RUSH: It really was comical yesterday to watch Tom Brokaw and Bob Schieffer. Schieffer on Slay the Nation; Brokaw on Meet the Press. They were just beside themselves with these McCain ads. The McCain ad that has Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, the insinuation, the implication being that Obama is just a B-rated celebrity himself, and that all of his voters are just a bunch of celebutards, and then the other ad, which makes fun of Obama’s self-impression that he is indeed the light and The Messiah. To watch these two guys just wring their hands, they were so sad, they were so disappointed, we had such a once in a lifetime opportunity to finally have a really wonderful, great campaign, aboveboard and no negative ads and no criticism, and it’s just gone. The opportunity is gone now because of McCain’s ads. They were distressed, they were saddened by it, and I look at this, I’m 57 years old, these guys are older than I am, they cannot be this naive, but they are. They live in a bubble with a constant hope that there will be perfection. They, who cover political campaigns for a living and have done so for decades ought to know by now, there’s no such thing as the campaign they dream of. There is no such campaign. There will never be a campaign like they hope and dream of, where everything is sweetness and light and all we do is stick to the issues, and nobody runs negative ads. They were just hoping and hoping. It was comical to watch these guys express their sadness about all this. Speaking of these ads, on Good Morning America Sunday, Diane Sawyer interviewed McCain and said, ‘You gonna keep up these TV ads, Senator?’
MCCAIN: I kind of enjoy ’em. You gotta have a sense of humor in this. And, you know, a few days ago Senator Obama said — he challenged me to a duel, you know, for the light sabers as weapons of choice.
SAWYER: But in general the ads, the Paris Hilton, George Clooney ads are over?
MCCAIN: I don’t know. We’ll continue to have humor in our campaign.
RUSH: So is Diane Sawyer begging, pleading, so these campaigns, these ads — and of course the Drive-Bys want ’em finished ’cause they work. They are profoundly effective. ‘So these ads are going to end, and be over?’ ‘I don’t know. We’ll continue to have humor in our campaign.’ I’ll tell you what, there’s a sign of progress here in all this, ladies and gentlemen. Very simple. McCain runs a couple ads. What happens, the Drive-By Media attacked the ads as unfair, unkind, below the belt, all that, and McCain did not throw his ads under the bus. The normal McCain procedure is if somebody says something and the Drive-Bys criticize, McCain throws that person overboard. But he did not throw his ads overboard. He stood by his ads. This is progress in the McCain campaign. Finally, McCain said this about Obama.
MCCAIN: I am not surprised that he’s hedging on this issue, but the fact is he still opposes offshore drilling. We need to drill now.
RUSH: There you have it. I wouldn’t say hammering home the point but nevertheless making the point.