RUSH: Theresa in Sumter, South Carolina, I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the broadcast.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Just wanted to say love you, love Mannheim Steamroller, and I was one of the I guess 36,000 people yesterday at William Bryce Stadium for the Obama-Oprah extravaganza.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: I am a Republican, the whole reason was just to introduce my daughter to politics. But I do feel that the introduction of Oprah, a lot of people that I spoke with yesterday, they trust her judgment, they think that she’s a straight-on person. Maybe Obama is going to give Hillary a run for her money, because, it seems that maybe the tide is turning, so to speak. The crowd was just all over him. He seems like he’s a genuine person, and that’s something so different from Hillary, you know. And I’m almost, I wish that if a Democrat is going to win — because we Republicans can’t seem to get ourselves together with one candidate — I hope it’s him and not her so that there aren’t lies being perpetrated on the American people anymore.
RUSH: Whew. Okay, you’re proving something that I said at the outset of the program.
CALLER: Yes, sir?
RUSH: And it is that the Hillary camp’s biggest fear about Oprah is that she appeals to white women.
CALLER: Oh, yeah. I mean the crowd was completely mixed.
RUSH: No, I’m talking about you.
CALLER: Oh. Oh, no, no, no.
RUSH: No, no, no, don’t try to weasel out now sweetie, don’t try to weasel out now.
CALLER: I’m voting for Fred Thompson, that’s who I’m going to vote for, in our primary, yes, sir. Definitely.
RUSH: But the fact that you’re even thinking about which of these Democrats would be okay if our guys don’t win.
CALLER: Right. Yeah.
RUSH: And you think Obama seems — see, this is fascinating. Do you know one thing about Obama’s policy? Did he talk about any policy things yesterday?
CALLER: Oh, he had plenty of stuff that he wants to do, but my question is where is that funding going to come from, you know, all of these marvelous — he wants to increase the minimum wage annually so that it matches inflation. Well, where are the dollars going to come? He wants to —
RUSH: You!
CALLER: — build schools —
RUSH: You and me. Called tax increases, and —
CALLER: Oh, yeah.
RUSH: — every Democrat running is going to do it.
CALLER: I know it.
RUSH: In terms of policy, there is not a smidgen’s bit of difference between Obama, or Hillary, or John Edwards.
CALLER: No. But I think the perception — because I talk to people, that’s just my nature, among the people that I spoke with yesterday, was that Obama is genuine, Hillary is not.
RUSH: Well, mostly Democrats showing up at this thing, right?
CALLER: Oh, yeah. I felt like, oh, I just felt like at any moment someone was going to find out my true beliefs and ambush me.
RUSH: I’ll tell you what this also dovetails with, and that is a Zogby poll from last week in Iowa, but nevertheless they found that the electorate — they say this every year — they say the electorate is just angry as it can be at politics in general, negative ads and this sort of thing, and they’re looking for somebody who’s not going to get into the traditional mudslinging, and Obama isn’t.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Hillary is slinging all kinds of mud at him, but he’s not responding in kind. He’s kind of responding in a lifeless way.
CALLER: That’s one thing I noticed yesterday.
RUSH: You sure sound enthusiastic about this guy to be a Fred Thompson supporter. I just have to observe that.
CALLER: I’m just enthusiastic to be talking to you.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: It’s just me. I love you, Rush.
RUSH: This is a smart woman.
CALLER: Yesterday, they let Oprah make the digs on Hillary. Now, Obama attacked Republicans and the Bush administration, which I told my daughter, that’s like singing to the choir because these people hate Bush already. But they let Oprah make the digs against Hillary.
RUSH: All right. You’ve also said something else about which I must comment, Theresa, and that is, it’s a sad and unfortunate reality in politics: Perception is reality. And you keep using that word. Your perception of Obama, which means, you don’t have any clue, but you are perceiving. And so when you perceive, and you perceive positively, you’re transferring positive qualities you want in somebody to Obama and then thinking he’s got them. A perception is not reality by definition. But in politics, perception is reality. You are relying more on your perception of Obama and his personality and all that than you are of your knowledge of his policy and other things. And, of course, The Oprah is there, too, and this adds to people’s perceptions, especially attracting white women, which is what Hillary desperately needs, not just for the primaries, but for the general. But perceptions matter, and your illustration of it here is important, because you are now already beginning to think this Obama guy wouldn’t be bad, if Fred Thompson doesn’t win it all.
Well, Hillary had the highly educated white women. It was the poor and uneducated that she was going for and hence Oprah’s in the campaign now to get the poor and the uneducated who have time to watch television 53 hours a week to learn how their lives are miserable and they can’t do anything about it except to keep watching Oprah, that’s what I’m telling you. She’s always had the highly educated, elite women, the feminazis and this sort thing. It’s the poor, uneducated women that Hillary was making a move for. But, of course, Hillary is not going to lower herself to act like she can relate to poor, uneducated people. She’ll lower herself to speak with blacks with their accent and dialect and so forth. Well, who do you think the Oprah audience is, for crying out loud? Don’t make me go any further in this. You all know what I’m talking about here. You know it and I know it. Theresa, thanks.