Dr. Phil Diagnoses America's Obama Obsession
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 4, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. You've heard him tell a lot of people to "get real." So what does Dr. Phil have to say about the millions of people suffering from Obamamania Syndrome? He's here to tell us tonight.
Dr. Phil, how are you?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DR. PHIL MCGRAW, TELEVISION SHOW HOST: How are you? So this is a syndrome, huh?
HANNITY: Well, first of all, I have been a fan of yours for the longest time.
MCGRAW: Well, thank you.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}• Video: Watch Sean's interview
HANNITY: I love your straight talk. I think you've got — you really give people great advice, common sense advice. I wish more people would take it sometimes.
MCGRAW: Well, common sense just isn't common enough anymore. I mean, really, think about it. It's like all of a sudden, things that ought to add up pretty simple, A to B to C, just all of a sudden, we've come up with new words. We've come up with new terms. We've come up with new frames. And all of a sudden, it just doesn't make sense any more.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}HANNITY: It really doesn't. All right. I've got — now, I don't want you to get political, because I know you're not political, so that's not the purpose of this. I have a term, Obamamania. And I define it as the feeling of euphoria and omnipotent ecstasy at the very sight of Obama and the belief that he can solve the world's problems.
And I ask people, for example, went on the street and we asked people about Obamamania. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They said this day would never come.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obama, all the way. That's all I got to say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's such a pleasure to see you, Mr. President. Thank you for taking time out of your day. Oh, precious God!
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just seems to be very popular with everybody, and can really relate to the people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love him. I'm all for the "yes, we can," because I think that it's really empowering to see people mix, see people interact.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, he is a handsome guy. Come on. After all, you can't deny that.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's more outgoing than, you know, more of the other presidents. You see him — his face in the media a lot. I mean, I think he's enjoying it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obama is a rock star because he won against all the odds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let him rock. Let him live. He's a regular guy. You feel me? Barack Obama, all day.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: All right. Now I understand — I understand some people disagree with me on policy, but the people put too much faith and hope and trust in somebody outside them?
MCGRAW: Let's remember, he is a politician, and he is in Washington. And he has inherited a system that is going to prove to be very difficult to turn around.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}What I fear is that people will expect so much from Obama that he can't live up to it, and they're going to flip on him. Because we're in America. You know, people flip. They love to build people up, and tear them down.
HANNITY: Knock them right down.
MCGRAW: And I hope that they really give him a chance to get his legs under him and have a chance to turn this, because you know, it's like turning a big ship. You don't just whip a "U."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}HANNITY: Yes.
MCGRAW: You know, it takes time to turn things around. So I don't hope — I hope all of this Obamamania, which is fine now, doesn't come back to haunt him and bite him because they don't give him a chance to do his job.
HANNITY: My disagreement is on substance. I've never anywhere where socialism works. But I'm not going to drag you into that argument here. But I guess the question, though, is I read the other day — there's an article that came out. Twenty-five percent — this is a serious question — of Americans aren't sleeping at night. They're worried about their retirement. They're worried about the kids' college fund. They're worried about the money that they worked so hard to save. People that want to retire, Dr. Phil, they can't retire.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}What do you say? What advice do you give them in these turbulent, troubled times?
MCGRAW: Well, first off, I'm in my seventh season, as you know. And I feel like my show and what we do is more relevant today that it's every been, because of exactly what you're talking about. If you talk to lawyers, the divorce lawyers, they'll tell you the No. 1 they get when somebody comes in and says, "It's over. We've got to shut this marriage down," it's money. OK? That's the biggest pressure that breaks these marriages down.
Now money pressure is bigger and higher than we have seen in our generation, right? That pressure is building up. People are fearing foreclosure. They're fearing they're losing their jobs. Or they've already lost it. They're having to scale down.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}What people focus on are — is the math. But you've got to look at the trickle-down after that. With all that pressure on, you're going to see spikes in divorce. You're going to see spikes in domestic violence. You're going to see people that are having anxiety and depression and sleep disturbance, like we're talking about. This is the sequel to all of these things that are the pressures of the day.
And not far behind that, you're going to start seeing physical breakdowns created as a product of the stress. Hypertension, heart attack, things of that nature, because when you're not sleeping, when you're under stress, anxiety, and you're constantly tense. Your body's not built for that.
HANNITY: Sir, that's about liberals, no I'm just teasing. But — but this is very serious, and I — friends of mine from all walks of life — doctors, lawyers, people that have, you know, degrees and work on Wall Street, contractors, painting contractor a friend of mine. All these guys, this is impacting everybody collectively.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And I want to argue that there's too much fear. Fear is, I think, a very dangerous emotion. And I think the government and politicians, catastrophe, crisis, this is harmful to the psyche and the psychology of the country. Do you agree with that at all?
MCGRAW: I think there has been a damage to the collective psyche of America. And because it does kind of feed on itself. And one of the things that I worry about is I'm a big one for accountability. And if we're sitting back, waiting for Obama or the Congress or anyone else to fix our woes, I don't think that we can do that.
Clearly, they've got the handle on the big levers. But I think it starts at home. People say politics are local. I think at this point, politics and financial politics not needing to be local. They need to be personal. People have to live smaller. They have to make different decisions that they made in the press.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}HANNITY: Isn't that one of the problems, though? We always want to look outside ourselves to get the answers. And when there's so much people — if they can forget government and forget about politics, but look to themselves, dig down deep.
This is still America. If you work hard, play by the rules, you can still succeed. And believe in yourself.
MCGRAW: Look, everybody wants a savior. I mean, wouldn't you — wouldn't you lifethat somebody has just come in and fix your life for you?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}HANNITY: No.
MCGRAW: But it's not going to happen. Whether you want it or not, it isn't going to happen.
If people survive this, and I believe they will, it's going to be because they recognize what I believe, and that is that many problems are not fixed with money. Money problems are fixed with lifestyle.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}If you — you know, people have gone out. We have a two-income society, where both mom and dad are working. So now, the adjust their lifestyle to two incomes. One of them loses their job, they have no fallback.
When they were a single-income society, if somebody lost their job, the other person could work at least temporarily and keep the wolf from the door. We've got nowhere to go now.
If one of these two-income earners get as much as a head cold, there could be a collapse. You can't have — you have got to have people who say "I've got to scale back," and start looking beneath the labels. There's no there's fixed income. There's no there's fixed expenses.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This doesn't — Dr. Phil, my fixed expenses are X, Y, Z. There are no fixed expenses. Offload these cars if you need to. Get rid of some of these things.
HANNITY: Boy, it's great common sense. I'm so glad to finally meet you, and you're gracious enough. You're going to take, and answer, questions from our viewers tomorrow about very specific questions and problems they have an offer.
Your common sense. By the way, I'm never going to ask him about a problem, because he is going to hit me right between the eyes. You're going to be tough!
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MCGRAW: Your staff has given me a list of about 30 things they wanted me to go over at the break, so we will lay you down...
HANNITY: We will have part two with Dr. Phil tomorrow.
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