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October 12, 2007

Panel on Al Gore's Nobel Prize, Free Trade

FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL GORE, NOBEL PRIZE WINNER: I will be doing everything I can to try to understand how to best use the honor and recognition of this award as a way of speeding up the change in awareness and the change in urgency. It truly is a planetary emergency and we have to respond quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Former Vice President Al Gore talking about his Nobel Peace prize for his work on climate change. Does this all mean the Oscar, the Emmy, the Nobel Peace prize and perhaps there is a tidal wave here forcing Vice President Gore, the former the vice president into the presidential race? Some analytical observations from Fred Barnes, executive editor of the "Weekly Standard," Mort Kondracke, executive editor of "Roll Call"and Nina Easton, Washington bureau chief of "Fortune Magazine" and Fox News contributor's all. Fred, what do you think?

FRED BARNES, WEEKLY STANDARD: I don't think Al Gore is going to run. Now, look, in the first place, Democrats unlike Republicans are very happy with their presidential candidates. And secondly, Al Gore has given no indication that he's - he wants to run for president. You know, when you've got some guy who's won a Nobel Peace prize and an Oscar, that those put you in an elite category that most presidents never get in.

I did want to say a couple things about the award. The one Al Gore is getting, it has once again, debased the Nobel Peace prize. I mean, let's see who's gotten it in recent years. It's become very political. It's people like - Yasser Arafat, who was a terrorist, he wasn't for peace, Guadaberta Menchu (ph), remember that supposed Guatemala peasant, she was complete fraud. Last year, there was a great guy but his - who got it but his idea was promoting mini-loans to peasants. Now good idea, it has nothing to do with peace as (inaudible) has nothing to do with peace. And of course, there is - and how erroneous some of these claims are. It's interesting that they'll also give the award to this U.N. intergovernmental panel on climate change which doesn't say at all what Gore does, the difference was Gore says by the end of the century, sea levels because of global warming will rise 20 feet. IPPC which is mainly scientists, they say if we do nothing about global warming it will rise a foot and an inch - 13 inches. And if we do adopt a lot of things you know, to cut down carbon emissions, that it'll only be 6 inches. Gore won't debate anybody. Gore says there is a consensus, this is all decided. I'd like to hear him explain just the difference why they have global temperatures not gone up over the last 10 years at all.

BAIER: Right. The news of this panel is that Fred Barnes now accepts the IPPC results and believes in global warming. That is a major development. That is almost worthy.

BARNES: I've always said, I've always said and everybody knows that temperatures have risen one degree in the last hundred years.

MORT KONDRACKE, ROLL CALL: And - and, look, I think Al Gore has - says, in the movie, I've seen the movie twice, actually, that the global warming is the most important moral and political issue of our time. And as he said, it's a major emergency. And you would think under those circumstances that he would want to run for president and do what interestingly he did not do when he was President Clinton's vice-president and that is to push this issue to the Hill. Now, I don't think he is going to run. And he has a great life.

(CROSSTALK)

BAIER: Alright, let's take - let's take real quick at some polls. The latest horserace polls - Fox New/Opinion Dynamics Poll with Gore and without Gore. There you see it, a breakdown with Gore he comes in third - 10 percent there.

KONDRACKE: Yes, but look if he decided to run, I do not think that those polls would mean anything. I think he would instantly leap up into the first tier and he would be very competitive and he could get the money and he could get the support and all of that. And with a Nobel Prize on top of it, I think he would be in.

(CROSSTALK)

NINA EASTON, FORTUNE MAGAZINE: Yes, but the big question is when you have achieved sainthood, why would you want to be president of the United States? I mean, Al Gore as Fred alluded to, has a thin skin. I mean, whatever you think of his work on this, he has a thin skin. We saw that during the Congressional testimony earlier this year when he came before critics of his research. He's at the top of the world now. I think that where - what we will see-- is him leveraging this in the race as it stands. Is he going to get behind his old rival Hillary Clinton? Is he going to go behind Obama? Who is a - who's much more in line with him on the war for example. Is he going to you know, hold up his pledge, like River noir (ph) requested with tax reform, he's got this environmental pledge about carbon emissions and make them all signed it? Is he going to, you know push for - he's got this carbon emissions cap, is going to push them all in that direction? The problem is - they're sort of in that direction anyway.

BAIER: So, more quickly, is the next question is who Al Gore will endorse instead of whether he will run?

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: No, I do not think he will run. I think his endorsement will carry a lot of weight with Democratic primary voters. And it will push all of the candidates except they're not there already, in favor of Kyoto which I think is a disaster frankly, but nonetheless that's where it is going to go.

BARNES: They don't matter.

KONDRACKE: We could leave it -

BARNES: They simply don't and it's not just Al Gore, is it - it's everybody.

BAIER:: By the way boys (ph), we'll continue something tells me this weekend. When we come up with our panel, the president revives the free trade debate, trying to resurrect some deals that are not going anywhere in Congress. So, can he shake some of those trade deals lose? The panel tackles that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BUSH: There is a protectionist sentiment that are - is beginning to gain strength in America at in Congress. I make up my mind about the importance of trade and investment. And now Congress is going to have to make up its mind about trade and investment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: That's President Bush in Miami today, trying to jump-start his stalled trade agenda, really trying to get Congress to pass free trade deals with Peru, Panama, Colombia and also another one is South Korea. We're back with our panel. We'll start with our resident trade expert Nina. What are the chances of what the president said having an effect on Congress and getting these things through?

EASTON: It's - I think - I think on two the trade agreements - Peru and Panama, there's some chance with the others it's more difficult. But the bigger issue is - this is a defining moment for the Democratic Party. Susan Schwab, who is our U.S. trade representative when up to the Hill about a year ago and said - "Look, we're going to get into guys, the Democrats, labor standards and on and verbal standards and we will include that in these trade agreements." Democrats agreed and since then, they have been under pressure by organized labor and they backtracked. And now we've got to move forward and Susan Schwab sent me in the last issue of "Fortune Magazine," you know, is this the party of protectionism or not? I know clearly you know, Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, don't want to be a party of protectionism but they've got tremendous pressure coming from organized labor over this.

KONDRACKE: And the Democratic presidential candidates are all making and anti-trade noises. Now, look, the Democrats always say that they do - they want America to lead the world using soft power not military power. The strongest piece of soft power we have is opening our markets so that other countries can sell to us and increase the prosperity of those countries and at the same time we can - they lower their tariffs -- we can sell to them and it produces jobs in this country. There are disruptions and John McCain has a great idea. And that is a wage insurance -- that you get wage insurance against the possibility that you lose your job, you have to take another job with a lower salary and this wage insurance would make up the difference. And the administration could own that kind of policy.

BAIER: Fred, the president today said that Congress is talking about this, what congressman offer the prediction that the agreement passed, college graduates will increasingly see a future in flipping hamburgers. He said that's the kind of rhetoric we're dealing with. Does the White House believe that they can really affect how these trade agreements go through Congress?

BARNES: Well, they can have some effect and particularly on the Republicans, you know free trade didn't exactly something that all the Republicans on Capitol Hill are running out and touting either. And you know, the White House is even shying away from the two words -- free trade. In the president's speech today, he did not use them when he talked about expanding exports out to other countries and opening markets and so on, all that's fine. You know, for 50 - nearly 50 years, Mort correct on this if I'm wrong, there was a free trade majority on Capitol Hill, particularly in the Senate. It just doesn't exist anymore. I think you are going to have a hard time getting these trade agreements through. It's - it will be nice to get to the ones for Peru and Panama through. But more importantly is Colombia and South Korea. There are much bigger countries that have bigger economies and even at the White House, Mort, I talk to some people there today that they're not predicting that those two will get through, Colombia and South Korea.

BAIER: Alright, made a last word here: On the campaign trail, free trade as an issue for Democrats and Republicans, how is it playing out to you?

EASTON: Well, among Democrats it's become you know, as Mort have said, it's just like an anti-globalization, anti-free trade. Turn the clock back, I would - you know, Peru and Panama, those trades that's actually opening markets for American companies. Those - the companies from those countries actually are already have access here. If Korea, a very controversial because of cars and so forth, that would also open market to a growing middle class there. So, they're looking at the dark side of these agreements at least on the Democratic side.

BAIER: That's it for the panel.

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