MSNBC "Tucker" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "Tucker" - Transcript

MS. O'DONNELL: Barack Obama is surging in Iowa. He's in a virtual tie atop the most recent New Hampshire surveys, and his standing in the most recent national polls has risen over the last two months. His main message: He is a change agent, an issue he was challenged on in today's final Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses.

(Begin videotaped segment.)

Q How will you rely on so many Clinton advisors and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you're promising voters?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL, Democratic presidential candidate): Well, the -- you know, I am --

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY, Democratic presidential candidate): (Laughs.) I want to hear that. (Laughs.)

SEN. OBAMA: Well, Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well. (Laughter.)

(End videotaped segment.)

MS. O'DONNELL: Wow. Well, joining me now is Barack Obama supporter, Democratic congressman from Washington Adam Smith.

Adam -- Congressman, I should say -- I'm sure you enjoyed that moment in the debate.

REP. SMITH: Yes. It was a good comment by Senator Obama.

MS. O'DONNELL: Let me ask you about what is the big headline today, and that is that Senator Clinton has been forced, essentially, to accept the resignation of a national co-chair of her campaign. As you know, Bill Shaheen raised this issue yesterday, essentially saying voters may in the future want to know if Barack Obama was a drug dealer, essentially. Your reaction?

REP. SMITH: Well, I think it's very unfortunate. Actually, I listened to Elizabeth Edwards' comments earlier, and I completely agree with her. It's an inappropriate attack in a campaign. As she said, I mean, we all know, no matter who the Democratic nominee is, the Republicans are going to engage in the character assassination that they always do on our nominee, and they're going to do it from every conceivable angle.

We shouldn't be doing it to each other, and we should all be prepared to get behind whoever the nominee is and talk about the issues, not engage in these kind of attacks. So I think it was unfortunate and not something that has a place in the Democratic primaries.

MS. O'DONNELL: Congressman, let me ask you, just from a strategic sense -- and even though the Obama campaign has denounced this as desperate; Senator Clinton has distanced herself from this, has personally apologized to Senator Obama -- do you think with it out there again, though, it hurts to some degree?

REP. SMITH: No, I don't. I think the biggest thing that voters are looking for in this election, one of the things that I think Senator Obama is so strong on, is they're looking for people who are authentic, people who are not poll-tested and pre-planned and message- tested, people who just tell you who they are, what they've been through in their lives, how those experiences have shaped them, and how they've learned from them.

And Senator Obama did that in that memoir, and he's done that since then. I mean, we've all done things in our past that we regret. That doesn't shock anybody. But to be honest about it, to learn from it and move forward, I don't think it's going to hurt him at all.

MS. O'DONNELL: What do you think when analyzing Senator Clinton's campaign in the past two weeks?

REP. SMITH: Well, I think it is clear that they have gone into a fairly intense check on Senator Obama's background. I mean, they went all the way back to his kindergarten days, for instance. And I don't think that's appropriate. And I don't know if this is coming from Senator Clinton or not --

MS. O'DONNELL: Well, Mark Penn told Chris Matthews today that was a joke.

REP. SMITH: Okay. It didn't come off like a joke, so I don't know. It seems like they have been digging into his past in a whole lot of different areas. And I think, more than anything, that sort of distracted the focus from whatever Senator Clinton's message might be. Not to give advice to rival campaigns, but she should get back on message and back on her issues and not worry about everything in Senator Obama's background.

MS. O'DONNELL: When you look at Iowa and New Hampshire, and in your discussions with Senator Obama, does he have to win Iowa or at least come in a very close second in order to have any momentum to continue on in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, et cetera?

REP. SMITH: Well, let me just say, first of all, we're very confident in Iowa. He's had an outstanding team on the ground there for a long time. He's building support. He's ticking up in the polls. And that's always been a matter of getting to the point where voters start to pay attention.

I mean, we've been talking about this for, gosh, a year, I guess. But now is when voters really start to pay attention. They're doing that in Iowa. They're doing that in New Hampshire and South Carolina. And Senator Obama is ticking upward everywhere where the election is getting closer.

But, no, ultimately, I don't think he has to win or even have a close second, because he has a very strong national organization. He has -- gosh, I've lost track of how many donors he has. I think it's well over 200,000. He has a broad base of support. And he is in a position to compete at least straight through February 5th, no matter what happens, because of that broad base of support. But again, we are confident that things are going to go well in Iowa.

MS. O'DONNELL: Congressman Adam Smith from Washington State, thanks so much for joining us; good to see you.

REP. SMITH: Thanks for the chance.

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