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CNN Sunday Morning
Hurricane Ike; Freedom Walk; Campaign Trail Updates; Help for Freddie and Fannie; Paralympics
Aired September 07, 2008 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: From the CNN Center, which is also your Hurricane Headquarters right about now, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING on this September. I'm T.J. Holmes.
JENNIFER WESTHOVEN, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: And I'm Jennifer Westhoven sitting in for Betty Nguyen.
Hurricane Ike bearing down on the Caribbean with Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico in its sight.
HOLMES: Also, Hanna just won't let go. The tropical storm is hanging on and is bringing a soggy Sunday morning to many parts of New England.
WESTHOVEN: A storm is brewing on Wall Street. In two hours we could learn details of a multimillion dollar bailout plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- millions, maybe billions. Well, we are going to start with Ike. We are covering all the angles this morning. I've got CNN's Susan Candiotti in Key West watching the mandatory evacuation, there. Karl Penhaul is in Haiti where Ike is causing more trouble for an already devastated country. And right here in the CNN Center, Karen Maginnis tracking the storm to see where it's going to hit next.
All right, we're going to start in Florida where they are preparing for Ike the best way they know how by boarding up and getting out. That's where our Susan Candiotti is like in Key West this morning where there are a lot of people, right, seem to have left, Susan. But, we just heard that the bells were just ringing -- Church bells.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Church services going on first thing this morning. I spoke with a pastor of the Episcopal Church here across the street, and he said we don't expect many people here this morning, but they have had some residents here, but they're carrying on as usual. And as you can see on the street here, there is traffic.
It's always quiet on a Sunday, but we're still seeing cars and we're still seeing people on mopeds, still seeing people on bicycles despite the mandatory evacuation order for residents that took affect just about an hour ago. Tourists, you will recall, were ordered to leave yesterday. It's always a laid back attitude here in the Florida Keys, this day not unlike any other. Some people are leaving, but some people insist on staying and here's one gentleman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We never leave, really. It's -- have to stay here and take care of what we. And although it's -- it's a necessary thing, but an individual decision that you have to make and that's the one I make.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: So, he's deciding to stay. He said that he suffered a lot of damage in Hurricane Wilma about three years ago. Nevertheless, he's going to ride out the storm and in fact he said he was even here during Hurricane Donna back in 1960 when 12 lives were lost.
Hurricane Ike, as you know, is a category 4 storm. Right now the Florida Keys are on the outer edge. It will probably get tropical storm force winds, but the mayor said, you know, we're not taking any chances here and that's why we ordered the evacuation for all residents, as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MORGAN MCPHERSON, KEY WEST, FL: It's frustrating, it's expensive, that's whey we're as elastic as we could be as far as stretching it out before we made sure it was final. But, overall safety is our primary concern and the difference, like I said between a Category 1 and a Category 3 or 4 is going to be minuet here. If it stands on it's path right now, if it's golden, and we're looking at a Category 1 and we're still looking at between four and seven feet worth of tidal surge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Now, as you can see behind me, some storms do have shutters up, some homes are in fact boarded up, but others have not taken that precaution. Nevertheless, they do expect to feel, at the very least, tropical storm force winds here in the Florida Keys. So, some people are leaving, some people are staying and we'll be here throughout. Back to you -- Jennifer.
WESTHOVEN: Oh, thank you Susan. We heard some talk that this storm could be like Hurricane Donna back in 1960 which caused tremendous damage in the Keys. The Keys famous for the laid back attitude, do you think people are taking this seriously enough?
CANDIOTTI: I do think people do take it seriously, but you have an element of residents here who have lived here for years and they're intent on staying. Some of them, however, are heeding that order and they're leaving. I mean, you get a mix always in the Florida Keys.
Back in Hurricane Donna, back in 1960 they did have about 90 to 95 percent evacuation during that time, but that was a Category 4 storm that hit the Keys directly. Here, Hurricane Ike is forecast to be in the outer edges or rather the Florida Keys on the outer fringes of the edges of the storm, but if the track edges just a little bit in this direction, obviously they could be in much more trouble, here.
WESTHOVEN: All right, Susan, thank you so much. And best wishes for your safety and everybody's safety down there as Hurricane Ike gets closer. Thank you.
HOLMES: Well, meanwhile, Hurricane Ike could dump a foot of rain in Haiti. Flooding from three previous storms, three, has already taken a deadly toll and Ike threatens to add even more misery. CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us now live from Cap-Haitien with the latest.
Karl, we see the rain is coming down on you there pretty good. We had Fay, we had Gustav, we had Hanna and now here comes Ike.
CARL PENHAUL, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this really is a problem because where we are here in Cap-Haitien, on the northern coast of Haiti, this is the rain and some of the wind associated with the tropical storm element of Hurricane Ike. The hurricane winds aren't going to strike here, but the rain that is really causing the problems. Across from the city of Gonaives, now that's a drive of about two hours away from here and the situation has been dire there for almost the last week, in fact, after flooding associated with tropical storm Hanna. Even as late as yesterday we're told that 2,000 people evacuated from the city thanks to the Haitian Civil Protection Service. They came out aboard trucks with their mattresses, they were fleeing that city ahead of the storm associated with Hurricane Ike because they fear that rain like this and rain that is coming down so heavily now is only going make the situation there worse.
It's very difficult to get in still, though, the city itself that is cut off from the rest of the country as the bridges have been ripped out from floodwaters and we're told that in the city itself some 56,000 people are currently homeless right now, some waiting on the tops of their roofs for aid to arrive. Some food aid has trickling in, but the situation there is very frustrating for many of the citizens. We are also told that across Haiti, but particularly in Gonaives 167 people, at least, have died and, as I say, civil protection say that rain like this in a country so deforested like Haiti is only going to make the flooding situation worse -- T.J..
HOLMES: Karl Penhaul, where no doubt the situation is getting worse. Karl, we appreciate you. Check in with you again.
The threat of more flooding is forcing hundreds of people, like he said, to head to higher ground. Evacuations got underway yesterday. They waterlogged city of Gonaives. One aide worker says the city could be cut off again by this flooding. Haiti has been devastated, like we've been talking about, by three storms. So, they've been going in alphabetical order across the island of Haiti. They had Fay, Gustav, Hanna, Ike. Hundreds died of flooding triggered by those storms. Some aid is arriving, however, to Haiti. A U.N. chopper arrived yesterday, so did the U.S. Coast Guard carrying 35 tons of supplies. The delivery includes hygiene kits, plastic sheets and water jugs.
And if you would like to get involved we know many of you would like to, we have a way to help you out here. You can visit CNN.com's "Impact Your World" page and you'll find links to groups providing food and shelter to people that need it right now. Again, that's CNN.com/impact. WESTHOVEN: All right, and for the very latest on this ferocious storm that we've been tracking as it makes its way across the Caribbean, possibly heading for the United States, let's go to Karen Maginnis, right now, who is in our Hurricane Center.
KARIN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Got a lot of information to give to you. This is the latest information from the National Hurricane Center. We'll be getting another update at 11:00 this morning when we get it we'll bring it to you. But, right now Ike is a Category 4, it's headed toward the Great Inagua Island, that's across the extreme southern archipelago of the Bahamas. It is closer to Haiti than it is to any place else.
Well, now we're watching this move just to the south of due west. It slowed down since our previous advisory. It went from 15 miles-an- hour down to around 14 miles-an-hour. So, the slower it moves, the more rainfall you're going to see. Now, you made mention, Jennifer, about the comparisons with Donna back in 1960. Exactly 48 years ago today Donna raked across the Turks and Caicos -- and by the way, I'll mention that on Grand Turk Island they're saying about 80 percent of there homes there have been damaged 80 percent. There are 3,700 residents that live on Grand Turk Island.
Well, this is the path of Donna. As you can see here, Donna went across southern Florida and then made that right-hand turn into the Florida Peninsula. That was 1960. What do we expect now? These are the spaghetti models, all are generated by the National Hurricane Center, it's expected to move in a more southerly direction, so maybe right over central or maybe southern Cuba and then unfortunately the computer models then take it out into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
And needless to say, right now we've got a number of hurricane watches and warnings mostly those warnings for much of the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and the Hispaniola, also, for a good portion of Cuba, as well. Category 4 Hurricane Ike probably threatening somewhere along the Gulf Coach region at the end of the work week.
WESTHOVEN: Karen, thank you for that update. Four out of five homes damaged on Grand Turk Island. That's some real damaging storm. Thank you.
HOLMES: Well, let's talk more about Hanna, now. A lot of places along the East Coast are cleaning up from that tropical storm and what's left of it now off the coast of New England. Got soggy video, a lot of it, coming to us from that area. This is Manchester, New Hampshire. It was repeated, really, this type of scene all up and down the East Coast.
In Milford, Massachusetts, the storm went off, was so overwhelming it blew out a 50-foot section of a residential street. Check out this mess that this thing created. That ain't pretty at all. And for one resident in particular, not that this is a good time to have it happen, but the timing is just terrible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm joined by Tara who lives on this street. She's actually due to go to the hospital to give birth tomorrow and right now she's blocked in the driveway.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I am. I hope they fix it quick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yeah, we all hope they fix it quickly. Nobody is having babies at home anymore these days, are they? You can't tell looking at this video, this is from New haven, Connecticut, but FEMA says the overall damage from Hanna was minimal for the most part, that's overall minimal. The agency reports that no states have actually asked for any federal help.
WESTHOVEN: Well, that's good for taxpayers in some ways.
A deal to save mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, though, pretty scary when it comes to what we might pay. We may hear about this in a couple hours when the Treasury Department talks about what is it going to cost you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Live look here now at Freedom Walk happening. This is in Arlington National Cemetery. This is some new video we're getting in; this walk starting up around 9:00 this morning. What this is, is thousands of people across the country participating in this Freedom Walk, this is -- it's been going on the past several years to honor the victims of September 11 and those who have died in subsequent wars that followed.
This is the biggest walk in Arlington, Virginia. This is where we are, we're looking there, if we go back to these pictures. But, this walk has, again, it's been several years now that this thing has been putting in place and many, many cities across the country actually take place or actually participate in this particular kind of walk. Certainly the largest we're going to see is in the Arlington, Virginia, area. They're going to walk from the Arlington Cemetery actually over to the Pentagon. Of course, that was were the actual attack happened there, in Washington, D.C.
But again, more than 300 walks, literally happening in 50 states, 12 countries even, where this is taking place. So, we're keeping an eye on this and when this gets underway here in a little while, we will certainly go back to it.
Our Jamie McIntyre, who of course, covers the Pentagon for us, is standing by now live for us there where this walk is taking place.
And I guess they're just getting started this morning -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You know, it's a beautiful day here in Washington, bright blue, cloudless skies, very much like September 11, seven years ago. There's a crowd here, about 10,000 have registered for this walk this morning. It's the fourth time they've done this in the seven years since September 11. And earlier this week we caught up with walkers who's taking part in this for the very first time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
This is the first time we try to find exactly where you were on September 11.
COL JOHN LEECH, AIR FORCE (RET): That's correct.
MCINTYRE (voice over): For years retired Air Force colonel John Leech had no desire to see his old Pentagon office. It was too painful.
(on camera): So, you'd have been somewhere in this area here, right?
LEECH: Yes.
(voice over): But Leech agreed to take CNN there now that he's out to re-engage with the past.
LEECH: We would have been in this area, this area right here, when the aircraft struck and as I said, this was the firewall. The aircraft, as you know, drove in at an angle and it went -- actually, I believe it hit the first floor, drove in three rings. It hit with such force, I never experienced anything like it in my life. It rattled you right down to the bone. The office filled with smoke, the roof started design grading. I ran out the door and I stood right about there, and secondary explosions started erupting. And people were screaming, just blood curdling screams.
At first there was that adrenaline rush and within a few minutes I was scared. I mean, it was the first time I was really scared was like, my God, this is -- you know, we are under attack. I was so lucky. And if you look at the diagram of how the aircraft entered the building and the damage it did, it almost is like we were in a protected cocoon there, because we were virtually untouched. I mean, I inhaled a lot of jet fuel vapors and I got dusted up, but that was the extent of my injuries.
MCINTYRE (on camera): Have you seen this before?
LEECH: No, I haven't seen this one.
MCINTYRE (voice over): Down the hall 125 feet from where Leech figures he cheated death, hangs a color-coded chart showing where people the very moment the plane hit. Red for dead, blue for injured, green for unhurt and orange and yellow for people that were away.
(on camera): For instance, in this conference room here...
LEECH: Yeah, that's the Army guys who were killed.
MCINTYRE: Two people killed. These were all serious injured and miraculously, this lieutenant colonel escapes injury. It's the randomness of it.
LEECH: Yeah, it is.
MCINTYRE: Just where you happen to be.
LEECH: Yeah, I've had a lot of people say to me God was with you that day. Which I think is ridiculous to say something like that.
MCINTYRE: Because it implies that God is not with some of these other people.
LEECH: But not with these folks. Yeah. It's a horrible wound, just a occurrence.
MCINTYRE (voice over): Another first for John Leech, reviewing videotape of the destruction he escaped.
LEECH: This is where 90 something personnel were killed on the first floor. The devastation is just unbelievable. It makes you feel weak in the knees to see the pictures again.
MCINTYRE (on camera): Look at this on the desk here, you can see a pair of glasses.
LEECH: A pair of glasses.
MCINTYRE: A bowl of candy is tipped over there.
(voice over): Last stop, the Pentagon chapel where in a photo album John Leech finds the friend with him on September 11, Navy Captain Jack Punches. I've avoided for the past six years, avoided anything to do with 9/11, so it feels good to be here, I mean, a lot happened that day. A lot of good people died, a lot of very good people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: These marchers are about to step off here to go from here at Arlington National Cemetery to walk over to the Pentagon to the site of the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial, which is going to be dedicated later this week. And I'm just looking out over the sea of faces here, as these marchers are getting ready. Again, this is one of the walks, the Freedom Walks, taking part all across the country -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, our Jamie McIntyre, again at one of the largest Freedom Walks taking place on this day. Jamie, we appreciate you.
WESTHOVEN: Less than two hours from now we may get word of the biggest government takeover of a corporation in U.S. history. It's a deal to save mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Treasury Department scheduled to hold a news conference and may hold one today, but what will it cost you?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WESTHOVEN: Good morning and welcome back to the CNN Center. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on the economy, his plan to fix the nation's money problems. Obama spoke in Terre Haute, Indiana yesterday and here he is in his own words. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, first of all, we're going to have to clean up the mess that's been made over the last eight years and Evan mentioned one example. We've got two institutions, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, that -- whose job it was supposed to be to help people get mortgages who started getting into all kinds of risky loans and now it looks like the Bush administration is going to intervene with a bailout that could end up costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
Now, these entities are so big and they're so tied into the housing market that it is probably true that we have to take steps to make sure they don't just collapse, because the housing market, which is already weakened, would be in even worse shape if we didn't take some steps. Although, the one thing I want to make sure of is that whatever steps we take that we don't let them make profits and keep those private, but then when they have losses suddenly those are all public.
You know, you notice a lot of these folks, they don't like government when they're making money, but the minute they start losing money they think government is just swell. We're going to change that attitude, we've got to change that approach.
But -- so we're going to have to dig ourselves out of a hole. A couple steps. Step No. 1, we've got to stabilize our housing market, because a lot of job loss and a lot of the strains on the economy had to do with the housing market decline. And what I've said is that we should create systems where borrowers and lenders can get together, work out payment terms for their homes that they can sustain over time, so that at least we kind of hit bottom. We stop having a situation where month after month thousands of people just see their homes gone. If we can stabilize it and property values stop dropping, then at least we can start getting the construction trades and some others back on their feet. So, that's step No. 1.
Step No. 2 is that we have to use our tax code in a smarter way. Look, we should not be giving tax breaks to companies that are creating jobs overseas. We should save those tax breaks for companies that are investing here in the United States. We can't stop them from leaving, but we don't have to help them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WESTHOVEN: All right and that was Senator Barack Obama directly talking about the housing crisis, about a big story this morning, the federal government bailout, shall we say, at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Well, we like to give you all of the candidates' words. We're going to hear from John McCain, coming up in just a few minutes. You can hear more from the candidates all weekend with the return of CNN's BALLOT BOWL. Extended excerpts from the campaign trail and the candidates unfiltered, in their own words, we let you listen in for a few minutes, really get a sense of some of those short sound bites, here. BALLOT BOWL, starting at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on CNN.
HOLMES: You sound pretty excited about BALLOT BOWL.
WESTHOVEN: I love BALLOT BOWL.
HOLMES: All right, well, not going to love this. Some bad -- some more bad financial news -- maybe a long strike over at Boeing. No new talks have been scheduled between aviation giant and striking machinists. More than 27,000 Boeing machinists went on strike just after midnight on Friday after they were unable to come to terms on a new deal. That means that assembly of new planes is on hold as of right now. That will probably delay the delivery of Boeing's new fuel efficient 878 Dreamliner jets.
WESTHOVEN: And of course, one of our other big stories, Hurricane Ike cutting a destructive path through the Caribbean this morning.
HOLMES: Yeah, we're keeping an eye on the big monster of a storm. You get an idea of that, there, of maybe where it's headed and who it's headed towards, but yoou never know for sure. We'll give you the best guess we have. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Good morning again and welcome back to everybody on this CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes.
WESTHOVEN: And I'm Jennifer Westhoven filling in for Betty Nguyen.
The federal government may be ready to take over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae this morning. The mortgage lending giants hold or back about half of all of the mortgages in the United States, huge players in the market. The government is planning an announcement in about 90 minutes. Our Ali Velshi will joining us with details this half hour.
HOLMES: Also, Hurricane Ike tearing through the Caribbean right now. This is a Category 4 monster; it's dumping even more water on devastated parts of Haiti. The storm caused severe damage this morning in the Turks and Caicos Islands, also in the Florida Keys, mandatory evacuations are underway as a phased evacuation had started a half hour ago with people in the southern Keys, especially Key West, getting out. People in the central Keys were ordered to hit the road, get their butts out of there at Noon.
Well, our Karen Maginnis has been tracking this storm for us, has been tracking Hanna. Hanna finally going away, now we got Ike to worry about and this one -- nothing making us feel too good about this storm, right now.
MAGINNIS: No, Ike is very scary. Already, the premiere of the Turks and Caicos says on Grand Turk about 80 percent of the homes have been damaged in some way. And it still hasn't finished moving through the Turks and Caicos, but it is headed for Great Inagua and as it does it's going to have supporting winds of 135-mile-an-hour with some higher gusts, that makes it Category 4.
Here are the spaghetti models, the information from the National Hurricane Center, all of the different computer models showing it moving, for the most part, over Cuba. All right, here's the latest information.
Supporting winds, as I mentioned, 135 miles-an-hour, at 131 that makes it Category 4. It has fluctuated only a little bit, extends out 45 miles from the center and 125 miles beyond that, we're looking at tropical storm force winds. Here's the eye of this system looking impressive on the satellite imagery of the Turks and Caicos. And we do have hurricane watches and warnings. as you can imagine. across much of the Bahamas into the northern coast of Hispaniola, through Cuba where it's expected to move through as we go into Monday, overnight into Tuesday, perhaps affecting the Florida Keys which, as you just saw going through evacuations, it will weakened a little bit, and then emerge into the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps regenerated by the latter portion of next week towards the end of the week as a Category 3 -- Jennifer, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Karen, we appreciate you keeping an eye on this scary sucker for us. We'll be check in with you plenty. I know you've been a busy lady for the past several days. Thank you so much.
All right, the presidential conventions are over, the players are set, let's get it on. CNN's Election Express is rolling through Madison, Wisconsin, somewhere about, and so we're going to send you to political analyst Bill Schneider. He is on that bus. There he is, lounging with the flower arrangement in the back.
Nice setting, you look like you got a good setup, there. Let's talk about the campaign and it seems to be about Sarah Palin, right now. We heard from so many of our people who have covered McCain for some time. Saw that rally yesterday, said they saw people excited and yelling and screaming like they've never really seen at a McCain rally. So, is Palin doing what she's supposed to be doing for the McCain campaign?
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SR POLITICAL ANALYST: He certainly is creating a burst of excitement for the campaign -- for the McCain Campaign. He hasn't seen anything like this during the course of this year. He's drawing big crowds. His speech drew a bigger audience than the Barack Obama acceptance speech at the Democratic convention. A lot of it was curiosity, people taking another look at John McCain. He's trying to convey the impression that they are fresh, they are new and they have just as much a claim on the change issue as Democrats do. That is a remarkable claim. But, so far they seem to be making some headway with it.
HOLMES: You say they are making some headway on that change issue, kind of trying to reclaim it, take it from Obama who certainly used that throughout the primary, certainly to get him the nomination. But, on Palin it seems like all of these upsides we're talking about: getting people excited, getting people to take another look at him, but still, what's the downside? Has there been one yet? Will there be one later?
SCHNEIDER: The downside is that people are not convinced that she's ready to be president. That she has the experience, the qualifications, the knowledge to take over as president at a moment's notice. (INAUDIBLE) a couple different polls, do you think she's ready to become president and most Americans have serious doubts. She's going to have to answer a lot of questions, questions about her background, questions about what she did in Alaska, questions about her qualifications. She has not yet had that crucial press conference to try and address those issues. And believe me, the press are sharpening their pencils, if not their knives, waiting for Sarah Palin to answer their questions.
HOLMES: OK, we just keep pencils and pens, no knives, here. And tell us something else, I'll ask you to follow up on that point and ask you another question, here. Follow up on have we gotten word on when she may go before the press in any kind of way, whether it's a press conference or finally a sit-down interview with someone? Answer that for me and also do we have any numbers about that post-convention bump? Do we see any change in the numbers after Palin has been in the ticket?
SCHNEIDER: Well, to the first question, we don't yet have a date when Sarah Palin indicates she's going to sit down and either have a news conference or do a one-on-one interview with the members of the Press Corps. Everyone is, of course, eager to do that interview, but it's going to have to be done pretty quickly, certainly before the first presidential debate which is at the end of the September.
Second of all, what was your second question? Was it about the -- oh, polls. Yeah, well polling this weekend, we will have polls out tomorrow. I can assure you many organizations are polling this weekend. I can tell you that we will have, right on the air tomorrow on CNN, the results of the first polls taken since both parties have held their conventions just to see what kind of bump there's been. Their early polls taken during the Republican convention indicate that the race is getting very, very tight.
A poll of polls, CNN has combined several different polls taken during the Republican convention, show about a three-point spread with Barack Obama leading John McCain. Very, very narrow margin with 13 percent of the voters still undecided. But, what counts is what happened after the convention and that's why we're polling this weekend.
HOLMES: Well, we ill look forward to seeing those polls. I believe you said tomorrow. Bill Schneider, our senior political analyst -- tomorrow, yes -- we appreciate you taking the time out, sorry to bother you. Looks like you're really lounging there on the bus, so we'll let you get back to lounging. We'll talk to you again here soon, sir.
You can hear more from the candidates all this weekend with the return of CNN's BALLOT BOWL. We'll have extended excerpts from the campaign trail. Again, this is candidates' unfiltered in their own words. BALLOT BOWL starting at 4:00 Eastern today, right here on CNN.
WESTHOVEN: Many politicians claim that they're skilled at working both sides of the aisle, bipartisan is what they call that inside the beltway, they also like to claim that their opponents are not. So, our Josh Levs has been digging into the bipartisan records of John McCain and Barack Obama to see what they've really done to cross the aisle. Josh, what do you got for us?
JOSH LEVS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well we call it bipartisan here, too, down in Atlanta as you do up in New York. Yeah, you know what? I was watching the pageantry of these big events, I was watching them, noting all of these things I want a reality check. Last week we looked at Obama, today we're looking at McCain. Let's start off with this that McCain said in his speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Again and again I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed, that's how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again.
(APPLAUSE)
My friends, I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: He continues to say that on the campaign trail. Is it true? Well, John McCain does have a record of bipartisan work. Let's look at this graphic, here. Here's some major examples: You got his campaign finance efforts with Russ Feingold, his immigration work with Ted Kennedy and climate change efforts with Joe Lieberman. Three of McCain's biggest examples.
Now over to Obama, some examples for him. He did work on legislation to limit WMD proliferation with Richard Lugar, also he created this Google-like database listing federal contracts with Tom Coburn. I'm going to end with this. The "AP" has a good summary. They say this: "McCain with two decades in the Senate has worked in a bipartisan fashion on a number of issues. Obama, who was just elected in 2004, has a much slimmer record of accomplishment" but they also not that unlike McCain, Obama did not put himself at odds with his own party leaders by what he did there, working with Lugar.
No, obviously he does though, have this record of doing bipartisan work. So, in that sense, they both do. You can see more fact check information at CNN.com where we break down the speeches and we'll continue to do that throughout the rest of the campaign season. But, there you go, a few facts behind that claim that you're going to be hearing pretty much every day for the next, what is it now, Jennifer, 58 days?
WESTHOVEN: Yeah, right, 58. That's what we're down to.
LEVS: I think we're down to 58, now.
HOLMES: But, who's counting?
LEVS: Who's counting? LEVS: But you know, thanks for checking that out because I think this is the kind of fact checks we do of those claims, really important. Thanks, Josh.
LEVS: Thank a lot.
HOLMES: Well, we got a mortgage meltdown mess coming now. Are they going to save Fannie and Freddie?
WESTHOVEN: Are they going bail it out? What words can we use? The Treasury Department may come to the rescue to save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but what is it going cost you?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WESTHOVEN: Good morning and welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. The federal government reportedly moving closer to a temporary takeover of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A Treasury Department news conference is scheduled this morning for 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Now, here's some background. The two privately owned lenders hold or guarantee $5 trillion in mortgages. So, that's about half of all of the mortgages in the United States, these are huge players in the market. But, together they have lost about $12 billion since last summer. So, a lot of concern about what would happen if these companies didn't get some kind of help. But, what is this going to mean for homeowners and what will it mean for taxpayers?
Joining us now, CNN senior business correspondent, from New York. Ali, give us the latest on what we're supposed to hear from the Treasury and why people folks at home hear this and they should care about this big financial story?
ALI VELSHI, CNN SR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, folks, I know it's Sunday morning, it's sort of a chewier piece of news than you would be interested in. But honestly, take a cup of coffee and just sit down for a second and listen to this, because it is going to effect you.
Freddie and Fannie, the first thing to remember is, these are private companies, they're called GSEs, Government Sponsored Enterprises. And what they do is they buy loans from your bank. They take those loans and they give the bank more money in exchange for that so the banks continue to make loans to you. As a result of that, your bank continues to be able to make loans. In the old days they could only loan out as much money as they had on deposit. Now, with Freddie and Fannie there's sort of this endless supply of money. They are, as you mentioned, responsible. They own or guarantee one half of the U.S. mortgage market. So, it's very, very important. Without this intermediary body, what would happen is there wouldn't be all this extra money to make loans to people.
So, the problem here is that they've just been losing money for a long time because of this housing market, because they're less regulated than normal banks and government has decided to step in. The reason they've done that is because without Fannie and Freddie, the mortgage market would entirely dry up. Now, the result of the government stepping in is that Fannie and Freddie should have money to keep on going which could result in a lower rate if you're trying to get a 30-year fixed mortgage. In fact, there are some people who say that the 30-year fixed mortgage is now running one to one-and-a-half percent higher than it would be if it were easier for Fannie and Freddie to get money. They have to get money by selling these loans and obviously we know that market has dried up because of what they call the secondary mortgage market as dried up and the other problem is that Fannie and Freddie issue bonds to get money and people like Russia, countries like Russia and China, which have been big buyers of those bonds because they've been thought to be so safe, have been selling those bonds, which makes it more expensive for Fannie and Freddie to borrow money and to then buy loans from your bank.
So, it's -- the best analogy I can think of is it is like the operating system in your computer. It might be a little complicated to figure out how it works, but it has to work otherwise your computer isn't going to work. If Fannie and Freddie don't work, the mortgage market in the United States isn't going to work and mortgages will become harder to get and much more expensive -- Jennifer.
WESTHOVEN: Now, I think that there's a lot of agreement, I think, even among die-hard free market economists that are out there that something has to get done in this case. I've heard Alan Greenspan talk, not about this specifically, but saying maybe the government needs to have more crisis powers. At the same time we just had the government intervening when it came to the massive Wall Street company Bear Stearns. There's talk that the Detroit auto companies will come to Washington knocking. We're talking about billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer money here and setting up quite a pattern.
VELSHI: Yeah, and I think it's fair to say this is absolutely bail out of these two companies. For the moment, the government, we're expecting to hear from Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, who had been meeting with Ben Bernanke and other government officials, we're expected to hear in just over an hour that they are essentially taking control of Freddie and Fannie.
And here's the issue. It used to be that Freddie and Fannie were implicitly guaranteed by the government, but that was never tested. I think as of today they're going to be explicitly guaranteed by the government and guaranteed by the government means guaranteed by you, guaranteed by taxpayers, so if there are massive losses, they are now going to be on the hands of taxpayers. The bright side to this, if there is one, is that with these government guarantees, Fannie and Freddie should be able to continue operating and they should be able to raise the necessary money, so they shouldn't fail. But you're right, it is a bailout and most people say it's absolutely necessary because these companies can't afford to go under -- Jennifer.
WESTHOVEN: All right, that is our Ali Velshi, senior business correspondent from CNN. Thank you for joining this Sunday morning.
And of course just very amazing to see how many companies don't want regulation when they're doing well, but when they're in trouble... HOLMES: Yeah, Regulate.
WESTHOVEN: Look at that, "Paulson redies the bazooka." That's at our CNNMoney.com where you can get the in-depth information that you need on the mortgage crisis on CNNMoney.com.
HOLMES: All right, we'll turn back to a little politics, here. And he's straight off his national convention and he's right back onto the campaign trail. John McCain trying to convince Americans why he should be the next president. And he's trying to convince them one speech at a time.
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HOLMES: Republican presidential candidate John McCain talks about a possible takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at rally in New Mexico, yesterday. He says he wants to keep homeowners in their homes. McCain also spoke about healthcare and his plan to bring troops home from Iraq.
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MCCAIN: We're looking at possible failure of our home loan agencies. We need to keep people in their homes, but we can't allow this to turn into a bailout of Wall Street speculators and irresponsible executives. We can't let them do that.
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We're not going to bail out those speculators and executives. All you've ever asked of government is to stand on your side, not in your way and that's what I intend to do, stand on your side and fight for you.
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I'll keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I'll open new markets to our goods and services, my opponent will close them. I'll cut government spending, he loves big government. My tax cuts will create jobs, his tax increases will eliminate them. We need to make healthcare affordable and available for all Americans, and do you not want government-run healthcare in America.
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The bureaucrats to stand between you and your doctor. We will not have bureaucrats stand between you and your doctor. And my friends, I know how to reach across the aisle. I've worked with Democrats. I know how to get things done in Washington, and I've got the scars to prove it.
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Senator Obama does not. He's never stood up to his party on any major issue in the time that he's been in the United States senate. I have. I can, and I will.
When I'm president, we're going to start putting our country first. And now I'd like to remind you again the facts on the ground are that we have succeed and we are winning in Iraq, and our -- and our troops, and our troops...
CROWD: USA. USA. USA.
MCCAIN: And our troops will come home with honor and victory, not in defeat as would have happened if Senator Obama had had his way.
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WESTHOVEN: And that was Senator John McCain, which is a perfect time to check in with Howard Kurtz in Washington who's going to sort through all of what the candidates are saying and what's ahead on CNN's RELIABLE SOURCES.
Good morning, Howard.
HOWARD KURTZ, RELIABLE SOURCES: Coming up, Jennifer. Coming up, the media feeding frenzy over Sarah Palin as some of the coverage examines her role as a mother and her teenage daughter's pregnancy, are journalists being unfair and conned sending? John McCain's campaign declares war on the press over what it calls that unfair coverage. Are top officials really outraged or just working the press? Plus Olbermann, Matthews, Scarborough and Company all seem to be slapping each other around. Has MSNBC become too liberal and downright dysfunctional? That and much more ahead on RELIABLE SOURCES.
WESTHOVEN: All right. Thank you so much.
KURTZ: Thank you.
WESTHOVEN: And from U.S. Marines to paraplegic, to world class athlete, Carlos Leon.
HOLMES: Yeah, he took a pretty difficult and roundabout way to get to the top.
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HOLMES: All right. We can let the games begin. You're watching the opening ceremonies for the Paralympics, a sporting competition for athletes with physical disabilities. The ceremony happened yesterday in Beijing, this is just two weeks after the Olympics. About 4,000 physically disabled athletes are expected to compete. The games go until September 17, and one of those athletes competing in the Paralympics is Carlos Leon, he's a retired veteran and paralyzed from the waist down.
WESTHOVEN: His dreams, though, reached beyond the field and Melissa Long has his story. Listen to in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MELISSA LONG, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Carlos Leon is focused on going for the gold in Beijing, but he isn't your typical athlete. The former Marine was on leave three years ago after returning from Iraq when he broke his neck during a swimming accident in Hawaii.
CARLOS LEON, PARALYMPICS ATHLETE: I had no feeling. It was very different for me to not be able to move, you know, I was 20 years old, I was strong, I was able, but I couldn't.
LONG: Despite being paralyzed Leon moved on.
LEON: As a way of recovery, I didn't find sports, it's almost like sports found me.
LONG: The Paralympics athletes he met at a military sports camp motivated him to go a step further.
LEON: I started getting almost jealous, it was like, dang, I want to be a part of that, get up on the podium and hearing our national anthem. That's was really cool.
LONG: Now he's a world class athlete inspiring others.
LEON: Nice, good job.
LONG: Between training he coaches gets with disabilities and he hopes the Paralympics will help him reach out to even more people.
LEON: If I can impact the masses about us that there are disabled persons in our community that we would like to still be a part of the community, then that's something, you know, because then it's a bigger picture, not just one guy winning the gold.
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WESTHOVEN: So once you're nominated, is there anything that is outside the lines for candidates? Yeah. Coming up next on RELIABLE SOURCES, Howard Kurtz will delve into the subject of sexism and family matters.
HOLMES: And then we turn to the economy, it's issue No. 1 for voters, job losses, foreclosures, just where do the presidential candidates stand? Join Wolf Blitzer for LATE EDITION at 11:00 Eastern, but first a quick check of a couple of headlines here for you.
So, Hurricane Ike a powerful Category 4 storm and it's unleashing his fury over the Turks and Caicos islands. Ike also pounded Haiti and the water-logged country of Haiti could get an additional foot of rain. Haiti still reeling from three previous storms that killed 160 people.
Also, we have some breaking business news this morning. On the economy, one hour, the Treasury Department is expected to put mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae under government control. CNN will carry that news conference live at 11:00 Eastern Time.
So, we will have more top stories coming your way, the headlines for you in 30 minutes but right now we hand it over to RELIABLE SOURCES.
