http://www.youtube.com/v/TumIz2bajus
by Frank James
The Clinton campaign has very generously sent reporters covering the presidential race a YouTube video of Susan Rice, a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, saying on MSNBC yesterday that neither Sens. Hillary Clinton nor Obama were ready to answer the 3 a.m. crisis phone call in the White House.
The Clinton campaign saw it as a gotcha moment, since Rice told host Tucker Carlson and the world beyond the studio that Obama wasn’t ready to take the “phone call” made famous in Sen. Clinton’s campaign ad.
They’ve worked it into their message today. Here’s part of memo from a campaign spokesman:
Senator Obama lost Ohio and Texas because voters had doubts about his ability to serve as Commander in Chief and steward of the economy. But instead of addressing those concerns, how is Senator Obama responding? By attacking Senator Clinton.
With one of his top foreign policy advisers acknowledging yesterday that he is not ready to take the 3am call and one of his principal supporters in Texas unable to name a single legislative accomplishment, Senator Obama’s time would be better spent making the case for why he can do the most important job in the world just three years out of the state senate.
Of course, the Clinton campaign glossed over that Rice also said that Clinton wasn’t ready to answer the same phone call. Rice, by the way, was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the Clinton Administration.
And she went on to say that Sen. John McCain wasn’t either. You don’t see that in the clip the Clinton campaign is sending around because they edited it to their advantage.
http://www.youtube.com/v/uqQBP5zo8Uc
But if you watch the entire segment, you hear her make the same point about McCain and, later, you hear Carlson commend her for her candor.
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And Rice, who is about as straight-talking a former diplomat as you’ll ever find, was definitely candid. As Tucker noted, rarely will you find a surrogate for a presidential aspirant who will ever openly admit to her or his candidate being unready for some important part of the job. That takes guts.
Of course she made sure to say no one, including McCain, was ready, which was her way of trying to make sure that she didn’t deliver an advantage to either of Obama’s rivals.