Although Obama has fallen behind Clinton in state polls by close to 20 percent, he believes that will change as more voters become engaged. "The default candidate for Democrats in this race was always going to be Hillary Clinton because she's Hillary Clinton as opposed to Hillary Rodham," he said. "There's a feeling of we know what we'll get with Sen. Clinton. With me, I've got to make the case much more affirmatively because I haven't been on the national scene as long."

But he said his executive experience, which he admitted is "modest," matches that of Clinton and Edwards, and he added, "The manner in which I've been able to put together a national campaign in the span of five or six or seven months that's competing with the most powerful political machine over the last 20 years, that benefits from the relationships of a two-term president and a sitting U.S. senator, says something about my management capacity."

Much of the interview centered on foreign policy. Obama defended his position, which Clinton and others have criticized, of being willing to meet with any world leader without preconditions. He said he would meet with Iranian leaders and tell them that he objects to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rhetoric on Israel and the Holocaust and to Iran's support for terror and developing nuclear weapons. But he would also note that Iran seeks admission to the World Trade Organization and stronger economic ties to the West, and he would ask whether there can be a path toward normalized relations. "Now that may not persuade Ahmadinejad . . . but it sends a signal, not only to the Iranian people but to the world, that we're listening," Obama said.

Obama reiterated his position on a phased withdrawal from Iraq, stressing that the United States needs to signal its readiness to pull out so that both Iraqis and countries like Iran and Syria recognize their interests in keeping the region stable. He predicted that withdrawing all combat troops would cause an initial spike in violence but would decrease violence in the long term. He also acknowledged the U.S.'s responsibility to help neighboring countries absorb Iraqi refugees and allow some Iraqis to come to the United States

On Darfur, Obama said the United Nations should send in ground troops. He also advocated a diplomatic effort to negotiate peace between the rebels and the government. He opposed the use of U.S. troops because he said the country does not have enough left, and he believes sending troops to a third Muslim country, after Iraq and Afghanistan, would inflame Arab public opinion.

Responding to a recent New York Times article that some Democrats were prepared to ally with Republicans to extend the National Security Agency's eavesdropping powers, Obama said he would fight the bill and was not worried about seeming "soft on terror."

The Democratic nominee, he said, needs to "go straight at this whole issue of terrorism, and not try to avoid it, and not try to soft-pedal it, or be Republican lite on it." Instead, he said Democrats need to "reframe" the issue. "We have to present our vision of how we're going to fight the very real threat of terrorism, and that is not going to involve undermining our civil liberties," he said. "It is going to involve strengthening our international relations, it is going to involve strengthening our intelligence, it is going to involve improving our homeland security, it is going to involve limited, targeted, well-defined military actions."

------ End of article

By SHIRA SCHOENBERG

Monitor staff

Single page