Another summer spectacular on the EIB network, Rushland Boa, and the most listened to radio talk show in America heard on over 600 fine, great radio stations.
Happy to have you here.
Telephone number is 800-282-2882.
And the email address is lrushbow at EIBnet.com.
All right, so I'm in Snerdley's office here at the top.
By the way, those of you on the phones, please be patient.
Well, I'm going to get to you as quick as I can.
I mean that.
So I'm in Snerdley's office at the top of the hour break, and there's McCain in there doing a town hall meeting.
And he's talking about the town hall meeting is the purest form of American democracy, and the American people are tired of politics as usual.
They're tired of this, tired of that.
And I'm asking myself, where have I heard that the American people are tired of this?
I hear it in the media.
I hear it all the time in the drive-by media.
The American people are fed up with this and tired of politics as usual.
If that's true, how come negative ads keep working?
Let me tell you what I'm not tired of, folks.
I am not tired of somebody leading my party, slugging it out for what I believe in.
I am not tired of that.
That is not politics as usual.
If it isn't, it should be.
I mean, hell's bells, what the hell's going on here?
We have widely divergent, differing views from liberal Democrats.
We want our side to slug it out with them, to beat them, to prevail, not proclaim independence as a resume enhancement.
Here, listen to this Obama bite again.
This is basically saying he's not going to let McCain separate himself from Bush.
While John McCain can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign.
It's not changed when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush 95% of the time as he did in the Senate last year.
All right.
Where is this?
Where's this?
Can we talk about that for a minute?
Some of the things that McCain stood with Bush on were McCain ideas, such as McCain Kennedy and amnesty and the immigration reform bill, and what else?
Campaign finance reform.
Things that Obama would support, too.
I don't know why I care so much.
Both these people are weak candidates.
I don't understand.
I'm sitting here.
I'm getting mad as I can be.
There's an independence crap.
McCain's out there touting his independence.
You'll hear it in his soundbites later when we have him from last night.
As though it's a resume enhancement, it's a selling point.
I've abandoned my party on numerous occasions and worked with Democrats.
And I seek to continue to keep doing it.
Well, whoopee-doo?
And look what it's getting you.
Obama still mocks the independence.
It's not enough.
Well, when the hell has Obama ever criticized his party?
When the hell has Obama ever crossed the aisle and joined the Republicans?
Why do we ask that?
Why do we say, Senator, you sit there all arrogant and cocky and say that McCain's independence still isn't enough for you?
Where's your independence?
You have Zilt Zero not an independence.
You are following a 30 and 60 year old liberal playbook.
For craminity's sake, why are we not attacking the Democrat Party, attacking the Democrat Party for its policies, and Obama towing that line?
Senator McCain's difficulty here is that he's attacking his own party to prove his credentials with non-Republicans, but Obama does no such thing to his own party.
No Democrat does.
That's why there are no such things as Democrat mavericks.
Democrat Mavericks are run out of the party.
Hello, Zell Miller.
Joe Lieberman.
By the way, McCain doesn't even criticize the Democrat Party.
He only criticizes the Republican Party.
That's how he gets credentials as an independent.
He doesn't even criticize the Democrat Party.
Now he's boxed in by his own rhetoric.
Here's what's this is what's so damn frustrating to me.
You've got the most left-leaning liberal socialist candidate the Democrats have ever nominated.
A golden opportunity to contrast what we believe with what the Democrats have put up there.
A guy who barely crawled across the finish line securing the nomination.
He just barely made it.
Being touted as this landslide guy who overwhelmingly rocks the country.
It's all drive-by media BS.
But the problem is that Senator McCain is now boxed in by his own rhetoric.
He joins the Democrats to establish his credentials so with the ability to contrast himself and the Republican Party ideologically with the most leftist socialist candidate the Democrats have nominated in my lifetime is now going to be very difficult, if not impossible, for Senator McCain to do.
I mean, what are we to conclude here?
As we watch all this play out, it seems like Senator McCain's idea how to rebuild a Republican Party is to criticize it and to explain to liberal reporters he's not really a Republican.
He's different.
He's independent.
I've never seen anything like this.
I have never seen a Republican try to establish his bona fides by ripping his own party, praising the other party.
That's why so many of us are outraged.
I mean, yesterday, he trashed President Bush again.
His speech last night, he trashed Bush over Katrina, trashed Bush over New Orleans.
Praised Hillary.
Praised Obama.
We can confront Obama, you and I, the conservatives in this country, we can confront Obama and his radicalism better than the Republican Party can today.
We know how to beat leftist radicals like Obama, but in an official sense, we have no say in this.
Truth be told, Obama should lose.
Obama should be beaten as badly as Dukakis, as Walter Mondahl, as John Kerry, because he's just another one of them.
He's just another one of them.
He's reading out of the same playbook.
We have, let's see, two more Obama soundbites than the official Obama criticizer.
Here is, despite McCain's attempt to elevate the debate, Obama.
Well, here, listen to what he says.
What you don't deserve is another election that's governed by fear, an innuendo, and division.
What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge and patriotism as a bludgeon.
Remember that line.
I have a comment coming up about that line.
From this campaign or this party is a politics that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but enemies to polarize.
Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first.
We are Americans first.
Rubbing my hands together here, folks, because I am deathly afraid of uttering a string of profanities.
I have never had to censor myself on this program.
I have never had to hit the bleep button because of anything I have said in almost 20 years of broadcast excellence.
But I am so damn close to it.
You've been warned.
What you don't deserve is another election that's governed by fear and innuendo and division.
Can I translate that?
What we are not going to allow is another election that tells the truth about me and Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn and Father Flager.
Those things are off limits.
We're not going to have another election governed by fear and innuendo and division.
I'm not going to let you talk about Jeremiah Wright.
I'm not going to let you talk about Michelle Mybel.
I'm not going to let you talk about Flager.
I'm not going to let you talk about Ayers.
I'm not going to let you talk about Dorn.
I'm not going to let you talk about my association with Hamas and the Palestinians.
I'm not going to let you talk about any of it.
Then he says, what you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge and patriotism as a bludgeon.
Translate that for you.
What that means is nobody's going to be able to discuss religion in this race.
We're not going to talk about my religion.
I'm not going to talk about my grandfather's religion.
I'm not going to talk about my father's religion, my grandmother's religion, my wife's religion, Jeremiah Wright's religion, Bernadine Dorn's religion.
We're not going to talk about Calypso Louis' religion, and we're not going to let the Republicans talk about theirs.
That's what this means.
He's sending the signal.
None of this stuff.
You can't talk about it.
We are not polarized.
We're not enemies to polarize.
We may call ourselves Democrats or Republicans.
We're Americans first.
No, you're not.
You are Democrat Party first.
That's what defines Democrats.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, here the PEC résistance, the huge finale from Barack Obama's speech last night in St. Paul.
If we are willing to work for it and fight for it and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless.
This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.
This was the moment when we ended the war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last best hope on earth.
This was the moment.
This was the time when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals.
Thank you, Minnesota.
God bless you.
Sounds wonderful, right?
To a lot of airheads, to a lot of dorks, to a lot of dunces.
This sounds just fabulous.
We began to provide care for the sick.
We've got the best medical care in the world.
Good jobs to the jobless.
The unemployment rate is 5%.
Anybody not working in America today does not want to work.
Just that simple.
When the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.
Ladies and gentlemen, in order to protect the integrity and decorum of this program, I am going to step aside for a moment, bring aboard the official Obama criticizer, Bo Snerdley.
This is Bo Snerdley, the EIB official Barack Criticizer, certified black, enough to criticize.
And I have a message.
Senator Obama, in your victory speech last night, you declared that this was America's moment.
That somehow now, if we're willing to work for it, fight for it, believe in it, we're all going to look back someday and realize this was the moment that we began to care for the sick, to have jobs for the jobless.
This was the moment when the rise of the oceans would begin to slow and our planet would begin to heal.
This was the moment we came together to remake this great nation.
That's what you said.
Excuse me, sir.
What country have you been living in?
Americans have been working hard since there was a Merica.
It's that work that made this the world's lone superpower, that work that built a nation that is the envy of the world.
And what is this business about the oceans beginning to slow?
What does that mean?
In fact, what do you mean?
This is insulting, sir.
America is great.
It was great before you stepped on the scene.
The thing that frightens us, sir, is that you are hell-bent on destroying what is great in the name of liberalism.
Now, a translation for the EIB Brothers and Sisters in the Hood.
My brother, oh, big ups on your wind, yo.
You're the big dog now.
But yo, listen up.
What's up with that speech, bro?
Check it out.
You running for president or you running to become black Moses, yo?
You going to all of a sudden, like, you know, step on the scene, the world, the ocean is going to part, then start slowing down?
Yo, that sounds a little fishy to me, yo.
And the joblessness, you want to get jobs for people, yo?
Doing what?
But if you're throwing down jobs, I got a few peeps to hit you up with.
You know, some brothers and sisters looking for jobs out there better paying money.
Any of them will resco, yo?
Look, I got news for you.
Most of us, even the typical white people, yo, we already care for sick people.
And think this, bro.
What kind of powers do you hold on back that could heal the planet?
Especially since it's not sick.
Between you and me, yo, the earth isn't sick.
Doesn't really need to be healed.
Yo, bro, you need to chill.
You know, you're not God, despite your press coverage.
That concludes our statement.
The official Obama criticizer, Bo Snerdley.
Okay, as promised, we'll go to your phone calls now.
We'll get to Senator McCain's soundbites from his speech last night and a couple from appearances on television this morning as well.
We'll start in Aspen Hill, Maryland with Barry.
Thank you, sir, for your patience and welcome.
While we are between phases of Operation Chaos, I want to give you a big data boy for a job well done, Commander.
According to my math, by the time Obama pays off Hillary's current $20 million campaign debt, Operation Chaos will be directly responsible for over $100 million being spent to elect liberals to Congress in the White House this November.
And Mr. Limbaugh, having the great Senator Mitch McConnell on your show earlier really hit me hard.
This is not the same media that the great Ronald Reagan faced 28 years ago.
This is a democracy undermining dynamic media.
I remember seeing on the Sunday morning public affairs shows people like Dick Cheney and James Baker, Quayle, Kissinger, Phil Graham, Jack Kemp, Army, Kasich, the outstanding Tom DeLay, new real conservative leadership.
The media's response to conservative talk radio has been to turn up the treason.
In recent years, we only see McCain, Hagel, Grassley, Specter, Lindsay, Graham, Huger, Collins, Olympia Snow.
Where the hell is McConnell and Hatch and Tom Coburn and Sessions and DeMint?
This media has now created a damn double standard within the Republican Party between Maverick moderates, Republicans, and conservatives.
It's not a lack of conservative leadership problem, Rush.
It's a problem with the media.
I agree with that great caller yesterday, Mona, from Missouri.
It's a media problem, and you need to use your power to lead us to take our country back from this media rush.
We can simply do it by forcing them to not be able to deliver their products as subsidized products.
Well, you know, this is something that frequently comes up, and I want to thank you very much for your endorsement of my power and my abilities.
And I want to agree with you here about something.
You are absolutely right when you say the media is not the same today as it was during the days of Ronaldo's Magnus.
Now, it was bad during the days of Ronaldo Magnus.
Make no mistake.
They hated Reagan, but he did not have a conservative media on his side, and therefore the drive-bys had no competition.
They were a pure monopoly back then.
They have lost their monopoly, and this has forced the drive-by media to come out, as it were, and to openly proclaim by virtue of their deeds their sheer liberalism.
They no longer even try to mask their objectivity.
They have entered the fray as activists.
The drive-by media today are activists, and they are agitating for an agenda.
And the agenda is Barack Obama and a total control of the federal government by the Democrat Party and its liberal wing, which means total control of the U.S. economy by the Democrat Party.
So it has brought them more into focus.
And I believe that there will be good things that happen from this.
I think just as your anger and your recitations of your observations of the media are very clear to you, I think they are clear to more and more people, particularly young people.
So there's good in this as well as it is frustrating.
You talk about McConnell and these other Republicans that you like.
I've asked them, why don't you go out?
They won't cover us, is the answer they give.
Be right back.
Much more straight ahead.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882.
And back to the phones we go.
Thanks to all of you for being patient and waiting.
This is Robert in Los Angeles.
Hello, sir.
How are you doing, Rush?
Pleasure to talk to you.
Thank you.
You know, I'm going to, the way, you know, I just recently got some kind of work done on my house, and I had some contractors come by, and I kind of interviewed them, and I want to see, you know, and I want to see pictures of their work, kind of what they did.
So when you have a contract, you want to look at their work and how they've done on their previous jobs.
Now, judging by what Obama's saying, the kind of south side of Chicago must be just a paradise.
All the kids in the schools must all be passing.
There must be jobs everywhere.
And it's just, you know, because that's who he represented.
Yeah, and the lakes are not rising.
Yeah.
You know, there's no trash everywhere.
Everyone's doing fine.
And, you know, I doubt if it kind of is that way.
So, you know, I mean, you know, my main thing about Barack is that he's just, you know, it's like, you know, I just basically feel that he's being put up.
You know, I think kind of one of the worst things that has happened to this country is like white guilt.
And I think he's there for this white guilt so that kind of white people can feel good about themselves.
And I think that's the only reason why he's there.
Well, you know, I think you're onto something.
I don't know if it's the only reason why he's there, but there's no question that he appeals to a whole segment of the population, white people, that feel like they can assuage their guilt for supporting the guy.
I think whoever's behind Obama, whoever it is, somebody has to be.
There has to be a group of people that thought this is the guy that can get done what we need to get done, almost as though he's a puppet.
His speeches are written for him.
You know, when he doesn't give a teleprompted speech, he's a different guy.
I think they made a calculation.
A black guy can win.
How do we beat Hillary Clinton?
Black guy can do it.
Black guy can do it with liberals, especially.
Put the right words in his mouth, and we get a pretty good chance at it.
So I think you're right about that.
Also, you have really done something very bright here.
A lot of people, I was expecting you to go a different direction, and I was expecting when you mentioned your contractor, and I was going to give you a little bit of a lecture on how your analogy is somewhat flawed, but you came through with a grand slam home run.
What a lot of people say is when you got a guy with a limited resume like Obama, they'll say, would you hire him to run any aspect of your business?
And they would say, no, no, of course not.
But people don't look at government.
It is a business, and politics is a business, but they don't look at government then.
They look at government as representative.
The ideal is that government is represented by soaring people who have great imagination and who have great charisma and who can mobilize and motivate and inspire a nation.
Not so much run the bureaucracy and keep it running because no president can do that.
The bureaucracies are independent of any president.
But your analogy of his past political experience, both as a senator from the state of Chicago in the Chicago State Senate and his community organizer work, and plus his, whatever it is, three years in the U.S. Senate, where is this track record that suggests that all that he wants to do has even come close to being done where he has lived and worked before?
You're right on the money with that.
South side of Chicago is still the south side of Chicago.
Lake Erie, it's still there, and it's still what it was when he got there, and it hasn't changed.
The work that he did as a state senator from Illinois to clean up all kinds of messes and make paradise hasn't happened.
Well, but I also say that kind of John McCain scared me also.
He does nothing for me.
I don't, you know, it's like I really, there's, in this election, there's nothing there for me.
What scares you about McCain?
His stance on illegal kind of immigration.
And I think kind of one thing that the kind of media kind of really covers up is the effect of illegal kind of immigration in the black neighborhood, how it's just kind of decimating schools that were bad already, especially here in Los Angeles.
You know, it's just decimating schools that were kind of bad already.
I got to agree with you again.
Another leftist-oriented policy on top of what welfare did to the black family and the great society and all these things where the government became the substitute for the father and paying for all these illegitimate kids to be born and raised without a father, it was very destructive.
You're right on the money.
So there's nothing out there for me.
Oh, that's not true.
Okay.
Now, wait a second.
Now, there may be nothing out there for you in terms of a candidate that can inspire you.
So let me ask you something, Robert.
What are you going to do?
You have just told us.
Neither of these two candidates, you know, give a peep.
I mean, you know, like, I believe in conservative.
I mean, I grew up in the Bronx.
I grew up in their projects.
You know, the kind of first money that I've seen being transacted was a kind of food stamp.
And I've seen government programs.
And I realized that the best program for kids to kind of bring them up is like two parents and being in an environment where the parents can prosper, be it through work and education, but it's going to come through their hard work.
Because I've just seen that.
I've just seen through life that giving people stuff, it just doesn't do them.
It just does nothing for them.
Okay.
People have to win a problem.
You are a brilliant guy.
Let's go forward to November 7th, a couple days after the election.
No matter who wins, you've just told us neither one of them excite you.
No.
What are you going to do?
You said there's nothing for you.
You know, I mean, that's the $64,000 question.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Yes, you do.
Yes, you know what you're going to do.
I guess I'll look forward to the next one and kind of see who's coming along.
No, let me tell you what you're going to do.
You're going to do what all the rest of us are going to do.
I'm going to go to work and I'm going to still maintain mine.
Damn straight.
You're going to go to work and you're going to work as hard as is required to overcome whatever obstacle policies either one of these two people put in your way.
And you're going to go about trying to enjoy your life the best way you can, despite the fact there's nobody in Washington that inspires you.
And despite the fact that kind of here in California, all they want to do with these politicians is they just want to take more of your money.
I don't care if it's, they just want more.
They just want their hand deeper into your pocket.
I mean, they almost feel like that it's their God-given right to put their hand deeper into your pocket.
And like I said, it's just the way it is.
So I just keep on working hard.
While telling you, Robert, while telling you that you're not doing your fair share, that you're not taxed enough, that you're destroying the planet, or that you're destroying the local environment in Southern California, or that you're committing some other sin against people, country, soil that you have to pay for.
And that's the basis on which they'll tax you even further.
Well, Robert, I love you, man.
You are fabulous.
You are fabulous.
I'm glad you called.
A brief time out here, my friends, on the EIB Network, and we will be right back.
Go ahead, folks.
Admit it.
You are addicted to this show.
The EIB Network and Rush Limbaugh.
As usual, talent on lawn from God.
And we go to Houston.
This is Pete.
You're next, sir.
Thank you for waiting.
Yes, Rush.
It's a pleasure.
I'm a long-term, a long-time dittohead.
And my point is that you've become an ineffectual wimp.
I believe you're ineffectual in that since Ronald Reagan and the contract of America under Newt Gingrich, conservatism has been in retreat.
You're a wimp because you have the biggest microphone, and you're not standing up to reverse the destruction of conservative principles.
And, you know, I think the result is that I don't know which way to vote.
I either can vote for a Democrat, who I know will cause very significant...
Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.
Are you sure?
I'm going to give you a chance to take that back.
Do you really want to say as a member of this audience that you don't know which way to vote until I give you guidance?
No.
What I'm saying is that I'm in a quandary about how to vote because I can either vote for the Democrat, who I think will cause very severe, almost unrecoverable damage to this country, or I can vote for a Republican who will cause significant damage to this country.
And frankly, in a lot of ways, I'd rather see the Democrats do the damage.
Well, this is a theory we've discussed numerous times on the program.
I mean, it is a perplexing question.
If you do think, as you just said, that the country is going to go down the tubes either way, and this is a lot of people think so because of the large majorities that the Democrats are going to have in the House and Senate, then who would you rather get to blame for it when it happens, the Democrats or the Republicans?
Right.
Are you asking me which way you should vote?
Well, I'm an ineffectual person.
Yeah, well, no, I think I'm going to make up my own mind.
And but for the Supreme Court selections, I think I would have gone with the Democrat, frankly.
But I still can't quite, I keep coming back to Supreme Court.
And I hate it because I feel like this crangulation that's going on that the Republicans have been using, they learned it from the Democrats, and they take us for granted, and they keep trying to go to the middle and compromise, just like, I guess, Bill Clinton started.
And therefore, they're void of their original principles.
And I don't know how to stop it.
And if we don't stand up and show them and make them let them lose their offices, because that's all they're interested in doing, is retaining their positions, I don't know how else to get their attention.
Well, you would think that 2006 and the loss would have gotten their attention.
It hasn't, right?
It doesn't appear that it has.
It may take even more failure for their attention to be focused.
I want to go back in a limited amount of time here, Pete.
I want to go back.
You said I'm an ineffectual wimp because I'm not doing what I could be doing to revive or promote conservatism.
What am I supposed to do?
What would you like me to do?
What do you see me doing?
Well, one thing might be to articulate a strategy here to get the elected Republican officials to see the error of their ways.
And I mean, if I vote for Obama, that's going to be a vote of protest.
Now, if I do it myself, which I still may do, it's not doing a whole lot unless I'm joined with a whole bunch of other people who feel the same way I do.
Okay, so you are suggesting, and correct me if I'm wrong, you are suggesting that I just come out with it.
And as we get closer to the election, just urge conservatives to vote for Obama because it's the only way to send a message to the Republicans and conservatives who are not listening to us.
Is it a step like that that you it would is that what you think would be non-wimpy, would be more of a leadership course of action?
Well, I look to you for guidance.
I do.
I think that you're a lot smarter on these issues than I, and therefore I would like for you to help me with the quandary I'm in, and I'd like to get some guidance from you, and I'd like, and hopefully you can think of or develop a strategy that would solve this very significant problem that we're talking about.
And this is let's cut to the chase here.
The strategy is how in the hell do we turn the Republican Party back to conservatism?
That's essentially what you're asking.
That's right.
When you strip away all this other BS, that's where we're, how do we do it?
And you think I'm a wimp because I have not come up with a strategy to cause that to happen.
Well, I think you put yourself out front.
And, you know, if you're going to be a leader, lead.
Don't follow, and I think you should be the point guy to delete it.
So you think I need to do something besides this radio show is what you're saying.
I need to get beyond the golden EIB microphone and do something other because what I'm doing here does not constitute leadership, even though I'll make you a prediction.
Regardless what happens in this election, we get to December, January for when the post-mortems are written and conceived, do you know there is one place that everybody's going to point to and say, you know, the one guy that didn't waver from principles, the one guy that didn't care what they said about him, the one place where you could constantly be assured that you were going to hear what you believe articulated, represented,
and promoted was the EIB network.
It was right here.
You won't find that in the Republican Party.
You won't find it in the McCain campaign.
Now, I don't know if that constitutes leadership.
And I'm not trying to be argumentative with you, but don't misunderstand.
Nor confrontational, nor contentious.
I don't know if that constitutes leadership to you or not.
But what we do here on the radio has it has confines and it has boundaries.
The countryside is strewn with the carcasses of media people who thought they could take their so-called popularity and either get elected or start having impact in the actual area of policy, hands-on policy.
There's a theory I've always lived by.
You have to know who you are.
You have to love what you do, know what it is, be satisfied with it.
And you also have to know what it's not cut out for, what you're not made for, what you're not cut out for.
And in my case, I've just always followed my instincts.
And my instincts have not told me to leave the radio show and run for office anywhere or become somebody's spokesman or buy television time and the millions of dollars on the networks at night and make speeches to America.
Then find that Chinese.
But that's the closest I've come.
I have considered doing that.
Just in little bitty neurons of thought, I have had these little ideas that spring up now and then, and I'll be watching the news or a program like today.
And I'll say to myself, somebody needs to have some national TV time here by a half hour every now and then and just address the American people.
I don't know if they would sell it to me.
I don't know.
But sometimes I think about that, but that's as far as I go beyond the radio show.
People say, well, why don't you do a television?
I have no desire to do a television show.
Well, can you identify the political leader that will take us forward?
Yes.
Then that's what's missing.
Let's find that person or that group of people.
There's, well, names being bantied about a little bit too frequently these days.
And I don't want to constantly talk about this because it'll put pressure on him.
Bobby Jendal is a name I want you to remember.
36-year-old governor of Louisiana.
Mike Pence, congressman from Indiana in the House of Representatives.
Look, I got to run here, Pete.
There's a farm team out there, but time is what it's going to take for this team to get the field.
Okay, after our last call, Pete from Houston, a couple of others in the last couple of days, I think it's time for Pep Talk.