RUSH: Now we’re back to normal. The president making a speech at 12 noon. And why is the president making a speech at 12 noon today? He’s at the Central Command. It’s all because of polling data.
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RUSH: People have been saying, “Rush, you haven’t really been talking much about Obama and the new war on ISIS and Iraq and Syria.” I paused and I reflected and I had to agree that’s probably true. I mean, I have not gone wall-to-wall on it. I certainly haven’t spent the time that you can see spent on it on cable news. So I asked myself why. I think it’s not that I don’t care. Please do not think that. It’s that I just don’t believe anything is going on right now. I think all of this is smoke and mirrors.
I had to actually think about it, and I decided, I concluded, that my instincts took over without my even being aware of it. I just refuse to be drawn in to the daily media soap opera. Because I’m telling you, all of this, what’s going on right now is an effort by the Democrats and the White House and the media to prop up Obama’s chops as a foreign policy president who is not bothered at all by engaging in military activity. It is an effort, they’re trying to suck everybody in, to get them talking about that aspect of it.
As always, it’s about Obama. Will Obama do this? Will Obama listen to the generals? Will the generals overrule Obama? I just get tired of it. Three weeks ago, three weeks ago now, Obama didn’t care about any of this. They were the JV team, ISIS was. Three weeks ago he was not concerned about this at all. Then the polls started coming in and started being reported, and that changed everything. And today there’s a CBS/New York Times poll out, and that’s why Obama’s making a speech at Central Command today.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans say in a CBS/New York Times poll, 57% of Americans say that Obama is not tough enough in dealing with ISIS. You can’t even call them ISIS. He has to persist in calling them ISIL. He didn’t even have a strategy two weeks ago, and he admitted it. He said we don’t have a strategy. It wasn’t on his radar. Iraq, going back there, not on his radar.
I have spent a lot of time this week and last week explaining to you why. I don’t need to rehash all that, but five years of incessant impugning of the entire engagement in Iraq during the Bush presidency drove the Democrat base literally insane with rage, and so Obama is handcuffed now. He couldn’t keep troops in Iraq. He can’t go back to Iraq.
Folks, I have never heard — did you ever think military policy would come down to a matter of footwear? Boots on the ground here. Boots on the ground there. Boots, boots, boots. It’s embarrassing, is what it is. Because the bottom line is, I know that he’s been dragged into this. He’s not really behind this. This is all done for every reason anything is done in the White House: buzz, PR, image. So he didn’t have a strategy a few weeks ago. He doesn’t appear to have one now. He can’t figure out if we’re at war. He can’t figure out what to call the enemy.
How can you be ticked off when you hear about a journalist being beheaded and then ten minutes later you’re on the golf course yukking it up? I mean, the truth is right before us, the truth is staring us in the face, and that’s what all of this media attention is designed to the change. That is: You’re not supposed to believe what you see. You’re supposed to believe what you’re being told.
“Great warrior! Certainly willing to go back to Iraq, certainly willing to do whatever it takes.” It’s just… I don’t know, folks. I’ve just grown weary of being captured by the daily narrative, template, soap opera, whatever you want to call it. From the Cairo speech, to using NASA for Muslim outreach, not controlling the border, calling the Fort Hood massacre “workplace violence,” backing the Muslim Brotherhood, using the military to fight Ebola.
We have more troops fighting Ebola than we’re sending in here to deal with ISIS! I just… Sorry, to get knee-deep in strategic analysis of this I think is to fall prey… We all know the man doesn’t care. We all know he’s not competent. We all know that he doesn’t really respect the military. We all know that he’s being dragged into this kicking and screaming. We all know this is being done for the poll aspect of it.
Right here in the New York Times poll, let me just share with you some of the details here. “A New York Times/CBS News poll shows that President Obama’s approval ratings are similar to those of President George W. Bush in 2006 when Democrats swept both houses of Congress in the midterm elections.” Well, how many people know this? I had the revealing statistic for you yesterday.
Obama’s at 38% in a Gallup poll. It hasn’t been reported at ABC/CBS/NBC. George W. Bush at 38%, and it’s all Wolf Blitzer could talk about for five hours in one day. And then everybody picked it up, and that’s the only news we got. “Bush’s approval number is 38%!” Well, so is Obama’s, but nobody knows it because they’re not reporting it, because they know it would be devastating.
On the heels of all that, here comes the New York Times mentioning this. But even in the text of the story, we don’t hear any numbers. All we have here in the New York Times is, “A New York Times/CBS News poll shows that President ObamaÂ’s approval ratings are similar to those of President George W. Bush in 2006 when Democrats swept both houses of Congress in the midterm elections.
“A deeply unpopular Republican Party is nonetheless gaining strength heading into the midterms, as the American public’s frustration with Mr. Obama has manifested itself in low ratings for his handling of foreign policy and terrorism,” and I just gave you the numbers. Now, the second paragraph of the story: “A deeply unpopular Republican Party is nonetheless gaining strength…” This is another thing that…
This is such an opportunity being squandered, and I’ve addressed this the past couple days. I don’t mind repeating this. This is such an opportunity being squandered. You listen to the rhetoric coming out of the mouths of Republicans, and it’s formulaic — and I’m telling you, it’s all consultant-speak. The consultants are running the Republican Party, and they’re doing so from a position of pure defensiveness.
“Don’t offend anybody!” It’s the Roger Goodell Syndrome, and it’s taken over the Republican Party. “Don’t say anything that might offend anybody! Don’t!”
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RUSH: Okay, so Obama’s in Tampa. He’s at MacDill Air Force Base, and he’s talking to the troops. It’s a volunteer force. When you volunteer for the US military in this day and age, what are you likely volunteering for? You’re pretty much expecting to see combat, right? In this day and age, ISIS, terrorism. Heck, did you see the story where Putin is flying practice nuclear bombing runs toward the US coast with their Bear bomber? He’s taunting us while we’re focused on all this other stuff. Putin, keep a sharp eye out for Putin.
Anyway, so he’s down there talking to the troops at MacDill, and he said (imitating Obama), “And I don’t want you to be concerned. I will not commit you to fighting another ground war in Iraq.” Man. What, are they supposed to stand up and cheer? This is why I don’t take the guy seriously. Folks, what the left did to the US military, their effort to destroy everybody in the upper echelon of the Bush White House and the United States military high command for five years, I can’t tell you how that still frosts me.
I mean, it bordered on unpatriotic, and I am not exaggerating. Five years of calling people liars and attacking the troops. People like John Kerry and John Murtha and any number of other Democrats, accusing them of terrorism and rape of women and children in their homes in Iraq. It was outrageous.
Obama deems his success, his electoral success, as so tied to the total impugning of the Iraq war that he has to still now, years later, tell uniformed military personally, “I will not commit you to fighting another ground war in Iraq.” What about the people who did? What about the people who did and lost their lives and their families? Does this man want to continue to try to tell everybody that all of that was worthless? Then why does he continue to award medals of valor and honor to people from that war if it was so unjust, illegitimate, and all of that?
It’s gone too far here. I mean, to go down to MacDill Air Force Base and to tell uniformed military personnel, “Don’t worry, I know you hated Iraq, and I know everybody hated Iraq, and don’t worry, we’re not gonna send you back.” What kind of commander-in-chief even thinks this way? The answer is one that’s purely, totally political. My God, folks, it really is infuriating.
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RUSH: I think it’s also this assumption. Here’s Obama at MacDill and he’s telling an audience of uniformed military personnel, Air Force primarily, “Don’t worry –” He didn’t say “don’t worry.” The quote is, “I will not commit you to fighting another ground war in Iraq,” as though everybody agrees that it was a total waste of time, and as though everybody agrees there’s no value in preserving what was won in Iraq.”
Folks, this is why I don’t want to talk about this stuff. It just offends me. This is incompetence on parade. It really is. It’s so narcissistic to think that everybody — I can’t enforce enough how talk like this has to make families feel of the people who died serving their country, or severely wounded serving their country in Iraq. Here’s the commander-in-chief, every day he has a chance, telling everybody it’s a total waste of time, it didn’t mean anything. And don’t worry, it was such a waste of time, I’m not gonna send any of you guys back there.
What are we doing, then, with ISIS? What is the whole point of this? Let me give you the hard numbers in the CBS/New York Times poll. You don’t have to read this story. I’m just gonna give you the hard numbers. Obama approval, disapproval on the issues. Immigration: 30% approve, 60% disapprove. Immigration — say amnesty, say after me, “amnesty” — 30% approval, 60% disapproval. Do you realize how dangerously close we came to the Republicans in Washington signing on to this?
What is Obama known for? When it comes to immigration, what is he known for? Opening the borders, saying come on in, granting amnesty to five or six, 11 million people. Thirty percent approval. I’ll say it again, this issue has never been one that a majority of Americans supported. It was more trickinology, folks. It was a giant trick trying to make everybody think that everybody in this country wanted the 11, 12 million illegals, whatever the number is, to have amnesty. That’s why there is no credit to accrue from doing this. Thirty percent approval, 60% disapproval on immigration.
On terrorism: it’s 41% approval, 50% disapproval. On foreign policy, 34% approval, 58% disapproval. And on the economy, 40% approval, 53% disapproval. These are all all-time lows for Barack Obama in the New York Times/CBS News poll. And then the other question, the other remaining question, is Obama tough enough in dealing with ISIS? Fifty-seven percent say “no.” Outrageous. He’s not a nice guy. That’s another thing. He’s not a nice guy, and he’s not cool, calm. This guy’s a bully in his own right, in his own way, and he’s certainly not cool; he’s cold.
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