Does John Edwards Have His Sights Set on the Presidency?

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," November 14, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Earlier today, Alan sat down with the author of the brand new book "Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives", former senator and V.P. candidate, John Edwards.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Thanks for being here.

JOHN EDWARDS, FORMER V.P. CANDIDATE: Glad to see you.

COLMES: Tell us about the book, "Home." It's really a fascinating array, from Tommy Franks to Bob Dole, Donna Brazile. Very nonpartisan.

EDWARDS: Very nonpartisan. Very representative, I think, of America. We have basically, what the concept is, the name of the book is "Home: The Blueprints of our Lives."

And it's about the homes that people grew up in, not the houses so much, although there is a lot of that in there. It's the homes, what they remember about growing up. What values they got from that. That sort of thing.

COLMES: People talk about values a lot in terms of the campaign. Have we learned anything from this election that just took place last week in terms of values?

EDWARDS: Yes. I think we learned a couple things. One is that Americans believe, at least in the majority of Americans seem to believe, that we are better and can do better than we're doing right now, both at home and in terms of the way the world views us.

COLMES: Was this a statement about loving what Democrats have to offer or was it more about not liking the people in power?

EDWARDS: I think for the time being it is: "I don't like the way this is going. America can do better than this. Let's give the other guys a chance."

Now the question is, will the Democrats be able to lead the way they should?

COLMES: What do they have to do?

EDWARDS: Have to have a new course on Iraq. Now, it's complicated, because the president is still ultimately in control of that. But they can have some influence on it.

I think on some issues like raising the minimum wage. They need to get the national minimum wage raised, and I think America is for that.

I think there a range of things that demonstrate that we have a real and positive agenda for the country. Health care, energy independence, et cetera.

COLMES: Is there a battle in the Democratic Party among the progressives on one hand and the more conservative Democrats. Some say this is really moderates who won this past Election Day and not the progressives, who also have very strong and loud voices against the war and other issues?

EDWARDS: I think what won was change. I think there was an undercurrent for change. And I doubt that it was as sophisticated as, you know, we're for the moderates or somewhat moderates or we're for the liberals.

I think it was more just we don't like the way things are going. Let's change the way they are.

And now they're going to leave it to our party who leads the House and the Senate now to move.

COLMES: You wrote a very famous op-ed about a year ago, apologizing for your vote in the war in Iraq and started off saying, "I was wrong."

EDWARDS: Correct.

COLMES: You were on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. Did senators see the same intelligence that the president sees?

EDWARDS: It's different. The president gets additional information that members of the Senate or the Senate intelligence Committee don't get.

What I did, basically, to cut right to the chase, is I relied on what I heard there. Plus what I heard from other members of the Clinton administration who had similar intelligence during the time that President Clinton was in power.

COLMES: And how do we get to this point? How did this war get started and flourish and continue in light of continuing information that what we've learned was wrong?

EDWARDS: Because we were wrong about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. That's now been clearly proven. What's really important now is what do we do going forward?

COLMES: We're spending a huge amount of money in Iraq. You have written about other hot spots in the world. We don't talk as much about Sudan. You've been to Northern Uganda, where there's a tremendous opportunity for the United States to do the right thing and help out warring factions.

EDWARDS: There is, and thank you for asking. And I hope that your viewers will focus some on what's happening in Uganda. They've had a huge humanitarian crisis there.

I went there with the International Rescue Committee, extraordinary organization that does humanitarian work all across the globe.

And, by the way, this is not a political thing. It's not Democrats or Republicans. They're terrific faith-based groups that are doing work in Sudan and Uganda where I was.

The problem is civil war going on for 20 years. Over a million people have been herded into camps in northern Uganda. The lord's liberation — the Lord's Resistance Army, which is the rebel group, has committed amazing atrocities: kidnapping, abducting children, forcing them into sex slavery, forcing them into the army, 9-, 10-year-olds.

But there's a peace process going on now in Southern Sudan. When I met with President Museveni, I strongly urged him to reach peace. Because peace has to be achieved before people can transition back to their homes. Many of them have been gone now for decades in these terrible tents.

America should step to the plate and be supportive of this peace process.

COLMES: Everybody, of course, wants to know about your future ambitions.

EDWARDS: Yes. I'm not sure everybody wants to know.

COLMES: How can I ask the question to get a definite answer?

EDWARDS: Anyway you ask it you're going to get a maybe.

COLMES: Is that right?

EDWARDS: Yes.

COLMES: How will you decide? What will you look at to make that — what goes into — what factors into that decision?

EDWARDS: Listen, I don't need to be cute about this. I'm very seriously thinking about running for president. I'll decide in the next few months.

Probably the single most important factor for me personally is to make sure that my wife Elizabeth continues to do well health-wise. And right now, knock on wood, you know, she had breast cancer. She's doing great. She's cancer-free. So that all looks good.

COLMES: Does it matter whether or not John Kerry runs? Would you not run if he — would you step back if he decided to run? Or does it not matter whatever anybody else does?

EDWARDS: It doesn't matter in my decision what other people do.

COLMES: And you'll decide when?

EDWARDS: Sometime in the next few months. I don't have a definitely timetable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: He's running. He's in.

COLMES: I should have asked you that.

HANNITY: No answer.

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