MSNBC "Morning Joe" - Transcript

Interview

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Let's go to Washington bureau chief, fearless leader, grand poobah, Mark Whitaker. We also have Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen; and also the man, the myth, the legend, the guy that I've always loved and respected, but I love him even more for going to the Ron Paul convention yesterday and then leaving when the 9/11 conspiracies started flying. You are the man. And somebody -- you're such a man that they just ripped off your microphone.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, what's that about? Cut his mike.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: So Mark Whitaker -- let's start with you, Mark. The speech is historic tonight, but it seems set up. It seems expectations are low. And if she reads the teleprompter fairly well tonight, she'll be hailed as a conquering hero.

MR. WHITAKER: She wouldn't be here tonight if she wasn't a very confident woman, so I think she's going to give a good speech. Clearly you could see last night that the delegates are very excited about hearing from her. The problem is, you know, when you listen to a lot of the surrogates who are out here talking on her behalf, John McCain has basically set the entire party up on a blind date with Sarah Palin. They really don't know who she is.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: They're excited about that blind date, aren't they?

MR. WHITAKER: They're excited. But the problem is, I think it'll be -- I think she'll do a good job tonight. But the issue is, how many more things are there in her personal life, in her record and so forth, that are going to continue to dribble out and consume the news cycle? Because if it goes out beyond this week and every single day becomes about a new thing about Sarah Palin, it's going to make it very hard for them to get back to their message.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. And Tucker, the base is very excited, but the truth is, nobody knows what the next two, three, four weeks brings.

MR. CARLSON: Well, they don't know -- (laughs) -- they don't know anything. We've heard her speak once, essentially. I mean, people are excited, and the base is fired up. I mean, she is the focus of most of the attention here.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: When's the last time the Republican base has been this excited?

MR. CARLSON: Oh, a long time; I don't know.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Really?

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Maybe when Bush beat Kerry.

MR. CARLSON: Yeah, maybe; maybe in 2000, actually, when Bush, you know, was full of promise and we didn't know that much about him. But Sarah Palin has fired them up, not because of what she said but because of what she represents. I actually think tonight shouldn't be that difficult. No politician should screw up a speech on teleprompter. I mean, that's how you got there, by reading speeches. If you can't do that, presumably you wouldn't be where you are.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: We just got through eight years of George W. Bush, okay?

MR. CARLSON: (Laughs.)

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, what are you talking about?

MR. CARLSON: He's the great anomaly in American history. But seriously, is there -- there are many excuses for screwing up a debate. It's extemporaneous. You've got to be fast. There are a lot of variables. There are no variables in a written speech, are there? I can't imagine.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Congressman, are you going to run --

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Okay.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: -- against Sarah Palin as an inexperienced right-wing ideologue?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think what we're going to point out is, this is the first big decision that a presidential candidate made. Barack Obama chose Joe Biden. The country was very comfortable with that decision; somebody everyone agrees is willing and ready to step in.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Well, Democrats, the Democratic side of the country.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Well, people, I mean, agree that he has the experience to step in. So the question here is, why are we spending all this time asking questions of Palin? And the fact of the matter is the questions are coming out because there are serious issues with respect to her judgment on big issues.

Now, time will tell. I expect she'll probably give a good speech this evening. She's a very talented person, obviously, a good communicator. But the question is going to be in those unscripted moments, when she has unrehearsed moments coming up.

The other thing I would say is that the one thing it has done for the Republicans, it's sort of taken the focus off of some of the big questions the American people are having. Last night you didn't hear a word about the economy. There are a lot of people watching who are struggling day to day on the economy; not a single word about --

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Let me ask you this question. You obviously are running the campaign operation for the Democratic House situation. Do you think that Sarah Palin will be a good campaign tactic, going after her as being too extreme for the rest of America on ideological issues?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: I don't think people are going to be going after Sarah Palin. I think people have lots of questions --

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Is that dangerous to go after a female candidate?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Well, no, I think it's a mistake to go after her personally. I think certainly her record on issues is something that people need to explore. For example, presenting her as a reformer has been -- and we've already seen -- conflicting with a lot of facts.

For example, she was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. She's been a close ally of Senator Stevens, who's now under investigation. There's an investigation into her own conduct, Troopergate. So these are facts. I mean, these are -- and those are obviously fair issues to be explored.

MR. CARLSON: Well, but can I suggest the effect she's had already on the Obama campaign is to move them to the left? So the Obama campaign goes up with this ad saying, you know, "Obama will preserve your right to have an abortion. McCain won't." This comes after a year of Obama's outreach to evangelicals, trying to downplay his pro-choice position, trying to make himself palatable to moderates.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: That suggests that the Obama campaign also thinks it's going to be an ideological election.

MR. CARLSON: Well, it's so interesting that they would respond to her that way.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Why would they do that?

MR. CARLSON: I'm not -- I think it's a very foolish thing to do.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: (Inaudible) -- a mistake.

MR. CARLSON: Yes. But I think she pushed them to do it.

MR. WHITAKER: I don't think the American people want this to be a culture-war election. I think there are other issues. There's the economy. There's the war. I think they want the meat and potatoes. So I think it's a mistake for either side, frankly, to focus too much on these other issues.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Just to pick up on that point that Mark made, I mean, we've seen some special elections around the country where Democrats have won some seats in some very tough Republican areas.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Right.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: And the message was people are focused on the economy. They're focused on the meat and potatoes --

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Well, you know what the other message was? That Democrats can get elected in Louisiana and they can get elected in Mississippi if they're pro-gun and pro-life.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: That's right.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: So why would the Obama campaign take the bait and decide to talk about the right to an abortion and the right --

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Because they're worried about women. That's why; because they think that Sarah Palin might -- and I have no idea this is right or not, but it's clearly their fear. They're worried Sarah Palin is going to cut into Obama's support among women, so they're going right to what they think is the most resonant issue. "He's going to make it illegal for you to have an abortion."

MS. BRZEZINSKI: And here's how she might, because I think what's interesting about her is that she has conservative views. Ideologically she's very conservative. Yet she's a modern working woman, a working mother, five kids. So she brings kind of a very interesting approach to the table. She's not back in the dark ages with her views. She's progressive. She's in the future. Yet she's very conservative ideologically.

MR. CARLSON: And not anti-gay, interestingly. So she is the social conservative, but she is -- I think the marker for the modern social conservative is she's adamantly pro-life -- they always will be; that's what it means to be socially conservative -- but she's not particularly anti-gay.

MR. WHITAKER: But we're still making a lot of assertions about what she is and she isn't. And the fact is, most of us really don't know. We're just getting to know her. The media is just getting to know her, and even her own party is just getting to know her.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: All right.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: But I think the notion, though, that John McCain is going to somehow say he's the change candidate just because he picked someone thousands of miles away from Washington, when he's been there for 30 years, is not something that's going to go over on the American people. I mean, they're not going to be fooled by that sort of transparency.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: All right, thank you, Chris. Thank you, Mark. Tucker.

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