Fight for Battleground States; Charges of Fraud Against ACORN
LOU DOBBS, HOST: Thank you, Wolf. Tonight one week to Election Day. Some polls suggest this race is tightening. We'll tell you what is happening on the front lines of this presidential campaign. And alarming new evidence of the drug cartels all out assault against the government of Mexico, a war that our next president won't be able to ignore. Tonight the federal government may give billions of dollars to General Motors to help it merge with Chrysler, taxpayer money that could be helped to pay for tens of thousands of layoffs. And the Dow Jones industrials today soaring up by nearly 900 points. I'll be joined by three of the best economic thinkers; all of that, all the day's news and a lot more tonight from an independent perspective straight ahead right here.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is</s>LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: news, debate, and opinion for Tuesday, October 28th. Live from New York, Lou Dobbs.</s>DOBBS: Good evening, everybody. Senators McCain and Obama today battling trying to win votes in the critically important state of Pennsylvania. Most polls show Senator Obama has a lead of at least 10 points in Pennsylvania. But the McCain campaign says the gap is narrowing and nationally at least three polls suggest the race is tightening. One Gallup poll shows Obama has a lead now of only two points over Senator McCain. We have extensive coverage tonight and we begin with Jessica Yellin with Senator Obama who traveled to Harrisonburg, Virginia tonight.</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In suburban Pennsylvania, Barack Obama shifted his closing arguments into high gear.</s>SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John McCain has ridden shotgun as George Bush has driven our economy towards a cliff and now he wants to take the wheel and step on the gas.</s>YELLIN: In Virginia his focus was health care reform.</s>OBAMA: To be fair there is one thing he will change and that is called our health care system, but he won't change it in a good way.</s>YELLIN: The Obama campaign is seizing on a statement by a top McCain aide who told CNN that under John McCain's health care plan people will probably keep the health insurance they get at work because what they are getting from their employer is way better than what they could get with the credit. He is referring to McCain's plan to offer a tax credit to anyone who decides to get private insurance. Obama pounced.</s>OBAMA: It took until the last seven days of this election for his campaign to finally admit the truth, but better late than never. The truth is John McCain's health care plan is radical, it is unaffordable.</s>YELLIN: The McCain campaign charges Obama is taking the remark out of context, but the health care message is one the Obama campaign believes has deep appeal to undecided voters, including those here in one of the reddest parts of Virginia. The site of his speech, a county that supported George Bush by more than 70 percent in 2000 and 2004. And Obama's visit here is designed to drive down McCain's margins in this part of the state forcing him to expend time and resources in what should be safe terrain for a Republican.</s>YELLIN: So Lou, while Barack Obama is ending the day playing offense in Virginia, he did begin it playing defense. Although he is ahead in Pennsylvania as you point out, John McCain and Sarah Palin have all but moved into that state. Clearly the McCain/Palin ticket has decided that is a vote rich place that they believe they can win and so now both campaigns are vying to get the last word to Pennsylvanians -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Jessica, thank you -- Jessica Yellin reporting. Senator McCain today declared he is confident that he can win the state of Pennsylvania. Senator McCain said it would be wonderful to fool the pundits as he put it and achieve a surprise victory over Senator Obama. Dana Bash with the McCain campaign reporting now from Quakertown, Pennsylvania.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the next president of the United States, John McCain!</s>DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Down double digits in a Democratic state he needs to win the White House, John McCain remained the gritty warrior.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I choose to fight. Don't give up hope. Be strong. Have courage and fight. Fight for a new direction for our country. Fight for what's right for America.</s>BASH: One week to go and Pennsylvania Republicans are looking for some red meat to keep their energy and spirits up. Sarah Palin was there, too, and delivered with the "S" word.</s>SARAH PALIN (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Joe Biden calls higher taxes, he calls that patriotic. But to "Joe the Plumber", Joe said it sounded to him like socialism.</s>BASH: McCain aides insist internal data shows him inching back up thanks to relentless rhetoric that Barack Obama will raise taxes. Always looking for a fresh angle, McCain seized on a Pennsylvania interview Joe Biden gave a day earlier.</s>SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN, (D-DE) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we're saying is that $87 billion tax break doesn't need to go to people making an average of 1.4 million. It should go like it used to. It should go to middle class people, people making under $150,000 a year.</s>MCCAIN: Senator Biden said tax relief should only go to middle class people, people making under $150,000 a year. Are you getting an idea of what's on their mind?</s>MCCAIN: A little sneak peek. It is interesting how their definition of rich has a way of creeping down.</s>BASH: An Obama spokesman called McCain desperate insisting Obama will only increase taxes on families making $250,000 or more. Still McCain had plans to push on with his tax argument in critical Pennsylvania, but his visit was cut short. An outdoor rally abruptly canceled due to bad weather even though a few diehards had trickled in to brave the rain.</s>BASH: With such little time to waste -- and with such little time to waste, certainly canceling a rally was such a huge struggle here was a blow to John McCain, but Lou, if you want some evidence of just how important this state is you just have to look at John McCain's schedule. This coming weekend, the final weekend before Election Day he will be in Pennsylvania both Saturday and Sunday -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: All right, Dana, thank you very much -- Dana Bash reporting. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hitting back at Senator McCain and his assertion that a Democratically-controlled White House and Senate and House of Representatives would be dangerous. Senator McCain said Senator Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid are what he calls a dangerous threesome. But Pelosi said dangerous is a word that should not be part of a national campaign. She said a Democratically-controlled Congress would actually be more bipartisan. Senator Obama's campaign is calling on supporters to take the day off on Election Day. The Obama campaign releasing a new Web ad that asks supporters to skip work or school so they can help mobilize Democrats on November 4th. The ad says Democrats can make history. The McCain campaign called the assertion plain arrogant. The left wing activist group ACORN, a group with links to Senator Obama today blasting accusations that it is involved in voter registration fraud, the latest example of possible voter fraud is in Indiana. Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita says his offices have found evidence of multiple criminal violations. Drew Griffin has been following this story and has the report for us. Drew, what's the latest?</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Lou, that Indiana secretary of state not only says credible evidence ACORN broke state laws, but federal laws as well in its drive to register voters in northern Indiana. He wants a criminal investigation of the thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms turned in by ACORN. The Lake County prosecutor there said he is reviewing that request. As for ACORN though, the group is going on the offensive against what is called a smear campaign by Republicans. ACORN says it's launching a 30-second ad, calling on Republicans and particularly GOP presidential candidate John McCain to end what ACORN says is voter suppression activities. Tomorrow the group, Lou, says it will detail several lawsuits against voter suppression across the country and Lou, ACORN says its mission to register traditionally non representative people at the polls, poor people, minorities, but as we've reported a lot of the registrations have been fakes and even "The New York Times" now says ACORN's voter registration drive may have actually registered only a third of the new voter that the group is claiming -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: ACORN with a relationship through the primaries with the Obama campaign initially denied by the Obama campaign, later acknowledged to the tune of more than $800,000 for voter registration. This group is sort of being dismissed as sort of at the margin. But now it appears that it is under investigation in 13 states. These serious accusations now seem to be surfacing all across the country.</s>GRIFFIN: Serious, Lou and what we are hearing from election officials is this isn't the first time. They have had trouble with ACORN registration drives over and over again. That's what they are telling us, an apparent failure these election officials say for ACORN to clean up its own house. Now we have been after ACORN trying to figure out what they are doing about it. We thought we were invited up to their headquarters, but we have been in negotiations with them ever since to see what an open door interview would be like with ACORN, but we're still trying to find out exactly what ACORN is doing to basically clean up its act in these voter registration drives.</s>DOBBS: And Drew, we are also on this broadcast, LOU DOBBS TONIGHT, negotiating with ACORN's executives to have a sit-down discussion and an exchange of views to find out what is going on here. It is a -- it's a strange period right now and we appreciate you and your reporting in particular, Drew, for bringing more light to this organization and its activities -- Drew, thank you so much -- Drew Griffin. Well a legal victory for voter rights advocates in the swing state of Ohio tonight, a victory that could benefit Democrats. A federal judge ruled that counties must allow homeless voters to list park benches and other outdoor locations as their addresses. This is the latest in a series of election controversies in Ohio. Others include a battle over the security and reliability of Ohio's e-voting machines and Republican charges that the Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is trying to give Democrats an unfair advantage in this election. Well if you notice any trouble at all at your polling place on or before Election Day, we want to hear about it. Please call our voter hotline 1-877-462-6608, 877-462-6608 and you can find that number on our Web site at loudobbs.com. Up next, new concerns about dangerous food imports from communist China once again. We'll have that report and one of the most serious blows yet to U.S. and Mexican efforts to defeat the violent Mexican drug cartels -- that report. And startling new details on the efforts of corporate elites to import even more cheap labor into this country to compete with middle class American workers; all of that, a great deal more still ahead. We'll be right back. Stay with us.