RUSH: Joanne in Spring, Texas, glad you waited. You’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. I’m calling in regard to the lady I heard earlier from Florida, somewhere there in Florida about Romney.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I wouldn’t trust Romney any further than I could throw a bull by the tail. I was for him in 2008. He wimped out. To me, he’s another John McCain. I’m scared to death that Newt and Santorum are gonna get out of before they get to Texas. Newt’s got a lot of baggage, but we know what his baggage is. Obama’s got a lot of baggage, but we’re not allowed to look in his suitcase.
RUSH: Well…
CALLER: And that’s the way I feel about it. Romney says he’s against Obamacare? I don’t trust him to get rid of it.
RUSH: Okay, why?
CALLER: (talking)
RUSH: Wait a minute, now. I want to know why you don’t trust him.
CALLER: Because he flip-flops all the time. He’s — he’s got his finger to the wind, he’s flying in the breeze, and he has never backed down on that Romneycare in Massachusetts, and —
RUSH: Okay. Let me ask you a question — a hypothetical, obviously. It has to be hypothetical. Let’s say that you had a chance to meet Romney and talk to him for half an hour, just you and Romney, and in that half hour Romney said everything you believe. Without you prompting him, without you suggesting or asking the question or whatever, suppose he said things that mirror exactly what you say. What will your reaction be?
CALLER: That depends. If I listened to him before we had that sit-down talk, I wouldn’t believe him.
RUSH: What do you mean if you’d…? Oh, you mean just on the campaign stump and making a speech?
CALLER: If I had seen him out there talking and then he sits down and he tries to convince me that what I’m liking is what he’s going for? Unh-uh, I wouldn’t believe him.
RUSH: If he told you… Again, hypothetically. I’ve got a reason for doing this, and there’s no wrong answer, there’s no trick here. I’m asking you ’cause, frankly, you sound like you’re eager to be as honest as you can.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: If Mitt Romney were in the room with you and said that he’s running for president because if he doesn’t, his kids do not have a future as he had in this country if Obama wins and has four more years, would you believe him or not?
CALLER: No, and that’s because I’ve been watching ‘im, and if he wants to come and try to change my mind now, it’s too late. I was for him. To me he’s another John McCain, a wimp. John McCain doesn’t have a spine to stand up to anybody, and I don’t think Romney’s got the spine to stand up to Obama.
RUSH: You don’t?
CALLER: No, I sure don’t.
RUSH: Have you seen him…?
CALLER: I’ve been listening to him, and when they talk on these debates, all they give is platitudes. They never give an answer. They talk. Oh, they give a great speech, and everybody comes along and says, “Well, what a great speech that was.” Well, I didn’t think it was a great speech. I didn’t hear an answer out of any of them. Huntsman —
RUSH: Has Romney stood up, in your mind, to other Republicans in the primary?
CALLER: No! Not in my mind. He’s not standing up to anybody or anything. He’s standing up for Romney.
RUSH: Okay. So if he would not stand up to Obama, why is he doing this?
CALLER: Why is he doing it?
RUSH: Yeah, why do you think he’s running for president? Why do you think he wants to campaign and do all this if he’s not going to stand up to Obama?
CALLER: ‘Cause I think he’s got something to prove to himself and to his daddy.
RUSH: A-ha.
CALLER: I think his daddy — I think he’s gotta prove who he is, that he’s worth who he is. I don’t mind him making the money at all, everybody wants to make money. Newt wants to make money. Santorum wants to make money.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: Everybody wants to make money.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: I’d like to make money. Who wouldn’t like to make money? But nevertheless —
RUSH: Well, I don’t care about money.
CALLER: Nah, whatever.
RUSH: (laughing) I’m just kidding. I’m trying to stir it with that crowd.
CALLER: I admire the fact that you went out and you went after your money, and you didn’t say, “Here, give me a handout to get it.” You went out after it. You worked for it. That’s a different story altogether, to me. It’s a success story. And Romney went after his money, but he inherited some of it —
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: I just think he’s got something to prove to himself and to a father that’s dead. A lot of us do that. I think he’s got a hidden agenda, and his hidden agenda is that he wants to prove who he is, that he can be somebody.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: And he’s not really interested in us as a person.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: He’s got his made.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: And he’s with the establishment —
RUSH: This is what I wanted to hear. This I wanted to hear. I appreciate you sticking with me, and I appreciate you, Joan, answering my questions, ’cause this is what I wanted to hear. This is the kind of stuff I was —
CALLER: My name is Joanne, don’t call me Joan, please.
RUSH: Joanne, sorry, sorry.
CALLER: Joanne.
RUSH: Sorry.
CALLER: That’s okay. That’s all right, a lot of people say Joan.
RUSH: It’s the way it’s written here. It’s my bad. No biggie. Joanne, Joanne, Joanne. I’ve corrected it three times.
CALLER: Okay, thank you very much. I appreciate that.
RUSH: I appreciate your answers here. So you think Romney’s trying to climb out of a shadow?
CALLER: Yeah, I do, I really do. I listened to him, I listened to what his father was, he lost, and he couldn’t get back in. He had plenty of money back in 2008. He dropped out. Well, if he’s got that kind of money, why did he drop out, when I was for him back in 2008?
RUSH: By the way, what changed 2008 to 2012?
CALLER: I’m listening to him more, listening to it more and getting more information about him.
RUSH: A-ha. Well, is there anything he could do to convince you that you have him misunderstood?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Really?
CALLER: No. Nope. Nope. The sad part about it is if he’s the one that’s nominated I’m going to have vote for him. I don’t want to, I won’t campaign for him, but I will vote for him, but you’re not gonna convince me that he’s gonna get up there and change Obamacare. He is gonna shove it down our throats because he’s for it. He was for it first.
RUSH: But he opens every debate, and he tells everybody, including when he goes to fundraisers to people who have written checks for thousands of dollars, that the first thing he’s gonna do is start out on the process to repeal if it. So you think he’s lying to you right off the bat.
CALLER: You bet I do. You know what lemmings are, don’t you?
RUSH: Yes, of course I know what a lemming is.
CALLER: I think we got a United States full of sheep.
RUSH: Meaning the voters.
CALLER: What I don’t understand is why we go in with Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina. What’s the matter with starting in Texas, these bigger states?
RUSH: You keep knocking it out of the park here. Lemmings are suicidal rats, by the way, if you want to know the truth. And, by the way, we’ve now learned that liberals are for the redistribution of rats, not just your money. In DC, liberals want to redistribute rats. At any rate, you’re echoing the sentiments of a lot of people. Why are we starting with these two puny states? One of them doesn’t even assign delegates at the end of their process, that would be Iowa. Okay, Joanne, I appreciate your call.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Also, in response to Joanne, and I don’t want anybody to make any associations here or any assumptions here. It’s not support, I just want you to know. Mitt Romney gave away his inheritance. He donated his inheritance to BYU’s George W. Romney Institute of Public Management. He joined the board, he was vice chair of the Points of Light Foundation, which had incorporated his father’s National Volunteer Center. So he gave away his inheritance. Newt has said on the stump that he wants to prove himself to his father and his stepfather. He has said that. A lot of people want to prove themselves to their parents. There are a lot of people trying to climb out of the shadows of a famous parent, or even not famous, at least except in the area where one lives.
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