Cleaver: Time for party elders to sort this baby out

JIM LEHRER: And, Senator Bradley, Barack Obama, right?

BILL BRADLEY (D), Former Presidential Candidate: One hundred percent.

JIM LEHRER: OK.

Starting with you, Senator Bradley, do you believe that both Clinton and Obama are viable candidates and both should go on from this point on?

BILL BRADLEY: I think Barack Obama has a much stronger chance of beating John McCain in the general election. I think Hillary is flawed in many ways, and particularly if you look at her husband's unwillingness to release the names of the people who contributed to his presidential library.

And the reason that is important -- you know, are there favors attached to $500,000 or $1 million contributions? And what do I mean by favors? I mean, pardons that are granted; investigations that are squelched; contracts that are awarded; regulations that are delayed.

These are important questions. The people deserve to know. And we deserve, as Democrats, to know before a nominee is selected, because we don't want things to explode in a general election against John McCain.

JIM LEHRER: But as a practical matter, based on what happened yesterday, winning three out of four and where the delegate count rests right now, do you think she still has a really good -- there's a real good possibility she could win the nomination, Senator?

BILL BRADLEY: No, I really don't...

JIM LEHRER: You don't?

BILL BRADLEY: ... because, mathematically, even if she won 60 percent of the rest of the races, she'd still be behind in pledged delegates. And that would mean that the super-delegates would end up making the decision.

And I think increasingly super-delegates are going to go with Barack Obama, particularly in districts that he won substantially.

I don't think you're going to find congressmen, even congresspeople that are behind Hillary early, go against their district, because if they go against their district, they're going to find that they could very well have a primary challenge the next time.
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JIM LEHRER: All right, let's go through the super-delegate thing. Beginning with you again, picking up with you, Senator Bradley, how do you feel about the super-delegates? Should they play a key role, if it's necessary, in order to throw this thing one way or another finally?

BILL BRADLEY: Well, if it goes as far as the convention, they are clearly going to play an important role. And the point I was making is that basically they're going to make a political decision.

And the political decision is going to be a combination of what is best for the country and the party and what is best for their own political circumstance.

And it's not in Massachusetts. I assume that if somebody was a strong Clinton person, they could challenge Ted Kennedy in the primary. I don't think they would win, but they could.

There are plenty of people who supported Barack Obama and in districts across this country, not in Massachusetts, but across this country, and not just African-American districts, that went overwhelmingly for Barack Obama.

I think certainly a congressional candidate has got to think twice about an Obama campaign challenged in the next election from people who are not novices. They know how to organize. And so I think this will factor in to the kind of decisions that are made by super-delegates.

JIM LEHRER: And you think it's perfectly legitimate for the super-delegates to play this kind of role?

BILL BRADLEY: Absolutely. There are no rules with super-delegates. They're not pledged. All of them could shift at the last moment.