Fox News "America's Election Headquarters" Interview - Transcript
Interview
MR. HEMMER: Here now, Obama supporter, Washington state Congressman Adam Smith.
Sir, good evening. Thank you for your time. Good to have you on the program.
REP. SMITH: Thank you.
MR. HEMMER: You just heard Geraldine Ferraro a few moments ago talking about the electability, the best person that can beat John McCain. That's an argument we've heard now for days in favor of Hillary Clinton. Your take on that is what?
REP. SMITH: Well, first of all, she's fundamentally wrong on the numbers. I mean, if you look at Real Clear Politics which does sort of a summary of all the various polls out there, on average, right now, Barack Obama is ahead of John McCain by 2.5 points. So obviously he can in fact beat John McCain. Hillary, on average, is ahead of John McCain by 3.4. So there's a 0.9 difference. And keep in mind, all these polls were taken after Pennsylvania but before Indiana and North Carolina, so at the point at which Senator Obama was sort of getting pummeled from a number of different sides, and still he's beating John McCain. So the argument that he can't beat John McCain makes no sense whatsoever. The polls prove that he can, number one.
Number two, a lot's going to happen between now and that election. Once the nomination is secure, a lot of these debates change, and we get to point out a lot of the weaknesses in John McCain that have not been discussed during the course of the Democratic battle. So there's simply --
MR. HEMMER: And we just heard from Barack Obama saying that Hillary Clinton's going to win and might win big in West Virginia then again a week later in Kentucky. If she posts double-digit victories in that state, over Barack Obama, are you comfortable with a nominee who's losing contests this late in the game by double digits?
REP. SMITH: Oh, absolutely because one of the other factors in all of this is Senator Clinton is a very strong candidate, there's no question about that. In fact, if you go back four months to when this whole thing started, nobody thought she could be beat for the Democratic nomination. So she's a very strong candidate with broad- based support. She and President Clinton have been the lead of the Democratic Party for 16 years. So she's not easy to beat period. But the critical factor is Senator Obama is beating her. He's got more votes, more delegates, and they all count. Catholics don't count more than Protestants. You know, none of those subgroups that we are hearing about count more than anybody else. Everybody who votes counts. And if you count everybody who votes, Senator Obama is winning and has won more popular votes and more delegates. And I'd like to point out -- go ahead, sorry.
MR. HEMMER: I'm certain that you heard from the head of the Obama campaign today saying they're ready to declare victory on the 20th of May which would be 12 days from now. That's the night that Kentucky and Oregon hold their primaries.
REP. SMITH: Right. Well, I'm not ready to declare victory myself. And let me just be clear also that the Obama campaign does not think that Senator Clinton should get out of the race. We believe we have the better candidate. When you look at what this country needs right now in terms of fundamental change in the way we do business in Washington, D.C., we believe strongly that Senator Obama is the better candidate to deliver that. That's why he's been winning. That's why he's ahead. And it's why I and the Obama campaign, we're not afraid of further elections. We're not afraid of further debate. We have the better candidate, and we're confident we will continue to prove that.
MR. HEMMER: Earlier today we spoke with Rush Limbaugh about this whole Operation Chaos thing. Listen here for a moment, his take right now.
RUSH LIMBAUGH (Conservative radio talk show host): (From audio tape.) Everything that she's done, everything that she's put up with is for this moment. She controls the Rules and Bylaws Committee that meets on May 31st to decide Florida and Michigan. And if she's smart, she'll say the Democrat Party is engaged in the greatest disenfranchisement of voters since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. If she's smart, she will say that the only way Barack Obama can get the Democrat Party nomination is if the Democrats do not count all the votes. And she can extend this for as long as she wants, and I think she should.
MR. HEMMER: Wow. Is Rush Limbaugh onto something when he talks about the Rules Committee at the end of May?
REP. SMITH: Well, not in terms of numbers.
MR. HEMMER: Does she call the shots in that?
REP. SMITH: No, she doesn't. The Rules Committee does, and she doesn't control it any more than Senator Obama does. But a critical fact here that everyone's blowing past -- even if you count Michigan and Florida who had elections that were counter to the rules, that Senator Obama was unable to campaign in, and back in January, when Senator Clinton was vastly better known than he was, it was much more of a disadvantage to Senator Obama to not be able to campaign in those two states. But even if you count those elections and count those delegates, Senator Obama is still ahead in both popular vote and in delegates count. So even if they do get counted, according to that, he still wins, which is a fact that really hasn't been pointed out very often.
MR. HEMMER: Adam Smith, we appreciate your time tonight.
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