RUSH: Victor in Atlanta, Georgia. Victor, thank you for waiting. It’s great to have you here with us.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet, sir.
CALLER: Rush, I wanted to just talk about, you know, I hear on the radio sometimes about the enthusiasm in this election. And one of the things that I wanted to share: I’m an African-American living in Dekalb County in the surrounding Atlanta area.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: And, you know, my reality is that I’m working but my wife hasn’t worked for a couple of years. I have a 24-year-old son that was in school last semester working part-time jobs. He’s really discouraged. I’m like, “You know, things are tough out here.” I don’t know about getting together and rallying, but I know that this November when I go to the polls, I can’t endure another couple of years like I’ve just come through. On one hand, you know, we talk about looking for a candidate that’s “exciting.” Rush, I’m having such a tough time dealing what’s going on in my household that I’ve been zapped out of enthusiasm, but I just can’t suffer through another four years of Barack Obama.
RUSH: Nobody else can, either. Let me tell you a story here, Victor, because you’re not alone. I’m gonna illustrate this whole enthusiasm thing for you a certain way. I think people are worried about it. You’re believing media polls about it. You’re believing it. The media is telling us that Republican excitement’s been tamped down ’cause nobody likes Republican field. Let me tell you. I was playing golf almost exactly three, four years ago. A guy from South Carolina who was a Democrat, I was meeting him for the second time, I couldn’t understand him. This guy made no sense to me intellectually. He’s a Democrat. And he kept ragging on George W. Bush, kept making fun of Bush, trying to provoke me.
And I finally said, “What is it with you and Bush? Can we get serious for a minute? What is your problem?”
He looked at me and said, “It can’t get any worse, Rush.”
And I looked at him, and I just shook my head, and I said, “It most certainly can, and it’s going to.”
Now, it is much worse. It’s ten times as worse, Victor, as it was four or five years ago when this guy told me it can’t get any worse. And, by the way, when this guy told me, the economy had not really started it’s outward plunge, he was just reacting to Iraq and the fact everybody thought we had a stupid president. Everybody was embarrassed of Bush’s lack of intelligence, and the media was trying to tell everybody the economy was in the tank, but it wasn’t yet. I was just struck. This is not a dumb guy by any means, and he says, “It can’t get any worse.” His partisanship was overpowering. My point to you, Victor, is 75% of the American people of Super Tuesday exit polls said the number one, two, and three things that matter to them are the economy. You are not only not alone. You are in a majority of 75%, and those same people say and feel the same thing. They don’t want four more years of this, and it won’t matter who the Republican nominee is to ’em. Because they’re going to be voting against Obama first and foremost.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to try something here. It’s very delicate, but I’m going to give it a shot, and it’s aimed at those of you who are lacking confidence over the possibility of beating Obama. We just heard from Victor in Atlanta, and despite what is real, Victor is convinced… Well, he’s not convinced, but he’s very frightened that the enthusiasm to dump Obama is fading on our side. Now, there’s been an event that happen last weekend, and it’s had legs, and it’s gone on throughout this entire week. It was an event which ended up being directed out of the White House when it was all said and done. And it’s safe to say that this event has backfired on them.
Everything they hoped to accomplish this week, they’ve not accomplished. They might have 25 years ago, but they haven’t. They, on the left, are now being forced by an army of people on the right to comport themselves to the same standards that they are demanding of others, and that’s going to put a real crimp in their style. Remember, when I apologized I said one aspect of what I had done wrong was I descended to their level. And I meant to emphasize that. I descended to their level. That’s what was, among other things, wrong about it. But it was a one-time thing for me. They live there. Now they’ve been called on it.
Kirsten Powers at Fox News, with the couple of columns that she has written on the double standard, she deserves a Medal of Valor. She deserves a huge medal. I don’t want to spend too much time. She’s already in enough trouble with people on her side. But it’s obvious it isn’t bothering her. No, I’m not trying to speak in code. I’m just trying to let things remain where they are. But the fact of the matter is you talk about enthusiasm? I’ve seen it. The enthusiasm that’s out there on the right, on our team, I’m telling you: It’s at an all-time high. IF… I say “IF” with a capital I-F.
IF that enthusiasm had started to wane, the media and the Democrats have ginned it back up to higher levels than it ever has been since the Tea Party days of 2010. It’s back, folks. Trust me. Don’t doubt me. I am fully aware. The enthusiasm is there. The energy is there on the part of people on our side, all over this country. There is shellshock on the left. They thought this was the time. This was the gonna be that moment when they finally succeeded. Right now they’re sitting out there in stunned confusion trying to figure out why it hasn’t happened, why am I still here. Again, I don’t mean to be cryptic, but your level of understanding on this is already quite high. I’m just telling you:
It might have been Breitbart people, I forget who it was, with camera and microphone — and they would not condemn any of the language from any of their favorite people on the left. No, no, totally different! Oh, you mean so it’s okay for Sarah Palin to be called the C-word as long as the guy calling her the C-word is pro-choice, essentially? Their hypocrisy has been illustrated triumphantly and in great klieg lights and is on display every week. I apologized for behaving like a Democrat. They can’t apologize for that, because they are. They’re there every day. I apologized for behaving like a liberal. They live there.
They always overreach. They always throw gasoline on our fire (which is crazy, given the price of gasoline). But if you think the enthusiasm level’s down, these people essentially set our hair on fire this week. So don’t doubt the enthusiasm. And you see the exit polling data: 75% coming out of Super Tuesday polling places said their number one issue is the economy. Number two issue, economy. Number three issue, economy. You couldn’t find contraception anywhere on the left. You couldn’t find a war on women. It wasn’t there.
Even the women coming out… It’s a Republican primary, obviously, but Republican women are women. They care about the economy, and they know the economy is not roaring back.And they know everything they’ve been hearing from the media and from Obama from the White House about a roaring economy is not true. And, Victor, they’re just like you. Their husbands, they themselves have spent two years without a job. No prospects. They don’t want two more years of this, don’t want four more years of this. Seventy-five percent of this country does not want four more years of this or another day of it!
Don’t doubt me.