Schwarzenegger Interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press (2/26) Transcript

MSNBC ^ | Feb. 27, 2006 | Tim Russert & Arnold Schwarzenegger

[FairOpinion]

MR. RUSSERT: Do you think the Iraq war was a mistake?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: No, I think it’s always easy in hindsight to go and say maybe if we wouldn’t have gone in, we wouldn’t have had all this hassle. But I think this is, you know, difficult to do that. I think that we had to go in, there was a threat of terrorism. I think that it was the right thing to do. It’s just now it has mushroomed into something bigger than it was ever intended to, and you know, that is always the problem. And now if it goes in the direction of civil war, how do you just walk out of that mess? So it’s just easier said than done. You know, it’s always easy when you want to attack the president, to go and say, you know, he made a mistake, he shouldn’t have done this, look at the problems we have now, let’s get out, let’s pull out and all this. You can’t just pull out of the situation, you know. So I think it’s a difficult situation to be in. It’s no different than, you know, the Vietnam War or the Korean War, any of those things we’re always in, and you try to get out but you can’t. You know, you’re kind of glued to the situation. So I think the trick is we’ve got to get out as quickly as possible, but also in a sensible way.

[FairOpinion]

I think Arnold was great.

Note the way Arnold was defending Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq and that you can't just withdraw willy nilly.

The link above is to page 5 of the full transcript of Meet the Press, that is where the interview with Arnold starts. It was really interesting.

[FairOpinion]

If anyone is interested, you can actually watch the whole video of Meet the Press here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/


and click on the video.

The Arnold interview starts about halfway.

In an exclusive interview California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joins Tim Russert in studio. Plus, Armed Services Cmte. Chairman John Warner, R-Va., & Homeland Security Cmte. Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., on port security & the violence in Iraq

[BunnySlippers]

Bookmarking for later. Thanks for posting.

[FairOpinion]

And one more thing about Arnold's interview.

Russert started to go on and on about the number of US military who died in Iraq. (page 6 of the transcript).

Note Arnold's reply, where he mentions in a subtle way, that people die on the job here in the US too, and doesn't let Russert turn this into an anti-war thing.

These are the things that we need to look at and appreciate in Arnold.


====

MR. RUSSERT: Let me ask about Iraq because it affects California in a very big way. These are the numbers of Californians lost in the war: killed, 242; wounded, 1,857. You now have 20,000 Californians serving in Iraq, 4,000 of them, National Guard and reserves. Are you concerned that the National Guard in your state is being depleted by the war?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Sure, it has an effect. And let me tell you something. It really—it kills me every time when I hear that one of our officers or someone from the military or National Guard dies over there. It is terrible. And, you know, I got this morning, for instance, terrible news that Gregory John Bailey, one of our CHPs, died last night—yesterday because he was run over by a drunk driver and while he was ticketing another driver. And when you hear news like that, it is terrible.

=====

[Nachum]

Yeah Tim, and over 3,000 people were murdered in the US by Mexican nationals who ran accross the border into Mexico. The Mexican governement won't turn them over for prosecution Tim. It breaks my heart.

[Paloma_55]

""It’s just now it has mushroomed into something bigger than it was ever intended to, and you know, that is always the problem.""

It Mushroomed because the Democrats threw so much bullsh1t on it.

Had we stayed united, I bet the situation would be soooo much better than it is now. The insurgents saw a crack in our unity (generated by the Dems for political purposes) and have exploited it.

[Chameleon]

I thought it was great when Russert said, "So you won't be calling the Democrats girlymen anymore?" and Arnold replied with a grin, "Well I will if it's necassary."

[FairOpinion]

I thought it was great when Russert said, "So you won't be calling the Democrats girlymen anymore?" and Arnold replied with a grin, "Well I will if it's necassary."

====

Thanks for the reminder. I loved it!

[Digger]

Yea Anold is a great talker. Too bad he such an impotent governor from a conservative standpoint.

[newzjunkey]

He needs to win reelection rather than just be the recall governor. Even then, he tried first with the legislature (which refused to reform) then with direct democracy and was pilloried by big labor's forces. I don't think the political culture in CA is such that it's open to conservatism. If it was, we wouldn't keep electing the same NARAL-NAMBLA-La Raza loving types to the legislature.

It's a very disheartening time to be in CA especially when I see similar strategies being used in San Diego while the mayor attempts to save the city from bankruptcy all labor does is scream he's taking medical care from children, tossing parents out of work and pandering to his business pals (like Duke Cunningham). It's vile activity.

[FOG724]

Because our levee system is 100 years old, and we have levees that were built 100 years ago by farmers. We don’t even know what they were built of. I think that they’re unsafe.

I find this incredibly insulting.