By W. Gardner Selby | Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, took a few minutes from stumping in Dallas for Sen. Barack Obama early Sunday to take my questions.
The interview was arranged by Obama’s campaign. Here’s hoping that Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton open themselves to direct questions from Texans in the days remaining before the March 4 primary.
Selby Q: How long have you known Sens. Obama and Clinton, respectively?
Kerry: “Clinton since 1992, Obama since 2001 or 2002 “when I was out in Chicago and campaigned for his election. I also invited him to give the national convention keynote speech in 2004.”
Q: What do you see as Obama’s greatest legislative achievement?
Kerry: “Passing the ethics reform was a big deal. It was the first and broadest ethics reform (package)… It separated lobbyists from a lot of the gift games going on in Washington and ended a lot of the free rides members were getting.” (See a 2007 press release on how Obama viewed his role in that legislation here.)
Q: Part of Obama’s message is his point that Sen. Clinton voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq before she favored pulling out. Does that critique remind you of George W. Bush’s flip-flop tack against you in the 2004 campaign regarding your votes on the Iraq war?
Kerry: “You know, I just don’t spend a lot of time on that (looking back), to be honest with you.
“The question is who has the best chance of uniting the country and who has the best chance ot bringing Democrats, Republicans and independents together.”
Q: Does it mean anything that Obama hasn’t won primaries in big states?
Kerry: “I’m not talking about that. I talk about the number of states (he’s) won (more than 20), the diversity around the country. The fact is he was extremely close (in New York). And he won more delegates in her backyard (New York) than she did in his (Illinois).”
According to CNN, Clinton snagged 179 delegates in New York, Obama 94. Obama won 91 delegates in Illinois, Clinton 45.
Q: Which states that have leaned Republican for president would you expect Obama to carry this November?
Kerry: “Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio. We can win those states.”
Q: Do you have any concern that Obama gets rolled by the more experienced McCain in the fall?
Kerry: “There’s a risk that any candidate can run into a barrage from the Republican attack machine. I learned (from the so-called Swift Boat TV ads questioning Kerry’s heroism in Vietnam in the 2004 campaign) that you don’t leave any stone unturned in terms of spending the money… to answer (attacks). We’re not going to stand for it. We made the miscalculation in ’04 that we’d answered it enough.
“The fact is Barack Obama has been a legislator (state and federal) longer than Hillary Clinton. The fact is Barack Obama has spent 20-plus years as a public servant (and as a law professor, law partner, community organizer). He is older than Bill Clinton, or John F. Kennedy or Teddy Roosevelt when they ran for president.
“John McCain is on the wrong side of history in his approach to Iraq (and to the U.S. economy).”
Q: Did you owe your 2004 running mate, former Sen. John Edwards, anything before you endorsed Obama?
Kerry: “You have to make a hard choice… I owed it to the country to make the best judgment about who could lead the country now.”
Q: Clinton’s Texas campaign coordinator, Garry Mauro, rates your endorsement of Obama as chicken poop, and he reminds that your support for Obama didn’t keep Clinton from winning the primary in your home state of Massachusetts. Thoughts?
Kerry: “That’s his opinion. That’s fine.”
Q: As you traveled Texas, what did you have for dinner last night?
Kerry: “I didn’t have dinner last night.”
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