Barack Obama: 9/11 fever has broken

OBAMA:  Well, first of all, I was talking to your producer, and I think the best segment you’ve done in a while, Keith, was that checklist around the habeas corpus issue.

FREE VIDEO Death of habeas corpus? Oct. 10: Part of the Military Commissions Act seems to eliminate the right of habeas corpus. “Countdown” examines in a special investigation. Countdown

We lost that vote, but I think it’s interesting to point out what happened there.  When that first came up, that was going to be the capstone of the Republican approach to this election, focus on terrorism, focus on fear, and then go into November 7 with this victory of this bill having been passed.  And the conventional wisdom in Washington was that it would pass with maybe eight or 10 votes.

And I remember speaking repeatedly in Democratic caucus about the issue of habeas corpus, that this is a core principle that we can’t sacrifice, that it’s central to who we are as a people.

In the end, we lost, but almost all Democrats voted against it, which was a significant shift from, I think, what might have been true even a year ago.  And it indicates the degree to which I think some of the arguments that the president is making are proving less tenable to the public, and, I think, the willingness for Democrats to start standing up to some of these things.

But the fact is, we haven’t done the kind of oversight and serious investigations of how we’re prosecuting this war on terrorism that I think the American people deserve.

OLBERMANN:  Senator Obama, I want to get into the message in the book and get your reaction to this seemingly ever-increasing expectation surrounding your political future.  But with your permission, we need to take a commercial break for just a second.

OBAMA:  You have my permission.

OLBERMANN:  Thank you.

Also tonight, we’ll be talking baseball later.  A preview of the World Series match up, Cardinals-Tigers.  And we’ll talk to the woman who auctioned herself off just so she could go to a World Series game.

You are watching COUNTDOWN on MSNBC.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN:  It’s the kind of political success story that seemingly could only have been written by Horatio Alger or Frank Capra.  An obscure state senator from Illinois, with a name few had ever heard, let alone had been able to pronounce, makes a long-shot bid for an open seat in the U.S.  Senate, ends up winning by a landslide, a turn of events that would propel Barack Obama from the statehouse in Springfield to being talked about as a candidate for the White House in two years.

Our fourth story on the COUNTDOWN, continuing our conversation with Senator Obama, who, of course, is also the author of the new book “The Audacity of Hope.”

Thank you for staying with us, Senator.

OBAMA:  You bet.

OLBERMANN:  The last time I think any of us heard this kind of—again, that word buzz, about a Democratic presidential candidate, potential or otherwise, the candidate’s name was Howard Dean, and we know that did not turn out, perhaps, as Mr. Dean wanted.

Does that level of hype that you’re receiving now, the sheer height of the expectations, is it disturbing or scaring to you at all?  Because it might be good for selling books, but it may not be great for winning elections.

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