RUSH:  The polls have tightened, I know that, anybody knows that, anybody following this.  In fact, there’s a story out there describing all of this, and the headline is, “Presidential Race Now a Dead Heat.”  That’s not what the headline ought to be.  The headline ought to be “Trump Surges in Polls as Hillary’s Huge Lead Fails,” because that’s the story. 

The story is not that they’re in a dead heat.  The story is that Hillary is fading and plummeting. Hillary had a huge lead coming out of her convention and it is gone. Depending on the poll, she’s still up two, down two, margin of error. I think there’s one poll that has her up four.  But it’s a dead heat.  And the battleground states are also dead heats.  I’ve got a sound bite here about Hillary and Ohio that makes it look like they may be thinking they’ve lost Ohio.  I’ve gotta double-check that.  I just had a scant moment to peruse this before the program began, and I’m still studying what I’ve got in the audio sound bite roster. 

But man, oh, man, the peer pressure on poor Lester Holt here.  And you know Lester Holt would not have this job if it weren’t for Brian Williams getting caught making things up.  That’s why Lester even has this gig.  Every news network is demanding that he fact check Donald Trump on his lies, which is practically, they say, every time he opens his mouth.  Here’s a Breitbart story: “Activists Petition Lester Holt to Challenge Trump, Fact-Check Debate.” They are really worried going into this thing, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Yeah, grab audio sound bite number seven.  It’s what I was referring to right before the break.  We have an audio sound bite here from Jeff Zeleny, formally of the New York Times.  He’s now CNN senior Washington correspondent, and this was on Sunday’s Inside Politics show. John King’s talking to him about the state of Ohio and the Hillary campaign.  Tell me what you think of this.

ZELENY:  So long Ohio.  It’s been 20 days since Hillary Clinton stepped foot into this classic battleground state, and she’s not expected to visit it again in the month of September.  That is a nod to the political reality there facing her campaign.  She is struggling mightily among white voters, and the campaign has not yet written it off and they will push back and say we’re still spending money there, et cetera. But Ohio, the mother of all battleground states, is not in her wheelhouse anymore. For Democrats in Ohio —

RUSH:  Are you kidding me?

ZELENY:  — who are hoping to see her again.  She’s not been there since Labor Day and not coming back. 

KING: Wow, I mean —

ZELENY:  Unbelievable.

KING: — you think of it as the big middle of the country, big battleground state.

RUSH:  Are you kidding me?  The Hillary campaign’s writing off Ohio?  Let me tell you about Ohio.  There’s one stat you need to know about Ohio if you believe stats, and that is Republicans do not win the White House if they don’t win Ohio.  Another way of putting it that’s less confusing without all the double negatives: In order for the Republican historically, statistically, to win the White House, he or she has to win Ohio.  And now Hillary’s pulling up stakes and getting out of there, suffering the white vote? 

You know, I saw a spread the other day in a poll breakdown, maybe it was a survey, but get this.  Among white males who did not go to college, Donald Trump is plus 59.  He is 59 points ahead of Hillary with white men that didn’t go to college.  Mitt Romney won that group by 31.  Romney was plus 31 over Obama in that category. 

Now, before you start going nuts, “Well, Rush, who wants that group?  That’s a bunch of –” no, no, no, no, do not think that, folks.  White men who don’t go to college is an increasing phenomenon because of the chickification of universities.  Male enrollment at institutions of higher learning has been trending down for a long time now, for a host of reasons.  If these people turn around and vote — don’t doubt for a moment the Hillary campaign’s scared to death of this number.  And this Jeff Zeleny guy just mentioned it by the fact that Hillary is losing the white vote. 

The white female vote she’s holding onto.  That would basically be the pro-choice vote, for all intents and purposes.  But she is struggling mightily among white voters, quote, unquote, Jeff Zeleny.  Not just white male voters who didn’t go to college, but white voters, period.  I don’t care what you think or what you’ve heard, they are still the majority of voters when you add men and women and the other demographics to it. 

Pulling out of Ohio?  Colorado they thought they had in the bag, and they pulled out of Ohio a couple of months ago or a month ago, and now Trump is pulled even in Ohio.