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What Obama needs to say

Chris Matthews previews what he thinks Sen. Barack Obama should say in Tuesday's Democratic  Presidential Candidates Debate.
/ Source: msnbc.com

On Monday's "Hardball," host Chris Matthews offered his opinion on what Sen. Barack Obama needs to do tomorrow night at the Democratic Candidates Presidential Debate in Philadelphia. Matthews, a former speechwriter, thinks Obama can help himself against Sen. Hillary Clinton in the polls.

His suggested speech is below:   “This country’s in a rut — a rut that leads to endless war in Iraq, that leads to inevitable war with Iran. The American people, and not just the Democrats, want to get our country out of this rut. The great majority of them want this election to take us to a new place, not just led by someone smarter along the same rut. I promise to take us to that new place  Senator Clinton is smart. She’s hard-working. She’s serious. But every vote she has cast, every word she has spoken says “yes” to the status quo. She voted to approve the war with Iraq. She just voted with the hawks to target Iran. She always seem to choose the safe vote that leaves this country in the same rut, the rut of fearful politics and endless war. I promise change. I promise a new approach. I promise deliverance from the rut of endless war in Iraq, inevitable war in Iran.So there you have it. It’s for you, my fellow Democrats to decide. If you think Bush would have succeeded with his policies if they were better executed, then go with Senator Clinton. If you think the Bush policies were wrong, dead wrong, I’m with you.”

Matthews spent 15 years in politics, working in the White House for four years under President Jimmy Carter as a Presidential speechwriter, as the top aide to Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. for six years and in the U.S. Senate for five years on the staffs of Senator Frank Moss (Utah) and Senator Edmund Muskie (Maine).

Watch each night at 5 and 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC.