Mike Huckabee on "Hannity & Colmes"

HANNITY: There you have it; just four days away from election day as the candidates make their final weekend blitz all across the swing states.

Joining us now -- he's been there himself -- former presidential candidate, host of the rising mega supershow, "Huckabee," seen right here on the FOX News Channel.

But you've got, let me see, Lorne Michaels.

MIKE HUCKABEE, HOST, "HUCKABEE": Right.

HANNITY: You've got Bill...

HUCKABEE: Bill Maher.

HANNITY: You have my sympathy.

HUCKABEE: Pray for me. I have Bill Maher on the show.

HANNITY: We've had some passionate debates.

HUCKABEE: Richard Dreyfuss is going to be...

HANNITY: Richard Dreyfuss, he doesn't like me either. Maher doesn't like me.

HUCKABEE: Alan doesn't like you.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: I told you that in confidence.

HANNITY: ... having the hate Hannity. If you had Obama, it would be the trifecta. You know, it would be perfect.

All right. Let's look at the status of the race. You've been in tough races.

HUCKABEE: I have.

HANNITY: Are you looking at the polls? There's a real tightening going on. Very interesting to me, as it's happening. Seems Barack Obama cannot close. Why?

HUCKABEE: I think there is the lingering doubt as to what he's going to do to people's personal income. This is not about -- you know, right now it's not about even terrorism or international affairs. Joe the plumber hit the reset button on this entire election.

HANNITY: You had the first interview with him on your show.

HUCKABEE: And I told him, I said if John McCain wins this election, he's got to appoint you to something, because you pulled it out of the fire for him. And he really did.

HANNITY: What was interesting about that, and tell me if you agree with this -- and we interviewed Joe the plumber, because we -- you know, whatever Mike does, we're going to do. He's a great guy. I really liked him.

HUCKABEE: He's a great guy.

HANNITY: But Joe the plumber got it started, but it was fascinating to me. It was an unscripted moment.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: It was a moment where he got away from the teleprompter and I think revealed his real side. Joe Biden, it's your patriotic act. I don't know if you heard, because I know you've out of the pocket (ph) a lot today, but Obama said earlier today, "They want to make a virtue out of selfishness" by saying it's socialistic. So you're selfish, unpatriotic if you don't want to pay higher taxes.

HUCKABEE: Well, the truth is, there's been a lot of, I think, misunderstanding. To say these policies are socialist is not saying that he is a capital "S" Socialist Party member. It means that, when you believe that it's OK to take money from people who have earned it and arbitrarily then reallocate that to people who didn't earn it, that is classic political science definition, textbook socialism. That's what it is.

HANNITY: But if you look -- what is amazing to me is nobody in the media -- we started this. We interviewed Reverend Wright first in March of 2007. Black liberation theology is -- has its roots in communism, socialism. And he stayed in the church for 20 years.

If you look at Bernadine Dohrn, I have this book right here. And in this book, you know, I'll read it to you, because it talks about -- about the definition of what socialism is, if I can just open the right page here. "Our final goal is the destruction of imperialism, the seizure of power, and the creation of socialism. Socialism is the total opposite of capitalism imperialism."

This is, you know, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn's book dedicated to Sirhan Sirhan, who killed Robert Kennedy.

HUCKABEE: There are basically two ways to empower people economically. One is to give them employment, the capacity to earn money and then to build their own economic future. The other is that somebody reallocates someone else's money and gives them the money.

COLMES: Governor, forgive my voice again, but look, we've had the same tax system in this country for years.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

COLMES: The same philosophy. It's a progressive tax system. The rich pay more than those who are less rich. What Obama is doing is not changing the tax structure, but going back to the same rules, the same numbers we had, basically, under Clinton. He's not redoing our entire tax system, either as a socialist...

HANNITY: In this (ph)?

COLMES: I can't fight with you tonight, Hannity. To make us a -- to make us a -- we're not becoming a socialist country. That's not what's happening.

HUCKABEE: But Alan, keep in mind that what we are returning to is something we've gotten away from, and that's the classic idea of welfare, welfare where you take money from people who earned and you gave it to people who did not earn.

We learned in the '90s. I was a governor of a state that reformed welfare. We saw people move off of it and go get a job. Let me tell you why that's important. It's not just about the economic justice. It's also about the dignity and value that every person feels with a job.

COLMES: All Obama is doing is changing the tax rate on those in the upper income of the Bush tax structure, where he lowered them for people making over $250,000.

HUCKABEE: My question would be, how much of that...

COLMES: That's all he's doing.

HUCKABEE: What percentage? At which point does it become patriotic enough?

COLMES: It's patriotic to pay for the military...

HUCKABEE: Yes.

COLMES: ... to pay for the war, to pay for roads, bridges, schools, to fund those things. Isn't that patriotic?

HUCKABEE: You know, Arthur Godfrey said, "I'm very proud to be a taxpayer, but I could be just as proud for half the money." And I think most Americans, when they're paying 50 percent or more of their income, when you add up all the extra taxes...

COLMES: You've got to afford the wars. You've got to afford the roads, the schools.

HANNITY: We've got to take a break, but there's one other issue.

COLMES: You've got to fund No Child Left Behind.

HANNITY: There's one other issue, Governor.

HUCKABEE: Not stealing money from people.

COLMES: We're not stealing. It's...

HANNITY: Confiscating.

COLMES: It's not confiscating. It's taxes.

HUCKABEE: It's a theft.

HANNITY: He can't keep quiet even with a sore throat. It's annoying. Kidding.

But one of the things -- we're going to literally give welfare, which we're presently not giving -- Alan is saying it's not changing. We're going to take -- he said we're only going to tax the rich, tax the rich. And 40 percent of people that do not pay any income taxes are going to get a check. That is redistribution of wealth.

HUCKABEE: That is not a tax cut. Let's be honest about it. If Barack Obama really believes that we should redistribute wealth, then he shouldn't say -- and by the way, the word "wealth" is not the right word. What we're really talking about is redistributing other people's income.

HANNITY: More with Mike Huckabee right after the break.

Plus, it's become a hit with millions of viewers on the Internet. Find out why a wounded Iraq veteran is supporting McCain and why this video has touched so many.

And we've got a surprise announcement about our Freedom Concerts. Mike Huckabee's going to be with us for that. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Iraq war veteran Joe Cook made his own Web ad in support of Senator John McCain back in August. Now, the ad, entitled "Dear Mr. Obama," has been viewed -- get this -- on YouTube by more than 11 million people. Take a look at this Internet sensation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE COOK, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: When you call the Iraqi war a mistake, you disrespect the service and the sacrifice of everyone who's died promoting freedom. Freedom carries with it a price.

Because you do not understand nor appreciate these principles, sir, I am supporting Senator John McCain for president. He, too, made a huge sacrifice promoting freedom, because he understands the fundamental truth. Freedom is always worth the price.

MUSIC: And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Very powerful.

We continue now with Governor Mike Huckabee with us. Don't forget his weekend show, right here on the FOX News Channel.

That's pretty powerful. One thing that surprises me in this campaign, Barack Obama said early on, because remember in the primaries it was about the Iraq war...

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: ... said he would cut tens of billions in defense, wouldn't weaponize space. He accused our troops, and I don't know why John McCain didn't turn to him in one of the debates and say, "You accused our troops of air-raiding villages and killing civilians." And he voted to cut off funding for our troops in the middle of a war, even though Joe Biden said thousands of lives would be lost.

Most people don't know that about the -- about him.

HUCKABEE: The war has become a non-issue. It's interesting. A year ago the two issues that were driving the campaign were the Iraqi war and immigration. I haven't heard either one of those issues in weeks.

HANNITY: Immigration, he supports driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

HUCKABEE: And those issues were on fire a year ago. Right now everything's about the economy. But people need to back off, and when they make this vote think about the big picture and all the issues that are out there, everything from the sanctity of life and Second Amendment. There are fundamental differences between these two candidates.

HANNITY: On the sanctity of life Barack Obama spoke out loudly, said it would bring into question a woman's right to choose if doctors were provided to -- living viable outside a mother's womb after a botched abortion. He spoke out against a bill that would protect those infants.

A lot of this hasn't come up. Do you think John McCain will pull this out? Do you think he's...

HUCKABEE: I think he can. I've been all over the country for Senator McCain and will be back on the road for him this week.

Sean, I think that this thing has tightened up. I don't fully understand, other than people are -- it's almost like going to the closet. There's a pair of shoes you've worn a lot. You're comfortable with them. There's a new pair, but they're not broken in.

COLMES: But Governor, it always tightens up closer to the election. Doesn't it?

HANNITY: Not always. No.

COLMES: You expect it to tighten up with a few days left.

HUCKABEE: I remember a week ago all the pundits were saying that this thing was set in concrete.

COLMES: But nobody -- the Obama campaign doesn't believe that. You know it tightens up close to the election. Don't you?

HUCKABEE: It typically does.

COLMES: OK, so this is not unusual.

HUCKABEE: Well, it's unusual to have a candidate that's double digits out and the other opponent is outspending him 4-1, and he's got a field organization that rivals anything that's ever happened in politics. And he can't close...

COLMES: Karl Rove -- Karl Rove has got 317 electoral votes. I mean, this is not in trouble with the states.

Also Robert Gates, by the way, secretary of defense, said in September, "I offer all Afghans my sincere condolences and personal regrets for the recent loss of innocent life as a result of coalition air strikes."

Civilians get killed in war. Obama was not accusing our military. He's saying we need enough troops to make sure that doesn't happen.

HANNITY: Way back. I've got some breaking news. This was just sent to me by my good -- we were just talking about my good friend, Mark Levin. Apparently, on The Drudge Report right now, huge. McCain has taken a one- point lead on Obama, according to tomorrow's Zogby poll. Wow. That -- this is going to be one heck of a weekend.

COLMES: Why do the states show, Governor, that he's got most of the states? He's got all the states that Kerry had and then some.

HUCKABEE: You know, I've been in some of the states that shouldn't even be in play. This last week I've been in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.

COLMES: Right. We were in Virginia together.

HUCKABEE: Right, we were. And I was back there again this week in Abington, Virginia, down in the southwest part of the state.

Alan, I can't explain what's happening. I can just tell you that the polls are clearly indicating that this is not yet a done deal. And I think what Sean said is key.

HANNITY: I've got a little bit more.

COLMES: It's never a done deal until the election. George W. Bush lost the popular vote.

HANNITY: By the way, thank God for BlackBerries.

(CROSSTALK)

HUCKABEE: So that there's one less person out there...

HANNITY: Let me give you what the...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Apparently, for our audience sake, apparently, big move in the polls. McCain up by one, Drudge is reporting, in the latest Zogby poll. It's going to come out tomorrow. So more on that when we come back.

Also it's the last weekend before election day, and the candidates will be making their final...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: And finally tonight, with just four days before people head to the polls, the candidates will be hitting the campaign trail very hard this weekend.

Now, Alan and I, we're going to be here both Saturday and Sunday night to keep you up-to-date about the latest happenings on the trail, including the information that we just told you about, that John Zogby will report tomorrow that Senator McCain is now up by one point in this race. We're looking forward to that.

So make sure to join us Saturday night, 9 p.m., Sunday one hour later at 10 Eastern, by the way, right after Mike Huckabee.

Now, that's this weekend, two special editions of "Hannity & Colmes."

Now, don't forget, by the way, we just announced this week eight concerts, Freedom Concerts to raise money for the children of slain soldiers, slain heroes. And we have our summer of 2009 schedule. We've got Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Cincinnati, and Dayton, Atlanta, New York, New Jersey.

Performances at every show, we'll have our friends, Billy Ray Cyrus, Charlie Daniels. I might sing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by the way.

COLMES: You'll sound like me.

HANNITY: Michael W. Smith, Lee Greenwood, and many, many more.

Now, the net proceeds go to the Freedom Alliance for the children of these slain soldiers. And by the way, the only place you can get tickets is my Web site, Hannity.com.

And my good friend, Mike Huckabee, you're going to come to a number of these.

HUCKABEE: I'm trying to be there for as many as I can.

HANNITY: That's great. We really appreciate it. Governor, thank you very much.

HUCKABEE: Glad to be with you, Sean.