'Meet the Press' transcript for Jan. 13, 2008

MR. RUSSERT: In Iowa, you expressed concern that the time of the caucus prevented a lot of shift workers from voting, they were disenfranchised.

SEN. CLINTON: Right.

MR. RUSSERT: You may confront the same thing in Nevada. They have now scheduled, the state party there, to have caucuses at the place of work so that shift workers can show up. Many people, minorities particularly, supporters of yours, have filed a suit to try to stop having those caucus locations at the workplace. Do you support that suit?

SEN. CLINTON: Well, first of all, I don't think it's supporters of mine. There seems to be some misunderstanding about that. I was asked yesterday in Reno. The teachers union who brought the suit has not endorsed me, and so I think their concern is to have as many people participate as possible, which is certainly what it should be. This is now in the courts. The courts and the state party will have to work it out. But I don't want to disenfranchise anybody. I want...

MR. RUSSERT: So why not drop the lawsuit and let people vote?

SEN. CLINTON: Well, that's up to the people who brought it.

MR. RUSSERT: Well, what's your view?

SEN. CLINTON: But Tim, as I understand it, there are a lot of people working at many places who won't be able to work. The places for doing the caucus are not at their workplace across the state. I mean, that's--the caucus idea is for neighbors to get together to argue and talk about their choices. The problem is that if you have a limited period of time, as I've pointed out long before anything happened in Nevada, you're going to essentially leave people out who can't be there during those one to two hour periods of time. And so, you know, I haven't read the lawsuit. The coverage of it seems to suggest that some people are saying, "Well, wait a minute, what about us? Those are not our workplaces. We have to be at work. How are we going to participate?" It's up to the courts to work that out.

MR. RUSSERT: Doris Kearns Goodwin said, "What's the biggest public adversity a person has ever faced?" What's yours?

SEN. CLINTON: Well, I think we all know that, we lived through it, didn't we, and it's something that was very painful and very hurtful.

MR. RUSSERT: What did you learn from it?

SEN. CLINTON: Well, you know, first of all, it is who I am as a person. I believe that you have to withstand whatever problems come your way. You have to make the decisions that are best for you. You're going to get a lot of advice coming from many different quarters to do things that don't feel right to you, that don't reflect who you are and what your values are. So you have to be grounded in who you are and what you believe. And you're not always going to make the right decisions, but you have to be guided by what you think is important, and that's what I've done.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Clinton, we thank you very much for joining us here in South Carolina and sharing your views, and we'll see you Tuesday night in Nevada.

SEN. CLINTON: Thank you. Good to see you.

MR. RUSSERT: And we'll be right back.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: Clinton, Edwards, Obama debate at 9 p.m., Tuesday night on MSNBC. A special thanks to the great folks here at WIS in South Carolina. What a great partner and team you are and we'll see you next weekend because if it's Sunday, it's MEET THE PRESS.

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