Democrats Prepare for National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredericka Whitfield and you're in the newsroom. Right now we're waiting on President Obama. He's about to give a campaign speech in about 20 minutes or so from now, maybe earlier than that in that location, Urbandale, Iowa, just outside Des Moines. The president has been hitting the campaign trail hard in the run up in the Democratic convention that gets under way Tuesday. Our Athena Jones is in Urbandale. Athena, it looks like a sizeable crowd. What is the president hoping to accomplish here that perhaps he won't or maybe it's the warm-up to the convention?</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. That's exactly what it is. Today launches what the campaign is calling their "road to Charlotte," which is, of course, the road to the big speech he'll be giving on Thursday night in Charlotte at the Democratic National Convention, accepting his party's nomination once again. His goal is to continue to draw contrasts between the plans he has and what he's already done to help the middle class in terms of tax cuts or affordable access to health care and college and what he says his opponents do, which is offer plans and proposals that will favor the rich, tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class, and we expect to hear some of that today. I should mention this is his third trip to Iowa in the last three weeks and the state has six electoral votes and it shows you how important it is for them to fight for the state and to keep those six votes in a race that could be very close, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: And so what is the real objective, I guess, at the DNC where we saw the RNC, they wanted to really humanize the Republican nominee, Romney. In the case of the president is there, like, one collective goal, a mission?</s>JONES: Well, certainly, if you talk to the campaign officials, they believe that people know about the president. They know what President Obama stands for. They don't feel they need to reintroduce him or, as they put it, reinvent him. Their plan is to make an affirmative case for his reelection and talking about his record and everything from ending the war in Iraq to again, health care, and also this idea that he's going to fight for the middle class. It's not really a new theme, but that's what they plan to continue hammering home, this idea that he's going to look out for everyday people unlike the Republican ticket. One thing they did say is this is going to be a working convention. That's how they described it. They'll work on getting people registered to vote, work and knock on doors, canvass, and in doing so earn a ticket to fill that huge stadium that he's going to be speak at. So we don't have too much of a preview of the speech, but we know he'll try to contain and make the case that he's the one that will give him more time to keep the economy back on track, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Athena Jones, thanks so much in Urbandale. We'll take the president live when he arrives there in Iowa. So let's talk about the Democratic National Convention which starts Tuesday, Charlotte, North Carolina. That's the place right there. Some of the high-profile speakers include the first lady, former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, and actress Eva Longoria, who is expected to focus women's issues. The president's big speech is at an outdoor stadium, so party leaders are keeping an eye on the weather and having a contingency plan just in case. The Romney campaign, meantime, is hitting the road, hoping to build momentum from the Republican National Convention. The presidential nominee is holding rallies in a couple of battleground states today. This morning it was Ohio, and in just a couple of hours he'll be taking to the stage with running mate Paul Ryan in Florida. Jim Acosta joining me live from Jacksonville where a crowd is gathering there. So, Jim, the president -- or not the president, that's going to be in Iowa, but in this case in Florida, the Republican nominee, Romney, he'll be solo or will Ryan be along with him?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can just look right over my shoulder, Fredericka. They have the big banner there, "America's Comeback Team." That should give you an indication right there, Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney will be at this event in Jacksonville, Florida. In a few hours from now you can see the crowd gathering behind me and we're on the St. John's River in Jacksonville, Florida. I am told this river flows northward, so a unique site, a unique setting for this campaign event that will be kicking off for a few hours. And speaking of kickoffs, this is college football game day and kickoff game day and he was out on the campaign trail when he was in Cincinnati and drawing sports references and going after the president basically saying it was time for a new head coach in the White House. Here's what he had to say.</s>MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Measure us. Hold us accountable. Do the same with the president. Look, you're making a choice as to who the servant will be of the nation, who is the person, who are the people who will lead this country and do what you want to be done. You listen to the last guy running for president and he laid out what you wanted to do. He was unable to do it. It's time to give someone new a chance.</s>ACOSTA: Now Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan was in another part of the state in Ohio and he was in Columbus attending a college football game. The Ohio state University Buckeyes were taking on Ryan's alma mater and the Miami University of Ohio. Last time I checked, Fredericka, Ohio was in the lead and not so good news there for Paul Ryan and he'll be coming on later this afternoon for the man at the top of the ticket. And just to give you a little bit of news that you gathered earlier in the day and we are told by a Romney campaign source that Mitt Romney during the week of the Democratic convention would be in debate prep with Rob Portman, the Ohio senator who will be playing the role of Barack Obama.</s>WHITFIELD: Jim Acosta, thanks so much from Jacksonville. Keep us posted. Isaac is now a tropical depression and is deep in the Midwest. The storm is dumping much needed rain. Farmers there have been dealing with a severe drought for months now. Back along the Gulf coast the Mississippi River has reopened to barge traffic. But some communities are still flooded and the storm's death toll has risen now to four. Isaac also has left lingering power outages. Almost half a million homes and businesses across three states still don't have electricity. In Louisiana, officials say many will be in the dark for two more days. Isaac has had a lot to do with rising gas prices as well. Right now the national average is at $3.83 for a gallon of regular unleaded. That's up eight cents over the last week, but some stations in the south have seen a 20-cent bump in the past week. A lot of it is because of the closure of oil rigs and refineries that were in the path of Isaac. All right, you know what else is going up? Food prices, up by a whopping 10 percent. That's according to a new report from the World Bank. The drought farmers here in the U.S. are experiencing is partially to blame. National correspondent Susan Candiotti has a look at the reality right now in the fields.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: With cornstalks crunching under his feet, Richard Detring goes to harvest. But thanks to this summer's drought, his field corn in Farmington, Missouri is fried to a crisp. In blistering, 90-degree heat, not much else to do but climb into his combine and mow down the stalks.</s>RICHARD DETRING, FARMER: You put a lot of money, time and effort into it and then you see no return. It's a hard thing to do.</s>CANDIOTTI: Hard for every farmer in the Midwest whose crops are virtually a total loss. (on camera) This is so brittle. I mean, what is left in here? What is left in here?</s>DETRING: There's essentially nothing. This one has -- it has basically died right before reproduction.</s>CANDIOTTI: It's like dust, practically. (voice-over) He'll salvage what little he can and maybe five Bush else of green an acre compared to the usual 120.</s>DETRING: I'll turn the cows into this field the next few days and they can eat some leaves and stuff like that, but they won't get much. It will keep them alive for a few more days.</s>CANDIOTTI: Here in Missouri, rain is nine to 15 inches below normal. Even if Isaac delivers three to five inches of rain as predicted it won't wipe out the drought, but every little drop will help. Isaac's rain is coming too late to help some ranchers who already threw in the towel.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really hurts when you see a producer come up to the counter who said I just sold my cattle today. He would be crying there at the counter, is there any help out there? And there's nothing we can do.</s>CANDIOTTI: No rain means cattle are grazing on brown pastures. No rain means the price of feed has skyrocketed. And no rain means ranchers are giving their cows hay now, way before they usually do in the fall. Detring's son Brad won't let hard times get to him. He's fifth generation. Farming's in his blood.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is just farming and that's the way it is. You take the good with the bad.</s>CANDIOTTI (on camera): So what's your message to Isaac?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come take a visit. I'll grill. I'll have some drinks in the cooler. Come on, set up shop.</s>CANDIOTTI: You've been staring at that sun all summer long. The rains are coming. What do you think?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great. I can't wait just to walk in the rain once.</s>CANDIOTTI: Just to feel it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to feel it come down.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice-over): And start walking in greener pastures.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Susan joining me live from Farmington, Missouri. So that rain, you've got your rain jacket on. Has it arrive the yet? Is it close? What?</s>CANDIOTTI: I'm afraid the farmer and his son only had a very brief walk in the rain since last night. You know, they've been waiting all summer for the rain gauge to fill up. They have received in the last oh, 12 hours or so, just under two inches of rain, Fred, so they didn't get very far. But, like they said, every little bit helps. They're just trying to green those pastures a little bit.</s>CANDIOTTI: All right, so, you know, at this point since so many of those pastures are bone-dry. We saw the corn that is so tiny. You can't really pick it. What good will that rain really do right now or is it that they're thinking about the future crops?</s>CANDIOTTI: Well, I'll tell you, for a lot of people around here who have just cattle, they have -- some of them have had to sell them off because they just cannot get by. Feed is too expensive. However, this little bit of rain will green those pastures so they can send the cattle back out again. The soybean crop -- these are soybeans -- they'll be OK. There's the soybean right there, but the thing is this is about two feet long. They're normally twice this size. They're getting something out of it. You see that soybean crop over my shoulder and at least other farmers are also starting to plant their winter crop a bit early as much as a month early now with a little bit of rain that will help soften the soil a little bit. So they are forecasted to get maybe a couple more inches today and tomorrow. More rain, thunderstorms they're expecting. So that again, every little drop, literally, will help them get by.</s>WHITFIELD: Thanks so much. Susan Candiotti, appreciate that.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, 50 years in the making, apologies from the makes of a drug that caused severe birth defects. We'll tell you how the victims are reacting.