Palin Deposition Announced in Second Trooper Investigation
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, breaking news on two fronts: financial and political. With just 13 days to the election, heartbreaking news on the financial front, another $700 billion in value gone, a brutal day on Wall Street. Right now, breaking now, global markets getting hammered, Japan's Nikkei index down another 6 percent, Japanese traders right now reacting to this, a chaotic day on Wall Street, investors driven by weak corporate profits and the possibly they will sage even more during the holiday shopping season, that plus the worst jobs report since the 9/11 attacks driving the Dow industrials nearly 700 points down at one point today, the index closing, finally, at 514. We're going to have more on the financial crisis later and if your job is safe, but, first, the breaking political news that we learned tonight: Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, will be deposed, questioned under oath this Friday. It's part of a second investigation in the firing of Alaska's top cop. Now, the first investigation concluded Palin had violated a state ethics rule, but that the firing of the employee was legal. The second investigation is being conducted by an independent counsel on behalf of Alaska's personnel board. The results will likely be announced before Election Day. Candy Crowley joins us with the "Raw Politics" of this breaking news -- Candy.</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is probably not what John McCain would liked to have seen in the last two weeks of this campaign. Nonetheless, as you said, this is the ongoing investigation by yet another board, a non-legislative board, if you will, into whether Sarah Palin abused her power when she fired her top public safety official. He alleges that he was fired because, in fact, she had wanted him to fire a trooper who happened to be her ex-brother-in-law, who she said was abusive. So, this is an ongoing case -- a couple of things to remember. First of all, Palin herself asked for this investigation. When she looked at the legislative investigation, which is now wrapped up, she said it was all political. And she went to the personnel board and said, I want an investigation of this. Now, the flip side of that is the personnel board can recommend -- recommend punishment. That could be sanctions. It could be a reprimand. It could be a fine. So, there is the risk to that. And, as you said, Anderson, the conclusions of this independent investigator will come likely before the election, so, yet another distraction for a campaign that really doesn't need one, because, as we say, all of this is happening in the face of one real fact. And that is 13 days to go before voting.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a big Buckeye welcome to the McCain/Palin ticket!</s>CROWLEY (voice-over): The Republican ticket campaigned outside Akron, Ohio, blasting Barack Obama's plan to increase taxes on people making over $250,000, and cutting them for everyone else.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We finally learned what Senator Obama's economic goal is. As he told Joe the plumber right here in Ohio, he wants to -- quote -- "spread the wealth around." Sarah Palin and I will not raise your taxes, my friends.</s>MCCAIN: We want you to get wealthy.</s>CROWLEY: Campaigning in Virginia, hoping to break the Republicans' 44-year hold on the state, Obama gave as good as he got.</s>SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: But let's be clear about who John McCain's fighting for. He's not fighting for Joe the plumber. He's fighting for Joe the hedge fund manager.</s>CROWLEY: The economy consumes this race, but the two have returned to the dangers beyond U.S. borders, long seen as McCain's strong suit. And, in these closing days, he is playing it.</s>MCCAIN: And I will not be a president that needs to be tested.</s>MCCAIN: I have been tested.</s>MCCAIN: I have been tested. Senator Obama hasn't.</s>CROWLEY: Obama tried to counter McCain's credentials with a muscle-flexing photo-op of his national security advisers, to McCain's argument that Obama is untested in a dangerous world, the Democratic nominee suggests, McCain is outdated in a changed world.</s>OBAMA: We are not going to defeat terrorist networks that operate in 80 countries through an occupation of Iraq. We are not going to deny the nuclear operations of Iran by refusing to pursue direct diplomacy, alongside our allies. We are not going to secure the American people and promote American values with empty bluster.</s>CROWLEY: The polls nationwide and in the battlegrounds suggest, if the election were held today, Barack Obama would win. They feel it in the crowds, and he feels it, too.</s>OBAMA: I feel like we have got a righteous wind at our backs.</s>CROWLEY: Still, nobody knows better than John McCain that politics can surprise. He returned to New Hampshire this morning, the state that resurrected his primary campaign.</s>MCCAIN: My friends, I'm asking you to come out one more time. Get out the vote. Get them out, and we will win.</s>CROWLEY: Less than two weeks to go, and, as always, these two men see things differently. For Obama, the days are too long. For McCain, they are too short.</s>COOPER: Candy, you know, with just 13 days to go, at this point, I mean, where does McCain see signs of hope?</s>CROWLEY: Well, listen, because there has been fluctuating in the polls. There are those undecideds in some cases. It doesn't look as though there are enough undecideds to change in some states, because the margin Obama has is that big. Nonetheless, we have seen all along -- at least up until the time the economy started to implode, we have seen all along that these polls have gone back and forth. They believe in the McCain campaign that they have gotten traction off Joe the plumber. They believe in the McCain campaign that his debate performance caused some people to take a second look. So, they are watching the polls as closely as anyone. They certainly understand the odds here. But they do believe -- and, as you know now, Pennsylvania a big part -- winning Pennsylvania a big part of their strategy. And that is a really, really tough go for McCain. Nonetheless, they are looking at it. They see reasons to be hopeful. And, honestly, that is what politicians do. They really -- it is not over them until those polls close across the country.</s>COOPER: Thirteen days to go. Anything can happen. Candy, thanks very much. We have just learned on our breaking news that the depositions that Governor Palin and her husband, Todd, will be giving under oath on Friday are going to take place in Saint Louis. We didn't know that just a few moments ago. More now on the new numbers -- the race tightening somewhat in national polls, but widening in states that President Bush won four years ago, and John McCain needs to survive -- the new CNN poll of polls showing a seven-point Obama lead nationally, two points closer than just yesterday. It was nine points last night, if you remember. But it is those red states, as Candy was talking about, that really tell the story tonight. So, let's look across the board with John King's at the magic map -- John.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, must-win is the term McCain uses for all five of the states where we have new battleground polls, and, yet, it is Obama, the Democrat, leading in four of the five. Let's take a closer look, moving from east to west. We start here in North Carolina. And here are the numbers, 51 percent to 47 percent, advantage Obama in North Carolina, which has not gone Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter in 1976. We will get rid of this. Look at the blue areas from four years ago. This is where you have a significant African-American population. It is a boost for Obama in the early voting under way so far, critical. If he can keep that state in his column come Election Day, that would be enough to deny McCain the presidency. So would an Obama win here in Virginia. And look at those numbers. Not since 1964 has Virginia gone Democrat for president, a 10-point Obama advantage in that state at the moment. Obama is beating McCain 2-1 up here in the Northern Virginia suburbs. That's where most of the population is in the state. And, also, 9 percent of Virginia Republicans tell us they will vote Democrat for president. Pollsters say that is an impact among moderate Republicans, who, in part, don't like McCain's choice of Sarah Palin to be vice president. The bright spot for McCain in our new polling here in West Virginia, a nine-point advantage in a blue-collar state critical to George W. Bush twice. It looks like that one is looking safe for the Republicans at the moment. But it won't make a difference, if McCain wins West Virginia, if he can't win here in Ohio, 50 percent to 46 percent, advantage Obama at the moment. What you find significant when you look inside the Ohio numbers, again, 10 percent of Republicans in the Buckeye State say they plan to vote for the Democrat for president. One other big significant thing here, Republicans need a cushion in the Cincinnati-Dayton area to offset these blue areas elsewhere in the state. At the moment, it is a dead heat between Obama and McCain in Cincinnati-Dayton. If McCain doesn't turn that around, hard to see him winning in the state of Ohio. And, lastly, out in Nevada, stunning evidence here of the influx of Latino voters, advantage Obama 51 percent to 46 percent statewide. But if you break down the numbers a little bit more closely, and you remember a huge influx of Latinos into the Las Vegas area, 67 percent to 30 percent -- 67 percent to 30 percent, Obama is leading among non- white voters. An influx of Latinos into Nevada could make the difference in this campaign, Anderson, and you add it all up and you get a map that, at the moment, is significantly in Obama's favor.</s>COOPER: All right, John King, thanks. We're talking politics online at AC360.com. I'm about to join the conversation myself. Check out Erica Hill's live Webcast during the break as well. Up next, the latest development involving Sarah Palin's medical records. It sounded like she agreed to release them today, but is that really what she said to NBC's Brian Williams? We will play you the clip, try to figure it out together. Our political panel joins us on that and a whole lot more. Also, John McCain talking to Wolf Blitzer about the Colin Powell endorsement and Powell's critique of Sarah Palin. And we add another name to our 10 most wanted list, the culprits of the financial collapse. This guy made millions and has cost you even more. We will find out who he is and what he did tonight.