Barack Obama deftly handles his much-anticipated "Fox News Sunday" interview

Barack Obama is off the clock with "Fox News Sunday," and -- 772 days after he first promised moderator Chris Wallace that he would chat on camera with him -- the result was a generally easygoing conversation notable mainly for the ability of the Democratic presidential candidate to avoid being pinned down.

Obama did give one direct answer, which Fox spotlighted on Saturday, saying that despite renewed requests from Hillary Clinton and her surrogates, he won't be sharing a stage with her for another debate before the May 6 primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. Instead, Obama said he wanted to concentrate on meeting voters in those states.

On several other topics, Obama artfully steered clear of specific answers to questions from Wallace.

He dodged saying whether he tried to personally discourage the Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- whom he pointedly referred to as his "former" pastor -- from embarking on his current round of public appearances that culminates Monday with a sold-out address at the National Press Club in Washington on Monday.

While reiterating that he was not sitting in a pew when Wright uttered the inflammatory lines that caused the political headache for Obama in March when they gained wide circulation via YouTube, he was vague about the nature of other provocative comments he has said he heard the preacher utter from the pulpit.

Asked about President Bush's recent decision to name Gen. David Petraeus ...

commander of U.S. Central Command, Obama said that as a senator he would vote to confirm that appointment. He praised Petraeus for "doing a good tactical job" as head of U.S. forces in Iraq.

But Obama declined to say whether, as president, he would replace Petraeus from the Central Command post if the general told him his plan to extract troops from Iraq was a mistake.

Finally, Obama skirted any commitment to rely on public financing in the general election campaign if he emerged as his party's presidential nominee.

All in all, a mistake-free performance by a candidate who appeared better rested -- and in a better mood -- than he often has in recent weeks.

The interview's very last question yielded a couple of responses worthy of note.

Asked what he had learned about himself so far during the grueling campaign, Obama said, "I have the right temperament to be president."

By that, he continued, he meant that (like a good baseball player), he doesn't get too high when things are going well or too low when they are not.

He also nicely worked in a reference to his two young daughters, saying that long separations from his family at times took a toll. There are moments on the campaign trail, he said, when "you need those two little girls in your arms."

To read the entire interview, go here.

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[IOWA Dem]

EXcellent Job from the next democratic nominee-
GO Obama!

[Steve Wimer]

Barrack Obama can't win over the working-class white Catholics which the Democrats need to win the election. Whether it's true or not, Wright's Youtube video changed the picture. Obama is being hit hard by Fox - they show Wright's video, show Obama, and then show a black tax dodger -- fuel for racial hatred. The Democratic party has to go with Clinton to win. Obama is toast.

[Sam]

Wright qualifies as Obama's former "pastor" because they have a new person in the pulpit now.

Obama unequivocally favors abortion of all kinds against black babies. How can anyone —black or white — support the wholesale killing of the most innocent, defenseless, and vulnerable in our society? How many black babies will never get to run for President because someone "legally" killed them?

[Mildred Barnes Woodson]

Senator Obama did an excellent job during the interview with Mike Wallace. He has further done a good job running a successful campaign, addressing key issues that are all important to the American people. He has managed to do this inspite of Hillary Clinton's determination to discredit this fine man by distorting facts.
It appears that she will stop at nothing in an attempt to "snacth" the nomination away from her more worthy opponant. Her math is off and her argument about counting votes from Michigan and Florida is just plain wrong.
It is highly inappropriate to ask for"DO OVERS" at her age, ( kindergarteners are taught to keep their word)after both candidates agreed that neither state will count if rules are violated. She is clearly a poor loser and a big whinner, who has the guts to fault the Obama campaign for doing what was originally agreed upon. IF tables were turned and she were winning, she'd be whistling a different tune.
As an older, hard working, wht. american female I am no longer supporting the Clinton campaign. I once admired her and former president Clinton for doing some very good things in the "90's", however, her campaign tactics have been deplorable and I can no longer support this woman for the highest office in the land- She simply does not deserve this honor.

I donated several times to her campaign and I only wish I could request a refund and redirect to Mr. Obama's
campaign. I wish him well going forward.

[Cyn]

Those who have not seen enough perhaps were not paying attention during the last debates. They also are desperate to give Hillary another boost in ratings. She can give herself the boost. Obama doesn't need to help her to that end. He needs to stick to his plans. I don't perceive that he is scared. I see that she needs him. Why should he facilitate her need. Go Obama.

[Stephanie]

People who say Obama should debate Hillary again need to realize two things:

1. They already had 21 debates. He can recite her answers and she can recite his. Anyone who doesn't know what and where each candidate stands is/are out of touch and not paying attention.

2. History says and proves that its always the LOSER, the one who is BEHIND, the one that ISN"T winning that requests debates. Remember Huckabee asking McCain for a debate....never happened. So, I guess Hillary must be losing.

[Gabe from Indiana]

Obama has proven himself to me after watching the Fox interview and will get my vote in Indiana.

[angus]

Re the proposed debates, Obama has better things to do with his time than debate a candiate who as already lost.

Nothing against HRC -- I think she'd be a great candidate in the general. But at this point, she cannot win the nomination other than by superdelegate coup or Spitzer-esque self destruction by Obama. Her win in PA was too little, too late. She needs to be winning something like 70% of the remaining elected delegates just to pull even with Obama. Winning by 10 points is not going to cut it when you need to be winning by 40 in every remaining contest.

Obama (and the rest of Democratic party) needs to start focusing on John McCain and the general election.

[David Lewis]

I am not a Democrat, but I must say Senator Obama came off as intelligent and sincere. I believe he would make a good president. Hillary and Bill have flawed characters. Period!

[WomanForObama]

I am so sick of the media spin. Anything Obama does is totally twisted into something less than expected and every horrible thing Hillary does is blown into some presidential-like behavior. To wit... debate me again so that we can talk about flag pins with my former press secretary! Let Hillary earn the contributions of the American people if she wants some air time.

Also, who is Hillary supposed to be? The lying bully for all the wimps? We don't need another fight, fight, fight candidate. We need a negotiator that can pull this country back on track and make it work for rich, middle class and poor folk.

Yes. The exit polls from Pennsylvania showed that the wimpy racists all voted for Hillary -- mostly at Rush Limbaugh's command to keep Obama from winning. Did it ever occur to the media that Limbaugh followers need to keep Obama in the hot seat so that Hillary can help them find some dirt?

Fox/Rush... He's not dirty! You just need to keep Hillary digging like she should have been doing when her husband 'did not have sexual relations with that woman'. Right under her nose according to her diaries... She didn't catch Bill and Monica, so what do you really expect her to find on Obama. Give up already. Obama's going to win!

Obama '08!

[bp]

Does it worry anybody that Obama surrounds himself with pro-terrorist, pro-communist, anti-american scum or that he barely has a work history?

[Grant]

Obama waffling?

Did we hit our head and forget the years since Clinton that emphasize why the presidential baton can't keep swapping from a bush to a clinton to a bush to a clinton and keep the rosy vision of those years?

Bill Clinton debated how you define the word 'is'......

(hands in air)

is!

If the best argument for Hillary is White working class voters (as if their is no such thing as a black working class) won't vote for him, can we really be swayed by that and still think we didn't deserve 8 years of bush, that we are still no better as a people?

Blue collar workers of any creed or color are not simpletons, they are not scared of race, and they do support Barack, look at any of the other states he's won, which, by the way, is the most, hint hint.

[karen]

I have the utmost respect for Senator Obama and hope he's the next president of the United States. I think the reason he doesn't want to debate Senator Clinton is because she plays dirty politics and will want to continually go over the same things she's already slung at him and that he wants to keep things positive.

Why hasn't the press focused on the fact that when the Clintons were having problems due to Monica Lewinsky they brought in the SAME Reverend Wright for spiritual counseling. Senator Obama isn't the only candidate who has a history with him.

Senator Obama handles himself with a great deal of poise and always takes the high road. His optimism and determination not to point fingers and go negative is to his credit. I love this man!

[dragonfly0358]

Obama wants to be free of scrutiny, free from answering his true religious beliefs, free from real estate transactions, free having to answer about "his racist" comment about rural people. Anyone who opposes him is racist, white, old, gun-toting, religious-clinging, typical white woman (grandmother) The Obama camp wants nothing but glassy-eyed, cult frenzy, American Idol worship followers. He knows nothing about blue-collar workers, which he stated. Most of this country is blue-collar, but you wouldn't know that at Harvard. He is an elitist, and the DNC is full of nothing but pompous, overstuffed, full of themselves elitists. Letting Obama blame all "his" mistakes on Hillary. Hamas wants him to be president. Maybe he, his pastor, Louis Farrakhan and Hamas can sit down and figure out a way to get rid of the "white Devils". The DNC put their backing in the wrong place. Why? Because Hillary is female. That's the bottom line. Thought she would just fold, like a nice little lady, but they forgot how tough she is , which is the toughness of a President, not some whiny guy always saying how mean everyone is to him. I will vote Republican before I vote Whiney!

[Tom Colton]

Maybe we should all mellow out ( Including me ). This is
America. We don't get all huffy and impolite at the drop of
a feather. If Obama was a marxist in college; that doesn't
mean he's a marxist now. Hillary was a marxist in college
and she's not one now. Let's be fair. Jeremiah Wright has the right to hate America and hate White People. I
don't agree with him, but so what? It's a free country and what he's said in public over the years is a matter of public record. But he's entitled to his own opinion. I remember when Louis Farrakhan got on cable news right after Katrina and told the whole world that he
had incontrovertible proof that white people in the
administration had planted a bomb in the New Orleans
levee and deliberately flooded the city to kill black people.
We all remember that. Are we still getting on his case for
those stupid remarks? No. So maybe we should all
chill out and count to ten.

[Tom Colton]

If I had a dollar for every time I have stuck my own foot
in my own mouth, Bill Gates would be my yard boy. Can
we all lighten up, forgive these candidates and their
mentors for stupid remarks and move on?

[Josh in Seattle]

Obama 2008!

Go away Hillary!

[Dennis]

I'm voting for Obama and I think he was terrific when on TV today.

[Dennis]

$109,000,000.00 in five years. With an income history like that I'm sure the Clinton's can feel the pain of those who have lost their jobs.

[Progressive Dem]

We can see what the climate of the country would be if Clinton were elected by reading the comments of her supporters above. Sheeees. This is not politics. It's warfare. Sign of toughness? I don't think so. It's a sign of desperation, movtivated by a passion for Hillary, not by concern for the body politic.

I like a lot of Hillary's positions, but I would never support this kind of public discourse. Throwing mud and hatchets and calling it the way the world works. Not the way I want my world to work.

[Pacwoman345]

Why would anyone pic a President based on their Pastors comments, we all have said racist, ignorant comments. Hillary and Bill have exploited blacks, and hispanics and now working class whites. Whats next...selling America to the rest of the world...Oops Wall Street is doing that for them. VOTE OBAMA if we are to stay WORLD CLASS Leaders of the Free WORLD.

[Sebastian K]

jennifer potenciano: you are one sick twisted girl. Obama is the most honest poitician i have ever come across. Its time for a new direction, its time for Obama to lead a nation and write a new chapter in history.

Or Jennifer, perhaps you're just one of the many people on the Clinton payroll employed to place negative comments on obama positive news articles.

Truely pathetic.

[Chippy]

Obana doesn't need to debate Hillary. He has won and Hillary is a distraction at this point. She is a smart candidate, but so were others (John Edwards, most of all). Give it a rest and let's move on to defeat the Rebubs.

[jw]

Any democrat that says they'll vote for John McCain if Obama is elected is no democrat. I'm a big Obama fan, but I would vote for Hillary a million times before I'd vote once for John McCain. Hillary supporters: John McCain disagrees with Hillary on almost every single issue and has identical positions as George W. Bush. You can't doom this country for four years just because your favorite candidate didn't get nominated. Even if you don't like Obama's character, you have to admit that his positions are almost the same as Hillary's on the important issues we are facing.

[Boomerang]

Accurate headline but the article implies that Obama was evasive overall; I disagree with that characterization. Deft, yes.

And he has displayed the right temperament throughout this drawn-out process--we don't need to be worried about Sybil-like changes nor finger-wagging rants from him. We haven't seen any personality changes nor angry outbursts, despite some pretty outrageous charges and tactics leveled against him.

(How would you feel if your patriotism were routinely questioned on the purported basis of a flag pin--by people who themselves were sans flag pins? And your opponents themselves were sans flag pins? It's pretty insulting on the face of it, and even worse when you think of the underlying reasons.)

To those of you harping about debates, note that in the 2006 NY senate primary, HRC refused to debate her antiwar challenger, Jonathan Tasini, all but ignoring his candidacy and sidestepping his attacks on her vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq. Calling for debates is a tactic used by the candidate who's behind and lacking in money.

Also, debating is simply a skill. One of the best debaters was William F. Buckley, but I sure wouldn't have wanted him as my president.

The president does not govern by debate. I do not want a president who views everything as a zero-sum game. I want my president to LEAD, to LISTEN, to UNDERSTAND COMPLEX MATTERS, to INNOVATE, to PERSUADE AND INSPIRE consensus amongst conflicting interests, and finally, to BE AN HONEST, DECENT PERSON.

That's why Obama needs to take his case directly to the voters.

Debates are too often exercises in oneupmanship and gotchas rather than a true reflection of one's complex ideas and positions, which cannot be summed up in 30-second attack answers.