll be covering that story for us.
Dan Lothian in Richmond, the capital of Virginia, a state, as we've been pointing out, that has changed dramatically over the years, over the past 10, 20 years.
There you see Barack Obama now. He's walked out on the stage -- a casual Barack Obama -- to an enthusiastic crowd in Cincinnati, Ohio. As we watch him walk over to the podium, he's going to be delivering his closing argument in this critically important battleground state of Ohio.
There's a crowd there that is anxious to hear what he has to say. And -- and as I've been pointing out, Ohio is a critical state for both of these candidates, but no Republican has ever been elected to the White House without Ohio.
There he is, Barack Obama.
And as we get ready, he's going to be waiting for that audience to die down a little bit because they have been waiting for some time.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.
BLITZER: Here he is. And you know what, he's going to introduce himself, introduce some folks there. But let's listen in. Here he is, Barack Obama.
OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let me -- thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Cincinnati!
Let me begin by thanking the mayor of this great city, Mark Mallory, for his hospitality. And I know that in attendance as well is one of the finest governors in this country and one of the finest warriors on behalf of this campaign, please give it up for Ted Strickland.
Your current treasurer and soon to be attorney general, Rich Cordray. You're going to send him to Congress, Steve Driehaus. Hamilton county commissioner, Todd Portune. A special thank you to one of my earlier supporters, one of my dearest friends, state senator, Eric Kearney.
A thank you to Dr. Nancy Zimpher, the president of the University of Cincinnati and thank you, Bearcats!
Ohio, I have just two words for you. Two days. Two days. You know, I...
(CROWD CHANTING "YES, WE CAN")
OBAMA: I -- I just noticed those big letters up there. Don't drop those things now.
Ohio, after decades of broken politics in Washington, after eight years of failed policies from George Bush, after 21 months don't -- you don't need to boo. You just need to vote.
After 21 months of a campaign that has taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are two days away from bringing change to America.
In two days, you can turn the page on policies that put greed and irresponsibility between -- before hard work and sacrifice. In two days you can choose policies that invest in our middle class, create new jobs, grow this economy so everybody has a chance to succeed, the CEO and the secretary, the factory owner and the men and women on the factory floor.
In two days, you can put an end to the politics that will divide a nation just to win an election. That tries to pit region against region, city against town, Republican against Democrat, that asks us to fear at a time when we need to hope.
In two days, Ohio, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need and it starts right here in Ohio, right here in Cincinnati. This is where we need to make it happen.
You know we began this journey -- we began this journey in the depths of winter, nearly two years ago on the steps of the old state capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Back then we didn't have much money or many endorsements. We weren't given much of a chance by the polls or the pundits.
We knew how steep the climb would be. But I also knew this, that the size of our challenges had outgrown the smallness of our politics. I was convinced that Americans of political stripe were hungry for new ideas, for new leadership, for new politics.
One that favors common sense over ideology, one that focuses on the values and ideals we hold as common as Americans. Most of all, I knew the American people. The American people are decent and generous people, willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations.
And I was convinced that you deserved a government that deserved -- reflected your decency. I was convinced that our voices, when we come together, are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyist or the most vicious political attacks or the full force of the status quo in Washington that wants to keep things just the way they are.
And so we started this campaign based on my faith in the American people. And 21 months later, that faith has been vindicated. That's how we've come so close, how we've come so far, because of you. That's how we'll change this country, with your help.
And that's why, with two days left, we cannot afford to slow down or sit back or let up for one minute, for one hour, for one day, for one second -- not now, not when the stakes are so high. We need to win an election on Tuesday, and it's going to start with you, right here in Ohio.
We...
(CROWD CHANTING "YES, WE CAN")
OBAMA: We -- we are in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. 760,000 workers have lost their jobs this year alone. Businesses and families can't get credit. Home values are falling, foreclosures are rising. Pensions are disappearing.
It's gotten harder and harder for you to make the mortgage or fill up your gas tank or even keep the electricity or the heat on at the end of the month. You know -- and college books, too.
At moments like this the last thing we can afford is four more years of the same ole, tired, stale, worn-out, threadbare theories that say we should give more and more money to billionaires and millionaires and big corporations and hope that prosperity trickles down on everybody else.
The last thing we need is four more years where no one in Washington is willing to regulate what's happening on Wall Street and everybody is affected. Those are the economic theories that got us into this mess. They haven't worked. It's time for a change and that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America.
OBAMA: Now...
(CROWD CHANTING "OBAMA")
OBAMA: Now, John McCain -- don't need to boo, just need to vote. John McCain has served this country with honor and distinction. He can point to occasions over the past eight years where he has broken from George Bush on issues like torture, for example. He deserves credit for that.
But when it comes to the economy, when it comes to the central issue of this election, the plain truth is that John McCain has stood with President Bush every step of the way. He's been -- he's been in the passenger seat. He hasn't been a maverick, he's been a sidekick.
Voting for the Bush tax cuts, for the wealthy that he once opposed, voting for the Bush budgets that took us from record surpluses to record debt. Calling for deregulation 21 times, just this year. Those are the facts.
After 21 months and three debates, Senator McCain still has not been able to tell you, the American people, a major thing, a single major thing that he would do differently from George Bush.
I mean, think about it. He's run a lot of ads here in Ohio, but he mostly just talks about me. So since he's not talking about it I'll talk a little bit about what he wants to do.
He wants to give a $700,000 tax cut to the average Fortune 500 CEO. That's not changed. He wants to give $200 billion to the biggest corporations, 4 billion to the oil companies who made record profits again this past quarter. 300 billion to the same Wall Street banks that got us in this mess.
That's not change. He comes up with a tax plan that doesn't give a penny of relief to more than 100 million middle class Americans. That is not change.
Now, George Bush seems to be sitting out these last few days before the election, but Ohio, yesterday, Dick Cheney came out of his undisclosed location to hit the campaign trail.
He said that he is, and I quote here, he is delighted to support John McCain. You don't need to boo. What do you need to do?
(CROWD RESPONDING "VOTE")
OBAMA: So I want to publicly congratulate Senator McCain on this endorsement. Because -- because he really earned it. That endorsement didn't come easy. He had to vote with George Bush 90 percent of the time.
He had to serve of as Washington's biggest cheerleader for the war in Iraq. He had to support the same economic policies that we've had for the last eight years. So, Senator McCain worked hard to get Dick Cheney's support.
But here's my question for you, Ohio. Do you think Dick Cheney is delighted to support John McCain because he thinks John McCain's going to bring change? Do you think John McCain and Dick Cheney have been talking about how to shake things up, how to end Halliburton's contracts, get rid of the lobbyists and get rid of the old boys' network?
Come on. Ohio, we know better. We're not going to be hoodwinked. It was just a week ago that John McCain said he and President Bush share a, quote "common philosophy." And we know that when it comes to foreign policy, John McCain and Dick Cheney share a common philosophy .
A lot of empty talk from Washington, tough talk that doesn't lead anywhere, a war without end in Iraq, the idea that that somehow is the way to defeat Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, even though everybody knows they're in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
So, George Bush is in an undisclosed location, Dick Cheney is out there on the campaign trail. He is delighted to pass the baton to John McCain, although it's actually a shovel because they have been digging a hole for us over the last eight years. Dick Cheney knows that with John McCain, you get a twofer -- George Bush's economic policies and Dick Cheney's foreign policies. And let me tell you, Cincinnati, that is a risk we cannot afford. It is time to change the direction of this country. That's why I'm running for president.
We have tried it John McCain's way. We have tried it George Bush's and Dick Cheney's way. It hasn't worked. Look, we've had a 16-month -- 16-year experiment.
For eight years with Bill Clinton, who -- and here's what he did. He realized we have got to grow the economy from the bottom up, created 22 million new jobs, made sure that everybody was benefiting from economic growth, from the person at the bottom to the person at the top.
Then we had eight years of Bush and Cheney and let's see what we've seen. Under Bill Clinton, your average income went up $7500. Under Bush and Cheney, it went down $2,000.
So, we can see what's happened. We know what works. And deep down, John McCain knows that, which is why his campaign said that if we keep on talking about the economy, we are going to lose which is why I keep on talking about the economy.
John McCain, he's spent these last few weeks calling me everything but a child of God because that's how you play the game in Washington. When you can't win, you just try to tear the other person down. When you can't win with your ideas, then you try to make a big election about small things.
So, we may see some of that in the next 48 hours. More of the slash and burn, say anything goes, do anything politics that divides and distracts us, that tears us apart instead of bringing us together, but you understand that's not the kind of politics that America needs right now.
At this moment, we have the chance to say no to all that negative campaigning. We have a chance to say no to the character attacks. We can recapture, recapture that sense that politics can be something more than just a dirty, nasty game. We can end that kind of politics once and for all. We can prove that the one thing more powerful than that kind of politics is the will and the determination and the decency of the American people.
We can change this country. That's what we can do on November 4th. Two days from now.
Understand this, Ohio. We are not as divided as our politics would suggest. We are not just a collection of states or a collection of individuals, we are the United States; we are a community.
We can steer ourselves out of this crisis with a new politics for a new time. We can build the future that we know is possible as one people, as one nation. That's what this campaign has been all about. That's why I'm running for president. I know these are difficult times, Ohio. And Ohio has been harder hit than a lot of states.
But I know we've faced difficult times before. The American story has never been about things coming easy, but it is about rising to the moment when moment is hard; it is about rejecting fear and division for the unity of purpose. That's how we overcame war and depression. That's how we won the great struggles for civil rights and women's rights and workers rights. That's how we'll write the next great chapter in the American story.
Understand if we want to meet the challenges of this moment, we've got to get beyond the old ideological debates and divides between left and right. Those are the old arguments. We don't need bigger government or smaller government. We need a better government, a smarter government, a more competent government, a government that is fighting for you and that's what I want to give you, if I am president of the United States.
The choice in this election isn't between tax cuts and no tax cuts. That's an old argument, that's an '80s argument. It's about whether we should only reward wealth or whether we should also reward the workers who create wealth.
You know, I will give -- I will give a tax break to 95 percent of Americans who work every day and get taxes taken out of their paycheck every week. And I -- now, listen. I will pay for this by asking folks who are making more than $250,000 a year to go back to a tax rate they were paying back in the 1990s.
Let me see a show of hands, we got a pretty big crowd here, how many people make less than a quarter million dollars a year? Raise your hands. All right. That, by the way, includes 98 percent of small businesses and 99.9 percent of plumbers.
So, no matter what John McCain may claim, here are the facts. If you make under a quarter million dollars a year, you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime, not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax, no tax will go up, because you need a break. And that's what I'm going to provide when I'm president of the United States of America.
When it comes to jobs, the choice in this election isn't between putting up a wall around America or standing by and doing nothing, that is the old argument. The truth is we won't be able to bring back every manufacturing job that we've lost.
The world has become more competitive, technology has changed things, but that doesn't mean we should just follow John McCain's plan to keep giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas or promote unfair trade agreements. I am going to end tax breaks for companies that give -- for companies that ship jobs overseas. We are going to give those tax breaks to companies that invest right here in Ohio, right here in Cincinnati.
We will create -- we can create 2 million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges and schools, laying broadband lines in rural communities so companies can locate there. Creating jobs in the inner cities, we will invest $15 billion a year in renewable sources of energy, in wind, in solar power, the next generation of bio-fuel. We will make the next generation of fuel-efficient cars, not in South Korea, not in Japan, but right here in Ohio and right here in the United States of America.
We can invest in clean coal technology; find ways to safely harness nuclear power. We will create 5 million new energy jobs over the next decade and these are jobs that pay well and they can't be outsourced. But it requires leadership from the White House and that is the kind of leadership that I intend to provide as president of the United States.
When it comes to health care, we don't have to choose between a government-run health care system and the unaffordable one we have now. That's the old argument. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change under my plan is that we will lower your premiums working with your employers. If, on the other hand, you don't have health insurance, like 45 million Americans don't have health insurance, you're going to get the same health insurance that members of Congress get for themselves.
As somebody who watched his own mother spend the final months of her life arguing with insurance companies because they claim her cancer was a preexisting condition and they didn't want to pay for her treatment. I know what it's like to see a loved one suffer and not just because they are sick, they are a health care system it is wrong and as president of the United States, I will stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most. That's the change we need.
When it comes to giving every child a world class education, the choice is not between more money and more reform, our schools need both. I want to invest in early childhood education to close the achievement gap; make every child ready for school. I want to recruit an army of new teacher, pay all our teachers higher salaries, give them more support, raise our standards, increase accountability.
And I will make a deal with every young American who has the drive and the will, but not the money to go to college. If you serve to -- if you commit to serve your community or your country, whether it is in the military or the Peace Corps, in a homeless shelter working at an underserved school, here is my commitment; you will be able to afford your tuition, no ifs, ands or buts.
When it comes to keeping this country safe we don't have to choose between retreating from the world and fighting a war without end in Iraq. We can stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while Iraqis sit on a huge surplus. As president, I will end this war. I will ask -- I will ask the Iraqi government to step up for their future and I will finally finish the fight against bin Laden and Al Qaeda. We will put them out of business.
I will never hesitate to defend this nation. I will make sure we use our military wisely though. And we make sure that we've exhausted diplomacy. And we will make sure that our servicemen and women have the best training and equipment when they deploy into combat and the care and benefits they've earned when they come home. That's what we owe our veterans and that's what I will do as president of the United States.
Now, Ohio, I won't stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy, especially now. The cost of this economic crisis, of the war in Iraq, it all means that Washington is going to have to tighten its belt, just like families and businesses have to tighten their belts. We're going to have to put off spending on things that we don't need, even if they'd be nice to have.
So, as president, I'm going to go through the federal budget line by line; we're going end the programs we don't need, we're going to make the ones that we do need work better and cost less.
But as I've said from the beginning of this campaign the change we need won't come from government alone. It comes from each of us, doing our part in our own lives, in our own communities. We are going to have to look after ourselves but also our fellow citizens.
Now, I can do a lot as president to advance energy independence, but everybody here has an obligation to make their homes and businesses more energy efficient. I can do a lot as president to invest more money into our schools, but I can't be the parent who turns off the TV set and makes the child do their homework. That's your job.
We need a return to responsibility but also a return to civility. Yes, we can argue and debate our positions passionately, but all of us have to summon the strength and the grace, the humor to bridge our differences and unite in common effort. Look at this crowd, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Democrat, Republican, young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, disabled, not disabled, that's what America's about, that's what we're fighting for, to unify this country.
In this election, in this election, we can't afford the same political games and tactics that are being used to pit us against one another to make us afraid of one another. Despite what our opponents claim, there are no real or fake parts of this country. There's no city or town that is more pro America than anywhere else. We are all proud, we are all patriots.
The men and women who serve in our battlefield, some are Democrats, some Republicans, some Independents, but they have fought together, they have bled together, some have died together under the same proud flag. They have not served red America or blue America; they have served the United States of America. That's what we have to remember.
So, yes it may not be quick, it may not be easy, but you and I know it's time to come together. You can feel it's time to change this country. Some of you may is come here cynical, some may be fed up with politics. I understand that. But despite all of this I ask all of you what's been asked of Americans throughout our history. I ask you to believe not so much in my ability to bring about change, but in yours. I know this change is possible because I have seen it over the last 21 months. Because in this campaign I've had the privilege to get to know so many of you and I've witnessed what's best in America. I've seen it in the faces of men and women, at countless rallies and town halls across the country; men and women who share their stories, who speak of their struggles, but also their hopes and their dreams.
And I still remember an e-mail that a woman named Robin sent to me after a rally in Fort Lauderdale. She had come to the rally. Some time after the event, her son nearly went into cardiac arrest, he was in high school. And he was diagnosed with a heart condition that could only be treated with a procedure that costs tens of thousands of dollars and her insurance company refused to pay. And that -- the family just didn't have that kind of money.
So Robin wrote me an e-mail and in the e-mail, she said, I only ask this of you. On the days where you feel so tired you can't think of uttering another word to the people, think of us. When those who oppose you have you down, reach deep and fight back hard.
Ohio, that's what hope is. That's what kept some of our parents and grandparents going when times were tough. They said to themselves, maybe I can't go to college, but if I work hard, I can send my child to college. Maybe I can't own a business, but if I work hard, maybe my child can own a business. I may not be able to vote, but if I rally and march and organize, maybe my son or daughter can run for president of the United States.
That's what hope is. That thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that there are better days ahead, if we are willing to work for it, if we are willing to shed our fears, if we are willing to reach deep inside ourselves when we are tired, when we are discouraged and come back fighting harder.
Ohio, don't believe for a second this election is over. Don't believe for a minute that the power will concede without a fight. We have to work like our future depends on it these last few days, because it does. We've got to want it more.
But I know this, Ohio; the time for change is here. We have a righteous wind at our backs and in these last two days, I need to you knock on some doors for me, make some calls for me, find out where to vote. If you are willing to stand with me, if you are willing to struggle with me and cast your ballot for me, I promise you this, we won't just win Ohio, we will win this general election and you and I together will change this country and we will change the world.
Thank you. And God bless you. God bless the United States of America.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: So there you heard the closing argument made by Senator Barack Obama at this huge rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are going to continue our coverage, obviously.
Remember, only 43 hours, 41 minutes until the first polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern here on the East Coast. I'm Wolf Blitzer at the "CNN ELECTION CENTER." I'll see you tomorrow in the "Situation Room."
For most of our viewers, right now, "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News" starts right now.
