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May 6, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
31:49
May 6, 2011, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
It's Friday on the EIB Network.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida, it's Open Line Friday.
Yip, yip, ya!
It's the Rush Lindborg program and the excellence in broadcasting.
And we're great to have you with us, my friend.
Our telephone number, 800-282-2882.
If you want to be on the program, remember the rules of Open Line Friday differ slightly.
Well, they actually differ greatly from the normal rules Monday through Thursday.
Basically, Monday through Thursday, I have to care about what it is that callers want to talk about.
If I don't care about it, they don't get on unless they lie and cheat, and we deal with it.
On Friday, I don't have to care.
I'll fake it.
I'll pretend or what have to golden opportunity.
If you think something needs to be said that hasn't been said, feel free.
You know, news just continues to pour in here.
We're up to 35 different versions of what happened.
Finally, with the help of a couple bloggers and, of course, myself and Wesley Prudent, just an amalgamation of things I've been reading.
I've put together the various versions and stories and differences here.
But folks, I got to tell you something.
There are reports out there that one of Bin Laden's wives didn't leave that house for six years.
And he didn't leave for six years.
We're told that there were three wives in that house and that none of them left.
And they are accusing us of torture.
Come on.
And the news media today, gosh, the unemployment rate's up to 9%.
And they're celebrating.
They're talking about some of the strongest job groups with 244,000 new jobs, 62,000 of them from Mickey D's, 62,000 from McDonald's.
Now, remember, in the past, those jobs have been impugned by the Democrats and the left as meaningless, futureless, hamburger flipper jobs without health care.
Now, all of a sudden, folks, I'll tell you, if we had had our news media of today back in the days of Herbert Hoover, we would have never had a depression because it would have never been reported as a depression.
And we had the same kind of rose-colored glass.
This isn't even reporting.
This is stenography that we have from the drive-bys today.
We would have never had a Great Depression.
Nobody would have ever heard anything to get depressed about.
Now, you can talk about 244,000 new jobs and all of that, but no president's ever been re-elected with the unemployment rate at 8% or over.
Did you watch the Republican debate last night?
I did.
I'm telling you something.
It was inspiring.
It actually was.
It was good to finally see five or six guys, maybe five and a half guys, take it to Obama.
It actually was comforting and reassuring.
And there were some surprises along the way here.
I'm sure those of you who watched it have your own take.
I, of course, El Rushbo, have the final take, which is why I will wait to tell you what I think about it until I hear a little bit, because once I say something about something, then there's nothing left to be said.
So you didn't watch it, Snerdley?
No, no, no, it was not a dud.
I mean, the people on there that were duds were even entertaining.
And Herman Cain overwhelmingly won.
You know, Frank Luntz has his focus group in there that Hannity puts on on Fox after the debate.
Herman Cain, according to that focus group, was the clear winner.
Santorum was hyper.
He was filled with fire and brimstone.
Polenti, I thought appeared very presidential.
It was an upper all the way around.
It really was.
I mean, we can nitpit some things.
And of course, we will nitpick some things as the program unfolds before your very eyes.
Have you noticed, by the way, nobody is demanding that anybody prove that Obama killed the job market and the economy.
They're demanding proof that he killed Obama.
It's self-evident he's killed the economy.
And nobody's demanding proof of that.
We already know it.
But there's still doubt out there about that.
What's this?
Here he goes again, right here in the middle of this program.
President of the United States speaking on job and energy initiatives.
He's in Indianapolis.
We are not going to JIP.
We have too many important stories.
This story, this next little blurb here, a woman in Oregon woke up from dental surgery with a foreign accent.
Not kidding.
They say she sounds European, which makes me wonder, has Obama had dental surgery lately?
Because he's sounding an awful lot like George W. Bush.
Oh, you know, that'll tick him off.
They won't like that.
The news media, speaking of which, the drive-bys, ladies and gentlemen, are ecstatic.
As you know, the gasoline price has fallen.
Well, the oil price is plummeting.
Commodities in general are plummeting.
And here's a montage of the media rejoicing over this news.
Gas prices are actually down.
You can barely see the drop, but this could signal a bigger drop ahead.
For the first time in a month and a half, gas prices did not go up this morning.
The average price dipped fractions of a penny.
After 44 straight days of going up, gas prices are actually down.
Is this a trend?
Will people start seeing cheaper gas?
That's Savannah Guthrie wrapping it up from NBC was Carol Costello.
That's my stalker at CNN.
Robin Mead, where's she from?
Headline news.
Kieran Chhetri from CNN.
Just a microcosm of Infobabes orgasmic over the falling price.
And of course, it's all looked at through the prism of how it will help Obama.
For example, here's a story.
This is on unemployment.
And this from the MSNBC website.
The headline, job pickup may not be enough to aid Obama.
President riding high, moving into election cycle, but economy lurks.
He's not riding high.
He is imminently beatable.
And that's one thing that became clear from the Republican debate last night.
He is beatable.
And by the way, I've got to find it somewhere here in the stack.
Oh, oh, somebody I know ran into somebody you see on television all the time, a former Democrat pollster, in a green room of a TV show who said to my friend that the internal polling in the White House is horrible on the Obama re-elect, that the internal re-elect number that they have in the White House, the internal number is bad.
And that's why you see them doing all the thing, reimaging, reimagining all the things they're doing with Obama to try to build him back up because their re-elect numbers, contrary to what the drive-bys are saying in public and contrary to what all the state-controlled media commentators are doing on cable TV, the White House internal re-elect numbers are not good.
Don't doubt me on this stuff.
There is no way that somebody presiding over this mess is a shoe-in.
There's no way that somebody that's the architect of this disaster is a lock.
And yet people are coming along trying to convince everybody that that is the case because they're trying to dispirit you and they're trying to dispirit any would-be Republican presidential candidates into not taking it to Obama.
And there's this ongoing, yeah, he's got it wrapped up.
You know what?
We really can't win.
In fact, one of the theories out there, I've got to share this with you.
One of the theories out there, and the theory includes the fact that the regime is trying to create this notion that things are so bad.
Now, this is going to sound odd.
That things are so bad it would be risky to change horses in the middle of the stream.
That doing that would only make it worse.
That programs are in place to fix this.
The last thing we need is somebody running in there and disrupting and tearing it all down.
So one of the themes that they're trying to create from the White House on down, or up, depending on your perspective, is there'd be a big business no matter how bad things are, changing horses right now be the absolute worst thing for the country.
That's what they're trying to create.
I know it doesn't sound logical, but that's what we're faced with with this bunch.
I mean, that's the depths to which they have to plunge in order to come up with reasons.
But anyway, back to the MSNBC story.
Look at the headline, job pickup may not be enough to aid Obama.
It's written by a guy named John Schoen, who is the senior producer at MSNBC.com.
This is not the TV network, same bunch, but it's just the website crew.
This week's stunning news of the death of Osama bin Laden, who was killed by Obama, by the way, gave President Barack Obama a much needed bounce in voter opinion polls just as the 2012 presidential campaign grinds into gear, but the glow could fade if job growth does not accelerate.
Okay, so job pickup may not be enough to help Obama.
Can I ask you people at MSNBC, have you had any thought, did it ever cross your mind to ask whether or not job growth is enough to help the unemployed?
I mean, after all, what are we talking about here?
Do you realize how silly, childish, narcissistic, and immature it sounds to talk about the unemployment rate only within the context of how it helps or hurts Obama?
What about the people who are unemployed, out of work?
Is there any thought given to them in what economic news might mean to them?
Well, there is here at this program, hosted by me, the big voice of the right.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, Republican debate, I have to, I watched it last night.
I made a pointed appointment to watch the debate last night.
I'm going to tell you why overall it was good.
Now, the so-called big names or some of the big names were not there.
Mitt Romney was not there.
Mitch Daniels, I don't think it's announced yet.
He wasn't there.
Let's see, who else wasn't there?
The Huckster.
Huckabee wasn't there.
Newt Gingrich wasn't there.
The people who were, let's see, we had Ron Paul, we had Herman Kane, Tim Polenti, Gary Johnson, and Rick Santorum.
And without exception, every one of them tore into the regime.
Every one of them took it to Obama.
Even without some of the so-called front runners, I came away from this thing very pleased.
I was pleased the battle has begun to take shape.
It is time to find out who is best and will be best to take this battle to Obama because it's imminently winnable.
And there wasn't an ounce of fear from anybody last night.
Of course, there was the, you know, a fact, let me tell you this.
It was very professionally done on the Fox side.
You had Brett Baer as the host, and he was bookended by Chris Wallace out there.
And then Shannon Bream, who is one of their White House correspondents, and they threw Juan Williams in the mix.
They had to throw one drive-by in there.
But they people, they came off as intelligent, highly prepared, good-humored, professional, organized, and all that.
They were tough, objective.
They were likable.
Juan Williams, I hate to say this because you people all know I like Juan Williams.
Juan Williams knows that I like Juan Williams.
Juan Williams knows that I was totally supportive of Juan Williams when Juan Williams got canned by NPR and Vivian Schiller.
But every Juan Williams question last night was one cliché after another, one liberal cliché after another.
There's a new technique.
You may have noticed it in these debates.
Some guy will hold up the Bible and ask for a show of hands among the Republican candidates.
How many of you agree with every word in this book?
And now that technique, a show of hands, I forget there were a couple of times it was used.
Can I see a show of hands on the number of you believe that we pictures of Obama should be with?
It's a debate.
You don't ask for a show of hands in a debate.
When you have candidates, contenders to the presidency, it's not about raising your hand as in class.
But anyway, it did happen.
And of course, one of the cliched questions that Juan Williams asked of Tim Polenti was, do you believe in creationism?
You believe in evolution.
It's just, it's by rote.
Every Republican debate, there's going to be some cliched, predictable question from some drive-by journalist trying to ensnare or entrap a Republican into this whole notion of intelligent design, creationism versus evolution, because the whole point here is to illustrate Republicans as religious fanatic nutcases.
And these debates are a chance to the left to try to expose that.
So Juan Williams perfunctorily performed asking the question of Polenti.
I'll have to tell you what Pawlenty said after this brief but obscene EIB Profit Center timeout.
There's an internet joke going around you.
You probably heard it.
If you haven't, it goes like this.
Obama shot Osama and we got the 72 versions.
And then actually, there's we've counted up here.
I'm up to 30, I think.
30 versions or variations.
Anyway, welcome back.
Rush Limbaugh, the big voice on the right, Tim Polenti, the former Minnesota governor, was asked by Juan Williams if he believes in creationism.
And of course, we got the usual questions: don't you think your tax policy is going to unfairly benefit the rich?
Just so predictable.
I mean, the cliched questions.
And I, you know, I really do like Juan Williams, but it just, I don't know.
There must be a question handbook for leftist journalists at a Republican candidate debate over the questions to ask.
Anyway, Polenti, Polenti's aides said afterward they had not anticipated the question.
How could you not?
Any Republican presidential candidate has to be able to answer that question.
They have to anticipate that question is going to be asked, along with how many people did you kill with your tax policies when you were governor?
All the usual stuff.
They have to be ready for it because the effort is there to portray Republicans as the typical pro-life Southern hayseed hicks driving around to pick up trucks, showing up Saturday night in a church parking lot with two rifles in the back in order to get the best parking spot.
Basically religious kooks and nuts.
I mean, this is the effort.
I remember, as I said, that clown who held up a Bible said, you believe everything in here during one of the famous, could I see a show of hands on X, Y, and Z?
But folks, I had mixed emotions.
I really wasn't ready to watch this thing last night.
To me, it's still early.
And of course, early means inconsequential to me.
But I watched it anyway.
And I came away really pleasantly surprised.
The Republicans on that panel last night stepped into the ring and they began to define themselves.
And every one of them explained why Obama is not just beatable, but deeply flawed as a leader.
There was no pussy footing around.
There was no tiptoeing.
There was no fear.
Yeah, there was the obligatory, I don't thank Mr. Obama for a brilliant capture and killing of Moson.
You know, you got that out of the way at the top of the debate.
But there wasn't any fear, and there wasn't any fear of being combative.
Santorum was on fire to the point of being hyper a couple of times, spoke eloquently of freedom.
Now, there's a review, if you will, in the Examiner, the D.C. Examiner by Byron York inside the Republican debate, the headline, Polenti underwhelms, Kane Struggles, Santorum scores.
Now, these are the opinions of professionals, Republicans and otherwise, who watched it last night.
In the hours before the Republican debate Thursday night, a number of established politicians here in Greenville, South Carolina saw it as a showdown between former Minnesota Governor Tim Polenti and a bunch of other guys.
One veteran of state politics said, it's Palenti.
He's got a chance to move up into the first tier or stay in the second tier.
The debate's other participants, Santorum, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, weren't going to be much more than a supporting cast.
That's what, according to Byron York, the politicians thought.
Among the people, the non-politicians, there was intense interest in Herman Cain, former CEO of Godfather's Pizza.
He has, like everybody else these days, a radio talk show.
It is said that Herman Cain is a Tea Party favorite, strongly held opinions on issues he knows by heart from his business career, like job creation and economic growth.
And the debate, according to his fans, would be the perfect format for him to make great first impression on the national stage.
And indeed, in Frank Luntz's post-debate focus group, Herman Cain was by far and away the clear winner among, I think, one of the 29 or 30 people in Luntz's group.
But while he might have thrilled you, he left professional political observers baffled by what appeared to be an astonishing lack of preparation on a key national security issue.
A third candidate, Santorum, who hadn't been picked as a pre-debate favorite, turned in the evening's most solid performance, according to the professionals.
So once again, we have a divide.
The average, ordinary common people thought Herman Cain walked away with it.
The professionals thought that Santorum walked away with it.
Now, here we go.
If I mention any name here, a lot of really unfortunate things can happen.
If I mention one name, if I pick somebody who stood out, you can imagine what's going to happen.
Limbaugh criticizes most of the Republican field.
Limbaugh endorses this or that.
You know, my, it's, you know, one of the problems of being so powerful and so famous.
Kane was strong.
They were, yeah, Santorum was strong.
They were all strong.
I'm telling you, it was, it was, it was very satisfying to watch this.
Not one of these people on that stage was afraid to criticize Obama.
Not one of them appeared to be governed by being politically correct.
There wasn't any fear on that stage last night.
I mean, I thought of the bunch Palenti looked the most presidential.
I'm simply talking about presence, temperament, but it's a close.
Don't, it doesn't mean anything negative about anybody else.
This is why, you know, I'm in a very unfortunate position.
By saying that, it could easily be twisted.
I'm being critical of the others, and I've gone out of my way here to make it clear I'm not being.
The more experienced, the more polished.
I'm not really talking about content here, not talking about the substance of what he said, just the appearance.
And that, by the way, is a gut reaction, not a studied conclusion.
Who surprised me the most?
Surprised me the most.
The whole field surprised me because what we got last night from this crowd is not what you would think you would get if you look at Republican leadership elsewhere in Washington.
These guys were loaded for bear, and they took it to Obama, and they were fearless.
And they didn't seem to be worried about what they would say coming back to haunt them today or next week.
They weren't afraid of the media.
They weren't afraid of the questions.
They all wanted to speak.
Herman Kaine has a dynamic voice and very, very confident presentation of what he believes.
And he's fearless.
They all were fearless.
So all I'm telling you is for a first foray into this, it was filled for me with a lot of pleasantness when it was over with.
There was no, oh, God, geez, none of that.
I didn't have that reaction.
I had that reaction to some of the questions.
But I didn't have that reaction to, in fact, Katherine and I sitting there watching this.
When Juan Williams came out with the evolution creation question, I said, I think I shouted some profanities.
And I said, every damn debate, get this silly, stupid question.
At any rate, let's take a brief time.
No, I'm not issuing any official fatwas here.
None of my recounting of this should be construed as an endorsement in any way.
In fact, I wrote my brother, some other people a short review note this morning after one of them.
So we had a, we've got a gaggle of about five of us that chit-chat back and forth after events like this.
And the first one gave a review of Santorum's answer on freedom, and he was a little concerned about it.
Because Santorum made a big deal about having freedom for he's freedom.
And my friend was all concerned that freedom is something that should be from, not for.
So we got into our own little intellectual dissection of that.
And I simply wrote back, here's the bottom line.
Paletti seemed the most presidential.
Santorum seemed hyper and wired up.
And Herman Kane made me think I was listening to me.
That's every answer.
But some of the others did too.
But this is not to be mistaken here for any kind of an endorsement, folks.
I'm just telling you, and I'm not suggesting any of these people could win.
This is just the first debate.
And again, some of the so-called big names are not there.
But it was not a bad first night.
For those of you who have a sort of a sickening, sinking view that the Republicans aren't up for it, not the case with that crowd from last night.
Ha!
How are you?
It's Open Line Friday.
I'm Rush Limbaugh.
The first roster of soundbites I have, and it's going to get me in trouble.
First roster I have from the debate only has Herman Kane soundbites.
I don't have any other, I don't have any from Palenti here.
I don't have any from Santorum.
I don't have any.
Now, you might be, how does that happen?
Well, because, you know, I delegate.
And in the old days, I'd be watching the debate and I would send a note up, okay, give me that, give me that, give me that, give me that.
Now, Cookie had been doing this element of the program for years.
I just, she's got total free ready to do it on her own.
She only gave me Kane.
Sounded like me.
So I'm going to play him.
Now, we're good.
We got two hours.
We'll get some Palenti and we'll get some Santorum before the program's over.
But here's Luntz.
Now, this is Luntz on Hannibal after the Republican debate talking about his group's reaction to Herman Kane.
How many of you think Herman Kane won the debate?
We can stop right there.
For word or phrase to describe Herman Kane.
He answers the question most direct.
A breath of fresh air.
Common sense.
Talking points.
Clear and concise.
Very impressive.
Godfather of business sense, and he can attack Obama well.
All of that's true.
Well, that's true.
And he also made a big deal about being an outsider, not being a politician, not being somebody of Washington.
So, to give you some sample sound bites, Juan Williams, here in South Carolina, as you heard before, the GOP is up in arms over a decision by the general counsel, the NLRB, challenging Boeing for moving jobs to a right-to-work state.
In Wisconsin, Governor Walker has ended collective bargaining rights for some civil service workers.
Mr. Kaine, does the GOP risk the perception that it's becoming a union-busting party?
One of the biggest problems we have with this country right now today is too much government intervention in trying to tell businesses how to do what they do best, which is create jobs.
Government doesn't create jobs, businesses create jobs.
We need to get government out of the way, including trying to tell a company where they should build a new plant.
Crowd went nuts, by the way, this South Carolina crowd, and they went absolutely nuts.
We took the applause out of this, the economy of time here.
Here's another question: Juan Williams.
Mr. Kane, what will President Kaine do to alleviate skyrocketing gas prices?
Contrary to what President Obama said when he stated there wasn't anything that he could do in the short term, that simply is not true.
We have all of the resources we need right here in this country to establish energy independence if we had the leadership.
The dynamics that impact the price of oil and ultimately the price of gasoline, getting it out of the ground, refinery and distribution, and speculators.
If the world market believed that we were serious about energy independence and we were going to utilize all of our existing resources, the speculators would stop speculating up and they speculate down.
And the crowd went nuts over that.
That the speculators would start speculating down.
And here is Hannity.
You think, this is after the debate, you think that he's been weak, Obama, as a president, timid?
I think he's been very weak and very timid, starting with when it took him months to decide to do the surge in Afghanistan.
After getting the intelligence information and after getting the advice from his military generals and his experts, he sat on the surge decision for months.
We don't know how many men and women might have been killed while he was waiting.
We don't know how much it jeopardized this latest mission to get Osama bin Laden because he waited 16 hours to make the decision.
When you've got a mission that is that precise down to every little detail, a president that procrastinates puts people's lives in jeopardy.
Now, again, the audience was going nuts over this because, again, Kaine, and he wasn't the only one.
They were all taking it just straight to Obama, which people don't hear Republicans do.
You must, you know it.
You don't hear it happening.
That's why Trump is gaining so much ground.
It's because he's doing it.
By the way, Obama, Cinco de Mayo White House, can you imagine what his life last night was like after he said this?
I asked Michelle the other day, I said, what's your favorite food?
Because we were sitting around with the girls.
She said, oh, Mexican food.
You do not want to be between Michelle and Tamale.
That is true.
That's true.
But she's moving, though, so she can afford to have as many tamales as she wants.
You do.
Oh, here's got your wife on this health kick and so forth.
You don't want to be between Michelle and a Tamale?
Barack, she's bigger than you.
You are going to have to take great caution here.
Come on.
Come on.
One observation.
Day yesterday.
Remember, the media told us the Republicans they don't have the guts to go after Obama on foreign policy.
That is Mitch Daniels quote: Republicans don't have the guts.
Nobody in the Republicans wants to go after Obama's foreign policy.
That's all they did last night.
They went after Obama's foreign policy and Obama's economy.
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