RUSH: Well, as we all know, ladies and gentlemen, Operation Chaos continues. Mrs. Clinton did not quit. Everybody assumed that she was going to quit. She spoke at AIPAC this morning after that speech last night and she gave a campaign speech at AIPAC. Everybody is saying she’s getting closer to quitting, they’re trying to figure out what it is she wants and so forth. All this means is that Operation Chaos continues. Greetings, my friend, and welcome. It’s great to have you with us. Rush Limbaugh, the fastest week in media. It’s already Wednesday. Telephone number if you want to be on the program is 800-282-2882. The e-mail address is ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
Lots of audio sound bites from last night and this morning. By the way, we scheduled this last week. Mitch McConnell, who is the Republican leader in the Senate, wanted to come on and discuss this cap-and-trade bill, this massive tax increase, and we scheduled Senator McConnell for the first hour today. He’ll be with us in about a half hour, 25 minutes or so, to give us an update on what’s happening with this bill and what the prospects for it are. A good part of the program is going to be devoted here to the presidential campaign. It is off and running and the Drive-Bys and the Democrats, some of them are just beside themselves that Mrs. Clinton won’t get the hint and won’t get out; that she will not quit. I think this is perfectly understandable that the Clintons are behaving this way. Hillary can take this all the way to the convention if she wants.
She knows that the superdelegates can say whatever they say now, but until they actually vote at the convention, it doesn’t matter until that happens. Ted Kennedy gave his concession speech in 1980 to Jimmy Carter at the convention. He didn’t concede until then. She’s obviously holding out for something. I also said yesterday about this supposed Michelle Obama tape that Bob Beckel is worried about that he said yesterday would pop today. It has not popped today. But I said last night we would have a good indication of whether or not there’s something to this by watching Mrs. Clinton’s speech last night. And if she doesn’t concede and she shows no signs of conceding, I said, it might be an indication that she thinks, or knows, that there’s something to the Michelle Obama tape. Let’s start with the audio sound bites. Mrs. Clinton. This is last night in New York speaking to her supporters.
HILLARY: I want to start tonight by congratulating Senator Obama and his supporters on the extraordinary race that they have run. Senator Obama has inspired so many Americans to care about politics and inspired so many more to get involved, and our party and our democracy is stronger and more vibrant as a result. So we are grateful.
RUSH: I was getting e-mails from people last night: ‘Boy, Rush, doesn’t she look sexy? Doesn’t she look pretty? She’s gotten better looking as the campaign has gone on. Most candidates in the campaign end up looking bedraggled and tired and worn out, she seems –‘ this is other people sending me these notes, ‘–she looks better, Rush, she actually looks kind of pretty and she’s getting much, much better at these he speeches.’ Then she said this.
HILLARY: The question is, ‘Where do we go from here?’ and given how far we’ve come, and where we need to go as a party, it’s a question I don’t take lightly. This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight. (cheers and applause)
RUSH: Burning down the house! She’s burning down the house!
HILLARY: But this has always been your campaign. So, to the 18 million people who voted for me and to our many other supporters out there of all ages, I want to hear from you. I hope you’ll go to my website at HillaryClinton.com and share your thoughts with me and help in any way that you can. In the coming days, I’ll be consulting with supporters and party leaders to determine how to move forward with the best interests of our party and our country guiding my way.
RUSH: Oh, I was watching this last night, and I was going nuts, she’s burning down the house. Unity schmunity. Divided we are, this was Mrs. Clinton’s message last night. So she says she wants everybody to go to her website, HillaryClinton.com, and share your thoughts. Now let me tell you what this is about. What she wants, she wants to grab as many people on her website urging her to keep going, to stay in this, so she can show that to the Obama people. She’s talking about her 18 million votes which is as much, if not a little more, than he got. She’s still talking about the Electoral College states that she won that put her at a mythical tally of 267, when you need 270. So clearly she’s angling for something, and she needs public support in order to get it. Vice president, Supreme Court nomination, something along these lines. It’s going to be a real interesting thing to watch Obama deal with this. So as the commander-in-chief of US Operation Chaos, I would like to urge all of you who want to, to go to HillaryClinton.com and tell her what you think she ought to do.
Now, I want you to be polite. I don’t want any snide comments, and I know that people have already done that, but I want those of you who are part of this audience to say whatever is in your heart to Mrs. Clinton about her effort to continue here, within the spirit of Operation Chaos, keeping chaos alive. Mrs. Clinton did everything last night but thank me for helping to make this current situation possible. Look at what happened. She won South Dakota last night. This is a Puff Daschle state. And Puff Daschle, by the way, lost in his own state, as you know. Puff Daschle is a big Obama guy, and yet Obama lost in South Dakota. He did win in Montana, the Drive-Bys out there proclaiming him the victor. He’s got all of the delegates that he needs now and so forth. Something else is troubling me, ladies and gentlemen. Many things are troubling me today. I want to go back, and let’s review Mrs. Clinton when she was inevitable. November 26th, 2007, the CBS Evening News with the perky Katie Couric, and the perky Katie said to Hillary, ‘If it’s not you, how disappointed will you be?’
HILLARY: Well, it will be me.
COURIC: I know that you’re confident it’s going to be you, but there is a possibility it won’t be. And — and clearly you’re — you have considered that possibility.
HILLARY: No, I haven’t.
RUSH: No, I haven’t. There was no cackle. There was no laughter. There was an icy, ‘No, I haven’t.’ And it’s quite likely that Mrs. Clinton is still not considering it, full-fledged. These are the Clintons. They are never going away, folks, no matter what happens here, they aren’t going away. She’s going to get something. She’s going to get the vice presidency. She is going to get a Supreme Court nomination. She is going to get appointed to head up the Department of Health and Human Services to run Obama’s health care plan. She’s going to get something. She might even in her mind still think she can get the nomination because of some unknown things that that might pop out there. But that’s why she hasn’t conceded, she’s not going to concede. I saw Lanny Davis, who was on TV today, and he assured everybody he was operating independently with no permission, but he has started a website encouraging Hillary supporters to get hold of that website to urge Obama to make Hillary the vice president and give her the spot on the ticket. I forget what the name of his website is, it’s going to change anyway, but the name of the website right now’s got the word ‘fairness’ in it, the fairness of the vote or some such thing. A typical Clinton ploy, she’s been treated unfairly and this is about being fair because she’s been screwed here politically, and this is about making it right, this is Lanny Davis’ effort, and he says that he’s doing this independently, nobody’s asked him to do it; nobody’s told him not to do it.
Also, the Republican National Committee is reporting today, Matt Burns, spokesman for the Republican convention in St. Paul sent an e-mail to Marc Ambinder at TheAtlantic.com blog saying that the RNC’s convention office in St. Paul has received numerous phone calls in the last few hours from people who identify themselves as Clinton supporters asking how they can help Senator McCain. They’re getting a lot of these. I have nothing but anecdotal reference to this, and I can tell you that I myself have heard and have talked to a lot of Democrat women who are fed up. They really think they have been shafted. They are mad and they have no intention of unifying behind Obama, and they’re openly talking about voting for McCain. They would never do so otherwise. They’re doing this to screw the Democrats. They are just mad as they can be. I don’t know what number of e-mails that Matt Burns, the spokesman for the GOP convention of St. Paul, I don’t know what number he’s getting, but it is enough for him to send out a little blurb about this.