RUSH: Jim in Roseburg, Oregon, I’m glad you waited, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Rush, mega former Massachusetts resident Reagan Democrat Rush Republican dittos.
RUSH: Well, thank you, sir.
CALLER: Yeah, I’ve been listening to you for 20 years. You’re great. Listen, I can’t move on to my next thing without responding to Margaret or whatever her name was. I just want to tell her —
RUSH: That was Suzanne.
CALLER: Suzanne. I love her, but get over yourself. I mean, come on, what are we going to do? We’re going to vote for Hillary? Yeah, okay, right, I’m with you there. You know, she just has to get over herself. What do you say about that?
RUSH: Well, I think she’s probably tried to get over herself and a lot of other people for eight years and she’s finally fed up for being told to get over herself, and she’s probably fed up with being told, ‘Look, Suzanne, this is the best it’s going to be. Here’s your excrement sandwich, eat it.’
CALLER: Yeah — no, I understand that. I appreciate what she’s saying, but we can’t vote for Hillary. All right, well, I’m going to move on to the other thing.
RUSH: Did she say she was going to vote for Hillary or did she say she just wasn’t going to vote?
CALLER: Yeah, I think she basically implied that she was going to vote for Hillary. And, please, I mean the problem is, Rush, we were not —
RUSH: I think she said — we’re going to replay the call, but I think she said she wasn’t —
CALLER: Yeah, that’s okay.
RUSH: I take it back, she did say if it looked like McCain was going to win, she would vote for Hillary.
CALLER: Yeah. The problem is we just were not given a conservative choice, let’s face it and move on —
RUSH: No question. Move on to where?
CALLER: We don’t have a great place to move on to, we really don’t, but what the heck is our choice now?
RUSH: Well, I suspect that what’s going to happen — remember, this is just February — you get down to October or November, and believe me, I go back to what I said before these primaries even started. I’d be out on the golf course, all these people, ‘What are we going to do to defeat Hillary?’ There was so much fear of Hillary, ‘What are we going to do?’ I’d say, ‘She puts her pants on one leg at a time like every other guy; don’t be worried, don’t be frightened.’ And I think if she gets the nomination, that’s no longer a lock. If she gets the nomination, she redefines negative turnout.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: She just polarizes people. I think she’s going to gin up enough anti-Hillary turnout out there to perhaps be a boon to whoever the Republican nominee is.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Now, if Obama is the nominee, we are doomed, and you should get ready and prepared for it now.
CALLER: I agree.
RUSH: I’m going to tell you something else that’s going to happen. In addition to all this emotion that Hillary’s going to revive in people, all this, ‘I don’t care, I’m not going to vote for that woman,’ you know she’s going to redefine negative turnout. You know she is polarizing. I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen. It’s already started, I pointed this out. Last week after one of the primaries, Anna Quindlen, Newsweek magazine, ‘How Old is Too Old?’ she laid the foundation for the Drive-Bys’ eventual turning on McCain as an old guy getting older. I want to predict to you that once he’s got this sewn up you’re going to see the Drive-By Media start doing stories on his age, and they’re not going to be mean, they are not going to be vicious, they’re going to be almost sorrowful. Somebody wrote about this in American Thinker today, too, and I can’t remember the name. I think I’ve got it here in the Stack, but take a look at some of the pictures from last night on television. Here you had McCain, you’ve got an aging senator here, and an aging governor, gray-haired governor there, you’ve got old people, gray-haired, blue-haired Bloody Mary gang, women, blue hair in the hives and so forth, you’ve got pearls and so forth. You contrast that to the Obama crowd that is youthful, it’s energetic, it wasn’t stoic. I am telling you, if that doesn’t work, they’re going to go after this age business, and they’ll do it almost regretfully. We’re going to get the worst pictures of McCain. We’re going to get him looking tired. We’re going to hear references to his forgetfulness. ‘Isn’t it just a shame?’ And if that doesn’t work, then they’re going to do stories on the fact he’s nuts. Just mark my words. Mark my words and don’t doubt me. What was it you called about out there, Jim?
CALLER: I just wanted to point out the ironies of the fact that the South is always being knocked as the region that will not vote for a black man. Yet, what is the only region where Democrats did not vote for a black man?
RUSH: Yeah, the elite, refined, sophisticated Northeast.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: So your point, that’s where the true racism resides?
CALLER: Oh, it’s obvious, isn’t it?
RUSH: I don’t think there’s any question. These are the same people that say, ‘You know, bring these illegals in, hell, yes.’ ‘Not on my land, not my house.’ Yep, you’re right. That’s excellent point. Look, Jim, I gotta run.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Beavercreek, Ohio, Ed, and welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, thanks for having me, and mega dittos.
RUSH: You bet, sir.
CALLER: The last week or so we’ve heard everything about why we should look at other options and not McCain. Here, it doesn’t look like people are listening. He’s got a three-to-one ratio on delegates. Now let’s just assume he is our representative.
RUSH: Mmm-hmm?
CALLER: Are we going to turn around and the day after he’s our rep, turn around and say, ‘Okay, now we like him?’ After we heard everything from your show, Neal Boortz, Sean Hannity saying all the negatives, are we going to turn around and now say, ‘Hold on. We like him because he’s our GOP rep’?
RUSH: That’s their theory.
CALLER: And, if so, how are we going to do it?
RUSH: That’s their theory. McCain is going to go to the Conservative Political Action Conference, speech tomorrow. He did not go in 2007; he’s going tomorrow. This is a reach-out, an attempt to unify conservatives. (sigh) McCain presumes that he’s going to be able to answer those questions for you and everybody else. The theory is that once the primaries are over — these are just typical primary, intraparty battles that are common during primaries; but once the primary is over — the party will come together and unify. That’s just tradition talking, and he thinks, and everybody else thinks, that that’s what’s going to happen with this is over. That’s another reason why I don’t think they’re taking all this seriously. It’s kind of entertaining to them, frustrating a little bit for McCain — and I’ll tell you why. You talk about three-to-one lead in the delegates. He’s not getting the conservative base in this party voting for him.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: He’s going to need that if he has any chance of winning.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: They may want to wipe the conservative element out of the party, but they want it back every four years for the election.
CALLER: So the day afterwards, are we going to see Sean Hannity and you supporting him also because he’s the GOP representative?
RUSH: The day after the Republican convention?
CALLER: Yes, sir. The day after he’s our representative.
RUSH: I could not possibly answer that question, because that’s way down the road. Who knows what the future brings.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: What is this, trick the host day? Look, I have been at this for many, many moons, and trying to trick the host into tripping up. (interruption) What do you mean, I have to be…? (interruption) I have to be responsible for what? What are you talking about? What do I have to be responsible for? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Ohhhhhh! Is that what you say? Is he telling me that I’m going to have to dump all of this and throw it aside? Essentially, I’m going to have to stop being hysterical and I’m going to have to eat the excrement sandwich, and the day after the nominating convention I’m going to put all of that aside and come together and be unified, because I am going to have to be responsible? Ed, is that your point? Is that what you’re basically saying?
CALLER: Some of the reason. I don’t like McCain. I don’t support McCain. I do agree with what you’ve been saying, and if he ends up being our representative, it is going to be hard to, the day afterwards, look at him and say, ‘Okay, now I like this guy, because he’s our representative.’
RUSH: I don’t think you’ll have to do that. You can always say that your vote’s against Hillary.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: You can always say, ‘Look, in good conscience, I just cannot permit that woman to get in charge of this country and health care. I just can’t! I can’t in good conscience.’ If that’s what it will take for you to go cast a vote, just look at it as an anti-Hillary vote rather than a pro-McCain vote. He won’t care.
CALLER: (laughter) Well, thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: (laughs) All right. You bet.