Palin: Romney needs to get 'severely aggressive' on Obama

Former Alaska Governor on whether the GOP can win this year

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," September 11, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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O'REILLY: "Impact Segment", radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, whom you'll see here on Thursday, said this yesterday.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: If you can't beat Barack Obama with this record, then shut down the party. Shut it down. Start new with new people because this is a "give me" election or at least it should be.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

O'REILLY: Very provocative. And joining us now from Alaska the former Governor of that state and current Fox News analyst, Sarah Palin. So do you agree with Miss Laura?

SARAH PALIN, FOX NEWS ANANLYST: Oh absolutely. I couldn't have said it better myself. She's articulating what so many, just common sense, fiscally-conservative, independent Americans are thinking is "Come on Republicans."

If you can't get the fire lit underneath this base and get them convinced that Barack Obama's lack of a plan to get us out of these economically woeful times, if you can't get your message through that filter of the media, then we're in a world of hurt.

O'REILLY: Ok. What is the Republican Party not doing based upon the convention and they -- and the race so far that they should be doing?

PALIN: We're not explaining to the rest of America who thinks that they're going to get a bunch of free stuff from Obama that you have a choice. You either get free stuff or you get freedom. You cannot have both and you need to make a choice.

And if we could explain and get that message through to people that there is no such thing as a free lunch and that we are an insolvent nation when you consider us being $16 trillion in debt, we're broke. We can't keep continuing down this path.

Well, again, we're in a world of hurt if we can't get that explanation to the public, to the voters regarding what the choices are and --

O'REILLY: Is it -- is it possible, though, that the country has changed with 50 percent of American homes receiving some kind of welfare means tested? Not -- we're not talking Medicare, Social Security. Half, all right, of the population now somewhat dependent on the federal and state governments.

Is it possible that the message is, I want the stuff, I'll sacrifice freedom? Is that possible?

PALIN: Well, it's possible that we are so far down that road, Bill, yes, that the majority of Americans could potentially --

O'REILLY: Ok so it is possible that -- no matter how vehemently the message is said, ok because I don't know if that's to you or not. But I know the demographics are changing and I know the Obama administration is basically targeting Hispanic Americans, women, African-Americans and labor union people to try to get the coalition of the willing to win the election so that the population is changing.

The second thing is, should Mitt Romney go after Barack Obama more -- in a more personal way? Should he use words like incompetent, dangerous, socialist, those kinds of buzz words that would get an enormous amount of attention? That would lock people in, should he do that?

PALIN: Well and they're not just buzz words, those are accurate descriptions of our commander-in-chief.

O'REILLY: So you're saying yes, he should do that?

PALIN: Yes, he should be very aggressive and he should be adamant in his attacks on Obama's record, which is so dismal, his plan or lack of a plan of Obama's to get us out of these woeful times. Yes, he needs to be severely aggressive in his -- in his articulation.

But listen, you know, you bring up those demographics and what -- what they're representing in terms of perhaps wanting some free stuff. You need to remember, America is still center right.

Proof of that is look at how Obama has to couch his message. He has to lie to pretend that he is for fiscal sanity and strong national defense and those center right positions that the vast majority of Americans stand for. Obama has to pretend like he is that in order to get that base.

O'REILLY: But it's changing -- but it's changing. It's changing. That center right is now listing a little bit because of bad economic times. Economy always overwhelms ideology.

But let me get back to Romney and Ryan. In the four days in Tampa, they did get their message out. It depends how many people saw it, but they pounded, pounded that Barack Obama is an incompetent, he doesn't have any solutions to the economic malaise. He just wants to spend more money and that's going to drive us over the fiscal cliff.

That couldn't have been clearer -- it couldn't have been. I mean, every second of that convention was devoted to that. What they didn't do and the only person that did it was Clint Eastwood, the only one who did it was Eastwood. Christie didn't even do it. Everybody was expecting Christie to drop the anvil on President Obama's head and he didn't.

What they didn't do was hold him -- him being the president -- personally responsible. Say look, it's not about policy so much. It's about him. He's a hard core and you fill in the blank. They didn't do it. And you're saying the only hope the GOP has is if they change and bring it directly to him personally. I think that's what I'm hearing, Governor.

PALIN: They do have to bring it directly to Obama personally, a reflection of what he stands for and his record proves what he stands for. He is for growing this big disconnected, dysfunctional debt-ridden government and disempowering the individual. That's what Obama and the left stands for. So no he haven't --

O'REILLY: But you got to use those buzz words. You got to say socialist, you got to do that to get people's attention.

PALIN: You -- and what they have to do is they have to lay out the choice for the American public. They have to tell us, are you for empowering the individual or are you for this nonsense of Barack Obama's of growing this dysfunctional debt-ridden, $16 trillion in debt, this government, which one do you want, people?

O'REILLY: All right, Governor we appreciate it as always. Thank you.

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