E-mail a friendGov. Kathleen Sebelius
airdate October 22, 2008
Named by Time as one of the nation's top five governors, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is the first daughter of a U.S. governor to serve in the same position. She co-chairs the National Governors Association's Securing a Clean Energy Future initiative and sits on the Democratic Governors Association Exec Committee. Sebelius previously served as a state legislator and as the state's insurance commissioner. Earlier in the '08 presidential campaign, she was rumored to be a contender for the Democratic ticket VP slot.
Kansas governor shares her thoughts on the choice of Gov. Palin as the GOP VP pick. (1:47)
Full interview. (11:18)
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
Tavis: Kathleen Sebelius is serving her second term as Governor of Kansas. Earlier this year, she served as the co-chair for the Democratic National Convention in Denver. She's also the former chair of the Democratic Governors Association. She joins us tonight from Topeka. Governor, nice to have you on the program.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius: Thank you, Tavis. Nice to be with you.
Tavis: Let me start by asking the obvious. Just a few days to go now, what do you think?
Sebelius: Well, I think the campaign is going in the right direction. I think these are troubled times for a lot of Americans and they're really looking for change. They want a leader who's got a plan to put America back on track and I think Barack Obama is connecting with voters and connecting with people across this country who are looking for somebody who knows about their lives, knows about their challenges and has a plan to move us forward.
Tavis: This question might sound a bit strange, given all the polls and the indicators. Do you ever worry, though, as an Obama supporter, that he may have peaked too soon? I ask that because you know, in politics, things can change not just in a day, but on a second's notice. You ever worry, ever concerned that, between now and the next eight, nine, ten days, whatever it is, that he might have peaked a little too soon?
Sebelius: Well, I don't think it's a question of peaking too soon. I think it's a question of making sure that all of the supporters, all of the voters, understand that it isn't over until it's over. So there are a little under two weeks left and the most important poll, the only important poll, is the vote that people will cast on the 4th of November or in all the early voting leading up to the 4th. So there's a lot of work to do.
I've been able to be in many parts of this country and see really an army of workers and volunteers, enthusiastic supporters, who understand that there are calls to be made, there are people to be contacted, there are folks to get to the polls and the vote is what it's all about.
Tavis: What's your sense of the strategy that the Obama camp is engaging right now, which is playing in states that we have quite frankly, at least in recent terms, not seen in play by Democrats this close to election day?
Sebelius: Well, Tavis, there are 15 Democratic governors, including me, who are elected in states that George Bush won in 2004. A number of those are states where the Obama campaign has focused time and attention, understanding that voters have already demonstrated by electing the governor that they're willing to cross party lines, they're willing to vote for a Democrat whose ideas they identify with, whose leadership they like, so that's kind of a proven case.
And they also have an ally on the ground in those states to help identify voters, to get out the vote, to be a third party validater and say, "If you like the way I'm running the state, you'll like the way this guy is going to run the country. I'm an ally, I'm a supporter. We have the same views on energy and education and health care. We want to move the country forward." So I think it's very wise to have expanded this electoral map.
Barack Obama began this campaign talking about the fact that we aren't Red states and Blue states. We're the United States. He's campaigned that way. He's been in every state in the country. He's visited a lot of states who have never seen a Democratic nominee before, who have never seen an opportunity to participate.
Every state got to participate in the primary and the caucus process and that was enormously engaging for people. I think we're seeing people for the first time in a long time feel that their vote does count, they matter, they want to be involved and they want a change in the direction of this country.
Tavis: As a governor, we all know, of course, John McCain picked a governor, Sarah Palin of Alaska, to be his running mate. Your thought about the pick, particularly now that we've had eight weeks or so to see her in action?
Sebelius: Well, I think what's indicated by the response of people across the country is that the choice of Governor Palin may have energized the narrow base of the conservative Republican party, but it has not expanded that base. It has not appealed to Independents and to Democrats.
He has not been able, with his message reinforced by Governor Palin, to reach out to voters who, again, don't see themselves as partisans, but see themselves as Americans who are looking for new leadership, new ideas. I think Governor Palin just seemed to reinforce the message that this is more of the same and people have not responded very well to that choice.
Unlike Barack Obama's choice of Joe Biden who is a knowledgeable and experienced member of the United States Senate not only in the foreign policy area where his credentials are second to none, but on a lot of domestic issues that people care about. He wrote the Violence Against Women Act. He authored the bill that put 100,000 new police officers across the street and started the real downturn in crime, issues about keeping us safe and secure.
So I think, on one hand, Americans have responded very well to the ticket of Obama and Biden and seem to be a lot more skeptical of the ticket of McCain and Palin.
Tavis: I'm just asking questions here, but if I wanted to, I could argue either side of this equation, which is that, on the one hand, Sarah Palin, to your earlier point, Governor, energized at least a portion of the Republican base, that it was a good thing for women in this country, never mind the Republican or Democrat labels, a good thing for women to have a woman selected as the running mate. I could argue the case for women, how in the long term, it was a good decision for advancing the cause of women.
I could argue the flip side which is that, because she has not responded on the campaign trail the way that some might hope that she would in terms of being on top of the information and giving crisp and clear answers, etc., etc., that the cause of women running for high office has been set back. Which argument would be correct?
Sebelius: Well, I'm not sure that it's an either-or, Tavis. I think 2008 has been an historic year for women's involvement in politics in America. Hillary Clinton's remarkable run through the primaries was record-breaking and her galvanizing voters and identifying with a lot of voters across this country.
For the first time, I think a lot of Americans said, "Boy, I can see a woman being president. This really works for me." So that, I think, set the stage. I think the choice of Governor Palin, again, the Democrats had a woman as a running mate in 1984. The Republicans have a ticket now with a woman as the vice presidential nominee and that continues sort of the history of 2008.
But what women are looking for, what they talk to me about in Kansas, across this country, are a president and vice president who really care about them and their lives, who know that they're struggling often with health care because the jobs women have are less likely to have health insurance provided.
They worry about their pensions because women have longer lives and less likely to have pensions. They want their kids to go to college. They care about early childhood care. They are often in a sandwich generation of caring for their kids and taking care of an elderly parent. So they want to know what the president and vice president know about their lives, their challenges. I love to talk to them about, you know, Barack Obama's life.
I mean, Barack Obama was raised by Kansas women. He knows a lot about the challenges of single motherhood. He watched his grandmother work her way up in the banking system from a clerk to a vice president, even though she didn't have a college education. He's married to a working mom and he's the father of two daughters.
So I think women in America have come to understand that more important than the gender of the candidate is their ideas, their issues, their vision, about the lives of women in the future and they have really responded to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Tavis: What say you about the attack of late against the Obama-Biden ticket that you don't want a Democrat running the White House and both houses of Congress? You don't want to give one party that much authority, that much control. I'm hearing that a lot more, as I'm sure you are as well.
Sebelius: Well, I think that we're at a very difficult time in this country. People are in trouble economically. They're worried about the future. They're not sure that their kids are gonna have a better life than they do and they want some real change.
I think that there is no better time to not only have a president like Barack Obama who will change the direction of this country, help to restore and rebuild the middle class, put some support behind working men and women in this country, but frankly he needs a Congress to work with him.
He needs to break that logjam in the Senate so we don't have the partisan paralysis that we've had over the last couple of years. If we want change, if we want a new direction, then we need a dramatic change inside the Beltway with not only the president, but with both houses of Congress moving in a new direction, a new energy future, a new education future.
Understand that, while states have been struggling with these issues, we need an ally in the White House and we need allies in Congress. So I think that, again, the fear factor of "Don't give all the power to one group", if we want change, absolutely we want a group who sees the world through the same lens and will not only just talk about change, but get some things done.
Tavis: We got 30 quick seconds here. Want to make any predictions here about whether this thing is gonna be a tight race on Tuesday night, November 4 or whether it's gonna be a runaway?
Sebelius: Well, I don't ever make predictions, but I think it's critical that voters not think the race is over because it isn't over until the polls close on Election Day. Getting out to vote is the only way we can begin to take back this country.
It's the only way that we can make sure that we have a president elected on November 4 who moves us in a new direction, not only restores our economy, but gets us back on track around the world, brings America back into a moral leadership role, one that we've been missing sorely over the last few years.
I'm confident that, if we continue to work hard for the next two weeks, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be elected on November 4.
Tavis: She's the Democratic Governor of Kansas, a long-time Obama supporter in this campaign, at least, Kathleen Sebelius. Governor, nice to have you on the program.
Sebelius: Thank you, Tavis. Great to be with you.
Tavis: Thank you.
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