Obama to Resurrect Middle Name for Inauguration Day

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," December 15, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: The middle name that was all but banned on the campaign trail will make a return appearance on inauguration day. On January 20 the president-elect has decided to be sworn in as Barack Hussein Obama.

Mr. Obama said of his decision, quote, "I think the tradition is that they use all three names, and I will follow the tradition, not trying to make a statement one way or the other."

We continue now with Pat Caddell, Ann Coulter.

Ann Coulter, you have a question for Mr. Colmes.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Would you like to interview me?

• Video: Watch Sean & Alan's interview

ANN COULTER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST & AUTHOR: Lo these many months, when you were accusing me of committing a hate crime, using our president-elect's middle name, it turns out he likes it.

COLMES: Of course he likes his middle name. Here's the deal. You kept referring to him as B. Hussein Obama.

COULTER: Yes, he wants to be called Hussein.

COLMES: Why won't you use his first name?

COULTER: It gets kind of long.

COLMES: “Barack,” that takes a lot of time.

COULTER: You weren't complaining that you're not using "Barack." You were complaining that I was using "Hussein."

COLMES: To not use...

COULTER: By the way, not only do you owe me an apology.

COLMES: I owe you nothing.

COULTER: But Michelle Obama owes me one for calling — it was a fear bomb we were dropping...

COLMES: Let me respond.

COULTER: By calling me — and that quote that Sean just used, in that same interview, he also said that this was in order to reboot our relations with the Muslim world, because, you know, the reason they're upset is because we're so mean to them.

COLMES: Would you like me to respond? Now that you're asking the questions?

COULTER: Yes, I would like my apology now. I'm ready.

COLMES: My response, not an apology. You used his first initial, diminishing his first name, so you could — let me finish — so you could underscore his middle name. And your intent in using his middle name is different than the intent that Barack Obama has to use his middle name.

COULTER: No. It's the exact same intent. He wants Muslims to like us. I think he wants Muslims to like him.

COLMES: He is following tradition in terms of how a president is sworn in. You purposely underscored his middle name, diminishing his first name, to point out that he had the name of a terrorist. That's what you were doing.

COULTER: It cannot simultaneously be a hate crime to use a man's middle name.

COLMES: I didn't call it a hate crime.

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: You, you did. And she called it a fear bomb. And for him to say this is going to change our relationship with the world.

COLMES: Ann, I think you are a hate crime.

COULTER: Thank you.

COLMES: You're welcome.

Pat Caddell, I think you're dying to weigh in here. Go ahead, Pat.

PAT CADDELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I am. I'm just going to say Jimmy Carter ran, he ran as Jimmy Carter, and when he was sworn in, he was sworn in as James Earl Carter Jr.

COULTER: He didn't say that was going to reboot relations with the south.

(CROSSTALK)

CADDELL: Let me finish, Ann. Let me say I think it is going to be a shock to a lot of people, though, on Inauguration Day, because I tried today, what everyone is discussing. I asked five people whether they knew what his middle name was, and no one knew, and when I told him three of them were kind of surprised, to say the least.

COULTER: How is it going to be a shock, Pat?

CADDELL: To say this — I'm just saying there's nothing to it. I just say a lot of people are going to be surprised that they didn't know.

COLMES: People have been trying to use his middle name for the purpose of scaring people, because he's got the same name of the guy we deposed in Iraq.

COULTER: Do you think we could get all of his aliases before he's sworn in on the Koran, I imagine?

COLMES: Now, Ann.

CADDELL: Oh, God, Ann.

COLMES: Do you really marginalize yourself by saying that? Do you really believe that?

COULTER: The last time you said that, it was when I was using his middle name, and he likes it.

COLMES: Well, you did marginalize yourself. By saying he'll be sworn in under the Koran is also marginalizing him, because you know that's not true. Do you believe he's a Muslim?

COULTER: No. I believe he's an atheist.

COLMES: Do you believe he's a...

COULTER: No.

COLMES: ... he's not Christian. He's not a Christian?

COULTER: Like all liberals, yes.

COLMES: You don't believe he's accepted Jesus Christ into his heart?

COULTER: Of course he's an atheist.

HANNITY: Let me ask — let me ask Pat Caddell.

COLMES: He goes to a Christian church.

HANNITY: Hang on a second. Let me ask Pat Caddell. Pat, is it now acceptable to say — like we say George W. Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, Ronald Wilson Reagan, Richard Milhous Nixon, Hillary Rodham Clinton, can we — is it now acceptable to say Barack Hussein Obama? Is it OK now?

CADDELL: Apparently so, he made it OK, and now I'm sure the mainstream press will say it's OK.

HANNITY: It's OK.

Now one thing that he did say here, Pat, is he said, "I'll do what everybody else does." Correct me if I'm wrong. I think Jimmy Carter — didn't he say just Jimmy Carter — and Ronald Reagan didn't — Ronald Reagan went as Ronald Reagan, not as Ronald Wilson Reagan.

CADDELL: I don't think they necessarily used the middle name in Reagan.

HANNITY: Carter did not...

CADDELL: We should all go back and, look, we're all going to — we're all going to do this tomorrow, for sure.

COULTER: Whether they use it or not, he specifically said he wants to use Hussein in order to, quote, "reboot" relations with the Muslim world.

CADDELL: The name legitimized it. That's all. I'm just saying, there are going to be a lot of surprised people who had no idea.

COULTER: Well, they're not listening to me.

HANNITY: Hey, but here's, I guess, the point. And I'll throw this to Ann. The fact is, is that, if anybody used it, that was it.

COULTER: Right.

HANNITY: They crossed this political correct line, and they were excoriated, you included. My buddy, Bill Cunningham in Cincinnati.

COULTER: Bill Cunningham by McCain, that stellar candidate of ours.

HANNITY: By John McCain, who was mad at him.

COULTER: Right.

HANNITY: And so now all of the sudden it's acceptable. Why?

COULTER: And by the way, you know what it's like?

COLMES: It's about intent. It's why you used it.

HANNITY: Are you reading my mind? When somebody says "Barack Hussein Obama," you can tell what they mean?

COLMES: Yes, her intent by saying "B. Hussein Obama" was to underscore his middle name to scare people that he has the same name.

COULTER: The exact same thing...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Were you trying to scare people, Ann Coulter?

COULTER: No, it was making the exact same point he's making, that he would reboot relations with the Muslim world. I was afraid he would do that. Apparently, he does want to do that. And by the way...

HANNITY: He wants to give a big speech in...

COULTER: These liberals are always doing this bait and switch on us with the names. Hillary did the same thing, because Bill Clinton lost an election as governor when she was going by Hillary Rodham. So she ran for president as Hillary Clinton. As soon as he was elected, she announced to the world, as Hussein just has, I'm now Hillary Rodham Clinton.

HANNITY: Exit question. You are now taking yourself off of television until you come back and start your new book tour.

COULTER: Yes. Right you are.

HANNITY: Can you give us a clue what the new book is?

COULTER: Alan's in it.

COLMES: Is that good? Anything for book sales.

HANNITY: Am I in it?

COULTER: Yes, you are.

HANNITY: I'm not worried about me. What do you say about Alan? What's the book about? Give us — give us...

COULTER: The title of it is "Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault on America."

COLMES: I hope you used my middle name.

COULTER: Is it Hussein? No, it's Stalin.

HANNITY: OK.

COLMES: It's what?

HANNITY: She said "Stalin."

COLMES: I'm not even going there. You're on your own. You're on your own.

HANNITY: Do you guys want to shake? You only have two more appearances.

COLMES: Is your middle name "Hart" or "Hartless"?

HANNITY: Now, the truth is, is you guys are friends.

COLMES: Yes, we are friends.

COULTER: Yes, I'm going to miss him. I told you, I think you're going to be like Paul McCartney without John Lennon.

COLMES: I would say we're friendly.

HANNITY: Which one am I? Paul or John?

COLMES: But I never went to your house for a coffee to launch your career.

Watch "Hannity & Colmes" weeknights at 9 p.m. ET!

Content and Programming Copyright 2008 FOX News Network, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2008 ASC LLC (www.ascllc.net), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, Inc.'s and Voxant Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.