American Morning

From the left, Democratic strategist Victor Kamber is with us back in D.C. And also from the right, former RNC Communications Director Cliff May. We call it Kamber-May.

And gentlemen, I bid you welcome here.

CLIFFORD

MAY, FEDERATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Good morning.

VICTOR KAMBER, THE KAMBER GROUP: Good morning.

HEMMER: And Cliff, I want to start with you first and then we’ll go back and forth on this.

What point do you believe Dick Cheney made the best last night?

MAY: I think the most important point he made was for the first time to put Kerry’s and Edwards’ record on the table as a point of debate. That didn’t get done in the previous debate, it didn’t get done in the Democratic national convention. He pointed out that John Kerry, for example, had voted against the first Gulf War. He pointed out that John Kerry voted against the various cold war policies of Ronald Reagan.

This has not been a subject of discussion up to now. If Bush and Cheney are clever, it will be over the days ahead.

HEMMER: All right, Victor, respond to that.

Did John Edwards defend that record effectively?

KAMBER: Oh, I don’t think there’s any question about it and I thought you were going to ask me the same question you asked Cliff.

HEMMER: I will in a moment. But I first wanted to get your response to this.

KAMBER: No, I thought John Edwards was very effective. What he said, basically, was we voted for the authorization for the president based on the information we had. We had different information than the president of the United States. Once we realized that this administration, this president, this vice president had no plan to get out, had no ability to continue this war in a proper way, we started questioning and voting against.

MAY: But Vic, I’m not talking about that…

KAMBER: And he never…

MAY: I’m talking about his, the record in the Senate, going back, for example, to 1990, 1991, when Senator Kerry was against getting Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait at a time when Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons and had a chance to swallow up all of Kuwait’s oil wealth.

KAMBER: John Kerry…

MAY: John Kerry voted against that.

KAMBER: As we know…

MAY: Al Gore voted for that, you know?

KAMBER: As we also know, that George Bush’s father was the one that stopped going there. I mean it’s — we had a president of the United States at that point that called an end to the war…

MAY: But he would…

KAMBER: … not going into Kuwait, not going into Baghdad to get Saddam Hussein. I mean we had two…

MAY: No. But President…

KAMBER: We had two…

MAY: The first President Bush forced Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait and Kerry was against that. I’ve been surprised that hasn’t been more of an issue, because that was clearly a mistake in judgment, I think, and I think maybe you think, on Kerry’s part.

HEMMER: All right, hang on, Cliff.

Victor, give a response here then I want to…

KAMBER: Well, I mean, you know…

HEMMER: Victor, give a response then I want to kick it around.

KAMBER: I do not think — well, I do not think it’s a major issue to look back 12 years and talk about a vote, one vote out of thousands. And, again, I don’t have the background to know what was the discussion, what was the debate at the time, the fact that Gore voted for something, Kerry voted for something else. What I do know is the commitment of John Kerry, John Edwards, their strength. And I’m not worried about…

MAY: OK…

KAMBER: And I’m not only not worried, I’m very comfortable with their leadership in terms of terrorism and in terms of protecting this country.

HEMMER: Victor, what point do you believe Senator Edwards made the most effective, the best last night?

KAMBER: Well, I think exactly the same as Cliff when he started, he pointed out the record of this administration. He dealt with their record both foreign policy and domestic policy. He, you know, and we can cite it, all the — I mean the increase in Medicare, the increase — the failure of education, the whole domestic problems and then the war itself, where we went into war without a plan to succeed.

The first question that was asked by Gwen Ifill was never answered, which was the Bremer question. Mr. Bremer, their potential secretary of state in the future, or certainly a secretary of defense, the close friend of George Bush’s, recently has come out, if it’s true, and said that, you know, we don’t have enough troops or we didn’t have enough troops and we never had a plan. That was the first question asked by Gwen Ifill and it was never answered by Dick Cheney.

MAY: If just making…

HEMMER: Cliff, go ahead.

MAY: If just making criticisms could make you president, Vic and I would be running right now. The problem for Kerry and for Edwards is that they have to show not only that mistakes have been made — mistakes are made in every war — they have to show that they have the judgment and they have the experience necessary to lead the United States through this very perilous period. I’m not sure that’s what happened.

Look, I think both guys did good. I think Gwen Ifill did great as the moderator, by the way, better than any moderator we’ve seen recently. She was very fair and very tough on both sides. But I — and I think both were kind of playing against type. You had John Edwards trying to show that he could be tough and I think you had Dick Cheney kind of showing his softer side and not going for the jugular the way he might have.

I don’t think Edwards answered well the question about his own experience. He went on the attack but what he couldn’t say is look, here’s what I’ve done. Don’t forget, neither Edwards nor Kerry has ever run a state or a company or any organization larger than a campaign, and that, too, I think, is an issue that may come up.

So I…

KAMBER: To…

MAY: Go ahead.

I’m sorry.

KAMBER: Well, two things. One, John Edwards, sitting in that chair, had more experience than George Bush did when he ran for president four years ago. And, two, when you talk about records and careers…

MAY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

KAMBER: When you talk about records and careers, the one thing that John Kerry — that John Edwards pointed out was Dick Cheney’s record and career, a man when he did vote, voted against Martin Luther King, against Nelson Mandela, against, you name the kinds of programs that this country wanted, Dick Cheney was against it.

HEMMER: Gentlemen, I wish we had 90 minutes. We don’t.

But thanks for checking in with us today.

And we all wait to see what happens now in debate number two, the top of the ticket, on Friday night in St. Louis.

Kamber and May here with us again.