RUSH: Now, something else happened over the weekend. On the surface, to the casual observer, it’s not a big deal. To me, I think this is big. I think this is indicative of something.
Biden was in Pittsburgh for St. Patrick’s Day and he’s walking the streets and they turn onto Stanwix Street, and he got all these union people out there. That’s who shows up St. Patrick’s Day parade, large part, union people. And it’s a huge crowd in Pittsburgh, and Biden got booed. Big time. Just for showing up and smiling. Now, that is often called something just anecdotal. You can’t attach any scientific meaning to it. But you put it in the mix with everything else that you know is happening such as these devastating poll numbers, and the fundraising nowhere near what they were expecting it to be. And here’s Biden at a St. Patrick’s Day parade getting booed. Here’s the audio sound bite for this. WPXI Eyeball TV news in Pittsburgh. The correspondent here is Brandon Hudson.
HUDSON: The Vice President’s trip was part business, part fun, all about the reelection campaign. But as we followed him on to Stanwix Street, that warm welcome turned cold.
CROWD: (boos and jeers)
HUDSON: A chorus of boos rained down on Biden and his supporters on the last stretch. Still, Biden kept smiling.
RUSH: Oh, of course. He probably didn’t even know they were booing him, he’s so out of it. But they did. And we’ve got Jim in Pittsburgh on the phone. Welcome, sir. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Great show. Let me just say, put a little perspective to this, analyze this. I have a degree in political science. I’m a political junky. I follow every election since 1960. And I’ll tell you what it is. He’s lost the working class, the Reagan Democrats. And I did some research on this. In 1964, LBJ was Macomb County, I think it was Michigan. He won 75% of the vote. In 1984 Reagan won by 35. The difference is the Reagan Democrats are basically working-class people, make $50,000 or less. A lot of them are union. They don’t feel the Democratic Party is attuned to their likes, more to the special interests. And other further support —
RUSH: Jim, let me add something: The Obama campaign has written ’em off. It’s been written in opinion pieces in the Washington Post or the New York Times. They just writing off working-class families. They’re writing off their votes.
CALLER: Oh, yeah, definitely, Rush. And here’s the thing: Because of that long connection… And this is something you talk about all the time: Don’t follow everybody was saying. Everybody’s been saying… Now, I think it doesn’t matter. Whoever gets the nomination, either about Romney or it will be Santorum, they’re gonna kill him. The only way I see Obama… Well, I don’t want to get into that. Here’s the thing. They’re gonna lose ’cause it’s a referendum, but they’ll will lose worse if it’s Santorum, and the reason is he relates more to the working-class people. Give you an example: The poll came out… Two polls, Quinnipiac poll and Public Policy poll. The Public Policy poll is according to James O’Toole, the Post-Gazette you can read the article online.
RUSH: I’ve gotta step in here. I’m outta time. What he was going to say — where he was going with all this, based on his expertise as a political scientist — is he thinks Obama’s will lose in a landslide. That’s where he was headed. It’s his opinion.
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RUSH: Here’s Mike in Lynn, Massachusetts. Mike, thanks for calling. I appreciate your patience, and welcome to the program, sir.
CALLER: Hi. Mass-conservative, Two If By Tea-drinking, cigar-smoking dittos to you Rush.
RUSH: Way to go, sir. You’re a man after my own passions.
CALLER: All right. I have another take on the booing of Biden. I think because he’s such a boob, if you will, that it’s possible that he might not be on the ballot for the vice presidency and they want somebody more extreme. Most people think it might be Hillary, but I think it might be Trumka and that is why the union was booing him. Now, if there was someone else more extreme, maybe they’re using one square in the bathroom.
RUSH: Okay, wait. Hold it a second. I need to get your thinking on this. What does Biden getting booed have to do with whether he’s gonna be on the ticket or not? Because people in Pittsburgh don’t know that.
CALLER: People in Pittsburgh don’t know a lot of things other than football, but I think that he makes so many gaffes, and I think his time is done, and they don’t want to risk any more gaffes by having him slip up and they want someone more extreme than him. He’s just a puppet.
RUSH: Okay, but you think… Well, all vice presidents are puppets. Cheney was a notable exception. But you think the fact that Biden got booed is gonna send the message to Obama: “I’ve gotta get rid of this guy”?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Oh, that’s what you mean. Okay. Well, maybe. Could well be. We will found out. Nothing with Obama would surprise me. Obama will do whatever he has to do to win. Anything, folks. Anything he has to do. He lied in a primetime address to the nation about the debt deal last summer. It was a bald-faced, blatant, arrogant lie, all because that whole thing last summer was oriented toward his reelection. So if Biden has to go, Biden has to go. Biden’s out there saying, by the way, that Obama has a spine of steel. Biden is saying all the right sycophantic things. But look: Pittsburgh is a Democrat town, Pittsburgh is a union town. And here comes Mr. Democrat, Mr. Union, Joe Biden. And this guy gets booed at the St. Patrick’s Day parade?
It’s just an anecdote.
It’s one of those little things that nobody will remember five months from now that could be a real indicator of the public attitude toward Obama from working-class people. Remember, the Obama administration has essentially written them off. We have that in a column by Thomas B. Edsall last December, I believe, in the New York Times. He’s a former Washington Post reporter. He’s now at the Huffing and Puffington Post, and he wrote a piece in the New York Times admitting that part of the Obama reelect strategy was to write off working-class voters. In fact, his story said “white, working-class voters,” white working-class families. They were gonna write them off and not make any effort to get their votes because they’re polling so poorly among that group already.
And make no mistake: Obama is still polling poorly with women.