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August 27, 2008

Guests: Govs. Schweitzer, Vilsack, and Dukakis

Hannity & Colmes

HANNITY: And welcome back to the Democratic National Convention. I'm Sean Hannity. Welcome to "Hannity & Colmes."

By the way, you can see right there on the floor, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts has just been introduced. And we'll get to some of that in just a minute. But joining us now with reaction to Bill Clinton's speech is Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who's with us.

Governor, welcome to "Hannity & Colmes." Thank you for being with us.

GOV. BRIAN SCHWEITZER (D), MONTANA: Great to be out here.

HANNITY: All right. You're -- by the way, I was watching you last night. I think you were enjoying yourself up there, taking some shots at John McCain and Republicans.

SCHWEITZER: We weren't taking any shots. Anybody that supports alternative energy in America, anybody that wants to produce American energy with American engineers, I'll support them, but if they're voting against it, I'm going to call them out.

HANNITY: I'm all for drill here, drill now, pay less.

Now, look, there's no doubt that Bill Clinton can give a good speech. I don't think anybody doubts that. But specifically, I think there was one thing that was missing. Where are the qualifications of Barack Obama? What -- what uniquely qualifies him in his background and experience in your mind that he should be the leader of the free world?

SCHWEITZER: I think he's very qualified. He's a smart guy, served in the United States Senate. He's lived around the world. You know, you -- you jackals and hyenas on the East and West Coast, you think that only experience in Washington, D.C., matters. But I'll tell you, in a place like Montana, we don't even like the folks in Washington, D.C.

HANNITY: After watching your speech a little bit last night, I believe that. But listen to what you're saying to me. He's a smart guy. There's a lot of smart people in the world. He's a Senator. We have a hundred senators in the world.

Is there anything you can think of, considering -- for example, we're going to interview Michael Dukakis in a minute. He had what he called the Massachusetts miracle that he was running on. What specifically that he's accomplished impresses you so much that he should be president?

SCHWEITZER: Well, I think it's important to recognize that he has a plan for energy independence. You know, we could continue on same old, same old. You say drill here, drill now. I love that. Montana has increased our oil production by almost 50 percent. But even Boone Pickens recognizes that we consume 25 percent and only have 3 percent of the oil. We need other alternative sources.

HANNITY: And Governor...

SCHWEITZER: Drill now means more petro dictator dollars.

HANNITY: I just want you to know, for the record, in case you're interested, I'm an all-of-the-above guy. I say windmills. I say solar power. I say conservation, drilling, nuclear power, and refineries. So I'm for all of the above things.

SCHWEITZER: God bless you.

HANNITY: Now I would say, probably starting with you last night and Bill Clinton today, the comparing and contrasting, that is predictable of these campaigns has begun, but there's going to be more comparing and contrasting, I think, going on next week.

I want to read to you a comment that Barack Obama made when he said, quote, he's going to cut tens of billions of dollars in defense -- in defense spending, he pledged; cut investments in all our missile defense systems; and slow our development for future combat systems. And again, we're dealing with, you know, tiny countries like Iran that don't represent serious threats.

Do you think that will sell well with the American people?

SCHWEITZER: Well, 52 percent of every defense dollar worldwide is spent by the United States. We have a military that is ten times larger than the second largest military in the world. I don't know how much more you want to spend when we're already ten times larger than our competitor.

COLMES: Hey, Governor, it's Alan Colmes. We've got to run in a second, interview Governor Dukakis. But they didn't question the credentials of George Bush, governor of Texas, who had a very thin resume then. But...

HANNITY: He was an executive for eight years just like Governor Dukakis.

COLMES: One and a half terms of a gubernatorially weak state. But we thank you very much.

HANNITY: Texas a weak state?

COLMES: With us... gubernatorially it is. That's the way the legislature set it.

HANNITY: Really?

COLMES: We welcome Governor Michael Dukakis. Sir, thank you so much for being here.

When you sit here and see these speeches, when you were the nominee at one time, and you stood on that stage, what does that do for you? What does it do to you?

MICHAEL DUKAKIS, FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: Well, I thought the Clinton speech was a great speech, and it was considerably better than the one he made when he nominated me in Atlanta. You know, when -- when Bill Clinton announced for president in the fall of 1991, he went on Johnny Carson, and Carson said, "Why are you running for president?"

And he said, "Because I want to finish my speech for Dukakis."

COLMES: And you apologized the other day.

DUKAKIS: I did.

COLMES: On my radio show, as well. You said you were sorry...

DUKAKIS: Right.

COLMES: ... for not winning because, had you won, this country would have been -- would be in a very different place right now.

DUKAKIS: I was more specific than that. I said if I'd beaten the old man, we'd never heard of the kid and we wouldn't be in this mess.

COLMES: So you really...

DUKAKIS: I take this responsibility.

COLMES: What would you have done differently so that we wouldn't have been in this mess?

DUKAKIS: You mean compared to what we've had? This is the worst president I've ever lived under. I mean, these last seven and a half years have been some of the worst seven and a half years of my life.

COLMES: What would a Dukakis presidency have done?

DUKAKIS: You'd have an economic game plan. I mean, we don't have an economic game plan. Deregulate, tax cuts for the wealthy, crumbs for the rest of us. I mean, that's -- that's the Republican philosophy, which unfortunately, John McCain subscribes to.

COLMES: As you know, you know, you've got to make the case to the American people. Barack Obama has to make the case himself. He can't just depend on wonderful surrogates like Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.

DUKAKIS: Right.

COLMES: What does Barack Obama have to do to make that sale to the people who have yet to come over to him?

DUKAKIS: Well, let me say first -- let me respond to you, Sean. This experience tag, this guy has been in elective office for 12 years, longer than George Bush, longer than Jimmy Carter, longer than Hillary Clinton, longer than John Edwards. The same number of years in elective office as George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

HANNITY: But let me ask you...

DUKAKIS: Wait a second.

HANNITY: Yes, sir.

DUKAKIS: He's had experience at both the state and federal level, which I think makes you a much better president. He was an extremely effective state Senator, and Illinois is not exactly the minor leagues.

HANNITY: Governor...

DUKAKIS: He's been a very good United States Senator.

HANNITY: ... if I ask you to give specifics -- forget about the 12 years. Give me specific accomplishments besides saying that Iran is a tiny country, not a serious threat, besides saying he'd be willing to invade Pakistan, an ally, and create the way for Iranians.

DUKAKIS: He didn't say that.

HANNITY: Yes, he did, actually.

DUKAKIS: No, he said he would do what we have begun to do under the Bush administration, which is to go after some of these folks in northern Pakistan.

HANNITY: You tell the audience -- look in the camera. You tell them, what are his major specific accomplishments? Go right ahead.

DUKAKIS: He was -- he was a terrific state legislator.

HANNITY: What did he -- specifics. Those are generalities. Specifics.

DUKAKIS: A whole range of things.

HANNITY: Like? Like?

DUKAKIS: Bringing people together. Dealing with the death penalty issue was a very...

HANNITY: That makes him president...

DUKAKIS: No.

HANNITY: ... because he dealt with the death penalty issue?

DUKAKIS: No, no. But because he was known as a great...

HANNITY: Community organizer.

DUKAKIS: No, a great leader in the Illinois legislature, the Illinois state government.

HANNITY: But you can't give me a specific. Just tell our audience specifically what has he done?

DUKAKIS: Well, I can go through his entire Illinois resume.

HANNITY: I'm ready.

COLMES: He did health care. You go down the list of things he did.

HANNITY: Let Governor Dukakis do it.

DUKAKIS: Health care, law enforcement, social services, integrity, very, very important...

HANNITY: Integrity.

DUKAKIS: Very important.

COLMES: Ethics.

HANNITY: Does John McCain have integrity?

DUKAKIS: Well, he had integrity.

HANNITY: He's lost integrity?

DUKAKIS: Unfortunately, he's lost his integrity, and it's one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

Here's a guy that was trashed by George Bush and that guy that you just had here in the year 2000. It was despicable,.

HANNITY: Let me ask you this question.

DUKAKIS: Let me finish.

HANNITY: Go ahead.

DUKAKIS: And now he's hired another Karl Rove acolyte to run his campaign. It's really sad to see a guy like McCain...

HANNITY: It's very interesting, because if that is your standard of integrity, if we look issue by issue, starting with Iraq: meeting with rogue dictators. Iran is now a grave threat. It was a tiny country, not a serious threat.

On getting out of Iraq in 16 months, on every major issue, now he's even open to drilling, perhaps -- let me finish. Barack Obama has changed his position. Based on your standard, is he lacking integrity?

DUKAKIS: As a matter of fact, Barack Obama almost single-handedly, in case you've missed it...

HANNITY: I don't miss a thing.

DUKAKIS: ... has resolved the issue of troop withdrawal in Iraq. Have you noticed that?

HANNITY: That's because we're winning. The surge worked.

DUKAKIS: No. He said 16 months. Maliki said 16 months. Now the Bush administration is saying, well, not 16, but 20. The only guy...

HANNITY: With victory.

DUKAKIS: The only guy that isn't there is McCain. He wants to stick around for 25...

HANNITY: You want to be back out there. I can see. You can't give this up.

COLMES: This time he'd win.

HANNITY: We're going to have more reaction to Bill Clinton's speech, plus a continued preview of Senator Joe Biden's address, by the way, which will be coming up later tonight, not long from right now. Stay with us, right here on FOX News.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: And welcome back to this special edition of "Hannity & Colmes." We are live from the Democratic National Convention, and joining us now is former Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack.

Governor, good to see you.

TOM VILSACK, FORMER IOWA GOVERNOR: Nice to see you, Sean.

HANNITY: We've got the roar of the crowd as John Kerry complains about four years ago and, quote, "swift boating." But I want to get first your reaction to Bill Clinton's speech.

VILSACK: Vintage Bill Clinton. No question about it. He made the case very succinctly for why Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States and why John McCain doesn't deserve an opportunity to continue four years of Bush policies.

HANNITY: Obviously, that's what the talking point has now become here, but you know, as I was getting into it with Governor Dukakis, he made the case about Democrats and the Democratic Party and how he thinks the party.

Where did you hear that he was making the specific case, except saying he was supporting Barack Obama for Barack Obama being the better candidate?

VILSACK: Well, there's no question that Barack Obama has a better health-care plan. The opportunity to expand health-care insurance to every single American, Barack Obama stands for that. John McCain has not come out for that.

It's also clear...

HANNITY: Let me...

VILSACK: Let me just finish. It's also clear that Barack has a much better tax policy, because he's going to try to deal with the income inequality that's arisen during the last 10 years.

HANNITY: But these questions were not just raised by, you know, conservatives like Sean Hannity. Joe Biden says the presidency doesn't lend itself to on-the-job training. Talking points doesn't cut it on foreign policy.

Hillary Clinton said, "John McCain's ready to be president. The only thing Barack Obama has in his experience is a speech he gave in 2002."

So the very people that are now out there praising him and supporting him were his very critics just a short time ago. Why should we believe them now?

VILSACK: I'll tell you, Barack Obama has done two things that have indicated that he has sound judgment. First and foremost, his position on Iraq and secondly, his selection of Joe Biden as the next vice president.

No question he has the strength of character to use Joe Biden in a very important way to provide an integrated, comprehensive foreign policy that this country definitely needs. We cannot go it alone. We can't fight climate change. We can't fight terrorism alone. We need alliances and friendships.

COLMES: Governor, it's Alan Colmes. Good to have you with us tonight.

You know, they go on about the lack of experience of Barack Obama, forgetting that they didn't say that about George W. Bush. We started talking about this with Governor Schweitzer a few moments ago.

They didn't say that about George W. Bush. Yes, he was a governor, and legislatively, was gubernatorially weak. That's the way they treated the governorship in Texas. And he was a failed businessman. He didn't have a lot of accomplishments to the extent that Barack Obama, who was a very successful legislator and senator over the last two years.

I don't get how they can have credibility when they make that argument?

VILSACK: You know, part of the job of president is being a visionary, basically painting a vision about a brighter and better future. I don't know of another candidate in this race that has painted that vision more succinctly and with greater clarity than Barack Obama.

He understands that we need to change. He understands that the American economy has got to work for everybody, that America has to rejoin the community of nations and lead and provide moral leadership. That is a clear vision.

And I tell you, his selection of Joe Biden reinforces in my mind he is ready to lead. He is ready to change this country, and this convention is ready to follow him.

COLMES: We've got to -- he's got to make the case not just to people in this room and tomorrow night, just the people -- not the people at Invesco Field, but they've got to make the case over to the people watching on television and the independents who have yet to decide. How does that get accomplished?

VILSACK: I think he points out that he understands and appreciates the problems that are facing ordinary Americans. He's got a solution for those problems. He's sensitive and compassionate. He also can point out that Americans are concerned about our standing in the world. He's going to address that tomorrow. He's going to talk about an America that provides moral leadership.

That's the kind of America that all of us want to be part of. I have no doubt that he's going to knock it out of the ballpark -- no pun intended -- tomorrow, just as all of the speakers at this convention have.

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