RUSH: Senator John McCain engaged in increasingly sharp attacks on Barack Obama, and pledged that if elected president, he would work closely with Nancy Pelosi. He praised her as an effective leader and an inspiration to millions of Americans. Senator McCain said, ‘Yes, I do. I respect Speaker Pelosi. I think she’s one of the great American success stories. I do.”
‘He said this during an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle prior to a fundraiser at the Fairmont hotel in San Francisco. ‘We talk about Senator Clinton and her inspiration to millions of Americans. Speaker Pelosi has been an inspiration as well, in a role that is in many ways more powerful than the president,’ McCain said. Then Senator McCain had high praise for the 2000 Democrat presidential candidate Al Gore and his advocacy on the issue of climate change.’ What can we say? He’s going up in the polls. Actually, he’s not. Obama’s going down. It’s a referendum on Obama. Senator McCain, he just said yesterday: Inflate your tires and get tune-ups and we won’t need to drill for oil. Senator McCain, you’re running for president. Nancy Pelosi wants to castrate you, if you become president. She’s not going to work with you whatsoever, unless you bend to her wishes. He’s passing on such a great, great opportunity. It’s just out there begging to be taken! We could wipe the country with Democrats in this election. We could! Somebody has to get out there and act like, ‘Ooh it’s really cool! They’re really great inspirational people.’ Right, she’s inspiring millions of people. Her book is at number 900 on Amazon!
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RUSH: From ABC News, a blog, Jan Crawford Greenburg reporting: ‘McCain’s New Strategy.’ I saw this and my head came close to exploding. We just had the story from the San Francisco Chronicle about how McCain admires Pelosi, is very inspired by her as are millions of Americans, ditto Mrs. Clinton. ‘Part of the calculus now is how his VP choice will further sharpen that message. There is significant support among top McCain advisers that he make a ‘transformative’ pick who would change the Republican Party — someone who would appeal to moderate Republicans and Democrats. This pick would be someone who, like McCain, has taken the unpopular stands, made the hard calls and stood firm on principle. A person who fills that bill, these advisers say, is Joe Lieberman.’
So significant support among top McCain advisors that he make a transformative pick — you know something, the Republicans don’t want to win this election! They don’t. McCain may want to win, but these people around him that are giving him this advice, they must not want to win this election. At the top of the ticket, he’s transformative. He’s enough. We don’t need two guys on our ticket trying to appeal to moderate Republicans and Democrats. McCain can handle that himself. Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal today, the headline of his column: ”Is John McCain Stupid?’ — On Sunday, he said on national television that to solve Social Security ‘everything’s on the table,’ which of course means raising payroll taxes. On July 7 in Denver he said: ‘Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won’t.’ This isn’t a flip-flop. It’s a sex-change operation. … What I’m asking is, does John McCain have the mental focus, the intellectual discipline, to avoid being out-slicked by Barack Obama, if he isn’t abandoned by his own voters? ‘Is John McCain Stupid?’ is the headline.
And he concludes: ‘There is a reason the American people the past 100 years elevated only two sitting senators into the White House — JFK and Warren Harding. It’s because they believe most senators, adept at compulsive compromise, have no political compass and will sell them out. Now voters have to do what they prefer not to. Yes, Sen. McCain has honor and country. Another month of illogical, impolitic remarks and Sen. McCain will erase even that. Absent a coherent message for voters, he will be one-on-one with Barack Obama in the fall. He will lose.’ So here we have it, folks, Republicans close to McCain, ‘We need a transformative figure.’ Hey, look, if you like the way the government’s going now, and you like how big and bloated it’s gotten, and you want the Republican Party to become that, you got your choice here.
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RUSH: To Pennsylvania. Mark, thank you for holding, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello. I think we got a real dilemma here. We got Barack Obama acting like a candy ass any time somebody says they don’t agree with whatever he stands for, you know, he says, you know, put more air in your tires and get tune-ups. I mean, come on, people! We got enough energy in this country to last for centuries. In Pennsylvania we used to be one of the coal kings, coal everywhere, and now you can’t burn the coal —
RUSH: I know.
CALLER: — because of the environmentalists. But on the other hand, I don’t see much coming from McCain, and if he’s going to have to lower himself to work with Nancy Pelosi, then I guess he gets the candy ass label also.
RUSH: You know what I was doing, you know, he said this out in San Francisco, and that’s her district, that’s where she’s from, it still made my head want to explode, it made me want to puke. This is not how he’s not going to win the presidencies by going to San Francisco to get Democrats to vote for him. It’s just not going to happen. And I’ll tell you something: This business of his advisor saying we need to find a transformative figure, moderate Republican or vice president as his vice president? I have suggested on several previous occasions that the blue-blood country club Rockefeller Republicans would just as soon get rid of the conservative base of the Republican Party ’cause it embarrasses them — and for a whole host of other reasons, and you put these two things together. You’re right. You’re absolutely right, Mark. We’ve got a Democrat presidential candidate who is a child. He may be The Messiah, but he’s a child. He’s a baby, and he has not learned to think. He only repeats what he has been taught. I still can’t get over this business, telling people to inflate their tires properly and get tune-ups so we will not have to drill! The Democrat Party is invested in no drilling; they’re invested in defeat in Iraq. In a sane political environment, they’d be toast. They wouldn’t even be viable!