'Meet the Press' transcript for March 23, 2008

MR. RUSSERT:  Chuck Todd, all this discussion in the context of a presidential campaign.

MR. CHUCK TODD:  Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT:  Bill Clinton was on the campaign stump on Friday talking, his staff says, about the need to focus on issues rather than these kinds of things that sometimes surface in a campaign.  These are the words that President Clinton used to say that.  Here they are.

(Videotape)

FMR. PRES. BILL CLINTON:  I think it'd be a great thing if we had an election you--where you had two people who love this country and were devoted to the interest of the country and people could actually ask themselves who's right on these issues instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Suggesting a race between John McCain and Hillary Clinton would do that.  General Tony McPeak, the co-chair of the Obama campaign, former chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, took great umbrage at that and said this:  "I think it's horrible.  I'm really disappointed because I worked for President Clinton, you know?  ...  We know Barack Obama, don't we?  Do we think Barack Obama loves America?  Is this stupid or what?  ...  It sounds more like McCarthy.  I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it." Later, the next day, McPeak went on to say he was saddened to see the former president employing these tactics.  Big issue?

MR. TODD:  Well, it's interesting.  One thing we've learned in this campaign is that General McPeak can be angry, and he's got one very sharp tongue.  But I do think that there is a challenge here for Obama that sort of President Clinton was laying out there a little bit, and it's almost become--it's become his own commander in chief test, and that is how is he going to become a candidate that isn't always stuck talking about race, but then can pivot and start talking about the economy, going back to talk about the war, something he tried to do this week.  Of course, we're not talking about either of his speeches on Wednesday or Thursday.  One was on Iraq, one was on the economy, but we're still talking about Tuesday's speech on race.  And I think that was the message that, that Bill Clinton was saying, you know, because one of the things about race in this country is that most people don't want to talk about it.  It's an uncomfortable conversation.  White people don't want to be reminded of their past sins, and they don't want to have it--and that was almost the subtle message that I was receiving, I thought, when President Clinton said that, which was, "You know what?  We won't have to have that conversation.  We won't have to have that debate.  We, we can just have this debate--a, a normal debate on the issues." Of course, the idea that President Clinton, who's been a distraction for his wife's campaign this whole time, is somehow saying, "Oh, this won't be a campaign with distractions to it," is kind of amusing.  But I think that that was the, that was the message I got from it was just sort of if it's Obama-McCain, you know we're going to have these uncomfortable issues cropping up that isn't about what Americans care about right now.

MR. RUSSERT:  Gene Robinson, what did you take from President Clinton's comments?

MR. ROBINSON:  You know, I think Bill Clinton can't help himself, you know, in, in, in a way.  I mean, I, I did take it as more or less as General McPeak took it.  I mean, I thought it was deliberate, the, the use of the "who love their country" construction in, in that.  And, and, and I think Chuck is right that he was suggesting that, well, we can have a debate without all this, this messy race stuff.  But, but I, you know, I think it was a dig at, at the Reverend Wright comments.  I'm not sure that--you know, Bill Clinton is a political being and, and I, and I think an opening like that comes up and I don't think he could even help himself.  And, you know, it blew back at him immediately.  In the long run, it doesn't do anything good for Hillary Clinton's campaign.  But I don't--you know, I think it was just almost instinct that he, that he, you know, you see something like that, "Boy, I can, I can say this," and, and, without even thinking about--thinking through the implications of it.

MR. RUSSERT:  The Obama campaign tried to end the week on the high note with the endorsement of the Obama candidacy by Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, former presidential candidate, former ambassador to the UN in the Clinton administration and secretary of energy.  Here's Governor Richardson endorsing Barack Obama.

(Videotape)

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D-NM):  Senator Obama has started a discussion in this country that is long overdue, and rejects the politics of pitting race against race.  He understands that clearly, by only bringing people together and by bridging our differences, can we succeed together as Americans.

Barack Obama, you're a leader who has shown courage, judgment and wisdom throughout the years.  You understand the security challenges of the 21st Century, and you will be an outstanding commander in chief.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  John Meacham, the Obama campaign hopes the voters take from that the nation's only Hispanic governor endorsing Barack Obama, someone who has had some foreign policy experience, worked for the Clintons, endorsing Barack Obama.  Was that a big event in the campaign or simply a way to change the subject from the discussion of race?

MR. MEACHAM:  I think it was a big event, because I think Governor Richardson represents a kind of superdelegate conventional wisdom at the moment, and I think that whether anyone actually votes because--votes for Obama because Bill Richardson said to or not, it was an indicator that the establishment, such as it is, in the Democratic Party these days, I think, believes that Senator Clinton probably will not figure out how to overcome the mathematical gap and win the nomination.  I would read this as--in, in a purely tactical way, that Governor Richardson was getting on what he thinks to be is the winning bandwagon.

MR. RUSSERT:  Peggy Noonan, thoughts on Bill Clinton, Bill Richardson?

MS. NOONAN:  I, I am struck by how, how with his beard, Bill Richardson looks like Rod Steiger in Dr. Zhivago.  He has startled me.  I was saying, "That's not Bill Richardson.  And who in the heck is that guy?"

Look, you know what I think the Richardson thing means, seriously, Tim?  It means that this wonderful voodoo magic thing that the Clintons have, that they are always in control, that they run the Democratic Party, that no matter what is happening on the ground or who's winning this race or the popular vote or getting the elected delegates, they're in charge, they're really secretly plugged in, they got secret wires that they're pulling, they will triumph. When a Bill Richardson comes forward, it just reminds you, the Clintons may not be in charge.  They may not be pulling the wires in this race.  Indeed, that may be a sort of magic voodoo thing that they've got out there, that they're always in control and in charge, and little by little, day by day, we see, "My gosh, that's not true.  She's not winning in the popular vote.  She's not winning in the delegate count." She may not be able to win at the end of the day after Pennsylvania, etc., and the popular vote.  So it's just another little sign that this thing is not wired and interesting things can still happen.

MR. RUSSERT:  Chuck Todd, Hillary Clinton released--had some documents released about her experience as first lady, which brought up again her foreign policy experience as she has articulated it.  Here she was last Monday, talking about a trip she made to Bosnia in 1996, suggesting they sent her rather than her husband because of the danger involved.  And here she is.

(Videotape)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY):  I remember landing under sniper fire.  There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead, we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Yesterday in a column called "Factchecker" by Michael Dobbs in The Washington Post, Dobbs wrote this:  "Clinton's tale of landing at the Tuzla airport `under sniper fire' and then running for cover is simply not credible.  Photographs and video of the arrival ceremony, combined with contemporaneous news reports, tell a very different story.  Four Pinocchios." Which is the highest you can get, which means a whopper in terms of exaggeration.  Now, the Clinton campaign has responded by having a speechwriter who was with Hillary Clinton saying, in fact, it was a dangerous situation.  And General Nash, who had told Michael Dobbs there was no sniper fire, said that he was aware of some security concerns, but The Post stands by the four Pinocchios.  The credibility issue, truth telling, is this a problem for Senator Clinton?

MR. TODD:  Well, it's been--the thing, the nagging thing throughout this whole campaign.  When you ask that question of honest and trustworthy, she has always consistently scored lower than Obama, though I am curious what things are going to look like next week, because now, as John Meacham put it, Obama's mortal, and now he is going to be viewed as just another politician.  And so how much does he take a hit, for instance, on that one question.  But I, for the life of me, haven't understood why they have pushed this story.  They knew that, well, somebody went after and reinterviewed Sinbad, who was on that trip, the former comedian, and I put "comedian" in quotes, that he was on that trip and doesn't remember it being that harried or anything like that, and yet she went out and, and retold the story.  They have an, an amazing sometimes, with the, the Clinton campaign, where they continue to push something like the, the Ireland thing, which was, her role in the Irish peace process, there appears to be that she certainly played some role or she was involved with it, but what was it?  And they, they seem to, to push it.  They didn't need to retell this story because, if they had not, then they wouldn't have gotten this four Pinocchio thing under The Washington Post and given the Obama's campaign something to, to hit them with.

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