The Exchange; Interview with Hillary Clinton

From New Hampshire Public Radio I'm Laura Hanoi and this is the exchange. Like every presidential candidate this year I guess today. New York Senator Hillary Clinton has talked a lot about Iraq when U.S. troops should leave what happens to the Iraqis when they do. And whether the original invasion was justified. Immigrations also taking up much of the candidate's time as have questions on how much a threat Iran poses. But now with the first nominating contests just three months away. Other issues are making their way to the surface. We're beginning to hear Senator Clinton and the other candidates talking more about traditional pocketbook matters like health care taxes Social Security. Senator Clinton just this week released her plan to bolster American's retirement savings. Part of a broader package she calls rebuilding the road to the middle class. Today in exchange New York senator former first lady and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is in our studios. We'll take your calls as always the exchange number 1 800 8 9

2 6 4 7 7 emails or Welcome to the address exchange at NHP. Oregon Senator Clinton welcome to the. Great to have you. Thank you. Laura I'm delighted to be here. Well and I do want to address these pocketbook matters with you of course. But first just a personal observation from you Senator Clinton. New Hampshire's familiar territory for you not only with this campaign but you were here a lot during your husband's time around lots of hours logged on the interstates here in New Hampshire and the back roads. How does New Hampshire feel the same and how does it feel different from the early 90s when you were first being introduced in the state. Great question. I've thought a lot about that. And you know during the 92 campaign there was a sense of real economic concern in New Hampshire. We saw it everywhere. People were losing jobs. They were feeling like they had to leave the state. They were losing health care. Their homes were being foreclosed on. And you know during the 90s whenever we saw our friends from New Hampshire or we came back

Bill came back it was much more upbeat. Now I see the real positive changes. You know a lot of the factories that have been rehabilitated and turned into other uses a lot of retirement communities springing up in New Hampshire. There's a good sense of optimism and positive progress but below the surface I am now beginning to hear about foreclosures and people losing healthcare. So it's not at the acute stage that it felt to me when I was with Bill in 92. But there are some worrisome signs and in that respect New Hampshire is not unique because across the country people are talking to me a lot about these pocketbook and very personal issues. You know back in the early 90s New Hampshire was considered as you know a rock ribbed Republican state. Now there's talk that it's more purple. You know a combination of red and blue. How does it feel to you does New Hampshire feel more Democratic leaning more liberal these days.

Absolutely well certainly more democratic I think common sense Democratic office holders from the governor to both houses of the legislature it's been a sea change and this last election was extraordinary. I don't think since maybe the Civil War there's been this broad a Democratic presence in New Hampshire politics. And I think that the Democrats at the state level are doing great. I mean they really are coming up with some exciting innovative approaches to dealing with problems so I'm very excited about that. And again it feels familiar because in 92 Bill was talking about everything we would do if we got the White House back and if the Democrats had a chance to govern. And now here we are in New Hampshire and I'm getting some good ideas about what I want to do as president from what the governor and the legislature most states have always been laboratories revelation that way and let us talk about some of the things that you have laid out just this week on these pocketbook issues. You just released a plan a day or two ago about bolstering people's

retirement savings featuring a universal 401k plan giving matching tax cuts for moderate and lower income families as incentives to save. First off Senator just how much is this plane going to cost the U.S. Treasury because it is a public investment it is. Well let me first describe it really quickly because it answers a problem which I think is serious and that is our savings rate has dropped to a point we haven't seen since the Great Depression. Why is that. Well yes I'm sure there are lots of people who may be spending beyond their means but there are many more people who are just trying to keep up they're trying to maintain their middle class standard of living and their quality of life and if they're if they're poor they're under desperate pressures because everything else is going up health care costs education costs energy costs and of course our government has you know unfortunately in the last six and half years said a very bad example because you know this administration inherited a balanced budget and a surplus and it's all been squandered. So I think we've got to get back to fiscal responsibility and the government and provide incentives for saving most of the

real incentives that the federal government provides goes to people who are already well-off. And I'm trying to get that down the income scale to give people both the motivation and the opportunity to save. So what I'm proposing is American retirement accounts so that if you make between if you make up to $60000 the government would match your first thousand dollars of savings if you make between 60 and 100000 would match up to $500 so be 100 percent match up to 60000 and a 50 percent match up to 100000. Lots of evidence that if people get a little bit of encouragement a little push they'll start making some of those decisions. And it's in their interest and ours that they start saving. So we're going to have a whole raft of other support mechanisms like making it automatic to enroll in the 401 Ks and more direct deposit. It will cost between 20 and 25 billion dollars and I'm paying for that by freezing the tax. The estate tax at the rate

that it is we're going to exempt states above $7 million for a married couple but it is predicted that if we just focus in on the wealthiest of Americans and continue an estate tax that that would raise about $400 billion over 10 years. And I will use about half of that over 10 years for the American retirement accounts and then later today I'll be at Plymouth State talking about what I want to do to make college affordable I'll use the other half of those dollars to help more young people go to college. So you're going to freeze the estate tax. Republicans will say Hey Senator Clinton is going to raise your taxes and you know what. That's a tricky issue for Democrats. Well I don't think so. I think we've been sold a bill of goods on the estate tax the estate tax was a result of progressive Republican policies at the beginning of the last century. And because they believe strongly in the idea that we should have a meritocracy and we should

not allow there to be accumulated inherited wealth. You know I grew up as a Republican. I mean I believe that we should not create even more inequality than we already have with the existing tax system. I admire people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who say absolutely they're on the side of you know not having these huge estates go without some kind of taxation. I know all the arguments on the other side and I know what a great selling job they've done in trying to make people fear the death tax. I've had people who you know make $35000 a year with very little accumulated wealth. Tell me how worried they are about the death tax. Well I'm going to use the bully pulpit to make it very clear we're talking about a sliver of the American public most of whom frankly can have pretty good estate planning and avoid it. But when you look at $400 billion that would be legitimately captured to reinvest in some very important policies that will help us not only up our savings rate but begin

to up our college going graduation rates. I think that's a fair tradeoff so I'm willing to have that debate if 401 Ks and this private system of incentives is such a good idea. Why not Senator Clinton extend this model that you've laid forth to the whole of Social Security as you know that's been a proposal on the table for a couple of years now because I think you've got to have a safety net. Which Social Security is I'm adamantly opposed to privatizing Social Security which was President Bush's idea after the 0 4 election. I thought it was interesting that he would never lay down a piece of legislation. He kept saying well if you don't agree with me put your version out. And we kept saying the Democrats will no you put yours out first. Well and the reason it's very hard to actually put this out for the public to examine is that when you look at the numbers it's not only about transferring some of your Social Security payments into a private account that may be obviously subject to the whims of the stock market.

But what do you do about the benefits for widows and dependent children that come through Social Security what do you do if you lose in the stock market. How do you make up for that. I mean there's just all these unanswerable questions so from my perspective Social Security is a an intergenerational compact. We're going to continue it. I'm going to work to make it you know much more solvent going further into the future. But then the American retirement accounts will be on top of Social Security. And if you could follow up on that Senator Clinton please because the numbers I saw just this morning I think that came out in April of this year show that the Social Security system we'll start running deficits in 10 years by 2017. So if privatization is off the table what can you offer to make sure that it's there when I retire. Well I think that's the Medicare trust fund that will start having really big problems in 10 years. I'm really concerned about the Medicare trust fund the Social Security trust fund which

has been depleted over the last six and a half years has long term challenges. And we're going to have to address them. It's kind of sad that when my husband left office we had a balanced budget and a surplus and a plan in place to maintain the solvency of the Social Security trust fund until 2055. And over the last six and a half years as we've moved to deficits and more and more debt with this ad ministration we've lost 14 years. It's now down to 2041. So we've got some long term challenges when it comes to Social Security and what I've said is number one let's get back to fiscal responsibility if we get back to fiscal responsibility. We will begin to add years to Social Security be balanced budgets. Yes balanced budgets and surpluses. What President Bush has done is to pursue his two principal priorities tax cuts for the wealthiest and the Iraq war paying for neither of them. And this is unprecedented. We've never had a president take us to war and refuse to pay for it. So I think that we've caught a

lot of damage to undo now the Medicare trust fund is a serious challenge. And I've got a lot of ideas about how we can shore up Medicare make it more cost effective make its delivery of chronic care management to recipients. You know better coordinated. But then that leads us to the larger issue of health care reform because you really can't do Medicare reform in isolation from health care reform. And we're going to talk about health care reform after a short break and get Senator Clinton's thoughts on Iraq. We'll start taking your calls to the exchange number 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. The e-mail is exchange at HP Yarg. We'll be back with Senator Clinton after a short break stay with us. It's 9:19 hand support for New Hampshire Public Radio comes from our members and

from Citizens Bank honoring its trust and investment customers through its support of New Hampshire Public Radio. Citizens Bank investment and trust services at 1 800 4 5 1 7 0 2 5 from business New Hampshire magazine presenting its top 100 private companies reception Oct. 15 at the capital center in Concord. Details and business magazine dot com and the Graham family stayed moulders experience the performance of the new Lincoln MKC sports sedan. State Motors Lincoln Mercury D-W highway north Manchester online at state Motors dot Kong. More with new York senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on the exchange on New Hampshire Public Radio. And at 10:00 on the Diane Rehm Show what's behind a growing in skepticism among U.S. voters toward free trade. A cloudy day today across New Hampshire. Chance of showers high temperatures mid to upper 50s. This is an HPR. This is the exchange I'm Laura convoy. We're talking with New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton today on the exchange and Senator Clinton we've been talking about retirement

security. We'll go to Iraq in just a moment. But I want to go to our callers to the exchange. Number 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 1 800 8 9 2 and HPR. And let's go to Jim first. He's calling from Gorham. Go ahead Jim you're on the air and welcome welcome to New Hampshire. My name is Jim Campbell and I'm from New Hampshire. I'm a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and I'd like to know since your judgment was lacking when we initially went into the war. Can we trust you to be able to use good judgment to get us out. Well Jim I obviously believe you can. I would not be running to be president and commander in chief if I did not think that I had the strength and experience the qualifications to do what we need to do not only with respect to withdrawing from Iraq but with the very broad array of problems we face around the world. I have said that as soon as I

am elected president I will gather my Secretary of Defense the Joint Chiefs of Staff my security advisers and we will begin to withdraw from Iraq. You may recall that last spring I think I was the first person to challenge the Bush administration on what I feared was its failure to plan it had you know been unwilling to share with the Congress or the American people any kind of withdrawal timetable and we'd voted consistently but unsuccessfully. Given the Republican opposition to make that happen. And I frankly was taken aback when I got a letter from one of the undersecretary of defense impugning my patriotism for asking specific questions about the withdrawal strategy. I think it's abundantly clear at this point that the president has no intention of withdrawing before he leaves office. When I am president I will but I will do it Jim in a careful

responsible manner. As a Marine Corps vet I'm sure you know that withdrawing can be dangerous. Getting our young men and women and our equipment out of Iraq cannot be done with just a snap of a finger. That's why I started worrying about planning last spring. And we also have a responsibility to our civilian employees and to the Iraqis who sided with us. But I can assure you that I will begin immediately to extricate us from Iraq and I will also be turning my attention to the many other trouble spots that we're going to confront because of the failed policies of this administration. What is careful and responsible I mean when you say you'll withdraw in a careful and responsible manner Senator Clinton. You know people heard you say at the recent debate that you couldn't promise to have U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of your potential first term the year 2013. I think a lot of Democratic jaws dropped with that. That's a long way off. Well several of us said that and the reason we said it is that we don't know what we're going to

inherit. That's the sad fact with this president. What will he do between now and the end of his term and when the question was asked Will all of our troops be out. Most of us in the Congress have voted for some limited continuing missions you know we have an embassy we have civilian employees in Iraq. We protect our embassies with Marine Corps. Active duty young men and women. And I assume they will be there. We may have a continuing training mission depending upon whether the Iraqis are really going to get serious about their own army and police force. And there seems to be general agreement among many in the Congress that we may have a continuing counterterrorism mission against al Qaeda in Iraq. Now that's a very limited set of requirements so the numbers will be small and it may be once I'm there we won't even do that. But I'm trying to be as clear as I can in

saying that we're going to withdraw our forces. And when I say carefully and responsibly in my discussions with our military planners and those whom I consult with on a regular basis both active duty and retired they have said that we can withdraw somewhere between one to two brigades a month brigades about 3500. Think about this. We have to take our equipment out. We don't want to leave that therefore we've got to convoy it out. We'll probably have to go through the south through the Shiite dominated south to get out through Kuwait. Many people worry about having to confront militias even though we're withdrawing that may be their last gasp to inflict damage on us particularly if they feel they can gain some position doing that. So again we're going to do it as quickly and responsibly and carefully as I can.

Once I become president is that going to satisfy people Senator Clinton who want this war over and done now. And some of your counterparts in the Democratic field are saying hey look I can do this quicker sooner and more fully well. Very few is a liberal wing that's very frustrated with the continuation of this war especially since they elected Democrats to Congress and well. And I totally understand that. I am more than frustrated. I'm just deeply heartsick over what has occurred. And obviously if we could snap our fingers and say Do it now we would. We have not been able to persuade enough Republicans to force the president to change course. I have voted against funding. I will continue to vote against funding. There are lots of Republicans who I thought could be persuaded by this time and they're sticking with the president which I find absolutely unbelievable. Well and Senator Chris Dodd and lots of people who have called into this program have alluded to

what you're saying. They have said that look if Congress really wants to end the war you could do it. You got power of the purse. Just tell the president just like you would a child. No you can't do it and I'm not going to give you the money. But you're saying well I'd have voted for that not because of the votes. Well we can do it but we can get a majority for it. That's our problem. Both Chris Dodd and I voted against funding when it came up last year. Last time I will continue to vote against funding but the way our system works. I wish we could just have a parliamentary system sometimes you know where the majority rules. And we had a Democratic victory but we only have a narrow one in the Senate. The House can do much more. But in the Senate it's a 51 49 margin and that's not enough to be able to withstand the pressures of a determined Republican minority that is still more interested in protecting the president than ending the war in Iraq.

So one more question on this for you Senator Clinton and then we'll go back to our caller So let's say you're the president and you have a Democratic Congress right. What happens war is over. Stop the funding pretty much absolutely. You know we would begin as I said to withdraw immediately. We would obviously not be spending $300 billion a day on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan but that's a different issue that maybe we'll get to. And we would begin to engage robustly in diplomacy something that has been woefully neglected by this administration. I have said I will not wait until I am inaugurated the day after I'm elected I will ask distinguished Americans of both parties to travel around the world on my behalf with a very simple message. The era of cowboy diplomacy is over. Let's go back to our colleague Senator Clinton again the number on the exchange one 808 9 2 6 4 7 7. E-mail is exchange. And HPR dot org and let's go next to Hanover where Elaine is on the air welcome Elaine go ahead. Hi. Thanks for taking my call. My question is that New Hampshire voters are very proud of their

role of being first in the first primary state. And you recently signed a pledge not to participate in any state that moved its primary into that window of early states. Now just this week most of your Democratic competitors remove themselves from the Michigan primary ballot but you didn't. And my question is Why. Because it strikes me that this is sort of politics as usual where the politicians say one thing and then they end up doing something else. Thanks for the call Laina an issue near and dear to New Hampshire voters Senator Clinton. Well Elaine I share your pride in New Hampshire being the first primary state. I have not only enjoyed greatly campaigning in New Hampshire on my own but have a lot of wonderful memories from 92 and certainly am deeply grateful to New Hampshire for making my husband the comeback kid and eventually the president. I signed the DNC pledge not to campaign not to spend money in any of the states that were not in

compliance with the rules established by the DNC that certainly strongly maintains New Hampshire's status. I personally did not think it made any difference whether or not my name was on the ballot. And I also thought that you know people in New Hampshire and in Iowa have a great understanding of the problems we're going to face as Democrats to win in November 2008. I'm going to win the nomination and then I'm going to win in November 2008 because we're going to bring more people to vote for us and we're going to not only maintain our advantage in states that have voted Democratic before but if you look at some of the states we have to win the margins have been narrow and it wasn't in my view meaningful. But I'm not going to you know say that there's absolutely a total you know ignoring of the people in all these other

states that won't come back to haunt us if we're not careful about it. So if you value the DNC calendar why not just pull out of Michigan Why not just say Hey Michigan I'm off the ballot please take me. Well you know people in Michigan are flat on their backs. I mean they have the highest unemployment rate in America. They are now grappling finally with what they're going to do about the auto industry. One in 10 jobs in America is tied to the auto industry which is why the American auto industry which as we know is centered in Michigan. You know it's clear this election they're having is not going to count for anything. But I just personally didn't want to set up a situation where the Republicans are going to be campaigning between now and whenever and then after the nomination you know we have to go in and repair the damage to be ready to win Michigan in November 2008. I'm not going to campaign there before the you know deadlines in the February 5th window I'm not going to spend any money there. But I did not believe it

was fair to you know just say goodbye Michigan and not take into account the fact that we're going to have to win Michigan if we're going to be in the White House in January 2009. Do you think it was a tactical mistake by Misters Obama and Edwards to take the names off the ballot. They have to speak for themselves. But you know I am totally dedicated to New Hampshire. This is where I'm spending my time. This is where I'm spending my money lots of it. Let's go back to the phones Senator Clinton. Thanks Elaine for that call 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 to Somersworth Barbara zone. Hi Barbara go ahead. Thank you. I have a question for Senator Clinton about health care. I had a devastating stroke at the age of 25. Wow. Probably 25. Yeah. Yes. And I'm really concerned about everyone having access to affordable and quality health care. So I'm interested in hearing Senator Clinton's plan for having everyone covered.

Well this is huge. Barbara thank you very much. Oh Barbara. Thank you for calling in and I really wish you well it takes a lot of courage to keep going and you sound like a very determined young woman I've introduced my health care plan I call it the American health choices plan and it's premised on shared responsibility and choice. I want everybody to be insured and have access to quality affordable health care and here's how I would do it. If you have insurance and you are satisfied with it no changes. But if you are one of the many 47 million uninsured and the many millions more who have insurance except that it doesn't pay for what you need a pre-existing condition or some other medical necessity. You're going to be able to go into the congressional plan and take advantage of the lower costs and the broad array of choices. You know the Congress has a very good plan for itself and federal employees. And I think it's time to open that up to more Americans. And if there are cost problems for

you we're going to give you a health care tax credit I pay for my plan by you know not to pursue not continuing the tax cuts on the high end earners going back to the pre-Bush era when a lot of people made a lot of money but not to the extent of the inequality that President Bush has presided over. And in the efficiencies we know we can get from reforms within the health care system and both small business and individuals will be given help in order to afford the health care that you need. And especially Barbara we're going to do a better job in managing chronic care conditions and in giving more support for prevention. If we don't do both of those then we're not going to really get to the problems of cost and quality. Boy Senator Clinton we could talk for five more hours about this. I'm already thinking OK which which Vallabh do I have because there are so many. The mandate the mandate that people buy insurance for themselves or their businesses offer it. How are you going to convince

businesses Senator Clinton that this mandate won't hurt their bottom line given that most employers say hey I'd love to offer health care but it's so expensive I can't. I mean a tax credit is really going to be enough to afford this. We believe it is based on all of our analysis. You know large businesses mostly do provide insurance right now and it's expensive and going up in the double digits. The reasons it's expensive is every business tries to manage it on their own. They can't do that. I've had countless conversations with CEOs who have said they've done everything they know to do but at the end of the day even a large business is too small to have the cost savings that you get in a much larger pool of people. I mean look at Medicare. Medicare is a cost effective delivery system 3 percent out of the Medicare budget goes for administration and overhead. Compare that to private insurance which can be from 10 percent to thirty five or 38 percent. Think about how insurance companies spend $50 billion a year

trying to figure out how not to insure people. So we see so much waste and misdirected dollars in the system. Small businesses really do face a cost problem. That's why only slightly less than 50 percent are able to afford it. So I have zeroed my zeroed in on giving my help to the small businesses. We're not mandating that small businesses offer it. But if they wish to and we've done a lot of research on this and many do but they feel they can't afford it they will get these health care tax credits that will make it affordable. And if they don't then the individuals who work for them will get the health care tax credits. But if we get everybody into the same system we will get cost efficiencies. You just can't get otherwise $110 billion that's the price tag will the American public swallow that Senator Clinton it sounds enormous. Well compared to what we're spending now it's a real bargain. We're spending two trillion dollars. We have 47 million uninsured many millions who don't

get their insurance to pay for what their doctors say they need and just gross inefficiencies and waste and this $110 billion will be used by not raising taxes on the vast majority of Americans. But on those who have done extremely well under the Bush administration and all that we will do here is to go back to the Clinton era tax rates which as we recall you know the the argument by the Republicans is oh my goodness if you raise taxes you kill jobs. Well my husband's slightly raised taxes on the wealthiest of Americans and we got 22 million jobs a balanced budget and a surplus out of that. I think that's a pretty good argument. And now we're going to get a health care system out of it and move back toward the kind of fiscal responsibility that will give us the ability to make investments that are smart for the future. At a recent Republican debate and I'm sure you heard this all the Republicans were saying hey this is a step towards socialized medicine and so forth. How is this

like what we see in Canada and other countries in Europe and how is it not. It is not government run health care. It is not creating a single new bureaucracy. Every time I hear one of the candidates on the other side I want somebody to ask them what would you abolish the Veterans Administration. That's government run health care. Would you abolish Medicare. That's government financed health care but with Medicare you choose your doctor you choose your hospital. It is not the kind of national health care system that they're trying to raise the specter of it's nationally funded but privately operated. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Now let me say it's the congressional plan. When we come back more of your calls 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. We'll also talk about the electability issue so stay with us. This is the exchange on an HPR. It's 9:39 and support for New Hampshire Public Radio comes from you our members from

systems plus computers of Hanover and loving and serving businesses and organizations with managed business network services and solutions information at SPC dot com and northeast Delta Dental providing dental benefits to businesses of all sizes and individuals throughout New Hampshire Maine and Vermont. Information at 800 5 3 7 1 7 1 5. This is an HPR. Joint and HPR in the New Hampshire charitable foundation as we explore the work of non-profit organizations in New Hampshire with a new segment called The Giving matters. This new series will spotlight the people involved and the services they provide to make the nonprofit sector vital to our state be it feeding the hungry. Preserving our environment or supporting families who need health care assistance. We'll also hear from the people whose lives these nonprofits have changed. Join us on Saturday mornings at 8:35 forgiving matters on HPR. This is the exchange I'm Laura Conaway right in the exchange. Twenty five and twenty five series continues with Dr. Norm pace. He started out curing patients and moved on to try to

cure health care financing here in New Hampshire. 1 800 8 9 2 though 6 4 7 7 is the number for you to join us this morning. We're talking with New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The e-mail is exchange at HPR dot org. And Senator Clinton one last question for you on health care financing which we'll be talking about a lot more tomorrow. You hear from doctors all the time that hey you know these public financing systems Medicaid Medicare I don't want to take these patients because the government reimbursement rates are so low it's hurting my bottom line. And I hear that too and I think there's a lot of you know legitimacy in their concern. What we've got to do though is to get a system that goes back to paying the people who take care of us nurses doctors pharmacists hospitals instead of paying insurance companies exorbitant rates to determine who gets care and who doesn't. I mean that's why just a minute ago I said they spent 50 billion dollars a year trying to

underwrite in a way that keeps people with pre-existing conditions out of the health care system. Fighting with doctors fighting with hospitals trying to avoid paying the bills. They're hoping that people give up go home and they get to keep the money. These are insured people not uninsured people. So if we actually told the insurance companies you have to make your money a different way you've got to insure everybody you've got to cover pre-existing conditions and you have to compete on cost and quality. I think there will be more money in the system that can actually go to the people who take care of us. And you and I when we were off air we're talking about the congressional plan that I want to open up to people. You get a better deal. It is cheaper. Why. Because the federal government drives a hard bargain. It represents all the millions of federal employees and their families and they go in and say you want to be in this plan. We've got a lot of good customers for you but you have to do the following. That's all we're going to do for everybody. Individuals in the individual market can't drive that bargain. Businesses on their own can't drive that bargain. We're going

to get the federal government to open up its plans so you still have all this private choice. You don't have to do it if you don't want to do it. But it's a better deal than what you can find in many other settings. Now this is huge and maybe we'll go into more detail next time but right now I want to go back to our callers who are waiting patiently in Strafford John is on the line. Hi John go ahead. Hi good morning. I'm calling from the Rochester area center. It's really a pleasure to speak with you this morning. Simply put. I was wondering if you consider yourself electable as our next American president. Why do you say that John if I could ask you real quick. I say that because I think a lot of a lot of people in my community in the area do see our current candidates very polarizing in some ways and I respect Senator Clinton very much. I want to know how she views herself in terms of electability. OK John thanks for the question. Thanks for the question. I'm really glad you asked that. Obviously I wouldn't be running if I didn't think that I was going to win. And the reason I believe that is based on my experience in New York where I started out running back in 99 and

2000 and nobody thought I could win and everybody believed that lots of different groups of people would never vote for me. And I have this old fashioned idea that you get out there and you let people see you and meet you and you use the media and you talk about what you care about and what you believe in and what you would do. And people make their own judgments and all of a sudden they're not you know seeing you through the prism of somebody else they get to evaluate you. That doesn't mean that everybody's going to be for you but I have found first in New York and now in this campaign that I can win people over and dispel a lot of the myths that are out there. So I won the first time with 55 percent of the vote and I kept working all through my Senate term and I won the last time with nearly 67 percent of the vote including a lot of the counties in New York that voted for George Bush. We have about 40 counties that you would consider red. New York and they voted for me on an average of 60 percent. Why. Because I was able to do things for people demonstrate

that I cared about them work hard for them in this campaign. I'm doing the same thing. And you know I don't pay a lot of attention to polls because they're snapshots in time. But I've been very gratified at how well I am doing against any of the Republicans. I know this is a long campaign but I think that works to my advantage because over the last nine months I have seen my support grow here in New Hampshire and around the country. And I feel extremely confident that I know how to win. I have an understanding of how to defeat Republicans and I'm going to be the nominee and I will be not only electable but I'll be elected. Well I'm glad John raised the question because it's been said Senator Clinton that Republicans are excited to have you as the nominee because nothing excites the Republican base more than the name Hillary Clinton. So this will be a great way to raise money for Republicans and get Republicans to the polls. Democrats fear that scenario. What can you say to allay those concerns that you're a proven way to get Republicans to the polls.

Well I can say that you know not only did I win with 67 percent in a lot of Republican votes but I'm picking up Republican support all the time across the country. You know it's not only Democrats who are very concerned about the direction of the country. And if you look at the Republican candidates running they're offering more of the same it's Bush all over again. They support the war in Iraq. They like to you know call the quest for universal health care socialized medicine. Totally untrue totally unfounded. They're just in the same Republican playbook. I think the country has moved past that and I think that I am better prepared maybe because I have been through so much over the last 15 years. I have withstood the Republican attack machine probably more than anyone else. I know how they operate and they will go after anyone we nominate because they're not going to give up the White House without a really big fight. But I think I understand how to beat them better than anyone else and that's what I will do.

You are comparing is the candidate of change and one change voters say they want Senator Clinton is less ugliness in politics less negativity and the fear is that. And you just touched on this that if you're the nominee all that mud and all that attack politics of the 90s will come up one more time and the public just is sick of it. Well so am I. You know it's not been fun being on the receiving end of it for all of these years. But I think we would be denying the reality of what the Republicans will do to hold on to the White House. They just look at the last decades of how they acted here in New Hampshire in the campaign when you know my good friend Jeannie Shaheen was running for the Senate. Look what they did. This doesn't have to do with who the Democrat is. It's the fact that a Democrat is running. So it's not just about me it's about any Democrat who challenges their hold on power. I never attack first. I want to run a positive

campaign. I have been laying out my policies. I've been talking about what I will do as president. But I will also not stand by and watch me or any other Democrat attacked. And therefore we will wage a vigorous campaign because I do not want to return to that. The only way to stop it is by defeating it. We did it in 0 6 when despite their best efforts to raise the fear card again America didn't buy it and we will do it again in 0 8. But it takes strength and experience to stand up against that onslaught. I know that better than anyone. So whoever we nominate is going to be subjected to the full treatment I've just been through it. It hasn't fazed me. I keep on going. And I think I'm best equipped to deal with it. One more quick question for you on this Senator Clinton. I've looked closely at the polls who supports you who doesn't and within the Democratic Party the Liberal wing often says Hillary Clinton

she's not Argo. How are you going to reach out to that important activist liberal wing of your own party. Well I'm proud to have a lot of people who consider themselves in that category supporting me. And again I think it's a question of just moving on in the campaign and talking about what I will do as president and reaching out and building my base of support people have a right to be for anyone they choose. And this is a great field of candidates. You know you don't have to be against anybody. We have wonderful people running and I'm sure that when I win the nomination we will have a unified Democratic Party and I'm going to put everybody to work because we will have to spread across the country and get our message out. Let's go back to our callers to Salem where Lisa is on the line. Hi Lisa. Go ahead. Hi. I'm crying for Clinton. Thank you so much for being here today. In Salem New Hampshire I'm a student and I was really worried about partisan politics in Washington D.C. I'm wondering what you would do to bring Democrats and Republicans together when you get to Washington.

Thanks Lisa for the call Lisa. This is something I've worked really hard on the last seven years. You know before I got to the Senate there were some Republicans who actually publicly said they hoped lightning would strike and I would never show up. I didn't get bothered by that. My job was to go and work across party lines find common ground wherever I could and I did. I'm very proud of my record in the Senate. You know I teamed up with Republicans who were very negative about my husband and we worked to provide health care to our National Guard and Reserves. We've worked to expand the 911 system for emergency response across the country. We've worked to give lifespan respite care to people who are caring for relatives that are ill or disabled. I mean so many things that I have teamed up with Republicans to actually make happen and that's how I will be as president. The best way to try to end the partisanship is not to give in to it and not to let it continue to paralyze our

politics. There are people who engage in partisanship because they know nothing will happen and that suits them fine. I believe we can do much better to bring people together and having been now on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. I think I understand very well how the president can build those relationships. That doesn't mean you're going to agree 100 percent on everything but let's work together to find that common ground and I think I know how to find common ground. I've proven that. But I also know how to stand my ground. You know when President Bush came forth with the privatization scheme for Social Security I said no and was one of the leaders in you know preventing that from going forward. But when you know we're looking at ways to improve how we pay physicians or get Medicare reimbursements higher or deal with some of the problems we face in health care. You know I'm going to work with people who are willing to work with me. Thanks for the call Lisa. And let's take one more to Albany where Dorothy's been waiting. Hi Dorothy thanks for hanging on there.

Thank you for letting me get on. Sure. Senator Clinton I have a question for you. On your recent vote in for the Lieberman amendment or whatever it was could you please explain to me why you did that given the fact that you already said that you don't believe you can trust this president. Dorothy thank you for the call you're going to need to explain a little bit about the Second Amendment came up in the debate. It was a very sharp issue in the recent debate here in New Hampshire. But just for people who don't know what that's about. Dorothy thank you for asking because obviously there's a lot of interest and concern about this. I believe in putting pressure and sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard because of its activities it is one of the principal sponsors of terrorism around the world. It is supplying lethal weapons that are used to kill and maim our young men and women in Iraq. And I believe sanctions are a necessary part of diplomacy. What I voted on was a non-binding resolution. It's not an amendment. It's not a

law. It is to establish the right to impose economic sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards leadership. Why do I think that's important. Because I believe in diplomacy and in fact in what I voted for this nonbinding resolution it says we need to use diplomacy. I want the Bush administration to use diplomacy. I want them to engage in diplomacy with Iran without conditions. But I want our country to have some leverage when we do that. And I think imposing sanctions or the threat of sanctions is leverage. And that's why I voted for it. But I think you should also know that I was the first person I believe in the Senate to go to the floor of the Senate in February and make it very clear that nothing we have done in Congress gives this president any authority whatsoever to attack Iran. That's been the issue. And there is a this gives the president a threat that that is just wrong and it wasn't just me. You know one of Senator Obama's principal

supporters his colleague from Illinois Senator Durbin who voted against the 0 2 resolution voted with me to impose sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. So did Senator Levin who also did not vote for the 0 2 resolution so I know that some of my opponents are really trying to misrepresent this and you know that's their right to try to do that. But I'm glad that Dorothy asked me because this in no way gives President Bush any authority whatsoever. It is a non-binding resolution. It has not passed the House of Representatives even if it were it is not a law. It is not an amendment to anything. It is a non-binding resolution to put sanctions as part of what I want finally to see this administration do negotiations without preconditions with the Iranians putting everything on the table. Their interference in Iraq their support for Hezbollah their support for terrorism elsewhere their use of weapons and training against our troops.

So I guess Dorothy if if I could I would just ask you to really look at this and look at the people who voted for it. It might be sort of surprising to you there was an honest disagreement among some of us as to what it did do. But it in no way authorizes President Bush to do anything and to guarantee that I have joined up with Senator Jim Webb to put into law what I proposed back in February which is this president has no such authority. Well and I'm glad she called because that has been out there in the press and Senator Clinton I want to just end with a question of a more personal nature going through the reading on you this week an article in the Toledo Blade caught my eye. It called you deeply religious. In fact it quoted your director of faith based operations burn Stryder as calling you the most deeply religious Democrat since Jimmy Carter. Do you think most people would be surprised by that characterization and do you agree with that characterization. Well you know I don't like to put labels on myself especially with

respect to something as personal and important as my religious faith. I do consider myself a person of faith and it has sustained me through my life. And as everybody in the world has seen my life has had some particular really interesting challenges that have been played out in public and I'm very grateful for that faith and know the comfort and support that prayer gives me that my friends who are there with me praying for me give me all of that is incredibly meaningful to me. I believe strongly in the separation of church and state. I believe that this president has really unfortunately eroded what should be that constitutional standard. But I'm very grateful that I have faith to carry me through and when I'm president I think being a person of faith is important to deal with all of the difficult problems we're going to face.

Senator Clinton speaking of all the difficult problems that this country faces. There are a lot we didn't talk about today. Yes that's true. The environment global warming international trade. We've got lots of e-mails on other topics that I didn't even get to. So I would like to invite you back. I would love to cover some of those. And I thank you very much for coming well. I know I'm a huge NPR listener so I will look forward to coming back. All right. New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The exchange is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio. The producers Ty Fraley the engineers Dan COLGAN are in turn is Steve Jordan of volunteers Priscilla Malcolm. Our theme music was composed by Bob Lord the exchange his executive producer Keith shields and I'm Laura. In