RUSH: You know, ladies and gentlemen, Obama came off even worse in his debate with Romney last night than he did in his debate with Clint Eastwood. And that’s saying something. What did we learn last night? I mean, we really learned a lot. This was one of the best debate performances in my life. I know people are saying in the last 20 years, that would take us back to 1980. And Reagan was awesome. But this was awesome from start to finish, but particularly measured against fears and expectations. It couldn’t have been any better. I mean, I had a couple of nitpicks. I would have liked to have heard my taxes are gonna get cut, too, and I wish at the end he’d have just gone in there and continued to nail the guy, but he went nice.
Speaking of which, Obama at the end, people were saying it was actually his high point, his closing statement. I don’t think so when you hear it. We got audio. He was rambling and he was wandering in search of a thought all night long. He was stringing cliches together. What we learned last night is that Obama, what he has to have in order to convey the appearance of being credible, he needs a well-written speech from somebody other than himself. He needs a teleprompter, and he needs props. And he needs a shield. He needs a protective media.
He really does. He needs the confidence that whatever he says is gonna be covered up, corrected, taken care of, propagandized. He didn’t have a well-written speech from somebody else last night. He didn’t have a teleprompter. He didn’t have any props. And he did not have the confidence that comes with knowing his propagandists were on the case. Mitt Romney actually told Barack Obama last night, “You pick losers.” I stood up and cheered. Some people pick winners and losers. You pick losers. There are a couple really great moments amidst a whole slew of them last night.
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RUSH: I’ll tell you, I checked here during the break, and many places on the left — a lot of tweets — really think that Obama purposely withheld the 47% comment that Romney made to the donors. “He’s saving that. He’s gonna really launch on that one of the next two debates, same thing with the Cayman Islands. Obama saved the big guns.” See, they’re not gonna hurt Romney with Cayman Islands and that 47%. You know, I ought to shut up about it. I ought to just go quiet and let them stumble into that.
That’s a land mine. There’s a reason Obama didn’t use it last night. It opens up Obama. The whole thing’s fabricated and predicated on a lie. You people on the left are gonna have to understand: Everything you think about me, everything you think about Romney, everything you think about conservatism is a lie. You’ve been told lies. You believe lies. You think that Romney actually doesn’t care about 47% of the country? You really believe that?
You really want to hit him with that after what you saw last night? Be my guest. You concoct these imaginary scenarios and then you end up believing your own lies! They’re pathological, and then you think you’re sitting there on a gold mine. The Obama campaign, I know they’re running ads about Romney’s 47% comments. And if it comes up in the debate, Romney could explain it and defend it — and they don’t want that.
They want that 47% out there unanswered. You people hoping he brings it up, I’m sorry. I think you’re gonna be disappointed. I don’t think it can survive being answered. It only works if it’s a lie in a campaign ad. But is it working? Last I saw on The Politico last night, Romney’s up four. You guys have run $300 million of attack ads on Romney! How’s that working out for you? And then the first time substance comes up? Real substance, ideas?
Look what happens. You get smoked, because your ideas don’t cut it. Hell, you can’t even be honest about your ideas. Obama tried to talk about free markets last night, entrepreneurism, capitalism? He doesn’t believe any of it. You guys can’t be honest. This is why we conservatives are so frustrated with the Republican Party acting in ways not to offend you, rather than just be conservative.
Every day in America could be like last night. Politically, every day could be. I also like that Romney got a couple zingers in. This is one. This is the kind of thing that Obama and Michelle, when they get home last night, they are livid about. They are enraged. “How dare Romney insult me this way! How dare he treat me like that! How dare he say that! How dare he!” This little bite here is 43 seconds. You’ll remember it.
ROMNEY: So if the tax plan he described were a tax plan I was asked to support, I’d say absolutely not. I’m not looking for a $5 trillion tax cut. What I’ve said is I won’t put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. That’s part one. So there’s no economist that can say Mitt Romney’s tax plan adds $5 trillion if I say I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan. Number two, I will not reduce the share paid by high-income individuals.
I know that you and your running mate keep saying that and I know it’s a popular thing to say with a lot of people, but it’s just not the case. Look, I’ve got five boys. I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it. But that — that is not the case. All right? I will not reduce the taxes paid by high-income Americans.
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RUSH: You know, there were two great zingers, put-downs last night. One of them was when Romney said to Obama, (paraphrasing) “You know, you keep talking about this $5 trillion tax cut for the rich. There isn’t one. I’m not cutting taxes $5 trillion. You know, I’ve got five boys. I’m used to this. I’m used to people trying to tell me things over and over again that aren’t true hoping that I’ll just eventually believe it, but that’s not the case.”
In this instance, Romney telling Obama, “Look, I’ve dealt with children like you. I’ve dealt with kids like you who try to lie and try to tell everybody things over and over again enough so that they’ll believe it. But it ain’t gonna work with me ’cause I’m used to the trick.” The other thing that Romney said, Obama’s harping on the so-called tax break that Big Oil gets. By the way, that was a pathetic throwback to a Democrat playbook page from 10, 15, 20 years ago. Gasoline prices are rising. I don’t think Obama really wanted to go there. Gas prices in California have hit a record high, and there are now supply shortages. That’s happening while Obama’s president. Obama’s out there talking about, (imitating Obama) “We gotta get rid of tax breaks for Big Oil. Four billion a year.” And Romney looked at that, (paraphrasing) “Four billion a year, you gave away $90 billion to green energy that hadn’t amounted to anything. You threw $90 billion away, a lot of it to your donors,” and that’s when Obama kind of smiled sheepishly and looked down.
By the way, when somebody looks down, they can’t face the truth. It’s no more complicated than that. Your kid does it, you do it, you look down, you’re avoiding the truth. You’re hiding from the truth. Now, Romney’s pounding him on that $90 billion. He mentioned Solyndra. He said, “You don’t just get to pick the winners and losers. You pick the losers.” You know, I’m sitting on my sofa and I’m pounding my fist in the air. I’m not saying anything ’cause I want to keep hearing what’s going on. I’m just pounding the tabletop, “Keep going, keep going.”
You pick the losers. You want to talk about $4 billion to Big Oil, how about you throw $90 billion on a bunch of algae. It was awesome. That was a gut punch, and Obama looked tiny. He looked tiny and willowy, and that’s when he looked down, started making notes feverishly or what have you. That was one of my favorite points in the debate.
Woodinville, Washington. This is Fred. I’m glad you called, sir. It’s great to have you here.
CALLER: Rush, thank you very much from a proud member of Rush 24/7 in the deep blue state of Washington.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: I appreciate it as well. My take on this from start to finish is that Barack Obama did everything in his power to avoid exposing more of his core ideology, which is why all the deflection, which is why at one point in the debates, and I’m not sure if it wasn’t during the role of government, after one of Romney’s statements, he said, “I don’t believe that.” I’m pretty sure it was in the role of government, but it’s core and fundamental.
RUSH: Well, look, you’re exactly right. Another reason why Obama is hamstrung in there is because he can’t tell the truth about what he believes. He can’t reveal what a second term will be. He cannot be honest. And when Romney is setting the table with his ideas and his agenda and what he’s going to do and why, Obama can’t refute it without sealing his defeat. I don’t care what people think, we have not become a socialist country. You talk about have we lost the country, have we lost the culture, all the people on welfare.
We have not, I’m convinced, we have not reached the point where somebody campaigning forthrightly and honestly on the agenda of growing government, shrinking the private sector, taking from people and redistributing the money and all that, point-blank saying that, and explaining, the reason I did health care in steps is ’cause I know you won’t accept a total federal take over in one year, so I’m gonna have to fool you and do it in over 10 or 15 years, take away all of your options so that all that’s left is government. Somebody that runs and campaigns on that, doesn’t win. We’ve not reached the point where a candidate can tell somebody how he’s going to pull the trick on getting national health care on the country, on the people, and get elected. Which is a heartening thing.
So you’re right, Obama, in addition to acting like he didn’t care, you people on the left, you sympathetic media people, you gotta understand, he can’t be honest about what you all want. He cannot tell the truth. He has to come out and either ignore, deflect, or lie or what have you. I’ll tell you, there was another great line. And I’ve got these sound bites. But I figure you all watched the debate. I don’t need to relive all that. Besides, you care what I think about it now that you’ve seen it; that’s what we’re doing here.
There was this blatant lie by Obama. Here’s the guy who was the author of the shutdown of drilling for oil in ANWR, the shutdown of drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The guy who’s got a drilling moratorium on both coasts in this country. The man single-handedly responsible for increasing energy dependence in this country. A man single-handedly responsible for shutting down the production of oil and natural gas, Barack Obama last night said, (paraphrasing) “In my administration, production of oil and natural gas is at an all-time high,” and Romney jumped in there and said, “Mr. President, the gas boom and the oil boom are happening on private land where you don’t have anything to say about it. Government land, there is no boom in oil. We are not issuing any leases. There are moratoriums.”
Just shot him down with one remark. I mean just nailed him, just shut it down instantly, just exposed Obama as a full-fledged misleading liar. Romney was saying, “I like coal, I like clean burning coal.” Anyway, just throwing it right back in Obama’s face. “I like coal. I like fossil fuels. It’s cheap energy.” And he talked about how important energy was. That’s why Obama did not bring up redistribution until his final statement, and he didn’t use the word. He used the word everybody needs “a fair share.” Most of the night Obama was trying to sound like a deficit hawk. The guy who’s added $5.5 trillion to the national debt was trying to sound like the number one deficit killer that we’ve ever had. Every time he talked about how much he’d reduced the deficit and improved schools, it was laughably pathetic, really was.
The precious independents? I’m telling you, the precious independents saw Mitt Romney that they had not seen before. All they’ve seen is Romney and Obama commercials. They’re sitting there going, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. This doesn’t compute. This doesn’t look like a guy who would let a guy’s wife die.” I guarantee you, it was not a good night for Obama in any way, shape, manner, or form.
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RUSH: Okay. Edwardsville, Illinois. Hi, Kent. It’s great to have you on the most-listened to radio talk show in the country. A lot of Democrats today, too, I’m sure are listening and trying to make sense of what happened last night. They’ve come to right place. How are you, sir?
CALLER: Very good. Yourself?
RUSH: Very well. Very, very, very well. Almost never better.
CALLER: Dittos from the Metro East.
RUSH: Metro East. It’s great to have you here.
CALLER: Yes. Anyway, to make a long story short, for weeks leading up to these debates I’ve been somewhat apprehensive about some things and really never even told anyone about my apprehensiveness. I was worried that the media, being in the pocket of Obama, may give the questions to Obama. Therefore, an advantage would be had. But, you know, after watching last night and listening, they could give him the answers, the questions, and whatever they wanted. And, to be honest, Mitt would just blow ’em out of the water.
RUSH: They coulda had a secret earpiece telling him what to do; it wouldn’ta mattered. This is my whole point. Their ideas don’t cut it. There was no answer to what Romney was saying, not that Obama can be honest about. This is why I opened the program today saying — and I’m not exaggerating — that if that debate last night was the Republican Party every day, if what happened last night was how the Republican Party is known, there wouldn’t be any concerns about the Hispanic vote.
There wouldn’t be any concern about the Jewish vote. There wouldn’t be any concern about the elderly vote. That was it last night! It wasn’t so much that it was just conservatism. It was facts. It was the truth. I’ll give you an example. Jim Lehrer asked, “What is the role of government to you?” And Obama said (impression), “Well, what I’d do, uhh, is I’d hire more teachers.” Romney said, “Look behind me. That’s the Constitution right here.
“The role of government is to defend and protect the Constitution. The right to life,” explained that, “right to liberty,” explained that, “pursuit to happiness,” explained that. “That’s the role of government.” I mean, it’s no contest! (Obama impression) “Well, I — I — I’d hire… I’d hire more teachers. And, you know what? I’ll also make sure extremists can’t make videos th-th-that are gonna upset Muslims.”
It’s not even a contest, folks. It was such a teachable moment last night. It really, really was. You’re exactly right. By the way, even if Obama would have had the questions, what questions were there? “Do you disagree with him on Social Security?”
I’d really need to prep that one.
That woulda really help if I knew that one in advance.