E-mail a friendSen. Hillary Clinton
airdate February 18, 2008
Before tossing her hat into the ring for the presidential race, Sen. Hillary Clinton became the first U.S. First Lady elected to public office and the first woman elected statewide in New York. A Yale-trained attorney, she served on the Yale Law Review Board of Editors and, since, has balanced law and public service. She's authored several books and won a Grammy for the recording of her best seller, It Takes a Village. Clinton's Senate committee assignments include Armed Services and Environment and Public Works.
Sen. Hillary Clinton
Tavis: Earlier this month I sat down with Senator Hillary Clinton, one day after her historic debate here in Los Angeles with a Democratic rival, Barack Obama. I began by asking Senator Clinton why she believes she is better suited to run against John McCain in the general election.
I want to give you a chance in this conversation to unpack a little bit more. Clearly, Obama wants to make an issue of your vote on Iraq. You explained that last night, I don't want to rehash that. You all have some differences on the details of your healthcare policy. But beyond that, not a whole lot of difference. Some distinction, but not a whole lot of difference, which leads me to ask, then, why you think that you are a better opponent to John McCain if he ends up being the nominee.
Sen. Hillary Clinton: Well, I think for several reasons, because the differences that we do have, particularly on healthcare, are very significant. I am supporting universal healthcare. I think it's an absolutely core Democratic value and way overdue in our country. Senator Obama has taken a different approach, and I think we will be stronger going into the general election against whomever the Republicans nominate if we are foursquare in favor of covering everybody - no exceptions, no excuses.
We have some differences on immigration, we have some differences on economy, we have had a difference over how to deal with this mortgage foreclosure crisis, but I think ultimately what voters have to decide is how to answer two big questions: Who do they think would be the best president on day one going forward and who, as Democrats, is our best candidate to put against the Republicans?
Obviously, I think that I bring a lot of experience and maybe some battle scars, but nevertheless a lot of understanding about how to win a general election campaign and then how to begin the really incredibly difficult job of cleaning up after George Bush and trying to get us on a new path.
Tavis: If, though, McCain ends up being the nominee - Obama made this point last night - that he thinks that he is better positioned to not be - how can I put this - John Kerryed about your vote on Iraq. For it before I was against it, against it before I was for it. How do you navigate those kinds of waters if, in fact, McCain's the nominee, because he's always been clear where he stands on this war?
Clinton: Well, I think the way you do it is by making it very clear that both John McCain and I serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, we have actually traveled together to Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan. I think it's going to be very important that our nominee be able to stand on a stage with, say, for example, Senator McCain and make it clear to the American people that the Democrat is strong on national security, will protect and defend our homeland and can be commander-in-chief. I think I carry that with me into the general election.
With respect to Iraq, I think I'm actually in a stronger position because I will be able to say, "I was willing to give the president authority to put inspectors back into Iraq to figure out what, if anything, Saddam Hussein had." This president abused that authority. But I do believe in coercive diplomacy. I think the United States has to both cooperate more and be smarter about how we pursue our interests.
And I believe that some of what has already gone on in the campaign, one of the differences I have with Senator Obama is his willingness to meet with dictators the first year with no preconditions, I think will be very hard to defend because realistically that's not the best way to make policy on behalf of our country.
So I feel very comfortable going against someone who is a genuine American hero, was a prisoner of war, has been deeply involved in national security issues, traveled widely around the world, as I have, and as I have developed not only in the Senate but in years previously a great familiarity with all the problems we face, I think I will be in the best position to take that on.
Tavis: John Edwards, of course, a former U.S. senator. You were in the Senate, Barack Obama in the Senate - been a long time since we had a president go from the Senate to the White House, as you well know. But I've been fascinated and been in a number of conversations of late about the way these endorsements are shaking out. I always believe that on Election Day, they don't count endorsements, they count votes, but endorsements seem to matter to people for whatever reason.
What's fascinating for me, and I've been talking to people about this, gauging their sense of it, is that so many of these White male Democratic senators are lining up behind Barack Obama. Those who are in the Senate now like Kennedy and Kerry, those who are former senators like Daschle and Bradley, White male Democrats lining up behind Obama. I've heard all kinds of theories about why that is.
I've heard theories that range from Bill and Hillary angered people and this is their chance to get back at them. I've heard the theory that some of these people are losers - Bradley lost, Daschle lost, Kennedy and Kerry couldn't make it to the White House, so they're not going to let you get there. I've heard the issue of sexism.
I've heard all kinds of issues about why that dynamic is shaking out, but I want to hear it from you. What do you make of that? I've heard the theory that they've worked with you and they must know something about you that we don't know if they're endorsing the other guy. Again, I've heard sexism a thousand times. What do you make of that?
Clinton: Well, I don't know what to make of it because I have actually a lot of White males supporting me too. Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island, Evan Bayh from Indiana, Mark Pryor from Arkansas, and Bill Nelson from Florida. I think it really comes down to such an individual choice.
I respect anybody's right to make whatever endorsement decision they choose, but at the end of the day you're absolutely correct - it is not about our spouses, it is not about our endorsers or our supporters. The two names on the ballot will be mine and Barack's, and people have to make a decision that is a really serious one this election about who they think can be the best president and who the Democrats can put forward as the best candidate.
So I really believe that as proud as I am to have all of my endorsements from so many people across the country, I feel like I'm out there on my own, that I want to be judged on my own, that I want to be held accountable. One of the reasons, Tavis, that I run a campaign where I'm very specific about what I want to do to get to universal healthcare and fix the economy and replace No Child Left Behind with something that works better for students and teachers, I get very specific because I'm trying to set up accountability.
When George Bush was elected, he said a lot of things in a kind of vague, general way that sounded really good and people took a chance on him. Unfortunately, he reversed course almost immediately. I want people to know very clearly where I stand because I think we have to rebuild trust, confidence, competence, and accountability in our government.
So I am very happy to put myself out there and tell you, "Here's what I'll do, here's what I'll do on day one, here's what I'll do my first hundred days," because I want to be a president who's hands-on, who's running the government, who's producing results and solving problems.
Tavis: We don't know yet whether the country is ready for either of you - an African American or a woman, much less both of you together. There are then some who believe that whether you are the nominee or Barack is the nominee, no matter how good it might look or sound to people, you have to put a White male on the ticket.
Clinton: Well, that's the kind of consideration that I just can't even deal with right now because I'm so focused on the next four days. But what is most important to me is that whoever our nominee is, pick somebody who really demonstrates to the country that the Democratic Party stands for producing results and solving problems and that the country can trust us with everything - everything from the hardest national security problem to the most complicated domestic problem.
I think last night on the stage seeing the two of us was just so exciting for so many people. I can't tell you how many calls and emails I've gotten from people I didn't even know cared about politics that much. But they are just thrilled at that. So there's something special about it.
I'm sure that when one of us becomes the nominee, we'll start thinking about all the serious things about how you put the electoral map together, because whoever is the nominee owes it to the Democrats and owes it to the country to pick somebody who can be president if something happens and to win. Those are the two things we've got to be able to do.
Tavis: Fair enough to say, though, that if you are the nominee and there is a White man on the ticket, it won't be Bill Clinton. (Laughter) I'm just asking. Is that a fair assumption?
Clinton: Oh, yeah, that's absolutely true. For a million reasons, that's absolutely true. (Laughter)
Tavis: Just thought I'd ask while you were here. I know, because you're human, that there's got to be a particular thing, a particular something that the media keeps harping on that you find most annoying of all the things they harp on. What is that one thing you read and then you say, "I wish they would stop saying that. I wish they'd stop raising that issue?"
Clinton: You just don't have a show long enough. (Laughter)
Tavis: All right, just give me one, just give me one.
Clinton: Well, one would be - and I think this is certainly about me and it's about me being a woman - it's this whole thing about feelings. We want her to show her feelings. We want her to show her emotion. It was sort of strange because I feel like I'm talking with people all the time and feeling very touched when somebody grabs my hand and says, "Please help me with healthcare" or whatever their deep concern might be.
But out of New Hampshire, the story was, "Oh, my gosh, she's a human being. I can't believe it." I'm sitting there looking at it and my friends are looking at me, thinking this is bizarre. But I think part of it is, as a woman running for office, as a woman in the public eye, all of us really feel a special responsibility and frankly a burden to be able to chart this still somewhat untrod path the right way.
Here I am running for president, running to be commander-in-chief. Well, of course, I have feelings. I have feelings about every time I sign a letter to the family of somebody who was killed in Iraq, every time I fight with an insurance company to get healthcare for some family that thought they were covered. They had insurance, they paid the premiums, and the insurance company said, flatly, "No."
Sometimes I'm angry, sometimes I'm outraged, sometimes I'm frustrated, sometimes I'm just even determined more to try to do what I need to do, but every time it's a rush of emotion. And yet I'm well aware of the fact that I'm held to a different standard, as most women still are. So how you navigate through this with the press is really complicated.
I remember being in Finland years ago as first lady visiting the country, and at that time, women were holding so many of the important positions. And we had a big meeting in Helsinki at the ambassador's residence. And here we were in a country where women have enormously achieved an equal rights that we hardly can even imagine. What did we talk about?
How frustrated they were that every time they made a serious speech about monetary policy or defense policy, it was reported what they were wearing or what their husbands thought or what their children thought. And so we're moving into a future that nobody's ever lived before, so I don't fault the press because they're doing the best they can to make sense out of all of this. But how many stories do they need to write about the same thing?
Let's just absolutely accept the fact we've never done it before. I'm trying to, with my own style and my own approach, convey who I am authentically, give people a chance to know what moves me, what I've done for my entire life, and it doesn't look like the male models, many of which are very different, and let's give women the same opportunity to be who we are and not try to fit us into one particular mold.
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