Feb. 26 Democratic debate transcript

Russert: Senator, two journalists here in Ohio wrote a piece called, "Business as Usual," which is very well known, suggesting it wasn't trade or manufacturing jobs that were being lost because of it, but rather business as usual, lack of patents, lack of innovation, lack of investment. Seventy percent of the Ph.D.s in biology, chemist, engineering, leaving the state.

The fact is, exports now have the highest share of our national income ever. Ohio ranks fourth in terms of exports to Canada and Mexico.

Are you sure this has not been better for Ohio than you're suggesting?

Sen. Obama: I'm positive that it hasn't been better for Ohio. But you are making a very legitimate point, which is, is that this -- trade can't be the only part of our economic agenda.

Look, we've seen seven years in which we have a president who has been looking out for the well-heeled and people who are doing very well in the global economy in the financial industries, in the telecommunications industries, and has not been looking out for ordinary workers.

What do we have to do? We're going to have to invest in an infrastructure to make sure that we're competitive, and I've got a plan to do that.

We're going to have to invest in science and technology. We've got to vastly improve our education system. We have to look at energy and the potential for creating green jobs that can not just save on our energy costs, but more importantly, can create jobs in building windmills that will produce manufacturing jobs here in Ohio, can put rural communities back on their feet by working on alternative fuels, making buildings more energy efficient.

We can hire young people who are out of work and put them to work at a trade. So there are all sorts of things that we're going to have to do to make the United States economy much more competitive and those are plans that I have put forward in this campaign and I expect to pursue as president of the United States.

Russert: Senator Clinton, on the issue of jobs, I watched you the other day with your economic blueprint in Wisconsin, saying, "This is my plan, hold me accountable." And I've had a chance to read it very carefully.

It does say that you pledge to create five million new jobs over 10 years, and I was reminded of your campaign in 2000 in Buffalo, my hometown, just three hours down Route 90, where you pledged 200,000 new jobs for upstate New York.

There's been a net loss of 30,000 jobs. And when you were asked about your pledge, your commitment, you told the "Buffalo News," "I might have been a little exuberant."

Sen. Clinton: Well...

Russert: Tonight, will you say that the pledge of five million jobs might be a little exuberant?

Sen. Clinton: No, Tim, because what happened in 2000 is that I thought Al Gore was going to be president and when I made the pledge, I was counting on having a Democratic White House, a Democratic president, who shared my values about what we needed to do to make the economy work for everyone and to create shared prosperity.

And as you know, despite the difficulties of a Bush administration and a Republican Congress for six years of my first term, I have worked very hard to create jobs. But, obviously, as president, I will have a lot more tools at my disposal.

And the reason why we can create at least five million new jobs -- I mean, this is not a big leap -- 22.7 million new jobs were created during the eight years of the Clinton administration under my husband.

We can create at least five million new jobs. I'm not just talking about it. I helped to pass legislation to begin a training program for green collar jobs. I want to see people throughout Ohio being trained to do the work that will put solar panels on roofs, install wind turbines, do geothermal, take advantage of biofuels.

And I know that if we had put $5 billion into the stimulus package to really invest in the training and the tax incentives that would have created these jobs, as the Democrats wanted, as I originally proposed, we would be on the way to creating those.

You know, take a country like Germany. They made a big bet on solar power. They have a smaller economy and population than ours. They've created several hundred thousand new jobs, and these are jobs that can't be outsourced.

These are jobs that have to be done in Youngstown, in Dayton, in Cincinnati. These are jobs that we can create here with the right combination of tax incentives, training and a commitment to following through.

So I do think that at least five million jobs are fully capable of being produced within the next 10 years.