Hardball - Transcript

MSNBC
SHOW: HARDBALL 21:00

August 30, 2004 Monday

TRANSCRIPT: # 083003cb.461

HEADLINE: HARDBALL 2100 Hour for August 30, 2004

BYLINE: Chris Matthews; Chip Reid; Tim Russert; Tom Brokaw; Andrea Mitchell; Joe Scarborough; David Shuster; Douglas Brinkley; Brian Williams

GUESTS: J.C. Watts; Jon Meacham; Sen. George Voinovich; Sen. Mike Dewine; Ken Duberstein
CHIP REID, NBC CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris. And they are front and center. We have Senators George Voinovich and Mike Dewine. You are right in the front row, front and center. That says something about Ohio here. And in fact, Karl Rove said that Ohio is ground zero in this election. And I know you both have reputations as straight shooters in the Senate. I'm not trying to butter you up. That is simply your reputations. I know I will get the straight poop here. Is George Bush in trouble in Ohio? And after all, no Republican president has ever won without Ohio. Is he in trouble there?

SEN. GEORGE VOINOVICH ®, OHIO: I think that John Kerry is in trouble in Ohio. And I mean that sincerely. I think that after the Democratic convention, you would have thought that he would have had a much better bump than he has, and I'm hoping that as a result of this convention, that George Bush will be back in the lead in the state of Ohio. But it's going to be nip and tuck all the way to the end.

REID: You'll agree with that?

SEN. MIKE DEWINE ®, OHIO: The election's a dead heat right today. The president is treating Ohio like-as he told me, Like I'm running for governor. And he was there last Saturday. My wife, Fran, and I and our daughter, Anna (ph), spent the whole day with him on a bus. He got phenomenal crowds. I tell you, it was like it was late October. And he went through rural western part of the state. People were standing out there, great crowds. He's coming back Wednesday to Columbus. He's coming back this Saturday again. So that's three times in eight days in Ohio. It's amazing.

REID: Why does Kerry have traction there, enough to make it nip and tuck? Is it because of the economic difficulties, especially in the manufacturing sector?

VOINOVICH: Sure. And the president has been very careful about saying we've got an economic recovery. You know, he inherited a terrible situation with the recession. Then he had 9/11. And then we had the scandals in the financial markets. This country, you know, should be in really bad shape, and his policies have kept us going. But the fact of the matter is, there are too many people in Ohio who are not working, and there are too many people in Ohio today that are worried about their jobs. And he's got to communicate with them, and he's doing it on the stump today. He's saying, I know that you're still hurting, but we've got the programs and the policies to turn it around for you.

REID: Another issue. After the debacle in Florida in 2000, Ohio tried to switch to electronic voting. Not working. most people are going to be voting on punchcard ballots in November. Do you worry, with a close election, a recount, we could have Florida all over again in Ohio?

DEWINE: We've never had that problem. We've had punchcards for a long time, we've never had a huge problem with that. But look, it's going to be a close race, and I think that is a legitimate issue. It's a legitimate concern. But I don't think we're going to really have that problem.

REID: OK, great. Senator Mike Dewine, Senator George Voinovich, thank you very much. And ground zero in Ohio, according to Karl Rove. Chris, back to you.