RUSH: Now, I have a plethora of observations about last night’s speech. Kathryn and I watched the speech together, and I took copious notes — well, I left verbal audio notes to myself and was pausing the playback. We watched it live, but I would hit pause on my DVR and we’d look at each other and make comments. Let me tell you the first observation I had. It was borne out, I mean, within 30 seconds of the speech ending. I paused this, and I looked at Kathryn and I said, “There are a lot of people that are gonna think this was a great speech.” And theatrically it was.

We have to be honest about something here, folks. Presentation, forget the content for a second, watch this as low-information people would. The low-information people are not gonna pick up on the nuance. They’re not gonna pick up the contradiction ’til they’re told about it.
I mean, the content of the speech was embarrassing, but forget that. The way it looked, Obama’s countenance as he was giving it, for the first time, I’m just gonna tell you, for the first time he gave a speech and made me think he actually wants America to win something. For the first time he gave a speech that actually made me think that he holds this country out to be something special.

Now, if I picked up on that, and I’m just using my powers of observation, and I’m not listening to the content per se, I mean, I know the conflicts. But he also said enough things that sounded like any other president that we’ve always trusted in situations like this. It was a first. And you will hear in the audio sound bite roster today Sandy Berger said the same thing. Sandy Berger said it was the first time we’ve actually had a presidential speech out of this guy. I’m paraphrasing his words, but Sandy Berger had this observation.

I said, “Theoretically and performance-wise, this is so markedly different that you’re gonna have a lot of people really think this is a great speech.” And not 30 seconds after it ended I get a flash from somebody telling me that Newt Gingrich is on CNN just praising this speech to the hilt, the best thing he’s ever heard, best speech Obama’s ever given. And I knew it, folks, I knew that would be the reaction. Now, Newt saying so, obvious reasons why. It was not, however. When you get to the content, it was embarrassing.

It was incompetence on parade. It was dangerously unaware on parade. But theatrically, the way low-information people, if they were even bothering to watch, it’s clear why he did this. The speech was purely political. Two weeks ago Obama didn’t care about this. Two weeks ago he had no strategy. Two weeks ago it didn’t matter. But there are polls out there left and right that are disastrous for Obama.

This whole thing last night was political. But to a casual observer, and more importantly to an American citizen who thinks that every president is out to defend and protect this country and is engaged in seeing to its that this country triumphs, that speech last night sounded Eisenhower, Reagan. Not content, now, folks. Snerdley is looking at me like he can’t believe me. You didn’t watch it. I’m telling you, don’t doubt me.

Now, having said all this, I’m not by any stretch the only person who is ripping this speech to shreds content-wise. Most everybody is. I’m just talking about the theatrics. If you’re a casual viewer to this thing, it was so markedly different.

He didn’t even get close to making you think he was gonna apologize for America, for example. He didn’t get close to making you think that he thinks we’re responsible for this. He didn’t get anywhere close to blaming America last night. But he got practically every important point dead wrong. For example, “ISIS is not Islamic. ISIS is not Muslim.” Oh, really? He said there isn’t a religion in the world that targets innocents for death. Oh, yes, there is. Dead wrong magnanimously, proudly, loudly wrong.

The strategy that he unveiled is a joke. Can I basically tell you what the strategy is? We’re gonna fly some drones and some jets supporting the Iraqi army. That’s it. We are going to train the Iraqi army. See, we’re gonna train the Iraqi army. Now, two weeks ago the army didn’t need to be trained. The point is, if we had not extricated ourselves from Iraq the way Obama did, he had perfectly good status-of-forces agreement. The main thing you want in a status-of-forces agreement when you’re pulling out of a country like we were out of Iraq, you’re gonna leave a residual force to protect what you have won. We’ve done it everywhere. Germany, Japan, you name it.

But we didn’t in Iraq, and Obama says it’s because he couldn’t get a status-of-forces agreement. And what he claimed he couldn’t get was immunity for US soldiers who would engage in postwar combat events. If you Iraqis are not gonna immunize American soldiers, we’re not hanging around here. We’re not gonna have our guys appearing before war crimes tribunals and stuff. But the point is, he did have a status-of-forces agreement. He did. He got out of because of his kook-fringe base. He got out of because of his campaign of 2000. He got out because that was what he built his campaign on.

The entire the Democrat Party of the left tried to say that Iraq was ill-timed, unjust, unnecessary, should never have been there. And I find it just ironic as it can be that here we are now about to start the final two years of this guy’s presidency, and it rests on what he does in Iraq. I think this is some of the juiciest irony I could have come up with, that his presidency — and by the way, this is not me. It’s some harebrained leftist media analyst that I have here in the audio sound bite roster, saying that Obama’s presidency is going to be judged entirely by what happens here in Iraq. Isn’t that juicy?

The party, the Democrat Party — this still ticks me off — the Democrat Party which sought defeat the whole time we were in Iraq just so they could win an election, just so they could saddle the defeat on George W. Bush. They did everything they could to undermine the troops. They did everything they could do undermine the leadership. They did everything they could to undermine morale. They and their willing accomplices in the media, they did everything they could to secure defeat.

But they couldn’t pull that off before Obama was elected, so Iraq was still going on after he wins. And what is his campaign and what’s his whole identity as a Democrat Senator? Iraq stinks. We never should have gone. I’m gonna get us out. It was an absolute terrible mistake. Got nothing for it. And so he had to get everybody out, and leaving everybody out, Obama gave us ISIS. Obama gave us ISIL. Obama and the Democrat Party. And it’s kind of sweet irony now that he’s gotta go, as the reluctant warrior, that he has to go back in now and try to defeat an uprising Islamic jihadist ISIS or ISIL, same thing, just depends on what acronym you want to use. That he has to go in and wipe this all out.

Michael Moore has abandoned him. A bunch of far-left-wing previous Obama supporters are fit to be tied we’re going back in there. Their hatred of the Iraqi war was irrational to begin with. Their devotion to our defeat in Iraq was irrational to begin with, but it was defining for them. And here is their guy, their savior, he’s the one, the smartest, he was able to pull us out, like a Mafia guy tries to leave, “And they just keep sucking me back in. I try to get out. I try to leave, but they just keep grabbing me back.” And that’s Obama, the reluctant warrior.

The strategy does not look good. The plan does not look good because it depends way too much on people that probably are not good enough to accomplish this particular mission.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: One of the first observations that I had last night about the speech was that the president’s announcing it detail by detail, strategy. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Here’s who’s gonna do it. This is where we’re gonna do it, and this is hopefully how we’re gonna do it. Why in the world would you announce your strategy? Why would you telegraph what you’re gonna do? And then I reminded myself again the purpose of this speech.

The purpose of this speech was political. This was not a speech designed to explain the strategy of victory. It was it was for political consumption by voters in this country. It was a speech designed to counter what people obviously think and feel as represented in polling data.

FOXNews Poll: “10 Pieces of Bad News for the White House.” This is why the speech was scheduled last night.

“American voters feel: Barack Obama is weak and indecisive. The US is less respected since Obama became president. The US should do more to stop the Islamic extremist group ISIS. Obama isnÂ’t willing to do what it takes to defeat ISIS. ISIS will try to attack the US soon. Embarrassed about Obama not having a strategy for dealing with ISIS. Obama will try to ‘manage’ ISIS rather than ‘defeat’ it.”

These are all results from polls all over the place.

“The poll also finds: For the first time, more voters than not feel the US is less safe today than before 9/11.” Folks, it’s a disaster. The polling data, not just from Fox News, the polling data all over the place about US national security, about Obama’s role as commander in chief, about Obama’s role in dealing with ISIS, is a disaster.

“For the first time, more voters than not feel the US is less safe today than before 9/11. ObamaÂ’s job approval is at record lows on Syria, Iraq and terrorism. (ObamaÂ’s overall job approval matches his all-time low.) Most would tell Obama to kill extremists beheading Americans now, rather than caution him against overreacting.”

He’s seen as indecisive. He’s seen as weak. He’s seen as not engaged. He’s seen as not caring very much. That’s why the speech happened last night, and that is why every detail of the strategy was revealed, so that voters could see this is a tough commander-in-chief, and this is a guy who understands the military. He knows how to deploy it and he’s willing to do it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look at this, folks, from TheHill.com. A new poll, a new Gallup poll. “The public thinks Republicans will do a better job keeping the US safe by a wider margin than at any time since 2002.” That would be 12 years ago, folks, 12 years ago. The public thinks Republicans would do a better job keeping America safe by a wider margin than at any time in the last 14 years. It’s a 23-point lead in that category. Wait a minute. Yeah, 23 points. Fifty-five, 30, doesn’t add up. But it’s massive. This is another reason why they were desperate to get Obama on TV last night.

I’m not pulling back, folks. A casual observer looking at that speech last night would think it was presidential. A casual low-information voter, ’cause it was what any president would do. He said and looked and acted and had an attitude that was commensurate with any president during such an occasion. For Obama it was a first. But even so, that would mean it would be welcomed. But the truth is he contradicted everything he said for five years. He contradicted everything he said two weeks ago. Everything! Last night was a contradiction of everything Obama has ever said about any of this.

So we all know that somebody put those words on a teleprompter and he rehearsed them, and he performed them. I mean, he even leaned on American exceptionalism defined the right way last night. You don’t know, Snerdley, ’cause you didn’t see it. But it was a total contradiction. You look at this poll data that’s out there, I don’t care where you look, it’s every poll. That’s why they had to get him on TV. That’s why they had to stop the bleeding. That’s why every detail of the strategy was revealed, to show that Obama’s up to speed; to show that Obama’s a great general; to show that Obama could lead the country into war; to show that Obama’s willing to pull the trigger; to show that Obama’s willing to go after the bad guys.

Except there was one moment of honesty. He couldn’t bring himself to tell the truth about ISIS. He had to lie and say they’re not Islam and then he further said there isn’t a single religion in the world that advocates, practices the killing of innocents. I mean, you talk about a howler. That’s the kind of thing that gets the informed jumping up off their couches and really, really worried.