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CNN Saturday Morning News

Obama & Romney in Swing State Blitz; U.S. Death Toll Rises; Early Voters Casting Votes in Florida

Aired November 03, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. Just about 9:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. I'm Randi Kaye.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. That makes it 6:00 a.m. out West. It's good to have you starting the day with us.

KAYE: We are showing you now some pictures from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. You can see Ann Romney there as she usually does getting ready and introducing her husband Mitt Romney. He is making his trek to many of the swing states, including New Hampshire.

It's going to be very interesting as we come down to the wire to hear what he has to say there in New Hampshire today.

BLACKWELL: Yes. In the final days of the campaign, they just have these rallies at the airport to save time instead of driving to a location in town. They just have it right there on the tarmac, and you see the "Believe in America" plane right behind the Romneys.

KAYE: Yes. And Mitt Romney's certainly going to be busy; the President as well. But he's trying -- Mitt Romney in fact is trying to hit eight states in his final push. That includes, of course, New Hampshire, also Pennsylvania which isn't one of the swing states, but he is certainly trying to -- to get it -- to get his campaign voice heard out there as well.

Let's check in with Jim Acosta. He's our national political correspondent. He's on the ground there. Jim, give us your point of view from where you are.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Randi and Victor, good morning. Yes, I think what we're going to see this weekend is basically what you've been describing here the last couple of moments. This is a swing state blitz. It's a final stage of this campaign where you're going to see the candidate barnstorming through just about every swing state you can think of, and we saw just a few moments ago before Mitt Romney took this stage some of his surrogates out here, Bobby Jindal, John Thune, Kelly Ayotte. That's also a part of what's happening this weekend. All of these surrogates, roughly 100 different surrogates inside the Republican Party will be fanning out across a number of battleground states to bring the Romney message.

We started to hear that yesterday. The president was talking about those jobs numbers yesterday, describing that in his words as real progress. Mitt Romney is saying it's not good enough and that the country needs real change, and last night he laid into the president for something that the president said at one of his events yesterday when he said that people should be, "voting" or said "voting is," "the best revenge."

Mitt Romney took aim at that last night and said that in his mind voters should be voting for what's best for the country, and so you can hear the GOP nominee is getting started out here. This is his first event as he's going to be crisscrossing the country going from Iowa to Colorado and then back to Iowa before heading back east tomorrow.

Back to you, guys.

KAYE: Jim, stay there in just a second. We'll get your take on it in a moment. Let's listen in though for just a bit for Mitt Romney.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- just go by and say look, let's talk this through a little bit, because, you see, President Obama came into office with so many promises that he's fallen so far short and just remind them of some of the things that they may have forgotten.

He said that he was going to be the post-partisan president but he's been the most partisan, dividing and demonizing. He said he was going to cut the deficit in half. He's doubled it.

He said he would focus on jobs, instead he focused on Obamacare that kills job and he said he'd bring health insurance down $2,500 a year, the cost of it for an average family. Anybody here have their insurance go down 2,500? As a matter of fact, the average is up $3,000 per family.

Look, the president said that he would work across the aisle, he would meet regularly with leaders in the Republican Party. Do you know how long it's been since he's met with the Republican leader of the House or the Senate on jobs or the economy or the deficit, since July he hasn't met with them. Look, he just has not been able to deliver on the promises he has made. Talk is cheap. A record is real and takes hard work, and he has not been able to accomplish it, and I actually have a record of accomplishment and that's why I'm running.

As you know, I started a business. I actually helped turn around another business and helped turn around the Olympics and you may have heard I was governor next door in Massachusetts, and there are a couple of Democrats in Massachusetts. In my legislature, we have 85 percent Democrats. We had a multi-billion dollar budget gap, but we didn't fight each other. We came together and looked for ways to solve the problems. We actually cut spending.

We didn't just slow down the rate of growth. We cut spending, and then we cut taxes. We made our state more attractive for job creators, and at the end of four years instead of a huge deficit we had a big surplus. Instead of losing jobs every month, we were gaining jobs every month, and instead of higher taxes we had higher take home pay. That kind of bipartisanship has to finally be brought to Washington and I will.

Now the president has more promises but we know where his promises will lead, the same place as last time, not to jobs, not to reducing the deficit, not to lower health insurance costs. In fact, all those things will be worse off. I actually have not just a promise to make but also a plan to describe. I've got five things I'm going to do to make sure we get this economy going and get good jobs again, rising take home pay and rising home values, five things.

One, we're going to take advantage of our oil, our coal, our gas and our renewables. Number two, we're going to get trade that works for us, and that means opening up new markets for our goods so we can sell in Latin America, and in particular, and we'll crack down on cheaters like China when they cheat and steal jobs unfairly.

Number three, we're going to make sure everybody has the kind of skills they need to training that actually gets them the jobs that they want and make sure we finally fix our schools. It's unacceptable that our schools are not the best in the world. I want to make sure we finally put our kids and their parents and the teachers first and the teachers union is going to have to go behind.

Number four, we're going to do something that actually -- that actually has been spoken about for years but just not done, and that is we're going to cut federal spending. We're going to cap it, and we're going to finally get on track to a balanced budget.

And number five, we're going to champion small business. We want to help small business grow and thrive. Look, the president wants to raise taxes on small business. I do not. I want to bring them down. The president's been adding more and more regulation.

(END OF LIVE COVERAGE)

KAYE: You've been listening there to Mitt Romney speaking, making another last push there in New Hampshire. Let's bring in our Jim Acosta who is following Mr. Romney along the trail.

So, Jim, you heard him there. He did -- he went through his five-point plan again, not giving a whole lot of specifics but certainly trying to lay out what he would do if indeed he is elected come Tuesday.

ACOSTA: That's right, Randi. You know, at this point, it's hard to get all of those specifics out there. I mean, he has been hammering the five-point plan repeatedly for the last couple of weeks of this campaign, and I think by now his supporters probably know what those specifics are. But you're right, I mean, he is laying out his agenda for his first 100 days in office, you might say.

But Randi, I have to tell you, one of the things that I think we picked up here on the campaign trail in the last couple of days, Mitt Romney has really gone after what he believes is a weakness in the Obama campaign strategy. The Romney campaign believes that President Obama, and they are making the case is, trying to make the case, that President Obama has sort of forgotten his mandate for when he came into office, that he was supposed to bring about this era of post-partisanship, you know, going back to Barack Obama's speech back in 2004 about, you know, there are no red states and blue states only the United States of America and the Romney campaign has tried to make the case, and Mitt Romney himself has tried to make the case in the last several years here, that Barack Obama has forgotten that mandate. And so, you're hearing Mitt Romney trying to sound like the uniter in this race.

And I was just talking to a senior Romney adviser just a few moments ago before Mitt Romney took the stage and they said and he said that they feel like that they are the Barack Obama of this race because they are trying to unite this country and bring about a unifying theme. It's going to be up to the voters to decide whether or not that's the case, but interesting to note that the president is also starting to talk about those themes.

He started doing that yesterday. He's expected to do that throughout this weekend, and so it's going to be interesting to watch as both of these candidates sort of recalibrate these messages, you know, fine tune them, hone them for the final few days of this race, Randi.

KAYE: Yes, the battle to be the great uniter certainly is -- is under way. Jim Acosta, thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: And you can watch the rest of Governor Romney's rally on cnn.com where they are streaming it live.

KAYE: Thousands of jobs added, but the unemployment rate ticks up in the final jobs report before the election. Our Christine Romans will join us live to take a closer look inside those numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Well Florida is one of the critical swing states that could go a long way to deciding this election. Voters are split in the latest polls, so who will win is anyone's guess in a state that has developed a reputation for voting problems, and this year voters are dealing with incredibly long lines now in an effort to avoid long lines on Tuesday.

We get more from our John Zarrella.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Call it the Florida frenzy that gets people on their feet and singing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will march in -- we'll march in.

ZARRELLA: Some camped out just to say they could be first in the door. You would think it was an after-Christmas sale.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got two sleeping bags in case it gets cold. We got a blanket.

ZARRELLA: Some came by bus from churches and long lines not a deterrent.

PASTOR RANDELL PERRY, FAITH COMMUNITY BAPTIST CHURCH: We waited 100 years to get here so what is three or four hours.

ZARRELLA: This is early voting in Florida. Democrats make it a point to turn out big numbers in early voting, and they usually outnumber Republicans, and if you want to avoid long lines on election day, well, you stand in long lines now. Waits up to five hours in some places. This may be the product of some residual subliminal long- lasting after effect from the 2000 election fiasco year, remember, 537 votes.

Bottom line, people here believe every vote counts, although there are some who just don't trust the early voting stuff and simply won't do it.

DAVID STRINGFIELD, FLORIDA VOTER: I've always felt if I voted on the day of the election, my vote would really be counted, and I've heard of other scenarios in which people have voted early, and their vote doesn't get counted.

ZARRELLA: State election officials say about nine million of Florida's 19 million people will vote in this election. Roughly 40 percent of them before election day, either by early voting or absentee ballot. While early voting is Democratic party strength, Republicans traditionally do very well in absentee ballots.

In Miami-Dade County, of the quarter million ballots mailed out 130,000 have been returned, sorted by precincts, and in some cases if there's no signature.

CRISTINA WHITE, MIAMI-DADE CO. DEPUTY SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS: The returns on absentee ballots have been somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 a day.

ZARRELLA: While all this is going on, behind the scenes, workers at phone banks for both parties.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you mail in your absentee ballot?

ZARRELLA: Are urging voters to get out there -- because both parties know that once again in Florida this election could be too close to call.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: I bring in our John Zarrella now. So tonight is it for early voting in Florida. Didn't some Democrats and maybe a couple of non-partisan groups try to get that extended because of these lines?

ZARRELLA: Yes, they did, because of what we're seeing here behind me, but the governor, Rick Scott, was not inclined to extend the days. You know, it was the legislature that cut the number of days from 14 down to 8, and -- and, of course, you see what the result is with eight days. I was in line yesterday, Victor, and I started right in this spot, and by the time I got around there and in the door it was two hours and 10 minutes for me from here until I got done voting.

Now, look how much longer the line is, you know, Dominic, our camera man is panning around to give you an idea. We figure it's probably about a three to four-hour wait from the back of that line. Is that right? Three to four hours, folks in line are telling me, Victor, that in fact that is right, the wait is about three to four hours from the back of the line there now, and so we expect to see this all the way through this evening. You know, I was talking to one party official who said, you know what, with the acrimonious nature of politics these days, it is so great to see people out in these lines, you know, staying, standing three to four hours to exercise their vote.

At least, you know, that is one of the great things about, you know, the American political process and people actually coming out here to do that, but, you know, and the polls are very, very close. As we know, the latest poll in Florida, the president up 49-47, virtually a dead heat and it keeps flip-flopping back and forth. So Florida once again is going to be right there at the end of the day on Tuesday night as one of the principal players most likely deciding the presidency. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Yes, with all the jackets and blazers around you, at least, it looks as if there's pretty mild weather. You know this time of year, having lived and worked in south Florida myself. At any time it can be 90 degrees standing out there for five hours.

ZARRELLA: Yes, spectacular weather, yes.

BLACKWELL: John Zarrella from Plantation.

ZARRELLA: Been very lucky.

BLACKWELL: All right. Thank you, John.

ZARRELLA: Sure.

KAYE: The women's vote may decide this election and one of the most famous social activists in the country has a message for the candidates. Coming up at 10:00 Eastern, I'll have an exclusive interview with trailblazer Gloria Steinem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: The final unemployment report before the election released on Friday, and job growth was stronger than expected, 171,000 jobs added in October, but while that number went higher, the unemployment rate went along with it. Now at 7.9 percent. Christine Romans is watching all the business news for us and its impact on the election.

Good morning, Christine. You have a big show coming up this morning. What do you have planned for it?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're going to talk about that jobs report, how it's kind of the last piece of evidence that folks are going to have before they vote on Tuesday, and, you know, what kind of vision for fixing the jobs market are you going to, you know, vote for? Are you going to vote for Mitt Romney or you're going to vote for Barack Obama's version of how to get the jobs market growing more robustly?

KAYE: And how much of an impact do you think it's going to have? I mean we're just days away from the election. Could it have an impact, do you think, at the polls?

ROMANS: I think that now you've got both of these candidates in their closing arguments, right, and it comes down to who you think is going to be a better steward of jobs, the kind of jobs and jobs growth in this country going forward, and Mitt Romney is making this case that, look, I've done this before. I've started businesses. I know how businesses work and it is businesses who hire. It's the president who is saying look, give me four more years. I started this recovery. It hasn't been what we'd like but it takes more than four years to fix something that was so fundamentally broken in such a big, big, big calamity for the economy, and it comes down to which one of those visions you believe? Do you believe that the president deserves four more years to get the jobs market really going, or do you believe he doesn't have what it takes and Mitt Romney does?

KAYE: And s it too early to call what we're seeing a trend, do you think?

ROMANS: When you look at the jobs, I think the trend is pretty solid. I mean, you look at jobs growth over the past two years and you've seen just enough, pretty much just enough to absorb new entrants into the work force at least this year and move forward for the jobs market but it's not strong enough to significantly lower the unemployment rate.

KAYE: Right.

ROMANS: And the question is does this trend get better or does the fiscal cliff and political uncertainty and slowing in Europe and slowing in China, are all of these things outside of our control going to conspire to keep jobs growth down, so it's a really interesting moment right now for the jobs market.

KAYE: Yes, it certainly is. I also want to talk to you, though, about the storm which I know, of course, you're dealing with in New York, but as the lights come on, the next step certainly for a lot of families is trying to file an insurance claim once they get the power back on.

ROMANS: Yes.

KAYE: And gasoline to fill their cars and go and file these claims. But what are you seeing in terms of that process?

ROMANS: Well, the process is just beginning. You've got thousands and thousands of insurance adjustors right now who are meeting with homeowners who have fallen tree branches in their house, who have problems at their home, who have got flooding damage. All of that is beginning right now. You know, I'll tell you from a very personal point of view here, you know, I waited in line two hours yesterday to get only five gallons of gas for a generator at my house. I have no power.

You know, people are trying to deal with the insurance part of this at the very same time they are just trying to cope with the day to day. It's a very -- I don't know if the rest of the country really understands what a very hard and painful moment this is right now from basically from Virginia to Massachusetts, but mostly in New Jersey and in New York and Connecticut.

And so people need to make sure they keep very good records of every person you're talking to at your insurance company. Find your paperwork for your insurance policy. Look on the declarations page. We do know that the governors of these states have said that you will not have to pay a hurricane deductible. Your deductible will be what you think it is, and also be careful about the flooding issue because only 14 percent of the people in the northeast have flood insurance.

When a hurricane comes and brings water you need flood insurance for that. So that's going to be an issue where you'll have to deal with FEMA and the federal government as well.

KAYE: It's just so difficult because with all these flooded homes, I mean a lot of people have lost their paperwork. They can't even find it, right. They have lost their homes.

ROMANS: I know.

KAYE: It's such a tough time certainly. Christine, thank you very much. We'll be sure to join you for your "Bottom Line" which starts at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time.

BLACKWELL: It has been a flurry of activity and travel for President Obama and Mitt Romney this weekend. We'll tell you where they are headed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: One last check of our top stories now. And we're counting down the last three days before the election. President Obama and Governor Romney are campaigning across several key states this weekend. Both candidates will be in Colorado, in Ohio and Iowa and Virginia. While Romney makes stops in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

KAYE: The U.S. death toll from superstorm Sandy stands at 106 this morning and 2.7 million residents of the chilly northeast still remain without power. Meanwhile, the Defense Department is shipping more than 20 millions of gas to New York and New Jersey trying to ease long lines for fuel and the New York Marathon is cancelled after storm- weary residents complained that recovery resources were being diverted to that race.

BLACKWELL: Its journey may have lacked the fanfare of the Endeavour but the Space Shuttle Atlantis is finally home. Atlantis made the 12- hour 10-mile journey to the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, along with some special guests. The second man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, and the first female shuttle commander, Eileen Collins, joined the procession. "Atlantis" flew 125 million miles in its 33 missions.

KAYE: Women voters, they are precious to both the Romney and Obama campaigns, and in our next hour "Ms" magazine founder and feminist icon Gloria Steinem joins me live for insight on which party may benefit most from them.

Thanks so much for watching today. I'll see you back here at top of the hour.

BLACKWELL: "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" starts right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)