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Glenn Beck

Results Pour in from Super Tuesday

Aired February 05, 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, history will be made. Super Tuesday is finally here, and we are live.

On the Republican side...

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We`re going to win the nomination. And we`re going to win the presidency.

BECK: John McCain, he`ll be ready to pull away from the pack. But Mitt Romney is right on his heels.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We`re going to count some votes, and then we`ll celebrate. And the drama continues for the Democrats as Obama and Clinton are neck and neck.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will transform this country, and we will transform the world.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I`m ready to lead, and together we will make it happen.

BECK: Who will rise? Who will fall? Tonight, live, we get the answers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello, America. Happy Super Tuesday to you. We`ll be here live all night long. All the mistakes and everything else, and we don`t have any of the cool maps. We`ve got a very low budget. This is like the fourth most impressive election team on television.

And we`re -- no, no, no, no, no. I mean, I include me in that. I mean, this is -- look, here`s the thing. This is going to be fair, but it is going to be biased, because I`m hosting it. And I`ve got to tell you, in a little while, in fact, Conway, our producer, I`m a little upset that my -- my binge cake has not arrived yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m on that, Glenn (ph).

BECK: Thank you. I`ve asked for a -- because if I were at home, here`s what I`d be doing tonight. I would be screaming at the television when my guy started to lose. And if I can`t scream at the television, you get to do that. What I`m going to do, the other thing is, I binge. So I`ve got a cake and we`ll watch it all night, and that`s how you`ll know whether Mitt Romney is doing well or doing poorly, on how much cake I`m eating.

Now, we`re also going to get the insights on everything that`s going on. We`re going to get all of the news. We have the political insiders here, Peter Fenn, former Gore advisor and Democratic strategist, a good guy. You know, I picked not only Peter but also Amy, our CNN political contributor, because these guys aren`t weasels. They will -- they will -- I mean, they`ll admit when their side sucks beyond belief. You`re not going to get that anywhere else.

AMY HOLMES, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Not a weasel.

BECK: Yes. You know, I have to tell you, let me start here. First of all, the coverage of this has been on all day long on every channel. What hasn`t been said at this point? Is there something that should be said that hasn`t been said before we get to the numbers?

HOLMES: Who`s going to win?

PETER FENN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You know, I think what we really should say is we don`t have the slightest idea.

BECK: Yes.

FENN: You know, this is the great thing about our system: the voters speak. Everybody had it together in New Hampshire. But you know, sometimes we all know-it-alls, all us smart people, hey, we get it wrong.

BECK: Yes.

FENN: Unlocked (ph).

BECK: But you know something? I mean, here`s the problem. I can`t believe we`re here. I can`t believe that this is the best field of candidates on both sides that I think we`ve ever had. In my lifetime, I`ve never seen it this thick. And we`re coming down to, possibly, tonight to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. I know a lot of people here in New York City that are liberal that go, "Oh, my gosh. Not Hillary Clinton." And I know a ton of conservatives who say, "No, not John McCain." How did we get here?

HOLMES: It`s amazing. I think we can blame Mike Huckabee for -- on the Republican side. And I think on the Democratic side, you can probably answer that better than I could. It`s amazing, out of this entire slate of candidates, it might narrow down to these two.

I just talked with the makeup artist, and even just going into this, I thought with all of the talented, amazing people in America, this is what we came up with for the most wide-open, amazing election in American history.

FENN: The notion, of course, that we have not this kind of situation since 1952 without a president or a sitting vice president in there. But even beyond that, the issues are so huge now, people, I think, are furious at Washington. They`re mad as all get out.

BECK: We`re going back to the same people that have brought us this.

FENN: It`s the two "C`s," though: change and confidence. They still want new stuff. They want to change, but they want somebody who`s confident in there. But I think one of the exciting things about this year is people are really engaged.

And when voters -- and when the polls change all over the place, it isn`t because these people aren`t engaged. I mean, it is because they have these choices. And they`re having a hell of a time making them.

HOLMES: They`re not making them. That`s what I don`t understand. I keep asking Democrats, OK, look. You`ve got two candidates that are pretty close on policy. One of them has a huge likability problem. The other problem is an unbelievably inspirational, drawing out these crowds.

When you go to the polling booth, are you really going to vote for the one you don`t like? Are you going to vote for the person who you connect with? I just don`t get it.

BECK: It`s bothering me that so many people seem to be going for the person that they think can beat the other side instead of just vote -- vote your values.

FENN: That is a really good point, and a lot of my friends have just thrown that out the window. They can`t figure it out. First you tell me you think Hillary can win. Then you tell me...

BECK: Who cares? Just vote your values.

FENN: My point is, we don`t know.

BECK: Yes, yes.

HOLMES: And if Democrats do win, they will elect -- nominate for the third time in a row a candidate with huge likability problems. Gore, Kerry, and now Hillary? I don`t get it.

BECK: All right. Let me go to our election update desk. Erica Hill is going to be here for all of the numbers, because you know, she has credibility and I have none. I`m a clown.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: We don`t like to put those things in your head.

I want to get you some breaking news, actually, coming -- just coming to us in terms of numbers. CNN now projecting calling the state of Georgia. The polls just closed here five minutes ago, six minutes ago in the state of Georgia, calling that state for Barack Obama.

This is, of course, a big win. A lot of eyes are on these southern states to see how Barack Obama will play out as the African-American candidate. So again, CNN calling Georgia for Barack Obama.

But when you look at the Republican side of the ticket, Glenn, it is amazing, because here in Georgia, it is an incredibly tight race. Really, a three- -- a three-way race going into it, a couple days heading into it. There was a poll of Republican voters and who they might vote for. It was almost split between Huckabee, McCain and Romney. And that is a lot of what we`re going to see in Georgia.

So this state much too close to call on the GOP side. So we`ll continue to follow that for you.

One state, though, we do know of, on the GOP side: West Virginians. This, in fact, was called early this afternoon for Mike Huckabee and a lot of talk about this.

BECK: Hold on just a second. Hang on just a second. This pisses me off. This is the what -- the kind of crap that makes people disenfranchised. I heard this today. This is the story, and we`ll get into it later on in the program.

Romney was ahead. He won. Then, because you couldn`t have four winners, they had to revote. They had to jettison Ron Paul. The McCain people called their vote -- you know, their delegates and said, "Don`t vote for McCain. Vote for Huckabee." So Huckabee actually wins. This is -- you want to talk about rigging an election? I mean, this is it.

HOLMES: Are you whining about politics?

BECK: You know what? That`s what -- that`s what everybody said.

HOLMES: It`s a caucus state. You know, people are going to throw everything they can at it. This is the presidency of the United States. Do you think John McCain is just going to sit there and play nice? He doesn`t even like Mitt Romney.

BECK: Erica, this...

HILL: Well, Amy makes a good point. I just want to point out, though, it wasn`t technically a caucus. It was a state party convention.

FENN: A convention.

HILL: There were about 1,100 delegates there. Big week, basically, in the Republican Party in the state of West Virginia. But the reason that they had to vote again, Glenn, is because the candidate had to have the majority. And so heading in here, Romney actually had, in that first round when he was ahead, had about 41 percent of the vote. And then Huckabee was down below him with 33.

BECK: All right. Look, here`s the deal. We`re going to take a break. I want to talk about the stock market and some of the other things that are going on and some of the other news of the day here as it relates to politics.

But I`ve got to tell you, if you care about your country, jeez, can we stop playing a game and just center ourselves on values and what really matters? Our children`s lives are at stake. Who`s got the best plan for turning our red ink into black? Find out, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Welcome to probably the weirdest election coverage ever on network television. And I`m your congenial host. Today one of the stories that didn`t get covered because everybody was covering, you know, the election today was the falling Dow.

We`ve got big problems with the economy, and one of our main guys to tell us about it is Steven Moore. He is the -- he is the -- the editorial board writer who covers economic issues at the "Wall Street Journal."

Hi, Steven. How are you?

STEVEN MOORE, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Hi, Glenn.

BECK: What happened to the Dow?

MOORE: I`m not as good as I was -- not as good as I was yesterday when I saw the Dow drop by 330 points today.

BECK: Don`t worry about it. I actually heard somebody say, "That`s nothing to worry about."

I`m like, "Oh, yes, no. Never."

What happened today?

MOORE: Well, I think that you`re -- you know, the big event this week, Glenn, that nobody`s been focused on is the president came out with his new budget. And hold onto your hats, folks, but it`s a $3.1 trillion budget.

When this president came into office eight years ago, the budget was $1.9 trillion. So we`ve added over $1 trillion in spending in eight years. And this is the issue, Glen. It`s so frustrating. You know, you`ve been talking about the candidates and their positions. Nobody is talking about what they`re going to do about this enormous debt and this enormous, out- of-control $3-trillion budget.

BECK: Here`s the thing. John McCain will say, "I`ve got -- I`m going to cut all these earmarks." There is not enough money in the earmarks, in the first place. And the only one, at least that has been on my radio program -- I said what are you going to do about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, bigger than Social Security? What are you going to do about these programs?

The only one that would say, "I`m going to raise the retirement age; I`m going to start slashing the things"...

MOORE: Was Fred Thompson.

BECK: No, it was Romney. Romney did it.

MOORE: Romney did it. OK.

BECK: And I was shocked. Nobody else. Every -- every American says they want to hear the truth, but they don`t really.

MOORE: If you look at -- if you look at the Democrat side of the aisle, it`s kind of scary. I mean, a new report just came out this week by the American Conservative Union that Barack Obama was voted the most -- single most liberal tax-and-spend Democrat in the entire United States Senate. It`s something Hillary is not going bring up, because she was second or third on that list.

And so the Democrats are talking about tax and spend, and most of the Republicans, unfortunately, Glenn, are talking about borrow and spend. And both of those are going to put us in a lot of red ink in the next ten years unless we get serious about this budget issue.

BECK: When does this actually -- when does that actually hit the stock market? When does that actually take a foothold in business, Steven?

MOORE: I think it just has a -- it`s like termites in a house, Glenn. They just erode the foundation of the house. And I think that`s what`s happened with our budget.

No party is serious about doing anything about this. The Democrats, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have said, "You know, the first thing I`m going to do when I get into office is I`m going to raise the capital gains and dividends tax." Of course, that`s not going to do much for the stock market.

And Republicans, I don`t think, have gotten serious either about the earmark problem, about the out-of-control budget. I mean, in the bill that they`re talking about, the stimulus bill, that $150 billion give-away, the free money, one of the things they`re talking about is increasing food stamps. There was just a report out this week, Glenn, that showed that hundreds of millions of dollars of food stamps are being sent out to dead people.

I mean, this town is just unbelievable the way we spend money. It`s like candy.

BECK: Yes. I mean, didn`t we learn our lesson with Katrina?

Steven, thank you. Appreciate it.

Now, let`s go back to the election update desk, Erica Hill.

Erica, what is the latest now?

HILL: OK. Look, I want to show you a little bit more information on Georgia. Because at the top of the show, which was that CNN was calling Georgia, at least on the Democratic side, for Senator Obama. Much too close to call on the Republican side. So that we`re going to have to wait on.

But let`s take a look at who turned out today at the polls. If you`re looking at Democratic voters in Georgia, 52 percent of those voters are African-American. That could be a big reason, as we -- as we look further at who wins what, how this all happened. That`s something we`re going to keep an eye on.

Also, we want to take a look at gender. Because there`s so much talk, not only about race because, of course, Barack Obama, an African-American candidate, and the other big Democratic candidate here is, of course, Hillary Clinton. Sixty-three percent of Democratic voters female in Georgia. You think that those are numbers that are going to be tossed around.

BECK: That number is important, Peter, because that shows that she is losing her female base. If he won, and it was so -- it was so easy to call, women are going for Barack.

FENN: I think what`s happened, in the last month, Glenn, is that African-American voters have really found in Barack Obama a tremendous candidate. I mean, they have gone to him now in several of these primaries and even women.

For a while they thought she would win some of the African-American women, and I think they have also been going for...

HOLMES: Yes, but you know, I have to say I get kind of irritated with African-American voters vote their race but nobody else votes, say, their gender or their -- Barack Obama got the white male vote in Iowa.

BECK: Yes.

HOLMES: And you didn`t see anything like "men vote for men."

FENN: But Amy, the point being that, in these southern states, we are early on in the polling before people knew Barack Obama, you know, Hillary Clinton was ahead. Once they got to know him, once they knew he was a serious candidate for president of the United States, that he could actually win, stuff moved.

(CROSSTALK)

FENN: I don`t want to go racial here. That`s exactly right. We talked about this before. You know, Irish Catholics in Boston voted for the Irish candidate. Italians in Boston voted for -- this has happened across the country.

HOLMES: I talked with some African-American women out in California for a piece I did. And it was so interesting what they had to say. They liked that he was mixed race. They liked that he had a white mother from Kansas, because they thought that meant he could reach out to white voters, as well.

BECK: I remember when I was eight years old. I remember -- I remember the race riots and everything else. And I remember I had to be younger than that. I remember saying, why doesn`t everybody just, you know, mate with somebody else in another race? And so it`s just...

HOLMES: My mom did.

BECK: We`re all the same, you know? It doesn`t matter.

FENN: You know, if you think about this, 40 years ago, who would have said that you would have had the son of a Kenyan, African-American father and a white, Kansan mother be a candidate for president of the United States? I mean, it is engaging, but you know, it`s interesting. I`ve done a lot of work in a little place called Aruba. I don`t know if you`ve ever been there. This is...

HOLMES: Isn`t that in a Beach Boys song.

FENN: Yes, it`s a great place to go work. Let me tell you, the prime minister down there does a wonderful job. But my point is, what you`ve got there is no racial animosity at all. It`s very, very -- it`s just extraordinary.

BECK: All right. Now let me see. Let`s go look and see if there was another divide. Let`s go look at the evangelicals with Erica.

HILL: Yes, and this is an important number, because when you`re looking at GOP voters, of course, especially in the southern states, something that a lot of people are going to look at that, I think we can get that ready for you.

But if you look at the number of voters on the Republican side in Georgia who call themselves an evangelical -- if we could advance to that one, actually, you can see what a tight race it is here among Republicans in Georgia. Basically split between those top three candidates in Georgia. Three days ago people still didn`t know who they were voting for.

Sixty-four percent of respondents today who are Republicans turning out at the polls, two thirds here, are -- call themselves either born-again Christian or an evangelical.

BECK: OK. Does that -- does that translate, anything, to Huckabee? Because I mean, you know, that`s the south.

HILL: Well, it`s an excellent question. That`s definitely one of the things people are going to be looking at, Glenn. Because there`s been so much talk about the fact that can he carry those evangelical voters.

Because there`s even a split among evangelical voters. A lot of younger evangelical voters have been voicing support for him over the last few months, but some of the older folks in that crowd aren`t sure that they`re necessarily on board with him, when it comes to everything Mike Huckabee has to say. So it`s and important factor to look at. Is it a deciding factor? Only the voters can tell you that.

BECK: Go back to that other chart where it showed...

HILL: The division?

BECK: The division, yes.

HILL: So this is a poll that is just going to take a second to reload that machine, but this is a poll here in Georgia. And I believe decided -- in the last three days, they asked voters if they had decided, who they decided to vote for in the last few days. And look at this. You`re almost split, completely, a third for Romney, Huckabee and McCain.

BECK: What does that tell you?

FENN: He needed more. Huckabee needed more if he`s going to win down there.

HOLMES: You know what this tells me that`s so -- I think is so interesting? Is that those voters can`t believe that Mike Huckabee is going to win the Republican nomination. So it goes to show you that voters will vote for the person they like best, the person who they think most shares their values. I think that`s fascinating.

I also think it`s fascinating that the Mormon in the race, who is accused of flip-flopping and being pro-choice and now pro-life, that he`s peeling off those evangelical voters and not John McCain, who`s only a third, and that Mitt Romney is that competitive. I think...

BECK: I think the thing -- I think what everybody misunderstands on the -- on the Republican side is people are attracted to John McCain because they think that he actually is a man of integrity and he`ll stand up for what he believes, et cetera, et cetera.

HOLMES: Duty, honor, service.

BECK: But he hasn`t in the last six months. I mean, in the last six months, he`s flipped on almost everything and shown that he`s not that.

HOLMES: ... border.

FENN: Right, but the interesting thing is independence. They think he is independent. That`s why.

BECK: Yes, well, so is Dr. Frankenstein. The fact that he`s just independent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, welcome to the coverage that is fair, but biased. Very biased. I`m a conservative, and I don`t really care if you know it. I think you should know it. If you`re somebody who`s sick and tired of the politics in Washington, this is the coverage for you tonight.

I consider myself a real conservative. I hate what the Republican Party has done to itself. They`ve betrayed the core values of small government, controlled immigration, low taxes, fighting a war to win, although they`ve been good on that one lately. Makes blood shoot right out of my eyes.

It takes a lot more, at least for me, than just invoking the name -- Ronald Reagan`s name to rightfully lay claim to his legacy.

Here with more is Jonah Goldberg, author of -- sorry, Peter Fenn -- a fantastic new book, "Liberal Fascism," editor of the "National Review" online.

Jonah, I have made in my radio audience, I made so many Republicans really upset, because I cannot vote for John McCain. I can`t. You know, call me crazy, but I have a set of values, and I don`t like to betray them.

And there`s a lot of Republicans are like, "Then you let Hillary win?" Yes, as opposed to betraying my values. Is this a good thing or a bad thing, as you see it, this kind of fight within -- inside the Republican Party?

JONAH GOLDBERG, AUTHOR, "LIBERAL FASCISM": Well, I`ve got say, I like these fights in the primaries. I think they are entire worthwhile, important and necessary, and it should be Romulans versus Klingons all the way.

But then, come the general election, you basically have a simple choice. You have a simple choice. Do you want to elect the Democratic Party to fill the 6,000 top jobs of the federal bureaucracy, or do you want to let the Republican Party fill those top 6,000 jobs?

BECK: So let me translate. So your choice is sell your soul to the devil and have them take you to the same place the other party`s taking you, or sleep at night?

GOLDBERG: But let`s be fair. I mean, I am not so much pro-McCain as I`m anti-anti-McCain. And I think, you know, this idea that somehow voting for McCain is like voting for Hannibal Lector just doesn`t quite...

BECK: He`s the guy who, his own bill -- I mean, I don`t need to get into all of this. But his own -- I mean, he`s a guy who`s -- who`s global warming bill will cost $1.2 trillion a year by some estimates. And he`s saying that he wants to cut the federal deficit. I don`t know exactly how that works.

GOLDBERG: I agree with a lot of the complaints about John McCain, but I think you and Rush and some others who are talking about it would be better to have Hillary Clinton as president than to have John McCain, who voted and was in lock step with Jesse Helms.

BECK: Only because -- only -- only because, Jonah, as I see it, the Republicans -- look, I`m an alcoholic. At some point you`ve got to say, "I`ve got to stop living this way.

The Republicans haven`t found it, and maybe when they`re paying 90 percent income tax, and we`re living in some nightmare, you know, brave new world that Hillary Clinton and the progressive Congress has made, maybe they`ll find a value or two.

GOLDBERG: I`m very sympathetic to that, but there`s another way to look at it. There`s another way to just simply say, look, maybe we should go back to the days where we don`t give the president of the United States the benefit of the doubt the way we did with George Bush and the Republican Congress, which spent money like a pimp with a week to live.

BECK: Yes.

GOLDBERG: Maybe we had a transactional relationship where we said, if you give us these things, we`re with you this far. That`s what we lost with George Bush.

BECK: All right. Guys, thanks a lot.

Jonah, appreciate it. More results, Super Tuesday, in a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: In the strangest election coverage ever. Welcome to the GLENN BECK program.

Tonight we`re going to be here for this hour, then we`re going to be back at 9:00 and then at midnight for the closing of California. So join us for all three hours tonight and you can listen online at glennbeck.com for commentary and everything else. Let`s go to our election update desk now with Erica Hill.

Erica, what is the latest?

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First the latest I want to get to is, if you look at the bottom of your screen what you`re going to be seeing, starting now, and throughout the rest of the night, are what we`re calling your "Banner of Results" here.

You`re going to see, as they come in, as different precincts, different counties are reporting, from states where the polls have closed, you`ll see those numbers updated. So be sure to keep an eye on the bottom of your screen.

What we can tell you right now, right off the top of the hour at 7:00 when the polls closed here in Georgia, CNN had already called this state for Barack Obama. And we want to break down a little bit more for you now, what we are learning about the voters in Georgia today. If you look at the vote by gender, look at this, almost two thirds of the Democratic voters in this state are women.

So that`s key, because there is so much talk in this Democratic race about gender and about race. Of course because there so many questions about African-Americans. Are they automatically going to vote for Obama? Will women automatically vote for Senator Clinton?

BECK: do you think that`s racist and sexist to say that?

HILL: You know what? A lot of people agree with you. And I have done several interview segments on that, asking people those very questions. But I`ve got to tell you, there are almost as many people who say that`s ridiculous and it`s racist, as there are who say, yes, it is, but you know what, people tend to vote that way.

So take a look at these numbers now.

BECK: Look at that.

HILL: Did it actually happen? Eighty-seven percent of black women voters did go for Obama. Did that mean they voted for him because he is black? Not necessarily, but does that mean that they didn`t. The question is up in the air.

BECK: Am I the only one here -- this is the problem with live television. When you`re honest, you say something and then somebody puts it on a blog and then Keith Olbermann makes you into the worst person in the world.

But, Obama is just a man. I don`t see him as white or black, or anything else. He`s just a guy. What difference does it make? I said this -- what was it -- with Anderson Cooper. And he was throwing these numbers around that people vote for -- I don`t care. Am I the only person in America that just doesn`t give a flying crap what color you are?

AMY HOLMES, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I don`t care, I don`t think Peter cares.

PETER FENN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: No. I don`t care either. I`m just trying to say to you, Glenn, that there is reality out there. And the reality is that in the early days of voting, if you were Irish, as I said, and your candidate was Irish, you would get a lot of those votes.

HOLMES: You -- it is natural that when the first African-American candidate runs for president -- it appeals to them.

BECK: But look at the flip side though.

FENN: But his point is --

BECK: Look at the flip side.

FENN: His point is, I appeal to everybody. His point is -- and the other point I will make about South Carolina, and sure I`m Georgia will show it, which is, they would not be upset to have Hillary Clinton either. They liked Hillary Clinton, a lot of them would vote for Hillary Clinton.

HOLMES: Well Peter, lets look at this. When he first entered the race, those same black voters were saying that they supported Hillary Clinton. Did Barack Obama all of a sudden become black? No. They got to know the guy, they got to like the guy and they got to trust the guy.

FENN: They did not know him, and they knew Hillary Clinton. A lot of people were not focusing on that.

(CROSSTALK)

FENN: He`s a great candidate.

BECK: May I just point out, to know Hillary Clinton is to love Hillary Clinton.

Let me go back to Erica here for just a second. Editorial comment, now to the real newsperson. Any -- well believe me, CNN made that very clear. Don`t you put her in an awkward situation. So I will try really hard not to. But it`s three hours.

Anything on the GOP?

HILL: OK. Yes, there is. And what I can tell you is it`s still incredibly tight in Georgia. Here are some of the numbers we can look at now. But again, this race is absolutely too close to call in Georgia.

But, a slight, possibly a slight, lead for John McCain. But you know, a little earlier in the show, Glenn, we looked at --

BECK: It says zero precincts reporting.

HILL: This is -- again that`s what I`m saying. It`s less than 1,000 votes.

BECK: OK.

HILL: But -- but look at those numbers Glenn and think back to one of the exit polls that we did bring you earlier in this hour. And that was that when talking to Republican voters, they were almost split between McCain, Huckabee and Romney. So you know this is going to continue to be close and something that you`re going to have to watch for, probably, the next few hours.

BECK: Jonathan Allen, let me bring you in.

Jonathan Allen is from the "Politico" and the "Congressional Quarterly." And -- can you tell me, what the heck is Huckabee`s angle here? I mean, honestly. I have a better shot of being a greeter at the Magic Kingdom -- hey, welcome to the Magic Kingdom -- than he has of being president of the United States at this point. What`s --

JONATHAN ALLEN, CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY: That`s not a bad job. You at least you get to smile a little bit as the greeter. And I will guarantee you this. Mike Huckabee is not in the race still because he loves Mitt Romney.

I don`t know if he is in there to help McCain, but he is certainly having that effect and he may be angling for something later on. It may be that he just wants to go to the Republican convention with a number of delegates or continue to build his national recognition for a future run or for -- maybe a radio gig some day.

BECK: Well, you got to get into that. That`s where the money is.

ALLEN: Well, its a (INAUDIBLE) gig anyway.

BECK: Yes. So -- I find it interesting that Huckabee has not been taking -- we he`s on the campaign trail. He`s not taking any shots at McCain. It`s all Mitt Romney. This guy hates Mitt Romney.

ALLEN: You know, there`s no doubt about it Glenn Beck. The other candidates that have been on the stage with Mitt Romney for the last couple months have focused their ire at him, they very seldom engage each other.

Now there is only one other candidate left, other than McCain and Romney, and Mike Huckabee is taking all of that anger from the all of those other candidates and focusing it firmly on Mitt Romney.

BECK: That`s what Jesus would do. So, I`m beginning to believe that one of the reasons why Romney is -- everybody hates him on the stage, is because he doesn`t play the game. He -- when he went in and fixed the Salt Lake Olympics, he went in and he worked around all the weasels that were doing all the bribery and everything. He just worked around them.

And I really, truly believe that these -- the people in the beltway, they might say they want change, but they don`t want change. They don`t want their system to be changed. They want somebody to come in and just change it just a little bit, maybe cosmetically. Anything to that? Or am I just all (INAUDIBLE) on chocolate cake.

ALLEN: Well, you know what? I was talking to a lobbyist the other night who said their biggest fear was that Barack Obama or John McCain would come in and actually change things. And this is a lobbyist who said they might vote for Hillary Clinton based on that, even though they weren`t all that excited about Hillary Clinton either.

And of course Mitt Romney might be a wild card for the lobbyists. He is certainly not bashing their way of life in the way some of these other candidates are. I think you are right. I think people inside the beltway -- even if they say they want change, don`t want that much change.

BECK: What is the -- what are the odds that McCain would -- that this is a some sort of a favor for McCain and he will go for VP with Huckabee?

ALLEN: I think it`s possible. I think -- certainly Mike Huckabee would like to be on the short list and like to get that opportunity to be on the national ticket in the general election. Whether John McCain does that or not -- I think a lot of people will try to angle themselves into that spot. But ultimately, the candidate that get the nomination gets to make that choice in consultation with party leaders. So, you can make a case for yourself and I don`t know that you can actually make a deal for yourself at this point.

BECK: OK. We are joined with a panel tonight of experts. Former Gore advisor -- but, I still consider him an expert in spite of that and I like him in spite of that.

FENN: And I have good judgment, too.

BECK: It was one of those things. You have to be drunk for all those years, or I don`t know what it was. The Democratic strategist, Peter Fenn and CNN political contributor, Amy Holmes.

So, tell me --

HOLMES: Don`t you like me too?

BECK: I do like you. I do like you. But you didn`t -- you weren`t - - apparently, where was your bottom? At what point did you say I`m working for Al Gore?

HOLMES: Was it the earth-tone sweaters? The blush -- at what point?

FENN: I told him in that first debate he really ought to roll his eyes and sigh. So you know --

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: Did you tell him to kiss his wife like that?

BECK: I have to tell you something -- on that moment, because I hadn`t thought of that Al Gore moment that -- where he was rolling his eyes in the debate until the last Republican debate with John McCain. John McCain had some of the those same mannerisms where he was just unlikable.

HOLMES: He does.

FENN: And what`s the rule? The camera is always on. That`s the rule. But -- the interesting thing and I like to ask Jonathan this. And Jonathan -- you`ve covered politics for a while, you get this stuff all the time.

But don`t you think that if John McCain gets this he has to go to a conservative as a vice president, as a running mate, to pull his party together?

ALLEN: Absolutely. Particularly a social conservative at this point. There a lot of people that don`t trust him on conservative issues. He definitely has to go there.

BECK: OK. But Huckabee is a --

ALLEN: Whether it`s --

BECK: Huckabee is a social conservative. But I got news for you, the media, they are salivating. They just got -- they`ve got saliva running down their face on Huckabee for all of his speeches that he has given.

He is a social conservative that the media will take out and slice him in six different directions. But he is not really a conservative.

FENN: Not on the tax issue. He certainly is not on the tax issue.

BECK: Well, he is now. But he wasn`t until recently.

HOLMES: No. I agree with you with the media. The media loved him when he was a spoiler, when he`s our Ross Perot all over again in the Republican primary. But all of the Christian leader stuff, the cross and the book case for Christmas.

BECK: What was that?

HOLMES: I mean, honestly, lets fact it. I think he knew exactly what he was doing there. And the media is going to love to take after -- take out after a Christian evangelical who has been so over the top.

BECK: I can`t believe that they were going after Mitt Romney`s religion. But they kind of leave -- they leave Huckabee alone. When -- if it wasn`t for Romney --

HOLMES: He seems like the amusing court jester.

BECK: Exactly right. And they know that he plays a role to take out Romney I think.

(CROSSTALK)

FENN: Likable guy, terrific interview.

BECK: He is a likable guy.

FENN: You know, they didn`t investigate his record.

HOLMES: I think all these little Southern aphorisms and this -- all that -- it`s wearing thin.

BECK: We had -- we`ve had a lot of the politicians on the show here. And wouldn`t you guys say he was the most universally liked Huckabee? absolutely.

FENN: Absolutely.

BECK: Char (ph) is not even listening to the program.

We will be back in just a second. The influence of the Christian right, how it`s influencing this election. Pat Robertson joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, we`re live tonight. Then we`ll be back again at 9:00, then at midnight. And we`re live on the Internet at glennbeck.com where it gets really nuts and quite spooky. And the Internet is just a crazy place. But, that`s a different story.

Religion has played a huge role, already, in this race, if you are a Republican. Lets talk about the Christian right. Pat Robertson is here. He is the founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcast Network.

Hi, Pat. How are you sir.

PAT ROBERTSON, CHRISTIAN BROADCAST NETWORK: Hey, Glenn. Nice to be with you tonight.

BECK: Good to be with you.

So, can you pull the lever for John McCain, if he happens to be the guy?

ROBERTSON: Well, I was reading some of the things that were said by my friend Jim Dobson, it was a pretty scathing indictment

BECK: Yes.

ROBERTSON: I still have my misgivings. I`m not sure I can or not. I haven`t made up my mind yet for sure.

BECK: Is -- Pat do you think it`s selling out your values at all? I mean, your a values guy. Is it -- does it sell out your values if you look at a candidate who is in the party that you normally vote for, and they`re generally going the direction that you want to go, but then there`s the guy who is at the top, that just has, just one too many bags there. Is it selling out your value to say, well, you know what, I`m still going to pull that party line?

ROBERTSON: I think -- you know, Glenn the truth is, I used to be a Democrat. And there are a whole lot of evangelicals who, during the Reagan time, were Democrats. And they switched over to the Republican party. And, if the Republicans do what they`ve done in some of these last sessions of Congress -- these ungodly deficits, some of the nonsense that has gone on and the mismanagement of the war, the mismanagement of Katrina, et cetera, et cetera, I think there are a lot of Republicans who have been turned off by this. They really have.

BECK: McCain, in 2000, said Jerry Falwell and you were agents on intolerance. Now, there`s one thing to be a flip-flopper and there`s another one to say, agent of intolerance. And then, Pat, buddy, pal, how are you?

ROBERTSON: It was a funny thing, I was on a humanitarian mission and I had taken our flying hospital down to Mexico, and I was in Mexico City when that news reached me and said, well that meant he just lost Super Tuesday and in truth, he did -- 80 percent of the evangelicals went again him.

But, I had spent years and lots of money getting him and his buddies and his chairman on various Senate committees. And then to have him come down to my city and make a statement like that, it was outrageous.

BECK: One thing, especially when it comes to Huckabee that I -- and I know a lot of Christians that are like this. They take the principles of Jesus Christ and they say, we have to help each other. But then, for some reason or another, they find something that`s not in scripture of, let me take the money from someone else, give it to the government and have the government help people. How do you explain that that`s not the principal of charity, that that`s not the principal that Jesus was talking about?

ROBERTSON: Glenn, I started Operation Blessing and we have given over -- I think over $1 billion to charity in the private sector. And I think government spending of people`s money is the most wasteful thing in the world, probably 75 cents out of every dollar goes into bureaucracy. I believe in having about 10 cents go to manage the store and 90 cents go to the recipients.

BECK: Yes. Pat, it`s a pleasure talking to you, sir.

He had me on the 700 club here a couple of weeks ago and I appreciate it.

I was never more surprised than when you talked to me about my dating chapter in the book. But I --

ROBERTSON: Hey, that`s a great book, by the way.

BECK: Thank you.

ROBERTSON: I want to give a plug. I don`t know if you can plug your own book.

BECK: Of course -- we have all the time you need.

ROBERTSON: It was a sensational book. You had looked up some stuff that was hilarious, was so telling.

BECK: Thank you. I appreciate it very much. All right Pat, we`ll talk to you again.

Let`s go to Erica Hill. Another update at the election desk.

HILL: Yes. Want to keep you posted on what we`re learning out of Georgia. Lets get a quick look now. At how -- it appears as though splitting -- again that CNN projecting that Senator Obama will win the state of Georgia. You can get an idea there of how it may split between voters.

Want to also get you a quick update on the Republican side, which we`ve been saying, Glenn, is incredibly tight and it is going to continue to be so, definitely here in the state of Georgia. You can see -- really at this point you can call it neck-and-neck. So that`s why we`re going to continue to watch very closely throughout the night. Because, it is not going to be called any time soon.

I want to get you to this though. A state that we`re going to be watching, the state of Missouri, is closing in just the next 10 minutes. So we will have updates on that for you, hopefully, at 9:00. But look at this, the economy is the most important issue on both sides here -- and 91 percent of Democrats say the economy is in not good or even poor shape.

How do Republicans feel about the economy? Look at that -- two thirds of them say we are right there with you. So you can see this is going to be a major issue for voters in Missouri. The other thing that`s interesting, why is Missouri such a state that everybody looks to when it comes to the primaries?

Because, when we talk about the national election for president, Missouri, I believe every time except for once in the last 100 years, has correctly predicted, if you will, or voted for the next president. So a lot of eyes on Missouri.

BECK: OK. I still don`t have it -- where is my binge cake? Because as Romney starts to lose, I`ve got to binge. I do.

HILL: There`s always a vending machine.

BECK: If he is losing tonight, there is the binge cake. You will know as you check back in after 9:00. You`ll know how bad Romney is doing by how much of this cake I have eaten. And, I don`t think this is a big enough cake, quite frankly.

We will be back at 9:00 and back in just a minute with a final thought.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, we are live tonight and we`re going to spend all evening together, feeding you the results that may make blood shoot right out of your eyes, from the primary contest from all around America.

The first contest, however, is already sparking controversy. The voting in West Virginia started off as expected. Mitt Romney had a significant lead over second place Mike Huckabee, with John McCain finishing a disappointing third. Romney had 464 votes, Huckabee with 375 and McCain had 176, Ron Paul, bringing up the rear.

Now, here`s where it gets crazy and only in America. The rules in West Virginia forced another round of voting between the top three. So Paul had to dropout. Well now "The Atlantic" reports that McCain campaigners called their supporters and told them to not vote for John McCain, but to vote for Mike Huckabee.

With the McCain supporters, Huckabee then surged to a lead, winning 51 percent to 47 percent. McCain registered with only one percent in the second round. This sounds almost like the way politics are supposed to work in Russia.

Romney`s campaign has accused McCain and Huckabee of a backroom deal. While Romney was upset, he shouldn`t have been surprised. Romney is running against two candidates right now. It`s hard to know if he can overcome the votes from both sides. We know that all is fair in love, war, and politics, but what is truly amazing to me is these types of ridiculous games are going to decide the future of our country.

And I for one care about our country and I`m sick of the games. We are going to continue to cover the games all night. We will be back here, live, at 9:00, then live again at midnight, wrap up California. All night long with exclusive Internet coverage. You can catch it right now at glennbeck.com. We`ll be there and then back here at 9:00.

Stay with us, America. It is going to be one interesting night -- from New York.

END