Re: What should be the big issues of the 2008 election?

Description: It's simply a question of integrity.

Question: What should be the big issues of the 2008 election?

Transcript: I think it’s always integrity. Number two you want to motivate people. President Harry Truman said it best: “I spend all day long convincing people of things to do that they should be doing otherwise . . . they should be doing anyway.” And so that kind of conscience and moral leader on that. And number three, I would say that a president should choose good people. It’s just a thin slice of the job the he can do, or she can do by herself. And you just need top, quality people. That can count for a lot.

Question: Do you have a choice for president?

Transcript: No. But I don’t think that I, if asked in 1980, I would have said Reagan was going to be better than Carter, but he’s not going to make a great president. And I didn’t spot it. I think in 1932, if they had said there’s anybody out there to be a great president, I would have said FDR was going to be better than Hoover; but that was a great president. Walter _______ said FDR had a first rate temperament and a third rate mind. He was wrong. But no one knew the greatness that . . . Churchill was very controversial. Even in 1940, even though he had been around forever and had top jobs, he was very quirky and big mistakes, and _________ and others. And therefore, you know, it wasn’t . . . There were a lot of worries whether he would be a decent prime minister. He turned out to be magnificent. So my simple answer to you is “no”. But, you know . . .My track record . . . or anybody’s track record of knowing how great a leader is going to be . . . There’s no reason to think that Lincoln was going to do a great job. He had done nothing. He had lost a lot of elections before that time. He had given great speeches in his odd kind of way; but the idea that he was going to be the greatest leader in American history, and one of the greatest leaders in history . . . that was so farfetched. This was a guy who didn’t even have one year of schooling and felt guilty about it his whole life. Well I think that how you unleash the creativity in people and get the government out of the way of helping . . . of, you know, unleashing the value of human productivity and engineering and all that. And I think on foreign affairs, certainly improving the image of America, which has never . . . I think never been worse. But also how you confront in a realistic way the idea of terrorism and the Islamic fundamentalism and terror approach. I think it’s terrible.

Recorded on: 7/2/07