CNN Student News Transcript: February 21, 2008

(CNN Student News) -- February 21, 2008

Quick Guide

America Votes - Count the delegates racked up by Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.

Bush in Africa - Hear what rumors President Bush dismissed as "baloney" and "bull."

Lights in the Sky - Find out what kind of extraterrestrial event led to emergency 911 calls.

Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: We're getting celestial this Thursday - I'm talking meteors, or maybe meteorites, and not to be "eclipsed," the moon puts on a show. But first, let's keep our feet on the ground. Welcome to Student News, I'm your host, Carl Azuz.

First Up: America Votes

AZUZ: First up, in the race for the White House: It's now 10-straight wins for Democrat Senator Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain further cements his front-runner status. The two divided up wins in Wisconsin, Hawaii and Washington State on Tuesday. Next up: Key primaries in Texas and Ohio March 4th. Here's how the delegate count is shaking out for the Democrats: Barack Obama is out front with 1,319. Senator Hillary Clinton is close behind with 1,250 delegates. 2,025 are needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. Republicans need 1,191 delegates to win. John McCain leads the GOP with 918. Mitt Romney, who's dropped out, still holds 286 delegates. Mike Huckabee's determined to stay in the race. He's won 217 delegates so far. He didn't win any last night, but he still managed to put a positive spin on things.

Spoken Word

MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some of you were with me the other day when I went out on a limb and pledged that if we won Wisconsin that I would put the cheesehead on and be photographed in a cheesehead. So there I was with that bold prediction and comment that I would do that. So the bad news is that we did not win Wisconsin, but the good news is that I don't have to be photographed with cheesehead tonight.

McCain vs. Obama

AZUZ: John McCain is starting to focus criticism on rival Barack Obama. Analysts expect McCain to keep hammering away about Obama's lack of experience, especially on foreign policy. And as Brian Todd reports: We're getting a possible preview of the campaigning ahead of November's general election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN TODD, CNN REPORTER: Ten straight wins bring Barack Obama clear momentum, and more clearly-focused barbs from the presumptive Republican nominee.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure Americans are not deceived by an eloquent, but empty call for change.

TODD: Recently, John McCain has repeatedly sent strong signals of how he'd go after Obama in the general election.

MCCAIN: We will risk the confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested bombing our ally, Pakistan.

TODD: That's a slap at this remark from Obama in August.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will.

TODD: When pressed on that later, McCain said Obama's position means bombing Pakistan, and called the idea 'naive'.

MCCAIN: You don't broadcast and say you're going to bomb a country without their permission or without consulting them.

TODD: Obama's camp says, in going after their candidate on that score, McCain is also criticizing President Bush, who said something nearly identical in an interview with Wolf Blitzer.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN: If you had good, actionable intelligence in Pakistan where they were, would you give the order to kill them or capture them?

BUSH: Absolutely.

BLITZER: And go into Pakistan?

BUSH: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Even though the Pakistanis say that's their sovereign territory.

BUSH: Absolutely. We would take the action necessary to bring them to justice.

TODD: Just in recent weeks, a top al Qaeda leader was killed inside Pakistan, in a U.S. airstrike. And the Washington Post reports U.S. forces fired the missiles, without telling the Pakistanis first. Despite the apparent meshing of Bush's and Obama's ideas on hitting terrorists inside Pakistan, McCain's campaign vows to keep holding the foreign policy spotlight right over Obama's head.

MARK HALPERIN, TIME MAGAZINE SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: They want to paint Obama right now as inexperienced, to try to burn that image in with voters just as they're starting to pay attention to this potential matchup.

TODD: Mark Halperin says McCain's campaign doesn't want to make the same mistake he says Hillary Clinton's camp made, waiting too long to paint Obama as inexperienced on foreign policy. But Obama's advisers told me, they're ready to go toe-to-toe with McCain, will take him on for what they call fear-mongering, and for being an extension of president bush, especially on Iraq. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Bush in Africa

AZUZ: President Bush is scheduled to spend today in Liberia. It's the final stop on his African tour. While in Ghana Wednesday, he also watched a t-ball game. He also spoke to the press with Ghana's president. As Ed Henry reports: President Bush tried to ease worries that the United States wants to expand its power into Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED HENRY, CNN REPORTER: In Ghana, President Bush used a little Texas flavor to bluntly deny speculation his real motive in Africa is to strongarm leaders into setting up U.S. military bases here.

U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I know there's rumors in Ghana: 'All Bush is coming to do is try to convince you to put a big military base here.' That's baloney (laughter). Or as we say in Texas, that's bull.

HENRY: The fact is Mr. Bush has already set up an African command -- "AFRICOM," the U.S. military overseeing development projects, in part to keep terrorism from taking hold. So the president saying no formal bases may just be semantics; a distinction to ease concerns here about too much U.S. influence.

BUSH: Now, that doesn't mean we won't develop some kind of office somewhere in Africa. We haven't made our minds up. This is a new concept.

HENRY: On another key development in the war on terror, Mr. Bush reacted for the first time to Pakistan's parliamentary elections, trying to put the best face on the fact his ally, President Pervez Musharraf, took a drubbing.

BUSH: There was a victory for the people of Pakistan and that is there were elections held that have been judged as being fair. President Musharraf has done exactly that which he said he was going to do. He said he would hold elections, he said he would get rid of his emergency law.

HENRY: Mr. Bush continued to bask in the adulation of the African people, and came bearing gifts: $350 million to battle neglected tropical diseases like hookworm and $17 million to battle malaria, saying this too is key to the war on terror. White House officials point out that in Liberia, the president's final stop on Thursday, the government wants the U.S. to build a military base, because another purpose of AFRICOM is to provide military assistance to African nations and help subdue civil strife in places like Liberia. Ed Henry, CNN with the president, in Accra, Ghana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Word to the Wise

AZUZ: Word to the Wise - actually, three of 'em! A meteoroid is any solid body, smaller than an asteroid, passing through space. It becomes a meteor when it enters Earth's atmosphere, and it's called a meteorite when it hits the Earth's surface!

meteoroid: a solid body passing through space; smaller than an asteroid
meteor: a meteoroid that has entered Earth's atmosphere
meteorite: a meteoroid that reaches Earth's surface

Source: www.dictionary.com

Lights in the Sky

AZUZ: As promised, we're looking skyward now: It was apparently a meteor that had emergency centers across the Pacific Northwest flooded with 9-1-1 calls. They all reported seeing the same thing: A streak of bright light lighting up the early morning sky. Tim Gordon with affiliate KOIN in Portland, Oregon reports: The phenomenon was caught on videotapes across the area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM GORDON, KOIN REPORTER: 9-11 calls pored in, those from Clackamas and Multnomah Counties. This is what they saw in Spokane from a security camera at a hospital there. Grainy, but you can see the fireball in the sky. And courtesy of the Idaho National Guard from a base near Boise, capturing the meteor's descent.

JIM TODD, PLANETARIUM MANAGER: This is a classic example of an iron meteorite.

GORDON: OMSE's Jim Todd, say's today's meteor could have been traveling in space for millions, even billions, of years, before it made its grand entrance.

TODD: If it creates a sonic boom, which is characteristic of a meteor traveling at the speed of sound - it's 50,000 miles per hour, that's pretty typical.

GORDON: Providence Portland's Carol Coats heard about the meteor driving into work and was thrilled to see it recorded on one of their cameras.

COATES: All my staff and I were looking at the camera and we were just shocked, because we really didn't think we'd see anything on the camera or that it was even in view of the camera.

GORDON: But the best view was live from people up early.

PAM JOHNSON, WITNESS: I was driving along front avenue around quarter of six this morning and the whole southern sky just flashed blue twice; a double flicker of blue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Shuttle Landing

AZUZ: The space shuttle Atlantis is back on Earth after a near picture-perfect landing in Florida Wednesday morning. Astronauts successfully delivered the European lab "Columbus" to the international space station. NASA is preparing the shuttle Endeavour for a mission to the space station next month. It will deliver the first piece of this huge Japanese lab.

Lunar Eclipse

AZUZ: If you missed the total lunar eclipse, you'll have to wait until December, 2010 to see one again. If your skies were clear, it looked much like this earlier eclipse. Skywatchers with a telescope could probably also see Saturn's rings once the moonlight dimmed. A total lunar eclipse happens when the full moon passes into earth's shadow and is blocked from the sun's rays.

Promo

AZUZ: If you were lucky enough to have good weather and see the lunar eclipse, we want to see it too! Send us your best eclipse photos and videos. Go to CNNStudentN.com and click on the I-Report link.

Goodbye

AZUZ: That puts this show "over the moon". I'm Carl Azuz. E-mail to a friend