RUSH: White Hall Pennsylvania, Sam, welcome to the program, sir. It’s nice to have you here.
CALLER: Can you hear me, Rush?
RUSH: Sure. I hear you fine.
CALLER: I’m calling by cell phone. I’m a Democrat, I’m nervous, and I hope I don’t go too fast.
RUSH: Okay. You’re not going fast. Actually, your cell phone is the best one I’ve ever heard.
CALLER: All right. I am disagreeing with something you said. I’m fed up with Obama and the way he’s running this country. That’s why I’m a Democrat and telling you right off the bat. I think the Republicans today should come out and say, ‘If you, Mr. Obama, would come to the table right now with whatever you need to talk about and say, ‘I have heard you speak in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New Jersey. I was wrong. I should not have pursued — with the economic initiatives we had — this health plan. I’m going to take your advice and listen to what you said. I am publicly going to admit I was not transparent in my promises. I will, in the future, do that. I am publicly announcing we are restarting the whole health plan all over again, and we will have everything up to date, and we are scrapping it and it will not be published. It will not be produced this year,’ and start from there and then meet on those conditions,’ and I think the Republicans should accept it.
RUSH: Well, that is a huge theoretical hypothetical, and it will never happen.
CALLER: I think that’s putting him on the spot because he’s putting Republicans on the spot saying, ‘You want transparency so I’m going to give it to you now.’ He has to admit he didn’t give it to you for years and he lied through his campaign.
RUSH: Why are you suggesting this as a Democrat? Because you want the Republicans to come out and say, ‘Okay, Mr. President, if you will admit you were wrong, if you admit you overreached, if you admit this plan has no chance, if you really want to talk to us, fine.’ Why, as a Democrat, are you suggesting that they do this?
CALLER: I told you I’m fed up with the way he’s leading this country. I’m fed up with all the Chris Madam — sorry — Chris Mathison or Chris Mathison or whatever is on Hardball and the ex-announcer in sports that can’t carry his own weight in sports and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. They’re rallying people and talking to people and giving out falsehoods, and they make fun of somebody like Sarah Palin, who is the first unique person coming along in the patch. She can put anything she wants in her hands. She doesn’t speak like he does, and he fumbles and says ‘corpse-man’ three times, and you don’t hear that anywhere at all. You don’t hear that except from you and Sean and some of the other ones. I disagreed with you many, many years in the past, Rush. I’ve disagreed with Sean many, many years in the past, but I cannot take what they said you guys are doing with Bush, I cannot take what they’re doing with (garbled). What you or anybody else was doing with Bush wasn’t harming us during Bush — I mean, backing him that much — as what Obama’s doing to our country, and it’s bad.
RUSH: It is bad. It is bad. Are you alone in this view or do you know some other Democrats who share your perspective?
CALLER: I know very many people like that. I think, if you look at the polls, I think I’m not alone, Rush.
RUSH: I know. I was going to say, the polling data will tend to bear you out.
CALLER: You know, I got fed up when they got you off football. You know more than Keith Olbermann does, and what a fraud that idiot is.
RUSH: (laughs)
CALLER: I’m sorry about using certain words I shouldn’t use.
RUSH: Well, that’s… (laughing) Well, that’s all right. You made enough great points here that you need not apologize for anything.
CALLER: I said I admire you, Rush, for what you went through. I’m glad your health is good. I’m a very, very overweight person. I lost a lot of weight, but I’m glad you went through your weight loss, and thank God you’re okay after that heart problem.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: I wish you nothing but the best in this world.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much. I really, really appreciate this.
CALLER: Keep up the good work, Rush.
RUSH: You bet. That’s an interesting idea. The Republicans come out and say, ‘Mr. Obama, if you’ll renounce yourself — basically say your plan was horrible — that you’ve learned the American people want no part of it…’ It’s never going to happen. The Republicans might do it, but Obama is never going to. His ego will not permit it. (interruption) Yeah, they asked him to start from scratch. They asked him to start from scratch and he won’t hear of it. (interruption) Oh, that’s right, it is! It’s in the New York Times today. They want to start from scratch on health care and he wouldn’t do it, he will not do it. This is a sucker play. It is designed to get those Republicans up there and make it look like they’re the reason you can’t get his precious health care done. They ought to get nowhere near it. I’m going to say it again: You Republicans, don’t be afraid of being the party of ‘no.’ In fact, go out there and proudly become the party of ‘Hell, No.’ Eighty percent of independents don’t like anything going on in the government. You can’t lose by becoming the party of ‘Hell, No.’ It’s how you win. Forget bipartisan. It doesn’t work. It’s a sucker ploy. It has no possible benefit to you. I think they have heard the message out there. I really do.
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RUSH: Greg in Durham, North Carolina, great to have you, sir, on the program. Nice to have you here.
CALLER: Nice to talk to you again, Brother Limbaugh.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, dittos, and it’s a great time to be an American. We weren’t here for the founding, but we are here to right the ship of state.
RUSH: That’s true.
CALLER: I think that our Republican leaders, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell should borrow a Ronald Reagan approach on this offer to meet and raise the stakes. They should today say, ‘Mr. President, you spent a year trying to defend the indefensible while the country is hurting, jobless rates show no sign of decreasing. We’ll meet with you to discuss getting the country back on the right track economically, but until that happens and until you scrap this divisive health care takeover, there can be no bipartisanship. So in the great words of Ronald Reagan, as he reached out to Mikhail Gorbachev, if you’re really serious, Mr. President, tear down this bill.
RUSH: I like it. If you’re really serious, throw away this bill. Which he’s already said he won’t do. But I like that idea, too. This audience has thinkers. That idea is really good. We’ll meet with you, but let’s get people back to work first, Mr. President, let’s talk about that, then we can dump your health care bill and get started on that. I know the Republicans are going to be very reluctant to do any of that because they know the media — they’re scared to death of the media, the media’s going to call a party of ‘no’ at which point they respond, yep, a party of ‘Hell, No.’ They’ve got all the ammo they need. Eighty percent of Americans disapprove of a liberal Democrat Congress, what more evidence do you need that it’s okay now, go after them. It doesn’t say Obama. You don’t have to go after Obama. They’re afraid of going after Obama because of race. You go after the Democrats in Congress. Go after Pelosi and Reid. They’re white. They can take it, and they don’t speak with a black dialect except if they want to.