DAUM: You have said, “Stay the course.” George Bush calls the people there “thugs;” you call them “extremists.” But they — they hated Saddam Hussein, and they now hate us. They wanted Saddam Hussein out. Now they want the United States out. And you say, “Stay the course.” What the United States is doing is bombing hospitals, bombing mosques, sniping at civilians, killing hundreds of civilians, wounding thousands of civilians. And you say, “Stay the course.” Is that the criminal course that you want to stay? This is an imperialist country that’s fighting an imperialist war. You say stay the course of this imperialist war, and you say you are a stark difference from George Bush. People hate George Bush. By the end of your presidency people will hate you for the same thing. You may fool some of the Americans that you are different from George Bush on this war, but you’re not fooling most of the world, and you’re going to fool Iraqis.
RUSH: And here’s Kerry’s brilliant comeback.
KERRY: I have consistently been critical of how we got where we are, but we are where we are, sir. And it would be unwise beyond belief for the United States of America to leave a failed Iraq in its wake. And I want the Americans out, and so do Americans want —
DAUM: No, you don’t. You say, “Stay the course,” senator.
KERRY: Let me just finish. Stay the course of leaving a stable Iraq.
RUSH: Kerry continued.
KERRY: If you don’t leave a stable Iraq with a legitimacy to whatever entity is going to transform the government, you have the potential for a civil war. You have the potential for Shi’a vs. Sunni vs. Kurd. There are all kinds of potentials. Let me just finish.
DAUM: They are united against the occupation.
DAUM: Oh, yes, I am.
KERRY: Well, then you haven’t…frankly…listened, because…in fact the course that I have proposed is to turn over to the United Nations the full responsibility for the transformation of the government and for the reconstruction.
RUSH: All right. You say Daum will still vote for Kerry. Fine! He probably still will. But I’m going to tell you that none of this — I’m going to be honest with you, too — none of this has gotten wide play. The sound bite that has been played most frequently is just Daum saying, “People hate George Bush and at the end of your presidency people hate you for the same thing.” There’s nothing in here that makes Kerry look stellar. There’s nothing about this that makes me think that it’s set up and fake so Kerry can make himself look good. But more importantly than that, forget whether Daum votes for Kerry or not. The fact of the matter is that this is not going to inspire anybody else who is already not planning to vote for Kerry to vote for him — and that’s the key.
He’s not going to get any other Democratic votes than any other nominee would get, and in fact I think he may actually get less. Because if an answer or a question like this comes… See, I think — just to repeat myself very briefly, to be redundant, — I don’t think the Democrats know who they nominated. I think Howard Dean was the guy they really, really wanted and this is the kind of stuff that Walter Daum would not get up and have to say to Howard Dean because Howard Dean would be saying this, and the Democrats of this country would all be rallying around him and there would be a lot of excitement.
John Kerry, on the other hand, cannot generate that, and guys like Walter Daum are upset. They expect their nominee to hate Bush. They expect their nominee to hate Iraq. They expect their nominee to join ’em and say, “We’re killing children! We’re killing babies! We’re bombing mosques! We’re bombing hospitals! We’re bombing schools!” and Kerry isn’t saying it. And I’m telling you, this is going to be a disappointment to a whole slew of Democrats who are going to end up with buyer’s remorse. They’re going to be scratching their heads saying, “Wait a minute. I thought we nominated a guy that hates Bush, and Kerry sounds like it’s the same policy.”
This is not helpful to him. I don’t care how you slice this. There’s nothing about this that was helpful to him, and right now it’s too soon for him to even start thinking about swing voters. He doesn’t have his base locked up here, folks. They did not get their base locked up in this primary. I don’t care what you hear about unity and excitement. Their turnout in all these primaries is 8%, 10%. The media did this guy a great disservice by talking about how wildly popular he was and how incredibly historic his vote totals and victories were and how much excitement there was. There was none, zip, zero, nada, and it’s all coming home to roost now. We’ll be back.
I mean, you’ve got a guy, a former dean in the audience who stands up, is more articulate, is more passionate and is more to the point about what Democrats think than the nominee is! That’s what’s going to be heard here. There are going to be people, “Why don’t we nominate him?” speaking of Walter Daum. “This guy knows more about what we think than Kerry does.” That’s what’s going to be the reaction if this little bite gets wide (play) as we are doing — and don’t think liberals don’t listen to this. In some of these password controlled chat rooms where you and I can’t get to, there’s going to be a lot of bloodletting tonight once this sound bite let’s around. Democrats going to be keeping the sharp objects away from themselves because this is not going to make ’em happy.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Grab audio sound bite #8 for you. We have a montage here. This is at the John Kerry fund-raiser in New York. We have a little montage of, I guess, this is the Reverend Jackson and Andrew Cuomo, and they are trying to explain why they are for John Kerry at his fund-raiser and I just want you to hear this and listen for what you do not hear.
JACKSON: There’s a sense that Americans feel that the fight for — for the integrity of our nation, and so the rising hope is expressed here tonight.
CUOMO: I think there’s a sense that we really have to beat Bush, and that is #1, and in many ways that has overcome the traditional differences within the Democratic Party.
RUSH: Yeah, well, you’ve been saying, “Hope’s on the rise” for as long as I’ve been alive, Reverend Jackson. He has. “Hope is on the rise?” Whatever. The point is you don’t hear Kerry’s name. You don’t hear these guys saying, “John Kerry is the guy to do this, and John Kerry is at a rally!” That’s a hatred for Bush that supposedly setting aside or overcoming these traditional differences in the Democratic Party, and I’m just telling you that that is not happening. I’m not saying there’s not hatred for Bush, but, folks, this party is falling apart!
There’s an AFL-CIO where is it? There’s a United Auto Workers story. They just lost 13,000 more workers. The normal constituencies of this party are fractured. They’re falling apart. They’re more and more, this party is defined by fealty to such things like gay marriage, taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, partial-birth abortion and all these things — and that’s why you don’t hear them talking about issues here. All they can do is try to make hay out of Iraq now. I don’t know how the election is going to turn out, it’s too soon, but I’m just telling you this party is not unified and happy-go-lucky and hunky-dory as they would love for you to believe.
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