RUSH: Okay, so what’s the subtext for the debate tonight? Not even a subtext. What is the spin, the predebate spin? The predebate spin for the debate tonight is, “Don’t expect too much from Biden, he’s always been an idiot.” Well, that’s what it is. We got a montage, “Joe just needs to be Joe.” Well, what’s Joe? Joe’s an idiot. They’re really trying to tamp down the expectations of Biden in this debate tonight. He’s got the unenviable task of trying to defend Obama’s record and his record, which Obama couldn’t do. So everybody is revved up to watch this thing tonight.
This is gonna get a big audience, too. You know, the first debate, 65, 70 million people. One of these guys from California that projects the election based on the economy (they haven’t been wrong since 1980) one of these guys says, “Look, the thing to take away from the first debate is the size of the audience that tuned in.” He says 70 million people tuning in means that there are a whole lot of people out there who really are paying attention and want to change their vote. I mean, not so much want to change their vote, but are open to changing their vote. That 70 million is the greatest indication of dissatisfaction with status quo. That if a small number of people tuned in, “Ah, no big deal. Why watch this debate? I’m not changing my mind.” But 70 million watching means that there are a lot of people not happy with current circumstances. I thought it was a great point of view.
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RUSH: We put together a montage for the big debate tonight, a little montage of Obama and other Democrats and their singular advice for Joe Biden tonight in his debate with Paul Ryan…
DIANE SAWYER: What’s your message to Joe Biden about tomorrow night?
OBAMA: Well I… (big sigh) You know, I think Joe just needs to be Joe.
BIDEN 08.14.12: They’re going to put y’all back in chains!
OBAMA: Joe just needs to be Joe.
BIDEN 01.30.07: (background noise) You got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.
OBAMA: Joe just needs to be Joe.
BIDEN 07.11.06: (background noise) You cannot go to a 7/Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking!
OBAMA: Joe just needs to be Joe.
BIDEN 06.27.12: My grandpop used to say, “Joey, when the guy in Dunmore, the next town over, is out of work it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law is out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work it’s a depression.” It’s a depression for millions and millions of Americans!
OBAMA: Joe just needs to be Joe.
BIDEN 10.02.12: (audience noise) This is deadly earnest. How they can justify, raisin’ taxes on the middle class that’s been buried the last four years. How in Lord’s name?
OBAMA: Joe just needs to be Joe.
BIDEN 09.09.08: Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up, Chuck! Let ’em see ya! (rimshot) Oh, God love you. What am I talking about? (rimshot) I tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up, though, pal. (rimshot) I tell you what, stand up for Chuck! (rimshot).
OBAMA: Joe just needs to be Joe.
RUSH: “Joe just needs to be Joe.”
That was Chuck Graham, state senator from Missouri, who’s in a wheelchair. “Stand up, Chuck! Let ’em see ya! Oh, God love you, Chuck. Oh, what the hell happened? What am I talking about?” Yeah, Joe just needs to be Joe. And I’m sure you could think of countless other examples that we coulda plugged into our montage.
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RUSH: We sit around here and we laugh at and make fun of Joe Biden, but I just want to remind you of something. This guy used to be the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the… I don’t know if he was ranking during the Clarence Thomas hearings, but he was there.
He can be as below-the-belt sleazy, dishonest, typical left-wing as anybody out there. He may now have this image of bumbling old grandfather running around saying inane things. But he has a track record of sleaze: Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, Ed Meese. This guy can employ all of the filthy tactics that anybody on the left can. And don’t think for a moment he won’t. He’s gonna come out for Ryan, and the way he does this is he will go overboard complimenting Ryan.
He’ll come out and say he’s so honored to be here. Paul Ryan, he’ll talk about him as a great up-and-comer, how we’re all lucky to have such a caring and decent guy in the House. He’ll go on and on and on about how wonderful a guy Ryan is, and then say, “But he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He really cares, but, I mean, come on, man! He doesn’t really have a clue. He tries. He’s working real hard.”
He’ll be as condescending as he can be. You wait! The purpose of this is he’s gonna try to rattle Ryan, get him off his game, try and get him to go personal with Biden. Ryan knows this, and I think he’s well prepared for it. I just want to warn you: Biden is not this bumbling, doddering old grandfather that’s half senile. Now, it is true — it is true — that Biden has not faced media questions in five months.
He hasn’t. They’ve shielded him. You know the last time he had any major media time? It was when he went out and talked about how he has no problem with same-sex marriage, and this was prior to the Democrat convention. If you recall, Obama was holding that in reserve. Obama hoped to light up his convention. At the time Obama was thinking about it. What was the word they were using? He was reflecting. (interruption)
Oh, yes, yes. He was “evolving.” Obama was evolving on the issue of same-sex marriage, ’cause up to that moment he had not come out for it. But he was “evolving” on it. He was gonna make a big, grand announcement where he had completed his evolving, his evolution. It was gonna be either at the convention or shortly after, because there was some damage they had to limit.
A number of African-American churches and preachers want no part of same-sex marriage. In fact, there’s a group of black preachers that’s gonna spend a million dollars running an ad campaign trying to convince 25% of blacks in this country not to vote for Obama. Now, I don’t know how much they’re gonna succeed with a million bucks, but that’s what they’re gonna spend.
It’s a big issue for some of these black churches and black preachers, and they don’t like any of it. So Obama was evolving, and Biden went out there, and one of the theories was that Biden preempted Obama on purpose because there was talk at the time of brooming him and replacing him with Hillary. Biden didn’t wanna be humiliated. Biden didn’t want to be thrown off the ticket. Biden, for all we know, wants to be president someday!
He’s run before, and if he gets thrown off the ticket, that kind of kiboshes that. So some people theorized that Biden was saying, “Oh, you’re gonna throw me off the ticket? Here, watch this,” and he went out and stole all the thunder on same-sex marriage, A, and then possibly embarrassed Obama. He kind of forced Obama to go ahead and finish his “evolving.” Some people thought that Biden might be taken to the woodshed.
He might have been taken to the woodshed, because ever since then we haven’t seen Biden. Since then, we haven’t heard from Biden. Now, they built an exact replica of the set tonight for Biden to rehearse, and he has been rehearsing with Chris Van Hollen, congressman from Maryland. He’s an equally sleazy, mean, potentially very mean guy. And that’s what Biden is. I just warn you again.
I fully expect him to come out here and be overwhelmingly gracious and nice and complimentary until he digs the knife in. It’ll be in a grandfatherly, “I got all kinds of wisdom. This a great up-and-comer, but it’s not his time yet. We’re so fortunate to have a guy like Paul Ryan in our government. We’re so fortunate to have man of just great potential. But, Paul, you don’t know what you’re talking about yet, man!
“You gotta keep working on it. I really love you, man, but you don’t have a clue.” It will be something like that, mark my words. If not at the beginning of the debate, it will be somewhere in the debate. But it’s gonna be condescension. “I know all. I’ve been here years. I got experience. You’re a neophyte. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re a nice guy, but you’re really a fool.”
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RUSH: Bob in Crossville, Tennessee. Folks, Snerdley loves calls from the South. We do get calls from other states. It’s just he loves the South. He loves ’em, loves the accents. This is Bob in Tennessee. Bob, hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’m not originally from Tennessee. I was with you from day one in WABC in New York.
RUSH: Oh, so you fled!
CALLER: Yeah, I fled. Like you.
RUSH: (laughing) Yes. Yes, I hear you.
CALLER: I’m reading and hearing this commentary about how Old Joe is such a great debater, and my recollection of 2008 vice presidential debate is not that Joe demolished Sarah Palin.
RUSH: He didn’t.
CALLER: I think it went the other way.
RUSH: Yeah. As I saw your call up there and your question, “Do you recall Biden beating Sarah Palin?” I don’t. I don’t. Drudge’s headline is, “America’s Favorite Punch Line,” with a picture of Biden. Look, I told you earlier what Biden’s gonna do. I don’t have time to tell you again but you know I’m right. Go back and research it.