FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
From NPR News, this is NEWS AND NOTES. I'm Farai Chideya. We're going to tackle the state of the presidential race. Is John McCain getting a ride on Easy Street while the Democrats fight? And will the Democratic National Committee take charge of the race for the good of the party? For these questions and more, we've got Democratic strategist Donna Brazile - she's an author and a nationally syndicated columnist - and Ron Christie, vice president of the lobbying firm D.C. Navigators. He's also a former special assistant to President George W. Bush. Welcome.
Ms. DONNA BRAZILE (Democratic Strategist): Hello.
Mr. RON CHRISTIE (Lobbyist): Nice to be here.
CHIDEYA: So you know, is it busy enough for you? I mean, it's just like this race just, so many unpredictable twists and turns. But let's start off by tackling the Democrats. Hillary Clinton spoke out yesterday about Obama's decision to stay at his church. Here are her comments.
Senator HILLARY CLINTON (Presidential candidate): Given all we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor. You know, we don't have a choice when it comes to our relatives. We have a choice when it comes to our pastors and the churches we attend.
CHIDEYA: Donna, do you think that this is old news? I mean, things in the cycle seemed to have moved on. Is it still a good time strategically for Senator Clinton to bring this up?
Ms. BRAZILE: I believe so. Look, the day that Senator Obama delivered his speech, Senator Clinton was in the state of Pennsylvania, not far from where Obama delivered his speech. She was standing next to the mayor of Philadelphia, and she said that she felt that he had addressed the issues. A week later, at an editorial board meeting in Pittsburgh, she was presented with a question and, of course, she said at the time that she would not belong to that church.
What I find, what I find ironic in all of this, is that almost 10 years ago, Senator Clinton, then first lady Hillary Clinton, as well as former President Bill Clinton, called upon many of us, I was one of those, to reach out to the black clergy across the country to pray for the Clintons, to pray for their family during a very difficult and painful time in their lives. And I called upon many black pastors on a Saturday afternoon, they got on a conference call, to help the Clintons.
And what I find ironic, especially as a fellow Christian, that she would bring this controversy back up without saying, you know, my prayers are with, you know, Jeremiah Wright during his hour of trial and tribulation. And you know, she could have said it without re-igniting another firestorm. But again, yesterday was a tough day for Senator Clinton. She had a lot of problems on her plate, you know, a national columnist calling for her to get out of the race because the math, you know, pretty much will not equal up to winning, as well as these allegations that she misspoke during her, in describing her trips overseas.
CHIDEYA: Well, let me, let me jump in on that, because we actually have a little bit of her talking about this issue of Bosnia and whether or not she was under sniper fire.
Senator HILLARY CLINTON (Democrat, New York): I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport but instead, we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base. We landed in one of those corkscrew landings and ran out because they said there might be sniper fire. I remember particularly a trip to Bosnia, where the welcoming ceremony had to be moved inside because of sniper fire.
CHIDEYA: Now, Ron, you'll notice that there were different tonalities. That's because this was from three separate occasions when she told elements of the same story. So this was not something that was a one-off and now she's backpedaling and saying that she made a mistake. Is this going to hurt her, particularly since she's emphasized that she has more foreign policy experience than Senator Obama?
Mr. CHRISTIE: I do, actually. I believe that one of her greatest faults is that she has said that she is the qualified candidate. She has more foreign policy experience than Senator Obama and that she has the wherewithal to lead in difficult times. And it plays off with her 3 a.m. telephone advertisement that ran on the airwaves, where of course, you know, if there were tough calls for the commander in chief to make, that Senator Clinton would be able to make them. It's a question of her veracity.
Again, I've been shot at. I was on a congressional-sponsored trip over in the Middle East in the '90s, and a lot of the people who were on television are now saying you never forget when you've been shot at, particularly when you've been shot at for the first time. And for her to suggest that she'd been in a combat zone and she had been in a war zone and they had to run to their vehicles and that, you know, there was no welcoming ceremony, and then you get the coverage of, in fact, Senator Clinton bending down and being kissed by a young girl and there was a welcoming ceremony, it brings into question not so much the fact that she may have fudged the story itself. I think what it brings into conflict and what it brings into contrast for voters if they're looking for a Democratic candidate right now is, if she can't tell the truth about being in a simple arrival ceremony at an airport, what else can she not tell the truth about? What else perhaps is she shading the truth on? And I think this controversy is going to get worse for her before it gets better.
And in my last point, to what Donna just said, I think Senator Clinton chose yesterday as an opportunity to spotlight Senator Obama and his involvement with his pastor as a really last-ditch effort to deflect some of the attention that is being foisted on her as it relates to Bosnia. Anything she can do now to deflect attention away from her on this issue, I think she'll take. And I think that's why she waded into the Rev. Wright issue nearly two weeks later.
CHIDEYA: Well, let me go back to you, Donna, on the issue of what the party is going to do. There is a recent poll that indicates that if Barack Obama became the nominee, 37 percent of Clinton backers would not vote for him. Of Obama supporters, 26 percent, they would not vote - said they would not vote for Clinton if she were the nominee. That speaks to a fairly fractured party. So what is the Democratic National Committee doing at this point?
Ms. BRAZILE: Well, there's hardly anything we can do until the contest is over with in June. But at this moment I think you've heard from leading Democrats. I mean, Speaker Polosi has spoken up about the pledged delegates. Of course, we've also - Harry Reid last night issued a statement saying that competition is good for the party. We just need to keep it, you know, in terms of discussing the issues.
I believe that we should allow this race to continue. We know the odds for Senator Clinton. No one is encouraging her to get out, at least no Democrat that I know of. What Bill Richardson said over the weekend in his endorsement of Barack Obama was that it's time for the party to come together, and he's absolutely right. John McCain is now benefiting from this internal squabble, and we're not talking about health care or the economy or the war. Rather, we're talking about personalities and superficial things like Judases and McCarthyism, which has no place in our, in our party right now, when people are suffering and they are hurting from this mortgage crisis.
CHIDEYA: Ron, let's actually go to John McCain. He has given a couple of major speeches this week, one just today on foreign policy. Let's listen.
Senator JOHN MCCAIN (Senator, Arizona): If we withdraw prematurely from Iraq, al-Qaida in Iraq will survive, proclaim victory, and continue to provoke sectarian tensions that while they've been subdued by the success of the surge still exist. I believe a reckless and premature withdrawal would be a terrible defeat for our security interests and our values.
CHIDEYA: I want you to analyze this on a couple of levels. One, what is the Republican electorate looking for from someone like John McCain on the war? And two, how well do you think this message of, you know, stay the course essentially is going to play with independent and Democratic potential swing voters?
Mr. CHRISTIE: Well, I think on your first point, I think what Republicans are looking for out of Senator McCain right now is a certain degree of stability. How will the Republican nominee for president look at what's going on in Iraq and what's going on in Afghanistan and the potential terrorist spots around the world for those who seek to harm the United States? How would Senator McCain's vision, how would his governing philosophy not only protect the American people against another terrorist attack but to work with our allies around the world to try to mitigate some of the tensions and some of the flash spots to make the world a safer place?
And that's what a lot of Republicans are looking for from Senator McCain, at least as it relates to that. His danger that goes to your second point. Senator McCain right now is a - one who is widely viewed as being popular among independents and among the so-called Reagan Democrats and those individuals who might be willing to cross parties based on his ideology and his record that he's amassed in the Senate.
If he's perceived as staying the course, as you suggest, or continuing a policy in Iraq that doesn't seem to have an end date, or at least has no clear public policy objectives, I think he runs the risk of losing and alienating those potential crossover voters that could propel him to victory along with Republicans. So he has a very difficult tightrope to walk of not only keeping the conservative base who is a little bit leery of him to begin with happy with his campaign, but also not run the risk of alienating those voters who might cross parties to vote for him.
So he does have a particular advantage right now. While the Democrats are beating themselves up based frankly on a terrible catfight, Senator McCain is quietly able to raise money. He's here in Los Angeles today, was out in California yesterday, and has the ability to try to shore up some of those constituencies and to make the case while the Democrats continue to fight amongst themselves.
CHIDEYA: Donna, just very briefly, what do you think the Democrats need to do to attract swing voters and crossover voters, given the position on the war that is still fairly similar despite the distinctions that Senators Obama and Clinton are trying to make from each other? Their basic position is the same.
Ms. BRAZILE: Well, let me first clarify something. Ron say a catfight - no, that's too simple. This is, this is a very major fight. It's really a past versus future, and I don't have to get into the particulars. As a superdelegate, I remain neutral. But it's a very important fight that the party must go through. And I think at some point the Republicans, too, will have to have this intergenerational fight.
I think Democrats must continue to appeal not only to its base but also the independents, to remind them that we have a plan and a strategy to withdraw our troops slowly, orderly, to begin to rebuild our alliances with our key strategic allies in the region as well as to ensure that those who have served will come home and be able to get the health care and the assistance they need.
Democrats have been very clear on this from day one, from the day we took over in 2006.
CHIDEYA: Donna...
Ms. BRAZILE: I mean 2007. Unfortunately without having the presidency, we cannot change directions in Iraq, and we cannot change direction here at home.
CHIDEYA: All right. Thank you both.
Ms. BRAZILE: Thank you
Mr. CHRISTIE: Pleasure to be with you both.
CHIDEYA: Donna Brazile is an author, columnist and political strategist, and Ron Christie is vice president of the lobbying firm D.C. Navigators. Just ahead, our web producer Geoffrey Bennett updates us on what you're talking about on our News and Views blog. Then we roll right into the Judas question, hard words between politicos James Carville and Bill Richardson on our Bloggers Roundtable.
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