Readying a White House Run?

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," May 6, 2004 that has been edited for clarity.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, FOX News political analyst Dick Morris says he knows Hillary Clinton (search) better than anyone. Dick has written a new book entitled "Rewriting History." That's a play on Mrs. Clinton's which entitled "Living History." Dick Morris joins us now from Washington.

DICK MORRIS, AUTHOR 'REWRITING HISTORY': We cross out "living" and we put in "rewriting."

O'REILLY: Are you going to give her a little residual for this book or something here?

MORRIS: Well, you know, I wanted to put her picture on the cover and just the cross-out, but the lawyers said she would sue so we did the cover that way.

O'REILLY: I'm going to ask you what everybody asks me. What would be so bad about having Hillary Clinton president of the United States?

MORRIS: Well, there would be good parts about it. She is a great manager, a superb administrator. People used to say, what is Bill Clinton's center of gravity? He never really had any. She is an aggressive vehicle for women and children. She's an incredibly self- disciplined person. I think there are really three things that would worry me about Hillary. First of all, I believe that she is a pragmatist when she has to be and a dedicated liberal when she can be. And I think that there is -- I think there is a fundamental core liberalism which you might agree with. But I think it is fundamental to Hillary. I think the second thing...

O'REILLY: Not Bill, though.

MORRIS: Not Bill. No, Bill wants to be popular. Hillary wants to be liberal. I think the second thing is that, Hillary takes disagreement very, very personally. In the book I have this quote where she says: "Sometimes I've really wondered whether it is possible to be Christian and a Republican." If you disagree with her, it is not just that you are wrong. It is that you are motivated by greed and that you are evil. And she shares that in common with Bobby Kennedy early in his career and with Richard Nixon. And the question is, does she descend into paranoia or overcome it?

And I think the third thing is that she has a growing sense of entitlement and materialism. I can understand why she did the futures market and why she did Whitewater. They were broke and it was a little financial security. But, Bill, let me ask you, if you had an $8 million book deal and your husband had a $10 million book deal and a $10 million annual income, would you swipe the White House China? And I think that there is a real sense of friends giving her gifts. And were she president I think we could being back at the Harding and Grant administrations, a real sense of financial...

O'REILLY: Yes, I don't know -- I know -- I know what you are saying. I mean, they have two giant houses, multimillion dollar houses, I think, gifted to them. It's all murky about McAuliffe and what he did and didn't do. Certainly at the time they bought those houses they didn't have the advance money from the books. And I mean, it is speculative, so I want to stay out of the area. But you basically think that she has the potential to take the country to the left, into income redistribution, certainly political correctness gone mad. And you fear that, do you fear that?

MORRIS: Well, I think that Hillary is an advice addict. Bill's attitude toward advice is, give me the answers to the math test and then get lost, and let me learn everything you know so I no longer depend on you so I can internalize it. He's very good at that. But Hillary follows the guru of the moment. Ira Magaziner, at one point, me at some point, Bill, Mandy Grunwald, her media person. And she is very susceptible to gurus because she is not as bright as Bill, not as creative, and lacks so many of his traits. And I'm worried that if you elect Hillary you won't really know who you are getting.

And the other element, let me just try to be as precise about this as I can, Hillary is the only politician I know since Nixon who wears a mask. Every politician uses make-up for blemish or two. Bill uses subterfuge to conceal his private neuroses. But Hillary has an invented character, a Hillary brand that has nothing to could with the real Hillary.

I mean, just think about the fact that a week after 9/11, she told Katie Couric that Chelsea was jogging around the World Trade Center and only escaped injury because she went that a coffee shop and heard the planes at the moment they hit. And then Chelsea confirmed she was nowhere near the Trade Center, and watched it all on TV.

Why does she do that? Bill Clinton effortlessly relates to people, the firefighters, the cops, the security workers, the relatives, they'd all love Bill just by who he is, the way he comes on. Hillary can't do that. So she invents things about herself, things that aren't true, makes them up to try to replace that innate charisma that radiates forth from Bill.

O'REILLY: All right.

MORRIS: And the bottom line is she is no Bill Clinton.

O'REILLY: Which may or may not be a good thing. All right, "Rewriting History," yes, you hit No. 6 on Amazon already.

MORRIS: Yes, 48 hours it was at No. 6.

O'REILLY: Morris, you're smoking.

MORRIS: Wait until this show has its impact.

O'REILLY: Well, we'll see. I think -- you know, I like to have you on here because you know these people and we know you don't like them and everybody knows that, so they can either believe you or not, and that's the way the program is set up. We had a guy in here, Robert Sam Anson, who wrote a big take-out on Bill Clinton for "Vanity Fair" this month, and he basically agreed with you in the sense that Hillary wants to be vice president. Now as you know, you are going to owe me another dinner because I don't believe that. And but he says that Bill Clinton is pushing that vice president thing.

MORRIS: Why do you think he is coming out with his book at the end of June, for goodness sakes? He's been former president for 39 months. He will still be former president after the election is over. Christmas books sell really good. Why doesn't he come out with this book in the second week of November? I think there's a plan A and a plan B. Plan A is creating the perfect storm for Hillary for V.P. Kerry is sagging. The campaign is falling apart. The base needs to be energized. You have got to go with Hillary. Plan B is that if you don't go with Hillary, I'm showing you how I can suck all of the oxygen out of the air and leave you struggling for traction at the time when...

O'REILLY: Well, why does she want to be vice president, why would she want that job?

MORRIS: Because somebody is going to have it. If the job were repealed, she'd be fine. But somebody is going to be Kerry's vice president if he wins, and if it is not Hillary, that person is going to be the Democratic candidate in 2012.

O'REILLY: All right. That makes sense. And that is why they don't want Senator -- I'm fogging out, from North Carolina. I can't believe I can't remember.

MORRIS: Edwards.

O'REILLY: Edwards.

MORRIS: Which does Kerry no good. I mean, the South isn't going to vote for a vice president.

O'REILLY: OK. So you believe that Bill Clinton is pushing for the V.P. But Kerry doesn't really like Hillary. There's no -- but JFK didn't like LBJ, so that doesn't...

MORRIS: Exactly. There's no great -- there's no hatred there, I mean, after all, they did help Kerry. Mary Beth Cahill and other people were people who both came from Kennedy and from Clinton. And I think that there's a -- I think that ultimately, Kerry is going to get the message that he's going to be picking knives out of his back all September and October unless he takes a hostage named Hillary and puts her on his ticket.

O'REILLY: Wow, I'm starting to get worried about my dinner. I thought I had a lock on that thing.

MORRIS: That's right. Now the problem is if I have to buy you dinner under these circumstances, your digestion will be terrible because you're not going to want Hillary as a vice president.

O'REILLY: Listen, I have no -- I think it would be an interesting choice myself. I don't have any...

MORRIS: It would guarantee 100 percent...

O'REILLY: ... as they say, dog in the hunt. If he wants Hillary -- I think it hurts him, by the way, I think if he puts Hillary on there, it is so left wing, no way they win, but I could wrong.

MORRIS: You know what, I think it guarantees 110 percent turnout of the Democratic base, and I'm not being rhetorical, 100 percent, plus ballot fraud.

(LAUGHTER)

O'REILLY: All right. Morris, you know, somebody calm him down. Thanks a lot, Dick, good luck with the book.

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