Obama plays offense

As Barack Obama rolled across rural South Carolina last week on his campaign bus, he spoke with Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter about the new rougher tone of the campaign, his prospects in a general election and getting things done in the presidency.

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Alter: You're clearly not comfortable taking part in what Bill Clinton called the "contact sport" of politics.
Obama: It's not my preference. Do you remember when (Michael) Jordan's Bulls were playing the Detroit Pistons? They had the "Jordan Rules" (defense). (The Pistons) would just knock 'em around. They didn't care. It wasn't a pretty sight. But until the Bulls learned to push back, it was going to be hard for them to win. It's not something I shy away from, but not something I relish. We're not going to back down. It's part of what's at stake here: can we change our politics?
The premise of the charge on your "present" votes in Illinois is that you were gutless.
That's the irony of it. I was often the only one voting present. If I was playing politics, I would have gone along with the other 58 (state senators). I would not be standing on my own. The premise doesn't make sense. Most of these were a way of me signaling something technically wrong with the bill. The fact is, I took on the tough issues in the state legislature -- on the death penalty, racial profiling.
You've gone after Hillary for voting on both sides of the bankruptcy bill. Isn't that just the same legitimate legislative gamesmanship -- except in Washington, not Springfield?
It's more troubling than legislative gamesmanship. This is a bill her husband opposed in the White House. Then she runs for the Senate representing New York financial institutions and suddenly changes her position. The answer she gave (in the debate before the New Hampshire primary) is a classic Washington answer -- I voted for it, but hoped it would fail.
Isn't it accurate for a fair-minded observer to say Hillary would be more ready on day one?
No. The question isn't who's ready on day one, but who's right on day one. A mythology has been created that somehow just by being there for eight years (in the White House as First Lady), she is going to be better prepared, better organised and exercise better judgment.
But I would put my judgments on foreign policy next to hers over the last four years on Iraq, on Iran, on how would she conduct diplomacy, on Pakistan. I would argue that reflects readiness, not the fact that you sat in the White House or that you traveled to 82 countries.
On domestic policy, the critical issue is the ability to mobilize the American people to move forward. The problem on health care is not the technical one -- we all talk to the same experts. The question is who can build working majorities to push this stuff through. I don't think any fair-minded observer would suggest that Hillary Clinton is best equipped to break us out of the political gridlock that exists in Washington.
If elected, you would be getting there as a newbie. You'd have a very narrow window to succeed.
Sort of like this campaign. We had a very short window. One of the unfair comparisons has been to Jimmy Carter or to Bill Clinton at the beginning. The thinking is, if you're an outsider, you'll make a lot of rookie mistakes and squander the first 100 days. But one thing I've shown is I understand Washington and I've got good relationships there. A lot of Washington isn't that different than any other aspect of life, whether it's office politics or jostling for status in high school. People want to be recognised, want to maintain their status, want to be respected.
All good presidents had critical life experiences that helped them in the presidency. What do you bring?
I can understand people from different walks of life, understand their perspectives, see the best of them without accepting the worst in them and get them to work together. And that's partly because of what I've had to do in my life. That's what we need right now. Instead of thinking ideologically, I think very practically about what will get something done.
My relationships with the elder statesmen of the party are very good, even if they've endorsed someone else. If I'm trying to move health-care reform and Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Bill Bradley and John Chafee come to me with the possibility of compromising, I'm not going to tell them it's my way or the highway (which is what he says Bradley told him happened with Clinton's plan in 1994).
Would you have Republicans in your cabinet?
No decisions, but Dick Lugar embodies the best tradition in foreign policy. Chuck Hagel is a smart guy and has shown some courage, even though we disagree on domestic policy. Gen. Tony McPeak, former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, considered himself a Republican at the time George W. Bush started the invasion of Iraq, and he's now with us.
We've got a lot of disaffected Republicans, some in power, some ordinary citizens, who we can reach. That was my main point about Ronald Reagan, that there were Reagan Democrats. I think there are Obama Republicans that we can pull in.
Even great presidents accomplish only two or three big things. What will you have accomplished at the end of eight years?
We will have ended the war in Iraq in an honorable and strategic way as part of a larger process of rebuilding our standing in the world. We will have passed universal health care and not only expanded coverage, but started on the road toward a more efficient system. And we will have a bold energy agenda that drastically reduces our emission of greenhouse gases while creating a green engine that can drive growth for many years to come.
Why do you think you're a better general-election candidate than Hillary?
I can attract independents and Republicans. In Nevada, there were votes that I got [in rural counties] that Hillary Clinton could not get. There were no votes that she got that I could not get in a general election. And it's fair to say we are inspiring people who were not involved in politics to get involved, and that changes the political map.
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