RUSH: This is Ronnie in Everett, Washington. I’m glad you waited, sir. Hi.

CALLER: Rush, it’s a pleasure talking to you. I love your show.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: Thanks so much for what you do.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.

CALLER: You know, there’s so much talk about the debates and the polls and people on the fence and such, but in a race where the candidates are diametrically opposed on ideology, on every issue out there, you can’t tell me people haven’t decided. They know who they’re gonna vote for.

RUSH: You know, I hear you, I hear you. You would be amazed, however, at the number of people who will tell you they haven’t made up their mind yet. It’s the most mind-numbing thing. I agree; you couldn’t have two greater differences here, and for somebody, “I wait ’til I hear on the issues.” Don’t give me that. You’re not waiting. There’s nothing more you’re gonna learn.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: There’s nothing more you can learn, so why are you remaining undecided?

CALLER: I think they’re afraid of the challenges socially, I mean, from their family, their friends, or what have you. Just by me putting a bumper sticker on my car in Washington, what would you expect? I’ve never been flipped off, cursed at, yelled at more, but the ones that come up and actually talk to me, say, “Hey, I like that, where can I get a sticker and such.” I think people are socially challenged to actually talk with other people that they say, “Well, I just haven’t decided.” Oh, you decided. You have.

RUSH: You just think they won’t admit it?

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: So you think the debates are a worthless exercise in terms of actually changing voters’ minds?

CALLER: Right. I only feel sorry for my candidate that he may look bad, or her, you know, the other candidate that she might look bad or good or what have you, but I really don’t care. It’s the issues that I’m voting for.

RUSH: All right, but let me try this. I agree with you that these two candidates, there isn’t much overlap, really, although some would argue with you, but I don’t want to get in the weeds here. You got two stark differences here, but people who tell you they’re undecided will come up with what they think are really brainy things as the reason, “I’m waiting to see who does better under pressure. I’m waiting to see who seems more presidential.” All these nefarious things.

CALLER: No, they’re not. That’s the so-called the intellectual left. They’re so sophisticated that, “Well, I want to wait until all the information is in and whatnot.” No. You’ve decided. Come on. Just admit it.

RUSH: Well, we are told that the undecideds are 20% out there, Ronnie.

CALLER: I don’t think it’s that high, at all. It’s gotta be down in the five.

RUSH: Well, I tell you, 20% is higher than it was in 2012 or 2008. There are more undecided in this race than in the last two. And they would tell you probably they’re undecided ’cause they don’t know what to make of this Trump guy yet.

CALLER: How can you not? He either speaks the issues that you’re after — immigration, Obamacare — those two alone will direct people one way or the other. I mean, it’s that simple. You either shut the boarders or you kill Obamacare. “Well, no, I have to go for Hillary, ’cause I believe in social health care.”

RUSH: Well, yeah, yeah, but you’re gonna have people, “Yeah, that’s what Trump says, but I don’t believe he means it,” and you gonna people say, “She’s not gonna do anything, I don’t believe it.” You’re gonna have all kinds of reasons offered. Because, remember, we lionize the undecideds. We put the undecideds and the independents, we put ’em on the pedestal, because they’re told the election turns on how they vote.

And so everybody targets — this is the great trick the Republicans have been suckered into falling for, targeting your campaign toward the undecideds rather than your base, ’cause you figure you got them locked up, so you target for the undecideds and the independents, and that’s one of the reasons why they’re always held up as better voters. They’re more open-minded. They’re not as closed-minded as people like you, Ronnie, who’ve already made up your mind no matter what you hear. These people, we need to court them because they’re waiting until they have as much data as they can get before they make the all-important decision of how and who is going to get their vote.

CALLER: I think that’s a futile approach. The percentage is so small in my humble opinion out here in radio land, that’s 5%, if that, that are undecided. I can’t even believe anybody’s undecided.

RUSH: Okay. So, given that you believe people say they’re undecided are not, then how do you think this is gonna end up? You think most people have made up their minds, so who’s gonna win?

CALLER: I think it’s going to be a popular vote versus the electoral vote issue. I think Trump will have a largely, maybe even larger than in history, popular vote, but still won’t win.

RUSH: Oh.

CALLER: But I’m also in belief that the system is corrupt. I know here in Washington state it’s been proven in our governor race several years back.

RUSH: That’s true. There was real provable, actionable fraud in that governor’s race in the state of Washington. He’s not making that up, folks. It’s absolutely true. So you’re thinking Trump could win the popular vote and they can play games with it, the Electoral College. Yeah, okay. Well, I don’t know about that. I mean, we could wheeze all day long about that.

But the idea that people are undecided, my entire adult life I’ve been curious about people who say that, at this stage especially. How could you be undecided? I mean, especially for the reasons they give. “Well, I’m waiting to see what they say on the issues.” What do you mean? It’s not even about issues anymore. It’s about a porn star that was Miss Universe. “Well, it is an issue. I wanted to see how Trump deals with it and how Hillary deals with it.” What do you mean, how Hillary deals with? “Well, it’s controversy on both sides. I’m waiting –” They tell you they’re waiting for something.

Now, Ronnie here is essentially saying he doesn’t believe them, that they have made up their minds, they’re just not comfortable in saying so to pollsters or anybody else. I think, if you want to play modified conspiracy games, because, look, folks, I am of the same frame of mind Ronnie is in this undecided. I have a tough time understanding how you’re undecided, but people claim that they are.

The media exploits it, too, let’s not forget. And what benefit could there be to the media, which means the Hillary campaign, exploiting the whole notion of the undecided? Well, one of the ways, one of the benefits, they could cite the high number of undecideds, and they could point out that there are more undecideds in this election than there were in 2012 and 2008, and they could do it in such a way as to make that look like trouble for Trump. Such a high percentage of undecideds, they would say, could indicate that people are afraid to commit to Trump. They don’t like Hillary, but, gee, they’re just afraid, and so it could be a subtle attempt to make Trump dial back on his positions.

The premise would thus be from the Drive-Bys’ perspective in explaining the high percentage of undecideds, they’re just not comfortable with Trump’s extremism. And, of course, Trump’s extremism is what he says about immigration and vetting refugees and law and order. So it would be an attempt to get Trump and his campaign to dial themselves back, which would end up hurting Trump. But if I could just remind you of something, folks, because you’re observing all this, and as you do, I want you to try to keep something in mind.

And so make sure that as you watch any mainstream media news story or coverage, interview, roundtable discussion, understand that the objective here on the part of people participating is to raise doubt and to cause concern about Donald Trump. And that will help you understand it and resist it and, in the process of understanding it, you’ll be able to learn to spot what is not news and instead what is campaigning and propaganda.

Because clearly that is what the news has become in this campaign, and the most recent evidence is all of this focus on fact-checkers. On the Monday before the debate began, you couldn’t turn on the news, you couldn’t read anything on the web without encountering a story on how the fact-checkers were gonna be out in force monitoring Trump during the debate. And then you watch the debate and you hear Hillary, “Oh, the fact-checkers are gonna have fun. I guess we all heard what we just heard. The fact-checkers are gonna be all over that.”

Fact-checking is nothing more than a technique for journalists to input their opinion under the guise of being objective. So understand that the vast majority… This Machado thing? It’s coordinated: The Hillary campaign to the media. Coordinated. Hillary comes up with some allegation about Trump and the media, like lapdogs, will run with it, because it’s coordinated. You have to be able to watch this stuff and discern that, to understand it, to not doubt it. Eight times out of 10, it’s exactly what is happening.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I just decided to do a little Lexis-Nexis on undecideds, and this… Man, oh, man, are my instincts so on the money. Listen to this, my friends, from the Wall Street Journal, a little blurb: “Undecided Voters React Coolly to Donald Trump During Debate.” Washington Post: “When Trump Said That Not Paying Taxes ‘Makes Me Smart,’ Undecided Voters in North Carolina Gasped.” From The Politico, headline: “New York Times to Undecided Voters: Don’t Hand Trump the White House.”

So “undecided voters” are thought of as real, and they are programmed and campaigned to, and they are used by the Drive-Bys as a hammer against Trump. This is all bouncing off Ronnie who called moments ago. He doesn’t believe anybody could be undecided. In this race, he doesn’t know how it is humanly, intellectually possible to be undecided. I’m here to tell you, there’s some people who genuinely are. I don’t know if it’s actually 20%, but there’s no question there’s some people who are. Folks, you ought to know this from living your life.

The one human characteristic — and there are many. But one of the many human characteristics that just rubs a lot of people raw is self-confidence, particularly on matters that many people think are complicated and complex, and anybody comes along and dead certain what he or she thinks and is very confident, people don’t like that. You’re not supposed to be that sure of yourself. That’s not normal. So you either end up being arrogant, conceited, or closed-minded, whereas the undecided is open-minded and non-bigoted and clearly has a superior mind.

And that’s how it’s all promoted, because the person — and this comment about Trump is a perfect illustration. When Hillary says, “Could it be that he hasn’t paid any income taxes?” He replies, “Yes, ’cause I’m smart,” and supposedly that rubbed independent voters in North Carolina raw. They just gasped when they heard that. That’s exactly… I can believe it. That’s the kind of thing that… Doing it’s one thing, and then bragging about it as though it’s an achievement? They gasp ’cause they can’t do it, and you’re not supposed to be able to do it. You’re not supposed to be that confident about being able… (interruption)

It does. And particularly… I’m gonna really step in it here: Particularly Millennial women. You are just not supposed to be sure of yourself on much of anything. It’s not a good character trait. It doesn’t matter what the issue is. Not being open to all possibilities, not being open to fairness and equality can rub people the wrong way. I can’t help it. I’m right about most everything. And you wouldn’t believe the people who are offended by that, rather than saying, “Gee, you know what? I’d like to learn how to do that.” That’s not how people react to it.

They get offended, and then they start making disparaging comments. I mean, not to my face, not to my face. And not just me. Anybody who is sure of themselves on political matters. I don’t mean sure of yourself in just self-confidence about your being. I mean, complex political issues where you know you’re right and know those creepy leftists are wrong. They don’t want to hear that. Not supposed to be that sure of yourself. “It’s too complex. He could be partially right, but you might be wrong, too, on some things, and they could be right or be wrong.” So everything is an adjustment.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I wanted to do a NexisLexis search after this call we had on a guy not believing so many people are undecided, the independents out there.  

The Wall Street Journal: “Undecided Voters React Coolly to Donald Trump During Debate.” Washington Post: “When Trump Said That Not Paying Taxes ‘Makes Me Smart,’ Undecided Voters in N.C. Gasped.” 

I just remembered, we had a story — was it postdebate?  The debate was Monday. McClatchy had a focus group watching this thing in North Carolina, and they overwhelming went for Trump in this debate.  Oh, gosh, my mind is playing — I don’t know if that focus group was something else or if it was about the debate.  But it was a McClatchy story, McClatchy convened a focus group of independents, and they all ended up, a vast majority of them really, really dug Trump, and McClatchy couldn’t believe it. 

The story, the reporter, whoever did it, could not believe it.  They were shocked and stunned, and yet here’s the Washington Post reporting that independents in North Carolina, when Trump said that it was smart not to pay any taxes, they openly gasped.  At any rate, I know it was McClatchy.  Was it about the debate? (interruption) Okay, so it was this week.  Okay.  You know, so much runs through here, I can’t remember exactly when something happened.  

The debate seems like yesterday, so I’m trying to think in my mind did we cover that about the debate.  Apparently we did.  The Official Program Observer has found it.  So it was a McClatchy story.  Clinton falters among some voters, independent voters, in swing states.  And it was McClatchy in North Carolina specifically.  So this Washington Post headline is caca.