MSNBC "Tucker" Interview with Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA)

Interview

MSNBC "TUCKER" INTERVIEW WITH REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA) INTERVIEWER: TUCKER CARLSON

MR. CARLSON: We begin with the race for the Democratic nomination and the case of Barack Obama. As spring turned to summer, we, the omniscient media, wondered aloud daily when, not if, the Obama campaign's money-raising prowess, its amazing money-raising prowess and its incredibly broad base, would threaten the lead of Hillary Clinton.

Well, summer turns to fall. We wonder if the Illinois senator has the will to claw his way back into relevance in the contest for that nomination. And will tonight's debate be the night when he first shows it?

Joining me now is a surrogate for the Obama campaign, Democratic congressman from Tacoma, Washington, Adam Smith.

Congressman, thanks a lot for coming on.

REP. SMITH: Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

MR. CARLSON: So, I mean, this is the eternal question, but when is Barack Obama going to explain to me why I should vote for him over Hillary Clinton?

REP. SMITH: Well, he's focused on explaining to you and everybody else why they should vote for him, because he's the best candidate to be president. He's focused on the issues, on his desire to bring change to the country, on the fact that he is the one candidate who's in the best position to do things differently when he gets into the White House, and that that change is what he's going to bring.

MR. CARLSON: I know; of course. You know, and he's an incredibly fluent speaker and he's, you know, I think, made a good case for himself. But he's not running alone. He's being beaten in every poll everywhere, pretty much, by Hillary Clinton. So it's not just a question of why is he good; it's a question of why is he better than her. Why is she not as good as he? Why hasn't he made that case?

REP. SMITH: Well, I think because, as with all campaigns, the media -- it's amazing. You know, everyone thinks that, you know, this race is tomorrow.

MR. CARLSON: Right.

REP. SMITH: You know, just because we've been talking about it for a year, and I think we're having about our 45th debate tonight. But it's like it's -- (inaudible). It's still four months, if I'm doing my math correctly, from the first actual contest. And what any candidate will tell you is what they want to do is they want to establish who they are as a candidate, what they stand for. And that's what he's doing, and I think it's the right thing to do.

MR. CARLSON: Okay. Well, first of all, as for the press, we so desperately want him to beat Hillary Clinton, not just because a lot of people in the press like him more than her, and that's true, but because we want a race. We want excitement. We want something unexpected to happen. We're rooting for him. Trust me, okay?

That's not the point. The point is, he's got -- the new numbers suggest he will have about 75,000 new donors. For some perspective, that is more donors than all Republican candidates combined managed to draw in the first half of this entire year.

REP. SMITH: Absolutely.

MR. CARLSON: So that's an incredible number. Clearly he's introduced himself to people. They know him. They're giving to him in numbers unprecedented in American history.

REP. SMITH: You sort of lumped two facts together. Seventy-five thousand donors -- sure, from all over the country.

MR. CARLSON: Right.

REP. SMITH: Okay. There's still a lot of people in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina and Nevada who haven't gotten to know Senator Obama yet. And that's one of the fascinating things about all these polls we obsess over. If you drill down, about 75 percent of those people are still basically undecided. They will state a preference, but they're still saying, "We're waiting to see what the candidates come to tell us" in Iowa and New Hampshire and elsewhere. This thing has still got a long way to go.

MR. CARLSON: Yeah, but, I mean --

REP. SMITH: And Senator Obama is making that case.

MR. CARLSON: I know. But it's like middle age at this point. You know, your life goes really slowly until you're about 35, and then it just shoots by, and the next thing you know, you're in an emphysema ward. Do you know what I mean?

REP. SMITH: (Laughs.)

MR. CARLSON: And time is --

REP. SMITH: Well, I'm 42, and the last seven years have gone by just as quickly as the first 35. (Laughs.)

MR. CARLSON: (Laughs.) Okay. But you see what I'm saying.

REP. SMITH: Let me say this --

MR. CARLSON: Time is starting to accelerate. Why doesn't he make the obvious case, "She's too divisive"?

REP. SMITH: Right. I think --

MR. CARLSON: Why doesn't he say that? She's in the pocket of lobbyists. Why not just say that?

REP. SMITH: The thing that Senator Obama has said -- and he's said it in debates; he's said it directly to Hillary Clinton -- is "That's the ways of the past. We need to move forward to the future." He has addressed the issue that Hillary Clinton, given all of her history in Washington, it's going to be very difficult for her to break from that, and she has not shown any particular inclination to break from that. He will offer change. So I don't think it's accurate to say they got into it over who we should talk to; they got into it over policy in Pakistan.

MR. CARLSON: I know, but he kind of -- it's so oblique. He sounds -- he's like a professor explaining it. You have to infer. It's like reading contemporary literature. It's like you have to catch the metaphors. He's never come and said, for instance, "This is a woman who voted in favor of the war in Iraq. She didn't bother to read the classified intelligence. And had she done so, maybe she wouldn't have voted for it." He's never said that. Why not?

REP. SMITH: Again, let me say, as far as a specific charge, I can't answer a question as to why he hasn't made a specific charge. But he has made it clear he is the candidate of change. He is the candidate of reform. And he's also more than once made it clear that whatever Hillary Clinton may want to do, she is going to have a very difficult time, given how tied in to Washington, and everything that comes with it, she is, making that change. If you want real change, Senator Obama is the guy who comes from the place where you can best deliver it. He's made that case. He's going to keep making it.

MR. CARLSON: I went out to dinner with a political consultant last night who knows all the candidates we're talking about right now. And he said, "When I look at him" -- Obama, whom this guy likes -- he said, "I can tell he's afraid of her." And when he said that, I agree with that.

REP. SMITH: That's ridiculous.

MR. CARLSON: He looks intimidated by her.

REP. SMITH: Well, good for him. I've met with Senator Obama many times. I've watched a lot of these debates.

MR. CARLSON: He looks rattled by her. I mean, why doesn't he just say, "Slow down there, Hillary Clinton"?

REP. SMITH: That's absolutely not true. He has on more than one occasion. When they went back and forth in the debate, when they got into the issue of who we ought to be talking to internationally, they went right at each other. I haven't met the person that Senator Obama is intimidated by. He is wanting to deliver his message about who he is. And, you know, historically in a president, does it make sense to go on the offensive and start attacking?

MR. CARLSON: Yes, because in a general election --

REP. SMITH: Four months out? Four months?

MR. CARLSON: I don't know.

REP. SMITH: Which candidate, out of all of these campaigns -- the media must know more than any other person working on a presidential campaign. Which campaign has attacked another campaign in the way that you're describing?

MR. CARLSON: John Edwards, and he is third.

REP. SMITH: When?

MR. CARLSON: Oh, John Edwards has gone after -- John Edwards and his wife have gone after Hillary really hard.

REP. SMITH: There hasn't been any ads. There hasn't been any media campaign.

MR. CARLSON: Well, that's a good point, but --

REP. SMITH: There hasn't -- because it's too soon.

MR. CARLSON: John Edwards is trying it now.

REP. SMITH: He's not trying it any more definitively --

MR. CARLSON: But I think he's a fatally flawed candidate. There's a lot of pent-up frustration here. "Speak the truth, Barack Obama!"

REP. SMITH: (Laughs.) Well, let me reassure you, he's the best candidate. He's running a good campaign. He has all those volunteers and all those supporters for a reason. And the more he gets his message out to a broader group of people, he's going to win in Iowa and New Hampshire. And he's going to move forward, because he's got the best message for change.

MR. CARLSON: I can promise you, every assignment editor in America is rooting for his candidacy. I'm not sure that matters. They liked McCain too.

Congressman --

REP. SMITH: That's good to know.

MR. CARLSON: -- thank you very much.

REP. SMITH: Thank you, Tucker.

END.

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