RUSH: Richard in Nantucket, great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. It’s a pleasure to speak with you.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: A comment and a question.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I am both a social and fiscal conservative, and I worry greatly about our country’s accelerated demise with this socialist in the White House.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I agree we should not nominate candidates who are either near RINOs or middle of the road because we need a return to conservative values. But given how leftist Obama is and the need to beat him, doesn’t it make marketing sense to at least position the Republican more to the center and to the right of Obama in the campaign rather than the far right? Stated differently, the farther we go to the right, the more votes we risk losing. And, frankly, as a conservative, and I think there are a lot of people out there like me, I’d vote for almost anyone against him, so my vote’s not at risk, and yet the independents’ votes might be.
CALLER: Well, I’m far right in that I believe in —
RUSH: No, but you’re not gonna be nominated. We want to nominate somebody who is to the right of Obama, but we don’t want to nominate somebody far right that’s gonna tick off the independents.
CALLER: In my view the far right candidate out there right now is probably Michele Bachmann.
RUSH: And you think she’s too far right to get the nomination?
CALLER: I think that a lot of independents would not vote for her.
RUSH: Why?
CALLER: Not only for her ideology but also for other reasons.
RUSH: Okay, but whoa, now.
CALLER: Well, come on, I mean —
RUSH: Well, no, what other reason? I can’t read your mind.
CALLER: She’s a female.
RUSH: Oh. Okay. We’re not ready for the first female president, particularly a right-winger?
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: Why? What does that mean?
CALLER: Well, I think it’s a double standard. I think if you’re, as in a lot of other things, if you’re a Democrat or a liberal and you’re a female, that’s a plus. Look how the female Republicans are treated by the media and by virtually everyone who isn’t a conservative, they’re —
RUSH: Okay, now, let me just ask you a couple quick questions. This is what I ran into last night. “We gotta focus on winning. Whatever it takes, we’ve got to get rid of Obama.”
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: And the assumption is — and I think it’s incorrect — the assumption last night, the assumption in your call is that a conservative is not gonna win, ’cause that’s what you mean by conservative. When you say far right-winger, I know what you mean. You mean a conservative. And my point of view is that if we don’t nominate one of those, we can kiss it good-bye. If we try to go Obama light to please these mythical independents, we lose.
CALLER: Yeah, if we lose the election, I think we lose the whole country.
RUSH: No. I’m telling you I disagree with you. If we nominate the person you want, we lose. If we nominate a watered down anything because we’re afraid to be who we really are, ’cause that turns people off —
CALLER: I wouldn’t like it, but I would hold my nose like I did the last time and still vote for the Republican. Where else am I gonna go?
RUSH: Well, look, we find ourselves in a real dilemma here in this country. On one side of our mouth we say we gotta get rid of this guy or we’re gonna lose the country and then we want qualifications on saving the country. Now, either you are for the Constitution or you’re not. Either you are for traditional values that have defined the institutions and traditions that have made this country great. Either you are for them or you’re not. You are either for capitalism or you are not. You know, when we start calling ourselves what the left calls us, when we start saying we can’t nominate one of us too far to the right, we are responding to the characterization that the left places on us, and we are accepting this assault and legitimizing it by responding to it.
Where’s it written that a woman would not appeal to independents? I think that a woman could appeal to the so-called independents. That’s another thing I’ve been told. “Rush, you ought to act like you love the independents. You ought to act like they’re your favorite people, that way they’d do what you want. You ought to, Rush. If you criticize the independents, Rush, they’re just gonna run away from the Republican Party.” I don’t criticize ’em; I criticize the way they are characterized. At any rate, we’ve been there, done that. I just think a woman would appeal to these so-called independents.
The fact that media liberals trash our women doesn’t mean they can’t attract votes, but I’ll tell you, that’s what so many of our people think. I can’t get away from it. I can’t get away from people who think Palin’s a guaranteed loser, and they’re cool with it. I take it to the logical next step and say, “You’re telling me we’re gonna have to nominate somebody the media doesn’t dislike. We’re gonna have to nominate somebody the media doesn’t criticize. Sorry, it isn’t gonna happen.” There are a lot of contradictions in what people tell me. Now, let’s say this. If we had nominated Gerald Ford against Jimmy Carter rather than Ronald Reagan, what do you think the outcome would have been? Remember, Ronaldus Magnus was said to be too far to the right. Ronaldus Magnus, the Republican mainstream, he’s just too far out there. He’s the guy that did the Goldwater speech, you know, come on. This guy’s too unstable. We want this guy in charge of nuclear weapons? We had Republicans saying that.
Right, okay, so let’s go out and find the equivalent of Gerald Ford to put up against Barack Obama, and you tell me what happens. You just tell me. Go out and find your favorite moderate, put ’em up against Obama, and you tell me, what’s the outcome? This notion that traditional conservatism, fealty to the founding of this country can’t win is preposterous. I think it’s responding in total defense to the left, exactly how they want us to.
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