RUSH: Stillwater, Oklahoma. Thomas, you’re next. It’s great to have you here. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you, sir. Dittos, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I was listening to you yesterday talk about your book, and it just sort of hit me as I was driving down the highway. There’s one word that is the reason for your success and I think the big difference between conservatives and liberals, and that word is gratitude.

RUSH: Hmm.

CALLER: You’ve conquered television. You’ve obviously conquered radio. You’ve conquered magazines. You’ve conquered speaking. You’ve had more success than most of us can dream of, and yet you can still hear it in your voice that with every phone call and with every book that’s sold, you are genuinely grateful for those of us that like you and listen to you and purchase your products. And I think the difference is the liberals and, sadly, many of the Republican politicians, think we should be grateful that they’re there doing what they’re doing.

RUSH: Oh, well, in that sense, you’re exactly right about that. There’s way too little humility among people who have real power over us. You are exactly right. You know, a real leader has humility, is humble, and is not somebody who expects to have gratitude shown or appreciation shown to him or her. You’re right, we’ve got a bunch of imperial people in politics today. Some of them, not all of course, but some of them actually do have exactly what you’re talking about: a sense that we should be grateful. Anthony Weiner has it, guys like Eliot Spitzer, they think that we should sincerely appreciate them for who they are and what they do and excuse whatever foibles they have because they really run around thinking they are better people than everybody else.

CALLER: And you know where I think that starts is I think, just in my life, you know, and you’ve mentioned it all the time, talent on loan from God, I think when you take God out of the equation, you lose all perspective about humility and grateful —

RUSH: Again, you’ve hit a home run. Without God in your life, it is impossible to understand that there are things larger than yourself. And people who think that there’s nothing larger than themselves are some of the toughest people to be around and live with. They’re arrogant, they are condescending, and many of them, I’ll guarantee, because they are missing that, are profoundly insecure, which is what they’re trying to cover up. But you know something? I want to go back to your point about gratitude, and I want to thank you for that because I have it.

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas I spend a few short minutes here thanking the audience, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I mean, you say I’ve conquered all this and conquered all that. Where would I be without all of you? I wouldn’t be anywhere. I haven’t conquered anything. I’ve had a lot of assistance and a lot of support. I call it the bond of loyalty. It’s almost like a familial relationship to me, and I know when I haven’t had it in my earlier days in broadcasting. But I am profoundly appreciative, and I know there are a lot of people like me who are really troubled over where this country’s going and what we’re trying to erase from this country’s past, and that’s not good. We need to bring it back and make it prominent again. I appreciate your comments.