Pelosi Comments on Offshore Drilling; Battleground Ohio
MALVEAUX: Soaring energy costs have put a spotlight on the issue of offshore oil drilling. Many experts say it would have minimal impact on prices. But there are some Republicans, including presidential candidate John McCain, that are demanding that Congress act. And now Democrats may actually be softening their opposition. Carol Costello is following that story -- Carol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- I don't know, this kind of looks like a flip-flop.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some people say it does look like a flip-flop. She's actually softening her stance. But there are those who wonder if it's all part of a political game at a time voters are demanding answers to high gas prices.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE: Thank you. It's fine.</s>COSTELLO (voice-over): Score one for John McCain. All that taunting actually worked.</s>MCCAIN: Come back off your vacation. Go back to Washington and fix our energy problems and drill and drill now. Drill offshore and drill now.</s>COSTELLO: He was at it again today. And why not? The Democrats have flip-flopped, compromised or pulled a bit of political trickery, depending on how you look at it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now following Barack Obama's lead by saying she would consider allowing Congress to vote on offshore drilling when it reconvenes. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LARRY KING LIVE") LARRY KING, HOST: Would you vote yes on a package that includes drilling?</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I would not -- it depends on how the drilling is put forth.</s>SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE: Like all compromises, this one has its drawbacks. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LARRY KING LIVE") PELOSI: It depends on how that is proposed.</s>OBAMA: It does include a limited amount of new offshore drilling. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LARRY KING LIVE") PELOSI: We can get some great things in terms of renewable energy resources...</s>COSTELLO: President Bush definitely saw it as political trickery.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Democratic leadership should bring up a clean bill, give the members a chance to vote up or down on whether or not we should proceed with offshore drilling and not insert any legislative poison pills.</s>COSTELLO: But others say the Democrats are sincerely compromising because the people have spoken. According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll, 69 percent are in favor of offshore drilling.</s>MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: It doesn't matter what your position was three weeks ago as long as your position today is the right position.</s>COSTELLO: Even some environmentalists say they're willing to accept some offshore drilling if Republicans will compromise on conservation measures.</s>TIM GREEFF, NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS: What Speaker Pelosi is doing is actually legislating and avoiding this political sideshow that the Republican leadership has been putting forth.</s>COSTELLO: But Republicans say if Nancy Pelosi was really sincere about legislating, she'd come back from vacation, call a special session and get it done.</s>COSTELLO: I should add, just a couple of months ago, John McCain also opposed offshore drilling. The big difference here, he got in front of the issue before the Democrats did. And, bingo, it resonated with voters.</s>MALVEAUX: So we still have a little bit of time left, because they're on recess. They'll come back and we'll figure out how all this is going to work out.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, maybe.</s>MALVEAUX: OK. Thanks, Carol. To the presidential campaign trail now. CNN's Election Express is traveling from Washington to Denver to the Democratic convention later this month. Well, our own Tom Foreman, he's on the bus. He's talking to voters along the way. Today, he is in the key battleground state of Ohio -- Tom -- he is obviously looking at the flavor and the color of what's going on and some of the issues that they're focusing on -- hey, Tom, how you doing?</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And enjoying being here in -- well, I'm good and I'm enjoying being here in Toledo, right across the river from where they're building the new stadium for the Mud Hens. The folks here love their sports. But one of the biggest games in town this year has been the presidential race. And both candidates are really playing hard in Ohio.</s>MCCAIN: And I think that Ohio is going to be a battleground state. I have to campaign hard here. I have to work hard here.</s>FOREMAN (voice-over): And both John McCain and Barack Obama are working overtime to win Ohio's 20 electoral votes, campaigning here again and again.</s>OBAMA: Thank you, all.</s>FOREMAN: George W. Bush narrowly took the state eight years ago and his two point victory in Ohio four years ago sealed the deal for his re-election. This time around, it looks like another close call, with the latest state polls showing a statistical dead heat between McCain and Obama.</s>OBAMA: We can open the door to a new economy for the 21st century that will bring new energy, new jobs and new hope to Berea and communities across Ohio.</s>FOREMAN: Both candidates are speaking out about the economy because it is issue number one with voters here.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cost of food has gone up big time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And, of course, the economy is horrible. And I don't think it's going to take -- I don't think any one person is going to be able to turn that around.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually laid off some people, cut the wait staff, cut the cook, cut the dishwasher. And I'm putting more hours in myself. It's a family business. You've got to do it in order -- anything you can in order to stay alive.</s>FOREMAN: That's what we're hearing from almost every voter we talked to in this state. The simple truth is, for all the economic problems that America is having, Ohio is having them worse. It had so much unemployment here -- it's at a 15-year high -- there's talk about the unemployment funds running out by the end of the year. Big worries here and a lot of people are waiting for the candidates to come through with some sort of big clear plan to convince them to get their votes, so maybe they can fix the economy -- not immediately, but sometime in the near future.</s>MALVEAUX: Tom, great to hear directly from the voters on that very important issue. I'm kind of jealous of that assignment there, the Election Express. You got a chance to talk to some, folks. So we'll get back to you in a bit.</s>FOREMAN: Come out and join us. We're having a good time.</s>MALVEAUX: OK. Free tickets for Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver were snapped up last week within 24 hours. Now people are turning to the Web to try to get their hands one. Our Internet reporter, Abbi Tatton, has been watching this -- and, Abbi, how much are the tickets now going for?</s>ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Suzanne, $3,600 is the current bid on the Web site viagogo.com for a pair of these tickets to the Barack Obama acceptance speech. Bear in mind, that's $3,600 for free tickets to the speech. It's going to be held at INVESCO Field. It seats about 80,000 people on this date. But, the thing is, 100,000 people have already asked for these tickets. And that demand is leading people to go and make appeals like this online. On Craigslist: "Wanted -- four tickets to the Obama speech. Top dollar paid." Convention officials say that they bare clamping down on these online sellers, going after the people -- pursuing them -- that are selling these tickets for the inflated prices. A spokesperson said that it's absurd that people are selling these online because the actual physical tickets haven't even been handed out yet. And she points out that these tickets also have a bar code that can be deactivated if they want to, if they spot them being sold online. So if you want one, there is a wait list. The thing is, there's about 20,000 people ahead of you.</s>MALVEAUX: Oh, my goodness. OK, Abbi. Thanks again. Potentially unlimited fuel -- no drilling required. How could bacteria solve our gas crunch? Plus, the uproar over a police beating. We have the surveillance tapes.