An Interview with Bill Clinton; Time for the President to Panic?
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: A predecessor has some advice for President Obama, don't panic. This hour, my interview with former President Bill Clinton. We'll talk jobs, the White House battle with Republicans, and much more. Also, serious allegations against the Justice Department, accused by one lawmaker of obstructing the probe into the probe into a controversial operation tht put thousands of illegal guns into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. Plus, the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. With the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military now lifted, the U.S. military is facing some major questions. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. The message this week, jobs. The message next week, jobs. President Obama has been relentlessly pushing his jobs bill in Washington and on the road. Sometimes on his top rival's home turf. Our White House Correspond Brianna Keilar is following all the developments for us. Is the president taking a more aggressive tone right now?</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, there's no doubt about it. Remember during the bruising debt ceiling battle where he was negotiating with top Republicans and Democrats, the president positioned himself very much as the grown-up in the room, the reasonable one, something that the president's advisors thought would help him appeal to the independent voters that he needs if he's going to win reelection next year. We're seeing a very different tact now. A very aggressive tact, especially after the president saw dismal approval ratings following that bruising debt ceiling battle. We've seen the president taking his message to the home turf, as you mentioned, of his rivals, and calling them out by name. We saw that this past week when he went to the Brent Spence Bridge which is the bridge spanning the home states of House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Here's what he said.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The bridge behind us just happens to connect the state that's home to the speaker of the House. (</s>BOOS, JEERS) OBAMA: With the home state of the Republican leader in the Senate. (</s>BOOS, JEERS) OBAMA: Now that's just a coincidence. It's purely accidental that that happened.</s>KEILAR: And, remember, the president's first visit following the unveiling of his jobs plan a couple weeks ago was to Richmond, Virginia, in the home district of Eric Cantor, the number two House Republican. Wolf, this is a White House, this is President Obama being much more aggressive, much more trying to be on the offense than we saw this summer.</s>BLITZER: That's what the base in the Democratic Party certainly wants to see, Brianna. So what is he planning on doing next week to continue this push?</s>KEILAR: A couple things we know he's doing to promote his jobs plan. One will be a Mountain View, California, Silicon Valley, there in northern California. He'll be participating in an online town hall through Linkedin, the social networking job site. He'll also reportedly, when he's in Denver, Colorado, be visiting a school. A couple of provisions in the jobs plan, one that would give money to states so they could hire teachers who have been laid off, retain teachers who could be laid off, and also money to renovate schools so the construction workers could be put back to work. A couple of events there. He'll be pushing certainly his jobs plan. But this Western swing that he's going to be on starting in Seattle, Wolf, he'll be not just in Northern California but also San Diego, LA, finishing up there in Denver. A lot of this is going to be fund- raising. He's got a number of DNC events that he'll be going to. We've seen so far up until now he's only taken the jobs plan message to states that are swing states that he won in 2008 and he is trying to hold on next year. Certainly Colorado is one of those states. But in Seattle, and certainly in California, he's looking to shore up the donor support as his campaign aims to best that of $75 million haul that it brought in last election.</s>BLITZER: I'm sure he's going to be doing some political fund-raising, while he is out in those rich, relatively rich areas. Brianna, thank you very much. President Obama's push to turn the economy around amidst mounting Republicans backlash in Washington, is causing some serious concern for a number of Democrats including the former president, Bill Clinton.</s>BLITZER: Mr. President, good to see you at the Clinton Global Initiative. Another year, it's really moving very quickly. And it's jobs, jobs, jobs right now. This is an enormous crisis. And potentially -- potentially it could get a whole lot worse.</s>BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It could. And it could get better. And, you know, what we're trying to do here is just to come up with concrete things that can be done not just in the United States, but elsewhere, to put Americans back to work. And when we met in Chicago, in June and July, we talked about how to put America back to work. And today we had a good manifestation of that with the announcement by ALF-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers, if they were releasing a lot more money to try to put their members, and other people, construction workers back to work retrofitting buildings. They're going to create an enormous number of jobs doing this.</s>BLITZER: You know there is political gridlock in Washington. The president comes up with these initiatives, these plans, as he's done this week. But you know it's not going to go anywhere as far as the Republican majority in the House of Representatives is concerned.</s>CLINTON: Well, I think it's sad. But the people -- they were elected by the American people, essentially on the promise of doing nothing, except to try to, you know, give us a lot less government. And then in the Senate, I think they'll block anything because they're afraid it will work.</s>BLITZER: You need 60 votes.</s>CLINTON: Yes. Senator McConnell says his main goal in life is to defeat the president for re-election. It is what it is. It this president had to propose these things and ultimately the American people are going to have to decide what kind of country they want, and vote for it. They voted now for -- in 2006 and 2008, they voted for one kind of country to take a move away from the policies of the previous several years. Then in 2010, they voted to take a U-turn. I don't think they really think like that. They think we need more of this and less of that. They voted for quite a radical departure. And, so, you know, it's -- it's interesting to me to see the voters sit around and condemn the politicians that they elected who are doing what they promised to do during the elections.</s>BLITZER: My sense is -- and you and I, we have different jobs -- but '95 and '96, when the government was shut down, as bitter as the acrimony was in Washington then-and I covered it. I was the White House correspondent covering your administration. I think it's worse now. You tell me what you think.</s>CLINTON: It could be. I don't know. You would know better than me. I'm not there all the time. I think basically -- but the American people, all I'm saying is they keep giving Congress low ratings and the White House low ratings. They need to take a little ownership here. Every one of these people got in power because they were voted for.</s>BLITZER: They were democratically elected.</s>CLINTON: Yes. And none of them - there's now determined effort to restrict the franchise and kind of thwart the meaning of democratic elections but all these people were. And you know -- you should pay attention to what people say when they run for office. They pretty much try to do what they say they're going to do. I will give it to the Tea Party Republicans; they, if you have paid attention, they're doing what they said they were going to do. And the voters now seem to be upset by it.</s>BLITZER: Did you see that debate I moderated, in Tampa?</s>CLINTON: I did. I saw some of it, yeah.</s>BLITZER: What did you think of those guys, up there on the stage?</s>CLINTON: You know, there's a range of what I think. The more moderate ones as you might imagine are the ones that I think will be better presidents. I was like a lot of people, quite disturbed at there were those who were cheering when you asked if a man who needed life saving care but didn't have health insurance should be allowed to die. And there seemed to be cheering. But it's all political theater now. Look at the difference in what we're doing here and what happens in the campaign. I sympathize with you. You got to run all these news programs. It looks to me like what's good politics in the modern world, at least when times are tough, is conflict. And it also makes for edgier news coverage and-yet in the real world, where jobs are created, what works is cooperation. So it's not the government versus the private sector. It's what they can do together to create prosperity. If you look at -- let's take San Diego, center of biotechnology in America. More Nobel prize winning scientists than any other American City. No longer primarily a Navy city. It's a biotech city. The Silicon Valley is back. Orlando has 100 computer simulation companies. Pittsburgh is trying to go from being the city of steel to the city of nano technology. Cleveland is using the Cleveland Clinic to try to retrofit, if will you, not buildings, the workforce. So there are these centers of prosperity in America. Every one of them works because people cooperate, not because there's conflict. But conflict is good politics. That's how you get elected.</s>BLITZER: You said some of the republican candidates are more moderate than the others. Let's talk about that for a second. Who do you like and who you are concerned about? Not from the political standpoint, but from the standpoint of America's future.</s>CLINTON: Well, it appears that Governor Huntsman and Governor Romney at least have not come out and just flat out deny climate change. It appears that -- I mean governor Huntsman said he supported the compromise to raise the debt ceiling because America couldn't afford the economic consequences of debt default. That used to be the position of every responsible American. That now passes for a moderate to liberal position in the Republican party. That's the only candidate for president who supported, you know, not defaulting on our debt. So, you know, I don't have anything against the others. I admire a lot of things about the other candidates. I think that there is no evidence anywhere in the world of a successful country that has such a bitter anti-government philosophy.</s>BLITZER: Like Rick Perry has?</s>CLINTON: Yeah. He's said, get America, get Washington as far away as possible. It's interesting because an enormous percentage of the jobs created in Texas since the financial meltdown, not before, before they really were doing great. But he's done pretty well with government funding. Closing his budget gaps, creating public jobs. Nonetheless he's anti-government; this whole anti-government thing. And it sounds so good. But there's not an example of a successful country. You look around the world, the countries that are growing faster than we are, have lower unemployment rates than we do, have, you know, less income and equality than we do. Without exception they have a good government and a good economy. They don't run against the government. The use-the government and the economy work together. So, what's good politics for them is -- there's just not any example in the world of the country working better, doing what they advocate. Not a single one.</s>BLITZER: What I hear you saying is you'd be happier if Romney or Huntsman got the nomination than Rick Perry.</s>CLINTON: It's not up to me to pick. That's -- they'll both lose if anybody thinks I've endorsed them. I'm just saying that I appreciate the fact that they're trying to navigate the landscape that bears almost no relationship to what's produced successful economies in the world. And there are lots of countries that are now doing better than we are in some areas because of the very ideas, that apparently you have to support to get the nomination. And it bothers me because I think we need a Republican-Democratic debate and discussion about how best to change the way we produce and consume energy. And how best to revive the economy. And how best to incorporate the need for cultural norms like the value of working family as well as government programs to help get through this tough time. And we can't get it because you're either for or against the government. And if you're anti-government guy, you have to be saying every tax is bad, every regulation is bad, every program is bad. First, it's factually not true and secondly it is really distorting our politics.</s>BLITZER: We'll have a lot more with the former president of the United States. That is coming up later this hour. Also, a question from a gay soldier booed a Republican presidential debate. The latest a series of controversial audience reactions. Could they end up hurting the Republican Party in the general election? Who really pays more taxes? Would it be the middle class or the super rich? We're checking the facts.