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'Meet the Press' transcript for Feb. 24, 2008
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 Netcast Feb. 24: Ralph Nader sits down with Tim Russert for an exclusive interview. Plus, a political roundtable with insights and analysis on Clinton vs. Obama and McCain vs. the New York Times -- featuring David Brooks, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michele Norris and Chuck Todd. |
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MR. RUSSERT: But, Michele, what about comparing George W. Bush to Barack Obama? Will that convince Democratic voters? Will that sell? Will that resonate?
MS. NORRIS: You know, I think the word shame is difficult to use when both comparing Barack Obama to George Bush, but also you heard shame in both of those, those bites that you just heard. And if you're trying to motivate people, it's not clear that shame is the way to do that. I'm not--it, it--it's interesting that she's talking about--the conversation is entirely external as opposed to why you should vote for me. And I think, you know, in terms of the morale and finding a consistent message, if she's going to sell this, make that sell, close this deal with those voters, it seems that she would be in a position of trying to sell herself as opposed to pointing to past presidents or trying to make that kind of comparison.
MR. RUSSERT: MEET THE PRESS loves history, as you know. I--and I meant to say Harold Stassen with Ralph Nader, rather than Wendell Willkie, so my apologies to Mr. Willkie. Harold Stassen of the generation--who ran seven times for president. But the Clinton campaign meant to--tried to make an issue of Barack Obama borrowing words and phrases from Deval Patrick, now the governor of Massachusetts, the national co-chair of Obama's campaign. Let's watch the similarity between Obama and Patrick.
(Videotape, February 15, 2008)
SEN. OBAMA: Don't tell me words don't matter. "I have a dream." Just words? "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal." Just words? "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Just words?
(End videotape)
(Videotape, October 15, 2006)
MR. DEVAL PATRICK: "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal." Just words? Just words? "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Just words?
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Now the candidates were asked about that at the debate on Thursday. Here's now Senator Obama responded, then Senator Clinton.
(Videotape)
SEN. OBAMA: The notion that I had plagiarized from somebody who's one of my national co-chairs, who gave me the line and suggested that I use it, I think is silly. And, you know, but, but this is where we start getting into silly season in politics, and I think people start getting discouraged about it.
SEN. CLINTON: I think that if your candidacy is going to be about words, then they should be your own words. That's, I think, a very simple proposition. And, you know, you know, lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox. And I just don't think...
SEN. OBAMA: Come one. That's, that's not what happened, Hillary.
SEN. CLINTON: No, but Barack, it is because if, you know, if you look, if you look...
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: And a reaction from the audience there, Doris.
MS. GOODWIN: Yeah, well, I think when you give a canned line like that, people don't like it. You know, and I think what's going on here is that it's inevitable when candidates sit next to each other at debates, work with one another as Obama and, and Mr. Patrick had, you're going to pick up patterns from one another, you know, especially during these debates. They've all picked up language from one another. They're like an old couple that begins to look like each other at the end of their lives, and they've, they've probably listened to their colleagues on the debating trail more than they have their wives or their spouses. So in some ways it's good for the party to have the best lines that everybody in that party comes up with, the best ideas and patterns. Eventually one person will be the nominee. Let them evolve into each other as, as the time goes by, mush them all together.
MR. RUSSERT: It's funny you should say pick up lines from spouses or pick up lines from competitors, because I listened to Senator Clinton's closing remarks, and they sounded hauntingly familiar to me. And sure enough, we went back and checked, and this is what we discovered. Here's Senator Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton, Senator Clinton and John Edwards. Let's watch.
(Videotape, February 21, 2008)
SEN. CLINTON: You know, the hits I've taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country.
(End videotape)
(Videotape, February 18, 1992)
FMR. PRES. CLINTON: The hits that I took in this election are nothing compared to the hits that the people of this state and this country are taking every day of their lives.
(End videotape)
(Videotape, February 21, 2008)
SEN. CLINTON: Whatever happens, we're going to be fine. You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we'll be able to say the same thing about the American people, and that's what this election should be about.
(End videotape)
(Videotape, December 13, 2007)
FMR. SEN. JOHN EDWARDS: What's not at stake are any of us. All of us are going to be just fine, no matter what happens in this election. But what's at stake is whether America is going to be fine.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: David Brooks.
MR. BROOKS: You got to remember how the--how these people live. They are--first of all, they're insane people that want to run for president. Second of all, they've been talking--they're in--they've been talking constantly for two years and haven't really been listening. They have what I call loggeria dementia, which is talking so much you drive yourself insane. So they've just been grasping at everything, and they've had no time to read, no time to think. I mean, if Mitt Romney had to not borrow lines, his, his rallies would have been silent. So it would have been like Friends meetings or something like that. So I don't blame them. They just agglomerate everything they can use and hear and just shove it into their, into their speech.
MR. RUSSERT: But Chuck Todd, the Clinton campaign was out there waving the plagiarism flag when in fact it appears to be a very common tactic that all candidates use in terms of borrowing from husbands or from opponents or from friends.
MR. TODD: Well, it was about--it's about this character thing. Because if you really look at why Obama's beating Clinton, it's not on issues, it's on authenticity. He has sold himself as a more authentic person, a more authentic potential nominee. And I think the Clintons have felt any way they can undermine that authenticity, maybe he's a house of cards, maybe. You know, that--that's what they keep saying to themselves. There--they beat their head against the wall on this. They just don't understand how a guy who three years ago was in the Illinois state Senate is somehow beating them for their birthright, you know, this, this Democratic nomination. And so I think the hit on the quote/unquote "plagiarism charge" was trying to hit this authenticity. I mean, we've seen in our exit polls, he destroys her on that sort of honest, trustworthy, authenticity.
MS. NORRIS: I, I think, if I may say, it's also an invitation for him to step into the ring. Because they think if he takes a defensive position--if she strikes at him and he--if he, he strikes back, that she has an advantage there because she is better positioned to sort of be in that sort of warrior pose. That's something that he's not always comfortable. You started talking about this in an historical context. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "You cannot make me feel inferior without my consent."
MS. GOODWIN: Absolutely.
MS. NORRIS: If they're trying to embarrass him, one of the tacks he seems to have taken is, "You will not embarrass me without my consent. You may try to pull me here, but I'm going to stay right here."
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