RUSH: Snerdley brought me this story this morning, said, ‘Do you believe this?’ He came in with the biggest frown on his face. He said, ‘Just read this, just read this,’ threw it down in front of me, and I picked it up. It’s a Reuters story: ”McCain Says Americans Too Cynical’ — US Republican presidential candidate John McCain believes many Americans are cynical about their country and their idea of liberty is ‘the right to choose among competing brands of designer coffee.’ He’s making a speech today about this. ”What these people need is a good dose of public service.’ That’s one of the messages McCain will give today in a visit to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis where he admittedly –‘ what’s this got to do with anything? ‘– where he admittedly bucked authority and slacked off on his studies to the point where he graduated fifth from the bottom.’ Why throw that in there? Everybody knows that.
I’m going to make a prediction to you. All of the Drive-By Media reports on all these deficiencies of both Hillary and Obama, Hillary and NAFTA, Hillary and Bosnia, Obama and whatever else he’s misspeaking about, I guarantee you this — and those of you in the McCain camp, I want you to listen to this — because after the Democrats have chosen their nominee, all of the critical analysis that we are seeing of the Democrats in the Drive-By Media is going to cease, and it will all be transferred to McCain. He will be the sole recipient of all this kind of garbage, where he admittedly bucked authority. So did I. I turned out pretty well. He slacked off on his studies. So did I. The point that he graduated — I didn’t even graduate. Look at me, fine, one of the leaders of this country, one of the leaders of our movement, one of the hugest personalities ever in Big Media. Throw that stuff in there. That’s just a little forewarning of what’s going to happen once the Democrats get their nominee. Now, let’s get to the nut here of what he’s talking about with Americans being too cynical. By the way, two paragraphs prior to the nut of his remarks, it says this: ‘McCain, who would be the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term,’ (laughing) who owned Halliburton stuck at one time and has been a longtime supporter of the failed policy in Iraq, blah, blah, blah, add it all up, this will be what they say — will argue that ‘Americans need to take up a cause greater than themselves — join the military, help feed the hungry, seek public office.’
Well, I certainly believe in the notion of becoming aware of things greater than yourself. That happened to Hillary Clinton I think when she was 50. To most people, it happens in their teenage years or early twenties, sometimes a little later than that. ‘McCain says that many Americans are indifferent to or cynical about the virtues that our country claims.’ The virtues that our country claims? We claim virtues, or we are virtuous? See, I think we are virtuous. What do you mean, claim? That’s like, I’ve had several interviews with the Drive-By Media over the course of my heralded career, and I point out to them, ‘I’m the most listened to program in the country.’ They write, ‘Limbaugh claims to have the most listened to –‘ Anyway, Algore says we are destroying the planet, and Ted Turner last night on Charlie Rose says it’s going to be so bad, we’re all going to end up cannibals. They don’t say Ted Turner claims or that Algore claims. They just report it as fact. ‘McCain said some are cynical because they have suffered economic dislocations while others profit as never before, and in part, it is a ‘reaction to government’s mistakes and incompetence and to the selfishness of some public figures.”
Now, he says that this cynicism is because some of you people have suffered economic dislocations while others profit as never before. That phrase could come right out of the Democrat Party playbook. That phrase has probably been uttered in countless ways, different ways and countless times by every Democrat in Congress at one point or another. And besides that, profits as never before? Has he never heard of the Vanderbilts? Never heard of the Rockefellers? Speaking of which, how come Jay Rockefeller is never asked about the price of oil? Hmm? It’s the source of his family fortune. How come he’s never asked about it? And then, ‘McCain came close to calling some Americans spoiled, saying they are cynical because their wealth and opportunity have ‘led them to the mistaken conclusion that America, and the liberties its system of government is intended to protect, just aren’t important to the quality of their lives.”
Now, this is a toughie because I do think that they’re — maybe ‘spoiled’ isn’t the right word. If people are born in this country and have never left this country and have never seen what life is like elsewhere in the world, their expectations are going to be astronomically high based on their life experiences in this country. We have economic downturns. We have economic cycles. They happen all the time. People get outraged and get mad. Why? Because of expectations. We have truckers, because of the high cost of diesel, stopping traffic in New Jersey yesterday on the turnpike. We have a story in USA Today about people going to the grocery store now unable to buy the same amount of food they used to buy with the same budget, and so now they’re having to change lifestyles and so forth, and all of this is being portrayed as something catastrophic and horrible, yet these things happen constantly. People demand that government — this is the danger — people demand that government fix this, fix the high price of gas. Government doesn’t fix the price of gas. Fix the high price of oil. Fix the price of food. Why? Because they have expectations, expectations born of being Americans. They don’t know what real economic hardship is, but to them, economic hardship they experience is real on a comparative basis.
I’m not being critical here. But it can lead to the notion of being spoiled, and that is, having something that’s just phenomenally fabulous in your life and not having great appreciation for it and not understanding how it happens. I don’t think that’s what he means when he says that people are spoiled. It is the way I would discuss it, but he doesn’t. He says, ‘led them to the mistaken conclusion that America, and the liberties its system of government is intended to protect, just aren’t important to the quality of their lives.’ Now, I’m going to have to translate that. I guess he thinks that people don’t have a significant understanding of the Constitution and our founding and don’t understand how that is relevant to their freedom and their liberty, because they define liberty as the choice of coffee in the grocery store or different types of coffee when they go into Starbucks or something like that. So, anyway, I’ll tell you what’s interesting about this to me is that you don’t hear it.
People have jokingly said to me over the course of my heralded career, ‘Why don’t you run for office?’ I say, ‘Well, pay cut, number one, but number two, I wouldn’t last after my first campaign speech.’ ‘Well, why not?’ ‘Well, because, I’d basically say to people, ‘I’m not the one that’s gonna make your life better, you are. I’m not the one, as president, that makes the country work, you are. I’m not here to fix every little problem that you have. You are. As president, I’m here to make sure the liberals do not take over this country, take away your freedom, and defend us from any kind of foreign attack, protect and defend the Constitution, but when it comes to your economic viability, my job is to get as many government obstacles out of your way and then you are on your own,” and, bam, I’m gone. I’ll tell you why. In this USA Today story on the rising cost of food today, if I were a candidate and following my instincts, I would say to people, ‘Yes, and let me tell you why,’ and I’d go into the explanation. I’d be out after that appearance, unless I also said, (doing Clinton impression) ‘I feel your pain. I know how hard it is out there. It’s so bad, and I’m working every day to do anything I can to make sure that these prices come down,’ and then I might stand a chance.
But if I gave a speech in which I try to inspire and motivate people to overcome obstacles that we face in life each and every day, rather than say, ‘Gosh, that’s so bad, I feel so sorry for you. I wish there was something I could do. You know what? I’m going to work hard as I can. I’m going to make sure to punish these people who are raising your prices.’ Then I’d be a star. But that isn’t me. McCain is coming close here to my approach with this speech he’s going to give at Annapolis. Not totally all the way there, but he’s coming close. He’s sounding a little liberal, and he’s using some of these phrases out of the liberal handbook, but telling people they’re spoiled, telling people that there are things larger in life than themselves, to stop whining and to get over it is essentially what he’s saying here, that’s pretty gutsy for a politician. You don’t hear politicians speak that way, especially politicians seeking the presidency. Now, I’m going to stop there because if I go any further, independents and Democrats will think I’m praising McCain and will be less inclined to support him.
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RUSH: Now, Senator McCain was a little contradictory here in his comments, and I think maybe one of the things that might bother some of you as I went through his quotes here, is where he says, ‘The ease which wealth and opportunity have given their lives led them to the mistaken conclusion that America…’ Now, some of you might be offended by that, and say, ‘What do you mean, ‘the ease which wealth and opportunity have given their lives’?’ Some of you might think that what McCain means here is that people have not worked hard for what they have and that that’s another phrase right out of the left’s liberal handbook. I don’t think that’s what he means. He may not. I’m just interpreting this, perhaps, in a way that you aren’t. This has been my point for as long as I’ve been behind this microphone. There is more opportunity, there is more affluence, there is more wealth in this country than ever before — and there’s going to be more tomorrow than there was today. I don’t care about these economic cycles. They come and go. It’s going to happen.
You can do it! You are not excluded. We have freedom. You can create your own job if you don’t like where you’re working. You can go out and make yourself whatever you want to be. Now, McCain may not be saying this. McCain may be saying that all these rich people have all this rich stuff and they don’t care enough about the country. I don’t know if that’s what he’s saying. I didn’t interpret it that way. I’m interpreting it, perhaps, in a way that you wouldn’t interpret it, either. But regardless what Senator McCain is saying, the fact of the matter is that compared to anywhere else in the world, the opportunity — for affluence, education, contentment, happiness — is better in this country than anywhere in the world, which is why I get so frustrated when people I do think are spoiled start whining and moaning and ask for somebody else to help ’em. Do you know we had a story the other day (where is it, in Ohio?) that half the people in Ohio are on food stamps. Was it Ohio or somewhere? Maybe half the country? It wasn’t half the country.
It was like half the population in some states is on food stamps. Of course, the Drive-By Media portray this, ‘Oh, the country is going to hell in a handbasket! This is a horrible economic downturn. The Bush administration, only the rich are getting food!’ The food stamp authority advertises! The food stamp authority solicits participants! The damn federal government is trying to get people hooked on dependence on the federal government. It isn’t necessary. But you talk to a beat cop anywhere in town where you live, and you ask him what happens when they open the homeless shelter or food kitchen. The crowds in that neighborhood multiply by geometric proportions. So here comes the government, in an election year, giving out food stamps, advertising — and they’ve been soliciting for food stamp applicants for years. We’ve been talking about it on this program, and so it does roil me when people, maybe because of the way they’ve been taught, the way they’ve been raised, the way they’ve been educated, do not understand the glory of this country, the limitless opportunities that are there, and get caught up in the daily minutia of things.
Life, sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s very hard, accepting challenges and overcoming them is part of it. Nobody — nobody, including God — ever said that life was going to be painless, ever said it was going to be pain free, ever said it was going to be easy. I don’t think people have a decent enough historical perspective of how tough it was it was to live around the world hundreds of years ago, when the life expectancy was 35 or 40. They have exhumed bones, bodies. They’ve examined the skeletal remains of some people from hundreds of years ago. They worked hard, these people. We can’t relate. We simply cannot relate to how tough it was. I’m not suggesting we go back to it. I’m just trying to appreciate a little appreciation for what’s here rather than beating the country up. I’m so sick and tired of hearing the country beaten up. I have to put up with it every day. My job is to listen to what liberals say, and I have to listen to them trash this country each and every day. I listen to them trash the military. I listen to them trash Big Oil.
The very guys that are putting gasoline in your car are being trashed, and you are being conditioned to hate their guts while the guys on the committee wouldn’t know the first thing about putting gas in your car, have not done one thing to get gas in your car, and you think they are your savior. Well, you don’t, but a lot of people do. The price of oil, yeah, is going way up. You know what? A lot of other things are going up. How about the price of gold? The price of gold’s gone through the roof. I want to know what the hell’s going on with that. Where is a congressional hearing to bring in Big Gold? Have you looked at the price of jewelry? You gonna go out there and get engaged, get married — I hope not, but if you are — are you going to go out there and buy diamonds? Have you seen the price escalations? They bring Big Jewelry in, $350 an ounce is about… I just think they just ought to set the gold price at 350 bucks an ounce instead of close to a thousand, and make this ‘fair.’ This kind of stuff is really frustrating to me and I thought McCain might have been on to something. Maybe he’s not. Who knows? We’ll know more later.
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RUSH: I’ll admit it. I don’t know what the hell McCain is saying, other than he’s spouting some liberal stuff in this speech at Annapolis today about the haves and have-nots. I agree with all that. But I will say this: If he’s going to lecture the American people about who they need to be, he might be just a little bit off the mark. Let him attack the liberals (which he won’t do). Let him attack the bureaucrats (which he won’t do). Let him attack the judges (which he won’t do). But the American people, generally, are the people who make the country work. It’s sort of way off to start criticizing the American people in general. Look, I will admit I’m confused. If he can’t give a speech where we can understand what he’s saying, then it isn’t a very good speech.
Also, this just in here from the Associated Press. ‘Democrat National Committee chairman Howard Dean says the party is committed to seating Florida’s delegates at this summer’s convention. Dean met today with Florida lawmakers to discuss ways of allocating delegates among’ Hillary and Obama. This is going to please Hillary. They’re going to seat the Florida delegates without a re-vote. Operation Chaos, ladies and gentlemen, rolls on.
No, I’m serious about this price of gold stuff. You bring the Big Oil guys up. Those are the guys that put gasoline in your car. If it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t have gasoline — and yet they’re the guys that get grilled. Have you seen the price of gold? Now, see, this is a good illusion. I’m trying to make a point here, but I think that the point’s lost, because I’m not being sympathetic or empathetic. That would be a better word. It would be so easy for me to sit here and say, ‘Oh, gosh the price of gas! Man, it’s so hard for all of us. I don’t know what we’re going to do. I really, really know how tough it is for you.’ That wouldn’t change your situation any at all, but you’d think somebody cares. This is what the liberals pull off. The liberals make people think they care about their problems. They think they have a kindred spirit working on solving the problem.
Of course they don’t. Liberals don’t fix anything. All they do is break things! All they do is ruin things. They don’t fix diddly-squat. But people think they do because they care, and if I were to sit here and go through this little bit, ‘Hey, why didn’t Congress bring in Big Gold? Have you seen the price of gold lately? Why didn’t Congress demand that Big Gold lower the gold price, why didn’t Congress bring in Big Jewelry? Have you seen the price of diamonds lately? It’s skyrocketing; everything is! Pull out all the stops! Find out who’s responsible! See who’s cheating the little guy when it comes to gold and jewelry. You know how much people have suffered who want to go out and get married or get engaged to have a decent anniversary present, maybe get that solid gold toilet they’ve always dreamed about?
‘Now they can’t do it because of the price of gold and the price of jewelry. And where are Pelosi and where’s Reid and where is Ed Markey, and where is Obama, telling me again that the price of gold will come down to make it profitable and yet affordable to me?’ Now, I could make that case. I don’t know how many people would get what I’m saying. I mean, ‘you people,’ don’t misunderstand. You would. I’m talking about people outside this audience. You all have above average IQs, above average education. We’ve done all the surveys. We know who you are, and you know who you are. When I say ‘you,’ I’m talking about people that vote liberals, people that vote Democrats. But, boy, I could say, ‘Well, I feel sorry for you. It’s just so bad out there. I wish something could be done,’ and of course there’s nothing I can do or anybody else can do, but if you think that somebody cares, then I guess you’re less, what? Concerned, or at least more hopeful? Yes! You are more hopeful that something might get fixed if somebody cares.