C'mon, Senators Clinton and McCain

In this election we have two candidates who will manipulate the truth and one, Senator Obama, who will tell it.

Last night on Tucker Carlson's show, I said that Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, and Senator McCain have never had to answer that proverbial 3 a.m. crisis phone call; only a commander in chief has shouldered that unique burden.

You can watch what I actually said. The full transcript of this portion of my interview is below.

Rather than acknowledge this indisputable truth, Senator Clinton's campaign chose to edit selectively and thus grossly distort my words in a video it sent to reporters and posted on Youtube. Senator McCain's campaign also misrepresented and manipulated my statement.

What we need from the next President when he or she answers the phone in a crisis is good judgment -- the kind that Barack Obama has consistently shown. Senators Clinton and McCain failed the judgment test when they voted for George Bush's Iraq war -- a war which has made America less safe and is the greatest strategic blunder of our generation -- without even bothering to read the full National Intelligence Estimate.

TRANSCRIPT, 3/5/08:

CARLSON: Barack Obama continues to defend his policy of engaging our enemies. But after last night's win for Hillary Clinton, has Mrs. Clinton finally found his Achilles heel? Could it be the freshman senator is more vulnerable than we thought on the question of foreign policy?

Joining us now is senior foreign policy advisor to the Obama campaign, Susan Rice.

Susan, thanks a lot for coming -- for coming on.

SUSAN RICE, OBAMA SR. FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR: Good to be with you again.

CARLSON: So Hillary Clinton runs this ad, the famous red phone ad, that says when the phone rings at 3:00 in the morning, you know, who do you trust to make those snap decisions that could hold all of our lives in the balance? And the Obama campaign, I thought very wisely, came back and said, name one that you -- you know name a situation where you've judged a foreign policy crisis, and she couldn`t.

I'm going to ask the same question to you. Where has -- Barack Obama been in a position where he has to make those kinds of decisions?

RICE: He hasn't and he hasn't claimed that he's been in a position to have to answer the phone at 3:00 in the morning in a crisis situation. That's the difference between the two of them. Hillary Clinton hasn't had to answer the phone at 3:00 in the morning. And yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready. They`re both not ready to have that 3:00 a.m. phone call.

The questions is and what Barack Obama raised is, when that phone call is received for each of them for the first time, who's going to make the right judgment? Who is going to make the right decision?

On the critical foreign policy issues of the day, whether it was a decision to go to war in Iraq or the decision to give President Bush the benefit of the doubt and beat the drums of war with Iran, Hillary Clinton has made the same wrong judgment as John McCain and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has made a very different judgment.

So neither one of them, and nor John McCain for that matter, have had that 3:00 phone call that others have had. And I think we have to be honest about that.

CARLSON: Well, good for you for saying that. I mean I've asked that question of Hillary Clinton supporters and they -- rather than just saying she hasn't, they`'e come up with less believable right.

RICE: They've come up -- but Tucker, let's go into.

CARLSON: I don't want to pile on.

RICE: ...what they said.

CARLSON: I know what they said. I mean.

RICE: They said, you know, oh she -- first of all, as you pointed out, they said, you know, nothing for several, almost 20 seconds.

CARLSON: Well, she went to the 1995 Beijing.

RICE: And then she went to the Beijing women's conference which, of course, is a crisis. And then she claimed that she played an instrumental role in negotiating the Northern Ireland peace agreement. George Mitchell who was the negotiator said she not directly involved. She claimed she went to Kosovo and opened the border with Macedonia, and yet the border opened the day before she arrived on that trip through no direct involvement of her own.

CARLSON: They knew she was coming and they opened it up.

RICE: Well, you know.

CARLSON: That -- such is the power of Hillary Clinton.

RICE: Well, there you go.