RUSH: This is gonna be fun. This is the alternate universe. This is where this is the most momentous media appearance since Churchill, perhaps! Last night on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 14, he spoke with Republican strategerist Alex Castellanos — Republican strategerist, inside-the-Beltway Republican strategist — and Cooper said, “How do you think Obama’s announcement on gay marriage…? How think it plays out there, Alex?”
CASTELLANOS: There are some Reagan Democrats out there, some guys with names on their work shirts who, uh, are gonna think the president’s culturally different from them. He’s putting, uh, something on the line there for something he believes he’s come to believe in, and that’s important. More downside than upside politically for the president. You’ve gotta admire him for that.
RUSH: Why do we have to admire him? What…? Let me translate what Alex said here. When he says, “There’s some Reagan Democrats, guys with names on their work shirts,” these are union guys. They’re blue-collar people with the name “Bud” over the left pocket, and they’re not gonna dig this. Alex is saying these people, these real men of America ain’t gonna dig this. But Obama, “He’s putting, uh, something on the line there for something he believes he’s come to believe in…”
So Alex buys this “evolution” garbage. Alex, says (translated): “Oh, man! He’s finally come to believe it. You know what? We have to applaud Obama for doing something that’s going to hurt him politically.” All right. (clapping) I’m applauding Obama for doing something to hurt himself. (clapping) What a courageous act. (clapping) I told you I’m in a foul humor today. Let’s applaud! What a courageous act. He only got… What did he get, a million dollars in the first 90 minutes? Let’s go back to timeline. It’s one of the reasons I’m cynical about this.
Look at the timeline here. We know the New York Times has been obsessed for years with promoting the gay agenda, particularly gay marriage. It’s their number one cause, bar none. Gay rights, number one cause, New York Times. Nothing even close. Then out of the blue, a couple of weeks ago the New York Times’ public editor warned Obama (and we told you about it when it happened) that they were going to take a hard look at him. The Times was gonna take a hard look at his record.
They ran a story saying, “Four years ago we didn’t vet you. We’re gonna vet you now.” We laughed at it, we made fun of it here, but they still published it. They published a warning to Baraka Hussein Obama! Mmm! Mmm! Mmm! that the Times was gonna take a hard look at his record. That’s a couple of weeks ago. Then two days, a couple of days ago, the Washington Post pointed out that 20%, one out of five of Obama’s top bundlers are openly gay — and that they are withholding donations because of Obama’s stance on gay marriage.
So 20% of Obama’s money was on the sidelines, 20% of the people raising money were on the sidelines just two or three days ago because of Obama’s stance on gay marriage. The Washington Post also reported how one of these bundlers, who is also the head of the most militant gay activist organization, the Human Rights Campaign, buttonholed Biden over his position on gay marriage. And it was that exact conversation that Biden had with the militant gay activist guy, one of Obama’s bundlers…
It was that conversation that Biden later related to NBC when he said he was comfortable with same-sex marriage. New York Times story two weeks ago: We are going to vet you. Washington Post: 20% of Obama’s bundlers are gay and they’re withholding their money and they’re not raising money. Biden ends up somewhere with one of those bundlers, who is a militant gay leftist activist, and he basically warns Biden that the community isn’t happy. Biden goes on NBC and says, “You know, I’m happy, I’m comfortable now. I think there’s no problem here.”
But now we’re being told that Biden forced Obama’s hand. Everywhere you look today, that’s the template. That’s the lie. That’s the spin. And they can get away with it because it is something that Biden would do. He’s known as Mr. Gaffe. You remember Biden in St. Louis. There was an elected official, Chuck somebody. Chuck was in a wheelchair. Biden looks at him sitting and says, “Stand up, Chuck! Let’s hear it for Chuck! Stand up. Oh, my God. God bless you, Chuck. Oh, yeah, what a great guy! Chuck can’t stand. Let’s everybody else stand up for Chuck.”
So it’s entirely understandable that Biden could go on Meet the Press and go rogue, and that’s the story today. (But that’s not what happened.) They say Biden goes rogue, and then the pressure is on and the media starts asking the spokeskid, “Well, what’s Obama’s position?” The spokeskid stumbles around and hems and haws and doesn’t know what to say. And we’re told that Obama’s really, really struggling with this (psssht!) Obama’s really, really been wrestling with this! Oh, he’s just agonizing over this. What Biden did, the whole question!
Not agonizing over the loss of money, not agonizing over the fact the bundlers are sitting on it and not raising any money, not agonizing over the real issues. No. He is agonizing over a position on gay marriage. Oh, it’s so stressful. It’s all that’s on his mind! It’s the only thing he can think about. He’s pressured. He knows he hasn’t had enough guts up ’til now. He knows that he has to come to full evolution. That’s the story that was put out. When in fact this whole thing is a script that was written a couple weeks ago that has been, I’d have to say, pretty much flawlessly executed.
Then Obama puts out this emergency call to ABC: “Send me your toughest journalist. Uh, no, no. Send me Robin Roberts. She’s good friends with Michelle. They trade recipes. We can work with her.” And there’s a story out there that actually says that. They wanted Robin Roberts ’cause she’s easy. And, meanwhile, Robin Roberts is taking kudos, “What a get, babe, what a get.” They picked her because she’s easy. Can you imagine? Tom Brokaw, he wouldn’t go. His generation news guys, leftist though they might have been, if he found out that some president picked him because he was easy, he’d send somebody else. So woulda Jennings. Even Dan Rather would have. Certainly Cronkite. But now it’s kudos. What a get, Robin. I have to tell you, great, great, great performance, babe, oh-ho, you really hit a home run there. Kudos all over the place.
(interruption) Robin? She should enjoy being a celebrity. I mean if you can’t take advantage of your friendship with the first family, what good’s the job?
Anyway, so she goes up there and works hard. It takes all of five seconds to get that tough answer out of Obama, in which he doesn’t say anything different, nothing new, and my God, folks, the orgasms that happened last night and today over nothing.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back, by the way, Rush Limbaugh here on the cutting edge, having more fun than human being should be allowed to have.
Don’t misunderstand me. I really like Robin Roberts. I’ve known her for years. She interviewed me way back in the nineties. She was still at ESPN, and she came into the city, interviewed me after my television show once. And I remember she was genuinely — I mean, she didn’t really know who I was. I mean she had the public image of conservative, so that meant to her racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe. She had no idea of my passion for and knowledge of sports, and she was pleasantly surprised. And she’s invited me to be on Good Morning America, Kit could tell you, H.R. could tell you, I don’t know how many times in the last two years. I just don’t accept any of the invitations. But I’ve got nothing against her.
You know, I live in Realville, and we’re in the middle of this giant spin thing, and there isn’t any journalism anymore. It’s just a bunch of celebrities. Some of them are on the top rung. Some of them are on the next rung, and some of them are on the lower rung and they’re all trying to get to the top rung of the celebrity ladder, not the journalism ladder. Honestly, there are these additional reasons why they chose Robin Roberts. Jake Tapper, ABC, not an enemy network, it’s Robin Roberts’ network. Calls her “woman of the hour.” The Politico says a producer at ABC told them the White House went with Robin Roberts because of her personal rapport, their friendship, past interviews, but also her race and her age.
So I’m Robin Roberts and the president wants me ’cause I’m 51, I’m black, I’m friendly. Basically I’m being summoned to be a foil, to act like a journalist when really what shoulda been done is a press conference. Why bring a journalist into this scam? But she wanted to be part of it, and in her world, in the world of journalism in America today, this was a big coup to be picked by the White House because, what, you’ll be easy? You know, I’ll tell you something else. One of the strongest demographics opposing same-sex marriage is black women. There’s a bunch of strategery here in picking Robin Roberts. Here, we could squeeze this in. George Stephanopoulos says to her: “When the president speaks out for the first time like that, Robin, like he did with you, why, Robin, you were there, it’s history.”
ROBERTS: And let me tell you, George, I’m getting chills again, because when you’re sitting in that room and you hear him say those historic words, it was not lost on anyone that was in the room like that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And you didn’t know going in.
ROBERTS: No.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You knew he was gonna address this, but you didn’t know exactly what he was gonna say?
ROBERTS: You never know what —
RUSH: Come on.
ROBERTS: — he’s actually gonna say until you ask him.
RUSH: Give us a break. Didn’t know why you were summoned? This is why you guys are losing. You want us to believe you didn’t know why you were summoned, what the subject was? You didn’t know he was going to say nothing new about gay marriage?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I have Cookie tracking down this little sound bite blurb. I’ll read to you again here quickly. We’ll throw it in with the rest of the excerpts, the outtakes from this hard-hitting, wide-ranging, tough-to-get interview Robin Roberts had with Barack Obama yesterday, but he said… She’s asking him about Biden, and Obama said: Well, Joe did get “out a little bit, uh, over his skis,” meaning: Yeah, Joe’s off the reservation. He’s out there cavorting with Elizabeth Warren, and he forgot where he was for a minute.
This is what Obama said to Robin Roberts: “I had already made a decision that we were probably going to take this position before the election, before the convention,” meaning that same-sex marriage should take place. That’s all he said yesterday, by the way. I can’t emphasize that enough. All you people writing checks, you might want to call the bank. Well, I’m just trying to help. All he did was say that the states have sway over this. Nothing has really changed. You people writing checks to Obama, you ought to read the New York Times lead editorial today.
They know.
They’re not happy with what happened yesterday.
Anyway, Obama says, “I had already made a decision. We were gonna probably take this position before the election, before the convention.” Well, now, wait a minute. I thought he was “evolving.” I thought he was in the White House sitting in a room there evolving. They painted this picture of Obama deep in thought, struggling — a mental struggle! “Should I or should I not come out for gay marriage? Should I or should I not?” For days. For days on end! Finally, he consulted with his two daughters. (What they know about it, I don’t know.) He consulted with Moochelle. (What she knows about it, I don’t know.)
But whatever they told him…
This is the story he tells Robin Roberts yesterday, and it went over her head or through her head or whatever. The whole point of the interview yesterday was to make this big announcement. He’s telling her, “Yeah, we’d made up our minds we were gonna announce this at some point.” You know, the real thing you people writing checks to Obama today should ask? You should have one big question: “Where the hell were you, pal, before North Carolina? If you’d already made up your mind you were gonna say this, why not say it before North Carolina and maybe try to impact the outcome there, instead of giving up and letting that state reaffirm its ban on gay marriage?”
I’m just trying to help. All of you writing the checks had better really ask yourselves what you expect to get and what you have gotten in this regard, on this issue. Because today from yesterday, there’s no change, other than a bunch of media people saying history has been made. If this is how you make history, I never knew it was so easy. A president comes out and says something… We’ve got, by the way, the Obama timeline. Politico has actually categorized and has links here of all Obama’s flip-flops, Obama’s positions on gay marriage.
In 1996, Obama was for it. He was not an elected official. He was reading Saul Alinsky or studying Saul Alinsky or whatever. He was agitating. In 1998, he announced he was undecided on gay marriage. And there’s a link to it here. Just don’t doubt me. This is all Politico stuff here. In 2004, quote, “I am not a supporter of gay marriage.” Why was this statement yesterday even necessary? Because all of his public statements leading up to yesterday were that he was opposed to it.
So he had to come out.
He was “evolving,” you see.
So in 1996, he’s for it. In 1998, he’s undecided. In 2004, he’s not a supporter of gay marriage. In 2006, “he was reminded to remain open to the possibility that his unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided.” He was “reminded to remain open to the possibility that his unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided” in 2006. In 2008, he said, “Marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman.” That’s April of 2008. In November 2008, “he said he was ‘not in favor of gay marriage.'” “In 2009, he was for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.”
And by the way, he made a statement yesterday about DOMA, and he mispronounced it. I don’t know if he did this on purpose. He called it “the Defense Against Marriage Act.” He did. He called it the Defense Against Marriage Act yesterday. It could have just been a Freudian slip. In 2009, “Obama was for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.” In 2008, “He was not in favor of it.” And in 2010 he “admitted to an ‘evolving’ attitude toward same-sex marriage.” The point is he’s been all over the board on this issue.
See how easy people get played?
See how easy the media narrative or template is to create and have everybody follow?
All these people writing checks today do not know that he’s been all over the ballpark on this. And for the most part, in 2006, he said he was for it. He’s nothing but a John Kerry. “I was before it before I was against it.” Here’s the bite. It’s on Good Morning America today. He wants to have it both ways. This is the question: “Vice President Biden’s revelation he was absolutely comfortable with same-sex marriage. Did he jump the gun a little bit there, Mr. President?
OBAMA: (haltingly) I had already made a decision that we were gonna probably take this position before the, uhh — before the election, and before the convention. Uh, he probably got out a little bit, uh, over his skis. Uhhh, but out of generosity of spirit.
RUSH: If I had been conducting the interview and if I had my wits about me… A lot of people interviewing the president, sometimes they’re in awe and they get dazzled. Let’s admit it. People are people and the president’s the president. The Office of the Presidency is the Office of the Presidency. They’re in there in the Oval Orifice, and you know what’s gone on in there, and you’re walking the grounds and the cameras are there and so forth. So you are there. You’re there. You have been summoned as the preferred journalista.
You have been summoned because you’re a friend of the family. You’re black, you’re 51… This is Politico. I’m not saying this. Politico is quoting an ABC producer as to why the White House wanted Robin Roberts. She’s 51, she’s black, and she’s a friend of the family. So it would not be a challenging interview. So you know you’re there. You’re there and history is going to be made! (Gasp!) For the first time ever, the president of these United States is gonna say he’s in favor of gay marriage. But he hadn’t said it. That’s why you’re there.
It’s the biiiig announcement.
And then the president says, “Yeah, I’d already made a decision about this a while ago. I don’t know when. It could have been the day before, two weeks ago, whatever, but I already made a decision that we were gonna take this position before the election, before the convention.” Now, stop and think of those words: “take this position.” So he told Robin Roberts, “Yeah, you’re here for me to announce gay marriage, but, you know what? I decided it already. I just haven’t told the public yet. You’re here to help me spin this.”
He didn’t say that to her. He didn’t say, “Yeah, I’ve evolved! I’ve really thought about it, and it’s in my heart, Robin. I think we’ve been discriminating against these people for way too long. It is time. I’m gonna do everything I can to see to it that all these restrictions on gay marriage are lifted and gay people get married. It’s a matter of federal law!” He didn’t do that. He didn’t do that at all. He said, “Yeah, we decided that we’re probably going to take this position.”
It’s a calculation.
It’s a pure calculation.
Here’s Stephanopoulos. Let’s keep going with the sound bites because these are funny. This is Stephanopoulos, Diane Sawyer on World News Tonight last night. Diane Sawyer said, “[Recycliiiiiiiiiing!] We heard what the president told Robin. How about it? Did the Vice President really freelance on this? It wasn’t really a plan?” History was made, George! How about it? Did the vice president really freelance on this, though? It wasn’t really a plan, George? It wasn’t really a plan? George, you would know. I know you work here, but you ran Democrat campaigns, so you would know. Did Biden really freelance or was it part of a plan?
STEPHANOPOULOS: (snidely) Oh, this was NOT a plan! There’s no way this was a plan. If… This is a matter of core conviction the president said today, and, uh, duh, um, a key issue where his — his thinking has evolved. You wouldn’t send someone else out to make that decision. But I do think what it did is show how the president’s position had been untenable, that you couldn’t seem to be evolving through an election campaign where this is gonna come up at the convention —
RUSH: I’ve heard enough. None of this matters. Obama just said in the interview, “We’d already decided to take this position before the election.” George, I know I’m not the only one that hears these things. No, it couldn’t have been a plan. There was no way, Diane, no way this was a plan. You just heard Obama say, “We had already decided to take the position before the election, before the convention.” George, was your birth control question to Mitt Romney back on January 7, was that a plan? Or did that just happen? Stephanopoulos asked Romney, (paraphrasing) “Do you think states should ban conception?” Romney said, “What? I thought you were gonna ask me about my high school pranks. You’re asking me about contraception? Nobody’s talking about contraception.” “Well, I am, and I want to know. Because there’s a plan here to trip you people up on it.” Okay. So it couldn’t have been a plan, folks, it couldn’t. Stephanopoulos, no way, Obama said on their own air they’d already decided to take the position. The next bite yesterday afternoon, CNN newsroom. This is a montage of the infobabe Brooke Baldwin reporting about Obama’s pronouncement about gay marriage.
BALDWIN: Breaking news here. The president is now speaking up. His evolution has finished when it comes to equal rights and marriage. Breaking news. President Obama supports full equality when it comes to marriage. Breaking historic news now. We’re hearing that the president officially finished his evolution. Stunning news today.
RUSH: Do you believe this?
BALDWIN: President Obama making a historic statement here today with respect to same-sex marriage.
RUSH: He finished his evolution. What does that look like? Let me tell you something. So Obama says, “Well, in the White House, I’m still evolving.” Okay, so the news media, okay, he’s evolving, evolution. It’s reported that way. So the White House sends up the pink smoke coming out of the chimney there in the White House. The media gets the message, “He’s finished evolving. We’ve got a position.” It’s like a butterfly now. “We have a position! Oh, hallelujah! Say what it is!” Flip Wilson’s church of What’s Happening Now. We’ve got a decision, breaking news, the president has officially finished his evolution. What a bunch… I can’t be the only one. Do you realize the trained seal you have to be to report that, to put it on the prompter that way for an anchorette to read? Let’s keep going. Shep Smith, Shepard Smith over at Fox News yesterday afternoon, Studio B, Shepard Smith, during a discussion about Obama’s completed evolution on gay marriage.
SMITH: The President of the United States, now in the twenty-first century. And what I’m most curious about is whether it’s your belief that in this time of rising debts and medical issues and all the rest, if Republicans would go out on a limb and try to make this a campaign issue while sitting very firmly, without much question, on the wrong side of history on it.
RUSH: So Shep Smith, he’s asking Bret Baier, the host of Special Report with Bret Baier, asking, “Hey, Bret, so are the Republicans gonna keep talking about the economy or are they gonna talk about — ’cause they’re obviously on the wrong side of history.” The Republicans are on the wrong side of history. The country has finally hit the twenty-first century, according to Shep Smith. Republicans, without much question, on the wrong side of history on this issue, without much question at all. Shep, where’s the issue won? Where has it emerged victorious, Shep, outside your house? Where has this issue won an election? What state? Tell me where it’s happened. Even California. Anyway, here’s Bret Baier’s response to Shep Smith saying the Republicans are on the wrong side of history on this, twenty-first century.
BAIER: I don’t know about that. You point to the Gallup poll, 50-48; it’s very close. And, you’re right, there has been an evolution on people’s thinking. But you still look at 32 states, when put to a vote, a referendum in those states, and the most recent, of course, last night in North Carolina, 32 states voted to ban same-sex marriage. So those are voters going to the polls, even in California, making that choice. So I don’t know if you can say because of this Gallup poll that electorally it is a perfect position for a candidate to run on.
RUSH: Exactly right. What are you gonna look at, Shep? You wanna look at the polls or you wanna look at the votes? Shep, did you even hear what he said? Nothing’s changed. It’s still up to the hicks and the hayseeds in the states.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I think Obama’s on the wrong side of history. He’s on the wrong side of history on Obamacare. He’s on the wrong side of history even on this. These polls, come on, folks. The telephone rings, somebody on the phone. “We’re calling today to ask about gay marriage. Do you believe it’s proper and fair and even okay to discriminate against homosexuals who want to get married or you think it –” “No, no, no. No. I don’t discriminate against anybody.” They hang up and they get counted as supporting gay marriage. There’s a disconnect here. You have all these public opinion polls, gay marriage overwhelmingly popular, but yet it can’t get close to winning an election.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I just got a note from my good friend, the Fish God, Steve Abernathy. He raises tilapia, which is an Egyptian fish, raises ’em for restaurants. And one of the things that he does is he changes male fish to female fish so that there will be more fish ’cause he wants as many tilapia as he can to sell ’em. He told me how he biogenetically engineers this. I went to his fish farm down near New Orleans, and he showed me this, so I called him the Fish God. “My God, you’re tampering with tilapia genetics here.” He said, “Yep, it’s what I do.”
He just sent me a note, said: “Somebody explain to me when, in the entire history of mankind, has marriage not been defined as a union between a man and a woman. Anybody have an answer to that?” When in the entire history of mankind has marriage not been defined as a union between a man and a woman? And yet, let’s go to the audio, a short little montage about finally Obama is on the right side of history and, of course, the Republicans are on the wrong side of history.
GRANDERSON: Welcome to the right side of history, Mr. President.
BOXER: He’s on the right side of history.
JORDAN: The right side of history.
WOLFSON: The President of the United States is on the right side of history.
RUSH: Right. Well, yes, polygamist cultures, I understand, but when in human history has marriage meant something other than a union of males and females? It hasn’t. It has not. Why are you staring at me with your mouth wide open? What have you got against the Spartans? What do you think the Spartans did? I’m talking marriage, not sex. Marriage. Am I the only one? You know, it’s gotten to the point I send e-mails to people, and the subject line: “Please really read this so I don’t have to send it again.” Every e-mail almost is preceded by a plea from me, please read the whole thing, maybe twice, before asking me a question that’s answered here already. The question, so the right side of history? My point, the right side of history? When in human history has marriage not been the union of a man and a woman? That’s all I’m asking.
Oh, and, folks, one other little side observation today. It’s Thursday. Do you know that new unemployment numbers came out today. You didn’t know that? I wonder why. I wonder why you haven’t heard anything about the unemployment numbers today. Yeah. I think applications for new unemployment benefits were down a thousand, which is a rounding error. It’s news that is fit to be hidden. Nobody’s talking about it. The Drive-Bys aren’t talking about it. Nobody’s talking about it.