'Meet the Press' transcript for April 20, 2008

MR. GARIN:  There ought to be a level playing field.  That’s all we’re asking for.

MR. AXELROD:  Right.  I, I...

MR. GARIN:  She, she’s gotten a bad rap here that, that just isn’t fair.

MR. RUSSERT:  All right.  You’ve, you’ve asked the question.

MR. GARIN:  Right.

MR. AXELROD:  Look, as I said, I respect Senator Clinton, we respect Senator Clinton.  Senator Obama didn’t get into this race to tear Hillary Clinton down.  He got into this race to lift this country up, and his strong feeling is that, in order to do that, we have to challenge the prevailing practices of Washington.  That means this unbelievable hammer lock that special interests have on the decision-making here, this penchant for scoring political points rather than solving problems, and, most importantly, the divisiveness that emanates from our politics.  We need to bring this country together in order to get things done.  I think that’s what the American people are looking for. Senator Clinton has many, many attributes, and she’s a smart and able person. She’s got a lot of good ideas.

MR. RUSSERT:  Will she bring the changes necessary to Washington?

MR. AXELROD:  I think the answer to that is no.  I think she, she is running as the consummate Washington insider.  That is her argument.  “I know the system better than he knows the system.” I can work the system more.  We believe the system has to change.  This system is not serving the people of Pennsylvania or the American people.

MR. RUSSERT:  You used the word reasonable chance.  Do you believe that Hillary Clinton has a reasonable chance of being the nominee?

MR. AXELROD:  Well, I think it’s difficult.  I think everybody would acknowledge that it’s difficult.  When you look at the numbers, they’re daunting.  But only she can make that decision, Tim.

MR. GARIN:  But...

MR. RUSSERT:  Will Senator Clinton stay in this race through all the primaries in June?

MR. GARIN:  There’s not a reason not to, but, look, I think that will be dictated by, by events.  Her commitment now is to let the process play through, to let voters vote.  This...

MR. RUSSERT:  But if she woke up...

MR. GARIN:  This is...

MR. RUSSERT:  If she woke up after, after Indiana and, and North Carolina, if—where there will only be 220 elected delegates available, and she was still 150 behind Obama, and she couldn’t catch up in the popular vote, would she say, “I just can’t catch up.  It’s time to fold the tent because this is dividing the party”?

MR. GARIN:  Look, I think, I think it’s time to fold the tent when somebody gets to that number of 2200 delegates and...

MR. RUSSERT:  Howard Dean says the superdelegates who are undecided should make their decision by early June, not wait till the convention, so that “we, the Democratic Party,” he said, “will know who are nominee is the first week of June.” Is that advisable?

MR. GARIN:  Well, look, I, I, I, I would advise people to wait until June 3^rd when this process is played through, see how close, how close it is, how well the candidates are doing, how they’re conducting themselves.  But let me just go back for one second.  This, this idea that Hillary Clinton won’t make the changes we need in Washington, there—Senator Obama’s campaign is based on a negative premise about Senator Clinton, and, and somehow she’s been cast as the one who’s running the negative campaign.  She is the person—she is all about solutions.  Our events in Pennsylvania and elsewhere aren’t about what’s wrong with Barack Obama, there are, they are solutions for America events. She has a, you know, the debate the other day—the important part of that debate wasn’t the beginning, it was when they were talking about the issues, and in that part of the debate, the reason that Senator Clinton won is that she came across as the person who knew the issues, knows her own mind, knows where—who she stands for, and knows what to do as president to make the changes we need in, in America.  That’s a fair debate to have.  Just to—for out there saying she’s in the thrall of the special interests won’t make changes.  That’s, that’s not an honest discussion.

MR. RUSSERT:  On our poll that we put on the board where Clinton is ahead, David Axelrod, voters, by 2-to-1, said Hillary Clinton was the better debater the other night.  Do you agree?

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