Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
It is popping out there today, folks.
It is popping.
All kinds of things happening.
And you are at the right place to find out what it all means.
You are at the EIB network and the Rush Limbaugh program heard on over 600 great radio stations from coast to coast, plus a couple pirate stations out there in the Caribbean that we just found out about.
We're going to leave them alone.
Great to have you with us.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
And the email address is a brand new one, LRushBow at EIBNet.com.
Well, a retail season's off to a solid start, folks.
Damn it.
As far as the drive-by is concerned, holiday sales off to a strong start, according to data from Spending Pulse released today.
This erases concerns about a possible sharp pullback in consumer spending.
Who had these concerns?
Nobody had these concerns except the drive-by media.
Easing concerns?
Sales, excluding cars, rose 8-tenths of a percent in November following October's anemic two-tenths of a percent increase.
The U.S. economy has slowed considerably in the fourth quarter, economists say, but consumer spending has held up relatively well.
Many fear that the combination of a housing downturn and a credit crisis could compromise this key engine of U.S. growth.
They just praying.
They are just praying.
And here's why.
Let's go back to this program and me.
November 21st, said I on this program.
People in surveys say their personal economic situation is good, but they're worried about their neighbor.
Next year, Iraq as an election issue is going to be off the table.
And the Democrats and the media who have been ignoring a good economy for the last seven years are all of a sudden going to start focusing on the bad economy because they are going to realize if they can convince enough people that the future is grim and bleak because of Bush's tax cuts or because of Bush's policies, anything they can do to get Hillary or a Democrat elected.
Yes, many fear the combination of housing downturns and credit crises could compromise the key engine of U.S. growth consumer spending.
So predicted to you, they're going to start doing this, focusing on the economy, Iraq off the table.
Listen to this.
ABC's Wordled News Tonight with Charlie Gibson had this exchange with George Stephanopoulos.
One of the other things, George, about this poll that interested me, Iraq has been the issue that concerned Americans most, but not so this time.
Not anymore.
For the first time, Charlie, Americans now say the economy is their number one issue.
It's a 15% in a month.
As the news has gotten better out of Iraq, that's starting to recede.
It's dropped eight points, and Americans are worried about the economy right now.
That issue is turning out to be the number one going into next year.
Good grief.
Do I know these people or do I know these people?
Oh, this is exhilarating.
You know, if they would just listen to me once in a while, they would get a clue as to what not to do and maybe straighten up.
I mean, they just fall right into my attacks.
I'm not laying a trap for them.
I'm just, I know exactly what they're going to do.
I know exactly.
Because look at the drive-by media is just an extension of Democrat National Committee is all it is.
Health news.
We're back to caffeine being bad for you.
A state advisory board in California on Monday called for a study to determine if sodas and energy drinks containing caffeine pose a risk to pregnant women.
The review could lead to warning labels on the drinks under Proposition 65, a 1986 ballot measure that requires the state to identify chemicals that could cause cancer or birth defects.
If I were a pregnant woman or a woman thinking about being pregnant, I'd want to know: should I be avoiding caffeine? said Renee Sharp, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group, an environmental research organization that's based in Washington.
It's a really important question.
I think people are looking for ants.
No, they're not.
They're trying to live their lives.
I don't want to be bugged with scare tactic after scare tactic after scare tactic from a bunch of ninny nannies like you people.
For how many years have people been consuming caffeine?
For how many years have people been making babies?
For how many years are most babies perfectly fine?
What is the evidence to suggest there needs to be a research study into this?
And in Chicago, the city council is poised to send a message to residents: get rid of your chickens.
This is also, get this now.
This is hilarious.
This is also the new age.
You know, these people sit around and do their mantras all day.
That's who they're being targeted here.
Coming up for a vote today is a proposal to ban chickens, a former barnyard denizen that's pecking its way into cities across the country as part of a growing organic food trend among young professionals and other urban dwellers.
Chicken lovers say the birds make great pets.
They don't take up much backyard space and they provide tasty, nutritious eggs.
Had you heard about this?
People having chickens as pets in order to be organic?
This organic business.
I mean, look at it.
If you like it, that's fine and dandy.
I have no brief with you, but I'm just you're buying into another hoax here.
That organic.
What is organic?
Would you stop and think what organic is?
Oh, give me a break free of pesticides.
Give me a break.
So what?
I'm not.
I am not.
I'm not.
It's lunchtime in certain parts of this country, and I don't want to get too graphic here, but you can take your lack of pesticides and all that organic stuff, and you can go ahead and throw it in the manure that your organic chickens are eating in order to produce for you some super duper healthy chicken or egg or what have you.
Global warming update.
Funk.
They're crazy.
This isn't it.
The crazy world of Arthur Brown.
What about trying to get a word in edgewise here?
One of the four global warming update themes.
As predicted, I love this.
As predicted, the Bali Global Warming Conference will not result in any targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which the Secretary General of the UN, Bang Kai-moon, now admits would be too ambitious to expect.
Said Bung Kai-moon, realistically, it'd be too ambitious to set guidelines now, while urging Washington to be flexible.
Later, he added, practically speaking, this is going to have to be negotiated down the road.
But wait, See, I remember things.
Bali was the last chance.
The organizers of the UN said that the Bali conference was the last chance to solve the global warming problem.
If you doubt me, let us go back to the New Zealand Herald.
This is Sunday, December 2nd of this year.
Headline conference, the world's last chance to avoid catastrophic global warming.
Rich countries rapidly increasing the pollution that causes global warming to record levels, despite having solemnly undertaken to reduce it.
Three devastating new official reports reveal, blah, blah, blah.
Last chance.
Last chance.
Except they're not going to do anything.
No targets.
The targets would be too ambitious.
I mean, they can't get anybody to go along with this.
So now will the environmentalist wackos leave us alone, or were they just exaggerating?
Will they stop pestering us on the issue now?
By the way, folks, you know, these people are, I think they're beginning to panic now because they are afraid as time passes, more time passes, more people are going to see the BS in Dallas because every day that the world does not end is a losing day for the global warming crowd.
All of this panic and this nonsense and these crazy, like global warming hardest hit on women.
What's the actual headline here?
Women bear the brunt of climate change.
I thought it was animals.
I thought it was poor countries.
I mean, the carbon cost of Christmas.
People see this stuff every day.
They can't take it seriously anymore because it's all over the board.
Last chance?
Last chance to save the world.
Think of that.
Last chance to save the world.
Never mind.
Targets would be too ambitious.
I guess saving the world is not really the agenda, then, is it?
Time is not on these people's side.
By the way, Bung Kai-moon, let's tell you a little bit about him.
UN Secretary General today called on world leaders for immediate action on climate change before flying thousands of miles to the United States for a music concert, then leaving in the interval to jet to Europe.
Ban Kai-moon has been slammed for planning an around-the-world trip that'll generate thousands of tons of carbon emissions just days after he leaves the UN meeting in Bali.
He's organized a post-conference trip starting on Sunday that'll see him fly to attend a concert in New York, adding more than 4,300 miles to his itinerary.
When he leaves the island, Bali, after the summit, he will fly to East Timor and then to Japan, where he will briefly stop before catching another flight to the U.S.
Now, his flight from Tokyo to New York for the concert takes him around the world in the wrong way.
But he got to do it because he's got to arrive in time for reception of a Korean concert at Carnegie Hall, where he is the guest of honor.
Concert is titled Around the World in 80 Minutes.
So this guy's flying all over creation, around the world, and doing so in the wrong direction to get where he needs to get.
And he's telling everybody else to wise up and start reducing carbon emissions.
More in the global warming update stack today.
However, I must take a brief time out.
Max Mayfield, I'll just give you a little heads up.
Henry Waxman has just finished a 16-month investigation entitled Political Interference with Climate Change Science under the Bush administration.
And in it, Waxman claims that Max Mayfield was told to downplay the connection between hurricanes and global warming.
And Max Mayfield has responded by saying, nobody told me to say anything.
We will be back.
By the way, folks, especially for you liberal Democrats out there who are unhappy with your presidential field, this is something that is never discussed.
Only the fact that there's dissatisfaction on the Republican side with their field.
As you, you liberal Democrats, you know that you are secretly, a lot of you hoping that Al Gore will cut to the chase and get in the race with Hillary plummeting and Obama rising and so forth.
I'm going to give you the definitive answer on Al Gore and his potential run for the president, and it is this.
It ain't going to happen.
And do you know why it's going to happen?
There's one reason, there may be more, but there's one primary reason why Al Gore will never, ever run for president, at least next year.
It's because he would be forced to debate global warming.
And he will not because he cannot debate that.
He wouldn't dare, ladies and gentlemen.
He would not.
I'm being serious here.
I'm not throwing down the gauntlet.
I am not issuing a challenge.
He will not debate it.
None of them will because they can't.
And so that's why they throw up this bunch of stuff about everybody being deniers and just try to discriminate.
We don't have time to debate it, he says.
And yet, every day the world doesn't end is a disaster for these people.
I don't know if you heard about this, ladies and gentlemen.
Republicans keep two House seats.
Republicans retained control of two congressional seats Tuesday in special elections in Ohio and Virginia, thwarting Democrat efforts to expand their control in the House.
The elections were held to complete the terms of members of the House who had died.
In Virginia, Robert J. Whitman, a first-term Republican state legislator, easily defeated a Democrat candidate, Philip Thorgett, a teacher.
Mr. Whitman will complete the term of Joanne Davis.
In Ohio, Robert Lotta, a Republican state representative, defeated Robin Wyrick, a Democrat who was making her third run.
Lotta will replace Paul Gilmore, who died in the fall, in a fall in September.
That's it's a New York Times.
You see, one, two, three paragraphs.
Was it no analysis about 2008 after these victories?
New York Times.
Well, wait, there is some analysis if you go to the politico.
Bobby Jendal win was obviously not a fluke.
It was portrayed as a fluke down in Louisiana.
We won the governorship there, but it wasn't a fluke.
Maybe it's part of a trend, the politico.
Republicans win in Virginia, Ohio elections.
And we have some analysis here.
The story of the evening was Lotta's victory.
However, given signs in recent weeks that the reliably Republican district based in Bully Green was in danger of falling into Democrat hands.
Really?
Well, if it was in danger, why didn't it?
Who said it was in danger of falling into Democrat hands?
The victory was not cheap for the GOP, as in fact, both party campaign committees spent sizable sums to contest the race.
The Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee spent $244,000.
The Republican spent $428.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole also credited Lotta's tough message on border security and holding the line on taxes for victory.
What?
I hate, folks, please, I am not bragging when I do this, and I'm not, I'm not trying to call attention to myself, but I just, I know that not everybody can listen to all the program every day.
It'd be nice if you did, but I know that there are other things that occasionally take you away.
And for the past month, after looking at election returns in November, particularly ballot initiatives in liberal states, it has become clear that immigration and taxes are the issues next year.
If somebody would just get on them, it's not, per se, the economy, and it's not the Iraq war.
It's taxes and it's immigration.
And right here, Tom Cole credited Lotta's tough message.
He was in danger of losing to the Democrats in Kentucky.
On border security and holding the line on taxes for the victory.
That's right.
Almost, that's right, in Massachusetts in a solid Democrat district, almost pulled a Republican, almost pulled it out there in a special election not long ago.
And I only mention this because these trends that the conventional wisdom is that the elections are foregone thing.
The House is going to get bigger Democrat.
The Senate is going to get bigger Democrat.
Of course, Mrs. Clinton is going to be elected president.
That's because everybody hates Bush.
And because everybody hates Bush, everybody hates Republicans.
And yet, here, a couple of Republicans won.
And the New York Times, three paragraphs, ho-hum.
Yawn, yo.
Well, it doesn't mean anything, Mr. Limbaugh.
These are special elections.
Nobody knew about it.
Turn out with very low.
You can't say this with a trend, Mr. Limbaugh.
Yes, I can.
It's my show.
I can say whatever I want.
Shelly in Riverside, California.
We'll go to you first on the phones.
It's great to have you with us.
Hello, Russia Licious.
How are you?
I'm fine.
Thank you.
Oh, good.
I had a calling about the chicken Nazi story.
Very disappointed.
One, I've had chickens.
They are incredible.
And I think everybody should have a chicken in their backyard, like in the pot.
Well, yeah, I guess.
But if you eat the chicken in your backyard, then what do you got?
You got to go get another chicken.
Oh, no, no.
I was joking.
No, I wouldn't eat the chicken in my backyard, but I would eat the eggs.
You would eat the eggs.
Oh, yes.
And of course, you know, I mean, let me ask you.
I love barnyards and farms and so forth when they're where they are.
But I can tell you, if my neighbor, if I had a neighbor that I could see and the neighbor had a little bunch of clucking chickens next door running around, I'm not sure that I would be so cool on that.
Well, the thing about chickens is they don't make noise unless they are hands unless they are laying.
Excuse me, unless they're laying eggs.
I guarantee you, once a pelican saw them and the foxes saw them, they'd be making noise.
Well, let's hope they'd be able to do that.
See, that's New York doesn't have foxes running around trying to get into the coop.
Well, there's people in Chicago are very much very much concerned about this because the chickens are invading traditional urban areas all because, you know, these yuppies think they're extending their lives by gazillions of years by going organic.
Get a life.
Just get a life.
Don't forget, folks, taxes and immigration.
Those are the issues next year.
Remember, it was immigration that tripped up Mrs. Clinton and started the panic that exists inside that campaign.
You know, I did watching commercials.
Something just hit me.
I just watched a commercial here on television during the break, and it didn't any big deal, but I'm getting a little fed up with these toe fungus commercials.
And the one I just saw was Musinex, where they turn these germ things into cute little cuddly cartoon characters.
There's nothing cute about these germs.
Look, mommy, I want one of those germs that cause a toe fungus.
Could you get me a doll for it?
They're going to start making dolls out of these little you want out of these little germ characters.
Just me.
It's no big deal.
Back to the phones.
Will in St. Paul, Minneapolis.
All organic here, folks.
I guess I've opened a can of worms, and I want to deal with this before we get back to the show.
Here's Will in St. Paul.
Will, nice to have you here.
Hey, Rush, first time caller, long, well, short-time listener, but I listen as often as I can.
Well, thank you.
I appreciate it.
I really, you know, I like a lot of your views and things like that.
The organic thing, I'm not sure if it was totally just about chicken that you were talking about or if it was vegetable.
Yeah, the whole thing.
The whole thing.
But you got to understand.
So I don't care if, you know, you want to eat what you want to eat.
And if in your mind you think you're eating something that's better for you than it probably is.
But what I, this is my problem is I love informed people who do not just become lemmings and follow the latest fad trend, whatever, over a cliff.
I like independent thinkers.
I resist organic networking to study caffeine now.
I think this is insulting to the intelligence.
I wish more people would be more independent and not so shepherd-like and Pied Piper-like.
That's my only complaint.
It's really, you can do what you want.
I would never come take your organic food out of your fridge.
No, I work in the organic produce business.
Well, what I do all day long is organic fruits and vegetables.
And I can tell you just from personal experience, and I understand you're talking about the certain people that are out there that are, you know, they want to live that yuppie lifestyle, whatever.
They're doing it as a fad.
But I can tell you from personal experience that just the taste of them alone, the strawberries, apples, carrots, bananas, if you were to put them side by side and do a, you know, like they did years ago, a cold and Pepsi challenge or whatever, I guarantee you that you're going to really just be able to taste the difference between the two.
The taste alone just gets you thinking about it and really makes you understand.
Okay, that's fine.
If they taste better to you, go for it.
That's not a problemo friend.
It's not just me, though.
I mean, if you look at everybody, I mean, by no means am I a liberal, and I'm not 100% organic.
Nobody said you were.
You don't need to be a defensive here.
So, you know, I'm just trying to, you know, in a way I feel attacked by you by saying that.
But at the same time, I understand, hey, it's great that you have your opinion.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
No, because mine are usually right.
This is the thing.
We're all entitled to our opinions, but not everybody's is right.
You know, there's no virtue in having an opinion, especially if it's wrong.
I'm not talking about your organic opinion.
I'm just moved beyond this topic.
I would understand that.
Look, Will, I appreciate it.
You're in the organic business and so forth.
I don't know that I've ever done a side-by-side taste test of organic broccoli versus organic or non-organic broccoli.
I've done side-by-side taste tests of organic milk, and I cannot taste the difference.
I can't.
Maybe it's the Kahlua, but I can't.
I'm just kidding.
Colleen in Bergen County, New Jersey.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
It's Colleen.
It seems every time I call has to do with animals.
Oh, well, you know, it's amazing to me.
After doing this show for almost 20 years now, I have this little throwaway story that I put in the top of stress, get out of the way on organic food.
Now, everybody in the world lined up on this.
Oh, now here, I'm just going to reiterate what the previous caller just said.
He's absolutely right, Rush.
Please just try it.
We did not start it as a fad at all.
As anything, my husband and my husband had an issue, health issue, where we went organic for one simple reason.
And believe me, our family would fight us.
Oh, what's the difference?
And then more and more, everybody started doing it.
So we didn't do it as a fad.
We did it because of the chemicals and exactly what that previous caller just said.
But the taste is so much better.
You have to see the meat.
The meat is redder.
The chicken doesn't have, I really don't like to say it over the air, but it doesn't look disgusting the way the chicken isn't confined.
I mean, what's wrong with me going to the supermarket and being able to choose a chicken that was able to run and have some sort of normal exercise that we're going to be able to do?
See, don't do this.
What?
Do not do it.
Up till that point.
No, my feeling, my feeling.
No, don't tell me that.
You don't like exercise.
Are you telling me that the steak I served at dinner party last night, which was delicious, it was from Allen Brothers, and it was not organic.
Are you telling me that if I get a steak from a steer that's running around the barnyard rather than caged, it's going to taste better?
No, Yes, you did.
That's what you said.
Wait, wait, wait.
First of all, your steak, you get what you pay for.
That's how I look at everything in life.
If you want to buy something in the supermarket that's cheap and on sale, you're going to pay for that.
The more, what you're buying is a high-quality piece of meat.
Let me return.
I do not buy a steak unless the steer has been massaged by the rancher to soften the fat.
I'm not kidding you.
We all have our preferences.
No, that's wonderful.
I don't have a problem with that.
I don't have a problem with the animal.
I have a problem when the animal is confined and I have to eat something that never had any exercise.
Fuck the please.
No.
Yes.
That was one of the original arguments of the organic crowd.
You're talking about being kind to animals before you kill them and eat them.
No, the Indians, the American Indians, the American, I don't want to say that.
When they killed an animal, they loved that animal for everything that that animal.
Absolutely, they loved it when they ate it.
And that's how I feel, because I wish I could.
I can't be a vegetarian because I do like meat.
But I tried to live a life where I could at least feel that I am grateful.
Thank you.
Feel.
And that's you feel you're doing good.
You feel that the animals that you're eating have been treated better before they were killed, slaughtered to be eaten by you.
And that's what the organic movement praises.
That's fine.
I don't.
You people are misunderstanding me here.
You want to go out and eat organic this and that.
That's fine.
I just hate, I dislike people being sheep.
You know, getting caught up in these movements because of feelings and so forth rather than having any idea what they're doing.
Chris in Las Cruces, New Mexico, your next EIB network.
Hello.
Thank you, Maha.
Yes, sir.
I'm one of hundreds of thousands of Ron Paul Rush babies, but I'm calling about the organic thing.
Yes.
Yes, thank you.
We have the cheapest, safest, most abundant food supply in the history of all civilization.
And it doesn't have to do with the voodoo that goes into organic food.
It has to do with the ingenuity of American farmers and American agricultural scientists.
Wait a minute.
Did you say organic is voodoo?
A lot of what goes into organic is voodoo because it's not science.
This is the way we used to do it.
Therefore, this way is better.
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
You have expertise here?
Yes, I'm actually working on a PhD in plant genetics.
You're an agriculture scientist candidate with a PhD candidate for agriculture science?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
And you said the organic movement is simply, there's no science to it.
It's just this way is better.
There is some science, and they have done great efforts for things like preservation of genetic resources.
But saying that a plant is going to be tastier or healthier because we fertilized it with chicken manure that might have E. coli in it rather than precisely calculated amounts of nitrogen is asinine.
Well, that was my point.
Organic, you don't know what's in the manure.
Oh, yeah.
It's nowhere near as healthy as what's in the synthetic fertilizer.
But let me make another point: the superiority in the taste and the superiority in the freshness that the two previous callers were talking about.
A lot of that has to do with the organic stuff was produced locally, and it wasn't frozen for months, and it wasn't chopped up and shipped across the country three times.
All right, so these people are going to the local commune called a Farmer's Market, Farmer's Market, which is just a new commune, and they're going out there buying these fresh vegetables and so forth.
And since they're fresh and haven't been transported from long distances in order to be kept fresh, they've been frozen.
So that's the key, huh?
Yeah, and if that's what you want to do, if that's how you want to spend your money, more power to do it.
Absolutely.
I have no problem, is the point I'm trying to make here.
Okay, thanks, Rush.
All right, appreciate that, Chris.
A brief time out here, as usual, ladies and gentlemen.
Don't doubt me.
Hey, folks, try this.
Try this headline.
You know, I'm remiss.
I had this story two weeks ago from Dr. Spencer, and I just didn't get to it because there were other things that are more important.
Arctic sea ice refreezing at record pace.
Arctic, they had a record melt this summer, and they thought, oh, good, Al Gore's right.
I was horrible.
The ice, the size, the square footage of the ice cover, the Arctic Circle, has already reached what it would not normally reach until February.
Arctic sea ice refeasing, uh, refreezing at record pace.
By the way, this whole concept of organic, one more thing about the term organic is an absurd name anyway, because there is no such thing as inorganic food, is there?
Can you go to the grocery store and find the inorganic milk?
Does it say inorganic on it?
Does it say no?
I'm telling you, this is a thought movement.
It's probably a good marketing ploy on the part of the agriculture community.
How about you?
Do you remember this past year, this year, the spinach, the spinach, the E. coli break?
That was organic.
That was organic spinach.
It came from the organic cow manure that was infested with E. coli.
Nobody mentioned it in the media.
They just say, oh, we got some bad spinach of it.
It was organic spinach because that was a fault of the processor.
That means organic has problems, right?
It's not this thing that's just universally better and immune to any disease.
Don't call me a natural malady, but that's what's organic supposed to be natural, right?
All natural.
Okay, Snerdley, if you want to go out there and eat organic E. coli-infested spinach, well, not with E. coli in it, you don't.
Alice in Munich, Germany.
I'm glad you called.
Welcome to the EIB network.
Hello.
Hello, sir.
It's an honor to speak to you.
Well, thank you very much.
I appreciate that you are daily articulating the greatness of America, and it's a wonderful privilege to be able to listen to you.
And I tell you, living here in Germany, I have learned so much, and I've become so grateful to be an American.
And there's so much I would like to talk to you about, but I want to get right to my question.
You sound, and I don't mean this to be insulting, but you sound so much, not just like, so much like Hillary Clinton.
Oh, my goodness.
I thought she could have told me.
No, no, no, no.
I mean, not when she's screeching.
I mean, just when she's speaking normally.
You're right.
I take it back.
Forget that I mentioned.
In fact, you know what?
I'm going to put you back on hold.
We're going to start the call all over.
You just forget that, okay?
Put her back on hold.
All right.
Okay, back up.
Okay, let's go back to the phones.
Alice in Munich, Germany.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.
Hey, Rush.
It's great to talk to you.
Thank you very much.
I want to get right to my question.
I'm living here in Munich, and I have to vote in the South Carolina primary, and I have to do so by absentee ballot.
And so that means I have to do my ballot and send it in very soon.
And I want to make the most of my vote.
And I'm not going to have the opportunity to see how things go in Iowa and New Hampshire and the other states before.
Well, I'm wondering.
Oh, before you have to cast your absentee.
I see.
Right, right, right.
By the way, what are you doing?
Are you in the military?
Is that why you're in Munich?
Oh, no, sir.
My husband works for BMW.
Oh, okay.
Hubba, hubby.
So we've been living here for almost 18 months, and we have another 18 months, and it's been a wonderful experience.
But we have really come to appreciate what it means to be American.
You should know that Mr. Snerdley, the call screener here and the official program observer, drives an organic BMW.
Oh, well, good.
All right.
So you need some advice on what to do, want your vote to count.
Hello?
Yes, hello.
Do we lose?
Hello.
Alice.
Alice?
Alice?
Oh, no, no.
Hello.
There you go.
We're here, Alice.
You don't just let a call from Munich, Germany go, Alice, hello, testing.
One, two, three.
Did you do something in there to?
Hey, hey, here I am.
Okay, great.
Okay, we left off with you having to vote in South Carolina before you know the results in Iowa, New Hampshire.
Hello.
Yes, we're here.
This is such a shame.
All right, we're going to put her back on hold.
And obviously, she's got to be on a satellite.
And there may be some sunspot activity affecting the satellite.
Let's take a brief time out here, my friends, because there's not really enough time to be fair with another caller here.
Take a brief time.
I'll be back after this and continue on the EIB network.
Okay, got Alice in Munich back.
Alice, less than two minutes here, but I didn't want to have to have you wait till the next hour.
So go ahead and ask the question.
I'm sorry for all the interruptions.
Okay, I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you again.
My question is: since I have to send in my absentee ballot early, I don't want to throw away or waste my vote, and I can't wait and find out how things go in Iowa or how things go in New Hampshire or the other early states.
My question is: do I vote for the one that I, the man that I think would be the best president, or do I vote for the one who I think would be the most likely to get the nomination and be able to beat the Democrat nominee?
And right now, I'm undecided.
I would like for that person to be the same man.
Well, my advice to you would be pick the person you think would be best to lead the country, regardless whether that person can win or not.
Because I think the people you're talking about here, we're talking about Huckabee.
Huckabee.
We're talking about Mitt Romney and Rudy.
I know that either of those could beat Hillary.
Huckabee, I don't know.
Huckabee's turned into a double-digit lead in Iowa now over Romney.
And that's got everybody all hot to trot today because that was Romney State.
He spent a lot of money in there and so forth.
Who are you leaning toward?
Who are you leaning toward?
Well, I really like Fred Thompson, but if he's not going to be able to pull it off and get the nomination, then I need to get my vote.
I got 20 seconds here, but a lot of people are writing Fred Thompson off right now.
But Fred Thompson's strategy is South Carolina.
Okay.
That's where he's, that's Iowa, New Hampshire, not his focus.
South Carolina is his focus.
So factor that into your decision because that's it's too early to rule anybody out here.
Don't fall to conventional wisdom.
Look, Alice, it's great that you called all the way from Munich.
It's a thrill to talk to you.
I'm out of time.
I have to go, but I hope you try, get through again.