RUSH: This is Gary in Phoenix. You’re next. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh, what a pleasure to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Greetings from a fellow Missourian. I am a nurse. I’m a registered nurse, and God was very good to me. He gave me the gift of compassion and empathy, and that’s why I enjoyed my job so much, and that’s why I think I did very well at it. My question for you is, you say quite often, “I have talent on loan from God-d.” I’m wondering: What do you feel your talent is and what is the gift that God gave you that allowed you to become the person you are today?
CALLER: Oh, no, no! I think God gives us gifts, and he allows us to use them for his benefit, and it’s really wonderful when you can use them for a (crosstalk) good.
RUSH: Look —
CALLER: You know, you’ve done that.
RUSH: (chuckles) Don’t misunderstand.
CALLER: I just want to know what the talent is.
RUSH: Well, yeah. I’m gonna try to answer. Don’t misunderstand. But there are a lot of answers to this. This last call that we just had. I knew what she was saying, even though she didn’t say it. Time was running out. I had to say, “So what you’re saying…” “Yes,” she said. “Exactly.” Even though she had never said that yet, my ability to understand what people are saying and then — if they are having trouble communicating it — to find a very straightforward way and simply to explain it, leads to the ability to take something very complex and make it understandable.
CALLER: And that’s how you feel you can look at the political landscape and all the things going on and analyze them and —
RUSH: Well, that’s one, but you talk about gifts from God. There’s another. One of the greatest gifts from God is that I don’t think I’m better than anybody. And I assume that everybody in this audience can understand anything I explain to ’em. So there’s no condescension.
You know, when I go play golf someplace, you know, I have a better time, I have more relatability with people that work at the place than the other members? And Donald Trump is the same way. Donald Trump has more of an ability to identify with the people who make things work than with the people who benefit from those people making things work. He can relate to both groups. But I think it’s either a gift from my parents, the way I was raised, not to think that I am better than anybody and not to look down and condescend to people and to assume that everybody’s as smart as I am.
Then there are broadcasting skills and talents such as timing that can’t be taught. They can only be learned by doing, and some people naturally — a lot of talent you’re born with. Champions are born, not made, is the slogan. And that’s applied primarily to athletes. But even they have to work very hard at perfecting what they are naturally good at.
Empathy, you mentioned, that is a fundamental characteristic to succeeding with this. Because if there isn’t a bond that is created between, say, the host and the audience, if I’m just somebody sitting here talking to a bunch of faceless people in a megaphone, it ain’t gonna work. It’s not gonna sustain itself very long. It may work for a while. And it’s having the ability to look at this microphone and see millions of faces but treat them as one.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: That’s something that I’m just naturally able to do without even thinking about it. Nobody had to teach it to me.
CALLER: Yes. And I think that I’m speaking for a lot of people. We feel that, Rush, you’re a gift to us, and we thank you for all you do, and you continue to do.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate it. Look, I appreciate the question, which is why I took it seriously. A lot of people, when they ask me that question, are really saying, “So you think you’re God, huh?” And, no. That’s the point of saying it’s on loan. ‘Cause we’re all going home someday. And talent vanishes when that happens. So it’s just another way of thanking God for whatever abilities I have from wherever they came. Nothing more than that.