‘Meet the Press’ transcript for July 8, 2007

MR. ROBINSON:  In, in a way he kind of puts everything on hold temporarily. I mean, everyone has a sense of the race really—the dynamic of the race changes when he, when he gets fully in and fully engaged, and, and the longer he doesn’t quite do that, you know, it, it, it kind of leaves everything in this, this, this kind of limbo.  But the Republicans still haven’t found anybody really to love, and, and I wonder if, you know, they’ll—the, the same process will happen with Fred Thompson, that he’s, you know, first he’s the next Reagan, and after a while, you know, he might wear thin the way the others have.

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.  Todd Purdum, at what point do Republicans get confident again, or get excited about the race again?

MR. PURDUM:  I think they, they have to maybe go a little lower still and, and, as David said, get unified around a pragmatic approach.  I mean, the Republicans have always been the party that nominated the person who, whose, whose turn it was, who was the establishment person, who had the early money, who had the support, and, and they, they just are all over the lot this year. And I think each of the potential candidates has vulnerabilities.  Rudy Giuliani has vulnerabilities with the Republican base, and with the general electorate.  Fred Thompson’s starting to get the kind of scrutiny.  The New York Times had a story the other day about his son’s lobbying business. That’s the typical kind of scrutiny that a person gets once he or she is, you know, edging into the big time.  So I think they have a, a difficult road. That being said, the Democrats also have to articulate, you know, a consistent alternative.

MR. GREGORY:  Anne:

MS. KORNBLUT:  One thing I would say about the Democratic field, though, is that it’s quite the opposite.  Having just been out in Iowa this past week, it’s incredible the level of enthusiasm.  Senator Hagel was complaining earlier about the media whipping up this election too early.  It’s, it’s—in Iowa, it’s not the media.  It’s the voters.  And if anything, they’re paying far more attention than we are.  The newspapers out there are like movie listings, you can go see any candidate you want on any day.  And people are turning out to see—I went, I went out with Chris Dodd, there are dozens of people turning out to see Chris Dodd, who we never hear about here.  So I would say that, especially on the Democratic side, this is a real election, and it’s quite the opposite of the Republicans.

MR. GREGORY:  In our remaining moments, I want to talk about Iraq, something that I, I raised with Senator Hagel, and where things will stand, not only this week with an important group of test votes, but by September when Commander David Petraeus is going to report to Congress on how the surge is going.

David Brooks, by the fall will Republican support collapse and will there be consensus with the Democrats on a, on a withdrawal for troops?

MR. BROOKS:  Privately it’s collapsed already.  The question is whether they talk about it publicly.  And so what the White House is trying to do is head all that off at the pass.

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

MR. BROOKS:  I think by September they’re going to have a new plan, and that plan will probably involve getting out of Baghdad, withdrawing to some of the bases, reducing U.S. casualties, we’re trying to tamp down on al-Qaeda.  So I think the White House will change the dynamic by September.

MR. GREGORY:  Eugene:

MR. ROBINSON:  I think there may be a new plan, I don’t think there will be a new overall strategy from the White House.  I don’t think—I think George Bush is going to be very stubborn on Iraq, and I think he’s going, going to play for time and run out the clock, basically.

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.  Todd:

MR. PURDUM:  I agree with Gene.  I mean, the president’s already said it will be solved by the next administration.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

MR. PURDUM:  He’s, he’s just not budging.

MR. GREGORY:  This week do you see more Republicans swinging over to the, to the Democratic side, at least on articulation of a timeline?

MR. PURDUM:  I think Senator Hagel’s point about the significance of a senator like Senator Domenici, whose been a stalwart on this question, he’s a more interesting figure in motion than Senator Voinovich or Senator Lugar, who’d expressed qualms earlier.  So I mean, I think the, the watch is on. Everybody’s waiting to see.

MR. GREGORY:  Anne, on that question, but also the issue—you and I have covered George Bush for a long time, since he came into office—his view of the war at this point, and as I talked about with Senator Hagel earlier, does he think about the war as, as Johnson thought about Vietnam?  Does he believe in it deeply?  And how, how long does he let that go before he makes a real change?

MS. KORNBLUT:  Well, it’s hard to see him shifting from his essential paradigm, which has been that history will judge him 50 years from now, 100 years from now, we’ll know whether it’s a success, to the extent that he starts drawing down troops, that there is some kind of other strategy in place in September, or they start lowering the expectations.  I’m not in a position to say, but I do think we will hear, even as he leads off—leaves office in 2009, his saying this will be judged down the road.

MR. GREGORY:  All right.  Anne Kornblut, Todd Purdum, Gene Robinson, David Brooks, thanks to all of you.  We’re going to leave it there, and we’ll be right back.

(Announcements)

MR. GREGORY:  Our thanks to Senator Hagel and a great roundtable today.  That will do it for the program.  Tim Russert will be back next week at our usual time.  If it’s Sunday, it’s MEET THE PRESS.

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