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President Obama Addresses Las Vegas; Tiger Woods Speaks Out
Aired February 19, 2010 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez.
Let me tell you what we're going to be doing for you. The president of the United States is about to speak out in Las Vegas.
And I suppose you might say that the president of the United States has some explaining to do. Why does he have some explaining to do? Because he angered some folks out there in Las Vegas.
There is Harry Reid speaking right now.
He said, don't gamble away your money. Don't gamble away your money when you are in a recession. That is what he said, but he used the word Las Vegas -- or the name Las Vegas. And some folks in Las Vegas are angry at the president, because he thinks he is directly attacking them and their marketability or their ability to earn money.
Some people differ with that, obviously. But we're taking you back to that in just a little bit. But this is important. Let me take you back to some of the other things that we're going to have during this newscast that I think you might find interesting.
Ann Coulter is going to be joining me here in just a little bit to talk about what is going on at CPAC, the conservative convention that is taking place right now.
We're also going to be talking to Danica Patrick. Yes, alas, the Danica Patrick interview is going to be shown to you, where she turns the tables on me at one point and actually says that she wants me to explain to her why some people think that she is so fascinating as a female race car driver. Some quick thinking, and, somehow, I was able to get myself out of that hole.
But the big story that everybody is talking about today obviously is Tiger Woods.
Here is what we are going to do. I'm going to share with you some information about what Tiger Woods said, and then I'm going to have Ted Haggard and his wife on. Ted Haggard was also involved in a similar situation and a sex scandal. And he's going to come on to join us.
But, right now, the president of the United States has just been introduced, and he is about to start talking. And here he is.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, everybody.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Everybody, please, have a seat. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Well, what an extraordinary introduction from an extraordinary leader. I just want to reiterate something I said at the town hall meeting earlier. You could not have a better fighter on behalf of the people in Nevada than Senator Harry Reid. And I am just proud --
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
I'm proud to call him a friend.
Now, a lot of people in Washington forget where they come from. Harry Reid has not. And that's something that I have always admired about Harry, ever since I first got to the Senate. He retains that honesty and decency and homespun good sense, and, yes, sometimes some bluntness, that he's carried with him since his boyhood in Searchlight.
We've got a number of other special guests that I just want to acknowledge.
First of all, I want to thank Jim for helping to organize this.
Thank you so much to Jim Murn (ph).
I want to acknowledge Congresswoman Shelley Berkley and Congresswoman Dina Titus, who are here.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Assemblyman Joe Hogan is here, and State Senator David Parks.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
I want to thank the Las Vegas Asian, Henderson, Latin, North Las Vegas and Urban chambers. Thank you, guys, for helping to organize this.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
And the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
You know, I was mentioning the fact that Harry has retained that sense of who he is despite the extraordinary journey that he's traveled.
Over the past year, under very trying circumstances for the country, I have -- I have seen something else in Harry. Harry comes across as soft-spoken, but he's made of very strong stuff. He's never been afraid to make tough decisions, even if they weren't politically popular, if they were the right decisions for his state and the right decisions for America.
And so, I just want to reiterate, his leadership has made a tremendous difference. And through these economic storms, he's never lost sight of the struggles and the hardships of the people who sent him to Washington. And here in Nevada, you should know the strength and the character of a man that I hope and expect to serve in Washington for many years to come.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
So, thank you, Harry, for the great work you do.
Harry also gets embarrassed when you compliment him too much.
(LAUGHTER)
You know, he kind of -- see, he looks away.
(LAUGHTER)
Now, before I go any further, let me set the record straight: I love Vegas.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
There you go. Always have.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
I love Vegas.
(LAUGHTER)
Enjoy myself every time I have got an opportunity to visit. In fact, just last night I drew a flush on the river and cut the budget deficit in half.
(LAUGHTER)
Some of you know I can play some poker.
Now, I did receive a little bit of heat, I know, from maybe some in this room, when I said that folks shouldn't blow their college savings in Vegas.
That doesn't mean I don't love Vegas. It wasn't meant to be a shot. I think everybody here would agree that the only place where people should spend their college savings is in college.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
There's no contradiction there.
But, look, I -- I understand how hard things have been here. In the worst economic turmoil that we faced in generations, Las Vegas has been at the eye of the storm. When the economy suffers, the tourism industry is deeply affected. In fact, you've seen perhaps the steepest drop in tourism in the state's history. And I know things are starting to bounce back, but it's tough go.
When folks are hurting and don't have the money to spend on a night out or a weekend getaway, the hurts the broader economy as well.
So what happens in Vegas reflects what's happening across America. And this area's also been hit by the home mortgage crisis as hard as just about anywhere in America.
And this doesn't just affect the families at risk of losing their homes -- as devastating as that can be -- it also affects the many more families who've lost value in their homes and the equity that makes it possible to finance a business or secure a retirement.
From their peak, home prices in Las Vegas have fallen in half. This is something all of you are aware.
And, finally, Nevada has not escaped the wider devastation that's ripped through the financial markets and the economic fabric of our country as a whole as credit became scarce and consumer spending dropped and businesses were forced to close their doors.
Today, more than one in eight people in Las Vegas can't find work. So no one needs to explain to the members of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce that we've been through a punishing recession, as bad as anything since 1930. The recession in 1980, '81 doesn't come close to what we've gone through over the last two years.
And no one needs to tell you how important it is that we remain absolutely focused on bringing about a strong recovery. Our great challenge as a country is to create the environment in which businesses can expand and hire workers, in which middle-class families can find good jobs and save for the future, in which our economy is growing and that growth is sustained and broadly shared.
That's my focus. That's Harry Reid's focus, to not only rebuild this economy, but to rebuild it stronger than it was before the crisis.
At the same time, standing before this group of business leaders, it's important to emphasize that there's only so much that government can do, and only so much that government should do. Sometime in Washington it sounds a little contradictory when I hear folks say, "Obama wants the government to take over the economy." Then they'll turn around and say, "Why isn't the government doing more to create jobs?"
Now, Harry and I understand that's politics. But putting politics aside, what I believe, and what I know you believe, is that the true engine of job creation and economic expansion in this country has never been found in the halls of Congress or in the corridors of the White House. America's economic success begins elsewhere, in more humble settings -- in garages and basements and rented storefronts.
It begins when a worker decides to leave her job to her own boss; when an inventor makes his first sale on the way to his first million; when an innovator sees a product that could be better or a service that could be provided more smartly; when an entrepreneur takes a chance on an idea that just might fail, but might also change the world.
Now, that's the story of America, the land of opportunity, a nation where at our best, we welcomed all those from around the world who are willing to work hard, all who are willing to take themselves as far as their talents would allow.
And what has made it possible to harness the incredible productive capacity of the American people, the greatest economic force in the history of the world, has been a free market where people can pursue their dreams, their goals and their happiness, and where you can take charge of your own destiny.
So I don't believe my role as president, the role of the federal government or the state government or city governments, is to stifle the free market.
I think my role is to strengthen its ability to unleash that creativity and ingenuity which still makes this nation the envy of the world.
Now, there are those who suggest that the only way government can promote strong markets is to allow them to operate wholly outside even the most modest rules of the road, even the most sensible reforms.
Many of these same folks also suggest, whether in regard to proposed consumer protections in the health insurance or proposed rules to prevent another financial crisis, that these kinds of policies run counter to our economic interests.
And while I respect those who sincerely hold this view, the facts and our history do not favor this argument. Throughout our past, there have been times when markets have fallen out of balance, and there have been periods of economic transformation and upheaval when prosperity and even basic financial security have eluded far too many citizens. And at those moments government has stepped in, not to supplant private enterprise, but to catalyze it, to create the conditions for entrepreneurs and new business to adapt and ultimately to thrive.
Sometimes it requires government investment. That's why we laid railroads and highways to spur commerce and industry and stitch this nation together.
Sometimes it means making sure that there's a safety net. That's why we created Social Security while putting in place financial safeguards like the FDIC in the wake of the economic dislocations of the 1930s.
A lot of times it involves investing in our people. That's why we passed a G. I. Bill to nurture the skills and talents of an entire generation. That's why President Kennedy pointed us to the moon, knowing that the exploration of the skies above would lead to unimagined discoveries here on Earth.
That's how Las Vegas became Las Vegas, a balance of private enterprise, but also a regulatory structure that made sure that people could come here and enjoy themselves and thrive and bring their families in an environment that was safe for them and secure.
At these moments of transformation, such efforts by government, they don't stifle our economy. Just the opposite. they have helped our economy achieve the growth that was not only more robust, but more widely shared by our citizens; citizens who were, in turn, better able to contribute to our economy.
And when we've gone without sound rules of the road and sound investments in our future, then we've risked stagnation, or worse, we've risked full-blown economic crises.
And that's where we found ourselves one year ago, when my administration came through the door. I don't -- you know, sometimes we've got a short-term memory. It's one of the things that makes America great is we don't brood about the past. But it's worth us just remembering where we were.
$5 trillion of Americans' household wealth evaporated in just 12 weeks as the financial markets plummeted -- $5 trillion. Several of the world's largest financial institutions were on the brink of collapse. Some of them disappeared.
Home values were in free fall. Nobody knew what the floor was. Businesses could not get credit, no matter how creditworthy. Seven hundred and fifty thousand jobs were vanishing each month -- more than the entire population of Vermont was losing its job every single month when I was sworn in.
And the fear among economists across the political spectrum was that we were rapidly sinking into a second great depression.
So we undertook a series of difficult steps, and, frankly, some of them were unpopular -- deeply unpopular -- to prevent that outcome.
When I was at the town hall earlier today and I pointed out, "It's not as if Harry and I don't have pollsters. We've got very good pollsters. And they tell us when things are unpopular. 'Don't do that!'"
But we thought it was important to do what was right, not what was popular.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
So we acted to get lending flowing again, so companies like yours could get loans to buy equipment and restock, keep your doors open, make payroll. We thought it was important for ordinary Americans to be able to finance their homes, or buying a new car, or going to college, or starting or running a business.
We passed tax relief for small businesses, and 95 percent of working families; for college students; for first-time homebuyers. We extended or increased unemployment benefits not just to help those families but also to make sure that there was some demand in the economy at a time when so much demand had been lost.
We made health insurance 65 percent cheaper for families relying on COBRA. We acted to close states' budget gaps to prevent hundreds of thousands of teachers and public school workers and firefighters and police officers from being laid off all across the country, including right here in Nevada.
And at the same time we initiated investments to spur hiring while laying a foundation for long-term lasting growth. We doubled our capacity in renewable energy like wind and solar. We computerized medical records to save money and lives.
We provided the largest boost to medical research in history. All across the country, classrooms and school laboratories are being renovated. Roads and railways are being upgraded as part of the largest investment in infrastructure since President Eisenhower half a century ago initiated the interstate highway system.
Right here in Nevada, hundreds of entrepreneurs have received small-business loans. One million Nevadans have seen a tax cut. Hundreds of thousands of seniors and veterans have received emergency assistance. A 250,000 people in this state have received additional unemployment insurance. And across Nevada there are dozens of transportation projects and energy projects and construction projects putting people to work doing the work that America needs done.
And you know what? What made all this possible was the Recovery Act -- also known as the stimulus bill.
Now, there are a bunch of folks out there who would tell you otherwise and would say that the Recovery Act hasn't made a difference and create a job. But, you know, facts are stubborn things.
There's a famous story about a former senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was having an argument with a fellow senator. And the other guy wasn't doing too well in the argument, so finally he said, "Well, I'm entitled to my own opinion."
And Moynihan said, "Yes, you're entitled to your own opinion. You're not entitled to your own facts."
(LAUGHTER)
Economists tell us that the Recovery Act has helped stop the free-fall in our economy and created or saved as many as 2 million jobs so far. And by the way, the actions of these critics speak louder than words because many of the members of Congress who voted against the Recovery Act, called it a "boondoggle," funny how they end up making appearances at ribbon-cuttings for Recovery Act projects. It's a sight to see. They're up there cheesing and grinning.
(LAUGHTER)
They're trying to vote against their cake and eat it too.
(LAUGHTER)
Now, this is not to say that all of our troubles are over. Far from it. We may have kept 2 million people from the unemployment line in this recession, but more than 8 million people have lost their jobs. We may have broken the back of the recession. When I came in, this economy was contracting 6 percent. This past quarter it was growing 6 percent -- a huge reversal.
So the economy may be growing again, but that growth has not nearly made up for the terrible pain and dislocations that rocked businesses and families over the course of a very difficult two years. So we've got a lot of work to do. And I'm here to tell you, I will not rest -- I know Harry will not rest -- until we're not just recovering, but we're prospering. I don't want Vegas just to be getting by. I want Vegas to be thriving, and I know that's what you want as well.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
So that's why Harry and I are working to provide tax breaks for small businesses to spur hiring. That's why we're fighting for health insurance reforms to address the crushing cost of health insurance for small businesses and families. And that's why we continue to seek ways to address the home mortgage crisis, which has touched all parts of this country, but has hit Las Vegas particularly hard.
In large part, the broader economic crisis we've experienced began as a home mortgage crisis, and the story is familiar to all of you. A lot of people got in over their heads, from homeowners on Main Street to large firms on Wall Street. And many more Americans found themselves in a terrible situation by no fault of their own, unable to pay a mortgage because of a lost job, but they're unable to sell or refinance because their mortgage debt is now higher than the value of their house. The home is under water.
Now, government has a responsibility to help deal with this problem. I have got to again repeat, government can't stop every foreclosure. There's not enough money in the treasury to stop every foreclosure. And we shouldn't be using tax dollars to reward the same irresponsible lenders or borrowers who helped precipitate the crisis.
But what government can do -- what government can do is to help responsible homeowners to stay in their homes. Government can stop preventable foreclosures. What we can do is stabilize the housing market so home values can begin to rise again.
So over the course of the past year, we've taken a number of steps to do just that. We've provided a tax credit for 1. 4 million taxpayers to help them buy their first homes. We've made it possible for more than 1 million struggling homeowners to reduce monthly payments. And combined with our broader efforts to spur growth, stem job losses and stabilize the financial system, we've helped promote recovery in the housing markets. In fact, in many markets home values have begun to rebound. But we got a ways to go, especially in the hardest-hit regions like Las Vegas, where there are just too many blocks littered with brown lawns and for sale signs, too many mortgage holders here are underwater, and where job losses continue to exact a terrible toll.
So for these communities, recovery depends on continued responsible efforts to stop the downward spiral of defaults, foreclosures and declining home values.
That's why earlier today I announced a $1. 5 billion investment in housing finance agencies in the states hardest hits by this housing crisis. And one of those states is Nevada. So that means --
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
That means that here in Nevada we're going to be able to help prevent some foreclosures that otherwise would have happened. It's going to allow lenders to help homeowners who are underwater. And it will help folks who've taken out a second mortgage modify their loans.
So the goal is to target communities at the center of the crisis and to empower local agencies who know these communities best to structure and tailor their programs in ways that are most responsive.
Now, these are very difficult times for our country, times that demand we put aside the stale debates and the tired arguments, times that demand of us something more.
The fact is the economic crisis of the past two years, indeed the growing economic insecurity of the middle class that's been going on for a decade, was born not just of failures in our economic system. These challenges were also born of failures in our political system.
And while Harry has been fighting for us, too many folks in Washington have been putting off hard decisions. So for decades, we've watched as efforts to solve tough problem fall prey to gamesmanship and partisanship, to the prosaic concerns of politics and the ever-quickening news cycle, to endless campaigns focused on scoring points instead of meeting our common challenges.
Imagine if you had to run a business like this, where the people who are in your office are constantly yelling at you, running ads against you, more interested in you failing than the company succeeding.
That's what we've been seeing in Washington. And it's got to stop. Because the challenges have been mounting all around us. A health care system that saddles businesses and families with skyrocketing costs. An economy powered by fuels that are fuels of the 20th century instead of the 21st and endanger our planet and our security.
We've got an education system unsuited for a global era and a financial system that has been rewarding reckless risks. And we've got a structural deficit that threatens to leave our children a mountain of debt. So we've seen the consequences of this failure of responsibility. And the American people have -- have paid a heavy price.
The question we'll have to answer now is if we're going to learn from the past or if in the -- even in the aftermath of disaster, we're going to repeal it.
Because as the alarm bells fade and the din of Washington rises, the danger is we just forget what happened and we start thinking we should go back to business as usual.
That won't work. I will not work in this global economy, not in this environment.
I said this (inaudible) State in the Union, I repeated it today in Henderson in my town hall. Other countries are not playing for second, they're playing for first.
One of the things that I know of is of great interest to Nevada is tourism, and what are we doing for tourism promotion? I can tell you, Harry is going to be championing a tourism promotion bill because, as he points out, why is it that every other country is promoting their tourist industry and America's not doing enough for ours. But that's just --
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
He's -- he's going to have -- he's going to have strong support for that effort. But that's just one example of the competition that we're facing on everything. If China's producing 40 high-speed rail lines and we're producing one, we're not going to have the infrastructure of the future.
If India or South Korea are producing more scientists and engineers than we are, we will not succeed. So I hope that all of us, Democrats, Republicans, public servants and leaders in the business community, can keep alive a sense of seriousness, a sense of common purpose. That's how we can rise to this moment and transcend the failures of the past, tackle the challenges before us, and leave behind a nation that is more prosperous than ever before.
But it is going to take work. And I am going to need all of you to be partners with Harry and partners with myself in moving it forward.
The days are over where we can keep on organizing ourselves along the lines of businesses here and labor is here and government's over here. We are all in this together. If -- if businesses --
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
And nobody understands that more than Las Vegas. If the MGM's doing well, that means its workers are doing well. And if its workers are doing well, that means the housing market is doing well. And if the housing market's doing well, then that means that small businesses all across the region are doing well, who in turn are hiring more workers.
That's the model that we've got to achieve. But it also means, in order for us to succeed, it also means that business, labor, government, Democrats, Republicans, we can't be looking for every single edge or advantage on every single issue. At some points, we've got to be thinking about the larger good. So, if we are serious about reforming the health care system, we have to be thinking that even if I have health insurance, and by the way I have really good health insurance. I have a doctor who follows me around everywhere.
(LAUGHTER)
I have to spend some time thinking about the people who don't have health insurance. And I also have to be thinking about the next generation that is picking up the bill for the health insurance that is currently being provided to me if I'm getting a benefit from the government.
If I'm a business leader, I have to be thinking about my shareholders and my bottom line, but I also have to be thinking about the people who work for me, and I have to be thinking about the larger community, and I have to be thinking about the country.
That kind of leadership can't just come from the White House. It can't just come from the United States' Senate. It has to come from you. In fact, that's where it always comes from in America. The most profound changes, the most dynamic innovations, they don't happen from the top down. They happen from the bottom up.
But, they always happen not just because of some single individual with some great idea, although a lot of times that's what drives innovation in our economy, it also comes from a culture of trust and mutual regard.
America has always been a combination of fierce individualism, but also a sense of community, the sense that we are looking out for one another. And every single successful leader here understands that is the kind of culture that you have tried to build in your businesses. That is the kind of culture that we have to reinvigorate across America.
I am confident we can do so. I'm looking forward to coming back to Vegas. I think my mother-in-law will beat me because she comes frequently. Maybe I should not say that in front of the press.
(LAUGHTER)
But I want everybody here to have confidence that if we keep on working hard, we don't shy away from these tough challenges, and we're not looking backwards, we're looking forwards, then not only is Las Vegas going to thrive in the 21st century, not only is Nevada going to thrive in the 21st century, but all of the United States of America is going the thrive.
Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you, everybody, and God bless America. (APPLAUSE)
SANCHEZ: The president of the United States on what could perhaps be billed as the mea culpa tour going back to Vegas to tell everyone in Vegas, he didn't really mean it when he said that he didn't want people to use their savings on Vegas or gamble away their savings in Vegas.
In fact, the president wants everyone out there to know he loves Las Vegas. You want to hear it for yourself once more for yourself? It doesn't last very long. If we have got it, hit it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Now, before I go any further, let me set the record straight -- I love Vegas.
(APPLAUSE)
There you go. I always have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: "There you go," as if he knew those are the words that had to come out of his mouth, and those are the words that actually came out of the president's mouth, as you saw it there.
By the way, let's perhaps talk about the real reason that the president of the United States is in Las Vegas. The president of the United States is in Las Vegas, Nevada, because the Senate majority leader is from Las Vegas, Nevada, Harry Reid, who was in the audience there by the way.
And it's important to point out that the president was making sure that everybody in Las Vegas loves and respects Harry Reid because he wants to make sure that he gets reelected.
Let me bring in Jessica Yellin. She's joining us now to take us through this argument. Let's talk about both of these things. Let's talk about the issue of the president having to go back to Vegas because the mayor there Oscar Goodman was very upset and thought that the president had hurt his city.
And we're also going to talk about president being there for Harry Reid. One issue at a time. Let's talk about the Oscar Goodman challenge, I suppose.
Is Oscar Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas, feigning outrage because he wants to make hay out of this that Las Vegas has been said like we will many more times in the conversation, or does he really not understand that by the president going on national television and even saying Las Vegas, he is doing his city a huge favor?
If I were to go to say right now, look, I'd love to go hang around in Key West and have my kids playing on the beach and my wife next to me while we are sharing a cocktail and watching the sun go down, but I can't go to Key West or the Florida Keys, and you know why? Because the situation is not good for me economically, can't go there. I just gave the Florida keys a wonderful endorsement, didn't I?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is what the White House says. They should be happy that the president thinks of good times and blowing your cash and thinks of Vegas and not Atlantic City or a river boat.
So the problem here is that this is the second time the president has made this kind of slip-up. The first time is when he said corporate executives or Wall Street firms should not be -- big corporations should not go to have conferences in Vegas. That is in the teeth of the bailout anxiety and lot of corporations actually did cancel conferences in Vegas because they didn't want to look like they were being extravagant.
So it did have an effect that time, but this time, it was really just a passing aside didn't have that much effect, but a good political opening for the mayor to shout and scream. And the truth is Vegas needs attention and economic help, and it was a good way to draw the nation's attention to the needs of Vegas.
SANCHEZ: Well, let me tell you what the president wants to draw the nation's attention to, and it is starting to get pretty obvious that he is doing this, in fact. The president of the United States wants to make Republicans out to be hypocrites.
And the talking points that are coming out of the White House are getting consistent on this issue. Watch what he said, again, during this speech, something I thought was a couple of days' old, but nonetheless, here it is again.
Hit it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Economists tell us that the Recovery Act has helped stop the free fall in our economy and created or saved as many of 2 million jobs so far.
And by the way, actions speak louder than words because many members of Congress who voted against the recovery act calling it a boondoggle. Funny how they make appearances at ribbon cutting for recovery project projects. It's a sight to see. They're out there cheesing and grinning.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: "Cheesing and grinning."
YELLIN: Yes, I don't know what that meant. We get the idea.
Listen, you better get used to hearing that. You think it is a few days' old, you will hear that repeated from now until the midterm election, because this is about the Democrats calling out Republicans for perceived hypocrisy, Republicans for obstructionism and refusing to getting things done, and Republican are going to counter by saying Democrats won't compromise in any way. It's their way or the highway.
SANCHEZ: Jessica Yellin. Thank you so much. Appreciate your joining us. Ann Coulter is standing by on the other side. She will be joining us in just a little bit.
Now, look at this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAWLENTY: Tiger Woods is holding his press conference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That is the governor of Minnesota. He is at CPAC and he is talk about Tiger Woods. It seems like everybody else was. Hot topic of conversation there at CPAC. And why did Dick Cheney get a thunderous standing ovation at the convention? Ann Coulter is there, there she is. I will ask her these questions coming up in a little bit.
She is waving and grinning. She's doing that, too, the cheesing and grinning is what the president said a little while ago. Stay with us.
Also, she wrecked in a 12-car pileup.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANICA PATRICK, NASCAR DRIVER: Cars make a lot of smoke when they are wrecked sideways, so when you can't see in front of you at all, there is nothing you can do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That is Danica Patrick, and that is Danica Patrick. I had a chance to -- can you imagine. I am going to interview Ann Coulter and Danica Patrick on the same day, and already the twit board is blowing up with controversy and comments about this.
Stay with us. We will be right back. I'm Rick Sanchez, and this is THE LIST, and we are scrolling on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Even the political world couldn't escape the Tiger Woods spotlight today. I want to share this with you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TIM PAWLENTY (R), MINNESOTA: Now, I think we can learn a lot from that situation. Not from Tiger, but from his wife. So, she said I've had enough. She said, no more. I think that we should take a page out of her playbook, and take a nine-iron and smash the window out of the big government in this country.
(APPLAUSE)
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: There you go, Tim Pawlenty saying it like it is. By the way, it's important to point out that Tiger Woods was on the air today, and you will hear what he had to say, saying that it is not true about Elin, that she did not try to smash him with a eight-iron,
But the message about big government is clear. You wonder if the conservative commentator Ann Coulter is thinking about this as well, as she gets ready to join us. I think she is here. Ann Coulter, are you ready to go?
ANN COULTER, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: I am. Hello.
SANCHEZ: Good to see you. I can't help but ask you how things are going there at CPAC, lots of young activists are there and politicians that are representing the Republican Party's future. One in particular who looks like a superstar is this Marco Rubio, a Cuban kid who grew up in Miami like I did. What do you make of him?
COULTER: Well, he is very impressive. He is a fantastic tea party candidate, so to speak. This is definitely the man conservative activists have been talking about in Florida for the past, well, at least the past year. And outside of Florida not too many outside of the conservative movement not too many people have heard of him.
This year, I think he will stand a pretty good chance.
SANCHEZ: Are you surprised that Marco Rubio didn't get the same ovation that this guy did? Now, here is a face from the past, the former vice president stands up, a surprise appearance, by the way, at the convention, and gets a big ovation after that. Do we have that, Dan? Roll it if we have got it. This is Dick Cheney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: I think that Barack Obama is a one-term president.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That is interesting. But I am wondering if by doing that the former vice president is not handing the Democrats an ace in a bad hand, if you will, if you know what I get -- if you know what I mean?
COULTER: I'm not sure I do, but I heard the first part about why did he get a bigger standing ovation than Marco Rubio, and that is because conservatives reward results, and we liked the vice president, and he was vice president, whereas Marco Rubio was still just a sparkle in our eyes, though, we do expect big things from him. And no, I think that Cheney is doing a fine job, and we do need somebody out there. As we discovered under Bush, Republicans need a wartime president who can talk. I think President Bush was magnificent in fighting the war on terrorism, but a lot of times it is tough because he was not out there making the argument.
And when he did make the argument, as with Israel, for example, it was spectacular. So it is nice to have one man taking the lead to defend the conservative position of national security, which most of all seems to entail acknowledging that there is a war on terrorism.
SANCHEZ: I hope you can hear me, because I am going to challenge you a little bit on that. I think that the people who love Ann Coulter are Americans who believe in free market principles. They are people who, like the guys in Texas who know how to put down oil fires and would love to go and help their country in Iraq.
But Dick Cheney told them no, we don't need you. We will let our companies take care of this in no-bid contracts and with money borrowed from China into companies that had ties to Dick Cheney.
Now, everything I just said is true, and it doesn't at all, Ann, sound like something that conservatives, true Ann Coulter-loving conservatives, would believe in. So why are conservatives standing on their chairs and applauding a man who did that, such an un- conservative thing to this country?
COULTER: Thank you, I did get that question. You are talking about Red Adair, the guy who flew to Iraq and had his private company put out all of the fires during the first Gulf War. And I'll be you Red Adair and all of his guys would support Dick Cheney, point one.
Point two, I gather you are talking about Halliburton, and liberals were hysterical about that for seven years. And now we find that one no-bid contract after another are going to Obama cronies. At least in the case of Halliburton, I will give you two points, one is there was only one other company that could do what Halliburton does, and it is French company. You can look that up.
SANCHEZ: Not true, Ann, not true.
COULTER: So not surprising they will give it to the American company.
And point two, Halliburton was losing money in Iraq. So I think that the liberal hysteria over Halliburton was equivalent to, and you don't see this that much on the right wing, you see a few nuts, often liberals, complaining about Obama's birth certificate. That is the credibility of the Halliburton hysteria has.
SANCHEZ: First of all, I was not talking about Red Adair. I was talking about a coalition of gentlemen who work in Texas who tried to put in bids and were essentially told they couldn't.
Let me ask you a question, because this is important too. You hear the argument after one year we decided Obama is bad, and this is the argument that you hear from the folks behind you, Obama is bad because he is going to be using our children's money in the future, et cetera, et cetera.
Well, everything that was done during the Bush administration was money that was borrowed from China and Brazil and other countries, and isn't that the same thing, and why wasn't that argument being made then?
By the way, if I am over-articulating these questions, it is because Ann said she could not me very well, so I apologize to the viewers.
COULTER: No, I heard that. Thank you, you are doing an excellent job. I'm sorry if it is annoying to your viewers, but I can hear you.
(LAUGHTER)
If you think that we were not complaining about the spending of the Congress and Bush not using the veto pen, then you were not following the CPAC conventions very closely. Conservatives and talk radio hosts and people like me were going crazy over that. It is not true.
You have this image that is foisted on people like me that we were Bush flaks, defended anything he did. Quite to the contrary, it was conservatives who said no to Harriet Myers and the conservatives who said no to amnesty for illegal immigration, and it was conservatives screaming from the rooftops about the spending.
The problem is that there is this runway train where congressmen vote for bigger and bigger budgets, and an awful lot of it are things that without a major action cannot be changed, the entitlements of Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security.
But the same time, the fact that you had a mosquito bite in the Bush administration and before that in the Clinton administration does not compare to dropping a nuclear bomb on the economy now. The spending has gone through the roof. This is not an incremental, gradual change.
SANCHEZ: But, OK, let me ask you in fairness, the president of the United States under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were actually given a surplus. They left the United States in a situation where in George Bush's own words, "the economy was on the brink of collapse," and according to his advisers, we were staring at another depression.
That is the condition in which he gave this president, the Barack Hussein Obama as he is being called at that rally there, the White House. It's almost like here is the house, it's on fire. Put out the fire, and by the way, you have do it really fast. That's what some folks would argue.
COULTER: OK.
SANCHEZ: Is it unfair? Argue that one. COULTER: I think it's a very simplistic way of looking at the world. For one thing that can't be described in 30 seconds, but the surplus was a surplus on paper. It's what the government was expecting to take in versus what they were expecting to spend. So that's kind of a myth and a fraud.
You can also look that up on Google, the explanation of what a surplus under the Clinton administration was. And what was the -- your other point about this?
SANCHEZ: Well, why is it that -- I'll tell you what. Think about it. My producers are telling we have to get a break in. Are you cool to stand by for another couple of minutes here?
COULTER: Sure.
SANCHEZ: Ann Coulter standing by, answering the question about whether or not some of the criticism of the Obama administration, in comparison to what happened during the Bush administration is really fair. That's coming out of CPAC.
I know we're having a tough time hearing each other, so I apologize for over-articulating everything. We'll be right back. Stay right there with more from Ann Coulter at CPAC.
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SANCHEZ: Ann Coulter is good enough to join us. She's at CPAC. She's our correspondent on CPAC, working double duty for us today.
All right, here's the great argument that Americans have all over the country. If the Iraq war was so important, why didn't we sacrifice as a nation? Why weren't we taxed? Why didn't the Bush administration, instead of borrowing the money from China to fight this war that would seem like it wasn't costing Americans, actually tell Americans it's a bitter pill, but we're all in this together. Why not?
COULTER: I never understand this argument, that we all needed to suffer more for it to be a successful war. We have a magnificent volunteer military. They did a magnificent job. And yes I think the war in Iraq was important. In fact, Joe Biden is now claiming credit for the war as one of the achievements of the Obama administration.
SANCHEZ: I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt. Do you think the war in Iraq was necessary?
COULTER: That's OK.
SANCHEZ: Do you think the war in Iraq was necessary?
COULTER: The necessary/convenient arguments I do not understand. I mean, was World War II necessary? Hitler didn't attack us. Was the civil war necessary? The Vietnam War? The Korean War? Either all wars are a war of necessity or all wars are wars of convenience. I think the war in Iraq was a very important war. We needed a foothold in the Middle East. We needed to knock out a guy who, whether we can find the stockpiles now, was certainly intent on developing weapons of mass destruction, who tried to assassinate a former president of the United States, who had Al Qaeda in his country.
And in particular to have a democracy someplace in that godforsaken region of the world so the rest of the Arab dictators can't say the reason you're living in the dirt is because of the great Satan and because of Israel.
What we needed and what we have in Iraq is an Arab Israel, and that is incredibly important, and we will be enjoying the benefits of that I hope for the rest of our lifetimes as long as the current president doesn't blow it. But since Biden is claiming it as the accomplishment of the Obama administration, I guess he won't.
SANCHEZ: So you just compared the Iraq war to World War II. Do you think that's an apt comparison?
COULTER: No, I'm just -- well in the sense they're both wars. What I was saying was the -- the phrase -- the arguments that Iraq was a war of convenience, Afghanistan a war of necessity -- I think that's a silly argument.
I keep hearing Iraq didn't attack us on 9/11, neither did Afghanistan. The Taliban thought Osama bin Laden was a little nutty, but he brought all this money into the country. The Taliban didn't attack us, but we went in to take out the Taliban.
All wars are, I suppose, in a sense, a war of convenience, as the expression goes, or they're all wars of necessity. But you don't have to fight any war. Yes, I think Iraq was an important war to fight, and I think we're enjoying the benefits of it now. Thank you, George Bush.
SANCHEZ: Ann Coulter, thanks so much for taking time to join us. I enjoyed the discussion. And I know you've got to run, and I've already pushed the limit by an extra 56 seconds or whatever I did. Can we do this again? I really enjoy it.
COULTER: Absolutely. I love you, Rick, and I especially love your family, the right-wingers.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: You've got to stop going and drinking Cuban coffee in Miami. You're drinking too much of the Cuban coffee, Ann Coulter. Thanks so much.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTER: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Ann Coulter, joining us from CPAC. Also this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOODS: I know people want to find out how I could by sew selfish and so foolish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: So what did he say about his wife and his future in golf? We are going to play his entire statement for you. That's coming right after the break.
The attorney for Amy Bishop is calling her wacko -- calling her wacko, her own attorney. You'll hear that and more right after the break.
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