RUSH: Patrick in Richmond, Virginia, you’re next. Thanks for calling on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you for taking my call, O’Great One.
RUSH: You bet, and welcome, sir.
CALLER: Rush, as you know, with the Electoral College map the way that it is, the Republican candidate, whoever it is, will probably have to carry every single southern state. I think that Thompson probably has the best chance of doing that. My question to you is this: Do you honestly think that Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney, both being from the Northeast, can carry every single southern state?
RUSH: They don’t have to. They can miss a couple. It’s not going to be that difficult. I was talking about this earlier. You’re going to have to win Ohio, in addition to Florida, because the Democrats are going to win New York and California. That’s just etched in stone right now. As to the electability of these guys in the Northeast and South and so forth, by the time… You know, you’re looking at this in the context of primaries, and when we get to the general — after we’ve got the primaries over, if it’s Mitt, if it’s Rudy, since those two guys are your examples — the opponent is going to be Hillary. The subject, the focus of the election is going to be the future of the country. Are we going to head in a more obvious, pronounced, socialist direction with government-run health care on the horizon and all of these things, or are we going to remain the engine of capitalism that keeps us free and prosperous in the rest of the world? That’s what this is going to be about. Mrs. Clinton, by the time she becomes the focal point of this with her 50% negatives, I think all these other things are going to be a mistake. In fact, I would go so far as to say again that if either Rudy or Mitt focus in their campaign as ‘I can win the Northeast,’ I would advise them not to do it. I would advise them not to say it. Talk about winning the country, because people, when they hear you say, ‘I can win the Northeast,’ they think, ‘How you going to do it? Are you going to out-liberal the Democrats in those states?’ We don’t win by being somewhat liberal to combat them. We win by being conservative against them, and there’s some states we’re going to win; some states we’re not.