RUSH: Okay, HR, I want you to be ready. We’ll play a couple sound bites here from Alex Castellanos. Alex Castellanos, a well-known, famous, one-of-the-best (never anybody better, in fact) Republican consultants and now analysts. Every time… (interruption) Who did he get elected? Uhhh, I don’t know. He’s just one of the best. That’s why he’s on CNN, and every time we mention him or talk about him, he always has a problem with it. He always e-mails HR (my trusty, valued aide-de-camp, chief of staff, and so forth) demanding something or other. So I just want to warn you, HR, that it’s gonna happen again. Here you go. Alex Castellanos. This is last night during CNN’s coverage of the Democrat National Convention. After Clinton’s speech, Republican strategerist Alex Castellanos said…

CASTELLANOS: You don’t have to come back tomorrow. This convention is done. This will be the moment that probably reelected Barack Obama. Bill Clinton saved the Democratic Party once. It was going too far left. He did it again tonight!

RUSH: So Clinton saved Obama from “going too far left.” No matter what Obama does tonight, people are gonna remember Clinton. Clinton was a great centrist… You know, the last thing this convention really wanted to hear about was bipartisanship. They don’t want to hear that, and Clinton trumpeted and talked about bipartisanship and how he was able to get it. He was slamming Obama on this, by the way, very subtly. You have to know Clinton. You have to know how he operates.

I do.

He was valuating himself way above Obama here, and don’t forget. These are not his exact words, but he made it very clear to this crowd last night. (impression) “Now, look, I know my first four years are great compared to this. It’d be very unfair you to compare these first four years to mine. I wouldn’t want you doing that, even though I’m doing it right here for you. (snickers) I wouldn’t want you in your own mind making a comparison how good I was compared to this, because that wouldn’t be fair.”

Yeah, so here we have a man who is so far left in Barack Obama that he enjoys the prospect of tyranny, and Bill Clinton makes a speech last night and somehow convinces everybody that Obama’s not who he really is. Yes, it’s a centrist party now! I’m telling you, those delegates didn’t want to hear about bipartisanship. They don’t want to hear about getting along with Boehner or getting along with McConnell or getting along with Republicans. They want to cream us! Anyway, that was last night.

Alex Castellanos says you don’t even have to come back tomorrow. Obama doesn’t even have to speak. This convention is done. This will be the moment that they reelected Obama. This morning, after whatever he did last night, Castellanos still thinks the election is over because women voters want to sleep with Bill Clinton. He was talking with Carol Costello on CNN who said, “You had a whole night to sleep on it, Alex. Do you still feel the same way today that you felt last night?”

CASTELLANOS: Yes, I do. I think it’s a powerful moment. Campaign stories and campaigns are told in moments, and this was one that I think will travel. Guys are talking about this on sports radio. “Did you see Bubba last night?” I got a text from a woman I know who said, “I want to sleep with him and vote for him.” So I think it’s a pretty powerful moment.

RUSH: That’s our leading Republican strategerist/analyst, Alex Castellanos. “Guys are talking about this on sports radio. ‘Did you see Bubba last night?'” Well, they’re all bunch of libs on sports media anyway. So Carol Costello takes that, she digests that, and then she tells Alex that she’s worried. She’s worried that Obama can’t outshine Clinton. Clinton was so good that there’s just no way poor little Barry can outshine Clinton. And she worries that may not be good. So she talks about that with Alex.

COSTELLO: He was gonna give his speech in that big football arena, which is perfect for Barack Obama. Now he’s moved indoors where he’s not quite as effective. Because Bill Clinton showed so much charisma last night, is it possible that Barack Obama can make people kind of forget last night happened?

CASTELLANOS: We know Barack Obama. We know he gives great speeches. That’s not what we need from him tonight. If he just does the same thing he always does, people stay where they already are.

COSTELLO: Alex Castellanos, thank you so much for, uh, being with us ’cause I know you had a long night last night. (giggling)

CASTELLANOS: (awkward silence)

RUSH: (laughing) And there was a pregnant pause there of about five seconds before they went to the break. Yeah, there was a pregnant pause of about five seconds before they went to the commercial break when she said, “Thanks for being with us. I know you had a long night last night. Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Pregnant pause, pregnant pause, pregnant pause. He never said a word. They went to commercial break. How does she know he had such “a long night last night,” hmm?

Anyway, the sum total here is she’s worried. By the way, did you know that Obama’s not quite as effective indoors as he is outdoors? Yeah. He gives the same speech over and over, but I’ve never heard this. I’ve never heard that he was not effective making speeches indoors. I’ve never heard that. Carol Costello is terribly worried about moving indoors. “Oh, he’s not quite as effective. Bill Clinton has so much charisma. Is it possible, Alex, that Obama can make people kind of forget Clinton last night?”

And old Alex is right there! He’s a Republican strategist, a REPUBLICAN strategist, and he says, “We know Barack Obama. We know he gives great speeches. That’s not what we need from him tonight. If he just does the same thing he always does, people stay where they already are.” And there you have it! Analysis you can’t get anywhere else but CNN, which is why so few people get their analysis there.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, the whole point… May I be blunt? May I be honest? The whole point of having Bill Clinton speak at the Democrat convention last night was to make people forget Obama. I mean, if you want to get down to brass tacks, that’s what Clinton’s job was: To make people forget Obama and to forget these four years. This was an attempt to get the nostalgic juices flowing, to have people think that Obama and the Democrat Party in the next four years are going to be what was 20 years ago with Bill Clinton.

That’s what last night was all about, but ain’t gonna work. A: Nobody saw Clinton! I’ve got the TV numbers here: 0.9 on the three broadcast networks. The vast majority of the American people didn’t hear Clinton’s speech. I’m not gonna play any of it on this program. People were watching other things, including the football game. Folks, ratings mean something. When you have a 0.9, it not only means that people didn’t watch, it means they didn’t care to watch.

Yet, you listen to Matthews or Carol Costello or when you hear Cokie Roberts coming up, their whole world starts and ends with Bill Clinton. And they think that everybody else is as jazzed and juiced and as into Clinton as they are. It’s why they’re irrational, and it’s why they’re out of touch with this country. It’s why they’re always shocked in most cases after elections. Bill Clinton is from the last century. This convention’s theme is, “Forward!” War on Women and Bill Clinton?

I’m telling you, they have no clue how this is really seen. But nobody saw Clinton’s speech. I’m gonna go even further. We talk about these conventions and these speeches, and the way I do it is for the fun of it, in the moment. The fact is, on Election Day, do you think Clinton’s gonna matter? On Election Day, do you think Bill Clinton or anything he said last night is going to matter? Obama’s speech tonight will not matter! The public is already familiar with both of these guys.

The public knows Clinton (chuckling) in more ways than they can count or wish to, and they’re tired of him, and I believe the country’s tired of Obama. In fact, The Politico has a story today, “The Not-So-Great Communicator.” It’s not just Carol Costello who’s worried about Obama’s speech tonight ’cause he doesn’t do as well indoors. The Politico has a story here and they actually say Obama hasn’t given a good speech since he was elected!

They spend too much time figuring out what to put on the teleprompter instead of how to govern and make decisions. It’s all for show. When they get in a trouble-spot, it’s, “Let’s go make a speech.” Which is why I say on this program, “Speeches don’t create jobs. Speeches don’t feed a hungry child or whatever.” But their solution to everything is a speech, as this convention illustrates. Their solution to everything is a speech! It ain’t gonna matter on Election Day or the day before. People aren’t gonna remember.

People know Obama; they’re tired of him. Politico says his speeches are tired and worn out, and Obama hasn’t had a good one in four years. People aren’t gonna vote based on what Clinton thinks or what Clinton told ’em to do last night. Ditto, Obama. People are gonna vote on what they think about what’s going on in the nation and what they think the future holds, and they’re gonna decide who they believe is best to help the nation and their future — and it ain’t gonna be based on speech.

These consultants and these media types are stuck in a circle of social and professional ignorance of their own making. It’s their own little clique, their own little universe, where they’ve got… Well, call it a playbook. There’s a formula, and everybody plays by it. Everybody in the media plays by it. You can predict what’s gonna happen. You can predict when they’re gonna go to analysis. You can predict when they’re gonna go to the speech. You can predict what the analysis after the speech is gonna be.

We, on this program, go waaaay beyond the conventions — and I don’t mean the convention. I’m talking about conventional boundaries. We go way beyond the formula, and we don’t get caught up in all of the sideshow stuff here that the media hopes you get caught up on. They know, by the way, in addition to all this, that if they can’t convince you that what’s happened in the last four years hasn’t happened, they’re sunk. And the only way they can convince you it hasn’t happened is to blame it on Republicans or whatever.

But they can’t go anywhere near Obama’s record. They can’t touch it. They can’t talk about what he’s gonna do the next four years. They don’t dare go there. They don’t dare touch that. So what are they gonna do? Give speeches, and do analysis after the speeches. With all due respect to Alex Castellanos, this election did not end last night. The election hasn’t happened! The campaign is not over. I’m sorry to put you in this position, HR. You’re gonna get the phone call now demanding equal time.

You tell Alex: I am equal time. He had his time on CNN. He said what he said. He meant to say it. You know, if there’s so much excitement for Clinton, we could sponsor a write-in. You know, Operation Chaos IV: A write-in for Bill Clinton. Well, I know he can’t serve again, but it still would be fun to mess with it.