RUSH: Everybody’s talking about — well, not everybody. The chairman of the RNC wrote letters to CNN and NBC, “You guys, we’re not gonna show up at your debates anymore if you do these miniseries on Hillary.” I think you ought to send the letter, just take out the part about the miniseries on Hillary. “We’re not gonna show up in your debates anymore.” They’ll never do that, but that’s what they should do. Anyway, the RNC is very much concerned about all these miniseries on Hillary. Last night, while everybody’s worried about a miniseries on Hillary that hasn’t happened, Obama showed up for, what, the sixth time on The Tonight Show.
Last night, to show you how the country is changing in a very serious way, last night was the first time since this massive upgraded terror warning was put into effect on Sunday, this was the first time the president of the United States spoke to the American people about this. We closed 21 embassies in the Middle East on Sunday for a full week. The president of the United States of America, the world’s lone superpower, the president, by reputation, by tradition, the leader of the free world — that’s somewhat dubious now, but traditionally that’s how our presidents have been referred to and thought of. The president of the United States went to a late-night comedy show for his first-ever statement about this increased terror threat. A late-night comedy show.
Now, nothing against late-night comedy shows, don’t misunderstand. I mean, I’ve had my own appearances and fun with Jay Leno. There’s nothing wrong with late-night comedy shows, but this would not have happened with any prior president. Matters of such consequence, matters of such seriousness would have been dealt with in a far more serious and appropriate way and forum and time of day. And by virtue of appearing on a late-night comedy show, the president saw to it that these events — and it wasn’t just the ramping up of the terror threat level or any of that. There were serious items on the agenda in our relationship with Russia, and all of it was treated as a joke. All of it was treated as unserious, halfhearted, nothing to really be concerned about.
It’s a diminishing thing that happened last night. The presidency was diminished last night, the country, talk about being respected or loved by people around the world. This was a very small thing that happened last night. Made the country look small, made the presidency look small. No, I don’t think JFK went on Jack Paar to talk about the Cuban missile crisis. I was just thinking about that, but I don’t think JFK did that. That might be too old, long ago for some of you youngsters out there. Jack Paar was the original Johnny Carson. I don’t think JFK went on the Jack Paar show to talk about the Cuban missile crisis.
So the president goes to the Tonight Show to issue his first words on what is happening on so many fronts. Our microphones were there. You know, even with the president, when the president goes on a late night show, let me tell you what happens. Before you do one of these shows, you talk to a preproducer in advance of your appearance. And I’m sure this happened with the president as well, probably more so than with most guests. Because the guest becomes part of the show. The guest is not just an empty vessel sitting there waiting to react. The show gives the guest a gig. When you’re a guest on one of these shows you take a bit with you, whatever it is. You’re not just there to be seen. You have a role to play, either making the host look better, feeding off of host, taking your own gig, taking over the show, whatever the guest wants to do.
The preproducer gets hold of every guest, and they do the preinterview. They find out what you want to talk about, what you don’t want to talk about. Sometimes they talk about what you don’t want to talk about, but that’s another matter. I guarantee you with the White House this happened. I guarantee you whoever The Tonight Show people talked to at the White House, there were ground rules. “You will not bring this up, Jay. You will not bring that up,” whatever it is. I’m sure these kind of ground rules existed, because after all, this is the president of the United States, and he’s not just gonna go somewhere and open himself up to anything on a late-night comedy show. He went there for a specific reason, to accomplish specific things. I don’t know whether he thinks he did or not, but what he did was diminish the office of the presidency. He diminished the country. I just think it’s a shame.
At any rate, after this preinterview is done, then the guest shows up. And whoever the preproducer was shows up and they review with you in the greenroom what you’re going to talk about. Are you still comfortable with X, Y, and Z, and then they hit you with any surprises that they would like you to do that they didn’t tell you about before you agreed to do the show. Now, I don’t know if that happens with the president. But then after that the host comes in and greets the guest in the greenroom. They yuk it up and they laugh about things, and they have just a short general conversation about meaningless kinds of stuff. And the host may assure the guest what’s gonna happen, how excited he is to have the guest and all of that, and then the host leaves, show starts, and it all happens. Our microphones were there in the greenroom last night pre-show.
(playing of spoof)
RUSH: And that’s what it was like in the greenroom prior to the Tonight Show last night, President Obama with Jay Leno. We’ve got some audio sound bites that we’ll treat you to from that. Do you remember this? This was July 24th, 2007. You probably don’t remember this. This was during the presidential debate, during the ’08 campaign season. And this was a Democrat candidate debate. This was leading up to the Democrat primaries, the eight candidates vying to be the Democrat nominee. There were really just two of them by this time. It was Hillary and Barry Soetoro — uh, Barack Obama. And it was on CNN. I’ve got the New York Times account of this.
Anderson Cooper said, “Let’s go to another YouTube viewer.” They allowed viewers to send in YouTube video questions. And one of the YouTube video questions was, “In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since. In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?”
And then Anderson Cooper said, “By the way, that YouTube guy, he’s in our audience tonight.” And the crowd went, “Yay, right on YouTube!” Senator Obama was asked to answer the question, and he said, “I would,” be willing to meet separately without precondition during the first year of my administration in Washington or anywhere else with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea. “I would,” said Obama. “And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration — is ridiculous.”
So Obama said (paraphrasing), “Hell, yes, I’ll talk to ’em, I’ll talk to ’em any time, anywhere, no preconditions. Iran, anybody.” And yet it was Obama last night who canceled an upcoming summit meeting with Vladimir Putin because Putin and the Russians did something regarding the Olympics in 2014 and homosexuality that Obama didn’t like.
By the way, Obama embarrassed himself last night. The Olympics that are going to be in Russia are the winter Olympics, and Obama was talking about all the great athletes on the balance beams and in the swimming pool and he forget that it was the winter Olympics, or maybe he never even knew and probably didn’t care.
Obama continued. He said, “Now, Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward. And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them.”
So Obama said (imitation), “There’s no way I’m gonna be like Bush, there’s no way. I’m gonna meet with all these people. I would never cancel. I would never not show up. I would be there.” And now he’s president and he got his little undies in a wad over the Russians and homosexuality, pulled out of the summit. These kind of hypocritical contradictions with Obama are frequent and often, and we’ll tell you about ’em in this instance because he’s the one that went to a comedy show to talk about this. He’s the one that announced about terror threats on a comedy show, for the first time ever addressing the people of this country about recent events.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Leno last night said, “Were you surprised that Russia granted Snowden asylum?”
OBAMA: I was disappointed. There have been times where they slipped back into Cold War thinking and a Cold War mentality, and what I consistently say to them and what I say to President Putin is, that’s the past, and, you know, we’ve gotta think about the future, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to cooperate more effectively than we do.
RUSH: Yeah, right. Meanwhile, Russia can practically fight us on the ground in Iraq. They can practically build a nuclear bomb for Iran. They can demand that we give up our missile defense for ourselves and our allies, and they can support murderous thugs like Bashar al-Assad in Syria, but don’t let ’em diss the gays, then we’re really gonna get mad at ’em. They can do all this other stuff. They can sabotage us in Iran. They can help the Iranians build a nuclear weapon. They can do anything on the world stage that sabotages the United States all they want, and we just get a ho-hum reaction. But don’t let ’em diss the gays ’cause that will get Obama up on his hind legs every time. ‘Cause they donate to the Democrat Party. These other countries don’t.
The Iranians don’t donate to the Democrat Party, although they’re close. Bashar al-Assad doesn’t donate to the Democrat Party. And the other Russian allies, the Cubans, they don’t donate to the Democrat Party, but the gays and transgenders and the lesbians do. It’s amazing what it is about people and countries and so forth that irritate Obama. This is strictly currying favor. All of this on a late-night comedy show. All of this totally unserious, totally beneath the dignity and the station of the office of the presidency. That’s one of the disturbing things about this. In fact, let’s go back and remember, this is March 26, 2012, in Seoul, South Korea. There was a nuclear security summit. Obama and the outgoing Russian president, little short guy, Dmitry Medvedev, held a meeting. At the end of the meeting — remember this? — the microphone was live, and the microphone caught this exchange between Obama and Dmitry.
OBAMA: This is my last election.
MEDVEDEV: Space for you. Yeah.
OBAMA: And after my election I have more flexibility. Yeah.
MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I understand. I transmit this information to Vladimir and I stand with you.
RUSH: Were you all able to understand that? Obama said to Medvedev (paraphrasing), “This is my last election.” And Medvedev said, “Yeah, space for you, yeah.” And Obama said, “After my election, I have more flexibility. Yeah.” And Medvedev said, “Yeah, yeah, I understand. I transmit this information to Vladimir. And I stand with you. I have told Vladimir to be patient. He will have patience with you because you will have more flexibility after the election. And Obama said yep, that’s about it. Just hang in there with me.”
So the Russians hung in there, so respectful of Obama, so awed, so dazzled, so fearful of Obama that they basically tell one of Obama’s great constituencies that they cannot participate in the Olympics, and Obama has a cow. This is the sound bite where Obama gets the Olympics wrong.
OBAMA: They’re athletes, they’re there to compete, and if Russia wants to uphold the Olympic spirit, then every judgment should be made on the track or in the swimming pool or on the balance beam, and people’s sexual orientation shouldn’t have anything to do with it.
RUSH: Right on, right on, except it’s the winter Olympics. It’s Lindsey Vonn on the ski slopes with Tiger Woods’ jet parked nearby in case she blows out her knee. But it isn’t lithe, willowy, winnowy gymnasts on a balance beam or in the pool. That’s the summer Olympics, and those are gonna be in Rio, which has a major kidnapping problem. A bunch of Olympic teams will probably suffer various kidnapping victims down there. You know, that’s a whole other story, but Rio, they got the World Cup coming up there before the Olympics in 2016, and I saw something the other day that they are nowhere near ready and able to accommodate even the World Cup.
So this appearance last night — by the way, Obama also, folks, he had a number of faux pas. He didn’t just get the Olympics thing wrong. He told Leno that he wants to deepen the ports on the Gulf Coast, like in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. Except they don’t have any ports on the Gulf Coast there, because they aren’t on the Gulf Coast. The Gulf Coast is Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. And Obama told Leno he wants to deepen the ports on the Gulf Coast, like Charleston, South Carolina — that’s the Atlantic Ocean — Savannah, Georgia — that’s the Atlantic Ocean — Jacksonville, Florida — that’s the Atlantic Ocean.
Now, these could just be examples of verbal dyslexia. I mean, we all know that Obama knows that Jacksonville and Savannah and Charleston aren’t — well, I think we know that he knows they’re not on the Gulf. But, anyway, they were misstatements, got the wrong Olympics, wrong geography, and where’s Obama’s persuasive powers? How can Putin sit there and say he’s gonna have zero flexibility on gays when it’s something that matters deeply and profoundly to Obama? So, anyway, it was an unserious statement, unserious appearance. It made a mockery of what are serious world events.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Phil in Fort Mills, South Carolina. Great to have you. You’re next. Hi.
CALLER: Yeah, Rush, I’d like to make a connection between why Obama goes on shows like Jay Leno, the Millennials you talked about yesterday, and also why Obama’s never blamed or held responsible for anything. It all falls on the fact that the Millennials operate under the paradigm that they’ve been taught since they’ve been in grade school and all the way through college that they’re never to blame for anything. They’re not responsible for anything.
RUSH: Ooh.
CALLER: And Obama is one of them.
RUSH: Now, that is provocative, Phil, because you just said that most of these Millennials, who are age 21-28, 18 to 29, somewhere in there, have been taught that they’re not to blame for anything or responsible for anything, and that’s why they can relate to Obama.
CALLER: That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. They see Obama as himself. So Obama goes on Leno, he tells all his sunshine and rainbows. They don’t blame him.
RUSH: Yeah, I know. He goes out there, he’s creating jobs, he’s working on jobs, he’s for a better tomorrow. Obama is for a happier tomorrow. And, yeah, I think you may have a point to an extent there. Fascinating. I wish I had more time. I always do, but I don’t.