General Wesley Clark on MSNBC New Live with Tucker Carlson
February 12, 2008
Transcript by Reg NYC

Sen. Hillary Clinton (on tape): I am absolutely looking to Ohio and Texas, because we know that those are states where they represent the broad electorate in this country. They represent the kind of voters that are going to have to be convinced and won over in the general election.

Tucker Carlson: General Wesley Clark is a retired Four-Star General. He's also an MSNBC analyst. He ran for President himself. He now supports Hillary Clinton. General, thanks for coming on.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hey, good to be with you, Tucker.

Tucker Carlson: A Hillary Clinton supporter was quoted this morning in the Washington Post as saying, "Momentum doesn't matter to the Hillary Clinton campaign," and we've seen that throughout the race so far. He said, "Even if she loses all the states between Super Tuesday and March 4th, she can still make her stand in Texas." Do you agree with that?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I do agree with that. I think that each state is different. And what I learned campaigning is that the dynamics in each state are different, the issues in each state are slightly different, the, the way people look at the issues is different and, and Hillary has all along looked at Ohio and Texas. Ohio is a state that Democrats have to win, just like California and New York, in the general election, and Hillary's done extremely well in those big states. She's going to do very, very well in Texas.

Tucker Carlson: There, there are reports this morning that new polls indicate Hillary Clinton is losing, in some states, the support of women. She won women by 20 points overall on Super Tuesday. What do you attribute that shift to?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I'm not going to second guess those polls. We've seen, (laughs) we've seen in this campaign the polls aren't always right. I think when people look, and not just women, look at Hillary Clinton they see someone who is a person of enormous character and integrity, someone who's put her life on the line for 35 years to make a difference in the lives of ordinary people across America. And I think that people appreciate that kind of public spirit and, and that long record of public service, and I think she's going to do very, very well with women.

Tucker Carlson: General, you ran for President yourself. You know the process very well. You're a close observer of it. You know that Democrats weren't really supposed to participate in the Florida and Michigan primaries. Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot in one of those states. And now, Senator Clinton is saying that those delegates ought to be seated and they ought to vote, and of course they would vote for her. That seems unfair to some Democrats. Do you think it's unfair?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, there's been a lot of wrinkles in this primary season. I was one of those who didn't favor the compression of the primaries. I thought that it was better to sort of string out the time so that the voters in a particular state would have a greater opportunity to look at the candidates. What I learned in my run was that when you jam the primaries together, the momentum of the first votes of, of Iowa, and of course I didn't participate in Iowa, it just overwhelmed the process. And, and so what we've got right now is we're still jammed together. A lot of these states there's not been adequate time to really get on the ground and, and work the issues. But I think Hillary's going to do very well in these states, and I think that she's in a very strong position.

Tucker Carlson: Senator Clinton was asked last night during the interview with The Politico, "Why not release your tax returns?" Barak Obama has done it. And she said, instead of answering that question directly, she said, 'Look,' you know, 'There's evidence that he took money from this nuclear power company, and that's bad, and we need to learn more.' But she never answered the question so far as I could tell. Why not release her tax returns in the primaries? What- do you know the answer, why she's not releasing those?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: No, I don't have the answer on that. I've never asked her that question, but I do think that there is a need on the part of the media and the people who are following the race to look at both candidates very carefully, look at what their records are, look at what they've said versus what they've actually done, and help the public make up its mind, not just on the sort of emotion of this but on the analysis of what, where the candidates really stand on the issues. And you know, the best, the best predictor of what someone's going to do in the future is what they've done in the past, and this examination is going to come at some point in this season of the election. It may not come before the Texas and Ohio primaries. Maybe it'll come before the conventions. Maybe it won't come until after the conventions. But I think that what the voters of America expect is that they'll be helped by the news media, not just covering the horse race, but actually asking the tough questions about the candidates.

Tucker Carlson: Alright. General Wesley Clark, I appreciate your coming on. Thank you.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you. Thank you very much, Tucker.