CALLER: Hey, Rush. Mega dittos from New York City.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Listen, I’m really nervous here so you gotta help me out. Talking about Barack, I was listening to — actually I was watching Meet the Press, and I couldn’t believe, when he said that he doesn’t like Christians — actually he didn’t even say he didn’t like ’em, he says, ‘we’ didn’t like them, and I take that to mean that the entire Democrat Party doesn’t like Christians.
CALLER: I really don’t remember the question. I just heard it and I was like in shock. I couldn’t believe that he actually said that. He didn’t say, ‘I don’t like Christians.’ He says ‘we.’ Like I said, I’m taking it out of context.
RUSH: Okay, I have just been told that it was on a question dealing with reaching out, and Obama said, ‘Democrats need to do a better job of reaching out to people,’ quote, unquote, ‘we don’t like,’ and that’s where he included evangelicals and the Christians?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Hey, Tommy, another way to look at this is: ‘Thank you, Mr. Obama. (clapping) You’ve just been honest. You don’t like Christians.’
CALLER: Rush, could you keep playing that? Because you have to let everybody know. I mean they keep saying how they love everybody, you know?
RUSH: Yeah. We know that’s a crock.
CALLER: Can I ask you one more question?
RUSH: Yeah, of course.
CALLER: Could you put up the same challenge to CNN that you put out to MSNBC, with Wolf Blitzer and see if he can finally get Hillary to basically — not basically, but, you know — state what position she’s taken on these licenses? Because, you know, I’m still dumbfounded.
RUSH: Oh, no. They’re going to. I don’t need to put the challenge out there. I’ve been there, done that. I did that two weeks ago. At some point, there’s going to be another debate. Somebody is going to ask this question, if not a journalist, one of her opponents will bring this back up. This is not going to go away ’til she answers it, and, in fact, I’ve got somewhere here in the Hillary Stack — I’ve started every day, and I’ve got a Hillary Stack. You know, I wade into it very, very carefully because of the potential onslaught of blue funk (sigh), which happened a couple Fridays ago. But somewhere in this stack, when I get the courage to look at it, is somebody — Oh! It’s Dan Balz at the Washington Post on a blog (B-a-l-z, for those of you in Rio Linda: Dan Balz), and he’s going on and on about how Mrs. Clinton’s answer goes on and on for 30 seconds to two minutes, and nobody can understand it, and how it is a excellent illustration of obfuscation, trying to have it both ways. I’ll find that, because it is interesting. It will never see the day in print, but it is on the Washington Post website. Thanks, Tommy.
This is Reggie in Chicago. Hey, how about Rex Grossman? Ha-ha!
CALLER: Thanks for taking my call, Rush. I wanted to chime in on the Republicans side of the primary process. I read this morning on the Drudge Report that, they had an article from the New York Sun that Mayor Giuliani is losing his front-runner status to Governor Romney, because Governor Romney’s leading in the polls in Iowa, what else, New Hampshire, Michigan, Nevada, and South Carolina. Is it possible for Mayor Giuliani to lose all those and still win the nomination?
RUSH: Well, no. You’ve just named… If somebody loses Iowa and New Hampshire, especially if the winner is a surprise — even if the second-place finisher is a surprise in either of those places — the whole thing is shaken up. So, the analysis on that, to lose all those states, there’s so many front-loaded states here, that it would be devastating. No, it wouldn’t be a guaranteed loss just by virtue of the votes there, but it would be the old momentum factor that would then emerge and might lead to performances in future states down the road less than what polling numbers indicate he will do.
CALLER: So what…? I mean, what if Governor Romney just wins Iowa and New Hampshire? What’s going to…? What’s going to happen after that, then? I mean, is he going to get, like, a ton of momentum?
RUSH: Uh, no. You mean Rudy? Would he lose momentum?
CALLER: No, I mean if Governor Romney wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, isn’t he going to have, like, a boatload of free press, or earned press, or whatever you call it?
RUSH: Well, no Republican is ever going to get that.
CALLER: (laughter)
RUSH: If Romney wins either of those states, there will be articles about, ‘Hmm, maybe people are willing to overlook the MORMON factor.’
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Because the whole point of the Republican primary process, as far as the media is concerned, Reggie, is to destroy ’em all so that whoever wins it doesn’t have a prayer during the general election. If Rudy happens to win, ‘Hmm, it must be that Iowans and people that live in New Hampshire don’t mind a guy who had three THREE WIVES AND HIS KIDS HATE HIM,’ that that will be the focus of the stories in June. If it’s Huckabee, well, I guess the people of Iowa are not concerned that somebody else from Hope, Arkansas, might win the Republican nomination, and who’s had a weight problem. He lost a hundred pounds a long time ago. Can he keep it off?’ Things like that.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm. But Huckabee —
RUSH: If Ron Paul wins — which, who knows? The guy raised $4 million bucks in one day. Nobody can figure that out. If Ron Paul wins, then the press coverage would be, ‘Hmm, maybe the Republicans in Iowa and in New Hampshire really aren’t worried about mental instability.’ Whatever, they will never give free and open-ended coverage and fawning coverage to the Republican nominee. If Ron Paul goes Libertarian — you know, he ran as a Libertarian some years ago until he joined the Republican Party. If he goes Libertarian and forms essentially a third party vote, then the press will be giddy. ‘Ron Paul, unhappy with treatment in Republican primary, savages party, sabotages party by going third party, guaranteeing Hillary another president elected with less than 50% of the vote just like her husband twice. Yay!’
CALLER: Am I still on, Rush?
RUSH: Yeah, you’re still on.
CALLER: Oh, I was going to say: ‘Has anybody ever lost those states and went on to win a nomination?’ is what I’m asking you.
RUSH: Well, that’s not what you asked in the first place? (laughs) That’s not what you asked. ‘Is there anybody that’s lost those states and gone on to win?’ I’m sure there is.
CALLER: There has been? Okay.
RUSH: But, look, at this time 2004, Howard Dean, was roiling the race, he had all the money, supposed all the money, Internet contributions, goes into Iowa and loses it — and then I endorsed him, and that was it. Bill Clinton came in second in New Hampshire and was the ‘Comeback Kid.’
CALLER: But Rudy —
RUSH: That was after the 60 Minutes fiasco with the lamp falling on him. Staged. But yeah, you can lose those and still win.
CALLER: But Rudy’s not going to come in second in Iowa. He (cell phone glitch).
RUSH: What?
CALLER: Rudy’s polling fourth or fifth in Iowa. I don’t think he’s going to win Iowa, for sure.
RUSH: He can withstand a loss in the Hawkeye Cauci. He can come in second in New Hampshire. Look, if you come in fourth or fifth in Iowa, and you finish second in New Hampshire, (gasp!) ‘Look at the move Rudy made after fourth or fifth,’ and then they’ll get into the bit about how, you know, people in New Hampshire must be turning a blind eye to somebody who recommended a guy who has just been indicted, for homeland security. They’ll come up with all sorts of spin. Trust me on this. Don’t doubt me. The Drive-By Media’s objective is to destroy every Republican candidate, except the ones who cannot win.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Hey, Mike, you got audio sound bite 23 delivered into your confines yet? Well, have it standing by. We’ve got the Barack Obama bite that was referred to by previous caller. This is Obama on people that, quote, unquote, we don’t like. Russert’s question, ‘You had a group of supporters on a Bible tour in South Carolina, headed by a singer called Donnie McClurkin, who said that homosexuality was a curse, and that he had been cured by prayer. Do you believe homosexuality is a curse? Do you believe it’s something that you are born gay or that you can change your behavior?’
OBAMA: I do not believe being gay or lesbian is a choice, and so I disagree with Reverend McClurkin, but understand, Tim, part of what I hope to offer as president is the ability to reach to people that I don’t agree with, and the evangelical community is one where the Democratic Party, I think, we have generally seen as hostile, we haven’t been reaching out to them, and I think that if we’re going to make significant progress on critical issues that we face, whether it’s education, or health care, or energy, or our foreign policy in this country, we’ve got to be able to get beyond our comfort zones and just talk to people we don’t like (pause) or just talk to people we like, or people that we agree with on every single issue.
RUSH: Might have been a slip-up there. I think it was a little faux pas that he tried to gracefully cover, ‘Reach out to people that we don’t like.’ But you know what strikes me here, ‘The evangelical community is one where the Democrat Party I think we have generally seen as hostile.’ Do you ever stop to think that they, Mr. Obama, might see you and your party as hostile? You think maybe they were minding their own business one day, you came along and started insulting them, and they might look at you as hostile? Anyway, that’s Barack Obama. That’s what that controversy was about.