One on One with Tom Perriello

WARREN: “I want to play word association with you for a second if you will. If you’ll just tell me the first thing that comes to your mind with each one of these words or two words…Southwest Virginia.“

PERIELLO: “Need for jobs.“

WARREN: “Iraq.“

PERIELLO: “A crisis that must be solved.“

WARREN: “Iran.“

PERIELLO: “A pending crisis made worse by dumb strategies from this administration.“

WARREN: “Global Warming.“

PERIELLO: “A serious crisis and an economic opportunity if we do it right.“

WARREN: “George Bush.“

PERIELLO: “A serious disappointment.“

WARREN: “John McCain.“

PERIELLO: “Better than George Bush; not as good as Barack Obama.“

WARREN: “The next one is Barack Obama.“

PERIELLO: “Hopeful.“

WARREN: “What about your opponent Virgil Goode?“

PERIELLO: “Congressman Goode has had a long history of service in the region and I respect that and I respect what he’s done for constituent services. I just
don’t think he’s the guy who can get the 5th District where it needs to go in terms of jobs.“

WARREN: “And if you put one word on that?“

PERIELLO: “One word on Congressman Goode…I don’t know, ready for retirement?“

WARREN: “What’s your biggest fear personally?“

PERIELLO: “I think fear of disappointing God. I think that at t he end of the day there’s only one vote that matters to me and that’s the one at the end of my life.“

WARREN: “If George Bush was to be on a list of worst and best U.S. presidents, where would you put him?“

PERIELLO: “Right now it certainly appears that he’s going to be way down that list. When you think about the opportunity of September 11th, when you think about the opportunity of September 12th, of what we could have done with this country, it was the classic moment where the culture of convenience was gone. People were willing to sacrifice to make our country safe and to make our country strong. Wasting that opportunity in the way that he did I think will go down as one of the biggest tragedies in American political history.“

WARREN: “Describe your leadership style.“

PERIELLO: “Problem-solver. I’ll sit down with anyone to get something done.“

WARREN: “We’re in Charlottesville or pretty close to it, so this might be a little evident, but Tech or UVa?“

PERIELLO: “Well I certainly grew up cheering for UVa, but I certainly—you know it’s interesting—we actually grew up cheering for Tech against everyone except for UVa.  But I’ve found that’s a tough position to take, especially on the trail.“

WARREN: “Thanks for joining us.“

PERIELLO: “Thank you.“