Jan. 15 Democratic debate transcript

Williams: And one more question about that last televised debate, Senator Edwards. Afterwards, Senator Clinton said it was as if you and Senator Obama had formed a buddy system against her. Senator Clinton put out an Internet ad that was entitled "Piling On."

Looking back on it, the campaign for New Hampshire in total, do you admit that it might have looked that way?

Former Sen. Edwards:  Might have looked that way or actually was that way? I don't think it was that way. I mean, my job as a candidate for president of the United States is to speak the truth as I see it. I've spoken the truth, I will continue to speak the truth whatever the consequences are and whatever the perception that people have is.

I do believe that I am a candidate for president who is fighting for change, who believes that we have entrenched, moneyed interests in this country that are preventing the middle class from having a real chance. And it's drug companies, insurance companies, oil companies. There are lobbyists. Barack spoke about them just a few minutes ago.

It's why I've never, the whole time I've been in public life, taken a dime from Washington lobbyist or special interest PAC, because I do believe those people stand between America and the change that it so desperately needs, in real ways.

They're the reason we don't have universal health care. They're the reason we have a trade policy that's cost America millions of jobs. They're the reason we have an insane tax policy that actually gives tax breaks to American companies sending jobs overseas.

The promise of America that I and millions of others have lived -- and then we are in Nevada tonight, a place that people come to in the thousands every day to find the promise of America because they believe in it.

It is central to everything we are as a nation. And I do believe that promise is being jeopardized by very well-financed monied interests. I believe that's the truth, and I'm going to keep saying it.

Williams: Tim?

Russert: Senator Clinton, your husband said that Senator Obama very well could be the nominee -- he could win.
With that in mind, when you say that Senator Obama is raising false hopes, and you refuse to say whether he's ready to be president, what are the consequences of those comments in the fall against the Republicans?

Sen. Clinton:  Well, Tim, we're in a hard-fought primary season. I think each of us recognize that. You know, we're the survivors of what has been a yearlong campaign.

But I certainly have the highest regard for both Senator Obama and Senator Edwards. I've worked with them. I have, you know, supported them in their previous runs for office. There's no doubt that when we have a nominee, we're going to have a totally unified Democratic Party.

The issue for the voters here in Nevada, South Carolina and then all of the states to come is, who is ready on day one to walk into that Oval office, knowing the problems that are going to be there waiting for our next president: a war to end in Iraq, a war to resolve in Afghanistan, an economy that I believe is slipping toward a recession, with the results already being felt here in Nevada with the highest home foreclosure rate in the entire country, 47 million Americans uninsured, an energy policy that is totally wrong for America, for our future?

President Bush is over in the Gulf now begging the Saudis and others to drop the price of oil. How pathetic. We should have an energy policy right now putting people to work in green collar jobs as a way to stave off the recession, moving us towards energy independence.

All of that and more is waiting for our next president.
You know, obviously each of us believes that we are the person who should walk into the oval office on January 20th, 2009. I'm presenting my experience, my qualifications, my ideas, my vision for America.

And it's routed in the voices that I hear, that I've heard for 35 years, of people who want a better life for themselves and their children. And I'm going to keep putting forward what I have done and what I will do. And this is what this election, I think, is really about.

Russert: You may think you are the best prepared, but would you acknowledge that Senator Obama and Senator Edwards are both prepared to be president?

Sen. Clinton:  Well, I think that that's up to the voters to decide. I think that's something that voters have to make a decision about on all of us. They have to look at each and every one of us and imagine us in the Oval Office, imagine us as commander in chief, imagine us making tough decisions about everything we know we're going to have to deal with, and then all of the unpredictable events that come through the door of the White House and land on the desk of the president.