RUSH: Spiridon in New York City, I’m glad you called. You’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.
CALLER: Hey Rush, glad to talk to you again. I spoke to you earlier this year.
RUSH: Yeah. You sound like Peter Orszag.
CALLER: (laughing) Is that a compliment?
RUSH: Uh, no comment.
CALLER: Okay. All right. I’m a member of the NYU College Republicans up here, and on Monday there was panel of lefties — what else is up here? — and it was for the author of The Death of Conservatism, that new book that came out by the New York Times guy and —
RUSH: Is that the guy named Sam Tanenhaus or Sam Tannebaum or something like that?
CALLER: Yeah, something like that. That’s why I didn’t say his name; I can’t remember.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Shows you how important it is. They were talking about the tea party movement or tea baggers, and they said that what basically happened with these guys, are these guys that were born in like in the forties or around that time and grew up with segregation in the South and they’re all white and they’re all —
RUSH: (laughing.)
CALLER: Exactly. Exactly. That’s my point.
RUSH: What a day! What a day! Let me tell you something out there, Spiridon, it worries me. I was just telling Snerdley. You know, I understand these people, I know what they’re going to do before they do it. I know what they’re thinking. It scares me I understand these people’s brains. It scares me I understand how they think. Let me tell you what this is about. They are scared to death of the conservative ascendancy that’s happening. They know that conservatism nationally wins every time it is properly, correctly articulated and explained. They know they don’t have a chance against it and they know it’s ascending and so they’re doing their best — the New York Times has a story about some new conservatives getting together in the Republican Party and it’s really a bunch of moderate Republicans and they’re saying exactly what I said, they want nothing to do with the social issues, these guys, and there’s no conservative movement that’s working in the Republican Party from the New York Times today, there’s no conservative ascendancy, it’s not happening. The Politico had a story yesterday about all this, too. There is a concerted effort here. That’s why Reaganism is constantly lied about and why they have to revise history about that.
CALLER: Right. As a matter of fact, man, during this thing they were talking about, you know, like the Republican icons they’re going through a list of them, Eisenhower, Whitaker Chambers, they kept calling Buckley a racist so they didn’t include him, but they left out Ronald Reagan, they left out — who else? Let’s see. Buckley, like I already said. It’s amazing to watch.
RUSH: I’m sure it was. What you’re watching is the equivalent of a bunch of stuck pigs. Their agenda is heading down so fast. Liberalism, for what it is, is on full display, and they’re scared to death of what is really happening, a conservative ascendancy.
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RUSH: Now, this is what I was laughing at when the program theme was playing. ‘The Daily Kos recently released an odd poll of Republican voters — and now The Politico and other liberal organizations are trying to use the results to churn waters that are actually relatively calm. The GOP had better not bite. … Fresh off liberals getting thumped in Virginia, New Jersey, and most recently Massachusetts, the left are now in a full-fledged panic, and they’re doing all they can to quickly blur the obvious teachable moment: that the GOP can win by boldly going way to the right of the Democrats.’ Don’t go moderate. Don’t go McCain. Go conservative. That’s what wins. ‘This is actually something that liberals inherently know and fear, and have since at least 1980.’ Reagan proved it. They have run scared of the Republicans ever since figuring this out. That’s why they’re constantly lying about Reagan and tax cuts and what happened to the budget.
You want to talk about Reagan’s budget deficits today? You woulda thought that we were going to die with Reagan deficits listening to Democrats in the media back then. Reagan never had a budget that was a trillion dollars. He might have had a budget that hit a trillion dollars, it’s going to be close. But Obama’s budget deficits are trillion and a half every year. So they’re panicked, and they’re doing everything they can to scare Republicans into not doing what’s going to win. ‘It explains their never-ending, disingenuous P.R. campaign to keep Republicans in mortal fear of upsetting moderates by doing something rash. … Yes, these would be the very same independents who rejected the ‘honorable campaign’ of John McCain by 21 points.’ Let’s not forget that, these same independents that are running in droves to any Republican candidate they can now. ‘These are also the very same independents who came roaring back to the fold for downtown Scottie Brown, forever known as ’41.”
By the way, I’m told he gets Ted Kennedy’s office. You know that’s gotta be some pretty palatial stuff and you know how these guys fight over office space. I mean the liberal lion probably had, you know, how many bars are there in that office? I mean that’s gotta be plum real estate. So, anyway, the questions that The Politico asked were just transparently infantile. Remember, now, the results of the poll online were then picked up by Politico and others. Here’s a sample: ‘Do you believe Barack Obama wants the terrorists to win? Do you believe ACORN stole the 2008 election? Do you believe Barack Obama is a racist who hates white people?’ Now, see, this is what you have to understand about polling. It’s all in the framing of the question. How in the hell can somebody answer these and not sound foolish? Which is the point, to make conservatives look foolish regardless of what they say.
‘These kind of questions make it impossible to register displeasure with Obama’s terror policies, ACORN, or the impact of Jeremiah Wright on the president without sounding juvenile. Mommy, mommy — Bawack stole the ewection and he wants the tewowists to win over the whities. Waaaaah. I can only wonder if the erudite David Brooks will have the mental dexterity to see through this brilliantly diabolical plot. I rather doubt it.’ In fact, Brooksie will look at this and probably buy it hook, line, and sinker. It will validate his elitist snobbish disregard for the conservative base but he and his ilk are the foolish ones.
Here’s three more questions: ‘Should public school students be taught that the book of Genesis … ? Should women work outside the home? Are marriages equal partnerships … ? If Republicans want to leverage Scott Brown’s Massachusetts victory into a November electoral avalanche, they’ll need to keep their base riled up — but not too riled up.’ So it was 2000 Republicans, it paints a picture of a base that’s angry, disaffected, acutely hostile to President Obama. So that’s fine and dandy. What they then did, and this is why this is a teachable moment, the Republicans better ignore this. After they picked this up at The Politico, The Politico went out and interviewed John McCain and Susan Collins and asked them what they thought of the poll which of course gives the poll credibility. No Republican should have had a thing to say about this. It’s about what we have said for years, this teachable moment. The Drive-By Media is desperate to push the Republicans into being moderate because they lose when they go that route. Just ask McCain. The liberals know, sometimes I think better than we do, that conservatism, well articulated, wins elections. It wins every damn time it’s tried. They know it better than our own party does.
Daily Kos, The Politico, the Democrats in general are scared to death, and that’s what’s behind this ridiculous poll of Republican voters. Just hogwash. But I don’t know, with McCrazy — uh — McCain and Collins out there answering the questions about this it lends it credence. No other Republicans better fall for this. I did not mean McCrazy. I misspoke. I apologize, I retract it. It’s like using the R-word.
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RUSH: This is Mary Ann in Trumbull, Connecticut. It’s great to have you here. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Nice to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I’m just calling in — it’s funny because I actually got in the first time I called — about the Toyota situation. My husband works for Toyota in Connecticut.
RUSH: Oh, yeah, yeah.
CALLER: I didn’t hear the news yesterday. I came home and was calling him and see how things were going because with the recall it’s insanely crazy, and basically he tells me, ‘This is how my day went.’ It was like a shot like in my head. I was, like, immediately I knew what was up. I was like, ‘Obama sent his henchmen out to just try and cut Toyota off at the knees,’ and I didn’t know what you had said earlier about the whole process. I thought he was trying to drum up profits for GM — and also they had a recall a couple of months ago or extended a recall on their vans that catch on fire. So it’s funny how the media doesn’t rail about that, though. So, yeah, I just was totally taken aback and really angry.
RUSH: Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine. I mean, these Toyotas are made in this country. Americans make Toyotas. I think there are five Toyota factories in the country. (sigh) I know it’s hard to hear. I know it is really difficult to hear this on the radio. Snerdley told me this the other day. He hears me say this frequently on the other side of the glass, but when I was in Las Vegas he heard it on the radio. He said, ‘It just reaches out of the radio and grabs you. You can’t believe it.’ I don’t know how much more evidence people need to begin to believe that this is not an accident here, that all of this economic destruction is not an accident. There is nobody who has the basic minimal economic understanding who would, A, do this under the premise of growing an economy; and, secondly, would consider sticking with it after this year of abject failure and even talk about doubling down on it.
It wouldn’t happen. At some point people are going to have to accept that Obama has told the truth when he said his objective is to remake the country, when he said his objective is to redistribute the wealth. This is happening right before our very eyes. In fact it won’t take much longer, I think, for people to believe this. Public Policy Polling: ‘42% of the American people say their economic situation is worse over the last year compared to just 11% who think it’s gotten better.’ My guess is this 42% is low because people think their criticizing Obama when they answer this question, ‘Yes, my situation’s worsened.’ People don’t like pollsters to think of them as bigots. ‘A look inside those numbers gives a good indication as to why Republicans are primed for such a good election year. The Republicans lead 57-27 on the generic congressional ballot with people who say the economy has hurt them more at the personal level since Obama took office.’
That. Is. Huge.
‘The generic ballot is 57-27 among people who say the economy’s hurt them more on a personal level since Obama took office. Among those whose situation stayed the same or improved, Democrats lead 49-33. It’s not going to do Democrats any good for economists to say that things are back on the right track, either. Voters make decisions emotionally rather than intellectually, and that 11-42 gap on whether people’s personal situations are improving is going to have to close before Democrats start looking better for the fall. Overall just 11% of voters rate the current state of the economy as excellent or good; 34% calling it fair; 53%, a majority, label it poor. There’s an interesting contrast in who voters hold responsible for the current state of the economy,’ according to Public Policy Polling. ‘By a 47-42 margin, they say it falls on Bush rather than Obama, but asked specifically which party they feel is more culpable, they pick the Democrats 46-39. Okay, let’s assign these results accuracy. Bush ain’t on the ballot in November, but that big D is going to be on everybody’s ballot. So if ‘the party considered more culpable for the economic disaster is Democrats by 46-39,’ all it shows is that ‘Obama’s personal brand is still better than that of his party and it helps to explain why his campaign appearances for Democrat candidates have not done much to push them over the top.’ Interesting stuff.