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'The View'

November 03, 2008 1:05 PM

If you didn't catch my appearance today with the ladies of "The View" on ABC, here's what you missed.

--George Stephanopoulos

Barbara Walters: "Yesterday on 'This Week' your program, George Will who is a conservative, you asked him, 'Is there any way that John McCain could have won?' I mean we've heard --"

George Stephanopoulos: "It's not over yet. But --"

Barbara Walters: "--and he said, 'No, there was no way.'"

George Stephanopoulos: "And I think, listen, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.  But if it turns out the way the polls look right now, he's basically right. John McCain might have been able to run a better campaign. But when you look at the economy, the kind of shape it's in --"

Barbara Walters: "That's what did it?"
 
George Stephanopoulos:  "--the economy, the job losses, the worst month of the DOW in 10 years. It's almost impossible for the incumbent party to overcome that."

Joy Behar: "And all of the mistakes the Bush administration has made has turned everybody, a lot of people, against the Republicans."

George Stephanopoulos: "Bush is at record-high disapproval ratings --"

Joy Behar: "It's an albatross."

George Stephanopoulos: " --which is an anchor on John McCain."

Barbara Walters: "So let's do a 'what if.' What would this country be like if Obama wins? What would this country be like if McCain wins?"

George Stephanopoulos: "Set the politics aside for a second. If Barack Obama wins tomorrow, I think the rest of the world will look at us and say a big part of the American dream, the part that says anybody can grow up to be president, is not a myth.

I mean whatever your politics are, the fact that an African American gets elected will just be a big big day in the history of the country and I think for the world."

Barbara Walters: "Okay on the other hand then, if McCain wins does that mean we would have riots in the streets?"

George Stephanopoulos: "I think people will be wondering what happened, because you know we've seen all of these polls over the last several weeks and they've been very, very steady. There will be a lot of surprise and I think there will be a lot of anger. And I think people will be wondering, 'was there some --"

Barbara Walters: "Will it be a 'racism' kind of reaction?"

George Stephanopoulos: "Depending on how it turns out, I think it could. I think it could. But I hope not. And we'll see."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "Is there word that, you know, local governments, local police are preparing for that?"

George Stephanopoulos: "I think more what they're preparing for is to do everything they can to make sure the voting goes smoothly. So that no matter what the outcome is, people will say it was fair, everyone's vote was counted, there was no trickery of any kind, and we can move on."

Sherri Shepherd: "Now everyone's talking about Sarah Palin. She's gotten more attention than anybody."

George Stephanopoulos: "Super-celebrity."

Sherri Shepherd: "Right, than any vice presidential pick. Has she hurt John McCain's chances? Has she helped him? Has she garnered that support from women?"

George Stephanopoulos: "It's been mixed. I think when he picked her there was no question it was a positive for John McCain. It was like his campaign drank a double Red Bull. And the Republican base was really energized.

I think over time, it has hurt him. And all the polls show that more and more people, as we move on, have questions about whether or not she was ready to hold the office of president. And that, I think, reflected poorly on John McCain. Our poll shows that more people, about 45 percent, think worse of John McCain because he picked her."

Sherri Shepherd: "Even with her record of service, because I know you talk about that --"

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "Sure."

Sherri Shepherd: "-- about her being a governor and a mayor. That makes no difference?"

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "Thirty thousand employees, a half a billion dollar budget."

George Stephanopoulos: "I think no for two reasons. One, for lack of national security experience. I think secondly -- and whether it's fair or not I know there's been a lot of debate over this -- but how she handled some of those major interviews I think led to a lot of question."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "What about the media coverage obviously, has been incredibly, some would say, biased in terms of their coverage. Do you agree with that? I mean 63 percent of the stories, they weighed it out, have been negative against John McCain and Sarah Palin."

George Stephanopoulos: "The problem with that is the last couple of months the campaign hasn't been doing so well. When you don't do so well, you get more negative stories."

Joy Behar: "Do you think it helps them that they've gone on Saturday Night Live or hurt them? Because McCain was on Saturday. He's very funny."

George Stephanopoulos: "Helps. McCain was fantastic on Saturday."

Joy Behar: "But Tina is merciless. And all she does is quote Sarah Palin. She doesn't really editorialize."
George Stephanopoulos: "You guys were talking about this earlier. I think the whole role of comedians and late-night comedy shows in this campaign is something that people are going to look at.

Whether or not the media coverage was sexist? I think basically the comics were sexist over the course of this campaign. I think the comics hurt Hillary. How many times did you hear 'pantsuits' in a joke. They hurt Sarah Palin. Less so in the coverage."

Joy Behar: "What about against McCain for being old?"

George Stephanopoulos: "The problem was for the most part, people, comedians couldn't find a way to make Barack Obama funny. And that helped him."

Joy Behar: "You go where the joke is. We go for the laugh and where the joke is and that's the issue."

Whoopi Goldberg: "I have one question and it has nothing to do with that. But do you think we're going to have any time in our history when we're going to actually be able to have an election where people aren't nervous about how we're doing it?"

George Stephanopoulos: "You know, tomorrow's a chance. I mean we've seen some remarkable things over the last week or two. We've seen record numbers of Americans come out and vote early. I think tomorrow night we're going to see all records for turnout. More than 130 million Americans are going to vote and that's huge. And I think if it goes smoothly, that will really heal and answer a lot of those questions."

Barbara Walters: "Before you go, give us your expertise for those of us watching, what states should we look at, What are we going to say that made a difference?"

George Stephanopoulos: "I think there's a critical state to look at and it thankfully comes early in the night: the state of Virginia. The polls close at 7 o'clock. If Barack Obama is able to win the state of Virginia early, he's got many, many paths to victory.

If he doesn't, then I think he still has many paths to victory, but McCain is in it. Then I would start to look at the state of Pennsylvania which is what McCain has invested heavily in. If he wins the state of Pennsylvania -- McCain -- it is going to be a very long night. If he loses Pennsylvania and Virginia, very tough."

Joy Behar: "What time do the polls close in Pennsylvania."

George Stephanopoulos: "8."

Joy Behar: "So 7 in Virginia and 8 in Pennsylvania."

George Stephanopoulos: "In between are Ohio and North Carolina [after polls close at 7:30pm]."

Barbara Walters: "Okay. We're going to be watching you. We want everyone to watch George and Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer on election night, tomorrow night for full election coverage..what time do you begin?"

George Stephanopoulos: "Starts at 7 o'clock."

Barbara Walters: "We'll be there."

November 3, 2008 in Barack Obama, Democrats Vote 2008, John McCain, Republicans Vote 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (16)

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