'Meet the Press' transcript for May 18, 2008

MR. TIM RUSSERT:  Our issues this Sunday, John Edwards endorses Barack Obama after Hillary Clinton's landslide victory in West Virginia.  The next battle for the Democrats:  Tuesday in Oregon and Kentucky.  John McCain outlines his priorities for a first term.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ):  This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end.

MR. RUSSERT:  And President Bush's words inject him into the campaign.

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH:  Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals.

MR. RUSSERT:  Insights and analysis from the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Jr., former Republican presidential candidate who served as the governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee.  He worked for John McCain and Mitt Romney--Republican strategist Mike Murphy.  And he worked for John Kerry, Al Gore and a key supporter of Barack Obama, Ted Kennedy--Democratic strategist Bob Shrum.

But first, joining us now is that rare species known as an undeclared superdelegate to the Democratic convention, the junior senator from Virginia and author of "A Time to Fight:  Reclaiming a Fair and Just America."

Senator Jim Webb, welcome back to MEET THE PRESS.

SEN. JIM WEBB (D-VA):  Nice to be here with you.

MR. RUSSERT:  Before we get to the Bible, I want to ask you a couple of political questions.  And this was the vote in Virginia in February:  Barack Obama, 64 percent; Hillary Clinton, 35 percent.  Which side were you on?

SEN. WEBB:  I decided that I would allow the process to go forward and not endorse a candidate, and I've pretty much kept to that position.  I think they both deserve the right to go out and make the case, and they've both put an awful lot of energy in it, and they're both people who I think could be very fine presidents.

MR. RUSSERT:  Could either of them carry Virginia?

SEN. WEBB:  I think either of them could carry Virginia, with different formulas.  But, yeah, I think either of them could.  The numbers--if you look at the numbers on those votes, the primary votes, both of them were considerably higher than the Republicans.

MR. RUSSERT:  In the press release which accompanied your book, sent out by your publisher, it describes you this way:  "Now, in `A Time to Fight':  the celebrated junior senator from Virginia, who is already being mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate..."

SEN. WEBB:  I, I didn't write that, and I didn't read it.  So I know there's, there's all--you know, you have even asked me about that.  But I'm not interested in doing that.  I think we've done some incredibly productive things in the last year and a half in the Senate, and I've been able to do some things--you know, we just saw what John McCain said he wanted to see done.  I think we've, from our office, been able to work across party lines and to really work to develop a formula where we can govern.

MR. RUSSERT:  But if Senator Obama or Senator Clinton asked you, you'd be open?

SEN. WEBB:  I would, I would highly discourage them is probably the best way to say it.

MR. RUSSERT:  But you wouldn't be General Sherman and say no?

SEN. WEBB:  You know, I--at this--at this point, no one's asking, no one's talking, and I'm not that interested, so.

MR. RUSSERT:  President Bush was in Israel this week and said some things which you talk about in your book in a more general way, but let's listen to President Bush first and come back and talk about it.

(Videotape)

PRES. BUSH:  Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.  We've heard this foolish delusion before.  As Nazi tanks, tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared, `Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is, the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Now, in "A Time to Fight" you write, "It is clearly in our national interest to confront authoritarian regimes around the world and to attempt to change their practices.  But refusing to engage them is actually tantamount to ignoring the circumstances that we supposedly condemn."

SEN. WEBB:  Absolutely so.  I mean, I think it shows how out of touch this administration has been with the realities of the region.  It's one of the reasons that we are still in such large numbers in Iraq.  The military people have always done what they've been asked to do.  The military situation in Iraq is a classic holding action, in classical terms, which is in place so that political resolutions can be made.  And if President Bush were to use the right historical example, he probably should be looking at China in the 1970s rather than the situation in Germany in 1930s where we had a rogue regime with nukes, with an American war on its border that was spouting all of this hostile rhetoric and was not a part of the international community; and by aggressive diplomacy at the same time that we kept all of our other options on the table and maintained all of our other alliances, we were able to arguably bring China into the world community.

More from NBC News broadcasts Mystery of the missing millionaire McCain at the RNC: Change is coming Unclear plastics: New report raises old concerns Troopergate: Palin's home state scandal  U.S. joins fight against wildlife black market  Internet chatter on Palin and the RNC

MORE FROM MEET THE PRESS

Meet the Press Section Front

Aug. 31: Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), political roundtable Aug. 24: Caroline Kennedy, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), political roundtable Aug. 17: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), political roundtable Aug. 10: Henry Paulson, political roundtable Aug. 3: Sen. Lieberman, Sen. Kerry, political roundtable July 27: Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) July 20: Al Gore, political roundtable Remembering Tim Russert   Images: The life of the political journalist   Slideshow: A look back at 60 years of 'Meet the Press' Meet the Press Section Front   Add Meet the Press headlines to your news reader: