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Article Excerpt
Original Source: CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: This is "Late Edition," the last word in Sunday talk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER (voice-over): The battle for the White House heats up, as the world watches. From intimate town halls in the United States...
MCCAIN: Americans are sitting around the kitchen table tonight figuring out whether they can keep their home or not.
BLITZER: ... to enormous rallies in Europe.
OBAMA: Let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.
BLITZER: John McCain and Barack Obama are clashing over issues.
OBAMA: I welcome a growing consensus in the United States and Iraq for a timeline.
MCCAIN: We can follow Senator Obama's unconditional withdrawal and risk losing the peace.
BLITZER: And it's getting very personal.
MCCAIN: Senator Obama just used this war as another political issue.
BLITZER: Today, on this special "Late Edition," you'll hear all of my one-on-one interview with John McCain.
OBAMA: It's hard for me to understand Senator McCain's argument. He was telling me I was supposed to take this trip.
BLITZER: And we'll go live to a major forum where Barack Obama will be taking questions from an audience of minority journalists. And, of course, throughout our show, we'll have the kind of analysis you've come to expect only from the best political team on television.
"Late Edition's" line-up begins right now.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN in Washington, this is "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer.
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BLITZER: It's 11 a.m. here in Washington, 10 a.m. in Chicago, and 6 p.m. in Baghdad. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us for this special "Late Edition."
For the next two hours, we're going to give you a chance to hear in-depth from both leading candidates for president of the United States. We'll go live to Chicago where Senator Barack Obama will be appearing for the first time since his overseas tour, speaking and answering questions at a conference of minority journalists.
But right now, my wide-ranging, one-on-one interview with the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain.
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BLITZER: And joining us now, the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain.
Senator McCain, welcome back.
MCCAIN: Thanks, Wolf. Good to be back.
BLITZER: Let's talk about -- you're elected president of the United States. It's January 20, 2009, first day you're in the Oval Office, after you're sworn in, what's...
(AUDIO GAP)
MCCAIN: ... national security advisers and say, "How can we keep the peace in the world? What do we need to do? And what actions do we have to take? What actions have worked? Which ones haven't? Which policies haven't worked? And keep this nation safe and secured."
And then, of course, how do we restore trust and confidence in government? We've got to take some measures to reform the way that government does business, the way Congress does business, and get Americans' trust and confidence back in this country.
And that means -- and their government. And that means reforming the way that government does business, which Americans have lost trust and confidence in.
BLITZER: And what about what a lot of people call issue number one, the domestic economy, which seems to be in real serious trouble right now, by almost all accounts will still be in serious trouble in January of next year? What's the first thing you do on the economy?
MCCAIN: Restrain spending is the first thing we have to do. We have to restrain out-of-control spending. We have to reform government. We have to embark on measures to keep people in their homes, to keep their taxes low, to create new jobs, and to get our economy back moving again.
And that's part of the trust and confidence. We've got to regain the trust and confidence of the American people, because we have to act together. We have to put our country first. Congress and the government is fundamentally gridlocked, as we know. And that's why we see the all-time-low approval ratings of Congress.
And so we have to sit down together, Republican and Democrat together, and start working for the good of this nation, keep people in their homes, provide them with affordable and available health care, create new jobs all across this country.
And we can do it. And one of the major, major aspects of this, of course, is energy independence. The price of a gallon of gas is killing -- is harming the fixed-income Americans very badly. They're the ones that drive the oldest automobiles and drive the furthest.
And so we have to have this positive movement and mission, a national mission to become independent of foreign oil.
BLITZER: All right, we're going to get all those issues one by one. Let's talk a little bit about the national security issues. You're president of the United States; you've vowed that you will capture Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.
Now, we know that President Bush since 9/11 has been doing the best he can. What would you do differently?
MCCAIN: Well, I'm not going to telegraph a lot of the things that I'm going to do because then it might compromise our ability to do so. But, look, I know the area. I've been there. I know wars. I know how to win wars. And I know how to improve our capabilities so that we will capture Osama bin Laden or, put it this way, bring him to justice.
BLITZER: All right. If you capture...
MCCAIN: We will do it. I know how to do it.
BLITZER: If you capture him alive, what do you do with him?
MCCAIN: Of course you put him on trial. I mean, there are ample precedents of -- for that. And it might be a good thing to reveal to the world the enormity of this guy's crimes and his intentions, which are still there. And he's working night and day to destroy everything we stand for and believe in.
BLITZER: Do you do him a regular civilian trial here in the United States or is it a war crimes tribunal, a military commission? What kind of legal justice would you bring him toward?
MCCAIN: We have various options, but the Nuremburg trials are certainly an example of the kind of tribunal that we could move forward with. I don't think we'd have any difficulty devising an international -- an internationally supported mechanism that would mete out justice. And there's no problem there.
BLITZER: All right, let's talk about the war in Iraq right now. Charles Krauthammer, the Washington Post conservative columnist, he writes that the prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, in recent days, quote, "voted for Obama, casting the earliest and most ostentatious absentee ballot of this presidential election."
If you were president and Nouri al-Maliki is still the elected prime minister of Iraq, and he says he wants all U.S. troops out, what do you do?
MCCAIN: Well, first of all, I know Prime Minister Maliki rather well. I know that he is a politician, and I know that they are looking at upcoming elections. I know that he knows and every -- and the other leaders know there that it has to be condition-based.
Any withdrawals -- which we will withdraw. We have succeeded. The surge has succeeded. And we're on the road to victory. And we will be out of there. And we may have a residual presence of some kind, as I've always said, but the fact is, the surge has succeeded.
And the fundamental here is that I supported that surge when it was not the popular thing to do. Senator Obama opposed it, said it wouldn't work, even voted to cut off the funds for the men and women who are fighting over there, and still -- and he still doesn't understand to the point where he doesn't agree that the surge has succeeded.
No rational observer -- no rational observer who sees the conditions in Iraq today as opposed to two years ago could possibly -- could possibly conclude that the surge hasn't succeeded.
So he sees it as a political issue. He doesn't understand the importance of this victory, and the consequences of failure, and the benefits of success.
If we had done what Senator Obama wanted to do, which, by the way, initially would have been the troops out last March, we would've had greater Iranian influence, we would have had an increase in sectarian violence, we would have seen possibly a wider war in the region, which would have drawn us back.
So I can assure you that Prime Minister Maliki understands that conditions have to be kept. And I want to find -- tell you again, General Petraeus, one of the great generals in history, strongly disagrees with Senator Obama. And our highest-ranking military officer also says it would be a very dangerous course. We're not going to go down that road.
BLITZER: What -- but if Maliki persists, you're president, and he says he wants U.S. troops out and he wants them out, let's say, in a year or two years or 16 months, or whatever, what do you do? Do you just -- do you listen to the prime minister?
MCCAIN: He won't. He won't. He won't, because he...
BLITZER: How do you know? How do you know? How do you know that?
MCCAIN: ... knows that it has to be condition-based. Because I know him, and I know him very well. And I know the other leaders. And I know -- I've been there eight times, as you know. And I know them very, very well.
BLITZER: So why do you think he said...
MCCAIN: And the point is...
BLITZER: Why do you think he said that 16 months is basically a pretty good timetable?
MCCAIN: He said it's a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground. I think it's a pretty good timetable, as we should -- or horizons for withdrawal. But they have to be based on conditions on the ground.
This success is very fragile. It's incredibly impressive, but very fragile. So we know -- those of us who have been involved in it for many years know that, if we reverse this by setting a date for withdrawal, all of the hard-won victory can be reversed.
MCCAIN: We're not ready to do that. Too many brave young Americans and their families have sacrificed too much.
But we will be out, and the difference is, we'll be out with victory and honor and not defeat. Senator Obama has said there's a possibility, under his plan, we may have to go back.
I guarantee you, after they withdraw under what we are doing, we'll never have to go back.
BLITZER: All right. Now, you also made a very serious charge against Senator Obama. You've repeated it. You say you stand by it, that he would rather lose a war to win a political campaign, raising questions about, you know, his motives.
Joe Klein, writing in Time Magazine, says, "This is the ninth presidential campaign I've covered. I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate. It smacks of desperation."
Those are pretty strong words from Joe Klein, whom you obviously know. But tell us. What are you charging -- what are you accusing Obama of doing?
MCCAIN: I am accusing -- I am stating the facts, and the facts are that I don't question Senator Obama's patriotism. I'm sure that he's a very patriotic American. I question his judgment because he lacks experience and knowledge, and I question his judgment.
I'm not prepared to see the sacrifice of so many brave young Americans lost because Senator Obama just views this war as another political issue which he can change positions.
And everybody knows that he was able to obtain the nomination of his party by appealing to the far left and committing to a course of action that I believe was -- I know was wrong because he said the surge would not work. He said it wouldn't succeed. No rational observer in Iraq today believes that the surge did not succeed. So he just treats it as another political issue because he doesn't understand and he doesn't have the knowledge and the background to make the kinds of judgments that are necessary.
And this war has enormous ramifications. If we had lost it, we would have faced enormous champ in the region, throughout the world, increased Iranian influence, perhaps even having to come back in a wider war.
So he simply does not understand and treats it as another political issue.
BLITZER: But he says that, when it comes to judgment back in 2002 and 2003, early 2003, before the war, he made the right call in opposing the war to begin with, and he says you blundered; you made the wrong call in supporting going to war against Saddam Hussein.
MCCAIN: I'd be more than happy to go through all of that again, and historians will. The fact is that Saddam Hussein was bent on the development of weapons of mass destruction, and I'll be glad to discuss that.
The fact is, what did we do at a critical time, when we were about to lose the war?
We were losing the war. Senator Obama wanted to get out. I wanted the surge, which was not popular. The surge works.
And now, what do we do in the future?
Do we continue on the path to victory -- and we've succeeded -- or do we set a time for withdrawal and jeopardize and possibly reverse all the gains that we have made?
That's the question on the minds of the American people today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Up next on "Late Edition," more of the interview with Senator McCain, some tough questions for him from viewers like you, from national security, to abortion and illegal immigration. You're going to want to see the rest of what John McCain has to say.
And later, we're going to go live to Chicago and the Unity Convention of Minority Journalists. Barack Obama is getting ready to speak there. He'll also be answering some tough questions...
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