RUSH: Trisha in Trumbull, Connecticut. Great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. I’m a Tea Party conservative, and I agree with you about the distaste over McCain endorsing Romney, and I’d like to come back to that if we have time —
RUSH: Sure.
CALLER: — to converse on that.
RUSH: Sure.
CALLER: But I initially called to disagree, which I seldom do, about Michele Bachmann. I think she has always said exactly who she is and what she stands for, limited government and the social conservatism and everything, which makes her unelectable by the masses of typical general election voters. And I would say that because the typical general election voter, they’re either ill-informed, they vote on an emotional basis, or they hate social conservatives, or they’re looking to the government to be their daddy.
RUSH: Wait a minute. I understand all that. But what are you disagreeing with me, El Rushbo, about?
CALLER: Well, maybe I misunderstood, but it sounded like you were saying earlier that Michele Bachmann revealed herself in this speech, which was excellent, but that she did her best job of revealing herself in her —
RUSH: Oh.
CALLER: — withdrawal speech.
RUSH: Oh, oh, oh. I know what you mean. No. What I meant was that the speech was the best one she’s given. Not that she’s never said this before. I think — and I said this about everybody — every candidate getting out of a race, the exit speech, like McCain in 2008, his exit speech everybody said was the best speech of the campaign. And I was simply remarking on why that is. It’s human nature. The fear is gone. There’s no fear of making a mistake ’cause what can happen? You’re getting out of the race. It’s over. All I was saying was how good it was. Not that she’s not said those things before.
CALLER: Oh. Okay. Well, I guess we don’t disagree on that.
RUSH: No, not at all.
CALLER: Okay, good. On Romney, as I said I’m a Tea Party conservative, and I am really kind of puzzled why Romney is so despised by most Tea Party Patriots. In Connecticut I know most of them, and I’m wondering why you think that is. Is Romney a proxy for the hatred —
RUSH: No.
CALLER: — of the GOP establishment of the Tea Party?
RUSH: Well, he’s not despised. He’s not considered to be the best nominee. He’s not conservative. A lot of people think that he’s not conservative. He’s a flip-flopper, that he’s a moderate. They don’t think that Romney sees the state of the country as dire as they do. They don’t think that Romney is at all focused on reversing the direction the country is in as drastically as it needs to be and that he’s more of a moderate and willing to work with Democrats, not willing to run a hard hitting campaign because of the fear, being called a racist, going after Obama and this kind of thing. A lot of people think, like Michele Bachmann said, this is it. This election is gonna turn whether or not we go down the road to full socialism or not. And a lot of people don’t think Romney sees it that way. That’s all.
CALLER: Well, I disagree with them on that. I think he exactly sees those things, and if you read even the overview of his financial plan, his executive orders and the legislation he would submit to Congress on his first day in office, it’s there, the recognition of the dire state we’re in, and socially I believe he would give the social conservatives everything they’re looking for. He’s just a stealth conservative in that way.
RUSH: Well, but see, they’ve heard him say he’s not a conservative. They’ve heard him say he’s a moderate, he’s a Massachusetts moderate. His health care plan is a dead wringer for Obama’s. Romney thinks the country is in trouble. The people you’re asking me about think it’s in danger.
CALLER: Well, he thinks it’s in danger, too, if you read what he says on his website. And I would just say that as governor, he has the most executive experience. I would love to have a Michele Bachmann —
RUSH: Well, he’s got less executive experience than Perry has. Perry has been governor for longer.
CALLER: Well, yeah, but I think Romney is more conservative when you get down to it. And Romney has been tested. He’s been inoculated, you might say. He’s been burned, even, by the legislative and the judicial branch in Massachusetts so that he knows the traps. And I’m convinced that he would be — you spoke earlier about an anal thing with your vehicle. He would give any judicial nominees an anal exam before even —
RUSH: I think he was right in there with that. I think on the judicial stuff in Massachusetts, I think he’s used that as a cop-out. He may well ended up being the nominee here, be very careful, but on the judicial thing there have been — see, this is one of the things that bothers people is that he’s (imitating Romney) “Look, the judges did it, I couldn’t do anything about it, nothing I could do. I was powerless.” People are not looking for that right now. Somebody that’s gonna take it to the judges.
CALLER: Well, I’m just saying —
RUSH: At least verbally. You know, great things are at stake here.
CALLER: But he recognizes more than all of them I think because of his father’s experience when he ran for president — (crosstalk)
RUSH: See, that doesn’t help either.
CALLER: — elected first.
RUSH: His father was —
CALLER: George.
RUSH: George Romney was the quintessential definition of a moderate. I have a question for you, Trisha.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: You love Michele Bachmann?
CALLER: I do. I went to Tea Parties on Capitol Hill with her and she came to Connecticut. I was in a meeting —
RUSH: Have you heard the things she said about Mitt Romney?
CALLER: Well, I didn’t like that. I didn’t like the Newt-Romney. I hated that. But I love her in Congress, and my husband thinks that Mitt should choose her for VP.
RUSH: Well, hey, speaking of that, you should know that somebody in the crowd in New Hampshire told Romney, “Choose McCain as your VP.” I kid you not. Somebody in the audience of McCain’s endorsement of Romney said it would be great if Romney would pick McCain for his running mate. And would you be surprised if that happened? (interruption) You would? You’d be surprised, you would, okay. Trisha, I appreciate your call.