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AMERICAN NIGHTLY SCOREBOARD for August 25, 2010 - Part 1

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Antonetti, Tara Dowdell, Bobby Bowden, Sara Carter>

DAVID ASMAN, FOX BUSINESS HOST (voice-over): Tonight's Scoreboard, all five Sarah Palin picks win in three states, sending a message to the party titans in D.C. -- We are not going to take it any more.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHANTING)

ASMAN: Gov. Sarah Palin tonight scoring her clean sweep.

Tonight we will hear from one of the last Democratic holdouts in big business, Silicon Valley. CEOs from the top-tech companies blasting Obama's failed tax-and-spend policies. Cypress Semiconductor's T.J. Rodgers scoring the Intel chief's tough new message: The Democrats are destroying our economy.

Who's up, who's down, and why is one of college football's greatest coaches of all time, Bobby Bowden, ready to tackle his old school for a stake (ph)?

A star-struck America's Nightly Scoreboard starts right now.

(on camera): Hi, everybody, I am David Asman. Thanks for joining us.

Kicking off tonight, this is a seminal moment in American political history. Voters are taking back their houses. For two years Americans have watched a renegade Congress vote time and again against the wishes of the electorate. Now the electorate is saying enough, get out. Is our money you have been spending? It's our lives you have been manipulating. It's our businesses you have been destroying. And we won't take it anymore.

But neither Congress nor the White House have been listening. Even now there are White House advisers saying the biggest problem with the stimulus is we didn't spend enough money. If you disagree, they just wag their fingers and lecture us, as if we are all bunch of ignorant masses in need of the teachable moment. In a way, we have had a teachable moment but not the one the administration planned for us. We learned the lessons of going back to basics -- basics in the economy and basics in governance. Basics like, you can't spend your way out of a recession, like the government can't insure twenty million people for free, like taking trillions out of the private sector and redirecting it through bureaucrats doesn't help the private sector.

The crime is that these lessons have come with a tremendous price tag that we will be paying off for years. Almost as annoying as the price tag, has been the patronizing attitude of the politicians who have been wasting our money. We are not a country of individuals who like to be told what is good for us. We are not a country of individuals who like to be herded into social and economic experiments by folks who feel they are above those experiments and they don't operate by the same rules they make for us. That is what we fought a revolution against. Maybe we have forgotten that, but we now get it.

One person who got it from the beginning joins us now. A woman who started in politics fighting a corrupt political machine and then had to endure a snide political class that belittled just about everything about her. And it is that woman who gets the last laugh as she and the candidates she endorses, most of them outside the mainstream, like herself, have been winning all over America.

I am pleased to welcome former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

Governor, great to see you. Thanks for joining us.

SARAH PALIN, (R), FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Thank you, David. I am thrilled to be here.

ASMAN: It's a pleasure to have you here.

Any sense of vindication? Five out of five last night.

PALIN: I am not keeping score, but --

(AUDIO PROBLEM)

ASMAN: We are having a little bit of trouble.

We are going to pick up with a couple of other candidates who ran last night. but we will try to get Sarah Palin back again. It is a connection from Alaska. They have some tough weather in Alaska right now.

The great voting yesterday is voters chose serious candidates with serious credentials. Some very impressive resumes from decorated servicemen to successful businessmen.

We welcome two those candidates who scored big last night, former Marine and successful businessman, Jesse Kelly, now Republican candidate for Congress in Arizona. He joins us from Tucson. And retired Army colonel, Allen West, who won the Republican primary for a congressional seat in Florida. He joins us by phone.

Great to see you both.

Colonel West, I believe you were endorsed by Sarah Palin. Is that right?

LT. COL. ALLEN WEST, (R), FLORIDA CONGRESSIONAL SEAT WINNER REITED ARMY COLONEL: That is correct. David, it is a pleasure to be with you.

(AUDIO PROBLEM)

ASMAN: OK, we are having a little problem with Colonel West.

We are told that Sarah Palin's video is back with us.

Sarah Palin, I'm so sorry we had to interrupt that.

But let's skip the first part of vindication and go to the second part, which is what is happening in Alaska? What is the latest in a race between Senator Murkowski your candidate, Joe Miller?

PALIN: This scenario, this miracle on ice that we are over the moon, with happiness and thankfulness that we're seeing. Joe Miller has some more votes that have to be counted still, some absentee ballots. But it looks like he will be the different runner at the end of the day. We're pleased with this awakening in Alaska and across the country. Limited government is the key to America's prosperity and our security.

ASMAN: What is incredible about the candidates you have endorsed is they run through a gamut of different fields. Some our military veterans. Joe Miller himself is a veteran. but he also went to Yale Law School. These are impressive, substantive people. It makes you wonder about the arrogant comments from a snide mass media that said these tea party guys are just a bunch of yokels.

PALIN: Joe Miller, especially. Joe was such an impressive resume. You can't question his resume and assume he isn't qualified. But more important than that big, important, fat resume is his understanding of the Constitution and his acknowledgment and motivation and commitment to doing something about the Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda that's driving our nation towards this cliff.

ASMAN: The main point about the Constitution. We keep emphasizing is having faith in the people. You have to have faith in them as individuals to make decisions for themselves without the government leaning over the shoulder, telling them what to do. And once you are in power, you have got to do what they want, not what you think they want.

PALIN: Exactly. It comes down to, David, a sense of -- you dance with the one who brought you, right? When Republicans -- when constitutional conservatives elect someone into office there is an expectation that that Representative, that Senator will do what the people hired them to do, protect the Constitution, engage in free-market enterprise principles, things that we expect of them. When they get to D.C. and they decide to go along to get along with the herd mentality, following the Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda because it is easier or they can gain power in D.C., we say, at that point, we had enough and we fire them and hire someone else. And that is what you are seeing up here in Alaska.

ASMAN: Is Scott Brown on notice? He has gone along with that message for the past couple of votes.

PALIN: Well, take the consideration that that's Massachusetts. Perhaps they are not going to look for such a hard-core constitutional conservative and they'll put up with Scott Brown. Up here in Alaska, and so many places where we have a pioneering, independent spirit and we have an expectation that our representatives in D.C. will respect the will of the people and the intelligence of the people, well, up here, we wouldn't stand for that. And Lisa Murkowski, for the effort she put forth on behalf of this state, she did go along to get along and voted with the Democrats' 300 times. She was voted, by some publications, as one of the most liberal Republicans in the Senate. and here in Alaska we said no. Not when we have a good choice in Joe Miller. We'll choose to hire him to represent our wishes, our desires that is needed to put our country back on the right track.

ASMAN: Wasn't it Senator Murkowski who come from a family that was involved in a political machine that you had to bust down to get elected in the first place?

PALIN: Yes. That put me on the outs of the Republican Party in Alaska. The machine of the Republican Party that is still in place today. And Joe Miller will have to deal with that machine too. But, yes, that dynasty of this one family, holding a Senate seat for three decades, and finally Alaska said we are ready for some new blood, new ideas, a new phase that will represent the will of the people up here. And that will is for constitutional conservative principles to be lived out.

ASMAN: You mentioned the word dynasty. I was talking about arrogance and the fact that they do have this sort of kingly attitude, a lot of these folks in the beltway, that they know what is best, that they're they ones, despite what individuals want, they are the ones who should control individual lives. Whenever you have that dynastic attitude about the way people need to be governed, isn't that a signal that you've got to get out of there, you have been in too long?

PALIN: Yes. One of the symptoms of that is when a candidate, if there is no term limits and a candidate promises to serve two terms, and then they know it is time to get out and allow the citizen legislature to rule, to govern, and yet they run again and again. With the power of incumbency, they keep getting reelected. That is a symptom of that entitlement mentality that too many politicians absorb, they adopt. In this stage of America's history, things like that, we are not going to put up with that either.

ASMAN: Let me throw it back to you, because one of the people you endorsed, of course, was your runningmate in the election, Senator John McCain. Some say he has been in too long and has adopted that attitude. When he stopped campaigning in the summer before the election to support the TARP, that showed what his true colors were. And he has the attitude that government knows best. How do you respond?

PALIN: I think Senator McCain has evolved to be more of a fighter for conservative principles than ever. No, I was proud to stand by Senator McCain in his race for reelection. I told the rest of the country I wanted him to be our president. Why wouldn't I want him to be a U.S. Senator? I stand by that endorsement. And Senator McCain, I think he would be quite admitting of this too, he has seen the light on some of respects in some of these issues. He has always been such a proponent of limited spending. He was the proponent of doing away with the earmarks and the other things that too many in the Republican Party --

ASMAN: That's true.

PALIN: Have not understood.

(CROSSTALK)

ASMAN: That's true. But he was in favor -- did he make a mistake by coming out in favor of TARP, which turned into this huge boondoggle?

PALIN: Anyone who has voted beyond that initial TARP Proposal and gone with stimulus number two and state bailouts and school bailouts all these other things, they are the ones making the mistake.

ASMAN: Here at Scoreboard, we were against TARP number one as well. We saw, once politicians got their hands on that much money, they were not going to let go. You have to drag it out of their bodies to stop them from going a step further. That's the problem. Once you start these programs, you can't finish them.

PALIN: You're absolutely right, David. When I was governor of Alaska and those stimulus funds were being -- I saw them as being handed to states as bribes, so our state would be more beholden to big federal government. Unsustainable programs is what these stimulus funds were going to initially pay for in a state. And when the governors and legislatures took those dollars -- I took some of them. Some that I didn't, I vetoed, and the Republican-led legislature overrode my veto. But I warned the public this is unsustainable and we are participating and perpetuating the problem of growing debt in our nation.

Again, back then, two years ago, it was too many Republicans who didn't stand on principle and say, no, enough is enough. Now I think there's a lot of regrets. And if there were do over time, a lot of Republicans in the Senate and the House would say no way.

ASMAN: Governor, stay with us. We want to bring in a couple of people you know.

We've already introduced them, Jesse Kelly, Republican candidate for Congress in Arizona; and retired Army colonel, Allen West, who won the Republican primary for a congressional seat in Florida.

I want to go to Jesse Kelly first because we have a good shot of him. We have a shot of him. He's a Marine and, Colonel West, I love the Army but I have a favor for the Marines.

Congratulations for your victory. Where do you think you will go from here? What is the key message in November?

JESSE KELLY, (R), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: The key message here is get this government out of the way and out of people's lives. They are bankrupting this nation. They're growing the government and crushing the private sector. It's time to send some conservatives to Washington D.C. That's where we go from here.

ASMAN: Colonel West, are you on board with that policy?

WEST: Yes, absolutely right, David. It is important we understand the two critical issues are the fiscal security and physical security of the American people. Growing public sector over the private sector will not create the long-term sustainable economic growth the country needs. It will push us deeper and deeper. And anyone talking about additional stimulus packages, pull out a little history book and look at what Japan did to their economy with, I think, about eight or nine stimulus packages.

ASMAN: Colonel, you want to say hello to Sarah Palin who endorsed you?

WEST: Absolutely. It's the first time I got a chance to speak with her.

Governor, thank you for your endorsement in March. We will bring a victory in November in south Florida.

PALIN: Thank you. I am so appreciative of both of you gentlemen. You have served this country selflessly, serving something greater than self. And you're putting yourself on the line again for the rest of us. God bless you.

WEST: Thank you.

ASMAN: By the way, Governor Palin, the great thing about these guys, not only Jesse Kelly and Col. West, but so many of the folks you endorsed.

Again, we are in very uncertain times. Everyone is shaky about the markets and the economy and their jobs. and people are looking for anchors. These are the kind of folks, the kind of guys, with military backgrounds, business backgrounds -- Colonel West has an impressive business background as well -- who can act as those anchors. We do not need leaders to tell us what to do but we need anchors that can get control of things and keep them from spinning off into Neverland.

PALIN: I absolutely agree. And I here, on a panel with these two gentlemen, I feel like I'm not even worthy of tying their combat boots, but just being so respectful of them. That is what we need, men of honor who understand what it means to be an American and the exceptionalism that is our country, who want to protect that and want to allow our children and grandchildren the opportunity for the freedom that we had. I can't tell you how are appreciative so many of us are that they are willing to serve us in Washington D.C.

ASMAN: Jesse Kelly, how do we undo the damage that has been done? We have spent so many trillions of dollars over the past couple of years, created so many new agencies and bureaucracies. If you win, are you going to be spending the first couple of terms just undoing what we have done over the past couple of years?

KELLY: We need to do both at the same time. We have to undo what these radical liberals have done in Washington and do everything we can to invite business back to this nation. Start cutting taxes, cutting regulation, send up a flag to the world that's says, come here, do business, expand, employ people and we will not punish you for doing that.

I know it looks bad right now, but the beauty of this nation is the American people are awake and engaged, and we can have our country back shortly.

ASMAN: Finally, Colonel West, the same question. Are you going to be so busy and doing the first couple of term that you won't have time to do anything else?

WEST: I think, yes, you have to go in with an aggressive plan, especially for the economy. I think a payroll tax holiday is a great way to stimulate the economy. We have to look at changing the tax code, this progressive tax system that lends itself to class warfare. I am a proponent of going to something like the flat tax.

ASMAN: Oh.

WEST: We have to promote our small businesses to grow and to be good to the corporations and businesses so we can start producing and manufacturing here in America. We have to hire Americans and get them back to work. I think those are the things we have to do to the economy.

We can't see capital gains tax go up. We can't see the dividends tax go up. We can't have the death tax bill go up. We can't have the child tax credit get cut in half. We have to look at how we can put money in American family's pockets.

ASMAN: By the way, Governor Palin, I don't think I ever heard you talk about it. We have to go, but are you in favor of a flat tax?

PALIN: Yes, anything besides what we have today. We see what these leftists have shoved down our throats in terms of taxes and this talk of allowing tax breaks that Bush put in place to expire. Anything besides what it was the leftist did to us, we will be better off.

ASMAN: Governor Sarah Palin, Jesse Kelly and Colonel Allen West, thank you for coming in. Thank you so much or coming in. Appreciate it.

WEST: Thanks so much, David.

KELLY: Thanks for having us on.

PALIN: Thank you, David.

ASMAN: Thanks so much.

Coming up on deck, small business, big business, just about everyone is lining up against Obamanomics. What would lead the CEO of one of the nation's most important, respectable technology companies to blast the president of the United States? Analysis next from the CEO of Cypress Semiconductor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASMAN: New home sales plunged more than 12 percent in July. And company's spending a lot less now on computers. This is a bad sign for Silicon Valley, a traditional Democratic stronghold. And now Intel CEO Paul Otellini, is slamming President Obama's economic policy, saying they threaten the future of technology if nothing changes. So we want to know what you think about the president's support in Silicon Valley. Has he lost Silicon Valley? If he has, it's a buy. If not, it's a sell. If you're not sure, it's a hold. Text 369249.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASMAN: You know President Obama is in trouble when Silicon Valley turns against him. Intel's chief, Paul Otellini, making some brutal observations about the president's economic team when he was in Aspen, Colorado two nights ago. And I quote, I think this group does not understand what it takes to create jobs. And I think they are flummoxed by their experiment in Keynesian economics not working.

What's really shocking about Otellini's public bashing of the president's policies is, for 20 years, Silicon Valley has leaned solidly Democratic with certain notable libertarian exceptions, like our next guest, T.J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor.

T.J., great to see you. Were you surprised to see these remarks from Paul?

T.J. RODGERS, CEO, CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR: Yes, I was. Paul is in a very high position. He is a diplomatic character, a nice guy. The fact that he was so vehement and aggressive in what he said did surprise me. It is all right, by the way, but it was a little surprising how strong he was.

ASMAN: It was indeed. And he -- what scared him was not just the amount of money spent by the government but how the entrepreneurial spirit of America is at risk.

I want to put up another quote and get you to respond. He said, Every business in America has a list of more variables now than I've ever seen in my career. If variables like capital gains taxes and the R D credit are resolved correctly, jobs will stay here. But if politicians make decisions the wrong way, people will not invest in the United States. They will invest elsewhere. Do you agree?

RODGERS: Absolutely. We need talent to survive. Part of the equation is to hire immigrants. That got shutdown. I can't hire Indian software engineers in Silicon Valley so now I hire them in Bangalore. Taxes -- I go to another country and I say, how about if I put a billion dollars and build a plant and create a thousand jobs for you, what do you think? Well, we will put some money in the school and train people for you. We will put in a power connection up to the edge of your plant for you and give you a tax holiday.

You come to California here, in particular, it is worse than all but 47 states. They say, oh, you want to invest a billion dollars? Write me a check for $97,500,000 for the sales taxes on the plant.

ASMAN: Oh.

RODGERS: And by the way, we have this environmental process. Takes about three and a half years. How would you like to invest here? In California, CEO magazine ranked them 50th out of 50 states for the fifth year in a row. California, in particular, and the United States in general continues to tell business, we don't want you. You go and you take care of your employees and you give them a good health plan, another example, and all of a sudden, you have a left-leaning administration, oh, you have a Cadillac health plan. In addition to you're giving money to your employees to take care of your health, we are going to tax you on top of that, because it's a Cadillac plan and we need to fund our government health care. They just tell you in all the ways you can think of to go away. And guess what, we are doing that.

ASMAN: Yes, well, they either tell you to go away or force you to shut down, one or the other. He did quantify, Paul Otellini, as you just did, exactly how much this is costing. And he says, I can tell you definitively, it costs $1 billion more per factory for me to build, equip and operate a semiconductor manufacture facility in the U.S. $1 billion more per factory. Does that sound right?

RODGERS: No, for Intel's scale, it's absolutely right. I know, Paul, but I don't talk to him that often. I can guarantee you, from running a company right here in Silicon Valley, he has some finance hawks in his group and they keep telling him, why are you doing this? We're losing $1 billion doing this. Intel has been committed to American manufacturing, even California manufacturing.

Right now, that president is having trouble justifying why he continues to do that in the face of the fact that he is being beat up over the head more and more, getting penalized for doing the right thing in America.

ASMAN: Do you think -- final question -- that this administration will change as a result of what Paul is saying, all the small business people are saying, or will they stick to their guns throughout this administration?

RODGERS: Politics is divorced from truth, investment, creating jobs. Politics is about sound bites on TV. They can do what they want and, whatever way they go, they can justify.

I remember -- let me answer your question directly by analogy. I remember when Jimmy Carter was running our economy into the ground. Carter nominates -- Carter was running oil plants to try to get oil out of Shell Oil, et cetera. And we had a guy named Reagan who said this is wrong. If you want to invest in something, let private industry and individuals invest. The government can't collect billions of dollars, now trillions, and think better and vote on it and move it across states because different Senators want things in their states. That is not the way to invest. And if you invest poorly, eventually you are going to go out of business either as a company or a country. Jimmy Carter didn't get it. And after four years, Ronald Reagan came along.

My concern -- and I listened to your show for a few minutes -- is that the Republicans don't have a lot to brag about. George Bush, in my lifetime, the worst spending -- forget wars, take wars off the table. The worst spending president for domestic spending growth through government taking over our economy, it was Lyndon Johnson and number two was George W. Bush. One Republican and one Democrat.

The best president for economic domestic spending growth was Ronald Reagan and number two was Bill Clinton. One Republican and one Democrat.

ASMAN: Yes, that's true.

RODGERS: Both parties can mess up.

ASMAN: Of course, Clinton --

(CROSSTALK)

ASMAN: -- did have a Republican Congress he has to answer to as well but --

RODGERS: I agree. Newt Gingrich's Congress was nice to say no a lot. I absolutely agree.

(CROSSTALK)

ASMAN: It helps when somebody pushes back and says, no.

T.J., I have to say no now because we have run out of time. But it was wonderful having you on.

T.J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor.

RODGERS: Thank you.

ASMAN: One of the great minds in Silicon Valley. Thank you, T.J. Appreciate it.

And we want to know what you think. President Obama has lost Silicon Valley. This would be a big political turnaround. Is that statement a buy, sell or hold? Text 369249.

And he has already lost many small-business owners. You've heard from them just about everyday here on Scoreboard. So is Governor Sarah Palin tapping into America's frustration with Obamanomics? The panel breaks down the Sarah Palin effect. That comes next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASMAN: Tonight we're hearing a lot about how big business is fed up with the administration's policies. Scoreboard has heard the same complaints about overregulation and taxes from small-business owners all over the country.

Is all that anger playing itself out in the upstart primaries? Will we will see a lot more before November? Let's get ahead of the curve with our panel, entrepreneur Amilya Antonetti, author of the great book The Recipe which we are going to be sending in bulk to the White House and they can figure out how to work together as a group, Democratic strategist Tara Dowdell, whose book is forthcoming, and FOX News Medical Contributor Dr. Mark Siegel. Good to have you all here.

Let's talk to small business -- you are more of a medium-sized business person. What do you think? Is there any way to give the folks in the administration to understand what is causing the logjam?

AMILYA ANTONETTI, ENTREPRENEUR: You might as well be speaking two completely different languages. A lot of big businesses are saying they do not know what it takes to actually hire people. That is a very true statement. They don't know what the process is about.

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