Khue Bui for Newsweek

This week's print edition of NEWSWEEK boasts interviews with not one but two--that is, both--major party candidates for president. Since Stumper readers would never be caught dead reading articles printed on paper [shudder], we've decided to post excerpts here, in the safe, secure world of bits and bytes. Suzanne Smalley's chat with John McCain is first; Richard Wolffe and Barack Obama is after the jump.

JOHN MCCAIN by Suzanne Smalley

Smalley: You value straight talk.
McCain: I'll give you that.

Some of your proposals seem a little gimmicky, like the $300 million prize for inventing a new, more powerful car battery. If someone were capable of inventing it, wouldn't they have done it already?
You could argue tax cuts could be viewed as a gimmick; anything we do for people to encourage American entrepreneurs and innovators could be viewed as a gimmick. And I don't view it as a gimmick. I view it as an incentive to address one of the most important challenges Americans face today, and that is to become energy-independent and to have automobiles that they can drive without having to be bankrupted.

You've advocated for lifting a ban on offshore drilling. Why is drilling there preferable to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?
Because the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I believe that offshore drilling is clearly called for. I think we need to do it, and we have to do it.

You've taken heat lately for a string of misstatements about foreign-policy issues. Some news reports have suggested your age could be slowing you down. How do you explain those gaffes?
I spend most of my days with town-hall meetings and with people—people like you. And occasionally there will be a misstatement. But you know, at a town-hall meeting I've never had a person stand up and say, "Hey, Senator McCain, you've made a gaffe." They stand up and they say, "How do I stay in my home? How do I keep my job? How do I afford to drive to work?" Et cetera. And, by the way, some of those "gaffes" have not been [misstatements], but they've been portrayed as such. But I'm not complaining. It's fine with me. The American people know me.

On torture, why should the CIA be treated differently from the armed services regarding the use of harsh interrogation tactics?
Because they play a special role in the United States of America and our ability to combat terrorists. But we have made it very clear that there is nothing they can do that would violate the Geneva Conventions, the Detainee Treatment Act, which prohibits torture. We could never torture anyone, but some people misconstrue that who don't understand what the Detainee Treatment Act and the Geneva Conventions are all about.

What should our policy be toward gays who want to serve in our military? And would your decision be influenced at all by the needs of commanders on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially with more soldiers needed?
Obviously, we listen to our commanders on the ground, who are in charge and have a responsibility for those young men and women. They say that "Don't ask, don't tell" is working, so unless they recommend otherwise I'm certainly going to support their recommendations, which were originated with Gen. Colin Powell.

Do you think that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is a tool of Vladimir Putin? And if our ally Georgia is threatened or attacked by Russia, how would you respond?
Well, I can't get into hypotheticals, but I can tell you that ... the relationship between Medvedev and Putin is unclear, but it certainly is disturbing, the trend of their behavior towards their neighbors, including their failure to cooperate with us in face of the Iranian nuclear buildup.

How do you plan to win the votes of women? What policies can you point to that will help you win their support?
Job creation is one of their No. 1 issues, and education and equal opportunity. I have not only a very clear record, but I have a very clear vision to restore our economy, to create jobs and particularly small businesses and to protect America for their sons and husbands and friends and cousins and [family] members, men and women, who are serving in the military.

Are you worried being pro-life will drive them away?
The majority of women in America, in my view, respect the rights of the unborn.

 
BARACK OBAMA by Richard Wolffe

Wolffe: Based on what you've seen and heard on this trip, is there anything that has led you to review any policy, tweak things, rethink anything?
Obama: Our success in Afghanistan is going to be deeply dependent not just on getting more troops there, which we need, but also some sustained high-level engagement with Pakistan—something that I discussed before but I think is significantly more urgent than even I had imagined. Basically there doesn't appear to be any pressure at all being placed on Al Qaeda, on these training camps, these safe havens, in the FATA [Federally Administered Tribal Areas].

In Iraq, it's not new that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has wanted to take control of his own country. But there's always been this gap between his assessment of his abilities and American commanders' saying he's not up to it. As president, faced with that difference between what he says he can do and what the commanders say he can do, how would you choose between them?
Iraq is a sovereign country. Not just according to me, but according to George Bush and John McCain. So ultimately our presence there is at their invitation, and their policy decisions have to be taken into account. I also think that Maliki recognizes that they're going to need our help for some time to come, as our commanders insist, but that the help is of the sort that is consistent with the kind of phased withdrawal that I have promoted. We're going to have to provide them with logistical support, intelligence support. We're going to have to have a very capable counterterrorism strike force. We're going to have to continue to train their Army and police to make them more effective.

You've been talking about those limited missions for a long time. Having gone there and talked to both diplomatic and military folks, do you have a clearer idea of how big a force you'd need to leave behind to fulfill all those functions?
I do think that's entirely conditions-based. It's hard to anticipate where we may be six months from now, or a year from now, or a year and a half from now.

When you went to AIPAC you called for a freeze on settlements. As president, what would you be prepared to do to persuade the Israelis to freeze the settlements, something people have talked about for a long time but never achieved?
I wouldn't have a discussion about settlements in isolation from the larger issue of peace. So at the same time I was seeking observance of the settlement pledge that the Israelis have already made, I'd be insisting on the Palestinians to follow through on the commitments they made for security. Our leverage in the region has diminished, and the most important way to convince the Israelis to stop building settlements is to give them a sense that they're getting something back in return that is worthwhile, that is the prospect that rockets won't be raining down and their borders will be secure—the borders of an Israel side by side with an independent Palestinian state.

The Roadmap and other peace plans have ground to a halt over the last several years not just because of a lack of involvement from mediators but also because of an insistence on security first, which may be understandable for the Israelis, but the Palestinians have not had the capability or maybe the willpower to deliver security. Wouldn't that still be a stumbling block, even with the added attention that you would bring? How would you deliver security without having the Israelis come in and try to clean things up themselves?
That's why the experiment that is being conducted to more effectively train the Palestinian security forces is very important. We need to give them an increased capacity.

But other efforts have failed.
It's conceivable that the international community would be interested in bolstering security efforts during a transition phase as part of a larger peace package. I don't think that's an inherent barrier.

When you say bolster, would they come in as an international force?
There are a range of things that are possible. But the point is that if we've got a serious deal that addresses final status issues as the Annapolis conversation has begun to do, and the parties are deeply invested in that, then I think the international community can help the parties muster both the resources and the capacity to make the deal stick.

You wrote in your first book about the seductive nature of talking to big crowds, getting them moved by your words. How does speaking to 200,000 people in Berlin not go to your head?
[Laughs] Because most of them can't vote in a U.S. election. My overriding mood during the course of this trip is a sober one. When you look at the very difficult problem of Iran, the very difficult problem of Afghanistan and Pakistan, continuing difficulties in Iraq, the challenges of Middle East peace, the next president is going to have his hands full. And that's before you start talking about climate change, the economy, relationships with Russia, China and North Korea. The point is it doesn't take much to puncture any euphoria you may feel because of a speech you've given.

Your conservative critics have suggested that with your focus on your own story, and this campaign's focus on you, there's a narcissism in how you've been campaigning.
How so?

Because you tell your story so often.
When have I mentioned my story over the last week?

Yesterday you started with it.
I had, what? Two lines? [Laughs] I think to some degree every presidential race has a biographical aspect to it. John McCain, I think people understand, has been profoundly shaped by his war experiences in Vietnam. And it's right for him to talk about that and it's right for the American people to draw conclusions from it. I'm trying to describe to people who I am. Ultimately I don't think that's a plausible criticism.