RUSH: Snerdley and I were just discussing whether or not this hack surrogate of Obama’s, Wesley Clark, might end up hurting Obama. It’s a tough call. I mean, I know so many… It’s amazing. This is a replay of 1992. There’s nothing new here. There’s nothing new about Obama. There is nothing new about his politics. There is nothing new! I mean, look at his supporters. Ashley Wilkes? Here’s a guy who’s The Messiah, he’s going to bring unity, brand-new politics, we’ve never seen anything like this — and dragging out all these same old hacks from the Clinton years! Nothing new at all. And now we got a campaign that’s going to all of a sudden, they’re trying to focus it on ‘character.’ Well, what the hell was 1992 about? So I’m sitting here asking myself, ‘Is any of this that Wesley Clark said ridiculing McCain’s military service, saying it doesn’t qualify him for anything, going to hurt Obama?’
It might hurt him with some veterans who might be thinking of voting Obama, but here’s the way it might — and this is kind of iffy. Obama has crafted this image of above-it-all. Nice. Likable. Charismatic. He makes people feel really, really good. But this guy is a mean, throw-the-dagger-anywhere kind of guy. There’s nothing nice about Barack Obama, folks. Now, you can say this wasn’t his campaign; this was Clark. BS! There have been a number of other things that this campaign has engaged in. This is a cutthroat. This is a typical political campaign. But the idea that Obama is some messianic figure who only has goodwill for people? It’s a joke. He is a thoroughly mean-spirited individual, who lets other people do it for him. He doesn’t denounce it. He doesn’t distance himself from it. Until the heat gets too much, and then he’ll flip-flop and say that he’s ‘grown’ or he’s ‘recalibrating,’ and then the Drive-Bys come right along and buttress that. So, is any of this going to hurt him? Hell, who knows? I think for it to hurt, there has to be somebody at the same time pointing fingers at what he’s doing, and that from our side in the party sense in the political sense — is not happening.
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RUSH: Politico.com today, story by Ben Smith. This is fascinating. This was published today. Wesley Clark was on CBS yesterday and on CBS Wesley Clark said that McCain is not qualified, getting shot down, no big deal. Dropping bombs on people, big deal. Getting shot down and prisoner of war, no big deal, and low and behold the Politico.com now comes up with a story the day afterwards highlighting the fact the leftist claims that are out there in the fringe blogosphere saying that McCain did make a propaganda video and therefore he’s disloyal to the country. ”A lot of people don’t know … that McCain made a propaganda video for the enemy while he was in captivity,’ wrote Americablog.com’s John Aravosis. ‘Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain’s military experience that prepares him for being commander-in-chief?’ After being tortured there, he participated in some Vietnamese propaganda efforts. Democratic West Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV in April cut a bit closer, suggesting that McCain’s days as a fighter pilot were themselves a critique of his character. ‘What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground?’ he asked. ‘He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues.” Remember the story? I do remember Rockefeller questioning McCain’s humanity even though McCain’s jet didn’t fire missiles. McCain’s jet dropped bombs.
The New York Times and the Washington Post have run propaganda for the enemy. The New York Times and the Washington Post have run battle plans leaked from the State Department and the Pentagon. They disclosed military secrets, and they weren’t being tortured when they did it. The writers and the editors of the New York Post and the New York Times were not being tortured when they published American secrets. McCain was being tortured when he did a propaganda video. So Clark sets the table on Sunday, and the Drive-Bys jump in and then add onto it today. And in this story, Ben Smith of The Politico, who cites these kook fringe bloggers on the left and gets their claims in print when citing them, then says, ‘Others disagree, however, and the increasing buzz of e-mails and blog posts — the new equivalent on the left of what, in the 1990s, would have been stirrings on conservative talk radio — suggest that this line of attack won’t go away, at least not from elements of the energized pro-Obama grass roots and from parts of the anti-war left.’
So the elements on the left that are spreading all these stories about McCain doing a propaganda video and being a phony baloney plastic banana good-time rock and roller has its roots in conservative talk radio in the 1990s. And so, it’s valid. What they’re doing is valid. (interruption) Yes, I know. I was talk radio in the ’90s, and I’m talk radio now. I understand this. We did not take these kook conspiracy calls about Clinton and all of the supposed anti-American activity he was engaged in, all of those rumors, we don’t put the callers on the air. We didn’t put the right wing callers, those people who believed the wacko conspiracies, on the air. The political media has just put them in the newspaper. So there’s a lot going on here. The discrediting of McCain, the discrediting of talk radio, the elevation of the kook fringe blogosphere that’s living and breathing out on the left.
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RUSH: Here is Mike in Wildwood, Texas. Mike, thanks for calling.
CALLER: Hi, Rush, I just wanted to comment on the John McCain thing. I feel honored that I got to know the senator when I lived in Arizona. I personally heard his story of captivity on a one-on-one basis. It’s a remarkable story and anyone who listens to it would appreciate his patriotism. I was also standing by the senator when the first Gulf War started, when the monitor started showing those famous CNN pictures of the anti-aircraft fire and the senator elbowed me and said, ‘There’s only two people in this newsroom who understand what that feels like.’ I was a Vietnam helicopter pilot and he knew that and we had talked about combat while we were talking about his captivity, and the look in his eye, because he was on the Senate Defense Appropriations committee. He already knew when that was going to start. And the look in his eye and the talk we had about what these people were facing over there and the type of weapons and the type of combat, we were both expecting to have a lot more fatalities than we suffered in that war. But John McCain was genuinely concerned about those people and he had a part in the time and date that that took place being on those —
RUSH: He was concerned about the Iraqi people?
CALLER: No, about the military. And especially about the aviators, the first people who went in and were facing those new and devastating weapons which our technology took care of, but nobody had tested them at that time under those situations and it was very —
RUSH: Well, I don’t think anybody seriously doubts any aspect of McCain’s character when it comes to war and his military record and his service. I think it’s a little bit unfortunate — I’m glad you called — but I think it’s damn unfortunate that people have to call in here thinking they have to defend it because of what’s happened the last two days from the sleaze of the Obama campaign. It’s just outrageous that this kind of thing needs to be defended because it’s been attacked by a bunch of hacks and utter failures. So, Mike, I’m glad you called. Appreciate it.