MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday, our Meet the
Candidates 2008 series continues. An exclusive interview with Democrat
Barack Obama. He was elected United States senator in 2004 and served
in the Illinois state senate for eight years prior. This morning Barack
Obama joins us for the full hour and tells us why he should be the
Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
And we continue our celebration of 60 years of MEET THE PRESS this
morning in Iowa. Why? The caucuses are just 53 days away, and here
with us is Senator Barack Obama.
Welcome back to MEET THE PRESS.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL): Thank you, Tim. Always great to be here.
MR. RUSSERT: The Wall Street Journal, NBC News went out and talked
to viewers last week, asking them about the Democratic candidates,
asking them to give marks, grades to the candidates. Likeability, this
is what they said: Obama, 72; Hillary Clinton, 49, very strong grade.
Then we asked knowledgeable and experience to handle the presidency:
Clinton, 76; Obama, 41. These are members of your own party. Why are
people in your own party skeptical about your knowledge and experience
to be president?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, look at—I have not been on the national scene as
long as some of the other candidates in this race, and so part of our
job throughout this campaign is to give people some sense of what I’ve
done before I got to Washington; what I did as a constitutional law
professor, as a civil rights lawyer, as a state legislator. And what we
discover is when people actually find out my track record, they’re
pleasantly surprised. And so that’s why our focus on the early states
like Iowa and New Hampshire’s been so important, because we can interact
much more intimately with people and give them a sense not only about
my track record but also my vision for the future.
MR. RUSSERT: Hillary Clinton was first lady in Arkansas, first lady
at the White House for eight years, U.S. senator for seven years. Can
you compete with that?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, you know, if you’re comparing how long I’ve been
in public office, I’ve actually been in public office longer than her. I
think that Senator Clinton is a capable and, and intelligent person. I
think she’s been a fine senator from New York. But when it comes to
the issues that are really moving the American people right
now—healthcare, energy, how we deal with a shifting economy—those are
all issues that I’ve been working with at every level of government.
MR. RUSSERT: Mayor Giuliani said Obama, Clinton have never managed a
city, managed a state, run a business, met a payroll. How can they
possibly want the top executive job in the country?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, you know, I think I have shown through my
legislative work my knowledge of the issues, my judgment and character,
and those are the qualities that I think the next president is going to
need. One of the things that I’m very clear about during the course of
this campaign as I’m meeting voters all across the country is they don’t
expect the president to be the next chief operating officer. What they
want is somebody who understands the struggles they’re going through,
is going to be thinking every day about how to make their lives better,
has a grasp of the issues that not only Democrats, but Republicans and
independents are worried are not being attended to in Washington. And
if I provide that kind of leadership, I think that they will feel
confident that I’m going to be able to do the job.
MR. RUSSERT: Charles Rangel, the Democrat from Harlem, very
important in the Democratic Party, was giving an interview. And he
said, “I don’t think on-the-job training is going to be a great asset
for the next president of the United States.” Question: “That’s what we
would have to have with Obama?” Rangel: “Of course.”
SEN. OBAMA: Well, look, the only real training for the presidency is
the presidency. I mean, the fact of the matter is it’s a unique job,
and every president who’s ever taken that job acknowledged—acknowledges
that that’s the case. What right now I think the American people need
is somebody who can bring the country together to overcome the gridlock
that has become so pervasive in Washington. I think they need somebody
who is willing to push against the special interests that have come to
dominate the agenda in Washington. And maybe most importantly, what
they are looking for is a president who can lay out in a honest and
clear and convincing fashion what are the choices that we face? If
we’re serious about climate change, what does that mean in the lives of
ordinary people? What decisions do we have to make, what costs and
sacrifices are going to be involved? If we’re serious about healthcare,
how do we move a process forward that’s transparent and accountable, so
the drug and insurance companies aren’t dominating the debate? Those
are the questions I think people are going to be asking.
MR. RUSSERT: A year ago, you were asked about Hillary Clinton. And
this the exchange. “Where do you find yourself having the biggest
differences with Hillary Clinton, politically?” Obama: “You know, I
think very highly of Hillary. The more I get to know her, the more I
admire her. I think she’s the most disciplined—one of the most
disciplined people I’ve ever met. She’s one of the toughest. She’s got
an extraordinary intelligence.” “She is—she’s somebody who’s in this
stuff for the right reasons. She’s passionate about moving the country
forward on issues like healthcare and children. So it’s not clear to me
what differences we’ve had since I’ve been in the Senate.” Do you still
hold to that? There aren’t any differences?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, I think that I, as I said earlier, I have
admiration for Senator Clinton. I think she’s a fine public servant.
The reason I’m running is because I think we’re in a unique moment in
American history right now. The nation’s at war; our planet is in
peril. We’ve got a series of decisions that we’re going to have to
make. And I believe that I can more effectively than any other
candidate in this race bring the country together, overcome some of the
same old arguments that we’ve been having since the 1990s. I think I
can reach out to Republicans and independents more effectively than any
other candidate that...
MR. RUSSERT: What arguments do you want to put behind you?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, look, when we think about, let’s say, foreign
policy, we have had a tendency to, to argue along the spectrum of you’re
either a hawk or a dove. Either you’re willing to engage in military
action and oftentimes think military action first and diplomacy second,
or you’re a dove, you’ve got post-Vietnam syndrome, you’re suspicious of
any military action. I think that the way we have to think about it is
to say that right now we live in a dangerous world. There are times
where we’re going to need to act militarily. We should not hesitate to
act on behalf of the national interest. But we have to understand that
we’ve got more power than just the military at our, our disposal, and
that’s something, obviously, the Bush administration has forgotten.
Having the ability to focus on getting the job done, as opposed to
getting embroiled in ideological arguments, which have become so common
in Washington, I think, is going to be important for the next president,
and that’s what I intend to do as president.
MR. RUSSERT: You had an exchange with The New York Times. It says
here, “In an interview, Obama said Hillary Clinton was deliberately
obscuring her positions for political gain. Asked if she had been fully
truthful with voters about what she should do as president, Mr. Obama
replied, ‘No.’” On which issues has Hillary Clinton not been truthful?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, I think that what Senator Clinton’s been doing is
running what’s considered a textbook Washington campaign, and what that
says is that you don’t answer directly tough questions. You don’t
present tough choices directly to the American people for fear that your
answers might not be popular, you might make yourself a target for
Republicans in the general election. So on Social Security, for
example, she has maintained, it appears, that if we just get our fiscal
house in order that we can solve the problem of Social Security. Now,
we’ve got 78 million baby boomers that are going to be retiring, and
every expert that looks at this problem says “There’s going to be a gap,
and we’re going to have more money going out than we have coming in
unless we make some adjustments now.” Now, I think that Social Security
is the single most important social program that we have in this
country, and I want to make sure that it’s there not just for this
generation, but for next generations. So that means that we’re going to
have to make some decisions, and it’s not sufficient for us to just
finesse the issue because we’re worried that, well, we might be attacked
for the various options we present.
MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, you said last year—earlier this year that
everything should be on the table for Social Security, including
looking at raising retirement age, indexing benefits, and then suddenly
you said, “No, no. Those aren’t off—on the table; I’m taking them off
the table.”
SEN. OBAMA: Tim, that’s not—that’s not what I said. What I said was
that I will convene a meeting as president where we discuss all of the
options that are available. That doesn’t mean that as president I will
not have strong opinions on how we should move forward. And when you
look at how we should approach Social Security, I believe that cutting
retire—cutting benefits is not the right answer. I meet too many
seniors all across the country who are struggling with the limited
Social Security benefits that they have. That raising the retirement
age is not the best option, particularly when we’ve got people who ware
still in manufacturing. By the time they’re 67, their bodies,
oftentimes...
MR. RUSSERT: But in May you said they would be on the table.
SEN. OBAMA: Well, when I—I am going to be listening to any ideas
that are presented, but I think that the best way to approach this is to
adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like myself are paying
a little bit more and the people who are in need are protected. That
is the option that I will be pushing forward. But, look, even as
president I’m not going to be able to get this done by myself, and that
means that I’m going to be listening to any other ideas out there. It
doesn’t mean, though, that I’m not going to have a strong position on
it.
MR. RUSSERT: But they would be on the table?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, I will listen to all arguments and the best
options, finding out what is it going to take to close that gap. But
what I’m going to continue to insist on is that the reason we need to
fix it now is precisely to protect our senior citizens and maintain not
only Social Security as a social
While in State government here in Illinois, Barack was known as a "nice
guy," but has little to show for his years in state government. He was
never particularly known by the public at large as a vocal leader and
was rarely out in front of any issue. In fact, few Illinoisans even knew
his name at all until he ran for the Senate seat against Alan Keyes. He
was an unknown, a non-entity as far as state politics was concerned.
