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May 16, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:32
May 16, 2007, Wednesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of The Rush 247 Podcast.
And greetings to you, thrill seekers, music lovers, conversationalists all across the fruited plan.
Time for broadcast excellence, L. Rushball, the all-knowing, all caring, all-feeling, all sensing Maha Rushi, back in the saddle.
We are in New York, high atop the uh EIB building here in Midtown Manhattan, one of the most frequently visited tourist sites in uh in all of Midtown New York.
Telephone number if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882, and the uh email address is rush at EIBNet.com.
Now, since I was last here, and this is a a note for those of you on the Ditto Cam, watching on the DittoCam today at Rush Limbaugh.com.
Since I was last here, major, major work has been done to improve uh what was a a poor lighting circumstance.
And we got little blue accent lights behind me uh for the backdrop.
We've got uh little miniature TV cameras blinding me now.
Um and here's what's happened.
We got the lighting perfect for television, uh perfect for the ditto cam.
It's so dark in here I can't read my stuff.
Don't know what the difference is in as it's identical studio.
Well, the the the fluorescents are a little bit different.
No, I I've got enough light here to see.
John Creele did a great job getting this set up.
He's sitting in there panicked, just hoping everything goes well, and it's uh it it's cool.
So uh we got a lot to talk about today.
We're gonna get to the debate.
Uh, and I I know a lot of you are you know probably want to talk about the debate.
Uh uh we will, but I still uh the the election is five hundred days away, folks, and uh there's uh there's some larger stories out there.
What's happening in Iraq, the Democrats, one of the problems I had with the debate last night was that uh not enough attacking uh Democrats uh in in this debate.
The Republicans I know it's the primaries and so forth.
Now I know that the questions, by the way, Fox showed last night how to professionally do a televised debate.
It wasn't like a you know a school glee club the way PMSNBC handled their debate.
Uh and and it was uh was really well done.
I've no complaints about it.
We've got audio sound bites from it as well.
Before we get to get to the program, let me address something.
I a lot of you people say I read my email, and I know that a lot of you people are are are well, I don't know if you're angry, uh, if you're frustrated, but I I look at I can read between the lines even in email.
Uh such email subject lines as so what are you, the new Johnny Carson?
Four days a week.
Are you sick?
You keep leaving.
What's wrong?
How come you're missing so much time?
Ladies and gentlemen, I have a uh allotted myself as the CEO of EIB, allotted myself unlimited vacation time.
Uh and I take it whenever I wish.
Now, you wouldn't like it if I took two days, two weeks straight.
I don't ever take two weeks straight up.
Very rarely have I done that.
I take a day here, a day there, so that my absences are not prolonged, because I miss you people too much when I'm not here.
Now, yesterday I had it, I had a golden opportunity.
I had an invitation.
Yesterday was the only day that I could do it.
And if becoming CEO of your own company is not is not enough to allow me to make decisions like that, I don't know what is.
I mean, I've reached a certain pinnacle here.
Uh it's America.
The country's not gonna die with me, not in the uh in the Attila the Hun chair uh for just one day.
I was invited with some friends to go play Oakmont yesterday in Pittsburgh, which is the site of this year's U.S. Open.
I lived in Pittsburgh in 1973 when Johnny Miller won the U.S. Open with a final round 63 on Sunday came from way behind in the pack.
Uh and I had never been there.
I I don't even remember the course from watching it on TV back in 1973.
I didn't start playing golf till 1997, so uh I didn't spend a whole lot of time watching it.
But Bob Ford is the pro uh at uh uh at Oakmont.
He's 26 or 27 or 30 some odd years he's been there.
He's also the pro at Seminole down in uh in Florida, north of where I live, and and uh uh that's where I played on Sunday.
And he invited us up a about a month or two ago and uh gave us a date range, and they were all during the week.
Uh and they're trying to limit some play because they got the open coming up, and I just had a great time.
It's uh it's probably the hardest golf course that I've ever played.
I shot a 94.
Uh I'm gonna tell you for you people that play golf, uh, This this Oakmont was probably the golf course that made me appreciate, and I always have appreciated the talents and skills of professionals, but this course makes me appreciate it all the more.
The greens there are impossible.
The rough is way up.
The fairways are narrow.
They've taken out 4,000 trees, which is good.
I don't know about for the environment, but they took out 4,000 trees, so you don't have to hit in a bunch of trees, but the rough makes up for that.
But it was just a gorgeous golf course.
And the membership up there could not have been nicer.
I was walking through the clubhouse and out on the veranda before and after everybody.
Pittsburgh, you know, I live there and it's home of the Steelers, and I've got fond memories when it was my first big city away from home.
But it's also a big Democrat town.
It is, always has been.
It's a big union town.
A bunch of people were just as nice as they could be.
And my my caddy, Danny.
Now you're gonna you're gonna talk about your trip to Oakmont when you get back on the Oh, yeah.
Well, I'm gonna lead off my program.
Have you had a good time?
Well, yes, of course, you can tell.
We were having a great time.
Uh, Bob Ford and I uh teamed up against my other two buddies, and we cleaned their clocks.
Cleaned her clock.
The match was over at the 14th hole.
Uh so it was but we're just a great time, and I want to thank everybody up there, and Bob Ford especially for uh for setting this up.
As I say, folks, it's a unique opportunity, and and uh you know, I've been very lucky to be thinking about these golf courts.
What?
Who said something?
What do you mean in for it now?
Where have you been?
Did you just sit down, Snerdley?
I've been I have been addressing the fact I know people are gonna say I'm in for it.
Now you keep talking about golf, stick to the issues.
My friends, look.
I am not going to allow this program to be reshaped or formed.
It has always been me talking about as much of my personal life as I feel like volunteering, less and less and less over the years.
Uh but like I told you last Friday, I love sharing my passions with people.
That's that's just something I like to do.
I wish I could have taken all of you who play golf with me.
Um I couldn't, so I'm telling you about it.
And it uh it was just fine.
I don't want to thank the people that made it possible.
I'm just being a nice guy here.
We've got two hours and forty-six minutes left here to get to the issues.
So anyway, a couple little stories here before we uh before we go to the break.
You know, I always I tell a joke.
Let me let me tell a joke very quickly.
I've told it a couple times, set this story up.
God is watching the Oprah Winfrey show, and he says, you know, I have screwed up.
The human race has just failed.
My worst creation.
I I am I'm gonna end the world, I'm gonna end it tomorrow.
So he calls journalists, reporters from various newspapers.
First of he calls the New York Times, says, Hi, this is God.
Reporter says, didn't know you existed.
Well, I do, and I'm ending the world tomorrow because you have made a mess.
The human race has made a mess of everything.
New York Times guy says, Can I have an exclusive on it?
No, I'm calling other newspapers.
I need to get the word out.
Humanity needs to prepare for the apocalypse.
So uh the New York Times guy says, okay, thanks, and starts writing up the story.
Then God calls USA Today, calls a Wall Street Journal, uh a couple of other places.
The next day, the newspapers publish the story with their headlines.
And the New York Times headline, God says world to end tomorrow.
Details page C4.
The uh Wall Street Journal says, We uh God says world to end tomorrow, markets to close early.
USA Today's headline, God calls, we're doomed.
The Washington Post headline, God says world ends tomorrow, women and minorities hardest hit.
Now that is a joke, those of us in the media tell because that is a template.
Well, lo and behold, here's a story from CNN, and all these drive-bys are the same.
And it's a story about a poll.
Local governments ready for disaster.
Feds not.
This is a perfect example of how lazy journalists use a poll for a story rather than actually doing reporting.
And and here's Here's the opening paragraph.
Most people say their families and local emergency agencies are ready for the next natural disaster, but the federal government is not.
Women and minorities are less confident on both counts.
I kid you not.
Women and minorities.
Hardest hit women.
You can count on it in every just just like there's a template developing for the Republican debate last night.
How come there are no women and minorities on stage?
I guess you forgot about 2004.
And I guess, I guess uh, you know, the Democrats never get those kinds of questions, because it's always assumed that they're fair and just and not discriminatory and uh and all that.
But anyway, this this story.
I guess it's too hard to investigate if the government is actually ready for another disaster.
This is an AP story, but it's ran on CNN, reports on yet another stupid poll by another stupid news organization, which actually shows nothing but how stupid the public is in believing everything the drive-by media says.
We've got a poll of the American Why would you believe a poll of uninformed or ignorant people?
What does it matter that a majority of Americans don't think the federal government's ready?
Why not go ask the FEMA people?
They're the ones who would have to mobilize.
So we're to conclude, oh my gosh, the government's not ready.
Majority of people don't think so.
They must know something I don't.
It's just trash.
Absolute trash journalism.
Also, in the uh latter part of the story, Democrats were also less confident than Republicans that their families, local emergency agencies in Washington were ready for a disaster.
So who cares?
We know that Democrats are idiots anyway on most things.
Uh story on what the American people think about who's ready and who isn't ready for the next disaster.
Of course, this is just a story in a run-up to June 1st, when the next hurricane season starts.
People are already mobilizing the newsmans to head out there to the various beaches scanning the horizon, even though.
Well, I've been through this.
It's just frankly absurd.
But women and minorities are less confident that the federal government's ready for the next disaster.
I just I look at this, I have to laugh.
Uh, and I marvel at the lack of originality, creativity, and independent thinking that exists uh at all the levels of the drive-by media.
Okay, quick timeout, we'll be back and uh oh, nope, one more thing.
Let's get audio soundbite one out of the way here, Ed.
Uh this was last night on CNN's showbiz tonight.
That had to be CNN headline news.
I think it's headline news that does well, that means nobody saw it.
Well, this is even better.
The host out there was AJ Hammer, and his guest was the Reverend Sharpton.
And uh here's the question from the uh from the reporter A.J. Hammer and the Reverend Sharpton's answer.
You look at a guy like Rush Limbaugh, okay.
He has certainly said things and then later apologized for them.
He talks about Barack Obama on his show all the time.
He has referred to that man as a African.
He has played a song called Barack the Magic Negro.
On surface, I find that offensive.
A lot of people find that offensive, but the outrage over that paled in comparison.
Where do you draw the line to decide who to go after?
Because Mr. Lombard has done years of stuff against me, now Obama or others.
He has the right to do that with individuals.
That is not what we're we're talking about when you castigate a race or a gender.
And he's very, very careful that he will hit individuals.
I think he wanted us to come after that.
He called me Mr. Lombard.
He did you hear that?
Mr. Lombard's done years of stuff against me now.
Uh uh uh he thinks I was setting a trap.
That's what they think this is.
No, I'm gonna tell you what it is.
Because the Reverend Sharpton's got this right.
I go after individuals, not genders or groups or this kind of particularly minorities, and I go after people of power, which is the you know, mainstream media's primary reason for existing to investigate people in power.
And that's what I do.
I just investigate the people in power, drive-by media ignores, Democrats and liberals.
But I actually think it's this.
They they know, folks, that if you're gonna take out the king, you take out the king.
If you make a move on the king and you fail, then it's over and you can't go back again.
Uh, and so this is not enough to take me out.
Don't think they don't want to.
But the Reverend Sharpton knows this is not the arena to step in.
All right.
Now we'll go to the first uh Profit Center timeout.
We'll be back continuing all the rest of the program right after this.
Hi, welcome back.
Rush Limbaugh having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have sitting here in the prestigious Attila the Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
All right.
Let's get in a little bit of debate discussion.
We've got audio sound bites.
I'm not going to get to those yet, Ed, but uh Ed's the substitute broadcast engineer today.
McCain is out, uh or uh uh Mamon is out.
What is he, antiquing again?
He's a see see here's the difference.
When when when the primary broadcast engineer goes on vacation, he follows his wife around to antique stores.
Well, I okay.
Okay.
Now Ed stepping in and brewing his own beer.
Well, fine.
That's good.
He's done that for uh for many, many moons, and happy happy happy to hear it.
I yeah, it's a good point.
I'd be making my own beer too if I had to go antiquing on my vacations.
But anyway.
We're not gonna get to the audio sound bites of the debate yet, because there's some things I want to say about it.
I watched um I watched some of it on the way uh back uh back into New York from Pittsburgh uh last night.
Uh and I know that you know everybody's got their own opinions about this.
I'm gonna tell you what I think is going on.
The media and and I love the way that the Fox people did the professional way to do a ba debate, and they did it.
Uh, but they they limited the questioning uh and the answers uh in in such a way that Republicans ended up attacking Republicans.
And I think it's time.
Um we're talking about winning the White House here, and I know it's the primaries, we've got to pick a nominee, but this enough of this beating each other up stuff.
Uh i it that there's plenty that the Democrats are doing and saying that's attackable and would and Giuliani did hit the Democrats, but it did I just didn't hear enough of it uh for me.
But I think there's something more important.
The way the media covers all this, and I think the way some of you may even watch these debates, it's more about the game right now than the substance.
And I'll give you an example.
Giuliani is being uh uh praised.
He's gonna rave reviews for the way he stood up to the comment uh uh made by Ron Paul, uh in which that we need to examine our policies and listen to what the terrorists are saying if we want to understand why they're attacking us and killing us.
Now, I uh all the other candidates on that stage wanted to respond to Ron Paul too.
They weren't allowed to.
Rudy just got the first shot in.
Now, this is not to criticize Rudy, but folks, how hard is it to sit there and criticize anybody, Republican or Democrat, who essentially says something that most people are gonna hear is criticism of the country.
How hard that that so people, well, big time score, Rudy, Julian.
I I understand how people think it, but that's more of let's analyze the game of this uh rather than the substance of things.
And the substance is um is important to me.
Like I think Romney, a lot of people disagree with this.
I think Romney's getting stronger.
Seems to me has his positions nailed down, uh the flip-flopping charge uh nevertheless seems to take him uh uh off step for for uh for a second.
But he looked like he was in command to me.
That's just my opinion.
I've formed no conclusions about anything.
I'm giving you the game analysis of the uh of the debate last night.
I think if if McCain were pressed as hard as Rudy is being uh harassed about his non-conservative positions, I think McCain would be finished by now.
Uh but, you know, uh uh there there's so many of them.
There's so many non-conservative positions that McCain has, but the the the action line in the in the media these days is is Rudy.
And is he a conservative?
And is he and Rudy's fine making play?
I'm not a conservative.
I'm I'm I'm a center-right Republican.
I think I'm gonna try to play the game that he's a conservative anymore.
Eh, ergo his his uh new position on uh on abortion.
Uh now it was obvious to me last night that both Rudy and McCain want the election to be about the war.
That's what they think their strong suits are.
Understand that politically.
Uh but the reason you have to understand the reason for this is that neither of them are that conservative.
But you can sound conservative and tough on the war and maybe overcome some of your oh lack of conservative credentials by capitalizing on your your strength on an issue that many people of the Republican Party, most people feel very important, and that's the war on terror and threats to the country.
But a president has to do it all.
Uh president's going to be doing much more than just managing or leading a war.
Has to fight a war, has to protect our liberties at home from those who threaten them with their big government agenda.
I mean, you know, conservatism is still important to me here, folks.
Not center-right republicanism, but conservatism.
And when uh when you focus on the war, uh you are you like that because you don't have to zeroed in on on the uh positions other uh than the than the war.
I have a few more thoughts on this, but it's uh time for another timeout.
We'll get your phone calls in on all of it as well.
Uh you sit tight, we'll be back uh faster than you know it.
Yes, yes, thank you uh very much.
Rush Limbaugh here with half my brain tied behind my back.
Uh just to make it fair, we're at 800 282-2882.
Uh look at this.
This is in the Los Angeles Times today.
Food prices eat deeper into wallets.
Grocery costs in Southern California are up 5.7%, outpacing the U.S. and rising at their highest rate in years.
Really, prices are rising in food at their highest rate in years.
Well, now, that's gotta mean gougings going on out there.
There gotta be some gouging happening out there among food producers.
I wonder who's doing we need an investigation.
Somebody's gouging out there.
And you know, you you might want to say, well, it's it's uh the the ethanol crowd because they're really causing corn prices to skyrocket out there.
Um nationally, food prices rose 3.9% in April compared with the same amount last year.
The outlook is equally chilling.
Somebody tell me when prices have gone down.
I mean, they everything goes up.
Prices are always going up.
Well, oil, yeah, oil goes down, but everybody knows that's just a setup for the later price increases.
You know, now that they're everybody, gas prices, uh, average family of four now, average American spending a thousand dollars more per year on gasoline now than uh, what, a year ago or whatever.
It was.
Uh, the price of well, I mean, the that's true.
Big TV, the plasmas, the flat screens are coming down because of people like me who go out and pay the big freight prices early on, uh, allowing uh the price to come down for other people.
Uh but it says food prices here are um are increasing at their highest rate in years.
Even the rising cost of corn, highly sought after, not only as ingredients for thousands of food products, but also to make ethanol.
A bushel of corn has gone up, the price of a bushel of corn gone up 46% in uh in one year.
And of course, it's just the latest in the never-ending effort of the drive-by media to keep everybody panicked and in the doom and gloom.
Oh, it's going to hell in a handbasket mode.
Uh when it's it's life.
You know, if it's life.
And I really cringe, you know, when I then when I then read uh stories, poll says, majority of Americans say government needs to do more about rising price of X. The government has nothing to do with it.
And well, I don't want to go there.
They do in certain ways, but but this the whole dependence on government thing is it's like this.
It's like there's a story in the stack here about about uh hurricanes and uh their their disastrous impact potential this year, and it's all about FEMA.
And FEMA says, despite this poll of the American people that says they don't think the feds are ready, FEMA says they are.
Now, who do we believe?
FEMA or the American people, who have no clue what FEMA's doing right now.
But uh anyway, they the the uh this the story is just is rife with with people in the story saying, I we well I I don't know if we can depend on the government.
The government's not gonna Good!
Try depending on yourself.
As if in the storm's coming, leave.
You know, ensure your place the best you can and get out if storm's coming.
Uh it's a big bugaboo of mine, and it's something the lift that has been successful at for 50 years, is creating this notion that government has to do something or nothing will get done.
And it's just the exact obvious.
Now back back to the debate.
One of the want to reiterate this point again.
Um Rudy and McCain obviously want the uh uh election to be about the war only or primarily, and the reason is that they're not all that conservative uh and talking about the war will allow that to be uh that fact to be uh not as obvious.
You have to remember that presidents have to do it all.
They have to fight wars, they have to protect our liberties at home from those who threaten them with big government agendas.
Uh, McCain, somehow McCain has managed to claim the mantle of spending cutter.
But big government's more about spending.
Uh I mean, he would he would massively increase the power of government with his support for Kyoto and his position on global warming.
I mean, that that's that is a position specifically designed, a whole policy designed to grow government and and eliminate as much individual liberty as they can in the process.
Uh and he's not getting called on to this stuff.
So he's he's uh uh he he he was he was opposed to tax cuts, which is uh our money, now says he he wanted spending cuts as well, but we couldn't get the cuts, so he would have let the government continue to take more and more of our money.
Uh all this coming out after the fact.
Uh but he's the guy who undermined the effort to kill the Democrat filibuster of judges when Bill Frist was ready to defeat it.
Remember the nuclear option or ready to pull the trigger on a nuclear option, and it was McCain who puts together the gang of 14.
Um conservatism is far more than national security.
Uh that's a very important element of it.
There's no there's no question.
And of course, we've got McCain Feingold.
And McCain Feingold, the worst assault on free political speech since our founding.
And we got open borders, and McCain is uh, you know, he's the the this the immigration bill that they're trying to ramrod through again here is is is partly his creation.
I mean he's not getting called on any of this stuff yet.
And I don't know that uh that he will, but I I think he's highly vulnerable, but he has not been effectively hit.
Romney tried a little bit last night, uh, and some people said that McCain's uh attack and response was was superior to what Romney did, uh, where he said he's been consistent and Romney uh has not been consistent.
Uh but uh McCain can be consistent.
He's been consistently wrong on a lot of things, whereas Romney says he's learned.
Uh McCain hasn't.
Uh it's it's I'm just sharing the thoughts here with you folks uh in the game manner that well, actually the substance manner, uh, because I think I think most people look at this debate uh, especially in the media, is as a game.
It's like the horse race.
The media is always involved and interested in horse races rather than the substance of things.
Uh and an analysis of the debate, as I am offering you now, I have not seen.
I have seen analysis, the Kate scored here, and Romney didn't score there, and Ron Paul blew up over there, and uh Rudy really.
Give me substance on this stuff.
And if they don't give it to me, I'll provide it myself.
Uh Rudy, I mean, how hard really was it to smack down Ron Paul for his statement that everybody perceived to be blaming America for the uh for the 9-11 attack.
But Rudy was first out of the box to attack him.
Everybody other, either the candidate up there wanted to, uh, but they weren't allowed to.
Uh but this is being portrayed as the greatest moment of the debate.
The best pull quote of the debate is said to be, I don't even remember who said it uh about John Edwards, somebody wants to spend money.
Who was it?
Yeah, that's right.
Mike Huckabee.
These guys want to spend like John Edwards in a beauty salon or some such thing.
Um that's being said as uh cited as one of the best pull quotes of the night.
But I'll tell you what, I think to still say this if one of these guys would would just take over the debate and start attacking Democrats, whatever the questions are, uh they'd score a lot more points with voters, which I think is the point here.
Now, last night Chris Wallace was more interested in Republicans attacking Republicans, and that's okay.
It got the debate going, and it was far superior to MSNBC.
But from a conservative point of view, remember I'm a conservative, not a center-right Republican.
Uh The issue today is the left.
The issue today is the Democrats, the American left, uh liberals, etc., etc., and how our guys are going to deal with them.
Are they going to try to appease them?
Are they going to try to reach out to them and try to get along?
I want to know how they're going to deal with the left.
And I want to know during the primary season.
I don't have to wait till we get a nominee to find out.
Because then it might be too late.
This is why I keep telling you I'm not all that revved up about this yet.
Uh, because the first primary 500 days away.
Do you people understand this?
Five hundred days away.
Uh and the media.
I realize they have a role here.
The media don't want Republicans attacking Democrats yet.
Uh and as good as the questions were last night, they those guys uh at Fox didn't want any attacks on Democrats last night.
Uh but the Republicans, let's be honest, are picking somebody who's going to run against the candidate of the other party, and the point is to see who that should be, not who can best slam other Republicans.
I mean, I could I if you want to get into a contest slamming Republicans, I can win that one hands down.
I can also win the contest who's best slamming Democrats, but I am not running for any office because of the uh the pay cut.
Now the debate was handled professionally as compared to uh PMS NBC, and and for one big reason the PMS NBC hosts are partisan libs, Matthews Olberdork, uh, for all the talk about Fox being one-sided, Britt Hume, former ABC, Chris Wallace, former NBC and CBS, Wendell Gowler is a is a longtime reporter.
In Chris Matthews, you've got Tip O'Neill's chief of staff uh and a Jimmy Carter guy.
Uh you've got Olberdork, who is the puppet of David Brock's Media Matters uh uh little little blog, and you know all these all sort of other nuts that they put up there as so-called credential journals.
I don't think there was any comparison last night between the uh MSNBC debate and the uh and the Fox debate last night.
All right, a brief time out, we'll be back.
Grab some of your phone calls uh after this.
Stay with us.
All right, let's go to the phones and let's see what excitement's lurking out there uh behind those blinking lights on the phone.
We go to Anaheim, California.
Johnny, you're up first.
Great to have you with us.
Good morning, Rush.
It's a real thrill to speak with you.
Thank you, sir.
I really uh found the debates last night very interesting.
But one of the most interesting things I found were their uh post-debate polls on who won.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Post-debate polls.
Yeah.
And I I feel it probably uh Ron Paul got a real booth from the Democrat listeners.
They found a real soulmate there.
Uh Ron Paul uh sounded like a Democrat to you.
He sure did.
Well, you know, uh pretty much I've had I've had a I've had a couple people make that comment.
It's not that much different.
But I'm gonna tell you what's happening out there.
Let's let's play the bite uh uh just to uh uh bring it up to speed here.
Five and six out there, Ed.
Uh this is the debate last night at uh uh University of South Carolina, and and Chris Wallace says to uh uh uh I'm sorry, Wendell Gowler says to Ron Paul, are you suggesting we invited the 9-11 attack, sir?
I'm suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it.
And they are delighted that we're over there because Osama bin Laden has said, I am glad you're over on our sand, because we can target you so much easier.
They've already now, since that time, killed 3,400 of our men, and I don't think it was necessary.
Oh, these ridiculous chimes, too.
I'm getting so sick of these.
Time's up, zap.
Little sound effects in what are supposed to be debates.
Giuliani then responded to that.
That's really an extraordinary statement.
It's an extraordinary statement of someone who lived through the attack of September 11 that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq.
I don't think I've ever heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th.
And I would I would ask the Congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn't really mean that.
And Ron Paul didn't do that.
And here's here's what's happening out there, folks.
Um Ron Paul has a lot of supporters.
Well he's got supporters, and they are spamming uh polls on the internet, they are spamming radio talk shows uh to try to defend Ron Paul against uh what happened.
He's uh, you know, he's he's got a lot of he's got a lot of energetic and passionate supporters.
Um I've been getting them on the email.
I got I got a threatening email from a Ron Paul supporter, Rush.
And this is very cleverly done, by the way.
I was watching TV last night and I've been listening to radio this morning, and every other talk show host has been predictable on this.
I'm looking for you to stand up and stand out from the crowd by being honest about what a great American Ron Paul was and what he did and didn't say last night.
Uh and uh where?
This next one where g let's go there.
Corey in Norfolk, Virginia.
Uh, welcome to the EIB network.
Nice to have you with us, sir.
Hey, Rush.
Um, I'm 30 years old and I've been listening to your show on and off for half my life for 15 years.
So Rush baby.
Great to have you with us.
Well, well, um, you know, I'm just wondering you you said that you consider yourself a conservative first rather than a Republican.
Is that would that be correct?
Uh yes.
I said that many times on this program behind this very microphone.
I just I just don't understand.
I I consider myself a conservative with, you know, admittedly libertarian leanings.
Um, you know, you look at Ron Paul and you look at the other fields out there this year.
It seems to me that if you go down the issues, you know, Ron Paul is the only one who speaks strongly against um, you know, a larger government and other things, you know, he's very socially conservative.
I don't understand why you don't support him.
Uh well, I haven't made up my mind on any of these candidates yet.
Well, that's sure.
But there's also look at I'm gonna be honest with you out there, Corey.
It's my not my job to support these guys and give them a boost.
Their job is to go out and get the support.
Their job's to go out and get you know they're the ones hunting for votes.
Uh and and I'm just gonna be honest with you, I don't think Congressman Paul has a snowball chance.
Well, I I think that, you know, I mean, again, you say that you know your your reasoning is not to promote a particular candidate, but if you were to decide that he was the candidate that most um identified with your you know conservative nature and you supported him in that way, you have the power yourself to make him the Republican um nominee.
Enough of the base listens to your show that you could effectively um change the balance, as it were.
And I didn't know that.
That that is that is very true.
You do not know how right you are, and that is why I must exercise this power responsibly, not as a cheerleader, not as uh not not as not as somebody trying to demonstrate that awesome power.
I have to do this responsibly.
Which is which is why I'm not picking a name right now, which is not because I understand exactly what you said.
I alone have the power to move the base.
Can we talk for a second about the the 9-11 quote in the debate?
Here's my con here's my concern.
He said what he said now, he said what he said, and you can I've getting I'm gotten emails from from from Ron Paul supporters talking about hey, he'd have been totally misunderstood.
Okay, you guys have to understand politics is perceptions, and that's why I said a perception.
The perception of what he said was not good for him.
Right.
And you're not gonna be able to be able to clean this up with emails and polls and phone calls to talk shows.
You're not gonna be able to clean it up.
That's the media's perception, though, and that's what you're good at is pointing out where the media gets it wrong.
Well, wasn't the media's perception?
I mean, it was Rudy's perception, too, is every Republican on that stage last night wanted to take a swipe at this.
Uh just Rudy uh Rudy got in there first.
Uh look at there's the big flaw, I can't believe I'm doing this.
The big flaw in what Congressman Paul said was we've been attacked long before we ever went to Iraq.
We've been attacked by terrorists, and he said they're not attacking us because they like our freedom and like our liberty and so forth.
They're attacking us because we're over there.
They're attacking we listen to what they say.
Well, you can selectively do I do listen to what they say, and they're promising to wipe us all out for a host because we're infidels.
Uh his his position on this is is libertarian.
We got no business going anywhere.
U.S. national interests uh uh be damned and it it's just it's not realistic.
I'm sorry, I gotta take a break.
We'll be back after this.
Stay with us.
So the American people won out of Iraq, huh?
If that's the case, how come the Senate rejected a bill to cut off funding a year from now by a vote of 29 to 67?
It all happened this morning, even though Mrs. Bill Clinton voted for it, as did Barack Obama.
Details on that, lots of other stuff straight ahead.
Right here, the EIB Network Nell Rush Power.
Sit tight, my friends.
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