Good, Bad and Ugly: Ann Coulter Talks Government Bailout

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," September 25, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: There you have it. Just 40 short days away from the presidential election, and the stakes have never been higher. Both candidates traveled to D.C. today to help negotiate an emergency bailout deal leaving big questions about the status of the first presidential debate scheduled for tomorrow.

Joining us now former Democratic pollster Pat Caddell; columnist, No. 1 New York Times best-selling author, Ann Coulter. I say that just to irritate the New York Times, which is totally in the Obama campaign.

Your — first of all, your analysis of all the events that have been occurring now in the last...

ANN COULTER, AUTHOR: Well, a lot is occurring.

• Video: Ann Coulter and Pat Caddell on 'Hannity & Colmes'

HANNITY: By the way, you've changed "Hillary is our girl, Sean." Not any more.

COULTER: She's not running.

HANNITY: You like Governor Palin?

COULTER: Yes. I'm already planning impeachment hearings.

HANNITY: All right. All right, all right.

COULTER: No. I mean, McCain — whomever is running John McCain's campaign, he ought to promise he will take to the White House with him for one thing, Sarah Palin.

And for another thing, I mean, I don't think this is — and I don't think it's a political ploy. I think it's a serious matter. It always seems sort of strange to me when something huge is going on, and politicians are just going about their normal business. I mean, I do think McCain did the right thing. I'm against the bailout, but Congress is going to do something.

HANNITY: Yes.

COULTER: And by the way, remember how we kept saying how they rushed through the Patriot Act and, boy, nobody ever read it? They spent 12 months working on the Patriot Act. This they're rushing through.

HANNITY: I know. And this would be the biggest...

COULTER: And the two presidential candidates go and take a peek at it?

HANNITY: And this will be the biggest expansion of government in history.

Let me go to our friend Pat Caddell. Now, Pat, this is the question I have about Senator Obama. And he's the one saying that this is the worst crisis, financially, we've faced since the Great Depression. These are his words: "We've got to act swiftly. The clock is ticking. If we don't act soon, people's jobs, savings and the economic security of all the country will be — will be at risk."

If he really believes that...

COULTER: Right.

HANNITY: ... why can't he put the politics of change aside for 72 hours like John McCain? Why?

PAT CADDELL, FORMER DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Listen, looking back, you know, what was happening last week was you saw, because the economy was in trouble, people were very anxious. The numbers were moving on the surface to Obama. That was a natural movement.

But, remember what I said last week about the structure of the race? That — you know, that McCain had, like, a huge margin of people believe he was a doer not a talker and the reverse for Obama? The worst thing Obama needed to do, I thought, was say — was go out there and say, "Hey, I have a telephone. Call me if you need me."

McCain took an action very, very...

HANNITY: He said that, "Call me. I'll be there in a hurry."

CADDELL: And take a risk, take a risk. McCain took a risk. I'm sorry, what did you say?

HANNITY: I was singing Diana Ross.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: He thinks he's Motown now.

HANNITY: I'll be there in a hurry.

CADDELL: But the risk, the risk. It was a risk. People politically were criticizing it. I thought, "Well, I don't know how it" — but again, went to the idea of at least being a doer.

Now, the fact is they had a great opportunity and everyone is missing it. This event is so big you miss things like the two candidates — for the first time in history, the presidential nominees issued a joint statement, a bipartisan statement...

HANNITY: Which is meaningless.

CADDELL: ... on how to deal with this crisis.

COLMES: By the way...

CADDELL: Let me finish — let me finish the point.

COLMES: Quickly.

CADDELL: Then the Obama people tagged onto — they couldn't help themselves. His operatives so hurt their candidate. They tagged on, say, "By the way, here's our political points and John McCain should join us."

COLMES: By the way...

CADDELL: If they hadn't done that and had gone to Washington together, it might have been a different story.

COLMES: George Bush has said we've got to sign it now. The country is imploding, everything. We've got to do it right away. That's the guy you supported, Ann Coulter, President Bush. The guy you come on this show for years telling me how great he was. He's the guy who's been saying that.

COULTER: I will tell you how great he is on the war on terrorism. I wasn't wild about his Supreme Court nominee or his illegal amnesty plan.

COLMES: Now you're backing off his support.

COULTER: No, I just — no, I mean, yes, we have — there's — we do have a serious problem here. I just happen to be opposed to a massive socialist government intervention.

COLMES: We've got the biggest socialism in the Bush White House than we've had in any other president in my lifetime with this kind of bailout.

COULTER: That's not true. If the bailout goes through?

COLMES: Yes. This is your conservative president.

COULTER: Well, we'll see if the Republicans vote for it. Republicans stopped George Bush from his amnesty plan. And it looks like, from what I've been seeing, the Republicans aren't going along with this, God bless their little free market hearts.

COLMES: All right. And let me ask you, Pat Caddell, what kind of a campaign suspension is a guy who says, "I'm suspending my campaign," keeps running ads, goes on television.

HANNITY: He's not running ads. He's pulled them.

COLMES: No, no, ads kept running today.

HANNITY: He pulled them.

COLMES: The ads ran today.

HANNITY: No, they didn't.

COLMES: He goes on television.

CADDELL: Alan...

COLMES: He gives interviews, and he continues to put his surrogates on TV. How is that suspending a campaign?

CADDELL: Whoa, whoa, whoa. He said he's suspending his campaign, pulling his ads. It takes several days. You buy them ads in advance, by the way.

COLMES: What about the surrogates? He pulled the surrogates off television?

CADDELL: But the point is, look, he is in Washington. He went there — went there to say we have to deal with this. It was for him, it helped, and the fact is I think there is a problem here. That the, you know, that the Republicans were not on board in the House. Something will come out of this.

It goes back to what I said about perception.

But Alan, what I'm trying to say is, I thought it was a mistake. I thought Obama should have grabbed the opportunity yesterday with a joint statement, saying, "I'm going to go arm and arm with McCain and solve this."

COLMES: I think Obama was right to say, you know, you can walk and chew gum at the same time. You don't stop everything and not have a debate. People want to see the candidates in a debate.

CADDELL: Alan — Alan, what he said was...

COULTER: Alan...

COLMES: People want to see the next leader of the free world in a debate.

CADDELL: He said — Ann, let me just — what he said was, I — "You can be reach me by telephone if you need me."

COLMES: What he said was the country should go on with business as we normally do and not stop everything.

COULTER: Alan — look, Obama...

(CROSSTALK)

CADDELL: ... business, Alan. The country doesn't think it's normal.

COLMES: Hang on. All right, quickly.

COULTER: Obama pulled all his ads except the misleading, deceptive ones.

HANNITY: And by the way, he ducked — he ducked the debates all summer.

COULTER: I know.

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: Can he debate Biden tomorrow night?

COLMES: We will — we will check in with Greta Van Susteren.

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