Hardball College Tour: Sen. Barack Obama
Posted: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 6:02 PM by Cathy Finkler
Chris Matthews
Sen. Barack Obama kicked off the Hardball College Tour Wednesday in West Chester University in Pennsylvania.
Below are some highlights from the broadcast:
Photo: Alex Brandon | AP
On bowling
Chris Matthews: One of the perks, senator, of being president of the United States is that you have your own bowling alley. Are you ready to bowl from day one?
Barack Obama: Obviously, I am not.
(Laughter)
Matthews: Ha!
Obama: But I figure there might be some bowlers here at West Chester. I just want to thank all of them for hosting us. This is a wonderful group. Thank you so much for having me.... And basketball I can play.
On whether or not he's tough enough
Matthews: That was the warm-up. How do we know that you're tough enough to take the heat from the right, right-wing radio and from the right-wing columnists, if you begin to pull our troops out of Iraq and they start screaming, "Who lost Iraq?" How do we know you're as tough as Dick Cheney to ignore public opinion and do what you believe in? Because he's certainly tough enough to do it.
Obama: Well, first of all, you don't ignore public opinion. You try to shape public opinion. And you try to shape it with the truth, not with false facts, not by shading intelligence reports.
And you know, in terms of my toughness, look, first of all, I come from Chicago. And you know, politics in Chicago, as it was once said, is not tiddlywinks. It's not beanbag. It's a tough town.
But what I've been able to do is to rise politically without compromising my ethics, without compromising my principles. I think during the course of this campaign, we're going up against a pretty tough political operation with the Clintons. Nobody's ever accused them of being soft. And so far, we're doing pretty well. And you know, I am very confident that when it comes to issues like Iraq, a war that I stood up against at a time when it would have been politically convenient to be for it, or at least to be silent, when it comes to tough issues like talking to leaders we don't like, something that defies some of the conventional wisdom in Washington but I feel very strongly about, then I'm going to stick to my guns and try to persuade the American people that we need to go in a new direction and fundamentally break with the failed policies of the past seven-and-a-half years.
On Iraq
Obama: ...I think there's a huge difference between any of the Democrats and John McCain. I mean, John McCain got upset, I think, today, apparently, because I had repeated exactly what he said, which is that we might be there for a hundred years, if he had his way. Now, he's now arguing, "Well, I didn't mean that we would be fighting a war for a hundred years, we might just be present." What he is talking about is having a permanent occupation and permanent bases inside of Iraq. We are spending right now $10 billion to $12 billion a month inside of Iraq. That's that's money that could be spent giving college scholarships to all these young people.
Photo by Alex Wong | Getty Images
On student aid
Obama: This is something I hear about all across the country. And first of all, I've got a personal stake in this because when Michelle and I graduated from law school, our combined monthly student loan was more than our mortgage. And that was true for about 10 years. And we were luckier than most because, as attorneys, we could make a little more than if somebody was a teacher or somebody was a social worker. We've got to deal with this. I want to restore money that's already been taken away, number one. Number two, I want to expand Pell grants because we need more grants, fewer loans so that students aren't piling up huge amounts of debt. Number three, I want to create a $4,000 tuition credit, every student, every year. But young people will not be able to get it for free. You guys are going to have to participate in community service, work in a homeless shelter, work in a veterans' home, join the Peace Corps. We'll invest in you, you invest in America. And together, the country will get stronger, and you guys won't be loaded up with so much debt when you leave college. And one of the ways to pay for it, by the way, is eliminating the middlemen in some of the federal direct loan programs.
On faith and the Rev. Wright controversy
Obama: I am a Christian, and I pray every night. And when you're running for president, you pray even more...
(laughter)
...Obviously, there's a flap in terms of my former pastor. And that was a difficult moment. You know, this is somebody who, on the one hand, is a good man, but said some things that I deeply disagree with. And I tried to give a speech here in Philadelphia to indicate the broader context of the anger that still exists and the resentments that still exists between the races. And my belief is that one of the important things about my Christian faith is that you forgive people. You try to understand them. And ultimately, the judge is going to be -- God is going to be somebody who's making judgments about many of these things. So I'm going to stay focused on the job that I'm doing, and hopefully, you'll pray for me, too.
On good judgment, restraint
Obama: The most important thing that you need is somebody who is going to exercise good judgment. And judgment is not simply a matter of sounding tough or talking tough. It is a matter of weighing and making good decisions under stress.
If you think about, for example, John F. Kennedy, his biggest mistake was going ahead with military action that hadn't been thought through.... his greatest triumph was actually showing restraint in a very dangerous, difficult situation.
Now, obviously, something involving al Qaeda is not comparable. And my whole plan for going after terrorists is to refocus attention on terrorist networks, something that the Iraq war has been a distraction from.
On race
Matthews: This is a strange question, but everything is ethnic this year, so I will ask it: What it's like to be a black kid with a white mom?
Obama: Well, I tell you what. It is part of what America is about. We're a melting pot. And what I think it did for me was to give me a perspective that maybe is broader on some of the misunderstandings that people go through, but also an appreciation of everybody's cultures. It is not just the fact that I have a black dad and a white mom. I have got a sister who is half-Indonesian, who is married to a Chinese Canadian.
I have got a niece who looks like, you know, she's all mixed up. (LAUGHTER)
And, you know, so when you get our family together -- I have said this before, I wrote a book. I have got family members that look like Margaret Thatcher. I have got family members that look like Bernie Mac.
What it means is, I'm not going to engage in stereotypes about people, because you never know where people are coming from. (Photo: Alex Brandon | AP)
Click here to watch more video:
On Iraq
On students' questions
On 3 a.m. phone calls
On his personal life
On gay marriage and education
Read the entire transcript
Click here to learn more about Hardball College Tour and to see past stops. Were you there? Share your photos, videos, and stories about being on the tour.
