It's a rite of passage for the candidate. Tim Russert's Sunday morning mainstay Meet the Press, notoriously, forces the Presidential hopeful to be accountable not only for his/her positions on the issues, but to have a retort that would satisfy Russert on any and all controversies in which the candidate has been involved. The setting–from the rapid-fire questioning to Russert's extensively research and brad-ranging discussion topics designed to foce the candidate to the defnsive–is a necessary evil for any Presidential candidate. But if able to master the format, Russert offers candidates the opportunity to explain, sometimes in great detail, their positions and thinking on issues.
Over the past months, the show has featured many of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Today in the hot seat was Senator Barack Obama:
Obama set out to differentiate his views from those of Senator Clinton's, and gave thorough, if calculated, answers to Russert's interrogatives. When it comes to foreign policy, his most quotable sound-bite comes from a discussion of the nuclear option, in which he is able to adopt a “post-primary” approach claiming he would do “whatever is required to keep the American people safe.” (Video here).
Links to the other candidates’ turns on the show can be found here.
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You know, Senator Biden did one of these interviews, also. But you seem so content to disregard his candidacy…I would have expected so much better from this site, of all sites.
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