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Talk to CNN

Aired October 05, 2003 - 09:32   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.


MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The historic California recall election is just two days away. And who could be more excited about it than us? Will Governor Gray Davis be able to hold on to his job, or will there be somebody else?
KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it is time to hear what you have to say. Here to answer your e-mail questions are CNN's Bob Franken, who has been covering this story from the very beginning in Los Angeles, and Ken Rudin, a political editor for National Public Radio, who's in Washington.

Hello to you both.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

KEN RUDIN, POLITICAL EDITOR, NPR: Good morning, Kelli.

ARENA: Well, the saga continues, guys. And it gets more interesting each day.

SAVIDGE: Take it away. Either one of you. Ken, why don't you start us off. What do you think on the latest developments, Arnold's little hot water he's in?

RUDIN: I was going say, it's a two-prong thing. We have the allegations of more women stepping forward, and we have the Adolf Hitler comments. Obviously, you know, Hitler's numbers in California have been bad lately; they're even lower than Gray Davis's. So, obviously, any time a candidate makes favorable comments about somebody like Hitler, it's obviously going to hurt.

The people I talked to, look, and also about men in power groping women, it's a very serious charge. But the people I talked to seem to say it's -- it furthers distrust of the media, why is this coming out three or four days before the election, and typical of Gray Davis. This is the kind of stuff Gray Davis has been known for, last-minute campaign charges. It seems like Schwarzenegger, at least from the Schwarzenegger camp, they seem to be handling this pretty well. But with two days to go, no one knows what will happen.

ARENA: Gentlemen, we promised you e-mails, and we have our first from Marguerite in Seattle, Washington. She asks, assuming that Arnold wins the race, what is the possible impact on the presidential race if, one, Arnold performs well and starts to reduce the deficit; two, Arnold performs poorly and the state continues on a downward spiral economically? SAVIDGE: She's thinking ahead.

FRANKEN: OK. One, if Arnold performs well, it will probably bode well for President Bush, because, of course, he will have a Republican State House. If he performs poorly, it probably bodes poorly for President bush. This is not brain surgery.

RUDIN: I would argue the opposite, speaking of brain surgery. I would argue almost the opposite, that this may not have any effect on President Bush in 2004.

To me, this is really a referendum on Gray Davis. This man is so unpopular. He is blamed for so many things, rightly or wrongly. But the point is that this is not a republican state. It hasn't been a republican state basically since Ronald Reagan left the scene. I think the republicans are probably better off with an unpopular Gray Davis in office, to run against him as a boogeyman, as a target, than have a republican governor...

FRANKEN: But the fact is that having a republican running the power -- running the power in the state, all the political power, having a republican take over all the jobs, taking over that mechanism, certainly presents a different picture. And if you have a democratic party that is splattered on as a result of what happened to Gray Davis and frankly, what has happened with Cruz Bustamante, it could mean that the republicans could start thinking the unthinkable and actually have a realistic dream of maybe pulling off a miracle and winning California.

SAVIDGE: All right. Let me jump in here. Because we want to bring in more e-mails. We have lots of people who want to talk. Bob, this one's going to be to you. I don't know if this was actually sent specifically to you, but here it is. It's a no-name person from Sacramento.

I'm an attorney, live here in California. You seem to take the election as a joke. People here are fed up with politics in Sacramento. Are we, outside the state of California, being too light with all of this?

FRANKEN: There's a feeling about that, but you have to remember a situation where you have an actor from Austria running to overturn a governor in a campaign that also had charges of possible sympathy to Hitler, and possible molesting of women, and in a campaign which has been on again and off again in the court, some people might find it a little bit unusual.

ARENA: Ken, we have a question, a very similar question, from Danny in California. He asks, the only thing missing is the elephants from this circus. After all, you have a 135 candidates to choose from. This is serious business, but people don't see it that way, it seems.

FRANKEN: Well, the GOP symbol...

ARENA: That was for Ken, Bob. Shush. Go ahead, Ken. RUDIN: You know, Bob is starting to get on my nerves.

No, actually -- it is 135 candidates, and perhaps, in the beginning, the media unfairly focused on the 135, the clowns, the dwarfs, the strippers, you know, it's the real stuff. But I would say, the past couple of weeks, given the fact with the final debates, the candidacies of Cruz Bustamante, the democratic lieutenant governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the leading republican, and then the stewardship of Gray Davis have been, first and foremost, the way the media have been reporting it. I think it's less of a circus, certainly the last couple of weeks.

SAVIDGE: All right, Bob, this is your chance now. Actually, Jo Anne from Charlevoix steps into the fray and says, where is the moral majority when it could be of some real use? Grabbing a woman's bare breasts and buttocks is not groping, it's an assault. It's abuse. Apologies are not courageous, they are pathetic.

Where is the moral majority in this campaign, in this election?

FRANKEN: Well, first of all, that's a term that a lot of people questioned. At the risk of getting on Ken's nerves even more, I want to discuss what people think is some sort of duel hypocrisy. You have the people who, when President Clinton was under charges for the sexually related charges, the people who were, in fact, saying we must do something about this. This morality must be stopped. Now these are the people who are defending Arnold Schwarzenegger. And so people are suggesting that there is some sort of dual majority.

On the other side of the court you have people saying President Clinton should be left alone who are now the ones who are expressing outrage at what happened with the charges with Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, others are pointing out that there are some differences. The charges about President Clinton did not include unwelcome sexual advances and groping. So it's an interesting discussion.

ARENA: All right. Ken, another question for you, from Dave in Manchester, New Hampshire. Wouldn't it be terrible for both democrat and republican candidates if the California recall was about what specific policies each side would be using to address the state's budgetary problems, rather than it being about who groped who and who has the snappiest one-liners?

RUDIN: Well, actually, in fairness to the question, it is who groped whom. It's not who groped who.

But I think, more importantly, though - actually, Schwarzenegger has been trying to be more specific about his policies. Obviously, he was criticized in the beginning of the campaign for being very light on substance. But, given the fact that he has some well-known economic advisers, one would think he may have some kind of a plan once he gets into office.

If he wins on October 7th, there's still 39 days before he can take office. Before the new governor is certified. So, he'll have a short time, but obviously the new governor needs to present an economic plan by January. And obviously, with two months to go, that may not be enough time.

SAVIDGE: All right, here's a question for Bob here. I was just looking at it, because it raises an interesting point. This is John, Gaithersburg. And he says, if the recall happens, and Schwarzenegger wins, how will the transition from Davis to Schwarzenegger, the administration occur in only one day? Isn't such a rapid transition going to cause serious problems for California?

I hadn't thought of that. What do you think of that?

FRANKEN: Well, it's not going happen that way. There will be a period, which could be as long as 39 days, because the state has to go through a laborious certification process, and then there are some other legal formalities that have to occur. As a matter of fact, there are some, including the leading recall advocates, who say that is too long. That Gray Davis, as the outgoing governor, could make appointments that otherwise would not be made. But it is not something that happens immediately.

ARENA: All right. Well, gentlemen, we want to thank you both for your time, and our viewers for sending in those questions. Have a good day, both of you.

SAVIDGE: Thanks very much. It's always great to see you, Ken, especially when you can shoe horn in between Bob.

RUDIN: Thank you. I'll take it up with Bob after the show.

SAVIDGE: You do that. No blood now, please.

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 October 5, 2003 - 09:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The historic California recall election is just two days away. And who could be more excited about it than us? Will Governor Gray Davis be able to hold on to his job, or will there be somebody else?
KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it is time to hear what you have to say. Here to answer your e-mail questions are CNN's Bob Franken, who has been covering this story from the very beginning in Los Angeles, and Ken Rudin, a political editor for National Public Radio, who's in Washington.

Hello to you both.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

KEN RUDIN, POLITICAL EDITOR, NPR: Good morning, Kelli.

ARENA: Well, the saga continues, guys. And it gets more interesting each day.

SAVIDGE: Take it away. Either one of you. Ken, why don't you start us off. What do you think on the latest developments, Arnold's little hot water he's in?

RUDIN: I was going say, it's a two-prong thing. We have the allegations of more women stepping forward, and we have the Adolf Hitler comments. Obviously, you know, Hitler's numbers in California have been bad lately; they're even lower than Gray Davis's. So, obviously, any time a candidate makes favorable comments about somebody like Hitler, it's obviously going to hurt.

The people I talked to, look, and also about men in power groping women, it's a very serious charge. But the people I talked to seem to say it's -- it furthers distrust of the media, why is this coming out three or four days before the election, and typical of Gray Davis. This is the kind of stuff Gray Davis has been known for, last-minute campaign charges. It seems like Schwarzenegger, at least from the Schwarzenegger camp, they seem to be handling this pretty well. But with two days to go, no one knows what will happen.

ARENA: Gentlemen, we promised you e-mails, and we have our first from Marguerite in Seattle, Washington. She asks, assuming that Arnold wins the race, what is the possible impact on the presidential race if, one, Arnold performs well and starts to reduce the deficit; two, Arnold performs poorly and the state continues on a downward spiral economically? SAVIDGE: She's thinking ahead.

FRANKEN: OK. One, if Arnold performs well, it will probably bode well for President Bush, because, of course, he will have a Republican State House. If he performs poorly, it probably bodes poorly for President bush. This is not brain surgery.

RUDIN: I would argue the opposite, speaking of brain surgery. I would argue almost the opposite, that this may not have any effect on President Bush in 2004.

To me, this is really a referendum on Gray Davis. This man is so unpopular. He is blamed for so many things, rightly or wrongly. But the point is that this is not a republican state. It hasn't been a republican state basically since Ronald Reagan left the scene. I think the republicans are probably better off with an unpopular Gray Davis in office, to run against him as a boogeyman, as a target, than have a republican governor...

FRANKEN: But the fact is that having a republican running the power -- running the power in the state, all the political power, having a republican take over all the jobs, taking over that mechanism, certainly presents a different picture. And if you have a democratic party that is splattered on as a result of what happened to Gray Davis and frankly, what has happened with Cruz Bustamante, it could mean that the republicans could start thinking the unthinkable and actually have a realistic dream of maybe pulling off a miracle and winning California.

SAVIDGE: All right. Let me jump in here. Because we want to bring in more e-mails. We have lots of people who want to talk. Bob, this one's going to be to you. I don't know if this was actually sent specifically to you, but here it is. It's a no-name person from Sacramento.

I'm an attorney, live here in California. You seem to take the election as a joke. People here are fed up with politics in Sacramento. Are we, outside the state of California, being too light with all of this?

FRANKEN: There's a feeling about that, but you have to remember a situation where you have an actor from Austria running to overturn a governor in a campaign that also had charges of possible sympathy to Hitler, and possible molesting of women, and in a campaign which has been on again and off again in the court, some people might find it a little bit unusual.

ARENA: Ken, we have a question, a very similar question, from Danny in California. He asks, the only thing missing is the elephants from this circus. After all, you have a 135 candidates to choose from. This is serious business, but people don't see it that way, it seems.

FRANKEN: Well, the GOP symbol...

ARENA: That was for Ken, Bob. Shush. Go ahead, Ken. RUDIN: You know, Bob is starting to get on my nerves.

No, actually -- it is 135 candidates, and perhaps, in the beginning, the media unfairly focused on the 135, the clowns, the dwarfs, the strippers, you know, it's the real stuff. But I would say, the past couple of weeks, given the fact with the final debates, the candidacies of Cruz Bustamante, the democratic lieutenant governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the leading republican, and then the stewardship of Gray Davis have been, first and foremost, the way the media have been reporting it. I think it's less of a circus, certainly the last couple of weeks.

SAVIDGE: All right, Bob, this is your chance now. Actually, Jo Anne from Charlevoix steps into the fray and says, where is the moral majority when it could be of some real use? Grabbing a woman's bare breasts and buttocks is not groping, it's an assault. It's abuse. Apologies are not courageous, they are pathetic.

Where is the moral majority in this campaign, in this election?

FRANKEN: Well, first of all, that's a term that a lot of people questioned. At the risk of getting on Ken's nerves even more, I want to discuss what people think is some sort of duel hypocrisy. You have the people who, when President Clinton was under charges for the sexually related charges, the people who were, in fact, saying we must do something about this. This morality must be stopped. Now these are the people who are defending Arnold Schwarzenegger. And so people are suggesting that there is some sort of dual majority.

On the other side of the court you have people saying President Clinton should be left alone who are now the ones who are expressing outrage at what happened with the charges with Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, others are pointing out that there are some differences. The charges about President Clinton did not include unwelcome sexual advances and groping. So it's an interesting discussion.

ARENA: All right. Ken, another question for you, from Dave in Manchester, New Hampshire. Wouldn't it be terrible for both democrat and republican candidates if the California recall was about what specific policies each side would be using to address the state's budgetary problems, rather than it being about who groped who and who has the snappiest one-liners?

RUDIN: Well, actually, in fairness to the question, it is who groped whom. It's not who groped who.

But I think, more importantly, though - actually, Schwarzenegger has been trying to be more specific about his policies. Obviously, he was criticized in the beginning of the campaign for being very light on substance. But, given the fact that he has some well-known economic advisers, one would think he may have some kind of a plan once he gets into office.

If he wins on October 7th, there's still 39 days before he can take office. Before the new governor is certified. So, he'll have a short time, but obviously the new governor needs to present an economic plan by January. And obviously, with two months to go, that may not be enough time.

SAVIDGE: All right, here's a question for Bob here. I was just looking at it, because it raises an interesting point. This is John, Gaithersburg. And he says, if the recall happens, and Schwarzenegger wins, how will the transition from Davis to Schwarzenegger, the administration occur in only one day? Isn't such a rapid transition going to cause serious problems for California?

I hadn't thought of that. What do you think of that?

FRANKEN: Well, it's not going happen that way. There will be a period, which could be as long as 39 days, because the state has to go through a laborious certification process, and then there are some other legal formalities that have to occur. As a matter of fact, there are some, including the leading recall advocates, who say that is too long. That Gray Davis, as the outgoing governor, could make appointments that otherwise would not be made. But it is not something that happens immediately.

ARENA: All right. Well, gentlemen, we want to thank you both for your time, and our viewers for sending in those questions. Have a good day, both of you.

SAVIDGE: Thanks very much. It's always great to see you, Ken, especially when you can shoe horn in between Bob.

RUDIN: Thank you. I'll take it up with Bob after the show.

SAVIDGE: You do that. No blood now, please.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com