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'Meet the Press' transcript for April 13, 2008
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 Netcast April 13: With less than 10 days to the Pennsylvania primary, we will devote the full hour to insights & analysis on Decision 2008 with four of the sharpest minds in politics: Democratic strategists James Carville and Bob Shrum, and Republican strategists Mary Matalin and Mike Murphy. |
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MR. CARVILLE: Let me, let me, let me--first of all, and I don't think Bob is right. I think, I think this is, is something that he's going to have to explain. You think that, that John McCain is not going to have to explain the fact that he said the economy was fundamentally sound? Or John McCain is not going to have to explain the fact that he says that people's economic struggles are psychological? Oh, yeah. Can I tell you something? It's going to come again and again and again. And, and, and Barack Obama can get up to speed a lot faster on some of the sort of history--cultural history of this country than John McCain can get up on economics, I promise you that.
MR. RUSSERT: All right, Mr. Carville. Speaking of explaining, your former boss was in Booneville, Indiana, the other day, and this is what he had to say about his wife.
(Videotape)
FMR. PRES. BILL CLINTON: There was a lot of fulminating because Hillary one time late at night when she was exhausted misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. Did y'all see all that? Oh, they blew it up.
And you would have thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they all carried on about this. And some of them, when they're 60, they'll forget something when they're tired at 11:00 at night.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: All right. First of all, it was 1996 rather than '95, which--much different time frame in Bosnia. There was no immediate explanation or apology; it took at least a week. And it didn't happen late at night just once. In fact, the first time we can find was back in December. Let's watch.
(Videotape, December 29, 2007)
SEN. CLINTON: We used to say in the White House that if a place was too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the first lady. So, you know, we landed in one of those corkscrew landings and ran out because they said there might be sniper fire.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: And then two months later at 3:00 in the afternoon.
(Videotape, February 29, 2008)
SEN. CLINTON: I remember particularly a trip to Bosnia where the welcoming ceremony had to be moved inside because of sniper fire.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: And then three weeks later, bright and early in the morning.
(Videotape, March 17, 2008)
SEN. CLINTON: 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: Then later that same day:
(Videotape, March 17, 2008)
SEN. CLINTON: There was no greeting ceremony, and we basically were told to run to our cars. Now, that is what happened.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: What actually happened was leaving the plane and strolling over to a rather extended greeting ceremony, just contrary to the way Senator Clinton had explained it.
James Carville.
MR. CARVILLE: Look, I love the man, OK? And, and he taught me the lesson--every time I teach a, a, a class on political consulting--he taught me a lesson. And he said, "You know, every time that we make it about us, it hurts us. Every time we make it about them, it helps us." And President Clinton broke his first fundamental rule of politics, is the voters want an election about them, not us. And I think his wife's advice to him, as I understand it, she told him to shut up on this subject, which probably is some pretty good advice. I--but I think that he understands that and, and I hope, you know--and I think that, that Senator Clinton's campaign and President Clinton are going to spend the rest of the time talking about voters and their problems and not talking about--you know, any, any time that the, the, the history of the Clintons is when it, when it make the election about themselves, they don't do as well. When they make the elections about the voters, they do better.
MR. RUSSERT: What about that 3 AM phone call, if she's exhausted at 11 PM?
MR. CARVILLE: You know what? He's--I, I love, I love that man so much, and he, and, and he gets out there and he defends his wife maybe too much. He just, you know...
MR. SHRUM: He's kind of an unguided missile in this campaign.
MR. CARVILLE: Sometimes. Sometimes.
MR. SHRUM: And he's hit her rather than...
MR. CARVILLE: Right.
MR. SHRUM: ...the opponent.
MR. CARVILLE: Well, and I had to look at this again today.
MR. SHRUM: And, and, look, look...
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MR. MURPHY: You know, it's funny, but he's become a bit of a self-parody. That's why we're all laughing, and that's the Clinton problem. And they're so casual with the truth, an admittedly small thing, I don't understand how her mind works to think about it. I--when you're going to a combat zone, you bring Sinbad the comedian in case things get rough? I, I, I--you know, it's funny, but it's also the Clinton problem and the Clinton fatigue issue.
MR. RUSSERT: But a bigger issue, perhaps in terms of substantive issues, was--is trade. And I want to go back to Ohio when there were revelations that Barack Obama's economic adviser had met with the Canadians and had talked about the North American Free Trade Agreement. It became a very serious issue, widely discussed throughout the campaign. And this is what Senator Clinton said then.
(Videotape, March 3, 2008)
SEN. CLINTON: I would ask you to look at this story, substitute my name for Senator Obama's name and see what you would do with this story. That's what I would ask you to do.
Just ask yourself, if some of my advisers had been having private meetings with foreign governments, basically saying "Ignore what I'm saying because it's only political rhetoric," I think it, I think it raises serious questions.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: In fact that is now what has happened. This was some of the stories: "Bill Clinton voiced `support' for a controversial Colombia free-trade pact that his wife has fiercely opposed--and he accepted $800,000 in speaking fees from a group boosting the agreement. ...
"The news came just two days after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed her chief strategist, Mark Penn, from his post after he embarrassed the campaign by consulting with Colombia government officials over the trade deal." His company was paid some $300,000.
Bob Shrum, does this affect the campaign?
MR. SHRUM: It affects it some, and it raises questions about how strongly she actually feels on the trade issue. But look, Mark Penn's problem was not that he met with the Colombians. I, I think James may have had the same experience I've had. I mean, when we went in the Gore campaign, the Kerry campaign we gave up the commercial clients because there was a potential conflict of interest. But his real problem, the original sin, was coming up with a strategy--or no strategy, as James sometimes puts it--that left her as the establishment candidate in a year of change. And what they did was convert her inevitability into improbability. They didn't understand Democratic primaries. I don't think Mark has, has much experience running winning Democratic primaries for Senate, governor or president. That's why he should have gone.
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