MSNBC "Race with the White House with David Gregory" Interview

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MR. GREGORY: The numbers in Florida have been, to say the least, a see-saw. In February, John McCain saw 10-point leads. By August, Obama overtook him by a point. A new poll from the St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald shows Senator Obama with a seven-point lead now, 49 to 42 percent; not at 50 percent just yet.

With just a week to go before the election, will Obama hold on to that lead? Well, joining me now is Obama supporter Debbie Wasserman Schultz, congresswoman from Florida.

Congresswoman, welcome. Good to see you.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you. You too, David.

MR. GREGORY: Are you prepared to say that Obama has got Florida in his win column?

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, we've got eight days left till the election. I am prepared to say that I think things are looking really good, and voters are clearly responding to Senator Obama's message of moving this country in a new direction and they're responding to his message of change. They are really tired of the focus from the Bush administration on the wealthiest few Americans, and they know that John McCain would just offer more of the same.

MR. GREGORY: What about --

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: We have among the highest foreclosure rates in the country here, so we've got people really struggling.

MR. GREGORY: What about -- in a tight race in Florida, Jewish voters are a sizable percentage. There's been a lot of concern in the Jewish community about Senator Obama. And yet if you look at some of the latest polling, Gallup Poll shows that he's getting up to levels that John Kerry was at.

Do you think some of the out-and-out racism in the Jewish community or other concerns about Obama have dissipated as we get closer to the race?

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Absolutely. I can tell you that -- I will predict that Barack Obama will actually do better in the Jewish community than John Kerry did. I mean, I think that Gallup Poll is accurate. I can tell you, just all over my district and all over South Florida and all over the country, I've spoken to Jewish communities all across this country. People are embracing Barack Obama and Joe Biden. They know that he will solidly stand behind Israel, and they know that he stands for all of the values that the Jewish community cares about, not just some of them. So I think we're going to do very, very well in the Jewish community.

MR. GREGORY: Let's talk about another argument that the McCain campaign is making in the final days, and Senator McCain made it himself on the campaign trail today, talking about Democratic rule. Have a listen.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ, Republican presidential nominee): (From videotape.) This election comes down to how you want your hard-earned money spent. Do you want to keep it invested in your future or have it taken by the most liberal person to ever run for the presidency, and the Democratic leaders the most liberal, who have been running Congress for the past two years, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? My friends, this is a dangerous threesome.

MR. GREGORY: What is your answer, Congresswoman, to the idea of the dangers of one-party rule that certainly a lot of Republicans and maybe undecided independent voters say, "Yeah, maybe we don't want that much forward motion." Those who are critical of the Bush administration say that might have been the problem with Republican rule back in the early part of his first administration.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, I think John McCain and his campaign are at the point where they're just trying to throw enough stuff up on the wall and hope some of it sticks. They are in the last eight days, and they have been divided and depressed and demoralized, and now they're desperate.

So what I say is that Barack Obama is going to move this country in a new direction. People are responding to his message of change. They're responding to his proposal to cut 95 -- to give tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans. And they don't want more of the same, which John McCain has been offering.

MR. GREGORY: But do they want one-party --

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: They want to know that four years from now --

MR. GREGORY: -- rule in Washington? What makes you think they want one-party rule?

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: They're not thinking about what party rules which branch of the government. What they're thinking about is that they want an investment in alternative energy so that we can truly be energy-independent. They want universal health care. They want a tax cut policy that is fair and that targets the middle class. They don't want to continue down the path that we've been on and have a tax cut policy that focuses on the wealthiest few and offers them more. They want to make sure that the government is on their side again.

And Barack Obama is asking people to think about not just whether they're better off now than they were four years ago, but whether, based on the choice that they make for president, they will be better off four years from now. And that's the question that people have to ask themselves in the next eight days.

MR. GREGORY: All right, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, always good to have you on the program. Thank you.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you so much, David. Good to be with you.

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