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CNN Saturday Morning News

Senator Barack Obama Speaks to Reporters in Cape Canaveral; John McCain's Energy Plans; Housing Rescue Bill Now Law, But What Does It Really Mean?

Aired August 02, 2008 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, once again. Senator Barack Obama talking live to reporters at his hotel in Cape Canaveral this morning.
Let's take a listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I said was that the gang of ten bill, what I've seen so far, and we haven't seen the final legislation, has some of the very aggressive elements that I've outlined in my plan to move us in the direction of genuine energy independence.

A good example is their goal that in 20 years, 85 percent of the cars on the road are not -- are no longer petroleum based. That, I think, is the kind of bold step that we need. The fact that they're willing to put in $7 billion to help the auto industry retool so that those new energy efficient cars are made in America, I think, is a positive step.

So, there are a whole bunch of good things that have been proposed by this bipartisan group. I remain skeptical of some of the drilling provisions, but I will give them credit that the way they crafted the drilling provisions are about as careful and responsible as you might expect for a drilling agenda.

And what I don't want to do is for the best to be the enemy of the good here. And if we can come up with a genuine bipartisan compromise, in which I have to accept some things I don't like or the Democrats have to accept some things that they don't like, and a change for actually moving us in the direction of energy independence, then that's something I'm open to.

Obviously this is very preliminary. These are early details but I wanted to, you know, send a strong signal that we can't allow, you know, partisan bickering or the desire to score political points get in the way of providing some genuine relief to people who are struggling.

QUESTION: Following up on that, a lot of your friends are going to say it's a softening of your position and it's one in the line of things, Iraq war timeline, how would you respond to that, that you're shifting ever so slightly and softening in your position even -- OBAMA: Guys, what I'm interested in ultimately is going to be government. And what that means is we're going to have to try to get things done. That's what the American people are looking for. And so I have very clear ideas about where America needs to go.

I also recognize that in the House and the Senate, there are Republicans who have very clear ideas about what they want and at some point people are going to have to make decisions, do we want to keep on arguing or are we going to get things done?

What I will not do, and this has been my position, is to support a plan that suggests drilling is the answer to our energy problems. If we have a plan on the table that I think meets the goals that America has to set, and there are some things in there that I don't like, obviously that's something that, you know, I would consider because that's the nature of how we govern in a democracy.

QUESTION: This is a statement of -- that broke Democrats' hearts in the last eight years. Why do you think it's different this year, how are you going to make it different from what John Kerry and Al Gore found?

OBAMA: Well, Democrats have had their hearts broken generally over the last two elections cycles not just here in Florida. So here's what I think is different. We've had four more years of bad economic policies that have run the economy into a very bad place. And the American people are feeling the effects.

Just traveling yesterday, talking to people who had lost their homes, who were at risk of losing their homes, who had lost their businesses, who are at risk of losing their businesses, who had lost their jobs, who are at risk of losing their jobs, you know, people are hurting. And they recognize that the policies that John McCain offers don't seem to provide anything different, anything new from what has been tried by George W. Bush.

So I think that, you know, it creates a profound shift in attitude when it comes to -- when it comes to the election. Now, we can't take anything for granted. We're going to have to work hard. We're going to have to work smart. I'm going to have to make my case to the American people in order to win the presidential election. John McCain and his team are going to be fighting every inch of the way.

And so, just because things are bad doesn't mean that we win. I think what's going to be required is people having confidence that an Obama administration can make things better and that requires me putting forward the kinds of specific ideas that we've been trying to do in -- over the last several months -- Adam.

QUESTION: Miles off of the Florida coast for drilling is a huge shift in where we are now. Are you going to do anything to discourage or oppose that element of the bill?

OBAMA: You know, again, we don't have legislation yet. So I don't want to prejudge what's out there. You know, I made a general point about the fact that we need to provide the American people some relief and that there's been constructive conversations between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate on this issue. So I applaud them on that.

But you know, I'm not ready to sign off on any particular approach or proposal because I think that these are very important issues. The one thing that I've said consistently when it comes to the Florida coastline is that, as dependent as this state is on tourism, as important as that coastline is, you know, we've got to proceed with extreme caution when it comes to anything that would have an impact on that, you know, extraordinary treasure, not just of Florida's, but of the country as a whole.

QUESTION: Senator Obama, about this time four years ago that Republicans really began to see a picture of Senator Kerry, that's tough in the general election. Are you concerned with the celebrity ad, the ad that's portraying you as the one perhaps a little bit too arrogant, there's a picture being painted you can't escape at this point? And how do you respond more aggressively to this?

OBAMA: Well, you know, first of all, I think it's -- the one thing we know about the team that John McCain's assembled, because it's a carry-over from some of the folks who worked on the Bush campaign, and some of the Republican campaigns in the past, is that they're very good at negative campaigns. They're not so good at governing. And, you know, that's why, if you think about this week, what they've been good at is distraction.

You know, you've got statistics saying we lost another 50,000 jobs, that Florida's in recession for the first time in a decade and a half, and you know what was being talked about were Paris and Britney. And so they're clever on creating distractions from the issues that really matter in people's lives. We've got to make sure that we keep focused on people's day-to-day concerns and we've got to drive that very hard. And I will keep on driving that hard.

I want to talk about how are we going to put more money in people's pockets, how are we going to make their jobs more secure, how can we have finally have an energy policy that works for all Americans, how do we provide healthcare to people who don't have it and lower the prices for people who do, how do we make college affordable, how do we begin winding down this war.

We have some of the biggest challenges that certainly I've seen in my lifetime, and that is what the American people want to hear. What are the solutions to these big challenges? And so you know, we don't take the skill of the Republicans and engaging in negative attacks slightly. We think it's something that, you know, we've got to be mindful of. But what we also have confidence in is the American people feel that we're offering real solutions that are going to make their lives better, that that's going to be the overriding determinant in terms of who wins the election.

QUESTION: How do you take the idea that you're too arrogant? Maybe too presumptuous? OBAMA: You know, I don't know that there's that perception. That's something that's being fed to the media by them. I get no sense that it's taken. And you know, I think what would be useful is to ask the question, what's this based on? You know, it's not really clear exactly what it's based on. You know if I was presumptuous or taking this for granted I wouldn't be working this hard this week. I'm beat.

So obviously, we think that we're in a tight race. And we think that you know this is going to be a close race all the way through. And, you know, I will say that I think the American people, as a whole, are watching what John McCain this week and saying to themselves, what did this have to do with me?

As I said in one of my town hall meetings, is that the best they can offer, ads about Paris and Britney at a time when we should be talking about the loss of 50,000 jobs? What does that it have to do with how anybody's lives are going to get better, that's the message we want to keep on driving.

QUESTION: Senator, you said yesterday you're not injecting race into the campaign race here. Your surrogates have said your comments about not looking like other presidents on the dollar bill, that it's not about your race, but you did say that, back in the fund-raiser in Jacksonville, that they're going to try to make you afraid of me, young, inexperienced and whose got a funny name and did I mention he's black. How do you reconcile that?

OBAMA: I don't think it's accurate to say that my comments have nothing to do with race. Let me -- let me -- let me make this first point. Most of the people here were at this event in Union, Missouri. Almost none of you, maybe none of you, thought that I was making a racially incendiary remark or playing the race card. It wasn't until John McCain's team started pushing it that it ended up being on the front page of "The New York Times" two days in a row.

Here's what I was saying, and I think this should be undisputed, that I don't come out of central casting when it comes to presidential races, for a whole range of reasons. I'm young. I'm new to the national scene. My name is Barack Obama. I am African-American. I was born in Hawaii. I spent time in Indonesia. I do not have the typical biography of a presidential candidate.

What that means is that I'm sort of unfamiliar, and people are still trying to get a fix on who I am, where I come from, what my values are and so forth in a way that might not be true if I seemed more familiar. And so what I think, you know, has been an approach to the McCain campaign is to say, he's risky, to try to divert focus from the fact that they don't have any new ideas when it comes to fixing the economy or dealing with health care or dealing with education. And all of those elements that make me unfamiliar, you know, feed into this notion that he may be a "risky choice."

That point I don't think is disputable. I don't think that's a point that has not been made by every single one of your publications. That you guys haven't pulled on repeatedly. It's a fact. And that -- so let me be clear. In no way do I think that John McCain's campaign was being racist. I think they're cynical. And I think they want to distract people from talking about the real issues.

And so, it's of a piece with Britney-Paris ad or the most recent Web site or the allegation that somehow I wouldn't go visit the troops unless I had reporters with me which every reporter on the trip knows is absolutely not true.

And you know, so it goes to the point I was making earlier, their team is good at creating distractions and engaging in negative attacks and planting doubts about people. And what we've got to do is make sure that we are very clear to the American people about how my policies will make a difference in their lives.

They can have confidence that I'm going to be fighting for them and, you know, I am absolutely confident that the people in Union, Missouri, or Jacksonville, Florida, or any other city or town across the country, at the end of the day, is going to be making their decisions based on what they think is going to be best for their lives and their children's lives.

And if we can keep them focused on that issue, how to make people's lives better, how do we get our economy out of the hole that we're in, I think we'll do well. Go ahead, somebody over here?

MARCIANO: Listening to Barack Obama making comments from his hotel in Cape Canaveral.

Good morning, everybody, from the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Rob Marciano, in today for T.J. Holmes and you're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you are. And I'm Betty Nguyen.

You just heard from Barack Obama speaking to reporters there in Florida. Well, we're going to hear from our producer traveling with the Obama campaign in just a few minutes.

But in the meantime, energy also on the mind of John McCain. He has a different take, though, on offshore oil drilling. He outlined some of his energy plans for a crowd of supporters in Racine, Wisconsin.

So, take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think one of great tragedies of this crisis that we are in, as you know, who is being hurt the most? We know who it is, it's the lowest income Americans who drive the furthest, who have the oldest cars. That's one of the terrible, many terrible, aspects of this energy crisis that we're in. And it took 30 years, by the way, my friends to get into it. We're not going to get out of it tomorrow. But we can embark today. By the way in case you missed it the Congress is grid locked. They're grid locked on energy. They're going -- I guarantee you, they're not going to miss their August recess, but they're not going to do anything about the energy issue in America. Now, let me just say, I talked about -- I talked about -- easy -- we talked about the national security aspects of it, $700 billion a year being transferred. We talked about the economic impact.

Can we just talk a minute about the issue of our environment? We -- I do believe that greenhouse gases are affecting the climate of the earth. And we can continue that debate, and we should continue to have it. But there's no better way of addressing it in a most effective fashion than going to wind-tied, solar, nuclear, alternate fuels, automobiles that are hybrids, hydrogen electric batteries.

So -- so we have a nexus here in my view, of these major challenges, and one of the ways through the energy dependence on foreign oil and reducing our costs are directly related to green technologies. My friends, I was in Detroit not long ago and I saw the new automobile that's going to be put out by General Motors called Volt.

Now, I want every American to have the opportunity to buy this one or any other product that will eliminate their dependence on foreign oil and reduce the price of a gallon of gas. So let's give every American up to $5,000 tax credit to buy one of these new generation of automobiles. Let's do that to encourage them to do that.

So I guess my answer to you, almost every one of these new technologies that we're talking about, have a direct and beneficial effect on greenhouse gas emissions. So let's me just mention one other thing about cap and trade. We did it with acid rain. When we had an acid rain problem we basically did a cap and trade system. There are those, particularly including friends of mine on the conservative side who will tell you, well it will hurt our economy.

Well, I respectfully disagree. I believe the innovation, the entrepreneurship, the talent and the ability of American entrepreneurs and industry that we will develop these technologies and they will not only not be more expensive that they will reduce the costs, they will reduce the costs of a gallon of gas. They will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. They will help American industry and business create jobs.

My friends, I want to build 45 new nuclear power plants by the year 2030. That creates 700,000 jobs. So that's the kind of thing that I believe in and have the beneficial effect that we want.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And you will hear more of what the candidates are saying throughout the day right here on CNN. It's part of our effort to help you make an informed choice in the presidential election and, remember, for the latest on the presidential race, all you have to do is logon to our Web site, cnnpolitics.com, 24/7. It is the most politics on the web.

MARCIANO: Well, lots of people are talking about the anthrax mystery this morning and this man, Bruce Ivins, the suspect who committed suicide, two very different sides of this scientist come to light. And we are digging deeper. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, the government is expected to decide soon on whether to close the anthrax killer investigation now that the main suspect is dead. Sources say scientist Bruce Ivins killed himself this week as authorities were preparing to indict him on murder charges.

The investigation dates back almost seven years when anthrax- laced letters were sent to congressional offices and news organization shortly after 9/11. Five people were killed. Seventeen others became sick, and the government suspects Ivins may have sent letters to test the vaccine that he was working on.

MARCIANO: Osama Bin Laden's top lieutenant, is he really dead or even wounded? Well, U.S. counter terrorism officials tells CNN there's no evidence supporting those reports about Al-Zawahiri. CBS News cited a letter reportedly written by Taliban leader and intercepted in Pakistan. The letter referred to Al-Zawahiri by name and requests a doctor saying, "his injuries are infected." Earlier this week, there were reports that U.S. air strikes may have killed lower level leaders of Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, a nuclear submarine, possibly leaking radioactive water, it sounds scary, but the U.S. says there's no reason for concern. It says the trace amounts found on the USS Houston were barely even detectable. The leak was discovered during routine maintenance and may have been going on for months during visits to Pacific ports in Guam, Hawaii and Japan.

NGUYEN: Well, President Bush signed that multi-billion housing rescue bill into law this week. What's really in it for you and me?

Our Gerri Willis has a closer look.

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NGUYEN: All right. Well, listen up another bank has fallen victim to the nation's mortgage crisis. The latest failed bank, the First Priority Bank of Bradenton, Florida. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has taken a toll and Sun Trust Banks will assume deposits. First Priority is the eight U.S. bank to fail this year, and the first to go under in Florida.

MARCIANO: And now, the homeowners caught up in the mortgage meltdown. Congress has passed that a rescue plan that can throw a lifeline to thousands of Americans. We get details now from CNN personal finance editor, Gerri Willis.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Thanks, Rob. The housing bill we've been telling you about for months finally now a reality. President Bush signed it into law on Wednesday after a veto threat. The law aims to offer affordable government-backed mortgages to at-risk homeowners and provides Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a rescue plan.

Here's the nitty gritty: $300 billion in loan authority for suffering homeowners, $15 billion in tax cuts, $4 billion to clean up foreclosed properties and $180 million for pre-foreclosure counseling.

And the bill bails out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a temporary but unlimited line of credit. The bill, of course, comes at a critical time, the S&P Case-Schiller Index indicated a record drop in housing prices just this week. And estimates 2.8 million Americans could lose their homes by the end of 2009.

Now, some 15 percent of troubled homeowners will be able to trade in their loans for more affordable FHA mortgages, but on the downside, the new law might just leave all of you, the taxpayers, with a big fat bill to pay. Lots more coming up at 9:30 a.m. Eastern on "OPEN HOUSE."

NGUYEN: All right. You got listen to this story. Because if you've ever taken a vacation cruise or even thought about it, take a look at this.

Yes, not my idea of rest and relaxation. We're going to fill you in on the high drama on the high seas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Welcome back. Check out this high drama on the high seas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Oh!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: More than 40 people were injured when a storm slammed into a cruise ship off the coast of New Zealand. This is home video of the terrifying trip. It doesn't look fun. The storm picked up 23- foot waves, had 60-mile-an-hour-winds.

One passenger said they were knocked around like, "human rag doll." I believe it. And the dining room, plates and furniture went flying just as people sat down to have dinner. And if they did eat, they may have lost their dinner sooner.

NGUYEN: Oh, no doubt. I mean, it's one thing to be seasick, then you add that to it. Whew! Dramamine for everybody on board.

MARCIANO: A great vacation.

NGUYEN: You know, we've got a lot to talk about at the top of the hour, including this: one U.S. athlete who won't be going to the Olympics because of a failed drug test.

MARCIANO: And CNN's John Vause, he's going to bunk down with a family in Beijing, going to take a taste of what life is really like in China.

NGUYEN: But first, "OPEN HOUSE" with Gerri Willis, it starts right now.