NYT: Obama speaks with NYT about Clinton, the campaign

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Sat Oct-27-07 01:37 PM
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NYT: Obama speaks with NYT about Clinton, the campaign

Edited on Sat Oct-27-07 01:37 PM by Katzenkavalier

Q. Why would you be a better uniter than Senator Clinton?

A. �There is a legacy that is both an enormous advantage to her in a Democratic primary, but also a disadvantage to her in a general election. She, I think, represents a lot of old arguments.

�I recognize that she has reached out to Republicans in a very deliberate way in the Senate, but if you look at how she is perceived nationally, I think people perceive her as a tough, competent, intelligent person. But there�s no sense among independents or Republicans that she�s going to bring a new language to our politics.

�On the one hand, I think people know what they are going to get with Senator Clinton. On the other hand, if you believe that the country needs big change, if you believe that business as usual is not sufficient to solve health care or institute a major energy policy or help to heal racial divisions or religious divides in this country, then my candidacy looks more appealing.�

Q. Has she been truthful to voters about what she would do as president?

A. �No.

�I don�t think people know what her agenda exactly is. On Social Security, in the last debate, she was very explicit about not wanting to disclose how she would approach it. On Iraq and Iran, I think there has been a tendency to go back and forth in her positions. Now, it�s been very deft politically, but one of the things that I firmly believe is that we�ve got to be clear with the American people right now about the important choices that we�re going to need to make in order to get a mandate for change, not to try to obfuscate and avoid being a target in the general election and then find yourself governing without any support for any bold propositions.�

Q. Have you performed as well as you would have liked to in the debates? And going forward, do you have to do more to show that you can?

A. �I think there�s no doubt that in the first couple of debates, the format didn�t work for me. Or I didn�t adapt to the format.�

Q. Would it have made sense to begin sharpening your criticism earlier?

A. �I don�t think people were paying attention. I also think, as I said, No. 1, people needed to get to know me. No. 2, there are a bunch of other candidates in this race and my feeling always was early on that for me to presume from the start that somehow this is a two-way race.�

Q. Some of your supporters say they are waiting for you to be more aggressive.

A. �I am not interested in tearing into Hillary Clinton, just for the sake of tearing into her. As I said before, I think she is an admirable person, I think she�s a capable senator, I think there�s overlap between some of her ideas and mine. The case I�m making is not that she�s a terrible person or would be a terrible president, the case I�m making is that I would be better at those things that the country needs right now. I will more effectively bring the country together, I will more effectively overcome the special interests and I will more provide a clearer vision for the country about where we need to go.�

Much more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/us/politics/28q-aobama.html?hp

Go, Obama, Go!