Rand Paul Supporter Palin Reacts to Big Win

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 18, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Joining me now with reaction is former Alaska governor, Fox News contributor, Governor Sarah Palin.

Governor, welcome back.

SARAH PALIN, FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Hey, thanks, Sean. Glad to be with you.

HANNITY: All right, you took a big step. You were a big supporter of Rand Paul early on. It looks like, you know, you might say that this was an overwhelming victory tonight.

What do you think happened here? Because the establishment was supporting his opponent.

PALIN: It was overwhelming. And I don't think it was much of a surprise if you have your thumb on the pulse of what so many in the electorate are thinking right now, Sean, and that is kind of that machine on both sides of the aisle that have helped get us into this mess, get us into this economic mess.

That has got to be replaced and Rand Paul certainly represents that change that is needed; the constitutional conservative that he is; the promises that he makes to make sure that the federal government lives within its constitutional limits. I think that this was a reflection of that sentiment.

HANNITY: What do you think — now I understand Mitch McConnell is going to — they're going to have a unity rally coming up this weekend. But all the establishment seem to support his opponent. And this — some are using the term "Randslide" which I think is a kind of nice term.

But obviously a landslide here. How do — what are — how do we interpret that? Because a lot of Democrats want to say, no, this is an anti-incumbency year. This is not just about Obama and the Democrats. Does this reflect something different?

PALIN: It reflects what Rand represents. And that is the desire for the federal government to live within its limits that the constitution provides for our government. Rand has been very strong, very articulate in his positions along those lines.

And his victory tonight represents the — I guess the acknowledgement of so many voters saying yes, that's exactly what we need. Regardless of what perhaps the machine in the Republican Party, the establishment, had represented or had desired.

Rand is out of the box. He's unconventional, a bit of a libertarian. But, you know, heaven forbid that we go the opposite direction of a libertarian and what they are believing in and be one to vote for bigger government.

HANNITY: Yes, but he is — in fairness to him he is also pro-life. But it was people like yourself and Dr. Dobson who withdrew his initial endorsement of his opponent. Pretty interesting.

All right. The race that I am most interested in tonight, and we may get the results maybe sometime this hour and if we do, I'm very interested in this, and that is the Pennsylvania 12 race.

And here you have John Murtha's old seat he held for all these years. 2-1 Democrat to Republican registration in the district. It's literally neck-and-neck going into this race. If Burns pulls this off tonight what would that say to you?

PALIN: I think Burns will pull this off tonight. And just like the "Randslide" that we were just talking about, you're going to see Burns having this representation of a smaller, smarter government, getting the economy back on the right track with some limited overreach of the government.

That's what Burns stands for. And, you know, Specter, he was a representative of bigger government even when we was within the Republican Party. And people are saying when you consider what it is that he stood for and voted on and represented, enough is enough.

That's not what our country needs today. We need someone like Tim Burns in there. And you're going to see that via vote today with the electorate.

HANNITY: Yes — you know what was fascinating to me? And I don't know if you felt the same way about this, is the extent to which the Democrat in this race, in Murtha's old district, ran, I mean, as far as he could from Barack Obama and the Democrats.

He is pro-life. He's pro Second Amendment. Said he would have voted against health care, would have voted against cap-and-tax, the opposite of his boss, John Murtha, where he stood.

He did everything in his power to distance himself from the National Democratic Party agenda. So even if it's a close race, doesn't that speak volumes about where the country is and where he thought he needed to be, to even be competitive?

PALIN: Exactly, Sean. This is a center right country. And remember though even — even though some of these candidates now, they're ducking and running from President Obama, that they kind of don't want him around, is because they fear a defeat that in some respects could be attributed to what President Obama has promised to do to this country with its fundamental transformation that he believes would be — actually good for the country.

So many of us are saying no, that would not be good. Remember, though, that even President Obama had to run as a quasi conservative while he was candidate Obama. He had to kind of spew that yes, smaller government, I won't raise your taxes, we'll have a transparent government serving you. All those things, and of course once he got into office we see that complete turnaround with so many of those things.

But even candidate Obama represented at the time, tried to, because he recognized that we are a center right country. You're going to see some manifestation of that tonight with these votes coming in.

HANNITY: All right, let me ask you one last question if I can. Newt Gingrich was on this program last night. He says in the House Republicans could take anywhere from 40 to 70 House seats. And especially with the developments in Connecticut today.

A huge controversy as we just played for our audience. Do you think the Senate is in play? And if I could put you on the record what do you think the numbers are come November?

PALIN: Don't know what the numbers are, but absolutely the Senate is in play. Both bodies are, Sean, because again people are now acknowledging oh, that's what Obama and the left meant when they promised that they would fundamentally transform America.

And really what is resulting in is bigger government, more overreach, fewer freedoms, less security for our country. And a year and a half later the voters are saying no, that's not what we bargained for. We're going to turn this thing around. We're going to elect those officials who can cast votes to put us back on the right track.

HANNITY: All right, Governor, I got to tell you. You have the single best background of anybody in television. I love the view from where you are. Thank you for being with us.

PALIN: Thank you so much, Sean. Talk to you soon.

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