The Obama Campaign Brilliance

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, the New York Times today has a story by Jeff Zeleny: ‘In Memories of Painful Past, Hushed Worry About Obama.’ (Gasp!) ‘There is a hushed worry on the minds of many supporters of Senator Barack Obama, echoing in conversations from state to state, rally to rally: Will he be safe? In Colorado, two sisters say they pray daily for his safety. In New Mexico, a daughter says she persuaded her mother to still vote for Mr. Obama, even though the mother feared that winning would put him in danger. And at a rally here, a woman expressed worries that a message of hope and change, in addition to his race, made him more vulnerable to violence. ‘I’ve got the best protection in the world,’ Mr. Obama, of Illinois, said … ‘So stop worrying.’ Yet worry they do, with the spring of 1968 seared into their memories, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated in a span of two months.’ Now, I have a question. Who do you think, folks, is behind this story? (interruption) No, Mr. Snerdley. Hillary is not behind this story. Is that what you said? Obama people are behind this story. (laughing) There is no question. You could almost say that this is brilliant, to get this out there.

Oh, no, no, no. Somebody inside that camp is thinking real hard. There is this quote, this passage from the story. ‘That afternoon, Mr. Obama’s motorcade passed Dealey Plaza and the Texas Book Depository building, where the fatal shot was fired at President Kennedy in 1963. Several campaign aides looked out their windows [of their cars], silently absorbing the scene.’ Now, I wish I could remember the circumstances. It was just last week I had an iChat going, an instant message chat going with a person who shall remain nameless. The subject of going to Texas and Obama and the campaign came up; and this person, who is very cynical, said, ‘I wonder how long it will take Obama to do the exact JFK route through Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository,’ and damned if he wasn’t right. You gotta give ’em credit here for putting this stuff out there. They’re doing everything they can here to shut down any kind of criticism of the guy. That’s what this is about: policy. I don’t care what it is. That’s the express purpose of this, and with the New York Times getting it out there.

Then, of course, this picture with Obama looking like he’s an Al-Qaeda figure, with the turban? I saw that picture late Friday or Saturday. Somebody sent me that picture and said, ‘This is Photoshopped. What is this? This is nuts,’ and then, of course, the picture shows up on Drudge today, and the Clinton campaign said, ‘No, we cannot deny that we put it out there.’ It’s interesting because if you look, if you do the research, you can go back to when Bill Clinton was president and find him walking through mud villages in Africa dressed up as some local warlord, using a typical African garb, and, of course, nobody said a word about it then. But he wasn’t wearing a turban. Snerdley says he found a picture of Clinton wearing something, a big, giant hat, but not a turban. Is it a witch doctor hat or something? Something like that, but not a turban? Not a turban. Well, this picture of Obama is going around wearing a turban, and the Drive-Bys are just waiting for this picture to get out to somebody else so that they can then report it.

Jim Kuhnhenn, AP: ‘A photograph circulating on the Internet of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama dressed in traditional local garments during a visit to Kenya in 2006 is causing a dustup in the presidential campaign over what constitutes a smear. The Associated Press photograph portrays Obama wearing a white turban and a wraparound white robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, in northeastern Kenya. Obama’s estranged late father was Kenyan and Obama visited the country in 2006, attracting thousands of well-wishers. The gossip and news website The Drudge Report posted the photograph Monday and said it was being circulated by ‘Clinton staffers’ and quoted an e-mail from an unidentified campaign aide.’ (laughing) You Clinton people are embarrassing me! This is such rank amateurism! If you’re going to put it out there, talk about it! Ask, ‘Why is Mr. Obama dressed up as an Al-Qaeda figure? What is he trying to accomplish with the Ayman al-Zawahiri look?’ That picture is not going to help Obama in certain neighborhoods in this country. Look at this headline. This is from CBSNews.com. ‘Obama Defends his Wife’s Patriotism — Barack Obama [yesterday] defended his and his wife’s patriotism after she was criticized last week for saying she’s proud of America for the first time in her life.’

You know, folks, if you have to defend your patriotism, are you not in trouble? When somebody puts you on defense on your ‘patriotism,’ it’s a sign that you’re in trouble. But this is the most… I’ve got a story here from the Asia Times, and it’s by somebody called ‘Spengler.’ No first name. Now, I mentioned earlier in the program that there are fractures in the Democrat Party, and some in the Drive-By Media are starting to back away from the idolatry with which they are viewing and reporting on Obama. This happened long ago with the Clintons. I think it’s safe to say the Drive-Bys, who felt like they were whores in the nineties, are embarrassed here. They’re no longer going to cover, and that’s coming to pass. But this piece, this piece is stunning — and, again, all I know is ‘Spengler.’ There’s no first name here, 2008 copyright, Asia Times Online. ‘Obama’s Women Reveal His Secret — ‘Cherchez la femme,’ advised Alexander Dumas in: ‘When you want to uncover an unspecified secret, look for the woman.’ In the case of Barack Obama, we have two: his late mother, the went-native anthropologist Ann Dunham, and his rancorous wife Michelle. Obama’s women reveal his secret: he hates America. We know less about Senator Obama than about any prospective president in American history. His uplifting rhetoric is empty, as Hillary Clinton helplessly protests. His career bears no trace of his own character, not an article for the Harvard Law Review he edited, or a single piece of legislation.

‘He appears to be an empty vessel filled with the wishful thinking of those around him. But there is a real Barack Obama. No man — least of all one abandoned in infancy by his father — can conceal the imprint of an impassioned mother, or the influence of a brilliant wife.’ Let me get to the money quote. Snerdley, I want you to listen to this. Again, I just know the name ‘Spengler,’ Asia Times. It’s kind of an amazing story. But I’m going to read this. I’m just going to read it as it’s written. ‘Never underestimate the influence of a wife who bitch-slaps her husband in public. Early in Obama’s campaign, Michelle Obama could not restrain herself from belittling the senator. ‘I have some difficulty reconciling the two images I have of Barack Obama. There’s Barack Obama the phenomenon. He’s an amazing orator, Harvard Law Review, or whatever it was, law professor, best-selling author, Grammy winner. Pretty amazing, right? And then there’s the Barack Obama that lives with me in my house, and that guy’s a little less impressive,’ she told a fundraiser in February 2007. ‘For some reason this guy still can’t manage to put the butter up when he makes toast, secure the bread so that it doesn’t get stale, and his five-year-old is still better at making the bed than he is.’

‘New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd reported at the time, ‘[Michelle Obama] added that the TV version of Barack Obama sounded really interesting and that she’d like to meet him sometime.’ Her handlers have convinced her to be more tactful since then.’ What are you saying to me? How can I hear you? Now, some people looking at this and say, ‘Wow, this guy Obama, he’s a total phony!’ But I have a different take on this. The guy is so important; he’s so messianic. Gods don’t care about the butter! Gods don’t care about making the beds. It’s her job anyway. She’s supposed to put the butter up. She’s supposed to make the bed. She’s supposed to make sure the bread doesn’t get stale. Gods don’t worry about this stuff. Gods don’t worry about stale bread! They just create fresh bread if the bread gets stale. If the butter goes bad, the gods create more. It just happens. It’s just there — and if the bed’s not made, the god gets in it, and it’s automatically made. If god’s wife wants to join him, it will be fine. So I think this piece is intending to slice Obama to shreds by saying he’s nothing more than phony, that in his private life, he’s incompetent. His wife doesn’t like him. ‘You can’t do anything,’ but all that’s going to do is make people think he’s like everybody else — and at the same time, he’s a god.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You remember, ladies and gentlemen, John Kerry, when he was running for the presidency in 2004, went down there to NASA, and he dressed up in a sperm costume. Remember that picture? It looked like John Kerry was running through the tubes, the shuttle launch complex, or whatever it was, looked like a sperm cell, with just his face sticking out. And everybody was laughing themselves silly, just having the greatest time making fun of Kerry because he did look like a dork. He looked like an idiot. He looked like a sperm cell. Now Obama dresses up like Bin Laden, and if you mention it, it’s a scurrilous attack. This is the brilliance of the Obama campaign. They have fostered all of this. They put the story out that they worry about harm coming to him. And, by the way, who was the first that did that? Who? Tell me, who was the first person to raise fears as it relates to Obama. His wife. ‘He could get shot at a gas station.’ Remember that? That was Michelle Obama. Princeton, ’85, or whenever she went there. What are you shaking your head for? Dawn, give me a break. Romance can’t ever leave any subject. ‘She just loves him.’ I’m sure she does, except when he doesn’t put the butter away and doesn’t make the bed. What husband makes the bed anyway?

Don in Atlanta, Georgia, welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I just had two things. First of all, I watched the movie this weekend Man of the Year. I think you ought to look at it and see what empty rhetoric will do for somebody.

RUSH: Yeah, I’ve heard of that movie. Who was in it?

CALLER: I can’t remember the star off the top of my head.

RUSH: Robin Williams, I’m told.

CALLER: Yeah, it was Robin Williams.

RUSH: Yeah, yeah.

CALLER: That’s correct. The other thing I wanted to bring up was I think that John McCain may well be very, very well positioned for the campaign coming up, regardless of who he has to run against. He doesn’t even have to criticize these people and run a negative campaign. All he needs to do is play back all the negatives that they have been saying about each other, and he can give the liberal Democrats a very credible reason not to vote for their Democrat candidate. And I just think that — you know, looks relatively positive even though I’m not real wild about John McCain.

RUSH: Yeah, I know what you mean, but the objective is for the Democrat Party to destroy itself, since we’re not going to try.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: You’ve just articulated a policy, or a philosophy, or a theory, or an idea where McCain shouldn’t, he shouldn’t even take it to them because they’re doing it themselves, they’ve given us enough ammo and so forth, which is one of the reasons why a lot of Democrats want Hillary to quit, so they can get about uniting the party. This is why we don’t want her to quit. We want her to stay in there and try to wrest the nomination away from Obama and keep this tumult and chaos going for as long as possible.

CALLER: I just hope McCain’s people are smart enough to do this.

RUSH: We’ll find out. I mean, one of his advisors, Mark McKinnon, has personally said he will resign from the position if they do an attack ad on Obama.

CALLER: Again, they don’t need to. They can just play back Hillary’s negatives.

RUSH: Look, they’re going to have to at some point. You gotta compare and contrast. This is a presidential campaign. This kid glove stuff, you know, forget the fact that Obama’s historic, forget the fact he’s the first black, this is exactly what I’m talking about. The left is telling us how we have to play. Screw that! You know, here we are, the RNC sending out their little memo, their strategy memo, ‘We must be very careful.’ Why? The Democrats are telling us how we have to campaign now? It’s one thing to tell us what our energy policy is, it’s one thing they tell us what kind of lightbulbs we can’t use anymore. Now they’re going to tell us how we have to campaign? This is for the presidency of the United States. Barack Obama is to the left of George McGovern. Barack Obama has never reached across the aisle, in legislation or anything else. This is about what he stands for, who he is, and where he wants to take the country, with foreign policy and all this stuff.

I’ll tell you what, folks, if we get hamstrung or intimidated into failing to expose the Obama agenda because of fears that we’ll be attacked, and we’re going to be. But one thing about McCain, I don’t know that McCain’s ever been accused of being a racist. If he hasn’t, he’d better get used to it. Maybe not directly, but by implication, his party, you know how this goes. But you can’t let this stuff stop you from being seriously critical of policy ideas of a political opponent. We’re the Republican Party. We supposedly want colorblindness, right? We’re not interested in all the quotas and stuff, and people don’t get jobs just because of the color of their skin or their sex, gender orientation. So what the hell, this guy is the Democrat presidential nominee, fine, we take him seriously, he’s got serious ideas, we think they’re destructive. We cannot sit around and let the Democrats alone destroy themselves. If they are, it’s certainly wise to help ’em, but if we’re going to sit here and not try to win by not being aggressive here then we deserve to lose.