J$P Instant Transcript! Dick Morris with instant analysis of the third debate.

From Hannity and Colmes, October 13 2004:

ALAN COLMES [FOX NEWS]: Joining us now, former Clinton advisor, author of the new book Because He Could, Dick Morris. Dick, welcome. Good to have you with us.

DICK MORRIS [FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST]: How do you like the way I split Bill Clinton’s face in that book?

COLMES: I--yeah, there you go. Now I know you are not pro Kerry, and is this one of those cases where whatever side you are on, that’s probably the side you think did well in tonight’s debate.

MORRIS: Well, not me. I’m pro-Bush, and I think--

COLMES: I know.

MORRIS: --that Bush did as well as he possibly could in this debate. I thought he was terrific. I thought Kerry was also good. But this debate was fixed, because the genius James Baker, who negotiated the format that the third debate would be about issues like the economy, health care, and social security, which have such an inherent Democratic bias, meant that Kerry almost had to win this debate, and I think he did.

COLMES: You think Kerry did win the debate. Are you saying it was fixed? Why, if that was the case, why would James Baker have agreed to that if you know that Kerry’s going to win the debate?

MORRIS: Because he was out of his mind. He absolutely made a gigantic mistake, and Vernon Jordan pulled the wool over his eyes in those discussions. There should have been three debates on any subject anyone wants to talk about, and then terror would have dominated all three, and Bush would have had a shot at winning all three. But by making a debate, particularly the last debate, defined on turf that historically belongs to the Democratic Party, no matter how well Bush did tonight, there was no way, if Kerry did well, that Bush would be able to win. And I hand it to Bush. My heart’s with him. I agreed with him more than with Kerry. But when you talk about health care, and social security, and the economy, you’re talking about issues where the Democratic Party has a 20-point edge, and Bush couldn’t erode that in one night. He did well on taxes; he did well on education. His answers about God and family and his wife were terrific. He was aggressive; he pointed out Kerry as a liberal. But the inherent skew of those issues is so biased in favor of the Democratic Party that the debate couldn’t help but be an advertisement for the Democrats.

COLMES: I know, but Dick, isn’t the real issue here how many minds were changed, where do the swing voters, the people on who this election is going to turn, whose mind was changed tonight?

MORRIS: That’s a different question. Because Kerry there not only has to win the debate on domestic policy, but he has to win the debate that domestic policy is more important than foreign policy. And that’s the key question this election hinges on. No matter what Kerry says, if the issue is Iraq, Bush is going to win. No matter what Bush says, if the issue is social security, Kerry’s going to win. And I don’t know if Kerry did a good enough job tonight of making clear that these issues are more important than terror.

SEAN HANNITY [FOX NEWS]: Dick, good to see you. I thought the President was outstanding tonight, and I thought a lot of the points you agree with--

MORRIS: He was as good as he could possibly be.

HANNITY: --I don’t agree that the deck was stacked as much as you did, but putting that aside, do you think it was a mistake for John Kerry to attack or bring up the name of Dick Cheney’s daughter? I was stunned.

MORRIS: Oh it was horrible. It was vicious. And the fact that Edwards came close to doing that in the VP debate, or did it, means this is a concerted Democratic Party offensive. They have decided to take this poor innocent woman, whose only sin is that she’s honest about her own sexual preferences, and use it to try to embarrass the President, try to embarrass Cheney, and to try to nullify the gay marriage issue. That stinks as a political tactic.

HANNITY: Yeah.

MORRIS: It’s worse than the private detective Hillary and Bill used to launch on these poor innocent women. I was absolutely revolted by that.

HANNITY: Yeah. One of the things I really liked is the President not only had style but he had substance behind every answer. He had confidence and humor. And I think he did something very effective. He pointed out, and I had Terry McAuliffe in this chair earlier, no accomplishments in 20 years.

MORRIS: Yeah.

HANNITY: The only thing he’s been consistent on is raising taxes.

MORRIS: Sean, the way--

HANNITY: He’s more liberal than Ted Kennedy. Very effective for the American people to, and I think that’s a great positioning point.

MORRIS: And the Kuwaity stuff was very good too. But in a strange way, this debate was a mirror image of the first debate. In the first debate, Kerry was better stylistically than Bush, but the subject inherently favored the Republican. In this debate, Bush was very good stylistically, but the subject matter inherently favored the Democrat.

HANNITY: All right, well Dick, good to see you.

MORRIS: Thank you

HANNITY: Thanks for being with us, we always appreciate your time.