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.
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.
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.
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.