Dick Morris Isn't Happy With Obama and I Want Answers, Too

Yesterday I hosted Your World for Neil Cavuto, who's out on vacation. About 5 minutes before I went downstairs to the set, the EP (executive producer) told me that Norm Coleman, the former Senator of Minnesota, was going to break-in with a live press conference somewhere near the top of our show. If you’ve been in the news business for a while, I have, you know that breaking news is exciting, but also throws everything off. You may line up a terrific show and spend months, weeks or days booking those guests, but when news breaks those guests and stories get blown out of the water. Often times, we try to post-tape an interview, which means we tape the interview after the show and run it on the next show.

In yesterday’s case, the concession speech that Norm Coleman delivered after the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld Al Franken’s victory was fairly short. We had Dick Morris, former Clinton advisor and author of “Catastrophe” booked. Thankfully, we had enough time to spend with Dick immediately following the presser. We discussed what the additional Senate seat would do for the Democrats, the cap-and-trade bill, the health-care reform movement and why the top Clinton advisor is not happy with this president. Dick says “it’s time we take back our country now” in his new book. “At a time when we needed a pragmatic centrist to lead us out of recession, we got a doctrinaire socialist who wants to use the crisis to put the government in charge of the economy and enact European socialism here in the United States.” Pretty harsh words from Clinton’s top advisor! He is clearly worried about the mounting debt and how we plan to pull ourselves out of this recession while proposing legislation that could have dire consequences for jobs and taxes for the middle class. Perhaps some of the highest tax increases we have seen in decades.

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Last night, as I left Hannity’s show I thought about the many blogs that I have written about President Obama. There is a running joke at FNC that I am the bleeding heart liberal and that the Obama administration should hire me to be there spokesperson. When I joke about that with Hannity, I remind him that anyone would be considered left of him. The truth is I am disappointed about many of the president’s decisions and some have been inexcusable. I applaud his efforts to tackle many issues, but I worry that all of the political goodwill that he developed surrounding his election is being tossed aside, not because of the current environment, but because of the decisions he’s making. I understand he has an agenda. Every new president has an agenda. You use your political capital while you have it to create the biggest change in the first year. A decline in the polls like we have seen over the past month is normal. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

What concerns me now is that I was convinced when I interviewed him a year ago that he was a consensus builder. That he allowed the greatest minds in the world to come to the table to share their ideas and that he listened. I fear now that those people who have been invited to the table are afraid to tell him the truth. My dad is an attorney in the music business. He has always warned me that stars surround themselves with 'yes'people -- people who tell them what they want to hear. He has repeatedly reminded me not to do that in my career. The president has to make sure that the people who sit on his Economic Advisory Board are allowed to speak and speak freely. I have talked to some of those people and they’re not. Corporate America is afraid to tell the truth. They’re afraid about the consequences and ultimately the repercussions.

I get tired of the same old socialist talk that I hear day after day but sometimes I wonder where we are headed, why we are trying to do too much when the economy is far from healthy. Last night, I sat at the table in a top secret dinner with twelve well-known bankers, litigators and CEOs in the restructuring and distressed debt market. The dinner was off the record. What was very clear to me is that these gentlemen were worried. They believe the crisis is far from over and that the Fed has only prolonged the pain; postponed the agony to a later date, a date yet to be determined.

So far, President Obama has disappointed me and yet I want him to succeed. He is, after all, the president of my country. He is the one of the greatest speakers of my lifetime. The problem is people like me are wondering if this was the person we elected. We’re more than frustrated, we’re angry and scared. We’re seeing over-regulation, meddling in business, too much support for unions and not enough for creditors, too many programs that will cost us for years to come, too big an agenda without a realistic assessment of where we are and how we got here. The risks are enormous. The size of the problem just now setting in. It’s one thing for the government to fill in where private sector fails. It’s another thing to allow the innovation that drives this country to get sapped as a result of too much intervention. Nobody said this would be easy. I don’t envy this Administration and I know that 50% of the blame resides with the members of Congress. If lawmakers sign bills and don’t read them beforehand they’re doing us an injustice. What happened to our voice?

The President promised repeatedly no new taxes on the middle class just as Clinton did in 1992. One of the biggest differences though is that Clinton defined the middle class by those earnings $80,000 dollars or less while Obama defined it as those making $250,000 or less. That definition will come back to haunt him. Not because the rise in taxes that all of us are about to see is the result 100% of his federal spending initiatives but because 48 states are facing $166 billion dollars in deficits. He will break the campaign promise as many have done before him. The taxes will come at you in every direction. Think about what we need to do. Fund state deficits, fund national deficits, fund health-care overhaul, an energy tax and declining exports. You will see tax hikes in your state, on you tobacco, on your soda, on your health care, on your utility and energy bills. It will come in so many directions it will wipe away all the good will created by the pull back in gasoline prices and then some. I don’t like to be the bearer of bad news but Uncle Sam will be in your back yard before you know it.

I interviewed the president when he was nominee. I have requested on a dozen occasions a follow-up interview to discuss the economy. I have heard no response to the multiple phone calls, emails, hand-written letters and requests. I don’t see why the president has avoided these requests. I don’t expect to be at the top of the list, but I do believe he is the one that holds the key to our future and we need some answers. The people who watch Fox deserve that. We need to remind ourselves that this is not a sprint, this is a marathon. You cannot change decades of weak regulation, inadequate health care and climate change in a year. If you do so, you may be likened to FDR, but you also may be the first president to bankrupt the country.

Mr. President, can we put a date on the calendar? I have a question or two.