RUSH: Before we start, here is Romney last night. It’s a problem. He will not call Obama a socialist, and this is the conventional wisdom of the GOP elite. You don’t criticize Obama. But see, I don’t think you can separate Obama from his policies. You can’t separate Obama from who and what he is. But we got this belief that if we go out and say he’s a socialist, “Oh, no, Rush, independents, they don’t want to hear that. They’re gonna start running back to Obama. We’re gonna lose ’em, oh, no, please Rush, don’t do that.” I get notes from people, “Please, Rush, dial it back, hitting Obama too hard is not gonna help us.” They’re really scared. They’re really scared. Romney won’t even call Obama zany. He’ll call Gingrich zany. George Will will not call Obama a Marxist, but he’ll call Gingrich a Marxist. Here’s Romney. O’Reilly says, “Is Obama a socialist?”
ROMNEY: You know, I prefer to use the term that he’s just over his head. I consider him a big government liberal Democrat. I think, as you look at his policies, you conclude that he thinks Europe got it right, and we got it wrong. I think Europe got it wrong. I think Europe is not working in Europe, and I’ll battle him on that day in and day out. But I’m probably not gonna be calling him names so much as calling him a failure.
RUSH: Be careful, Mitt, they’ll come down on you on that. Remember when I hoped that he was a failure, hoped he would fail, and he hasn’t. You know, depending on your perspective, Mitt, he hasn’t failed, that’s a problem. (interruption) Yeah, I know, some people say Romney’s in over his hair here. I just don’t understand the reluctance. The guy’s a socialist. What, does that poll poorly or something? Polling the word “socialist,” it doesn’t serve us well? Whatever happened to leadership, whatever happened to education, whatever happened to informing people? We don’t want to be a socialist country, do we? No. Why not? If people don’t know, you tell them. It’s called leadership. It’s called teaching. People love learning things. I know I still do. It’s very hard for me to learn things now, I know a lot, but when I do learn — that’s why the computer is so exciting — I learn so much. It’s a thrill.
Most people like learning. Most people want to be taught. And if they’ve got the wrong idea about socialists, teach them. At the very least make Obama explain how he’s not one. Don’t let him get away with not even having to defend it, for crying out loud. Folks, I want to rip my hair out over this kind of stuff, I really do. And I don’t have that much left to rip out. Why are we always on the defensive? Nobody ever won anything defending it. I know some of you are dialing the phone even now feverishly because you think you found an example of defending something that ended up in victory and you can’t wait to tell me. Go ahead. Go for it.
We didn’t win World War II defending anything. And I don’t mean to be offensive, but the Alamo, they had no choice, it was valorous. In order to advance, in order to move forward, you have to be doing something other than defending where you are. You have to be doing something other than defending your turf.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I got some e-mails. “What is the big deal about calling Obama a socialist, Rush? It’s not that big a deal.” Look, folks, my problem is that nobody has any problem calling the European Union a bunch of socialist nations. They call ’em socialist democracies. In criticizing what’s happening in Europe, and their economic plight and their demise, everybody says, “Yeah, that’s a bunch of socialist nations,” and nobody bats an eye. Everybody’s cool with it. Because it’s what it is. And Mitt Romney has no trouble calling Newt Gingrich any bad name, whatever. And not just Romney. Our side will call other members on our team any sort of bad name.
What is being said about Gingrich by his opponents is far worse than Romney calling Obama a socialist, or anybody else calling Obama a socialist. So we can call Newt Gingrich anything, and nobody’s worried about what that’s gonna do to voters. Mitt Romney thinks he can win the Republican nomination by going scorched-earth negative with one of his super PACs on Newt Gingrich. Mitt Romney is obviously totally comfortable with negative campaigning, all the blasphemous words, terms being used to describe Newt, or whoever else who surfaces to become the not-Romney. But when it’s Obama, no, no, no, Rush we can’t do that, we can’t call Obama a socialist. We can call Greece a bunch of socialists. We can call Spain a bunch of socialists. We can call the European Union a bunch of commie pinkos, and we call the Chinese communists. We cannot call Obama socialist, no, no, no.
So our Republicans, they can win the Republican nomination by going scorched earth negative, but we can’t win anything else by being true? Oh, is that it? You know, I keep forgetting, the fact that Obama is black, is why we can’t call him a socialist? Is that it, because Obama’s black we can’t call him anything? Is that what it is? That had slipped my mind because when I look at Obama, I don’t see black. I see a socialist. I see a Marxist. I see a guy who’s got this country in his crosshairs. So we can call Gingrich whatever we want because he’s white. Or we can call Gingrich whatever we want ’cause he’s not black. But Obama, he’s black. We can’t call him a socialist. That’s racist and we don’t want to be called racists. Well, then, we may as well just give up.
Our side may as well just concede here. ‘Cause they’re demonstrating they know how to run a political campaign to win the nomination. But when it comes to the winning the White House because of the occupant we’re gonna dial it back 75%? And then what, hope to get credit for being nice guys? Anybody wonder why negative ads are run? You want to know why they’re run? Because they work. Sadly, that bothers you. I’m sorry to tell you, but they work. That’s why it happens. The fact that he’s black, yeah, and he’s been black all of his life. That doesn’t change anything. Not to me. That’s certainly not something to fear. But, boy, you get these inside-the-Beltway types, and their worldview, their daily worldview, is just different because it’s divorced from the reality of life outside the Beltway.