Newt Discusses the Democratic Uncivil War and McCain's Visit to Iraq

The O'Reilly Factor
Fox News
March 24, 2008

O'REILLY: "Personal story" segment tonight, as we mentioned in the "Talking Points Memo", the Democratic party is in the middle of an uncivil war as the Obama Clinton race is getting downright nasty. Also, John McCain made some mistakes on his recent visit to the Middle East, leaving some wondering about his frame of reference.

Joining us now from Washington to analyze, Newt Gingrich, the author of the big best-selling book "Real Change." How many weeks on "The New York times" list now?

NEWT GINGRICH: We've been on nine weeks so far.

O'REILLY: Excellent.

GINGRICH: So we're pretty excited.

O'REILLY: Good for you. You know, I liked that book because it gives concrete solutions to vexing problems. And that's what I think people want. Even if they don't agree with them, they want to be able to, you know, have those kind of solutions to think about.

Now, John McCain goes over to Iraq. And he's, you know, spending a lot of currency on this war. There's no question. And he misspeaks about al Qaeda's presence inside Iran. Joseph Lieberman corrects him. And then he corrects the record. Damaging?

GINGRICH: I think it's very minor. You know, you just had a week where Senator Obama in 20 years hadn't recognized Reverend Wright. We now have Senator Clinton's presidential papers released. And we discover that in 1992, she didn't recognize an illegal Indonesian billionaire, who was donating illegal money to the presidential campaign. I think to get into some kind of argument over one or two minor mistakes.

Virtually everybody who's watched this campaign knows that John McCain knows vastly more about national security than either of the two Democrats. And I doubt if they can pick much of a fight out of what he said that day.

O'REILLY: But they're going to make an issue out of the age, Mr. Speaker. They're going to say, look, that's what they are going to do. You know they are going to do it.

GINGRICH: We had eight years of people making an issue out of Ronald Reagan's age. And he left office with the highest approval rating of any president of the post-war period.

I think people are going to look at the overall guy and decide, "Which of these folks do I really trust in the Oval Office?" And I think that -- in that sense, frankly, McCain's age may turn out to be an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

O'REILLY: I have to say I disagree with you a little bit on this one. If John McCain continues to make mistakes like that, it's going to hurt him. Because there are a lot of independent people that are looking around now. Now they're giving him McCain a look. All the polls show that.

This pastor thing -- as Kinky Friedman put it, the pastor disaster -- has hurt the Democratic Party and McCain has risen. But if John McCain keeps making those kinds of mistakes, it's going to be a Gerald Ford situation. You've got to be careful.

GINGRICH: I think where you and I disagree with it, Bill, is he would have to make enough mistakes that people decided he was incompetent. This guy just went through 100 town hall meetings in New Hampshire alone. He's going to do a lot more town hall meetings between now and the election. I don't think he's going to come across as incompetent.

O'REILLY: OK. I don't either. I don't know if it's incompetent or age.

Now, are you surprised at the ferocity of the -- now it's stepped up. No. 1, are you surprised the press isn't covering it, you know, the mainstream media? And No. 2, you know, when you're calling people Joe McCarthy and Judas and, you know, casting aspersions on whether they love their country, it's pretty serious stuff.

GINGRICH: There are two different parts of this. I am surprised as how personal it's getting. I think the comments over the weekend comparing Senator Richardson to Judas, that was pretty strong stuff on the part of James Carville.

I think President Clinton suggesting that, at least if Senator Clinton were the nominee, there would be two people who loved their country, sort of taking a dig at whether or not Senator Obama was patriotic, that was pretty strong. And then...

O'REILLY: Do you think -- do you think that's what he meant?

GINGRICH: Well, if that wasn't what he meant, he's not as good with words as I think he is.

O'REILLY: All right. So you're convinced, 100 percent convinced that was a dig at Obama?

GINGRICH: I think -- I think he thought he was being clever. And I think he thought it was a clever dig. And of course, he then had an Air Force four-star general come back and take a shot straight at him, comparing him to Joe McCarthy.

So if this is what it's like a month before Pennsylvania, and it keeps getting worse, they're going to have some pretty serious wounds by the time they get down to the Denver convention.

O'REILLY: Now you think it's going to keep up this way? Because I don't think there's going to be any -- I think Hillary Clinton will probably win. But I can't even say that, because so many things can happen in the interim. In Pennsylvania, there won't be any clear nominee. And you think this acrimony is going to get worse and worse and worse? Or has it reached a crescendo now?

GINGRICH: No, I think it will probably get worse. But the thing that's fascinating is the Clintons look like, in theory, they should begin to rationalize that they're not going to win.

And instead, Governor Rendell is going around the state, urging people to switch parties and join the Democrats to vote for her. He sent out e- mail to that effect. He's campaigning by her side. They have pulled out all the stops to recruit more people in Pennsylvania. And I think that she could end up beating Senator Obama by a surprisingly big margin in Pennsylvania at the rate things are going right now.

O'REILLY: All right. But still, Obama is not going to throw it in after that. You know that. He's going to North Carolina and it's on and on and on.

GINGRICH: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: Mr. Speaker, thanks, as always. And the book is "Real Change."

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Comments

By @ Thursday, March 27, 2008 8:56 AM

I couldn't agree with you more! I am one of the (Millions?) angry pissed-off, used and abused TAXPAYERS! I have concluded (with trepidation, at first) that BOTH SIDES SUCK! This election, to me, is the "Coming Out" party for the "Open Borders" behind the scenes Gang. May I humbly suggest, azzole.com

By ericrobinson @ Tuesday, March 25, 2008 2:12 PM

What's happening in the Democratic Party doesn't really matter to anyone but the Democratic candidates and the news media. All Democrats are fired-up, and they know they will likely win the White House in '08, so their turn-out alone will crush McCain, regardless of which candidate they run. Face it, they HATE Bush, and they have plenty of negative ammo to use against Republicans, from gas prices to the war in Iraq, to the artificial issue of "Climate Change". They can scare old people, pander to the poor and minorities, they have the false issues that stir young voters/students, we have economic issues they can lay at the feet of the present administration, and they have the support of most of the media. So, what do the Republicans have? Er, well, they have an old, inarticulate, career politician who has one issue, "The War on Terror". Anyone else out there think, maybe, that it's time for a third party?

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