What Happened at the Obama-Clinton Event?

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," March 26, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: This is a FOX News alert. The big money meeting in Washington between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and her donors just ended.

According to reports, Obama has pledged to pay off Clinton’s remaining campaign debt, and he's even donated $2,300 of his own money which is most the law allows.

FOX News contributor Lanny Davis has just come from the meeting and joins us now in Washington with all the details.

Lanny, this is normal. Is it typical that the victor helps pay off the debt of somebody else? Is this a normal situation?

LANNY DAVIS, ATTENDED OBAMA/CLINTON MTG: Actually, it's a very good question, Alan. I don't remember this ever happening before, but this has been such a unique campaign with such a close contest, I just don't know the honest answer.

• Video: Watch Sean and Alan's interview with Lanny Davis

The event — I likened it in the comments that I made to a family grief that has to take stages of recovery, and that Senator Obama in his comments acknowledged how difficult it was for many of us who felt so passionately about Senator Clinton, and he said, I don't expect you to transfer that passion to me, but I do expect you to remember how important it is for us to elect a Democratic president because we agree on the issues.

COLMES: Doesn’t the…

DAVIS: So I think that he struck the right note, Alan.

COLMES: Doesn't he have to reach out to women, in particular, and in general…

DAVIS: It’s actually…

COLMES: … to the 18 million, all told, who voted for Hillary Clinton, and has he started making steps in that direction?

DAVIS: There's no question that there are still a large amount of anger, not toward Senator Obama as much as toward certain pundits who used anti-female characterizations of Senator Clinton and certain media caricatures of her that sounded — they used the fancy word misogynist, anti-female, and there was anger, not directed towards Senator Obama personally.

His response was interesting when a woman stood up and said that very thing, and he said, look, that wasn't me, but I agree with you, that needs to be addressed, and I need to speak to it.

COLMES: You got a sense that…

DAVIS: And I think that was a very good point.

COLMES: Is there enough of a coming together here where she could wind up on the ticket?

DAVIS: You know I really don't know. I'm certainly in favor of her being on the ticket, for Senator Obama to go over the finish line without a doubt. I don't think the two of them can lose.

But I do think and respect the fact that the choice of vice president is a personal choice. There has to be a comfort level. There has to be a big picture view and it's up to Senator Obama to make that choice.

I'm certainly in favor of it because I think it would help elect a Democratic president.

COLMES: Has Senator Obama reached out to Bill Clinton?

DAVIS: I don't know. I was asked that by one of your producers on another program, and the answer is there's no question he is supporting Senator Obama. I don't know whether they've talked on the telephone, but I have no doubt, no doubt, that he'll be out campaigning for Senator Obama in the fall. And Senator Obama will welcome that.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Hey, Lanny, you had some very harsh statements about Barack Obama in articles that you were writing in this middle of the primary.

Do you still want those questions answered that you said he needed to answer? Do you think he's still lacking in preparation for this job?

DAVIS: First of all…

HANNITY: I see that smile on your face.

DAVIS: I want to thank you, Sean, for surprising me by asking that question but…

HANNITY: Yes. We are holding you responsible for your prior comments. How dare I do that? That’s awful.

DAVIS: No, no, no. I’m really just kidding you, Sean. It's a legitimate question, and every word that I wrote expressing concerns about Senator Obama, I believed then and believe now.

Senator Obama has a lot of work to do on a number of issues and a number of concerns. And I think for people like me who want a Democratic president based on the issues, I'll be a lot more open to his explanations, but he does have work to do, and he said that tonight, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. But you know something, Margaret Carlson writing about President Clinton's statement that he's, quote, “committed to doing whatever he can do,” she likened it to basically saying PS, you know, you're dead to me.

Obviously it ranks up there with, frankly, the only way to drive, get lost, home — you know, it's basically saying it was tepid support at best, and that there's still deep animosity between these campaigns.

Bill Clinton said during this campaign they played the race card against me, being Bill Clinton, and that they planned it from the beginning. He's got to still be mad. There's got to be resentment — residual resentment. No?

DAVIS: Well, look, first of all, pundits who have a bias or who have the desire to do psycho babble and speculation, that's what they're allowed to do as pundits and columnists, and that’s what they do.

HANNITY: Well, Lanny Davis, if somebody accused you…

DAVIS: But you know…

HANNITY: …of playing the race card unfairly, would you be so quick to forgive?

DAVIS: I think that it was unfair, and I do think Bill Clinton was wrongly accused, and I wrote that…

HANNITY: So you — so wait a minute…

DAVIS: … and I still feel that way, but I do…

HANNITY: You — clear on this.

DAVIS: … not believe that…

HANNITY: You think that Obama played…

DAVIS: I don’t believe Senator Obama.

HANNITY: I’ll go ahead. I’ll be — you're the guest. Go ahead.

DAVIS: No, no. I — you're always allowed to interrupt when I’m on your show, Sean.

HANNITY: All right.

DAVIS: The fact is that I don't think Senator Obama personally was responsible for it. In fact, I think many of the media were more responsible by mischaracterizing what Bill Clinton said, and then that was believed by a lot of people such as Congressman Clyburn who believed a mischaracterization that Bill Clinton never…

HANNITY: But wait a minute, but that doesn't — but that's not consistent with Bill Clinton's statement when he said they played the race card against me. He was talking specifically about the Obama campaign.

Do you think Bill Clinton was accurate?

DAVIS: There were people in the Obama campaign, at the staff and at the supportive level, and certainly on the blogs, where the nasty hatred, worst of the blogs, occurred, where that's true, but I don't take Senator Obama as responsible for that hate on the side of his campaign that existed in the Hillary campaign towards him to some extent.

HANNITY: All right.

DAVIS: There were extremes on both sides. And it’s too bad.

HANNITY: Now you — and now at the Democratic convention you promised that you're going to walk me around and protect me.

DAVIS: Well, you're going to be popular among most of the women the last time I watched you in the Democratic convention, Sean.

HANNITY: Oh, right.

DAVIS: I'm not worried.

HANNITY: Lanny, good to see you.

And coming up…

DAVIS: Nice to see you, Sean.

Watch "Hannity & Colmes" weeknights at 9 p.m. ET!

Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2008 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2008 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.