'Meet the Press' transcript for Feb. 24, 2008

MR. RUSSERT:  On Wednesday it's your birthday.  Happy birthday.

MR. NADER:  Thank you.

MR. RUSSERT:  You'll be 74 years old.  You would be the oldest man ever elected president of the United States.  You're older than John McCain.

MR. NADER:  Thank you very much, Tim.  I really like that.

MR. RUSSERT:  It's an issue that has been discussed about John McCain, and I'm presenting it to you.

MR. NADER:  First of all, I thought David Letterman was very unfair in the way he made fun of John McCain's age.  Very, very--I mean, really overboard. I mean, humor has no limits, obviously.  But second, someone once said the only true aging is the erosion of one's ideals, and I want the people out there just to look at our Web site and see how exciting it's going to be. I've been assured by my computer/Internet literate associates--I grew up in the Underwood typewriter age, you know--that this is going to be the most exciting, informative, participatory Web site of any presidential campaign, votenader.org.  And on that Web site now, Tim, is a declaration that we will receive no money from commercial interests, no money from political action committees, only from individuals.  And I'll take it from any individuals--Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, independent, Green party. And, and we are very frugal.  They've labeled me Mr. Frugal, my, my associates.  We know how to use it.  None of this huge waste on political consultants who have really messed up Hillary Clinton's campaign.

MR. RUSSERT:  You heard Barack Obama say that in many ways, you're a heroic figure.  You were first on MEET THE PRESS in 1966, you said that you would never run for elective office back then.  This is your third run for the presidency.  Are you concerned now, when people look back at Ralph Nader, they'll consider him the Wendell Willkie of his generation, someone who kept running and running for president with no chance of winning, which will diminish the legacy that you tried to carve out as a consumer advocate.

MR. NADER:  No, Tim.  My concern doesn't proceed from that.  I came to Washington over 40 years ago to help improve my country and, and started a lot of citizen groups who did that.  That was a time you had a hearing in Congress, regulatory agencies like the Food and Drug Administration would be more responsive--Auto Safety Agency, EPA.  That's a time Nixon, because he heard the rumble of the people, and he was the last president to really fear liberals enough to change his position, signed OSHA, signed EPA, had a health plan that he didn't really believe in, had a minimum income plan to abolish poverty, and then it started.  Around 1979, the doors started closing on the citizen groups.  So my concern, Tim, comes from, to give you statistics quickly, 58,000 workers who die every year from work-related diseases and trauma on the job; 65,000 people according to EPA who die from air pollution; over 100,000 people who die from adverse effects of medicines; 250 people a day who die from hospital-induced infections; and all the fraud, waste and abuse that's eating at the heart of the family budget, aggravating them.  They can't get answers to their questions.  They're thrown into huge debt.  Now they're losing their houses while White House--while Wall Street speculators laugh all the way to the bank.  That's where my concern comes from.  And I hope it's shared by a lot of people around the country.  I hope a lot of people will be gathered around the country to establish Congress watchdogs in every district, a thousand people--we want to hear from very congressional district--to show the American people how easy it is to turn the Congress around if people are organized.  Fifteen hundred corporations get their way by--from a majority of 535 members of Congress.  We're millions of people out there, and we simply have to, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and the state of our nation in the world, we have to mobilize in that manner, and that's what that, that Web site is all about.  It's not just a Web site. It's a gathering center, votenader.org.

MR. RUSSERT:  Ralph Nader, we thank you very much for joining us, making your announcement and sharing your views.

MR. NADER:  Thank you very much, Tim.  Thank you.

MR. RUSSERT:  Coming next, John McCain fights back against The New York Times.  And Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, they debated Thursday, and they're getting ready to debate again this Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio.  Our roundtable is next--David Brooks, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michele Norris, and Chuck Todd--only on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT:  Our MEET THE PRESS roundtable, David Brooks of The New York Times, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michele Norris of NPR and Chuck Todd, NBC News.  All after this station break.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT:  Welcome all.  Let's go right to it.  Here's the very latest NBC News elected delegate count.  Obama, 1183; Clinton 1,031.  That's 152 advantage for Obama.  Superdelegates, it is Clinton, 257; Obama, 194; a 63 advantage for Clinton.  But look at this.  Since Super Tuesday, Barack Obama has gained 20 superdelegates, Hillary Clinton has lost five.  And a gain of five in two Sundays.

Look at this, contests won:  Obama, 24--that includes 21 states, the Virgin Islands, District of Columbia and Democrats abroad--Clinton, 11 states.  And if you add up all the votes they've gotten, Obama nearly a million more; 50-to-46.

Next stop, Ohio.  Here's the latest poll from Ohio:  Obama, 50--43; Clinton, 50.  And in Texas it's Clinton, 48; Obama, 47.

Chuck Todd, what does Hillary Clinton have to do in Texas and Ohio in order to close, close this race in terms of delegates?

MR. CHUCK TODD:  She'd have to do something impossible, which is win by some 15 or 20 points.  I mean, I, I sort of crunched some numbers from March 4th to see if she, she can win three of the four states, she could win Texas 52-48, Ohio 52-48, Rhode Island 52-48, lose Vermont, say, 55-45, and she will net all of three delegates the--in that scenario, because there's a couple things working against her.  First of all, this Texas primacaucus, whatever you want to call it, where two-thirds of the delegates are going to be distributed by statewide vote in the state Senate districts and then a third of the delegates are decided later that night in a caucus.  Well, we've seen the Obama organizational advantage has been overwhelming in these caucuses.  So he wins that probably 55-45, and that's being conservative on the caucus front.  He will probably net more delegates out of Texas than she will, even if she wins by four points in the...

MR. RUSSERT:  The popular vote.

MR. TODD:  ...the popular vote.  It is that, it is that much of a problem she's got on the delegate front.

MR. RUSSERT:  So he would still be ahead by 150 delegates on the elected delegate count.

MR. TODD:  Right.

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