‘Meet the Press’ transcript for July 29, 2007

MR. TIM RUSSERT:  Our issues this Sunday:

Clinton and Obama go toe to toe.

Mitt Romney says he, not Rudy Giuliani, is the Republican front-runner, as Fred Thompson edges closer to entering the race.

And the attorney general under blistering fire from the U.S. Senate.

Insights and analysis from Dan Balz of The Washington Post, Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times, John Harwood of The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, Andrea Mitchell of NBC News, Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post, and Chuck Todd of NBC News.

But first, six months before the Iowa caucus, the presidential campaign is fully engaged, and here to offer their perspective, six columnists and reporters who’ve lived and breathed politics.

Welcome, all.  What a week!  Let’s go back and renew the bidding here a little bit.  The bait Monday night, this was the question that was asked and how Senator Obama and Senator Clinton responded.  Let’s watch.

(Videotape)

MR. STEPHEN SORTA:  Would you be willing to meet separately without precondition during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL):  I would.  And the reason is this that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them, which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration, is ridiculous.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY):  Well, I will not promise to meet with the leaders of these countries during my first year.  I will promise a very vigorous diplomatic effort because I think it is not that you promise the meeting at that high a level before you know what the intentions are.  I don’t want to be used for propaganda purposes.  I don’t want to make a situation even worse.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  After that debate, both campaigns furiously spinning, trying to say their candidate had the better answer for the Democratic Party primary constituency.  The next day, Senator Clinton, in a phone call to an Iowa newspaper said this:

(Audiotape, Senator Hillary Clinton with Quad-City Times, Tuesday)

SEN. CLINTON:  And I thought that was irresponsible and, frankly, naive.

(End audiotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Irresponsible and naive.  Barack Obama that day and the next day responded this way:

(Videotape)

SEN. OBAMA:  I think what is irresponsible and naive is to have authorized a war without asking how we were going to get out.  And, you know, I think Senator Clinton still hasn’t fully answered that issue.

The general principle that I was laying out is that we should not be afraid, as America, to meet with anybody.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Dan Balz, give us some perspective.

MR. DAN BALZ:  Well, Tim, this, this argument that unfolded this week is, in many ways, the basic fault line in the Democratic race.  Senator Clinton is promoting herself as the most experienced, the most ready to be president. Barack Obama’s promoting himself as the person who can bring the most change to the country, to the—Washington, to turn a page on what we’ve been through for the last 10 years.  It started out clearly in that way.  I think on the first night of this, Senator Clinton probably had the better answer.  I thought on the second day, she opened up a debate that she probably didn’t want to have, and it unfolded in the rest of the week in which we saw both sides feeling that they were getting the better of this, that they think they have the upperhand in this argument and they’re prepared to take it from here to the Iowa caucuses.

MR. RUSSERT:  Senator Obama upped the ante with this comment about Senator Clinton.

(Videotape, Thursday)

SEN. OBAMA:  I don’t want a continuation of Bush-Cheney.  I don’t want Bush-Cheney light.  I want a fundamental change.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Senator Clinton responded to that this way.

(Videotape, Thursday)

SEN. CLINTON:  This is getting kind of silly.  You know, I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but I’ve never been called George Bush or Dick Cheney, certainly.  You know, you have to ask whatever’s happened to the politics of hope.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Ba-boom.  Ron.

MR. RON BROWNSTEIN:  Look, six, seven months into the year we have the first real exchange in the Democratic race and, as Dan says, very revealing because it shows what each side believes is their whole card; Obama that he is the candidate of change, Hillary Clinton that she is most prepared to deliver the change the Democratic voters want.

What I thought was particularly interesting about the way this unfolded is that each believes they have a winning argument.  And the arguments don’t really intersect, in a way.  It’s, it’s almost as if they are not competing on the same turf, but offering voters very different versions of qualities and skills that they would bring to the White House.  In a way, the election may turn more on what Democratic voters are looking for than one out-pointing the other on the other guy’s turf.  Because they really are offering something very different in terms of their personal backgrounds and what they are saying is going to be their strengths in the Oval Office.

MR. JOHN HARWOOD:  And, Tim, it also works on different levels.  It could be effective for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary and effective for Hillary Clinton in the general election.  I thought what was fascinating about it was the way both campaigns have turned in how they’re handling this.  The night of the debate Barack Obama’s advisers come into the spin room—I think Dan was there as well—and the, the first answer they gave when I asked about what Obama said, they said, “Oh, you didn’t think he was promising to personally meet with those leaders, did you?  It was lower level aides.  He—this was going to be the same position that Hillary Clinton laid out.” Later they made the distinction.  Now Hillary Clinton’s campaign has gotten around at the end of the week to say, “Well, Obama really had our position.  Look at what he said on a Miami TV station before the—before the last debate.” So they’ve all switched around, and it’s probably because there are two different things going on, one in the general election, one in the primary.

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Oct. 5: Paul Begala, Mike Murphy, Chuck Todd, David Gregory, Gwen Ifill, Peggy Noonan and David Yepsen Sept. 28: Fmr. President Bill Clinton, Steve Schmidt, David Axelrod, Rep. Mark Udall (D), Fmr. Rep. Bob Schaffer (R) Sept. 21: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, N.Y.C. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Steve Pearlstein, Steve Liesman, Erin Burnett Sept. 14: Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Bob Woodward, Chuck Todd Sept. 7: Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), Tom Friedman Aug. 31: Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), political roundtable Aug. 24: Caroline Kennedy, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), political roundtable Aug. 17: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), political roundtable Remembering Tim Russert   Images: The life of the political journalist Meet the Press Section Front   Add Meet the Press headlines to your news reader: