John Kerry: Fighter or Flip-flopper?

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes", January 27, 2003, that has been edited for clarity.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: We now turn to Mary Ann Marsh, Democratic strategist here at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.

Thank you very much for being with us.

MARY ANN MARSH, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Pleasure.

COLMES: At this point, does Lieberman have to get out? Does Wesley Clark have to think about leaving the campaign? They're saying -- no one's saying they are, but...

MARSH: Right. And I could see where they might stay in for another week or so, and they, obviously, have to think about it. Both Lieberman and Clark made a serious investment in New Hampshire, and, while you can argue for both of them this is their first test, it's the second test for everybody else.

And now we're really -- you know, seven more states a week from now. I think they have to start...

COLMES: So what does it come down to?

MARSH: I think the three people who came out of Iowa are the three people we're talking about tonight pretty much. It's still Kerry, Dean. Edwards is still struggling for...

COLMES: Nobody else has a chance?

MARSH: You know, I think when you see the coverage tomorrow -- look at the bump Kerry got out of Iowa coming into New Hampshire. That will pale in comparison to what he gets tomorrow.

Dean will certainly stay in, and he has the resources. Edwards certainly has had a better...

COLMES: Wasn't this a little disappointing here tonight for Edwards, that he didn't finish in a stronger third position?

MARSH: I think -- hey, he had split his time. Had he just been in New Hampshire, he might have done better. But he was trying to get -- you know, keep traction in South Carolina. But, again, Edwards has exceeded everybody's expectations already. He could have done better here, but he did well enough.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Mary Ann, good to see you.

MARSH: Thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: I -- it was interesting to watch Dean's numbers here because he -- his numbers went way down after that screech in Iowa, but he recovered, the bleeding stopped, and his numbers came up fairly significantly in the last two days, three days. Is that as -- hopefully a sign of things to come? A far more subdued Dean tonight.

MARSH: Right. And I think he -- I mean, look, give the guy credit for a great comeback. He really recovered from something, again, like John Kerry, no one thought they could recover from. But they both did.

I think the difference here is when you look at the Democratic Party historically, whoever wins Iowa and New Hampshire goes on to the nomination, and I think the media, the cable networks, the Internet have really given ... like put politics on steroids, and the bump's going to be huge for Kerry.

HANNITY: But the doubts remain for Dean. He still cannot overcome enough of what happened that night.

MARSH: Well, that -- and when you listened to Major Garret's report earlier about their cherry-picking of states after February 3, if John Kerry continues to go into February 3 and do well and win in Missouri and/or in New Mexico and some other states, it's effectively over.

HANNITY: I think one of the more difficult things is -- let's assume for a minute that John Kerry's going to be the nominee -- is he has this long history in the Senate, weak on intelligence in particular, weak on defense in particular in terms of supporting our military, and this history...

He has flip-flopped on Iraq, on No Child Left Behind, on a whole series of ... the Patriot Act, supports it, criticizes it, supports it, criticizes it. Isn't ... doesn't he ... isn't he going to come off as somebody who's politically expedient?

MARSH: I think he's going to come off as a fighter, I think you already saw. I mean not just the comeback in Iowa and...

HANNITY: Not a fighter. A flip-flopper.

MARSH: But here's the guy who went to Vietnam who didn't have to. Here's the guy who's fought and put criminals behind bars.

COLMES: We're going to...

MARSH: He's fought a lot of things, and I think people saw that here.

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