Clinton Conference Call, Notes and Audio

Here it is [MP3 file]. My notes follow if you want a preview of sorts. The whole thing is about an hour long... yep.

The opening comments focused almost exclusively on the Rezko trial, with some detours to "readiness"-land. I'm glad they didn't have the audio open on the reporter side because I confess I sighed with they made the argument that sending a staff member to take notes at the trial. I mean, com'on [said in this voice]. Someone later asked if they had sent someone to the trial and Wolfson said they hadn't, which actually strikes me as malpractice. Toobin's awesome phrase was in the context of the very first question, which was about how infighting might affect the party in the future.

Other quotes I found notable (from Wolfson/Singer unless otherwise noted):

• "rather curious that they were concerned about it"

• "should set off alarm bells in newsrooms across America"

• "this race has been remarkably civil"

• Penn has "played a key role"

• "we've passed the commander in chief test" [mult.]

• Obama as "inexperienced": "it's one of the he's having problems closing the deal"

• "there are lots of things we don't know [about the relationship between Obama and Rezko], as there are about all events throughout all of history" [from Jeff Toobin]

• Wolfson compared HRC response to Hsu questions to Obama's non-answers on Rezko

• "We are not going to nominate someone to run against John McCain who has not passed the economic stewartship test"

• Apropos of Toobin's awesome phrase, Wolfson says Obama's answers on Rezko "don't pass the smell test"