Howard Dean talks with Katie Couric Video

Howard Dean talks with Katie Couric Video Transcript

>> Here we are at the convention center. I'm here with Governor Howard Dean who is head of the DNC and has had the big job of really organizing this convention. And it's a huge undertaking but you're feeling pretty good right now?

>> I am. I mean there's always things you can't control but by the, you know, basically the team here has been tremendous and they've got everything in pretty good shape. But there's hundreds and hundreds of miles of cable in these buildings that they've had to put in and they're gonna have to rip it all out afterwards. Five thousand seats came out and they're gonna have to go bring it back in afterwards, and we're gonna recycle or reuse just about everything that you saw.

>> There has been a lot of attention paid to the fact that this is a green convention or at least greener than previous ones have been.

>> Yeah.

>> Tell me how you've actually put that into practice. What you're--

>> Well, it's not easy. First of all--

>> It's not easy being green to quote Kermit. [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> It's not easy being green. It's not easy being green. But, you know, if America doesn't do that, the world won't do it and if the world doesn't do it, we're gonna be in an enormous amount of trouble. So, and setting example is something that Barack Obama likes to do, and I think it's a great thing to do.

>> Meanwhile, this carries a pretty big price tag, 10 million dollars to put this on.

>> Ten million bucks just for the arena. That doesn't include Invesco. That doesn't include the security operation.

>> Oh god! So, what's the grand total?

>> The grand total for this is 54 million dollars. I don't know what the Republicans have spent but that's what it cost us.

>> They probably didn't spend as much. Ha-ha!

>> I doubt that. No, no, given their past history, the Republicans spent twice as much as we did and they borrowed the money too. I mean if that's the way they run the government--if they run their convention, the way they run the government, that's what--

>> Ouch! Ouch! Why do you think Senator Obama hasn't made greater gains against Senator McCain yet? Are you a little disappointed by that?

>> I'm not disappointed. I'm actually pleased. I think there's gonna be a real shake out. I think this election is gonna be a lot like 1980. You know, in 1980, people were upset with President Carter that they weren't ready to see if they--they didn't know that President Reagan was gonna be a good president or not and they were nervous about it. Well, I think that's where we are. They don't wanna vote for a Republican this time. The Republicans have really put this country in a hole. But Senator Obama's got to get known and people have to understand who he is. I have to say that the first major decision that he made selecting Joe Biden I think is gonna help him a lot. Joe Biden is--not only fits him and fits the ticket in terms of what he needs politically. The most important thing is that Joe Biden is really smart and he is an expert in foreign policy. And that's two things. First of all, of course, is we were delighted to have his expertise but the most important thing is it shows that Barack Obama is not afraid to surround himself with really smart people who will give him some different points of view than his own. And that's something we haven't seen for eight years. We need to see that. You can't run America the way you want to. You've got to get other smart people around you to help you. You make the final decision if you're the president but it reassures me greatly to have Barack have the courage and the wisdom to--and not be afraid to select other really smart people around him so that we can have a better government.