RUSH: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided to play the role of a Greek column today for President Obama. Obama and Chris Christie will tour the Jersey shore. Who lives on the shoreline, Snerdley? That’s exactly right. The one percent live on the beach. It isn’t cheap, Rachel. I don’t know if you know this or not. It isn’t cheap to live on the beach anywhere. Well, there are a couple places, but, I mean, for the most part.

President Obama and the Greek column, Chris Christie, will be walking the coastline, viewing properties owned by the one-percenters, to whom Barack Obama has said, “You didn’t build that. You didn’t make that happen.”

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RUSH: To the phones we go and we’re gonna start in Hoover, Alabama. It’s Michelle. Great to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s an honor to talk to you for the third time, so I’m gonna try not to be nervous this time.

RUSH: You don’t sound nervous at all.

CALLER: Okay, well, that’s good. Couple questions for you. It’s kind of a two-part question. First, do you think that what Chris Christie is doing and how he’s, you know, basically campaigning with Obama today, if that hurts or helps Obama or hurts or helps Romney? And, you know, the other point I wanted to ask you about is, you know, in 2008 when Obama and McCain were campaigning and McCain suspended his campaign, and Obama came out and basically said, “Look, if you can’t do both, you know, as president you gotta be able to juggle both, then you don’t deserve to be president.” Well, he doesn’t seem to be able to be juggling both.

RUSH: What Obama said in 2008 was when McCain suspended his campaign and went to Washington, Obama said, “Well, you go ahead,” and said what you said, “You gotta be able to juggle a bunch of things. I’m going to Florida, you know how to reach me if you need me,” and it was at that point that if McCain had any chance it vanished. Look, before I tell you about my thoughts on Christie, what do you think? You’re the caller. You tell me what you think.

CALLER: Well, honestly, you’re probably gonna think I’m crazy for thinking this, but in some ways I would think it would help Romney because Chris Christie’s a Republican —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — he’s doing a good job running the efforts there, and my prayers and thoughts go out to all those people, and that they’re gonna say, “Okay, so the president’s come here to do his meet-and-greet and look at the ground, but can we now let our Republican governor get back to work to actually helping these people.” That’s what I think.

RUSH: All right, let me ask you a question. What did you think of Chris Christie’s Republican convention speech? You remember it? Did you see it?

CALLER: Oh, heavens yes, I saw it. At first I kind of liked his boisterous personality, but it really kind of seemed like, “let me tell you about me,” and it wasn’t really about how Mitt Romney would be good for this country —

RUSH: Yeah, it wasn’t about that, was it? It wasn’t about how good Romney was gonna be, was it?

CALLER: No. Not at all.

RUSH: Okay, now, do you remember what Christie said before the first debate?

CALLER: Yes, I do.

RUSH: What did he say?

CALLER: He basically said that this race is gonna turn on a dime once Mitt Romney debates Obama.

RUSH: Right. He is the only person in the country who thought that. You go back, everybody was scared the first debate ’cause Obama’s the smooth talker, Obama’s this guy that’s gonna mop the floor, and nobody thought what Christie thought. He was the only guy who said Romney is gonna wipe the floor with Obama. Nobody else thought that.

CALLER: I did.

RUSH: I’m asking this series of questions for a specific reason. You may have figured it out; you may have not figured it out. If you haven’t, it will be up to you to figure it out. But when you sit there and you’re the only guy saying that Romney’s gonna clean up, what are you doing? You are raising expectations. It was thought to be unfair what Christie did. He put all kinds of pressure on Romney to mop the floor with Obama.

Remember: Before the first debate, the conventional wisdom was that Obama is just the greatest speaker ever. I’m not talking about you and I. We know he’s nothing without the prompter. I’m talking about population at large in the media. So Christie goes out there, raises these expectations to a point that nobody thought Romney could possibly do that, and what if Romney hadn’t done that?

What if Romney hadn’t come through? Now here we are just speculating. I’m just asking some questions. Here we are a week/six days before the election. And yesterday Chris Christie said, “I don’t care. The election’s not important right now. I need the president of the United States here. He’s been great for me and my state,” and so forth. Now, when you look at it as I have laid it out, what do you think?

CALLER: Well, I just don’t think Chris Christie is… I mean, there are things about him that I love and things about him that I don’t like. I just don’t think that Chris Christie, being such a strong Romney supporter and advocate — especially during the primaries, out there with Romney — you know, saying these things and putting the president up on a pedestal, so to speak… I think maybe he’s just saying, “Look, you know, I need some federal money here, and I need to get it as fast as I can.” But ultimately if I’m a person in the state of New Jersey like I was a person here in Alabama when we had all those tornadoes…

RUSH: Yeah. Okay. All right, well, look. Let me share with you an e-mail that I have here. I have e-mail from the Rush 24/7 subscriber email. That’s a private e-mail address. You only get that e-mail address if you’re a subscriber at RushLimbaugh.com. And it’s from William Ganz. He said, “Oh, my, this is great. The narcissist-in-chief took the bait. Governor Christie baited Obama to come to New Jersey to survey the damage.

“And Obama is now wasting precious time in a state that he’s gonna win anyway. So Obama wastes time in New Jersey while Governor Christie’s friend takes Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and, as an added bonus, Christie scores big Obama bucks for his state, which shores up his status as a good governor for the whole population of New Jersey.” So this take is, this a brilliant move by Christie. He asked Obama to come, and Obama said, “Sure.”

(interruption) Who made this request? Do we know? We don’t know who made the request. So this guy’s assuming that Christie called Obama and said, “Come in,” and Obama said, “Okay, I’ll be glad to. I’ll be there.” So Obama landed just now. Air Force One just landed in a marsh and they’re gonna get together. This guy thinks that Obama’s been rope-a-doped. They’re together on Marine One right now. Okay, they’re together on Marine One. They’re flying to the devastation of one-percenters in people that live on the shore.

So Obama’s gonna go out and he’s gonna give money to the one-percenters in New Jersey, ’cause that’s where most of the damage is on the Jersey shore. And Christie has said it’s unthinkable. It’s unbelievable, this devastation there. So that’s one take, that this is a slick move by Governor Christie. ItÂ’s really smart. It gets Obama out of the White House. It gets him out there, wasting time in a state he’s gonna win anyway.
Christie gets the Obama bucks.

New Jersey gets its help.

The election isn’t gonna be moved. It’s gonna happen Tuesday. Of course, the opposite theory is, “What the hell is Christie doing? He’s giving Obama a chance to look presidential, clean up a state, look competent, look like he cares and so forth. What’s a Republican doing propping up Obama?” That’s the other take on this. (interruption) How long before who gets fed up? (interruption) Well, Snerdley’s asking how long before New Yorkers get fed up with how long it’s gonna take to restore things.

The thing is, nothing is going to get fixed by Election Day. Obama is not Superman. He can’t go to New Jersey and get the water out of people’s homes in the one-percenters’ houses. He can’t rebuild the 80 houses that went up in flames in Queens. Hundred and ten now. He can’t rebuild. Do you know that Bob Turner’s house is one of those? Bob Turner, Congressman Bob Turner, was the chairman/CEO of Multimedia.

You know, it was Bob Turner that put my TV show on the air, and his house went up in flames due to the storm. Obama can’t rebuild any of those. There’s nothing he can do by Election Day. Bloomberg is saying, “I don’t even want you here.” Bloomberg wants whatever credit that’s gonna accrue here, if there is any. But then thereÂ’s that crane that’s dangling near the Parker Meridien on West 57th.

They have no idea what they’re gonna do to get that fixed, and that’s gonna cause people to not be able to go into surroundings buildings for a long time. ThereÂ’s nothing Obama can do about the crane. There isn’t a Spider-Man to call. There’s no Superman to call. There no Chuck Norris to call. So he can’t do anything. It is gonna take a while. I don’t know what New Yorkers’ patience threshold is going to be on this.

But might not be much. But from the standpoint of Governor Christie, could you say, “Being charitable, Governor Christie, don’t you think you maybe would do better with a President Romney assisting you in your state than Obama? Obama’s gonna win New Jersey anyway.” There are any number of ways to look at this. Now, the Drive-Bys think that Christie is saving Obama’s election.

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RUSH: The Drive-By Media. The Drive-By Media got some love for Chris Christie. They are loving them some Chris Christie today. Chris Christie is saving Obama. Now, one thing: We know that Obama called Bloomberg, the mayor of New York. And Doomberg said, “No, don’t come.” Now, therefore we know that Obama was making phone calls. So is it possible…” I’m just throwing it out there.

Is it possible that Obama called Christie and said, “You want some money? You want some? You better let me come. Doomberg already said, I can’t come.” So what if Obama called and wants to come, and made money contingent on it? Christie wouldn’t reveal that. IÂ’m trying to be charitable here, folks. IÂ’m trying to be charitable.

There are obvious other explanations. Christie doesn’t want to wait ’til 2020 to run for president. There are any number of things that could be going on here. Let’s listen to what the Drive-Bys think. This is yesterday, last night, and this morning. ItÂ’s a montage of various Drive-Byers grasping at straws, suggesting here that The Messiah needs Chris Christie to save his bacon…

DIANE SAWYER: President Obama will be in New Jersey meeting with the governor there, Chris Christie. Seven days to go now until Americans go to the polls.

SARA EISEN: President Obama did draw praise from Chris Christie, New Jersey governor.

ERIN BURNETT: Could a small thing like Chris Christie coming out with a very serious and significant endorsement of president’s handling of the storm tip the race?

JOHN AVLON: Chris Christie speaking honestly this morning probably helped the president.

CHARLES LANE: He’s being praised by not just the Republican governor, but the one who gave the keynote address at the Republican National Convention.
BOB BECKEL: Chris Christie was full of praise for President Obama.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: High praise from Republican Governor Chris Christie, New Jersey.

CHARLES PAYNE: Chris Christie, the Republican governor, praising President Obama…

CAROL COSTELLO: Will Christie’s newfound love for President Obama tilt the election Obama’s way?

RUSH: I didn’t think it needed “tilting.” The way I read the polls today, this race is over and Obama’s winning. That’s what the latest round of polls all say. But now these Drive-Byers say, “Whoa! Maybe Christie can save Obama’s bacon.” They’re hoping. I mean, they’re grasping at straws. “Could it tip the race?” Christie is praising ObamaÂ’s flood relief efforts and his great presidential actions since the storm hit.

Here is Christie tripping over himself to praise Obama…

CHRISTIE: I was on the phone for the third time yesterday, last night with the president of the United States. He called me at midnight last night. He accelerated the major disaster declaration for New Jersey without the usual red tape. I can’t thank the president enough for that. [He] signed that this morning. The cooperation has been great and the cooperation from the president of the United States has been outstanding. He deserves great credit. He’s been incredibly supportive and helpful to our state and not once did he bring up the election.

RUSH: All right, now, it must also be said that Chris Christie can get really emotional, and I don’t doubt for a minute when he tours the devastation that it rips him apart. He’s the governor of the state and he’s powerless. ThereÂ’s nothing anybody can do. You can’t get the water out of people’s houses. These people’s lives are upside down. He’s the governor. It’s his job to fix it. There’s nothing he can do.

He needs money. He doesn’t have any money. Obama’s got the money, even though Obama doesn’t have any. We don’t have any money. By the way, speaking of that, how about all the money Obama has wasted on this silly green energy campaign of his? Wind, solar, Solyndra, all this stuff. Imagine if we did have that money. Imagine if it had not been thrown down that endless rathole.

Where’s all that new green energy helping out today?

Where is it? Where all those jobs?

Where’s all the new energy technology helping to solve the problems, the devastation? Anyway, I don’t doubt that Christie is devastated what he sees and wishes he could do something about it. And Obama’s the one guy in the country that can roll into town with money. And he does it as governor. It’s his job to fix it. He probably sees Obama as the only route.

I would suggest to him maybe President Romney would be even more helpful to you than Obama would be, and I’m not speaking politically. Thinking long-term down the road. This is not gonna get fixed by next Tuesday. There’s nobody that’s been flooded out or burned out of their homes whoÂ’s gonna end up in their home by Tuesday. (interruption) You object? Well, you can save your objection. I don’t care about it. We’re outta time.

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RUSH: My friends, I’m being too reasonable. I’m just too nice a guy for this job. I’ve been saying, “Nobody expects their house to be rebuilt by Tuesday. Nobody expects the water out of their house by Tuesday. Nobody expects everything to be back to normal by Tuesday.” But, damn it, they did during Katrina.

They expected FEMA to be there instantly. They expected Bush in the Superdome. Everything in New Orleans was supposed to be fixed the next day, and it would have been if there’d-a been a Democrat in charge like Obama. But Bush was incompetent. Bush didn’t care. I’m being too reasonable. Democrats are on record as saying they do have such expectations.

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RUSH: I was just watching the Fox News Channel and a story about people in New Jersey and New York who are driving 50 miles to pick up a few gallons of gasoline. The picture showed a long line of people, standing in line with little gas cans, to fill up to take back to wherever. It was not a line of automobiles. It was a line of people standing in line. Now, my question to you is this. Those people standing in line for a gallon or two of gasoline — open-ended question — I’m not leading you. I don’t have a conclusion here in my mind that I’m trying to lead you to. I’m just asking the question for you to think about. Are those people thinking, “Well, this is really cool, I’m voting Obama”? Or do you want a change when you’re in a situation?

When you’re standing in line and you have a two-and-a-half, five-gallon can, you’re waiting to put gasoline in it. Your house, maybe you can’t get to it, maybe you don’t have it anymore, it’s flooded, what are you thinking? If you’re thinking about the election, “Boy, this is cool. I’m going to vote for what’s happening now. I’m gonna vote for the status quo”? Or are you thinking, “You know what, this has gotta change because this isn’t any different, really.”

The simple fact of the matter is — and I think it’s a good analogy, by the way, ’cause I’ve been a little bit too reasonable here. I’ve been pointing out, as far as Obama being helped by this, ’cause there’s all kinds of fear that he’s being helped by it, helped by this storm. How? He can’t fix anything by Election Day, which is all that matters to Obama right now. Believe me, whatever he’s doing is calculated for that day only. And there’s nothing he can do. He can’t rebuild anybody’s house. He can’t get the floodwaters out of anybody’s house. He can’t repair roads that have been destroyed. He can’t rebuild houses that have burned down. He can’t open an airport that’s still closed. He can’t do anything by Tuesday.

Snerdley points out, “You’re being too reasonable, because all of that was demanded of George Bush during Katrina.” Where’s the FEMA trailers? Where’s our debit cards? Where’s our giveaways? Where’s the repair to the roof of the Superdome? Where’s our house being rebuilt? Bush doesn’t care. And he’s right. They put all these immediate expectations and demands on Bush and Brownie and FEMA and tried to illustrate, because Bush didn’t do anything in the first five days, that he didn’t care. Well, we could say Obama doesn’t really care, what’s being fixed here, folks?

I don’t know, maybe some of you think Obama’s gonna get you back in your house in three days. He hasn’t been able to fix the economy in four years. What makes you think he can fix your house? He hasn’t been able to do anything about rising gas prices in four years. What makes you think he can do anything about it now? He hasn’t been able to create jobs in four years. What makes you think that he can fix this in three days? He hasn’t been able to do anything about the Iranians and their acquisition of nuclear material in four years. What makes you think that he can fix anything here in three days?

You can’t fix New Jersey anyway. You can’t fix New Jersey. Not just this, you just can’t fix that state. It’s perpetually unfixable. But my point is, there are people that have these expectations. I don’t know if there’s still any left, but I tell you, if this storm had happened the first six months of Obama’s term, federal teams would have been in there already, checks would have been written, people with new houses. This is what they thought Obama was gonna be able to do, and I don’t think anybody thinks that anymore. But for all of you who think this is gonna help Obama, he hasn’t been able to help the economy four years, why is this gonna help him?

As to Governor Christie, there’s an observation that needs to be made. He said in that clip we played, “He called me at midnight last night.” Christie said Obama called him. Now, we know that Bloomberg said Obama called him. Bloomberg told him no. Bloomberg has also endorsed Romney, by the way. Bloomberg told Obama no. So Obama’s making these phone calls. Obama is looking for somebody to play the role of a Greek column today, and he found Governor Christie willing to do it.

Now, let’s examine the rest of this tri-state area. Has Mayor Bloomberg requested time and assistance from Obama? No. Has Governor Cuomo in New York, Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo, has he asked for Obama to come and stand side by side with him, so that they can have a joint photo-op of fixing New York? Have either of them spoken of Obama the way Christie has? They haven’t? I didn’t think so, ’cause I haven’t heard it. I have not heard Andrew Cuomo praising Obama. I haven’t heard Bloomberg praising Obama. I haven’t heard the governor of Virginia, McDonnell, haven’t heard him. I haven’t heard the governor of Connecticut praising Obama.

I haven’t heard the governor of West Virginia praising Obama. I haven’t heard the governor of Ohio praising Obama. Tennessee got hit, too. I haven’t heard the governor of Tennessee praising Obama, Bill Haslam. He’s a Republican. Well, so is Christie, what am I talking about? Chris Christie’s the only Republican out there not just praising Obama, I mean, let’s just put it this way. Is it wrong for one man to love another man? But that man love out there, it’s isolated to the state of New Jersey. Well, just telling you what I’ve observed casually with my busy broadcast eyes and my cochlear implant-aided ears.

Here is Bloomberg, by the way. This is yesterday, city hall, in New York.

BLOOMBERG: What I pointed out to him is that we’d love to have him, but we’ve got lots of things to do. I’m not trying to diss him but I know he had planned a trip to New Jersey and I said that’s fine, it represents the whole region. People understand the storm, and he doesn’t have to — he’s got a lot of things to do and I was flattered that he offered to come, but I think the thing for him to do is to go to New Jersey and represent the country.

RUSH: Ho-ho-ho-ho. Now, Bloomberg’s endorsed Romney. Obama called him. He sounds pretty uncomfortable there, but he made it plane, he doesn’t want Obama there. Part of the reason is when the president shows up — this is why Bush did not go to New Orleans — the president shows up and every resource has to be devoted to the president’s security, transportation, and all the relief efforts just come to a screeching halt, and Bloomberg said, I don’t want to give this guy a photo-op. But Christie has said not only am I gonna give him a photo-op, I’m gonna be in it. And here’s Bloomberg, “Let him go to New Jersey and represent the country.” (laughing) I don’t care about it. I’m not on the ballot. I’ve endorsed Romney. I’m not gonna do anything to help Obama. That’s what Bloomberg is saying.

But then you’ve got, again, Governor Cuomo, I guarantee you Obama called him, too. If he’s calling these guys, he’s calling Cuomo. See, Obama knows he’s gotta get out of the White House. He doesn’t win this staying in the White House with photos out of the Situation Room. He probably called Christie thinking there’s no way. He’s sitting there on the phone, (imitating Obama) “Hello, governor, Barack Obama,” puts the phone down expecting Christie to start shouting at him. Instead, Christie starts kissing the phone, and Obama, “Oh, I’ll show up on Air Force One, bring the big plane so everybody sees me arrive.” Where is Obama again, where they going? I hate to keep bringing this up. They’re going to the shore. They’re going to the one-percenters. It’s wealthier people that have the means to live on the ocean to live on the water.

Let’s go back. This is what the governor of New Jersey has welcomed to the state. We’re up to sound bite number ten.

OBAMA: If you got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

RUSH: You didn’t build that house. That house, that wouldn’t be here if there hadn’t been a road. And that bridge, well, there used to be a bridge there, but it’s gone. But you didn’t build that, either.