Exclusive: Author David Freddoso on 'The Case Against Barack Obama'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," August 4, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: A brand-new book about Barack Obama tackles what the author calls the "media-created myth" of Obama, and it also looks at his ties to corrupt Chicago politics, his relationship with Tony Rezko, and his claim to be the candidate of reform.

Joining us now for an exclusive first look in an interview with a brand-new book, "The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate," [from] National Review online, our old friend, political reporter David Freddoso.

David, welcome aboard. Good to see you.

• Watch Sean and Alan's interview

DAVID FREDDOSO, AUTHOR, "THE CASE AGAINST BARACK OBAMA": Thank you.

HANNITY: We love everything that's going on there. You talk about this. You say "he's a shrewd machine-aligned politician from Chicago who will make no waves and won't back no losers."

FREDDOSO: That's right, and those are the words, actually, of John Cass of The Chicago Tribune. The Chicago press understands Senator Obama very well. The idea of him as a reformer is a great lie. That there isn't anything in his record that you can point to where he stood up, where he took a chance, in order to support the cause of positive change.

HANNITY: Yes.

FREDDOSO: Senator Obama has made the alliances he had to make to get ahead, and that included the Daley machine. It included other politicians in Chicago. It's included in Chicago, in Springfield, and in Washington, various endorsements and active support for the same kinds of corrupt, systemic arrangements that we've all come to know in government, we talk about special interests. Senator Obama general supports those arrangements.

HANNITY: Is that why we see this pattern of political expediency— changing any position and saying whatever he needs to say to win an election?

FREDDOSO: I think that's actually true. In fact, I go out of my way to make that case in "The Case Against Barack Obama."

HANNITY: Right.

FREDDOSO: That in many cases, you do see Senator Obama taking a position based on expediency. For one thing, his decisions about what should be done on the ground in Iraq often come based a lot on the political calendar in the United States.

HANNITY: What I like about the book, you spent a lot of time talking about "Obama-ssaiah." There is undoubtedly a religious component to Obama- mania. And then you go into a lot of detail that he's a stealth liberal.

FREDDOSO: Yes, and, in fact, if you take the time to look at Senator Obama's votes, if you look carefully at his record, you see that he really is a very doctrinaire liberal. He's not swayable in the way that he portrays himself.

At the same time he's able to express himself and to give this idea of — give this impression of open-mindedness that I don't believe is for real.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Hey David, let me — some of the issues I have with your book.

First of all, in the introduction to the book, and I want to put it up on the screen, you talk about him basically getting everybody else off the ballot when he's running for local office.

FREDDOSO: That's right.

COLMES: You say, "Obama will throw all of his opponents off the ballot on a technicality so that these voters have no choice but to elect him."

FREDDOSO: That's right.

COLMES: But then you quote, on page two of the book, Chicago Tribune, that you mentioned earlier, "Some of the problems include registered voters signed the petitions but don't live in the 13th District."

FREDDOSO: That's true.

COLMES: That would be breaking the law.

Another thing from the same Chicago Tribune article that you quote, you talk about J.S. Askia, and you quote the Chicago Tribune, that refers to him as a perennially unsuccessful candidate, acknowledging that he said Democratic Party workers $5 a sheet, and that they forged signatures."

And so on one hand you're accusing him of forcing people off the ballot, but the Chicago Tribune story you referenced basically says these people were breaking the law

FREDDOSO: They weren't breaking the law. What...

COLMES: Forging signatures?

FREDDOSO: Well, OK. But the signature gatherers who forged signatures were breaking the law. The candidates who were trying to be on the ballot and appear and give the voters the choice weren't breaking the law when Senator Obama had them thrown out.

He actually went and...

COLMES: ... based on the fact that he was the election committee did it.

FREDDOSO: They challenged all the petitions. And what happened was they actually took the time. Obama's volunteers took the time to take — I think it's fascinating. They took a perennial candidate, a hopeless, no chance candidate, and they actually took the time to challenge more than a thousand signatures from him.

COLMES: ... but they also challenged Alice Farmer, who I quoted earlier that you, yourself, according to your own contradiction of the book on page 2...

FREDDOSO: How is that a contradiction?

COLMES: Because you say first that he was basically forcing people off the ballot. Then you say — suggested that he was doing it illegally or underhandedly.

FREDDOSO: I didn't suggest that he did it illegally or underhandedly. You suggested he was playing dirty politics.

(CROSSTALK)

FREDDOSO: What I said was that the man who campaigns on hope and change and tries to make people less cynical about politics, Alan, is — is the same guy who won his first election by denying the voters a choice.

COLMES: Turns out, according to your — it was perfectly legal.

FREDDOSO: It was perfectly legal, he had every right to do what he did, Alan.

COLMES: David, according to your own reporting, they didn't live this the district.

FREDDOSO: Some of them didn't. In some cases there was a woman who — who signed the petition with her married name, but she was registered to vote under her maiden name.

There were a lot of cases where people printed their name instead of signing it. There were a lot of different cases. The petitions may very well have been — may well have been bad signatures. That's all part...

COLMES: ...which would be illegal.

FREDDOSO: But if you read "The Audacity of Hope" by Senator Obama, he portrays this election as if he told people you should be less cynical about politics and they loved his speech and they elected him!

COLMES: Anyway, we've got to run, David. Thank you very much for being here tonight.

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