Brokaw and Clinton on the Elections

This Q&A was taken from Sunday's, "Meet the Press," episode where Tom Brokaw interviews former President Bill Clinton regarding the economy and the presidential race.

MR. BROKAW: [Do] You think that this financial crisis will be, in a way, a game changer for the American political culture?

PRES. CLINTON: I think it could be a game changer in a number of ways. First, it could change the political culture. I think that's important. I think it's important that you have the Republicans and Democrats in Congress asking the same good questions, good questions about if we're going to put up $700 billion, how will it be spent? To help homeowners, to give the taxpayers a chance to get their money back, to be transparent? I think that's important. I also believe it will have beneficial long-term economic consequences. That is, you've got Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley going into the bank holding company act, which means that they'll still be able to issue stock, they'll still be able to have some speculation, as there always is, but there, there--you are not going to have these crazy binges of sub-prime mortgages or the derivatives, because people now recognize all over again what they had to learn in the depression and two or three times since, which is markets, if unaccountable at the margins, will self-destruct. They will cannibalize themselves. So I think we've learned that. Listen, if we can just get out of this thing now and get the show back on the road, we will have learned quite a lot that's good for us.

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MR. BROKAW: You know, we like to keep track of records here on MEET THE PRESS, as you're well aware of. We looked at this interview that Tim did with you a year ago at the Clinton Initiative--Global Initiative, and at that time you predicted that John McCain would be the Republican nominee, at a time when a lot of people thought he was...

PRES. CLINTON: He was dead.

MR. BROKAW: ...toast, in political terms. But you said as well, at that time, "I've disagreed with him, but I have admired him." And then to Maria Bartiromo last week you said, "I have never concealed my admiration and affection for Senator McCain. I think he's a great man. But I think on the issues, that matter to our future, the Obama-Biden team is more right."

PRES. CLINTON: I do believe that. I think Senator Obama has shown a remarkable ability to learn and grow in this campaign. He always was highly intelligent and always a very good politician. He, he got the change--the fundamental change in, in the calendar of this Democratic primary process of which we were engaged, his energy program kept getting better through the campaign, his healthcare program kept getting better. I think what you want in a president at a time like this is somebody with good instincts who generally starts in a right position and then just keeps getting better and that's what he's done.

Check out the full interview:


MR. BROKAW: How much time are you going to spend either at Senator Obama's side or working on his behalf between now and Election Day?

PRES. CLINTON: I'm going to do my very best to do every single thing he asks me to do.

MR. BROKAW: Do you think that Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, who's the running mate now for John McCain, will peel away the disaffected Hillary women voters who are not happy that she didn't get the nomination?

PRES. CLINTON: Maybe some. I read two different articles about women who said what African-Americans often said about Senator Obama. They said, these women said, "Look, we think gender's more important than race or party or even issues. It is the defining characteristic of the social order and we believe that it's important to do this." But I don't think they'll be many people who do that. I think the differences between Senator Obama and Senator McCain and between the ticket of Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin are significant enough that the overwhelming majority of people who supported Hillary in the primary or who didn't vote in either primary and are going to vote, I believe they'll break for Senator Obama.

MR. BROKAW: What's your advice to Joe Biden in debating Governor Palin?

PRES. CLINTON: I would--I would make the case for--why he and Barack Obama should lead a different direction for America, and I will be quite specific, because my sense--and you know who these undecided voters are. You've seen the polls. Most of these people that are undecided, they like John McCain, and they kind of like her, what they know of her. And if they're going to move off of her or dislike her, it's going to be because they think she is too conservative or too traditionally Republican on some issues that are very important to our future. So if I were Joe Biden, I would demonstrate to the American people that first, "Barack Obama picked me because there's not a better foreign policy mind in the United States Congress, anybody with more experience or better judgment."
Everybody that really is upset about Sarah Palin because she's too conservative or too Alaska or too this, that or the other thing, they're already for the Obama-Biden ticket. We've got to get people from your native state, in South Dakota, and people in Arkansas, and they look at this woman, and they say, "You know, this is a pretty impressive deal."

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