Transcript of Obama on CNN Radio

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ALI VELSHI, CNN HOST: Let's look in on CNN contributor Roland Martin, who is going to be talking with Barack Obama in his first national interview since last night's Pennsylvania primary.

Let's go to Roland Martin now.

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SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... in Wisconsin, in Iowa, in Virginia. And really, you know, if we had a demographic problem in Pennsylvania, it was that it's an older state than a lot of states. And it is true that Senator Clinton has some strong support among voters over 60.

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Now, when you say older state, we saw about 12, 14 percent of the total electorate were young voters. And basically you've done well. It's been around 18 to 22. Is that what you mean?

OBAMA: Exactly. So -- you know, so there is no doubt that Senator Clinton had some good support built in, in Pennsylvania.

We were starting off 20 to 25 points behind. We were able to close that gap. Made terrific progress, were able to lay the groundwork for a vigorous campaign in Pennsylvania in the fall, when -- you know, should I be the nominee, I'll have the support of people like Governor Rendell, who obviously worked very hard on behalf of this candidate.

So, overall, we feel good about the work that we did. And now we are in Indiana and North Carolina, but I think it's very important for people to recognize that if you look at all the states where we've won, you know, we've won most of the vote when it is under 60 among blue collar voters. And the problem is that we still have to do a better job of making sure that we are talking to our seniors, and it's not surprising that Senator Clinton's argument about experience may have more traction with them.

MARTIN: Senator Obama, we are also simulcasting this on ISSUE #1 on CNN. And I've got to get to the economy.

We've been hearing talk about appealing to Reagan Democrats. How do you make the argument -- do you make the argument that, look, you folks need to be voting on your economic interests? Because critics say that Democrats have not made that connection to say that if you are -- if you are a blue collar white person in Ohio and Pennsylvania, you are in the same economic condition as an African-American or Hispanic in the inner city of Chicago. Your economics are the same.

How are you going to make that connection if you are the nominee against John McCain, speaking specifically about the economic interests of those voters?

OBAMA: Well, look, people obviously don't just vote on economics. And so, you know, people are going to be voting on a whole range of issues.

They'll be voting on, you know, foreign policy issues. They'll be voting on issues related to faith. They'll be voting on issues relating to crime.

So there are going to be a whole bunch of things that people care about. But there is no doubt that the economy is the number one issue.
I think that is a huge built-in advantage for the Democrats.

Whoever the Democratic nominee is, is going to be able to go up against a Republican candidate who essentially wants to continue George Bush's economic policies, policies that we know the vast majority of people are dissatisfied with. So, the key is just to talk in very specific terms about how we can improve the lives of working people.
That if we are changing our tax code and not giving tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas or to the wealthiest among us, but instead giving tax breaks to working families, that is more money in their pockets and that's actually going to be improve economic growth.

If we talk about investing in infrastructure, green technologies, you know, those are all job generators that could put people back to work. Stabilizing the housing market so that people aren't losing value in their homes. Making sure that we're investing in education and making college more affordable and providing health care for all people.

You know, we are going to be able to, I think, present a clear platform of how ordinary people's lives will be better as a consequence of a Democrat in the White House. And I think we will be able to persuade a lot of people that we need to bring about that kind of change.

MARTIN: Senator, I've got to ask you this question because I watched the debate last week and I've watched previous debates. And it seems that we gloss over college -- the cost of going to college.
Tuition rates exploding all across the country. Sallie Mae announced that they're going to be losing money on giving college loans and will be even more selective.

So, what will you do as president to help those families who flat-out cannot afford to send their kids to college right now? And we're going to see tuition going up big time over the next 12, 24 months.

OBAMA: Well, it's a huge issue and it's affecting not just the traditional four-year college students, and it's affecting a lot of non-traditional students who may go to a community college for two years, work, then they need to go back for retraining and they just can't afford it, especially if they're already supporting a family.

So, what I said is we need to expand pell grants so that we have more grants relative to loans. We also need to get out the middlemen between Federal guaranteed loan programs and students. Banks, Sallie Mae, other financial institutions, they're making billions of dollars on a lot of these loan programs. And there's no reason why we can't make those loans directly to students. Saving that money will allow to expand more loan programs.

And the third thing is a $4,000 tuition credit, every student, every year. And they don't have to use it all in the same four years. They can stretch it out so that students who may be going to school for two years then going back for retraining five years later, they can benefit, as well in exchange for community service or national service (ph).

The final thing we're going to have to do though is we've got to work with universities to keep their costs down. And some of that has to do with the decline of state assistance, which is why it's so important that the federal government follow through on its commitments to various funding streams to the states so that they have enough money to help their universities.

And we've got to work with the universities and students to try to lower the cost of inflation generally and that doesn't just include tuition. It means text books that are sky high.

These are all issues I'm obviously sympathetic to because Michelle and I, our combined loan debt when got out of law school was bigger than our mortgage. And as somebody who had to finance his own college and law school educations, I know how difficult it is for a lot of people.

MARTIN: I'm getting the hook from your people. And I got two more questions. "Washington Post" had a story today talking about there's a debate going on in your campaign about you going more negative as we go to North Carolina and Indiana. Is that the case or not or are you going to stay focused on a positive message, one that's about hope and change as you compete against Senator Clinton?

OBAMA: Yes, that -- whoever the "Washington Post" was quoting isn't part of my campaign because we have not had any discussions about going negative in the way that that story referred to. We have been consistent in this campaign in talking about the issues, trying to have a different kind of politics.

And so, you might as well -- the "Washington Post" needs to take that source out of their rolodex. That's not somebody who was -- represents any conversations we've had. In fact, I've been adamant to say that we can't run that kind of campaign. It's contrary to our message and I think it would actually erode support for me, in addition to not solving the problems of the American people needs solving.

MARTIN: Now, debates. You -- there's not going to be a CBS debate on Sunday in North Carolina. But I do know that there's been talk about a proposed debate in Indiana carried on CNN and I think PBS. What about that? Are you through with debates or are you considering that? And can we get a commitment that you would actually participate in that debate?

OBAMA: Well, Roland, the -- I know you want a scoop. But we'll take each request as they come. Obviously, we've had 21 debates at this point. I think the people have a pretty good sense of where Senator Clinton and I stand and what we're talking about during the course of these debates.

At this point, what's most important to me is making sure I'm talking directly to people, doing as many town halls as possible, letting them ask questions of me directly. Me hearing from them and finding out what they think and what they care about.

And with only two weeks and two big states to cover, it's not clear that another debate is going to be the best use of our time. But you know, we're going to be taking a look at every avenue to be able to talk to the American people, what they are concerned about, rising gas prices, keeping home foreclosures at bay, making sure that we're investing in the kind of energy strategies that we need for the future.

And that's going to be the central focus of our campaign over the next couple of weeks.

MARTIN: Well, hey, you know, we tried. And plus, you're up 15 points in North Carolina. So, you can find a couple of hours to have a debate.

Senator Barack Obama, certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much, sir.

OBAMA: Great to talk to you, Roland. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

MARTIN: Thank you.

And folks, we tried to get Senator Hillary Clinton, but she's actually in the air right now.