RUSH: Bill in New Castle, Pennsylvania, welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: How you doing, Rush?
RUSH: Fine and dandy.
CALLER: Honor to speak to you. I’m a western Pennsylvania Steelers fan here.
RUSH: Appreciate that.
CALLER: Hey, I told your call screener, I’m mad as heck and I’m worried at the same time. We watched the debate last night and this morning I had a discussion with some colleagues, and everybody pointed out about all the lies that Biden stated at the debate. Nobody seems to care that these people were lying, Rush, and that’s what bothers me. They’re picking out little snippets, little sound bites, little campaign slogans that they’re going with. They don’t care that these people are lying, and it’s upsetting.
RUSH: When you’re saying they don’t care, you mean the media or your friends?
CALLER: My friends. I have some colleagues that are sort of like on the fence. They’re not really… I don’t call ’em as informed as maybe I am or whatever.
RUSH: You know, I learned the hard way that people don’t care about that with Bill Clinton.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: I mean, every other word outta his mouth was a lie, and people didn’t care — and, in fact, the more we talked about how much Clinton lied the more people got their backs up defending this.
CALLER: But this is the problem, Rush. This is what I’m worried about. People don’t care about issues. They don’t care about people lying. They don’t care about their morals. All they care about is these little sound bites and these little snippets that these politicians are using, especially Obama. People hear ‘95% of the people are going to have less taxes and they’re going to have a chicken in every pot,’ and that’s all they base their votes on.
RUSH: Yeah, but 95% of the people do not pay taxes; only about 70% of the people do. It’s impossible for 95% of taxpayers to get a tax cut.
CALLER: But these people don’t know that, Rush. They’re hearing that and they’re saying, ‘I have to be one of these people,’ so that’s why they’re voting for Obama.
RUSH: It’s one of my oft-repeated laments, that ignorance is one of the most expensive commodities we have in this country. It’s costing us more than we could probably calculate, and you’re giving a good illustration for it.
RUSH: Rush, I live 12 miles from Ohio here. I’m north of Pittsburgh about 50 miles, and there’s talk that they’re taking these people from the homeless shelters and taking them down to the voting booth and having them register or whatever. Okay?
RUSH: You can register and early vote the same day.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: In Ohio.
CALLER: Yes, and the same thing with the college campuses. I have two kids in college. The grassroots organization that Obama is running, I think, is just blowing McCain away, and this is what I’m worried about.
RUSH: Yes, but the Democrats do this every year. They do this every presidential year. Now, buck up out there. It’s not over yet. The fact that the Democrats have to do this is an indication of the actual weakness that they face in this country with genuine voters. There are positives.
CALLER: Rush, here’s my analogy. You should use sports. You know, it’s like a football game. We’re in the fourth quarter. Obama’s throwing passes down the field, he’s going for the end zone, and it seems like McCain’s dropping back to punt. That’s what it seems like the campaign is doing. There’s no excitement in McCain’s campaign from what I can see, and this is what has worried me. I just don’t know how to… You know, I can’t handle it, to be honest with you. I can’t handle it.
RUSH: You’re going to have to get a grip. It’s not time to panic yet. I will tell you when it’s time to panic and it’s not time to panic yet. I understand how hard it is. I understand how hard it is. I told some people, I did a little barnburner of a speech in San Antonio last night; and it is very, very clear that Senator McCain has decided on a campaign that doesn’t give people reason to vote for him. I mean, he went out at his convention, and do you remember the big finale at his convention?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: ‘Fight with me, fight with me, fight with me, fight! Join me, join me! Fight with me!’ He’s not fighting.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Sarah Palin goes out and says, ‘There’s only one man that’s fought for you in this campaign.’ He’s not fighting. Now, this is their strategy. He’s not giving people a reason to vote for him. He could, but for some reason, he won’t. You can talk about earmarks and —
CALLER: Right. Right. But why doesn’t he give it? Why doesn’t he give people a reason not to vote for Obama? Why doesn’t he bring these things up about Ayers and Dohrn and Raines and everybody else?
RUSH: I don’t know!
CALLER: That’s what worries me.
RUSH: Do you realize if I got within five miles of McCain headquarters, if I was driving around, they would send out the cops? I do not even know where McCain headquarters are. I cannot answer these questions. Well, I could give you answers. I could give you theories. I think McCain just does not want to. He wants to run what he thinks is an honorable campaign. He does not want to be ‘partisan.’ Criticizing Democrats is ‘partisan.’ He does not want to be thought of as ‘partisan.’ He spans the divide. I’ll also give you this little tidbit. McCain believes — or at least his people do and he subscribes to it, but I think he believes — that the campaign really doesn’t get in gear until the last 72 hours. That’s when people make up their minds and so the theory is that they’re holding whatever they’ve got big-gun-wise for the last 72 hours prior to the election. I don’t know if this is true. This is just what somebody has told me.
CALLER: Well, Rush, you had a caller a couple days ago. The lady was frustrated because she couldn’t get McCain signs, okay?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Our Republican convention area in our town just went up a couple of weeks ago. Obama’s had one there for over a year. That’s just another example. I just don’t think he’s being aggressive enough, and this is what scares me.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I mean, Sarah Palin should be running for president. I hate to say it, but she had more aggressive sound bites towards Biden yesterday than McCain did against Obama in their debate, and I just don’t understand where his game plan is leading. That’s what bothers me. So thanks for the advice. I understand —
RUSH: Just —
CALLER: — that you’re going to tell me when to start panicking, but I’m panicking now.
RUSH: Don’t. Don’t any of you people start panicking, now. Fear can be a good motivator, but panic isn’t. You’ve gotta stay involved out there. You cannot get so dispirited that you think it’s pointless to show up and vote on Election Day.
CALLER: I understand what you’re saying. It’s frustrating when, like I said, these people that I talk to about the debate yesterday —
RUSH: Screw them!
CALLER: They really don’t care about that these people are lying through their teeth.
RUSH: You need to go talk to some people that do get it and find yourselves some friends to hang around that you have something in common with —
CALLER: I have those, too.
RUSH: Well, hang around them for awhile.
CALLER: It seems like the majority of the people don’t care.
RUSH: Then take those buddies of yours over to the ignoramuses and have a little conversation and have some fun with this. ‘Okay, you dingbats.’
CALLER: We’ll do some old Western Pennsylvania therapy on them.
RUSH: Yeah, I know what that is. I used to live there.
CALLER: Okay. (laughing)
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: Thank you.
RUSH: All right. I appreciate that. That’s Bill in Newcastle, Pennsylvania.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Folks, I really do not understand why all of are you so depressed. I do not understand it. Why, right now I’m looking at day two of a bunch of smiling, yucking it up, laughing Democrats walk out, praise themselves on how they have saved the country by socializing the housing market, nationalizing the housing market, and once again I’m looking at Mayor Daley, and there’s Barney Frank standing there. I’m looking at Mayor Daley standing next to Al Capone saying, ‘We have cleaned up Chicago!’ When these Democrats come out smiling like this, why would you be depressed?
Why would you be down in the dumps? Why would you be down in the dumps today when you learn that Senator McCain is going to put in his cabinet Warren Buffett, Algore, and Joe Lieberman? Why would that depress you? Why would you get depressed? The market’s tanking after the House passes the bailout bill. Why would you get depressed when people don’t care that the people that they vote for lie? I don’t understand why any of you will be depressed by any of this. Why would you be depressed that McCain’s pulling out of Michigan? If Michigan wants to vote for a bunch of loser libs that have made their lives miserable, then let ’em keep voting for the loser libs that have made their lives miserable. If they want to keep voting in Michigan for people that gave ’em a recession, let ’em keep voting for people that gave ’em a recession. Why should that depress you? I don’t understand.