This pundit of ours is getting quite sharp!
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/12/cf.01.htmlBUCHANAN: Steve, there's no question that John Kerry was Kennedy's candidate. They're both up there, good friends, liberals from New Hampshire -- from Massachusetts, if you like. And yet you have Kennedy just basically acting as if this election has not occurred, saying the same old, same old. Is this the future of your party? Are you just going to continue with the same arguments?
STEVE MCMAHON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, listen, I think, until there's health insurance for every American in this country, the Democratic Party is going to stand for that.
(APPLAUSE)
MCMAHON: Until there are balanced budgets at the White House, the Democratic Party is going to stand for that. Until there's a sense of social justice in this country, I think that's what the Democratic Party is going to stand for.
The election did occur, Bay. You're absolutely right. But what people remember in all this talk about a mandate is, if 51,000 votes in Ohio had gone the other way, we would be talking about the Kerry administration and what a brilliant job they did and the new Democratic vision for the future. So, we are going to stand and fight as Democrats. We're going to take our fight to the people. We're going to win in the midterms. And then we'll see.
BUCHANAN: So, in fairness, you do not see that the voters in this country absolutely rejected liberalism as described by Kerry and Kennedy today?
(APPLAUSE)
MCMAHON: Well, let's just take a look at history and what this mandate is that the president likes to talk about.
In 1984, Ronald Reagan won 48 states. That's a mandate. This time, the president won Ohio by a margin of 115,000 votes. As I said, if 50,000 votes or so had gone the other way, we'd have a different president. So, it was a very, very close election; 3.5 million votes is nice, but -- and we congratulate the president for his victory. But it's the smallest margin for any president reelected in this century.
CARVILLE: Congressman, I actually looked at what Senator Kennedy said in going off of the highlighted thing that was sent out on his speech. He called for building a skilled work force, said that we should compete not by lowering our wages, but by raising our skills, providing affordable health care, strengthening national purpose, supporting parents, and dealing with the clear and present danger of terrorism.
Now, maybe I'm way out there in left field somewhere, you know, wandering around, but that sounds like pretty commonsense things to me. Where have I sort of gone astray here?
BOB WALKER (R), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: Well, the problem is that he describes them as the party of the American dream, and yet the American dream under the Democrats has become taxation, litigation and regulation.
(APPLAUSE)
CARVILLE: Really? I thought...
WALKER: And the real problem is that, when you look at the details of what they mean by all of that glowing rhetoric, is, that's what they are really talking about.
CARVILLE: Well, what was it about the Clinton presidency that so offended you, the peace or the prosperity?