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May 20, 2008

Governor Rendell on "Hannity & Colmes"

Hannity & Colmes

COLMES: Welcome back to a special primary night edition of "Hannity & Colmes." And here's where things stand. FOX News projecting a dominating win for Hillary Clinton in Kentucky. Hillary has managed to string together some important victories in recent weeks to stay alive.

But in reality, has the Clinton campaign reached the proverbial end of the road?

With us now Pennsylvania Governor and Clinton supporter Ed Rendell.

Governor Rendell, good to have you back on the show.

GOV. ED RENDELL (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Nice to be back.

COLMES: Where do you see this going? Is it mathematically possible? Is there anything she could do to get this nomination at this point?

RENDELL: Sure, I think so. I think in the last three months, March, April, and May, she's won seven out of the ten primaries and won five of them by absolute blowouts. Tonight 36 points, 240 or 250,000 vote margin. It's pretty stunning.

It's sort of amusing to me that the candidate who's doing all the winning is the one people want to drop out.

I think the message is clear to super delegates. Hillary Clinton is our most electable candidate, and that's what conventions are all about, finding out most electable candidate. She's going to wind up winning the majority of popular vote in our primaries, no question in my mind about that after Puerto Rico finishes.

And think about it. Florida, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, all red states. She carried them big and is ahead of John McCain in most of those states.

COLMES: You've got a fight on your hands to get the Florida, you know, delegates to count. You've got Obama tracking 75,000 people in Oregon. You've got a very upset group of people, just as Hillary supporters are very upset with a possible Obama nomination. So the converse the true, and you'd have a very upset large part of the Democratic party if Hillary gets the nomination.

How do you bring them together?

RENDELL: Well, I think they're brought together by necessity. They're brought together because they don't want a third term of George Bush. They don't want the Iraq war to continue. They don't want the massive tax cuts to continue. They want a sound and fair economic policy. They want a better Supreme Court.

Women who are for Hillary come up to me and say, "I can't vote for Obama."

And I say, "Yes, you can, because the next president's going to pick three Supreme Court justices, and you don't want John McCain picking those."

COLMES: By the way, the name Ed Rendell does come up in terms of a V.P. every so often for either candidate. Have any conversations taken place that you're aware of concerning that particular issue?

RENDELL: No, absolutely none, and it's interesting. I've been in this business, elective office for 32 years now, and I think I've learned one thing. I'm much better when I'm my own boss.

You remember 2000 when I was the DNC chair, and I got in all that trouble by actually telling the truth. So I don't think I'd be a very good person. But I'm going to work like heck to make sure Pennsylvania goes for Senator Clinton or Senator Obama.

HANNITY: All right, Governor, stay right there. Sean Hannity. We have a FOX News alert. FOX News has just confirmed that former Carter White House chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan, has passed away. We don't have any details, as of now, but we'll bring them to you as they become available tonight.

Governor Rendell, I know you probably knew him well.

RENDELL: Sure. He was a very bright and able guy. It's a -- it's a shame. This is not a good couple of days for politics.

HANNITY: Well, our thoughts and prayers are with his family tonight.

Governor, I want to tell you, now we don't always agree. Now we agree on great Philly cheese steaks, which is my favorite meal in the whole world.

RENDELL: The last time you were in Philadelphia I got battered.

HANNITY: You got battered because you were friendly to me.

RENDELL: I got battered by your audience.

HANNITY: Well, no, you know what? You handled it with a lot of grace, and then I got to see you afterwards.

But listen, this is not -- this is not just a victory here tonight, Governor. This -- this was an absolute crushing of Barack Obama, as it was in West Virginia. There is great distrust on a lot of levels.

The majority, again, don't think Barack is honest and trustworthy. They think he shares the views of Reverend Wright. And again, we're in the 30 percent of Democrats in a Democratic primary say they'd vote for him -- vote for John McCain over him. How do you interpret that?

RENDELL: And even among young voters in Kentucky -- and Kentucky has a lot of colleges -- Hillary Clinton carried young voters in Kentucky, as well.

I think the message is clear. Hillary Clinton is our most likely candidate to prevail. She's our best candidate. She has the most experience. She has the best ideas. She's connecting with the voters that we have to win or John McCain has to win.

HANNITY: All right.

RENDELL: To become president of the United States. And that's what it all should be about.

HANNITY: To get to that point, though, and she's having through her surrogates, Terry McAuliffe. You've made the case that she's winning the popular vote, but she's not winning that popular vote, unless you count Florida and Michigan. How do you get to the point where you're going to count those votes in the end?

RENDELL: But I think you in the media can count Florida and Michigan's popular vote.

HANNITY: You blame me?

RENDELL: No, no, listen. I think you've heard me say FOX News has done a fair job covering this primary, but I think you're going to kill us in the fall. But you've done a fair job up till now. I think...

HANNITY: Personally, I don't think I'll be supporting the Democratic candidate. Alan will help you out, though.

RENDELL: Alan will help us out. But I think that if the media does the right thing.

Certainly, you've got to count the Florida vote. Everyone was on the ballot. Everyone played by the same rules. She won 50-33 percent in Florida. Almost 2 million people voted.

HANNITY: Let me...

RENDELL: If you count that and you count Puerto Rico, she's won the popular vote. Regardless of the delegates.

I agree with you, she can't catch him in pledged delegates, but the super delegates have to decide who's our best candidate? Who's the best chance to carry Florida in the fall and Iowa in the fall?

HANNITY: I've got to...

RENDELL: Hillary Clinton, no doubt about it. No doubt about it.

HANNITY: Governor, I agree with you. I think your analysis is dead on. And I think these exit polls are going through great and terrific doubt.

Let me ask you, because I think the issues that have been most damaging on the issues of trust and honesty and all these exit polling that we've now seen in the last states here, how damaging do you think it is that he has a friendly relationship with an unrepentant terrorist and he gives speeches with William Ayers? How damaging do you think was Reverend Wright? How damaging do you think his comments in San Francisco were? Those three big issues.

RENDELL: I think those have done damage, but I don't think it's damage that Senator Obama, if he becomes the nominee, can't recover from.

What the Obama campaign has to do whenever this is over, if they're successful, is they've got to reintroduce Senator Obama to America. They've got to talk about his childhood, talk about the things that shaped his values. He had his values formed way before he joined Reverend Wright's church, and they were formed by good familial relationships.

HANNITY: All right.

RENDELL: And good work that he's done. They can do that, Sean. They have plenty of time to re-explain Senator Obama to the American people.

HANNITY: I don't know. I think it's going to be hard to overcome.

Now Governor, I want a promise. You owe me a Philly steak.

RENDELL: Absolutely. You're dead on. With -- with onions.

HANNITY: Yes, but no Swiss. What did John Kerry ask for? Swiss cheese or something?

RENDELL: Swiss cheese. The worst -- the worst moment in Philadelphia history.

HANNITY: I remember. I was a Flyer fan back in the Bobby Clark and Bernie Parent days.

Good to see you, Ed. Appreciate it.

RENDELL: Good to see you, Sean.

Good to see you, Alan. Take care.

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