Gov. Haley: Government is the problem, not the answer

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Gov. Haley: Government is not the answer

South Carolina governor on Obama's presidency

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," August 30, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Joining me now with a look at that highly anticipated speech, a governor who has been very outspoken in terms of being a Romney supporter since the very beginning, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Governor, how are you?

GOV. NIKKI HALEY, R-S.C.: Great, Sean. How are you?

HANNITY: The governors played a very big role in this convention.

HALEY: Because the governors have had to do things in spite of Washington. We have had to balance our budgets. We have to cut and fix our deficits. We have to make sure that we have done something about unemployment in spite of the fact that Washington has done everything to stop us.

HANNITY: One of the things that the governor's going to say tonight is that, he had four years, very similar to what Paul Ryan said last night. They didn't get the job done in four years. They had the columns and the promises and the teleprompter speeches. Why do you say that President Obama has not succeeded?

HALEY: Sean, not only they did not get the job done, it took us backwards. They dropped our credit rating. The debt went higher. The unemployment is worse. It's because he honestly believes that government fixes everything. What we found is that government is not the answer. Government is the problem. And Mitt Romney realizes it.

HANNITY: What do you think of the line Paul Ryan used last night? You know, he said, I have never seen an opponent so silent about their record. That was a pretty stinging indictment.

HALEY: Well, I'll tell you. I have never seen a president so silent about what they did to Boeing either in Charleston. We found that every time we needed him, he was silent. Every time we needed him, he wasn't there. He's going to spent the next 70 days on distractions while we spent the next 70 days talking about record.

HANNITY: By the way, I believe some of the Olympians have now entered the stage right behind us. I can't see from here who they are.

HALEY: Those people saw firsthand what Mitt Romney did at the Olympics.

HANNITY: Those were the ones in Salt Lake City.

HALEY: Those are the ones that actually worked with him --

HANNITY: There are 11 of them who were there.

HALEY: That's right. It's an amazing group of people.

HANNITY: Well, there is a goalie from the -- the 1980 dream team. Which was an amazing moment. You can hear the chants of USA. By the way, as a hockey fan, hockey player, that was one of the greatest hockey moments I have ever witnessed. I don't know if you grew up with any hockey.

HALEY: Look at that. It doesn't get any more American than that.

HANNITY: You remember when the goalie was looking and looking up into the crowd after they -- remember, they beat the Soviet Union and they had one more match to win, in fact, they won it and it was a great moment.

Very similar, wasn't it? In 1980 when the Olympics happened, America was in a malaise. We had a downturn, 21.5 percent interest rates, inflation out of control, unemployment out of control. You can turn it around. Is it more difficult now, in your view?

HALEY: This country has an ability to self correct, but it takes courage of the people to realize when that time needs to happen. We have had four years of something that has not gone well. We have had the ability to self-correct in electing Governor Romney as president. I think he'll do it very quickly. He will be able to do it because he spent the last four years thinking about what should have happened that didn't happen.

HANNITY: Of all the ideas that he's going to lay out tonight, he has five very specific things. The one that stands as the most important for me has to do with energy.

I look to the state of North Dakota, three percent unemployment. People are flocking from other states to get jobs there, fracking in Pennsylvania. He said he would build a pipeline, he would allow more drilling in the U.S., more coal mining. How important is that?

HALEY: Very important, the state of South Carolina and the state of Virginia have said, we want off-shore drilling. We will want to make our state successful to do that. President Obama continues to say no. This is a president who isn't saying he's just going to make us energy independent, he's going to do it in 8 years. It's more important now than it's ever been.

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