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CNN Saturday Morning News

High Stakes in Las Vegas for Presidential Candidates; Voting in South Carolina; Winter Chill Across the U.S.; Sinking Economy

Aired January 19, 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, ANCHOR: Well, from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Hello to you all, I'm T.J. Holmes. I'm so glad you could get up with us this morning for the CNN Saturday morning.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, stay in bed and keep the TV on, in bed or whichever. Good morning, I'm Susan Roesgen filling in today for Betty Nguyen.

From playing poker to picking a president. High stakes on a Las Vegas strip. Caucus central in just three hours. The casinos, the caucuses, the candidates, all covered by CNN, the best political team on television.

HOLMES: And in South Carolina, we need you to get up and vote, yes, but we need you to vote early because you got that mess going on. A big winter storm slamming some places in the south including South Carolina. It could be a mess there for folks. We do want you to get out and vote.

Our Reynolds Wolf is in the severe weather center and he'll have updates for us throughout this morning. And we are going to start by talking about voting this morning.

Already started in South Carolina, Nevada coming up a few hours away.

ROESGEN: And the caucuses in Nevada are a big battleground for Democrats. It is their first western test. So, we'll be taking you live to Las Vegas in just a minute.

HOLMES: Yes, but we want to talk about South Carolina first and the Republican primary. The Democrats square off there next Saturday. So the Republicans get the first shot at the south and there is a whole lot on the line.

ROESGEN: Some candidates really have a lot riding on South Carolina.

HOLMES: Some more than others, actually two sons of the south, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson. They're hoping to turn their roots into votes. CNN's Mary Snow joins us now live from a polling place in Columbia, South Carolina, are people starting to trickle in there from that polling spot, Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are. We are at Irmo High School, and so far roughly about 50 people in the two hours since the polling place has been opened. But you know, we've been hearing this weather report. It is raining pretty heavily here. And that is one of the factors to be looked at today in terms of voter turn out. The candidates, as you mentioned, have so much at stake on the line here in South Carolina. This can make or break candidacies.

And on the campaign trail yesterday, as candidates are making their final push, one of the consistent themes on the campaign trail has been the economy. And particularly yesterday, reaction to President Bush's stimulus package and how the candidates would say what they would do to help boost the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): It didn't take long for the President's economic stimulus plan to make it out on to the campaign trail.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to talk a minute about spending. The President just gave a speech.

SNOW: South Carolina Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said he would like to work with the President in Congress as the President suggested. But he told crowds, his priority is to cut government spending. McCain ruled out his own stimulus package a day ahead of the President that calls for a cut in corporate tax rates and a call to extend tax cuts now slated to expire in 2010.

When asked about the President's plan, former Senator Fred Thompson expressed caution about a stimulus package that had too many promises.

FRED THOMPSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's talking about a package that would apparently entail about $150 million that would mostly involve tax rebates. I think that if we're going to have a stimulus plan, that's probably the direction that we need to go in.

SNOW: Mike Huckabee said he thought President Bush's stimulus package was on the right track.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not even the IRS understands.

SNOW: He told crowds in South Carolina he wants to replace the income tax with a national sales tax, a so-called fair tax.

HUCKABEE: Nothing would more readily revive our economy than given back the capacity for economic prosperity than completely scrapping our current tax system.

SNOW: Two candidates not in South Carolina also weighed in. In Nevada, Mitt Romney said the President's plan made sense and that his economic stimulus package would be coming out soon and had similar features. Rudy Giuliani called the President's package a positive step and touted his ideas for tax cuts to stimulate economic growth.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SNOW: Now the two front-runners considered here, Senator John McCain and Mike Huckabee, Senator McCain lost here in 2000, that derailed his candidacy then. He is trying to work on his momentum from his New Hampshire victory and Mike Huckabee has been courting social conservative voters hoping to show that his Iowa victory was not just a one state win.

The race here is so close, both candidates were out pressing voters to turn out today and Republicans here in the state like to remind everyone that no Republican president has gone on to the White House since Ronald Reagan without winning here in South Carolina. T.J.

HOLMES: Wow, that's a lot of pressure there, Mary, to win.

SNOW: A lot of pressure.

HOLMES: Mary Snow for us there at the polling place. We'll see you again. Thank you so much, Mary.

ROESGEN: And of course, the Democrats then square off in their South Carolina primary next Saturday. And they have one more chance before that to tell voters what they are all about. The congressional black caucus sponsors the last Democratic debate before South Carolina and we will have it live right here on CNN, Monday, January 21 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

You know the old saying what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?

HOLMES: Oh, yes.

ROESGEN: Yes, all kinds of stuff happens in Vegas. Today, what happens in Vegas won't stay there when it comes to politics. The Nevada caucuses get underway there in about three hours now.

HOLMES: Yes, our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser joins us now live from Caesar's Palace, along the strip in Las Vegas, where it's about 6:00 a.m. So I'm sure you're just getting back to the hotel from your evening out, Paul, but let's talk some politics here if we can. And let's be honest here, the Democrats had the caucuses there today. Well, so do the Republicans, but the Republicans also have a primary in South Carolina today and they're not paying attention to Nevada.

Now, be honest, are the Democrats only there because they don't have another contest happening in what they see as a more important state?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You know, T.J., good question, but actually they think, the Democrats moved Nevada's caucuses date up because it's an important state for them. Look at the people voting here in Nevada on the Democratic side, a lot of Latino voters, a lot of union voters. That's very different than what we saw in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to vote.

So, they wanted Nevada to be up early. They wanted to give the state a lot of attention and the top three Democrats that are still in the race, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have been here basically all week, reaching out to these voters and talking about the issues that matter out here. And those issues are the economy, jobs, home foreclosures, as you know, you've talked about earlier this morning, a very high home foreclosure rate out here and health care. The candidates are here and they think Nevada is important.

HOLMES: Well, tell us then, Paul, why the Republicans have for the most part decided to totally ignore Nevada and they're over in South Carolina right now battling it out?

STEINHAUSER: Yes. That's a very good question as well. And as Mary mentioned in her report, the only Republican who's really been campaigning here is Mitt Romney, he's expected to win. And he kind of skipped out on South Carolina after a few days and came here. Why? Because as Mary said, South Carolina is so important to the Republicans, no nominee has won the nomination on the Republican side without first winning South Carolina. The south is very important to them. Maybe the mountain west is a little less important and that's why the Republicans it seems are mostly in South Carolina and not here in Nevada.

But the Democrats are here and as you said, I'm at Caesar's and later today, right behind me is one of the caucuses. Nine casinos is going to be holding caucuses here. And we'll see what happens. This is unchartered waters for the Democrats.

HOLMES: And you talk about the caucus being there in the casino. That was a bit of a battle there. An actual lawsuit filed to keep it from happening in those caucuses, excuse me, keep the caucuses from happening in casinos because there's a big endorsement, a union endorsement that Barack Obama got and they thought that would help him out because so many of those union workers work at those casinos. So how has that battle played out? Has there been a backlash against Hillary Clinton and her campaign? Because view that she was tied to that lawsuit.

STEINHAUSER: Exactly, the Teachers' Union was the one that filed the lawsuit against the Culinary Workers' Union. That's the union 60,000 strong her in Nevada. All the hotel and casino workers. The Clintons say they weren't directly tied to this lawsuit, and they weren't. Though some of their supporters were obviously behind it.

But it seems for now that the caucuses, you know, the judge ruled in favor of the Culinary Union, the caucuses will continue. We'll just have to see. We have to see when these union members go in and vote. How they vote and if there's going to be anything against the Clintons. We'll have these results this afternoon about 4:00 or 5:00 Eastern. We will know then. But this is interesting because they've never really done this before in Nevada this early or this important. And the estimates are anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000 people. We just don't know.

HOLMES: We just don't know but as you said, 4:00 or 5:00 Eastern time? STEINHAUSER: Yes, by then we should know everything.

HOLMES: All right.

STEINHAUSER: You got it.

HOLMES: We appreciate you, please go drop $20 on black for me and I'll talk to you later.

STEINHAUSER: Take care, T.J.

HOLMES: We're going to have much more political coverage on tap all day. Today here on CNN, we've got a special live campaign edition of "YOUR MONEY." Join Wolf Blitzer, Christine Roman and Ali Velshi. All from Las Vegas, that comes your way at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and at 2:00 Wolf stays with us for special coverage from our Election Center in New York. How do you go on from Vegas to New York in the span of about an hour?

ROESGEN: It's called a tape delay or something like that. Yes.

HOLMES: Get the first results from the Nevada caucuses. And be sure to stay around for the "BALLOT BOWL." Wolf's going to be involved in that as well. We're bringing you the candidates unfiltered and of course, in their own words.

ROESGEN: Well, you know, Mary Snow just told us in South Carolina, it's raining pretty heavily so we've been talking all morning about how the weather might affect the turnout there for the primary?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Do you every find it interesting that during so many of these key times you have awful weather conditions. I mean, we need the beautiful conditions out. We want temperatures to be in the 60s and 70s. That certainly is not going to be the case today. Again, Mary talking about the rain.

Later on today, we're talking about not rain, but potential snowfall in South Carolina. Snow fall in South Carolina. It could happen here in Atlanta too. As we take a look at how it's affecting parts of the world, not just here in the ground but in the skies above.

Take a look this. This is our flight tracker and you can see every single airplane that's on the Eastern seaboard and parts of the Ohio Valley indicates an airplane that is either taking off, it's either descending or it's in mid flight. So, you can see it's still pretty busy there. Amazingly enough. Despite the weird shot of bad weather that we've been dealing with, we haven't had much in terms of delays.

Hard to believe but it's true. That's what's happening out here. We're going to take a look at the big weather map here in just a few moments. You can see the combination of weather events that we have here. Right now, in some spots we have rain and other places a few thunderstorms and even some sleet and snow mixed in. And this big weather mess is going to cause all kinds of issues later on today.

Although we don't have widespread winter problems, that could happen in due course, in the next couple of hours, especially it's going to be crucial what happens in Hartsville-Jackson, Atlanta, also into Birmingham as we have that cold air that's coming in. All that over moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico and that's going to be that combination as the moisture falls through the lower levels of the atmosphere, some of that switching over to snow in spots like Alabama, Hoover, Alabama where we're seeing that as far south as Chilton county, Alabama along the i-65 corridor.

It's mainly a rain event for the time being but again we're talking about it changing over to snowfall later on today including parts of Georgia and back into the Carolinas, mainly rain in Columbia back over into Sumter but still there is that chance, especially between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00 this afternoon and into the early evening that some of that could switch over into snowfall.

That's the latest we've got for you. Let's send you back with the news desk.

ROESGEN: OK. Thanks, Reynolds.

Well, you can't do anything about the weather, but what can you got the economy? A sinking economy. Across America, many people are losing their homes, you know this. So why is the number of foreclosures so high? And even in fact the highest in the nation in Nevada? We'll explain in a couple of minutes.

HOLMES: Also we got some new information on one of the most wanted men in America. New images, a marine accused of killing a fellow marine is on the run. What he was captured on tape doing?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROESGEN: And some quick hits now. Some of the stories making headlines. We have caught on tape surveillance video of a suspected marine killer. The authorities in North Carolina say this tape show Corporal Cesar Laurean buying supplies that could have been used to cover up the killing of Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach.

HOLMES: Also, police released a frame of video. They say this shows Laurean withdrawing money from an ATM in Jacksonville, North Carolina on Christmas eve and he was using Lauterbach's car.

ROESGEN: And the police in Georgia say they have found a second van belonging to this man, Gary Michael Hilton. He is the man charged with kidnapping and killing 24-year-old Meredith Emerson. She was the hiker who disappeared on new Year's Day hiking in the Georgia woods. The authorities are now combing that van for more evidence.

HOLMES: Also a fourth suspect in custody in the shooting death of two suburban Atlanta police officers. Authorities arrested Mario Westbrook on murder charges yesterday. A third person William Woodworth was taken into custody. You're looking at pictures there of the officers. However, the suspect now also faces murder charges, another was cleared actually. The two Dekalb County police officers were killed while working security at an apartment complex.

ROESGEN: And you know it's cold today across much of the country, but if you're living up in Chicago or Minneapolis and you want to impress your friends in Miami, you got to find out how cold is it?

HOLMES: How cold is it, Reynolds?

WOLF: It is ridiculous cold. Does that work? Does that work? Single digits today and that's without the wind. When you bring in the wind, it's going to be just off the charts crazy. What we're talking about in Chicago, the high today is going to be about 9 degrees or so but then when you factor in the wind it's just going to feel like 20 below. Tomorrow, it's going to be more so but farther north from Chicago. Welcome to Green Bay, Wisconsin for the Giants and Packers game. These are going to be your kickoff conditions.

At 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, you're looking at a kickoff temperature of 1 degree below zero. Then, we got to talk about the wind coming in off the lake. It's going to feel like 22 degrees below zero with that wind chill. Packer fans, you guys are out of your minds. You're completely nuts. And I say that not as a slam, I say that with affection because you guys would be out here cheering on your team if it was 50 degrees colder than that, the greatest fans in the world.

This is a live image we have of Lambeau Field. A wonderful venue for football and I guarantee you, despite the cold it's going to be filled to the brim with some great fans. But still, you have to be a little bit nuts to be there which is why I'll be there tomorrow morning.

Let's send it back to you guys at the desk.

ROESGEN: Oh, really. You'll be there tomorrow morning? Great, see how many layers you can get on.

WOLF: It's going to be a lot, Susan.

ROESGEN: We won't even recognize you all huddled.

WOLF: Too bad.

HOLMES: We'll be watching, Reynolds.

WOLF: Talk to you guys soon.

HOLMES: Thank you, sir.

All right. Teenager in Nebraska gets a perfect score on his college entrance exam. You go home, hey, look, mom, you're the favorite child now. But then your twin brother does the same thing.

ROESGEN: Yes, guess what? We're both geniuses, mom. You got to have to send us both to Harvard. Plus you think there are a lot of foreclosures in your area? There really are, all across the country, but we'll tell you why this state has the most, four times higher than any other area in the country and why coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Of course a slowing economy is one of the biggest issues in this presidential election year, a problem faced by some of you, home foreclosures. Here now is CNN's personal finance editor, Gerri Willis.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hi, T.J.

Nevada caucuses are today and one of the biggest economic issues facing voters there, home foreclosures. It's been number one in the nation for foreclosures for over 11 months straight, with one filing for every 152 households. That's according to RealtyTrac.

Now, you may be thinking, why are the numbers so high there? Well, first you need to understand how foreclosures are calculated. For example, RealtyTrac measures foreclosures per capita. About 88 percent of the foreclosures are in Clark county, which is the most densely packed area of the state with close to 2 million residents. Clark county also includes Las Vegas so the population boom there makes the numbers disproportionate.

But it's not all about the numbers. According to Moody's economy.com, lots of speculative buyers, a large number of sub prime homes, soaring home prices and over building led to a housing frenzy there in the last few years, but now there's a bust.

But the new year isn't going to be the light at the end of the tunnel for Nevada. Loan defaults are set to rise there due to a plunge in home prices, loan resets, and high unemployment. That according to Moody's as the rest of the country will close at two million ARMs as they are expected to reset through the end of 2009. Expect to see another wave of foreclosures.

Now, many analysts are predicting the turn around in the housing market won't happen until at least next year. We're coming up at "Open House" at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. We'll talk to Detroit's mayor about what that city is doing to curb foreclosures and turn their fortunes around. Then, mortgage broker rehab, from profit margins to client counseling and how will the presidential candidates affect your taxes.

We'll tell you all about it, that's "OPEN HOUSE," 9:30 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Thank you, Gerri, as always. We're going to bring you more on the mortgage meltdown and all the latest economic news later on "YOUR MONEY" you could join Ali Velshi and Christine Romans live in today's edition of "YOUR MONEY" at 1:00 Eastern, 10:00 a.m. Pacific.

ROESGEN: And attention JC Penney shoppers, some of your personal information may not be so personal now. It may have been compromised. A company that handles credit card operations for JC Penney and for other stores says a computer tape is missing. This tape contains personal information on about 650,000 customers and it includes about 150,000 social security numbers. So you've been warned, we've been warned. I think I picked up a purse at Penny's this year.

A lot of student though this is time of year are hoping that they're going to get a good score on the college entrance exams, the S.A.T.'s so they can get into a good college. But you're going to meet two young men who got perfect scores and they're brothers.

HOLMES: Yes, they're really related.

Also, our Josh Levs, perfect scores throughout his life. That's why he's here with us. He is one of the best and brightest at CNN. Good morning, sir.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I don't even want to keep you honest on that one. I'm just going to leave that. Hey, everybody. All right. Twists and turns in Nevada and South Carolina. Today, they're going to change the presidential race. It's going to reset the dynamic somehow, we just don't know how yet. Well, how you can follow what the candidates are doing to win voters in that state, that's coming up right here, CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROESGEN: Not only do they look alike, these two guys are a perfect match academically. Identical twins Brian and Ross Devol both got perfect scores on their ACT exams.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN DEVOL, GOT PERFECT ACT SCORE: I always thought about it but never thought it would really happens. So, it's pretty exciting. It also means it will be a lot easier to get into colleges and get scholarships and stuff like that.

ROSS DEVOL, GOT PERFECT ACT SCORE: And I was excited because he got it first so I had to get it. But hopefully, you know, I'll get scholarships and go to a good college.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROESGEN: The twins say they got their smart genes from their mother, but maybe their dad says he has something to do with it too. I think the good thing is that they can get in classes and cheat for each other, T.J.

HOLMES: Oh, wow.

ROESGEN: Yes, you swap out, you know?

HOLMES: I'm not sure if that's the lesson we want to give here.

ROESGEN: I don't even think it's necessary because frankly these guys are so smart.

HOLMES: Do you want to admit right now what you got on you're ACT and SAT?

ROESGEN: I don't remember. I was so long ago.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: I took the ACT.

LEVS: You did? Why? I think the ACT in Arkansas.

ROESGEN: Anyway. There are other numbers we're talking about.

HOLMES: All right, yes. We're talking about Nevada and South Carolina where the spotlight is. Cnnpolitics.com, everything you need for this race.

ROESGEN: And Josh Levs is here from the dot com desk to show us how you get to where you want to see.

LEVS: Exactly, this stuff I can ace. These stuff I'm good at. Now, let's take a look at this. Obviously, we're following Nevada and South Carolina really closely all day because so much is happening in both those states. I want to show you how you can get step by step all day long the details on what's going on there.

Take a look at cnnpolitics.com. It's really easy. Once you're there, cnnpolitics.com is going to be updated consistently all day with whatever we have, the latest information from those states. Within those, we have this new thing called the CNN political ticker, you can see updates throughout the day on major political stories. You can also sign up for it so it will show up in your cell phone, in your e-mail, your beeper, whatever you want.

And within that, we now have this sub ones, we have a Nevada political ticker. So throughout the day, we got this right there and right now we're leading with information about how Barack Obama, the gloves are off even more. I didn't think they were on. But apparently he's trying some humor to dish his competitors now. Interesting stuff on the Nevada ticker.

Over on the South Carolina ticker, we got details throughout the day, too. The GOP there slugging it out today. We're going to see how that goes. Also the fight for black voters in advance to the Democratic race right there is heating up. Now, the Clintons have Magic Johnson who's appeared for Hillary Clinton before. He's now recorded a new ad that's apparently going to be running there and elsewhere. And he talks about wanting the most prepared and experienced leader.

And there's a way to read what he's saying as may be calling Barack Obama a rookie. He just talks about in general not wanting a rookie to lead. So, we got all that on the ticker throughout the day and guys what we're going to be doing in the dotcom desk, keeping an eye on the ticker. We're going to be following all the details as it comes along, the delegates, the race, everything that there is to follow in those two major races today on cnn.com the whole day.

ROESGEN: Tell us a little bit about people who put it together. I mean, you have so much content. Where is it coming from?

LEVS: Well, there's a big team. We have teams in all the states themselves and also in D.C. and also here at headquarters at CNN.com.

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