Lieberman delivers McCain's Obama message on MTP: "This is a good, young man. Is he ready to lead?"

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (I/D-CT): Glad to be with you.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA): Thank you, Tom.

MR. BROKAW: The line, of course, is that politics makes strange bedfellows. In this case, bedfellows make strange politics, I think that it's fair to say. There you were, the vice presidential candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket in 2000, John Kerry was the presidential candidate. Now you describe yourself as an independent Democrat and you're a leading advocate for Senator McCain. This is going to be a discussion of issues, but also of tone...

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Sure.

MR. BROKAW: ...because tone is an important part of any presidential campaign, and this campaign is running at full throttle already before we have a vice presidential candidate and before we have the conventions.

Senator Lieberman, let me just share with you and with our audience as well what Senator McCain had to say earlier about the tone of the campaign.

(Videotape, April 14, 2008):

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ): This will be a respectful campaign. Americans want a respectful campaign.

They're tired of the attacks. They're tired of the impugning people's character and integrity. They want a respectful campaign, and, and I, and I am of the firm belief that they'll get it and that they can get it if the American people demand it and reject a lot of this negative stuff that goes on.

(End videotape)

MR. BROKAW: And just this past week you said to the Palm Beach Post, "There's a problem in Washington. That problem is partisanship, grown people going to Washington acting like children having a mud fight." Do you think running a campaign ad in which you feature Britney Spears and Paris Hilton with Barack Obama is respectful?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I do. First off, you know, we all ought to relax a little bit. It's, it's a bit of humor. It's a way to draw people into the ad. Incidentally, the McCain campaign has another ad up in which they seem to be comparing Obama to Moses. So, in my book, that's about a good comparison as you can ask for. I should say, in "The Book," it's about a good a comparison as you should ask for. But, look, there's a very serious point to that ad, and it, and it gets right to it, which is, is, notwithstanding his celebrity status, is Barack Obama ready to lead? And my answer is no, that Barack Obama is a gifted, eloquent, young man who can and I hope will give great leadership to America in the years ahead. But the question is who's ready to be president on January 20th, 2009 with the economy in a crisis and facing dangerous enemies abroad. It's clearly John McCain. We only have two choices here: John McCain, Barack Obama. John McCain is ready to lead.

MR. BROKAW: But in the ad, let's stay with the ad for a moment. By including Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, two lightweights who are known primarily as just the targets of paparazzi around the world, with Senator Obama...

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah.

MR. BROKAW: ...isn't that demeaning?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: No. I think it raises a question. First, though, I think it's cute, and a lot of people...

MR. BROKAW: What does he have, what does he have to do with, with Paris Hilton or Britney Spears?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: The point here is, particularly after the trip to Europe, essentially holding a political rally of 200,000 in Germany--in Berlin, bigger crowd than he's gotten anywhere here in America, and he's gotten some big crowds, this ad raise the question we're, we're not deciding who's our favorite celebrity, who, who we are fans of. We're doing something very serious at a time when our economy is hurting a lot of people, energy prices are sky-high, and we still are in a war against the Islamic terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. Look beyond the celebrity status, is what this ad is saying. This is a good, young man. Is he ready to lead? Or as ready as John McCain? No. In fact, the ad goes to a specific point, which is Senator Obama is against offshore drilling for oil, to try to do something to stop the flow of $700 billion a year to the Middle East and other places around the world and to try to stop the painful increase in gas prices and home heating oil prices. John McCain is for both of those. John McCain is for alternative energy, for nuclear power, for offshore drilling. Barack Obama, notwithstanding what he said over the weekend, is not. What he--what Barack Obama did over the weekend about offshore drilling is a tease. He still hasn't said he's for offshore drilling.

MR. BROKAW: We're going, we're going to get to that in a moment.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: OK.

MR. BROKAW: But we want to play out this controversy over the two ads because this is what Senator Obama had to say in response to the ad that included Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

(Videotape)

SEN. OBAMA: Since they don't have any new ideas, the only strategy they've got in this election is to try to scare you about me. They're going to try to say that I'm a risky guy. They're going to try to say, "Well, you know, he's got a funny name, and he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills."

(End videotape)

MR. BROKAW: And right away the manager from McCain campaign said that's the "introduction of the race card," As he described it, Rick Davis, "Barack Obama has played the race card, he played it from the bottom of the deck. It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong."

Senator Kerry, by using the language that he did, saying, "I don't look like the president on a dollar bill or a five dollar bill," wasn't he, in effect, saying, "They're picking on my because I'm black"?

SEN. KERRY: No. What he was saying is they're trying to scare you. They're trying to scare the American people. And, believe me, I'm an expert on how they do that. They are engaged in character assassination, even John McCain's partner in a number of initiatives in the Senate, Russ Feingold, said yesterday, "They've decided they can't win on the issues, so now they're going to try to destroy his character." And that is exactly what this ad is calculated to do.

MR. BROKAW: But it's not, it's not just...

SEN. KERRY: The New York Times--well, but let me just...

MR. BROKAW: Yeah.

SEN. KERRY: Tom, The New York Times said this is the low road express. John McCain himself, you just quoted him, John McCain said, "I want to have a campaign not of insults, but of ideas."

I mean, Joe, what's the idea in that?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Well...

SEN. KERRY: What is the idea--no, wait, let me just finish. What is the idea...

SEN. LIEBERMAN: The idea is that Barack Obama's not ready to lead, and he's against offshore drilling.

SEN. KERRY: Well, I'm going to come to that. I'm going to come to that.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: That's pretty direct and clear.

SEN. KERRY: No, it doesn't mention not ready to lead...

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yes it does.

SEN. KERRY: ...and it doesn't mention offshore drilling. What it talks about--it tries to insinuate that his celebrity is somehow all he has. Now, I'm going to get to the other, but this is, you know, this is a complete contradiction in John McCain. John McCain has said he wants a campaign of ideas, not insults. John McCain has said the American people want a campaign that's respectful.

Even you, Joe, 10 years ago, you went to the floor of the United States Senate, and you said that our public life is coarsening. You said that the society's values are shrinking. That's an ad that plays to the worst instincts in America, which is to diminish someone's character.

MR. BROKAW: But what the senator--but...

SEN. KERRY: And then Karl Rove turns around, and Karl Rove brings up another statement, saying, "Obama's like the guy at the country club with the beautiful date and a martini and a cigarette in his hand." What are they trying to do? They're trying to say to America, "Somehow, he's not like you. He's not like us." Now, last point, Joe brought up...

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Joe doesn't work for the McCain campaign, that's the first thing that's...

SEN. KERRY: Well, they just hired Karl Rove's top protege to help produce these kinds of ads. And, believe me, they talk to Karl Rove. All right?

MR. BROKAW: Let me just ask, when Senator Obama responded, he didn't talk just about his character. He also talked about his appearance, and that's what prompted the McCain campaign to say he's playing the...

SEN. KERRY: Yeah, but the McCain--everybody has commented, Tom...

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MR. BROKAW: I mean, when he, when he was talking about a dollar bill or a five dollar bill, he wasn't talking about whether he was not wearing a wig and wooden teeth.

SEN. KERRY: No, he was talking--what he was talking about is this campaign to scare about the person, and that's what they do. They try to scare about the person. They try to attack the character. They can't win on health care. They can't win on the economy. Eighty-five percent of the people in the nation know the country's moving in the wrong direction. They can't win--in fact, and I want to take Joe on on this, he just said the question is, is he ready to lead? Barack Obama has proven that he has the right judgment. What people are electing here is a president who has the judgment to do what's right for America. Barack Obama is right about Iraq. Now George Bush, Prime Minister Maliki think we ought to set a deadline. He was right about Afghanistan. John McCain has been the slowest person to come to the question of Afghanistan and adding more troops. He was right about Pakistan, that we ought to have the ability to go in and take out a terrorist. And John McCain criticized him for taking that position. He's been right about North Korea and Iran and the notion that we ought to negotiate. Now the Bush administration is negotiating. The Bush administration has moved towards Barack Obama, not John McCain. And John McCain's judgment has been wrong, and it's dangerous for America.

MR. BROKAW: We're going to get to all those issues, but I also want to raise what a surrogate for Senator Obama had to say to my friend Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation." This is former General Wesley Clark talking about John McCain. He said, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." He described him as untested and untried. With all due respect, Senator Kerry, he could have been talking about your qualifications. You're a Vietnam veteran...

SEN. KERRY: Yeah, I, I don't agree. I don't agree with Wes Clark's comment. I think it was entirely inappropriate. I have nothing but enormous respect for John McCain's service. I had the privilege of standing with John McCain in the, in the cell in Hanoi when we visited there together, when we worked on the issue of Vietnam together. It was an emotional moment. I, I have awe for John McCain's experience as a prisoner of war, and he, and he does understand duty and service. But...

MR. BROKAW: But unless...

SEN. KERRY: But...

MR. BROKAW: Unless I missed it, though, Senator Obama has not specifically rebuked Wesley Clark's comments.

SEN. KERRY: Oh, I think they--I thought--I did, and others did, and I thought Obama had at the time. But here's what's important, Tom. Let's not get lost in this, you know--John McCain said this ought to be about big ideas. Medicare is about to implode. You know, John McCain has a health care plan that every expert has said does nothing for the people who have no health care.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Not true.

SEN. KERRY: It does nothing for the people that have no health care. It doesn't have a plan that's comprehensive to provide universal health care to all Americans. He doesn't--he's against the energy plan for tax credits for people in order to help them with the energy crisis today. Why? He just came out against this plan of the people in Congress on energy because he wants to protect Exxon.

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