RUSH: From the Associated Press: “Obama yields to Boehner’s September the 8th speech timing,” and listen to this pull-quote. “With new August unemployment numbers ready to be released Friday, Obama is under pressure to lay out his plan. In seeking a joint session of Congress to deliver it, he is turning the effort into a public relations campaign.”

AP wrote that. Unbelievable! AP, describing this as not something hugely statesman-like, but rather a PR campaign, public relations campaign. If Obama really cared, you know what he would do at this joint session is apologize. He would apologize for the damage that he’s done to the US economy. He would apologize for these policies and swear that he’s now gonna do a 180. He would apologize for what he has done. No, I’m serious. If he really cared, he would apologize.

Now, of course, I’m not under any illusion. He’s not gonna apologize. He’s not through, folks. He’s going to double down. He’s going to make proposals here that the Republicans
can’t possibly accept and try to create a campaign where he gets to run against Congress. But let’s look at that. By the time he runs, three years of the four will have been under total Democrat Party control. Now, that’s gonna be a tough point to make because Congress is Congress, and it’s gonna be a tough point to convince a whole lot of voters, “Well, yeah, Democrats ran the Congress.” People instinctively hate Congress anyway, so that’s what he’s banking on. He’s gonna do a Harry Truman, gonna run against an obstructionist, do-nothing Congress.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Robert in Atlanta, we’ll start with you. Great to have you on the EIB Network today, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. I wanted to comment on President Obama’s scheduling of the job speech the night of the Republican debate.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: I think this was a churlish trick that has probably already backfired big time because it has increased awareness of the debate probably tenfold. Mainstream media has been forced to report on it. People who never would have heard about it now have and will tune in.

RUSH: Well, that’s probably true. I hadn’t thought about that, but I think probably have a good point.

CALLER: I think more viewers are more Republican voters.

RUSH: Well, Obama has been schooled in radicalism, not Americanism. That’s one thing. Radicalism and Americanism do not mix. He views the misery of others as the necessary steps that must be taken to change the country, and so he wants this joint session speech to continue to run down this country. He wants to continue the opportunities he has to get even with this country. There’s no mistake that that’s what this is. As far as drawing attention to the Republican debate, that’s probably happened. You know, September 7th, probably not a whole lot of people knew there was gonna be a Republican debate. If you don’t watch NBC, you wouldn’t hear about it, because they’re the network covering it; therefore they’re the only ones promoting it. Some of the news networks might be covering it coming up as a news event but not promoting coverage in terms of promoting it as something, a vehicle to be watched. Let’s go to audio sound bite number six. This is The Forehead, Paul Begala, who was on Anderson Cooper 44 last night. Cooper said, “Were you surprised by this?”

BEGALA: (haltingly) The Speaker is doing the president a favor. I don’t want people to have to choose, uh, between watching the president’s plan for jobs and watching the Republican debate.

RUSH: Why? Does The Forehead think the GOP debate would have beaten Obama? “I don’t want people to have to choose between watch the president’s plan for jobs and watching the Republican debate”? The president’s plan for jobs is not going to be seen by a lot of people, by virtue of that football game being that day, and NBC’s contractual commitment to it. The Left Coast is not gonna see this thing live if it goes at 7:30, seven o’clock or seven-thirty. Well, it will be live but it will be in the middle of rush hour, and I don’t think people are gonna leave work early to go home and hear a Obama jobs speech that they’ve already heard before. Here’s F. Chuck Todd. F. Chuck Todd thinks that Boehner bailed out the president. This is morning on MSNBC.

TODD: A lot of Democrats, quietly, around town were grumbling at the timing in the first place… that Boehner actually bailed the president out here. Had this speech gone as planned, then you would have had the president having this speech being politicized, being set up as almost a debate, uh, with the Republican candidates themselves. They would have been elevated on a larger platform. At least this time the president’s speech gets treated like a policy speech.

RUSH: Yeah, that’s wishful thinking. It ain’t gonna be treated like a policy speech anymore. Even AP, F. Chuck, is out calling it a PR effort now. But Republicans now, granted they won’t have a chance to reply to it since their debate goes first, but if I were running the Republican debate, we know what he’s gonna say. We know what he’s gonna say. If I’m a Republican candidate, I take a stab at a couple things I know he’s gonna say and I refute them anyway, and then when he speaks, I, the Republican candidate, look prescient. “Boehner bailed out the president.” That should give you an idea of how bad this is for Obama: Boehner bailed out the president. We’ve got Carville. I have the sound here? Grab number 24. We have James Carville. This morning on Good Morning America.

CARVILLE: I do think this is a — a really big debate, and I think the White House was out of bounds in subject — in trying to schedule a speech during the debate. I know given a
choice between watching the debate and the speech, I’l watch the debate and I’m not even a Republican or even close to being a Republican.

RUSH: “But I do support Hillary.” Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa. Carville is not doing any favors for President Obama, saying, “Hey, I’ll watch the debate, I’m not a Republican, not even close to being a Republican, and I’d watch the debate before I’d watch the speech,” ’cause Carville knows what’s in the speech. Now back to F. Chuck Todd painting a sad, sad picture here. The poor White House is stuck between a rock and a hard place. This on last night’s Nightly News. The anchor Brian Williams spoke with White House — I guess he’s their political director, chief White House correspondent, F. Chuck Todd — and Williams said, “Thursday bumps it up against another TV event. Let’s face it, Saints-Packers, the same day the NFL season gets underway.”

TODD: That’s what the White House was up against. They said, ‘The Republican presidential debate or the NFL?’ They picked the Republican presidential debate.

RUSH: They were not up against either! You people are gonna have to realize, there’s a reason nobody watches MSNBC. There is a reason that the mainstream media is losing subscribers and readers and viewers. This speech isn’t important. This jobs plan is not important, F. Chuck. It could wait for ten days ’til Obama finished his vacation. It does not have to go on either of these two days. The only reason it has to go somewhat soon is that Obama himself pinned himself in by saying, “I’m gonna give the speech when I get back from vacation.” Do it on the 6th! Uh, Congress is not back. Call ’em back. I bet Snerdley’s right. I bet this thing happens in the afternoon on the 8th. (laughing) I’ll bet it happens. I wouldn’t be surprised if they schedule this thing sometime between noon and three on September the 8th. Let’s just wait and see. I probably shouldn’t even have said that. Don’t tell anybody I said that, ’cause if they hear I’m speculating, it could change what they’re thinking. Let’s see. Who’s next? Aaron in Champlin, Minnesota, great to have you, sir, on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. Thank you so much for taking my call.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: Hey, just in regards to all the reporters that are concerned about this being an “unprecedented” move by Speaker Boehner. Precedent has to start somewhere so I guess I want to congratulate Speaker Boehner on being the first person to do such a thing and to set this precedent, so congratulations to him.

RUSH: Yeah, I agree. This whole notion this is “unprecedented” as a bit of a stretch, anyway.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: They’re just trying to… It isn’t gonna work. It isn’t going to work. Obama’s plan has waited for almost three years. What’s another day? The first plan hasn’t worked. The first plan was February 2009. Everything he’s done hasn’t worked. What’s the urgency? What’s another day? The longer the better. His prescriptions are just for more failure. What’s the urgency for that?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Joan in Plymouth, Vermont. Nice to have you with us.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?

RUSH: Good. Thank you.

CALLER: Very nice speaking with you.

RUSH: Pleasure. Thank you. Happy to be here.

CALLER: I was responding to the beginning of your program where you were discussing the president having to cave. And my husband said he was listening to Fox within the last day with the confliction with the setup of these two things, you know, the debate and then the president, and he had heard that a lawyer was saying that according to the Constitution — I was just curious if you had any of these facts — according to the Constitution, that the Speaker does have the right to change any joint meetings of Congress. We also think this is deliberate on the president’s part. It’s a setup so as to demean the Republicans, that he had to cave, he had all this time, weeks to come out with a job plan. It’s another fiasco. I agree with you 100%.

RUSH: Terrific. Well, the Speaker of the House does have the right to refuse a presidential request for a joint session.

CALLER: Huh-uh.

RUSH: It’s his chamber.

CALLER: Yes. Okay.

RUSH: There’s separation of powers. The president just can’t call up there and say I’m heading over there, put everybody in a room, I’ve got a speech, just like Boehner can’t call and say put your cabinet together, I’m coming over to tell ’em what I think.

CALLER: Hm-hm. Yes. Yes.

RUSH: So what your husband heard on Fox News was accurate.

CALLER: Yes. You won’t hear it on any other station.

RUSH: No. Well, AP is portraying this as Obama having caved.

CALLER: Yeah, I did hear you say that. Snerdley had said to make mention of living here in the state, the condition of the state here is a complete disaster.

RUSH: Underwater because of flooding, right?

CALLER: Roads are completely gone, huge county roads, and they’re not just gone and wiped out, there’s six, eight-foot drops, the foundation, the whole —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: I heard this morning that a big shopping center that runs right adjacent to the Connecticut River —

RUSH: Well, you would agree that —

CALLER: — is completely gone.

RUSH: — Vermont mostly is populated by white Americans. True?

CALLER: There you go, yes.

RUSH: Yeah. And so I’ve heard that Obama steered that hurricane, the aftermath to Vermont.

CALLER: Did you really?

RUSH: Yeah. Just like Bush steered —

CALLER: Yeah, well, there you go.

RUSH: — Katrina to New Orleans to get rid of the black people there. Apparently, there’s something in the White House where presidents can steer hurricanes.

CALLER: Is that right?

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: Well, probably. You never know. After all, he sets himself above, he’s on a pedestal. Very disappointing the way our country is going, and I hope that the Republicans will stand fast. I think that’s where we —

RUSH: Let me ask you a question, now. Joan, let me ask you a question. Are you surprised that Boehner told the president “no”?

CALLER: Am I surprised?

RUSH: I was.

CALLER: Yeah, in a way I think we were. You know, look at the time the guy had. But Boehner, I don’t know, sometimes he strikes us as wishy-washy. I mean, forgive me for my —

RUSH: I’ll tell you why I was surprised. Tell you why I was surprised. ‘Cause I knew, I knew that the pressure from the inside-the-Beltway Republican intelligentsia would be let the president have the date. If you deny the president, you’re gonna drive the independents away. I knew what they were gonna say. I knew what the pressure was gonna be on all of the predictable blogs and all of the various news magazines. My prediction was, John, if you reject this, the independents are gonna think you’re playing petty politics with the president, let him have the date. I figured that the pressure would have been on him, I figured that he’d go ahead and let the president have the date.

So last night, we got a little puppy, and we introduced the puppy to the two adult sheepdogs last night, which was a riot. We were expecting the two adult sheepdogs to get territorial. It was the puppy that ran around and chased them, yapping at their ankles. Folks, it was hilarious to watch this little ten week old sheepdog puppy chase the adult sheepdogs around the room telling ’em what-for when we thought it would be just the opposite. So I’m watching all that go on, and I sit down later and I see Boehner’s letter to Obama. Nothing against Boehner, I expected him to go ahead and let Obama have the date. But he didn’t. Must have been listening here. You know, our new motto here is Resist We Much. And Boehner Resisted We Much. So I felt good last night.

And then Newt, you know, Newt sends Boehner a note, “Hey, John, from one Speaker to another, way to go.” (laughing) From one Speaker to — (laughing) Anyway, I was pleased. I was pleased. And I was doubly pleased because I knew that the Republican intelligentsia would be ticked off, and I knew that the Drive-Bys would be ticked off, and I knew the White House, they expected Boehner to cave, make no mistake about that. You know damn well they expected Boehner to cave. And he didn’t.

Bob in The Bronx, New York, great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?

RUSH: Good.

CALLER: Good. I wanted to say first off that if you decide on this rescheduled date of the president’s speech to watch a football game, you know what that makes you?

RUSH: An American.

CALLER: Unfortunately it makes you a racist.

RUSH: Oh. (laughing) How could that be? Most of the people that play in the NFL are black.

CALLER: I agree. But, no, my point was, you know, I ditto what other callers have already said, and I do believe, not just to pat you on the back, your show yesterday when were you just calling it such a bad move to have this on the night of the other Republican candidates’ debate, again, I think it made sense. Maybe it made sense to Boehner and his people, and they said, you know what, you gotta make the move here.

RUSH: I don’t think there’s any question about it. I really don’t. And I’m happy to see it.

CALLER: Right. And last thing I’ll say, in Paterson, New Jersey, the president is scheduled to come in on Sunday and talk to the people —

RUSH: About what?

CALLER: — his compassion to the people —

RUSH: About what?

CALLER: — about the flood and their conditions there. And I feel, and I told this to Snerdley, I feel it’s completely and utterly a campaign stop.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And it’s for the media to say, “Look at how compassion that this president is. He went there; he’s talking to the people; he’s grieving with them.”

RUSH: Yeah, well, what you need to say is, “Hey, pal, I thought you could lower the sea levels, and if you can lower the sea levels you can prevent floods, so how did this happen?”

CALLER: Exactly right.

RUSH: Well, look, I’m glad you called out there, Bob. Have a wonderful day. Did you get hit hard in The Bronx by any of this weather?

CALLER: You know what? A little bit of water, but I live in an apartment so it didn’t hit me, so thank God. My sister upstate maybe a little bit.

RUSH: An apartment, that means you’re elevated, you’re not on the ground floor?

CALLER: Exactly. Exactly. Two floors up.

RUSH: Okay. Well, good. Happy to hear that. Thanks much for the phone call.