Couric's Super Tuesday Candidate Round-Up: Obama Slams Hillary, McCain and Huckabee Tag-Team on Romney

Last night on CBS News, Katie Couric interviewed five of the six candidates on the ballot in tomorrow's primary (sorry, Ron Paul), and the contrasts between their responses was sometimes interesting. Couric asked each candidate to opine on the "biggest weakness" of their main opponent, Hillary Clinton opted just to talk about her own strengths, but Barack Obama took the bait, saying he thought he could "bring people together more effectively" and was not "as caught up into the system of lobbyists and special interests as she has been." Ouch.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney didn't wait to be asked about his rival's weaknesses: "It's important for us to decide whether we wanna have Sen. McCain as our nominee, or whether we wanna have ... a conservative." Interestingly, Romney is shaping up to have two opponents in this race: John McCain out in front and Mike Huckabee nipping at him from behind. Couric asked him in detail about that, pressing him on whether he thought Huckabee was "a spoiler" (Romney didn't take the bait, and neutrally praised Huckabee and asserted his "right" to stay in the race, casting him vaguely as a Dennis Kucinich-type figure), and asked him to opine on McCain's famous temperament (Romney also left that one alone, in an interview that remained quite classy though Couric was dogged in asking blunt questions and follow-ups). For his part, McCain asserted his conservative credentials, namedropped his supporters, and defended himself against Couric's repeated questions about his temperament (read: his temper). He did not hold back about Romney's biggest weakness — "Inexperience and uneven performance.... he's had literally at least two positions on every major issue" — and took Romney to task for his record in Massachusetts. As for Huckabee, his biggest weakness was being funny, elevating the debate and being the target of attack ads by Romney. Can you say "running mate?" Finally, Couric asked Huckabee what his competitors' biggest weakness was (less executive experience than him) and whether he was really vying for the VP spot (he claimed no). He also said that Romney was "guilty of voter suppression" in trying to get people to switch their votes to him lest McCain win (I guess Huckabee forgot about how he exhorted people in Iowa and New Hampshire to pile snow in their neighbors' driveway and block their cars if they weren't going to vote for him), and also zinged Romney on flip-flopping: "[H]e's not been consistent on any view, whether it's the Human Life Amendment, whether it's on the Second Amendment, whether it's on traditional marriage, whether it's on taxes, whether it's on just about any issue... And I think it also troubles people because - are these positions that he's now holding positions of convenience or conviction?"

Watch each video below; links to interview transcripts included as well.



Mitt Romney (transcript here)

Hillary Clinton (transcript here)

Barack Obama (transcript here)

John McCain (transcript here)

Mike Huckabee (transcript here)