RUSH: Let’s go to This Week with Stephanopoulos, whose question was, ‘Which of your ambitions, which of your campaign promises will you have to scale back on because of the economic downturn?’
OBAMA: I want to be realistic here. Uh, not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace that we had hoped.
RUSH: Reeeeeeeeally? Not everything we promised, not everything we talked about we’re going to be able to do. But remember, my friends: it’s not what Obama says, it’s how he says it. Even he admits now his campaign promises were just a bunch of smoke and mirrors. And, see, it goes to something that I shared with you last week. Elections are not about winning arguments. It’s not about telling the right things to people. It’s about telling them what they want to hear, and then after you get into office… I mean, this is just Bill Clinton all over again. (impression) ‘I tell you, I got in here, and the Bush people didn’t tell me how bad this was. I have never worked harder in my entire life and I just can’t find a way. I can’t find a way to come through with those middle-class tax cuts right now,’ and he never found a way for them. So it’s a rerun; it’s a replay. ‘I want to be realistic here.’ So Stephanopoulos then presses The Messiah on everybody having to sacrifice, have some skin in the game. He said, ‘Well, now, at the end of the day you’re talking about over the course of your presidency some kind of grand bargain? You have tax reform, health care reform, entitlement reform, Social Security, Medicare, where everybody in the country is going to have to sacrifice something, accept change for the greater good?’
OBAMA: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And when will that get done?
OBAMA: Well, uh, I, the — the — Right now I’m focused on a pretty heavy lift which is making sure that we get that reinvestment, uh, and recovery package in place.
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: But what you describe is exactly what we’re going to have to do. What we have to do is take a look at our structural deficit, how are we paying for government, what are we getting for it —
RUSH: Really?
OBAMA: — and how do we make the system more efficient.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And eventually sacrifice from everyone.
OBAMA: Everyone’s going to have to give. Everybody’s going to have to have some skin in the game.
RUSH: Who is ‘everybody’? We’re going to have to define this word, ladies and gentlemen. Who is everybody? Because I don’t think he means everybody. But did you notice how Stephanopoulos gave him the answer to the question? He’s speaking here in the continual flowery platitudes. He didn’t get specific, but I’m sure Stephanopoulos walked out of the studio yesterday and said, ‘Well, I made some news! I told Obama what’s going to happen; he said, ‘Yep, it’s exactly what you said we’re going to do.” So Stephanopoulos may as well be David Axelrod conducting this interview. Here’s the next question — and this, for you (laughing) you anti-war people, it’s a bad sound bite. This is Stephanopoulos. ‘You also agreed on Guantanamo, when you say you want to shut it down. You say you’re still going to shut it down. Is it turning out to be harder than you expected?’ What kinda questions are these? Of course it’s turning out to be harder than expected because Obama has already said so! This is a softball served up. ‘Will you close [Club Gitmo] in the first 100 days?’
OBAMA: It is more difficult than I think a lot of people under — uh — realize.
RUSH: Oh?
OBAMA: And, uh, eh, we are going to get it done.
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: But part of the challenge that you have is —
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: — that you’ve got a bunch of, folks, that have been detained.
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: — many of whom may be very dangerous.
RUSH: Nooooo!
OBAMA: — who have not, uh, been put on trial.
RUSH: No!
OBAMA: Uh, and have not gone through some adjudication.
RUSH: Well.
OBAMA: And some of the evidence against them may be tainted, even though it’s true.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So not necessarily first hundred days?
OBAMA: That — that is the challenge. I think it’s — it’s going to take some time.
RUSH: So you can forget Gitmo closing, exactly as I told you. You can forget the warrantless wiretaps going away. You can forget all of this stuff necessary to protect America being scratched, because governing is different than running, whole different set of responsibilities. (interruption) I know because I know liberals, Snerdley. I just know these people, as you well know. But this is… I mean, when’s the last time — when is any time during the campaign — that he acknowledged that anybody in prison at Gitmo was really dangerous? He never did! They were all victims of US civil rights abuses. None of them deserve to be there. They didn’t have habeas corpus; they hadn’t been charged with anything. Now Obama, on the verge of being immaculately inaugurated, says that, ‘Well, you know, the evidence against them may be tainted even though it’s true.’ He is finding out just how right Bush and Cheney were to set all this up.
‘We’re going to get it done. Well, not in the first hundred days; we’re going to get it done.’ He plays this both sides of the game really brilliantly, I think. You know, his left-wing kook fringe base is also clamoring for war crimes charges and trials against Bush administration people. Now, that will never happen, but Obama is out there saying, ‘Well, you know, before you can do that, you have to have investigations, and I don’t think we’re going to have time.’ So he’s saying, ‘Yeah, if there’s evidence that needs to be investigated, we’re going to investigate it.’ So he’s assuring that there might be investigations, but that there won’t be any charges. Of course he’s not going to engage in charging Bush or Cheney with war crimes! The biggest people he’s gotta run roughshod on in that regard are people like John Conyers and some of the other loony birds in the House of Representatives. Now, Stephanopoulos said, ‘Former defense secretary William Perry said this week at a conference that you will almost certainly face a conflict, a crisis with Iran in your first year in office. Based on what you’ve learned, do you agree with that analysis, and are you ready for it?’
OBAMA: I’ve outlined, uh, my belief that engagement is the place to start. And I think that sending a signal that, uh, we respect the aspirations of the Iranian people, uh, but that we also have certain expectations in terms of how, uh, a [sic — an] international actor behaves —
STEPHANOPOULOS: But a new emphasis on respect?
OBAMA: — uh, is one that we can initiate.
OBAMA: Well, I think a n-new emphasis on respect and a new emphasis on, uh, being willing to talk, but also, uh, a clarity about what our bottom lines are.
RUSH: All right, more gobbledygook. These questions are derived from Obama’s campaign statements. And what Obama’s basically saying here is, ‘Well, yeah we’re going to respect them. We’re going to talk to them, but we respect the aspirations of the Iranian people.’ Mr. President-elect, that’s because the whole focal point of the Bush administration’s Iran policy, has been to make sure the Iranian people understood that we got no grudge against them. You’re not breaking any new ground here. But I hate to tell him, we had the news last Friday, the mullahs have said, ‘We’re not talking until two things happen.’ They have set preconditions with The One, and the two preconditions are: Get out of Iraq, and stop supporting Israel. The mullahs said, ‘We’re not going to talk to the new president until those two things happen.’ Meanwhile, he’s sitting here talking, ‘Well, yeah we’re going to treat ’em with respect, a newfound respect.’ See, everything with Stephanopoulos and the media, everything is based on the fact that all these people hate us only because George Bush was president, and that once Bush is gone, all this hatred and animosity is gonna vanish, which it won’t. The disconnect here between reality and symbolism continues to just amaze me, to be profound.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: First off from The Politico today: ‘White House reporters for The New York Times predict that the market collapse will force President-elect Barack Obama to abandon for now many of his campaign promises.’ Now, this is from yesterday. (interruption) We’ve already… Why give…? (interruption) I know, but why give the New York Times credit for this when Obama said so yesterday with Stephanopoulos? He said we’re going to have to do with less. Well, anyway, that’s not the point of the story. ‘If his stimulus plan ‘doesn’t work out, he may very well be a one-term president,’ said Jeff Zeleny, who covered Obama’s campaign. ‘It’s hard to imagine that he could be reelected if the economy’s in the exact same position four years from now.
‘A lot of the things he said on the campaign trail you can now dispense with,’ said correspondent Peter Baker. ‘For the moment he has to focus on the economy.’ … And for all of his campaign trail talk about collective sacrifice, Baker observed, Obama has seemed reluctant to call for austerity in a challenging economic moment.’ He hadn’t asked anybody for sacrifice. He did ask! These guys are two days ago behind the scenes. He did say everybody is going to have to have some ‘skin in the game.’ Everybody is going to have to sacrifice. He said this. Including Al Sharpton, who has already sacrificed. All these years of sacrifice. But Obama is in the White House. At any rate. He’s already said everybody is going to have ‘skin in the game.’
Everybody is going to have sacrifice. We need to define ‘everybody.’ I hate you tell you this. When he says, ‘everybody,’ I can’t… Everybody? The poor? ‘It’s hard to imagine he could be reelected.’ So New York Times reporters are warning of a one-term presidency for The Messiah if the stimulus plan does not work. Wow. People are not gonna put up with this, if the plan doesn’t work? And, let’s see. Oh. There’s one other story: big changes to Obama’s stimulus plan. There will be more green spending, less tax credits. So the plan is under constant revision and review. We can’t hold him to what he said in the campaign, right? Of course we can’t. He doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.