RUSH: This Jack in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Hello, sir. You’re on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Yeah, hi, Rush. You know, you mentioned Palin and Bachmann have shown that they’ve got the guts to take on Obama personally.
RUSH: Hm-hm.
CALLER: And they’re contenders, they’re contenders, especially Palin. Why don’t you say that there are some contenders, GOP contenders? Just because the RINOs are trying to marginalize Palin doesn’t mean she’s not a top contender. I think she is and I think she’s going for it.
RUSH: I’m not trying to marginalize her. I don’t see her in Iowa. Look, there are a bunch of Republicans who have said they’re running. They’ve made it very clear they’re running. Those are the people I’m talking about. She hasn’t yet.
CALLER: She’s running. Nobody can really announce until she announces.
RUSH: True. That’s exactly my point.
CALLER: Let me put it this way, Rush. Just because she hasn’t formally said, ‘I’m running,’ she’s doing it her own way and surely she’s running.
RUSH: I don’t know that.
CALLER: Oh, come on.
RUSH: You don’t either, you just said it yourself.
CALLER: No, no, no. I know she’s running. She just hasn’t announced it.
RUSH: Well, I’m sorry. I’m the one guy that has the guts to defend her and you call me for ripping her.
CALLER: No, no, no. I’m just saying that when you were saying no Republican contenders are willing to take on Obama forcefully, Palin and Bachmann, especially Palin’s, a contender.
RUSH: I just said the only people with gonads on our side wear skirts.
CALLER: Precisely.
RUSH: Okay. Who am I talking about?
CALLER: Yeah, but quit saying there’s no GOP contenders. They’re the contenders, and Palin’s the number one contender.
RUSH: Look, you might want to be her campaign manager, and you might want me to be her campaign manager, and you might want me to take up that charge. I’m not gonna do it. She hasn’t announced. I’m not convinced that she’s going to run. (interruption) I know. I know. I know. Snerdley, this is what it’s like to be me. After Gitmo they still question me. After Gitmo they still tell me what I’m doing wrong. After 23 years, I still don’t know what I’m doing, after 23 years. Well, 22 years, into our 23rd. I still have no clue how to do this. Well, that’s why I say, you need a strong constitution, sense of self, backbone, and all the rest. (interruption) Yeah, I know. A lot of people are doubting me. But there’s nothing unusual about that, Brian. People doubt me every day. It makes no sense, but they do.
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RUSH: That so many people doubt me is precisely why we have so many problems in the world today. It is not a coincidence. Do you realize how few problems would exist in this country if people did not doubt me? I mean it’s what it is. Now, I also must allow for something. It is clear Sarah Palin has not backed off in her criticism of Barack Obama, policy-wise, human being-wise, character-wise, and all that. Nor has Michele Bachmann. And, of course, look at what the media’s done to both of them. So it could well be that the rest of our field is holding back ’cause they don’t want the same treatment. They don’t want the same thing said about them. They don’t want the Palin treatment. I’m telling you, they look at Palin as unelectable. They look at Palin as having been destroyed. They look at Palin as having been defeated by the media, that she could never win an election. That’s what they think. I mean coupled with the fact some of them wouldn’t want her to, don’t misunderstand.
You gotta understand, folks, our side, for all the avowed intelligence and so forth, they are still creatures of the inside the Beltway game, led and dominated by the media. It’s still a game about getting the media to like you or to leave you alone or to praise you or treat you fairly. That’s the objective. Case number one is McCain. Look what he did in the years prior to seeking the Republican nomination. Look who he tried to make his base. And a lot of people on our side think they could never get elected if they got treated like I do by the media. They couldn’t get elected if they get treated by the media as Palin is treated. So they will take steps to see to it that they don’t get treated that way. And what are those steps? Don’t say anything bad about Obama. Just it’s that simple.
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RUSH: Here’s Paul Johnson in the Wall Street Journal: Sarah Palin ‘is in the good tradition of America, which this awful political correctness business goes against. She’s got courage. That’s very important in politics. You can have all the right ideas and the ability to express them. But if you haven’t got guts, if you haven’t got courage the way Margaret Thatcher had courage — and [Ronald] Reagan, come to think of it. … It’s the central virtue.’ Courage is the central value of American politics. If you don’t have that the rest is irrelevant. Paul Johnson, brilliant British historian and journalist.