Caller Converted by CPAC Speech

RUSH: It’s Open Line Friday on Thursday today. We’re going to start in North Hills, California. Suzanne, great to have you with us. Hello.

CALLER: Good morning, Rush. I wanted to start by apologizing. I always thought you were a loud-mouthed blowhard, sadly, until I saw your national address on C-SPAN, and after that moment I was a convert. My mother and my brother have been trying to drag me to the dark side for the longest time, and all I kept thinking was, ‘What was wrong with this man?’ When I finally saw you, on top of the fact that you’re adorable —

RUSH: (laughed) Dragged to the dark side.

CALLER: — it was entertaining, it was informative. It was something that I should have been listening to years ago, and they were right, which I hate admitting. So I wanted to apologize to start with, and the next time you’re in LA I’d love to take you to dinner, so we can write it off.

RUSH: Where is North Hills, California, by the way?

CALLER: Near Northridge, north of Los Angeles.

RUSH: Northridge, okay. You know, it’s very interesting that you were — well, I’m not surprised you were converted off the CPAC speech, but did you see it per se or —

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Okay, you didn’t see media clips of it —

CALLER: No, I saw the speech.

RUSH: Well, what did you believe prior to that, and why?

CALLER: Sadly, I work in the legal field so I’m surrounded by Democrats and liberals except for one conservative and she’s at the other end of the office so all I hear is the same liberal media crap and the same butt licking that they all give to Obama —

RUSH: Wait a minute, I need to understand. Are you a liberal at the same time you’re hanging around with all the liberal crap or —

CALLER: God, no. No, I’m a staunch Republican. I happened to catch you, every time I stepped in the room and they had you on it was at that point when you were self-stroking yourself and it was like, oh, my God what is wrong with this man?

RUSH: I don’t know that I have ever done that on the radio.

CALLER: Well, since I don’t have a webcam I can’t be sure, but when you talk about, you know, how intelligent and how bright and on and on you went and I went, you know, he’s starting to sound like the Democrats until, like I said, when I saw it on C-SPAN, it’s the way you came across, it was the amount of information I got without — usually when I listen to a lot of the subjects you cover I get so angry, not at you, but at how stupid the bulk of people seem to be.

RUSH: You know, I got an e-mail today, and this probably will reflect similarly on your experience. I get these so often that I think that they are seminar e-mails actually sent in by liberals lying to me, pretending to be conservatives in hopes of depressing me. I’m too strong for that. I got a note today from a guy who said, ‘All right, yesterday I finally convinced my girlfriend to listen to you, finally, it’s taken me years. And what did you start with? Obama throwing like a girl. And she said, see, ‘This guy is an A– I don’t want anything to do with him,” and the guy is lamenting, ‘It took me years to get her to listen and you start with the Obama throws like a girl.’ So it sounds like —

CALLER: But he does.

RUSH: (laughing) I know.

CALLER: They gotta get him into some manly sports because he comes across as a moron and he can’t think for himself much less speak for himself and he sure as hell doesn’t speak for me and the rest of the country.

RUSH: You know, this is amazing to me. This is really enlightening to me because here you are, you are me and you hated my guts before you saw that CPAC speech.

CALLER: I said I was sorry. I’m sincere for the most part. It’s an ulterior motive, I just wanted to ask you out for dinner.

RUSH: (laughing) I’m attached, I must be honest.

CALLER: I didn’t say I wanted to take you home! I just said to dinner. She can come along. I don’t care. What I really wanted was to pick your brain more, was to hear more about —

RUSH: Oh!

CALLER: And I wanted to take you to a Republican dominated restaurant. I’m sorry, a liberal dominated —

RUSH: Where, in Northridge?

CALLER: No, it’s in Sherman Oaks on Ventura Boulevard and the bulk of what I hear is Obama is so fabulous and health care is what we need and money for the children.

RUSH: Look, I gotta ask you one more question. I got limited time here.

CALLER: Sure.

RUSH: Why, if you are as conservative as you are, and knowing the media are who they are, why did you believe what these admitted liberals were saying about me?

CALLER: Oh, I didn’t believe what they said, it’s just it’s one of those things where you have selective hearing. Finally you just tune it out completely, so it’s like I don’t have to listen to you, I don’t have to listen to them. But then, like I said, to see you, now I listen to you. I listen to you at work and I leave the radio up. Some people won’t come in my office now, but that’s okay.

RUSH: I gotta run. Thanks for the invitation, Suzanne, I appreciate it. What a nice first call I had.