RUSH: Grab audio sound bite number three. The Limbaugh Theorem. Obama has pretty much admitted it. There is a story in the New York Times today — well, actually yesterday — by Annie Lowrey: “President Adopts Catchphrase to Describe Proposed Recipe for Economic Revival.” The story is, and there’s an accompanying story in the New York Times, and the headline on that one is: “Obama Seeking to Take Credit and Set Course for Economy.”

So what is happening, Obama is preparing to hit the campaign trail again, this time focusing on the economy. And the stories conflict a little because one of them illustrates that Obama is gonna hit the campaign trail to once again run against Washington. Folks, it’s the Limbaugh Theorem being played out right before your very eyes on the economy. Obama is gonna start campaigning on two things: The economy is starting to come back, but he’s gonna get in gear now and really cement this recovery and make it catch fire. But he’s going to distance himself from any of the negative aspects of it as though he’s had nothing to do with it, which is what the Limbaugh Theorem states. And he talked about this last night in Washington at an Organizing for Action summit. This is his website. The old website was Organizing for America. This is Organizing for Action, same website, different name, has the same purpose. It keeps alive Obama’s appearance of campaigning instead of governing. He was at this rally last night to get these people all worked up, and here is what he said.

OBAMA: It’s gonna be the kickoff to what is essentially several months of us trying to get Washington and the press to refocus on the economy. It will be a pretty good speech. (laughter) But, as we’ve learned, I’ve given some pretty good speeches before. (laughter) And then things still get stuck here in Washington. Which is why I’m gonna need your help. How do we keep people involved. Naturally it’s not going to be as full of razzmatazz as the campaign.

RUSH: So he’s just admitting it now. He’s just admitting that Limbaugh Theorem. He’s going to campaign against Washington, but he’s worried that he’s not gonna be able to recapture that old campaign magic. The people may not faint. “It’s gonna be the kickoff so what is essentially several months of us trying to get Washington and the press to refocus on the economy.” He is Washington! If you have not been able grasp the Limbaugh Theorem, this is it. Here we have the president, he’s been president for four and a half years, let’s call it five. He has implemented and authored countless policies that have affected the economy in an adverse way, destroyed it. It’s shrinking. Jobs have been lost. No real jobs are being created. Most of the jobs that are created are part-time jobs. But he’s had nothing to do with it. He’s upset by it.

And so now he’s gonna start a campaign to get Washington and the media to start paying attention to this, because they haven’t been paying attention to it, nobody’s cared enough. It’s as though he’s not even been in Washington. He hasn’t been president. He has had no policies. And in this way, the low-information voters are convinced that Obama cares about ’em and Obama is working hard for ’em, but there are these powerful forces made up of the media and others in Washington who just don’t care. And they’re not paying attention. And so by golly, by gosh Obama has gotta get back out there on the campaign trail to get people to care about it again. Limbaugh Theorem. He’s admitting it now.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: What you have to remember here is that Obama — well, we’re supposed to believe that he’s trying to get the economy going while he’s driving energy prices through the roof. He’s not ending his war on oil. He’s not ending his war on coal. He’s not ending his war on conventional energy, which would help this economy more than anything. Liz Cheney said it yesterday on this program. You go to South Dakota where they’ve got a boom, Keystone pipeline.

So we are supposed to believe that Obama is trying to get the economy going, because there are powerful forces out there that have been standing in the way. He just said it. It’s gonna be several months of us trying to get Washington and the press to refocus on the economy. What an insult. The guy has been implementing economic policies, good and bad. Well, there haven’t been any good. He’s been denying good ones, implementing bad ones, for nearly five years, and he’s out there campaigning and telling these doofuses at his organization that it’s time to get focused on the economy, it’s time to make them focus. It’s the most amazing thing, and he gets away with it, and the only way he gets away with it is because he has a slavish, sycophantic media.

First from the New York Times, Michael D. Shear and Jonathan Weisman. “President Obama is restarting a major effort this week to focus public attention on the American economy.” Attention New York Times. The American public has been focused on this since this man took office. This is all the American public cares about. The American public doesn’t care about the royal baby. The American public doesn’t care so much about this Zimmerman case. The American public doesn’t care about all these distractions. The American public, moms and dads, families, care about the economy. The idea that the president is gonna go on another endless campaign to focus public attention on the economy is absurd. But listen to what’s written next in this story.

“President Obama is restarting a major effort this week to focus public attention on the American economy, a strategy aimed at giving him credit for the improving job market and lifting his rhetoric beyond the Beltway squabbles that have often consumed his presidency.”

This, ladies and gentlemen, could be the most cynical wrinkle in Obama’s use of the Limbaugh Theorem yet. In effect, the president of the United States is going to pretend that the economy has rebounded tremendously since the Great Recession and that his policies are responsible for everything that’s, quote, unquote, good. Meanwhile, anything bad, such as high unemployment, or the low growth rate of the economy, is going to be blamed on Republicans who are blocking his policies through gridlock. He’s gonna go out there and he’s gonna take credit for what he’s going to claim is a major recovery, and he’s going to say it could be even better if the Republicans would just start working with him. Same old saw. Republicans, partisan. Republicans, uncooperative. Republicans, unhelpful.

He’s going to claim it’s his policies that are responsible for everything good. Meanwhile, anything bad is due to the Republicans. This may rank as Obama’s biggest big lie so far. And that’s really saying something. The New York Times, if you read the whole story, admits it’s a very dangerous approach for him to take, but I don’t understand that. What’s he got to worry about here? I mean, who in the news media’s gonna call him out on this? Nobody’s gonna call him out on this like I am right now. (interruption) What do you mean you have to be stupid to believe it? All he’s gotta do is claim credit for it, the press is gonna give him credit for it, and low-information voters are gonna celebrate it. What do you mean you gotta be stupid? The country is stupid. That’s why he’s getting away with it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to stick, for just a little while longer, to Obama’s campaign to focus your attention and my attention and the media’s attention on the economy. Even the president himself said (we just played the sound bite) to one of his website groups last night, he’s gonna start this multi-week campaign — actually, several months. He’s going to spend several months trying to get “Washington” and the press to refocus on the economy, as though…

Folks, as H.R. said: You’ve got to be really stupid to believe all this. Here again, the first of two New York Times stories. “President Obama is restarting…” What’s this “restarting”? This guy has been actively destroying US economy since he took office. Anyway, “President Obama is restarting a major effort this week to focus public attention on the American economy, a strategy aimed at giving him credit for the improving job market and lifting his rhetoric beyond the Beltway squabbles that have often consumed his presidency.”

The moment when I first read that, H.R. shouted in the IFB, “Who’s gonna be stupid enough to believe that?”

Well, who would be stupid enough to buy Obama and what he’s done for any of the last five years? But up until recent polling data showing his approval rating in decline, people have believed it. Whatever he said, they have believed, at least a majority of Americans have. This is what’s been so puzzling. (interruption) I know he was underwater on the economy for a long time, but his approval numbers weren’t.

Look, it’s not just economy.

If you ask the American people issue by issue by issue, a majority of the American people oppose every agenda item Obama has. Obamacare, amnesty, you name it. A majority oppose it, and yet his approval numbers were sky-high. The American people in polling data would say they disagreed with the direction of the country, that they disagreed with his agenda, but his job performance numbers were sky-high, which meant that people did not associate Obama with what was happening.

They didn’t associate his policies with his agenda, and that gave birth to the Limbaugh Theorem to explain it. So what Obama has now done is admit the Limbaugh Theorem last night (not by name, of course), and he’s going to start a multi-month campaign to get “Washington” and the press refocused on the economy. As I say, folks, this is gonna be the most cynical wrinkle in his use of the Limbaugh Theorem yet.

He’s going to pretend that the economy has rebounded tremendously.

This whole bit, “refocus on the economy”? That’s all most people have been focused on! Everybody’s hurting. Everybody’s worried about their chances for prosperity in the future, and for their kids and their grandkids. Everybody has been “focused on the economy,” and only the economy. All these other things have been distractions designed to try to get people to not think about the economy while Obama is wreaking his damage on it.

So he’s gonna pretend, in the upcoming months, that the economy has rebounded tremendously and that his policies are responsible for it — and while he’s claiming this, he’s going to say that high unemployment or low economic growth is due to the Republicans blocking his policies by way of gridlock. It’s gonna be one of his biggest lies yet. He’s going to say that the economy is in its dire straits because the Republicans won’t work with him; the Republicans won’t help him.

The Republicans are gonna get the total blame for this. That’s when H.R. started shouting in the IFB, “Who’s gonna be stupid enough to believe that?” And I said, “Well, country’s made up of a lot of stupid people who have believed it.” Now, the contravening theory to this would be, “Wait a minute. They’re not gonna believe it or not because they’re living it.” See, this is the rub. Yeah, they’re living a rotten economy. But they haven’t blamed Obama for it yet.

That’s what he’s been doing. That’s why he’s perpetually campaigning. In most people’s eyes, Obama is just as upset about it as they are, and he’s working hard to fix it. But there are powerful forces standing in his way, and that’s why the perpetual campaign. It is to create the perception that he’s not of Washington, that he’s not in Washington, that he’s not even governing, that it’s other people doing this and that he’s joined forces with all of us in trying to fix this.

People have bought that.

The polling data proves this.

So you say, “Well, Rush, he’s not gonna get away with it because people are living this. I mean, he’s president.”

Then how come he got reelected?

Despite Benghazi, despite Obamacare, despite every one of his policies being supported by a minority of the population, why did he get elected? Okay, let’s talk Republicans lousy campaign. They didn’t know how to get their base out. Whatever. He still got reelected in the midst of all this. He still got reelected. George H. W. Bush lost with an economy much better than this that the press and the Clintons were saying was “the worst in 50 years.”

The perception of a bad economy (when it wasn’t) killed George H. W. Bush. An actual plunging, bad economy — after five years or four years of Obama running it — did not prevent him from being reelected. Okay, so you say, “Well, people know that they’re hurting financially.” Yeah. They haven’t blamed Obama yet. People know that gas prices just surged again. It’s not being reported, but gas prices are going sky high. Yeah, but none of this attaches to Obama.

People know that their hours at work are being cut back. Some know that it’s because of Obamacare, some don’t, but they’re not blaming Obama for it. They’re blaming their bosses. People know the housing market isn’t booming. Even though it’s improved somewhat in little pockets out there, the housing market’s not improving. None of this has attached itself to Obama yet. Why is it going to now? Seriously. Why do all you people think it’s…?

(interruption)

No. Let me tell you what.

“Because he’s saying it’s good now so people are gonna…”

No, it’s not. He’s gonna run out and say, in the midst of bad news, “It’s good news, and I did it,” and people are gonna say, “You’re lying. That’s not what’s gonna happen.” Let me remind you of something. Back in the period 2006/2007, unemployment was 4.7% and economic growth was at 4% or 4.5%. The media, every day, was saying, “There’s a recession! People are losing their jobs left and right!”

They’d do a poll on it, and people said, “Yep, the economy’s in bad shape.”

Why?

The media said so!

You’d go talk to somebody in the neighborhood. “Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, but I heard on the news my neighbor is not. It’s bad out there.”

So while they were living a good economy, Snerdley, they were made to believe that it was in bad shape and getting worse. While people were living in a boom — 4.7% unemployment, 4.5% economic growth — a majority of people were convinced the economy was plunging. That debacle in 2008 happened, and it confirmed in their minds everything the press had been telling them for two years.

The press had been trying to create, along with the Democrats, the idea that the economy is disintegrating — and people bought it. So here the economy is reported to be coming back, and Obama’s gonna go out and take credit for it. The guy at home says, “Well, it’s not happening for me but it must be happening for others ’cause they’re saying it is, and so my time is coming.”

That’s the peril.

The peril for Republicans is people are going to believe Obama on everything he says, including that it’s their fault why people aren’t doing better. That’s the history. It’s intelligence guided by experience. Our experience is that the press can convince people living in a boom economy that they’re not, so then it stands to reason they can convince people in a recession that they’re living in a boom economy. You think they can’t because they weren’t living in one, and there isn’t one.

They can be made to believe it’s coming because the president United States says it’s getting better, just like the Democrats and the future president in 2006 said it’s getting worse, they believe that. I’m telling you, if this stuff were gonna attach itself to Obama negatively, it would have done so by now. Now, people know their health care costs have gone up. Yeah. That’s because of evil health care industry and evil bosses and evil insurance and evil drug companies and so forth. People know the economy still sucks, despite what Obama says, but he’s out there trying to fix it now. He’s been trying to fix it for five years. It’s these Republicans that won’t let it happen, ’cause they’re trying to protect the rich. They don’t want to anybody else to get money.

“The new effort, which begins with a major address on Wednesday followed by as many as six economic-themed speeches over the next two months, reflects how often world events, his political adversaries and his own competing agenda have conspired to knock him off that subject.” That’s the New York Times. But if you read the whole story, they admit that it’s a very dangerous approach for him to take for the very reasons that you all might suppose. But who in the news media’s gonna call him out on this? More than four years since the end of the recession. Remember, the recession ended in 2009, folks. That’s the official end. We’re still stuck at 7.6% unemployment, 1.8% growth rate in the economy, and that 7.6 unemployment rate’s totally misleading.