'Meet the Press' transcript for June 29, 2008

MR. BROKAW: Her very closest friend and her family is Caroline Kennedy, who is on the Obama vice presidential selection committee.

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Can you believe that? When I heard that, I was like, I can't believe that--I mean, for Caroline to be...

MR. BROKAW: To you have any inside information for us? I mean, does Maria talk in her sleep or anything?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, I've been talking to Caroline. No. But she's working, I'm sure, very hard at this, and she's taking it seriously, and you know, she has been a big supporter of Obama right from the beginning, so I think it's terrific for her. She's a very smart woman, and she will be very good in helping them in making a decision.

MR. BROKAW: Did Senator McCain asked you for advice about how he should run against Senator Obama?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: He did not, no.

MR. BROKAW: What would you tell him?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: I would say, "Look. You have a lot of smart people around you. Ask them. I'm going to give Senator McCain advice on how to run against you."

MR. BROKAW: You have talked recently and again in this interview about the importance of the two sides getting together and finding common ground, people working together again. Here at the Reagan Library and the LBJ Library in Texas, they'd like to have a series of town halls using both libraries in that kind of bipartisan fashion. Do you think that that would advance the interests of the country during this campaign year?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: I think so. I mean, this--I think it will be interesting to have a debate between the two candidates, and to have town hall meetings together so that people can hear from both of them without having this formal kind of question and--you know, question and answer sessions where they stand behind a podium. I think those are fake. I don't buy in on what they say when they do those kind of--when they do this kind of format. I think a town hall meeting will be much better, and I think that it will be also very important for them to talk about reaching across the aisle.

And I think this is the very attractive part about Senator McCain, because he doesn't just talk about that. He has proven it over and over again, that he can reach across the aisle, he can bring people on board and create some action. And I think that's what we need in the future. We need to have someone there that can bring both of the parties together, because there's no way that we can reshape and fix our country, the various different ills that we have, and create again a better image overseas, with just one party. You have to have both parties work together, and this is why I'm a big believer in post-partisanship. It has worked here in our state, and it's a whole new way of looking at it. To be willing to compromise and to be a public servant and not a party servant.

MR. BROKAW: Governor, thank you very much.

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Thank you. Good to see you again.

MR. BROKAW: And I'll be back from Jackson Hole with NBC's political director, Chuck Todd. He'll put the 2008 Western battleground all in perspective.

(Announcements)

MR. BROKAW: We're back here on MEET THE PRESS from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with NBC's political director Chuck Todd.

Chuck, the political landscape in this part of America has been changing pretty profoundly.

MR. CHUCK TODD: It's stunning. You know, when you go back to the 2000 election, you could go from the border of Canada to the border of Mexico, from Montana all the way through New Mexico and only travel through states governed by Republicans. Fast-forward eight years, you do that same path and it's only states governed by Democrats. So, we've seen a big shift locally in elected governors out here, out West, and even in some of the state legislatures.

MR. BROKAW: And these governors are not ideologically centered, they're really can-do governors, and a lot of them work with Republican legislatures. In fact, most of them do.

MR. TODD: It is. It's sort of the--it's very--they're not ideologues, and what it is, is it's almost as if the libertarian streak of the West, you know, the whole--the Reagan-Goldwater Republicans were, were libertarian in nature, secular, actually. They'd, they, they might have been religious but they didn't wear it on their sleeves. And as the Republican Party locally in a lot of these states--Colorado in particular--has had a lot of sort of religious right dominating of their primaries, it's allowed these Democrats to start targeting the sort of center right libertarians, this sort of--the freedom that not wanting to talk about religion, and they've been winning those voters over.

MR. BROKAW: Let's talk about the fall and strategy in the West. Senator McCain represents Arizona; war hero, maverick. Why isn't he getting more traction in the West at this stage of the process?

MR. TODD: He's the perfect candidate, if you thought about it, for, for out West, because of everything you just described. But he's getting punished on a couple of things. First of all, the West is the youngest region of, of our four major regions, and Obama appeals to this young, and these young--Colorado's one of the five youngest states in the union. So, already--and McCain being older is appealing to older voters, so that's, that's one problem he's having. The Republican brand is a mess, that's the other thing. And, you know, we can focus simply on Hispanics. While John McCain has been proactive in trying to push for comprehensive immigration reform and, you know, really been very friendly with Hispanics, the Republican brand has been terrible. I mean, the Tom Tancredo stuff has really hurt the Republicans' image.

MR. BROKAW: He's a Republican congressman from Colorado with a...

MR. TODD: From Colorado. Very sort of on a crusade, on anti-immigration, and it's really hurt the Republican image here. And that hurts McCain even though he's got a stance that should sell well.

MR. BROKAW: The Democratic Convention will be in Denver, not by accident.

MR. TODD: No.

MR. BROKAW: Howard Dean has said, "If we win the West we'll win the American presidency." Is everything up to date in Denver for the Democratic convention?

MR. TODD: Not really. They've got a financial issue. Part of that is they had a nominee very late in the process, they've had donors not ready--particularly a lot of Obama donors who were not ready to give money to the convention if they thought somehow they were--their guy wasn't going to be the nominee. But it looks like they're going to get the money, but it--we'll see. There's not a lot of corporate money in Denver. We've got a--they've got economic problems there, and so suddenly they've had some struggles. But the convention has to go on, so they'll figure it out.

MR. BROKAW: Wherever I go these days, and wherever you go these days, they say to you or to me, "Who's Obama going to pick as a running mate?" And then "Who's McCain going to pick as a running mate?"

MR. TODD: Well, it's interesting on the McCain front. I think the West could have an influence on him, because he's already struggling a little bit in the agricultural Midwest. Every--basically every state that touches Illinois, he's underperforming and Obama's overperforming. So, the West could end up being a battleground. Obviously, McCain wants to do well in the industrial Midwest--Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania--but he wants to not lose these Western states. You pointed out in the, in the beginning, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, if Obama sweeps those and holds all the Kerry states, it's over, he gets his 270. McCain's got to figure out how to hold a couple of those. Mitt Romney, being a Mormon, could actually help him in Colorado and in Nevada; in particular, you spike up some Western...

MR. BROKAW: Also, Idaho. Of course, they were going to win that, anyway, but...

MR. TODD: Sure. But it--and--but also in some other parts of the West where, you know, you've got--Obama's trying to win Montana and North Dakota, too. Those are two states he thinks he can do well. He's not going to win them, but he is going to sort of drive McCain and Republicans crazy.

MR. BROKAW: Now, be careful about what you say at this stage about what he's going to win and what he's not going to win.

MR. TODD: That's true. That's true.

MR. BROKAW: But he, but he's going to Montana next week, right?

MR. TODD: Well, it's interesting. They--both of them are targeting the West this week. McCain's doing it by going to Colombia and in Mexico. He's--by showing up there, the Hispanic-American media's going to cover McCain's visit, when he's going to see the statue of the, of the, of Guadalupe in, in Mexico, that's going to be a big deal and it's going to get a lot of coverage, and that's going to help him, potentially, in New Mexico and in Colorado.

But then you got Obama. He's showing up--he's going to be in Colorado on Wednesday, he's going to be in North Dakota on Thursday and he's going to celebrate the Fourth of July in Montana. We don't know where yet in Montana, but we'll find, we'll find out.

MR. BROKAW: Looking at all the numbers that you look at on all the polls, there was a fair amount of dialogue last week about Senator Obama deciding that he wouldn't take public financing, that he would take money from his online supporters. That resonate very much across the country?

MR. TODD: It doesn't resonate, but what it has allowed McCain to begin to paint is this narrative of, "You know what? This guy, Obama, you know, he makes all these promises and then suddenly he acts like a typical politician." And I think that a couple of more of these things and suddenly McCain might be able to sell this message that, you know, as much as you might think Obama's going to be the guy that might challenge his party, look at John McCain. He's a guy that has been challenging his party for seven years, has been doing these things. So, it's not that the campaign finance issue per se will resonate, it's that it allows McCain to start saying, "You know what? He's flipping on this, he's now flipping on guns, he's now flipping on this other issues," and it possibly paints a picture of a guy who will just say and do anything to get elected.

MR. BROKAW: The Democratic Convention in Denver. What do you hear about the role of Senator Clinton?

MR. TODD: Well, this is what we do know. She's going to speak. Shocking, right? But the question is how many Clintons will speak? And I think what we don't know is, is will there Clintons speaking on multiple nights? Unlikely, the Obama campaign doesn't want to have that. Senator Clinton, does she want to have President Clinton speak? And I think you're likely to see the Obama campaign leave it up to her. If she wants to have President Clinton introduce her, that's going to be fine with them. But does she? We've seen what happens when the two of them do back-to-back speeches. It's usually not that great for Senator Clinton. Maybe Chelsea Clinton introduces Senator Clinton. That's probably more likely. And we'll see some sort of almost a baton passing from one generation of Clintons to another generation of Clintons. So, I think a tribute video is in the future of President Clinton.

MR. BROKAW: Chuck Todd, thanks very much.

I'll be right back with a final word from MEET THE PRESS this Sunday.

(Announcements)

MR. BROKAW: That's all for this edition of MEET THE PRESS. Our thanks to the Jackson Hole Golf and Tennis Club for hosting us here in Wyoming. We'll be away next week due to NBC's coverage of the Wimbledon tennis finals, but we'll see you back the following week. If it's Sunday, it's MEET THE PRESS.

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