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Glenn Beck
Reviewing Super Tuesday Results
Aired February 05, 2008 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GLENN BECK, CNN HN HOST: Welcome back to our second hour of live election coverage. It`s fair but very biased. I am hosting it. Results are pouring in from across the country. We`ll break them all down for you next.
Look, America, here is the thing, man. Romney is my guy. And he is not really my guy. It`s not like I`m hey, Romney. It`s just that he`s the one that I could even come close to doing and I can`t believe that John McCain is the one that America is running to. What the hell is wrong with you, America? So? If I were you I would be watching these results and I would be yelling at my TV as they would come in, another one for McCain. I can`t yell at the TV. I am on the TV. So I am going to binge eat and look, this is how badly Romney is doing so far. All right? This badly.
Now I don`t want to eat the whole cake, oh, but I will, oh I will, California. Let`s go to Erica Hill now. Election update desk for the latest returns.
ERICA HILL, CNN HN ANCHOR: All right. So as you listen to the numbers Glenn .
BECK: Oh, geez.
HILL: I just want to say you should still be sharing that cake with the other people in the studio.
BECK: No. This is my cake. I`m a binge eater. My cake.
HILL: You binge eat. I`m going to go through some of these results real quickly because we are getting a lot coming in. Number of polls closed at 8:00 and this just now coming in. We can tell you CNN is projecting that Senator Clinton will take New York.
BECK: Whoa, what a shock there.
HILL: Those polls just closed at 9:00. So here looking at Senator Clinton`s Super Tuesday wins, we`re looking to add a New York there as well so you`ve got Oklahoma as well as Arkansas and Tennessee. If you look at Obama`s states, we are projecting that Obama has taken Georgia and his home state of Illinois. Really, not a huge surprise there.
If you take a look now at the number of delegates overall, I think we have that information for you because that`s what this is all about after all is how many delegates is everybody going to get because they want the delegates so they can become the nominee. So you`re looking at what we have so far projected at this point in the night. Still kind of low but it`s important to look at those numbers.
You`re tapping on your desk, Glenn, you`ve got something to say?
BECK: Yeah, I just wanted to - have we seen any surprises yet?
HILL: Here is the thing. If I can tell you the results, I`ve got to tell you, that means there is no surprises.
That is the big news.
BECK: I don`t even - (inaudible) in here. Peter has somehow or another still got like a few brain cells working after working for Al Gore.
PETER FENN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Hey, listen, if I had eaten that cake I would have no brain cells.
BECK: Geez, man. And Amy Holmes is with us. I don`t even know what that means. What I am asking is, are there any states that we expected to go to somebody else that didn`t go.
AMY HOLMES, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I like that Illinois is Obama`s home state and not Hillary`s since she was born there and grew up there.
BECK: Yeah. States that are close here, Erica?
HILL: Well, let me quickly before I get to that, I just want to go through you what everybody else has won so far so you can stay up to date, all right? So you just stuff your face and let`s move along here.
Looking at .
BECK: Are you saying that Mitt Romney is doing .
HILL: . Mike Huckabee. Not a big surprise. He took Arkansas, of course, where he was the governor. Also West Virginia. I know that one ticked you off so you need a big bite for that.
Looking at John McCain .
BECK: Wait just a second. Wait a minute. The reason why West Virginia pissed me off is even if I was a McCain supporter or a Huckabee supporter, that`s just politics. That`s not the way it should be happening in America.
HILL: But that`s the way the State of West Virginia wants to do it so you have to let them do it that way.
BECK: West Virginia .
HILL: Unless you want to move to West Virginia and change it.
BECK: Let me tell you something, West Virginia. I`ve got a seam ripper and a flag. I can take the star off. I can. I`ll do it.
HILL: Got to get that fork out though because right now we`re predicting at this point just one win for your man, Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. Not a big upset here.
BECK: What an upset. What a surprise.
HILL: So you want to know the - let`s take a look at your delegate count. You want to know the states that are close, though?
BECK: Yes.
HILL: Because these are the ones that we`re really watching closely. Georgia and Missouri. These are two big states where we can`t even come close to projecting the winner here on the Republican side because it is so close. You`re looking at Georgia there. Again, I mean, it`s almost split evenly between the precincts reporting. With only 38 percent reporting, it`s almost .
BECK: Almost ain`t it, is it?
HILL: Well, apparently it`s not, Mr. Beck.
BECK: Geez.
HILL: We`re saying it`s close.
BECK: OK. So you`ve got Missouri.
HILL: And remember, Missouri is a really big one here because people tend to look towards Missouri because in the national elections and when it comes time to vote for that president, every election of the past 100 years except for one, I believe it was 1956, they have picked the winner. So that`s very important.
It`s also a winner take all state, which is a big deal because not every Republican state the winner gets all the delegates.
BECK: All right. Missouri was a must win, wasn`t it? For Romney to be able to - when do we hit the mathematic place where Romney is just .
FENN: Out of there.
BECK: Out of there.
FENN: I think if he didn`t win Missouri, he`s in deep trouble. I mean, he barely won Massachusetts. You know, this is a problem for him. I think it looks like it`s moving towards McCain tonight. I hate to tell you this, Glenn. I know it hurts.
HILL: California of course is going to be the big decider as we were discussing earlier. California is not a winner-take-all state so Romney can do well there, he has to do well there.
BECK: I just - I don`t get it. I really don`t get it. I don`t get .
HILL: You know, there`s actually .
BECK: I don`t get how McCain, even if you had Huckabee I`d understand it but to have McCain and Clinton be the ones.
FENN: The great irony is that the establishment, the Republican establishment has unified behind McCain. That`s extraordinary. I mean, when you had everybody saying Giuliani was the big dog, suddenly the big dog, Giuliani endorses after he loses Florida.
Schwarzenegger .
BECK: Why? Why?
HOLMES: I`ll tell you the reason. Peter, I know this - I know that side of the aisle. Republicans are finally true to form by giving the nomination to the guy who has been standing in line the longest.
BECK: Oh, shut up. The only time the Republicans want anybody to stand in line is to wait for the presidency. God forbid you stand in line to come into this country. Please, for the love of Pete. Oh.
All right. Erica, do we have anything else we have to cover here?
HILL: Yes. Actually. This coming in. CNN projecting Obama will take the State of Delaware. I also want to show you a couple of other states where the race is still very tight on the Democratic side. I know you are sitting back there saying it`s McCain and Clinton but it is not anybody`s at this point and Senator Obama really giving Senator Clinton a run for her money so in the State of Connecticut right now, look how close that is. Massachusetts as well. It`s still pretty tight. Too close to call. Missouri, we`ve talked about that being so important over on the Republican side. Equally important on the Democratic side and even now it may look like there`s a bit of a gap but they`re still too close to call. Take a look at that, just five percent of the precincts reporting.
New Jersey also a very important state. While it looks like we might have something, it`s still too close to call because we know there is so much more to come in from the State of New Jersey.
So those are just four states that we`re watching very closely, Glenn.
BECK: Peter.
FENN: Glenn.
BECK: What is your - what is your thought tonight?
FENN: It looks to me right now like whoever comes out sort of on top in the Democratic side, it`s going to be very, very close in these races and since we don`t have winner-take-all on our side it`s proportional and the delegate split will be - we always knew the delegate split would be pretty close. But I think right now even if a person wins one state or another state, it`s not like there are very many blowouts here so I think this one is going on. I think we`re still .
HOLMES: And both of the candidates think so too.
FENN: Oh, boy, do they over.
HOLMES: Saying that all day today.
BECK: But you also have in the Democratic Party - there is cake all over this beautiful plasma. There is - you also in the Democratic Party have superdelegates.
FENN: Yeah, as you do.
BECK: Explain the .
FENN: Twenty-percent of both party`s delegates are superdelegates. In our case since we have about 4,000 it`s about 800. In your case it`s about 2,000, you do the math for me, I don`t know, whatever. But the point is that these are usually elected officials, past elected officials. Al Gore is a superdelegate.
BECK: But wait a minute. This is really a way to steal an election if it`s close.
FENN: No, no, no. Look, Ted Kennedy is a superdelegate. So you`ve got Obama superdelegates going and Clinton has more superdelegates right now than does Obama but the scary thing .
HOLMES: If this thing goes down to the wire, can you imagine how bare knuckled it`s gong to be. It`s going to be better than impeachment.
FENN: You want to see an open convention, don`t you? You`d love to see an open convention.
BECK: All right. Back in just a second. Tryin` it, Mitt (ph).
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Welcome back to our live Super Tuesday coverage. My name is Glenn Beck. I want to show you. This is actually the book that CNN has compiled with all the rules and the regulations and all of the stuff that I was supposed to read and didn`t. I`m sure there was some really important stuff in there but I`m going to set it down here and I`m going to go to Scott Rasmussen who is .
SCOTT RASMUSSEN, POLLSTER: I haven`t read the book, either.
BECK: You haven`t read the book either? That`s really. There was one page on California. There`s the first page on California. You read it and you`re just like - I don`t even - politics is so screwed up, we made this thing so complicated and you look at the polls now and you don`t even know up from down when it comes to the polls. We had momentum today, if I`m not mistake, we had momentum going into the race with Romney and Obama. Is that right Scott?
RASMUSSEN: We certainly had momentum with Obama and Romney was picking up some anti-McCain support but I think what we also had was there was some resistance building to John McCain in the South. Those voters will end up voting for Mike Huckabee, not Mitt Romney.
BECK: Right. Huckabee is actually turning out to be the big story of the night. He`s picked up three states already. I mean, there not a surprise. Everybody is in a tent going, praise Jesus, so it`s not a surprise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And these were all states, by the way, that were projected to be very close races in the South and ultimately it comes down to Rudy Giuliani then and Mitt Romney.
BECK: I`m sorry, just getting really bad looks from everybody on the staff here. He`s looking at me going, you shouldn`t say those things on television.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pat Robertson is going to call you back.
BECK: I like Pat Robertson. But is anyone surprised? These are praise Jesus states, for the love of Pete.
OK. Let`s play a little game here. Let`s look at Clinton, Obama and Romney and find the states that they`ve got to win. That if they - first let`s start with Romney. Anyway to win now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t see it. I guess if he sweeps everything that is left including Missouri and Arizona and California and all these places that we don`t expect him to win, something could happen but it is likely that John McCain is going to be the nominee of the Republican Party. He is not going to sew it up tonight formally but it`s been a good night for him.
BECK: I mean, I`m pulling my car into my garage. I am. I am pulling my car into the garage when I get home, bringing you down, leaving the windows, just turn on some easy listening music and just go sleepy sleep. I don`t think I can do it.
HOLMES: Glenn, Glenn. No candidate should have that kind of power over you. OK, we need to go back to those 12 steps.
BECK: You know, in about a half an hour we`re going to go to Stu who is my radio producer. He is on the Internet right now. He is looking at these Intrade, these sports betting Web sites. Extraordinarily accurate. They are now betting on how high the taxes are going to be in the next four years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He pledged he would never raise taxes.
HOLMES: He`s said he`s not going to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`d veto any tax increase.
BECK: So tell me now, Scott, where does Clinton have to win to be able to keep things going and where does Obama have to win? What are the key states?
RASMUSSEN: Actually, for the Democrats, because they don`t have these winner-take-all states, both Clinton and Obama are going to come out of tonight with a bunch of delegates. Obama is going to have some really good talking points. Clinton will have some talking points and this is something I never thought I would say this season, but the states after Super Tuesday are going to be more important to determining the nominee than the Super Tuesday states or anything that`s happened to date.
BECK: Ever see anything like this before, Scott?
RASMUSSEN: No, this is - by the way, we`ve never had anything like this in the country. Never had a national primary like this. We`ve never had an open election like this in my lifetime.
BECK: Why do you suppose this is? What`s happening? What does this tell you about the country?
RASMUSSEN: Well, first of all, we have a situation where neither party had an established frontrunner, so there was no guiding point to the race. The only defining point was Hillary Clinton who was not really the incumbent, she was kind of playing the role Richard Nixon played in 1968. She was somebody everybody knew, a lot of people liked, a lot of people didn`t like and the Democrats have found somebody that gets them a little more excited. That`s becoming a major competition.
And on the Republican side, there was absolutely no way for John McCain to win this nomination. I said so, you said so. Lots of people said so. And if you would go back and compile a list of all the nice things that all the other candidates said about Mitt - about John McCain when they thought he was out of the race. That`s the reason that he is where he is today.
BECK: In America we slipped through some sort of wormhole that looks like the universe we woke up in but it`s not. Scott, thanks. Let`s go back to Erica Hill now. Election update desk. Erica, what`s the latest?
HILL: All right. We`re going to get to some of the close states real quickly. We just want to get to the latest delegate count today and what`s projected at this point.
There go the Democrats` side. I know that you just had some of the Republican numbers up so I don`t think I`m going to bring those up for you because you just had them up. Looking at some of the closer states for the Democrats. Again going back to this one, Connecticut and Missouri and these are - those are your Republican delegates. As we get these other two states ready, Connecticut of course, Senator Chris Dodd was running for president and he has since dropped out of the race.
This is a reliably Democratic state so to have a little bit of a battle among the two Democratic candidates really makes you wonder who - why everybody decided to go the way they did.
Look, this is only 30 percent of the precincts reporting in Connecticut. Polls have been closed for over an hour now and still much too close to call because this one is really anybody`s guess at this point.
Another state that`s too close to call is Missouri. And Glenn, we`ve talked about this tonight, why this is a key battleground state. I know it looks like it`s getting a little bit closer there but if you look, that`s only eight percent of the precincts reporting so you can`t call that yet or even project it.
We did - but we looked at this because as we`ve said before, Missouri tends to be at least when we get to the national election, a big projector of the eventual winner of the presidency of the United States.
So those are on the Democratic side. But on the Republican side is where it really gets interesting is what you were just talking about with your guest in this tight race that we have, it`s so important right now because it`s still not clear how exactly it`s going to turn out, especially here in the State of Georgia.
Look, I know you`re pulling for your man Romney. If it makes you feel any better, the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" here in Georgia did endorse Romney. At this point it`s a race between the three of them, though.
There is also a large evangelical, born-again population in Georgia and earlier today we looked at I think it was some two thirds of voters. Republican voters in Georgia declared themselves as either a born-again or as an evangelical and that is going to likely play a big part in who they decide to vote for, Glenn.
BECK: Do you think that Ron Paul guy plays a role? Does he become a third party? Is there a place for a third party conservative? And I don`t Ron Paul is the guy because he is just - he is too far off the edge for a lot of conservatives but is there a place? I can`t find - I can`t do it.
HOLMES: You`re looking for a home.
BECK: I`m looking for a place where I don`t want to bring my car in and breathe deeply.
HOLMES: The Republican establishment, they would be so opposed to this candidate. They would not want to see another Republican third candidate put another Clinton in the White House. It`s just - it`s a fact.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But Paul when he ran in `88 was on the ballot in 46 states as part of the Libertarian Party. He didn`t get any votes but he didn`t have any money and any visibility either. He`s got a cadre of people. If that guy wants to do it, he can do it.
I`m not sure he will .
HOLMES: He got three percent. Remember, Ross Perot got 19 percent of the vote. Ron Paul is only like two, three percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he gets two or three percent in a tight race, it all comes off like Ralph Nader.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But Ralph is talking about running again, too.
BECK: It doesn`t necessarily come off of one side. If you look at his fundraising, a lot of his money comes from the real conservatives and Berkeley, California. He`s like boop.
All right. Back in just a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: We`re live tonight and we have some breaking news with Erica down in Atlanta. We have another state to call, right?
HILL: We do. For John McCain, CNN is projecting that he will in fact take the State of New York. More than 101 delegates up for grabs there and this important because as we look at now the delegate count, this is where things are starting to matter here. Look at John McCain leading with 309. That`s just about a quarter of what he would need, Glenn, for the Republican nomination.
BECK: You`re trying to make it worse?
HILL: I`m not - I`m just pointing out .
BECK: Have more cake! Have more pity cake.
HILL: I`m just pointing out the importance of the numbers here. Because these are winner take all states. He gets all 101.
BECK: I`m no mathematician but I am a thinker, I get it.
HILL: Do you need another cake? Do you have any left?
BECK: Let me ask - let me go to Jonathan - What did you say to me?
HILL: I said do you need another cake? Do you have some left still? Or some Ho-Hos from the vending machine?
BECK: I`m going to John Allen now. Do you have Ho-Hos?
Let me go now to Jonathan Allen. Jonathan. Let me ask you this. I live in New York. Well, I actually live in Connecticut but I spend enough time in New York to be hated throughout the entire island but what I find interesting is the liberals that talk to me when nobody is watching, they all hate Hillary Clinton and when they`re taking - when John McCain takes New York I`ll bet you that in this island of Manhattan there are going to be a ton of liberals that should vote for Clinton who will jump right on the John McCain bandwagon. Right or wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, I think it could be competitive. I don`t know about the Island of Manhattan. Hillary Clinton did win New York. She didn`t win it as big as she wanted to. But it would be an interesting race if it ends up being Hillary Clinton and John McCain. I think they`ll battle for the hearts of liberals everywhere. Conservatives right now everywhere are getting ready to hold their nose and hold their wallet and vote for McCain in November.
BECK: Hold their wallet. Geez. I need Brinks to come. I need armed guards around my wallet. I`ve only got like 14 dollars in it. But they`re going to take it all. Peter you were just shaking your head when you just said that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. Hillary Clinton will wipe the floor with John McCain in New York. It`s over. I mean this is - Come on, let`s get real. Look, she is extremely popular - no, no, she is very popular in the state. It is a Democratic state. Let me tell you. I`ll lay something on the table here. If New York is a competitive state in the general election between John McCain and if it is Hillary Clinton or even Obama for that matter, then this race is going to the Republican big time.
HOLMES: Can I put money on that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You too sure can because I don`t even think that`s close to - even your lovely State of Connecticut will go strongly to Clinton.
HOLMES: But, New York had a Republican governor, it has had two Republican mayors. New Yorkers can be very pragmatic. They`ll look at a guy like .
BECK: They don`t like Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton is unlikable.
UNIDENTFIIED MALE: She got 65 percent of the vote in the last election.
BECK: Unlikable. I know liberals, Peter, that would make you go, oh, you`re so liberal. I they don`t like her. Jonathan. Any evidence or am I out in space on this? Do you know any liberals that are just so liberal that they make Hollywood and they just don`t like Hillary Clinton?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know people all over the place in the Democratic Party, liberals, conservatives, whatnot, that like Hillary Clinton and I know a lot that don`t like Hillary Clinton.
What you`re seeing with Barack Obama in a lot of places is he`s getting upper income white liberals to vote for him so obviously there are some liberals that are dissatisfied with her at least when it comes to Obama.
BECK: Back in just a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: We`re back with special live election coverage. We go right back to Erica Hill at election desk with more breaking news.
HILL: That`s right. I can tell you, we`re going to put it on a map here to give you an idea. These are all the states that are in color here. All the states that are participating in Super Tuesday on the Democratic side. The blue ones are ones that have been called, where we have projected a winner at CNN. The two dark blue ones are the ones who have been projected for Barack Obama. I can tell you, there`s about to be another one added there because CNN just now saying that we do project Barack Obama is going to take the State of Alabama. So you can chock that won in too.
On the Clinton side, though, as you can see, some key states here, New York, it was expected but a lot of delegates there so very important and you can also see Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas as well.
Not a lot of surprises but again it`s really important to keep a focus on those. If we can take a look now at Connecticut, though, this is a state where look at that, 38 percent of the precincts reporting and this is anybody`s race, Glenn, at this point and it`s going to be for a little while. This is a state we cannot call and probably aren`t going to be able to call for a little while because it`s still so close there.
BECK: Connecticut is a - I live in Connecticut.
HILL: Hey, look, I`m from Connecticut people.
BECK: Drives me out of my mind. Connecticut is very, very liberal. It wouldn`t surprise me that it would go for Barack Obama because of how liberal he is and - but it`s also very provincial and Hillary Clinton is .
HOLMES: Well you`ve got a lot of New Yorkers like yourself, people who work in New York and live in Connecticut who you would think would be a natural constituency for Hillary and not Barack Obama.
BECK: You`d think that anybody who actually lives in the nightmare that is New York City would understand that high taxes just are a little oppressive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t hear any love from you for New York.
BECK: No, look, look, let`s just be honest. I`m just going to be honest. New York. Love ya. Mean it. Really do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go.
BECK: Here is the thing. The only reason why New York has the business that it has is because it`s New York. You have no choice. You`ve got to do business here so the state just knows. We`ve got them all trapped on an island. Let`s tax them to death. That`s exactly what it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it seems to be working pretty well. You`ve got Michael Bloomberg as your mayor, it`s working fine. Look, I think the basic point here is these are Democratic states. If you look at New England as a whole, right now in New England there is only one Republican member of Congress from all six states. Chris Shays who is a pretty liberal Republican.
HOLMES: We`ll give him to you, actually.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you look at what happened to Florida, what is happening in Florida. All of those people are moving down and they are changing the demographics of Florida. Florida is becoming a voting bloc just like the Northeast.
HOLMES: But Peter you do have to recognize that in the New York Tri-State Area and this New England area, that moderate Republicans can do well. Christine Todd Whitman was governor of New Jersey. Pataki governor of New York. Bloomberg, Giuliani.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Especially for local races. But a national presidential campaign it`s .
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But look, we were worried about New Jersey in the last campaign. We thought geez, New Jersey might be in play and Bush came in in New Jersey.
BECK: But again, why isn`t it in play? People are running from New Jersey like cockroaches when the lights are turned on. They are. They`re moving out of New Jersey because of the high taxes and everything else and they`re moving .
HOLMES: Actually, for corporations, New Jersey was very smart in giving them special tax privileges to try to bring business in New Jersey. Bill Richardson was trying to do that in Arizona (sic).
BECK: Peter did you hear that? Giving tax breaks is helping business in New Jersey.
HOLMES: Even Bill Richardson, he did that for Arizona.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen. I think that`s a good idea. Is Richard Land with us yet? Can we go to Richard Land? Let`s go to Richard Land.
Richard? How are you, sir?
RICHARD LAND, SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION: Yes sir. I`m doing well and I`m glad to see you`re doing better. We`ve been praying for you.
BECK: Thank you, sir, I appreciate it. You`re a guy.
LAND: We have been.
BECK: You are a guy - and I do appreciate it. I felt the prayers of many people in America. Richard, you`re a guy who was not for McCain. You have had some real problems for McCain. And now you`re a McCainiac. What happened?
LAND: No, no, no, I`m not a McCainiac. This is what happens when people believe what they read in the press and what they hear in the press. All I did was say that Rush was wrong when he said that if McCain was the nominee it would split the party or destroy the party. That`s just nuts. If Giuliani had been the nominee, that would split the party.
BECK: OK.
LAND: But John McCain is not going to split the party. I`m not saying John McCain is my first choice. I`m just saying that if it comes down to a general election campaign and it`s John McCain versus Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, nothing will unite Republicans and conservatives like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
BECK: I got to tell you. I honestly - I mean, Richard, I have to see - I`ll have to close the curtain there and fall to my knees and say, dear God in heaven what do I do if it`s between those three, which it looks like it`s going to be now.
But tell me, how - what is the difference. Would John McCain, who wants to spend all kinds of money on global warming, projected 1.2 trillion dollars a year is one estimate. You`ve got his open border policy and no matter what this guy who is saying look who is on his - Conway, what`s the name of that guy who is on his steering committee for the .
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juan Hernandez.
BECK: Juan Hernandez. He`s got Juan Hernandez as part of his steering committee for the borders. He`s never agreed with lower taxes until now. I mean, what is it that is so different than Hillary Clinton.
LAND: Well, first of all, he is a super hawk on fighting the war against international Islamic jihadism and Hillary would walk out of Iraq and Barack would run out of Iraq and McCain will lean on these guys even harder than George W. Bush and that`s a big deal when it comes to protecting the country .
BECK: I would agree with .
LAND: . in this long twilight war.
BECK: I would agree with you, Richard, if it wasn`t for this. We`re facing a perfect storm. We`re facing an economic disaster on our horizon in four years from now. If the guy doesn`t understand tax cuts, he doesn`t understand how the economy works, how do you fight a war this expensive for 20 years. You can`t.
Look at the history of Russia and what we did to Russia.
LAND: Well, Glenn, first of all, I think that the fact that you`ve got Phil Graham on his campaign team and you`ve got Tom Coburn. Tom Coburn is the most conservative senator on the United States Senate and they have to believe that McCain has moderated on his economic outlook or they wouldn`t be supporting him.
I mean, Phil Graham is a budget hawk in the same way that John McCain is a foreign policy hawk.
BECK: All right. Richard, thanks.
LAND: Now, once again, I`m not saying that McCain is my first choice. All I was saying, when Rush said McCain would split the party, where I live in Tennessee and where live in Tennessee and as I travel throughout the Southeast and the Southwest, I tell you right now they will vote for John McCain against Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
BECK: Oh, I know they will. But you never win when you`re voting against something. Richard, I appreciate it. I hope you`re right, sir. Let`s go back now to Erica with the update desk. What`s the latest, Erica?
HILL: Well, I want to stick with the Republican candidates for a minute, Glenn. I want to get to that map up there to show you where we stand.
BECK: Can I eat more cake?
HILL: You might want to. You just might want to. These numbers here, so you get all those states that are colored in on that map are the ones holding contests today. You can see McCain winning there easily, 190 delegates at this point with all the states. He`s in sort of that basically red color. Sort of more of a pink is Huckabee and then Romney is I`ll call it a maroon, a burgundy, an aubergine if you will.
BECK: These colors. First of all, the only woman in the race is a light blue and Huckabee is a pink.
HILL: She is a blue because she is on the Democratic side. Remember, blue states, red states. There you go.
BECK: (inaudible) the colors.
HILL: Watermelon. Let`s use all food analogies.
BECK: You know what`s amazing? Somebody was paid a lot of money to come up with the color scheme for this thing, too.
HILL: They did and all they would have had to do is ask you and you would have pointed them in the right direction. So the other state though, the states on the Republican side that are really being watched closely at this hour include Alabama and Georgia, both of them with very strong evangelical populations so that is one of the reasons they are being watched so closely, to see how these voters will go.
Also the State of Missouri we`re keeping an eye on. But one thing that`s sort of emerging and again, it`s early in the night, but something just to sort of put in your cap and maybe think about a little bit later even though you may not like the sound of it, looking at this, Mike Huckabee making a little bit stronger showing in a lot of state then some people may have predicted or even projected. So it appears that John McCain is doing OK but maybe the act of splitting between Huckabee and Romney .
BECK: I`m bingeing.
HILL: Are you eating? You are. Yeah.
BECK: I`m bingeing.
HILL: That cake really looks good, by the way. It`s a lovely flower.
BECK: Thanks a lot. Back in a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Well, welcome to it. It`s probably the worst and the weirdest election coverage ever on national television. I`m glad you`re here. My name is Glenn Beck. It is fair but very biased. I am personally having a little bit of - I`m binge cake because my guy, Mitt Romney not doing do well tonight. Meanwhile, my producer Stu Begeer (ph) is on the radio talking with a legion of Glenn Beck insiders now. What is happening, Stu, at the radio studio in Radio City?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They seem to be about as happy as you are I would say right now.
BECK: Really? Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they are bingeing on different products. Cake. Cheesy tots. French fries.
BECK: It is - it is just not good. Now show me what is happening on - because we follow something - what is it, Intrade?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, Intrade.com.
BECK: Intrade.com. This is actually something that I don`t know if anybody remembers this story but back right after 9/11, DARPA, which is this government institution, the think tank. They came up with this idea, hey let`s project where the next terrorist idea, the next terrorist attack is going to be by having pretty much a betting system or a stock market and it got into the "New York Times" and everybody was outraged and well unfortunately it never happened but it has happened in the sporting world where you can bet on elections, et cetera, et cetera and it is wildly accurate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It definitely is, Glenn. It`s basically people put their money where their mouth is.
BECK: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s not just people answering a poll how they hope it comes out.
BECK: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re seeing major movement today in actually Barack Obama. He`s been the biggest mover of the big presidential candidates. He`s risen six points as far as him getting the Democrat nomination just today and he`s up 16 points over the last week or so. That`s a really large move at this point in the campaign.
BECK: Who is - who are they saying - who is ahead on winning the nomination for the Democrats?
FENN: For the Democrats, it is Obama a slight lead at this point. McCain is pretty much running away with it on the Republican side.
BECK: And is there anything about vice president for Huckabee? Have you seen anything on that?
FENN: He is definitely one of the leaders there. The good thing about Intrade is they go into not just the candidates but what will happen when the candidates get elected? So they have stuff up there like, will the tax rate go above 42 percent if Hillary Clinton gets elected?
BECK: Yes. Yes.
FENN: It`s very difficult.
BECK: Oh, come on Peter. You don`t actually think that the tax - we are going to .
FENN: Just over 250,000 so we can balance that budget so the economy can grow.
HOLMES: Peter - Peter - even JFK knew if you cut taxes, you raise government revenue.
FENN: Listen, the kind of tax cuts and the kind of operation that the Democrats propose is right on that middle class.
BECK: Here is the thing. Here is the thing. Here is the thing I want to know. I am a guy that six years ago - seven years ago couldn`t make a payment for my apartment of $695 a month. I struggled to make it, 695. I just signed a multimillion dollar contract.
HOLMES: Can I have some of that?
BECK: God bless America.
FENN: Can we get a piece of that?
BECK: God bless America. Now what I want to know, I pay with all of my taxes, I give about 50 percent. How much is my fair share? How much. I want to know.
FENN: But are you worried about that? You`re not worried about it. You can pay your 50 percent. My point on this is - you can pay my taxes.
BECK: I also give an awful lot to charity.
HOLMES: I think we`re hearing the soak the rich mantra over here.
FENN: Look, I don`t want to get into class warfare because that`s all you guys want to talk about but if someone tells me we can have a national health care system that brings down health care costs and has better health care .
HOLMES: And we just have to tax the people who make jobs, who create jobs, small businesses.
FENN: Look. When were most billionaires created? During Bill Clinton`s administration. When did a rising tide lift all boats? During Bill Clinton`s administration.
HOLMES: That was the stock market boom and we all know that that burst. As many people go down the income ladder as go up.
FENN: Amy, Amy.
BECK: The middle class is not being erased. We have had 12 percent of the middle class all of the sudden disappear. Surprisingly enough, the upper class has gained by 12 percent. Hang on now. We`ve got to go to Erica Hill. I love doing that.
That`s why you`re the host. He`s Erica Hill at the update desk.
HILL: All right. I want to get to this because this is big. CNN now projecting that Hillary Clinton will now take Massachusetts. I have to tell you you`re kind of stuck with my mug for a little bit because we`re having some problems with our graphics because there`s so much information coming in, a lot of it not expected, including this, Hillary Clinton is doing better than expected in many places. Keep in mind in Massachusetts Barack Obama had the endorsement of the governor, of the Kennedys, of John Kerry. But Hillary Clinton is now projected to take the state of Massachusetts.
BECK: Oh. I didn`t know he had the all important John Kerry endorsement.
FENN: He went to South Carolina. They went door to door.
BECK: Get me another one of those and you`d be like, no, John, no, no, no thank you. No thank you.
HILL: Are you saying that brought him down?
BECK: Oh no. I`m not saying anything here. Go ahead.
HILL: So that`s on the Democratic side, all right? Some of the other ones we`re still watching closely. Missouri and New Jersey which were supposed to be a little bit closer than we thought but really it`s not looking that way. It is looking like Hillary Clinton could be pulling away in those states as well. Want to get back to the Republican side and I really am not trying to force you to gain 20 pounds tonight, Glenn, I swear that I`m not but here`s what`s interesting.
FENN: OK. We`re going to help him out here.
BECK: You guys were not for Romney. I`m for Romney. This is my bingecake.
FENN: The frosting is better than the cake.
HILL: OK. What`s really interesting. Some of the states we`re watching as you eat. I`ll give you the information.
BECK: Yeah. Tell me about Utah. Utah.
HILL: I told you we were watching Missouri and New Jersey. CNN is now projecting New Jersey for Senator Clinton. So that is another one that she can add to her column and so that`s making it a little bit more interesting. This coming in just seconds ago.
On the Republican side, still watching Alabama, Georgia and Missouri very closely but here`s what we can tell you. Huckabee is actually doing better in a lot of places than he was projected to, doing better than your guy, Romney and my producer, John, just found this fact which we both found really interesting. Huckabee is in first or second place in eight out of 15 contests which have been reported and in fact in five of those .
BECK: I`m starting not to like you.
HILL: And in fact in five of those he`s either won or in first place.
Look, I`m just giving you the information, my friend.
BECK: No, no, no. I don`t believe in the whole .
HILL: I don`t make it up I just report it.
BECK: Don`t go after the messenger thing. I don`t buy into it.
HILL: Yeah. Look, I am the unbiased reporter with the information. I simply bring you the numbers.
BECK: You`d better get some cake quick. Here is something very, very interesting. They say that - they say that the media is all over John McCain. Percentage of stories about John McCain in the last couple weeks, 37 percent. Obama, 34. Clinton 32. Romney 21, Huckabee only had two percent of the national news stories. They wrote this guy off completely. Bill Clinton had six percent of the stories. Back in a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Well, hello America. We`re back with our special election coverage and special is the way to describe it. Don`t forget, we`ll return live at midnight tonight with more live coverage. Amy Holmes and Peter Fenn are with us tonight. You guys are staying after midnight.
HOLMES: Oh yeah.
FENN: Absolutely. You referred to us as the best election team .
HOLMES: We`re the best political team on television. Dammit.
FENN: What`s happened there?
BECK: You`re like the third. Maybe the fourth. I don`t know. Is the Cartoon Network running anybody tonight.
Let`s just kind of - let`s wrap the Romney thing up here. What happened to him? Was it the Mormon thing? Was it the plastic thing? What was it?
FENN: You know, I described him as Eddie Haskell last spring. Eddie Haskell, you may remember, was the character in "Leave it to Beaver" who always went up to Mrs. Cleaver and said, how nice you look. He was the suck-up guy.
And the problem with him - let me just say what - here are his issue positions. He changed all his issue positions. He gave ...
BECK: But McCain .
FENN: It was so blatant.
HOLMES: I`ll explain what it was. I`ll explain my people.
FENN: Your people. There you go. I can rip `em.
HOLMES: Here`s the problem. Romney started out as the CEO, Mr. Fix-it. Washington is broken. He said that right at the very beginning and then the rise of Mike Huckabee pulling those conservatives, those evangelicals. That pulled Mitt Romney down that blind alley, he gave the religious speech to try to shore it up. But once he went down that it looked like he was zigging away from his strength and then when he came back he was accused once again of not sticking to his principles. It was that moment of the Mike Huckabee rise and Mitt Romney having to address it that really was the problem.
FENN: Amy, I agree. I really think he should have stuck to his Michigan strategy totally instead of trying to claim himself as Mr. Conservative.
HOLMES: He started with that.
FENN: Because you don`t go on a debate and say that you`re more liberal than Ted Kennedy on gay rights. You don`t go and say you`re pro-choice. You don`t go and say you`re for gun control.
HOLMES: But Peter, all of the candidates were flawed as far as conservatives are concerned.
FENN: Let me just finish this. I understand there was a lot of flip flopping and a lot of changing. His were so - he didn`t go 90 degrees. He went 180 every time on these issues.
HOLMES: You can say that but conservative pundits, conservative writers saying, "We`ll forgive Mitt because he changed in the right direction." And all of the candidates are flawed. I mean, Glenn, do you agree with me? The candidates are flawed?
BECK: If you think that .
FENN: It was take your finger up to the wind and go whichever way and I think that was a legitimate criticism and people want - look, the one thing about McCain is people have the sense like Bush, I don`t believe it in Bush, that he stands up for what he believes in. He`s tough. He`s got backbone. They didn`t feel that about Romney.
BECK: George Bush - and here is what I am afraid of. George Bush convinced Republicans that he was one of us. He was a conservative.
FENN: That`s true.
BECK: And so many of us gave our lifeblood to the guy and said, we`ll put our credibility on the line and then he betrayed us and I am just .
HOLMES: I was seeing a red flag and it was for a lot of conservatives. He was talking about compassionate conservatism as if conservatism is not compassionate. It is. Cutting taxes, moving moms from welfare to work. These are compassionate positions. When George Bush was saying, oh, I`m conservative, plus the heart, I think that we should have been a little more .
FENN: All talk and no substance on his conservative positions and that`s why you guys got clobbered last election.
BECK: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.
We`ll be back at midnight. We`ll wrap up all the results and we`ll wrap up what happened in Florida. NANCY GRACE is up next. See you in a minute.
END
