The following is the full exchange as it occurred on the April 5 edition of "Geraldo At Large":
GERALDO RIVERA: And Governor Steele, you have a situation where this Rasmussen poll, I was pretty shocked when I saw it, now showing Barack Obama, I think for only the second time over 50 percent. He's at 51, Hillary Clinton is at 41. That's a 10-point spread. It looks as if the momentum have, has that people are, are putting the, the Wright controversy behind Obama and now seem to be rallying to him in a way that I, up until now, have not seen. you until now have not seen.
FORMER MARYLAND LT. GOVERNOR MICHAEL STEELE: I think less that in actuality. I think this is more about people sort of recoiling from the Hillary gaffe. I mean this, she effectively ended her campaign, in my view, with the Bosnia comment. I think shed a lot of momentum.
RIVERA: Do you really think it was that?
STEELE: I, I really I do. When you look–
RIVERA: I think that, that's awful. I, I feel so bad for her for that.
STEELE: When you look at, when you look at the, when you look at the polling and you track it and you watch it, it was a precipitous drop for her after that statement came out. I mean, I mean it's just silly. I mean people discount what the Clintons say, to begin with, but this was bigger than any discount that they could possibly give them and I think it really hurt her. And I think for Barack the Reverend Wright issue, as much as people want to, you know say, "We're past that," trust me I've been out in middle-America, we're not past it. It's still an issue. It, it's beneath the surface and people are waiting to see the next shoe to drop. What else is out there? Remember, keep in mind, this man has not been thoroughly vetted yet. They're still more revelations. We do not know, not so much about, you know, we know a lot about, you know, his, his vision. We don't know about the practical experience, we don't know how that translates for the rest of the country.
