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CNN&Time

Left Out; On the Road Again

Aired November 5, 2000 - 9:00 p.m. ET

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

ANNOUNCER: Tonight, "Left Out": They work hard, put in long hours, but just can't get ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT SWAVING, FATHER: So I'm just trying to figure out a way to stop that snowball.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Parents and children cut out of prosperity and a home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN HOLLEY, SON OF LEAH HOLLEY: It's pretty tough because when I go to school, I've got to make sure that I don't do anything wrong because if they want to call home, then I don't have a number.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: On the eve of election 2000, a look at the people the presidential candidates seem to have forgotten.

"On the Road Again": We first caught up with them when the campaigns were fresh, and they were already frazzled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know I was in Muscatine (ph). I'm pretty sure I was in Burlington -- no, maybe I wasn't in Burlington. Bettendorf (ph), I know I was in Bettendorf.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: As journalists, veterans and rookies, head into the home stretch of election 2000, an update from the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENA HEATH, "AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN": It is always -- it's like being in summer camp all the time. It is always being around people. There is just virtually no time to be alone. You're sort of on this bus together. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: CNN & TIME with Jeff Greenfield and Bernard Shaw.

BERNARD SHAW, CO-HOST: Good evening.

They are the Americans that prosperity forgot, working families that live paycheck to paycheck amid the greatest economic boom in American history. And those who work and remain poor are angry, not just because they have been left behind, but because they also feel they are being ignored.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CO-HOST: When Al Gore and George W. Bush speak of prosperity being on the ballot and tax cuts for the middle class, they seem to be talking right past the working poor. For some families, like the Swavings and single mothers like Leah Holley, just finding a place to sleep is a juggling act.

Spend some time with the Swavings and Holleys at the Dixon Lake campground in San Diego County. What you get is a sense of desperation and the not so subtle idea that the major presidential candidates are missing something.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

R. SWAVING: So I'm just trying to figure out a way to stop that snowball from keeping accumulating. It seems like every day it keeps getting worse and worse. I'm just trying to figure out how to stop it so I can control it.

OK, guys, same routine. Let's take everything out decently.

The kids, I try to keep them up. That's all.

Anybody know where the steaks are?

It's camping. And we're going through a rough time. We'll get through it. As far as I can tell, the kids are doing well.

I was born in Morris, Minnesota. But when I was seven years old, my father moved us to California.

Michelle, she came from a well off upbringing, Catholic background. We met in Seattle. Two years later, we were married and our oldest Jake was born. He'll be 13 this month.

And I had a concrete construction company in Los Angeles I owned for 12 years. That's how we maintained in LA.

A year ago this month, I was a regional manager for a home alarm company. And we were doing like everyone else. We were doing rather well. The kids were all in school. We had a house. We made $68,000 last year and $90,000 the year before.

Actually, we struggled a little bit last year too. But we pulled out of it faster because we had savings. And then in November, my wife got an opportunity to be a regional sales manager for an educational publishing company. It's what she always wanted to do. And things were going slightly so-so at the job was at, so we switched.

She took on the job here in San Diego. We were from LA. And when we got down here, with her income potential and what she was making, she was able to sustain us. So I stayed home with the boys.

MICHELLE SWAVING, WIFE OF ROBERT SWAVING: I was based on a commission override compensation package that would give me an income of at the minimums looking at $3,000 to $4,000 a month and the possibilities of doing twice that amount. Within six months because of the market trends, we started to decline in May.

R. SWAVING: Her second check was $3,600 for a week. Now averaged out through the eight months, she's averaging unfortunately about $2,000 a month.

M. SWAVING: We lived right there at 8961. We moved here to a nice neighborhood. There was kids here to play with the kids.

And we had our automatic garage door openers. And it was a nice place, a nice, quiet neighborhood, very much middle class America here.

R. SWAVING: It was a pipe dream. And I hung on too long. And so did she. She's still trying to hang on, and I can't do it anymore.

We expected her to get paid yesterday, and she's not, for the third week in a row. We were one paycheck away from homeless. We've always heard it. And it turns out that's what happened to us. We had to give up our house because we couldn't pay the rent.

And we made an agreement with the owner to move out when we fell behind instead of being evicted, so we wouldn't have that on our record on top of everything. So we agreed to move out a week early, which was last Wednesday.

M. SWAVING: We would be constantly working paycheck to paycheck to pay the rent, to pay the expenses.

R. SWAVING: Better go in the kitchen.

M. SWAVING: So we had made choices to get out of that. And for that, there was risk. And because we want to fulfill some of our American dream of having a business and providing that from our own abilities, we've taken some risk and taken some choices that we have regretted I think. Not regretted, but, I mean, have wished that things would have been a little more of what we hoped for.

R. SWAVING: Since your mom's not here, we can do this right on the table. Use this knife. Cut this way.

Both parents have to work. And you have to give up -- the most precious thing, in my opinion, in life is the kids. The reason the parents have to work so hard is to pay that child care. And if you're paying $1,000 a month, you have to work hard.

Well, all I'm going to do is just the catfish and then cheese tortillas.

What we normally had was daycare, massive daycare. Matthew spent 10 hours a day in daycare. And the other three, same thing. So when we had the opportunity to change that -- and I take responsibility for that. That could have been part of why we're here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I go fishing.

R. SWAVING: You go fishing? Get me a big fish, that big.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We fish. We hike. We build castles. We just like to do stuff to keep us out of being bored. And that's not the same as being normal. Normally, you have like friends that you meet. I just don't get like friends to keep for a while. They just go and come and go and come. That's the only thing different to me. And this is more like a summer vacation instead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: School starts on Tuesday, it's supposed to for us. But it doesn't look like we're going to be able to -- we have to have an address. And we don't have one.

R. SWAVING: As a parent, I'm scared what the long-term effects might be later. On the good side, I'm hoping that maybe they'll learn from this and it won't ever happen to them as they grow older.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think I'm homeless. This is just a temporary struggle that we've had before. And we've been in...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we were like badly homeless, we'd be like on the street holding signs.

R. SWAVING: The kids are priceless. But to go through this struggle with four children in this day and age, it's true, it's hard. It's not that the kids are expensive. It's just you can't get an apartment, two bedroom apartment, with four children. The housing authority won't allow you. You have to have at least a three bedroom.

And in San Diego County, the housing shortage, there's only a one percent vacancy here. So a three bedroom apartment, if you can find it, it's as much as a house, $1,200, $1,300, $1,400 a month.

M. SWAVING: Should I settle for less for my children? Should I say, "Well, we can work paycheck to paycheck and then maybe someday we'll have more." Couldn't see the answer there. Couldn't see it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably never go camping again just for fun.

R. SWAVING: But I've always worked. I've worked all my life. I've always provided. We've always had insurance. This year, everything has just tumbled out fast.

Tuesday we have to check out of this campground because our 14- day limit is up. You can only stay in a campsite 14 days. And then you have to move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations. Today is your day.

R. SWAVING: But the dilemma is getting the address. How do you get the address?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're off, and away.

R. SWAVING: I'm very nervous. Today is a crucial day. I'm expecting some funds in today. Unfortunately, it's from the state. So hopefully it will be there.

I'm going to take the DMV test to get my CDL license back. I let it expire. And that's based on a job that I want to get. I'm going to call them this morning too for an interview.

I've got to find out about this temporary housing in a hotel situation, see if I can get an address too to get the kids registered for school. They were supposed to start school today. Everybody started school today. So I'm a day late, a dollar short again.

You hand me suitcases. I'm going to stack them toward the back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are we doing, daddy?

R. SWAVING: We're going to see these people that will hopefully help us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

R. SWAVING: You guys have to be on good behavior when we go in his office, OK? He wants to meet all of you.

Hi.

CHRIS MEGISON, NORTH COUNTY SOLUTIONS FOR CHANGE: (INAUDIBLE) I'm Chris.

R. SWAVING: Thanks for seeing us, Chris.

MEGISON: Oh, no problem.

R. SWAVING: I appreciate it.

MEGISON: How are you guys doing? All right. You've been out there camping, huh?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MEGISON: All right. Well, we've got the air conditioner on. Why don't you guys just have a seat, and I'm going to talk to your dad here for a little bit. OK? I'm going to spend about 15 minutes with you here going over this assessment here and finding out what your current situation is and see what we can do to help you guys out, OK? Getting kind of tired of sleeping out there in a tent?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

MEGISON: Yeah. It gets kind of old, huh?

Describe in your own words why you're homeless.

R. SWAVING: That's a tough one. In my own words, probably because the housing and childcare were more than we were making. The rent at $1,550 plus the childcare that would be involved for me to get to work. We just never could catch up with it.

MEGISON: OK.

For the first time that I've seen in eight years of doing this, we have families just one after the other after the other just in need of shelter, not having a place to live.

MEGISON: It's the village?

LEAH HOLLEY, MOTHER: Yeah, we've got to take 78 West. Towards the water, right?

A. HOLLEY: Right.

L. HOLLEY: There's no one in the whole world like my son. I love him more than life. He's the best thing that ever happened to me.

He's 10 years old. And it's been 10 long years just him and I. I'm just a single 29-year-old girl just trying to survive.

Are you excited about going to a hotel?

A. HOLLEY: Yeah. It's going to be fun.

L. HOLLEY: It's going to be different. It's going to be nice. (INAUDIBLE)

A. HOLLEY: Love you.

L. HOLLEY: Love you too.

A. HOLLEY: Someone is waiting at the hotel for us?

L. HOLLEY: I'm going to meet the man that's going to pay for our hotel.

MEGISON: Better than a tent here.

A. HOLLEY: (INAUDIBLE) L. HOLLEY: The camp site where we stayed, where we were living for a couple of months, I don't want to go back. I don't want to take him back there.

I was born and raised here. I was born in Groswa (ph) Hospital. I lived here all my life, all my life. I don't know of any other place I'd want to be.

But they're just building and building. And there's no building for me.

MEGISON: This room is for you and your son. And we want you to be able to use it for one week.

L. HOLLEY: We lost our home because somebody sold it. And they bargained with us and told us they'd give us $700 if we were out, or nothing in 30 days. So I picked the money, which lasted a very short while out on the street.

But that's where we started at Dixon Lake. It was like April.

I make $7 an hour. I work 40 hours a week. And my take home -- I get paid every Thursday. And my take home is about $250 a week.

I'm not making enough to save. I'm not making enough to survive. That's all there is to it.

There's no low income housing. All the housing is $675 and up. You're talking first and last month's. You're talking you have to have utilities too.

Speeding up molecules, and you can start with this right there.

In '97, I applied for HUD. I called back every year to make sure where I was, what was my status. It was a year waiting list. There was nothing available like right now or next week. There's nothing.

OK, so are you done? Is that a paragraph?

A. HOLLEY: Yea.

L. HOLLEY: And I'm feeling this baby inside knowing it's going to be real soon when I have her and they won't let me bring her home if I don't have a place. Since April. I don't think we deserve it, to be turned down.

A. HOLLEY: What do I like to study? Language arts, science, math. I've always been good at math.

It's pretty tough because I don't -- when I go to school, I can't -- I've got to make sure that I don't do anything wrong because if they want to call home, then I don't have a number. So I have to be perfect at school.

And at the after school program, I've got to be good too because if I get a good report and my mom hears it, it makes her feel good. And if I don't, then it makes her feel upset.

L. HOLLEY: Deep down in his heart, he doesn't discuss it with me. He doesn't talk about it. He just says, "I hope we can get a place to live soon. And everything is going to work out, and don't worry." It's just nuts when you hear that from your 10-year-old that's growing up right in front of your eyes.

A. HOLLEY: Where were we before we came here? We were staying at Dixon Lake in a tent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was that like?

A. HOLLEY: Well, I try not to think too much about it because sometimes it would make me a little bit sad. But something good will come.

It doesn't really make me feel that different than people because I'm the same as them. I just don't have a big house. And I don't drive a brand new car.

L. HOLLEY: I just dread -- I look at the Dixon Lake ticket, and I just crumble. My heart just -- I get heartburn, and I just don't want to look at it with tears in my eyes. I don't want to take him back because it's awful.

Something that we've loved to do is like a nightmare. We hate it.

I don't know what's in store for me. I just want to move from here to someplace I can take my son and tell him, "This is home."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, the Holleys...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

R. SWAVING: That's where it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: ... and the Swavings. Can they make it beyond Dixon Lake?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

R. SWAVING: They vouchered us in a hotel for the first week. And the second week, we're now on a co-op.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. HOLLEY: I lost my job. I was there a total of three months. And I was due for a 50-cent raise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: As CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GREENFIELD: Priced out of homes and wondering where to turn, working families on the flipside of prosperity.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

R. SWAVING: There's something wrong. There's something wrong with what's going on. I can't be the only one that's fallen into this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: In a community where the average homeless person is now a 9-year-old child...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

R. SWAVING: Jake, hold this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: ... family life is where you pitch your tent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. HOLLEY: I want to be in a place to live before I have this kid. And she could pop out at any time. That's the one thing that scares me the most is me not being ready for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Down and out in the land of plenty as our look at the working poor continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHAW: The Swavings and the Holleys. When we left them, they were two families headed in opposite directions. Robert and Michelle Swaving were on the verge of getting themselves and their children out of the Dixon Lake Campground in San Diego, while Leah Holley and her son Alan face the very real prospect of returning to life in a tent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

R. SWAVING: They vouchered us in a hotel for the first week. And the second week, we're now on a co-op, which is $20 a day. That way you can extend it for an extended period of time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daddy, daddy...

R. SWAVING: No more truck. Work is all done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No more truck? No.

R. SWAVING: Yeah. I can't work no more today. They won't let me. The truck is resting now. It's sleeping. It's tired.

And I'm working, started my job on Thursday. It's with a trucking company. Back to manual labor. But it's a good job. And I'm getting 12, 13 hours a day. So it's what we need to get things going again.

If I worked 60, 70 hours a week, that would be overtime, which is the way this company works. It's only $3,500 a month.

Being in a motel environment, you can't cook or cook food in a motel. So that gets a little costly.

It's $5 for breakfast, basic breakfast, $10 to $12 for lunch. I mean, we're scrimping, we're talking 99-cent Jumbo Jacks or -- I look for all the deals. And then there's -- and dinner. And dinner, if we're real careful and try to get them some vegetables to go with it, we're talking between $15 and $20. So you add that up, it's $45 a day.

It's just hard to be able to say and then try to continue being optimistic (INAUDIBLE) and come up with the $2,400 it's going to take, $2,500 it's going to take to get into another rental situation.

The main thing again, our next priority in the next week is to get these kids in schools. They've already missed three weeks. They can't miss anymore. It's really affecting them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm helping out by not spending hundreds of dollars on daycare for Matthew so they can work and I can watch him. And my dad -- I know he feels kind of bad about it, me sitting here watching the baby. But I don't think he realizes that it's no big deal.

R. SWAVING: It could be a month. It could be three months. It could be four months. It could six months. It's hard to say.

If that snowball comes rolling again, it's -- you know, if a car breaks down or anything other than the ordinary day-to-day things, it's a tough road.

L. HOLLEY: I lost my job. I was there a total of three months. And I was due for a 50-cent raise.

I was due for maternity leave. And they told me they had to let me go. So basically fired me, they terminated me, which was wrong.

We're back at Dixon Lake. It's wet. It's rainy. It's cold. It definitely made me sick physically. And my son's sick. And we're all hacking.

So some good might come out of this. I've got an appointment tomorrow at Lifeline. And I'm really hoping that I got everything that they want.

It says that, "Your name has been selected from our waiting list." I just hope everything goes well. I don't want to do anything wrong to jeopardize this.

If they turn me down for some reason, I don't know what's going to happen. I can't go on like this anymore.

They went over their rules and regulations and the obligations, which I don't have a problem with. I've got to wait to have another appointment. And that could take up to six weeks before you get into the home. That's the only thing that bums me out. It's six more weeks because I fall under the criteria of now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It won't take six weeks.

L. HOLLEY: I don't have six weeks.

I want to be in a place to live before I have this kid. And she could pop out at any time. That's the one thing that scares me the most is me not being ready for her.

I can't be driving around living like I'm living and knowing and expecting this child any day, any minute. She is in the birth canal. And I am dangling on by a string of time.

MEGISON: We need to remember that this is America. And if people are out there sweating and working and still can't survive, then there's something wrong with that picture, and we need to change it.

R. SWAVING: There's something wrong. There's something wrong with what's going on. I can't be the only one that's fallen into this.

L. HOLLEY: There are some really good kids out there that are hardening and falling apart inside and losing their persons. They're little people. They're changing their whole life forever. We're talking forever, you're not talking just for a little while. You're talking for life. These kids are never going to forget this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHAW: Last Thursday, Leah Holley gave birth to a baby daughter named Shelby. Leah's family is still awaiting transitional housing. They remain in a motel. The Swavings are also waiting for a temporary home, and they continue to save money for more permanent housing.

ANNOUNCER: Next, tensions in the Middle East, first-hand accounts from those on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAPHNE ALGOM, CNN & TIME PRODUCER: All everybody's talking about is the situation, the conflict and how it's going to ever end.

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Everybody draws a breath and thinks, OK, it's reaching some kind of resolution here. And then something happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: When CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHAW: The economy, education, Social Security -- all domestics issues in the forefront of this year's presidential election. But what about America's role in the world? Any number of international hot spots could severely test President Clinton's successor. The tensions in the Middle East are proof of that. As last week's shelling of the West Bank and the car bombing in Jerusalem remind us, peace is tenuous at best.

That story in tonight's "Dispatches."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALGOM: In this part of the sound of an ambulance has this immediate reaction, but two totally different reactions when you speak to Israelis and Palestinians.

When Israelis hear the sound of an ambulance, they immediately fear that there's been a terrorist attack. They check to see how many ambulances drive by.

Palestinians, on the other hand, hear the sound of an ambulance and immediately assume that one of their children have been killed and that they;'re going to have to bury one more child the following day.

HANNA: The thing that's always striking is that the unrelenting nature of what this conflict has been. There have been lulls in the intensity of the conflict, and everybody draws a breath and thinks, OK, it's reaching some kind of resolution here. And then something happens, each time something different, which spirals the conflict off on to a new intensity, on to a new level, into another direction.

ALGOM: The Palestinians are stunned that the Israelis didn't expect the wave of violence. They say, we may have been in the middle of a peace process, but our lives haven't improved. They are still under occupation, they still go through check points, and they still don't have a Palestinian state.

Israelis don't have faith in the process. They don't believe that Palestinians are going to actually curb the violence and actually go back to the negotiating table.

HANNA: The leaderships on both sides at this particular point are determined to maintain within their minds the existence of a truce. Even though the facts on the ground would appear to deny that particular fact, it does appear at this stage at least that both sides remain committed to the idea of a truce and publicly and in statements remain committed to implementing it on the ground.

ALGOM: Thursday's car bombing was extremely shocking to the Israelis, mostly because that morning there was this big announcement of a cease fire. So the day began quietly and they were expecting it to continue, and then come 3:00 in the afternoon it all came shattering down and came to an end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We were reminded once again in Jerusalem that there are those who seek to destroy the peace through acts of terror. This cannot be permitted to prevail. It is now time for those who believe in peace to stand together to stop this violence and to work against the terrorists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALGOM: The Palestinians are really frustrated with the importance of the U.S. in the negotiations. They would like to see it opened up to include Russia and China and Europe. They believe that the U.S. is biased and has friendly relations with Israel. And Israel does see Bill Clinton as a friend and as an ally. And for the most part, they're just very nervous as they watch the U.S. elections.

I went to Ramallah and I spoke with a Palestinian boy who's 16 years old. And he wanted to express to me why it is he's out there throwing stones. He looked at me and said, I understand that it's crazy to fight a tank. I'm not trying to fight a tank. I'm not trying to do anything violent. This isn't an act of violence. All I'm trying to accomplish is express my anger, express my rage and say I reject occupation. And as this 16-years-old boy said to me, it will continue until they are convinced they will get a Palestinian state, because the blood of the 150-plus children that have been spilled cannot have been spilled in vain.

I spoke with a soldier in Hebron, and he's stuck in a situation where he is confronted both by settlers and Palestinians. He's stuck in a situation where he's getting shot at both ends, and it's obviously someplace he doesn't want to be. But first and foremost he has to serve his country, and he must be loyal to the Israeli government and to the Israeli people.

HANNA: Unless negotiations produces some kind of resolution that is acceptable to the majority of people, then the only alternative is going to be what we have seen for five and a half weeks, and that is more deaths, more casualties, more injuries, more anger and more hatred.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, if you thought they were confused eight months ago, look at them now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEATH: Do you know where the Anheuser-Busch canteen tent is? I've got to pick up credentials.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's on the other side of this building and down. I'm not quite sure how to get there. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Snapshots from the presidential race, as weary journalists check back in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all used to say that 30 years ago, you know, that when we get to be in our 50s and 60s, we'll never be doing this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: As CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Next, it's back to the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a drama where both candidates are so cocited (ph) from the press, so swaddled in handlers that you know there are dramatic tensions going on. But you really can't get to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Pounding the political pavement: Journalists sound off oin the waning days of the presidential election, when CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GREENFIELD: We met up with them eight months ago, as the pace was beginning to quicken: road warriors with note pads, laptops, cell phones and with an appetite for the trail that's survived for 20, 30, 40 years -- and survived as well a steadily diminishing national interest in politics.

Now, in the final days of the presidential campaign, we meet up with them again, to see if their appetite has survived this trek and to measure the enthusiasm of the next generation of road warriors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): January 2000: a crowded, windowless room in Des Moines, Iowa. Dan Balz of "The Washington Post" and Carl Loopsdorf (ph) of "The Dallas Morning News," both 20-year veterans of campaign coverage...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the most intimate lunch that I've had in a long time.

GREENFIELD: ... but mere rookies next to Walter Meers of the Associated Press, who began when Barry Goldwater was battling Lyndon Johnson. Also in Des Moines those many months ago, Walter Shapiro of "USA Today."

Mid-October 2000: Walter Shapiro has moved on to yet another hotel room in yet another city. This time it's St. Louis. In a windowless room a few miles away, Balz, Loopsdorf, Meers and David Broder. Measure it collectively, and they have spent enough years covering the campaigns to stretch back to the contest between Lincoln and Douglas, which means that they have spent another year...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No lollygagging.

GREENFIELD: ... or two...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you give me the number?

GREENFIELD: ... in a process that has pushed them and their younger colleagues further and further into days and nights of drudgery, herded from lobby to bus to plane to bus to hall to bus to plane, treated with steadily decreasing dignity.

Here in Des Moines, their equipment is dumped on a sidewalk to be searched by both man and beast, treated with steadily decreasing access to anything remotely spontaneous.

Ask some of these veterans what they most remember of their latest journey and some speak of the campaign's first act those many months ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The high point of this whole odyssey for me still remains the primaries, where John McCain was raising a totally different vision of the Republican Party than Bush, and to a large extent Bill Bradley, even though he faded, was raising a very different vision of the Democratic Party.

GREENFIELD: Others speak of old lessons learned again.

DAN BALZ, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I learned the same lesson that I've taken away from other campaigns, and that is you have to sort of trust what you hear from the voters. And it's sort of summed up in a simple way, and that is that neither of these candidates turned voters on. They didn't know a lot about them, what they knew they had some reservations about. And I think it said to us fairly early on this is going to be a close race.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a drama where both candidates are so cocited (ph) from the press, so swaddled in handlers that you know there are dramatic tensions going on. But you really can't get to it. It's like you're in the room where something real is going on, but you can't hear what's going on in the real room.

CHRIS LEHANE, GORE SPOKESMAN: Prosperity is one the ballot.

GREENFIELD: And what you can hear can drive you crazy.

LEHANE: ... impacted by the prosperity of the last eight years...

GREENFIELD: Endless effort by the candidate and his operative to drive the message of the day deep into the collective unconscious of the press.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem is that the Bush campaign has promised the same trillion dollars to seniors for their...

GREENFIELD: Today, the Gore campaign is determined to demonstrate that Governor Bush is putting a trillion -- get it?

AL GORE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One trillion dollars...

One trillion dollars, the same trillion dollars...

People don't want to hear about a trillion dollars...

The same trillion...

That's fuzzy math. You want to talk about fuzzy math, that's plenty fuzzy.

GREENFIELD: Watching these grizzled veterans -- we can't tell you what a grizzle is, but it is a compulsory description. Watching them trudge through their paces, grappling with logistics...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next president and first lady of the United States of America...

GREENFIELD: ... and with a steadliy more indifferent public, it looks like the last think a younger generation of reporters would ever dream of doing.

HEATH: I have to find the Anheuser-Busch canteen tent. I don't know what that is.

GREENFIELD: Well, meet Jena Heath, 30-something reporter for the "Austin American Statesman" on her first presidential campaign.

HEATH: Do you know where the Anheuser-Busch canteen tent is? I've got to pick up credentials.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's on the other side of this building and down. I'm not quite sure how to get there.

GREENFIELD: This afternoon, she's at Washington State University in St. Louis, trying to pick up her credentials for the last debate.

HEATH: So how can I get there from here? That way? Which way?

GREENFIELD: It is a labor worthy of Hercules.

HEATH: Jena, J-E-N-A, Heath, like Heath bar.

GREENFIELD (on camera): What's the most overwhelming thing? HEATH: It's like being in summer camp all the time. And it is always being around people. You're sort of on this bus together, you get in very late. We end up in some, you know, ballroom in a hotel eating out of chafing dishes and sometimes the food's good and most of the time it's terrible.

GREENFIELD (voice-over): So, yes, the grind sometimes does get better -- and so does the sense of public apathy toward politics.

HEATH: I have kind of a crisis of faith once in a while about what I'm doing for that reason.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And we will extend its problems to young workers.

HEATH: But I can't imagine leaving the profession. I just think even if people don't want to hear it they need to hear it.

MIKE ALLEN, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I look at it the other way, and that is that it's my job to make it exciting or fun or relevant or important to them.

GREENFIELD: Mike Allen, covering his first presidential campaign for "The Washington Post."

ALLEN: It's a challenge for me and fun for me to try to bring it alive for our readers.

GREENFIELD: Before Mike Allen had joined us, I had asked Dan Balz whether his younger colleague sometimes looked at the races he covered way back when with envy for the memories they will never have.

BALZ: You know something, every person who covers their first campaign have those memories to talk to for younger people three or four cycles later. The people who covered this campaign as their first campaign will remember things about this that they will carry with them. If they stay at it as long as I've stayed at it, they will be talking about the McCain-Bush primary in New Hampshire.

GREENFIELD: And sure enough...

(on camera): Do you feel in any sense that you came to this too late, that you missed out on something.

ALLEN: You're making me hungry. That sounds like fun, but this year we had McCain, we have a, you know, margin-of-error race to the very end, we have this delicious possibility of an electoral college- popular vote spilt, so this seems pretty fun.

GREENFIELD (voice-over): Glen Johnson, covering his first presidential campaign for "The Boston Globe" shares the views of his contemporaries.

GLEN JOHNSON, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": There's a lot of downsides. There's looking like this after a couple days on the trail. There's a lot of time away from my wife and kids. But I chose this life, and it's been as thrilling as I'd hoped it would be.

GREENFIELD: You almost get the sense that the love of the trail has been transmitted from generation to generation by osmosis. Indeed, some of the younger reporters talk as if their choice was really no choice at all.

HEATH: I think I have occasionally pangs of wondering if I'm going to wind up, sort of, unmarried, without children and completely absorbed by this work. To a certain extent in the last couple of months, I've really surrendered to it. I don't know what the future holds, and this political reporting is a lot of work on the road, and...

GREENFIELD (on camera): But you like it.

HEATH: I do like it. And I guess I'll just take my chances.

BALZ: The beat does go on. we were -- it's funny we were joking the day we were leaving Iowa after the caucuses. Somebody said, the next time we will be here will be in the fall of 2002, when if Hillary Clinton wins and Al Gore loses, she'll be there launching a presidential exploratory at the Jackson -- Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner of that fall.

GREENFIELD: In 2004, or to be more accurate, around 2002, when a dozen governors and senators and billionaires and whoever are out in Iowa...

ALLEN: Yes.

GREENFIELD: You want to be there at that corn broil in Iowa?

ALLEN: Absolutely. 2002, that's not too soon for New Hampshire, is it?

GREENFIELD: So you're hooked?

HEATH: I'm hooked.

ALLEN: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all used to say that 30 years ago, you know, that when we get to be in our 50s and 60s, we'll never be doing this. And I even at one point said this was going to be my last campaign. I think that was 20 years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gore's doing Rosie and Regis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys, wee have five minutes to load. Please load as fast as you can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need clean underwear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got another 15 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now how did you decide to do Bush or Gore today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh-oh, that's not a good sign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four cities -- four cities in one day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: Walter Meers of the Associated Press has said he'll retire after this campaign. He acknowledges that when 2004 rolls around, he may do some cameo appearances. But he adds, as far as full time goes, I think 45 years ought to be enough. We'll see, Walter.

And that's this edition of CNN & TIME. I'm Jeff Greenfield.

SHAW: And I'm Bernard Shaw. Coming up next, CNN's coverage of election 200 continues. Join Jeff Greenfield, Judy Woodruff, Bill Schneider and me for a live edition of "DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA."

For everyone at CNN & TIME, thanks for joining us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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