ABC "Good Morning America" - Transcript
MS. SAWYER: So, are you going to win New Hampshire?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, I think we are going to do well in New Hampshire.
MS. SAWYER: Well, defined as?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, as in good. As in I think --
MS. SAWYER: One or two?
SEN. OBAMA: -- I think we'll feel good about what happens in New Hampshire.
MS. SAWYER: Senator Clinton is out there, and she is talking about you a lot.
SEN. OBAMA: Oh, goodness.
MS. SAWYER: Here are some of the things she said.
SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (From videotape.) Saying you're going to vote against the Patriot Act and then voting for it, that's not change. Saying that you are against the war in Iraq, but then voting for $300 billion to fund it, that's not change.
MS. SAWYER: In other words, on these positions -- on the war and the Patriot Act -- that you switched, that you flipped.
SEN. OBAMA: Not true. Not true. On the war, I was against the war in 2002. The notion that -- you know, that Senator Clinton would use that as a way of suggesting that I wasn't against the war from the start I think is, Diane, you know, the classic kind of politics.
MS. SAWYER: But what about her charge that he claims not to want lobbyists to surround him, but his New Hampshire co-chair Jim DeMers (sp) is a state lobbyist for a pharmaceutical companies.
SEN. CLINTON: (From videotape.) You know, Senator Obama's chair in New Hampshire is a lobbyist. He lobbies for the drug companies.
SEN. OBAMA: That's not true. That's not true.
MS. SAWYER: You seem to be saying, that's not true.
SEN. OBAMA: What she was implying was that I'd somehow broken my pledge to not accept money from federal registered lobbyists, which I don't. This guy lobbies in Concord. He has nothing to do with the federal government.
MS. SAWYER: But is that a distinction without a difference? Federal versus state lobbyist?
SEN. OBAMA: No, no. I think that's a very important difference. Because what I'm saying is that I will not have somebody who is trying to directly affect my actions involved in my campaigns. I'm not going to have somebody who could in some way curry favor with me in the federal government involved in my campaigns.
MS. SAWYER: Even if he's with the pharmaceutical industry, which he is.
SEN. OBAMA: Look, I mean, this is the kind of thing that really is frustrating. Because if you have set a high bar, you don't take federal lobbyist money, you don't take PAC money, you then are criticized by somebody who is hugely funded by federal lobbyists, hugely funded by PACs.
MS. SAWYER: Tell me about the moment last night at which she was asked the question about likeability, and she said that hurt my feelings, and you said, you're likeable enough, Hillary.
SEN. CLINTON: (From videotape.) I don't think I'm that bad.
SEN. OBAMA: (From videotape.) You're likeable enough, Hillary.
SEN. CLINTON: (From videotape.) Thank you. (Laughter.)
MS. SAWYER: Is she likeable enough or very likeable?
SEN. OBAMA: Oh, Diane. (Chuckles.) I think folks are parsing things too much there. What I should have said, the way I suppose I should have phrased it, is I think you are plenty likeable. You know, I was trying to make a gesture of graciousness that apparently has somehow been, you know, perceived differently. But, you know, that's the hazards of running for president.
MS. SAWYER: Do you get angry at her --
SEN. OBAMA: Not really.
MS. SAWYER: -- at the Clinton machine, the Clinton campaign, as it's called.
SEN. OBAMA: I find the manner in which they've been running their campaign sort of depressing lately.
MS. SAWYER: He says particularly her argument that America shouldn't be given false hope.
SEN. CLINTON: (From videotape.) We don't need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered.
SEN. OBAMA: You can picture JFK saying we can't go to the moon, it's a false hope. Let's get a reality check. It's not sort of I think what our tradition has been.
MS. SAWYER: You talk about change. You talk about being our better selves. What about sacrifice? In an Obama administration, what would the American people be asked to sacrifice?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, I think I mentioned in this town hall meeting.
SEN. OBAMA: (From videotape.) And some of them will be tough.
SEN. OBAMA: If we're going to get serious about an energy policy, then we're going to have to readjust our economy and our own personal habits in pretty serious ways. We have to increase fuel efficiency standards on cars. We have to increase efficiency of buildings. We're going to have to change light bulbs. We're going to have to probably pay higher electricity prices, at least in the short term, as there's adaptations made by technology.
And so, there will be some resistance. I promise you when I put forward my proposal to curb greenhouse gases -- but this is not just an environmental issue. It's a national security issue as well. And I think the American people and the people here in New Hampshire understand that.
MS. SAWYER: And as the people of New Hampshire turned out by the thousands to hear him, we boarded his campaign bus for a personal conversation. I asked about his wife Michelle.
MS. SAWYER: So tell me, when you call to find out about the debates --
SEN. OBAMA: Yeah.
MS. SAWYER: -- what was the word from Mrs. Obama?
SEN. OBAMA: She gave it a thumbs up, you know, and she's a tough critic. But I'll be honest with you, she doesn't watch them. She gets too nervous. So, yeah, she comes off as a tough gal, you know, pose, but she gets very tense. So she watches HDTV or, you know, the Food Channel. And then after it's over she calls other people to find out how it went.