Decision Virginia

Ryan Nobles - bio | email

i just finished an interview with Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder who is in Denver for the Convention. He expressed his real concern that the Clinton camp is not doing enough to get on board the Obama Express. Wilder has already expressed those frustration during a public forum yesterday, but he went even further during our wide ranging interview today.

Here is a sample of what he said:

“There is a great concern as to whether the Clintons don’t need to be more direct and abrupt in terms of cutting off any lingering doubt as to they stand. They need an open and full commitment to election of democrat this November.”

I also asked him directly if their hesitation may have something to do with race. He specifically said that he was not of the opinion that race is playing a factor in their lack of enthusiasm, but he did go on to say the following:

“The trouble is when people make those statements, they are showing you that they are not interested in issues, they are not interested in platform, what they are interested in is something else. Now if someone is going to show you that there is such a difference between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in terms of issues and terms of platform, what are they? And what it is it about John McCain to want to support him over any Democratic candidate running. Forget Obama, any Democratic candidate running, and that is when you have other questions arise about, What is the real reason? And I don’t know, but I can tell you, its not good, it should end and I hope Hillary does that when she speaks this evening and puts to rest any question as to where she and where she hopes her followers stand relative to the election of a Democratic president this November.”

We will have all of Mayor Wilder’s comments on the Clintons up in our video player at decisionvirginia.com at some point this evening.

UPDATE: The video from the Wilder Interview is now on our video player at www.decisionvirginia.com