RUSH: Here is Nancy in Rescue, California. Hi, Nancy, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. You crack me up. Hey, I’m a second-time caller from just outside your adopted hometown of Sacramento.
RUSH: Yes, I know where Rescue is.
CALLER: Oh, you do?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Good. Hey, you know, I’m a converted Republican conservative. Once upon a time was a Democrat, but thanks to you I’ve learned a lot about politics and I became a convert largely from listening to you.
RUSH: Well, thank you very much. It’s an honor, and I appreciate that.
CALLER: Say, I wanted to say that I think the reason that Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are becoming such front-runners is because they’re positive. I think they’re pleasantly, genuinely positive. Even when they are saying things that might be considered an attack on one of the other candidates, they stick to the truth, and they do it in a positive way. I think positive sells; I think positive wins.
RUSH: Well, you know, you’re right in a lot of cases. The Power of Positive Thinking books make millions for the author. Quick, who was the author?
RUSH: Dr. Norman Vincent Peale!
CALLER: Norman Vincent Peale, right.
RUSH: Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, right. But in politics it’s somewhat odd. In a lot of cases you can see where politicians have really scored big by trying to make things sound horrible and trying to relate to it, and of course that is the Clinton campaign and the Edwards campaign. Obama? Yeah, I guess you would say that his speeches of soaring vapidness are tinged with the positive based on what we can all do working together if we get rid of red states and blue states, and just have the United States. (sigh) Yeah, yeah. You know, you’re right. Look, I believe in it firmly in personal relationships. I think optimism always is infectious, it is inspiring, but there are a lot of people who don’t want to deal with optimism because they’ll have to work hard to achieve it. Pessimism is easy. You just have to sit around and mope, and pessimists love to have people feel pity for them. The Clintons are excellent at that. (doing Clinton impression) ‘I feel your pain. Ha-ha-ha. I’m gonna cause you pain, but I’ll feel it after I cause it.’ A lot of people love blaming other people for their own misery, and in politics, it’s one of the things that’s frustrated me is being pessimistic and doom and gloom seems to work. I hope you’re right. I hope you’re right in that sense. We’ll see, due course. Reagan, of course, was the epitome of good cheer and optimism. Of course, so am I — and you can look at my audience, compared to the doom-and-gloom crowd anywhere else in the Drive-By Media and see which is preferred by the public at large.