Oct. 30 Democratic debate transcript

Obama: The experience I have in politics is primarily legislative. But here's the experience that I think the next president needs. I think the next president has to be able to get people to work together to get things done, even when they disagree.

And I've done that. You know, when I was in Illinois, we brought police officers and civil rights advocates together to reform a death penalty system that had sent 13 innocent men to death row.

And we ended up passing it unanimously, even though originally people had said it couldn't be done.

You know, Dennis earlier was talking about the need to work on nonproliferation issues. I've worked with Dick Lugar, Republican spokesperson for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to focus on the next generation of nonproliferation efforts.

Now, that, I think, is critical experience.

I also think it is critical for the next president to be experienced to stand up to special interests. I'm glad Hillary is talking about it, but I'm the only person on this stage who has worked actively just last year passing, along with Russ Feingold, some of the toughest ethics reform since Watergate, making sure that lobbyists could not provide gifts and meals to congressmen, making sure that the bundling of moneys by lobbyists was disclosed.

And finally, I think we've got to have a president who has the experience of standing up, even when it's not easy, which is what I did in 2002 when i stood up against this war in Iraq 10 days before the authorization.

That is the kind of judgment that I'm displaying during this campaign when I go to Detroit and I say to the automakers that they need to raise fuel efficiency standards; not in front of some environmental group.

That kind of consistency and principled leadership, I think, is what is going to move us in the next direction. That's what I'll provide as president.

Williams: Governor Richardson, though, there was broad disagreement on this panel about you having the only negotiation experience.

You did raise your qualifications earlier. Is your contention that, say, the top three frontrunners in this race are less qualified than you are to be president?

Richardson: No, and I'm positive. You know what I'm hearing here? I'm hearing this holier than thou attitude towards Senator Clinton that -- it's bothering me because it's pretty close to personal attacks that we don't need. Do we trust her? Do we -- did she take money from special interests?

We need to be positive in this campaign. Yes, we need to point out our differences. And I have big differences with her over the war -- I would get all our troops out -- over No Child Left Behind -- I'd get rid of it. I also have differences over Iran. I think that was the wrong vote for her to cast because I think it was saber-rattling.

But I think it's important that we save the ammunition for the Republicans. If we continue, I believe, harping on the past and not focusing on the future -- look, the reality on the electability issue is, the last senator that was elected president was 40 years ago.

Look, the reality on the electability issue is, the last senator that was elected president was 40 years ago. His name was John F. Kennedy.

We elect governors as president. Seven out of the last eight have been either governors or ex-governors.

And my view is that I know how to bring people together. More than all the issues that we're talking about it's who can govern, who can manage.

I'm the only CEO in this race. I've balanced budgets. I've provided health care to kids under 12. I've improved education. I've got foreign policy experience. I've negotiated with foreign countries as a diplomat, as a hostage negotiator.

Yes, I do think it is substantially more than my colleagues, although they have a strong record.

But the important thing is that we need to stay positive. We need to have disagreement on the issues, not on whether you can trust -- I trust Senator Clinton, but I don't agree with her on a majority of issues.

Williams: Senator Dodd, you gave an interview to our local NBC station here today, alluding to problems with Senator Clinton's national electability. What is the point you want to make on that score?

Dodd: Well, first, I think electability's a very critical issue. Look, at the end of this process here, we need to have a Democrat in the White House come January 20, 2009. That is essential in my view to get this country back on its feet again, to restore our moral authority in the world. It is a critical question.

Whether it's fair or not fair, the fact of the matter is that my colleague from New York, Senator Clinton, there are 50 percent of the American public that say they're not going to vote for her. I'm not saying anything that people don't know already. I don't necessarily like it, but those are the facts.

We as a party certainly have to take that into consideration. But let me add, since the matter's been brought up here as well, this situational ethics situation does bother me in a sense, what Bill Richardson has alluded to. My friend John Edwards here, certainly taking money from the trial bar, special interest group, here to be condemning one candidate for taking money from one group as opposed to another.

I happen to believe we ought to have public financing for our campaigns. I've supported that for 25 years. I managed the McCain-Feingold legislation on the floor of the United States Senate several years ago. I won't take a back seat to anybody on trying to reform our political process.

But let's remember what's at stake here. We need to elect a Democrat, a Democrat that's electable and a Democrat that can bring the country together.

For 26 years, I have, in every major landmark piece of legislation, had a Republican as my co-sponsor, because no one party is going to straighten all of this out.

When I started the children's caucus in 1981, I did it with Arlen Specter of this state. When I wrote the Family and Medical Leave bill, I did it with Kit Bond and Dan Coates.

When I wrote the first child care legislation since World War II, I did it with Orrin Hatch, not because I agreed with him on any other issue, but because I knew, in order to move our country forward, we had to have leadership in this country that understood the value of reaching out and finding common ground with people.

So electability and the ability the govern and to do so immediately are important. But don't discount the importance of electability.

It's a very important hurdle...

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