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CNN Live At Daybreak

President Bush Set to Return to Crawford, Texas

Aired August 03, 2001 - 08:00   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: As Congress heads off on summer recess, President Bush is taking the rest of the month off at his Texas ranch to give him time to think about the gains in his first six months in office.

The list begins with his tax cut. There is a House passage of his energy plan and the patients' bill of rights as well. When the president gets back to the White House in September, reality is likely to set in. His energy, health and education initiatives face tougher sledding in the Senate. That's where the Democrats hold the cards, of course.

Well, Kelly Wallace is at the White House for us this morning and joins us now.

Kelly, I guess happy days are here again -- here still.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Still some happy days here at the White House, Colleen.

And President Bush will be talking about some of what the White House considers its achievements over the past six months, and then some of those goals and issues facing the president in the next months ahead. He will be meeting with his cabinet this afternoon, and then he will come out to the Rose Garden and talk to reporters.

Also, White House advisers are circulating these talking points to staffers on Capitol Hill, basically crediting the president with breaking gridlock and leading to constructive spirit and bipartisanship and results. But again, as you mentioned, to big battles ahead.

One of the biggest victories, though, the White House savoring on this day is passage in the House last night of that patients' bill of rights, which the president says he can support. Now, this all coming after the White House, Mr. Bush, brokered a deal with Republican Congressman Charlie Norwood. The White House very pleased with this.

And in fact, shortly after the vote, the president issued a statement saying -- quote: "Today's action brings us an important step closer to insuring that patients get the care they need, and that HMOs are held accountable." Now, what's important here for the White House -- passage of this bill (a) gives the president some credit in helping to pass a measure that a majority of Americans support and want the president and the Congress to act on this year. Also, Colleen, though, the president dodging, you can say, a political bullet, because he had talked about vetoing this bill, and a veto would have been very, very political difficult for the president -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: Kelly, what about the issue of embryonic stem cell research? We have been hearing all kinds of rumors that a decision could come sometime today, that it could come sometime in the next month, when he is in Crawford. What are you hearing?

WALLACE: It is sort of the issue. And White House advisers are being asked about this every single day.

I just talked with an administration official, who said that this decision is definitely not expected today. It is, though, potentially could come sometime this month.

As you know, the president is faced with this decision of deciding whether to allow federal funding of embryonic stem cell research using the stem cells for research. Supporters of the research say it could lead to new breakthroughs in treatments of diseases, such as Alzheimer's. But there is lots of opposition, particularly coming from Catholics, who believe that the embryos would have to be killed, and that amounts to a destruction of human life.

So a big decision politically, ethically and a scientific one as well -- likely to come, at this point, all we know maybe sometime this month -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: All right. Kelly Wallace at the White House, thanks very much.

On to Crawford now -- Carol.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: You bet.

The president obviously will have a lot to deal with, but first he goes on vacation. He is going to have a whole month off, and he is going to go to his favorite place in the whole world. That is his ranch in Crawford, Texas. And Robert Campbell is the mayor of this lovely little town -- population 700.

In fact, do we have the mayor right now?

There you are. Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

ROBERT CAMPBELL, MAYOR OF CRAWFORD, TEXAS: Good morning.

LIN: Well, I looked up your town on the Internet, and we saw some really cool pictures. I mean, we keep hearing about how small Crawford is, but certainly not too small to have its own inaugural ball. And the president was there.

CAMPBELL: Correct.

LIN: Yes, let's take a look at these pictures here. Tell me what that evening was like.

CAMPBELL: Well, I wasn't there, but they tell me it was a very good evening there at the ball. But we are kind of happy that he is here. He has been a boost for the town, and we are just pleased that he is going to be coming to -- well, for vacation and be here with us for a while. I guess...

LIN: You must be so proud. You must be so proud of him. We saw some other pictures of Crawford, and it looks like just a quaint, cute little town. There it is. All right. I've got to ask you this. We're taking a look at a picture here. It looks like a stoplight. I understand it is "the" stoplight -- is that right?

CAMPBELL: Correct. We have one flashing light in town. It is right at the intersection of the two main highways that come through town -- a state highway and a farm-to-market road. And that's the hub of town. City hall is right up the street from that stoplight. And the population here is only about 700, so we don't have that much traffic coming through anyway.

LIN: Well, good -- something else that all of the tourists can look forward to. But this is my favorite shot, because the rest of America is going to be seeing this water tower quite a bit over the next month. This is our favorite live-shot position. And it's rather hard to find water towers around the United States these days.

CAMPBELL: Well, we have our own water system here. We are totally independent on our own water system. So we have water storage. That tower has been there for quite some time. And we are looking forward to replacing that one with a new one.

LIN: Quite some time. But you know who is not looking forward to the hoards of tourists coming to town? Do you know Cathy Nagle (ph) of the Brown Bag in town?

CAMPBELL: Say again?

LIN: Cathy Nagle -- do you know Cathy Nagle, who owns the Brown Bag -- a restaurant?

CAMPBELL: Yes, I do.

LIN: Well, you know what she says about all these tourists coming to town? She is going to tell them, "I'll tell them you can't see anything at the ranch." She doesn't want these folks coming. How do people feel in town about the president vacationing there, and all of the notoriety he is going to bring?

CAMPBELL: Well, I think it's going to be good for us. It's really going to help to boost the economy of the town when they come in. When the president comes, it's not any turmoil, because he generally comes in to get some rest, and he is out on the ranch. And so we don't see him. We don't see his family. But...

LIN: He doesn't come shopping in town, maybe a night out?

CAMPBELL: Well, as big as we are, we really don't have any stores in Crawford.

LIN: Oh.

CAMPBELL: We have one convenience store, which is in conjunction with the one restaurant and the service station with the most gas islands.

LIN: Do you think that might change, though, in the month of August? Are you letting business people come into town and set up shop, try to sell a few trinkets here or there?

CAMPBELL: Oh, I would be assured of that. We have some people that are already opening up some smaller gift shops. Besides the Brown Bag, we have a new placed called the Carriage House. And there are some other places. There is a place right next door to City Hall called the Red Bull.

So we are having some people come in and set up some small shops to try to take advantage of the presence of the president out here. And I am quite sure that while he is here and with the press and everybody else coming in, that we'll have others coming in trying to do some vending.

LIN: Yes. And you've got people coming from around the world, I heard. You have some people from Costa Rica, Austria visiting.

CAMPBELL: We've had people from all over the world. It has been a pleasant surprise.

LIN: A pleasant surprise. What are the town folk telling you, though? Are they asking you, Mr. Mayor, you know, you've got to stop promoting this town. We like Crawford just the way it is.

CAMPBELL: Well, you know, most people who live here are here because they want to be in a small town. That's the ambience about being in Crawford. We are a very small, laid-back community in the midst of a bigger urban society. And we are close enough to everything to get what we need, but still have small-town living.

LIN: And just 20 miles from Waco, Texas.

CAMPBELL: Right. We are about 20 miles from Waco, about an hour and a half drive from Austin. And about the same from Dallas and Fort Worth.

LIN: Well, there you go.

CAMPBELL: So we're in a good location.

LIN: It must feel like the center of the universe. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. Congratulations. And I hope you hang on through the month of August. It's going to be a busy one.

CAMPBELL: Thank you very much.

LIN: All right. MCEDWARDS: Absolutely, indisputably on the map now.

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