Countdown to November: Promising poll numbers for Romney

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 10, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: One hundred and nineteen days are all that remain before you the voter have the opportunity to make Barack Obama a one-term president.

Now, if that election were held today, the mainstream media would have you believe that this race would go down to the wire, because according to one brand-new poll, they say it's all tied up.

Now, the latest survey conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News show that it is a dead heat between both Mitt Romney and the president, receiving 47 percent of the vote. However, a closer look at the results now show that the poll included 33 percent of those who identified themselves as Democrats but only 24 percent of Republicans. Now, that is a nine-point margin.

And even despite that clear advantage for the president, a majority of Americans say they disapprove of the way that President Barack Obama is handling three critical issues.

Number one, the economy, where 54 percent oppose the president and only 44 percent support his radical tax-and-spend agenda.

Number two, health care, the key domestic initiative of this White House, and 52 percent disapprove of his handling of the issue. And by the way, remember, that's with a nine-point democratic advantage.

And then finally, on immigration reform, a mere 38 percent are in his corner while a majority, 52 percent, oppose the administration's refusal to secure our borders. And even more telling, 63 percent of those polled believe that America is headed in the wrong direction and only 33 percent say that things are on the right track.

Now, tonight, you're going to hear from Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld and many more. But first, I'm joined from Alaska by Fox News contributor Governor Sarah Palin. Governor, welcome back.

SARAH PALIN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you so much. It's an honor.

HANNITY: All right. First of all, nine points advantage. They out-polled Democrats to Republicans. The headline is dead even, 47-47. Seems to me that, my conclusion of this is that, well, Mitt Romney's looking pretty good in that poll.

PALIN: Well, he is. And the more time that Mitt Romney has to get his message out, the better it is for him. When voters start understanding that middle class families have seen the decimation of their net worth to the tune of 40 percent under Barack Obama and monumental fiscal failures are really the hallmark of this administration, the more time that Mitt Romney has to get those facts out there, the more you will see the polls change.

HANNITY: Yes. With that nine-point split by the way, when you break it down, there was a seven-point split in 2008. In other words, this polling sample used by the Washington Post assumes a Democratic advantage over Republicans in turn out in 2012 will be 20 percent better than it was in 2008. Do you think this is purposefully manipulative of the media to put out something like this?

PALIN: No question. Absolutely. And that's par for the course, though, with the -- manipulation of the media's message. And you know, they -- like they did four years ago, Sean, they chose their one and they did all that they could to usher him into the White House. We are going to see the same tactics this is go around. And I think voters, though, are wiser, perhaps, this go-around in understanding that the media does manipulate information.

The filter that the media is, is something that a politician, a candidate has to be extremely astute in -- kind decimating that filter and getting through it, so that the public has the correct information.

HANNITY: All right. The way I see it Governor, and tell me if you agree or disagree -- it seems that the president and his campaign have decided on three areas of attack. They are going to smear the words, quote, "kill Romney," is what their strategy is been. So, they'll smear Romney. They are going to use class warfare. And the president also has now decided he wants this to be about taxes and it's sort of joined with the class warfare issue.

When you -- do you think the president has a chance, every Democratic president that has won in the modern era -- Bill Clinton for example and even President Obama hid his radicalism in 2008. They didn't run hard left. Do you think the president can win using class warfare?

PALIN: Well, the more people that he has feeding out of his hands, the better it is for him, of course. And when you consider that 49, 50 percent of Americans are not paying taxes and they are so reliant upon the government for their income and for benefits, that bodes well for the extreme left who wants to grow government and takes away people's freedoms and entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic. That's what this is all about.

So, the more people who are reliant on Barack Obama and the Democrats, the better it is for them. But no -- President Clinton -- shoot, as Barack Obama had even said just a couple of years ago, a few years ago, that increasing taxes at a time of economic woe is the worst thing that you can do. And yet, he has flip-flopped on that along with so many other issues and now decides that he will increase taxes, allowing the Bush tax extensions to expire. And that's going to really negatively affect our small businesses, which of course, is the economic backbone of this country.

HANNITY: Yes, well, you know, it's interesting, Carter in '76, Clinton in 1992, they ran as Southern governors, you know, Blue Dog Democrats, if you will. And Obama did, he did a good job with the help of the media of hiding his radicalism.

Let me go to the attack smear issues. This is the very latest attack and it's actually amusing. Because you can see that all the Democratic operatives on all the Sunday shows, they've memorize the same lines and they regurgitate them. But I want to ask you how you would respond if you were advising the Romney campaign.

Let's roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, D-FLA., DNC CHAIRMAN, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY," JULY 8: I'd really like to see Mitt Romney release more than one year of tax records. Because there's been disturbing reports recently that he's got a Bermuda Corporation, that -- a secretive Bermuda Corporation that no one knows anything about, investments in the Caymans. Is that a Swiss bank account?

SEN. DICK DURBIN, D-ILL., "FACE THE NATION"/CBS, JULY 8: You either get a Swiss Bank account to conceal what you're doing or you believe the Swiss franc is stronger than the American dollar.

GOV. MARTIN O'MALLEY, D-MD., "THIS WEEK"/ABC, JULY 8: I've never known of a Swiss Bank account to build an American bridge, a Swiss Bank account to create American jobs or Swiss Bank accounts to rebuild the levees, to protect the people of New Orleans. That's not an economic strategy from moving our country forward.

ROBERT GIBBS, "SOTU"/CNN, JULY 8: Quite frankly, he off-shores most of his own personal investments presumably to shield them from taxes.

DAVID AXELROD, OBAMA CHIEF CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST, "THIS MORNING"/CBS, JULY 6: We just learn the other day, Jeff, from the Associated Press that Governor Romney has this Bermuda business. And he transferred it to his wife's ownership, the day before he became the governor of Massachusetts, so he wouldn't have to put it on an ethics form. This is the most secretive candidate since Richard Nixon.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: All right. So, they can't talk about the president's record, this is the latest distraction, war on women, the dog, Bain Capital. Do you think the Romney campaign should respond to all of this?

PALIN: You know I think that Governor Romney should vigorously defend his record and the fiscal decisions that he has made as a private citizen and with his private company. But we need to remember and Romney needs to remind the public and the media that his private bank accounts are not the problem -- that is not what is causing the economic demise of this country. It is what Barack Obama believes and then makes manifest in our economy with the sales, monumental failures that kind of replicate the socialist nations that he seems to want to emulate.

HANNITY: It is funny though because it seems -- but remember what Ronald Reagan said, "Well, there you go again." It seems that they're so desperate, they will say anything at this point because they can't again run on their record. Let me give you an example. And I think by the time October comes around, you know, people will be rolling their eyes because it's so transparent what they are trying to do when the president is willing to go this far and make things up about his opponent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, APRIL 3: This Congressional Republican budget is something different altogether. It is a Trojan horse.

It is thinly veiled social Darwinism.

OBAMA, OCT. 17, 2011: My plan says, we are going to put teachers back in the classroom, construction workers back to work, rebuilding America.

And then you got their plan, which is let's have dirtier air, dirtier water.

OBAMA, APRIL 13, 2011: Who are these 50 million Americans? Many are somebody's grandparents.

Some are middle class families who have children with autism or Down Syndrome.

These are the Americans we would be telling to fend for themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Does doesn't that wreak of desperation, Governor, to you?

PALIN: Well, it does. Consider the source, though, Sean. I mean, read Barack Obama's autobiographies that he wrote before he accomplished anything, the two books. He made up things in his books and the media, by the way, didn't vet him and let him get away with it. Composite girlfriends and composite experiences that shaped him. So, you know, it should be no surprise, no wonder that he makes things up today and the lap dogs in the media, they go along with him.

But, you know, as for that accusation of Romney not being transparent enough with his private funds and where he invests his dollars. Here is Debbie Wasserman Schultz is accusing him of not revealing more of his tax records when she has never revealed her tax records.

HANNITY: That's true.

PALIN: So, you know, if this isn't the kettle calling the pot black, or the pot calling the kettle black, then I don't know what it is. And really, if it weren't so insanely hypocritical, all of this would be laughable.

HANNITY: Yes. And of course, I would like to see the president's college records. And maybe we can get some information to the parents of Brian Terry on the Fast and Furious.

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