Biden: I take Palin 'at her word'

New York Times reporter Sheryl Stolberg, working as pool, had a short interview with Vice President Joe Biden as he flew out of Bagdhad. Her report:

The vice president left Baghdad at about 6:30 p.m. local time and was still trying to reach President Jalal Talabani of Iraq by telephone when he boarded. He gave your pooler a short interview from his private cabin -– a “Silver Bullet’’ Airstream aboard a C-17, which carries the designation Air Force Two because he is on board.

Highlights:

* Mr. Biden said Iraqi officials feared that with Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Korea on President Obama’s plate, Iraq was no longer a high priority for Mr. Obama. He was surprised to hear that, and spent time trying to assuage those concerns. He quoted one official, whom he did not name, as telling him, “We were concerned we were moved to the bottom shelf.” He added, ‘I said, ‘Well you’re not.’"

*He said the Iraqis themselves are ‘’painfully aware’’ of their own unresolved issues and are “very anxious’’ for Americans to pursue a strategic agreement in which the United States can offer educational, political and economic help, including “advice on how to deal with the international business community. ‘’ He suggested he made clear to the Iraqis that their long-term relationship with the United States on such matters ‘’is realistically likely to be impacted on their ability to get it right on the political side.’’

*He declined an opportunity to predict that Prime Minister Maliki would win his upcoming election. “I just don’t know. I’m not going to speculate.’’

* On health care, he said he and the president plan “feel confident’’ that both chambers of Congress will have passed a health care bill by the August recess. He said he and Mr. Obama would become more deeply engaged in the legislative process once the bill reaches conference, and vowed to ‘’fight very hard’’ for their priorities, including ‘’a public plan to cover the vast majority of the American people.’’ He predicted a bill would pass but would not say how many Republican votes it might get.

* He predicted Judge Sotomayor would be confirmed by a healthy margin. “She will pass cleanly; it won’t even be close.’’

* He said he takes Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ‘’at her word’’ when she says she is stepping down for family reasons.

Also, a senior administration official said the vice president and Mr. Talabani did speak by phone en route. Mr. Biden told Mr. Talabani that he was sorry he couldn’t come to Erbil, and would have stayed in Iraq longer to “find a weather window’’ to meet with him, but had to get back to the United States before President Obama leaves for Moscow, ‘’because of the tradition of not being overseas at the same time’’ as the president. They agreed he would be back soon in Iraq, and will have “a longer talk sometime this week to talk about the meetings in Baghdad.’’ The vice president gave your pooler a short interview from his private cabin – a “Silver Bullet’’ Airstream aboard a C-17, which carries the designation Air Force Two because he is on board.

Here is a complete transcript of the interview:

Q: What did you learn on this trip that you didn’t know before?

A: There wasn’t anything I didn’t know before because it’s pretty self evident what’s left to be done here, both in terms of our commitment that we made in the campaign to meet the conditions of the SOFA and draw down our troops in early fashion as agreed to, and that there is unfinished political business that the Iraqis had to deal with from the disputed internal boundaries to the Sons of Iraq to the oil law to revenue sharing.

But the emphasis that I got was a slight difference in emphasis. I didn’t expect them to be so pleased that the president took this inside the White House and asked me as vice president to sort of honcho this.

And the reason I say that is, to quote is to quote one of the four principals with whom I met: ‘With your concerns with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Korea, we were concerned we were moved to the bottom shelf.’ And so I said, ‘Well, you’re not and evidence of that is, as the vice president of the United States I’m here talking to you.’ And it was clear that they – it was like, yeah we get it.

So I didn’t think that there was as much – I didn’t believe there was a concern that they thought that maybe they would not be on the front burner.

Because they’re very concerned, very anxious that we pursue a strategic agreement with them, which has nothing to do with the military. They want scientific knowledge, they want educational assistance, they want economic assistance in terms of advice and connecting them, giving then advice on how to deal with the international business community. They want us to be engaged with them in helping them realize their potential. That was the one unifying view of the four people all of whom represent different constituencies or parties.

Q: So what will your recommendations be to the president?

A: Well, this is the first visit. There’s going to be more than one. I will tell the president about my discussions with the parties and let him know that I believe they are aware, they’re painfully aware, of the unresolved political issues that they have to deal with. They’re also I think now consciously– but before, subconsciously – aware that their overwhelming desire to have a long term relationship with us on the political economic scientific center front is realistically likely to be impacted on their ability to get it right on the political side.’’ 

Q: You said earlier today that we are on track to leave by 2011, yet you also said that there is hard work to do. What makes you think we’re on track?

A: Oh, I know we’re on track. The first step was to meet the commitment to withdraw from the cities, the combat troops by the 30th, speaking to our generals, speaking to the colonels who the 30th, speaking to our generals speaking to the colonels who have operational control, speaking to the Delta Force guys, spoke to a lot of soldiers. They all feel that the Iraqis are fully capable of taking on the responsibility of the cities and that they’re on track to gradually increase their security control over the whole country.

Q: Did they express a desire for a greater UN presence, to shift away from dependence on the United States and toward the United Nations?

A: No. The only way the U.N. came up in our discussion --- Look, I don’t think there’s any desire to shift away from America at all, there’s a desire that America gradually do what they committed to do, what they wanted to do in the SOFA. They believe, although it wasn’t explicitly spoken to because there was no concern about it expressed, but I believe that they think the timetable built in here is enough to give them the opportunity to sort of grow in these roles, to get themselves situated, to get themselves in the position that they can handle it all. So that’s what I mean, they’re on track. I feel good about it.

Q: The Iraqis will have elections this year. Can you assess Maliki’s strength as a leader?

A: One of the issues that I wanted to look at was the degree to – and this goes to being on track – was whether or not they were going to pass an election law that was sufficiently robust and open that there would be --- uh, and so I think the elections are on track, my expectation is – (an aide interrupts) – There;s no reason to believe it wont go off in January as scheduled.

Q: Will Maliki win?

A: Look, I have trouble predicting Congressional elections let alone whose going to win. I just don’t know. I’m not going to speculate. It’s hard to figure out whose going to win elections in districts I don’t know well.

Q: Can I ask some domestic questions, on health care? The president’s critics say he is not deeply enough engaged with lawmakers in trying to pass the kind of bill he wants.

A: Oh, he’s engaged. (Laughs) I promise you, he’s engaged.

Look, here’s the deal that I’m kind of surprised --- and I acknowledge there are some who say that -- we have made absolutely clear in detail what we think is the best health care plan and how to finance it, who to cover and the need for a public plan. We have not a this point twisted arms in the House or the Senate on our plan but we have repeated meetings with the leadership, the leadership of the committees, the bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate committees, and there’s no mistake about how we think it should be financed, what we think should be the nature of a public plan, et cetera. The place where we will appropriately get engaged is when this gets to conference. We feel confident based on the progress that the HELP committee has made in the Senate as well as the House committees, as well as the Finance Committee in the Seante, that both the bodies will have reported out by August a health care bill.

Then it goes to conference and some of all of the elements of what we are proposing are in each of the bills, and that’s when we will fight very hard to try to produce a bill out of that conference that is consistent with what we believe is the way to fund it, the way to make sure there’s competition with the insurance industry through a public plan to cover the vast majority of the American people.’’

Q: If you were a betting man, what would you say are the chances of a bill?

A: I’m betting we will get a bill.

Q: With how many Republican votes?

A: Oh, I’m not going to predict.

Q: You’re an old Senate man.

A: I am an old Senate man and that’s why I know not to predict.

Q: Another prediction. On Judge Sotomayor.

A: She will pass and I think she will pass cleanly, it won’t even be close.

Q: With an Alito-like vote, or a Roberts-like vote?

A: She will pass with bipartisan support.

Q: Any thoughts on Sarah Palin?

A: No.

Q: Do you believe her when she says she quit for family reasons?

A: Look, one of the things I said today on This Week (the taping of his interview with George Stephanopolous) was, most people in public life make the critical conclusions and decisions about their political life based on personal decisions. So I take her – I didn’t hear her press conference, all I was told was that she said and related to it was a personal decision a family decision and I take her at her word. In my experience that’s how 95 percent of decisions by public officials in both parties are made when they’re this important to their careers, so I take her at her word.

Q: Back on Iraq. You know these leaders well. Did they view you any differently now that you are vice president?

A: All but one of the leaders that I met with -- and that is the speaker -- I’ve met with multiple times, and I think it’s fair to say, characterized hours – and not just occasionally. I’ve known them for – and I’ve known the Kurdish leaders as well as their staffs and their spokesperons – I’ve known most of them for as long as long as six years and the bottom line is that I think that they know I know them.

They know I know their relationships with one another. They know my views and the presidents’ views through me and I think there’s a degree of confidence that when I speak the know I’m speaking for the president of the United States and they know I speak from at least a base of knowledge as to how difficult some of these decisions are for them, the differences among them. And so I find that they treat me more like an old acquaintance who happens to have some.—represents the president of the United States. And it’s a nice combination I think, from their perspective.

Q: Did you make any specific commitments about aid the United States would provide?

A: (Shakes his head no)

Q: Or would you characterize it as just preliminary talks leading up to that?

A: What I would characterize it as, I would be back more than once. It’s important that the Biden Obama -- (and here, his communications director, Jay Carney, interrupted to say Obama-Biden, and the vice president tried to correct himself, melding their names into ‘O-Biden’ before continuing) – the Obama-Biden commitment made during the campaign that a) we would withdraw our forces orderly and we would try to establish a long term relationship with the Iraqis that they need to, economic and political pieces. That requires political settlements on their part among the remaining conditions. That’s the reason I’m here and that’s why ill keep coming back."