RUSH: To the phones and Bourbonnais, Illinois. Am I pronouncing that right, Bourbonnais?
CALLER: (silence)
RUSH: Ron, are you there?
CALLER: Yes, I am. Do you hear me now?
RUSH: Yeah, I hear you now. How do you pronounce where you’re from?
CALLER: That’s Bourbonnais.
RUSH: Bourbonnais.
RUSH: Well, I thought that’s where the Bears complex is; I thought it was Bourbonnais.
CALLER: Absolutely right! We haven’t helped the Bears a bit, but we’re trying.
RUSH: Well, everybody has to be somewhere.
CALLER: (chuckling) Hey, Rush, I’m — up front — a seminar caller, and I’m calling on behalf of the Black Bibi Netanyahu: The Hermanator, Herman Cain. When are you going to have him on?
RUSH: Um… (sigh)
CALLER: (laughs)
RUSH: Gee, what do I say? I don’t know how to answer this. If I answer this question, I can’t win here.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Well, because I open the floodgates, and you’ve obviously heard we had Trump on.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: We’ve got Pawlenty coming in over a half hour, and you obviously want Herman Cain on the program, and Newt was on.
CALLER: I love Herm.
RUSH: Here’s the thing. Here’s the thing: The policy of this program is “no guests.” We waive the policy on occasion. When Bush and Cheney were in the White House, if they called and wanted to appear, we welcomed them. Every one of these people that you’ve heard on the program, Ron, called and asked to appear. We do not — I do not — invite people to appear on the program. You’re sitting out there upset that I may be playing favorites, that I’m disrespecting Herman Cain ’cause I haven’t invited him to appear here, but I haven’t invited anybody. And one of the reasons… He will be on this program now. I mean, there’s no question about it. Once you start with candidates, you have to let ’em all on at some point, just in the interests of fairness and what have you. So I don’t know when, but I’m sure Herman Cain will show up on this program. I like Herman Cain, as you know. I’ve said so many times.
CALLER: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I knew you like him; I like how straightforward he is. You know, there is no beating around the bush about Herman. I think he would take Obama apart in a debate.
RUSH: You know, the truth is this — and I don’t mean this to be a put-down of Herman Cain; I agree with you. Anybody could take Obama down in a debate if they would! It’s not a question of could they. It’s a question of do they have the fortitude and the guts to try it. Get rid of the fear.
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RUSH: Speaking of Herman Cain: He appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Matthews, and Chris Wallace said, “Question: What would President Cain offer the Palestinians to make peace?”
CAIN: Nothin’, because I’m not convinced that the Palestinians are really interested in peace. If the Palestinians come to the table with Israel with a genuine offer that the two of them can sit down and negotiate the United States would, in fact, try to facilitate that discussion. But if we look at history, it has been clear that the Palestinians have always wanted to push the Israelis and push Israel for more and more and more. I don’t agree with that, and I respect Prime Minister Netanyahu for taking a stand and saying they cannot give that up. Secondly, it’s Israel’s decision, not President Obama’s decision, as to what those borderlines ought to be.
RUSH: Amen, right on, dooba dooba. No question about it. You’ve seen all the jokes, haven’t you, Snerdley? We ought go back to our 1858 borders or we audit go back to the 1967 budget. All these jokes are circulating around to try to mock Obama’s demand to try to go back to the 1967 borders. And you know, Herman Cain brings up, “Who is Obama?”
“He’s president of the United States, Rush. That’s what you gotta respect him.”
Yeah, but who is he to determine Israel’s borders?
“Well, we give him $5 million.”
Well, fine, but how come all the demands are on Israel? How come whenever these negotiations start, it’s always Israel has to give up land. It’s always Israel that has to give up and compromise and all this? Why is it always on them? It’s unmistakable. (interruption) What’s your question? You have a que…? (interruption) What? (interruption) Hmm. (interruption) Right. (interruption) Okay. (interruption) All right, Mr. Snerdley has a question for me, the host. He says it’s a bad question. He wants to know: How can anybody expect to be elected president of the United States when they haven’t been elected to anything before. No elective office! Where in the world…? Who does he think he is, right? Is that what you…? (interruption)
Yeah. I know. Snerdley claims to love Herman Cain but you don’t understand why he thinks that he’s even viable here because he’s not held office? Okay. So that means to you if he’s not served in elective office, he doesn’t have what? What does that mean to you? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. No experience governing. No experience governing, none whatsoever. No experience governing. (interruption) Right, it is a business. There’s no question about it. I did teach that it’s a business, just like any other business, and there are requirements, and you climb the ladder and so Snerdley is saying, “How can he expect to leapfrog to the at the top of the ladder with no experience on this?”
Okay, dare I in answering this question invoke the name Obama? Okay. Now, I know what you’d say: “Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate for a number of years, and voted ‘present;’ and when he didn’t vote present he was voting to make sure aborted babies stayed aborted. When he was elected to the US Senate, he worked a total of 157 days, and I don’t think sponsored any legislation,” and yet there were no questions about his qualifications. There were no inquiries; there wasn’t any concern about his lack of experience in governing. Some people might also say, in response to your question, that they’re sick and tired of the professional political class and they wouldn’t mind having somebody from totally outside it who nevertheless has CEO experience, top rate CEO experience.
The answer to your question is anybody can try to run, and they can go as far as their campaign takes ’em. Would you sit here, would you tell Herman Cain, “You don’t have any right to do this! Who do you think you are?” Damn right. I guar… (interruption) You don’t think he’s serious about this? You would ask him if he’s serious? He’s dead serious about this. I can tell Herman Cain’s serious about it. So what he thinks, issue-wise, is not enough for you to get past the fact he’s never governed before, he’s never served, he’s never been elected to anything? (interruption) That’s right? Okay. All right. Well, just keep in mind: Snerdley’s the screener, not the host (chuckles) and that’s his point of view.
I’m not trying to tick you Herman Cain people off. Snerdley genuinely asked me this question. There are others, Ulysses Grant never served in elected office. Herbert Hoover never served in elective office. Dwight Eisenhower never served in elective office. Zachary Taylor, William Howard Taft. None of these guys ever served in elective office. Of course, George Washington never had previous American elective office to serve in, and he did okay. In fact, he rejected the office. They wanted him to be king, and he rejected it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, Snerdley, Karl Rove agrees with you on Herman Cain. Karl Rove was on Fox & Friends this morning, and he said the talk radio guy from Atlanta is not gonna be elected president. He’s got a great narrative, personal narrative, he’s got a good narrative about Obama, but what’s he done in elective office? At some point you gotta give people confidence in your experience in elective office and in that business, and Rove said he’s not gonna be there. So you and Rove are on the same page when it comes to Herman Cain.
Now, Jon Huntsman — and I mentioned early in the program, look for there to be a media and Republican establishment push for Jon Huntsman to take the place that Mitch Daniels was going to occupy in the Republican sweepstakes. Jon Huntsman is having lunch today with George H. W. and Barbara Bush, I think in Kennebunkport, Maine, ’cause Huntsman’s on a New Hampshire tour, and Huntsman, ambassador to the Chinese, China for Obama, but he’s from the Mitch Daniels school. We’ve gotta get along with the people that don’t like us, and we gotta be nice, basically, stop the bickering, essentially.
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