Jan. 15 Democratic debate transcript

Russert: Senator Obama, you gave an interview to the Reno Gazette-Journal and you said, "We all have strengths and weaknesses."

Williams: You said one of your weaknesses is, quote, "I'm not an operating officer."
Do the American people want someone in the Oval Office who is an operating officer?

Sen. Obama:  Well, I think what I was describing was how I view the presidency. Now, being president is not making sure that schedules are being run properly or the paperwork is being shuffled effectively.

It involves having a vision for where the country needs to go.
It involves having the capacity to bring together the best people and being able to spark the kind of debate about how we're going to solve health care; how we're going to solve energy; how we are going to deliver good jobs and good wages; how we're going to keep people in their homes, here in Nevada; and then being able to mobilize and inspire the American people to get behind that agenda for change.

That's the kind of leadership that I've shown in the past.
That's the kind of leadership that I intend to show as president of the United States. So, what's needed is sound judgment, a vision for the future, the capacity to tap into the hopes and dreams of the American people and mobilize them to push aside those special interests and lobbyists and forces that are standing in the way of real change, and making sure that you have a government that reflects the decency and the generosity of the American people.

That's the kind of leadership that I believe I can provide.

Russert: You said each of you have strengths and weaknesses. I want to ask each of you quickly, your greatest strength, your greatest weakness.

Sen. Obama:  My greatest strength, I think is the ability to bring people together from different perspectives to get them to recognize what they have in common and to move people in a different direction. And as I indicated before, my greatest weakness, I think, is when it comes to -- I'll give you a very good example.

I ask my staff member to hand me paper until two seconds before I need it because I will lose it. You know, the --- you know...

And my desk and my office doesn't look good. I've got to have somebody around me who is keeping track of that stuff.
And that's not trivial; I need to have good people in place who can make sure that systems run. That's what I've always done, and that's why we run not only a good campaign, but a good U.S. Senate office.

Russert: Senator Edwards, greatest strength, greatest weakness?

Former Sen. Edwards:  I think my greatest strength is that for 54 years, I've been fighting with every fiber of my being.
In the beginning, the fight was for me. Growing up in mill towns and mill villages, I had to literally fight to survive.

But then I spent 20 years in courtrooms fighting for children and families against really powerful well-financed interests. I learned from that experience, by the way, that if you're tough enough and you're strong enough and you got the guts and you're smart enough, you can win. That's a fight that can be won.

It can be won in Washington, too, by the way.
And I've continued that entire fight my entire time in public life.
So I've got what it takes inside to fight on behalf of the American people and on behalf of the middle class.
I think weakness, I sometimes have a very powerful emotional response to pain that I see around me, when I see a man like Donnie Ingram (ph), who I met a few months ago in South Carolina, who worked for 33 years in the mill, reminded me very much of the kind of people that I grew up with, who's about to lose his job, has no idea where he's going to go, what he's going to do.

I mean, his dignity and self-respect is at issue. And I feel that in a really personal way and in a very emotional way. And I think sometimes that can undermine what you need to do.