MSNBC Hardball - Transcript

MSNBC
SHOW: HARDBALL 21:00

February 17, 2004 Tuesday

HEADLINE: HARDBALL 2100 Hour for February 17, 2004

BYLINE: Chris Matthews; Howard Fineman; Jacques De Graff; Joe Scarborough; Joe Trippi; Carl Quintanilla; David Shuster; Ron Allen; Keith Olbermann; Ron Reagan; Pat Buchanan; David Shuster

GUESTS: Lisa DePaulo; Ed Rendell; John Edwards

HIGHLIGHT:
The Wisconsin primary contest is a toss-up between Kerry and Edwards

BODY:
MATTHEWS: Thank you, Keith.

In a moment, John Edwards will join us, but right now we're joined by Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.

Governor Rendell, maybe we're once again getting in trouble. I'm making you make premature announcements, as we once did in the past. Are you ready to endorse John Kerry?

GOV. ED RENDELL (D), PENNSYLVANIA: No. I've said all along, Chris, I'm not endorsing anybody in this race, because I like them all.

But if John Kerry wins tonight -- and you know, that seems to be up in the air -- I think it's time for us as a party to take a hard look at what our basic mission is, and that's facing George Bush.

If John Kerry wins tonight, he'll have won 15 out of 17 races. Senator Edwards, one out of 17. And those figures -- we've got to weigh them and not have the cut-throat -- one of your panelists said is John Edwards going to go after John Kerry and have a cut-throat debate in the next week?

MATTHEWS: That was me, Governor.

RENDELL: If we do that, Chris, only George Bush benefits.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about the Democratic issues. In the state of Pennsylvania, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, what's the No. 1 issue?

RENDELL: The No. 1 issue is the economy.

MATTHEWS: And what's happening to the state of Pennsylvania's economy?

RENDELL: Well, we're sluggish at best. We've lost jobs over the last two or three years, considerable jobs, and it's tied to manufacturing, but it's not just manufacturing. We're starting to lose a lot of those service jobs that are being exported to India and places like that.

And people are worried; they're angry; they're nervous. I think the economy dwarfs all issues.

MATTHEWS: Well, when people go call up to get their computer fixed in the middle of the night, how come they're getting Bangalor or Lahore, one of those places -- what's the name of that? The capital of India? I forget its name right now.

How come we're getting those countries on the line to get our computer fixed now? Why aren't they calling Harrisburg or Allentown to get it fixed?

RENDELL: Well, that's right. Or Wilkes Barre. But...

MATTHEWS: Well, why not? Or Erie.

RENDELL: Because American companies are taking a very short-sighted view and they're equating productivity.

MATTHEWS: No, I'd say it's a long-sided view. They can see their way New Delhi, but they can't see their way to Allentown.

I mean, why are we going all the way around the world to get service jobs filled, when there are lots of English speaking people in Pennsylvania that can answer a question about a computer, or can't they?

RENDELL: Oh, they can. They absolutely can. But they're not willing to work at the wages that they can get abroad.

But I think it's a short-sighted view. What I think American business ought to be doing is looking at productivity in other ways than just cutting wages. And if they do that...

RENDELL: Then how can you improve productivity with a person talking fast on the telephone? I mean, I've heard that productivity argument. But if somebody's at the other end of the phone 5,000 miles away in India, and they talk faster than the American -- how do you increase productivity of a person answering a computer problem?

RENDELL: But call service for, let's say, Hewlett Packard, call service is just one small part of what they do. One small part of what they do.

And I think that we've got to encourage U.S. companies to stay in America, to look at those jobs in America. But we've got to incentivize it, not punish it. And we've got to reward productivity. That's what we try to do.

MATTHEWS: Honestly, can a Democratic president save the jobs of steel workers? Can they save those big manufacturing jobs, or is it history that's working against us here?

RENDELL: No, I think we absolutely can, and we must. As I said the day that President Bush lifted the tariffs and bowed to pressure from the European Union, I said forget every other issue.

How would you like to see an America post 9/11, 10 years from now with no steel-building capacity? We have got to -- again, we've got to do things to make our steel companies competitive. That's the federal government's mission, and it's the states like Pennsylvania, it's our mission, too.

MATTHEWS: It's an honor to have you on. Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.