Voting Their Wallets in Ohio
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: We're still waiting for word from Craigslist whether the shutdown of its adult services section is permanent or not. Over the weekend, the company slapped a "censored" label on the section. The section is not accessible inside the U.S. but get this, it can still be accessed outside the country. The move followed complaints from 17 attorneys general that the section promotes prostitution and enables human trafficking or senior legalling. Jeffrey Toobin spoke on this last night on "AC360".</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: The way the law is set up now, the Internet as far as this is concerned is treated much like the phone company in the sense that if a John and a hooker set up a transaction through the telephone, nobody thinks Verizon or AT&T; is liable for the transaction. The law makes Internet service providers and even Websites like the phone company there. They are just a cut- out and not legally liable but Craigslist decided to take on this responsibility. And that's where the problem started.</s>ACOSTA: And Craigslist has said it supports the attorneys general's desire to end trafficking in children and women, through the Internet or by any other means. Mid-term elections just eight weeks from today; the stakes are high for your jobs, your taxes, your health care and brand new CNN polls out this morning suggests the next 56 days could be long ones for President Obama and the Democrats. Republicans are making big gains, apparently winning over the confidence of the American people when it comes to the economy. 46 percent now say the GOP will do a better job with the economy, taxes and handling the deficit. Those numbers have to sting for Democrats but the president is hoping to reverse the trend. He's unveiling a string of new economic proposals one after another after another, and they add up to get this - $350 billion. Senior White House correspondent Ed Henry joining us live now. And Ed, it's interesting that the White House did not come out and say, hey, we're offering up a $350 million second stimulus. They're coming out day after day after day, and we have to sort of have to add it all up and draw our own conclusion. Is that it?</s>ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. You may hear this is not part the of president's infrastructure spending, by the way. There was a big construction project going on here at the White House. I don't think that's about stimulus. But you're absolutely right. It's interesting. It is almost a semantical political debate that's going on right now. This White House knows it's toxic on the campaign trail to talk about a lot of federal spending. You've been chronicling it with people who are activists who basically say Washington just doesn't get it. They're spending too much money. The last thing they want to do is roll out what's seen as a second stimulus plan all balled up together into $350 million but in fact, when you add it all up, that's where we are at. Let's start with the newest information we have which is that I'm now told by a senior official here that tomorrow in Cleveland, the president will roll out a $250 billion tax cut aimed at small businesses. It will basically focus on giving them 100 percent deduction, writing it off on investments in new plans, new equipment, all aimed at trying to spark the economy, of course. This is on top of the $50 billion on infrastructure spending that the president spoke about yesterday. On Sunday, CNN reported about a $100 million tax cut that the president wants to give in terms of research and development for companies. All of this, the backdrop for the campaign trail out there where the president was in Milwaukee yesterday, really fired up, really taking it to the Republicans.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's no silver bullet. There's no quick fix to these problems. I knew when I was running for office, and I certainly knew by the time I was sworn in. I knew it would take time to reverse the damage of a decade worth of policies that saw too few people being able to climb into the middle class, too many people falling behind.</s>OBAMA: We all knew this. We all knew that it would take more time than any of us want to dig ourselves out of this hole created by this economic crisis.</s>HENRY: So you hear the case the president's making out there on the road, but a little reality check, this new economic plan may never see the light of day. I mean, the bottom line is he's facing resistant Republicans on the hill who don't want to give him a last- minute victory here before the election on this plan, and he's also facing trouble from some of his fellow Democrats, conservative Democrats who don't want to spend more federal money but also even some of the liberal Democrats who are just anxious to get home full time to campaign. They may not be in Washington very long, more than just a couple of weeks. At the end of this month, they may want to rush back and campaign. They may not get to this before the election. Jim.</s>ACOSTA: And Ed, the president's former budget director, Peter Orszag is straying from the Obama reservation today, making his thoughts known in an op-ed in the "New York Times" about the Bush tax cuts. I'm just curious, could this be a trial balloon or is this just simply his opinion on a pretty key issue right now?</s>HENRY: Well, I just spoke to White House spokeswoman Amy Brenhouse. We got some new reaction where she's basically saying this is one man's opinion. But it's important in a sense that just a month ago, he was one of the president's most principal economic advisers as the White House budget director. Here's what he says, on the "New York Times," basically breaks with the president and says that the tax cuts for the rich should be extended. Saying "No one wants to make an already stagnating jobs market worse over the next year or two, which is exactly what would happen if the cuts expire as planned. Higher taxes would now crimp consumer spending further depressing the already inadequate demand for what firms are cable of producing at full tilt. There is little reason not to extend tax cuts temporarily." But there's some good news as well, I would think in this op-ed. We need to give the full context here. He's saying this in a context of there should be a compromise. Whereas the president and Democrats say "OK, we'll take the tax cut for the rich for a couple more years but then the Republicans have to agree to end all of the Bush tax cuts in a couple of years." That's something the Republicans don't want to hear. They don't want to endorse. So this is not all bad for the president, but having one of his recent - again, construction here - economic advisers saying he's against where the president is on extending tax cuts for the rich and using an argument that the Republicans on the campaign trail is not good news for the White House. Jim.</s>ACOSTA: All right. Ed Henry, we'll leave it at that because I don't want that truck to back up into your live shot. It sounds dangerously close at this point. But Ed Henry, live at the White House. Very interesting developments over there on the economy. Appreciate it. The economy is a big topic in Ohio and both parties recognize how important that state is in the midterm elections and beyond. CNN's T.J. Holmes is in the capital city of Ohio, Columbus and he is traveling with the CNN Election Express. Hello, T.J..</s>T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there again to you. You just heard in Ed's Report, the president had a bit of a rally, and they are certainly used to seeing rallies from the president here in the state of Ohio, in particular, Columbus. Immediately after his stimulus package passed, he came here to talk about how that stimulus was going to help the state of Ohio recover, help them with job creation. Well, immediately after he left last year, after that, speech about the stimulus, the unemployment rate here in this state went up almost two percentage points over the next several months. So we're used to seeing those rallies. So the president coming back to Ohio, again, tomorrow, going to be in Cleveland. Are they willing to give the president another chance? Take a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too busy raising money for themselves to worry about what's going on in the rest of the country.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There aren't many jobs coming in, and the ones that are here are minimum wage.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't care what party they are, Republican, Democrat, independents, it's just the person that help the average man.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get rid of them both. People run who want to do a job.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a strong Democrat; however, I'm disappointed in many of our Democratic candidates that they have not worked harder for the middle class. They've made concessions for the wealthy Americans and we're really hurting here in Middle America.</s>HOLMES: So, the president coming back here again tomorrow, to Cleveland. This will be his 10th trip to Ohio since he has become president. Why is this such a popular place for the president? It's because over the past 12 presidential elections, this state has voted for the winner, and right now they are sitting at 10.3 percent unemployment. Also coming up, next hour, Jim, I've just said now I've been talking to a lot of voters throughout our trip here on the CNN Election Express and I just sat down with a couple of guys. You certainly are going to want to hear the conversation I had with them and why one of them at the age of 50 says he has never voted and he never will. He is that turned off by the process in Washington, D.C. great conversation you want to hear, coming up next hour.</s>ACOSTA: And T.J., I was struck by what the woman at the very end of that string of sound bites had to say. She said that she is a strong Democrat and yet she feels that her fellow democrats in Washington, her politicians, are essentially not doing enough for the middle class, and she feels like the middle class has been forgotten. That's got to be terrible to listen to if you're a democratic politician running in Ohio.</s>HOLMES: You have a couple of issues here, several races, but we have at least three or four, I believe, that CNN has identified in the state as some of the hot races, the up in the air races because you have at least two freshman Democrats trying to hold onto their congressional seats and you also have the governor, Governor Strickland here. He is in a tough re-election bid. It is so important to have Democrats in those governorships if you're trying to run who can organize in the state, during the presidential election. So yes, you see the polls as well, Jim, that Republicans are more motivated than Democrats to head to the polls. That's bad, and also, independents, at the polls we have been seeing, not necessarily leaning toward the democrats and towards the president as they were maybe the last time around. So it is disheartening news for any Democrat to hear that your democratic voters are not fired up to go out and vote for you.</s>ACOSTA: And they don't have much time to turn it around. All right. T.J. Holmes live in Columbus for us. Thanks, T.J.. And all aboard the election express. That means you as well. It's on the road this week. On this week, carrying the best political team on television. Jessica Yellin, John king, Laura Borger, T.J. Holmes and Dana Bash are all in Columbus, Ohio, today, and tomorrow the CNN Express rolls across the Ohio River into Covington, Kentucky. On Thursday, our team reports from Indianapolis. A busy week for our political team crossing the Midwest in the Election Express. Now, still ahead, he is a darling of the tea party and he may be the movement's best chance for capturing a Senate seat.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): ... you talk about defending the Constitution, but yet you want to change the constitution. Isn't there a contradiction there?</s>MIKE LEE, SENATE CANDIDATE: Not at all. The constitution was made to be amended from time to time, sometimes we have to do that to make the Constitution more true to the American dream.</s>ACOSTA: All right. So does the tea party want to change the Constitution or defend the Constitution? I'll sit down and talk with a tea party favorite, Mark Lee. That's coming up. And this candidate says George Washington, by the way, was the original tea party man</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Jim, we have ourselves a tropical storm. If you were not tuned in yesterday, this developed yesterday afternoon and now is swirling it's way across Corpus Christi, towards San Antonio. We'll talk about this. Plus, the fire threat out west when the NEWSROOM comes right back.