RUSH: I mentioned this earlier. Grab sound bite the number three. David “Rodham” Gergen. He was on CNN last night. Erin Burnett OutFront. And she spoke with Gergen about Trump’s speech in Cedar Rapids and about Trump’s presidency overall, and she said, “The president is now, you know, full roll. He’s ahead of at these sort of events. I mean, he just seems to be enjoying it you people immensely. What’s really going on here, David?”
GERGEN: Let me just say, first of all, after being so critical of Donald Trump on so many occasions, I think this is one occasion when we ought to say, “He deserves to take a victory lap.” Any president in his shoes would do exactly what he’s doing. What’s really important is that Donald Trump has seized the narrative back that he’s doing better with the voters than Democrats think he is.
BURNETT: M’yeah.
GERGEN: It should be a wake-up call for Democrats.
BURNETT: Yes.
GERGEN: It is possible that he could actually get reelected in Democrats aren’t careful.
RUSH: Oh, no! Oh, no! We just heard that is the dean of conventional wisdom in Washington. When David Gergen speaks, that is what official Washington thinks. And if he’s now out there saying these two things, that Trump has seized the narrative back… You notice there’s no talk of any news here, just narratives? Trump has seized the narrative back. This is after the Georgia 6 special election. And Gergen says (translated), “Yeah, Trump ought to be celebrating. For crying out loud, we all thought we were gonna win this one going away, and Trump did. It’s his night to celebrate.
“And, I tell you what, Erin, he’s doing better with the voters than Democrats think he is.” That, folks, is very… In the Democrats’ alternate reality, Donald Trump’s popularity rating/approval rating is 10%. In the Democrats’ alternative reality… Remember, they construct the narrative, and part of it is they believe the whole country agrees with them. So if their attitude of Trump is he’s a reprobate — he’s a pig, he’s unpopular, he’s screwing up, he’s been a disaster — they automatically believe, as part of their alternative reality, that everybody else in the country thinks the same thing.
That’s proven by Gergen saying, “He’s doing better with the voters than the Democrats think he is.” Gergen’s slapping ’em upside the head here saying, “You know what? You guys better change the way you’re thinking. We better change because the voters like this guy. The Republicans are winning elections with Trump in the White House. Voters like this guy,” and then the rally was yet to come and they were gonna go bonkers over that. “This is a wake-up call for Democrats. It’s possible he could actually get elected if the Democrats aren’t careful.”
What that means is that the Democrats are convinced they’re gonna take the House back in 2018. You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots way back the first year Tom Brady played, when Drew Bledsoe got hurt. There’s a great analogy here. I don’t know if I’m gonna have time for it but it’s a great one and it perfectly matches. Where the Steelers were mentally is exactly where the Democrats are, and since that year, the Pittsburgh Steelers have only beaten the Patriots twice in 12 games.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The Steelers story, look, I don’t know the years. Tom Brady’s first year. He got the starting job when Drew Bledsoe got knocked out by Mo Lewis, game in New England. The Patriots were a wild-card team. They won every playoff game, time to go to Pittsburgh for the championship game. It was unusually warm day, 60 degrees, the Steelers are quarterbacked by Slash, Kordell Stewart. And the Steelers are running around, the king of the league, it’s their year, they’ve been mowing down everybody. And New England, backup quarterback, Brady, and the Steelers ended up down 14-0 before they knew the game had started.
And they did punt return for a touchdown by Troy Brown and Brady was just carving ’em up. And in the off season, I mean, the Steelers got creamed in that the championship game. The Patriots went on and won the Super Bowl, Brady’s first. The whole off season, the Steelers are talking about how they got rooked and how they got mobbed. They should have won the game, they’re the best team, and it turned out that the opener in the next season was in New England.
Steelers going back and they were gonna get even, and they were gonna show everybody what should have happened last year. It should have been them in the Super Bowl. They should have kicked New England’s butt in that championship game, and New England slaughtered them again. And Kordell Stewart and that entire offense was never the same after that game. Actually after those two games. And that then led down the road to Tommy Maddox which eventually led to Roethlisberger.
But the point is the Steelers were the equivalent of the Democrats today. And the Patriots were Trump. There was no way they’re gonna win, no way, rank amateurs, rookie quarterback, bunch of braggadocios. The Steelers even put out that they were so unconcerned about the Patriots they were making hotel reservations for their friends and family for the Super Bowl the week before the championship game, which all teams do anyway. But that was leaked out to make it look like the Steelers were so sure the game was over already.
And the first game of the next season they get creamed. And Dan Rooney, the owner, was asked all off season, “Do you like all this talk that your team’s the best in the league and it’s just a matter of playing out the string and you’re in the Super Bowl?”
“No, I don’t, I don’t like this at all.” The head coach was Bill Cowher. “Do you like all this?” “I love it, I love that our team’s confident. I love that our team is very sure of itself.” But the point is that the Steelers were never in the New England Patriots league while in their minds they thought the Patriots were bush minor leaguers. And it’s almost identical to the way the Democrats are dealing with Trump today.