New McCain Attack Ad; New Poll Out Showing The Race Between Obama and McCain Changed Significantly; Hillary Clinton Decided to Release Her Delegates to Barack Obama; Madonna Slammed John McCain Comparing Him to Hitler; Plane Crash Rescue on Tape; Two Tornadoes Ripping in Colorado
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: The Obamas head for Denver and CNN is there with John King, Candy Crowley, Roland Martin, Alex Castellanos and Paul Begala. Tonight, a new poll out. Who's ahead? And is there a Biden bounce? Can you say divide and conquer?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She won millions of votes. But isn't on his ticket. Why? For speaking the truth.</s>SANCHEZ: The new wedge issue. Hillary. By the way, when did Hillary find out she wasn't "it"? We now know. Madonna, live in concert, rips into John McCain. Amazing video -- a plane crash moments after it happened. It's all recorded. We'll let it play out. And how would you like to keep your entire paycheck, every penny, and pay no income tax? A special LOFTV report on what Americans are jazzed about. A fair tax. For one and all. Only here, where the news starts now. And hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. All right. New things done a little differently here. It's convention time. There's a new McCain/Obama poll. There are new attack ads. And more than 1,000 people here on Facebook and twitter.com. In fact, go ahead and show them on the big screen we've got for them tonight, Roger. That's what it's going to look like. See one of the first entries coming in right now. It says "awesome" about that giant twitter. What he's referring to is the fact that we're going to be talking to you while you are talking to us and watching this newscast as it happens. Revolutionary, perhaps. They're going to be sharing their thoughts. We're going to be sharing our analysts' thoughts. Then, tonight, as we were getting ready to put all this together, boom, leave it to Mother Nature to suddenly steal our political thunder. Rub your eyes and get a look at this monster. This thing is only 20 miles from the Democratic National Convention site. It's an enormous tornado. We sat and watched this thing. It slammed the ground south of Denver. It's Parker, Colorado. Those two, three-story houses, too close for comfort. Incredible images as we watched from affiliate WUSA. You see the houses in the foreground, some in the background. Amazingly, from last we checked, no one had been seriously hurt by this. It's a twister that struck the area as we follow it. Now, let's go on to politics. The Democratic National Convention in Denver. Denver, Denver, Denver. That's where we go now. That's the story tonight. Here's what we're going to be doing for you. New developments. There is a new poll out showing that the race between Obama and McCain has changed significantly. That's coming up. Also, we learned tonight that Hillary Clinton has decided to release her delegates to Barack Obama. That is the bulk of our show. But then in the second half, how would you like to never have to pay a payroll tax? Keep every penny in your check. Or ever have to pay income tax. We have a special report that you need to see on a plan to revolutionize our tax system. This has so many Americans absolutely jazzed. We begin tonight, though, with two of the best in the business, from the convention in Denver. CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley is joining us, and our chief national correspondent John King. Candy, let's begin with you. How big is this announcement by Hillary Clinton to release her delegates Wednesday?</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Listen, it's very big symbolically. Let's face it, those delegates are free to do whatever they want, including ignore Hillary Clinton and go ahead and vote for Hillary. So -- but what they're trying to do here, and I judge what they will succeed in doing, is trying to bring the party together. Hillary Clinton and the people around Clinton said -- listen, she really is trying to do the right thing here. She really does believe that Barack Obama should be elected president. So, they have been trying in varying ways. She's been out campaigning for him. And still, there is this group that is never going to go ahead and vote for Barack Obama. They remain bitter that Hillary Clinton is not going to be the nominee. They think that she should be the nominee; that the party rules worked against her, et cetera, et cetera. So, it is significant, and as another attempt by Hillary Clinton to say -- you know what, if you want to win, if you believe in me on the issues, you should believe in him, too.</s>SANCHEZ: John, one of the biggest stories in this news cycle over the last 24 hours is this John McCain attack ad, as it's being called. It seems to be trying to put a rift between Hillary Clinton supporters, about Hillary Clinton herself and Barack Obama. Does this move by either of Obama or Clinton take the wind out of the sails of that argument?</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the McCain campaign certainly hopes that. We'll watch this play out in Denver. This is the major subplot, if you will, in the convention hall. The major drama is the Obama-Biden ticket. But it is a subplot and the McCain campaign is trying to exploit this division in the Democratic family, because they know if they can get just a decent percentage, doesn't have to be a huge percentage, just a decent percentage of the Clinton voters in southeast Ohio, then the Republicans will hold Ohio. If they can get a decent to significant percentage in Pennsylvania, perhaps they can take that state out of the Democratic basket. And we could go through battleground state after battleground state, where the Clinton voters, those blue collar but largely white lunch bucket Democrats could potentially be the swing voters. Many of them, I would remind you, Rick, are Catholic voters as well. They tend to be swing voters in close elections. So, the McCain camp is trying to exploit this division and part of the Denver challenge for the Democrats is to bring family unity.</s>SANCHEZ: Hey, guys, let me ask you this question. Curious. As I look at this convention and I think back to past conventions, there was a famous speeches, there were the showstoppers, there was the young Bill Clinton, there was the Obama speech, there was the Zell Miller speech, Cuomo speech, Buchanan the toughie. Do you see as you look at the rostrum at this point of any one moment or any one speaker who's going to be breaking out and people are going to be talking about him for days as a result of what he or she says? Either one of you.</s>CROWLEY: Listen, I think it's going to be Barack Obama. It's going to be really hard to outshine that speech. We all know he can give a great speech. And you know, Rick, there were also conventions when the losers gave the best speech, the most memorable speech. Teddy Kennedy, when he conceded to Jimmy Carter -- the "Dream Never Dies" speech. There were just powerful speeches. It doesn't have to be an unknown. Sometimes, there's someone that's already known that kind of turns the corner in a career, in the party. But I think this time around, with the setting that Barack Obama has chosen, it's going to be awfully hard to have somebody bubble up and outshine that.</s>SANCHEZ: John, can you think of anybody out there that you think might be able to make a statement this time around?</s>KING: I'll give you two. And I agree 1,000 percent with Candy, that the first and foremost, it's up to Barack Obama. But Michelle Obama has a very important role. Because a lot of Americans out there aren't sure the Obamas share their values. When she speaks, she needs to say, "Our family is very much like yours. The pressures -- we understand the pressures on your life." And the emotional moment, I think there will be a videotaped presentation by Ted Kennedy. Candy just mentioned his past performance. There was some talk he would actually come here. I'm told tonight he's not up to making the trip. Some had hoped he would make it here. But there will be a video presentation that Ted Kennedy has recorded for this convention and I believe you will hear a call for party unity from him as well. And he's a legend in the party, Rick. I think that will be a very emotional, stirring moment.</s>SANCHEZ: You guys are great. So glad to have you. We appreciate it. John King and Candy Crowley. We'll catch up with you later. Let's talk about the ad wars themselves. You heard some mention of them just a while ago. This is how Senators Obama and McCain will take shots at each other on your television sets in your living room. The McCain campaign taking big swing at Barack Obama today. And take a look at who does most of the talking in this John McCain ad.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She won millions of votes. But isn't on his ticket. Why? For speaking the truth -- on his plans.</s>SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTTAL CANDIDATE: You never hear the specifics.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the Rezko scandal.</s>CLINTON: We still don't know a lot of answers about Senator Obama.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On his attacks.</s>CLINTON: Senator Obama's campaign has become increasingly negative.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The truth hurt. And Obama didn't like it.</s>SANCHEZ: Some people say that is exactly how the game is played. Let's get right into this discussion. It's been the one that people have been talking about in politics. Some of the best and the brightest political minds around are joining us, and oh, yes, I'm going to be talking about it as well. Paul Begala, Democratic strategist, former adviser to President Clinton. Republican consultant Alex Castellanos, whereas my mother would say, Alejandro Castellanos. CNN political analyst, radio talk show host and syndicated columnist, Roland Martin. He's going to join us as well. And by the way, he's got some hot news he's going to be bringing us in a little bit. Alex, I want to start with you though. Can there really be a rift between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton if Hillary Clinton says there is no rift between us?</s>ALEX CASTELLANOS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, there certainly is, because her voters seem to see one. The Hillary Clinton voters say that they're not supporting Barack Obama en masse. As a matter of fact, 20, 27 percent of them are saying that they now may vote for John McCain. That's a big whole lot of the Democratic Party.</s>SANCHEZ: But the question is, you know, when you look at something like this, you're left wondering, they're speaking, Republicans have been on the air putting ads that speak for her, and she's saying not only do I not have a rift with him, in fact, I'm giving him all of my delegates as of Wednesday.</s>CASTELLANOS: Yes, but, you know, the rift in the voting population got worse as the election -- as the primaries went on.</s>SANCHEZ: So, you're saying --</s>CASTELLANOS: Hillary Clinton increasingly -- her voters increasingly said, we're not going to go for Barack Obama in the general. And that isn't just a choice between the two candidates. These are working-class voters who didn't see Barack Obama representing them.</s>SANCHEZ: So you're saying despite whatever it is she says, her voters are still going to be feeling somewhat dissatisfied. Paul Begala, give that a shot.</s>PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well,</s>SANCHEZ: Interesting. So you think -- what I hear you saying is that this is going to backfire on McCain, perhaps. Roland Martin, pick up the argument. And I also can't help but wonder, has Barack Obama flubbed this in a way? Because here we're going to the convention and look what we're talking about. Should he have somehow made this thing stop months ago?</s>ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: First of all, there's no way that Obama could have done to make this thing stop. Keep in mind, we have not seen this kind of close primary in -- I don't know how many years. You had two historic candidates. You had people on both sides who were absolutely passionate about their candidate. So we should not be surprised or shocked by it. I think what's going to happen is, Democrats are going to look their own constituents in the eye and say, what are the issues that you care about. Do you want to see a conservative Supreme Court majority? Do you want to see Roe v. Wade overturned? Do you want to see the Bush tax cuts continue? Do you want to see our troops stay in Iraq? They're going to hit the people on the issues and say, at some point you're going to make a decision. And look, I've seen some of the e-mails and I must say the same thing about the Democrats as I said about the conservatives in the primaries, who said that John McCain was not conservative enough. If you vote for the other person because you don't like the other person, you've got to shut up for the next four years.</s>SANCHEZ: All right. Roland Martin, Alex Castellanos and Paul Begala, you guys are good. Different perspectives. All well set out. We're going to be coming back to you in just a little bit as we continue. The big story tonight, though, at least happening in the last couple of hours, if you haven't heard, with Joe Biden on the ticket, what happens now to the poll between Barack Obama and John McCain as a result of Joe Biden's presence. Well, we know what it was yesterday. Where is it tonight? We've got brand-new numbers. We're going to share them with you as soon as we come back.