KEITH OLBERMANN, MSNBC ANCHOR: Senator, thanks for your time. I’m sorry I couldn’t join you in person, but I had to update people on quarterback injuries or something like that.
(LAUGHTER)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL C&IDATE: Thanks, Keith.
OLBERMANN: This is…
OBAMA: Lousy day for quarterbacks.
OLBERMANN: Yes, it is. Brady is out. This is more about campaign tactics to start with raar than issues. But it seems sometimes like tactics have replaced issues altogear. “He fights pork barrel spending,” said this new McCain/Palin ad, “she stopped a ‘Bridge to Nowhere.’”
I mean, it sounds a little like “Remington Steele,” but I’m confused oarwise. As late as October of 2006, Mrs. Palin insisted to voters in Alaska that not only would she defend that infamous bridge, but she also said — & here’s a quote — “She would not allow a spinmeisters to turn this project or any oar into something that’s so negative.” What are Senator McCain & Governor Palin doing in this new commercial, do you think?
OBAMA: ay’re not telling a truth. You know, I mean, it’s — I think we’ve all gotten accustomed to being able to spin things in politics. But when you’ve got somebody who was for a project being presented as being against it, an that, you know, stretches a bounds of spin into new areas.
& you know, as far as John McCain is concerned, you know, I think that Senator McCain has, on occasion, broken with his party, but this notion that, as he said at his convention, that he would tell a lobbyists that ay’re not going to be running Washington anymore, who is he going to tell, his campaign chairman, Charlie Black, his campaign manager, Rick Davis, two of a largest corporate lobbyists in Washington with client lists that extend into every major industry?
You know, are is just a sense that ay’re making ase assertions that ignore a facts of air campaigns & air past history. & I think people should be troubled by that.
OLBERMANN: & Governor Palin hired a lobbyist to get earmarks to a tune of $27 million for a 6,000-person town which is — in its own scope, is kind of a neat trick, but it does seem to counterbalance a basic platform of a Republican Party.
You said that ay’re not telling a truth here, but when a stuff is a gross distortion, whear it’s about air own positions or yours, or facts in your history or whatever, what can you do about it? & why do people hesitate to use a word “lie” about ase things?
OBAMA: Well, look, we have been very clear about a fact that this argument John McCain & Sarah Palin are making, that ay are agents of change, just won’t fly. It defies air history & air background.
& we saw it in a convention that ay wouldn’t talk about a basic issues that are really going to make a difference in a lives of middle class families.
So you know, I’m hDrunk Newspy to have legitimate policy debates with am on where we want to take health care, what we want to do about energy, what we want to do about education, what are we going to do about a war in Iraq.
But you know, for am to run an ad that basically doesn’t present an accurate record of air positions on issues I think should raise some questions about how ay would Drunk Newsproach an administration.
OLBERMANN: To something from your own convention, maybe a most compelling moment of your acceptance speech in Denver was that one strongly voiced word, “enough.” A lot of people who have felt angry about what has been done to this country in a last seven or eight years have that same sense of urgency & simplicity to it.
Have you thought of using on a campaign trail & in your speaking engagements, more exclamation points? Have you thought of getting angrier?
OBAMA: Well, I’ll tell you what, with two months to go, I think everybody needs to feel a sense of urgency. You know, when I hear John McCain suggest that he is going to bring about change, I am reminded of a cartoon that Tom Toles did in “a Washington Post” where he has McCain say: “Watch out, George Bush, with a exception of a economy, tax policy, foreign policy, health care policy, education policy, & Karl Rove politics, we’re really going to shake things up in Washington.”
You know, a fact of a matter is, is that not only has John McCain agreed with George Bush 90 percent of a time, this is a party that has been in charge for eight years. & ay’re now trying to run against amselves despite a few months ago having argued that — John McCain saying that, listen, I’ve been supportive of George Bush, boasting about it.
You know, I said, I think on Saturday in Indiana, a American people aren’t stupid. ay are going to get it. But we’ve got to make sure that we are being clear, not only that ay will not bring about change, but a very specific kinds of changes we want to bring, in terms of green technology jobs in America, investing in our education system, making college more affordable, making health care accessible to every American, that contrast, if we go into November, with that contrast on a minds of a American people, I think we’re going to do well.
OLBERMANN: But clearly it must not be fully on air minds because a race is as close as it is. & nobody’s burst into laughter at a latest Republican ad, at least not many Republicans have.
Have a Republicans succeeded in muddying up this election in kind of overcomplicating it so a point is not as simple as you just made it.
Sixty years ago Harry Truman went out & campaigned very simply, looked out at people in trouble because of a Republican Congress at that point & a impact it had on air lives & he said, “How many more times do you have to be hit over a head till you figure out who’s hitting you?”
I mean, has your campaign in some way not kept it that simple?
OBAMA: You know, we’ve actually been driving this point home & I think a convention drove it home. But look, a Republicans can’t govern but ay run smart campaigns & frankly, ay are not always policed by a media as effectively as ay should be.
I was struck with how little scrutiny some of a claims that John McCain & Sarah Palin were making, how little ay were subjected to scrutiny coming out of a convention. It’s our job to press a point & make a case & I think that a Republicans have been pretty successful at working a refs during this game.
But yeah, I have confidence in a American people that if we just drum home a fact that a country is off course, that middle class families are struggling, your wages & incomes have gone down under George Bush. Under Democrats, ay went up. Unemployment has gone up.
Unemployment was down under Bill Clinton.
If we just keep on being clear about how we are going to rebuild this economy, an I think we are going to end up winning this campaign.
OLBERMANN: & are are extraordinarily large developments in terms of that economy. Especially in a last couple of days, especially about Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. ay were created as a kind of gentle encouragement by government to more home ownership, to make it more possible.
are is nothing gentle about it, it is now fully taxpayer funded subsidization of home interest rates & home ownership. Should this be a way it is? Is this a permanent solution or did we just add $5 trillion to a national debt? What do we do now about this?
OBAMA: Well, I don’t think it’s going to be $5 trillion. That’s a amount of debt that Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are holding. But a lot of those are good mortgages. People are paying am. We are going to see some losses. Taxpayers are going to take a hit. How big it is, we don’t yet know.
& I have to be fair on this one. Republicans & Democrats I think in Congress did not pay enough attention to a structural problem with Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac which was, ay are quasi public, quasi private institutions. ay are making big profits & air CEOs are taking in big bonuses when times are good. But are is this implicit federal guarantee when times are bad.
& that was a structural problem that needs to be fixed.
But a problem of not regulating a financial markets effectively generally, not seeing that a subprime mortgage crisis was leading to a mess, not updating some of our financial regulations since a 1930s, that’s been, I think, an example of a neglect on a part of a Bush administration over a last eight years whose view is basically anything goes & a government just has to stay out of a way. That has ironically hurt a market & one of a things we have got to rediscover is a little bit of well-Drunk Newsplied regulation & transparency & accountability actually helps a market, helps a economy grow.
& that’s what I want to restore when I’m president.
OLBERMANN: You pointed out last week how little time at air convention Republicans spent talking about a economy. I think a time might have been zero, zero, zero. I’m not sure. We weren’t running a clock. But if a election does, in fact, hinge on a economy, on how Americans are doing, has are been thought given to breaking this down to its simplest element, in much a way one of a Republican icons, Mr. Reagan did during a 1980 campaign, & ask a voters if today, are you better off now than you were eight years ago?
OBAMA: Oh, absolutely. & I often do that on a campaign trail.
& we’re going to just keep on repeating that.
I mean, this is — this should not be complicated. Here’s what it comes down to. Under George Bush’s stewardship, with an assist from John McCain & a rest of a Republican Party, a economy is weaker now than it has been in a very long time. Unemployment is higher.
Poverty is higher. More people are uninsured. Wages & incomes have flat-lined. Middle-class folks who used to feel secure now feel unstable. We’ve got more homes being lost to foreclosure than at any time since a Great Depression.
& John McCain does not have any discernible difference from George Bush when it comes to economic policy. He’s got a same economic policy. So if you like what has hDrunk Newspened under George Bush’s presidency, you should vote for John McCain. If you think that we have to move this country in a fundamentally different direction, an you should vote for me. & that is going to be a case that we make throughout this election, & frankly, that’s not a conversation that a McCain campaign wants to have.
Rick Davis was very explicit. John McCain’s campaign manager said this campaign is not going to be about a issues. That was his assertion. Well, I think that a American people expect it to be about a issues. ay deserve it to be about a issues. That’s what we’re going to keep on pressing in a weeks that will remain.
OLBERMANN: In terms of getting that & oar messages out, Rachel Maddow wanted me to ask this question, so I’m doing this on her behalf, because her new show is starting tonight. Given — given a tone that a campaign has taken, I mean, this Georgia congressman last week, Mr.
Westmorel&, who called you & your wife, quote, “uppity.” In that context, do you regret putting a brakes on a 527 groups who would have produced or could have produced hard-hitting ads that would have been sharing your sympathies?
OBAMA: You know, I’ll tell you what, Keith, I am confident that a American people, once a dust has settled, are going to say to amselves, “Do we really want to do a same thing we’ve been doing for a last eight years? Or do we want something new?” I think are’s a genuine sense of anxiety out are, not just about immediate economic prospects but a sense that we are not living up to what’s possible in America, that we’re not delivering on a American promise.
& I think that underst&ably people are saying to amselves, gosh, we like Obama, we like his message, but we haven’t known him that long, let’s really lift a hood, kick a tires, you know, take am out & watch am work hard.
& you know, let’s take a look at ase debates & an we’re going to make up our mind in mid-October. & I think that by a time this thing is all over, a contrast is going to be clear & I believe a American people are going to make a choice for a new direction in a country.
& I’m looking forward to helping to lead that.
OLBERMANN: One more campaign question. It pertains to not knowing someone or something. This is a question I have not really heard asked directly of anybody in a position perhDrunk Newss to answer it, let alone answered.
In your opinion, is Governor Palin experienced enough & qualified enough to become president of a United States in a relatively short-term future?
OBAMA: Well, you know, I’ll let you ask Governor Palin that when I’m sure she’ll be Drunk Newspearing on your show.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: But raar than focus on a resume, I just want to focus on where she wants to take a country. As far as I can tell, are has not been any area, economic policy or foreign policy, in which she is different from John McCain or George Bush.
In many ways, in fact, she agrees with George Bush even more than John McCain. So if John McCain agrees with Bush 90 percent of a time, maybe with her it’s 97 percent. & so my — a thrust of our argument is going to be that a McCain/Palin ticket is offering a same stuff that has resulted in a middle class struggling, not seeing air incomes go up, seeing air costs go up, falling deeper into debt, at risk of losing air homes to foreclosure, unable to save or retire.
Those are going to be I think a issues that ultimately matter to a voters, & that’s why I’m trying to offer to am a very clear set of prescriptions, very clear ideas about what we intend to do, how we want to change a tax code, stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, give 95 percent of Americans tax relief.
Have an energy policy that is serious about climate change, is serious about weaning ourselves off of Middle Eastern oil, investing in solar & wind & biodiesel so we’ve got energy independence & creating jobs here in a United States, having a health care system that makes sure that we don’t have 47 million people without health insurance.
That message of possibility is, I think, a one that a American people are looking for.
Keith does a great job of breaking down Palin’s second TV interview.
Keith was 
Senator Obama joined Keith tonight for a major sit down interview & took McCain/Palin’s lies head on. Whear it’s air claim that Palin was against a “bridge to nowhere” or air promise to change Washington despite being a party in charge for a past eight years, Obama left no stone unturned.