'Meet the Press' transcript for March 16, 2008

MR. RUSSERT:  David Gregory, you brought up John McCain.  He's in Iraq this  morning as we talk here this--on our program.  In a generic test, the Democrat  is ahead of the Republican by 13 points in a general race, but when you match  Obama, McCain; Clinton, McCain, the race shrinks two or three points.  And yet  when you ask, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" in terms  of the, the economy, 43 percent of Americans say they are worse off.  What  should be a Democratic race in terms of the issues is much closer when you  match mano-mano, McCain, Obama; McCain, Clinton.

MR. GREGORY:  It really is striking, and I think it, it says something about  the strength of the brand of John McCain as a public figure and his popularity  and his, his reputation as a maverick.  But it doesn't change the fact that he  is still going to be tarred as a George Bush Republican.  And the proverbial  and literal hug that he gave him in 2004 when John McCain was trying to court  the conservative wing of the party is going to hurt, his proximity to Bush on  the issue of the surge and the war generally.  I mean, McCain's got a  difficult argument to make, which is, "Don't just listen to me supporting the  surge and being the most stalwart defender of the war and talking about troops  being there for 100 years.  Remember back to when I was opposed to Rumsfeld,  and I opposed the management of the war." He's asking a lot of the voters, a  majority of whom are against this war.

MS. NORRIS:  But you know, can I just add one thing?

MR. RUSSERT:  Please.

MS. NORRIS:  But he, he has time, though, to, to go to your point earlier.  While Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to squabble over these other  matters, he has time to help make that argument.

MR. GREGORY:  He does.  Yeah.

MS. NORRIS:  He buys time every time that...

MR. RUSSERT:  The Democrats had hoped that their nominee would now be going  around the world...

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...coming back, raising money, trying to define John McCain.  What has happened is they're fighting each other, McCain is in Baghdad today,  going to Europe, trying to function as a quasi-president, if you were, at  least a legitimate presidential contender, which he is.

David...

MR. BRODER:  This, this, this visit that McCain is making to Baghdad is  potentially a very important moment for him.  As much as he's identified with  Bush's policy on Iraq, he's even more identified with General Petraeus'  operations in Iraq.  And Petraeus said in an interview with The Washington  Post this week, he is very disappointed in the lack of action on the political  side by the Iraqi government.  That opens the door for McCain to begin to  separate himself...

MR. GREGORY:  Yep.

MR. BRODER:  ...from Bush's policy if he is prepared now, as a potential  president of the United States, to really put pressure on the Iraqis to get  their act together.

MR. RUSSERT:  "Either you reconcile politically or I, John McCain, as a  nominee, could break from President Bush."

MR. GREGORY:  Right, and do something specific to say that troops will come  out if you don't meet these particular benchmarks.  Bush has said that we  don't have endless patience, but he has not backed that up.

MR. RUSSERT:  The war is five years old this week.  Vice President Cheney was  on this program exactly five years ago, and I asked him a question about what  he expected in--at the war as it carried out.  Let's watch.

(Videotape)

VICE PRES. CHENEY:  Now, I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from  the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted  as liberators.

MR. RUSSERT:  If your analysis is not correct, and we're not treated as  liberators but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in  Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly and  bloody battle with significant American casualties?

VICE PRES. CHENEY:  Well, I don't, I don't think it's likely to unfold that  way, Tim, because I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  I also asked Vice President Cheney about General Shinseki and  the need for hundreds of thousands of troops for some time to come and the  strife between Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis.  The vice president said that, of  all the places in the world, he thought that Iraq was one place where they  would come together.

Five years later, Michele, American people have some concerns about the war,  although they haven't given up.  Look at this:  "Do you believe victory in  Iraq is not possible or still possible?" Fifty-three-40; majority not  possible, but 40 percent saying still possible.  And then this.  "Should we  withdraw most troops by 2009 as promised by the Democrats?" That's 53; remain  until the situation is stable, 43 percent.  Those numbers show a very divided  country tilting towards withdrawal.

MS. NORRIS:  Mm-hmm.  Tilting toward withdrawal, but you know, when you look  at those statements, I'm curious what victory means, and I'm curious what  stable means.  You know, what stability in, in Iraq means.  And, and if you  listen to General Petraeus, he's saying, repeatedly, that you can't kill your  way out of this, that you've got to negotiate, that you've got to actually  work with people on the ground.  That's a different kind of war than most  Americans thought of when they were first, you know, sold this idea.  And so,  you know, it, it, it--on the one hand, when you hear Democrats talking about a  precipitous withdrawal, that, that very much goes against what General  Petraeus is saying and what the generals on the ground are saying.

MR. RUSSERT:  David Broder, will the war be the issue with the economy in the  general?

MR. BRODER:  It'll certainly be a major issue for a lot of the voters.  I  think, depending again on where things stand in November, which we can't  predict, it will certainly factor.  What we've seen in the public opinion  polls, as you point out, is a growing segment of the American public that is  prepared to give this a little more time.  But the majority is still saying,  "Let's get out."

MR. GREGORY:  I think it's interesting, I was in, in the Middle East a couple  of months ago, and you talked to key Arab leaders, and they described Iraq as  a slow burn, which is pretty ominous language.  And the, the, the, the  predominant concern is now Iran, which a lot of critics of the war think has  been unleashed by the invasion of Iraq.  I think the difficulty for the  politics of this, particularly for John McCain, is that the country has  basically stopped listening.  There was a, a paper this week by the Pew  Foundation saying that most, most Americans were unaware of the actual death  total in Iraq.  For John McCain to make the argument that there is another  chapter here to be written about the Iraq war, "Trust Petraeus, keep troops in  there for a long period of time to finish off nation building," will require  him to get the public to pay attention, to keep this violence down, but to  also make Americans believe that it is still possible to win something once  you define what the something is.  And it's going to be very different than  what Cheney-Bush described as a kind of light for the nations in the Middle  East and beyond.

MS. NORRIS:  I, I think it may be difficult, though, to keep the public  focused on this.

MR. GREGORY:  Yeah.

MS. NORRIS:  I mean, I have one word for you:  foreclosures.

MR. GREGORY:  Yeah.

MS. NORRIS:  And if you look at the projections for the next quarter and what  we expect to see in the number of foreclosures in this country and the  mortgage meltdown and what that's...

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

MS. NORRIS:  ...going to mean, I mean it's now at the point where it  touches--if it doesn't touch you directly, you know someone who's caught up in  this.  And...

MR. GREGORY:  And it's not just homes, by the way.  It's going to be--it's  going to be your cars, it's going to be your ability to get money from banks.

MS. NORRIS:  Right.  And it's ability...

MR. RUSSERT:  Four...

MS. NORRIS:  ...credit, because people are now tapping into credit to try to  catch up.

MR. RUSSERT:  Forty-three percent of Americans who said they were worse off  now than they were four years ago, that's the highest number, David, since  1992, when the Clinton campaign coined the phrase, "It's the economy, stupid."

MR. BRODER:  This is getting scary.  The people who understand economics far  better than I do will tell you the more they know, the more concerned they are  about where we're headed economically.

MR. RUSSERT:  In terms of large companies...

MR. BRODER:  Large companies and...

MR. RUSSERT:  ...no longer being liquid.  Banks...

MR. BRODER:  ...and, and, you know, and...

MR. RUSSERT:  ...traders...

MR. BRODER:  ...and, and a kind of a potential--we've had one rescue this  week of Bear Stearns, but if they don't time these interventions, this thing  could really tumble.

MS. NORRIS:  And how often can they do that?

MR. RUSSERT:  To be continued.  David Broder, Michele Norris and David  Gregory, we're going to see you tomorrow night, 6 p.m. on MSNBC.  Here's the  graphic:  "Race for the White House with David Gregory," premiering tomorrow.

MR. GREGORY:  Thank you, boss, very much.

MR. RUSSERT:  We look forward to seeing it.

MR. GREGORY:  I look forward to it.

MR. RUSSERT:  We'll be right back.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT:  That's all for today.  We'll be back next week.  If it's  Sunday, it's MEET THE PRESS.  Happy St.  Patrick's Day, especially to my  favorite honorary Irishman, "Big Bill" down in Texas.

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