Obama on Meet The Press

He won't make even the gentlest criticism. Is he waiting for everyone else to do that or for her to fail on her own - a la Dean in '04 - and then to waltz into the opening John Kerry-style? Is he running for Vice President? Or is there no strategy at all, just a guy with no fight in him?

MR. RUSSERT: But in May you said they would be on the table.

SEN. OBAMA: Well, when I-I am going to be listening to any ideas that are presented, but I think that the best way to approach this is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like myself are paying a little bit more and the people who are in need are protected. That is the option that I will be pushing forward. But, look, even as president I'm not going to be able to get this done by myself, and that means that I'm going to be listening to any other ideas out there. It doesn't mean, though, that I'm not going to have a strong position on it.

MR. RUSSERT: But they would be on the table?

SEN. OBAMA: Well, I will listen to all arguments and the best options, finding out what is it going to take to close that gap. But what I'm going to continue to insist on is that the reason we need to fix it now is precisely to protect our senior citizens and maintain not only Social Security as a social insurance program, but also make sure that the benefits are sufficient so that we don't have seniors in need.

Well, look, we know that too many Democrats, I believe, went along with George Bush when it came to the war in Iraq. In fact, of all the major candidates, I'm the only one who, in 2002, opposed the war in Iraq. I am concerned about the latest moves that the administration has been making with respect to Iran. And when, for example, Senator Clinton supported the Kyl-Lieberman amendment that suggests that we should structure our forces in Iraq with an eye toward blunting the influence of Iran in that country, that is, I think, a wrong message, not only to the world but also to the region, where we should be pursuing direct diplomacy. And so, on a series of issues, what I believe is that the Democrats have not stood forcefully against George Bush, they have not been clear about what an alternative foreign policy strategy would be, and, unless we present as a party a different vision about how we would approach national security, how we'd approach battling terrorism, I think that we are going to make ourselves vulnerable in the fall, and, more importantly, we're going to be doing a disservice to the American people.