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| Gitmo trial looms in election homestretch | |
| Back at Senate, Clinton treated like royal | |
| GOP favoritism in new IG report | |
| How Hoyer got the deal done | |
| LA Times/Bloomberg Poll: Obama +12 | |
| IN Polls: Prez Race Even, Gov Race Close | |
| McCain's Psychological Benefits | |
| VP Watch: Michigan Numbers | |
| The Charm Offensive Continues |
| A Transportation Stimulus | |
| McCain's Speech in Santa Barbara | |
| A Serious Energy Policy for Our Future | |
| The Imitators | |
| 'Victims' of Cut-Rate Loans |
| Personality Matters | |
| Journalists Will Trample an Annointed Son | |
| Bush's Iraq Calculus | |
| Panel Discusses Obama Moving to the Middle | |
| Ferraro and Thompson on "Hannity & Colmes" |
|
April 02, 2008
Haley Barbour on "Hannity & Colmes"
Hannity & Colmes
HANNITY: The Columbia Journal Review is going after Barack Obama for attacking and misconstruing Senator John McCain's "100 years in Iraq" comment. The article says Obama unfairly paints the Arizona senator as a war-monger, and that, if you listen to McCain's full sound bite, it's obvious he's saying quite the opposite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Bush is talking about our staying in Iraq for 50 years.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe 100. We have been in South Korea. We have been in Japan for 60 years. We have been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, that's fine with me. I hope it would be fine with you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now, McCain supporter Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.
Governor, good to see you again.
GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R), MISSISSIPPI: Hey, Sean. Thank you very much.
HANNITY: You know, I don't think everyone can really hear this. This has now been regurgitated repeatedly on the campaign trail, but when you listen to what he's saying, he said, well, maybe 100 years. We've been -- we've been, for example, in South Korea. We've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea 50 years or so.
Then he goes on to say, "That would be fine with me. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, that would be fine with me."
Why does the media get away with purposely distorting this?
BARBOUR: Well, I think the media hasn't distorted it so much as the Democratic candidates have.
HANNITY: Good point.
BARBOUR: I mean, Senator Obama is the Columbia Journalism Review, you know, not big favorites of conservative Republicans that just very emphatically said they're not telling the truth about it. You know, it reminds me that the Obama campaign remembers what Mark Twain said that a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.
HANNITY: Well, I guess that's the whole point here. Maybe that's -- maybe that's why we're the alternative media. Maybe this is our job, Governor, to point this out. But it's purposely distorting of the record.
And I think -- I don't know why the McCain campaign hasn't come out more forcefully against it. Have you talked to him about it?
BARBOUR: I haven't really talked to him about it, because I'm not trying to run their campaign. But the fact is very simple, as you saw from that -- from that videotape, within one sentence Senator McCain emphatically said what he meant, just the opposite of Senator Obama saying he wants to have 100-year war in Iraq.
HANNITY: Let me ask you this, Governor, and just to change the topic ever so slightly here. Your name comes up repeatedly as a potential vice- presidential running mate for John McCain. If that 3 a.m. call comes and he asks you to run with him, what would you say?
BARBOUR: Well, look, I'm on hurricane duty, Sean.
HANNITY: Come on.
BARBOUR: That's just the fact of the matter.
Senator McCain is going to, sometime this summer, pick a running mate. It's flattering to those of us from Mississippi that Mississippi's governor would even be mentioned.
But the truth is, a lot of people said at the beginning, well, McCain has got to pick a conservative or conservatives aren't going to support him. Conservatives are going to support him. He doesn't have to pick a conservative like me for conservatives to support him.
Secondly, he needs to wait until the summer, see what the Democrats do. See what the geography is like.
But I would be very surprised, after a life in politics, if a Republican candidate for president picked a governor of Mississippi. If a Republican doesn't carry Mississippi in a presidential election, it's not going to carry five states.
COLMES: Governor, it's Alan. Can't anybody make a call during business hours? I mean, you know.
All right, look, let me ask you about, this idea of taking somebody out of context. John -- they did the same thing to John Kerry when he said, "I voted for the 87 before I voted against it," when the earlier vote was predicated upon getting rid of tax cuts for the rich. And then everybody knows these bills go through various incarnations.
He needed to fight back about that. And you know, he was taken out of context. Isn't that the same thing we're talking about with John McCain here and the 100 years? There's more to the story than the little sound bite? Same thing happened to John Kerry?
BARBOUR: Well, the more to the John Kerry story than a sound bite, though. It was his vote. And the vote got held against him. And I believe when you vote, you're on record and that's fair game. Senator McCain has voted some votes I wouldn't have voted, and I think he's ready to defend those and step up to the plate on them.
But, look, the thing about this that catches the public's eye is Senator Obama's campaign acts like he is this new kind of politician. And that he's not going to stoop to what other politicians did. And here's stooping about as far as one can stoop.
COLMES: Well, that's your opinion. We appreciate your coming on our show to express it, Governor. Thanks for your time tonight.
