RUSH: Here is John in Boston. It’s great to have you, sir. I’m glad you’re patiently waiting. Hi.
CALLER: Rush, it’s an honor to speak with you. And we pray for you every day. Thank you for inspiring us.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very, very, very much.
CALLER: I got some gold for you right now. I don’t know what debate, respectfully, the last caller here was watching, but here are my takeaways from the debate last night. I found seven knockout blows to the head of Mr. Biden. Number one, law and order. President Trump exposed Biden by not supporting the words “law and order.” Biden did not effectively say that. Number 2.
RUSH: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You’re right. And I kept asking myself what is the problem? Why can’t he come out and just immediately say, “You’re wrong. I am all for law and order” while Trump is still ranting. He wouldn’t say the words. And Trump’s accusing him of not saying the words, and he didn’t say them. He wouldn’t say “law and order.”
CALLER: That’s right. It gets better. Trump put him on the spot saying, “What police union supports you?” There was dead air. Radio silence. Nothing. Remember that?
RUSH: Yep.
CALLER: Second point.
RUSH: We got another police endorsement out of Philadelphia today for Trump. I think I put it at the bottom. Go ahead. Go ahead, finish it up.
CALLER: Second point. Economy. Backed up on Fox & Friends this morning with Lee Carter’s dial test. Biden shutting down the economy. Trump will keep the economy open. Every poll shows that’s what we want. It was backed up this morning with the dial test on Fox & Friends. That’s a huge point. Trump blow to the head with that.
Number three. Green New Deal. He exposed Biden by basically saying he doesn’t support Bernie’s Green New Deal. Yet it’s on his website as of this morning. Right there. Another blow to the head, knockout punch. Number four. Hunter Biden. Not part of the agenda for the Biden-Wallace debate, but it was right there. Joe did not have a strong response to the accusations on his son, calling him a liar.
Number five. You mentioned Antifa. Biden did not denounce Antifa. Called it an idea. One more. SCOTUS. Trump pushing, where’s your list? Where’s your list for SCOTUS? Biden said I’m not gonna release it. What is he hiding? Those are seven points that came out of that debate last night. I believe you’re gonna see the results of that in polls to come, not to mention the Latino poll on Telemundo.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: So I’m gonna hang up and I’m gonna listen, okay?
RUSH: Okay. I appreciate the call. While you were speaking we’ve got the Lee Carter sound bite from Fox Business today. It was on Maria Bartiromo. And I’d never heard of him. But he’s a pollster, and the bite that I have says that he said the debate didn’t change any minds and he’s never seen anything like this. We’ll have that sound bite coming up and other reaction when we get back.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Lee Carter, our previous caller. By the way, those seven items that our previous caller, John in Boston, mentioned? They’re right on the money, and you may not have remembered them even if you watched the debate because so much went by so fast. And every time — seemingly now. I’m sure it’s not every time.
But it seems to me that every time Trump was scoring a point or on the verge of it, here came, “I need to ask a new question, Mr. President.” I don’t know. Just my perception of things. But the people that were watching, I think… If this election — and a lot of people still don’t know what is going to determine the outcome of the election. For example, the conventional wisdom is that every election is fought over the undecideds.
However many there are, whatever percentage of the electorate that is undecided, that’s where victory is. Now, you know me. I resent the heck out of that because of the way it’s portrayed. The way the independents and undecideds — really the undecided, the way the undecideds — are portrayed to us. The undecideds are said to be… Well, there’s nothing knee-jerk about them. They’re open-minded like the rest of us are not.
They’re reasonable. Yes, they wait. They study the issues. They’re not ideologues. They are very patient. You know, all of these virtues are attached to undecideds. Now, I, for one, don’t know how the hell anybody can be undecided. This is as clear-cut as anything has ever been, and one of the choices is the absolute end of this country as you and I know it.
I’m aware that a lot of people don’t see it that way. They don’t even think in terms like that, and if they only watch mainstream media, then they would never have that option or view of things presented to them. But to those of us who are informed and who love this country as founded, that’s what’s at stake — and so being undecided? Being undecided is cowardice.
Being undecided, the last thing it is is virtuous. We ask ourselves, “How can you not be decided when one of these options is going to effectively bring about an end after 200-plus years of the greatest country ever founded?” At least it’s gonna bring about the biggest and closest we’ve ever come to facing an opportunity for people to change this country.
We’re not just gonna lay down and die if the election goes against our wishes, but this kind of stark choice for informed people makes it impossible to be undecided. Well, so if this is an election for the undecided, I’m seeing that the percentage of voters who are undecided is only 6 to 8%. That’s very, very small. Usually undecideds are anywhere from 10, 15, sometimes up to 20% — and if they’re right (they’re telling us the undecideds are 6 to 8%), it means there’s not a whole lot to get there.
It means most people have already made up their minds. Therefore, if this election is a base turnout election, then you have to judge the debate last night in a different way than if you think that this election hinges on how many undecideds Trump can pick up, ’cause I think we would have to agree… Mr. Snerdley, you tell me if you think I’m wrong.
But I don’t think Trump picked up too many undecideds last night. (interruption) I don’t think so, either. I don’t think that was the objective. I think Trump thinks it’s a base turnout election, meaning without that there’s no hope of winning. You’ve got to turn out the base. In addition, there’s a bunch of… This is gonna shock you. There’s a bunch of deplorables out there who love Trump but didn’t vote in 2016.
What percentage of them might end up being motivated or inspired to vote? There’s a huge number of those people. I’m using the word popularized by Hillary Clinton, of course, to just let this be known, but there are a lot of people who loved Trump in 2016 and they just didn’t vote. You know, not everybody does.
What do you think…? Do you know off the top of your head the percentage of eligible voters that actually show up and vote in a presidential election any given four years? It’s 60%. Sixty percent. Some of you who have not heard that number may say, “Well, gosh, Rush, that’s low.”
And they’re making it look like they care, and they have their little dance parts with Beyonce and the Kardashians and all that. But when it comes to Election Day, they don’t go. They don’t show up. They just don’t. It’s an amazing phenomenon. They make everybody think — or at least the Democrats make everybody think — every four years that that demographic is gonna shake it up, and they never do.
So if this becomes a base turnout election, or if that’s what it is, then you have to look at last night’s debate as a massive win for Donald Trump. Our last caller, seven different things that Trump nailed last night. Those are the things that produce, like the Telemundo result. Spanish-speaking viewers, Telemundo: 66% thought Trump won; 34% thought that Biden won.
The first person that sent me this last night couldn’t believe it because the first person that sent me this last night is a Trumpster who thought he lost big time, who thought he blew it big time, who was scared to death, worried to death that Trump had blown it so badly that he couldn’t recover in the remaining days before the election.
Then that person saw this and sent it to me, and they were ecstatic. Well, what the Telemundo results show us is that these people want a fighter. They want somebody that’s not gonna capitulate, that’s not going to act afraid, that is going to continue to believe in what they believe and say what they believe regardless of the pressure not to. That’s what that means.
Now, here’s Lee Carter. Our caller mentioned Lee Carter, who… I must confess, I had not heard of Lee Carter until I saw the audio sound bite roster today. She was on with Dagen McDowell on the Fox Business Network. The question: “Broadly speaking, did this debate change anybody’s mind?”
CARTER: Absolutely not. What I heard last night from voters was that this didn’t change their mind. I saw a third a voters went for Biden; a third of the voters that I talked to went for Trump; and fully a third of the voters said that nobody won. I’ve never seen that before! I’ve seen disagreements or 50-50 splits, say 5% or 10% of people who respond saying nobody won. But this is fully a third of folks.
When you look at independent voters and I looked at undecided voters, you didn’t see any movement. You saw them flatline and in many ways tune out, and what that concerns me most about is these people might tune out for the reset and say, “You know what? I give up. This is ugly. It’s too much, and I’m not even gonna go to the polls.”
RUSH: Wow. A third of the people, according to Lee Carter, a third of people, independent voters, undecided voters, she didn’t see any movement, she saw them flatline. In many ways they tuned out. And that’s what she said concerns her the most is that these people might tune out for the rest of the campaign and say, “You know what? I give up. There isn’t gonna be any unity, and is this all too ugly. It’s just too much. I’m not even gonna go vote.”
That’s what she says she’s afraid of. If that’s true, then that again argues that we’re in a base turnout election. And Biden is not gonna win a base turnout election, folks. There isn’t the element of enthusiasm. That’s where they’re gonna have to play games with their mail-in ballots and stuff because they don’t have base enthusiasm.
One more sound bite. This is the savior and guru for American leftists, Nate Silver last night ABC special coverage of the first presidential debate. George Stephanopoulos from the Clinton war room said to FiveThirtyEight.com editor-in-chief Nate Silver, “What are the probabilities of each candidate winning the race as we head into debate season? Where is the race tonight, Nate?”
SILVER: We have Joe Biden with around a 75 to 80% chance of winning the Electoral College. This is assumes, by the way, that we have a free and fair election — things are counted on election night or a few weeks thereafter at least. This is not that close a race right now. The closest states right now are states like Georgia and Texas and Ohio. States like Pennsylvania and the blue wall states and Wisconsin and Michigan have rebounded pretty strongly for Biden relative to where Hillary Clinton was four years ago. At this point in 2016 Clinton had only about a one-point lead in their national polling average. Was about 55% in our forecast to win the Electoral College. So it’s a much less close race.
RUSH: And there you have it. So at this point in 2016 Hillary only had about a one-point lead in the national poll – what? Does anybody remember Hillary only having a one-point lead? I mean, he said it, so I guess it’s gotta be true. But now, here’s Plugs, 75 to 80% chance of winning the Electoral College. And Plugs is so far ahead of where Hillary was four years ago. Hillary only had a 55% chance of winning four years ago. Plugs, 75 to 80% chance. I mean, this election’s not close, according to Nate Silver, it’s over. Biden can even cancel the Amtrak trip. Doesn’t need to do it.
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