Obama Plays Offense

As Barack Obama rolled across rural South Carolina last week on his campaign bus, he spoke with NEWSWEEK columnist Jonathan Alter about the new rougher tone of the campaign, his prospects in a general election and getting things done in the presidency. Excerpts:

Alter: You're clearly not comfortable taking part in what Bill Clinton called the "contact sport" of politics.
Obama: It's not my preference. Do you remember when [Michael] Jordan's Bulls were playing the Detroit Pistons? They had the "Jordan Rules" [defense]. [The Pistons] would just knock 'em around. They didn't care. It wasn't a pretty sight. But until the Bulls learned to push back, it was going to be hard for them to win. It's not something I shy away from, but not something I relish. We're not going to back down. It's part of what's at stake here: can we change our politics?

The premise of the charge on your "present" votes in Illinois is that you were gutless.
That's the irony of it. I was often the only one voting present. If I was playing politics, I would have gone along with the other 58 [state senators]. I would not be standing on my own. The premise doesn't make sense. Most of these were a way of me signaling something technically wrong with the bill. The fact is, I took on the tough issues in the state legislature—on the death penalty, racial profiling.

You've gone after Hillary for voting on both sides of the bankruptcy bill. Isn't that just the same legitimate legislative gamesmanship—except in Washington, not Springfield?
It's more troubling than legislative gamesmanship. This is a bill her husband opposed in the White House. Then she runs for the Senate representing New York financial institutions and suddenly changes her position. The answer she gave [in the debate before the New Hampshire primary] is a classic Washington answer—I voted for it, but hoped it would fail.

Isn't it accurate for a fair-minded observer to say Hillary would be more ready on day one?
No. The question isn't who's ready on day one, but who's right on day one. A mythology has been created that somehow just by being there for eight years [in the White House as First Lady], she is going to be better prepared, better organized and exercise better judgment.

But I would put my judgments on foreign policy next to hers over the last four years on Iraq, on Iran, on how would she conduct diplomacy, on Pakistan. I would argue that reflects readiness, not the fact that you sat in the White House or that you traveled to 82 countries.