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Glenn Beck

Obama Responds to Lipstick Comment Controversy; Can Hillary Help Obama?; Automakers Seek Government Bailout

Aired September 10, 2008 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLENN BECK, HOST (voice-over): Tonight we put lipstick on a pig. You remember when Governor Palin said this?

GOV. SARAH PALIN (R-AK), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick.

BECK: Now, here`s Obama.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You can put lipstick on a pig. It`s still a pig.

BECK: Do you believe he actually called her a pig? Or is this just another case of Obama`s lack of judgment?

And with Fannie and Freddie still on our minds, Wall Street shifts its focus to another collapsing corporate giant. But don`t worry. They`re not too big to fail.

Then black-belt patriot Chuck Norris stops by to talk about politics and the election. Maybe I can hire him to just punch these politicians in the face. I`m just saying.

All this and more tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello America.

Everybody has been talking all day today about Obama`s "lipstick on a pig" comment. And it seems like we`re -- we`re a nation cut in thirds, really.

Obama says it wasn`t directed at Palin, and the Democrats believe him on that. I`ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I`m going to go the middle ground here. Not what the Republicans will say, absolutely. I`ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I`ll take him at his word. But if you do, if you take him at face value, well, then you better pay attention to "The Point" tonight.

Barack Obama is worried, and his judgment has gone from bad to really bad to really, really bad. And here`s how I got there.

Here`s how it all started. Barack Obama was talking about the policies of John McCain and the policies of his pit bull in lipstick, running mate Sarah Palin. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: That`s not change. That`s just calling the same thing something different. You know, you can`t -- you know, you can put lipstick on a pig. It`s still a pig.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: OK. Let me take him at his word here and believe that that Obama was not referring to Governor Palin. Here is his defense from earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Before we begin today, I want to say a few words about the latest made up controversy by the John McCain campaign. I`m talking about John McCain`s economic policy. I say it`s more of the same. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it`s still a pig. And suddenly, they say, "Oh, you must be talking about the governor of Alaska."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: It`s interesting how he would like you to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he didn`t give Bill Clinton and the "fairy tale" comment.

Obama can laugh and try to dismiss this made-up controversy all he likes, but here`s why Obama`s slur is unique and inexcusable. Just like with comedy, politics is all about timing. You know, it`s not only what you say, but when you say it. By the way, I learned that from another famous community organizer, Al Sharpton.

For starters, Sarah Palin is well known now for the pit bull in lipstick persona. So Obama, I mean, he is an intelligent guy. Didn`t he go to Harvard and Columbia? You can`t be surprised when a lot of people, especially the crucial independent voters, you know, start to think that he`s referring to her and not the McCain-Palin policies. Welcome to more of the patented Obama-style bad judgment.

Most importantly, Obama cannot draw bold politically correct lines in the sand, preach about elevating the discussion -- "I`m a different kind of politician" -- and then say whatever the hell he wants whenever the hell he feels like it.

Shockingly bad judgment mixed with an unending sense of entitlement is a cocktail I can`t swallow, and I`m a recovering alcoholic. I toss back almost everything, almost including hair spray. So I`ll drink anything.

Tonight, America, here`s what you need to know. A desperate campaign will do desperate things. And I believe Barack Obama is a desperate campaign right now. Let`s be honest: Obama can say he didn`t see the connection between Sarah Palin and the lipstick comment. Really? But that cheering audience right behind him, they sure did. Obama is losing his composure and his commence sense and along the way, possibly losing the swing vote.

Jonah Goldberg now is the -- he`s with us. He`s the author of "Liberal Fascism" and the editor of the "National Review" online.

Do you take him at his word or do you think he meant this, Jonah?

JONAH GOLDBERG, AUTHOR, "LIBERAL FASCISM": I`m even more middle ground than you are. I think he obviously didn`t plan it. If he planned it, then he really is a moron. No political advisor of any stripe would have said, "Oh, that`s a great line. Go out and nail her with it." Right? So I don`t think it was premeditated.

But you almost can feel him sort of thinking, "Oh, my gosh, this is about to come out of my mouth" when he says it.

BECK: Yes, yes.

GOLDBERG: The clip you didn`t show was that he basically compares McCain to a rotting fish.

BECK: Right.

GOLDBERG: I think he was sort of caught up in the moment and he went with it. And the reason why he got undisciplined is because he`s undisciplined. He`s great off a teleprompter, but Sarah Palin is in his head.

BECK: Right.

GOLDBERG: She`s forcing these errors on him. He`s going after the vice-presidential opponent rather than the presidential opponent, and he`s rattled. I do think he`s rattled because of her. The great -- it`s almost a Greek tragedy kind of irony. The great irony here is, she is to Barack Obama almost exactly what Barack Obama was to Hillary Clinton.

BECK: Exactly right.

GOLDBERG: Nobody out of nowhere who generates all this excitement and these huge crowds. Who is this person to be knocking me off my stride?

BECK: And the reason -- and the reason why he`s undisciplined is because of what we said on this program about a year ago. The media, you have a responsibility to hold his feet to the fire. Because if not, he gets into a tight campaign. He`s going to make all kinds of errors and not even understand them because he`s never been held to a high enough standard.

GOLDBERG: I think that`s exactly right, and there`s another part of that, though, too. These last two years, he`s been trying to win the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton`s left. And the base of the Democratic Party loved him, and they wouldn`t let Hillary go after him hard. They had to let Hillary Clinton basically have her hands tied.

So he had -- he had no idea what he was in for when he goes after the general election fall campaign, where the voters you have to win are almost the exact opposite of the voters he had that he needed to win in the primaries. He`s not ready.

BECK: Then here`s -- here`s what happens, Jonah, because this is again something I warned about. Barack Obama had to be who he was saying he was; otherwise he`ll implode. He has now changed his tax policies. He`s saying -- he was saying that he would repeal the Bush tax code, but now he`s saying, "I`m not going to do that if it`s a bad economy," which doesn`t make sense if you say that higher taxes on the rich don`t hurt the economy.

He`s now saying, because he`s not making enough money, that he is going to get into bed with 527s. He`s allowing people to do that and do the 527s. He says he`s not a divisive figure, and yet he`s making comments like this. This guy could implode.

GOLDBERG: I think that`s -- again, every 24-hour period it looks like it`s going to be extended into the future indefinitely, and then we have these huge changes. Everything can change sooner or later.

BECK: Somebody is hoping for change. Somebody is hoping for change.

GOLDBERG: I think, you know, one of the things that Obama is trying to do is that, much like the same way he`s trying to win those Democratic primary by being this revolutionary messiah figure that`s going to change life on Earth and stop the oceans from rising and all that kind of stuff.

Now that he`s in the general election, his advisors have realized that he`s under polling, under performing the generic Democratic ballot. More Americans say they want a Democrat as president than they say want Barack Obama as president.

And if he can just get all of the Democrats who voted for John Kerry and Al Gore in percentage terms, he could win, because there are more self- described Democrats today than there were in 2004 and 2000. And so that`s why that convention speech was really just a laundry list kind of thing that we`ve heard from Gore and Kerry in many respects. He`s trying to be just a generic Democrat, not threatening, not scary. Partisan, but that`s it.

BECK: Do you think that -- do you think that there is a feeling now in America, though, even from Democrats, that we watched this guy for 18 months. I don`t even know who he is. I don`t really know who he is, because he`ll do exactly what you said at the convention.

GOLDBERG: I heard that speech before. I want to know what he believes in. I want to know what he stands for. And I don`t think I`m getting that. I think I`m getting an image. I`m being sold, you know, Coca-Cola or Pepsi.

GOLDBERG: Yes, there`s something about his personality that translates as, you know, "People of earth. Stop your bickering. I am from Harvard, and I`m here to help." You know? And that -- and he`s never been able to puncture that. I mean, it seems cool in the beginning, and he`s got a -- he`s got a sort of charming personality, but at the end of the day there`s a disconnect that, you know, he`s just -- he`s not selling.

He was the only guy in modern memory to start losing primaries after it looked like he clinched it. Right? You know, in the primaries, Hillary started beating him all of a sudden. He couldn`t close the deal.

BECK: Yes.

GOLDBERG: And you`re getting a sense he can`t close it now either. This could all change, but it`s -- they must -- the flop sweats over there must be just crazy.

BECK: OK. Hold on just a second, because I want to carry over to the next break, because I want to talk to you about a rumor I`ve heard about Obama and Hillary Clinton. There`s -- there`s news that Obama is going to kiss Bill Clinton`s ring tomorrow in Harlem. What`s up with that? We`ll get into it in just a second.

Also, Congressman Ron Paul says he`s not backing anybody in this race. Find out why, and we`ll talk a little bit about this bail out, and is it even constitutional with Ron Paul?

And don`t forget today is the last day you can sign up for my magazine, "Fusion" and get our scariest issue ever. Yes, there is the messiah or Mussolini. I`m not sure which he is. Obama on the front cover.

We`ll expose you to real dangers in our country, like Mexican drug lords and violence along our southern border. And if you order right now, you`ll get my exclusive jail house interview with the wrongfully imprisoned border guard Nacho Ramos. You can only get it now if you sign up right now at GlennBeck.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Coming up, Congressional Budget Office predicts our federal deficit will hit all-time highs next year. No! Apparently, the administration didn`t realize that picking up the tab for Fannie and Freddie meant putting it on the books. Blood will shoot out of your eyes in "The Real Story," coming up.

But first, at today`s press conference where Barack Obama defended, you know, his "lipstick on a pig" comment, he said here we are 55 days away, wrapped (ph) in this election, and we`re wasting time on this.

Yes, it is getting late, so let me ask you this, Barack Obama. Why are you leaving the campaign trail at such a crucial time head to a blue state and meet in New York City Harlem, to be specific, to have a sit-down with Bill Clinton? What`s up with that? To meet his wife.

We`re joined again by Jonas Goldberg and also, now, Leslie Sanchez.

Jonah, is there a possibility this is kind of one of these meetings where you`re like, "So you come to me today, on the day after you put lipstick on a pig?" Is there any kind of deal, you think, that`s happening here?

GOLDBERG: I`m sure there`s a deal. I`m sure Bill Clinton wants a deal. I`m sure there`s something going on on that level. But I don`t know that Bill Clinton or Hillary can really deliver all that much.

I think that the idea that there was this block of loyal -- 18 million loyal Hillary voters has always been wildly exaggerated. A lot of those voters in the primaries were simply anti-Obama voters who were going to vote for McCain anyway, or you know -- or they were just voting for Hillary because they liked her better, but that doesn`t mean that they`re going to follow her in lock step. And I don`t know that McCain -- I don`t know that Clinton can deliver all that much.

BECK: I don`t know.

Leslie, don`t you think that Hillary Clinton, when she was out on the campaign trail just the other day and she didn`t say anything about Sarah Palin? Don`t you think that she can inoculate him just a little bit?

LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think she could if she wanted to, but there is only so much -- there`s only so much she can do. And think of it this way. There`s only so much she`s motivated to do. He wins, great. She strategically put herself in a position to be a powerful person in the Senate.

But if he loses, you have a lot of voters thinking, you know, "Maybe I have a little buyer`s remorse, picking Barack Obama in the first place." Forty-eight short months away, and she could be a contender again. She looked very presidential at the Democratic convention. I mean, people have a lot on their minds right now with respect to that.

BECK: I think she -- I`d love to hear both of your comments. I think she wants Barack Obama to lose, quite honestly. I think she -- I think she wants to be able -- she knows who her enemy is, and her enemy is not the right. Her enemy is the extreme uber left and those in the media. And she wants to be able to say, "I told you guys you didn`t have a winner on your hands. I told you he was too inexperienced. I said all of these things. And I told you that you are not in the center. It`s all about triangulation." True or false?

GOLDBERG: I think that`s right. I think she wants to say, "I told you so," but at the same time, she only can say "I told you so" if she`s perceived to have helped the ticket as much as possible. If she`s not perceived as having been a loyal Democrat, then the "I told you so`s" hurt her, not help her.

BECK: Well, Leslie, do you think she`s doing -- do you think she`s doing everything she could? I don`t think so. I think she`s playing -- she`s doing exactly what she needs to do but not one word more.

SANCHEZ: I think Republicans have understood that from the very beginning, and the Democrat, Barack Obama definitely under estimated the Clintons. I mean, if you`re going to look at the convention, it was like Itchy and Scratchy for the Clintons and the Obamas. It was really hard to tell who was in control at that convention.

She said what she needs to. She doesn`t want to be criticized like she was in 2004 in not supporting John Kerry. But it`s what she doesn`t say that`s probably the most important.

BECK: OK. Jonah, I had a lot of calls today on the radio show. From people who said, "You know what? He`s -- he`s going to Harlem, and he`s going to kiss his ring and say, `Godfather, I need your help.`"

And Clinton will say, "What?"

And he said, "I`m going to dump Joe Biden and put Hillary in."

I don`t think there`s a chance of that. I think it`s the dumbest move I`ve ever heard. Any chance?

GOLDBERG: More likely that it will happen with Biden than it will happen with Palin. In the last week, everyone was saying that McCain was going to dump her.

BECK: I mean, let`s be honest. Let`s be honest. We do have -- we do have -- I put -- I put Joe Biden on an Amber alert earlier today. If you happen to see an Amtrak train, you might want to call authorities, because Joe Biden might be on it. The guy has disappeared. But they`re not going to throw him out.

GOLDBERG: They would need a really sort of -- really real excuse like some real health problem or something. They can`t just pull him off. It would look awful.

BECK: Right. And Leslie, do you think that there is real sexism going on? Because I hate it when there`s charges of sexism or racism when it`s not real. It makes -- it makes the cries of actual racism and sexism meaningless. Do you think that Sarah Palin has been treated unfairly because she`s a woman?

SANCHEZ: I think she`s been treated unfairly because she`s a conservative woman. I mean, there`s definitely a double standard with respect to how her family`s privacy has been invaded, a double standard in terms of how grueling the press was. You know, they had such low expectations for this woman before she ever opened her mouth at the Republican convention.

But a lot of it had to do -- I would say that there were charges of sexism that were correct. You know, Hillary Clinton tried to fall on that crutch, and there are probably some in the media that did, you know, have some degree of sexism. But it was a crutch. It wasn`t the reason her campaign imploded. It exists, like you said, Glenn, but it`s not pervasive.

BECK: I said on the air today that we were talking about this pig comment, and I said, "If she comes out and plays the victim, it`s the worst thing she can possibly do." Conservatives are not victims. They pull themselves up.

She should come out, because she knows how to deliver a funny line. And she needs to say something along the lines of, "This little piggy went to Washington and drove them all home." You know what I mean? Something like that. She needs to say -- she needs to do it with humor and use it that way, never play the victim.

SANCHEZ: You know, I think you`re exactly right. And there`s a lot of common sense here. I mean, people say do you think Barack Obama made a mistake at saying this? No, but you have to defy your common sense to think he didn`t know what he was doing.

At the same time, she looks very strong. She looks like she`s somebody who wants to go to Washington and doesn`t want to change America, but wants to change the failing system. And as long as they let that principal, I think people are starting to coalesce on that side.

BECK: Let me -- let me stay with Palin for just a second. The -- the interview that`s coming up out on ABC "World News Tonight" with Charlie Gibson tomorrow, we all know that, if you put something on a Thursday night or have it come out on Friday, you`re burying it. Is this a sign that they`re concerned at all about this interview with her? They want to get the first one kind of under their belt and just kind of let it launch throughout the weekend? Or am I reading too much into it?

GOLDBERG: I thin you`re probably reading too much into it. I think - - I don`t know why it`s coming out on Thursday instead of Wednesday, but I`m sure ABC is excited about having the interview. The Greta Van Susteren documentary on Sarah Palin had among the highest ratings of anything of its kind in cable television, and there is an enormous amount of interest. No matter what happens, it`s going to drive the Sunday show coverage.

BECK: OK. Guys, thanks a lot.

Coming up, the big three American auto makers have asked for $50 billion in government money. Well, why not? I`m sure this is going to be, you know, the last one. The third bailout will be the charm, won`t it?

Plus, he`s got a plan to kick-start America. Martial arts master, actor and political activist, Chuck Norris, joins me to discuss his new book, "Black Belt Patriotism." I want to see if I can convince him to hit a few politicians in the face.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Gosh, do you remember the old days when $50 billion was a lot of money? That`s what the big three auto makers are now looking for in federal loans, and they sent lobbyists to both conventions, pleading, "Please, please, please, please, please." Detroit says, "Gosh, we`re just -- where did I put my wallet?"

James Freeman is with the "Wall Street Journal."

James, the big three automakers say this is not a bail out. Let me ask you this question. Are these guaranteed federal loans from the government?

JAMES FREEMAN, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes. Low interest loans from you, the taxpayer.

BECK: OK. Can you make the case for me that the big three are just too big to fail?

FREEMAN: You get the wrong guy if you want that case. I think what`s -- what`s funny is I think taxpayers have been saying, is there anybody who doesn`t deserve a bailout from Washington in the current environment? I think they thought that was kind of a rhetorical question.

But if you look at Ford, Chrysler, GM, in the case of Chrysler, this is a business now, owned by a private equity firm. Its founder and leader is worth over $1 billion as of last fall, according to "Forbes" magazine. So the list of people now apparently eligible for Washington bailouts with your money includes billionaire private-equity managers.

BECK: There -- we did this with Freddie and Fannie, too. The people who generally we were bailing out with Freddie and Fannie were global financial institutions and other governments. We`re not talking about Joe Shmoe anymore.

FREEMAN: Well, the politics are rough, because unfortunately, the average guy, the union worker in the industrial Midwest, might be thinking if the governor starts shoveling this money to the big three, you know, in contract discussions, we`re going to be able to get some of that money.

BECK: You bet.

FREEMAN: So it`s possible this thing is rolling down the track too fast to stop.

BECK: Yes.

FREEMAN: But I think people might want to look at it and say, getting back to the Chrysler example. The CEO is Bob Nardelli. You may recall him getting a few headlines when he left Home Depot with a pay package. He estimated that $210 million. At the "Wall Street Journal"...

BECK: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Is this the same guy that left and left Home Depot in wreckage?

FREEMAN: At the "Journal," we -- we think markets are pretty efficient. They ought to decide what people are paid. But if you`re coming to taxpayers and saying, "Help me. I need low interest loans, because my business can`t compete otherwise, I think it`s legitimate to ask who exactly we`re helping here.

BECK: OK. Hang on just a second. They do have one good point. Ford makes a car over in Europe that goes 65 miles a gallon. And they say we can`t make it here, because we have -- we`ve taxed our diesel so much that it`s just not fuel-efficient for us. They also say they`re running out of money because they have all of these standards.

My question is, yes, the government is in the way. Why should we have any government standards? Let the market figure it out on its own. There a lot of people that won`t buy a, you know, 4-mile-per-gallon car because they can`t afford it. Why not let the market figure it out.

FREEMAN: Well, absolutely. We haven`t talked about this yet, but a lot of the problems facing these companies are government inflicted. It`s the CAFE fuel economy standards, and it`s also our Federal Reserve giving us inflation, which gives us expensive gas which means they can`t sell SUVs, which is all they make money on. But these people...

BECK: You know what? James, I`ve got to run, and we`ll have you back again. Because this story ain`t going anywhere.

And gang, we`re going to talk about the Fed and some more bailouts, make blood shoot oust your eyes. And Ron Paul is coming up in just a second. "The Real Story" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: I have been in Los Angeles all week and I have to tell you something. Being a conservative in Hollywood or in L.A. is kind of tough.

But something tells me it`s easier when you are Chuck Norris. "Black Belt Patriotism - How to Reawaken America" is the title of his new book. He`ll drop in and tell us about it next.

First, welcome to "THE REAL STORY." Two months ago Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson responded to investors` worries over the mortgage market by issuing this long-winded never-ending statement that says, "Today our primary focus is supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form as they carry out their important mission". I guess the key word in that statement was "today."

Eight weeks later those companies are no longer in their "current form". In fact, there is hardly any company left in them at all. They are more like a massive government agency. Goody.

I don`t remember voting for that agency or authorizing over $5 trillion in debt to be put on our country`s already bloated balance sheet. Do you remember that vote?

Here`s the one that will make blood shoot out of your eyes. Senator Chris Dodd, he`s the guy who usually has no problem spending your money. Even he is irritated over his lack of influence on this.

After hearing about the take over, he said that it`s probably necessary. Sure would like to know more.

I`m sorry. What did you say? You would like to know a little more? I`m sorry to be a stickler on details here, but weren`t you the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee? I`m pretty sure you are. I thought you would inquire about multi-trillion dollar takeovers before they happened. Call me crazy.

"THE REAL STORY" is that we have lost control over our financial system. It`s like you know that game "Whack the Mole?" We`re so focused on bashing the head of whatever pops up in front of us, it surprises us, we have no long-term plan, we have path to victory. May I quote the Democrats? We have no exit strategy.

Our only vision for the future is that all of our losses should be socialized so we can pretend that we don`t have problems anymore. Forget about tomorrow. We have no problems today.

It`s like that "shared prosperity" that you keep hear being from Obama; you know, minus the prosperity part. Here`s the question. Nobody seems to be asking this. If we are to believe our leaders that Bear Stearns, Freddie and Fannie all had to be rescued to save our entire financial system from collapse, what does that say about our financial system?

Are these people really trying to tell us that America`s economy could be brought down by one mismanaged company? And if so, these people are guilty of gross negligence for getting us into this position. If not then they are lying.

Either way, you can see why our leaders are held in such high regard right now. The truth is that scaring people with threats of collapse is right out of the Communist manifesto. You convince people that they can`t survive without the government and lo and behold, they will run to the government.

There is no trust with our leaders and no confidence and worse, no accountability in Washington. When a Republican administration can take us this far down a Socialist road with so little objection, I can`t imagine what is coming our way next.

Republican Senator Jim Bunning is from Kentucky. Apparently he can`t imagine it either. He`s called for the resignation of Hank Paulson and Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke yesterday. Good for you, Senator. Good for you.

SEN. JIM BUNNING, (R) KENTUCKY: Thank you, Glenn.

BECK: Which are we becoming? Are we becoming France or China?

BUNNING: A little of both, mostly China.

BECK: Can you put that into perspective? Because I`ve said that before and I get people calling and saying you are crazy, we are not. Explain that.

BUNNING: Let me explain. When the government owns every aspect of your way of life, that`s China. We are starting down that path. We started with Bear Stearns. We have accelerated with Fannie and Freddie. Who is next? Lehman Brothers, Citicorp, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler; who is next? What is the government going to do when the airlines fail?

BECK: Thank you. Thank you very much. Tell me, Senator, you know Christopher Dodd; you know Barney Frank. How could they possibly be surprised by this?

BUNNING: They can`t be. Chris Dodd wrote the bill. It was his bill.

BECK: He said today in the papers that he was shocked. He would like to know a little bit more. I would like to put these people on trial.

BUNNING: Wait a minute, Chris Dodd wrote the bill. It has his name on it that allowed Henry Paulson, of all people, the chairman of one of the largest brokerage firms in the country, in the free market to take over and bail out all his buddies; The largest banks in this country, the largest banks in China.

BECK: Let me ask you this. Did Paulson lie to you? Because he said he promised the American people, he promised the world, we are not going to pull the trigger on this. Here we are. He pulled the trigger. Did he lie?

BUNNING: He didn`t tell us the whole truth. I suspected that when he was talking to me that he wasn`t telling the whole truth, so I didn`t believe him. If you don`t know anything about economics, you might have believed him. But once the federal government asked for power, they are going to use it. How dumb can you be?

BECK: Senator, what do we do? We are in deep trouble. What does the average person do?

BUNNING: The average person calls his senator or his congressman and says what are you doing with my country? Why are you socializing my country?

Why does one of the presidential candidates want to socialize my medicine? So I can stand in line like they do in Canada and wait for an operation that may never come and I will die before I get it?

Why are we allowing our leadership, the Bush administration, Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke -- God bless him -- he and our former chairman Alan Greenspan since 1994 had the power to regulate mortgages and they didn`t do their job.

BECK: Thanks, senator.

Now, you may not think of it this way, but the investors look at the government like any other company that they put money into. They look at their assets, their liabilities and the profits and the losses. Then they decide what kind of an interest rate we`re going to require to make up for that risk.

Generally with the United States it`s low. That`s why you hear about treasuries or T-bills being the safest investment around. But "THE REAL STORY" is that as our financial health gets worse, our interest rates that we will have to offer investors gets higher.

Why should you care? Because every dollar we spend on interest in this country is a dollar we can`t spend on defense or health care or education or any other government program that everybody seems to like right now. How does our country`s credit profile look now that Fannie and Freddie will be put under our books?

I love this one. The president was a little surprised today, I read in the paper. We are not quite Enron yet, but we are not Microsoft either. In fact, I don`t think it`s too early to ask the world, is America too big to fail, world? If so, which one of you weasels will bail us out? The answer is none of you.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul is with us. You know Congressman, it was five years ago today that you predicted that this would happen with Fannie and Freddie. Have we been lied to or set up?

RON PAUL (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Probably both plus the fact that a lot of people are very ignorant about economics and they don`t know monetary policy.

BECK: I don`t buy into that, Congressman. I don`t buy into it. Ignorance is no excuse. These people have responsibility and we are not going to put any of these weasels in jail for what they have done to the country. I don`t excuse them for that.

PAUL: The people who are on the take, they know what they are doing. There is a lot of ignorance in Congress that goes a long with it and they don`t change the policy.

But the people who benefit and the big corporations and the Fannie Maes and the Freddie Macs, they`ll go to extremes. Even with this bail out. The chairmen who have to resign and retire, they still get their package in millions of dollars. They take care of themselves and the people lose out.

BECK: What are you predicting? You said five years ago this was going to happen. Tell me what the country looks like in a year from now.

PAUL: It`s going to continue downhill. It`s going to continue to deteriorate. They`re doing everything to patch it together, bail out, prop things up. You know the dollar went up in value and the interest rates didn`t soar, at least for treasury bills.

The fooling of the people still goes on, but it`s going to be downhill. You have to liquidate bad debt. That`s the only way you can get rid of this and start over again.

But it`s too painful so they always bail out. So the bailing out perpetuates the problem. A year from now we`re all going to be poor and we will not have gotten rid of the problem. And it would take, instead of one year, it`s going to take five or ten.

BECK: I`ve read enough of the founding fathers` words. I know you have, sir. Is there anyone that`s going to mount a constitutional challenge to this stuff? This is not constitutional, is it?

PAUL: No, it`s not constitutional, but the Federal Reserve isn`t either and the monetary system, even the tax system isn`t. There is too much unconstitutionality to go around and we don`t have enough people in Washington that care about it that would pursue it. The courts are filled with people who don`t interpret the constitution the way they should.

BECK: You came out with an announcement that everybody should vote for a third party. Let me just pin you down on one thing. You say we that should vote for a third party, yet you have also been on this program and you have told me the reason why you are a Republican is because you have to work within the system.

Why aren`t you leaving the Republican Party if a third party is the way to solve it?

PAUL: If I ran as a third party in Texas for Congress and I wouldn`t be in Congress. There is some practicalities things in that.

BECK: Let me play that out. If I vote for a third party, if I write your name in there, you aren`t going to win. I don`t have anybody in there that I agree with.

PAUL: Why waste your vote voting for one of the other two because there is no difference? So if you want your vote to count, I would say let`s add up all the third party votes whether they are libertarian, constitutional, Ralph Nader, Green Party and the people who just say I had enough and I don`t believe in any of this.

We`re the majority; we are 60 percent of the people.

BECK: I know.

PAUL: And we need to send that out that message that only 16 percent, the way I calculate it, only 16 percent of the people actually vote for a candidate believing in what they are talking about. The rest of us get stuck with whomever we get.

BECK: Ok. Congressman, thanks a lot.

That`s "THE REAL STORY."

Coming up, he strikes fear in the hearts of liberals and it`s not because he is a conservative; probably because he kicks butt for a living. Chuck Norris joins me to share his plan to wake our country up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: There guys who write backs like me and then there are guys who write books and can also totally kick your ass. Chuck Norris is the second kind of guy; not to be confused with me, the first guy.

He is the martial arts master. He`s a political activist. He`s an actor. He`s now returning to his role as best selling author with a brand- new "Black Belt Patriotism, How to Reawaken America."

Does it involve punching people in the face, Chuck?

CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR: No, it doesn`t. Actually, you are the one that motivated me to write this book, Glenn, because I watch your show every night and I get so frustrated like you do.

One night I`m watching your show. And after your show, I`m walking back and forth and I`m mumbling to myself. And my wife says what`s going on. I said I am so frustrated with the direction our country is going and I don`t know what to do about it.

BECK: Punch people in the face.

NORRIS: I would like to, Glenn, but it wouldn`t help. Anyway, that`s why I wrote "Black Belt Patriotism" because I`m dealing with our national debt, our economy, illegal immigration problems and what I called common sense solutions to the problems.

BECK: Give me some of them.

NORRIS: For instance, our national debt. We are in debt $9 trillion and one institute for truth and accounting says it`s closer to $56 trillion. The whole thing is we have to figure out how to get this under control.

Our government, that`s what I like about McCain when he talked the other night. He said we have got to bring the power back to the people. And this is what this book is all about, it`s brining the power back to the people and take it away from the government.

BECK: Here`s the thing. First of all, what do you think of Sarah Palin?

NORRIS: I like her. I like her a lot.

BECK: When I watched her give her speech and she said fellow citizens, it was the first time that I have ever seen anybody give a political speech where I thought, she is like me. She is not part of that mess.

I think she is -- she gives me the hope that there is somebody out there that connects with the American people and sees how stupid the people in Washington are being right now.

NORRIS: I hope when they get into Washington that they will be able to get the control back to the people. The whole thing is, Glenn, in 2005, over 6,000 taxpayers who make over $250,000 a year pay no taxes. I think I heard it from you.

You know how many pages there in the IRS tax code? 66,498 pages in all, now who knows what`s in that tax code? The IRS doesn`t but I bet you these high-falutin` tax accountants do. And they are the ones that are finding all these loopholes in this tax code.

BECK: Let me flip it on its head. About 48 percent of this country really doesn`t -- get more back from the country from the IRS than they pay in. A lot of Americans under Obama, about 50 percent will not pay any income tax.

Chuck, I challenge you to spend the day and just one day and look at all the people that you encounter and realize that half of the people that you encountered today, including the people who haven`t given you the right sandwich when you`re driving out of the drive thru, you are paying their tax bill.

There is two Americans. There is the Americans that are willing to work hard and believe that some day I`m going to be able to change things and I`m going to be able to have a slice of the American pie. And then there`s other Americans that just don`t give a flying crap. I`m tired of carrying around the people who screw up my order at the drive thru every single time.

NORRIS: That`s one of the biggest complaints, Jean and I, my wife, is them screwing us. The thing is too that that`s why I`m such in favor of the fair tax, Glenn. The thing is we got $13 trillion in offshore accounts that people are hiding their money.

The thing is if we can bring that back into our economy, the three million manufacturing jobs that are outsourced overseas, if we could bring all that back. And that`s why I supported Huckabee so strongly because he was a strong supporter of the fair tax.

BECK: The tax system in our country is all upside down. It`s ridiculous.

NORRIS: Totally upside down and we have got to do something to correct that. That`s why I said we need a voter`s revolution here.

BECK: Yes, we do. We do. We are going to get one, one of these days. Hopefully it will happen at the ballot box and if it continues to go the way it has, unfortunately, I think it is going to go in a different direction.

Chuck, we`re going to take a break. We`ll be back in a second.

NORRIS: Ok.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Quickly, I need to take a quick second just to ask for your help in finding Joe Biden. The senator from Delaware appears to have gone missing from the news media the last couple of days.

Tonight I am issuing a Joe Biden media amber alert. He was spotted briefly for just enough time to insinuate that you cannot care about your children with disabilities unless you support his proposals of publicly funding stem-cell research.

But I am starting to get worried. He is running for vice president and there can`t be this little interest in him, could there be? That`s why I`m asking.

If you happen to see an Amtrak train, there is a good chance that Joe Biden is on it. Not one of the lowly regular person Amtraks. Look for the high-priced ultra fast luxury Accela trains, those are sweet.

If you see one, please, turn on your camera and film the train. Joe needs the attention of a camera to survive. Or perhaps if you happen to se Joe in a Dunkin` Donuts or 7-11 where he is unable to communicate with the workers because he lacks the necessary, if I may quote him here, "slight Indian accent," give him a hand. Tell him look up to the store`s security camera there and talk for 20, 30 minutes about your ideas. Assure him that people are listening.

If you see him trying to make the argument that Sarah Palin is a liar because she killed the "bridge to nowhere," just smile and nod. Don`t bring up that it was actually her that killed the bridge. Don`t bring up that Congress left it up to her whether the money should go to the bridge or not and she decided it should go to other things.

Whatever you do, please do not bring up that you are aware that both Biden and Obama supported funding for the bridge the entire time. Please, that will really upset him. Whatever you do, do not mention that both Biden and Obama voted against the chance to shift the bridge money to Katrina victims. I can`t guarantee what will happen if you do that.

With all this attention on Sarah Palin, we seem to have lost track of what is important and that is what can we learn from mega-super brain Joe Biden today? Look, whether it is 7:55, 9:55 p.m., 12:55 or 5:55 a.m.; the question is the same. Do you know where your Joe Biden is?

From Los Angeles, good night, America.

END