Kerry Makes Case for Obama (video and transcript)

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Video: Kerry Makes Case for Obama

TRANSCRIPT: Sen. John Kerry Discusses Obama Endorsement

December 13, 2007—

STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning, everyone.

Since his surprise loss to Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, Barack Obama has picked up a string of high-powered endorsements, topped by our headliner this morning, the Democrats' nominee in 2004, John Kerry. Welcome back to "This Week."

KERRY: Glad to be here.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you have longstanding political ties to the Clintons. Of course, you picked John Edwards as your running mate in 2004. Why Barack Obama now?

KERRY: Because I think the times demand real change. I know that word's getting overused, but it's a reality.

I believe that Barack Obama has the ability to be a transformational leader.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What does that mean?

KERRY: It means that there are big shifts, tectonic shifts in American politics. Whether it was Reagan, Kennedy, Roosevelt, there are moments where America is ready to move in a different direction.

I believe this is one of those moments.

If you go back, George, to the end of my campaign at Faneuil Hall, I talked of the conversation I had with President Bush at the end. And I warned the president, and I said this at that moment, of the division in our country, the desperate need of people for unity and of trying to come together in a different way.

And I really believed that as a result, maybe there would be a moment of healing for the country, of a better politics.

It didn't happen. It's gotten worse. This city is worse than I have ever seen it in all the years that I've been here.

And I think we need a fundamental break with the past.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And Hillary Clinton can't be that fundamental break?

KERRY: Well, she might be able to be, but I believe that Barack Obama has the better opportunity to be. I think that he brings something special to this race.

First of all, leadership -- and I'm confident your next guest, Newt Gingrich, will echo this -- requires the ability to inspire, the ability to create a movement, the ability to mobilize people around ideas. I think Barack Obama is showing the ability to do that and has shown the ability to do that.

Remember, when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill, the pen he gave, the first pen, was to Martin Luther King.

In 1970, when I was first involved in Earth Day, something some people scoff at today, but 20 million Americans came out on one single day and said, we're tired of living next to toxic waste sites. We're tired of seeing the Cuyahoga River burn. And that movement then targeted 12 congressmen -- they were labeled the Dirty Dozen -- some of them were beaten. And the result was, we passed the Clean Air Act, we passed the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act. We created an Environmental Protection Agency, which a president, Nixon, was forced to sign into law.

I believe that Barack Obama has the ability to inspire hope and to -- to find our aspirations as a nation in a way that reaches not only Americans, but reaches the world.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You made an artful reference to Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson. Senator Clinton got into a little bit of trouble this week where she seemed to downplay Martin Luther King's contribution at the expense -- I mean, enhance Lyndon Johnson's reputation at the expense of Martin Luther King. Here's what she said.

And yesterday, she said that the Obama campaign was distorting those words. She blamed the Obama campaign.

Does the Obama campaign owe Senator Clinton an apology?

KERRY: George, I don't know what the back/forth has been, and I'm not here to get in between, you know, the sort of two campaigns and how they're interpreting that.

History knows that it was those folks crossing that bridge at Selma and facing those dogs and those batons and bloodied heads. History knows that it was kids getting on the buses in the freedom rides and going down to the south, people being blown up in Birmingham and dozens of other places in the south.

History knows that it was the courageous, non-violent movement inspired by Martin Luther King that forced politicians to confront these issues, just as it has been for women, for the environment, for children, for a host of other issues. Yes, it takes a president, obviously, in the end to do that.

I believe Barack Obama has the ability to bring both of those qualities, inspire and be a president. And I think there's a reason, George, that Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Tim Kaine of Virginia and others...

STEPHANOPOULOS: All Republican states.

KERRY; All Republican states, red states, difficult states, are saying we believe Barack Obama can unite, can create this fresh and new beginning.

The other thing -- I look around at our country. I came in to public service to try to make a difference, like most of us. I see my colleague, Ted Kennedy who does a superb job of leading on these issues on the Health and Human Services Committee, frustrated, struggling to deal with an education system we still know isn't working.

Who better than Barack Obama to talk about -- and just by his person signify to the world the difference that it means to get an open door to a good school? Who better than Barack Obama to talk to young blacks in America or disaffected young people or -- anybody, and sort of say, you see what happens if you have a dream and you pursue it and you work at it?

I was just in South Africa. And I picked up the newspaper one day and there was a big headline on the second page, "Obama Says" the following. They have a huge issue there of credibility of their leadership and the issue of AIDS. I personally believe, having been 20 years, 24 years on the Foreign Relations Committee, that if Barack Obama can say things to African-American leaders that a white president just can't say....

STEPHANOPOULOS: But a lot of...

KERRY: ... and I think there's a power in that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But a lot of Democrats are worried he just can't get there. And one of the arguments the Clinton campaign is making -- you say that he -- one of the reasons you support him is because he wants to end the politics of swiftboating. One of the arguments of the Clinton camp is that he will fall victim to the politics of swiftboating, that he's unknown, untested, not tough enough.

KERRY: No, he won't, nor will any Democrat ever again. And you're looking at the person who understands that better than anybody. We made the miscalculation that we had answered the lies enough. They were answered. They were answered, contrary to myth on day one, instant one. Counter press conference.

And the mainstream media wrote the truth. But unfortunately, when lies are put out on television sufficiently and unanswered sufficiently, they can make a difference. That will never, ever happen again, not to Barack Obama...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Even though Barack Obama is brand new?

KERRY: ... not to Hillary Clinton, incidentally, either. Whoever our nominee is, I intend to fight like crazy, and I will lead the effort personally.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But there's a difference, isn't there? Senator Clinton is a known quantity. That's one of the arguments her camp makes. Barack Obama is not. And he'll be...

KERRY: Well, I think Barack Obama knows and the campaign knows that that definition process has to begin immediately. And any effort to define him will be countered immediately, and he will have the money to do that immediately. That's one of the differences.

We were stuck in the federal financing. He is not. And he will have the ability to be able to redefine himself immediately. But come back to the larger issue here. You know, look at what's happening in Washington. I mean, this place is just in gridlock and stuck.

Barack Obama stood up and passed one of the most important -- the single biggest ethics reform package that we have passed. He did that immediately. On legislative record, yes, he's a young man, but he's older than Bill Clinton when Bill Clinton became president.

He's older than John Kennedy. He's older than Teddy Roosevelt. He's only three years younger than Abraham Lincoln, who lost his seat for the House after serving only two years, lost the race for the Senate, lost the race for the Illinois legislature and became our greatest president.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And he has also been making the argument that judgment is also key, especially on the Iraq war. He says he was against it from the start. President Clinton -- we all saw it this week -- was out saying it's a fairy tale that Barack Obama's record is very different from Senator Clinton's on this score because he's voted for the funding because he said basically at your convention that he's not sure how he would have voted.

KERRY: Well, no, that's -- I beg to differ with you. If you take the complete quote of what he said at my convention, he said, "I believe it is my judgment the case has not been made."

STEPHANOPOULOS: What he said exactly was..

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... intelligence reports, what would I have done? I don't know. What I know is that, from my vantage point, the case was not made.

KERRY: Correct.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And that's one of the quotes that President Clinton was referring to.

KERRY: Well, not only did he say the case has not been made, which was a very diplomatic way of saying John Edwards and John Kerry made a mistake, at a convention where he was about to speak and I was the nominee -- so, in effect, he showed considerable diplomatic tact and he managed to duck you guys because you might have had a story that my keynote speaker was, in fact, in a different position, which he was.

He spoke at an anti-war rally of some several thousand people, in which he talked about not being against all wars but being against a war where it didn't make sense and the case had not been made.

So I don't think there's any question but that Barack Obama had a position against the war. And he made it clear...

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the argument, though, that he then came into the Senate and voted for funding?

KERRY: And I have said, since then, George, that that vote was a mistake. I believe it was a mistake because we gave power to the president that he abused.

Now, you can make arguments about what the vote was at the moment you made it. But, in the end, it turned out to be a mistake and the country now knows that, overwhelmingly. And Barack Obama had the right judgment.

I think that we also measure a life. I mean, in the end, Barack Obama has more legislative experience than Hillary Clinton, directly, because he served eight years in the Illinois legislature and, now, three years in the Senate. Hillary Clinton's had one term, plus this year and a bit, since then.

So you measure the whole life. And I think, when you measure Barack Obama's life, a guy who went to Columbia as an undergraduate, and his daddy didn't help get him into an Ivy League school; he went to Harvard Law School, became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, which, as you know, is no small task.

He goes on from there; instead of going to Wall Street to make millions, he goes to Chicago to help organize in the streets. He's a civil rights lawyer. He stood up and helped change the death penalty situation in Illinois. He fought to get children tax credits.

I think he's had the right instincts. I think he had the right instinct to say, this is the moment for America to change and to take the risk and decide to run for president.

And look at what he's achieved, against all of the forces arrayed against him. And he is now attracting people like Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Governor Janet Napolitano. I don't think that's insignificant.

STEPHANOPOULOS: One final question. You made a strong case for Senator Obama.

One question about Senator Edwards, because there are many here who say there's bad blood between you. Your former strategist, Bob Shrum, wrote that you were queasy about Senator Edwards when you actually met with him to talk about the vice presidency, after he told you a story about a promise he made to his dead son, Wade, a story he said he had never told before.

He then went on to write, Bob Shrum did...

KERRY: George, can I stop you right there?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, let me show -- let me show you this...

KERRY: I know, but it's just not worth it. It's a waste of time, because those kinds of Washington books and Washington stories are part of the problem of what's going on here.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, is the story true or not?

KERRY: It doesn't matter.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why not?

KERRY: Because, just like the Des Moines Register, that made the decision, having endorsed Edwards four years ago, they endorsed Hillary Clinton this year. Because this is a different moment. This is a different time with different demands for our country.

And I'm here supporting Barack Obama, not against Hillary, not against John Edwards, either of whom would take this country and fight to take this country in the right direction.

It's my belief that Barack Obama has the best chance of being transformative, of confronting the issues, of building the movement, of reaching out to the world to change America's perception in the world, and that he has the best opportunity to try to change our reputation and restore our moral authority on a global basis, faster than anyone.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I take you at your word. And this is just a simple yes/no question. Is that story true? And is it true that he promised you that he would not run in 2008?

KERRY: I have not read precisely how it was reflected. I have not even -- I have not read it. And I can't tell you it's been...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that's why I wanted to show it. He said...

KERRY: Well, it's a waste of time. It's a Washington deal. Let's deal with much more important things than the gossip of a book.

STEPHANOPOULOS: This was direct charges that he made...

KERRY: Well, it doesn't matter, George.

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you just don't want to comment?

KERRY: I don't want to comment. I think it's a ridiculous waste of time.

STEPHANOPOULOS: OK. Senator Kerry, thanks very much.

KERRY: Thank you. Thanks.

[Leopolds Ghost]

1. Kerry: "We were stuck in the federal financing. He is not." What does this mean?

Obama doesn't support campaign finance reform?

I thought Kerry supporters were proud of how he
insisted on federal financing and not corporate
funding (in huge quantities with inevitable strings
attached -- you think corporations give Obama $100s
of millions of dollars for nothing? Because they
are somehow more public spirited than individual
citizens who can't afford to give that much?)