Video

(CNN Student News) -- February 5, 2008 <br /><br />Quick Guide <br /><br />Delegates 101 - Discover the role of delegates in the U.S. presidential election process.<br /><br />Black History Month - Celebrate Black History Month with a look at the career of Oprah Winfrey.<br /><br />Vanity Plates - Learn why some people are paying millions of dollars for license plates.<br /><br /><br /><br />Transcript <br /><br />THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. <br /><br />MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: <br />It\'s Super Tuesday, and we\'re glad you\'re spending part of it with CNN Student News, your commercial-free source for news for the classroom. From the CNN Center, I\'m Monica Lloyd. <br /><br /><br /><br />Spoken Word<br /><br />(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)<br /><br />HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: <br />You know, we got two big contests coming up. We have the Super Bowl tonight, we have Super Tuesday. I want the New York team to win both. That\'s where I am focused.<br /><br />MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: <br />And so, you guys, we\'re gonna hand the liberals in our party a little surprise on Tuesday evening, when we take California and we take Georgia and we take states across the country and we get this nomination! Thank you so much.<br /><br />BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: <br />I don\'t know if you guys are aware, but we got a caucus on Tuesday. I need you to sign up to volunteer between now and Tuesday. I need you to make phone calls and knock on doors and help out in our field offices.<br /><br />JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: <br />We\'re looking forward to Tuesday. We think we got a great chance, and we\'re very proud of the progress we\'ve made. And we think we may be able to really finish this thing up on Tuesday.<br /><br />MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: <br />We feel very good about where we stand for this Tuesday, mainly because a lot of Southern states are in play, states that we are expecting to do well in. So, we think that after Tuesday, there\'s gonna be a very different field of view.<br /><br />(END VIDEO CLIP)<br /><br /><br /><br />First Up: Delegates 101 <br /><br />LLOYD: <br />You heard \'em. All of the candidates are focused on today, the primary season\'s main event. In two dozen states around the country, Americans are casting their ballots. But when they do, they\'re not technically choosing a candidate. They\'re voting for delegates. Those are the people who actually pick each party\'s nominee. Confused? Jill Dougherty explains how it all works. <br /><br />(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) <br /><br />JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN REPORTER: <br />More than the number of hands they shake. More than the number of babies they kiss. The number presidential candidates are really focused on is the number of delegates they can win.<br /><br />MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: <br />We\'re watching the delegate count pretty closely, and want to be able to rack \'em up.<br /><br />HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: <br />California will have the most delegates and the biggest primary on February 5th.<br /><br />DOUGHERTY: <br />Delegates are the people who, at the National Political Conventions this summer, will collectively choose their party\'s nominee for president. They\'re chosen on the state level as the result of voting in primary elections or in caucuses. The system sounds simple enough, but political experts say it\'s not!<br /><br />CHRISTOPHER ARTERTON, DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF POLITICAL MANAGEMENT, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: <br />No one really is in control of this system, unfortunately.<br /><br />DOUGHERTY: <br />The rules are set by political parties and state governments, not the federal government. And the two leading parties in the United States, Democrats and Republicans, do it differently for historical reasons. To win the party nomination, a candidate needs to capture half the party\'s delegates. For Democrats, the magic number is 2,025; for Republicans, 1,191. So, how do they do the math? Democrats use a proportional method. For example, if ten delegates are being elected and a candidate gets approximately 60% of the vote, he or she gets six delegates. Republicans leave it up to the individual states. They can use either a proportional method or winner-take-all: The candidate with the most votes in a district wins all of its delegates. Both parties have so-called "pledged" delegates. They\'re supposed to vote for a particular candidate, but they don\'t have to!<br /><br />ARTERTON: <br />And then, sorry! Just to make it a little bit more complicated, there are yet another set of delegates that are added in that are called "super delegates."<br /><br />DOUGHERTY: <br />Superdelegates are usually political office holders or party chairmen, and they can vote pretty much as they want. It\'s the candidates\' job to woo them. This complex system can yield some strange results: A candidate could win a majority of states and still end up not winning as many delegates as the other candidate. And this year, more than ever before, the race to the White House will be won delegate by delegate. Jill Dougherty, CNN, Washington.<br /><br />(END VIDEO CLIP) <br /><br /><br /><br />Spoken Word <br /><br />KEN VOGEL, POLITICO.COM, SR. REPORTER: <br />I think we\'ll probably on the Republican side see McCain do fairly well, and that will put him in strong position to be the frontrunner going forward. On the Democratic side, like I said, it\'s really much more wide open, even though there are only two candidates left in it. And both have the means to go on for quite some time. <br /><br /><br /><br />Black History Month <br /><br />LLOYD: <br />In 1976, the U.S. government established February as Black History Month. It\'s a time for all Americans to honor the important people and milestones in African-American history. All throughout the month, we\'ll be sharing the life stories of some of those individuals who have made history and who are still making it today. First up, Oprah Winfrey. <br /><br />(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) <br /><br />LLOYD: <br />She\'s a talk show host, but she\'s also so much more. Oprah Winfrey was born in 1954 in Mississippi. After becoming the first African-American female anchor at a Nashville TV station, Winfrey went on to work in the Baltimore and Chicago TV markets.<br /><br />Winfrey started her acting career with an Oscar-nominated role in 1985\'s "The Color Purple." TV ratings success led to the "Oprah Winfrey Show\'s" national syndication in 1986. It\'s the highest rated talk show in television history. A magazine, TV network and huge media influence soon followed. In 1998, Time Magazine named Winfrey one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Celebrating Oprah Winfrey this Black History Month.<br /><br />(END VIDEO CLIP) <br /><br /><br /><br />Promo<br /><br />LLOYD: <br />We\'ll have more profiles on the show later this month. But if you head over to CNNStudentNews.com, you\'ll find the curriculum materials we\'ve put together for Black History Month. Our One-Sheet will give students some information on the origins of the event, and our Learning Activities will help them research the history and culture of African-Americans. So, log on and check out these free resources today. <br /><br /><br /><br />Vanity Plates <br /><br />LLOYD: <br />We\'re gonna shift gears now to talk about cars. A super-charged engine, a new set of rims, a custom paint job: How much are you willing to pay to trick out your ride? Well, in one Middle East nation, some people are spending millions. But as Wilf Dinnick explains, they\'re paying top dollar for something their car has to have.<br /><br />(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) <br /><br />WILF DINNICK, CNN REPORTER: <br />It is all about how low you can go, bidding for that special number. Abdullah Al Mannaei runs license plate auctions for the Abu Dhabi government.<br /><br />ABDULLAH AL MANNAEI, EMIRATES AUCTION ORGANIZER: <br />As low as number goes, as high as the price goes also. If it\'s a two-digit number, if it\'s similar, like 99 or 22, that goes with a higher amount.<br /><br />DINNICK: <br />This is the one that you put the plate on.<br /><br />TALAL KHOURI, STOCK BROKER: <br />Yes, this is number five, this Rolls Royce.<br /><br />DINNICK: <br />Talal Khouri is a stock broker and the owner of "five."<br /><br />DINNICK: <br />It\'s also a status thing, is it not? If you have a low number, you\'re important?<br /><br />KHOURI: <br />Ahhhh, yeah.<br /><br />PERSON ON THE STREET: <br />Make sure you can see the number five.<br /><br />PERSON ON THE STREET: <br />I definitely got the number five in it.<br /><br />DINNICK: <br />It is not all ego. The money raised goes to a government-run charity, a big chunk to victims of traffic accidents. In just five auctions, 300 plates were sold, raising an astonishing $56 million.<br /><br />Tonight, the most prized plate went for $700,000. Talal still holds the record, paying $6.8 million. This is the most expensive license plate in the world, and amazingly, it\'s more than ten times as expensive as the car it\'s being driven on. But like many things here in the oil-rich Gulf, even a vanity plate has become a very good investment.<br /><br />AL MANNAEI: <br />I have a number plate on my car worth 35,000 four years ago, and I have an offer now for 400,000. It\'s really an interesting investment.<br /><br />DINNICK: <br />Talal is aiming even lower: number one.<br /><br />DINNICK: <br />And what would you pay for number one.<br /><br />KHOURI: <br />Ummm, I not pay more than the maximum, 15-20.<br /><br />DINNICK: <br />Million?<br /><br />KHOURI: <br />Yes. Not more.<br /><br />DINNICK: <br />Next month, it is on the block, where Talal will have the chance to be number one. Wilf Dinnick, CNN, Abu Dhabi.<br /><br />(END VIDEO CLIP) <br /><br /><br /><br />Before We Go <br /><br />LLOYD: <br />Before we go, we want to show you a carnival that doesn\'t have any rides, but sure makes up for it with dancing and drums! Welcome to Brazil, where the four-day Carnival holiday is in full swing. Every year, millions of Brazilians spend huge chunks of time getting ready for the famous festival. And a seat in the Sambadrome gives spectators a chance to see the results of their hard work: the elaborate floats, the costumed dancers. This huge spectacle raged straight on through dawn Monday morning. <br /><br /><br />Goodbye <br /><br />LLOYD: <br />As they party on, we head out. But just for today. We\'ll see you tomorrow for more CNN Student News. Have a great day. I\'m Monica Lloyd.<br />