CBS "Early Show" - Transcript

Interview

MR. SMITH: Joining us now from San Antonio is Senator Barack Obama.

Senator, good morning.

SEN. OBAMA: Good morning, Harry. How are you?

MR. SMITH: Or is it a good morning for you?

SEN. OBAMA: (Laughs.) Well, it's a little early. But other than that, it's a great morning.

MR. SMITH: Let me ask you this. Senator Clinton threw everything but the kitchen sink at you in the last week or so. Politics 101 says if your opponent is defining you, she's winning. How did you allow that to happen?

SEN. OBAMA: Well, look, you know, we had won 12 straight contests. And, you know, Senator Clinton was due, and she had a good night last night, and I congratulate her on that. But understand what happened last night. The pledged delegate count barely changed. You know, we still have what is close to an insurmountable lead in terms of winning pledged delegates. And we're very confident about where we're going to be and that we can win the nomination and end up winning the general election.

MR. SMITH: But she's going to make the argument -- there she is -- two more big states. She's got momentum now. She's going to say, "I'm the one who can win in the general election."

SEN. OBAMA: Well, you know, that's just defied by what's happened during the course of these contests. We've won nearly twice as many states as Senator Clinton. We've won the primary vote against Senator Clinton.

MR. SMITH: But not California, not New York, not Ohio, not Texas.

SEN. OBAMA: Well, but Harry, you know, I mean, we can start listing states. I've won Missouri and I've won Georgia and I've won Illinois and I've won Wisconsin. So, you know, the bottom line is we've won twice as many states. We've won a greater share of the popular vote.

And what's, I think, most important, we've won far more independents and Republicans than Senator Clinton has. And that's, I think, what we're going to need to do to beat John McCain in the fall. And, you know, I think that it's going to be more states over the next several weeks. We're going to be running in Mississippi and in Wyoming, and we feel very confident about how we'll do there.

MR. SMITH: But the next big one is Pennsylvania, which looks an awful lot like Ohio.

SEN. OBAMA: Right. I understand, Harry, that, you know, Senator Clinton has tried to cherry-pick which states she thinks are important. But what we know is that, at the end of the day, we feel confident that we're going to have a strong delegate lead and we'll have a strong claim on the nomination.

MR. SMITH: Here's the question: Has she knocked you off your game? Has she taken the momentum away from you?

SEN. OBAMA: Well, look, you know, in politics things go up and down. And, you know, we had a pretty good run there, as I said. If you win 12 straight states and then you lose two, two states where we had started very far behind and then ended up coming a little bit short, then I think that puts us in a pretty strong position.

MR. SMITH: We'll see you down the line. Senator, thank you very much for your time this morning; do appreciate it.

SEN. OBAMA: Appreciate you, Harry. Thank you.

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