'Meet the Press' transcript for June 8, 2008

MR. RUSSERT:  Lee Cowan, Senator Obama met with his staff in Chicago at the end of the week and, through a closed door, you could hear him say that "if we had lost Iowa, it would have been over." That caucus in Iowa, January 3rd, when he won and Hillary Clinton came in third, really did catapult his candidacy.

MR. COWAN:  Oh it did, and it was, it was a, it was a, I think, a testament to their organization on how they were able to get out; and then also a testament, I think, to their plan past Iowa, what they were going to do--not only what worked there, they think is going to work well in some other states and it ended up doing.  They didn't change their campaign a whole lot after Iowa.  I mean, they kept to the same strategy of working on those caucus states, getting those, those, those supporters and volunteers out to these states en masse.  The organization of this campaign, I think, is something that's going to go down in history.  I think people haven't seen anything, anything like this for quite some time.

MR. RUSSERT:  To that point, Ron Allen, Hillary Clinton said, "This will be all over on February 5th."

MR. ALLEN:  Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT:  The race would be over.  And if you look at the calendar now between February 5 and February 19th, Barack Obama won 11 primaries, caucuses in a row, netted a gain of 120 elected delegates, which is almost exactly the margin he won amongst elected delegates.

MR. ALLEN:  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  Does the Clinton campaign now acknowledge that they blew it in terms of organization and allocation of resources?

MR. ALLEN:  I think that one big thing they did wrong was to underestimate their opponent.  And that's something you should never do in politics, and they, they did.  And, as Lee pointed out in Iowa, I think that the most important thing about that was that Barack Obama won.  And I think up to that point the question was, can he win in places like Iowa?  Can he, can he actually--will the country embrace this candidacy, this person of color?  And I think by winning there, he really just--the floodgates opened and particularly a lot of people in the African-American community I think, at that point, really came around and said, "OK, this actually just might happen, so let's get on board." And then on to South Carolina and onward and that--just a crescendo of things.  And I think, at that point, the Clintons were somewhat overwhelmed.  You know, they, they were taken aback by this. They never thought that that was going to happen.

You remember at, at the start of this, Senator Clinton was even leading in the polls amongst some African-American voters, and, and that completely flipped around.  And not to say that that was the only thing that put Obama over the top, but again, I think just the notion that he could win, once that was established, the superdelegates, everyone else, it just took off from there.

MR. RUSSERT:  James Carville, who ran Bill Clinton's campaign in 1992, said in December, "Obama is an extraordinary talent, a stallion.  And right now he's in the stable.  If he breaks out of that stable in Iowa, it could be all over."

MS. MITCHELL:  And, in fact, when we were focused on her comeback in New Hampshire, the real story was that, behind the scenes, they were coming up with this plan for Super Tuesday that the Clintons didn't have.  The Clintons were focused on the big states.  They thought--they kept, till the last minute, still say, "Well, the big states we can win." But the point was that he was getting as many delegates--he got more delegates out of Idaho as she got out of New Jersey.

MR. ALLEN:  Mm-hmm.

MS. MITCHELL:  And so they had figured out how to gain the congressional districts, which ones would produce an odd number so that they could pick up an extra delegate.  They had this mathematical formula down.  It was field work.  And now when they say, "Well, they'll merge some of the field operations," they'll pick off one or two, they already have made contact with a couple in Ohio, a top operative, for instance, from the Clinton, from the Strickland team, governor of Ohio.  But the field operation that Barack Obama put out there was so far better than anything that the Clintons had.

MR. ALLEN:  I think they, they really were the machine, and I think the, the campaigns almost changed roles.  And I think that's something that, that we perhaps don't focus on--enough on about Obama's campaign, the nuts and bolts of it, the politics of it...

MS. MITCHELL:  Exactly.

MR. ALLEN:  ...the, the groundwork of it.  We talk about the speeches and the phenomenon and all that.

MR. RUSSERT:  In a 2008 campaign, I was watching a rally in South Carolina with--everybody had given their e-mail and their cell phone number as they walked in.

MR. GREGORY:  Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT:  Once they're there, the emcee said, "All right, hold up your cell phones and send messages now to five people.  Text five people....

MS. MITCHELL:  And it captured it.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...that you think should be part of this organization."

MS. MITCHELL:  And that becomes their e-mail fundraising base.

MR. COWAN:  And that was part of it, I think, is this, this campaign is--these are 20 and 30-somethings that were driving his campaign.  Very smart 20 or 30-somethings, but...

MS. MITCHELL:  Interesting that he watched her on the Internet.

MR. TODD:  Exactly.

MR. COWAN:  Yep.

MS. MITCHELL:  That told you so much, because Hillary Clinton...

MR. RUSSERT:  He was at the golf course, Andrea.

MS. MITCHELL:  But that's the point.  First of all, he was...

MR. COWAN:  But--that's right.

MS. MITCHELL:  He--she would not have had that sense of watching it on the Internet.

MR. RUSSERT:  Exactly.

MR. TODD:  It's one eye...

MS. MITCHELL:  It's a different generation.

MR. RUSSERT:  Exactly.

MR. TODD:  This is one eye toward the general election.  When the McCain campaign delivered the letter with the town hall challenge from Senator McCain, from campaign manager Rick David to the Obama campaign, Bill Burton, their spokesman, said, "Why didn't you e-mail it?  You didn't have to--you didn't have to hand deliver it."

MR. RUSSERT:  There's nothing wrong with snail mail.

MR. TODD:  No, but it is that generational divide.

MR. RUSSERT:  Don't forget, don't forget, don't forget...

MR. GREGORY:  Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...Hillary Clinton announced on the Internet.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

MS. O'DONNELL:  Yes.

MR. RUSSERT:  "Let's chat.  Let's have a conversation." The--I tell you, the intensity of this campaign, even Upper Deck baseball cards is involved in this campaign.  Here's how they captured yesterday.  There's Hillary Clinton embracing Barack Obama.  Looks a lot like Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox, we won't go there.

MS. MITCHELL:  Yeah.

MR. GREGORY:  Yeah, exactly.

MR. RUSSERT:  But how the world has changed.  Remember back in March, Hillary Clinton was talking about perhaps she might be willing to take Barack Obama on her ticket.  Let's watch.

(Videotape)

SEN. CLINTON:  This is a moment of historic celebration for America, but you got to make a choice.  A lot of people wish they didn't have to.  I've had people say, "I wish I could vote for both of you." Well, that might be possible some day.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  David Broder, now that the roles have reversed, wrote this the other day in The Washington Post.  "Obama still has great gifts and substantial assets.  So the first imperative at this point is to stop retreating and regain the initiative--starting with a clear assertion of his absolute right to choose his own running mate and not be pressured into a decision by the Clintons or their friends.

"As it was for Ronald Reagan at the Republican National Convention in 1980, who had the wisdom to reject the plot to install former President Jerry Ford as his vice presidential nominee, this is the big-time decision that could define a leader and lead to a victory."

The Associated Press has put out a story with pros and cons, and we've taken the liberty of interweaving some comments the campaigns made during the course of this.  Here's the first pro.  Hillary Clinton:  "She helps with white, working class voters." And remember the comment where she said Senator Obama was elitist because he said "bitter, small-town people, gripping to their guns and to their religion." John McCain would do this:  "McCain envisions a November victory built in part around attracting large numbers of the millions of voters who turned away from Senator Barack Obama's promise of change during the primary campaign.  Buoyed by polls showing a quarter or more of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters planning to back McCain, his advisers have already started wooing the white working class voters and women who made up the bedrock of her coalition.  They plan to echo and expand Clinton's critiques of Obama:  that he's out of touch with middle America, and too unseasoned to be president." Now the con, of course, is this.  "She undermines your core message." Remember this radio ad back in January from the Obama campaign?  Let's watch.

(Videotape)

NARRATOR:  (From campaign radio ad) Hillary Clinton, she'll say anything, and change nothing.  It's time to turn the page.  Paid for by Obama for America.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Lee Cowan, how does the Obama campaign overcome the core message, "It's time to turn the page on the Clintons and the Bushes." For the last seven presidential elections, a Bush or a Clinton has been on the national ballot.  How do they do that and select Hillary Clinton as VP?

MR. COWAN:  I don't, I don't think they can.  I think that they see a role for the Clintons, obviously, for both of them.  But I think they see them much more effectively being used out in the field, having Hillary Clinton go out there and talk about health care.  Have Bill Clinton help out a lot with those middle class white voters.  I think that's the role that, that they see the Clintons playing, not something that they want to share the ticket with, necessarily.

MORE FROM MEET THE PRESS

Meet the Press Section Front

Nov. 8: Casey, Barbour, Rendell, roundtable, Brokaw Nov. 1: Tim Geithner, David Plouffe, roundtable Oct. 25: Cornyn, Schumer, Burnett, Sorkin, roundtable Oct. 18: Jarrett, Dodd, Kyl, Shriver, Podesta Oct. 11: Levin, Graham, McCaffrey, Myers, roundtable Oct. 4: Ambassador Susan Rice, roundtable Sept. 27: Bill Clinton, Paterson, Kyl, Webb Sept. 20: President Obama, Sen. Graham, Rep. Boehner, roundtable Sept. 13: Durbin, Cornyn, Dean, Gingrich, roundtable Sept. 6: Axelrod, roundtable Meet the Press Section Front   Add Meet the Press headlines to your news reader: