Responding to more Sarah Palin bashing and Joy Behar labeling the Alaska governor "dumb" (talk about the pot calling the kettle black) Hasselbeck once again rose up as the lone voice on the panel, and even a hostile studio audience, in defending Governor Palin. Apparently taking issue with disputing some co-hosts’ assertion that Palin lacks the intellectual capacity to be vice president, Barbara Walters exclaimed "every single day you never ever say ‘maybe this is another point.’"
Barbara Walters must not watch her show enough as Hasselbeck even validated Whoopi Goldberg’s left wing tirade based on an internet rumor. Curiously, Walters never took issue with any of the other co-hosts, including the much more ideological Joy Behar, for not conceding a point once in a while. Ideologues seem to be acceptable as long as they fall on the left.
The transcript follows.
JOY BEHAR: That fact that she’s so dumb as to say-
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Oh.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: Wow.
BEHAR: Wait a second, politically not astute. Let’s put it that way. Wait a minute.
HASSELBECK: Because she didn’t go to an ivy league school?
BARBARA WALTERS: Nobody’s saying that.
BEHAR: Let me finish my sentence. I’m not saying that, politically unastute enough to make a joke about age when she is running with the oldest man that’s ever run before. [laughter and applause] That’s what I mean.
HASSELBECK: First, I love how just shook up in your boots you get over Sarah Palin. I love how-
BEHAR: And you’re not?
HASSELBECK: I just like it.
WALTERS: Do you have to defend her every single time?
HASSELBECK: No, I don’t think she’s afraid to address certain things. I think, look-
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: She made a mistake and she got caught, just- She made a mistake. Yes, she made a mistake. She made a joke and forgot and when someone pointed it out to her, she did what people do when-
SHEPHERD: I think she did it on purpse.
GOLDBERG: I think she-
BEHAR: Then she’s mean. Then she’s nasty.
GOLDBERG: She made a mistake, I think she made a mistake when she said, you know, "I’ve been listening to him since I was in the second grade." It was clearly a little bit of a dig as she has been known to do. But I think it hadn’t- I don’t think she was thinking "Oh I better not say this because I’m running with all of these guys." And when they pointed it out she should have said "you know what, you’re right."
BEHAR: She doesn’t say that "you’re right." That word’s not in her vocabulary.
[...]
WALTERS: Everyday, you, I mean, let me say this. I’m so glad you’re on the program. We love you on the program. You are the counterpoint. But every single day you never ever say "maybe this is another point." So this is your chance.
[applause]
HASSELBECK: Yes I did. No, no, no, no. I have many times- I sat here- I was the first person to walk in this door and say that Barack Obama was phenomenal in his Democratic National Convention speech back in 2004.
[...]
WALTERS: What Joy had pointed out is that our Friday show this week is taped. So here is this big debate tomorrow night and you see that we love to argue and talk. And you’re going to tune in on Friday. It’s a very good show. But you’re going to tune in and say "what’s the matter with those five women? Are they morons?" No we’re not. The Friday show is taped, so we’ll hash it all out on Monday