RUSH: Let me give you an example of what I mean when I say that it’s great that we have a campaign now that’s gonna be based on ideas, ideology. Let’s go to Norfolk Saturday morning at the retired battleship USS Wisconsin. (That’s how it could be used. It’s a museum now.) This is the introductory moment for Paul Ryan, and we’ve got three sound bites.

RYAN: America is more than just a place, though. America is an idea.

AUDIENCE: Yeah! Yes! (applause)

RYAN: It’s the only country founded on an idea. Our rights come from nature and God, not from governments.

AUDIENCE: (roaring applause)

RYAN: We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.

AUDIENCE: (roaring applause)

RYAN: And this idea was founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, self-determination, and government by consent of the governed.

AUDIENCE: (roaring applause)

RYAN: This idea is under assault.

RUSH: Now, to you — some of you — that may be, “Ho hum. What’s special about that?” When’s the last time you heard a Republican say those things? When is the last time you heard a Republican who’s not on the radio say, “Our rights come from God, not from government”? When’s the last time you heard somebody talking about “equal opportunity, not equal outcomes,” principles of liberty and freedom? When is the last time you heard it? We talk about that every day, amongst ourselves. We talk about it on this radio program practically every day. So it’s nothing new to you.

But it’s not often stated nationally by very many people in the Republican Party.

Here’s the next bite..

RYAN: So we have a critical decision to make as a nation. We are on an unsustainable path that is robbing America of our freedom and security. It doesn’t have to be this way. The commitment Mitt Romney and I make to you is this: We won’t duck the tough issues; we will lead.

AUDIENCE: (applause)

RYAN: We won’t blame others; we will take responsibility!

AUDIENCE: (applause)

RYAN: And we won’t replace our founding principles; we will reapply them.

RUSH: We will not “transform” anything. And then there was this…

RYAN: I hear people say that this is just “the new normal.”

AUDIENCE: Noooooo!

RYAN: Higher unemployment, declining incomes, and crushing debt is not a new normal.

AUDIENCE: (applause)

RYAN: It is the result of misguided policies. And next January, our economy will begin a comeback with the Romney Plan for a Stronger Middle Class that will lead to more jobs and more take-home pay for working Americans.

AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)

RYAN: I’m proud to stand with a man who understands what it takes to foster job creation in our economy. Someone who knows from experience that if you have a small business, you did build that!

AUDIENCE: (roaring applause)

RUSH: Right on, right on, right on! Saturday morning, Fox News Channel’s special coverage of Romney’s announcement that Ryan was his running mate, Bret Baier turned to Charles Krauthammer about the announcement. He said, “As you look at the imagery,” Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in Norfolk, “your thoughts and what this ticket really symbolizes?”

KRAUTHAMMER: The shifting grounds, the dynamic of the debate — the argument from stewardship, from who can do a better job — to ideas. He wants to make the debate about the philosophy of government and the policies that then follow it. They’re now running on what is essentially an argument, “no” to the status quo. It’s a complete reversal of 2008. Obama in 2008 was “Hope and change! You don’t like status quo? We’ve got ideas.” Change is now on the side of the Republicans.

RUSH: That’s one way of looking at it. Here, let’s squeeze Obama in here from yesterday in Chicago at a fundraiser.

OBAMA: Yesterday morning my opponent chose his running mate, the ideological leader of the Republicans in Congress, Mr. Paul Ryan, and I want to congratulate —

FOLLOWERS: (booing)

OBAMA: No, no, no, no. Look, I want to congratulate Congressman Ryan. I know him, I welcome him to the race.

FOLLOWERS: (angry muttering)

OBAMA: Congressman Ryan is a decent man. He is a family man. He is an articulate spokesman for Governor Romney’s vision. But it’s a vision that I fundamentally disagree with. They have tried this before. They have tried to sell us this trickle-down fairy dust before.

FOLLOWERS: (snickering)

OBAMA: And guess what? It did not work.

RUSH: It did!

FOLLOWERS: (applause)

OBAMA: It … did not work.

RUSH: It did work! It did work. It works every time it’s tried. What isn’t working, sir, is you and your ideas. Your ideas are not fairy dust; your ideas are garbage.