Kaine Talks About Obama on CNN "Late Edition"

BLITZER: Barack Obama lost by a very slim margin to Hillary Clinton in the Nevada caucuses, but actually pulled very strong numbers among African-American voters.

How will this play, as the Democrats swing into next Saturday's primary in South Carolina?

To help us better understand this, I'm joined by a top adviser to the Obama campaign, Virginia governor Tim Kaine. He's at the state capital in Richmond.

Governor, thanks very much for coming in.

KAINE: Good morning, Wolf. Great to be with you.

BLITZER: Why did you decide, very quickly, to endorse Barack Obama, as opposed to Hillary Clinton or John Edwards, or anybody else?

KAINE: Absolutely. Well, I endorsed, a year ago, for a whole series of reasons -- I think there are great candidates. The Democrats love their field.

But I feel like Barack can change the game for our country and for our party. And I think he's the candidate who is the most likely to win in November.

And I think the Nevada results, in a little way, showed that. He came in a close second in popular vote. It looks like he'll win the delegates, by one delegate, in Nevada.

But if you look at the map, in Nevada, Wolf, I thought it was interesting. He did well among African-American voters, but he also did well all throughout rural Nevada. She had great pockets of support in the larger cities and did well there, but the reason that he's likely going to get an extra delegate is through rural Nevada, parts of the state that are traditionally are Republican, Barack won handily.

And I think that's what I saw his likely effect would be in Virginia and other swing states, that he would have the ability to get folks to come and pull a lever for a Democratic candidate that, maybe, in past years, weren't been willing to do so.

BLITZER: She really did well with the Latino voters. This was the first Hispanic -- serious Hispanic test, out there, among the Democrats. He did very well with African-Americans.

I want to put up, on the screen, the corrected numbers from the entrance polls that we had in Nevada. Obama had 79 percent of the African-American vote in Nevada to Hillary's only 16 percent; John Edwards, 3 percent.

The Congressional Black Caucus -- I want you to look at this, because it's significant, I think. If you take a look at members in the House whom they support, 17 members of the Congressional Black Caucus support Obama; 16 support Hillary Clinton; 2 support Edwards; seven are still undecided.

What was interesting to me -- and I want your thoughts. Two thirds -- about two-thirds of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus do not -- are not necessarily on board with Barack Obama right now. Why do you think that?

KAINE: Well, you know, I think that's -- I don't think it's a bad thing. I don't think anybody should necessarily, you know, count on somebody's support because their skin color is the same.

I think that, you know, Barack Obama wants to make a case to every voter to support him.

Obviously, Senator Clinton has got long-standing relationships with many of the members of the caucus.

You know, Barack Obama has a tremendous number of supporters who are white.

And so that's a good thing. We wouldn't want to see everybody just breaking and deciding along racial lines.

The thing that I'm excited about Barack's candidacy -- I see it here in Virginia and I see it elsewhere -- is he has a great capacity to pull in voters of all kinds, all ages, people who are rock-solid regular participants, people who are brand new, people who are hard- core Democrats, people who are independents and disillusioned Republicans.

And I think, again, you know, the big game, here, is November 2008. We all have to, you know, remember that that's the big game. And I think that the Obama campaign is setting up to do very well next week and in the primary season and then really carry momentum forward to be our most electable candidate.

BLITZER: Sheila Jackson Lee, one of the African-American congresswomen, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said this -- she's endorsed Hillary Clinton.

"Senator Clinton has a strong record of diversity, whether it is with the Hispanic community, Asian community and African-American community. She will go to South Carolina and she will build on her long and strong relationships with a very diverse community, and we will speak to issues that are relevant to improving the lives of Americans."

As you take a look at the basic criticism of Barack Obama that's come from her supporters, it's that he simply doesn't have the experience that's needed to start, on day one, in the Oval Office.

And I wonder if you want to respond to that?

KAINE: Sure. I mean, I considered very carefully before I endorsed Senator Obama, did he have the experience to be president?

And I believe deeply that he does. And a number of us who have gotten on board with the campaign believe that. It's experience that matters. Look, we've got economic challenges, right now, affecting communities all across this commonwealth and nation.

Senator Obama started his career working with hard-hit steel workers who had lost their jobs. He knows the pain of that, but he also knows that what they need is not just a sympathetic ear but an advocate and somebody who can talk about building new hope, building new opportunities.

That's what he did in that capacity. That's what he did as a state senator in Illinois, and that's what he's doing as a U.S. senator, and always with the same kind of motive in mind -- you know, organize people well, bring people together, get past the old divisions and gridlock to, you know, get people working together for common solutions.

That's just what this nation needs. And I think the nation will respond to that kind of hopeful message.

BLITZER: He seemed to make some controversial remarks, the other day, when he was talking about Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. I'll play this little clip for you, Governor, and we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory in America, in a ways that, you know, Richard Nixon did not, and in a way that Bill Clinton did not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You just heard John Edwards, here on "Late Edition," say he doesn't understand why Barack Obama or any Democrat should offer any praise to Ronald Reagan, given his records on labor unions and economic issues and tax cuts for the wealthy.

What was he thinking, Barack Obama, when he said that?

KAINE: Well, you know, I'm not going to try to interpret exactly what he was thinking, but let me tell you what I think when I hear those words. I think Democrats, you know, we didn't like an awful lot of what Ronald Reagan did, but we do understand, most of us, that one thing he was good at was communicating to the American people a message of hope and uplift at a time where we were in a period of, kind of, gridlock and malaise.

We're in that kind of time right now, a time when we can't really count on Washington to produce solutions that matter, when it doesn't seem like Washington can competently manage either an overseas war or an at-home response to a hurricane.

And so what we seem to need, I think, is somebody who is going to have transformative effect of really being about hope and uplift and optimism and counting on the best of the American spirit. And so...

BLITZER: And let me interrupt for a second, Governor. Bill Clinton didn't have that; is that what you're saying?

KAINE: No, I think Bill Clinton did. I think Bill Clinton was transformative in that way, got us out of a malaise.

And we all -- you know, everybody called Reagan "the great communicator," whether they were Rs or Ds. Again, whether you didn't like what he did, that was one thing, but he had a way of capturing that spirit of optimism and pride in America.

And we want to feel good again. I think, after the last few years, we want to feel good again.

BLITZER: Let me wrap up by asking the same question I asked Evan Bayh, just a few moments ago.

If Barack Obama gets the nomination, would you like to be his running mate?

KAINE: I sure don't expect that to happen. And I'm going to -- I think I can help him in other ways.

And don't mention that, because I've got three teenagers at home who will feel even more of a need to pop my bubble.

BLITZER: But you can't turn him down, if that happens, right?

KAINE: You know, why think about things that aren't going to happen?

I'm helping him, as I can, for the last year, because I really believe that he's going to be the next president of the United States. It started a year ago as the improbable against the inevitable. And we've got a very, very close raise going into South Carolina and February 5. And that's very exciting.

BLITZER: Governor, he's lucky to have a good friend and supporter like you. Thanks for coming in.

KAINE: Thanks, Wolf.

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