Obama: His own best advocate

Everytime Obama shows up on TV, it's like a free commercial for himself. I defy people to listen to him--without preconceptions--and not like and agree with him.

Not in a shallow, cheap rhetoric way; but in an iceberg way--like in a great novel or movie, everything flows, there's interior logic, everything hangs together.

Exceprts from tonight's 60 Minutes interview, with Steve Kroft:

"I know you'd like to consider yourself the underdog. But by the time we're finished with the next round, it's possible, maybe even likely, that you'll have more delegates than Senator Clinton. Or that you will have won more states. And that you will have raised more money. And have more money on hand. So explain to me how you're an underdog," Kroft asked.

"Well, she continues to have enormous name recognition. I think there's a lot of affection for the Clinton brand among Democrats. And, you know, she still has more institutional support. So, you know, part of what we have to do is, you know, score a convincing knock out. You know, we're like the challenger and she's like the champ. And, you know, you don't win on points," Obama explained.

"I mean, one of the problems that you have, still, is the question of experience. And you've done a lot of remarkable things in your life. But when you sit down and you look at the résumé - there's no executive experience. And, in fact, correct if I'm wrong, the only thing that you've actually run was the Harvard Law Review," Kroft pointed out.

"Well, I've run my Senate office. And I've run this campaign," the senator replied. "One of the interesting things about this experience argument is that it's often posed as just a function of longevity. You know, 'I've been here longer.' Well, you know there are a lot of companies that have been around longer than Google…but Google's performing."

"You have made the case that you have the best chance to defeat John McCain, or another Republican. Why do you feel that way?" Kroft asked.

"There are lot of people out there who say, 'I'm trying to figure out who to vote for, McCain or Obama.' There aren't that many who are saying, 'I'm trying to figure out who to vote for, Clinton or McCain,'" Obama replied.

"And you believe that Senator Clinton would galvanize the Republican base against her?" Kroft asked.

"That's not my belief. I think the polls consistently show that. I mean, she's got problems with independents. And she's got problems with even moderate Republicans. Now the Republicans are come after me. And, you know, I think the argument that she often makes is, 'Oh, the guy's untested. He hasn't been in the battle,'" Obama said.

"You can't stand up to them," Kroft remarked.

"He won't be able to stand up to this withering scrutiny. And, you know, a lot of the things I try to point out is, you know, going up against the Clinton machine is no cake walk. They're pretty serious about winning as well," Obama said.

There's been nastiness already. There probably gonna be more nastiness. Is there a point at which you go to the closet and pull out Clinton's skeletons?" Kroft asked.

"No. We don't play that. Yeah, I mean, one of the rules that I laid down very early in this campaign was that we will be fierce competitors but we will have some ground rules. And one of the ground rules for me is that we battle on policy differences. And that if we draw a contrast between Senator Clinton and myself, then it is based on fact," Obama said. "That we're not gonna fabricate things. We're not gonna try to distort or twist her positions."

"Not only is it offensive to me personally, but I think it's bad politics for me. That's not who I am. That's not what my supporters are looking for," he added.


Asked if he's the same person he was a year ago, Obama told Kroft, "I don't think I've gotten too screwed up through the process, I think. It turns out that even under this kind of stress I've got a pretty even temperament. I don't get too high, I don't get too low."

"I've seen you in the morning. You look, I know you're getting three, four hours sleep," Kroft remarked.

"You know I've held up pretty good," Obama said. "But I've been religious about getting my exercise. You know, so I've been working out every morning. That helps."

"Played a little basketball. We realized that we had played basketball before Iowa and before South Carolina. We didn't play basketball before New Hampshire and Nevada. And so now, we've made a clear rule that on Election Day, I have to play basketball," Obama said.

Asked if he played basketball on Super Tuesday, Obama said, "Absolutely."