Fox News Sunday Roundtable on Mass. Senate and Health Care

The panel on Fox News Sunday discussed the Massachusetts Senate race and health care today. Here's the full transcript:

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MARTHA COAKLEY: We never take elections for granted, and we're not paying attention to the polls.

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SCOTT BROWN: ... the people around the country want somebody down there who's going to be an independent voter and thinker and bring some common sense back to Washington, then they -- I need their help.

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HUME: That's just a brief sample of the candidates' moods in what's turned out to be a Senate race of considerable consequence, that one in Massachusetts.

It's time now for the Sunday group of Fox News contributors -- Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard, Nina Easton of Fortune Magazine, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, and Juan Williams of National Public Radio.

Well, if you had any doubt about that -- whether that Senate race is close, or tight, or in an unexpected posture, let's take a look at a couple of polls that are recent here that will give you a sense of that. We should have -- be able to put it up on the screen.

Well, there you see -- in two out of the three there, you see Brown is up a few points. The latest Rasmussen poll has Martha Coakley, the Democrat, up by a couple. So as everybody is saying, it's pretty close.

And if you don't think the Democrats are worried about this race, get a load of this ad -- the flyer that was distributed by Democrats against Scott Brown, seven -- "1,736 women were raped in Massachusetts in 2008. Scott Brown wants hospitals to turn them all away."

This the result, apparently, of a measure that Scott Brown backed in that state which would have allowed conscientious objectors, if you will, who work in hospitals not to participate in abortions. It certainly doesn't seem to add up to backing up the charge that was made there.

So, Bill Kristol, where, in your judgment, watching this from a distance but with great attention, does this race stand?

KRISTOL: I mean, it's worth just commenting how extraordinary it is. The Suffolk Poll, which is 50-46 Brown right now, very recent poll -- and that's consistent with internal tracking polls from both campaigns, I believe -- a slight Brown edge.

That poll -- two months ago they did a poll just before the primary. They matched up Brown and Coakley, who were the front runners in each party. Coakley was ahead by 30 points. So this race has moved 30 points in two months. In two months.

Now, that tells you something, I think, about what the country's judgment -- and the voters of -- Brown's run a good campaign. Coakley's run a poor campaign. But the voters of Massachusetts are well aware that this is a national referendum on the health care bill and on Obama's general big government liberal program, and they don't like it. And that's Massachusetts.

And on this flyer -- I mean, that is the face of desperation in a campaign. In Massachusetts, the attorney general running -- 73 percent of the vote in 2006. At the end of -- the Massachusetts Democratic Party sends out a flyer with, really, a pretty despicable lie about Scott Brown, who voted for a conscience clause for day-after -- the morning-after pill for people who came to emergency rooms.

That clause required the emergency room to find someone else to provide the medication or pay for the woman to go elsewhere to get the medication. He then voted for the bill -- the amendment lost. He voted for final passage of the bill, which requires emergency rooms to treat women. And this is denying 1,700 rape victims treatment?

I mean, it's really an ugly case of desperation by the Massachusetts Democratic Party. I can't believe it's going to work. And will President Obama distance himself from it today when he's up there campaigning for Martha Coakley?

HUME: Nina?

EASTON: Well, the race is tight. In fact, Coakley's internal polls show her down -- within the margin of error, but a couple points down.

And I think what happens historically in these kinds of races where it's a lower turnout, when the momentum is breaking in a certain direction -- in this case, the momentum and the energy is all with the Republican -- that that tends to carry the day on election day.