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Article Excerpt
Original Source: CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: This is LATE EDITION, the last word in Sunday talk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, D-ILL.: He was all over the map on public finance, right?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: Senator Obama's reversal on public financing is one of a number of reversals.
BLITZER (voice-over): John McCain and Barack Obama accuse each other of campaign flip flops. We'll talk with Obama supporter, Governor Bill Richardson and McCain supporter, Tim Pawlenty.
From rising gas and food prices to the housing crisis, a look at the candidates' plans for the ailing U.S. economy with McCain campaign senior economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin and former Clinton labor secretary and Obama supporter Robert Reich.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: For many Americans, there is no more pressing concern than the price of gasoline.
BLITZER: Will Congress agree to offshore oil drilling to help ease the price of gas? Answers from Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler and Republican Congressman Eric Cantor.
And insight and analysis on all of the week's politics from three of the best political team on television.
Plus, we'll assess the war on terror and the hunt for Osama bin Laden with journalist and author Ahmed Rashid and CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen.
And 10 years of LATE EDITION. A look back at my 1998 interview with South Africa's Nelson Mandela.
The first hour of LATE EDITION begins right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: It's 11 a.m. here in Washington, 8 a.m. in Los Angeles and 6 p.m. in Baghdad. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us for LATE EDITION.
We'll get to my interview with the governor Bill Richardson in just a moment, but first a very important meeting underway in Saudi Arabia right now. Officials from 36 countries are meeting to try and figure out a way to try to bring down record oil prices. CNN's Wilf Dinnick is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He's covering the summit for us. And there were some announcements, some dramatic announcements in the course of today. What's going on, Wilf?
DINNICK: Well really, a huge announcement here. The oil minister here in Saudi Arabia saying they're going to boost production, put way more oil out there on the market and ease the demand. They're talking about 9.7 million barrels a day, that's something they haven't done since the Iran/Iraq war. And then they're going to boost that to the end of next year, to 12.5 million barrels a day. That's something the Saudi Arabian government or this kingdom has never done before. They say they're going to invest in new refineries and put new oil fields and bring more oil out.
Now what that does is it sends a message to the market and really what the kingdom here is doing in the Saudi Arabian government is straddling both sides of the fence, because here there are two diverging views. One, the Americans, who are saying that really this a case of supply and demand. We just need more oil out there and that will ease the prices. The OPEC nations, many of the Middle Eastern nations that supply the oil say no, it's actually the market that is really out of whack here. It's things like the traders in New York and London who have been trying to make a quick buck by trading paper contracts for oil, thinking that there isn't enough oil out there.
So really we have a case now of just more oil out of the markets, going to appease the Bush administration, but there's going to be -- and everyone's saying this -- no short term relief at the pumps, just at least right yet.
BLITZER: OK, we'll see how this falls out. Wilf Dinnick reporting for us from Jeddah. Important news as he just says, news that could affect this U.S. presidential campaign as well.
The campaign is ratcheting up another notch with Barack Obama and John McCain challenging each other on a whole host of issues including the economy, energy, campaign cash. Both candidates accusing each other of flip flopping on key issues.
Let's discuss all of this. Joining us from Santa Fe with his take on McCain versus Obama is the New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. He's a strong supporter of Barack Obama, a former energy secretary himself. Governor, thanks very much for coming in. Let me get your immediate reaction to the breaking news out of Saudi Arabia that they're about to dramatically increase production of oil. What does it mean to you?
RICHARDSON: Well, it's about time. You know, the Bush administration has waited eight years to pressure OPEC and their great friends, the Saudis. When President Bush came in, he said he was going to job own OPEC to increase production. Well, it's finally happened. It's going to help a little bit, maybe reduce prices just a little. But it's a welcome step because by putting more oil on the market, you deal with a supply and demand issue more effectively. But what is needed is not what the president and John McCain want to do, which is drill off shore. What is needed is a comprehensive strategy of fuel efficiency, 50 miles-per-gallon vehicles, a mass transit. What is needed is investments in renewable energy and solar and wind. It means dramatic conservation efforts, green technology, the American public being more careful about appliances.
BLITZER: But Governor, excuse me for interrupting, but in the short term, if the Saudis do increase their oil production, that will increase supply out there and presumably will have an impact on the price per barrel, which right now what is about $135 a barrel. If they're going to increase their production, that price will go down and I assume eventually at least in the short term, it could have an impact on the price per gallon at the pump here in the United States.
RICHARDSON: Well you know, it will go down a little bit. It won't be significant and that is welcome. But you know, at the same time, the head of the Russian natural gas agency Gazprom is predicting that oil will go to $250 per barrel within a year. So you've got these conflicting views.
The point is that we have got to have a bipartisan comprehensive strategy and this administration, it seems Senator McCain, they want to do is drill, drill, drill. You can't drill your way out of the problem. Now it's offshore where it's going to take years, 10 years to start getting some of the oil out of the ocean. And also it's going to take until 2030, an effort to -- fuel prices won't go down until then. This is according to independent agencies. So they're very cosmetic steps.
BLITZER: You say a McCain administration would drill, drill, drill, but listen to what Senator McCain says about an Obama administration, which he said would simply tax, tax, tax. Listen to this.
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MCCAIN: For Senator Obama, the solution to every problem and the answer to every challenge is a tax. And he's convinced that the 1970s style windfall profits tax is juts what America needs in the 21st century.
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BLITZER: OK, do you want to respond to that because he makes the point, Senator McCain, that that windfall profits tax on big oil, it didn't work in the 1970s when Jimmy Carter tried it and it's not going to work this time.
RICHARDSON: Well, I think that's a false premise, what was advocated in the Bush administration was give special preferences to oil, coal and nuclear. And what Senator Obama and many Democrats are advocating is have a level playing field. Shift those enormous tax breaks for oil companies that are making billions and shift them over to solar, to wind, to biodiesel, biofuels, to green technology, to green buildings, to fuel-efficient vehicles, to hybrid fuels, to plug- in hybrid vehicles. To mass transit instead of massively-building highways, going to commuter rail and light rail. So it's not taxes, it's basically shifting the burden and have a level playing field.
BLITZER: But do you support, governor, a windfall profits tax on Exxon Mobil, Chevron, the other big oil companies?
RICHARDSON: Yes, yes to shift them to solar and wind. They got this tax break five years ago in the energy bill that they didn't deserve. Billions of dollars, $20 billion for Exxon in one or two months in terms of profits. I mean, that is obscene. That money should go to refineries. That money should go to research into renewable energy. It should go into drilling here in the United States.
The oil companies have millions of leases where they could drill in the continental United States. Why aren't they doing that? Why do they want to go offshore?
BLITZER: Here's a point that Rudy Giuliani, the former Republican presidential candidate, the former mayor of New York and now a strong supporter of John McCain -- this is the point that he makes. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The reality is Barack Obama opposes almost everything that could realistically reduce the price of oil. Expanding refineries, expanding nuclear power, which is something that he doesn't embrace.
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BLITZER: All right, let's go through those two points. Does Barack Obama, and you for that matter, do you oppose expanding refineries?
RICHARDSON: No, but it should be done in an environmentally- sensitive way. So the answer is no.
BLITZER: But where would you do it, Governor? Because there haven't been new refineries built in the United States in what, almost three decades.
RICHARDSON: Well, with proper environmental permitting, Louisiana, Texas, many other places. But also on nuclear power, Wolf, we've got to deal with the problem of waste from nuclear waste. But it doesn't omit greenhouse gas emission. They should be an option. So should carbon clean coal technology, carbon sequestration, natural gas.
RICHARDSON: There are many options. But the only options that the Bush administration and John McCain seem to have is drill, drill, drill, fossil fuels.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: What about nuclear power?
Are you ready to start seeing a bunch of new nuclear reactors built in the United States to ease the pressure on importing oil?
RICHARDSON: If they abide by environmental standards, and if we have a solution to the problem of waste. In Nevada, they don't want to take that waste. We can't do it in regional sites.
We need to develop a technologically safe way to store this waste. That has to happen, Wolf. But we should proceed with nuclear power as an option.
BLITZER: Here is a question on Iraq, and I'll put -- you know, you're a foreign policy expert, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The New York Times, yesterday, had a major front-page story, a very lengthy story. Among other things, it concluded with this.
They're reporting in Iraq right now. "Violence in all of Iraq is the lowest since March 2004. The two largest cities, Baghdad and Basra, are calmer than they have been for years. There are signs that both the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government are making strides."
Are you ready to concede, right now, that John McCain was right in proposing that this surge, this military surge, take effect more than a year ago, because it seems to be having a positive impact?
RICHARDSON: Absolutely not. I welcome this positive news, obviously. We want to see a reduction in the violence, but the questions that I would ask, has there been progress among the political groups in Iraq for a reconciliation? The answer is "Very limited."
Has there been progress in dividing up the oil revenues so that there can be a reconciliation? The progress is minor.
Has there been an effort to reach out, in a very tough way, to the Irans, to the Syrias, to have a regional agreement that involves a potential U.N. peacekeeping force, a reduction of tensions? The answer is no.
This policy is not working. And you talk about energy; you talk about health care and education, we are spending billions on this war with no end, when we should be spending these billions at home on education, on health care, on human resources, on helping our people.
BLITZER: Governor Richardson, we've got to leave it on that note. Thanks very much for joining us.
RICHARDSON: Thanks, Wolf, nice to be with you again.
BLITZER: Thank you.
And just ahead, which candidate has the better plan when it comes to taxes and trade? We'll talk about that with Senator McCain's senior economic adviser. He'll be here. Then we'll get the other side from former Clinton labor secretary and Obama supporter Robert Reich. "Late Edition" continues right after this.
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BLITZER: Coming up in our next hour, by the way, we'll be speaking with the Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty. He's being mentioned as a potential vice presidential running mate for John McCain. That interview in the next hour.
But right now, we're turning to the number one issue for U.S. voters. That would be the struggling U.S. economy.
John McCain is warning that Barack Obama's economic policy would take the United States back to the 1970s and the troubles of Jimmy Carter's administration. Let's discuss this and more with Douglas Holtz-Eakin. He's a senior economic adviser to the McCain campaign.
Doug, thanks very much for coming in.
HOLTZ-EAKIN: My pleasure.
BLITZER: He's Barack Obama, this week, criticizing what he would call a flip-flop from John McCain on offshore oil drilling. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Believe me, if I thought there was any evidence at all that drilling could save people money who are struggling to fill up their gas tanks, by this summer or this year or even the next few years, I would consider it, but it won't, and John McCain knows that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right. A couple of questions. First of all, this is a major reversal on the part of John McCain, who earlier had opposed offshore drilling off the coast of Florida and California and elsewhere, and now supports it. Is that right?
HOLTZ-EAKIN: John McCain has always supported the state's ability to make this decision. When the states had no protection, he wanted the federal moratorium in place.
Now that there's been a deal, Louisiana has some drilling in the Gulf; Florida wants some protection, he thinks it's appropriate to get the feds out of the way entirely and let the states makes those decisions.
BLITZER: And how long, assuming they go ahead and start drilling off the coast of Florida and elsewhere -- in California -- how long would it be before there was a real significant additional supply that could have an effect?
Because Senator Obama and others say it could be 10 years that we're talking about?
HOLTZ-EAKIN: Well, it would take about five years to get the oil onshore and begin getting the real impacts in...
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