Morris "leaving the country" if Clinton-Obama ticket wins

On the December 18 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, guest host Karen Hanretty asked Fox News political analyst Dick Morris if he was "proposing a ticket of [Sen.] Hillary Clinton [D-NY], [Sen.] Barack Obama [D-IL]," for the Democratic presidential nomination, to which Morris replied: "I'm not proposing it. I'm leaving the country if this happens." Morris added, "I do not want Hillary Clinton controlling the FBI and the IRS and the CIA and the DEA." When co-host Alan Colmes later asked Morris if he was "really going to leave" should Clinton win, Morris said, "I hope not to have to make that choice." The weblog News Hounds posted Morris' comments on December 19, and they were later noted by NewsMax.com, Salon.com, and other media outlets.*

From the December 18 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

HANRETTY: So what you're proposing is a ticket of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama. And you think that America is ready for not only the first female president of the United States, but for a black man to be president and next in line?

MORRIS: Well, first of all, I'm not proposing it. I'm leaving the country if this happens.

COLMES: Oh, come on. You promise?

HANRETTY: You're going to pull an Alec Baldwin on us, Dick?

COLMES: We've got it on tape now.

MORRIS: You guys can do this from Peru, right? I do not want Hillary Clinton controlling the FBI and the IRS and the CIA and the DEA.

HANRETTY: Do you want Barack Obama as a vice president? Do you even want him as president?

MORRIS: No, I think Obama would be a good vice president. I think it would give him seasoning, and I think he's got a lot of potential. But what's going to happen is Hillary will win the Democratic nomination. That will force the Republicans to run a woman on their ticket. And the best one they have is [Secretary of State] Condi [Rice]. If the Republicans are going to put a black on their ticket for second place, the Democrats can't let the only black be on the Republican line. So they're going to put Obama on.

HANRETTY: You think the Republicans are going to be satisfied putting someone from the Bush administration responsible for the war in Iraq on their ticket?

MORRIS: Well, when they did that likeability index poll, she came in, like, second or third. She's over 60 percent favorable.

COLMES: We've got to run. But, Dick, you're really going to leave the country if Hillary wins? Are you really going to leave?

MORRIS: I hope not to have to make that choice.

COLMES: You know, when liberals said that about Bush, you wanted to hold them to it. Well, thank you very much for being here.

MORRIS: Yeah, but I'm going to be chased out of the country.

COLMES: I doubt it.

—A.I.

*Correction: This item originally credited NewsMax.com with first noting Morris' comments. In fact, the weblog News Hounds posted an item several hours before the NewsMax.com post. Media Matters for America regrets the error. [back to item]