Clinton Comments on Philadelphia TV Morning Show
Q: Obviously, the war in Iraq is one of so many issues that you dealt with at the debate Wednesday night. I want to get your thoughts on this, we talked about it yesterday, its on the front of so many papers, I’ll show you this one, it’s the Philadelphia Tribune, it says ‘viewers upset with ABC debate’, it’s got Barack Obama’s picture right there on the right. Yesterday he was saying for 40 minutes or so it was all about who said what and who did this, and you really didn’t get to the key issues until almost the second hour of the debate. What did you think about the debate on Wednesday night?
HRC: We were both asked some pretty tough questions and that’s part of what happens in a debate and in a campaign. And I know he spent all day yesterday complaining about the hard questions he was asked. Being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House. In fact, when the going gets tough, you just can’t walk away because we’re going to have some very tough decisions that we have to make. I think we need a president who can take whatever comes your way. You have to stand strong; you have to fight for the American people – because it will not be easy to stand up against the special interests.
Q: So you were fine with the debate, did you see any problem with it?
HRC: Well, can I say that I’ve been through, what 23 of these debates? And as I recall, I was asked some pretty tough questions in nearly every one of them. That goes with the territory, having been inside the White House, I know the pressures inside the White House, I know how hard it is every single day. When the going gets tough you can’t run away. And it’s going to be tough going to deal with these hard problems; getting out of Iraq in the right way, turning the economy around, getting universal health care, ending our dependence on foreign oil. The special interests are going to be a lot tougher than 90 minutes of questions from two journalists and we need a president who is going to be up there fighting everyday for the American people and not complain about how much pressure there is, and how hard the questions are.
