Morning Show Wrap

NEW YORK, NOV. 2, 2004 — --

A product of Noted Now and The Note

Predicted that voter totals could be: 115 million, 120 million "maybe more than that." He identified Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania as three key states that will tell him a lot about how he and Kerry are doing. "Those are probably the primary states." Edwards said he will also be able to tell a lot by knowing "who is voting." He said "if young people are voting in big numbers then that is a very good sign for John Kerry." Edwards disagreed that Kerry does not have a chance against Bush in North Carolina. He said there are polls--different from the one cited by Matt Lauer--showing it much more competitive. Edwards said he has been told that in North Carolina, there are very long lines, as there are in the state of Florida. The two phone calls that he would make tomorrow to reach out to the other side are to Sen. John McCain, "for sure," and "probably Dennis Hastert," the Speaker of the House, "assuming they are still in control of the House."

Sticking to his script, Edwards said on the "Early Show" that if new registrants and young people vote, they can change this country as they have before. "Young voters benefit us, I think there is no question about that." Edwards will be in Florida during the day and then in Boston with Kerry tonight.

Laura Bush told NBC's Katie Couric that "one of the most disappointing things" for her husband about Washington has been "how partisan it is." The First Lady said No Child Left Behind, the prescription drug benefit and tax cuts all required bipartisan support. She said she expected her husband to keep doing what he's been doing.

First Lady Laura Bush said she has confidence in the election officials of America to produce a free and fair election.

Stephanopoulos called it the "tale of two elections," reporting that the Bush-Cheney campaign's final internal poll had President Bush up three points and the campaign's final three polls each had Bush up in Florida -- while the Kerry campaign's internal numbers had him up 1 point nationally and 5 points in the battlegrounds states. Stephanopoulos Noted that somewhere between 30-40% of Florida voters voted early, at an advantage of 6% for the Democrats. "But Republicans say they can make up for that with absentee voting." Democrats are looking at Dade, Broward counties as well as Jacksonville while Republicans were looking at Orlando and Tampa. In Ohio, Stephanopoulos said that Democrats know "they need to have a huge turnout in the whole northeastern part of the state," most notably in Cleveland, while Republicans are looking at the southeast portion of the state, including Cincinnati.

We don't know how many voters will show up today. It could go from 50 percent in 2000 to 60 percent this time. People are going to be allowed in Ohio to challenge voters, saying, you are not eligible. I think we may have voting late into the night. Kerry will benefit if people show up in numbers much bigger than in 2000. It is hard to poll people who only use cell phones. We expect at least 12 percent of the voters today to be new registrants and those voters are going for Kerry by a 59 to 37 percent margin. Nader is clearly not going to get the 3 and 4 percent he got last time. But in some close states, he could make the difference, tipping the outcome to Bush.

"Keep your eye on New Hampshire. It will finish early, and that will give us an indication of who's going to win."

Crossfire co-host and self-identified pamphleteer and provocateur James Carville said of Kerry's opponents "they are targeting African-American precincts." Carville said this is all about "suppressing voter turnout." Carville said he has "never seen a vote challenger a white precinct in his life. Carville said this will cause historical problems for the Republican Party. "They are testy about the right to vote because it is a newly acquired right."