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February 22, 2008

Roundtable Reviews Democratic Debate

FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN EDWARDS, (D) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With Elizabeth, with my family, with my friends, with all of you, and al of your support, this son of a mill worker is going to be just fine.

Our job now is to make certain that America will be fine.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Whatever happens, we're going to be fine. We have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we'll be able to say the same thing about the American people, and that's what this election should be about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Well, there you see John Edwards getting out of the Democratic race on January 31st, and the second sound byte there was from Senator Hillary Clinton from last night's debate.

Now some people say it sounded like a prelude to a concession speech. We will see--this race is still hot and heavy.

Take a look at the delegate race right now on the Democratic side. There you see Barack Obama: 1,361, and Hillary Clinton: 1267.

Here is an interesting stat, too, the super delegate scorecard. You can see February 8 to February 22, Clinton actually lost two super delegates, and you see the gain there for Barack Obama as he is closing the gap on that, the super delegate scorecard.

Some analytical observations about the Hillary Clinton campaign from Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of "The Weekly Standard," Mort Kondracke, Executive Editor of "Roll Call," and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, FOX News contributors all.

Fred, you watched the debate. You saw that last closing bid. Did you see that as a prelude to a concession speech?

FRED BARNES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": I did not. I didn't know what to make of it at first, but I thought about it, and I think I probably figured it out. It is a lot like when she shed the tear in New Hampshire and then made this statement about how hard it is, and I've worked so hard, but I do it because I care so much for America, and I care so much about the voters.

One of the problems with her campaign has been that the campaign has been too much about her, and campaigns are supposed to be about the voters and not about you. And here she did it again. It's the same thing again-- "I'm going to be fine, but I care so much about you. I care about America, and that's what really matters here."

It is a campaign ploy and she does it very well.

BAIER: It was a largely cordial debate. One time she did strike out, saying that Barack Obama stole lifted lines from Duval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts. However, we just showed there, that line seemed pretty close to John Edwards' line.

MORT KONDRAKE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "ROLL CALL": You are suggesting this is a Xeroxed withdrawal?

BAIER: Maybe not Xeroxed, but a little similar.

KONDRAKE: Well, she preceded this statement with quite a touching talk about how she has had her difficulties in her life--obviously referring to the Monica Lewinsky case, and so on--but that other people in this country have it much tougher--soldiers coming back from Iraq who are wounded, people lacking health insurance, and so on. And I thought it was quite a touching moment on her part.

And Fred is cynical, you know, he's trying to say that it was like a tear. I think she was also trying to reduce the divisiveness, in public at least, with a national audience that she has brought to the campaign. And she wants--if she loses, she does not want it said that she has added to Barack Obama's burdens as he runs for president.

She was asked specifically, you stay out of the campaign trail, that you're ready on day one to be president. Are you implying that he's not ready to be? Oh, no, no, no. I'm just talking about myself. I'm ready on day one.

BAIER: Charles, can she right this ship? The latest polls in Texas, one poll at least, has it tied there. And she needs a big win in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania. Can she right this ship with her campaign?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, a couple of weeks ago I said here that she would need a miracle, to the raised eyebrows and skepticism of my compadres over here on the right. She still does need a miracle, and everything is swinging against her.

In Texas she was way ahead, and now it is narrowing. This has happened in every state in the last couple of weeks--when people see Obama up close, he approaches, he speaks, he starts to advertise, his numbers rise and hers don't. I think it's going to be very hard for her.

And last night was an opportunity to change the game. She didn't. I thought it was a touching moment at the end, of course--cynical and touching. There is no other way around it, in any case.

And she tried a little bit of an attack, that line about this isn't change, you can believe in this as change that you Xerox. What is really odd and delicious about that is that here she is delivering a line, reluctantly, delivering a line, obviously given to her by somebody else, to attack Obama for using a line given to him by somebody else.

The difference is he gets his for free and she has to pay for hers. That was obviously a snapper, and that is the story of her campaign. He has all these volunteers in Texas--tens of thousands--and she has to hire a machine, and the machine is sputtering.

BARNES: She doesn't need a miracle. What she needs is a break. And she already lowered expectation. She doesn't need to win big in Texas and Ohio. She just needs to win.

And the break can only come by some mistake that Barack Obama makes in a speech or his campaign or something, and he hasn't made many of them, that for sure.

KONDRAKE: As Charles says, Mike Huckabee says that he's expecting a miracle. Charles is right, she needs one.

BAIER: All right, last word on this topic.

When we come back with our panel, what does that IAEA new report tell us about Iran's nuclear program? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Not only is Iran continuing to defy, but they are apparently trying to enhance their activities on enrichment and reprocessing. So there is very good reason after this report to proceed to a Security Council Resolution, the third Security Council Resolution.

BAIER: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talking about an IAEA report, International Atomic Energy Agency report, that came out today about Iran, saying Iran continues to enrich uranium and also continues to move forward with its nuclear program.

We're back with our panel. Charles, looking at this report, what does it tell you, and does it essentially mean that the world is heading to another resolution at the U.N. Security Council?

KRAUTHAMMER: We may have a resolution, although I suspect the Russians and Chinese will block it. Even if it passes, it will be weak and meaningless.

The fight here over Iran's program was lost a few months ago when the National Intelligence Estimate emerged and was criminally misleading in its conclusion that Iran had suspended or abandoned its nuclear program.

As the Director of National Intelligence has said subsequently, it was only talking about the least important element of a nuclear program. It might be in suspension, but enrichment, which is the hardest element of a program, developing the fuel, is happening.

The IAEA has told us we see it, and the Iranians boast about it. So that is preceding apace unimpeded, and that's why it looks as if this administration has essentially understood it will not stop the program, sanctions aren't going to work, and it's not going to attack militarily.

BAIER: The British weighed in. The British Foreign Minister saying if Iran has nothing to hide, why is it being so reticent? Will this unify the international community, this IAEA report?

KONDRAKE: Well, you would hope so, but, independent of the U.N., if the Europeans and the United States has got all the sanctions it can impose on the Iranians. But if the Europeans really decided to get tough with the Iranians, it might make a difference.

But Charles is right. The NIE is a total disaster for the United States. It has undercut the ability of the United States to get the Europeans to move on all this stuff.

And it has made it practically impossible for President Bush to have the United States launch an attack on the Iranian nuclear installations during his presidency, but it has not eliminated the possibilities that the Israelis will do it, because the Israelis really do regard this program as a threat to their existence.

And the United States probably would have to cooperate and let the Israelis over fly Iraq, whose airspace we control. But that would be a lot less and it would not require congressional approval. So that may happen in 2008.

BARNES: They can go around Iraq and Turkey and come down that way, and it would be easier than going over Iraq.

The IAEA is not to hot of an outfit, either. They reported that they made quite good progress--this is in this report--quite good progress in clarifying what the Iranian program is, quite good progress. They seemed to be quite happy about that.

And while they're not complying with this and that, and so on, when you have to lean on those guys to be your frontline troops, Iran is going to have nuclear weapons.

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