The former president wasn't helpful at all to Obama in his interview with ABC News. Weekend anchor Kate Snow was purportedly visiting with Clinton to discuss his philanthropic work in Rwanda, but ended up getting him to talk a bit about his wife's failed presidential campaign.
In the interview, Clinton says there's a difference between a "great public servant" and a "great political leaders" when discussing his wife's loss, says Obama ran negatively against Hillary before she ever responded and won't say Obama is qualified enough to become president.
I'm just going to copy and paste the more interesting exchanges for all the Townhallers below. (Note: this is not the complete interview, I just copied some parts of the Q and A below.)
ABC: When your wife, the senator, finally gave that speech on that saturday in June, I was there. Watched you a little bit, saw your face. Kind of looked like you'd been crying.CLINTON: I hadn't been crying. I was just very proud of her. She has always been a great public servant, but she became a great political leader in this campaign. There is a big difference between being a great public servants and a great political leader. I thought she was magnificent that day. I was really proud of her. I still am.
ABC: It's been about eight weeks. Your friends tell us that you're angry?
CLINTON: I'm not. I never was mad at Senator Obama. I think everybody's got a right to run for president who qualifies under the constitution. and I'd be the last person to ever begrudge anybody their ambition. He's a superbly gifted candidate in this and had a great operation. They thought this thing through. It's a contact sport. He hit her hard a couple times, and they hit us a few times and weeks before she ever responded in kind. The only thing I ever got mad about, people in your line of work, pretending that she had started negative stuff. It's contact sport.
ABC: Do you personally have any regrets about what you did campaigning for your wife?
CLINTON: Yes, but nothing like you're saying. And it would be counterproductive for me to talk about it. There are things that I wished I urged her to do. Things I wished I said. Things I wished I hadn't said. But I am not a racist. I never made a racist comment.
ABC: Clinton insisted the hard-fought primary made Obama a stronger candidate. Is he ready to be president?
CLINTON: You can argue that nobody is ready to be president. I certainly learned a lot about the job in the first year. You can argue even if you've been vice president for eight years, that no one can be fully ready for the pressures of the office. And that everyone learns something, and something different. You could argue that. He's with Mccain's strategic sense and his ability to run an effective campaign. He clearly can inspire and motivate people and energize them which is a very important part of being president and he's smart as a whip so there's nothing he can't learn.
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