This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 31, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: So far, we have highlighted some of the most memorable events of 2009, from tea parties to Tiger Woods. But now, we're going to take a closer look at the year — the first year of the Obama presidency.
And by the way, here's a question I raised throughout the year — is Barack Obama a socialist?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ., OCT. 19, 2008: He said it himself, we need to spread the wealth around.
CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": Is that socialism?
MCCAIN: That's one of the tenets of socialism.
HANNITY, FEB. 17: And that is our headline this Tuesday night, day number 29 of socialism you can believe in.
SEN. JIM DEMINT, R-S.C., FEB. 27.: Earlier this week, we heard the world's best salesman of socialism address the nation.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY., SENATE MINORITY LEADER, FEB. 27: It's all one big down payment on a new American socialist experiment.
GOV. RICK PERRY, R-TEXAS, NOV. 12: I think most Americans agree with me that that is a road toward socialism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER: By a show of hands, how many of you think that Barack Obama is a socialist?
Do you think that that's a productive way to have political discourse in this country? You think he's a socialist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, I think so. look what he's been doing to the economy. It's want everyone — health care especially. He wants everyone to chip in and help everyone else out.
HANNITY: What's wrong with the dialogue? I don't know what you mean by the question.
LUNTZ: The question is, do you think that is a proper way to engage? That kind of label has got — is loaded with intensity.
HANNITY: You voted for Obama and you thought he was a socialist, this lady in the...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes. I didn't know. I didn't know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: In 1996, a socialist newspaper welcomed him as a new member. He joined the Socialist Party himself. So to call him a socialist is a stated fact.
HANNITY: Wait a minute. You voted for Obama and you think he's a Socialist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have voted with Obama with like 51 percent conviction. I was really for McCain. I'm an Independent. I took a leap of faith and...
HANNITY: Disappointed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: Disappointed.
LUNTZ: You wouldn't vote for him again?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: No.
HANNITY: Yes? Yes, ma'am, right here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: I don't think he's a socialist. I think he's the first one who's actually stepped up and said that wealth is very unevenly distributed in this country. And he's trying to address that. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: How can you say it's not evenly —
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: Because it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's not the point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: It's government job to create...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Do we believe in freedom, and that is individual responsibility, or do you think this should be an equal-result society?
How many of you think it ought to be about we share the wealth?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: It is not either/or.
HANNITY: It is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: It is not either/or. You need to have a combination. You know, that's part of small-D democracy.
HANNITY: We pay 50 percent, and you live in New York?
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBER: No, I live in New Jersey. I pay double tax.
HANNITY: New York and New Jersey, you pay some of the highest tax rates in the country, 50 percent, 55 percent of your income. Is that fair or is that too much?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: I don't have a problem paying the taxes if the money is used effectively.
LUNTZ: And is it? Is it? Is it?
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBER: My issue is that I'm concerned that it is not used — and this is whether you're Republican or Democrat — that it is not necessarily being used well.
HANNITY: Alright, we're going to move on. "Czars" have become a big issue, also, the radical appointments of the president, Holdren and Van Jones, for example. Let's roll some tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
VAN JONES, FORMER GREEN JOBS "CZAR", FEB. 21: Jobs for urban youth, giving urban youth meaningful, dignified pathways out of poverty. This is no longer just about business opportunities for rich people or consumer choices for the affluent. It's about jobs for poor people, health for the poor people, wealth-building opportunities for low-income people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, FEB. 26: How are the Republicans able to push things through when they have less than 60 Senators, but somehow we can't?
JONES: Well, the answer to that is they're a** holes.
JONES, MARCH: No more broken treaties, no more broken treaties. Give them the wealth. Give them the wealth. Give them the dignity.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: How many of you think that there's been too many radical appointments by the president? Wow, almost everybody.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: ... the Constitution in appointing these "czars" to get around the Senate approval process.
HANNITY: So that's part of a method to get more radical people that otherwise would not have been confirmed?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: It wouldn't have made it through confirmation.
HANNITY: A lot of these guys?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: A lot of these would never have made it through.
LUNTZ: Aren't you guys a little concerned about the tone of the political discourse in this country? Isn't it just a little bit too much —
(CROSSTALK)
LUNTZ: You're not concerned?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: No, we have to call everything out that's doing, otherwise, he's just going to continue. He's doing a lot of things by stealth that a lot of people don't even know about.
LUNTZ: But yelling at senators...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: And it's not even reported on TV.
LUNTZ: But yelling at senators, yelling at congressmen, that kind of language?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: People feel disenfranchised and they do not feel that they have a voice, and the common man has stood up — maybe not common to some people — and said, enough is enough. You're going to hear me.
LUNTZ: Does that give people the right to yell?
HANNITY: He disagrees. That guy disagrees.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: We lived through them yelling for Bush for eight years, including making a movie, "Kill the President."
HANNITY: Does it make it right? Why do you disagree?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: You guys give too simplistic answers to very hard questions, and it makes polarization, left, right, conservative, liberal. These are complex questions.
HANNITY: So you think this hour has been fair?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's not the issue. No, I don't.
HANNITY: You don't?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: Because you keep raising the socialist issue. Look, it's not about wealth redistribution. There are people who haven't been born into the right families, who got the opportunities that you and I did.
HANNITY: My grandparents came here with no money, nothing, zip.
LUNTZ: I need to correct this, though. How many of you, by a show of hands, think this hour has been fair? Raise your hands. I want to show the wide shot. Almost everyone, including almost every Obama person.
HANNITY: All right, let's go to one other thing of controversy that's come up this year. You remember the infamous beer summit? By the way, the president once suggested to a lady in an interview, why don't you have a beer with Sean Hannity?
Mr. President, my offer continues throughout 2010. And in the spirit of spreading the wealth, I will pay. Let's remind you of the beer summit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, JULY 22: The Cambridge police acted stupidly.
OBAMA, JULY 30: I notice this has been called the beer summit. It's a clever term, but this is not a summit, guys. This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day.
SGT. JAMES CROWLEY, JULY 30: What you had today was two gentlemen agree to disagree on a particular issue. I don't think that we spent too much time dwelling on the past.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: 20 seconds. Acted stupidly? What did you think of...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: But he never said anything about Fort Hood. He did not intervene in Fort Hood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: He was the one who acted stupidly when he commented about that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: He rushed on judgment at Fort Hood. And he rushed to judgment at Cambridge.
HANNITY: By the way, you guys have been great. Thank you all for being here with you tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
— Watch "Hannity" weeknights at 9 p.m. ET!
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