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Is Obama the Next Jimmy Carter?; Teens to be Tried as Assaults for Assaulting Disabled Girl; Book Examines Most Expensive Bottle of Wine

Aired May 19, 2008 - 19:00:00   ET


GLENN BECK, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, Obama on America.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can`t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times.

BECK: Hmm. Sounds a little something like this guy. I`ll tell you why Chairman Obama will be bad for the country.

Then Mexican police chiefs murdered and forced into hiding. Just another example of the problems on our border.

And is the Senate trying to sneak amnesty in the war-spending bill? I`ll ask former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer what Washington should be doing about all of this.

And has the GOP abandoned conservatives? Jon Voight, the lone conservative voice in the Hollywood wilderness.

All this and more, tonight.


BECK: Well, hello, America.

I`m on pins and needles. I don`t know how it`s going to work out tomorrow. Kentucky and Oregon are going to have their Democratic primaries. Oregon is where Barack Obama is hoping to claim victory over his rival Hillary Clinton. Obama is also hoping to pitch himself to Oregon as the environmental president. Great, just what we needed.

At a rally near Portland the earthy, crunchy capital of the world, Barack said this.


OBAMA: We can`t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times and then just expect that every other country`s going to say OK. That`s not -- that`s not leadership.


BECK: Really? Forgive me if I respectfully disagree. America, here`s the point tonight. Barack Obama wants us to relive the Jimmy Carter years. And I don`t really want to go back there. And here`s how I got there.

I feel Jimmy Carter -- I`m out on a limb -- probably the worst president in modern history. And considering the competition, that`s saying something. He presided over 20-percent inflation, double-digit interest rates, a naive foreign policy. Think there was a burning helicopter in there someplace, epic gas shortages, and skyrocketing oil prices.

When asked how Americans should deal with a cold winter in the face of expensive heating oil, Jimmy Carter said, "I don`t know. Wear a sweater."

To make his Jimmy Carter impersonation perfect, Barack Obama, I think all he needs is a southern accent, a beer-drinking hick of a brother, and a peanut up his you know what.

Americans don`t retreat; we innovate. Invention is what moves us forward, not regulation. Putting on a sweater? Turning down the thermostat? Those are more distractions from a desperately needed long- term solution to our energy problem that I got news for you, just ain`t going away.

Let me remind you: America runs on oil. And cars are just the beginning. Driving SUVs, those are not the problem. Focusing on polar bears and ethanol, that`s the problem. We can do anything in this country. We`ve proved it time and time again. We committed to landing on the moon, and we put a whole butt-load of men up on the moon. Now we need the same kind of dedication from a president who will grow a set and lead the charge.

Better yet, we need a president that`s not an obstructionist, who will shove the obstructionist government out of the way of American entrepreneurs. The lasting solutions are staring us right in the face. It`s cold oil technology, nuclear energy, aggressive domestic drilling. Those are just medium-term solutions. But we need them. And we need the American dreamers to take us to the next step and ensure our future is as glorious as our past. And it ain`t the government that`s going to do it.

The only thing keeping us from energy independence are the weasels in Washington that lack the vision, all the while blocking the doorway to our future.

So tonight, America, here is what you need to know. America`s future is not in her past. It never has been. We made it through the four-year nightmare called the Carter administration, and returning to that same impotent thinking would be a tragic mistake and, given the world today, I think it could be a fatal mistake.

Barack Obama wants the Birkenstock crowd to vote for him. You know what, Barack? Who else are they going to vote for? He`s proving yet again he`s a politician by telling Oregon voters exactly what they want to hear. So thanks anyway, Barack but I think I`m going to keep my SUV, eat as much as I want, and crank the heat up to about 85 just to piss all the people wearing Birkenstocks that don`t shave under their armpits, just to piss them off.

I`ve got my fingers crossed, America, for a leader, not another Jimmy Carter.

Stephen Moore writes editorials on economics for the "Wall Street Journal."

Stephen, my gut says Obama is Jimmy Carter. Right or wrong?

STEPHEN MOORE, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, I feel like I have to get out my bell-bottom jeans and my disco music. I mean, it is a replay of the 1970s.

And Glenn, when I heard that excerpt you did from his speech in Oregon, it really did remind me of Jimmy Carter. Remember, he used to give these speeches in the cardigan sweaters next to the fireside and say everybody turn their thermostats down.

I mean, the four years under Jimmy Carter, Glenn, were the worst four years for family income in the last 50 years. We don`t want to go there again. We`ve done that. We`ve been there.

BECK: OK. So let`s go through it. Some of the things: tax rates.

MOORE: Seventy percent. Seventy percent. And under -- I forget. Do you live in New Jersey or New York, Glenn?

BECK: I live in Connecticut.

MOORE: Good for you. Well, if you live in New York, New Jersey, or California, when you combine his tax increase with the state`s taxes, you`re facing 60 percent marginal tax rates. So we`re right back where we were in the `70s.

BECK: Without any kind of deductions like they used to have.

MOORE: That`s exactly right.

BECK: Windfall profits.

MOORE: Yes, we did that. That was one of Jimmy Carter`s swan songs. We put in place a windfall profits tax in 1979. What happened when we did that was our reliance on foreign oil went way up.

BECK: Went up, yes.

MOORE: And our domestic production went way down. Barack Obama wants the same thing.

BECK: Spending out of control in Washington under Jimmy Carter.

MOORE: Well, I don`t think Jimmy Carter wanted to spend as much as Barack does. This is -- they both wanted to spend a lot of money, and the budget went through the roof under Jimmy Carter, but Barack Obama is calling for $300 billion a year of new spending per year.

BECK: Right. And then you`ve got the foreign policy where he wants to talk to our enemies. He wants to hollow out our military. But you know, Stephen, here`s what -- here`s what really frightens me.

There`s a possibility that the Senate only has 40 Republicans. And I`m not a fan of the Republicans. But maybe 40. That can`t stop a filibuster. That`s not going to happen. They`ll be down 70 seats in the House, and they`ll have Barack Obama. Good God almighty, what does America look like in 18 months?

MOORE: It`s a frightening proposition, because you`re talking about repeating all of the economic mistakes of the 1970s. And the problem is when Jimmy Carter did it, at least we didn`t know that all these things would go wrong. Now we know. We`ve been there.

BECK: So Stephen, I don`t understand...

MOORE: What`s the logic of repeating the mistakes of the 1970s?

BECK: You and I have had dinner, and I know you disagree with this, because we`ve argued about this a million times. It`s not the -- just the mistakes of the 1970s. These are the same mistakes we made during the Great Depression.

MOORE: Right. You know, you`re right about that. And the problem is Democrats, they look at the situation, and we all see government failure, everything from responding to Katrina to the out-of-control budget, the deficits, and then liberals respond to that: "Hmm, I think we need a little more government to deal with these problems." When government created -- government created the problem with the high gas prices and the high food prices.

BECK: Crazy. Stephen, thanks a lot.

Now it hasn`t been luck that built America into the world`s lone superpower. I don`t know if those in Washington think that or not. It was the hard work and tireless innovation of men and women with true vision. It`s people like you.

It would be easy to say that kind of foresight is in short supply these days, but it`s not. That`s not the case. We`ve got great thinkers, a new generation of innovators champing at the bit, but we`ve got them in handcuffs that the federal government has slapped on their wrists. Instead of progress, we have too many empty suits and attorneys in Washington talking about sacrifice. If we`re going to continue leading the way that has got to change, and it`s got to change quickly.

Bob O`Brien is the stocks editor for "Barron`s" online.

Bob, you know what? What kills me, because I run a business, the last person I ask for advice in my company is the attorney because they`re paid to say no.


BECK: That`s who we`ve got in Washington, a butt-load of attorneys telling us how to run our country. And it`s just -- it`s not working out well.

O`BRIEN: It`s not working out well. And Glenn, that is absolutely a formula for failure there: when you let a bunch of regulators make decisions about policy that are going to affect, particularly, pocketbook issues. Because there`s such a divorce from reality that takes place in Washington.

They`re not even realizing the impact that some of these -- some of the conditions are having on your spending power in the rest of the country. So outside the beltway, there`s absolutely no sensitivity to what`s going on in America.

BECK: OK. We have -- everybody`s talking about, "Oh, well, we`d better not drill anywhere." In ten years it`s my understanding that China, if their growth continues at the pace it has in the last ten years, they will use every bit of oil production that the world is doing right now. They`ll use all of it. That would be massive problems for the rest of the world. There will be war for oil in ten years. And yet we`re not doing anything.

What should we be doing? How do we get this story across, Bob, to people to say this isn`t just a run on -- you know, on gas prices this time. This -- we`re looking at the future?

O`BRIEN: Indeed, Glenn. And you know, it`s not just a question of production these days. I mean, if you look at the U.S. oil industry, we haven`t built a new refinery in the United States in over 25 years. That means an entire generation without adding capacity to that refining operation.

The production is less of an issue right now. It`s simply coming up with the finished product that you can use in any kind of a coherent...

BECK: Why don`t we stop using -- why don`t we stop making different blends?

O`BRIEN: Well, there are a number of ideas out there that could be -- that could be -- that could be considered. I mean, why micromanage some of the -- some of the details about seasonal blends, for example?

BECK: Right.

O`BRIEN: And just simple let the -- let the consumer select the product that they want to use and that works best for their lifestyle.

However, the government has basically decided that it`s going to take a very top-down approach to these things and dictate to the oil companies exactly what`s going on.

BECK: So...

O`BRIEN: At the same time they`re not dictating that they ought to be able to build up some refining capacity.

BECK: Bob, you told me, I don`t know, about a month ago, you said if oil prices are still this high -- and they`ve only gotten higher since we last spoke.


BECK: If it`s this high July 4, that`s a tipping point. What does that mean?

O`BRIEN: Well, that means you`re going to be looking at $4 a gallon when you pull up to the pump. That means effectively that that`s money that you`re not going to be able to spend, whether it`s buying some kind of a consumer discretionary item or perhaps even cutting right into your ability to basically...

BECK: What does that mean long-term for the economy?

O`BRIEN: Well, it means that the economy becomes an -- completely the victim of inflationary pressures here. And inflation pressure that nobody in government is going to be able to try and wean us away from.

You`re going to start to see inflation moving up 7 to 8 percent over the course of -- over the course of the year. And that`s basically going to be the biggest pocketbook issue that voters are going to face when they head to the polls.

BECK: OK. Bob, thanks a lot. We`ll talk to you again.

O`BRIEN: Thank you.

O`BRIEN: Coming up, the GOP is facing an identity crisis. Republicans across the country wonder if they get the party`s act together before November. We`re going to talk to Oscar-winning actor, leading conservative voice in Hollywood, Jon Voight, for some perspective.

And an update about a truly horrific story about a defenseless woman. We`re bringing you this update -- you`ll remember it -- just right around the corner. Don`t miss it. It`s next.


BECK: A while back I told you about an absolutely heartbreaking case of Ashley Clark. She is a disabled young woman who was ambushed, terrorized, and beaten for hours in her own home by a teenage couple. We weren`t able to show you their mug shots or give you their names before. Now we can.

Richard Jones is the sheriff in Butler County, Ohio. And Bobby Clark is the father of Ashley Clark. We have wanted to -- we`ve wanted to have you guys on for a while. But Bobby, we haven`t because -- because of what`s going on in the courtroom. And we have some really good news.

And Sheriff, let`s start at the beginning with you first. Let`s go to the beginning and just describe quickly, refresh people`s memory on what happened to Ashley.

SHERIFF RICHARD JONES, BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO: Well, basically, these two people broke into Ashley`s home and -- the night before, and they waited for the mother to leave that morning. They stayed in the basement. They hid out.

They left that morning, the mother did. And they went upstairs from the basement area, and they basically began to torture Ashley all day long. Six, seven hours, all day.

They cut her hair off. They tied her up. They made her walk outside in the snow barefooted. They put her in the shower, soaked her down wet. They hit her in the head with a ball bat. She begged them not to strike her in the head. She`s had brain surgery. She has a disability. Very nice girl.

She knew these people. They basically tortured her for six or seven hours in her own home.

BECK: OK. Priors? We can now talk about priors.

JONES: Sure.

BECK: These dirt-bags have prior records?

JONES: Oh, yes. On average the both of them have about 15 priors, which includes assault, weapon charges. I mean, they`ve been in trouble, probably, since they were 12 years old.

BECK: Why...

JONES: This isn`t the first time.

BECK: You know, at some point you`ve got to ask yourself why aren`t we putting people in jail?

Now, they`re going to be tried as adult. The bail is some of the highest anybody has ever seen. It`s a million dollars cash, is it not?

JONES: A million cash. Some of the highest I`ve seen. But we`re fortunate. We have a judge in this case that`s really a -- really a person -- the people`s judge. And he sent a message on this.

BECK: OK. Bobby, first of all, how is Ashley?

BOBBY CLARK, ASHLEY`S FATHER: She`s doing as good as she can.

BECK: My heart was absolutely broken when I -- when I heard this. I have three daughters myself, and I can`t even imagine what you and the family have gone through, let alone what Ashley has gone through.

Now you sat in the courtroom, and you saw the judge give these two $1 million cash bail. They`re not going anywhere. And said they were going to be tried as adults. How did they react, and how did you react?

CLARK: Well, I`m just -- I`m real happy at the outcome of it. It`s just been -- the sheriff`s office and the prosecutor`s office and Judge Craft done exactly what I wanted: binding it over to adult court, because I feel that these people needs every day they can get.

BECK: How did they react in court?

CLARK: They was kind of aston -- they were surprised. Their mouths just dropped open when he give them the bond.

BECK: Good, good. Ashley, I understand had a really hard time the day of the court case, because you -- she was crying. She`s been afraid of these people coming back and getting out, right?


BECK: And what happened the day of the court case?

CLARK: She was a lot better after she actually watched the news at 12 and seen that them people was bound over to adult court and that they had set that bond. We explained to her what it was. And she was really a whole lot better later on in the day after she seen that and after she realized that these people were going to be there a while.

BECK: How have you seen -- how have you seen -- what differences have you seen in your daughter since this? Is she the same -- is she the same person?

CLARK: She has a little less trust with people now. She`s starting to get some of it back.

BECK: Are you the same person? I have to be real honest with you, Bobby. I have so much admiration. I mean, look at you. You`re sitting there with that T-shirt with the great saying on it. It would take everything in me -- I wouldn`t, but it would take everything in me not to pick up my loaded gun. I would be so angry you`d do this to my daughter. How are you doing?

CLARK: Well, at this point, if it hadn`t been for the sheriff`s office and the people that works for the sheriff`s office, talking to them and letting the system work, I`m just trying to concentrate on helping my daughter at this point.

BECK: They cut up her prom dress.


BECK: Any idea why they did that?

CLARK: I have no idea.

BECK: And Saturday is her prom. Is she going?

CLARK: Yes, she`s going. She was actually donated a wig by a wig shop in Fairfield, and a local dress shop, David`s Bridal, donated her a new prom dress.

BECK: And is it -- she`s wearing the wig, because they cut off all of her hair?


BECK: Bobby, best of luck. Our prayers are with you.

And Sheriff, you keep getting the bad guys. Will you?

JONES: Good thing -- Glenn, remember this. Their parole officers aren`t even born yet. And they`re in the big boy jail now, and they`re not going to have a lot of fun. I promise you that.

BECK: God bless you both. Thanks a lot.

JONES: Thanks.

BECK: Back in just a second.


BECK: You know, back in my drinking days I drank a lot. I didn`t really get fancy. It was pretty much Jack Daniel`s. You know, working man`s drink. Even though I did very little work. You know, I hear you can still get it for under 25 bucks a fifth. I just hear those things.

So when I read about a guy who paid over $150,000 for a bottle of 200- year-old wine, I thought, yes, and I was a crazy alcoholic. Right.

The story -- if you`ve not heard this story, you have to read this book. I couldn`t put it down. "The Billionaire`s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World`s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine." Its author is Benjamin Wallace.

How are you doing, Benjamin?


BECK: You know, I just told you of the air and let me just tell you quickly. I read about ten books at a time. And I try to be fair and, you know, read a little bit of each, because I`ve got to plow through them all. I always know it`s a good book when I stop reading the other ones just to plow through one. That`s what I did with this book.

This is a fascinating story. Tell quickly -- tell the story. What happened?

WALLACE: Thanks, Glenn.

This is the story of the longest running mystery in the modern wine world. It`s a bottle of 200-year-old Chateau Lafite that sold at auction in 1985 for the world record price of $106,000. And supposedly, this bottle had belonged to Thomas Jefferson and disappeared for 200 years. It was discovered in a cellar in the middle of Paris.

From the beginning there were questions about whether or not this bottle was real or whether it was a forgery.

BECK: Right.

WALLACE: And so the book sort of pursues that mystery.

BECK: It really -- I mean, it`s amazing how -- I mean, these wine people, just dumb as a box of rocks. It made me feel good. It`s like, oh, yes, he`s screwing you.

And then you see -- you see how many people were really almost enablers, because they wanted it to happen. And then in one of my favorite parts of the story, tell the part where -- where the guy kind of really gets nailed by being a jerk neighbor. You know what I`m talking about? Where he -- OK, go ahead.

WALLACE: Yes, well, this is Hardy Rodenstock, the German man who found the bottles of wine, supposedly, in Paris.

BECK: Yes.

WALLACE: He had some problems with his landlord in Munich. And when he finally vacated the premises after -- it was one of these nightmare tenant stories. And the guy finally got him out. And he went down into the basement, and he found empty bottles of wine, corks, labels that had never been used, and a giant pile of dirt, actually, with a dead frog in it that he thought the guy had been using to rub all over the bottles and make them look old.

BECK: So now I`m seeing Malcolm Forbes, you know, drinking from a bottle that had dead frogs rubbed all over it. It was -- it`s fascinating.

What`s frustrating is the end of the book it doesn`t really end, because it`s still going on.

WALLACE: Right. The legal case is still going on, but I -- I think most of the information that has come out, that is going to come out, has come out, unless Hardy Rodenstock suddenly decides to, you know, break down and make a tearful confessional, which I don`t think is going to happen.

BECK: Right. So what the most amazing part of this, when you were going through it? Was it -- I mean, the guy Koch, who was a billionaire who was just -- I mean, just the description of his wealth -- and you crossed him. He`s like, "I`ve been screwed." He pulled out all of the stops. What was the most amazing thing that you found in the story?

WALLACE: Well, one of the interesting things about the story, and I don`t think I`m giving too much away, because really the focus of the book is the mystery about the origin of these battles.

But what happened to the bottle, the $106,000 bottle of wine. About a year after the Forbes family bought it, they displayed it in their galleries in downtown Manhattan. And a curator was walking past the bottle one day, and they noticed something bobbing in the liquid.

BECK: Right.

WALLACE: And it turned out that, because they had displayed this bottle of wine under a halogen light, which is not what you`d call ideal cellar conditions...

BECK: Right.

WALLACE: ... the cork had dried up and fallen into the bottle.

BECK: Don`t worry about it. It`s only a $150,000 bottle of wine.

"Billionaire`s Vinegar." Great read. We`ll have more coming up.

WALLACE: Thanks, Glenn.

BECK: You bet.




But first, welcome to our "Real Story."










Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer is with us.

Hi, Ari.






FLEISCHER: Fading in the campaign.

BECK: Yes.


BECK: It`s not with the American people.

FLEISCHER: That`s correct.



BECK: But you know what?







BECK: Do you?


BECK: Yes.




BECK: So what happened?






BECK: We are beholden.

FLEISCHER: That`s the point.

BECK: Right.






BECK: Yes.











What happened to financial discipline? What happened to family values?







BECK: Yes. Well...

VOIGHT: God bless me for showing up on your show.


VOIGHT: Who else would do this? Proud conservative.



BECK: Are you a proud conservative?






BECK: OK. So that includes the border?


BECK: Fence?

VOIGHT: Right now, yes.



BECK: Yes.






BECK: Sorry about that.

VOIGHT: I can deal with that.


VOIGHT: Yes, that`s exactly right.


VOIGHT: Barbarians.

BECK: Yes.











VOIGHT: It is.




BECK: Right. Have you ever seen...


BECK: Right.








BECK: All right. Thank you.




















BECK: OK. And that`s the burglar?





















From New York, good night America.