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Aug. 26, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:44
August 26, 2011, Friday, Hour #2
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It is hour number two of Open Line Friday.
Rush is back on Monday, so that is all good.
And I hope your weekend is good.
And I mean that especially for the folks that we just spent our first hour talking about.
And that is our fellow Americans along the Atlantic coast from Carolina northward.
Hurricane Irene starting to batter the Carolinas with some rain and some waves, mandatory evacuations in place.
We spent our first hour talking about the very interesting creature that is the coverage of this.
Too much for some, too little for others, certain tonal qualities of it that intrigue.
And that was good.
And it is now also officially done.
Sometimes you get the feeling that you bring something up you could do three hours on, but that doesn't mean you should.
I think the points all got made.
And now, really, in fact, as the hurricane actually arrives, all this coverage seems actually warranted.
And in fact, maybe the last thing I'll say about hurricane issues today before we hop into some political stuff is that it's all going to be all right.
And I say that not just as an empty, comforting platitude, but I've received word that it's all going to be all right.
How do I know this?
Because President Obama is going to end his vacation one day early because of the hurricane.
So let us establish a bit of a backdrop for things during which it's okay for him to be trolling the tea shops of Martha's Vineyard.
Economy in hell, Libya on fire.
That we're good.
For this, we got to come off a vacation.
You know, it's funny.
I always try to apply a certain consistency test.
If a president I liked, or well, it's not about like, if a president I voted for, whose agenda I admired, okay, liked, were on vacation in times of strife, would it bother me?
And the answer is not so very much.
I mean, President Bush was on vacation down here in Texas.
He was at Crawford Ranch all the time.
President Reagan was out chopping wood at Rancho Cielo all the time.
They went on vacation.
But it's kind of funny, but at least they chopped wood.
They cleared brush.
You know, but what the president needs is more manly vacation destinations.
And maybe the best observation that's been made all week is everybody has complained and complained and complained, look what's going on, and the president's on vacation.
Look at this over here and the president's on vacation.
Look at this over there.
And the president is on vacation.
Guys, the problem is not that he is on vacation.
The problem is that he will come back.
If I could arrange for some lengthy, multi-month destination where he can go, just grab the family, chill for just months, perhaps all the way until January 20th of 2013, I would gladly, I'd pay for that timeshare because then he could leave us alone.
And I have a long list of other political leaders I would like for him to take with him.
Perhaps get an entire wing of a really large hotel and just go be and just go play shuffleboard and hit the beach and relax and play as much golf as you like and leave us alone.
Anyway, though, president's coming back a day early.
Let's talk about his successor, shall we?
Whoever that might be.
So here I am in Texas and we're all buzzing pretty heavily on the whole Rick Perry thing.
And I have been very interested.
There's been a sort of a mutual, we have filled a mutual need.
A lot of national publications, national news sources have been buzzing me lately for my thoughts about Governor Perry, whom I have known since 1994.
I conversely have had an interesting time seeing what various national voices have said about Rick Perry as they really get to know him for the first time.
As a case in point, the magnificent Peggy Noonan.
Let me share a couple of things.
Rick Perry this week roared away from the pack.
Gallup had him the party favorite with 29% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents saying they're most likely to support him.
Next came Mitt Romney with 17%, Ron Paul with 13%, Michelle Bachman at 10%.
All the rest were single-digits except for no preference, which got 17.
On top of that, Mr. Perry got the much-coveted Kinky Friedman vote.
The political gadfly and musician who in 2006 ran as an independent against Mr. Perry wrote in the Daily Beast that he didn't always like the Texas governor.
It had, in fact, been his plan to, upon death, be cremated and have the ashes thrown in Rick Perry's hair.
But now he sees Mr. Perry as a good, kind-hearted man with a solid economic record.
Mr. Friedman admitted he'd vote for Charlie Sheen before Barack Obama.
Asked, could Perry fix the American economy?
He replied, hell yes.
Mr. Perry's primary virtue for the Republican base is that he means it.
He comes across as a natural conservative, Texas division, who won't be changing his mind about his basic premises anytime soon.
His professed views don't seem to be an outfit he can put on and take off at will.
In this, of course, he's the anti-Romney.
Unlike Ms. Bachman, he has executive experience, three terms as governor of a state with 25 million people.
His primary flaw appears to be a chesty, quick-draw machismo that might be right for an angry base, but wrong for an antsy country.
Americans want a president who feel their anger without himself walking around enraged.
All right, let's pause for a minute.
Let's stipulate that Peggy Noonan is a genius.
But Peggy, I don't get pushback on that.
Let's establish that Peggy Noonan is a worthy commentator.
On this, though, on this, listen, I've been around Perry a long time, and you've been watching him for these last few weeks, at least.
That's not anger.
He's not coming unhinged.
That's passion.
That is determination.
I mean, I've heard a quote from him just in the last 24 hours saying, I don't like Washington.
It's a seedy place.
You know, there's a lot to change and clean up around there and to go do because I'm not going to let our country get economically ruined by this administration.
Now, as I just said that in roughly the same tone as Governor Perry did, did it strike you that I was somehow on the verge of some anger meltdown?
No.
He's assertive.
He is passionate.
And as I continue with a couple of thoughts from Peggy, this goes right to the core of what kind of candidate do we want.
If we have someone who will never rattle the cage or ruffle the feathers or never get to the point where he's sufficiently passionate that it results in a gaffe, okay, that's all lovely.
It's very safe.
But you end up with Casper Milquetoast.
You end up with someone who is too tame.
Now, on the other side, every talk show gets these calls from people say, we want somebody who's going to call Obama a liar, call him a socialist to his face.
Yeah, no, you don't.
Okay, maybe you might, but the country doesn't.
Peggy has a point.
I think there's a point she seeks to make, but I think she's overly concerned about Governor Perry.
I can't wait for debates.
I can't see how that goes.
Of course, he'll be up there on stage with what, 13 other people and everybody just dying to get their index card moment that'll get played on the national news shows the following morning.
That's going to be a mess.
I don't know.
We'll see.
Once it whittles down, and once there are no more, and once we're down to Romney and Perry and maybe Bachman, and don't get me started on who else it might be, then it gets a little more, everybody gets a little more elbow room.
And we'll really, really see what Governor Perry is made of.
Peggy talks about the August 13th announcement speech.
She says it was strong and smart.
Biography.
He's the son of tenant farmers from Paint Creek, a town too small to have a zip code, in the Texas Plains.
The meaning of the biography, The American Dream, lives on.
You see, he said, as Americans, we're not defined by class, and we will never be told our place.
What makes our nation exceptional is that anyone from any background can climb the highest of heights.
And then he laced into the incumbent.
Now, we're told we're in a recovery.
Yeah.
This sure doesn't feel like a recovery to more than 9% of Americans out there who are unemployed, or the 16% of African Americans, and 11% of Hispanics in the same position.
This recovery is really a disaster.
Then, stingily, Peggy says, the Perry quote is: President's policies are not just a threat to this economy, so are his appointees a threat.
He stacked the National Labor Relations Board with anti-business cronies who want to dictate to a private economy.
Boeing, where they can build a plant.
No president should kill jobs in South Carolina or any other state for that matter simply because they chose to go to a right-to-work state.
Now, Mr. Perry was speaking in Charleston, so the Boeing reference had a local resonance.
But what appears to be the Obama administration's attempt to curry favor with unions by stopping a Boeing plant may have national resonance too.
So, as Peggy goes on, you can read her piece is called Perry's Popping Off Problem.
You can take a look at that and consume it yourself.
And the reason I bring it up is to ask you what you want from the demeanor of our eventual nominee.
There is a balance to be struck between calm, collected, cool, rational, and you want those things, but you also want fearless, assertive, even aggressive sometimes, passionate, willing to take on the president in this battle over agendas and the direction of the country.
So, a lot of things about the campaign are properly about the ideas in a candidate's head, the passion in his heart,
but a whole lot of it is going to be about demeanor and the kind of style that the candidate seems to carry around with them, the manner in which he carries himself and addresses certain issues on that spectrum of sort of zen-like, cool, and comfort in his own skin, up to the guy who you want, a warrior.
Are those mutually exclusive, or do you try to find some magical blend of both of those?
So, we have that.
A couple other things as well.
Jonah Goldberg talks about conservatism's identity politics problem as the people who tend to speak out against identity politics.
Are we starting to uncomfortably embrace some of it?
That's Jonah Goldberg in National Review.
But the voices I crave the most are yours on the phone: 1-800-282-2882, and that's where we're headed next.
Mark Davis in for Rush on the EIB Network.
It is the Rush Limbaugh Show for a Friday, a week of fill-in hosts about to come to its blissful end.
All of us in the Mark Brigades, Mark Stein, Mark Belling, and me, Mark Davis, say thank you for your indulgence, and Rush is back on Monday.
All right, as we head to your calls, let us head for a little something that we might call the tweet of the day.
Wow, tweet of the day.
That must be something with him.
All these people tweeting so many millions.
What one tweet could rise to the level of significance and attention to deserve a designation as the tweet of the day.
Well, it comes from golfer Paul Asinger.
I like Paul.
He's 50-ish now, I guess.
He was big from the late 80s to the mid-90s.
I remember him winning the PGA championship in 93.
If you've watched any golf over the decades, you probably know you've probably heard the name Paul Asinger.
Paul has tweeted: Obama has played more golf this month than I have, and I have created more jobs this month than he has.
It's the tweet of the day from Paul Asinger.
Oh, heavens to Betsy.
All righty, let's go to the phones.
Let's hop to Phoenix, shall we?
Daniel, Mark Davis, in for Rush.
How are you?
Doing, Mark.
Good, thanks.
Glad to be a part of the show.
Finally, I have a question.
With Romney being close to Perry, how can Perry overtake Romney to win the presidency?
Because I really like Perry.
Just want to know if he's strong enough to get the GOP vote.
Well, there's plenty of evidence that he is.
And the first bit of evidence is the enormity of his initial lead.
Anytime somebody gets into a race and there's an initial splash and a lot of attention, you have to take a big bounce in the polls with a certain grain of salt.
I don't pretend that Rick Perry is going to keep a 12-point lead over Mitt Romney like he has now in the Gallup poll.
But gee, let's say it's only five or six, and let's say that stays the same for most of the rest of this calendar year.
Before you know it, we're in Iowa, man.
We are in Iowa, and then we're in New Hampshire.
So sure he can.
Yeah, I mean, I get it.
I'm a reformed Democrat.
I married into a family 12 years ago that's a Republican, and they pointed out to me that, you know, I have a lot of conservative values.
And I started thinking about it, and then I started watching Fox News and, you know, everything and getting involved in this.
I mean, I'm 41 now, but I never really voted along Democratic Party lines.
I voted always for the best candidate.
Right.
And then now you're seeking to do that, perhaps looking through different political lenses.
Yeah.
This is, and Perry makes a splash and gets a big early lead.
Now, it's kind of funny.
I mean, Michelle Bachman had a really big poll splash when she got in, especially after her debate performance.
It looks like it's going to be a little tough for her to maintain that.
I mean, at that exact level, I don't know if she is going to be a front runner.
I mean, up there at the current Perry levels or even the current Romney levels.
If she is, that's great.
That's to her credit.
But anytime somebody makes a big splash, you wonder, gee, is that just because of a debate where she did really well?
Or, gee, is that just because he just got into the race and is getting a whole lot of attention?
What you've got to do in terms of polls, and look at, I mean, Ron Paul is third in this Gallup poll.
He's third.
If that lasts, then that becomes something you really got to talk about and think about a lot more.
Or is it just a function of the snapshot?
What you do in any one poll doesn't much matter.
It's a series of them over a couple of months that really tells you a story.
The other thing is, you like Santorum, right?
Very much.
Okay, I think Santorum's kind of weak because I watched a debate in Iowa and I just thought he was kind of petty saying, oh, guys, over here, you know, look at me.
You know, that was kind of petty, and I think that hurt him a little bit.
Well, not petty.
I mean, careful with the language.
Not so much.
Okay, maybe I share your wish.
There is something, whether it's Rick Santorum complaining about not getting enough attention.
The word I would use is whiny.
I don't want to hear people whine.
If you're not getting enough attention, make the most of the attention you do get.
I also, I love Newt, but I didn't need to hear Newt complaining about gotcha questions.
Just listen, just answer it.
Find a way to reveal that you consider the question to have been ill-placed and impertinent.
But as far as just fussing and moaning at the nature or amount of questioning, I would counsel any candidate against that too.
But can I ask you something?
If we take that away, the content of virtually every other Rick Santorum moment was golden.
The guy is great.
Yeah.
Up to that point, he kind of lost me a little bit.
You know, with a little rhetoric there, but as far as a candidate, I mean, I wish anybody more than I do Obama.
Well, that is, and I believe that is a widely enough held view that we stand a chance here.
This is the other question I get all the time.
It's August of 2011.
Mark, are we really going to beat this guy?
Are we really going to be able to beat this guy?
And looking at things right now, one would say, sure.
But we cannot be overconfident.
We cannot in any way.
It's like having a 17-10 lead midway through the second quarter of a football game.
You have no idea how the third and fourth quarters are going to go.
Some extraneous.
I don't think President Obama is going to do anything that makes everybody love him 20 times more.
I would have a hard time wondering what the October surprise would be that would make everybody think, wow, this has been a great presidency.
So the only thing that maybe occurs to me is something either economic or militarily that makes us not want to change presidents.
It's kind of funny that I would never predict this.
You never can tell.
But when people sit around in bars and think about what could happen, like bombing an Iranian nuclear facility sometime around Halloween.
If he does that, I'll flat out tell you he probably wins.
Will he do that?
One expects not.
It appears that the only thing he really wants to do with Ahmadinejad is have him over for mint tea rather than bomb his nuclear facilities.
The other thing that could happen is the Republicans cough up either a flawed candidate or we cough up a candidate whom we think is going to be great and it turns out to be not so great.
So there is plenty.
There's so much more to have happen.
Everything right now is snapshots of how we feel right now and things that are going on in the news right now with so many more miles to walk before we even get to the conventions about a year from now to say nothing of the election in November.
So much more to cover.
But you'll have the Rush Limbaugh show here for you to Chronicle it all.
I'm Mark Davis filling in and be right back.
All right, everybody, let's head back to your calls on Open Line Friday, 1-800-282-2882.
We are in St. Louis.
Steve, Mark Davis, in for Rush.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
We finally got some sun, and it's not over 100 degrees.
I love it.
Well, I'll be waiting for those subhundred temperatures here in Texas till Halloween, probably.
Yeah, I had some questions about Perry.
I heard people say, you know, he started out as a Democrat.
He flip-flopped, and he was also a good friend of Al Gore's.
And, you know, apparently there's a lot of in Texas.
There are people who don't trust him so much.
What's the deal there?
Well, we have to figure out what we think of someone who is a Democrat and becomes a Republican.
That list includes people like, let's see, yeah, Ronald Reagan, how about him?
Phil Graham, how about him?
Governor Perry was elected to the Texas House in 1984 as a Democrat.
Four years later, in the 1988 primaries, he supported Al Gore and was, in fact, the chairman of the Gore campaign in Texas, 1988.
The following year, 1989, he announced that he was joining the Republican Party and has remained there ever since and has enjoyed the kind of conversion that many people have as they have grown older.
Now, no matter who that is, is that problematic for you?
If somebody used to be a Democrat and changes to a Republican, is that a flip-flop, as you call it?
Or do we congratulate them for achieving some clarity?
Yeah.
Well, I'd like to see what happens, see what other people are.
No, no, no, no, no, that's a question that I'd actually like an answer to.
If someone used to be a Democrat and becomes a Republican, you know, especially 20-some years ago, do we look back on that and call it a flip-flop, as you did?
Or do we say, well, good for him.
He finally got some clarity.
He got smarter.
Which do you do?
Wouldn't mind it, but I'd want to see what happens and just watch his record, see how people respond to him, see what history says about the guy.
So I just watch him a little bit more.
Sure, that's always advisable.
In terms of conversions, in terms of, listen, if somebody was once a Democrat, I'm more than glad to peruse an entire record, too, because I'm looking for evidence that maybe in some ways you still are.
You know, if you've made the switch three years ago, five years ago, if you made it nearly a quarter century ago, okay, 22 years ago, and it seems that the conversion is complete, that seems to me to be something worthy of benefit of the doubt.
But there are some people who make the conversion, and they still carry a little Democrat with them in their heart and their spine and their brain.
And you have to judge them on that if that seems to be the case.
Doesn't really seem to be the case so much with Governor Perry, but others are welcome to weigh in.
Let's do some action in Flint, Michigan.
Mark, hey, Mark Davis in for Rush.
How are you?
Hello, Mark.
We're doing fine up here.
Good.
I have a question about some news programs that I had seen, conserved news programs and opinion theaters earlier in the week with Obama announcing about Mo Mar Gaddafi in Libya.
They were saying, you know, well, how would you grade Obama on his success on ousting Mu Mar Gaddafi from Libya?
But I seem to remember that when it all started, he said he wasn't going to leave, that he was going to help get it started, that he was going to turn the leadership over to the NATO countries and let them control and lead this event over in Libya.
And why are the conservative news pundits now giving Obama a pass or even a push by trying to grade him and saying how good of an effort he did at getting rid of Mu Mar Gaddafi?
Yeah, I can't speak for others, but perhaps to avoid seeming overly combative, I'll tell you how I feel about it.
President Obama happened to be president when Gaddafi fell.
There could have been much, much more that we could have done to bring about his ouster earlier, but we didn't do that.
He wanted to make this a NATO operation, let the British and the French have a lot more to say about it than we did.
He was one of those mealy-mouthed folks, some on the left, some on the right, quite frankly, who said, yeah, we want regime change, but we really don't want to put boots on the ground to help bring it about.
To which I said, really?
Why not?
If it is a valid and achievable goal, let's go do it.
We didn't.
And that means that if the whole thing turns into a mess, that maybe it's a little bit less of America's fault.
But if Gaddafi actually is routed from power, then we get a little less credit.
Then America gets a little less credit and its president gets a little less credit.
So I take nothing away, you know, from what God bless the American troops that are a part of NATO.
But, you know, that's this, it's kind of like bin Laden.
I mean, President Obama deserves more credit for bin Laden than he does for Gaddafi.
This was a specific American operation that he did sign off on, and I give him credit for that.
You have to just understand that no matter whether it's killing bin Laden or managing to upend Qaddafi in Libya, this is a president who does not, in his DNA, does not in his heart of hearts believe in the American military and American force as a force for good around the world.
Doesn't, never will.
So that's what I would say.
What others say is their business.
Coupling that with his propensity to lead from behind, I just couldn't understand why the conservative who lambassed him earlier about not wanting to lead this exercise was now giving him good grades and saying, yes, he got Gaddafi.
Yeah, I mean, sometimes things are situational.
If we're in the midst of a period where the current situation is that we're really glad that Gaddafi's gone and glad that Americans were a part of that, even tangentially.
Again, I am not looking for conservative punditry to blister the president for everything just for the sake of doing so.
If he does something like the Afghan surge, I want to give him credit for it.
If he signs off on the operation to kill Bin Laden, I want to give him credit for it.
I don't want to blame him for things that are not his fault, but I don't want to credit him for things that are not to his credit either.
So, anyway, thank you, sir.
Appreciate it very, very much.
1-800-282-2882, Mark Davis in for rush.
Let us head to Allentown PA, David.
Hey, Mark Davis, how are you?
In for rush, nice to have you.
Hello.
Yes, I want to talk about Rick Santorum.
Yep.
Rick Santorum at one time endorsed Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey.
I asked him about that.
I'm sorry.
I asked him about that because that was not my favorite thing.
Oh, what?
And here was his answer.
This goes to the debate over how many times have I said, as Rush said, other people have said, the most electable conservative.
And Santorum in 2004 said he looked at this and said, I would rather have the 70% of things I agree with in Arlen Specter and know that they would be there, especially because he said it really came down to one issue more than any other: Specter's pledge to back President Bush's Supreme Court nominees.
He said that meant so much to me that I didn't want to run the risk of losing that, even if it meant there would be things that Arlen Specter would bring to the table that I would disagree with him about because that is so important.
I didn't want to lose that.
And he obviously has ideological love for Toomey and did in 2004.
But if Toomey loses, have we done ourselves a favor?
So it was a judgment call that he made, and he says he'll live with it to this day.
I believe that Pat Toomey could have been elected at that time.
Maybe so.
And I would never vote for somebody that endorses a candidate who is as much of a liberal as Arlen Specter was.
I just can't.
No, I understand.
You're completely entitled to that.
The Santorum answer on that is not unreasonable, however.
He said, look, we have the certainty of having Spectre, who I've got 70% agreement with.
It's my number, not his, but the pledge to back Bush Supreme Court nominees.
And there are those who say there may be nothing more important than Supreme Court nominees.
And if let's say that he'd gone ahead and gone with Toomey and Toomey had been beaten.
Whew.
Would you like that one back?
Maybe stunned and disoriented.
Or it's time to take a break.
Let's do that.
So I'll make that a rhetorical question.
1-800-282-2882.
Mark Davis in for Rush.
Be right back.
1-800-282-2882.
Rush Limbaugh Show for Friday Open Line Friday.
Mark Davis in.
Sitting down here at WBAP Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.
Follow me on Twitter at Mark Davis.
Well, that's kind of all one word.
All Twitters or all addresses are one word.
Can't put a space in a Twitter address.
Now, can you?
Mark M-A-R-K Davis.
Come hang out.
Appreciate it a lot.
And even when the fill-in guys are here, speaking of web activity, always, always, always, go to rushlimbaugh.com.
Rush is back on Monday.
Let us head back to your calls in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Frank, hey, Mark Davis in for Rush.
How are you?
Good, Mark.
How are you today?
Fantastic.
Wonderful job by all the marks this week.
We look forward to hearing.
We all appreciate it collectively.
Really keep our interest.
A couple quick points.
Just one gentleman said about how Santorum came across in the debate.
Well, look back at 1980 when Ronald Reagan literally grabbed that microphone across the podium and said, I paid for this microphone.
People could have said he had a temper tantrum, but it literally turned his campaign around.
So I think there's plenty of room for these guys being mad when they don't get the attention they deserve.
So I am a Santorum supporter, though I don't think he has a shot at it, but he'd be a healthy VP candidate, in my opinion.
It's probably going to be Rubio, but so be it.
My concern, I told you, Screener, is that this could be a clear case of sabotage this year.
When I hear Carl Rove, and I have a lot of respect for Rove, I worked in D.C. for many years.
I know him.
I actually do.
When he says that Perry said that Bernanke committed treason, it just irritates me beyond belief.
We should be clear on the quote.
He said if he prints any more money, that would be an act of treason or a treason.
Careful, careful, careful.
And if you're going to do damage control, do damage control.
He said almost.
And it's kind of a bit of rhetorical hyperbole there.
He did not say that.
I mean, go ahead.
And in fact, I mean, almost is a wonderful qualifier.
By almost, do you mean?
Mark, honestly, if we print any more money before getting in control of this whole deficit and budget mess, it is a treasonous act.
We are destroying this country.
This is not going to happen.
You know, okay, but let's let me okay.
Here and here in talk show land, we can do that all day long.
And we can, you know, have sort of barroom generalities and talk about things as being treason.
Presidential candidates, if you're looking to run for president, if there's one thing that we really, really do require, should require, it's precision with the language.
Don't go shooting off at the mouth.
If you and I are sitting around over a Coors Light saying, man, if we print more money, that's almost treasonous.
That's fine.
But if you and I are on the campaign trail, that's probably, that violates my rule number one.
Don't give the other side something they can beat your brains in with unless you really, really mean it or really, really don't mind it coming up at about 500 more times.
Well, I think in the world of politics, you're exactly right.
We're playing to the audience or we're not playing to the audience.
We're playing to voters, exactly.
Yeah, 80% of Americans probably feel the way Governor Perry's in 80s.
Let's not go nuts on the 80.
If that's the case, then 80% of them will vote for him.
And that's probably not going to happen.
80% of Republicans, maybe.
Well, I know.
Well, Carl Rove cases in point.
And that's my fear, is that we're going to injure ourselves and beat up these people that shouldn't be beat up so early.
They'll do a good enough job beating themselves up.
They will.
But here's the thing.
If you've got in this era where you've got all this cable news time, you've got segments you got to burn all day, every day.
Carl's going to be on television.
You know, every once in a while, so am I.
So are other people who are more conservative, less conservative, people who like Perry or don't, people who like Palin or don't, people who like Romney or don't.
Everybody's going to say what they're going to say.
Rather than weave some message of sabotage, all Carl is going to do is get out there and talk about things he believes.
That's fine.
And then you can call me or call Rush or call somebody else and say, man, I think Carl is full of it because he said this about Perry or this about Palin.
It's all okay.
It's all just the marketplace of opinion from pundits to the general public.
It's all okay.
Don't want to injure ourselves too much because when it comes to the general views, he's close to be pulled out again.
But this always, what do you mean, injure ourselves?
This doesn't really make a circular firing squad.
What do we have right now in Republican America?
You've got people who like and don't like Mitt Romney, people who like and don't like Rick Perry, like and don't like Herman Cain, like and don't like Ron Paul, like and don't like Newt Gingrich.
Why shouldn't the pundits, welcome to the talk shows, reflect that wide tapestry?
I mean, honestly, let's see.
Who's being dishonest?
Carl Rove.
How so?
He said Bernanke committed an act of treason.
And that's not what Perry said.
And you even admitted it.
I hear Rove every week.
He's repeated it now.
Three weeks running.
He said, Perry said, you know, you don't tell our elected officials and our appointed officials that we commit acts of treason.
That's not what Perry said.
Well, okay, and you're technically correct about that.
And I'm the guy talking about precision with the language, and I would blister Carl for that as well.
But there is a valid issue, a thoroughly valid issue over whether we want our candidates dropping the T-word about anybody.
Because when you do that, you're going to get eaten alive for it.
And that's a thoroughly valid issue.
And listen, if I'm a Perry advisor and he says, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to go out and suggest that the printing of more money is borderline treason.
I say, you know what?
Let's not do that.
How about find another way to forcefully stand up against a bad idea?
Call it a bad idea.
Call it an economic disaster.
Call it Call Bernanke, whatever you're going to do.
But don't drop the T-bomb because it's just going to come back and bite you in the butt for the next two weeks.
And I would agree with you 100%.
It's caused more damage in this campaign than good.
And that's what every wonderful call.
Wonderful points, Frank.
Thank you.
And just keep in mind as we take the break here that even though one of my top index cards on the things I would hand to any candidate I was consulting is don't say stuff that the other side can use to beat your brains in.
Again, there's a huge asterisk there.
There's a qualifier.
Unless it is something that you truly believe, words you wish to be judged by, and words you don't mind coming back to you time and time and time and time again.
Because there are all kinds of genuinely valid, resonant, conservative viewpoints you can express that the other side will try to beat your brains in with.
Let them try.
Let them try.
But if it's just some little turn of a phrase that you can either do or not do, and it's going to cause you more headache than help, then think twice.
That's all I would say.
It's all I would say.
All right, Mark Davis in for Rush on the EIB network.
It is Open Line Friday on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Rush back on Monday.
Let's see.
Let's knock out a final call here for this hour, and then we'll do one more hour together and then get into the weekend.
We're in Gunnersville, Alabama.
Jeff, Mark Davis, in for Rush.
How are you?
Hey, I am doing good, sir.
How are you?
Excellent.
Yes, sir.
I'm just now getting into politics.
And it seems like, you know, I'm a Republican, obviously.
And it seems like what I've been watching, it seems like, you know, Michelle Bachman, she started off really strong.
And then all of a sudden, now it seems like, you know, she's just falling out.
And I'm wondering, like, what's going on with all this?
Because I'm not understanding any of it.
Okay, well, here's the thing.
And I'll give you the short answer and then just pay attention as the weeks now unfold.
It kind of goes like this.
When somebody else gets into a race, if you've been riding high, they take a big slice of your poll numbers.
When Michelle Bachman got in, she took a big slice of Herman Kane's poll numbers.
Rick Perry gets in and takes a big slice of Michelle Bachman's.
She's still up there.
She's still a top-tier candidate.
Will she be much longer?
I don't know.
If so, it'll be kind of a Perry-Bachman-Romney kind of thing, and we'll see how that all goes.
But it may be that Perry brings to the table things that Bachman supporters like, but also a much longer and more impressive resume.
That might be why Perry's entry adversely affected Michelle's poll numbers.
There you go.
See how that works.
Mark Davis in for Rush.
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