RUSH: So I’m watching Obama. Obama is in New York. The U.N. is there. Bill Clinton used to always go to New York when the U.N. meeting was there. Lot of babes. Clinton had the Clinton Global Initiative, which was an intended babe magnet thing and a fundraising effort disguised as a charitable outfit. And now Obama’s doing the same.

It’s amazing when the world gathers in New York on U.N. week, it attracts a lot of people. Obama’s making a speech at some organization called Goalkeepers. Cookie, I don’t need any sound bites from it. I just want to tell you one thing he said, and the reaction to it, which I was surprised. Now, he’s got a friendly audience there. I don’t know what Goalkeepers is, but I could guess. It’s not hockey. It’s probably about living a solid life, meeting and making goals and sticking to it, achieving and accomplishing, even if it is the government supporting you.

But Obama said that we live in times that everybody seems to be upset by, everybody’s on edge, everybody’s nervous. He said he used to tell his staff in the White House all the time, and his family, that that was a silly outlook. That there was every reason in the world to be optimistic. No reaction from the crowd at all. Normally optimism is an applause line. No reaction at all.

And then I think he was expecting some reaction, didn’t get, so he went on. He said (paraphrasing), “I know. I know. It may sound strange to you, but I firmly believe it.” He said, “If you look at America today, it’s better than at any time in our history. It’s better than 50 years ago. It’s better than it was 30 years.” No applause. None. Dead silence. Hear a pin drop. “It’s better than it was 20 years ago. America’s even better today than it was 10 years ago.” Still no audience reaction whatsoever.

Normally that kind of a line or making that kind of a point — I’ll guarantee you, if I ever am somewhere and if I have made a public appearance or a speech, and if I’m talking about such things, and I talk about optimism, and I talk about America and the opportunity that’s still here and the threshold for greatness, it always, it always gets loud applause, and in some cases a standing O. If I may, it’s almost an automatic go to-, if you need to get the audience out of their seats. Start talking about the greatness of America and start talking about the future and make comparisons, America today, to 50 years ago.

Now, he didn’t specify how. He didn’t say economically, culturally, or any of that. What I found fascinating was that there wasn’t a single, that I could hear, anyway, round of applause on any of it. So I got to thinking, who are the people at this thing, Goalkeepers? And obviously with Obama as the keynote speaker, a lot of Obamaites there, and I don’t think these people want to hear optimism.

I don’t think they want to hear that things are better in America today than they were 50 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. Even if people don’t believe it, they will applaud the premise, is my point. Because they want it to be true. And they’re comforted by somebody who thinks it. If the speaker is credible and has believability, and if the speaker has a bond with the audience, if the speaker says, “I believe it. I believe our best days are ahead. This country is doing better today than it was 20 years ago, 30 years.” In some areas you could make the case; it’s not even arguable, it always gets applause because even if people don’t think it, they want it to be.

But this crowd didn’t make a sound, and Obama clearly expected them to. You could see. My point is that there’s probably a bunch of leftist Democrats in that crowd and they don’t want to hear anything uplifting, and they don’t want to hear anything positive. They want to have their negativism and their anger reinforced. And maybe he will later on in the speech. He’s blasting the Republicans trying to undo Obamacare, and he’ll no doubt blast Trump for what he said about the Iran deal.

But in that just little segment that I saw, I found that fascinating. ‘Cause, as I say, those are automatic applause lines, if — well, I don’t know. I haven’t seen the crowd, but when Obama cracked a joke, they laughed. When he cracked a joke about how he doesn’t look his age, he’s much older than he is, they laughed at that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This Goalkeepers thing where Obama’s speaking, it’s a Bill and Melinda Gates deal. It’s the Bill and Melinda Gates inaugural Goalkeepers. It’s an event dedicated to accelerating world progress. Of course it is. Mosquito nets for everybody. Accelerating world progress. Other speakers include Bill and Melinda Gates, Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, Will.i.am from the Purple People. What’s that group? Black Eyed Peas. Right. Then Malala and Stephen Fry, who is the British comedian. Those are some of the heralded speakers. And Obama is the keynote.

Now, look, one of the reasons Obama is singing the virtues of America is because he wants to be seen as responsible for it. I mean, he’s gotta go out there and make it look like everything’s great because he was president, his great legacy and all of that. So I understand that. But still, it’s a common thing for public speakers, public officials to speak about the greatness and the optimism that exists and how America’s better today than it’s ever been and so forth.

But the problem with that is, that’s not what people see in the media. The media rips this country to shreds every which way but Sunday, from Sunday, and particularly when Republicans hold power. The media does nothing but beat the hell out of this country. People can’t escape it, they’re inundated by it, they’re pounded with it each and every day, and it’s part and parcel of the plan to defeat Republicans. The media then focuses on the misery and the suffering and the hurting that’s going on.

There was something I saw, and I printed it out, and I hope I made a copy of it. It was somebody talking about all the hurting going on, and it just struck me, “Who thinks this way?” And I’m doing a bad job of previewing it because I don’t remember who said it and what the context was, but I think I saved it and I’ll find it.

This whole notion that so many people think life is enduring suffering and pain and that everybody’s hurting. And those are things you have power over in some ways. You don’t have to suffer. Not all the time. Suffering does not have to be a way of life. Hurting does not have to be a way of life. But it’s easy. It’s part of victimology. It’s easier than thinking optimistically.