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Campbell Brown
What Next For Republican Party?; Interview With Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
Aired November 11, 2008 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody.
It is Veterans Day today, a reminder of not only how much we owe our men and women in service, but it also makes questions about the two wars we are in even more urgent.
Plus, growing anger and recrimination as the Republican Party tries to figure out what's left after its devastating losses.
Bullet point number one? Tonight, war and regrets. In an exclusive interview with CNN today, an unusually reflective President Bush did something you almost never hear him do. The commander in chief acknowledges his mistakes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Being on this ship reminds me of when I went to the USS Abraham Lincoln and they had a sign that said "Mission Accomplished." I regret that that sign was there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Regrets, but he isn't talking like a president whose disapproval rating is a record-breaking 76 percent. This is what he told country singer John Rich today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: John Rich, fellow Texan, John, tell them we're coming home, and we're coming home with our heads held high.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So, at least one Republican has his head held high at the moment.
And that brings us to tonight's bullet point number two, rescuing the Republicans. They are beginning now an urgent search for new ideas and new leaders to lead them back from the political abyss.
And, tonight, our NO BIAS, NO BULL interview with one of the GOP's brightest stars, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: I think, if we're authentic, we're consistent with our principles, would offer real solutions, we can build broad-based majority coalitions. Look, there are no permanent majorities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: But, first, as always, we are cutting through the bull.
On this Veterans Day, we want to bring your attention to a different kind of battle that our disabled veterans are fighting right now. Many vets are having an extremely difficult time getting their disability claims reviewed, and, in many cases, getting the benefits they rightly deserve. The problem is inefficiency at the Veterans Affairs Department, pretty astonishing inefficiency.
And because of it, there are numerous stories of service men and women finding themselves stuck in limbo, playing an unfair, if not cruel, waiting game.
Just today, "The Washington Post" tells the story of Navy veteran Chase McCombs, who served three years as a Navy mechanic. He suffered several injuries and told "The Post" he is now legally blind. His application for disability benefits has been denied twice. He appealed in December and is still waiting now to hear from the VA.
His friends are helping him pay his bills, and he says without their support he would be homeless. Things have gotten so bad that two veterans groups have finally filed a lawsuit on behalf of some 60,000 veterans aimed at forcing the VA to handle disability claims faster or to give vets some financial relief while they wait.
According to the lawsuit, it is now taking on average about six months for vets to hear back on a benefit claim. And, if they have to appeal the decision, it can take years.
These are the men and women who have made extraordinary sacrifices for our country. Bureaucratic inefficiency and incompetence is making their transition back into civilian life yet another war they have to fight. We owe our veterans more. We have got to do better.
And, with that, we want to turn now to our look at the transition to power. This was no holiday for Barack Obama or for his team in Chicago or for our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, who's there as well, covering the transition for us.
And, Candy, president-elect Obama is going to be taking over two wars essentially in less than two months. How are his Iraq and Afghanistan strategies taking shape? What are some of the early clues you're seeing?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, remembering, of course, that Barack Obama has been surrounded by foreign policy advisers for some time now and they have been working out that strategy, it has been a motion -- forward-motion- looking policy.
He started his campaign, of course, as we all know, on his opposition to the war in Iraq. What they are looking at now is what he has talked about before. And that is, when he takes office, he has said, I'm going to call in the Joint Chiefs and say, we're going to dial back this war in Iraq. He has said, you know, I think we can withdraw a battalion a month. He's also said that he will pay attention to whatever the situation on the ground is.
But, by and large, he has talked about that removal. He has also talked about a regional solution to this. And that, of course, includes talking with Iran at some level, talking to Syria at some level, bringing in the whole region, on the theory and really heavily bringing diplomacy to the table and into play simply because he does not believe and has not believed for some time that there is some sort of military answer to the Middle East, specifically to Iraq.
He has also said that he wants to point more attention to Afghanistan and to Pakistan, because he believes that Osama bin Laden is, in fact, somewhere in the mountains in that region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He wants to make getting Osama bin Laden key to his policy.
He believes it's important symbolically and he has said repeatedly we blew it when we went to Iraq because we took our eye off the ball. He wants to remind Americans of September 11, how this all began, and he believes it also ends in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
BROWN: And, Candy, lots of talk that Obama is seriously considering keeping President Bush's secretary of defense, Bob Gates. And he's getting some pushback on that, as well, isn't he?
CROWLEY: He is.
The left in his party, the more liberal members of his party look at Secretary Gates and they see status quo in Iraq. They don't want him to stay on.
Now, this is going to be an interesting part about Barack Obama's selection of people and how he moves forward, because there will be competing interests, people trying to pull him more to the left, people trying to pull him more to the center. This happens to presidents when they first take office.
He's talked about bipartisanship. Certainly, Gates staying, at least for some time, would bring that, again, to the table. It's something that he has talked about. But, also, this is a very important part of Barack Obama's administration when it comes into power, and that is how to deal with Iraq and Afghanistan.
And they believe that there needs to be some continuity there, and perhaps Gates is the person to do that. But you are right. He is getting tugged by others who want Gates out.
BROWN: Candy Crowley for us tonight from Chicago on the transition -- Candy, thanks. And as Candy just mentioned, Obama talking about a new strategy and an old target. He wants to get Osama bin Laden, to refocus on the war in Afghanistan, and to end the war in Iraq.
But, up next, we're going have a NO BULL reality check on those wars and a look at this question: Why is bin Laden still at large? Michael Ware, Peter Bergen are going to bring us the very latest on that.
And, then, later, extreme makeover: how the Republican Party makes itself relevant again. Is Sarah Palin part of the answer or part of the problem?
Also tonight, all of us talking about brand-new poll numbers out on what Obama's victory means for black and white Americans. We're going to release those numbers right here first coming up in just a few moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: As a candidate, Barack Obama was pretty blunt about Osama bin Laden. He wanted him, dead or alive. Tonight, we are getting a look at how Obama plans to bring him down.
And here now with a NO BIAS, NO BULL assessment of president- elect Obama's approach to the war on terror, CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen and our Baghdad correspondent, Michael Ware, who is here with me in New York.
Welcome to both of you.
Peter, let me start with you here.
President-elect Obama made it pretty clear that his priority is going to be to refocus on Afghanistan. He plans to deploy more troops and devote military resources there. Is that going to be enough to turn things around?
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, but he is constrained by the fact that the U.S. military is very stretched right now.
The Bush administration is moving forward two combat brigades in the spring. But even if President Obama comes into office on January 20, 2009, says, I'm going to pull a lot of people out of Iraq, it's easier said than done. Redeploying these units takes several months. And of course Afghanistan is not just a matter of sending a lot more soldiers there.
It's a security problem which is not going to be solved by thousands of new American troops on the ground. It is something that will involve reaching out to tribal militias, things that the Bush administration has been thinking about, things that General Petraeus at CENTCOM has been thinking about, and things no doubt that Obama's advisers have been thinking about.
So, it's part of a larger strategy. It's not just more American boots on the ground. It's the right kinds of boots, special forces, advisers to the Afghan army and Afghan police -- Campbell.
BROWN: But what does that mean in Iraq, Michael? If you are shifting resources, troops in particular, from Iraq to Afghanistan, what does that do on the ground in Iraq?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going to erode what kind of leverage you have in Iraq. And you're really struggling with leverage as it is now -- 140,000 American combat troops have not deterred the warring parties so far.
I mean, one side was bought off. America's natural ally in Iraq, the Sunnis, who were fighting America, are now, 100,000 of them, on the U.S. government payroll.
BROWN: Right.
WARE: Being handed over to a government that hates them. And they hate their government.
Meanwhile, you have got the Iranian militias and other factions there. And so the more you erode the number of troops, the less effective America is going to be at keeping all these sides apart or affecting American foreign policy.
BROWN: So, the flexibility may not actually be there.
Peter, let me ask you about this other point. Obama has made capturing Osama bin Laden a huge priority. Should it be? And do you have any reason to believe that president-elect Obama would have an easier time than at this than George W. Bush did?
BERGEN: I don't think there is any reason why President Obama would have an easier time than President Bush. It's after all seven years after 9/11. There hasn't been information about bin Laden's exact whereabouts since the Battle of Tora Bora in December of 2001.
Finding one person in the world is not a particularly easy thing to do. He's in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan almost certainly, which is a bit like saying I know that somebody is in Virginia. It is not a very useful piece of information, unless you have a much more precise set of coordinates.
So, yes, he will make it priority, but the law of averages suggests that bin Laden, who, after all, is only age 51 right now, isn't suffering any kind of life-threatening illnesses, may well survive for several more years. He is not making mistakes. He's not communicating on satellite or cell or radio. So, there is no signals intelligence. People in his immediate circle don't seem to be inclined to pick up cash rewards.
He is a human being. He will make a mistake eventually, but so far that hasn't happened, and that won't change with a new Obama administration -- Campbell.
BROWN: One thing that may change, though, is his strategy in terms of how to deal with the region overall. He has talked about reaching out to Iran, reaching out to Syria, having conversations in order to find new ways to deal with the war in Iraq in Afghanistan.
How will those overtures be received? And give us a sense for how he is perceived right now in that part of the world.
WARE: Well, certainly, he is perceived as a better option, per se.
But that's why it's also going to be important for president- elect Obama as soon as possible to sort of metaphorically flex his muscle as commander in chief, so he isn't seen as weak-kneed and therefore vulnerable.
Meanwhile, what we saw in Iraq that worked so well was America come to terms with the Sunni insurgency. Now we're hearing rumblings about coming to terms with elements of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan. So, doing that with Iran, which is far more powerful than any of those other two, is something that we simply have to look at.
And I have sat down with the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad. Now, the American ambassador, Ryan Crocker, and the Iranian ambassador are the two American -- well, the only two who have spoken between these two governments since 1979.
BROWN: Right.
WARE: And the Iranian ambassador is there to talk, but he's basically saying, what have you got to put on the table?
BROWN: All right. A lot more to talk about. I'm sure we will be seeing you again.
Michael Ware, and Peter Bergen, both of you, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
Coming up, my interview with the young Republican leader who many hope can help put the party back together again. And, no, no, it is not Sarah Palin that we're talking about this time.
Also ahead, Laura Bush, why publishers are lining up at the White House to make a book deal with her. We are going to have details in tonight's "PDB."
And then later, who is talking about the Obamas' trip to the White House? The answer and more when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEAHEL-HEARD PITRA, 5 YEARS OLD: Dear Mr. President, my name is Meahel Pitra. I'm 5 years old. You inspire me to do well in school. I have been reading since I was 3 years old. Please put lots and lots of money toward people's education. My future depends on it, no bias, no bull.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Oh, yes. That young man is, without question, a future president of the United States. He is 5-year-old Meahel-Heard Pitra from Las Vegas. You are seeing him right here with the president- elect during a campaign stop. That was back in January.
Meahel is one of the schoolkids across the country who are writing letters right now to Barack Obama. And if you would like to send us a video of your child's "Dear Mr. President" letter or question, just log onto to ireport.com/desk.
And, now, as Barack Obama builds his administration, Republicans are trying to rebuild their party. The nation's Republican governors are gathering in Miami, starting tomorrow, to try to figure out where they go from here, with no clear leader and no clear message.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is one of the party's rising stars. And I spoke with him just a little while ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: So, let me say welcome to you, first of all.
JINDAL: Thank you for having me on.
BROWN: And let me start by talking about the presidential election. If you look at the demographics of how people voted, one of the big realizations to come out of election night is that the Republican Party has become a mostly white party of the South. It lost the East. It lost big chunks of the West.
I mean, the party is shrinking, to the extent that it's not broad enough to win a national election. How did that happen? How did you get here?
JINDAL: Well, a couple of things.
One, I think the Republican Party, like the Democratic Party, should fight for each and every single vote. I think really the Republican Party made three fundamental mistakes.
Number one, our actions didn't match our rhetoric. We didn't -- we started defending spending we never would have accepted on the other side. Voters said they trusted Democrats more to control spending, to cut taxes.
Number two, the Republican Party tried to defend corruption that again we never would have accepted on the other side. The week before the election, our most senior United States senator is convicted of federal charges.
And, then, finally, third, the party stopped being the party of ideas, of solutions. Look, voters don't worry about the ideological fights, the partisan fights. What they want to know is, what are your ideas, what are your solutions to the rising cost of health care, the rising cost of energy, the economy, the international threats? For too long, the Republican message was that the other side is bad. Well, you're not going to win an election simply by doing that. I think the party has to go back and offer real solutions to the problems that American voters care about. And as we do that, we can fight for every single vote in every part of this country.
One other thing that is absolutely critical -- Senator McCain was so gracious on election night. I think it's very important for Republicans to understand the American people are tired of the elections. They're tired of the finger-pointing, the campaigning. They want us to come together. We need to support our new president. We need to support our new Congress.
Certainly, we should stand up when we disagree with them on principle, but we should support them. We should hope they're successful, work with them across party lines every chance we can get and focus on innovations, on solutions. It doesn't have to come out of Washington.
BROWN: Let me ask you. There's a lot of people who believe that president-elect Obama won this election because he ran against George W. Bush. You served in the Bush administration. Where did he go wrong? Where did the president go wrong? What was the biggest mistake he made?
JINDAL: Well, a couple of things.
One, I think that elections are about looking forward, not looking backwards. I think that we as a country are an optimistic, forward-looking country. And, so, I don't want to simply say, well, president-elect Obama just won because of one thing. I want to give him fair credit.
Look, he won an impressive election. He won across the country. He won in many states that have traditionally not voted for a Democratic candidate before. And you have to give him credit for doing that.
Secondly, I think that it's not just the president. When you look at Republicans in Washington, again, we have not been true to what we campaigned for. When voters are saying they think Democrats are more likely to cut taxes and control spending, that tells you Republicans have gotten off the path. We are not being true to our principles.
I think we need to go back and remind ourselves that our actions need to match our rhetoric.
BROWN: Governor Bobby Jindal for us -- Bobby -- Governor Jindal, it's great to have you here. We appreciate it. Thanks so much.
JINDAL: Well, congratulations. Great to see a Louisiana woman doing so well.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: I appreciate that. Have a good one.
JINDAL: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And still ahead tonight, our political panel on how to rescue the GOP.
Also, a revealing new snapshot of how both black and white Americans view this election, a CNN poll on race in America that was released just moments ago.
A preview: People are more hopeful.
And with that backdrop, you just can't help but wonder what were those teenage boys doing the other night? Police say it was a racial hunting party. We're going to have the story when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: No place like Miami for a little soul searching. And so the nation's Republican governors are schlepping down South tomorrow for their annual conference, on the agenda, more than just fun in the sun. These guys are saddled with a party in tatters right now, a party in desperate need of the vision thing.
Will they find it?
Joining me tonight, some of the best political minds around, "TIME" magazine editor at large Mark Halperin, CNN political analyst and radio talk show host and syndicated columnist Roland Martin, and Republican consultant Alex Castellanos.
Welcome, everybody.
Alex, I'm starting with you here.
The big lament among Republicans these days, the party doesn't stand for anything. The brand is shot. How do you fix it? Give me some concrete steps here.
ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you can see governors are already fixing it, governors like Bobby Jindal in Louisiana.
He's got a state that he's turned around after one of the biggest natural disasters in American history. So, the Republican brand out in the states is not the one that's broken. It's the one in Washington. What do Republicans need to do to fix it? It's not hard to see.
Look, a lot of experts say that the global economy is going to double in size in the next 30, 40 years. Who's all that prosperity going to belong to? Is it going to belong to other nations or ours? John Boehner, Eric Cantor, the House Republicans and these governors ought to get together and say, look, here is the Republican strategy for growth, president-elect Obama. Here's what we want to do to help you, you know, energy to power American growth, education, knowledge to grow this economy.
If you're going to send your daughters to the school of your choice, all Americans should have equal opportunity to choose a better school. Reform Washington. Either we are going to grow Washington's economy or we're going to grow America's economy. We can't have both.
Republicans ought to support president-elect Obama with an agenda for growth. That's how we get out of the mess we're in.
BROWN: Bobby Jindal said exactly the same thing. He said, we're making a huge mistake, Mark, if we focus all of our energy trying to tear down president-elect Obama. Do you agree with that?
MARK HALPERIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: First, I think Bobby Jindal and Alex Castellanos actually know each other. We should make that clear.
BROWN: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
HALPERIN: So, there might be some back-channel checking of message.
I think right now Republicans would be foolish, they would compound their already very bad position politically if they attacked president-elect Obama at every turn. What Alex is proposing is kind of an agenda that says, we support you, but here's what we should do different.
I'm not sure in the short term that that is a winning strategy, but it's the best thing I have heard, because right now I think the Republican Party is in worse shape than conventional wisdom has it. The governors are stronger than the national party. The problem is, it's very hard for a governor to get a big megaphone, particularly against a new, popular, articulate president.
You can be the governor even of a big state, even Arnold Schwarzenegger, celebrity, huge state governor. It's still hard to compete with the megaphone of a president.
BROWN: Go ahead.
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: This party must stop crucifying moderates.
If you remember what took place in the primary, all of these conservatives were attacking John McCain: Oh, my God. If he's the nominee, we're going to vote for Hillary Clinton.
And so the moderates have frankly left the party. And so, if you're in that middle, you don't see the Republican Party as a home. I feel what the Republicans should do, they should go back and listen to that seven-minute endorsement that Colin Powell gave Senator Barack Obama to understand why people like him and others are not comfortable with the modern-day Republican Party. That's their fundamental issue, moderates.
BROWN: Well, who are the leaders, though? Who are the up-and- comers? We saw Bobby Jindal a minute ago, but who are the other ones, Mark, that are going to pull them out of this morass, if governors can't do that?
HALPERIN: I think right now governors have a record of competence. They need to repair the party's image there after Katrina, after the conduct of the Iraq war. The governors have a record of victory, including in blue states and purple states.
Again, the problem is, every one of these people is flawed. Take Governor Jindal, somebody who is very smart, but he's very young. He's got a young family. He's got a full-time job. If he's going to be a leader from a state outside a major media area, he's going to have to travel a lot, work really hard, take on a third full-time job.
I question whether that's where his heart is right now. He will be president some day maybe, but I'm not sure he's going to be president in four years. And that's what they need now, is people who are ready to work hard as leaders.
BROWN: Alex, Sarah Palin is, of course, going to be probably the main attraction at this governors meeting. Since the election, she has actually been veering to the center, saying that the Republican label is what doomed John McCain, a bit of an image makeover from her, certainly from the rhetoric we heard her out there pounding away at out on the campaign trail. Is it working?
CASTELLANOS: Well, she's -- you know, if she continues to, I think -- if she jumps into the trap that a lot of Republicans are jumping into, which is to make it an internecine warfare, left against right in the Republican Party, we're not going to do well.
What she brought to the McCain campaign is what she should do now and frankly all Republicans should do. She brought a message that says, look, there's nothing wrong with America. America's not broken. This is still the greatest country in the world, greatest people. Washington's broken. We can fix that. And, sometimes, regular Americans have to go do that.
If she does that, she's got a future in the Republican Party. But, if she falls into the trap of, you know, "I'm the purest Republican, you should be, you shouldn't be," then I think we are going to eat our own tails, and we're going to have a smaller Republican Party before we have a larger one.
MARTIN: I don't think for a second that she's the future of the Republican Party. Again, she obviously wants to move to the center because she was so far right because she also knows that lost voters for John McCain. She didn't bring in women. She didn't bring in independents. Without them, you have to stand no chance of winning nationally. HALPERIN: There are a lot of scary statistics from Tuesday's results in the returns and in the exit poll. The fact that the Republican Party lost independents with John McCain at the top of the ticket I think is one of the scariest things the party faces right now.
BROWN: It sets an alarm.
MARTIN: Because they pushed him so far right. That's the problem.
CASTELLANOS: But remember, guys, for a few brief minutes when Sarah Palin was actually the message of the campaign, when she represented the maverick part of the campaign, that's when we were getting independents, we were getting women. Now, when she lost a lot of credibility with a couple of bad interviews...
BROWN: Right. Right.
CASTELLANOS: ... then, then she only became a base pick. But up for a little while, Republicans actually were tied and winning this election.
BROWN: OK, guys. We got to end it there. We're out of time. But many thanks to Mark Halperin, to Roland Martin, and to Alex Castellanos. See you soon. Thank you, guys.
Still ahead, our political panel on how to rescue the GOP. Actually, never mind, we just did that.
Also, a revealing new snapshot on how both black and white Americans viewed the election. A CNN poll on race in America that was released just moments ago. A preview, at least people are more hopeful. That's what we're hearing.
Stay with us. We'll be back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Remember when Sarah Palin wouldn't talk to reporters? Well, now, with her, it's like open mike night in Anchorage and somebody in the White House is shopping the inside story of the White House. And it may not be who you think.
If you want to know who is doing what down in Washington, Dana Milbank is our man. He is a CNN contributor and national political correspondent for the "Washington Post" and he's here with our PDB, the political daily briefing.
And, Dana, let's start with Sarah Palin. She's popping up everywhere doing the media rounds. What is she saying about her future?
DANA MILBANK, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, up there it's all Sarah all the time. Since her loss last week, Palin, God bless her, has cooked moose meat chili for the "Anchorage Daily News" and granted interviews to among others, "Entertainment Tonight," FOX News, NBC, and of course most important of all, CNN.
As for her 2012 ambitions she said, "I'm like, OK, God. If there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray. I'm like, don't let me miss the open door." She went on to say that if said opening exists, "I'll plow through that door."
BROWN: Plow through that door. The race is on.
OK. Dana, former Senator John Edwards making his first public appearance since admitting to an extramarital affair. Tell us what he's up to.
MILBANK: Well, the former presidential candidate is scheduled to give a speech tonight at Indiana University. This is his first appearance since the summer when he admitted the affair with a campaign videographer and in doing so he managed to unite the two Americas into one America that thinks he's a scoundrel. Edwards apparently concluded there is no point in waiting at home by the phone for that call from the president-elect.
BROWN: Yes. Somehow I don't think that's going to come.
Moving on now, publicists normally bombard presidents as they leave office, hoping to cash in on a big memoir. But for President Bush, I understand it's been relatively quiet. How come?
MILBANK: Yes, poor guy. A day after this CNN poll found that he is the most unpopular president in the history of polling, even Rupert Murdoch's "New York Post" is starting to diss this lame duck. The paper reports that Laura Bush is settling up a multimillion dollar book deal to write about her memoirs but her husband, he's so unpopular that he may have to wait perhaps five years, they say, until he'll get his fat contract.
BROWN: Fascinating. All right.
Finally tonight, Dana, I got to ask you about the Senate race in Minnesota. Continuing to drag on now, we're facing a recount. What's going on there?
MILBANK: Well, I think we can say that Minnesota is the new Florida. A week after the election there, the state that gave the world Jesse Ventura is still counting ballots in the Senate race. Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent, leading Al Franken by 206 votes out of nearly five million casts.
Franken's side claims they've come up with several hundred absentee ballots that just haven't been counted yet.
On the Republican side, Mitt Romney has found a use for all that money he didn't spend on his failed presidential bid. He's going to help Coleman pay the bill for the recount.
BROWN: Wow, interesting. OK. It ain't over until it's over.
Dana Milbank for us tonight. Dana, thanks. MILBANK: Thanks, Campbell.
BROWN: Coming up, we had a lot of thoughts around here today about our new CNN poll on race relations in America. The results are revealing. You're going to hear them first right here coming up in just a moment.
Plus, the latest on America's new First Family and the reports daughters Sasha and Malia could be going Hollywood.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Coming up, a brutal crime in suburban New York raises a troubling question. Was it a matter of race? We're going to talk about that but first Randi Kaye is here with me now with "The Briefing" -- Randi.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Campbell.
The speaker of the House wants to bail out the U.S. auto industry and fast. Nancy Pelosi is calling on President Bush and Congress to reach a quick compromise on emergency aid.
General Motors and Ford say they are quickly running out of cash. GM stocks fell below $3 a share today. That is a 65-year low.
An 8-year-old Arizona boy appeared in court in handcuffs today to face murder charges. He's accused of using a .22 caliber rifle to kill his father and another man last week. The judge ordered the child evaluated as hundreds of mourners attended his dad's funeral nearby.
U.N. officials are close to sending 3,000 more peacekeeping troops to the Republic of Congo. Hopes for a cease-fire between government troops and rebel soldiers are quickly fading. Rebels are looting homes and ransacking villages. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the latest fighting.
If you're thinking of attending the inauguration, well, you have 70 days to find a place to sleep. Washington now is expecting 1.5 million visitors. The problem is the city only has 90,000 hotel rooms, and they are booked solid. Some people are being offered huge sums of money to rent out their homes and their apartments.
And a stunning discovery by archaeologists in Egypt, the new pyramid in an ancient burial site. It's 4,300 years old. It had been buried under 65 feet of sand. How do they find these things?
BROWN: It's exciting.
KAYE: 4,300 years old. There it is (ph).
BROWN: Yes. Randi Kaye for us tonight. And, Randi, stick around because coming up, we are going to ask Americans how they feel about the future of race relations now that Barack Obama is in the White House. Plus, or will soon be in the White House. Plus, in the days after the election, a terrible incident that has all of us saying, clearly, we still have not come far enough. We'll talk about that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Barack Obama's election didn't just change the political landscape in this country. It also changed the way Americans think about race.
In a surprising new CNN/Opinion Research poll, we asked Americans if race relations will always be a problem in this country. And we got some answers that we never heard before. And Randi Kaye is here again with me with all of the details.
And, Randi, the Obama campaign essentially ran their campaign on two words -- change and hope. And according to this poll, his win really has given African-Americans hope when it comes to race relations.
KAYE: Absolutely, Campbell. And every poll on race relations going back to when this question was first asked in 1993 by CNN, black respondents said that racial problems were a permanent part of our landscape. Now, for the very first time, a majority of African- Americans believe we'll eventually find a solution to our country's racial problems. Take a look at this.
Ninety-six percent of African-Americans polled believe that Obama's win starts a new era or at least will provide some improvement on race relations. So you look at that, 51 percent saying start of a new era, Campbell, and 45 percent saying some improvement.
BROWN: So I'm curious, how did whites respond to the same question?
KAYE: Very differently. That's a very good question.
Take a look at how the same polling question breaks down among whites and blacks. While 96 percent said that there would be at least some improvement among race relations, 75 percent of whites polled agreed it's still a majority but quite a bit less than the African- American responders. And actually about 28 percent of whites believe that either no change or worse relations would happen. Compare that to the tiny four percent of blacks who thought it would either not change or get worse.
We're really looking at the most dramatic number changes there, specifically among black respondents. And I want to share one last poll with you just to help explain why. Take a look at this.
We have now 71 percent there -- 71 percent of black responders said that they did not think they would live to see a black president while almost 60 percent of white responders did, which is really, really amazing. Now, obviously an Obama presidency isn't going to be a cure-all for all of these race relations in our country. What this poll shows us, Campbell, is that while most respondents believe that there will be some kind of improvement, ultimately an Obama presidency is going to be seen through some very different eyes...
BROWN: Yes.
KAYE: ... depending on whether or not you're black, white, or --
BROWN: Fascinating.
KAYE: Yes.
BROWN: I was really stunned by this. That was Randi Kaye with us tonight. Randi, thanks. Appreciate it.
And we want to talk to Joe Johns now. We've got news from the poll obviously that as Randi Kaye points out is optimistic, but racism certainly still exists in this country. And case in point is seven teenage boys in a New York suburb charged with a deadly attack that police are now calling a hate crime.
Joe Johns has been tracking the story. It's a very troubling story. Joe, what can you tell us?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It's really almost stunning, Campbell, when you think about it. Here we are talking about racial healing in the United States and here in the city you have what some people are basically calling a lynching.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS (voice-over): It was an unusually warm night when police say a group of teenagers set out to go "Beaner jumping."
DETECTIVE LT. JACK FITZPATRICK, SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY POLICE: Their motivation was to find lots of Latinos and to assault them. And that was what they went out to do that night and that's exactly what they did do.
JOHNS: So, police say, the boys searched a suburban New York town until they found a target, Ecuadorian immigrant, Marcello Lucero. Police say the boys told them they actually wanted to "F up a Mexican."
FERNANDO MATEO, HISPANICS ACROSS AMERICA: Those days of noosing, hanging and torturing should be a thing of the past. Yet again, we're living it today.
JOHNS: Police say Jeffrey Conroy, a three-sport athlete, repeatedly stabbed Lucero in the chest as the gang beat him. Conroy faces charges of first degree manslaughter as a hate crime.
JOSE LUCERO, VICTIM'S BROTHER: I can't really tell you how I feel right now. You know, it's like, I just want to do justice right now.
JOHNS: His brother said Lucero had come to the U.S. on a visa 16 years ago. He's remembered as the friendly face at the local dry cleaner who played a mean game of volleyball and called his mother several times a week.
REV. ALAN RAMIREZ, COMMUNITY LATINO ACTIVIST: Once again, there is the blood of immigrants flowing through the street of Suffolk County.
JOHNS: A neighborhood minister said the attack was fueled by xenophobia. In fact, he says the growing Latino population on Long Island is under attack. Houses have been burned down as families slept inside, several day workers brutally beaten. Across the country, a recent Justice Department report shows Latinos are the chief victims of ethnically motivated hate crimes.
RUBEN NAVARRETTE, LATINO COLUMNIST: When people go out on the airwaves or in print or at the stump as a politician and they beat that drum, they shouldn't be surprised at the end of the day, many people out there, and particularly young people who are very impressionable think, hey, you know what? This is one group we can do this to.
JOHNS: As for the victim, Marcello Lucero, his family blames the boys' parents for the brutal attack and plans to sue them in civil court. But the lawyers for the attackers say bias was not the boys' motive adding that one of the boys is part Latino. All have entered not guilty pleas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeffrey is like, he's the nicest guy you'll ever meet.
JOHNS: But to Latinos in this community, the history of these attacks tells another story.
MATEO: We cannot harbor terrorists in our homes. These seven kids are terrorists, and they must pay as such.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: So was it really a hate crime? And if it wasn't, what was it?
One of the undercurrents here is about the national immigration debate, and the question that's already being raised by activist groups and the newspapers is whether anti-immigrant rhetoric has created a climate for this kind of thing. A Federal Justice Department report on hate crimes says Latinos were the victims of hate crimes 61 percent of the time.
BROWN: Wow. That's a pretty interesting statistic.
Joe Johns for us tonight. Joe, thanks.
A horrible attack made even more disturbing by the charge it was motivated by racism as we just talked about. What does the law say makes a hate crime, and are Latinos increasingly at risk these days?
For answers we turn to Lisa Bloom who's the anchor of "In Session" on truTV. For more on that, and Lisa, we just heard Joe report. One individual charged with manslaughter, the remaining charged with assault. And that surprises you, doesn't it? Why?
LISA BLOOM, ANCHOR, "IN SESSION": It does because I think there should be a murder charge here. This sounds like a premeditated attack. Based on the confessions that we have from these teenagers, they went out "to beat up a Mexican." This victim actually was Ecuadorian, but they went out to victimize somebody based on race.
The main perpetrator pulled out a gun, knifes him in the chest. There's enough evidence there for premeditation, so possibly we're going to look at some murder charges.
BROWN: So explain the difference between a manslaughter charge and a manslaughter charge that is designated as a hate crime. I'm assuming different penalties?
BLOOM: Yes. Forty-five states have hate crime legislation and there's also federal hate crime legislation as well as pending law, the Matthew Shepard law that President-elect Barack Obama said he would support.
It doesn't have to be hate for a hate crime despite the name. What there has to be is bias if the victim is targeted because of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender in New York. So if these boys got together and said we're going to go beat up a "Mexican," that's sufficient for a hate crime enhancement under New York law. Much tougher sentence.
BROWN: And Joe also pointed out that we're seeing this troubling increase in hate crimes against Latinos.
BLOOM: Yes.
BROWN: I'm asking you to speculate a little bit here, but what do you think is behind it?
BLOOM: Well, I know that Latino leaders say that the inflammatory rhetoric of the anti-immigration movement is largely the reason. There has been a very sharp increase in the last two years, hate crimes against Latinos. Thirty-eight percent of all ethnic hate crimes against every group except Latinos, 61, 62 percent against Latinos. That's six times their proportion of the population.
They are targeted in New York. They're targeted in Texas and Colorado. We're seeing a sharp increase in these crimes.
BROWN: All right. Lisa Bloom for us tonight. Lisa, thanks.
BLOOM: Thank you.
BROWN: Coming up, on a lighter note, the Obamas heading to Washington. We're going to have more about who is coming with them. Call her the first grandmother.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: "LARRY KING LIVE" coming up in just a few minutes, and he is taking an exclusive look at a company we've been hearing a lot about.
Larry, what can you tell us?
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Interesting exclusive for you tonight, Campbell. If you pay taxes, you helped bail out AIG with billions of your money. And now people are wondering what were company executives doing at a tony resort in Arizona last weekend? Whose money were they spending there? Well, AIG's latest CEO will be here to explain it all.
Plus, we'll talk Obama transition and Republicans divided all next on "LARRY KING LIVE" -- Campbell.
BROWN: All right, Larry. Thanks. We'll be watching, of course.
And when we come back, the White House edition of extreme makeover. OK, maybe not extreme but the Obamas are making plans for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Plus, Whoopi Goldberg's warning for the new president in shades of gray. She hits our "Bull's-Eye" tonight.
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BROWN: Now our nightly welcome to the White House update on the Obama family's move to Washington. It looks like Michelle Obama's mother, 71-year-old Marian Robinson, is moving to Washington, too. Call her the first grandma.
Mrs. Robinson has been taking care of the Obamas' two daughters, Sasha and Malia, while their parents were on the campaign trail. She's lived alone in Chicago since her husband died in 1990. Now we don't know if Mrs. Robinson will actually move into the White House, but if she does it won't be the first time a presidential mother-in- law has lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Harry Truman's mother-in- law moved in and so did Dwight Eisenhower's.
We are also getting inside information about the president- elect's tour of the White House yesterday, and it comes from the highest possible inside source.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was a -- it was interesting yesterday. You know, one impression I can share with you is that one of the things that President-elect Obama was really interested in after we had our policy discussions was his little girls. How would they like the White House? And it was interesting to watch him go upstairs and he wanted to see where his little girls were going to sleep. And, clearly, this guy is going to bring a great sense of family to the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And finally tonight, we're giving the "Bull's-Eye" to Whoopi Goldberg on ABC's "The View" this morning. She talked about Obama's White House visit and a color barrier that almost every president seems to break.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FROM ABC "THE VIEW")
WHOOPI GOLBERG, HOST, "THE VIEW": One of the first things that Bush said to Obama was, "Look at my hair."
(LAUGHTER)
His hair is going to go white. I'll tell you that's why I won't take the job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Whoopi is right on. OK. Take a look at how President Bush has grayed since taking office. The change really is startling. And believe it or not, we are already seeing a change in Barack Obama.
This is a time lapse of how he's changed. This is just during the course of this year's presidential campaign. Makes you wonder what eight years, four years at the White House may do.
That's it for us.
"LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.
