RUSH: The crowds that are greeting Sarah Palin are huge. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Barry’s crowds are shrinking. When was the last time you saw a video piece, a television report of an Obama crowd? The Greek rally at the convention was the last time. When you see Obama on television now it’s just a head shot of him at the podium with the selected white supporters carrying a sign sitting behind him. But they don’t show you the whole crowd. I’ve got eight pictures here, Sarah Palin and McCain are drawing crowds that are overwhelming the places that they have decided to hold these rallies that they’re having. And the crowds are getting somewhat raucous out there, Palin whips them up into a frenzy.
Mary Mitchell, a wuss, wimp columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times says that Sarah Palin should be censured. She says that ‘Sarah Palin should apologize to the Obama campaign and the American people for her role in bringing out the worst in her supporters.’ This is laughable. Come on, Mary. Grow up. This is the big leagues. How about the people in your party? I know you’re a Democrat, Mary Mitchell. You can’t deny it, all you liberal media people are Democrats. What about the incitement of this whole country that you and your fellow journalists have engaged in along with the Democrat Party? You have gendered up hate for this president. You have ginned up a despise for the US military. You have sought to convince the American people their country is worthless and sinking into an abyss. You have been doing it for six years. And you dare say Sarah Palin should be censured for bringing out the worst in her supporters. How about the worst in your readers that you bring out, Mary Mitchell? How about the worst the Drive-By Media has tried to bring out in every American. You want every American detesting the institutions and traditions that have defined this country’s greatness. It has been shameful what you and your cohorts in the Drive-Bys have been doing the last six years regarding this president and this country. And now you demand Sarah Palin be censured for her role in bringing out the worst in her supporters? How many movies have your supporters made about the assassination of George W. Bush? How many books, Mary Mitchell, have people who read your work, how many books have they written about the assassination of George W. Bush? And you say Sarah Palin needs to be censured.
‘During a campaign rally yesterday, Clearwater, Florida, supporters turned on the media,’ writes Mary Mitchell. Hey, Mary, people have been turning on the media for I don’t know how long. Have you noticed how many jobs have been lost in Chicago newspapers, Ms. Mitchell? Hope yours is next. Have you seen how many jobs lost at your sister paper, the Los Angeles Times, Ms. Mitchell? Have you seen how many layoffs at newspapers, editorial newsrooms all over the country? You think only now the people of this country are turning against the media? Let me tell you something, Ms. Mitchell. A lot of Americans are going to be voting against you as much as they are voting against Barack Obama because you are the same party. You have long ago sacrificed any respect that you once had as an industry. You have tarnished and you have destroyed the legacy, the reputation, the image of what a decent journalist is. And now asking for Sarah Palin to be censured because you can’t stand criticism, because you can’t stand her crowds criticizing the media. Who are you people? Do you think you’re God? Do you think you are above everything you dish out? You’re the classic examples of not being able to take it but certainly being able to dish it out.
You people, Ms. Mitchell, you couldn’t stand one investigative report on your life. You wouldn’t hold up, and yet what do you do and what is your career? The attempt to uncover whatever you can make up about people that you don’t like so that you can destroy ’em. Let somebody undertake an honest investigation of you, from your high school days on, see how you like it, see how you bear up. Now you want Sarah Palin censured? Who are you, Joe Stalin? Is that what you want to be? You want to be Lenin? You want to be Gorbachev? Who the hell do you want to be, Ms. Mitchell? Censure Sarah Palin? By the way, she is not alone. We have a montage, ladies and gentlemen, of Drive-By Media attacking McCain-Palin supporters as violent nuts and wackos. These are the same, Drive-Bys, as I mentioned, who have incited rage and hatred against George W. Bush and this country in general for years. These are the people who write books and movies and plays about assassinating the president of the United States and get critical acclaim. These are the people who let Code Pink into every congressional hearing on the war. So a montage of journalists all upset about what’s happening with McCain-Palin supporters.
MITCHELL: McCain crowds have been increasingly rowdy. Someone shouted, ‘Off with his head!’ about Obama.
ROBERTS: She’s inciting people to anger at these campaign events.
GERGEN: These crowds and these ugly scenes that have occurred in these rallies.
MATTHEWS: Appeal to the nuts. When you hear people yell, ‘Kill him, terrorist,’ yelling out from the crowd.
VOICE: People gather shouting out comments about Barack Obama like, ‘Kill him, terrorist, treason.’
WITT: Kind of incited these crowds and I think that does get into dangerous territory.
KORNBLUTT: A full bore attack on Obama’s character, suggesting he’s yellow, disloyal, and doesn’t belong.
WRIGHT: Inciting hatred, division, fear.
VANDEN HEUVEL: They’re now heckling the media.
RUSH: That was Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel, from The Nation. You know what’s happening here, they’re talking about the media, not Obama. But you know what’s happening here, what’s happening here is that there is finally a candidate who is speaking up for these people, a candidate who connects with this base. Our base is so fed up with the media that this is simply the release of all of that passion that leaders are not leading on. And that is attacking the very people trying to destroy us as a political movement. Attack conservatives, attack the Republicans. The Republicans don’t defend themselves. They try to make nice with these attackers in the media. Palin’s not doing that, and people are finally standing up and cheering, after about 15 or 20 years of having to swallow this garbage every night and every day watching this stuff on the press.
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RUSH: So, the media is scared, the media is frightened when they show up at McCain-Palin rallies. It’s so sorry! Don’t we feel so bad for the poor media? They’re so fearful. Maybe we need to do this, folks. Maybe we need to call the United Nations and get some peacekeepers to show up in their little blue helmets — United Nations peacekeepers with little blue helmets — at McCain-Palin rallies to protect ’em. This way we could prevent mediacide. The only problem with bringing in the UN peacekeepers is the women and children aren’t safe. UN peacekeepers have been known to sexually attack the people they’re protecting. By the way, just to refresh your memory on this Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times, she is a racist nutball. She had a column on September 14th.
‘Sarah Palin,’ she wrote, ‘makes me sick. I hate that she was able to steal Barack Obama’s mojo just by showing up wearing rimless glasses and a skirt. … Sarah Palin makes me sick because although black Democrats have been responsible for giving white candidates the boost they needed to beat their Republican opponents in tight races, these voters are now being insulted by feminists who say they will cross over into the McCain camp because of her.’ So she says, ‘I hate… Sarah Palin makes me sick,’ and she’s not inciting anybody, is she? How many anti-war Bush rallies at the Pentagon or in Washington have there been where Bush is hung in effigy? This notion that… You people in media really are a bunch of cowards. You are gutless, spineless wimps. You can’t handle a little criticism. You’re above criticism? Ha!
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RUSH: This is Gina, in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, Gina, nice to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Rush, mega Navy wife dittos. I’m so excited to talk to you today.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Unfortunately, I’m just livid about some of the media today describing McCain-Palin supporters as violent, angry, and how she’s whipping them up into this frenzy. I happened to be at the McCain-Palin rally on Tuesday, and I took my 12-year-old daughter, and I saw no such thing. I heard no one saying ‘kill him, hang him,’ and all these other crazy things that people are accusing the supporters of saying.
RUSH: Which rally was this, in Jacksonville?
CALLER: Yes, it was at The Jacksonville Landing.
RUSH: I think the rally they’re talking about was in Clearwater — I’ve gotta go back — see, I put all this stuff in the bottom of the stack. Let’s see. Yeah.
CALLER: You might have been talking about the one in —
RUSH: Clearwater, in a rally yesterday — well, wait. This is dated October 7th, two days ago. Whenever, it was earlier this week, and it was in Clearwater, Florida, the supporters turned on the media.
CALLER: Yeah. Well, I just personally, from personal experience, people were happy to be there at the rally that I was at. I didn’t hear any of that kind of thing, and I just take great offense to it, because first we’re being called racists because we’re not going to vote for Obama.
RUSH: Don’t be offended by it, get mad at it.
CALLER: Well, I’m mad, I’m angry, I’m livid, Rush, and I’m just so glad that you’re out there speaking for us, because no one in the media is listening.
RUSH: They’re listening. They are in the tank.
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: They are doing their best to impugn you and McCain-Palin supporters like they impugn the US military. They want you portrayed as a bunch of lunatic redneck hicks. Don’t make me go through this again because I’m going to get red faced and livid all over again. They ignore the people in their party that urged the assassination of Bush, via movie and via book, and they critically acclaim both, the movies and the books. These are the people that hang Bush in effigy at anti-war rallies. These are some of the meanest, most vile people in the country, the supporters of the Democrat Party and the Obama ticket. They are deranged, they are unhinged, and they are genuinely dangerous. The media will not talk about that at all. They praise them as being activists and getting involved. These lunatics are the same people that run these websites, and they are sources for the Associated Press. Make no mistake about it, the enemy in this campaign is not just Obama and his cronies. The media is as well. If are there outbursts at the media at McCain-Palin rallies it’s because for 15 or 20 years, I traced this back to the budget battle of 1995, and the school lunch program, if you people remember, we were accused of wanting to starve children and our party didn’t say diddly-squat.
The budget battle in ’95 and all these little school kids, you remember from New Orleans, were encouraged to write, ‘Don’t let me starve,’ and they were going on TV, Democrats running television ads, ‘Don’t let me starve, Republicans want me to starve,’ as though their parents would let them starve, and there was never a cut in the school lunch program to begin with. There was a reduction in the rate of growth. There was never a cut. That was shortly after the Republicans took over the House, and there was excitement and Republican voters had made that happen, and then all of a sudden just a year later, two years later, we get the budget battle, the government shutdown, the school lunch program, and Republicans sat on their hands and for 15 years Republicans have not defended themselves, therefore their supporters, against these attacks. Sarah Palin comes out of the woodwork like an angel bestowed from on high and reams these people a new one every time she opens her mouth, and our crowds are simply cheering. The media is, ‘Oh, I feel threatened, why, this is dangerous, why, they’re hurling insults at us.’ This Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times, wants to censure Sarah Palin for turning the crowds against the media. You are jaundiced cowards in the media. Go call the UN peacekeeping force in there to protect you. Get the people in the blue helmets, as I said in the first hour, just guard the women and children because they tend to rape them when they’re keeping the peace in places like Africa.
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RUSH: Remember, Hillary had some plants. This is back in the New Hampshire primary, after she’d come out of the Hawkeye Cauci in stunned defeat. And remember these guys stood up, ‘Hey, go back to the kitchen, iron my shirt, iron my shirt!’ Hillary planted those people in there. You know it happened. (laughing) So it’s entirely possible that this is all a ruse as well.
Kathy in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. That’s a beautiful place. It really is. How are you, Kathy?
CALLER: Good. How are you?
RUSH: Never better.
CALLER: I was actually at the Lehigh University rally in Bethlehem yesterday, and I was also offended by the characterization by the media, because the only irrational lunatics I saw at the event were the four to five protesters out in the parking lot. That was it. The line to get in wrapped essentially two times or more around the building, and it was a peaceful gathering of women, children, senior citizens, college students, small business owners. It was a wonderful, peaceful crowd.
RUSH: No attacks on the media?
CALLER: No attacks on the media. I think there was some frustration with the media, but no attacks at the media.
RUSH: Anybody say cut off his head?
CALLER: I didn’t hear that. I saw a really excited crowd. I saw frustrated Republicans that —
RUSH: An overflow crowd, too, right?
CALLER: It was an absolute overflow crowd, and I talked to some people who had gotten there at eight in the morning. The doors didn’t even open ’til 10:30. I was also amazed that there weren’t, you know, this is a college town, this is at Lehigh University, and there weren’t student protesters. There didn’t seem to be much of a base of people who were there to support Obama. I mean, it was the four to five protesters.
RUSH: Four to five protesters. Let me ask you a question about your local media. Did these four or five protesters get a whole lot of attention in your local media?
CALLER: I don’t think they really did. I think the four to five protesters, though, were actually the ones who were trying to egg on the crowd, because they were kind of bantering at the crowd as we stood in line.
RUSH: Ah, yes, so it would fit with our previous caller’s theorem that these things are planted. Well, that’s an interesting story. I know what you’re saying is true, too. It’s the case with all these rallies, and I’ve got some pictures here somebody sent me. If your rally in Lehigh was anything like these pictures, it’s just overwhelming the venues where they’re being held. I mean these people are inside, outside, and it’s huge, and Obama’s rallies are getting smaller and smaller.
CALLER: I think they could have filled the stadium if they could have gotten access to it.
RUSH: Now, let me ask you a question, Kathy. You’re obviously very intelligent. How is it that with no encouraging media whatsoever, the only media on McCain-Palin is how he’s an old white guy and she’s nothing but a brain-dead populist and a librarian, how is it do you think that they are drawing such large, enthusiastic crowds?
CALLER: I actually think there’s a lot of excitement about Palin and the message that she sends. I mean I think she stands for — I think about it for myself, I have two sons, ages 17 and 20, and for me she would be the ideal spouse for them, and I know if I raised a daughter, she would be a child that I’d be very, very proud of.
RUSH: Interesting. Well, I have a theory about this. Thanks very much for calling. My theory on this, even I, my friends, will admit, I’ve admitted it to you on previous occasions. Even I, the valued El Rushbo, sometimes get sucked in by a devious, deceitful media. Sometimes even I. Doesn’t happen often, and when it does, I tell you. It’s a teachable moment. What this is telling us is that Palin — you gotta throw Yosemite Sam in there, too — Palin and McCain have a genuine direct appeal to millions of Americans, that millions of Americans do not need to be primed and pumped and PR’d about their greatness, their brilliance, or their excitement by the media. These are people, Palin, who can on her own, all that has to happen is somebody locally says McCain-Palin coming to town for a rally, maybe the local media, TV, do a little story on it, bam, oversold, sellout, raucous crowds. And the media is doing nothing to promote this, folks, is the point. The media is doing what they can, in fact, now, to impugn these Palin rallies by impugning the people that show up. So don’t think the media has to be on your side in order for you to win.
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RUSH: Ellen in Rocky River, Ohio, it’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?
RUSH: Good.
CALLER: Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Yeah!
CALLER: Listen, I wanted to let you know that a friend of mine, my son and his girlfriend went to the McCain-Palin rally last evening in Strongsville. There were probably minimally 15,000 people, far more attendees than could be admitted to the rec center. So the majority of us stood outside and waited for four hours in line. There was no vitriol being spewed. There were some political conversations, you know, that you would expect with like-minded people. But it was a very orderly, very peaceful group of people just wanting to hear what Senator McCain and Governor Palin had to say.
RUSH: All right. I want you to listen to this montage, again, because, folks, if you’re just tuning in, what got all this started is people have been at McCain-Palin rallies are calling to defend the comportment and behavior of the people attending these rallies. The media is out there saying that the attendees at McCain-Palin rallies are saying, ‘Off with his head,’ that they’re’ threatening’ the media, that they’re saying horrible things about Obama and so forth. And the sorriest excuse for a journalist ever, Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times, said that Palin should be censured because she’s turning her crowd against the royalty of the media. So I want you to listen to this. It’s a montage. We have Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington; John Roberts, CNN; David Rodham Gergen, CNN; Chris Matthews; Alex Witt; Ann Kornbutt — blutt — Washington Post; David Wright, ABC; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel from The Nation. They’re all talking about this. So this is why callers are responding to this.
MITCHELL: McCain crowds have been increasingly rowdy. Someone shouted, ‘Off with his head!’ about Obama.
ROBERTS: She’s inciting people to anger at these campaign events.
GERGEN: These crowds and these ugly scenes that have occurred in these rallies.
MATTHEWS: Appeal to the nuts. When you hear people yell, ‘Kill him, terrorist,’ yelling out from the crowd.
WITT: People gather shouting out comments about Barack Obama like, ‘Kill him, terrorist, treason.’
KORNBLUTT: Kind of incited these crowds and I think that does get into dangerous territory.
WRIGHT: A full bore attack on Obama’s character, suggesting he’s yellow, disloyal, and doesn’t belong.
HEUVEL: … Inciting hatred, division, fear. They’re now heckling the media.
RUSH: Okay, so you saw none of this where you were?
CALLER: None of it. And if I can tell you one quick story, ’cause I know your time is limited, but as we were all waiting in line and slowly move ahead because (as a previous caller described) the lines twirled around numerous buildings. There was a gentleman whom I knew had to be from the media, although I didn’t recognize him. He had a microphone in his hand, and right next to him was someone with a camera. So as I’m passing him, I said, ‘Make sure that you report the attendees accurately.’ I didn’t really think he’d respond, but indeed he did, and I think he was kind of taken aback that somebody might challenge his journalistic integrity. He asked why I would suggest that he wouldn’t do that, and I said, ‘Well, it’s really quite obvious. You rarely report the Republican attendees very accurately.’ And then with that, of course, he tried to engage me and of course I was a willing participant in, you know, why I would choose to vote for McCain as opposed to Obama because Obama was better on the economy. I stopped him dead in his tracks and reminded him that really was a specious argument.
RUSH: Wait a second. I have lost you here. He asked you a question who you’re going to vote for, McCain or Obama because why would you vote for McCain, because Obama is so much better on the economy? The reporter said that to you?
CALLER: Why he did. He was from the BBC. That’s why I didn’t recognize him.
RUSH: Ah.
CALLER: He was trying to lead me in that direction, and I quickly reminded him that I believed his argument — and my daughter would love this expression, the argument — was a canard. Clearly I don’t believe Obama is better on anything, much less the economy. But he persisted, and I said to him, ‘Number one, I reject your argument out of hand that Obama would be better for the economy. He’s an anti-capitalist. He’s anti-business. He’s anti-everything I hold dear. But even if you were right — and I don’t expect that you are — what good is a sound economy if we’re not kept safe?’ That seemed to surprise him. So he said, ‘So you think McCain would keep you safe?’ I said, ‘Indeed I do.’ He said, ‘So you think that being kept safe is more important than a sound economy?’ So I had to remind him that clearly a sound economy is of no value if you have terrorists at your doorstep. So actually it was kind of an interesting exchange.
RUSH: Okay, let me tell you what’s going to happen to that exchange, because when I was much younger in this business I thought that when journalists asked me a question, they really wanted my answer. It took me a long time to learn that they don’t care what you say. It is their question and how they can then cut up what you say. The whole point of that interview was to portray you as a typical McCain-Palin nut and kook. And they’re going to take that interview and splice you with one or two words, maybe a sentence, with others that he had talked to, to do a cross-reference of people who are so out of touch and so dangerous. I guarantee you, that’s what that was.
CALLER: Well, you’re probably right.
RUSH: That’s why you cannot accept the premise. You started out with this exactly right. It was very good. You don’t accept the premise.
CALLER: Well, I agree with you that’s probably what he was going to do or has done, but as you’ve said for so long, those of us in middle America are so outraged by what the media says, does, doesn’t say, and doesn’t do, that when you have an opportunity — regardless of what he’s going to do with the interview; albeit, you know, short as it was — I made it clear. Even if it’s one person, I needed him to know that I know what he does, and I felt better about that.
RUSH: Well, that’s good. That is excellent. There are very, very few exceptions to this. Trust me. Don’t doubt me.
CALLER: I do. (laughs)
RUSH: You will never change their minds. Don’t ever waste time actually debating a journalist. You will never change their mind. They’ll make you think they’re engaging you and debating you. They’re not. They have an agenda, they have a narrative, and they have a template and you’re either going to fit into it or not.
CALLER: Well, I expect that that’s very true, particularly from the BBC.
RUSH: From all of them!
CALLER: Yeah, but particularly from the BBC. But I would agree with you. I didn’t see any of the national media. Our local affiliates were all there.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: But there was nobody.. At least I didn’t see anyone, but then we did not get into the rec center. But McCain and Palin did invite two of the Cleveland Browns.
RUSH: I heard about that. Brady Quinn and… (tapping desk)
CALLER: Joe Thomas.
RUSH: Joe Thomas, yeah. He mentioned someone else today I think in this rally, too, as well as the two Cleveland Browns players as having endorsed him.
CALLER: Well, it was a wonderful time.
RUSH: I’m not sure who. I thought he did.
CALLER: Well, it was a wonderful rally and it was worth standing in line for four hours.
RUSH: People are doing this all over the country. They’re standing out in the rain in Pensacola, Florida, for an hour to get into these things. There’s genuine excitement at these McCain-Palin rallies, and the Obama rallies are not that way. They don’t have this kind of excitement. The Drive-Bys know it, too. They sense this. I’m glad you called, Ellen.