RUSH: All right, folks. It just keeps getting better and better and better out there. The Drive-Bys at DNCTV are still focused on my claim that Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama is about race. This afternoon on DNCTV Live, Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington; was talking to their bureau chief, Mark Whitaker, and she said, ‘Let me play for you Rush Limbaugh’s reaction to the media. This happened just moments ago, Mark.’
RUSH ARCHIVE: Now, back to General Powell. I just want to button this up, because the Drive-Bys had a tizzy over my allegation that his nomination was about race. Well, let me say it louder, and let me say it even more plainly: It was totally about race! The Powell nomination or endorsement was totally about race.
RUSH: What in the world are they doing to my voice over on this network when they replay things? They’re making it sound like it’s gravelly as it could be. They gotta be putting my voice through a harmonizer or something out there. So anyway, that’s when I was cupping my hands in the first hour and saying, ‘Hey, Drive-Bys,’ and this isn’t the first time, ‘It is about race,’ and they replayed that, and then Andrea Mitchell has this exchange with the bureau chief Mark Whitaker.
MITCHELL: Of course General Powell said it wasn’t about race, but obviously this is transformational and historic, but that his main reasons were in watching the last six weeks of the McCain campaign, he was not — he was ‘disappointed’ was his word in John McCain’s response on the economy, on other issue, on William Ayers. What is your conclusion?
WHITAKER: I’ll tell you if it was only about race, Colin Powell could have endorsed Barack Obama months ago. And getting anymore on Meet the Press was something that the producers and Tom Brokaw worked months to do, first talked to Powell before the conventions, and he made it clear that he hadn’t made up his mind and that he wasn’t going to say anything until he had more time to study both candidates and to study their positions; and I think the reason also that he chose ultimately Meet the Press was that he wanted to lay out all of his reasons, which he did very eloquently, I thought.
RUSH: What’s that got to do with anything, choosing Meet the Press? Get a little plug in for Meet the Press? What’s that got to do with anything? And what is this ‘study the candidates and their issues’? I can understand if somebody who’s from Mars just arrives here and needs to do that, but what is this notion, ‘He had to study the candidates, study issues and their positions, and he could have made this decision months ago if it was about race.’ Nobody is surprised by any of this. So this afternoon on the Fox News Channel Live Desk, Martha MacCallum is interviewing Doug Schoen, the Democrat strategerist and pollster, and she said, ‘Now, Rush Limbaugh says, ‘I’m researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal white candidates he’s endorsed. I’ll let you know what I come up with.’ What did you think of that, Mr. Schoen?’
SCHOEN: Let me answer Rush Limbaugh’s question. Colin Powell in 2001 endorsed Mike Bloomberg here in New York, who was inexperienced and very liberal, and I think Mike Bloomberg benefited from that endorsement.
RUSH: Well, now, this is fascinating. There are two things about this. Doug Schoen is admitting that Powell endorses inexperienced people, number one, and that Bloomberg benefited from it. But the second thing is, nice try, Mr. Schoen, but Bloomberg was pretending to be a Republican! Lest we forget, Bloomberg was pretending to be a Republican who would follow in Rudy’s footsteps at the time. He was running, Bloomberg was, against a seemingly far more liberal opponent on the Democrat side. That’s what they’ve come up with, their research. They’ve researched this, and Colin Powell endorsed Bloomberg, who they admit was inexperienced. So they admit that Powell is endorsing inexperienced candidates.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, I’m going to go back and play audio sound bite 28 again here. This is Andrea Mitchell talking to Mark Whitaker, the NBC TV News bureau chief in Washington, DC. Ladies and gentlemen, I very seldom do this but I’m going to beg your indulgence. Since the Drive-Bys are focused on my take on this, after we play this sound bite, I am going to have an exclusive response and reply for the Drive-Bys, for those of you out there monitoring this program, both on my Dittocam and just on the radio or via audio feed. I will speak so that you’ll have no trouble cutting this up for use later on during your busy broadcast day. Here again is that sound bite.
MITCHELL: Of course General Powell said it wasn’t about race, but obviously this is transformational and historic, but that his main reasons were in watching the last six weeks of the McCain campaign, he was not — he was ‘disappointed’ was his word in John McCain’s response on the economy, on other issue, on William Ayers. What is your conclusion?
WHITAKER: I’ll tell you if it was only about race, Colin Powell could have endorsed Barack Obama months ago. And getting anymore on Meet the Press was something that the producers and Tom Brokaw worked months to do, first talked to Powell before the conventions, and he made it clear that he hadn’t made up his mind and that he wasn’t going to say anything until he had more time to study both candidates and to study their positions; and I think the reason also that he chose ultimately Meet the Press was that he wanted to lay out all of his reasons, which he did very eloquently, I thought.
RUSH: All right. Now, attention, Drive-Bys. Here’s my reply. The reason Powell made the decision is that it’s about Powell. All of this was about Colin Powell. How stupid do you reporters and bureau chiefs think we are? You think we believe that Colin Powell had to be begged to come on NBC and Meet the Press? That’s like telling us that Chuck Schumer needs to be begged to appear before a camera. Oh, yeah, there was so much drama here. But Powell made the decision because it was about Powell. Andrea Mitchell and her husband, the former Fed chairman and Powell, I have no doubt that they are social friends. Look at it this way. If Colin Powell gives this endorsement months ago, it means nothing compared to giving it now. They’re out there saying that Colin Powell did this and it proves it has nothing to do with race. Why, if it was about race he would have done this months ago.
This campaign has revealed that Barack Obama is a socialist! The truth is that Joe the Plumber is 100 times more relevant in this election than Colin Powell. Powell is just another Washington insider at this point. So now what have we learned, thanks to Joe the Plumber and others in this campaign? Obama is a socialist. He is a man with alliances, with racists, terrorists, and felons. Powell has found out and admitted that Obama is inexperienced, has poor judgment, talks in the language of a Marxist comfortable in his own skin. If it was not about race, Powell would have endorsed when Obama wasn’t a known quantity to help him out, when he was believed to be an elegant and eloquent man with moderate politics. But Powell comes out and endorses Obama after we learn what Obama’s all about? You tell me this is about anything other than race.
We hear Obama being endorsed by Colin Powell after Joe the Plumber exposes Obama as a socialist and a redistributionist. We hear from Powell after we hear about Ayers and all of these funny alliances, Jeremiah Wright. The precise reason that Powell gave this endorsement later in October means it’s more likely about race: maximum impact for Obama, maximum damage to McCain, but more importantly, the most maximum benefit goes to Colin Powell, with his inside-the-Beltway buddies. Obama’s got the Washington insider vote tied up. There’s nothing new here about Powell endorsing. Powell, Gergen, what’s the difference? They all say the same thing. But here’s the difference. Colin Powell is a very wealthy man. He commands over $100,000 a speech. He makes more in three speeches than all those small businesses Obama says he wants to tax.
Joe the Plumber does not, and if you’re playing the class warfare game, why do you want the endorsement of millionaires like Powell and billionaires like Buffett? Why wouldn’t you want guys like Joe the Plumber on your side? So you people in Drive-Bys, you can act like this is outrageous to say, but anybody with any honesty will tell you there’s no drama to Powell going on Meet the Press. He didn’t agonize over it. It’s all about him. The timing was purposeful because Obama is being hurt now with all these things that we have learned about him. It would have been much easier to endorse Obama before all this garbage came out, when he was The Messiah, when he was The One, the magnificent, the anointed, the Most Merciful. But here comes the endorsement right before the election after we’ve learned all the dirty laundry about Obama? It’s totally about race, 100%, and you people in the Drive-Bys know it, but don’t play us for fools. Don’t think that he agonized and studied both candidates and studied their positions and had to be wooed and wined and dined and begged and cajoled…to go on Meet the Press?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Hey, get this, folks. MSNBC just again, ran video of me, your beloved host assuring everybody that the Powell endorsement of Obama was indeed about race, and then the info babe anchorette asked a Republican strategerist, ‘Just how damaging is Rush Limbaugh to the McCain campaign?’ And the guy says, ‘He’s not damaging at all. Limbaugh’s not running.’ He didn’t say that. That would be my retort. At the same time this was going on, get this, CNN’s running a story on the black McCains. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, McCain’s ancestors owned slaves. CNN found them, and they’re still running around using the last name McCain. (laughing) Why do you do this if you’ve got this in the bag? Joe the Plumber. As I say, 100 times more influential on this campaign than Colin Powell.