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American Morning
Battle for California
Aired September 15, 2003 - 09:33 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the governor's race in California. Governor Gray Davis getting help from some very big Democrats this week, the former president, Bill Clinton, the former vice president, Al Gore. Will it be enough, though, to boost his campaign to victory?
Bob Franken back with us live in L.A. with more on this.
Bob, good morning.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
And the Democrats, those who oppose the recall, are taking their best shot this week, as the trends seem to show a very, very slow movement in favor of Governor Gray Davis, against the recall, and of course, yesterday and today they pulled out one of their top guns, former President Bill Clinton, who appeared with Gray Davis. You can see him at the African-American Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. President Clinton, who had his own recall problems, had no effort to conceal how he felt the one in California.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FMR, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's California I'm worried about. I don't want you to become a laughingstock, a carnival, or the beginning of a circus in America where we just throw people out as soon as they make a tough decision. Don't do this. Don't do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANKEN: And while former President Clinton continues to appear with Davis today, Republican side of the ledger has Arnold Schwarzenegger appearing with his wife, Maria Shriver, on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Of course Schwarzenegger is suffering from considerable gender gap. The other problem, of course, he has is that there's an insurgent Republican candidate who's also giving him trouble, Tom McClintock, who is within seven points of Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger is going to try to improve on that by some very, very tightly controlled appearances starting today with "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
HEMMER: We will watch that, Bob. The thing we want to mention again is the possibility of turnout. Who's going to go out and vote on the 7th of October? We won't know until that day specifically. But is there any indication, is there any leaning that you're picking up on there in California on that answer? FRANKEN: Well, some indication that there's higher voter interest than there normally would be for very obvious reasons. But, each side is going to have to get its voters out. Voter turnout could be the ball game, and the efforts to turn out the voters could be who decides and how this election is decided.
HEMMER: Thank you, Bob.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 15, 2003 - 09:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the governor's race in California. Governor Gray Davis getting help from some very big Democrats this week, the former president, Bill Clinton, the former vice president, Al Gore. Will it be enough, though, to boost his campaign to victory?
Bob Franken back with us live in L.A. with more on this.
Bob, good morning.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
And the Democrats, those who oppose the recall, are taking their best shot this week, as the trends seem to show a very, very slow movement in favor of Governor Gray Davis, against the recall, and of course, yesterday and today they pulled out one of their top guns, former President Bill Clinton, who appeared with Gray Davis. You can see him at the African-American Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. President Clinton, who had his own recall problems, had no effort to conceal how he felt the one in California.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FMR, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's California I'm worried about. I don't want you to become a laughingstock, a carnival, or the beginning of a circus in America where we just throw people out as soon as they make a tough decision. Don't do this. Don't do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANKEN: And while former President Clinton continues to appear with Davis today, Republican side of the ledger has Arnold Schwarzenegger appearing with his wife, Maria Shriver, on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Of course Schwarzenegger is suffering from considerable gender gap. The other problem, of course, he has is that there's an insurgent Republican candidate who's also giving him trouble, Tom McClintock, who is within seven points of Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger is going to try to improve on that by some very, very tightly controlled appearances starting today with "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
HEMMER: We will watch that, Bob. The thing we want to mention again is the possibility of turnout. Who's going to go out and vote on the 7th of October? We won't know until that day specifically. But is there any indication, is there any leaning that you're picking up on there in California on that answer? FRANKEN: Well, some indication that there's higher voter interest than there normally would be for very obvious reasons. But, each side is going to have to get its voters out. Voter turnout could be the ball game, and the efforts to turn out the voters could be who decides and how this election is decided.
HEMMER: Thank you, Bob.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
