RUSH: Here’s Bruna in Chandler, Arizona. Bruna, great to have you on the program.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s a pleasure to talk to you.
RUSH: Pleasure all mine. Bruna is one of which my all-time top ten female names.
CALLER: Ha! Yeah, right. How many of us do you know? I want to compliment Snerdley, too. He’s extremely polite and I made him chuckle. I’m watching Obama as he takes these trips all over the world.
CALLER: He needs all this great acclaim that he gets in all these countries because he’s not getting it here. When he goes to events here, it’s something that’s staged or he has to have a captive audience. He reminds me of the “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong-il. I mean this guy, he’s got to have this adulation all the time. Now he’s over there in England trying to get Cameron to agree on the ’67 borders.
RUSH: Yeah, I know. Trying to get British PM to agree on the ’67 borders. Did you hear Obama said that he and Cameron are the equivalent of Reagan and Thatcher?
CALLER: Oh, yeah.
RUSH: Do you believe that?
CALLER: I mean, this guy is latching on to everything he can get his hands on to make himself look good because he doesn’t look all that good. Unfortunately Democrats know one thing: Their voters are stupid. They’ll vote for him again, and a lot of Jewish people will vote for him again, because they don’t check out what this guy is really like. It’s like he’s got this Samantha Power who’s his top person for responsibilities for tax things. That’s her deal, so she’s a top advisor on national security. She’s married to Cass Sunstein, and in 2002 she was giving an interview and said she thought we should arm the Palestinians. Now, you tell me that this guy is in favor of Israel. He’s not.
RUSH: No, of course he’s not.
RUSH: Look, he wants to be the president who secured, quote, unquote, “Middle East peace.” That’s what he wants. He doesn’t care what it is; he doesn’t care what that means. He wants the medal, he wants the award: First President to Bring Mideast Peace! I got Bin Laden; I brought peace.” That’s what he wants. But, you know, you’re discussing him as though he can’t be beat. I think he’s eminently beatable. I think he can be beat. I know what it would take. It’s not gonna be easy, don’t misunderstand, but he’s not the slam-dunk that everybody thinks.
You know, Shelby Steele has an interesting piece today. I admire Shelby Steele’s writing. He has an interesting piece. You know, I better find it. This is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing. He also thinks Obama can be beat, but he thinks, however, that Obama still can benefit from being the first black president, that there’s still value in that. “This Presidency Flatters America to a Degree That No White Republican Can Hope to Match.” That’s the headline of Shelby Steele’s piece. Now, when you hear that headline, and you haven’t read the accompanying story, you might see, “Okay, ‘This Presidency Flatters America to a Degree That No White Republican Can Hope to Match,'” so you might think Obama can’t be beaten.
“Well, of course he can give away things that no Republican will give away.” That’s not what Shelby Steele means. What he means is, that Obama, by virtue of being president, is a walking testimonial to the greatness of America — that a guy from a group of people who were slaves, from that race of people, can become president of United States (and therefore the most powerful man in the world) says more about America than any nation in the world — that Obama, as president, just occupying the office (not even doing anything, just occupying the office) is a greater testament to the greatness and the uniqueness of this country. And Mr. Steele says that white guys cannot hope to have that same aura about the country be realized or felt if they are elected.
Because we’ve always had white guy president, it’s still novel and still unique enough. I’m not sure I totally agree. Now, he also says that Obama can be beat, and he lays out how to do it. His term is “social exceptionalism.” He says, “[T]he media hold the president’s exceptionalism,” and that simply means his race, “against Republicans.” A black president still makes this an exceptional country. It doesn’t matter what the black president does or even who it is. It’s just that fact alone represents an American triumph that a white president can’t hope to tap. “[T]he media hold the president’s exceptionalism against Republicans.
“Here is Barack Obama, evidence of a new and progressive America. Here are the Republicans, a cast of largely white males, looking peculiarly unevolved. Add to this the Republicans’ quite laudable focus on deficit reduction and spending cuts, and they can be made to look like a gaggle of scolding accountants. How can the GOP combat the president’s cultural charisma? It will have to make vivid the yawning gulf between Obama the flattering icon and Obama the confused and often overwhelmed president. Applaud the exceptionalism he represents, but deny him the right to ride on it as a kind of affirmative action.
“A president who is both Democratic and black effectively gives the infamous race card to the entire left: Attack our president and you are a racist. To thwart this, Republicans will have to break through the barrier of political correctness. Mr. McCain let himself be intimidated by Obama’s cultural charisma, threatening to fire any staff member who even used the candidate’s middle name. Donald Trump shot to the head of the [class] by focusing on Mr. Obama as a president, calling him our ‘worst’ president. I carry no brief for Mr. Trump,” writes Shelby Steele, “but his sudden success makes a point: Another kind of charisma redounds to those willing to challenge political correctness — those unwilling to be in thrall to the president’s cultural charisma.”
In other words: GET OVER IT!
Get over it and stop being cowed by political correctness. Treat him as the president, not somebody of affirmative action, not somebody special. He’s the president. It’s sort of like Newt and his reaction to David Gregory on Meet the Press when Gregory came up with this BS question about “food stamp America” being racist, and Newt looked at him and you said (summarized), “You gotta be serious! He’s president of the United States, for crying out loud! He’s got to be accountable! Forty-seven million Americans are on food stamps, the majority of them are white. What are you talking about race?” In other words, what Shelby Steele is saying is: Do not be afraid to criticize him as president doing a lousy job.
Amen, bro! Amen! You know, every time Shelby Steele publishes a piece, I find that we’re on the same page, and it makes me very proud.
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