American Morning

Gentlemen, good morning. Nice to see you both. Good morning.

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning.

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: Good morning, Soledad. You look terrific, by the way.

O’BRIEN: Well, thank you. Forget this whole political stuff, keep going. Just kidding. Let’s go right to the speech. In fact this morning, Vic, we’re going to start with you. What did you think?

KAMBER: I was disappointed, frankly. I was disappointed. I wanted more. I wanted to know what he was going to do. He gave a lot of platitudes, but he didn’t say anything. I, frankly, thought when it was over, that if I hadn’t watched the speech, I wouldn’t feel any different than I did afterward. We knew nothing more than we knew before. We’re turning over the control of the government supposedly on June 30th, but we have no idea what that means.

O’BRIEN: But you got a five-point plan that was revealed yesterday. Cliff, what do you think? Do you think that the president gave enough specifics, or as Vic has said, and many other critics have said as well, it didn’t go far enough?

MAY: I think he was very specific. The speech was almost wonkish, I thought, in its specificity. I think it was a good start, because I think it’s necessary that the president be, in a sense, the educator in chief. I think he should have started this a long time ago, not making news, but making arguments for what the stakes are in Iraq, and how we are going to achieve what we need to achieve.

Most of the Iraqis I know are fearful that we are going to lower our sights and leave them to the jihadist from abroad, the people like Zarqawi, to the former ruling class. They are worried that Americans are going to lose their will. And when you lose your will to fight, that’s the definition of defeat.

I think the president was saying last night, we are not going to be defeated. We are going to succeed, and it’s going to be difficult, this is a hard war to fight, but we can do this. And think he needs to continue along these lines.

KAMBER: What cliff just said, we agree with. I don’t know what the president said about whether we’re going to leave or not leave. I am now agreeing with Cliff. We cannot leave the Iraqi people. There will be a massacre there of untold proportions.

But we did not understand last night what role we’re going to play after June 30th, what role that government has. Can that government tell us to leave? Can the new government ask the U.S. to leave? Can the new government control the prison? Just what was said on your news before. We know nothing.

MAY: It’s important that Victor and I do agree upon this, because you know, and Victor knows and I know, that there are folks like Ralph Nader, and there signs all over Washington, saying all foreign troops out immediately. And I think it’s very important that responsible Democrats, like Victor, like John Kerry say, no, that’s not what’s going to happen, we’re going to stay there until we have a decent government in place, one that protects human rights, protects minority rights, and gives the people of Iraq some say over who govern them. If we agree upon that, we’ve come a long way.

O’BRIEN: I would say, that’s true, if you agree on anything, you’ve come a long way.

Senator Kerry had this statement released yesterday. It says this: “The president laid out general principles tonight, most of which we’ve heard before. What’s most important now is to turn these words into action by offering presidential leadership to the nation and the world.”

Cliff, how does he do that?

MAY: I think he does that — and by the way, I think I agree with what John Kerry is saying there. I think that’s exactly what the president has to do. I think he knows that. He needs to do that by continuing to make the arguments, by continuing to show that we have a policy in place, that he’s willing to make midcourse corrections when necessary, but that he’s not going to abandon the people of Iraq or the Middle East in order to try to get some quick bump in the polls.

I thought also Joe Lieberman last night was very good when he said, look, this was a hard time, but we’re going to look back upon this years from now and be proud of what we accomplished in Iraq. I think that’s important. We’ve got to recognize that what’s going on in the world is more than just one election here in the U.S., we are fighting a global war against a ruthless enemy that we cannot allow to win.

O’BRIEN: Vic, as you well know, this is a first in a series of speeches that come in the next few weeks. How do you think John Kerry stays in this game, outside of releasing a statement at the end of every speech? I mean, how does he maintain his relevance here?

KAMBER: Well, I think, frankly, the relevance of John Kerry is shown by the weakness of George Bush. You can’t just give a speech and assume that the American public is going to fall in line. Saying that we need leadership and that I’m a leader doesn’t prove anything. George Bush has done virtually nothing since he announced mission accomplished a year ago. He should have last night said, I’ve been on the phone to these five world leaders, this is the decision we’ve made, this is the agreement we’ve made, this is how we’re resolving it. To say we’re going to pull down a prison and build a housing facility and build a maximum prison, that was the only new news last night in the entire speech he gave.

He will give five speeches. Obviously, one purpose to those speeches. They are political, for this election in America today. That’s not an answer.

MAY: I want Vic to tell me which five leaders he should be calling up right now.

KAMBER: French, German, Russian — every one of them.

MAY: OK, let me tell you, if John Kerry would have put on a beret and take a bottle of Merlot and walk over to Paris, it wouldn’t matter.

KAMBER: You can joke all you want. It’s worth the call.

MAY: Victor, the French are not sending the Foreign Legion into Iraq, and they’re not doing it for a number of reasons. One, because of the rivalry they perceive with the U.S., and two you and I know about the U.N. Oil for Food Scandal in which French and others were complicit in stealing money.

KAMBER: There’s no country in the world that will not take the president’s call, and there’s no country in the world the president shouldn’t be calling if it’s world leadership we’re about.

O’BRIEN: Cliff, you going to have the final word.

MAY: What would the French do in Iraq that we’re not doing in Iraq? What do you think their military is capable of in Iraq that our military isn’t?

KAMBER: Showing the rest of the world, showing the Arab people, showing the Muslim people that it’s a united front against terrorism, against the insurrections of the radicals.

O’BRIEN: Gentlemen, we are out of time. Victor Kamber, Cliff May joining us this morning. Nice to see you, guys. Thanks.

MAY: You look marvelous.

O’BRIEN: Thanks — Bill.