This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 6, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And we are 27 days and counting away from Election Day. And in a moment former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will join us live from Florida. But first as we continue our march towards the midterms there is major news on the polling front.
Now as you know we have been monitoring Gallup's generic ballot for several months. Now this is the critical poll that asks Americans which party they would support if the election were held today?
And the latest numbers showed the GOP boasts a historic double-digit lead over the Democrats. Now Gallup has broken it down into two scenarios, and let's take a look.
First, if turnout is high on Election Day, 53 percent of likely voters say they would vote for the Republican ran candidate. Only 40 percent say they would side with the Democrats in their district. Now that is a 13-point GOP advantage.
On the second scenario, if turnout is lower on Election Day, 56 percent of likely voters say they would vote for the Republicans candidate. Only 38 percent would vote Democratic. Now this is an incredible 18-point lead for the GOP.
And with only 27 days out, those are some very encouraging numbers for Republicans. And joining me now with analysis, the former governor of the great state of Alaska, Fox News contributor, the one and only Sarah Palin.
Governor, thanks for joining us. Appreciate your being here.
SARAH PALIN, FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Thank you so much, Sean.
HANNITY: These are historic numbers. We've never seen numbers leak this. Some have been saying, you know what, maybe -- maybe 1994 is the wrong comparison. Maybe it was 1894 where we had 100-seat changeover.
What is your feeling as you're out on the road?
PALIN: Maybe it even -- it's symbolic of what happened back there in 1860 when a whole new party was formed. The Republican Party was formed. And Abraham Lincoln was elected because the Wig Party wasn't living up to its standards and there was such a shift.
These numbers are historic and it's almost fearful to see them revealed because, Sean, what this means is that the left will become even more and more desperate and adamant to destroy those who are running on a common sense conservative agenda, those Republicans who are going to be benefiting from this voter turnout that they're showing, especially with the generic ballot that the GOP is the pick.
HANNITY: You know, Governor, I want to -- I think we had a very crucial moment and this was in the debate with Linda McMahon and Blumenthal in Connecticut. And Linda McMahon asks -- Blumenthal is asked a very simple question. How do you create jobs?
Here's his answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATE CANDIDATE LINDA MCMAHON, R-CONN.: Tell me something, how do you create a job?
SENATE CANDIDATE RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, D-CONN.: A job is created and it can be in a variety of ways by a variety of people. But principally by people and businesses in response to demand for products and services.
And the main point about jobs in Connecticut is, we can and we should create more of them by creative policies. And that's the kind of approach that I want to bring to Washington.
I know about how government can help preserve jobs.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Variety of ways. Variety of people. We need to be creative. That seems to me -- if you can't answer that question you're not qualified for office.
I wanted to get your reaction to it.
PALIN: Well, that and he sums it all up by putting it back on government's back. The government would be the answer to the problems facing our economy today. We know as Reagan said that government is not the solution. Too often government is the problem.
It is the private sector, it is job creators being able to keep more of what they earn and produce so they can reinvest and hire more people. That is how a job is created.
Really, government's role in all of this mess is to get out of the private sector's way and quit taking and burdening the private sector.
HANNITY: You know, I wondered to what extend -- I want to show everybody Linda McMahon's answer because she countered him I think very effectively. It seems to me that this might be a crucial moment.
Let's watch Linda McMahon's answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCMAHON: Government, government, government. Government does not create jobs.
It's very simple how you create jobs. An entrepreneur takes a risk. He or she believes that he creates a good or service that is sold for more than it costs to make it. And if an entrepreneur thinks he can do that, he creates a job.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: So that -- isn't that so simple?
PALIN: Yes. Yes, so simple. And that -- that reflects Linda's appreciation and respect for and her knowledge of the free market system that built America into the most prosperous, generous, healthiest, safest and secure nation on earth.
As opposed to someone like Barack Obama, her opponent, too, but Barack Obama who spent, what, eight percent of his career in the private sector? He doesn't know how to run a business. He doesn't know how to create a job except his reliance on spending other people's money and doing those things that a kind of socialized government would do to, quote-unquote, create jobs.
That's what the left's mentality is, is that government is supposed to do it.
HANNITY: But, you know, you're down in Florida tonight as we mentioned earlier. And we saw, for example, this -- what Alan Grayson did to his opponent down there. We watched this whole story about Meg Whitman.
You know, Meg Whitman did all due diligence. Everything that anyone could ever ask her to do in terms of hiring a woman that she paid $23 an hour to, was given a false Social Security card and a false driver's license in California. It seems Democrats can't run on their agenda. They're not going to run on health care, stimulus, or cap-and-tax.
So as we head into these closing days, the first question I have is, you know, what advice do you give -- you have lived under fire -- to those candidates that now are going to be the victims of these smears?
PALIN: Yes, well, remember, what they are doing. This is coming from Obama's presidential campaign book, which goes back to Alinsky's campaign book, "Rules for Radicals," which Obama and Michelle Obama have quoted from. And that is, the politics of personal destruction perhaps will be the only thing that you have on your opponent so you make things up about them.
You lie, you spin, you do whatever you can and you use a complicit media to assist you in this, a left-wing media to assist you in this. So these candidates just need to be prepared for those rules of radical to be applied to them. They need to stay on message, they need to stay optimistic. They need to remind the American public what the time-tested truths are that created this great nation.
Those time-tested truths that rely on a smaller, smarter government, not growing government and over-reach of government. Staying on message. Reminding Americans what we already know but needing to have that confirmation, that affirmation that the candidate knows it too and promises to fulfill those time-tested truths.
HANNITY: Did you feel -- because I agree with you. I think the American people really want a return to first principles and constitutional government. And our founding fathers, and our declaration, and limited government and greater responsibility.
I believe all of that is true. So then that raises the next question. What should the closing arguments be for the Republicans in this last month?
PALIN: It's got to be that the belief in the time-tested truth that built America can be applied today. It's a matter of political will. Take a specific issue like energy independence. We need to be -- have more and more energy secure of course instead of relying on foreign sources to fuel our economy and to heat up the job creation opportunities that we need.
It's a matter of political will. It's not a matter of do we have the resources, do we have the ingenuity, do we have the workers? We have all of that. Now, it is a matter of the candidates being able to articulate in an issue like energy independence. How it is that they are going cast those votes, how they are going to implement policy to allow the resource development that we need.
That's just one specific example. But what our candidates need to do in their closing argument is be specific. And in their promises make sure that the American public is hearing what is that they say, can trust that candidate that they fulfill those promises to get us back on the right track.
HANNITY: What do you think of -- obviously, you know, you just seem to -- you know whenever your name comes up, it's major news almost every time. There was a number of exchanges, you supported Joe Miller. Lisa Murkowski is now running as a write-in candidate. And apparently there was this e- mail exchange with Todd and Joe, et cetera, and Joe Miller answering questions whether or not you can be president one day.
What do you think when they try to make you the issue in these campaigns? And what is your reaction to that exchange?
PALIN: Yes, a diversion like that, trying to make me a part of the narrative there in Joe Miller's campaign.
Joe Miller is the right person to help lead Alaskans, to help lead our nation and the desperation of the other camp is trying to attack him on a leaked private e-mail from Todd to Joe Miller? You know, that's part of the question, too, is --
HANNITY: Yes.
PALIN: How did the media ever even get that e-mail that Todd had written?
HANNITY: But wait a minute. If your last name is Palin, doesn't that mean you're your e-mails are hacked often? I mean that's sort of standard operating procedure.
PALIN: Yes -- doggone it, yes. But yes, that's just some desperation on the other camp's part. And for Lisa Murkowski to have tried to run as a libertarian, now with the backing of the unions in the state of Alaska, and the Democrats and the special interests she's really revealing her true colors. And Joe Miller is just staying consistent with his beliefs and his intentions.
HANNITY: All right, Governor, we're going to stay right there. When we get back we're going to show you some ads from Christine O'Donnell and Linda McMahon and others. We'll get your reaction to it.
We'll have much more with Governor Palin coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: As we continue on "Hannity," and continuing to join us live from Florida tonight is former Alaska governor, Fox News contributor, Sarah Palin.
Governor, you have -- you have gone out there, been very supportive of Christine O'Donnell in Delaware. She's had a pretty tough time with the establishment attacking her. She seems to be rebounding at least in a couple of the polls here.
She came out with an ad and I want to get your reaction to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATE CANDIDATE CHRISTINE O'DONNELL, R-DEL.: I'm not a witch. I'm nothing you've heard. I'm you. None of us are perfect, but none of us can be happy with what we see all around us. Politicians who think spending, trading favors and backroom deals are the ways to stay in office.
I'll go to Washington and do what you'd do. I'm Christine O'Donnell and I approve this message.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Your reaction, Governor?
PALIN: Hey, I think that's good. That's very positive. What I think she could add to that even is to explain what the real witchcraft and voodoo politics and economics is -- and that's what's going on in D.C. And that's why she's determined to get to D.C. to right some wrongs and get some truths in Washington, D.C., so that our economy can get roaring back to life and America can be put on the right track.
HANNITY: I thought this particularly the "Saturday Night Live" piece and some of the things that have said by liberal commentators are just particularly mean spirited and vicious.
And I guess more than any other person in America you can relate to this. So you probably know and can sympathize with what she's going -- what's going on in her life right now. How hard do you think it is on her? And how hard was it on you?
PALIN: You know, it's got to be tough on her personally. I at least -- you know, having -- for instance in my life, I have Trigg. I have my 2-year-old whom I can look at and hold and love.
And he makes me realize what's really important in life when those darts and arrows that come my way politically speaking, they can all just go away because they don't mean anything, when I know what real love and truth is in the eyes of a child.
So that made it easier on me. And I'm sure that Christine has her own groundedness to her own internal compass that keeps her on the right course. She is the right one for Delaware. Look at what her opponents are doing to her. Look at what some in the establishment have tried to do to her and yet they think they saw the light and they've come around, too, realizing we need Christine in D.C. She knows what she's talking about when she says, too, that it is the free market principles that need to be applied to get things roaring back to life.
HANNITY: And you're going to go and you're going to campaign for her, I recently heard.
PALIN: Yes, absolutely. I'm honored, too. I'm excited about it.
HANNITY: All right. We'll have more details on that.
One thing I would like to see is I want conservatives -- and this from me is a conservative ascendancy, I registered as a conservative in New York, which you can do. I don't think it's a Republican ascendancy.
I want to see people be aggressive in this campaign. Because Democrats, all they've got is a smear campaign. And I like Linda McMahon's ad. And hard hitting and truthful. This is a good model for others.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you lie about serving in a war?
BLUMENTHAL: We have learned something very important since the days that I served in Vietnam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yet Blumenthal did again and again.
BLUMENTHAL: When we returned, we saw nothing of this gratitude.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He covered one lie with another.
BLUMENTHAL: Since the days that I served in Vietnam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he lied about Vietnam, what else is he lying about?
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: When I served, when we returned. He never served. Now I thought that was truthful, hard-hitting, and I liked that aggressiveness. Did you think that's effective?
PALIN: I think it's effective. Absolutely. And it does need to be based on truth. But that -- that aggression which we need because the future of America is at stake in these midterm elections, Sean.
So yes, there needs to be passion and aggression. A healthy aggression based on truth. That's what the rise of the momma grizzlies is all about. Momma grizzlies, papa grizzlies, too, who understand that when there is a threat to the future generation, to their cubs, they are going to rise upon their hind legs and they will defend what is there and they will make sure that future opportunities are there.
And that's what the momma grizzly movement is all about. And Linda is part of that.
HANNITY: You know, I just want to see very simple. I'd like to see some ads against Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. And it's funny because the only ads that are coming at them seem to be coming from Democrats -- I didn't vote for that stimulus, I didn't vote for that health care bill.
But I don't see many ads from the Republicans at this point. From your perspective, just for tactical purposes, do you think that would be effective for them to do that?
PALIN: I think the simplest thing a Republican can do is just truthfully state their competition's record and let voters know that they did support Obama, Pelosi, Reid. That agenda that is of a social bent, that agenda that is doing harm to our country and to our future.
Just point out what it is that they did to support Obama, Pelosi, Reid and I think that says it all.
HANNITY: All right, Governor, good to see you. And hopefully we'll catch you up on the campaign trail. As always, we appreciate you being with us.
PALIN: Thanks.
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