RUSH: We’d like to welcome back to the program today Mr. Bo Snerdley, who has been on an extended vacation since just before Christmas, arrived back home yesterday, has been overseas in the Philippines. I even got a note from him while there talking about the Filipinos. At any rate, Snerdley says that over the weekend he was minding his own business, he’s just on vacation over there, and by happenstance turns on the television and American cable news networks are available in the Philippines. He’s in Manila and all of a sudden he starts seeing Rush Limbaugh here, Rush Limbaugh there, he said, ‘What the hell is this?’ So he starts tuning in and he says, ‘My gosh, I’m on vacation, Limbaugh’s responsible for a shooting?’
So he wanted me to know that around the world — (laughing) geesh! And then on the flight home, what leg was this? From Tokyo-to-Detroit nonstop. So he’s on a Tokyo-to-Detroit flight and the couple behind him are cursing me during the flight. He hears these people cursing me for hijacking American politics. Is that what they said? Hijacking American politics. And at the next natural opportunity he stood up, either to get some exercise, go to bathroom or whatever and just stared at them for a while. You didn’t say anything to them, right? Didn’t want to cause a scene, but heard two people on the flight say that Rush Limbaugh hijacked American politics.
Greetings. 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program, e-mail address ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
I honestly thought about opening the program today, go out and find a medicine man to open the program, much as they opened the pep rally last night, and it was a pep rally. I think even Obama was a little bit put off by the behavior of that crowd last night. There are a lot of questions out there. They had two members of the regime quoting the Bible. They didn’t have preachers, priests, rabbis. They had Big Sis and Eric Holder quoting from the Bible, and I’m thinking this is not gonna play well with the Democrat base. And, of course, the Muslim brothers might be scratching their heads over that. The medicine man starts out the first ten minutes telling us who he is, and the creator doing his stuff from the north portal, the south portal, the right portal, the left portal. Kathryn and I were looking at each other, we were fully expecting a memorial, and it started out like a pep rally.
In fact, before the thing started — there were cameras inside the room — somebody was just laughing and yukking it up with some people, and Kathryn pointed, ‘How can anybody sit there and be laughing? You got families of the dead and the wounded sitting there. Who is this guy?’ It turned out to be the president of the university. He finally went to the podium to get the whole thing kicked off. Anyway, folks, I want you to listen to a couple sound bites here. I was thinking, ‘Where was Reverend Wright?’ I mean he could read from the Bible just as well as Holder and Big Sis. The memorial/pep rally was on Wednesday and you think this coulda been done a little earlier? You think they coulda done this memorial a little earlier than last night? I do, too. Well, obviously primetime, but they coulda done primetime Monday, like I say were up against a football game, the BCS, they coulda done it Tuesday night.
Before I offer any opinion, and by the way, I want to tell you right now, I’m going to reserve my opinion of Obama’s speech itself for later on during the program because we have serious news out there, Snerdley, that is being ignored about this country, the unemployment number skyrocketing, food prices are about to skyrocket. We have no change whatsoever happening economically. We had a speech last night where essentially the people of this country were commanded to change the way we are behaving because of events like this. I know he gave lip service to the notion that we didn’t have anything to do with this, but he didn’t specifically say it. We’ll get into it here in due course. I know people question my ability to do this each and every day, but I am host. I always trust my instincts. So here, last night, MSNBC Hardball, Chris Matthews and the senior political editor of the Huffing and Puffington Post, Howard Fineman, have this exchange.
MATTHEWS: Will Fox, for example, or Rush Limbaugh say, you know, he was okay last night. Is that the scorecard he’s looking for, that the other side of him politically get to the side where he was nonpartisan?
FINEMAN: That’s a very good question, and I think you’re right, I think in his mind — I’m guessing here — the president is playing as much to the right here. He would like everyone to say from Fox to MSNBC and everybody, you know, all around the spectrum that he served a civic —
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
FINEMAN: — important civic healing function tonight, and that’s it. And that’s it.
RUSH: So apparently Matthews and Fineman are of the opinion that I will be the ultimate arbiter of Obama’s speech. That if I can say positive things about it, then okay, it will have been of the right tone with the right message. Now, Fox loved it. The Fox All Stars when this was over were slobbering over the speech. It was predictable. And they were slobbering over it for the predictable reasons. It was smart; it was articulate; it was oratorical; it was all the things the educated ruling class wants their members to be and sound like. Later on on Hardball, this is before Obama’s speech, Matthews, New York Magazine columnist John Heilemann had this exchange about Obama’s speech and me.
MATTHEWS: Who’s to decide what has a political overtone? Rush Limbaugh? Will he score the president tomorrow?
FINEMAN: I think that’s why it’s very difficult. Everyone’s gonna score the president tomorrow. But, look, this thing that happened last Saturday, I think many people hoped that this would bring a moment where everyone would pause and reflect, and instead what’s happened over the course of the day since then is everything that’s bad about our political culture has speeded up, and the first opportunity was to attack one side, and then the other side attacked the attacks, and it’s become this — it’s become everything that you hoped it wouldn’t.
RUSH: Oh, come on. It was everything we knew it would be. It became everything we knew it would be, and that is attacking talk radio, attacking Sarah Palin. We knew. It was utterly predictable. I tell you, the reason why they waited as long to do this was they were waiting for polling data. The polling data shows the American people do not associate political rhetoric with anything that happened in this incident. That’s what they were waiting on. If the polling data had been different the speech would have been different, but because the polling data says the American people don’t associate political give and take, the political rhetoric in the media with what happened here, that pretty much dictated how the speech had to go. So they had to wait for the polling data to come in. That’s why they waited — I have no doubt — plus, plus, my friends, they needed time to print those T-shirts to give away at the rally.
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RUSH: I’m not making it up. They were waiting on the T-shirt to be printed and the logo to be designed, and you’ll notice that the logo has one color: Blue. Blue states. I kid… Well, you want my observations; I’m sharing with you my observations. But I know they had to wait on the T-shirts to get printed and a logo designer to finish his work. That’s one reason, along with the polling data, this thing was moved last night. Okay, here’s stream of consciousness election. The thing starts and the medicine man and the Native American thing. Were any of the victims Native Americans? I didn’t know. ‘What is this?’ I said, and the medicine man spends ten minutes telling us who he is, because he said ‘that’s what is standard,’ and I’m thinking, ‘This is not about you.’
It’s not about any of the elected officials here. It’s not about the college president. It’s not about the students cheering. The people about whom this memorial was were ignored for a large block of time at the beginning of this. It was Arizona Governor Brewer who got this thing on track, talking about the victims and who they were. The president has gotten glowing reviews from practically every corner, but he didn’t shut down the primary theme that has been occupying America since Saturday, and that is that conservative media was responsible for this. He started talking about ‘civility’ in general. Kirsten Powers has a column in The Daily Beast today, and she’s got a good point here.
‘When the president did lay blame, it was on Americans in general. Among the many odd assertions he made: suggesting that ‘what a tragedy like this requires’ is that ‘we align our values with our actions.’ We were told to ‘expand our moral imaginations.” What does this have to do with anything? Nothing. They had a lone gunman, mentally disturbed. We have to figure out how he got the gun since he couldn’t afford it. We have to figure out why, since everybody knew he was such a menace, he was able to run as free as he was around that town. The questions are obvious. The answers are not that complicated here, but the notion that we Americans somehow need to improve ourselves? We need to get better at the way we talk with each other?
The president said that didn’t matter, that that wasn’t a factor. Most of his speech was about how we gotta get better dealing with each other, that we have to somehow step it up — and yet he tried to say in his own way that that had nothing to do with it. He said, ‘We’ll never really know what happened here. Rhetoric didn’t cause this,’ and yet we’ve all gotta improve our rhetoric. We’ve all gotta step it up. I know the target audience is gonna eat that stuff up. You could see people in the crowd crying over the notion we all just have to get along and so forth, but I live in Literalville. I live in Realville watching this, and I’m thinking, ‘This is not solving anything.’ The president himself is responsible for some of the disunity that exists in the country, and he didn’t talk about improving himself.
He didn’t talking about trying to improve the way he’s dealing with people and things and so forth. He got plenty of incendiary rhetoric on his side. So I watched it with… (sigh) You know, I couldn’t get past the fact that this was not a memorial. That was a heavy weight over my, the crowd reaction as though it was a pep rally or a political event. The White House is saying, according to the White House transcript, that Obama’s remarks were interrupted by applause no less than 53 times. Now, that’s not standard fare for a memorial. You go back and look at the Bush 9/11 memorial, you can go back and look at Reagan. Reagan spoke for four and a half minutes after challenger. Clinton spoke for nine minutes after Oklahoma City.
This thing went on for 35 minutes or so, and it clearly had a political element and political overtones and objectives to it. I just find a lot of contradictions in this. The one part of the speech… I’ve talked to a lot of people. The one part of the speech that particularly moved people was when President Obama was talking about the nine-year-old little girl who was snuffed out and how we all have a duty to live up to that little girl’s expectations, her nine-year-old dreams and expectations of the greatness of America. I think the greatness of America exists. There was a theme here that we’re failing, a theme here that society is somehow not altogether what it should be, that the American experiment is not working out all that well and we gotta step it up here.
When nobody but one lone, deranged gunman — not American society, not American culture — had anything to do with this. But I knew that line was gonna work with a lot of people because it’s about a child and it’s about dreams, and it’s about not letting go what she wants this country to be. She was growing into this country; let’s make sure we live up to what she expected. I think we have done that. So to me there was a very subtle, but there was a constant theme running through this that there are severe deficiencies throughout the country, severe problems, deficiencies, shortcomings, throughout our culture, as evidenced by this event Saturday in Tucson. When the thing started, I said, ‘Is this…?’ (sigh)
Now some people gonna jump down my throat on this. I mean, you are tuning in to hear what I thought of this, and when the university president started singing the accolades of the University of Arizona, I said, ‘Wha…? Are they taking advantage of this occasion to do a PR shot for the University of Arizona?’ It didn’t happen at the University of Arizona. It happened at a Safeway. They shoulda brought somebody in from Safeway talk about what a great store Safeway is, what a great chain it is and that this kind of thing doesn’t happen there all the time. I don’t know, ’cause I was expecting a memorial, you have to understand, and I did have a little trepidation that what we might get was the Wellstone Memorial Two.
When this thing started I said, ‘Oh, no. Don’t tell me they’re gonna do it again.’ (interruption) I heard the report from Brewer was booed, too, but I can’t hear well enough to know. So I don’t know if she was booed or not. It’s been reported. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was booed, given the universe of people in that area. It’s a university town, Tucson, for people to get in and the president of the United States coming, obviously you’re gonna have people in there who might be politically opposed to the governor for the immigration business and problems that are going on out there. But whether she was booed or not, I can’t say. Even if she was, it’s not surprising. But I just… Again, I was expecting a solemn memorial — and to the president’s credit, I actually think he was, too. I looked over when they shot…
I’m sorry. When the camera trained over to show us the president and the First Lady and the assorted dignitaries, when the medicine man was doing his thing, some people were looking at the floor during that, and at other points — even when the president was speaking and making solemn points and references and telling stories about the dead and the injured — the applause that came up as though they were applause lines even appeared to unsettle the president a little bit. So, you know, I was expecting a very solemn service. This is a genuine tragedy, and the families of all involved are sitting there in the front row. When the camera showed them, these people, they are in pain. They are crying, they are seeking some explanation from leaders, and they find themselves in the midst of a pep rally.
So, I don’t know. It had me a little uncomfortable. My mouth was open.
Kathryn and I were looking at each other with our mouths wide open in a state of shock and surprise. So I bet the first 15 or 20 minutes of this. But at any rate, the reviews have come in from all over the country, and it was a grand-slam home run. As I say, the Fox All Stars loved it. It was… Yeah, it was the best that’s ever been! In fact, folks, depending on who you listen to in the post-speech analysis, we may as well just forget the 2012 election. We may as well just start counting up the ballots right now and assuming Obama’s gonna win in a landslide because of that last night. Forget about all the rest. Obama reminded everybody why he cannot be beaten, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let’s just go ahead and admit we got foregone conclusion that there’s not a soul out there that can beat Obama.
This was the extent of the analysis in many places last night, and, as usual, way over the top.
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RUSH: The president, if he really meant what he was talking about with all of this, could have easily named names. He is the president of the United States. He could have said how ridiculous it is for individuals like Sarah Palin or anybody else he chose to name to be accused of having anything to do with this, that it is not helping our politics. But he is vague about it, and it’s left to the individual to interpret whatever the president meant, which is exactly what he intended. He had to be very careful to walk the fine line because it’s his side that’s been engaging in all this.
I don’t know about you, but we were all minding our business on Saturday. We weren’t in Tucson. We didn’t know this guy. This guy didn’t listen to us. He didn’t go to Sarah Palin’s blog. All of a sudden it’s all our fault. Who starts this? Obama’s side started this. This is the thing. But there was a moral equivalence established last night. Everybody’s guilty. The whole country’s guilty. We must do a better job. No, no, no. I don’t accept that. I don’t like the way this country is talked about by this president. Even in an attempt to unite people and make us feel that we all need to step up and somehow improve our civility and our dialogue, when at the same time that didn’t have anything to do with this, by his own admission. Our dialogue, our lack of civility, the way we talk to each other, he said it had nothing to do with this, and yet we’ve gotta step up and improve. Not him. No way. Audio sound bites. This one, folks, I just knew it. Before it happened, I knew something like this was going to be part of the presentation.
OBAMA: Right after we went to visit, a few minutes after we left her room and some of her colleagues from Congress were in the room, Gabby opened her eyes for the first time. (applause) Gabby opened her eyes for the first time. Gabby opened her eyes. Gabby opened her eyes.
RUSH: This is what makes this program so — I deserve combat pay. You know, I really do. Yesterday was Wednesday. She opened her eyes on Sunday. We have the doctor saying so, because they were keeping her in an induced coma and she would come in and out of the coma, I guess. Now, the doctor made it a point to say today that she voluntarily opened her eyes for the first time yesterday. Now, clearly, folks, the impression sought here is that the president and Mrs. Obama arrive on Chariot One, they head to the hospital, they go into the room of Gabrielle Giffords, they do whatever they do, they lay on hands, what have you. The president and the first lady then leave and in walk some of her friends, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Kirsten Gillibrand, Pelosi and others. Well, there was one other, I forget, there’s four of them, four female members of Congress, friends of hers. And after Obama and Michelle have left, the congresswomen walk in and it’s at that point that she opens her eyes. And her husband has given Obama permission to announce this to the world during the memorial service. Why not — (interruption) I know. I’m gonna let it go. I’m gonna let it go. I think it explains itself. Yeah, you are, Snerdley. Don’t goad me. Let me trust and follow my instincts here. Moving on here. This is a portion of the president’s lecture on civility.
OBAMA: At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay to blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do, it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.
RUSH: Right. I mean like stop calling people bitter clingers, as the president did in San Francisco, people that cling to their guns and cling to their religion. And stop telling people if they bring a knife to the fight, we’re gonna bring a gun. You mean to stop telling people, ‘Get in their face, I want you to be angry.’ Is that what the president meant when he was saying we’ve gotta start talking to each other in a way that heals? And punish your enemies, he told Hispanics, punish your enemies when they don’t do it right. And also, ladies and gentlemen, again, we were lectured on civility, but we were also told that whatever his opinion of our lack of civility is had no role in the event. So why are we being lectured on it? I mean he openly said that we can’t — and I’m sure there were probably memorial services at the Daily Kos and the Democrat Underground when he said it. He said political rhetoric had no role here, had no impact. I forget his exact words, but it did not contribute to the cause of the event, and yet we get a lecture on improving our civility. He’s trying to help us heal. That is the point, we don’t need to heal. The people that need to heal are the victims of the shooting. They are the ones who need the healing. And I don’t know how helpful it is in the process of trying to help them heal to sit there and get the whole country worked up and say we’re all in a unified way responsible here. Well we must be if we’ve gotta improve ourselves and the way we dialogue with each other.
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RUSH: This is the bite that I’ve been referring to. This is the president saying that ‘lack of civility’ did not cause the shooting while really saying that it did cause the shooting but making sure nobody can say he said a lack of civility caused the shooting.
OBAMA: This tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should. Let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost. (applause) Let’s make sure it’s not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness that drifts away in the next news cycle —
RUSH: Hmmm.
OBAMA: — as has been discussed in recent days.
RUSH: Mmm-hmm.
OBAMA: Their death helps usher in more civility in our public discourse. Let us remember it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy. It did not. But rather, because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation in a way that would make them proud.
RUSH: This is why you need me, as translator. What do you think that said, Snerdley? What did he say there? What you come away with was: Hey, a lack of civility did not cause this tragedy. ‘A simple lack of civility did not cause this tragedy. It did not. But more civil and honest discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation.’ So it didn’t but it did, and the only way we’re gonna move forward is you people stop criticizing me — and we do it so as to make the victims proud. We do it in the name of the victims. Of course it’s calculated. It took the time to write it. Now, here’s Obama along the same lines.
OBAMA: None of us can no exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped these shots from being fired —
RUSH: But we do.
OBAMA: — or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind.
RUSH: But we do. See, this is the thing. We may not want to face up to it, but we do. We know with certainty what might have stopped those shots from being fired. That’s if this guy would have been properly institutionalized. That’s if the process of determining who’s qualified to own a gun would have been followed. This guy had no business having a gun. ‘[O]r what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of…’? The Sheriff’s Department knew. A number of people have been interacting with this guy for years. They’ve had that note that she sent him on which he wrote ‘Die, bitch.’ They have known since 2007 of this guy’s feelings for Gabrielle Giffords.
This is not a shock to people. This is not a surprise to people who knew this guy. We most definitely can know. The challenge is to act on what we know, and the reason we don’t act on what we know because this kind of person is a victim. It’s just unfortunate and unfair that society has created this kind of person. So it’s almost like we have to deal with this. It’s kind of like the judge in New Jersey when the homeless, stinking guy was in the library, and they wouldn’t let us kick him out of the library because we made him homeless. We’re the reason he stinks. We have got to subject ourselves to this poor man because we created the circumstances in which he lives. We made him.
Well, as far as the left is concerned, this guy exists because America’s unjust, immoral, and unfair, and it’s a violation of rights to keep people as obviously deranged and insane as this guy is, institutionalized. It’s a violation of his rights. So we know who we’re dealing with. We’ve had people say that he was kicked outta school. There were people afraid this guy would show up with a gun. It is not unknown who he was. It’s not unknown what he might do. It’s not unknown what he was capable of. There was none of this that was actually a surprise, other than the date and the time and the event. But the fact that it was likely to happen with this guy?
There were plenty of people in positions of power who had enough information to know that they got a walking time bomb here. So once again, ‘None of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious…’ That part’s true. We don’t know what it was that at that instant caused this guy to go nuts. ‘None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped…’ Sure we do! If he’s not there he can’t pull the trigger. It’s not hard to admit that. ‘[A]nd what might have stopped these shots from being fired or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind’? We most certainly knew in this guy’s case. Now, this one I might have trouble translating for you. I might have to go to even a different kind of expert, one that could explain this to me.
OBAMA: We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future. (applause) But what we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other.
RUSH: Well, it’s too late. It happened, and it continues today. The media continues to assault Sarah Palin to this day, on this very day. So, ‘We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order lessen the prospects of such violence’? What old assumptions? Challenge what old assumptions? The assumption that the left lives and dies by is that right-wingers, and what they say, are responsible for this. ‘What we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other’? Sorry. It’s already happened. So I guess also what this could mean is chip away at the Second Amendment. The Constitution’s the old assumption. That’s also possible. Keep a sharp eye on that. We’re gonna go to the phones to Texas. This is Mark. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Yes, dittos, Rush. Listen, I was absolutely sickened by what I saw from President Obama last night. The applause immediately began to… It seemed to be totally out of place. It was more of a political pep rally, as you stated — and I have to disagree with you about one thing. I don’t think Obama was particularly perturbed by it. I think he might have been surprised but once it started I think he began to relish it if not revel in it. When he talked about ‘Gabby’ opening her eyes and the applause began to go, he repeated it four times. Four times! I’m surprised —
RUSH: Well, look, all this was about him.
CALLER: Well, it was.
RUSH: And as far as the college president was concerned, it was all about him. As far as the medicine man was concerned, it was all about him. And that’s the thing, I guess, that really grated on me is everybody participating in this thing last night thought it was about them and not the families, not the victims.
CALLER: Absolutely. I’m surprised he didn’t go so far as to say, ‘And Gabby looked up at me and winked.’ I mean, he was reveling in this opportunity that he was given. I was extremely upset and he could have easily — after the first set of applause when he took the platform he could have easily — said, ‘Folks, this is a memorial and we want to first of all memorize those that tragically lost their lives.’
RUSH: Well, look, I agree with you. He coulda. He coulda waved off the applause, there’s no question. But had he done that, somebody might have fainted. You realize that’s the only thing that didn’t happen last night.
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RUSH: To the phones we go. This is Iona, Spring Park, Minnesota, thank you for waiting, and welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Thanks so much for listening to my thoughts today, Rush. So glad to talk with you.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: Well, I think that that get-together was the first sanctioned People’s State Mega Church Service. They had a course there, they had an orchestra playing fanfare for the common man, and it was pretty pathetic. There was no dignity. It was not a good thing.
RUSH: Well, wait a minute. They had a medicine man, now. They had a man of the cloth there.
CALLER: I’m sorry.
RUSH: I admitted they had government officials reading from the Bible. They had Eric Holder reading from Isaiah. They had Janet Napolitano reading from the Department of Homeland Security manual. I don’t know what’s your problem. I’m just trying to be civil.
CALLER: (giggles) I know, and you’re doing so well.
RUSH: (chuckles)
RUSH: I don’t know. It just was really pathetic. I was very sad to see it. All I thought about was Reagan. When something happened like this, Reagan would sit at the Oval Office. He would —
RUSH: You know, really we’re gonna have to stop thinking like this. The era of Reagan is over.
CALLER: (giggles)
RUSH: We’re really going to have stop thinking this way. It’s not advancing the cause.
CALLER: Ha, ha, ha!
RUSH: It’s long ago, and to keep bringing up Reagan and the Challenger and so forth? We live in different times now with different challenges, and I don’t think it serves any purpose here to bring up Reagan. I really don’t.
CALLER: Oh, okay. We’ll forget the dignity of the office and how people were clapping there inappropriately. And Obama looked like —
RUSH: Well, now, wait a minute, I have another view on that.
CALLER: (giggles)
RUSH: I think the area’s been so traumatized, and of course these are young students, fearful of life in general. They are soon to be graduating, and where are they graduating? They’re graduating into an abyss created by George Bush. No jobs, no economy, no health care. Their football team didn’t do all that well this year. The basketball team off to bad start. Any reason to cheer, you gotta understand it.
CALLER: (giggles) I don’t know what to do with you right now. I’m not used to this.
RUSH: (chuckling)
CALLER: You are the man, and I’m so glad that you are on the air here. (laughing)
RUSH: (laughing) You can only bring up Reagan when you’re praising Obama.
CALLER: Ugh!
RUSH: (laughing) Yeah.
CALLER: The only time I get to talk to you and you’re making me do these things! (laughing)
RUSH: No, no, no, no, no. It’s still ant opportunity not wasted.
CALLER: (laughing) Well, I sure love you. I’m so glad you have a wonderful wife, and I’m glad that you are here speaking and unafraid.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: I just —
RUSH: I appreciate it.
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RUSH: Pete in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. You’re next. Great to have you here on the Rush Limbaugh program.
CALLER: Yes, global warming dittos from 39 degrees in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: Listen, I just wanted to say that last night watching the service, I felt like I was watching the opening ceremonies to the Olympics, with the music that came on. I was waiting for the parade of nations to come by.
RUSH: Wait just a second, now. (laughing) Parade of nations. When was the sermon? Who gave the sermon?
CALLER: No, this was at the very beginning, the introductory music, you know, some of the songs or the —
RUSH: No, no, I understand, but you said during the sermon.
CALLER: Oh, no, no, the ceremony, the memorial service.
RUSH: Oh, service, service. Oh. Service. I thought, ‘What did I miss? There was a sermon last night?’ I didn’t know if you were talking about the medicine man or if you were talking about Obama or the university president or what.
CALLER: Well, at least it should be called a memorial service while in fact it was Denver part two which was really the point of my call, which is the rhetoric that Obama uses does not match his actions. We heard about this bipartisanship that would come out when he became elected, and here he is again campaigning for that same message but yet not delivering in his actions.
RUSH: Yeah. I know. But, see, Democrats by definition are civil. You are not. Your existence is uncivil as a conservative. By the way, just to remind you, the White House has leaked the fact that the State of the Union speech will have as one of its many focuses, or foci, civility. So whereas last night the polling data said the American people do not associate right wing rhetoric with this event, so they couldn’t go there. By the State of the Union show time, when he’s talking about civility, let’s see. I mean they’re promising to open it up, civility in our discourse. We’ll see how that goes.