CQ Transcriptswire

SPEAKERS: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, D-ILL.

[*] STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning and welcome to “This Week.”

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: Stand up and fight!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: John McCain takes his bow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCAIN: We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: And a new political star is born.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SARAH H. PALIN, R-ALASKA: I love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull -- lipstick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Today, in a “This Week” exclusive, Barack Obama responds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: It’s pretty clear they didn’t think too much of your early career as a community organizer. What were you thinking when you heard the boos, the laughter?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: We’re on the trail.

George Will, David Brooks, Jonathan Capehart and Martha Raddatz analyze McCain’s convention and debate the rest of the week’s politics on our roundtable.

And as always, the Sunday Funnies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONAN O’BRIEN, TALK SHOW HOST: Today she attended a rally in Wisconsin. That’s right. The Alaska governor said she was thrilled to visit Wisconsin, because she’s never been to the Deep South.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hello again. The new Republican team came roaring out of St. Paul this week, and for the Democrats’ reaction, we were back on the trail with Barack Obama .

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Good to be in the Midwest. Good to be just a few miles from my home state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: All fired up at the Wabash County fairgrounds in Indiana on Saturday, Obama mocked the idea that John McCain means change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Except for economic policies and tax policies and energy policies and health care policies and education policies and Karl Rove style of politics, except for all that, we’re really going to bring change to Washington! What are these guys talking about?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: After the speech, we talked about issue number one, the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yesterday, that unemployment report came out. Here’s what John McCain said. He said, “My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate them.”

OBAMA: You know, John McCain has been peddling this story about me increasing taxes, when every independent analyst has said my tax cuts provide three times the amount of tax relief to middle class families than do John McCain ’s.

I mean, what he wants to do is essentially to not only continue the Bush tax cuts to the very wealthiest Americans, but he wants to double down with $200 billion in additional tax cuts to corporate America, including companies like ExxonMobil.

And what I’ve said is, let’s provide tax cuts to 95 percent of the American people. Because I have a different economic theory than George Bush’s and John McCain ’s. I believe that the economy is going to grow from the bottom up. And if we give some relief to middle- class families, they’re going to do better.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Actually, the Tax Policy Institute says that it’s 81 percent of the American people. It’s 95 percent families with children.

But they also say you raise revenue by $600 billion over the next 10 years; he cuts revenue by $600 billion over the next 10 years.

If we are either in a recession or approaching one, is it wise to raise revenues in any way?

OBAMA: Well, I think that it is wise if you’ve got a half-a- trillion-dollar deficit. I think it makes sense for us to make sure that we’re paying for what we’re purchasing.

If we’re continuing to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq, we can’t keep on borrowing that on a credit card from the Chinese.

So, you know, John McCain likes to talk about fiscal responsibility, but there is no doubt that his proposals blow a hole through the budget.

And, you know, what I’ve said is, realistically, we’re not going to be able to eliminate that budget deficit. But what we can do is stabilize it, stop digging a hole, give a tax break to middle class families, give them some relief. And that will start growing the economy again.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, even if we’re in a recession next January, you come into office, you’ll still go through with your tax increases.

OBAMA: No, no, no, no, no, no. What I’ve said, George, is that, even if we’re still in a recession, I’m going to go through with my tax cuts. That’s my priority.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But not the increases?

OBAMA: I think we’ve got to take a look and see where the economy is. I mean, the economy is weak right now. The news with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, I think, along with the unemployment numbers, indicates that we’re fragile.

I want to accelerate those tax cuts through a second stimulus package, get more money into the pockets of ordinary Americans, see if we can stabilize the housing market. And then we’re going to have to reevaluate at the beginning of the year to see what kind of hole we’re in.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I just got back from the Republican convention. And it’s clear that the choice of Governor Palin electrified that convention.

You said that your number one criteria for a vice presidential pick was someone who’s capable of being president.

OBAMA: Right.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Did John McCain meet that threshold test?

OBAMA: Well, you know, I’ll let you ask John McCain when he’s on ABC...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But I want to know what you think.

OBAMA: ... or Governor Palin, if she ends up accepting an invitation to your show.

Here’s what I’ll say. I think she’s a skilled politician. She wouldn’t be governor of Alaska if she wasn’t a skilled politician, and I think her performance at the convention showed what a skilled politician she is.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But what does it say about John McCain that he picked her? Your supporters...

OBAMA: Well, here’s what I’ll -- here’s what I’ll say, is that it tells me that he chose somebody who may be even more aligned with George Bush -- or Dick Cheney , or the politics we’ve seen over the last eight years -- than John McCain himself is.

Supposedly, he was thinking about accepting -- taking Joe Lieberman, decided not to, because the right wing of the Republican Party would have had a riot.

The most important thing from my perspective is, what are the policies that John McCain and his vice president intend to pursue?

And what I didn’t hear from Governor Palin, what I didn’t hear from John McCain -- what I didn’t hear at all during this convention -- is how are they going to put people back to work? How are they going to deal with health care? How are they going to make college more affordable? How are they going to keep people in their homes?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator McCain said that she actually has more national security experience than you.

Here’s what he told Charlie Gibson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCAIN: Alaska is right next to Russia. She understands that. She’s the commander of the Alaskan National Guard.

He has no experience on these issues. She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Well, look. You know, I actually knew that Russia was next to Alaska, as well. I saw it on a map.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It’s not a qualification.

OBAMA: I don’t think it is.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But how about the National Guard executive experience?

OBAMA: You know, I know that John McCain was offended -- or at least his campaign was -- when she was asked, or one of his representatives was asked, what decisions did she make while she was heading up the National Guard? And they didn’t have a response.

But look, it’s going to be your job and...

STEPHANOPOULOS: No, but he’s saying she has more national...

OBAMA: I...

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... security experience than you do.

OBAMA: I understand. And I think that, you know, as somebody who’s served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and passed legislation on critical issues like nuclear proliferation, as somebody who’s been working on these issues for a long time -- and somebody who selected Joe Biden as vice president, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- I’m going to be happy to have a substantive debate with John McCain about foreign policy.

You know, this whole resume contest that’s been going back and forth is not what the American people are looking for.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It’s pretty clear they didn’t think too much of your early career as a community organizer.

OBAMA (laughing): Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor Palin, Rudy Giuliani.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NYC MAYOR: He worked as a community organizer. He immersed himself in Chicago machine politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: What were you thinking when you heard the boos, the laughter?

OBAMA: It’s a real puzzling thing. I mean, understand what I did as a community organizer. When I got out of a college as a young person, 24, 25 years old, I had moved to Chicago and worked with churches who were dealing with steel plants that had closed in their neighborhoods, to set up job training programs for the unemployed and after-school programs for youth, and to try to deal with asbestos in homes of poor people -- community service work -- which John McCain has been talking about putting country first and extolling the virtues of national service.

That’s what I did between the ages of 24 and 27, before I went to law school.

I would think that’s what we want all our young people to do. I would think that that’s an area where Democrats and Republicans would agree. And so...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Some of your...

OBAMA: So, it’s curious to me that they would mock that, when I at least think that that’s exactly what young people should be doing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You’re smiling about it, but some of your supporters were listening, and they heard subtle racial code.

OBAMA: You know, I didn’t hear that. I mean, I just think that there is a -- for folks who suddenly have tried to grab the change banner, you know, they’ve got a very traditional view of what service means.

You know, it means running for office and being a politician, I guess, or serving in the military. I mean, those are the two options that I think they’ve talked about.

I think there are a whole lot of people -- young people, in particular -- who are teaching in under-served schools or working in a hospital in need, you know, volunteering for their community that think that that’s part of the change that we need. That’s part of the energy that we’ve been able to mobilize in this campaign.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, one of our viewers wrote in -- you talk about service -- and asked -- Brenda Godfrey-Brian (ph), Marietta, Georgia.

“Did you ever consider joining the armed forces to protect and serve our country? If not, why?”

OBAMA: You know, I actually did.

STEPHANOPOULOS: When?

OBAMA: You know, I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii, and I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there. And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honorable option.

But keep in mind -- I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren’t engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it’s not an option that I ever decided to pursue.

But, you know, one of the things that I want to make sure of is that, for those young men and women who decided to pursue a military career, that they are treated with the honor and dignity they deserve during service and when they get home.

And this is actually an area where John McCain and I have had some disagreements in terms of funding veteran services and disability payments, and dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder -- things that I prioritize. It’s part of the reason why I asked to join the Veterans Affairs Committee when I first went to the Senate.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You had a lot of fun with the idea of John McCain as a change agent out there today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: McCain brags 90 percent of the time I’ve voted with George Bush.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: But, you voted with the Democrats in Congress 1990 -- 2005, 97 percent of the time; 2006, 96 percent of the time; 2007, 97 percent of the time.

OBAMA: Right.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, does that...

OBAMA: Well, I think you’re conflating two arguments, right. I mean, one argument is bipartisanship; one argument has to do with change.

I don’t think you can dispute that I haven’t voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. So, if you’re going to ask who is more likely to change George Bush...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Whose side is more likely to break with their party?

OBAMA: Well, no, that wasn’t the question, right. That’s not the point.

The point is, if you believe that George Bush has run this economy into the ground and mismanaged our foreign policy, who’s more likely to change those policies?

And I don’t think there’s any dispute that that would be me.

Now, if it has to do with who has broken with their party -- the first couple of years that I was in the Senate, the Republicans controlled the agenda, which meant that most of those votes are votes against efforts by the Republicans on issues that I feel very strongly about.

So, I have no problem defending a record of saying, no, we shouldn’t cut benefits to vulnerable populations. No, I don’t think that we should suspend habeas corpus.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s not breaking with your party.

OBAMA: Well, I tell you what. You can get testimony from Republicans during my Illinois senate days and my U.S. Senate days who say, this is somebody who we work with, who listens to us, and who brings a different tone to politics.

And for John McCain to say that he wanted to reduce the rancor in Washington, as I said in there, it sounds to me like he didn’t listen to the first two days of his convention.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s part of the campaign, though, isn’t it?

OBAMA: Well, I tell you what. How you campaign I think foreshadows how you’re going to govern.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about looking forward? Bobby Barfield (ph) of Palm City, Florida, wanted to know -- he wants you to name three changes you would make as president that would be unpopular with the Democrats in Congress.

OBAMA: Number one, I think that, on education, we do have to improve accountability. And I’ve not only supported charter schools, which the teachers’ unions have opposed, but I’ve also said...

STEPHANOPOULOS: (inaudible) public funding of charter schools.

OBAMA: But I’ve also said that we should look at pay-for- performance, in terms of how teachers are rewarded, and getting rid of teachers. That’s not something that’s popular in my party. But that’s something that I think is important.

I’ve said that we need to increase the size of our military, which politically, if it got to the floor, probably would pass. But there are, as you know, a whole bunch of folks on the left who think that that is a waste of money. I think it’s important for us to do.

And on health care, I think that it is important for us to figure out how to reduce litigation costs.

Now, I don’t...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Tort reform.

OBAMA: Well, I think that finding ways -- and I was working with Hillary Clinton on this before the campaign started -- finding ways where we could have doctors in communication with patients who have been injured, in a way that doesn’t automatically send it to court, but instead figures out how can we reduce errors and improve quality.

I think that’s an area...

STEPHANOPOULOS: And you’ll push that, even if Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid say no?

OBAMA: Well, absolutely. But the -- you know, if -- I think I can ultimately make the case to them that that’s the right thing for the overall values and goals that we want to pursue.

OBAMA: And one of the things that I’m going to insist on doing when I get to the White House is that we’re going to do an audit of every bit of government spending. And I will have some big arguments with some Democrats about the need to eliminate programs that don’t work, that have just gone on and on...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Can you name three?

OBAMA: ... because of inertia.

Well, I can name more than three. But -- and I don’t want to start, you know, putting a target on my back...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, pick one.

OBAMA: Well, I tell you what. The way that we are currently, I think, funding Medicare is something that has to be completely re- examined, because often, by paying fee for service, a lot of times what we’re doing is we’re not measuring are these services that are actually needed? Are they actually improving quality?

I mean, there may be ways that we can rationalize that system in a way that improves care and saves taxpayers.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You brought up Iraq before. Let me ask you about that.

One of the phrases we’ve heard from Governor Palin and others at the convention -- Republican convention -- was that, in Iraq, victory is in sight.

Do you believe that?

OBAMA: You know, they have yet to define victory. Or it’s a very slippery definition.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What’s your definition?

OBAMA: You know, my view is, number one, that it was a poorly conceived mission. So, to talk about victory, I think...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, there will never be a victory?

OBAMA: ... I think -- well, look. I think that we -- I think George Bush, with the help of John McCain and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney , made a big strategic blunder. There are enormous costs to that blunder.

It’s the equivalent of them driving a car off the ditch. I think it’s possible for us to get the car back on the road. But...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s not going to be victory.

OBAMA: Well, that doesn’t -- that doesn’t signify that we are better off than had we not gone. And so, I do think there has been enormous reductions in violence, because of the extraordinary service of our troops.

And there is no doubt that the improvements in terms of violence has to do with the surge and the Sunni awakening, the Shia militias standing down. And we have to take advantage of that opportunity.

The strange question is why John McCain insists on continuing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, when...

STEPHANOPOULOS: How so?

OBAMA: Well, Prime Minister Maliki has said that we are ready to take control and responsibility for what’s happening in Iraq. And John McCain seems resistant, even at a time when George Bush is prepared to say that we need to have some sort of timeframe or timetable.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But given all you just said, how do you escape the logic? You said we succeeded with the surge beyond our wildest dreams.

How do you escape the logic that that means that John McCain was right about the surge?

OBAMA: Look, you know, it’s interesting to me why people are so focused on what’s happened in the last year-and-a-half, and not on the previous five.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, granted. But you think...

OBAMA: Well, no, but, well, I don’t think...

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... you think you made the right decision going in -- about the surge.

OBAMA: I don’t -- no, no, no. But they’re connected, George. And here’s why.

My whole premise has always been that it was a distraction for us to go into Iraq. Once we were there, we had to make the best of a bad situation.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And didn’t the surge do that?

OBAMA: And what I have said is that, at the time that we made the decision to go in with the surge, that it did not address the underlying problem, which is the willingness of the Iraqis to overcome their political differences and reconcile.

And so...

STEPHANOPOULOS: The State Department says that...

OBAMA: ... and to provide...

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... 15 out of 18 political benchmarks have been met.

OBAMA: ... and to provide the kind of strategy that would allow us to move forward. That wasn’t part of the package in the surge.

So, if the question is, has the surge done much better than we expected -- in combination with these other factors in reducing violence -- the answer is yes. And I’ve said this repeatedly.

If the question is, what was the judgment to be made at the time the surge was put forward by the Bush administration -- my choice, and John McCain ’s choice was, are we going to continue to give an open- ended, blank check to George Bush, without any strategy for political reconciliation, or are we going to try to pressure this administration to come up with a more coherent, cohesive plan for how we are going to wind this war down?

STEPHANOPOULOS: You took some heat at the convention for the answer you gave to Rick Warren out at Saddleback about abortion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK WARREN: At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?

OBAMA: Answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Was that phrase too flip?

OBAMA: Probably. Yes. I mean, what I intended to say is that, as a Christian, I have a lot of humility about understanding when does the soul enter into...

STEPHANOPOULOS: It goes back to Augustine.

OBAMA: It does. It’s a pretty tough question.

OBAMA: And so, all I meant to communicate was that I don’t presume to be able to answer these kinds of theological questions.

What I do know is that abortion is a moral issue, that it’s one that families struggle with all the time, and that in wrestling with those issues, I don’t think that the government criminalizing the choices that families make is the best answer for reducing abortions.

I think the better answer -- and this was reflected in the Democratic platform -- is to figure out, how do we make sure that young mothers, or women who have a pregnancy that’s unexpected or difficult, have the kind of support they need to make a whole range of choices, including adoption and keeping the child.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You mention your Christian faith. Yesterday you took off after the Republicans for suggesting you have Muslim connections.

Just a few minutes ago, Rick Davis, John McCain ’s campaign manager, said they’ve never done that. This is a false and cynical attempt to play victim.

OBAMA: You know what? I mean, these guys love to throw a rock and hide their hand. The...

STEPHANOPOULOS: The McCain campaign has never suggested you have Muslim connections.

OBAMA: No, no, no. But the -- I don’t think that when you look at what is being promulgated on Fox News, let’s say, and Republican commentators who are closely allied to these folks...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But John McCain said that’s wrong.

OBAMA: Now, well, look. Listen. You and I both know that the minute that Governor Palin was forced to talk about her daughter, I immediately said that’s off limits. And...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But John McCain said the same thing about questioning your faith.

OBAMA: And what was the first thing the McCain’s campaign went out and did? They said, look, these liberal blogs that support Obama are out there attacking Governor Palin.

Let’s not play games. What I was suggesting -- you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you’re absolutely right that that has not come...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Christian faith.

OBAMA: ... my Christian faith. Well, what I’m saying is that he hasn’t suggested...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Has connections, right.

OBAMA: ... that I’m a Muslim. And I think that his campaign’s upper echelons have not, either.

What I think is fair to say is that, coming out of the Republican camp, there have been efforts to suggest that perhaps I’m not who I say I am when it comes to my faith -- something which I find deeply offensive, and that has been going on for a pretty long time.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Sixty days to go, just about. What’s the single most important thing you need to do?

OBAMA: I have to make the choice clear to the American people about what is at stake in this election.

The American people know we’re in a bad place. They understand that the country is off track. They know the economy is not working for them.

And what they have to, I think, be persuaded of is that there is a real difference between the parties, because they’ve grown cynical. They look at Washington and they say, “Ah! A plague on both your houses.”

And what I’ve got to say is, you know what? There is a real difference here. John McCain , who is a good man and has a compelling biography, has embraced and adopted the George Bush economic platform.

And I’ve got a very different economic theory, which says that, if we are working to help the middle class have lower taxes, get health care, send their kids to college, invest in infrastructure and invest in green technology, that, in fact, the economy is going to grow more.

So, if I can make that choice clear, then, I think, the American people, who are awfully smart, they’re going to be able to make their assessment.

They’re going to say, you know what? If we choose John McCain , for all of his good qualities, we’re going to get the same kind of government. And if we choose Barack Obama , we’re going to get a different one.

And if they like what they’ve had over the last eight years, then they’ll go with McCain. And if they don’t like it, hopefully they’ll go with me.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I have just one more question from Linda Lilly (ph), Union City, Pennsylvania. “Would you go one-on-one with Sarah Palin ?”

OBAMA: Well, you know what?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Come on. Barry O’Bomber...

OBAMA: I...

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... Sarah Barracuda?

OBAMA: You know, I would play her a game of horse. She looks like she’s got some game. She played in high school.

You know, I know she’s a sharpshooter, and I know that -- I probably wouldn’t do target practice with her. I think she’d be a better shot than me. But on the basketball court, I think I’d stand up pretty well.

STEPHANOPOULOS: We would break all Nielsen records.

OBAMA: Oh, I’m sure that’s true. There’s no doubt.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks a lot, Senator.

OBAMA: I appreciate it. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

END

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Sep 07, 2008 10:05 ET .EOF

Source: CQ Transcriptions

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