October 19, 2006
Hotline After Dark -- Single Best Night Interviews In A Year
Lots of good interviews on last night:
ABC's Stephanopoulos interviewed Pres. Bush 10/18. Excerpts aired across all ABC News platforms and the net released a transcript:
Stephanopoulos: "Tom Friedman wrote in the New York Times this morning that what we might be seeing now is the Iraqi equivalent of the Tet offensive in Vietnam in 1968. ... Do you agree?"
Bush: "He could be right. There's certainly a stepped up level of violence, and we're heading into an election."
More: "My gut tells me that they have all along been trying to inflict enough damage that we'd leave. And the leaders of al Qaeda have made that very clear. Look, here's how I view it. First of all, al Qaeda is still very active in Iraq. They are dangerous. They are lethal. They are trying to not only kill American troops, but they're trying to foment sectarian violence. They believe that if they can create enough chaos, the American people will grow sick and tired of the Iraqi effort and will cause government to withdraw."
Stephanopoulos: "Are these midterm elections a referendum on Iraq?"
Bush: "You know, I think they're a referendum, from my perspective, which is kind of like your perspective, which is the Washington perspective, based upon: who best to secure this country from further attack and who best to help this economy continue to grow. The truth of the matter is, as you well know, most elections are very local elections. Sometimes those issues are salient, but sometimes there's other issues at the local level as well. I'm not on the ballot. This set of elections is much different from a presidential election year. I'm going to continue saying: Vote Republican because we have got the best plan to protect you and we'll keep your taxes low to keep this economy growing."
Stephanopoulos: "You're not on the ballot, but we went back and counted. There are 72 Democratic candidates for the House who are putting you in their campaign."
Bush: "Are they saying good things?"
Stephanopoulos: "I don't think so."
Bush: "Look, maybe that strategy will work; maybe it won't work. I've always found that when a person goes in to vote, they're going to want to know what that person's going to do. What is the plan for a candidate on Iraq? What do they believe? Frankly, I hear disparate voices all over the place from the Democrats' side about Iraq. We got some saying: Get out. The person I ran against in 2004, Senator Kerry, said at a date certain, time, withdraw."
Stephanopoulos: "You've used some pretty tough rhetoric, though. You said this election's a choice between Republicans and Democrats who want to wave the white flag of surrender in the war on terror. Can you name a Democrat who wants to wave the white flag of surrender?"
Bush: "I can name a Democrat who said there ought to be a date certain from which to withdraw from Iraq, whether or not we've achieved a victory or not."
Stephanopoulos: "Is that surrender?"
Bush: "Yes, it is, if you pull the troops out before the job is done. Absolutely, George."
Stephanopoulos: "So you don't think that's questioning their patriotism when you say that?"
Bush: "No. I know it's not questioning their patriotism. I think it's questioning their judgment."
Asked to name the most important quality for the next POTUS: "Determination and compassion."
His advice for the next POTUS: "Stand on principle" (10/18).
And FNC's O'Reilly aired Part III of his Bush interview.
Asked what he thinks when he sees his poll numbers, Bush: "That a president must make decisions based upon principle and stand by the principles by which he makes decisions in order to achieve peace. And that sometimes people will agree with my decisions and sometimes they won't, but you cannot make decisions based upon opinion polls."
O'Reilly: "I think I'm the second most criticized person in the country. You're first by a large margin, but I'm second. I get really furious, especially if it's dishonest. But you don't -- you're different than I am. You're more philosophical. See, I'm sitting there going oh, if I had this guy's neck, you know."
Bush: "Well, I'm not as big as you are, so I can't - you know -- I wouldn't be able to get away with that. I understand politics. Remember, I'm a man who watched a guy I love dearly go through the same thing I'm going through. And that's my dad. And it's much harder when you see somebody you love being criticized than when you ..."
O'Reilly: "Now did you get angry about that?"
Bush: "I did get angry about it."
O'Reilly: "I just wrote a book called 'Culture Warrior.' And we sent you a free copy, by the way."
Bush: "Good. ... Might entice me to actually read it."
O'Reilly: "The secular progressives don't like you because you're a man of faith."
Bush: "That causes me to be sad for people who don't like somebody because he happens to believe in the Almighty" (FNC, 10/18).
HIS AMES IS TRUE
The "Hardball" college tour was at IA State and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was there:
McCain, asked why pols don't like one another: "I think that we don't see each other as much as we should, for one reason. I think that we are motivated to do whatever is necessary to gain public office, and I'm afraid that sometimes we look at polling numbers and see that negative attacks move those numbers in our favor or against our opponent."
McCain: "I think that gay marriage should be allowed, if there's a ceremony kind of thing, if you want to call it that. I don't have any problem with that, but I do believe in preserving the sanctity of a union between man and woman."
On the new Jim Kolbe page allegations: "I do and will continue to say that Jim Kolbe is respected and a good friend of mine. It would be hard for me to believe that Jim would do anything wrong."
Asked if a man of Obama's "limited experience" is ready for the WH: "I don't know. But that's why we have primaries and all that kind of stuff. But there's no doubt and Barack and I have had our differences from time to time."
Asked when he'll make a WH decision: "After Thanksgiving."
MSNBC's Matthews: "After Turkey day? What, Friday? Can I call you on Friday?"
McCain: "Please do so. We have to get together" (MSNBC, 10/18).
HUG IT OUT TIME
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was on "Oprah":
Oprah Winfrey: "This is my senator, my favorite senator." More: "I wasn't feeling that hopeful and then I read your book and now I'm feeling more hopeful."
Winfrey: "I love that you said is that the truth is that sometimes Democrats need to listen to what Republicans are saying because sometimes they might have something that's true, and the opposite is also true."
Obama: "As I travel around the country, and I speak all over the place now, you know, the country is not as divided as Washington sees. It's not as divided as those able news shows make it out to be."
More: "I think conservatives are more tolerant than we make them out to be. ... Liberals are concerned about values, contrary to what conservatives say."
Winfrey: "This summer, the senator traveled with his family to Africa. I offered him a ride. He wouldn't take it on my plane."
Obama: "I remember taking commercial. And it was this classic, you know, terrible ride. ... But as I was finally getting on the plane, the plane had been delayed, I was grumpy, I'm about to get on. And this young man comes up to me and he says, 'You're Senator Obama.' And I said, 'Yes.' And he said, 'I just want you to know I'm 32, 33, I've got a three-year-old son and I've got Parkinson's disease. And although it's not bad yet, they expect that I'll probably never be able to throw a baseball with my son. And so I really want you to work on stem cell research because it may not help me, but it might help somebody else to make sure they're not going through what I'm going through.' ... And that doesn't happen on a private jet."
More: "I'd just introduced this bill on nonproliferation, you know, nuclear weapons that are out there, loose nukes in former Soviet territory. So I was working with my Republican colleague Dick Lugar to introduce this bill. I was excited about it. I called Michelle, saying, 'Look, this is going to be a terrific piece of legislation.' She says, 'We have ants.' I said, 'Ants.' She said, 'Yes, we have ants and I need ant traps. We have ants in the bathroom and the kitchen. So on your way home, can you pick up some ant traps, please?' ... You know, so I'm thinking, you know, is John McCain stopping by Walgreens to grab ant traps on the way home?"
Winfrey: "If he's not, he should be."
More Winfrey: "I didn't want to put you on the spot, certainly not at the beginning of the show, but I was on 'Larry King.' There was some guy who wants me to run for president. I'm never going to run for any public office. And I said on 'Larry King' that I would like that guy to put his energy behind somebody who would really make a difference in this country and that would be you. ... And I know I don't just speak for myself. There are a lot of people who want to feel the audacity of hope, who want to feel that America can be a better place for everybody. There are a lot of people who would want you to run for the presidency of the United States. Would you consider that?"
Obama: "I just want to point out to everybody that she was deflecting attention off her."
More: "And we have an election coming up in '06 that has been determined who's in power in Congress, both the House and the Senate. And that's what I'm spending all my energy devoting to is to make sure that people are paying attention to this election. I don't care whether you're a Republican, a Democrat, Independent. We've got some critical issues on health care, on energy, on making sure our children are getting the education that makes them competitive. What are we going to do about Iraq?"
Winfrey: "So if you ever would decide to run within the next five years, I'm going to have this show for five more years, would you announce on this show?"
Obama: "You know, well, you know, I don't think I could say no to you" (ABC, 10/18). [EMILY GOODIN]
Posted at 07:30 AM
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