RUSH: Last week I asked a stupid question, and it took me a couple of hours on Friday to figure it out. I’ve been hoping I wouldn’t forget it all weekend. And here we are, and I remember what it was. The stupid question I asked was: “Why are the teachers in Chicago going on strike?” The answer is very simple: So Obama can solve it as a campaign issue. That’s why they’re on strike. It won’t be long before we hear Moochelle say that he’s up late at night on the campaign trail practically crying, reading letters from students in Chicago upset they can’t go to school.

The schools are open in Chicago for lunch and breakfast. Teachers aren’t there. Rahm Emanuel’s kids are at their $25,000-a-year private school. The Chicago teachers have been offered a 16% raise. How’s that compared to your raise at your job? And they turned it down over some pension stuff. You watch. Rahm Emanuel himself is the guy who said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” We know that the unions, Obama and Rahm Emanuel, the Democrats, are in bed with each other. So this, to me, I think it’s a perfect setup.

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RUSH: This school teacher strike in Chicago? Let’s just see how long this thing goes on, and let’s see how it gets solved. Anybody want to bet against me that Obama’s the one that gets credit for this, in a few short days? Anybody want to bet that there might be a little bit of violence and finally Obama will have to move in and do something? He and Rahm will figure this out so they get credit for solving it. Because, I tell you: There is no union that is gonna go on strike right now for the express purpose of harming Barack Obama.

Quite the contrary.

Any union who thinks their actions would end up hurting Obama will delay or put off those actions. I don’t think Rahm’s gonna beat up the teachers; I just think he’ll talk to the gangbangers and say, “You know what I told you about ignoring the kids? Well, forget it for a couple days.” No, I’m just kidding. I just kidding. I’m just telling you, we know the alliance between the Democrat Party and Obama (more so than Rahm, but nevertheless Rahm’s part of it) and the unions.

And you’re gonna get really depressed when that happens. I’m warning you right now: You haven’t seen anything ’til you see the PR surrounding Obama solving the teacher strike, and then the video of the little kiddies going back to school. They’re gonna be singing Obama songs. (Kid impression)”Barack Hussein Obama! Mmm! Mmm! Mmm! He makes it possible for us to get prop-a-gan-da! Mmm! Mmm!” They’ll be singing that as they walk in the school doors, and the media will be swooning.

“Ohhhh!” There will be virtual orgasms.

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RUSH: These teachers in Chicago on strike, being offered a 16% raise? Wasn’t Michelle Obama talking just last week about the heroism of teachers working without pay? Just last week at the convention, wasn’t she praising teachers? She was going on and on about what heroes they are ’cause they often work without pay and then they have to bring their own supplies from home.

Now they’re on strike in Chicago.

I got an e-mail: “Well, I can see where you might be right, Rush, about Obama moving in at the last moment to solve the teacher strike. But if that’s the case, why didn’t Obama move in to solve all the murders going on in Chicago?” I think the answer to that, although cynical, is very simple: There weren’t any pictures. All we had were statistics. Nineteen more dead overnight (or this weekend, whatever) in Chicago. But that was it. We just had words, text. There weren’t any pictures of the slain. There wasn’t any video footage. There was no video footage of any of the murders.

Here we got pictures.

We got teachers on strike carrying picket signs.

That’s something people can actually see that Obama with stop (i.e., solve).

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RUSH: So I was just watching CNN during the break. Suzanne Malveaux’s the anchor, and they have their reporter on the streets of Chicago covering the strike, and she has this serious and pained look on her face. “Oh, this is horrible. Oh, this is a terrible strike. The poor students.” And she throws to this reporter, and this reporter (I don’t know the name) says, “Well, I hope they get this thing settled fast, Suzanne. No one wants 400,000 kids on the streets of Chicago during the daytime and not in schools.”

(laughing) No one wants 400,000 kids on the streets of Chicago?

I don’t know what they do in the summer! I’ve never understood it. “No one wants 400,000 kids on the streets of Chicago.

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RUSH: The Chicago teachers strike. A CNN reporter says, “The last thing anybody wants is 400,000 Chicago kids on the streets.” Yeah, can’t have the kids on the streets. Gangbangers, fine. Kids on the street, no way. We need to get ’em back in school. I’m very suspicious of this, as I said in the first hour. Of course this can’t be established and can’t be proven, but is this not a golden opportunity for Obama? What are we dealing with here? We’re dealing with teachers unions. We’re dealing with avowed Democrat fundraisers, donors, bundlers, voters for Obama. And they’re on strike.

They earn more than any teachers anywhere in the country. Their salaries are higher than any teachers. They rejected a 16% wage increase. The argument is over health care and pensions. How can that happen? How in the hell can you have a bunch of Democrats going on strike over health care after a Democrat president has given them Obamacare? Would somebody explain all of these incongruities to me? A Democrat mayor, Rahm Emanuel, Democrat union, Democrat fundraisers, donors, bundlers, voters, teachers. You have Obama, Democrat, loves the unions, does everything in the world for them. He shuts down the oil industry for them, whatever they need, buys General Motors and Chrysler, gives them the companies, majority stake, and yet here they are walking out on strike in Chicago, the teachers?

Now, something’s up here. To me it’s made to order. Have this thing go on a couple of days, make sure it gets plenty of news coverage. Have Rahm go out there and sound really, really tough on ’em. He’s the mayor. Nobody’s gonna beat him. He can do whatever he wants to do in Chicago. He’s never gonna be vulnerable at election time, so he can take whatever position he wants. He can even threaten to fire them, a la PATCO. If it’s legal. I don’t know if it’s legal.

Somebody should take a poll of the unemployed in Chicago and ask ’em what to do with the teachers. If Kyle Smith is right, they’ll say pay ’em. People feel sorry for Obama. Apparently, according to the media, some conservative blogs, none of this is ever Obama’s fault, none of it’s ever the fault of Democrat Party. There ought to be a poll of some small-business people in Illinois, Chicago, see who they support for president. Poll the unemployed in Chicago, see who they support for president. Somebody ought to go out and poll homeowners that are underwater, see who they support for president. Instead of these usual polling samples we get that show Obama at 50% and climbing. It’s just absolute crock. But our media people are falling for it, folks.

You go to the wrong places in our media, it’s over, election’s over, it’s done. The bounce, we didn’t get a bounce. Our convention was horrible. Our convention was bad, in comparison anyway. But man, that Democrat convention was a disaster, and they’re trying to tell us that it had a real bounce and a bounce of substance, a bounce that’s gonna last.

Chicago teachers make on average $76,000. That means some make more than that. That’s for nine months work, God knows how many other days off. It does not include their benefits. Here’s the graduation rate. Barely half of Chicago’s high school students earn a diploma in the unionized schools. Over 90% of those studying in nonunion charter schools do graduate. And you can bet those nonunion teachers are paid a good deal less. Stop and think of that. Barely half of the students, the high school students being taught by the teachers on strike earn a diploma. But, folks, it’s not all lost today. The schools are open. Did you know that? For breakfast and lunch for the students. The teachers aren’t there. But what difference does that make when barely half of the students graduate with a diploma that they can read? And they’re on strike.

Is this not made to order for Obama to come in? And not solve it as president, no, no, no, but go in and bring the two sides together and make them see eye-to-eye for the good of the country. Maybe Obama can even go in and say, “I think at this time when so many of your fellow citizens are out of work, and when so many people’s homes are underwater, so many small businesses are having trouble, when everybody’s gotta contribute, everybody has to pitch in, everybody has to sacrifice, I think you teachers may want to look at this in a little bit different way.

This school teacher strike in some ways may be like the environmentalist wackos. The environmentalist wackos sue the EPA, then the EPA settles with them. It’s an inside-outside game. The EPA claims it had no choice but to settle on certain terms. Here the teachers strike, Rahm Emanuel eventually says he had to give them much of what they wanted or the kids would still be out of school. That’s what’s gonna happen. And Obama, I’m not predicting it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama inserts himself in the mix here somehow to bring reason and compassion. Not to the point that Rahm is hurt. It’ll not happen in a way that makes Rahm look incompetent. No, no, no. They will do it working together.