RUSH: I mentioned a couple of times today that one of the problems is you look at Obama, and his approval number is in the 40 to 42 range, depending on the poll. But it’s not because people are associating him with the failures taking place in the country. (Except maybe one, and it is a big one.) What’s happening is that people are losing faith in the country. Again, it boils down to these intentions.

“Oh, yeah. Okay. Unemployment’s higher, and more people are out of work and the labor force participation rate is down. Nothing’s better. Everything is worse after five years of Obama than it was when he took office. Everything is worse. But he didn’t mean for this to happen, Mr. Limbaugh! He didn’t mean for it to get worse. He’s trying to fix it.”

So how else do you explain it?

“Well, maybe (sigh) it’s just this country has had its day. Maybe the American dream is just not possible for us anymore. The whole country’s just maybe not good. It all caught up with us and happened to coincide when I was born, Mr. Limbaugh. Maybe it’s just that.” You know, you want to grab these people by the shoulders and say, “No, no, no! This country hasn’t lost anything! This country’s got an obstacle in its way right now called Barack Obama and the Democrat Party.”

I just had an e-mail during the break. “So, Mr. Limbaugh, what are you doing with all this? Okay, it’s been a great two hours, but so what? What’s the point?” It’s a good question. What the e-mailer really wants to know is, “What’s the answer? Okay, if they’re mischaracterizing us and they’re calling us hate-filled bigots, what’s the answer?” It’s been my objective since Day One here: Don’t vote Democrat.

Learn what happens when liberals run things and don’t elect ’em. That’s the answer. “But, Rush, Governor Christie said we can’t just say what we’re against anymore. We’ve gotta say what we’re for.” There’s no shortage of people telling you what we’re for. We are for you being the best you can be. We want a great country. It is a great country; we want it to keep on being great and be even greater.

It is really sad that so many young people don’t know that. I can tell you when I was their age, never once did I think the country was finished. If I failed, if I got fired, I didn’t blame the country. I didn’t blame Washington. I didn’t blame policy. I just said, “That’s what happened.” I got mad and I might have beat myself up, but eventually I went about dealing with it. But it is new, young people losing faith in the country.

“Obama is really trying hard. He’s trying! How many jobs summits has he had, Mr. Limbaugh? I mean, he’s worked really hard on Obamacare.” Yeah, but there’s a problem with that, too. I think one of the primary reasons people have lost faith in the country is Obama, if you want to know the truth. You can’t tell me that a man telling a lie 25 times for three years is not somehow attached to it.

“You like your doctor? Well, you get to keep your doctor! You like your plan? You keep your plan! Under my plan, you keep your doctor and you keep your plan — and, you know what? Your premium is gonna come down $2,500!” You can’t tell that lie for three straight years and then have your insurance canceled, and replacement costs double or triple, and not be affected by it.

So you have a president who’s told maybe the biggest, most impactful and personal presidential lie in most people’s lives. That’s gonna impact negatively on Obama, and it’s gonna impact negatively on the country, particularly if the Obama likability number stays high. CNN poll at the end of 2013: 23% said Obama wasn’t honest or trustworthy. So he’s starting to lose that.

So what’s happening here is Millennials and so forth are just being turned off by politics in general and anything Washington, and they really hate the NSA spying. They’re starting to get whacked by Obamacare now, and there aren’t any careers to be had. There are jobs now and then, but there aren’t any careers — certainly not what they went to school for. Wages are not climbing; health care costs are. Jobs are stagnant.

Nothing’s going in the right direction. There isn’t much trust anywhere in the public. It’s pretty sour out there. Yet if it really attached to Obama, he’d be in the twenties right now — deservedly in the twenties — and the only reason he’s not is the media. Do not doubt that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ryan in Millersburg, Pennsylvania. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Why, Mr. Limbaugh, how are you, sir?

RUSH: I’m fine, sir. Great to have you.

CALLER: Oh, great. Hey, we have spent a lot of afternoons together, and I enjoyed every one of them.

RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate your saying that to me.

CALLER: Hey, early in the show you had been talking about how some of the late night hosts have sort of been turning against Obama, and the youth seems to be adding to Obama’s unfavorable rating.

RUSH: Well, actually what I said was, they haven’t.

CALLER: Correct.

RUSH: A friend of mine sent me an e-mail saying that the late-night comics are supporting Obama. Their audiences, therefore, never learn the truth, and it’s kind of frustrating to him.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: But they’re beginning to turn, like you say, now and then. It’s a little hit here, a little hit there.

CALLER: Correct. But what’s happening is, Obamacare is going to affect everybody, on every level. It’s not like the tax code. It’s not like buying a car or anything like it. Everybody is going to be affected by this in some form or fashion, and that is what is going to turn this tide.

RUSH: Yeah, except, except — and I’m not trying to be Mr. Cold Shower here — they’ve delayed the vast majority of the pain until after Obama’s gone. He’s already not gonna run for reelection, but they’re delaying it past 2014 and 2016 so as not to hurt his party. You’re right. It’s gonna affect everybody. But if nothing’s done beforehand, it’ll be too late for anybody to do anything about it.