RUSH: The president of the United States has engaged in oil price speculation. This is unprecedented. It’s unheard of, and it isn’t healthy. And the Money Honey at CNBC was not happy about it.
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RUSH: Yesterday afternoon, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, during a meeting with the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
OBAMA: We actually think that we’ll be able to ride out the Libya situation and it will stabilize.
RUSH: He’s talking about the oil price. ‘We actually think that we’ll be able to ride out the Libya situation and [the price of oil] will stabilize.’ Based on what? Presidents don’t do this kind of thing. What in the world is he talking about? The Money Honey was not pleased. Last night CNBC’s Closing Bell, Maria Bartiromo and the chief Washington correspondent, John Harwood, had this exchange about Obama’s remarks that oil prices would stabilize.
BARTIROMO: Would you say that that was an aggressive comment, to come out and say, look, we’re sure that we’re gonna see stability? I mean, we all remember the days when oil rallied all the way up to $147 a barrel and it wasn’t necessarily at any big increase in demand, it was just market speculation. So you think the president should really be discussing where oil prices are gonna go?
HARWOOD: Well, that’s a fair point, but I do think the paramount interest in the United States government right now is expressing a level of confidence in the economy and not disrupting the signs of recovery that have been accelerating lately and that the president and his team are depending on.
RUSH: Thank you, Mr. Harwood, thank you, Mr. State-Controlled Reporter. What are you talking about, ‘a level of confidence in the economy and not disrupting the signs of recovery that have been accelerating’? We just had the downgrading of economic growth in the fourth quarter, from 3.2% to 2.8%. So you see here, it’s all about how it can help Obama, ‘paramount interest… right now is expressing a level of confidence and not disrupting the signs of recovery that have been accelerating lately.’ The price of oil is going up, the price of gasoline is going up. Obama has no plan. We are not doing any domestic drilling. We have no plan whatsoever to counter any of this. On the other side of the Obama issue, foreign policy, Fareed Zakaria, not happy with the way Obama’s dealing with Libya. This was yesterday afternoon on CNN’s Newsroom. The anchor Brooke Baldwin was speaking with Fareed Zakaria GPS host Fareed Zakaria, which would make sense that Fareed Zakaria GPS host was Fareed Zakaria. And the anchor said, what should the US be doing with regard to Libya?
ZAKARIA: The Libyan case mystifies me. This is an anti-American regime, a rogue country, a sponsor of state terrorism. He’s butchered his own people and is now in the process of, effectively, a kind of massacre of his own people. Why would it be so difficult to have a stronger position? And I don’t think there’s much need for consultation. What are you gonna talk to Sarkozy or Cameron about? This country is immune to sanctions, it has very little trade. All President Obama needs to do is to get to the White House podium and call publicly for the end of the Khadafy regime.
RUSH: This assumes, Mr. Zakaria, that we have a traditional president in Barack Obama. I mean, most people do think that the president of the United States would stand up for freedom-loving people everywhere around the world; we’re the beacon of hope for freedom. And now even some of his big supporters: ‘Where is he on this?’ And the excuse the White House is putting out on this, by the way, is, well, Obama hasn’t evacuated all the Americans out of there yet. ‘Til he gets all the Americans out of there, he’s not gonna agitate the Khadafy regime. Really? Well, they’re even botching getting Americans out of there, and you only get the news from the UK Daily Mail: ‘Team Obama Botches Libya Evacuation.’ They chartered the wrong boat to get Americans out of there. It’s in the UK media.
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RUSH: Once again we have to go to the UK to get news like this. The UK Daily Mail: ”Team Obama Botches Libya Evacuation, Charters Wrong Boat’ — Hundreds of Americans trapped aboard a rescue ship that was too small to sail in rough weather have finally left Libya this morning. The 167 stranded U.S. citizens have been holed up on the Maria Dolores since Wednesday, as rough weather has prevented the ship from leaving. The Dolores left Tripoli at 6:37 am EST and is expected to reach its destination port of Valletta, Malta at around 3:00 pm EST. … Tony Munoz Editor of shipping magazine The Maritime Executive said: ‘I don’t understand why this vessel didn’t leave earlier – The Maria Dolores is a new vessel built for Mediterranean seas. I can only imagine the captain was refusing to sail because he felt the vessel was not capable enough of taking the sea on.’
‘Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Munoz said that there was no comparison between the 68 metre Dolores and the 204 metre Hellenic Spirit, used by the Greek government to evacuate its citizens from Benghazi. ‘The U.S. needed to charter a bigger boat like the Greeks’ he said.’ But they didn’t. ‘At the very least, the government should have had a larger back up vessel on the way.” Tens of thousands of foreigners are trying to get out of Libya. Anyway, this is why the White House is saying he hasn’t really gone full-blown on Khadafy yet because they haven’t been able to get all the American citizens out of there. Then they go out and charter too small a boat. And you won’t find it anywhere in the US media. In the meantime, NBC News — I was thinking today, I really miss Tim Russert. I really do miss Tim Russert. I don’t remember what it was, I was watching something on television, it just popped into my head. Anyway, NBC News has just discovered that Khadafy is crazy. On the Today Show today, a portion of the report from Richard Engel, NBC chief foreign correspondent.
ENGEL: His words were slurred. He mumbled with long pauses. I’ve listened to speeches in Arabic of Middle East leaders for 15 years. This did not sound like a sane person. Khadafy is speaking now on state radio. It’s very difficult to follow. He’s all over the place. He’s already mentioned the Kurds in northern Iraq, the Unabomber, India, and says the people carrying out this revolt are taking drugs that make them insane. In the address, Khadafy claimed Al-Qaeda is behind the revolt. Osama Bin Laden is slipping Libyans hallucinogenic pills in coffee with milk and that the pills are distributed in mosques with help from the United States.
RUSH: Sounds like he’s been talking to Charlie Sheen. So they discovered that Khadafy is crazy. Eugene Robinson, who is a columnist at the Washington Post, was on MSNBC this morning talking about what’s going on in Libya, and listen to what Eugene Robinson had to say.
ROBINSON: You know, heaven forbid, but he probably has chemical weapons. He could do what Saddam did in the Kurdish regions and actually gas people.
RUSH: Whoa. Did you people hear that? (Gasp!) Uh, Eugene Robinson said (Gasp!) that Saddam had (Gasp!) chemical weapons. Saddam was dangerous, then, huh? (Gasp!) That’s what he said.
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RUSH: Moammar Khadafy is trying to buy off the protesters in Libya, offering them $400 per family. What a cheapskate. Look at how much Obama spent for every public sector union job. Four hundred bucks versus $228,000? Khadafy doesn’t stand a chance. Of course, the difference is Khadafy’s probably using his own money.