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Sept. 15, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:27
September 15, 2006, Friday, Hour #3
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Time Text
And greetings, folks, and welcome back.
Uh Rush Limbaugh, the excellence in broadcasting network, over six hundred radio stations, twenty to twenty-two million people.
And broadcast excellence.
It's open line Friday, pretty much means when we go to the the uh phones, you own it.
You can discuss whatever you want.
Monday through Thursday, I'm a benevolent dictator.
I determine what we talk about because I'm not going to talk about things that bore me.
On Friday, I will run the risk of being bored.
It's fun.
Telephone numbers 800 282-2882.
I'm really happy to introduce to you uh Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who joins us uh from Washington.
The last time I spoke to you, Madam Secretary was during the 2000 presidential campaign.
So it's long overdue, but welcome to the program here.
Well, it's great to be with you, Rush.
I can't believe it's been that long.
Time flies when you're does it.
Good good time.
Look, I I want to get straight to this because I I know your time is limited.
The uh press conference today the President had about the uh uh congressional legislation he wants.
Forty-five Democrats oppose.
I'm not trying to draw you into political questions here, it's rest assured.
You've got the three Republicans, uh McCain and Warner and uh and Lindsey Graham joining the Democrats opposing this.
Uh Secretary Powell uh wrote Senator McCain a letter that McCain has publicized.
You have responded in a letter to Secretary Warner.
What did you say?
Well, uh in fact, uh I uh sent the letter before I had uh seen uh Secretary Powell's letter.
I my letter simply stated the Department of State's position, which is that uh the uh interpretation of a U.S. treaty obligation through U.S. law is something that we do frequently and all the time.
We're not trying to change what's called common Article III, we're not trying to uh to weaken it.
We just want our professionals to have clarity so that they know what is legal and what is not.
And I have absolutely no problem defending what the President has asked the Congress to do uh when I go uh internationally.
I think it it only makes sense that you would not leave uh a very unclear standard like that of Common Article III, which talks about uh uh outrages on human on human dignity, for instance, uh Rush.
You don't want to leave that to uh unaccountable prosecutors, for instance, uh internationally.
You want U.S. law to defend to define that.
Uh Madam Secretary, uh people like me don't understand the substance of this.
Uh we see pictures of people jumping out the World Trade Center on 911 this week.
We we remember the video tapes of the kind of treatment uh American and foreign hostages uh receive at the hands of our enemy when when in their captivity.
Uh I don't understand the effort on the part of those who oppose this in Congress to try to establish a moral equivalency between the way we treat prisoners and the way our enemy does, and to suggest that uh we can't do something here because it might incite them to be even meaner to us.
Could you help me and others like me understand the common sense of opposing this?
I can't I can't get my arms around it.
Well, Rush, I have to say, I think uh I don't quite understand either why we would not uh give the the professionals, our professionals, a clear standard so that they know that they are obeying the law.
These are people who take tremendous risk to try and defend us.
Uh they have made tremendous strides in getting information from people like Colleen Sheikh Mohammed who planned 9-11, from people like Ramsey Ben Al-Shib, who you saw on that video tape with Al Qaeda just a few days ago, crowing about September eleventh.
They have made great strides in getting information from these people that have prevented other attacks.
And by the way, not just prevented attacks here in the United States, but prevented attacks in other parts of the world too.
To have a piece of legislation that does not protect them and does not give them a clear legal standard, I think is simply wrong.
Um do you find yourself in a in a uh um in an uncomfortable circumstance what with uh Secretary of Powell?
I mean, leaving aside the apparent lack of loyalty that uh exists in his letter, do you find it like I have the New York Sen editorial here showdown or uh headline rather showdown set between Rice and Powell.
Do you think this is descending into something personal?
No, no, I don't see it that way.
Colin Powell is a private citizen.
Uh he can have his views, and I think uh that's the nature of our great democracy.
He's a well-respected private citizen.
It's my responsibility now to uh help defend the United States.
It's my responsibility now to defend American policies abroad and to try through diplomacy to make us safer.
And I am quite confident that uh the United States uh can uh both get the information that it needs and live up to our treaty obligations and that the uh legislation that the President has proposed uh does exactly that at his press conference today he he introduced something new uh basically if I if I understand it right the President said if he doesn't get what he wants,
if there's not clarity defining and specifying the uh the vagaries and ambiguities of common Article three he said the program will not go forward.
Now I interpreted that to mean he'll scrap it and he'll scra he's not going to put our professionals as you refer to them in any kind of precarious circumstance and if they don't go along with what he wants he'll scrap the whole program and I assume that means the uh focus of attention on the lack of the program existing from that point forward will be on Congress.
Well I feel very strongly as does the President that these men and women who go out and do this this difficult and dangerous work deserve clarity about uh the legal ground on which they're standing and uh I don't think that you will get people who will actually participate in this program if you don't get that kind of clarity.
So you won't have a program.
And it would be unfortunate because we have learned a lot from this program.
We have prevented attacks.
Russia information is the long pole in the tent in the fight against terrorists.
If you wait until a terrorist has committed his act then three thousand people die.
What you want to do is to prevent them and the only way that you can prevent them is to know what they're thinking, to know what they're planning, to know what they're plotting.
And uh this program has been essential in helping us to find that out.
Uh madam secretary the average American understands this is uh this is uh it's not it's not complicated and it's that's why so many people don't understand the actions of those in the President's party who are attempting to uh to to halt this they're thinking there's got to be something behind the scenes that matters more than just the specifics of this I'm not I'm not asking it to address that.
I know your time is limited, and I have one more question for you, and I assure you, I'm asking this solely from the position of wanting to learn and wanting to understand.
And I want to go back to the recent war between the Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
It seems that when it comes to Israel and their fight against terrorists, ceasefires and resolutions are the rule of the day, even though they really haven't worked in ceasing this.
these hostilities and bringing about peace they just bring interruptions to it yet when we are fighting terrorists no we don't tell ourselves to ceasefire and negotiate with them.
What what is it about the paradigm of the Middle East that requires the fight against terrorism there be fought differently than the way we're fighting it against us.
Well I would think of it a little a little differently Rush what we what you have there is you have a Lebanese government that wants to fight terror and that is the beginnings of a democratic government that could be a could be actually a partner for Israel in fighting terror.
And so the ceasefire was really with the Lebanese government and now we're trying to help the Lebanese government deal with the effects of a Hezbollah that launched that attack without Lebanon even knowing.
I think of it the following way we are fighting terror in Iraq but we're doing it with an Iraqi government.
We are fighting terror in Afghanistan and we're doing it with an Afghan government.
So the way to think about what happened in Lebanon is that we're gonna fight terror but we need to do it with a Lebanese government that is devoted to fighting terror.
So I think with the the from our point of view there isn't any difference.
No terrorist uh can be uh supported or understood or negotiated with what you can do is to find moderate governments, uh moderate leaders in those countries that are suffering from terrorism themselves and enlist them in the fight to help defeat terrorists.
Is Lebanon really serious about this?
I mean if if if the uh if the Hismotic group was able to attack without even the government of Lebanon knowing it then what good does a ceasefire with the government of Lebanon do?
Well you have to strengthen that government it's a weak government and it but it is getting stronger.
It's finally deployed its military forces throughout its whole country for the first time in more than three decades.
And uh this is a government that came to power when the uh extremist assassinated the uh reformist prime minister of Lebanon, uh Rafik Hariri.
And so this is a government that comes from the right set of values and the right set of principles.
It's just not of not very strong.
We're trying to help build it up, build up its security forces.
But when we've done that in Lebanon and in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and indeed if we can find that kind of uh government government in uh the Palestinian territories, uh having those strong moderate forces to help you fight terror, indigenous forces to help you find terror fight terrorists, extremely important.
Okay, so the theory is that uh uh terrorists will gravitate to uh uh ter areas where there are no states, where there are no governments, but they like they did Afghanistan and uh and the uh and Somalia.
Exactly.
And so you ha you have to build up governments that can prevent that from happening.
And it's hard.
And I hope they're allied with us.
These these are governments that are allied with us.
It's it's hard work.
They're they're sacrificing to uh there was an attempt on the life of the deputy interior minister of uh of Lebanon just a few days ago.
So they're sacrificing too, but these are these are put really good partners.
We just have to uh build them up and help them to fight the terrorist in their midst.
Before you go, are there days you wish that you could have become the commissioner of the National Football League?
I love it that you're a football fan.
Oh, yes, of course there are days I wish I could go.
No, look, I'm I love what I'm doing.
Um and it's uh I'm really lucky to be here at this particular point in time, but at some point I'm gonna want to go to put to one of my first loves, which is Well, let me tell you there are a lot of Americans who are thrilled that you're there too, because they understand the battle you have with uh with a lot of career people in the State Department who are there before the administration got there and and uh you bring a comforting salve to a lot of people with the way you conduct yourself and the uh in the office.
Do you have a favorite NFL team or you do?
Let me just say Rush uh I want to I just want to say one thing.
I've I really do like being Secretary.
I've got a great team here, a great group of people and uh career and professional, they're working hard and people are serving in places like Baghdad and Kabul, sometimes without their family, always without their families.
Uh they're good folks.
Uh but in uh in a couple years I'll be glad to go and uh yes, I have a favorite NFL team, the Cleveland Browns.
Cleveland, oh my God.
Who managed to let Reggie Bush have a great rookie first game.
What a disappointing season you are headed for.
Uh well now let's just let's just watch it.
Fifteen games to go.
I'm a Steelers fan.
Oh, oh, I see.
Anyway, I I I appreciate your time.
We need to have uh conversations more often.
It's very enlightening.
I like that rush.
Let's let's let it be too long the next time.
We'll do that.
Okay.
Thank you very much for your time today.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and we'll be right back after this.
Stay with us.
Uh-huh.
Senator McCain getting phone calls from detainees in prison, getting to call their lawyer, one phone call, they call him.
Welcome back, Rush Limbaugh and open line Friday, Gary in Naples, Florida.
Thank you for waiting, sir.
Appreciate the patience.
Rush, congratulations on your new car.
Thank you, sir.
Uh kudos from across uh Alligator Alley.
Uh listen, uh I I'm wondering if we shouldn't be pinning down Senator McCain a little tighter.
And my question is a fairly simple one.
Suppose we lack information in Guantanamo due to his policies, and say a detainee escapes, and that detainee kills one of our servicemen.
What I wonder, how would Senator McCain explain to the mother of that serviceman exactly why he died, because we didn't have the information that we needed because of Senator McCain.
Let's change this.
Uh you said you wanted to ratchet it up.
Let's let's really ratchet it up.
Um the odds that this would ever happen.
I'm gonna the the question would ask if Senator McCain ever be asked is uh remote, but an escape wouldn't have come.
Nobody's gonna escape down there.
What we have to do is assume the program is punted.
Let's just assume the McCain side wins this and the president says, all right, screw it.
You know, the Congress won't go along with helping to determine when we're gonna get hit next.
We can't interrogate prisoners, so we're gonna let them all out.
And uh uh because I'm not gonna have my uh professionals down there get in trouble, and bam, they're all there these guys are all let out of jail, and we get hit some months later, some period of time later.
During the presidential debate, would Bernard Shaw come out of retirement to say, Senator McCain, if it could be established that the latest terrorist attack in the United States happened because of your involvement in the sort of like the Dukakis question.
Uh uh Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis uh if if his wife Kitty were raped and killed, would he support the death penalty?
And Dukakis wanna well, you know, I uh care about people, Bernard.
And he wasn't at all outraged at the at the assumption of the question, at the present premise of the question.
He wanna answer it as a hand-wringing liberal that he doesn't think capital punishment works, that he doesn't think the death penalty would have any effect.
Meanwhile, he's just been asked, what would you do if one of these thugs murdered and raped your wife?
And it was I mean, even the libs were going gaga.
So we don't want to get hit again, and and nobody nobody wants nobody wants that.
It's gonna be real interesting to see how this uh how this all plays out.
I'm gonna tell you what, folks.
Uh the one thing that's different here is President Bush is playing hard ball when he's threatening to dump the program.
Uh and not go forward with it, and then saying if the program gets dumped, it's these guys over in Congress who are causing the problem.
See, the guys in Congress are not used to that.
They're used to the president caving.
Uh they're not used to him vetoing things.
They're not you they're used to him caving in.
Uh uh don't see that happening on this.
This this is not some you know social security reform issue or education bill uh or something else.
This is the defining issue of George W. Bush, the defining aspect of his personal character and his sense of duty as commander in chief.
So we uh keep a sharp uh sharp eye on this.
And but it's it's not all rosy for the Democrats out there, as I've been telling you.
I mean, even uh the the savior of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama says the Democrats are confused.
Get this new book out there dedicated to his mother and maternal grandmother, the women who raised him.
And uh he accuses fellow Democrats of being confused as the Democratic Party has become the party of reaction.
Uh which is something you don't want in a war on terror.
You don't want it in a war period.
You don't want a reactionary leadership that waits to react every time we get hit and then wring their hands in debate over how in the world we do react.
Will we offend people around the world if we defend ourselves and we need to go to the UN to get permission?
Uh the global test of uh of John Kerry.
So here's Barack Obama.
When we come back from the break here at the bottom of the hour, I have uh uh some stuff from Charlie Rose last night on PBS.
Uh drive-by media panicking as the election slips away from them.
They're all upset that the Republicans are gaining confidence.
And uh and the Democrats are starting to feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football.
You know, Lucy keeps holding him and he gets up there to kick it and bam.
Lucy just pulls it away.
Charlie Brown, the idiot never figures it out.
Just keeps trying and trying and trying, plotting away, but the same thing keeps happening to him, and he never sees it company.
Or he has hope, he has uh uh a desire that she'll eventually be nice and stop teasing him and so forth.
So you'll hear those uh soundbites coming up.
John O'Neill has responded to uh uh John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, claiming that the Swift boat guys come back in the 08 presidential race, he will kick their ass from one end of the country to the next.
O'Neill had a great, great, great reaction to that, great response.
All that plus uh new study shows that abstinence education can work.
Really premarital sex.
STV.
America's real anchor man.
Always serving humanity, a living legend behind the golden EIB microphone.
Is it indeed raining out there?
Did you go check?
I knew it.
I could tell.
We lose the satellite signal for a couple seconds, and I know it must be clouding up out there.
Right, right when Joe was here washing the car.
But that's okay.
Uh still helps.
All right, to the phones, uh Ray in Dayton, Ohio.
Nice to have you on the program, sir.
Welcome.
Thank you, Rush.
Good afternoon, and uh dittoes to you.
Thank you, sir.
Uh first I want to say thank you for uh all of your years of service.
I think I've been listening to you for about seventeen years, and it's been an absolute education.
So thank you.
Thank you.
I really appreciate that more than you know.
Thank you.
Well, my question is um what uh what your thoughts are about the changes in radio.
Uh you know, we're hearing things about uh HD, radio, and of course, satellite, and I'm interested in knowing if uh you've thought of going over to uh satellite from terrestrial or what your thoughts are on that.
Yeah, I'd be glad to answer this question.
It comes up now and then, usually on open line Friday.
And whenever I go speak to uh uh groups of radio uh management uh people, a question always comes up.
Um I think that the uh new delivery systems, podcasting, satellite radio, all of this uh HD radio uh they're fine and so forth, but I don't think anything will be like I was I was asked the other day by a uh uh g radio magazine during an interview.
What do you think the next gimmick is gonna be that works in radio?
Uh is it gonna be satellite?
Is it gonna be podcasting, HD, or something that we don't know of yet?
Radio broadcast to your telephone, what's it gonna be?
And I said, I don't think it's gimmicks that make radio work now.
I think it's content.
Uh radio is no different today than it than it's ever been.
People listen to what they want to listen to, and they'll go wherever they have to to get it.
I mean, AM was supposed to die when FM came along.
All of radio was supposed to be dead when television came along.
Look at it now.
Everybody and their uncle wants a radio show now because everybody thinks that's where the majority impact is uh is taking place in a lot of political and cultural ways.
Uh and there aren't any gimmicks that have made this happen.
There's there's there don't no gimmicks in in radio.
There's uh there's no stereo on AM, FM is what it is, AM is what it's always been.
It's content, content, content, content.
As to me going to satellite radio, you know, I started this program in 1988, and I started at a time when nobody in radio thought it would work because a nationally syndicated program in the daytime, uh a couple of them or three had been tried, but they really didn't make any impact.
They weren't making any money.
Uh there are a couple reasons aside from what the conventional wisdom is as to why that was the case.
But regardless, they weren't.
Uh syndicated radio was a nighttime affair, nighttime and overnight affair, so local stations wouldn't have to hire local people to bring in some satellite show.
Uh and the and the companies that syndicated those hosts for the most part were not uh using those programs to make money.
They were using them as lost leaders to get other aspects of their network offerings broadcast during the daytime, like newscasts and the commercials contained therein.
So when I started in 88, it wasn't thought to be possible.
But look what happened.
Uh in the process, there are a lot of radio stations, Ray, that took a tremendous risk in taking the program for business reasons and controversy reasons, political reasons.
I mean, there were people out to kill the program and destroy advertisers that supported the program.
We had we had a we had quite a huge business challenge ahead of us.
The business aspect, the business model success of this program is one that's never really been fully explored and is thus not understood by even those trying to imitate it today, even on the conservative side.
In the process of building up to six hundred stations, uh these are the stations that enabled me to succeed.
I couldn't have done it without them.
Now, satellite is an intriguing thing for some reasons, but it it it simply doesn't offer me uh the opportunity to maximize the uh uh reach that I would have of the American people.
I cannot do both with one radio show.
To put this program up on satellite would be to cannibalize the radio show on radio stations around the country.
And I get email from people repeatedly.
When are you gonna be on XM or when are you gonna be on Sirius?
And uh I I uh uh the only way it would be possible is if I did a different show every day and put that one up on uh on satellite.
Uh it would make no business sense to cannibalize these radio stations who have supported me, and I believe me, and I've put these radio stations through a lot of challenges, as I have my own broadcast partners just in the last five years, and they've all stuck with me.
We haven't lost one station.
We haven't lost an advertiser.
I uh it would make no sense for me to say, you know what, guys, uh thanks for all these great years, but I'm heading off satellite.
The second reason is, and this is nothing against satellite.
But I what's the combined subscribers they have now?
Um is it six million?
Well, I thought it was thought it I thought it was twelve, I thought it was twelve million, eight to twelve, ten to twelve million people.
Okay, well, that would be the universe of the audience that I would have access to.
The universe.
And they're offering 250 channels and they got music and they've got I mean, they really do niche stuff on satellite.
I mean, you people never hear from me again.
And no liberals would you know if I went satellite, I could probably get the liberals, the DNC to give me a house in Hawaii and fifty million dollars to go to satellite.
They'd probably pay me a hundred million dollars and the house in Hawaii to retire.
The liberals would love for me to go to satellite, because that would be the end of any impact.
You can simply ignore me.
And if you didn't have satellite, and most of the country doesn't, uh uh uh it just it wouldn't make any sense.
This is not to criticize the satellites people.
I've they're they're you know, they've got a business model or trying to make it work.
And I wish I could help them in some way, but I'm I can't I'm not gonna do a second show uh just for satellite.
And it's it's uh it to me it uh people say, aren't you afraid people are going to uh uh lose uh you and not listen to you and go to satellites?
No, I'm not afraid of that.
What'll make people stop listening to me is if the show gets boring or uninteresting.
Uh because it goes back to what I told you a moment ago.
Content, content, content.
If people want to listen to it, they'll do it with two ten cans and a piece of string.
And it doesn't matter where it is.
Um if if the content on satellite was something people really, really, really, really doing better than they are.
I don't mean that as a put down.
I'm speaking as a businessman.
And I I I have to look at it with uh with in a host of ways.
And I know some of you say, well, yeah, but I can't get your if I travel around the country, there's some dead spots and I can't pick up the show, why don't you make it's not I can't I can't put it up.
Other people may do it.
Um I I don't I don't think it would be right to do.
If I were to go to satellite, I would have to leave terrestrial radio.
And uh I have judged that that doesn't make any sense for you or me to uh to do that.
Plus I love radio, you know.
I grew up, I started when I was sixteen in it, and radio has done nothing other than fire me seven times to make me want to screw it.
Uh and and I didn't want to screw it even then, because I because I stuck it was eight times, I think actually.
I keep forgetting one, um, but it actually is uh is eight.
So that's the answer.
I appreciate everybody's uh interest in this.
I'm glad you called and asked the question, because it gives me an opportunity to answer it for people who uh who have not heard the answer on on uh previous programs or prior occasions because they may not have uh have been listening.
But again, uh I mean the I the the best way to explain this to you is this question I want to repeat this that I got from it was a Radio Inc.
reporter said, What's the next gimmick uh that that's gonna and I don't think it's gimmicks that work.
I don't think it's just tricks that work.
I think it's content, content, content.
I mean, people watched Seinfeld, not because Seinfeld did promotions and gave away money and was all over the place doing personal appearances.
They watch Seinfeld because there's a good show.
And they watch uh people watch 24, and not because there's anything ancillary going on, they watch it because they love the show.
And if 24 happen to change networks, guess what?
They would go to where that network is.
Uh but we're talking cable and television with national penetration.
It's not gimmicks.
Uh a lot of people think it is, but it isn't.
It's just it's it's just quality and uh and content.
So I I'm not I'm not worried about, hey, look, the best way to explain this to you is throughout this from 88, 1980, I started this and there's nobody else doing what I'm doing.
Now everybody's doing it.
Conservatives, liberals we haven't lost any audience here.
All these conservative shows are building their own.
Because none of them are against me.
But nevertheless, well, a couple are, but you never heard of them.
There's a reason.
We've expanded the pie.
The radio business pie, like the LED, the New York Times has this story about radio in bad trouble outside of drive time.
I recognize what this story is all about, and it's bogus.
We network radio, we've expanded the pie.
There are people advertising that have never been advertising before.
That's a great business thing.
There are more voices and more opinions being heard than ever before.
And now radio is looking to syndicated people to save the day.
And just 18 years ago, it was thought to be impossible.
It wouldn't work.
So content, content, content.
Growth, growth, growth.
We haven't had a down year yet in 18 years.
Don't expect one that well, we're way ahead this year anyway.
So no reason to change anything other than to try to continue to get better and dazzle you people more tomorrow than you were even today.
Back in just a second.
All right, look, one more thing on uh on this satellite radio business.
I practice great restraint in the last explanation here about why various things are the way they are with me.
People are sending me letters, well, so and so is on satellite and radio stations too.
Why can't you do it?
Um I'm not them, and I don't know what their financial arrangements are with radio stations, but I uh just folks, you just trust me, I'm the one who knows here.
Uh it's amazing to me how many people I don't care where I go who think I have no idea what I'm doing.
I'm doing it all wrong.
I'm not thinking of something.
You want to know how we're dealing with uh those of you who say you can't get the program for your when you drive it around, you're in dead spots, or maybe you live out there on a mountain valley uh and radio signals don't get there.
It's called the internet.
And it's called Rush 24-7.
This program is available via podcast where you can listen to it any time of day, and it's available 20 minutes after the program every day.
It's just like having it on satellite, except you're paying me instead of them to join Rush 24-7.
What what in the world, folks?
I mean, I uh I uh we we're trying to accommodate everybody that wants to hear this program.
If they have to time shift it, if you have to listen to it when you can't listen to it live, it's available to you in any number of formats.
It's available on the ditto cam every day.
We're got some video upgrades coming with that down the road too.
Um, but we we're doing everything we can to uh make this program available to everybody in one form or another.
Uh there's no difference in listening to it on your iPod, traveling around and listening to it on a radio or a satellite receiver or what have you.
But it is it's not being denied you.
It is not being denied.
We're everywhere out there.
All right.
Mark in Hollywood, you're next.
I'm glad you waited.
Welcome to the program.
Hi IQ radio and common sense content do-dos.
Thank you, sir.
Hugh, I mean, I'm sorry, Rush.
You're gonna have to start doing this show with seven-eighths of your brain tied behind your back to make it fair.
Why?
Because I'm afraid that the biggest threat to America is not terrorism, it's not global warming, it's not the bird flu, it's an epidemic of stupidity among our population, from congressmen to talk show hosts to to Rosie O'Donnell.
Mark Stein yesterday said on another program how stupid Rosie O'Donnell was talking about the Christians and Muslims because they be had homosexuals in other countries.
How come the people that think that the uh World Trade Center towers were imploded?
Do they realize that the number of men in the world with the skill set and knowledge base to do that could fit in the EIB studios and they all have a business card?
Call them up, which one did it?
And how come people would rather form their opinion of George Bush from a from a clip of him falling off a segue, and oh, segues were recalled yesterday, I remember.
Instead of the instead of the video clip of the statue of Saddam Hussein falling down in Baghdad.
And I'm just afraid that there's just too much stupidity out there.
I hear it from you, Rush.
I hear it from other talk show hosts, and uh I mean, should I give up?
Is everyone just stupid?
No, you know something I I I will I will make you a wager.
That throughout every generation of life in this country, every generation since this country was founded, has had its conspiracy theorists, has had its kooks, and every generation has thought things are going to hell in a handbasket, and these are the last days of the apocalypse.
There are people alive today that think it.
They thought it 25 years ago, 50 years ago.
It's always going to be a fact of life.
I'll bet you throughout the history of this nation.
We have had people think, my God, we're never going to survive.
The people here are too stupid.
It seems to be amplified and focused because of all the media attention that we have.
I don't think it's really that much different today than it than it's ever been.
You look at you you you point out Mark Stein commenting on Rosie O'Donnell.
That's good.
That's new.
That used to not happen.
Rosie O'Donnell, to understand Rosie, I mean you she's sure she's stupid, but but why?
I heard what she said on The View.
Well, there are militant Christians too, and militant Christians and militant Islamists, there's no difference in the two, as as Stein pointed out, there clearly are.
But you have to understand Rosie is a liberal first, an American second, and whatever else, third, fourth, or fifth.
It's the same, it's it's how you explain liberals.
It is their religion.
Uh they are liberals first.
And there are certain aspects of liberalism that trump everything else that will explain why she says and thinks the things or feels the things that she does.
The conspiracy uh stuff on the on the World Trade Center, that's just loony.
Uh and and but Mike, I I can't I can't count the number of conspiracies I've been uh treated to.
When I was in Kansas City in 1976, I had I had a bunch of people come to me and try to give me the spiel on a new world order and a trilateral commission and a council on foreign relations.
And it was seductive, and I bought into it for about oh three months, and I finally started asking questions to which their answers were insane and ludicrous, and they couldn't even um uh uh make make sense out of.
So it's it's I I I'm not concerned about it.
I I think that some of these stupid people don't end up voting anyway.
Some of them obviously do, but uh uh I think if you react and treat people with uh with the assumption that they're intelligent, uh you'll you're gonna get intelligence back if you treat people with high expectation.
I will admit, you know, sometimes it's tough.
I just spent 10 minutes explaining why I'm not on satellite, and I got a bunch of emails.
Well, can't you do both at the same time?
And the whole ten minutes was devoted to why I can't do both at the same time.
And it was well, can't you put your station up on there are six hundred of them, and stations are not on satellite.
Satellites are competing with stations.
That's the whole point.
I'd be competing with myself.
It makes no sense.
Um but I find if you patiently take time to explain this, eventually light bulbs do go off in in people's heads.
But, you know, be be cool, be calm.
It's certainly not time to give up, despite all of these fears that people have that the country is stupid, and there's clear evidence of it in the number of liberals that get elected.
But they're not being elected to real positions of power.
Uh and and they're not gonna be uh this time around either.
We need to explore this in more detail, actually, because it's something I think a lot of you probably are worried about, and uh I would like to try to calm and soothe you.
Sadly, we are out of busy broadcast moments.
Thanks, Mark, for the call.
We'll be back here in just a second.
Stay with us.
Some of you people on a Ditto Cam say, hey, if you have to wear the same shirt two days in a row, let me know and I'll send you one.
It's a different shirt.
It's a different color.
Come on, folks.
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