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CNN Sunday Morning
Obama's Fiery Speech Before Congressional Black Caucus; Cain Wins Florida Poll
Aired September 25, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning.
President Obama telling a roomful of African-Americans last night to, quote, "stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying." Yes, a fiery speech at the Congressional Black Caucus where the president tells them he expects their support.
Also, a surprise winner coming out of Florida's Republican straw poll. It's not one of these two so-called front-runners.
Also, we told you about this story yesterday. It has a lot of you talking. A controversial bake sale on the campus of Cal Berkeley -- you pay based on your race or gender. If you're white, cookie costs you $2. If you're Native American, that same cookie it costs you 25 cents. If you're African-American, it will cost you 75 cents.
The organizer of this bake sale will be with me live this hour.
But at the top of this hour, let's start with the president. He will be heading out west today. Of course, we'll be talking about jobs. He will also be trying to raise a little money. Jobs were the emphasis last night at a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus.
Now, some in the Congressional Black Caucus have been critical of the president, saying he hasn't focused enough on African-American issues including African-American unemployment which right now is at 16.7 percent. Listen to the president telling the crowd he expects them to be with him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on. I expect all of you to march with me and press on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Let me bring in Athena Jones, who joins me this morning from Washington.
Good morning to you. And the president last night, some in that room had been critical of him. Did he tell them what they wanted to hear last night and what was the reaction afterwards?
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it was a fiery speech and he really riled up the crowd all the way through. He was being interrupted by applause, by cheers, by laughter at some points. He really took it to Republicans in some way, trying to challenge them.
At one point, he got applause and laughter when he said of Republicans, hey, you used to be for these infrastructure projects -- one of the proposals in the jobs bill. You guys used to like to build roads. What happened? He kind of threw up his arms.
The people I talk to from the CBC after the speech said that they were pleased. The president took his gloves off, led a call to action.
I spoke with Representative Sheila Jackson Lee from Texas. Let's listen to what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), TEXAS: I think that this is now for his own sake a sense of reckoning that, although his temperament as president of the United States is for everybody, is to include everyone, there's a time now that the marching has to begin because he's got to save this country and we're willing to save it with him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: And so, that's an example of the kind of reaction I got last night, people saying that they were happy to see him fired up, see him transitioning from governing mode with his pragmatic approach, reasonableness, of course, to more of a fiery campaign mode, showing that he's going to take the fight to the street. I spoke with one representative from New York, Greg Meeks, who said that he wanted to see the president continue to do this to take his message to districts, show the people that he feels their pain.
And, you know, that's one thing I have to mention, T.J., the president golfed with Bill Clinton yesterday, President Bill Clinton. And we know that -- we hear President Clinton is the guy who shows he's able to feel people's pain, very empathetic. And one thing that we observed yesterday after the speech was that the president seemed to spend a little more time than he often does out in the crowd gripping and grinning and talking to members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
And so, the speech was well-received. Everyone understands or believes that it is going to be a big fight and they just hope they continue to see this president fight for some of the things -- or for the things in this bill -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Athena Jones for us from Washington -- thank you so much.
And the president's outreach to the African-American community does not end with last night's speech. Coming up later this hour, a preview of Obama's interview, exclusive interview, with BET.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I think the depth of the economic crisis worldwide was something that was glimmering on the horizon, but I don't think we fully appreciated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The president talked about the economy and the effect of the African-American community. More on that coming up next half hour.
Meanwhile, let's turn to the Republicans now, shall we? And Herman Cain is your big winner from the Florida straw poll. This was at a Florida Republican Party event. It is called the Presidency 5.
And here is how the crowd found out that Herman Cain was the guy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Tonight's winner with 986 votes, 37.1 percent -- Herman Cain.
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, Herman Cain, who, of course, is the former head of Godfather's Pizza, he was all over Florida last week. He had a number of campaign stops. And also, he had a pretty good showing, many of the pundits will tell you, those who reviewed the Republican debate from last Thursday say he did pretty well.
Take a look at numbers from the straw poll. This wasn't even close. Look at Herman Cain out front 37 percent. Meanwhile, Rick Perry came in second, and then Mitt Romney there coming in third, a close third. Michele Bachmann at the bottom of this list.
Now, Herman Cain said the win shows that he should not and will not be ignored. His keys to his campaign are his tax policy and also energy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me tell you what the Cain doctrine is going to be. America is going to be its own best customer -- drill here, dig here, explore here first! We have the resources!
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Now, meanwhile, Michigan, another battleground state, and the battle is playing out this weekend. Governors Perry and Romney were there at a Republican Party event.
Candy Crowley will have straw poll results that are due a little later this hour. We'll chat with her about that.
Meanwhile, listen to Mitt Romney talk about what he'll do on day one as president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The burden of regulation is even larger than the burden of our taxation. And so, if I'm president, the first thing I'm going to do on day one is issue an executive order saying all the regulations put in place by Barack Obama's administration are put on hold and we're getting rid of the ones that killed jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Again, we are expecting results of that straw poll in Michigan coming up at the bottom of the hour. We'll check in with our Candy Crowley. Hope to bring you those results then.
Well, at six minutes past the hour now.
Eighty protesters arrested at demonstrations on Wall Street during the biggest one-day crackdown in more than a week. We told you about these protests last week when they first started. Demonstrators, you see here, they have been gathering there, still gathering there. And they say they're doing this to protest what they call the financial system that favors the rich at the expense of everybody else.
Police had set up protest zones, but demonstrators haven't stayed in those areas.
Also, something we're just getting in here, a historic change in Saudi Arabia and a major step for women's rights around the world. "Reuters" reporting that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah announced just a short while ago that women will be given the right to vote. They'll also be able to run as candidates.
Saudi Arabia is just one of handful of nations that has not allowed women to vote. They still can't legally drive. There had been calls from activists inside the country to boycott the elections coming up this week, but the change won't take effect for this election cycle. Saudi women will have to wait until the next election.
Also coming up next, 40,000 pounds ground beef that was meant for school lunches will never reach the cafeteria. We'll tell you why the USDA stepped in to stop that shipment.
Also, a little later, a story that has so many of you talking. A college campus bake sale where the prices are based on the customers' race. We will have the event organizer here live with us.
At eight minutes past the hour, let's say good morning to Reynolds Wolf.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, good morning, T.J. We've got all kinds of things to talk about weather-wise. First of all, the tropics very active in both the Pacific and the Atlantic.
At the same time, we've got the threat of flooding across parts of the Midwest and in Pennsylvania. And then just the opposite, very dry and breezy conditions across parts of the upper Midwest and into parts of Texas. Fire threats are out there.
We're going to have more on that coming up in a few moments. You're watching CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Ten minutes past the hour now. Give you a look at some of the stories making news cross-country.
First here, 40,000 pounds of potentially tainted ground beef being recalled by the Department of Agriculture as well as a Texas meat company. This is all because tests found traces of E. coli in the ground beef. The beef, would you believe where it was headed? Schools in Georgia.
There are no reports of anybody getting sick from this beef and, apparently, they think they caught it all in time.
Also, a state of emergency declared in Sparks, Nevada. Not because of some natural disaster, but because of a gun fight between rival motorcycle gangs. Police say this gun battle inside a casino left the president of a Hells Angels chapter dead.
Two members of another bike gang wounded. There was a drive-by shooting there yesterday. This was all a part of the street vibrations spring rally. That's why the motorcycle -- this is a motorcycle event that attracted the bikers there in the first place. It's now been canceled.
Also, 62-year-old long distance swimmer Diane Nyad is back in the water. She's on her third attempt to swim 100 miles from Cuba to Florida, ran into a bit of trouble yesterday when she was stung by jellyfish.
All right. Eleven minutes past the hour. Let's say good morning to Reynolds Wolf once again. What kind of Sunday we looking at? Problems?
WOLF: There are going to be some problems today in an entirely different flavors, ins some places, we could see some flooding in some spots. We have dry conditions for fires maybe a real danger. And then the tropics, the tropics is pretty active, too. Let's begin there in the tropics. Yesterday, we were talking about hurricane Hillary in the Pacific. It's a major hurricane, moving away from shore, not affecting anyone. Right now, we got two systems we are following in the Atlantic.
So far, so good. Same situation, nothing is a direct threat to land. We've got Ophelia on one side, we've got Philippe or Philip, whichever flavor you choose. We're watching both of them.
First and foremost, with Ophelia -- we do anticipate the storm is going to take more of a northerly job and may fluctuate in power over the next couple of days of winds going to about 50 miles per hour on Friday, it may thread the gap between Bermuda and the Eastern Seaboard. We'll watch it very carefully, but for now it doesn't pose a threat. That's good news.
Same deal right now for Philippe. Right now, winds expected to intensify as we get into Tuesday, a category 1 hurricane. And then as it moves farther north into the Atlantic, it should begin to weaken into Friday with winds of 65 miles per hour.
You know, these are some of the biggest rainmakers on the planet. And speaking of rain, this is one issue that we could have in parts of the Midwest. But just the opposite in the upper Midwest and in the Rockies, very dry conditions for you in Helena, Montana, back over to (INAUDIBLE). Same thing, very dry in Texas, right along parts of 45, and even along I-35, that includes very close to Austin, Texas and Travis County. That's one area to be concerned for us.
But again, as we wrap things up, the other opposite deal, we're talking about the potential for flooding especially in places I would say like Missouri, into southern Illinois. We've had heavy rainfall moving through this area throughout the morning. We could see more into the afternoon.
So, keep that in mind. We've already had threats of flooding in parts of Pennsylvania just yesterday.
All right. T.J., you're up to speed with forecast, let's pitch it right back to you.
HOLMES: Reynolds, thank you, kind sir.
Thirteen minutes past the hour now.
And bullfighting -- you know, it's been a huge part of Spanish culture. Did you also though it's now being banned in Barcelona? The city's holding its final bullfight today. We'll take a look at why in our "Morning Passport."
Also, you may remember something very personal I did here last year on the air. I went to the doctor. It was the first time I had been in about 12, 13 years. So what finally got me? It wasn't my mom getting on to me. Not even my wife.
It was Tom Joyner. Yes, the radio guy. I'll talk to him about his initiative take a loved one to the doctor day still going strong 10 years later. I'll update him on how I'm doing with my health.
Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Good morning to you, Raleigh, North Carolina. Looks like a little gloomy day there. I'll have to check with Reynolds to confirm what kind of day they're having there.
But good Sunday morning to you and to everybody across the country.
And let's say good morning as well to Nadia Bilchik, joining us for our "Morning Passport."
And people think Barcelona -- you ask them what they think of it, probably one of the first two, three things that come to mind -- bullfighting.
NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: No bullfighting in Barcelona from today. Today is the last bullfight in Barcelona. Bullfighting has been banned in the entire Catalonia region of which Barcelona is the capital. And, of course, the reason being, animal rights activists have got together, 180,000 signatures and said what you're saying right now is barbaric.
And let's face it, T.J., it is rather. You're seeing the matador at the end, but what happened to getting the bull to this state is that he had the muscles of his next pierced so that it is very debilitating because that's the largest muscle of the bull. They debilitate the bull. They also apparently tranquilize the bulls, and so all kinds of horrific things.
But today in Barcelona, there will be 20,000 people at El Monumental, which is the largest bullring in Barcelona and it's over -- it's about 97 years old. People will be cueing up to see the last bullfight in Barcelona. They haven't banned running of the bulls, though, you know, Ernest Hemmingway made very famous and romanticize in "The Sun also Rises" --
HOLMES: And there was some public opposition. But for the most part, there hasn't been an overwhelming outcry. I think people haven't heard before just what these bulls go through. It is pretty brutal.
BILCHIK: It is pretty brutal. I heard they even put some kind of Vaseline into their eyes before they go into the ring. They only see dark and come into the lightness and are overwhelmed. So, certainly, for animal rights activists this is a triumph. Opposition people are saying, well, we've lost the battle but not the war.
HOLMES: All right. But still, end of an era in Barcelona. Some will definitely tell you for good reason.
Nadia Bilchik for our "Morning Passport" -- thank you, as always.
We're at 19 minutes past the hour now.
And 10 years, later radio talk show host Tom Joyner is still sending people to the doctor. He sent me to the doctor. He's going to join me after the break to explain why he started this mission and why you need to grab your loved one and get them to the doctor.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Twenty-one minutes past the hour now. And it is the 10th anniversary of Tom Joyner's Take a Loved One to the Doctor.
The syndicated radio talk show host started this effort to raise health and wellness awareness in the African-American community. It's gotten a lot of attention. It got a lot of people to the doctor -- even me. Tom took me to the doctor last year. It was the first time -- I'm embarrassed to say -- in 10 years that I had gone for a check- up of any kind.
You might have remembered me taking this stress test or stressful test, I like to call it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. So, this is a maxima test.
HOLMES: Maximal test.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to push yourself as hard as you can. All right. You're ready. I'm going to speed you up, 3.3 miles an hour.
HOLMES: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. We're off.
HOLMES: This sure goes faster than mine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HOLMES (voice-over): I'm told to keep walking as long as I can while the incline rises every minute.
(on camera): Piece of cake. So far, so good but we're only three minutes in.
Whose idea was this? I should have done this first. Getting a little difficult.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You feel like you're about 17 to 20 on there or you've only got about a minute left. Let me know. You ready?
HOLMES: I want to you go as long as you can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: T.J., keep working up the hill there. Feel any chest pain or anything like that is this.
HOLMES: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you to go as long as you can.
HOLMES: If I got to stop, I must stop.
(voice-over): Twenty-two minutes and 8 second later, I'm tapped out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. Tom got such a kick out of that. We brought him back to chat about it.
Tom Joyner, good morning, sir. How are you doing?
TOM JOYNER, RADIO-TV TALK SHOW HOST: Twenty-two minutes is pretty good.
HOLMES: That wasn't bad but I was told former President Bush had a better time than I did. He goes to that doctor as well.
But it's good to see you. But you tell me over the past 10 years, have you seen your efforts paying off or minds and mentalities changing about getting to the doctor, or we still got work to do?
JOYNER: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And we still got work to do. Every time we do this -- and we do this every year and this is the tenth year. We do it across the country at screenings and health fairs all over the country, including here in New York coming up this Friday.
And every time we do one of these invariably, there are people who come to get check and they're rushed right to the hospital, either check in, operated on, or medicated. And people tell us all the time that they might have died had they not taken -- had they not gone to the doctor, gone to one of our screenings, had they not taken a loved one to the doctor as we call it. And so, it's a passion that pays of every year.
HOLMES: And, Tom, you talked about -- we talk plenty about this tough guy mentality we all have. If it ain't bleeding, ain't broken, we ain't going to the doctor -- and especially in the African-American community. We are still having that issue.
JOYNER: Yes. Yes. And we call it Take a Loved One to the Doctor. And as I mentioned last year, what we really mean is take your sorry man to the doctor, because it's usually the woman of the household that will go to the doctor and it takes that stupid man of hers all kinds of crying and threatening to get him to go even though he's got stuff oozing, he's got unexplained lumps, coughs, hacking.
HOLMES: But especially now. And really -- we certainly had some fun with this last year, but it was important for me to get to the doctor. But in times now where we are seeing the new numbers we just got not long ago about the number of people unemployed in this country, the black unemployment in this country, the black poverty in this country. I mean, is still -- is that a new challenge now in trying to get a certain community or just men or people in general to the hospital when they are struggling in such a way and many do not have health care?
JOYNER: Well, that's why we do these free health screenings. And health care, thanks to the president, now is more affordable to all people and so, to take advantage of that we have these health screenings and we have -- and we also encourage people to get help with health care, health care providers and things like that.
So, we're full circle. We're all incumbent here. We try to get people to go to the doctor. We try to show people how they could afford to go to the doctor and so forth and so on.
HOLMES: All right. How's your health?
JOYNER: I'm good. I'm going for my check-up next month, October. When you going back?
HOLMES: I think I'm due right about now. This is right out a year.
JOYNER: Once a year is good.
HOLMES: OK. I'm due right about now.
JOYNER: I'm a deejay, I go once a year. You're a news man, come on. Let's go.
HOLMES: What does that mean?
JOYNER: You want to go with me this time?
HOLMES: There were a couple of tests I don't necessarily appreciate that you didn't give me a heads-up about. So, I might need to go back with somebody else this time.
(LAUGHTER)
JOYNER: All right, T.J.
HOLMES: Tom, good to see you as always. Congratulations on the 10th year and really it is an important effort for, yes, the African- American community but all men. We are kind of the same way and won't go. I was one of those stubborn ones. I appreciate you, Tom.
JOYNER: We are so stupid
HOLMES: Have a good one. We'll talk to you soon, buddy.
We're 27 minutes past the hour. Now we're going to turn back to the United Nations and an event at the U.N. this week -- or at the end of last week really focused attention on the so-called Jewish vote here in the U.S. What role does faith play in the political choices that the Jewish voters will make? Also this morning, a pastor is inviting those in his church to reach into the offering plate and take money out. You heard that right. We'll tell you what's going on.
Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, we're at the bottom of the hour on this CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Hello to you all and thanks for spending part of your weekend here with us. I'm T.J. Holmes to give you a look at some of the stories that are making headlines.
And a historic change in Saudi Arabia: Reuters reporting that the Saudi King Abdullah has announced, this is just a short time ago, that women will finally be given the right to vote. They'll also be able to run as candidates. Saudi Arabia is one of just a handful of nations that has not allowed women to vote. Women still can't legally drive there, however.
And police in Nepal say two Americans are among the 19 who died when a small plane crashed near the Kathmandu airport this morning. The plane was apparently returning from a sightseeing tour it was on an approach to land when it hit a mountain side a few miles away from the airport.
And take a look this, a hero's welcome for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. That's what he got this morning when he got back to Ramallah. I'll try to get that picture up here for you -- here it is, Abbas just returned from the United Nations in New York where he formally submitted the Palestinian's bid for statehood. That move though will likely be vetoed by the U.S.
And the push for Palestinian statehood at the U.N. is having an impact on the U.S. race for president. Jewish voters may be unhappy with President Obama's policies toward Israel, have been getting a lot of attention from Republicans.
So what issues really drive American Jewish voters when they go to the polls? Well Jan Jaben-Eilon is a correspondent for "The Jerusalem Report" and splits her time between Jerusalem and Atlanta. We caught her in Atlanta and she's here in the studio with me.
Thank you for being here. Are people making a mistake or just a little off if they think that Jewish voters will vote on a candidate based solely on that candidate's stance on Israel?
JAN JABEN-EILON, CORRESPONDENT, "THE JERUSALEM REPORT: They're totally wrong.
HOLMES: Totally wrong.
JABEN-EILON: Now, all the polls show that Israel is like numbers -- priority number seven when they go in to cast their votes. It is not -- they're just like any other Americans, they're going to vote on the economy and other issues. HOLMES: So what do the Republicans think there is some kind of opening here? Do they really think it's realistic to maybe get some of the support that President Obama had in the last election from Jewish voters?
JABEN-EILON: Look. In every election they think they're going to get more, the larger percentage of the American Jewish vote and it hasn't happened. Obama got 78 percent of the Jewish vote a couple years ago. That was even four percent higher than John Kerry four years prior to that.
They always think that there is a possibility. And who knows? I mean one never knows how people are going to vote.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Is it possible now that they won't be as enthusiastic, Jewish voters, about voting for President Obama? We saw 78 percent maybe still he gets a good chunk of that vote but maybe they're not coming out in the same large numbers.
JABEN-EILON: Well that seems to be the case.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Ok.
JABEN-EILON: Absolutely. All the polls show that there's been a decrease in support for Obama in the Jewish community, about the same level as the decrease among all Americans. But the American-Jewish voters are still more enthusiastic about the President than the average voter.
Now whether that's going to continue, you know, we're a long way from the election.
HOLMES: You said Israel is down on the list of priorities, if you will, relatively speaking.
JABEN-EILON: Right, right.
HOLMES: So what is the reaction? You cover these issues and Jewish voters. What is the reaction then to the debate we have been seeing at the U.N. to the President's stance on Israel? What is the reaction to this debate and how the President's played his hand in it?
JABEN-EILON: I think overall confusion. Because I think a lot of people -- look. Most Jews never go to Israel. They don't understand what's going on over there, they don't understand the history, you know. They just don't have that background so when the President spoke about the 1967 lines --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Yes. JABEN-EILON: -- with land swap they got confuse about you know and then when they're confused they listened to their leaders who say -- who don't remember about the land swap. So there's some confusion involved.
HOLMES: Is that us and I -- by us, I mean, the media, do the -- certainly the -- the politicians understand Jewish voters better sometimes in the media might because we -- we seem to have a tendency sometimes that you hear it all of the time, a monolithic group, a monolithic vote. And that's certainly not the case but we heard that about the 1967 borders and immediately everybody got some -- some pundit on, oh, who say oh my God, did you hear what he said? Jewish voters are going to be upset about this, but you said at the end of the day -- a lot of folk were confused about it.
JABEN-EILON: There -- yes and they're not monolithic.
HOLMES: Yes.
JABEN-EILON: I mean, the majority are very liberal as far as social and economic policies so that tends to lean them towards the Democratic Party. But they're not monolithic. The more conservative or the orthodox Jewish voters are more conservative.
HOLMES: Yes.
JABEN-EILON: And they vote possibly more Republican.
HOLMES: All right. Jan Jaben-Eilon, well, I'm glad we caught you while you were in Atlanta. Let us know when you're ever back because so I'm sure we'll have plenty more to talk to you about. Thank you so much for being here.
JABEN-EILON: Thank you very much.
HOLMES: All right, 35 minutes past the hour now. If you want to read more about religion and spirituality, we have our belief blog for you at CNN.com/belief. You can share your thoughts there.
Well a pastor, Tim Lucas, he has watched some of his church members at Liquid Church. They put money in the collection plate every single Sunday even though he knows some of them are struggling financially themselves.
But this week he's doing something a little different. He's not collecting money. He's actually encouraging them to put their hand in the collection plate and take money out. I talked to him a little earlier about the $30,000 that is going to be going out the door this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM LUCAS, PASTOR, LIQUID CHURCH: A lot of people are cynical about religion and they come to church expecting to be shaken down but we're saying, you know what? It is really all God's money and he trusts you. You know, every bill in the U.S. economy says "In God we trust" and we're going to put that to the test.
HOLMES: Now, do you think there are some people who are reluctant and are just not comfortable taking money frankly out of the collection plate, for one, but also taking from the church or even admitting that they need some help right now?
LUCAS: Well, we're challenging people to creatively invest it in one of three ways. So maybe it's a single mom who receives a $50 bill and she's going to use that to fill her tank with gas this week or pay for a baby-sitter.
So people are free to take it. But we're challenging on most people to actually look and help a neighbor in need. Here in New Jersey a lot of people were hurt by floodwaters of Hurricane Irene.
HOLMES: Yes.
LUCAS: So maybe they're going to go to buy groceries and cook a meal and bring it over to a hurting neighbor. Others are going to -- and we're asking them to actually multiply it and invest it over the next three weeks, bring it back and we're going to donate it to help rebuild a homeless shelter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And everybody in the church is invited to take one -- just one envelope out of the plate today.
We're 37 minutes past the hour. Presidential hopeful Rick Perry he's -- well, he isn't about to just hand over the Michigan vote to native son Mitt Romney. Both men campaigned this weekend trying to lock down the vote and a straw poll was taken, results are expected to be released at any moment if they haven't already.
We will tell you how that vote came out. Our Candy Crowley has all the details. We'll check in with her coming up next.
Also, what do the politics of diversity have to do with a bake sale? Coming up we're going to be talking to the person who came up with this controversial price list. You pay based on your race.
A quick break; we're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, it's 40 minutes past the hour now. And you know it wasn't going to take "SNL" very long to make fun of the GOP presidential candidates. Check this out from last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight's debate is between former Governor Mitt Romney and Governor Rick Perry. There are also six other people who will never be president but showed up anyway. Their names are Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: That's just cold. But Herman Cain though, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO, he actually ran away with the Florida straw poll on Saturday. He got 37 percent of the vote.
Let me bring in our Candy Crowley now. She of course is coming up at the top of the hour with "STATE OF THE UNION". Good morning to you. "SNL" always just right-on when it comes to politics oftentimes but what happened in Florida with Herman Cain?
We'll get to the Michigan results you have but what happened in Florida at that straw poll? Herman Cain, 37 percent of the vote.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": I think a couple things. First of all, Herman Cain is a favorite. He -- he does throw out a lot of what we like to call red meat. I mean he is a good orator, he does grasp and hold on to the core of the Republican Party's conservative. He talked a good business game and we know this is all going to be about economics and he's the one person in the group he's helped build a business, et cetera, et cetera.
But I think more than that -- so he's a good second choice. And people are going, you know, I really like that Herman Cain, he puts in good debate performances. But more than that, Governor Perry put in a bad one.
So I think it was the combination of the two that the second choice became number one after a fairly weak debate by Governor Perry.
HOLMES: All right.
Let's turn on to Michigan and that is where Governor Perry and Governor Romney spent a lot of their time yesterday. You got new straw poll results. I didn't want you to tell me ahead of time.
CROWLEY: Indeed.
HOLMES: I wanted to react here like everybody else. We're hearing it for the first time. What happened?
CROWLEY: Ok. This -- this shouldn't surprise you and I'll tell you why. It's Michigan, it's a poll of Michigan activists, party activists, and Michigan is where Mitt Romney is from.
So the drum roll -- Mitt Romney won 50.9 percent of the vote. Remember, this is about 680 people.
HOLMES: Wow.
CROWLEY: And after that comes Perry with 16.8 percent of the vote, followed by Cain 8.5 percent, and Ron Paul 7.7 percent. So the headlines have to be shared. Herman Cain in Florida on Saturday, and then way up north in Michigan Mitt Romney brings it home in what is essentially his home state but still a good win for him and he gets to grab some of the headlines. HOLMES: Ok what -- what do these polls really tell us? Do they not tell us much? And they just get some of these candidates some attention?
CROWLEY: Yes, think it's the latter.
HOLMES: Yes, ok.
CROWLEY: I mean what does it tell you? It -- it tells you one main thing and that is that no -- the Republican Party has not come around one particular candidate at this point. It tends to be -- these straw polls tend to be won by those who have very passionate followers.
Ron Paul wins so many of these straw polls. His following shows up. It matters. When there are 681 people that vote, it matters. So Ron Paul tends to do very well.
Herman Cain also has a very ardent following so his people tend to show up. And I think it does sometimes measure the swings such as a bad debate by Governor Perry, could probably be measured in that Florida straw poll.
But in the grand scheme of things, they'll all tell you how, oh, our straw poll predicted this or that but in the grand scheme of things they're interesting. It grabs people headlines. At this point if are you in a field of eight or nine you want the headlines but it is not predictive of what's going to happen in terms of the nomination.
HOLMES: All right. Well Candy Crowley, always good to see you. And to our viewers, you can see more of Candy in 14 minutes and 30 seconds when "STATE OF THE UNION" starts at the top of the hour with Candy Crowley, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, 6:00 a.m. Pacific. Thanks so much to Candy Crowley.
Well, stick around for this next story. A bake sale to tell you about and if you're white, a cookie will cost you $2. If you're black, it will cost you 75 cents. Native Americans, 25 cents.
You'll have to hear from the student, the one who organized this bake sale. Let him explain to you why he did it. He's joining me next.
Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. About 10 minutes of the top of the hour.
A lot of people are talking about this story: an upcoming bake sale at UC Berkeley. Campus Republicans are going to sell cookies and brownies priced according to race, gender and ethnicity. They say they are trying to make a political point.
We'll have more on that in a second when I talk to the guy who actually organized this but you see the price list there. Baked goods cost $2 for whites, $1.50 for Asians, $1 for Latinos, 75 cents for African-Americans, 25 cents for Native Americans and women get a 25 cent discount. So, you can imagine the reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANAIS LAVOIE, PRESIDENT, YOUNG DEMOCRATS: The way that they made the statement, the words that they used, the fact that they humorized and mocked the struggles of people of color on this campus is very disgusting to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right.
Joining me now to talk about this bake sale and some of the reaction it has gotten now, is the young man, the head of the UC Berkeley College Republicans, Shawn Lewis. We appreciate you getting up a little early out there, at least, on the West Coast to be with us. Thanks so much.
Let's just start with this. You explain to people what was the point?
SHAWN LEWIS, PRESIDENT, UC BERKELEY COLLEGE REPUBLICANS: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
So right off the bat, the motivation for this event was that our Berkeley student government the AACC (ph) was actually sponsoring a phone bank to call and urge Governor Jerry Brown to sign this bill into law. And that event, that phone bank, is at the same time and location that we decided to have this bake sale.
So the point is, that our student government is sending a message to Governor Brown that UC Berkeley students have one opinion, one voice on this issue. So the reason for us to organize this event was specifically to show that there's another opinion on this issue, on campus, not all Berkeley students support this bill, SB-185, which would allow public universities to consider race, gender, ethnicity in the admissions process.
HOLMES: There we go. Now, you say there is another voice you say. And I guess some people would argue you could certainly go out there and oppose them without stirring things up. I guess a part of it was certainly to get attention.
Now, on your Web site -- it was a Facebook posting that got people going. I think it's been since taken down but you all said hope to see you all there. If you don't come, you're a racist.
What was the point of I guess what some would call an inflammatory statement like that? I'm sure you're probably trying to be a little tongue-in-cheek but explain that to me.
LEWS: Yes. So the Facebook event is still up, it is active. We reworded the language of the description. That language is still available. We have that available through a link. But the issue was we immediately posted it and within a matter of hours there was a pretty big outrage. People were not really connecting the satire we put to this event and so we reworded the description of the event to say exactly why we're having this event.
Now the purpose for this satire and for the pricing structure, which is inflammatory, was to cause some uproar in response to our event because we feel that discriminating people based on their skin color for baked goods is discriminatory, the same way that judging people on color of their skin for the admissions process is discriminatory.
HOLMES: Ok. We're going to put this up. One part of that SB- 185 -- I'll ask you. It says that schools may -- they may consider -- may consider -- I'll let viewers take this in. It says "The University of California may consider race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, geographic origin and household income, along with other relevant factors in undergraduate and graduate admissions, along with other relevant factors and undergraduate admissions, so long as no preference is given."
Now with that language, it's not saying that we're going to allow African-Americans or native Americans or anything else into the school based solely on race. So I guess what is your objection to that language in SB-185?
LEWIS: So the problem we see with SB-185 is that while it certainly doesn't establish a quota system or affirmative action in that sense because it is unconstitutional, it doesn't implement any infrastructure that would really guarantee that these factors are considered in a more socio-economical sense. So far the way we see the bill is that it considers race, ethnicity or geographical origin but it doesn't really connect those issues to socio-economic factors which are real and those issues do need to be discussed in the debate of equity and inclusion in college campuses.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: So you do think -- excuse me. I think I'm hearing you right. You're saying you actually do think that race or background or household income, things should be considered? You just don't like the way California's going about it?
LEWIS: Right. We see SB -185, just considering race or geographical origin doesn't get to the core issue of perhaps socioeconomic status. So perhaps the socioeconomic status needs to be brought into this debate of equity and inclusion but SB-185 we don't think accomplishes that. It doesn't actually put language in the bill that establishes an infrastructure or a way to implement that. The bill is very loosely written and we think that those rules would not be used in that way.
HOLMES: Shawn Lewis, I'm going to follow up with you on this thing. All right? I'm going to let you go now but I think the bake sale coming up on Tuesday, we will follow up and hope to continue the conversation but it certainly has a lot of people talking. Thanks so much for getting up early with us.
LEWIS: No, thank you.
HOLMES: All right.
And President Obama, we'll turn to him just a moment, how the economic crisis is hurting African-American communities. He talked about it last night; more from the President when we come back.
Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We're getting close to the top of the hour, getting close to "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley. She'll have senior White House advisor David Plouffe on talking about the President's falling poll numbers. Again, Candy Crowley coming your way in just a couple of minutes, here at the top of the hour.
But first, President Obama talked about the toll the unemployment crisis is having on the African-American community. He sat down with BET, Black Entertainment Television, in an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House. Here's a couple of excerpts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The main thing I want the African-American community to know is just those prayers are appreciated, them rooting for me is appreciated, and that I am spending all my time in this office trying to make sure that if there's some kid in the south side of Chicago that doesn't have a shot right now, isn't going to a good school, parent doesn't have a job, that I'm fighting for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: President Obama also talked about what he knows now that he didn't know when he took office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I think the depth of the economic crisis worldwide was something that had -- that was glimmering on the horizon but I don't think we fully appreciated. But, overall, I think that when I look back over these last 2 1/2 years, the decisions we made were the right decisions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: You can see that BET exclusive interview Monday night, 7:30 Eastern time.
Well, as we get close to the top of the hour, just seconds away --
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Ok.
HOLMES: Which one to tell.
WOLF: Well T.J. --
HOLMES: Quick now. Reynolds, come on. Reynolds, come on.
WOLF: Worst weather is in the mid Mississippi Valley -- oh my goodness -- chance of rain along parts of the Eastern Seaboard. When you get to D.C. northwards, there's a mix of sunshine and clouds. Rain out to the west and nice and cool for you across much of the Great Lakes including Chicago where the high today in (INAUDIBLE) is going to be 64. 97 in Dallas, the heat continues there, 61 in San Francisco, 76 in New York, 86 in Atlanta. 80s in Tampa and Miami.
T.J. that is your forecast. Let's pitch it back to you.
HOLMES: Pretty good. I have all this time to spare. I thought you would take more. We don't want to step on Candy Crowley's time.
But to all of you and on behalf of Reynolds Wolf, thank you all for spending this weekend with us on CNN SATURDAY and SUNDAY MORNING. We will see you back here next weekend. But right now belongs to Candy.
