RUSH: That takes us to David Brooks. David Brooks, who, as you know, after having dinner with Barack Obama back in 2009 and after witnessing the sharp crease in his slacks, proclaimed that alone told him that Obama was going to be great. David Brooks on Meet the Press, the roundtable yesterday, F. Chuck Todd the host said, “What evidence, David Brooks, is there that Jeb Bush is the most electable?”
BROOKS: If I were him I’d lead with his strength and just say boring, “Hey, I’m boring. I’m boring. Is our problem in Washington we don’t have enough boringness? No, it’s we’ve got too much craziness. And so I’m gonna be your sedative. I’m gonna be a laxative, I guess, to calm you down.” I like the slogan that they’re adjusting to, “I can fix it.” And so I think he just ought to say that and be himself.
RUSH: Jeb Bush should sell himself as the laxative candidate. Man, that’s appealing, isn’t it? And David Brooks, you know, he’s establishment insider. The establishment insiders were given a heads-up on the new “I can fix it” theme, and you heard Brooks there endorse the “I can fix it” theme. But let me ask you a question. Here’s David Brooks, I mean, this guy’s considered brilliant, brilliant conservative, New York Times conservative columnist. And his suggestion is if you’re boring like Jeb is, go out and admit it. “Hey, I’m boring. Is our problem we’ve got too much boring people? No. We’ve got too much craziness. I’m not crazy. I’m boring. Let me be your laxative. Let me be your sedative. I can fix it.” How would that fly out there?
Ron Fournier on Fox News Sunday. John Roberts was filling in for Chris Wallace. “One of the things he’s doing too is he’s going hard after Marco Rubio. That presentation he made last weekend to supporters in Houston, included a 112-page PowerPoint presentation in which they said about Rubio, quote, ‘Those who have looked into Marco’s background in the past have been concerned with what they found.'” This is true. They leaked that 112-page election manual. Anyway, here’s what Fournier had to say about that.
FOURNIER: Bushes aren’t quitters. But when you watch him deal with debate process, filled with loud candidates, filled with loud reporters, a very vapid and vain political process that we’re kind of in now, he does strike me as, you know the Charlie Rose candidate in a Charlie Brown world
RUSH: What is that? A Charlie Rose candidate in a Charlie Brown world. Do you have the slightest idea what that means? (interruption) You do? (interruption) So Charlie Rose is erudite, intellectual, sophisticated, establishment, cream of the crop. That’s where I was missing this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So, what, America’s constipated and Jeb can fix it? Or is he saying that Charlie Rose is constipated and needs a laxative? I’m getting confused now over all this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Got some polling data in from New Hampshire. This is the TheHill.com, and Monmouth University poll. They never put that in the opening paragraphs. You gotta dig down to find it. Here’s the headline of the story: “Rubio’s Polling Numbers Skyrocket in New Hampshire.” I said, “Whoa, man, what is this?” I mean, that’s all it says. “Rubio’s Polling Numbers Skyrocket in New Hampshire.” The top of the story does not have a list of the candidates and their percentages. So that headline man, oh, man, after the debate Rubio skyrockets. Holy cow, New Hampshire, that’s big. Trump was leading there, what’s happening here? So you read and you read, you read, you read, you read, and you find out that Rubio’s in third place at 13%.
And do you know who’s in first place? That would be the Trumpster. He’s in first place at 26%. And that’s unchanged. Now, why isn’t the headline, “Trump Continues to Soar in New Hampshire”? Well, we know the answer. But still, “Rubio’s Polling Numbers Skyrocket in New Hampshire.” Okay, so what happened? Rubio tripled his support to 13% from last September. September, October, November. The poll was taken in October. So in one month Rubio’s tripled. So 13 divided by three is four-point-something. So Rubio’s basically four points, now is at 13.
In second place — you can’t find the name in the story — Ben Carson, 16%. And one of the real kind of surprises in this, a name also not mentioned ’til you read deep, John Kasich is in fourth place at 11%. So in a story with the headline, “Rubio’s Polling Numbers Skyrocket in New Hampshire” here’s a pull quote from the story.
“Celebrity businessman Trump, who has been fading recently but still leads the GOP race overall –” He faded in one poll in Iowa to Ben Carson. But they want to write that story. They want to write that Trump’s fading. They want to write that Trump’s peaked. They want to write that Trump’s blown it. They want to write that Trump is yesterday’s news. “Celebrity businessman Trump, who has been fading recently but still leads the GOP race overall, maintains his lead in New Hampshire, with 26 percent of likely primary voters saying they will support him.” Headline: “Rubio’s Polling Numbers Skyrocket in New Hampshire.”
So it’s Trump 26, Carson 16. And you have to hunt to find these numbers. Rubio 13%, Kasich 11. Ted Cruz is at 9%. Jeb Bush, the laxative candidate, at 7%. Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie at 5%, and Rand Paul 3%, Charlie Rose at 1%. I just threw Charlie Rose in there. (laughing) I’m sorry, I don’t mean to pound on poor Charlie. But they want to portray Charlie Rose to us as Mr. Sophisticated, Mr. Intelligent. This is the guy who didn’t even know that Hillary Clinton has been lying about the video in Benghazi. He tried to take Rubio to task for it. After the debate last week Rubio said (paraphrasing), “The media tells us that Hillary Clinton had a great, great week, debate performance and the Benghazi commission, great week. Yeah, the week she was exposed as a liar.”
And Charlie Rose, “That’s a serious charge, don’t you think?” What do you mean serious charge? She did lie. She lied about the video. By the way, there’s even more condemning news about that now. Some other government agency implored Hillary, “Do not go out there and blame this video,” and she did it anyway.