RUSH: There are two stories that are out there today. Pete Wehner, my old buddy from Empower America, he worked with Karl Rove in the White House, Bush White House. Pete worked with Bill Bennett and Jack Kemp at Empower America. Now he’s at Commentary Magazine. Pete has a piece on just the overall failure that is Barack Obama. And it’s an unusual piece for Pete. He’s not been writing this kind of stuff lately. Pete has been more temperate than this, which makes it all the more, I think, “thrust-worthy,” if you will. And I, of course, enjoy seeing it.
And there’s a Time Magazine piece that chronicles Obama’s dismal failure in the area of foreign policy. And what more and more people are coming to realize is the guy was totally unprepared to be president when he was elected. We were sold such a bill of goods. It’s the same thing that had me so fit to be tied yesterday. Everybody knew it, but nobody would say it. Everybody knew that we were being hoodwinked. Everybody knew we were being hogtied. Everybody knew we were being sold a bill of goods.
We were electing somebody that had no business being president, no qualifications, backdoor agenda and so forth. But, because of the historical nature of this presidency, first black presidency, so much hope invested, maybe we can get rid of slavery and racism forever and be Kumbaya, that was worth it. It was malarkey. It was never going to happen. It was going to make it worse, everything I predicted to be true. I was a lone wolf January 16th, 2009: I hope he fails. I caught hell, I caught grief, even though everybody knew what I meant. And now the pieces are rolling in on how he is a failure.
Now, to be honest, some of these people are saying he’s a failure at being a president. I don’t think he is. I think he’s doing exactly what he wants to do. I think he’s messing things up exactly as he intended to do. These guys are judging him from the standpoint or through the prism of presidential achievement and accomplishment, and he is a dismal failure in that regard. He’s an overwhelming success if you judge Obama and his ability to inculcate his world view on this country and fundamentally transform it.
But regardless, we now have some people using the “fail” and “failure” words about Obama. And I doubt they’re going to catch the grief that I caught. I don’t care that I caught the grief. I mean, that’s what I’m here to do. I’m perfectly fine carrying that spear, catching that spear, carrying that baton.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Pete Wehner, Commentary Magazine, “ObamaÂ’s Staggering Record of Failure.” Just some pull quotes here. “ItÂ’s not simply that Mr. Obama has fallen short of what he promised; itÂ’s that he has been, in so many respects, a failure. Choose your metrics. Better yet, choose Mr. ObamaÂ’s metrics: Job creation.” Failure. “Economic growth.” Failure. “Improving our health-care system.” Failure. “Reducing the debt.” Failure. “Reducing poverty.” Failure. “Reducing income inequality.” Failure. “Slowing the rise of the oceans.” Failure. “Healing the planet.” Failure. “Repairing the world.” Failure. “The Russian ‘reset.'” Failure. “Peace in the Middle East.” Failure. “Red lines in Syria.” Failure. “Renewed focus on Afghanistan.” Failure. “A new beginning with the Arab world.” Failure. “Better relations with our allies.” Failure. “Depolarizing our politics.” Big failure. “Putting an end to the type of politics that ‘breeds division and conflict and cynicism.'” Failure. “Working with the other party.” Failure. “Transparency,” i.e., honesty. Failure. “No lobbyists working in his administration.” Failure. “His commitment to seek public financing in the general election.” Failure. “The list goes on and on.
“Barack Obama was among the least prepared men to ever serve as president. It shows. He has been overmatched by events right from the start. He is an excellent campaigner but unusually inept when it comes to governing.” Man, this is the Limbaugh Theorem, is it not? This is the Limbaugh Theorem to a tee and Mr. Wehner has swerved into it. He survives by constantly campaigning against what he has caused. He makes it look like he is opposed to what’s happening, except he is the one making it happen. He does not govern. He cannot be seen as governing. That’s the point of the Limbaugh Theorem.
Obama’s non-accountability rests on the fact that he’s not seen as governing. He’s seen as campaigning and being constantly against all of this stuff. But this line, “Barack Obama was among the least prepared men to ever serve as president.” How did we get here then? Because I maintain that it was known in 2008 that he was among the least prepared to ever seek the presidency. So why is it that some only now, in 2014, feel comfortable saying so? Well, there are all kinds of answers for that.
Do you remember David Brooks? David Brooks, one of the learned class, a conservative columnist of the New York Times, remember what he said: Obama’s crease in his slacks told him that he was going to be a great president. And I am not making that up. We had our own intellectual class fail us by signing on to this, because Obama was one of them. He was a Harvard man. He was a Columbia man. He was the first African-American president. He could speak. He could articulate. He sounded intellectual. He sounded smart. He sounded erudite. He sounded sophisticated. He sounds like us, they said.
But, if it is safe to say that he was among the least prepared men to ever serve as president today, it was true in 2007 and it was true in 2008, because there has been nothing that has changed. It has only gotten worse. The New York Times has their own version of the Washington Post’s. Gotta take a break here, but there’s another attempt at Time Magazine: “Obama’s Foreign Policy Failures Are Proving His Critics Right.”