All Episodes
Aug. 12, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:55
August 12, 2011, Friday, Hour #1
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Welcome to today's edition of The Rush 247 Podcast.
So, you people watching on the Ditto Cam, where the heck is he?
Never seen that view before.
How are you?
We're in Los Angeles, ladies and gentlemen, for one day.
Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network on Friday.
Live from the left post at our satellite studios in Los Angeles.
It's open line Friday.
Well, we're near Los Angeles.
We're not exactly in Los Angeles, but we're close enough to Los Angeles.
And we are here for one day.
And I promise you folks, last time we were here that we'd have a ditto cam, and there it is.
Now you want to see it.
I've never, it looks like a security camera.
Probably is.
We probably took it off of some corner of the building here and uh and brought it in just for today's use anyway.
Great to be with you.
It's open line Friday, and uh, you know what that means.
It's the greatest career risk known to be taken by an existing power figure in the media.
And basically is this when we go to the phones, whatever you want to talk about's fair game.
The program is all yours.
Uh Monday through Thursday, that's not the case.
I have to talk about things I care about Monday through Thursday, but on Friday, we sort of broom that, and if I don't care about it, I'll fake it.
You might never even know.
Here's the uh yeah, I do have to go to the phones.
Snerdley is what are you trying to get out of doing your job?
Uh there is a lot to talk about, but I gotta tell you, I don't know, I may be coming down with something here or something.
I'm feeling fluish.
I I I I uh you know, the constant yawning and the and the watery eyes.
So you have to pull your load today, Snerdley.
You're gonna have to answer some phone calls.
Uh it's really tough gig.
He's trying to get out of answering the phones for some reason.
For some reason, open line Friday sends him for a loop.
I would think it'd be easy.
Just say hi, what do you want to talk about?
Okay, hang on.
I mean, that's what open line Friday is supposed to be.
No, I know, and if we do that, we just gotta do some screening.
At uh at any rate, uh ladies, consumer.
No, no, I'll I'll get to the debate.
Well, I'll tell you what I thought of the questions.
I saw, I went to a I went to a blog after the debate last night.
I can explain these questions.
Um everybody is is uh in my email and and places I've gone can't understand the questions that the Fox panel asked.
Well, what would people want to know what's going on?
I'll explain it to you.
I went to a blog post-debate.
Um, and I don't know what I might have been looking at a Twitter feed for all I know, because I never go to Twitter, but it was just constantly moving, and there were uh sturdy labor three or four references.
And I think media people were on this thread.
There were three or four references to quote how happy mainstream media people were with the questioning last night.
That may have been the purpose.
I have been told, I didn't hear this myself, of course, because I am in Los Angeles, and uh this happened in Washington.
And I've been told that on our affiliate this morning at WMAL in Washington, one of the uh reporters from the Washington Examiner, and I can't remember her name, was a guest.
And she said that that panel spent weeks going over every word of every question.
That every word of every question was planned, and that the panel spent lots of time together.
Uh what that tells me, and I folks, I I I uh you know, you know me in television.
I I have long ago ceased believing anything on television is real.
It's not.
Everything on television's produced, including so-called reality shows, and I have been on one.
And I I can tell you everything, I don't care whether they call it reality or spontaneous, everything is produced.
If you see, for example, last night, uh, one of the tactics was to throw at some of the candidates a quote, and then another quote that seemed to be in contradiction to the first quote, and you saw that on the screen.
You saw The quote uh Chiron graphic on the screen means it's produced.
Means ever going to ask that question no matter what.
You watch a baseball game, you tune into a football game.
How many times watching a football game does this happen to you within the first two minutes?
Something will happen on the field.
You'll think, my God, somebody really got creamed or got hurt there, or something happened.
There's a fight going on, and they leave the field to do their pre-produced, and the first 15 minutes here brought to you by uh the Toyota Selica.
Everything, or even not even do a commercial, just to do the starting lineups.
Go away from the field, show you the starting lineups, forget what's happening in the game.
Everything is produced, and that debate last night was produced.
The only thing spontaneous in the debate last night, obviously, were the answers.
Now you might say, okay, so what's wrong with that?
Well, I think the questioning ought to be spontaneous too.
The question ought to follow what's going on here.
Because after what's the content of the debate?
What's the substance?
What's the point?
The candidates and what they're saying.
And you know, this is a 30-second closing statements, and I have to say something else.
You know, we uh we got off the airplane, we hightailed it to our fashionable hotel, and I missed the first 40 minutes live.
And that didn't help either, by the way.
Because when I started watching, I said, My gosh, does nobody on this panel remember that we're running against Obama?
What is this business of these guys trying to tear each other up?
And then I figured out that's what Fox wants.
Fox wants these people to tear each other up.
And I said, why does Fox want these people to tear each other?
Because they want they want approval from the mainstream media.
Because that's what the mainstream media would do is tear these people up or try to get them to.
But you never see this with Democrats in it.
You never see the Democrats pitted against you.
Nothing like this was.
So, first 30 or 40 minutes live I missed.
I didn't hear Romney until a replay later.
Uh and some of the others going after Obama.
So, what the heck am I watching?
And then that that chime.
That they rang the signal it's time up, time out home.
I ran to the door twice thinking it was room service.
That even ticked me off.
And we had ordered some room service.
I got up and I went to the door and I opened it, nobody's there.
I was like, Well, what the hell?
So I went back, watched the debate again, and there's that stupid doorbell sounding.
So I went to the other door in the room.
And I open it, and there's nobody there.
Well, the kitchen door.
Yeah, the hotel room had two doors.
If you've never been in a hotel room and had two doors.
Well, I know most people haven't, and most people won't if we don't get rid of Obama.
Uh most people never get in a hotel room with two doors if we if we don't get rid of Obama, and that's the whole point of this last night.
And then I, you know, I'm I'm sorry.
Uh, but this Ron Paul is gonna destroy this party if they keep if if this this is nuts on parade.
The media loves this guy as nuts on parade.
They want the whole Republican Party to be identified with the kookiness of Ron Paul.
Hey, let Iran get nukes.
It's our fault anyway.
1979 happened because they weren't minding our own business.
That audience goes nuts.
Oh my gosh, what am I watching here?
Uh, and then Byron York's question to Michelle Bachman.
And now, now, Byron York's question to Michelle Bachman, and she now to be fair to Byron York, she has said this before.
She has talked about how the biblical role of women is be submissive to husband.
So she said it.
I don't know how recently, it's not part of her campaign.
She it it's it's not, it's not part of she, but they found it.
She said it.
Okay, fair game.
Ask the question, will you be submissive to your husband as president?
Now, uh, I I guarantee you, I guarantee you that the favorite journalist of the mainstream media today is Byron York.
And I don't know if you've been watching Fox, but they've been replaying that quote all day.
They've been replaying, they love it.
This is my point.
The stuff that was embarrassing, they like.
Now, Newt, Newt got on him for all the gotcha questions.
Turns out that the audience loved that.
I thought Newt looked defensive.
So my my analysis here may not dovetail with yours may not be parallel with yours, and uh fine, we can talk about it.
Well, uh look, don't make me go any that we don't even have all the candidates in there, Snurley.
I don't want to go too far analyzing this.
We haven't even gotten to primaries.
Uh what I think what did I think about?
Okay, here's Huntsman.
Snurdly wants to know what I think about Huntsman.
Here's Huntsman.
Second debate.
He says, I'll get back to you on my economic plan.
You get back to us.
I have an economic plan, and I'm not running for president.
What do you mean you'll get back to us on the economic?
Those weren't his words.
He said he didn't have it yet.
But he's working on it.
The economic plan.
The answer to every question last night.
Get rid of Obama.
That's the answer to every should have been get rid of Obama.
Tell me, Michelle Buckman, will you be submissive to your husband?
I love my husband, and I'm here to get rid of Barack Obama.
We're here to save America.
We're here to revive the U.S. economy.
Um but I know these candidates.
They um they they think they've got to show the media respect.
They've got to answer the questions, or they're accused of all kinds of intemperateness and uh and and other things.
Now I watched the replay, by the way.
I I did watch the 30 to 40 minutes that I missed.
Excuse me, and I was a little bit happier, because they did mention Obama, uh, at least Romney did, and hammered him pretty good in the first uh 30 or 40 minutes.
But I I think you know, Fox was trying to prove its chops with their tough questions.
By that I mean the gotcha back.
Anyway, this this like I said, a reporter from the Washington Times, the woman was on WMAL this morning.
Oh, yeah, we we we we loved it.
We we thought she said, I think she said I was told that she said the fight between Politti and and and Bachman, oh yeah, we loved oh yeah, we thought that was great.
Oh, yeah, we're still talking about that.
Um I understand folks, it's primary time, and I understand they're running against each other, but believe me, aside from Ron Paul, neither of the people on that stage, none of them are a real problem that um that we face.
And I know we're gonna get to Obama in due course.
It's just he's so vulnerable right now.
He had.
Folks, Obama had a horrible day yesterday.
Obama's out there saying there's a problem with our politics.
No, the problem with our politics is you, Mr. President.
Problem with our country is you.
The problem with our economy is you.
Our politics is just fine, other than you are in charge of the White House, right?
That's the only thing wrong with it.
Well, the Democrats over in Congress as well.
Anyway, let me take a brief time out.
Um, the economic news today, consumer sentiment drops to the lowest level in 30 years.
And listen to this poll quote from the students from a uh Reuters story.
It's got to be even worse than what Reuters says it is, given who they are.
Never before in the history of the surveys have so many consumers spontaneously mentioned negative aspects of the government's role in the economy.
This from Survey Director Richard Curtin in a statement.
U.S. consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest point in more than three decades in early August, as uh fears of a stalled recovery gelled with despair over government policies.
The Thomson Reuters University of Michigan preliminary August reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 54.9%.
That's the lowest since May of 1980.
I mean, that's that's uh at the absolute worst point of Jimmy Carter and his regime, and this, of course, is Jimmy Carter's second term.
No, I'm just telling you, I'm gonna have to search my memory banks here.
Oh no, look who's on Fox.
Oh, there he is outside the ice cream stand.
Good old Ron Paul.
Yeah, that's what we need.
More of that.
I just I'm trying to I'm trying to remember during the and sturdily don't put any Ron Paul people up on the phone.
I I really not I'm not feeling all that hot.
I know I sound excellent and sound great, but I'm not feeling, and I don't want to talk to them.
Um but I'm just I'm trying to remember here during the entire 2006 and 2008 presidential campaign.
I never, I don't, I can't recall seeing the Democrats go after each other.
Not once.
And the media never tried to get them to go after each other.
Now you go back and think of Hillary and Obama.
You think of that campaign.
You think of the debates, and how often, how often did you see the media try.
In fact, in fact, it took Operation Chaos.
It took me.
And you in this audience to even keep Hillary in that campaign.
There was uh there was a good answer from uh almost every question last night.
I will undo everything Obama has put into place.
Yes, I love my husband.
I will undo everything Obama has put into place.
Yes, I'll make sure that Iran doesn't get nukes.
Anyway, a little long.
I gotta take a break.
We'll do it.
We'll come back and resume right after this.
The uh Libs, ladies and gentlemen, with the way I'll rush vote back open line Friday from Los Angeles.
The uh the uh Libs think that I won the uh debate last night.
Some uh Democrat strategist named Robert Zimmerman was uh was on CNN live this morning with a co-host TJ Holmes.
And TJ Holmes said, Who won the debate last night, Bob?
Uh and uh and and why?
Rush Limbaugh, you cut right to it.
Here you had a panel of fairly uh in fairness, people who've had accomplished personal lives, they're all fairly literate people, yet they still stood with the extreme fringe and were captivated by them, supporting a position only 10 or 15 percent of the electorate support.
For example, the 10 to 1 ratio, not even supporting cuts but 10 to 1 over raising revenues.
A position that's out of the mainstream.
Uh now I'm you know, I I look at folks.
I I'm gonna admit here I'm not functioning at all soldiers, but I don't know what he's talking about what 10 to 1 what 10 to 1 ratio uh not even supporting cuts 10 to 1.
There must have been some question about cuts versus tax increases or some such thing, and of course these people are not going to support tax increases in a Republican primary.
They're not gonna it's it's not a fringe position.
Anyway, these people can't get me off the brain.
Here, Jonathan Alter, he was on the last word, which I think is a show on MSNBC last night, uh, and he was talking about the candidates vowing not to raise taxes.
Now, this is what we need.
We need the left commenting on this.
This is this is how we're gonna learn.
This is how our guys, Michelle Bachmann, but this is how they're gonna learn what to do to uh win the White House is listen to guys like this.
That moment that you identified when they all raised their hands, like those guys testifying before Congress, the tobacco company executives all raising their hands.
Remember that shot?
This was I think an iconic moment because what it indicated is that that is the only thing that the Republican Party stands for.
What they said by raising their hand was we don't care how much deficit reduction you can get.
We don't care how close you get to balancing the budget.
If you raise taxes by one dime, we're against it.
That's not a very good position to take.
Well, except that it won't work.
Uh all it does is take money out of the private sector.
If everybody's talking about the private sector is where growth needs to take place.
That's where jobs are.
Uh raising taxes simply takes money away from people.
Takes money out of the private sector, and what happens to it?
Grows the government.
Then what happens?
It gets redistributed to who?
Democrats by votes.
I mean, of course, of course, Alder's going to favor tax increases.
That's what they're used for.
They're vote-buying techniques.
But uh anyway, this this is this is uh uh Clear illustration of the Great Divide.
You know, we we had a there was a piece earlier on this program, either earlier this week or or last week, somebody, and I I don't remember who it is, but they finally came to a conclusion.
All that I have had uh uh all along, and that is you can't compromise with these people.
This is not what this is about.
They are going to have to be defeated.
Who was it, the two competing visions of the country?
I'm having a mental block on who wrote the piece, but but they were right that the two competing visions are so different that there isn't any room for compromise.
And raising taxes when consumer confidence is at an all-time low, consumer sentiment, dropping to the lowest level in three decades.
By the way, you're not gonna get close to balance.
It was it was Eric Cantor.
No, no, no, no, no.
Was it Cantor?
Cantor on the somebody on the floor of the House or Florida Senate.
It was Rubio.
It was Rubio who said it on the Florida Senate.
That's exactly right.
And I was agreeing with him profoundly.
We'll be right back after this.
Don't go away.
All right, I just found out what the uh the question was.
Uh Brett Bayer asked all of the uh panelists a question.
Say you had a deal, a real spending cuts deal, ten to one, as Byron said, spending cuts to tax increases.
And he saw Gingrich already shaking his head.
He said, Who on this stage would walk away from that deal?
Can you raise your hand if you feel so strongly about not raising taxes, you'd walk away on the 10 to 1 deal.
And I guess they all walked away on it.
They all walked away on the 10 to one.
It's a trick question.
Of course they're gonna walk away from it.
Thank goodness they were all conscious enough to realize it's a trick question, even though it was coming from Fox.
Uh all you all it takes, all it would have taken is for one of those candidates.
Yeah, 10 to 1, I'll go for tax, and that's the headline.
That candidate's gone.
And they know it.
The media knows it, including the Fox Media.
They know it.
If any Republican in the primary answer, yep, I'll raise because I don't care what the ratio is, three to one, five to one, ten to one, the spending cuts never happen.
They have never happened.
Look at the debt deal.
Am I shouting in there too loud?
Look at the debt deal.
Two and a quarter trillion dollars, 2.4 trillion dollars in new spending right now, immediately.
And the BAMster spends 259 billion of it in one day.
Spending cuts of about what it turned out to be 78 billion dollars over ten years.
The cuts never happen.
Would somebody point to me, the federal budget and show me where we've ever had a cut?
I want to see where the federal budget's ever gotten smaller year to year.
Doesn't happen.
Trick question.
100% total trick question.
So you got Jonathan Alder said, well, this is a fringe, man.
Why this is a real extreme.
Why if these guys won't even take that kind of deal where we're never gonna get away.
It's a trick question.
It was a designed question to uh uh get somebody to go against orthodoxy very quickly.
Look at Pago.
I mean the real question should have been ten dollars in phony spending cuts for one dollars in real tax, because that's what it was.
That's what it would be.
Any such deal would be phony spending cuts.
And you'd get the tax increases right now.
And you'd never get the cuts.
Particularly if it's one of these 10-year deals where the next Congress is not beholden to what this current Congress would do.
Paybook is a law that Obama demanded.
It's a law the Democrats wanted, and Pelosi's out there singing its praises, and they ignore it completely.
They laugh about it, they mock Pago now.
Pago's simply what it says.
If you can spend some money, you pay for it somehow.
You either cut something else, or you raise tax, whatever you find a way to pay for it.
That's part of their big reform of Congress, 2007.
Ever, never once have they adhered to it.
It's nothing more than a marketing scheme, nothing more than a PR promise.
So uh not surprised whatsoever that that nobody bought on that one or bit uh on that one.
Let's start on the phones where we're going to Belmont, North Carolina Irving, your first on Open Line Friday.
Nice to have you with us, sir.
Hello.
Well, greetings, Rush, uh, from uh Pale and East the Hobbit and lifelong Rush Limbaugh fan.
Thank you very much, sir.
I say run, sir, run because any uh everything that that debate showed me is the other people just aren't ready for it.
They're just committed to do what needs to be done.
Well, I don't know if Palin's gonna get in or not.
The latest on Rick Perry is he's gonna announce to me.
Apparently he's already told Major Garrett of Fox and somebody else.
So Perry, the governor of Texas going to announce tomorrow.
But that's got them all ticked off.
Because the straw poll in Iowa is tomorrow.
And the straw poll in Iowa.
There's folks, there's a lot of friction out there.
You need to know about this between the Huckster and Perry.
They go they go way uh way back to uh their days when they were both governors.
And Huckabee was pretty upset that Rick Perry wouldn't endorse him in 2008.
And ever since then, there's been a little friction.
And Huckabee is gonna go to Iowa for the straw poll, even though he's not running.
Huckabee has a lot of sway with the social voters in Iowa that make up a lot of the early Iowa caucus members and uh and primary voters on the Republican side.
And Huckabee's out there trying to stir it up already by criticizing Perry for announcing in South Carolina.
South Carolina's next.
And what they're trying to do is say, yeah, look at this guy, Perry.
He doesn't even care about you here in Iowa.
You great conservatives in Iowa and look at how hard you work on your straw poll.
Why?
A straw poll, that's something Iowa Republicans work on.
Oh, yeah, I mean, it's uh they did uh devote their lives to it for a year or two.
And to have Perry come in here and not show up on it.
So they're trying to stir up already some confidence, uh controversy about Perry not going to Iowa for the straw poll, but announcing the Mars South Carolina, which is where the uh early reports say that he will announce.
Uh whether Palin gets in or not, uh I don't know.
The reason, you know, uh I I didn't want to go too far in analyzing this person by person by person is because it's only debate number two.
And if you people will recall, after the first debate, I was jazzed because I was a little surprised.
Every candidate was articulating conservatism very well.
Proudly, with uh with a lot of energy.
What was that, Snerdly?
You gotta speak up.
Who?
Huntsman said he was a conservative.
Well, fine.
You know, I uh uh that's all gonna get weeded out here.
All this is gonna get weeded out as the primary process unfolds.
And who knows what Palin's going to do in terms of um getting in or not.
A lot of it will depend on what's happened, what happens to these uh uh current crop.
Uh like some I this is not me.
This is not me, because I haven't had the time really to study it, but just tell you what the conventional wisdom on the Republican side is that Palency's finished after last day.
It was so bad that Palency's all.
That's it.
That's it.
He's finished.
He blew it.
He went after her, he went after Bachman and Bachmann gave it back to him.
And that's it for him.
Speaking of Bachman, by the way.
The way she went after Palenny, I don't know how you ask her a question about being submissive to her husband.
Or to men, but I do understand why the question was asked.
It's uh great television productions and uh and debate.
You're really gonna have to do a technical you're you're you sound a hundred miles away up there.
You're you're who do I think won?
If I had to pick a Romney with without without question.
There's no doubt Romney won.
Without I mean it's that's not even close.
But that's not gonna necessarily be the case as we go forward.
But last night, it was um pretty cut and dried.
I mean, Romney, plus Allie, when you know going in that Romney's got ten times the money or twice the money that any of the other other than Huntsman have.
Uh it's you have to factor that in uh who won and how successful the fundraising is going to be for others uh that were in the debate last night.
Vince in Elgrove, Illinois.
Hi, great to have you on the EIB network on Open Line Friday.
Welcome.
Hey Rush, how are you, man?
I'm excellent, sir.
Thank you.
Right on.
Hey, I was I was watching debate last night, and uh I was closing my eyes and I was listening to uh Ron Paul.
Uh you know, I couldn't figure it out.
It was like I was listening to Dennis Kucinich, but I'd opened my eyes, and I was like, I was watching Woody Allen.
You know, I I think the guy just out of his mind.
I uh you know, the the platitudes on war and what he said about Iran, and I think anybody that sides with Barney Frank on any issue is just verifiably insane.
Yeah, well.
Um did you notice, despite all that, how much airtime Ron Paul got.
Uh, yes, I did.
Compared to uh Sandorum, yeah.
I thought it was very lopsided.
So why do you think that was?
Uh because the media's trying to pick our candidate again.
Well, no.
Well, yeah.
I mean, I don't know that this media last night's trying to pick a candidate.
I know what you mean the the Lib Democrat media certainly is.
But it's it it not that they were trying to pick the candidate, is that they were trying to do a good television show.
And depending on who you read today, some people think that debate was one of the most entertaining greatest things they've ever seen in politics.
That's what some people I've read today think that this this thing last night was absolutely stupendous.
Why it was the best we've ever seen.
And it's because they were entertained by it.
You gotta ask yourself why.
Who in that debate was entertaining?
Well, I thought it was the candidate uh Ron Paul, aka Dennis Kitinich.
Yeah, but you you think he was entertaining?
Oh, yeah, just because he's but in a laugh with or laugh at way.
Laugh at way.
All right, we'll take a break and be back.
Don't go away.
So there's Obama.
There's Obama out there, goes into another battery factory.
He uh he was campaigning on the taxpayer's dime at another battery factory.
I I don't know, uh, ladies and gentlemen, what Obama's got against Mother Earth that he wants us to poison a planet with so many damn batteries.
He's like every policy he's got's gonna need so many damn batteries, and there weren't no coal plants to charge him with.
He's gonna sit there and pollute things.
Anyway, Obama said there's nothing wrong with our country, there's something wrong with our politics.
And then, after he said that, he gets on Air Force One, flies to New York to the home of Harvey Weinstein, and another two million dollar fundraiser where Hollywood types paid 38,500 to attend.
Maybe that's what he meant.
Something wrong with our politics.
I doubt it.
But I think it's ironic as heck.
What he really means is, hey, you're not supposed to disagree with me.
I'm the Messiah.
Everything, everything I want to do is supposed to happen.
Well, what's wrong, David?
You can't figure it out.
Not supposed to be opposed.
And not supposed to be people that get away with opposing him.
There's something wrong with our politics.
Farid, uh, let's see, you know, let's go back to me, April 16th of 2008.
And I this is, of course, during the presidential campaign.
This is fascinating the way this stuff actually uh manifests itself.
This week, for example, it was Richard Cohen discovering that Obama is cold, not cool.
And it was I, El Rushbow, who pointed that out all the way back in the 2008 campaign.
This guy doesn't strike me as cool.
I think this guy is cold.
He doesn't have a lot of feeling.
He doesn't have a lot of empathy.
And so now here's Cohen, two and a half years later Finally seeing it.
Another similar situation.
Listen to me, April 16th, 2008.
High concept, as a business term in Hollywood refers to fiction movies.
It's a storyline.
High concept number two.
An African American gets a shot to be the first black president.
He's well spoken, he's smart, he's able to unite us all.
He's able to fulfill all of our needs.
He's able to bring us together and restore our prestige around the world.
Remember, this is not about reality.
We're talking a Hollywood movie here.
We're talking high concept, which is about fiction.
It's a storyline.
Right, and that's what we were presented by the media when they gave us Obama.
High concept, a storyline, fiction.
By the way, creative writing class 101, what do they teach you there?
All drama is conflict.
And no matter what, you have to gin up conflict.
So if you're writing a debate, and believe me, that debate had writers last night.
Oh, come on, Rush, what do you mean?
This is a debate.
Yep, there were writers.
That debate had writers.
The writers were the journalists writing their questions, and no matter what the hell happened, they were going to ask those questions.
So the thing was produced.
And it was produced with the express purpose of creating conflict rather than letting it naturally happen.
If we'd actually let these people debate, we wouldn't have to hit them with you said he said, what do you think of that?
No, we have to produce it so we can keep it within our 30-second segments.
Make sure that this fits and that fits, make sure we get it all in.
Lincoln and Douglas could no more have a debate today on American television.
And Peter Pan could have a child.
All right, now.
Anyway, I don't want to get too far away from when I was.
I just got through displaying explaining April 16, 2008, about high concept and fiction, how the media gave us this storyline of Obama.
I want you to listen now that they've finally come to this realization on the left.
Last night on the Charlie Rose show, who's he's still trying to figure out what George Will told him on Monday.
He has Farid Zakaria on last night.
They're discussing Obama's leadership.
This is the version of the American presidency you get from Aaron Sorkin in The American President.
The president gets up, makes this incredibly moving speech, which is, of course, deeply liberal.
The entire country cheers, and all of a sudden, all the problems that he encounters are waved aside.
The idea that if Barack Obama were to give a speech on gun control, suddenly he would be able to, you know, wave aside the second amendment and the settled convictions of a large percentage of Americans, is we would recognize nonsense.
See?
Well, now guess what?
There's Farid Zakaria telling Charlie Rose, who may figure this out next Wednesday, that this is an Aaron Thorkin movie.
The Obama presidency is an Aaron Sorkin movie.
High concept.
See, this is what I mean when I tell you that you are on the cutting edge.
These guys think that they are brilliant.
It taken them two and a half years to figure this out, or at least to admit it.
But it was patently obvious to me what was going on in the came.
I know it sounds braggadocious, but I don't mean to be sounding braggadocious.
It's important to me that people understand the phoniness and the artificial that most everything on television has become, including the presidency.
Including the president, it's all artificial.
It's all ginned up.
High concept, I mean another way of explaining or describing high concept is something to be described in um a sentence or two.
Very, very short.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
It's a bumper sticker.
High concept is a bumper sticker.
And I think.
Is it 5320 or 5420?
What time is it?
Somebody tell me.
53 or 50.
53.
I've got 40 seconds here.
Okay.
Well, I'm going to take a break anyway, since I'm mentally ready to take the break, and I'll make it up when we come back.
Want to repeat this Reuters story detail again, folks, because it's uh relevant, worthwhile, and it may mean something.
I hope it does.
Consumer sentiment drops to lowest level in three decades.
U.S. consumer sentiment dropped to The lowest point in more than 30 years in early August as fears of a stalled recovery gelled with despair over government policies.
And there's this statement from the director of the survey, whose name is Richard Curtin.
He said, Never before in the history of the surveys, meaning theirs, this is Reuters University of Michigan.
Never before in the history of the surveys have so many consumers spontaneously mentioned negative aspects of the government's role.
I hope that's legit.
I hope that holds.
I hope that means that people are finally beginning to realize that government is not where to turn.
When faced with consequences such as those that we're in now, government must get itself out of the way.
Export Selection