RUSH: It’s Open Line Friday, and we go to Houston. This is Kevin. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Real pleasure to talk to you. You’re one of my Three Wise Men, you and Sean and Mark.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: Yeah, the point I wanted to make is I’ve been following Donald Trump ever since he’s entered the political arena — you know, whether it’s official or not — and, I mean, the guy is unmistakably liberal over the years. He’s given donations to Harry Reid and Tony the Weiner, all of a sudden we’re supposed to believe he’s a conservative? To me I think he’s an Obama plant, and he’s there just to whip up enough interest in him to where if he sees that there’s a true threat to Obama, that he’ll jump in and run as a third candidate, siphon off just enough votes to ensure Obama is reelected.
RUSH: So let’s just cut to the chase here: You believe that Donald Trump is Obama’s Trojan horse?
CALLER: I do.
RUSH: Simply because of Trump’s past?
CALLER: Oh, yeah. I mean, that’s what you run on. I mean, don’t you judge people on their track record? You know, judge them on what they say. Look at Obama; he had no track record. Donald Trump does. We can look at it. It’s real clear. If you followed him over the years and the things he said, who he’s supported, it seems to me —
RUSH: You think Trump ought to moderate the debate?
CALLER: Well, you know… (sigh) He wouldn’t be much worse than the people that have moderated before but at the same time I just truly believe that he’s gonna jump in there and siphon off enough votes. I mean, if you look at how the birth certificate issue went and all that it just seemed like it was just too (sigh) orchestrated, the way it all came out. All of a sudden, it just disappeared. We get the phony birth certificate all —
RUSH: Yeah, but who did that…? Look, to the extent that you think that, do you think that made Trump look good or bad?
CALLER: Well, it depends on who’s looking at it. (laughs) To me it was like a… To me it was like a… It — it — it just looked like… (sigh) It was like a carnival, a carnival act. You know, I can never take the guy seriously, but still if you look at the things he’s said, all of a sudden we’re supposed to believe that he went from a screaming liberal to a “physical” conservative?
RUSH: Well, I don’t know that Trump’s been a screaming liberal all of his life. Trump’s had to play it both sides. We know. In fact, I had Trump on this program when he first announced, and there are a lot of people called here and they were suspicious, as you were, because Trump had given a lot of money to Chicago politicians: Rahm Emanuel’s gubernatorial run. He gave money to Rahm Emanuel. I asked him about it, and I said, “Mr. Trump, you know, a lot of people, a lot of Republicans are very suspicious of this,” and he gave an answer that you would expect.
He said (summarized), “I do business in Chicago. You gotta deal with the people in power there. If you want to get anything done. I would love for the Republicans to be running Chicago, but they’re not. I’m building belief in Chicago, I got activities I got planned in Chicago. I gotta go through Democrats if I wanna get permits and all this. What am I supposed to do?” He said, “I got friends all over the political spectrum.” The thing about Trump in this cycle is what he’s saying about Obama is no different than what any of us are saying about Obama. Yeah, the birth certificate was a little late, and after it was assumed to have been put to bed. But it’s interesting.
This guy, by the way, from Houston, Kevin, he’s not the only one that I’ve run into who thinks this. Well, there are a lot of them out there, Snerdley, a lot of people. I run into ’em (I don’t particularly like talking to people, but they don’t know that, I run into ’em, and they talk to me) and there is a lot of suspicion about this. I’ve had the term Trojan horse used to me twice this week by people who are doubtful. The thing that set ’em both off was what Trump says, “If I don’t like the nominee, I’m running third party,” ’cause everybody knows third party guarantees Obama. Everybody. I’m gonna tell you… Folks, let me tell you something, get serious here.
I’ve tried to do remain giddy and lighthearted, it’s Friday, and I’ve tried to have one day here of just not lackadaisical, but lightheartedness, but let me get serious here for a second. I appreciate a lot of you are suspicious of Trump. What’s happening with Ron Paul is something to which I think we need to pay attention. The media is understandably excited, and they are pushing Ron Paul. They’re very excited. Ron Paul was just on Megyn Kelly on Fox. But he’s all over everywhere and he’s being discussed with total credibility, and it’s a problem — and I’ll tell you why it’s a problem for me. Pure and simple, it is Ron Paul’s foreign policy. This is what Ron Paul said recently:
“Think of what happened after 9/11, the minute before there was any assessment, there was glee in the [Bush] administration because now we can invade Iraq, and so the war drums beat.”
Ron Paul said this Wednesday night, “before a packed room of a thousand students and supporters,” and he said, “That’s exactly what [this administration is] doing now with Iran.” I know a lot of people like Ron Paul’s domestic policy. He’s very tough talking on budget cuts and shrinking government and individual liberty, and that’s attractive. But, folks, this foreign policy is disastrous — and to sit there, to attack the country this way, to say that the Bush administration was in “glee,” the Bush administration was happy? This is Democrat talk, to say that George W. Bush was happy, that Cheney was happy after 9/11 because, “A-ha, there’s our excuse to attack Iraq!”
This is the reason that there are a lot of people who are uncomfortable with him. Now, the long knives continue to be out for Newt today all over. It’s exactly what I told you yesterday. I hope you were here yesterday. George Will has a column coming on Sunday — I’m just gonna tell you — that warns that Ron Paul will probably give Obama the election. Ron Paul might go third party. This foreign policy, it’s just nutty, folks! The Republican establishment wants no part of Newt for the reasons that I detailed yesterday. The Republican establishment is governed totally — in fact, I’ve got some sound bites here. Snerdley, he didn’t believe me yesterday. I’ve got some sound bites here, Republican — I forget who; look it up; worried about what happened to Goldwater is gonna happen again if we nominate a conservative.
It’s Goldwater and that landslide that scares the Republican establishment. Not the Reagan victories in the ’80s, but the Goldwater landslide in ’64. So the Republican establishment gets behind Romney, and they turned everything upside down. Normally, as I said yesterday, to win the nomination you secure the base; after you win the nomination with the party base, then you move to the center to win the general election by getting disaffected members of the opposite party and moderates, independents. What the Republicans have done is they’ve pushed Romney, the moderate, and they’ve tried to split the vote of the conservatives with all these other candidates. I mean, they’re standing tradition and theory on its head as they try to steer this to Romney, and it’s all backfiring on them now. Now, Ron Paul looks like he might win Iowa. Other people are saying it looks like Newt’s getting stronger in Iowa, too.
It’s all over the place now.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Tammy in Tucson, Arizona, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: Hey, I’m 41, I have five kids, I’m just a regular folk, and I’m afraid we’re gonna be choking down another handpicked establishment candidate this year, and I have an idea how we can send a message.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: I think we need another Operation Chaos in Iowa. Maybe change the name, but let them know that they can’t do this and we should write in Herman Cain and let them know that the grassroots movement exists and they can’t pick the candidate. Even if you don’t support Cain, if you’re on the fence or you’re not sure what you’re gonna do, 75% of the voters are supposed to be still undecided in Iowa, we need to send the establishment the message that you don’t pick our candidates. We need you to start an operation movement.
RUSH: Yeah, but that’s not gonna go anywhere. I mean to advise people to write in “Herman Cain” when he’s gonna end up as a commentator on Fox News? I didn’t mean to let anything out of the bag. I don’t know that. I just know the career trajectory here on failed candidates. I just know where they end up. I don’t know anything, folks. “I know nuthink,” as Sergeant Schultz once said, “I know nuthink.” But no, I mean to write in somebody’s name that’s pulled out of the race. We don’t need a write-in. This third party business, a lot of people are worried Trump’s gonna do it. I think Ron Paul would do it, and if Ron Paul does it — look, we know that anybody after this nomination process is over is ticked off enough that goes third party, that’s it. You split the Republican vote, no third party candidate’s gonna win, no third-party candidate is gonna win beans in this election.
All the third-party candidate is going to do is secure victory for Obama, and if that happens, if somebody on our side goes third party, as far as I’m concerned, that’s what they’re trying to make happen, reelect Obama, for whatever reason, anger at the electorate on the Republican side for not nominating them, anger at other people for what happened to ’em, what was said during the campaign, whatever. But I think it’s one of the reasons why the GOP is afraid to get tough and tell Ron Paul, “Look, you’re not polling anywhere, get out of this debate, you don’t belong here.” They’re not gonna tell him that. They don’t want to upset him and have him go third party. That would really upset. What they’re doing is boosting his fan base. They think Ron Paul can split the conservative vote. Folks, I’m here to tell you, there is no conservative movement in the Republican Party. By this I mean the establishment, the inside-the-Beltway crowd. The consultants are trying to split the conservative vote in the primaries, not coalesce around it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Jim in Danville, Virginia. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, thank you, Rush. Longtime listener, first-time caller, and mega dittos from the last Confederate capital of the Confederacy. My call today is basically about earlier in the week you were talking about voters that were concerned that candidates that were in the lead of the primary were not conservative enough. Well, I’m one of those voters.
RUSH: Well, obviously if you’re from the capital of the Confederacy.
CALLER: Well, that’s —
RUSH: Is that how you look at things now, from the capital of the Confederacy? Nobody’s gonna be conservative enough for you.
CALLER: No, that’s just our little claim to fame here in Danville. But anyway, beside the point. The problem that we have is that neither Newt or Mitt are conservative enough. And we voted last November, and sent candidates up there to do a job, to stop the spending, and what did they do? They turned right around and did the same thing that the Democrats were doing. That’s why a lot of us are upset and disgusted with the Republican Party right now, because they didn’t do what we sent ’em to go up there and do and I refuse to vote for another John McCain.
RUSH: Okay, so who is your perfect candidate?
CALLER: Well, I liked Herman Cain until they destroyed him. And right now I’m leaning towards Bachmann or Santorum.
RUSH: I think it’s still possible for Bachmann and Santorum because I think what’s happening out there, everybody in this mix thinks, you can read it, you can sense it, everybody in this mix senses Newt is gonna implode. I mean everybody, the other candidates. Everybody senses that Newt is one of these guys that can’t stand prosperity. There are a lot of people that think Newt, don’t know how, don’t know when but he’s gonna do or say something that just causes an implosion of one degree or another and that they all figure — Bachmann, Perry, Santorum — they all figure that they’re gonna be the ones left standing for conservatives to flock to, if that happens. That is one of the reasons these people are staying in.
Now, Jim here is not the only one. A lot of people that I talk to who are not happy with Mitt or Newt leading the pack, I ask them, “Well, okay, who?” I always get one or two names, Santorum or Bachmann. But Santorum, Bachmann and Perry are lurking, they’re hanging around. We haven’t had a vote cast yet. They are of the opinion that Newt has the ability, cause it’s happened before, to implode. To do something, say something, you know, sit down on the couch with Pelosi, that kind of thing. If he’s done it once they think he can do it again and they’re lurking and they’re waiting around to be the ones who pick up the pieces if it happens again because everybody knows that at least 70% of Republican primary voters want nothing to do with Romney.
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