Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Just out of curiosity, folks, what do you think the most viewed story on Yahoo News is?
For those of you in Rio Linda, what story on Yahoo News are people most looking at?
If you don't know the word viewed, you would think Japan, right?
If you think Japan, you might think Obama's NCAA pics.
No, the most viewed story on Yahoo News is an AP article, Charlie Sheen Expands Live Tour to Five More Cities.
I kid you not.
I had dinner with some friends last night.
We were discussing this.
They wanted to know why in the world do people care about Charlie Sheen?
And I offered, I proffered the theory that we discussed on the program yesterday, that weakness sells because most people love to see Hollywood stars stumble and fall because it makes them feel better about themselves.
These are people they look up to, wish they were like, want to be.
And then we see somebody like Charlie Sheen make a mess out of his life.
It gives comfort to other people.
Like we pointed out, if it weren't for people like Charlie Sheen, there would not be a People magazine.
That's why I've never wanted to be in People.
That there wouldn't be a National Inquirer were it not for people like Charlie Sheen.
At any rate, that's the number one story at Yahoo.
And I say that is a failure of the mainstream media because they're trying to make if you ran around, what do you if you asked if you just went around and indiscriminately grabbed the proverbial man on the street and asked him, what do you think the problem is in Japan?
They'd probably say, well, the nuclear meltdown.
No, there hasn't been a nuclear meltdown, but that's what's been reported.
At any rate, here we are, folks, lined up and ready to go.
Rush Limbaugh already Wednesday here at the distinguished and prestigious Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Our telephone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882 and the email address lrushbaugh at EIBnet.com.
I saw this story this morning.
I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what is this?
Japan prepares to restart work at nuclear plant.
Last I'd heard they'd sent everybody out of there.
That it all gone radioactive, that they'd lost it, the meltdown, all that stuff.
They sent the workers out of there.
Well, guess what?
It turns out the Associated Press and the rest of our watchdog media seized upon the remarks of a Japanese official to claim that the emergency workers had completely abandoned their efforts at the Fukushima plant.
It was the result of an error in translation.
The translator had left out the adverb temporarily.
They temporarily left their post.
They're going to head back in there when it was okay to do so.
But the original story was, my God, even the Japanese are scramming now.
Everybody better leave.
They were just gone temporarily, which, you know, here we go.
I comment on this all the time, but I'm sorry, folks.
I just, I can't resist this time.
I know that they think that it gives them credibility and a look of authority, authenticity.
But it really is preposterous for people like Anderson Cooper22 and Soledad O'Brien to be standing out in the snow in the middle of a street somewhere on location in Japan.
We can tell where.
I mean, we don't know where they are.
We have no clue where they are.
It is completely nondescript and they don't know what's going on.
They are the ones that helped perpetuate this myth that the Japanese were fleeing here.
Missed this whole translation.
So here they are out in the middle of it, not knowing a thing that's going on, but they look credible.
And their authenticity appearance seems to be skyrocketing.
But, you know, they're reporting for an hour about some mistranslation, some complete non-information.
Whereas if they were in an office with their computers and earfeeds, the IFBs, they could find out what's going on.
No, they have to be.
Just, I don't know.
We've spent all week long.
We've been running a little seminar here on the media and how they do things.
Yeah, no, right now it's happening.
It's supposed to be happening right now.
Let me check.
Hang on just as let me check very quickly here.
Ladies and gentlemen, switching over to ESPN just to see if it's actually happening.
President of the United States, well, let's see.
I've got basketball highlights going on.
It's sometime in the sports center at this hour that the BAMster is to be announcing his picks.
And even some Democrats now are beginning to, oh, it's over.
Oh, it's all.
I thought it was at noon today is what was going to happen.
Maybe that was.
No, the markets have started plummeting this morning when some United Nations guy from 13,000 miles away said it's over in Japan.
So we went down immediately 150 points.
I thought it was noon.
Anyway, Obama's already done it.
We had an advanced copy of the feed.
And we thought we would put this in perspective.
Obama and his NCAA brackets juxtaposed with media reports of news around the world.
Breaking news live from Japan with what is now believed to be the worst nuclear disaster.
As much as I love North Carolina, as much as I love Roy Williams, I think Ohio State's got the talent this year.
Breaking news on another crisis, the conflict in Libya.
I think Kansas keeps on winning.
Breaking news now as we watch the closing bell on Wall Street.
Tumultuous Day.
I'm going to pick Duke.
We have breaking economic news, housing starts, and the producer price index.
And on this one, I think Pitt's going to win.
That's the best way we could illustrate what's going on here.
We've got literal worldwide emergencies.
And in the past, the United States was involved in these things as a decision maker, as a problem solver, as at least a nation that offered assistance.
And while it's all going on, our esteemed leader spent 30 minutes taping his bracket selections for the NCAA basketball tournament.
Now, to be fair, to be fair, ladies and gentlemen, just to show you that we will bend over forwards, to be fair.
In the ESPN segment where Obama made his picks, he does mention that people should go to a government website to find out about what's happening in Japan before they fill out their brackets.
How big of him.
I kid you not.
Yes, even Brian is shaking his head at that one.
So here you are.
You're watching ESPN.
You're excited because the one, the Messiah, Pharaoh Obama, will soon be making his bracket picks.
But instead, he has to perform a public service.
So speaking directly to the ESPN audience, he says, go to my website to find out what's happening in Japan before you fill out your bracket picks.
Otherwise, you probably would never hear anything about what's going on over there.
Only if you go to my website.
So obviously he heard the criticism and in order to try to recapture some credibility, told the ESP and audience to go to his website to learn what's going on in Japan before filling out the bracket picks.
We are living through this and it's starting just there are just small little ripples.
The media and some of the people on the Democrat side are now beginning to, I mean, this is not at all what they expected.
You know, but you go back to 2007, 2008.
This guy, you remember, was the end-all.
There had never, ever been anybody in American politics like Barack Obama.
We were to be treated, we were in store for a politics unlike the world had ever seen before.
Problems were to be solved practically overnight in the midst of great goodwill and love and karma.
And we had people falling all over themselves talking about the greatness embodied in this.
Why, heck, folks, the Nobel people, they're jokes anyway.
They gave him a peace prize on the come.
It's never happened.
They gave him a peace prize because they thought his ascension to leader of the regime would bring peace around the world.
Look at what is happening.
I believe that a lot of this early support for Obama can be discovered in people on the left and the media having this inherent feeling of sympathy for minorities.
They group minorities as people who are, by virtue of minority status, they're weak.
They do not, they don't belong, quote unquote.
Much as the social blue bloods determine who belongs and who doesn't.
Much like the conservative intellectuals are dealing with Sarah Palin.
She just doesn't belong.
She doesn't have the right pedigree for whatever reason that she doesn't belong.
Well, minorities don't belong.
But they've been so victimized.
I mean, they've gotten a shaft in this country.
I don't care whether it's the Native Americans.
I don't care whether it's blacks.
I don't care whether it's the Chinese who build the railroads.
Every minority has been given a shaft.
And so there's this inherent sympathy for them on the part of liberal do-gooders.
And I think part of this irrational interpretation of Obama and his political talents is founded and rooted in this view of him with sympathy.
Oh, the poor guy.
And it just, so we're going to bend over backwards here to make sure that he gets every advantage that has been denied him and his people and every other minority because of the unfairness and the discrimination and whatever else has been attached to the majority in this country since its founding.
So I really do.
I really believe that there is an element of sympathy.
Oh, geez, it just, it's so unfortunate as a minority.
And that leads and has led many media and on the left in this country to look past any deficiencies, look past any flaws, ignore them.
In fact, excuse them.
Well, of course they're flawed.
Of course, we can't hold anybody accountable for their flaws when they come from a minority.
They've been discriminated against.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So they had this picture of Obama.
They presented it.
They caricatured an image of the guy.
Could not be possible for any human being to live up to.
And now everybody sees what an absolute sham all of that was.
There's not even the pretense to greatness here.
There's not even an illusion of it.
There's not even a hope for greatness.
It's all to be manufactured now.
Even people on the left are looking at all of these world events and the domestic crumbling that's going on.
And, you know, their lines are on the live here.
Their reputations are at stake because they presented this image of this guy that we all have.
So they're, of course, going to be the last people to arrive at the conclusion that we've got basically an incompetent in the highest office in the land.
So excuses will continue to be made.
He needs to recharge.
He needs to get away.
Look at what he inherited.
He didn't bargain for all this when he ran for office.
He's got these evil stuff that Bush left him.
He's got these crazy Republicans.
He's got to deal with the Tea Party.
All these excuses are continuing to be made.
Meanwhile, the best excuse yet that I've heard for anybody trying to tell us that we're not seeing what we're seeing is, you know, this stuff is just, he's so a man of the world.
This is just all this beneath him.
This is, to you and I, Rush, this big stuff, nuclear disasters in Japan and rising food prices, gasoline and energy problems, the Middle East.
But that's, Obama's vision is so universe-wide that this is just beneath him.
It's almost a distraction, poor guy.
And he just, he's not made to deal with such small things.
But unfortunately, that's what his hand is, and he's got to deal with it.
I mean, I've rarely seen such a coordinated effort undertaken to excuse dangerous incompetence.
And we're getting it.
Each and every day, it ramps up.
I want you to ask yourself, in the midst of all this, forget the nuke stuff in Japan, if you will.
Forget the Middle East.
Just take a look at the domestic economic circumstances in this country, which have worsened since he took office.
You couple, you put any other president, even if it's a Democrat, if it were another Democrat in office going on television, ESPN to do these picks in the midst of all of this, why whoever that president was, particularly Republican, but even another Democrat, would be scalded.
Would I think Carter would well, Carter, Carter, Carter was, Carter was, he was somewhat excused.
Again, he was so smart.
He was above so much of the job.
But not so much that Carter did not have a, as I recall, Carter did not have a preordained love relationship with the media.
He didn't at all.
And now it just wasn't Nixon, and the media didn't create him.
The media didn't have a whole lot personally invested in Carter.
They made Obama.
They created this obviously false Image and characterization, which is now a caricature.
Media hated Carter for a while.
But we are, with Obama, we are defining the presidency down.
It's happening right before our very eyes.
And it is breathtaking to watch.
I'm going to take a break here.
I'm a little long in the opening segment, which often happens.
On the cutting edge, Ella Rushbo, don't doubt me.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
Here again, I noticed, I thought I misunderstood.
I thought they were going to give Obama the whole 30 minutes from noon to 12:30 to make his picks, do a whole show of it when they're going to videotape him.
It turns out they did it in about, I guess, three to four minutes, picked his brackets.
I thought he was going to pick all 58 brackets.
Instead, he picked the final four.
I don't know.
I didn't see it.
Anyway, we've got it.
We had it in time to put together this montage.
Breaking news live from Japan with what is now believed to be the worst nuclear disaster.
As much as I love North Carolina, as much as I love Roy Williams, I think Ohio State's got the talent this year.
Breaking news on another crisis, the conflict in Libya.
I think Kansas keeps on winning.
Breaking news now as we watch the closing bell on Wall Street.
Tumultuous Day.
I'm going to pick Duke.
We have breaking economic news.
Housing starts and the producer price index.
And on this one, I think Pitt's going to win.
I mean, you can't illustrate this disconnect.
Okay, so Obama picked the Sweet 16.
Yep, yep.
So Andy Katz, who was the senior basketball writer on ESPN, the correspondent, along with Doris Duke, they had this exchange about Obama and his bracket pick.
Even though he's quite busy, there's still some knowledge of what's going on.
He certainly could reference some of the things going on within the sport, maybe a little biggies tournament and in the women's side, too, as well.
You can tell the guy has played the game and is a fan of the game because he'll reference specific things, whether it's a defensive-minded team or a certain player that he thinks can carry a team.
You can tell he can play.
No question about it.
He can't play.
Look, this is my point.
I come on this radio show.
How many times he hears talk about the NFL?
Would they ever say this about me?
Oh, the guy can play the game.
Oh, wow.
This guy, you can tell he's a fan of the game.
He'll reference things, defensive-minded team.
I mean, they bend over backwards to accommodate this guy.
It's almost like the way you behave with a special needs kid.
Oh, way to go, Johnny.
Two plus two is five.
You're so smart, little, just like Diane Sawyer yesterday.
By the way, the Hollywood reporter is giving me the business over this one.
Diane Sawyer at a shelter in Japan in the midst of all of that destruction.
You know, she, look, look, recycling.
They're recycling here in Japan as though everybody's a child.
I don't know, folks.
And that's the way they're positioning Obama for us.
He can't do anything wrong.
Back in the moment.
And let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.
I shouldn't have to do this.
After 22 years, when I proffer an opinion, when I give you some analysis, when I tell you why it is, for example, that Obama's being portrayed as he is, why it's a total caricature.
You know, I'm right, but you just have to doubt me.
It's just the thing to do.
Listen to David Brooks.
If this doesn't prove the point that I just made, they look at Obama.
Some people look at him and see somebody so smart.
It's almost like an alien.
It's almost he's got the answer to every question.
We are not smart enough to keep up with him, and so it's hindering him.
He's just so smart.
He's so advanced, lives in a different plane, lives in a different astral plane, lives in a different world than we do.
We can't hope to understand.
We should just be thankful we're alive at the same time he is.
I mean, this is the kind of crap that we've been told about Obama.
And as it became apparent that he was not who they told us he was, it's nothing special.
There's nothing unique.
We've not seen nothing like this in politics before.
We've seen it every day.
There's nothing special here.
Nothing.
Not one thing.
The one thing that might be historic about the Obama presidency is how horrible it is.
He may be, before this is all said and done, the worst president this country's ever had.
But we're not going to have the people who told us he was going to be the best, the most unique, whatever president we've ever had, agree with that.
So the excuses have to be made.
And here's David Brooks.
You got to love David Brooks.
2005 or 6, whenever he first met Obama, New York Times conservative columnist, first met Obama and has actually written that it was the crease in Obama's pants as he was sitting there in front of Brooks that convinced him he was going to be president and going to be a great president.
And this David Brooks, a guy considered to be among the conservative intelligentsia, one of the super smart.
Like Obama, we pale compared to his aura of brightness.
And that kind of comment is absurd, the crease in his pants.
So this morning on Morning Joe PMS NBC, during a discussion about his book, Brooks has a new book out there called The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement.
And a guest panelist, Time Magazine senior political analyst Mark Helperin.
And Mark Halperin said to Brooks, who is there in public life who you think has a very deep understanding of the balance of reason and emotion and uses it effectively as a leader?
Clinton had a sort of a galloping emotional side.
He is the one in our lifetime who really has this ability.
My armchair diagnosis of Obama, just having covered him these years, is that he's a very complicated person with many different selves.
We all have many different personalities that are aroused by different contexts.
It also means I think he's rarely all in.
He rarely commits 100% because there's always another part of him that's sort of analyzing and stepping back.
Oh, okay.
See, so here we've got a guy in the midst of a ruinous presidency.
A presidency that is becoming laughed at, mocked, and joked about and feared for its incompetence all over the world.
And what is the explanation?
Well, he has so many different personalities.
He's so complicated.
We can't hope to understand Obama.
He has many different personalities aroused by different contexts, which, of course, would explain his arousal for the NCAA brackets.
He's rarely all in.
He's so smart.
His intelligence is so Abnormally high that he can be intimately involved in many things at one time and be entirely competent and assured without rarely committing to 100% because there's always another part of him analyzing and stepping back and thinking and so forth.
I mean, this is what we get.
This is how the excuses are made.
The average ordinary American can look at incompetence and see it.
The average ordinary American can look at somebody's in a job they got no business having.
They can see somebody totally in over their head, and they can see somebody who doesn't care.
They can see somebody who really isn't even into it.
But they're too stupid.
They really know.
So that takes Brooks and the rest of these guys to explain to us the complexities of all this that we are hopelessly unable to comprehend ourselves.
Now let's go to the audio soundbites.
Let's stay with them.
This is Chip Reed.
Now, this is yesterday afternoon at the White House daily briefing.
I bet if there's a guy in Washington who wishes he had said no when the job was offered, it's Jay Carney, the White House press secretary who took over for Robert Gibbs.
It has been hell from the first day Carney stepped in there.
You can tell that he's not comfortable with it, doesn't apparently like it.
But what are you going to do?
President wants you to be press secretary and you're working for Biden.
What are you going to do?
I said, Chip Reed, Chip Reed at CBS, Chip Reed, the series of soundbites, we have three of them.
Chip Reed flabbergasted, essentially saying to Carney, don't you people think it's time to make a decision on Libya?
Starts out with this question.
Chip Reed, on the no-fly zone, what exactly is the regime's position before the Security Council?
Our position, Chip, remains that we are evaluating a number of options, military options, including a no-fly zone.
We feel that it is important that any action like that that might be taken should be done in concert with our international partners.
We would look to the UN as a forum for evaluating that option.
But a decision has to be made now, Reed said.
We've got to make a decision here.
And Carney says, well, yeah, but we've got to talk to our international partners who look to the UN.
Chip Reed not happy.
Is the president satisfied to follow, not lead on deciding whether to do it?
I take issue with the characterization.
Isn't it time to make a decision, yes or no?
Well, Chip, you tell me if, as an American citizen, would you want your president not to consider all the implications and ramifications of taking points to make it where you have to make a decision?
Three times.
Don't you think it's time you make a decision?
Well, what do you want, Chip?
You're an American say, you want the president running in like a cowboy?
What do you want, Chip?
Well, I take issue with the characterization.
He says, isn't it time to make a decision?
Doesn't there come a point we have to make a decision?
Here's Carney.
When it comes to considering military options, this president will always be mindful of what the mission should be engaged, what it entails, the risks that it poses to our men and women in uniform, and its likelihood of having the kind of impact that we set out for it to have.
And that is his responsibility as commander-in-chief.
There you get it.
That's Jay Carney explaining Obama's view of leadership, dithering, dithering around, waiting.
Well, president's going to always be mindful of what the mission, should it be engaged, what it entails, should it be engaged, the risks that it poses to our men and women in uniform, if we do it.
And it's likelihood of meanwhile, a Qaddafi with arguably the worst trained, worst staffed, stupidest military in the Middle East is winning.
All because all because we're hamstrung by a guy who made mincemeat of his predecessor for imposing the will of the United States and the Middle East in Iraq.
So he can't go there.
He's got to let somebody else do it.
And everybody else waits for us to decide.
He's not deciding.
He's making picks on ESPN for the NCAA Final Four, March Madness.
Let's go to Audio Soundbite 24.
This is where Obama did the big public service, urging people to go to his website to learn about Japan before making their own picks.
Andy, obviously, we are going through incredible changes all around the world.
Most recently, obviously, our hearts go out to the people of Japan.
Right.
One thing I want to make sure the viewers who are filling out their brackets, you know, this is a great tradition.
We have fun every year doing it.
But while you're doing it, if you're on your laptop, et cetera, go to usaid.gov, USAID.gov.
And that's going to list a whole range of charities where you can potentially contribute to help the people who've been devastated in Japan.
I think that would be a great gesture as you're filling out your brackets.
They can help out some people who are really going through a tough time.
Right.
So before you fill out those brackets, I mean, who are we talking to?
We're talking to people drinking Bud Light and Coors Light at 9 in the morning.
Now, you guys make sure you go to the USA.gov website here.
And before you shave and all that, before you take the Viagra, you go out there and go to my website and figure out what the heck's going on in Japan.
And then you fill out your brackets.
That's very cool.
And then Andy Katz, ESPN Sports Center senior college basketball correspondent and Obama have this exchange about Obama's tournament bracket.
We actually have the same national championship game.
There you go.
Ohio State versus Kansas.
And I'm picking Kansas.
Just because I think they're deeper.
I think that Kansas has more firepower.
After last year, look, here's what happened.
I picked North Carolina.
They lost.
The next year, they won for me.
I think Kansas is going to do the same thing.
They always feel bad about losing when the president picks them.
They're going to go all the way.
Yep.
There you have it.
And while all that was going on, other news was being made.
Breaking news live from Japan with what is now believed to be the worst nuclear disaster.
And as much as I love North Carolina, as much as I love Roy Williams, I think Ohio State's got the talent this year.
Breaking news on another crisis, the conflict in Libya.
I think Kansas keeps on winning.
Breaking news now as we watch the closing bell on Wall Street.
Tumultuous Day.
I'm going to pick Duke.
We have breaking economic news.
Housing starts and the producer price index.
And on this one, I think Pitt's going to win.
Speaking of housing starts, this is Reuters.
New housing starts at the lowest in 27 years, folks.
But we got a recovery going on.
How long did it take Obama to decide on the surge for Afghanistan?
That was something he promised all during a campaign.
That took six months, right?
We need to break into study groups, report back in a few weeks on the no-fly zone.
Maybe appoint a blue ribbon panel on the no-fly zone.
Maybe do some focus groups and polling on the no-fly zone.
Maybe that'll do it.
David Brooks, who, by the way, thinks Sarah Palin is a buffoon.
Telling us about the complexities of Obama.
He's never really all in, never 100% in because of these complexities.
He's always stepping back.
He's always thinking.
He's always analyzing out there.
Yes, he's always making sure he's on top.
A very complicated person.
Another part of him sort of analyzing and stepping back.
He has many different selves.
Sarah Palin's a buffoon.
And we'll be back.
Housing starts posted their biggest decline in 27 years in February while building permits dropped to their lowest level on record.
Suggesting the beleaguered real estate sector has yet to rebound from it.
What's your first clue, Reuters?
Suggesting the beleaguered real estate sector has yet to rebound?
See, we're in the midst of this roaring recovery, but somehow the housing people haven't figured it out.
Now, what happened to all of the federal aid for this industry?
The mortgage industry?
The foreclosure program?
What happened?
How in the hell can all of this federal assistance have led to this?
A better stated is maybe all this federal assistance did lead to this.
Now, this news, I guarantee you, housing starts, biggest drop since 1984.
This news will be blamed on the problems in the Middle East and the Japan earthquake, the tsunami, nuclear problems, because the recession's been over for two years, they keep telling us.
I mean, this is so we've got golf, we've got parties, got vacation, Rio de Janeiro this weekend.
We got NCAA picks.
We got meetings with unions.
We got golf.
We got parties.
We got vacations.
We got trips to Rio this weekend.
We got vacations.
We got meeting with unions.
It's a never-ending loop.
Housing starts see biggest drop since 1984, deepest slump in modern history.
I wonder if David Brooks ever considered this.
Because Obama has that perfect crease in his pants, it's an indication he's not a hard worker.
That a leader with a perfect crease in his pants is like a farmer with perfectly smooth hands and no evidence of being in the sun.
I'm a real guy.
If I see a guy with a perfect crease in his pants, I say either he sits in his underwear at his desk and only puts them on when he's going to meet people, or he doesn't work very hard.
Well, maybe he's not in.
All I'm telling you is that my pants are wrinkled in the first five minutes.
Once I'm in the car, it's over.
How about yours, Snurdley?
You don't even wear pants with creases in them.
Never mind.
Really?
Did David Brooks ever think maybe that a perfectly pressed Paris Lax means no work?
Let's say, what else do we have?
Higher prices at the gas pump.
I wonder, we've got higher food prices.
That's out there now.
Soaring food prices.
And I told you about this.
I warned you about this during the Egypt business, and everybody poo-pooed it.
Wholesale prices up 1.6% on steep rise in food.
Inflation pressures build on surge in energy and food.
Blah, blah, blah.
I wonder if food prices are rising at a pace agreeable with President Obama.
It must be because he's not concerned with gasoline prices and gasoline prices are related to food prices.
Remember when gasoline was surging to $4 a gallon, the president said, I don't mind that.
I'm just unhappy with how fast the price got there.
So I wonder what his opinion is of the rising price in food.
Is it happening too fast for Obama?
Higher prices at the pump please him, as long as they don't rise too quickly.
Rising gas prices always translate to rising food prices.
Palin understands this.
She has a piece on it at Facebook today.
But the fact is this president wants higher gas prices, which means he wants higher food prices.
So he got his NCAA picks done today, got it on ESPN, got rising food prices, rising gasoline prices.
President Obama ought to be a happy man today.
He got it all.
Well, it's just like higher gas prices will make us better people who can serve more higher prices will make us better people because we will have to eat less.
As Martha Stewart said, it's all good, Michelle Obama, it's all good.