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Jan. 17, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:54
January 17, 2012, Tuesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of The Rush 24 7 Podcast.
Almost forgot to turn on the ditto cam.
But I remembered at the last moment.
How are you, folks?
Wonderful to have you here.
Broadcast excellence for three straight hours, hosted by me, the nation's most listened to radio talk show host on obviously the nation's most listened to radio talk show.
And as always, we'll be talking to you in the course of the program today.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882 and the email address, Ilrushbo at EIBNet.com.
An amazing debate last night.
And I've been taking the temperature of people who watched it.
I always find it fascinating.
I was jumping out of my chair last night on a couple of occasions.
Because I'm the one who said, and you all know, all this would take from the get-go is somebody to consistently, constantly articulate conservatism properly, with confidence and good cheer, and that person, if done from the get-go, would end up owning this.
And the fact that that didn't happen throughout the course of the debate for a host of reasons, highlights when it does happen, like last night.
But I checked with some people, and some thought, well, yeah, big deal, too little, too late.
Romney's got this in the bag.
It doesn't matter.
Everybody watching already's made up their mind.
Nobody's watching whose minds can be changed.
The negativity, disguised as people trying to be realistic in some people, was uh a little interesting to me, a little off-putting at times, because I'm one who never thinks it's over.
I I'm one who thinks it's uh it's it's it's never too late.
And I thought last night, everybody up except Ron Paul was, and this was even good, was incoherent.
Ron Paul, and I'll tell you one of the funniest things.
I, you know, Fox had a um obviously an arrangement with Twitter because they read questions that people had tweeted.
So there's obviously some arrangement.
It was a Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and then there's some tweet questions.
So there was the obligatory after the debate, the first thing that happened, before any post-debate analysis or anything, Brett Baer threw it to John Roberts, who was in some Fox studio, and he had to, in the obligatory fashion, run through a a segment on what Twitter people thought of the debate.
And I had the sound down.
I wasn't listening, I'd turn the sound down because it irritates me.
So I was just reading the closed captioning.
All I was looking at was the graphics.
And it was hilarious.
It was hilarious.
The Ron Paul Robots had taken over Twitter, and the only guy who consistently won on every I couldn't believe Fox actually put this up.
They had to contractually be obligated to it.
Because they had every candidate listed, and uh a green bar above the line for positive reaction, a red bar below the line for negative reaction.
And every question, foreign policy domestic didn't remember, five or six questions, every question, Ron Paul's green bar was the same size as every other question.
Every other candidate was mostly in red.
Every Republican got negative reviews on Twitter, except Ron Paul on everything, had that same giant upside green bar.
And I said, Well, the Paul, the Paul people stacked Twitter.
And poor old John Roberts, who had to report this as though it was meaningful and objective.
About all he said was, at least this is what I read at a close captioning.
He said, Well, this is an example of what straight talk will get you.
Meaning Ron Paul's the only guy up there tonight was straight talk, which of course was that's fatuous.
But we've put together uh well, no, but you know, I say Ron Paul was incoherent in a positive way.
He needed to be incoherent.
Well the Ron Paul influence needs to uh be reduced, is what is what I'm saying here.
He was incoherent, but foreign policy on bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
It was incoherent.
And Ron Paul gave buddy a chance last night to see what he really is and what he really believes.
And there was, you know, another good thing to point out was the field has been winnowed.
So there wasn't Huntsman there, and sadly Michelle Bachman wasn't there.
There was only five people, and it made for a much better debate.
And there were actual debates.
Brett Baer strategically made the decision a couple times just to shut up and get out of the way and to hell with the format and the hell with the time limits and let people go at each other.
It was actually in a couple of instances, a couple of cases, really a genuine debate.
Rather than an extended, protracted interview session, like a meet the depressed or a Sunday morning uh format.
Perry did better.
They all did.
They all did.
Perry, South Carolina is at war with the federal government.
South Carolina is at war with the Santos.
They all did well.
And Romney did too.
Romney, Romney, he did enough to maintain his position.
And everybody was firing both barrels at him, his tax returns, Bay and Capitol, and so forth.
But Newt, as Frank once pointed out last night, post debate, uh Newt is the only candidate to get a standing ovation in a debate ever.
Anyone can remember.
And it happened in a back and forth with Juan Williams.
And this was classic.
I'm gonna play it for you very soon here as the program unfolds before your very eyes and ears.
And Newt did something last night that was new for Newt that he hasn't done on previous debates.
He had Juilliams acting as the provocateur.
Juan Williams, of course, is black.
So Juan Williams asking the black racial oriented questions on Martin Luther King Day.
And one of the questions he asked was, Mr. Speaker, you've been saying that young, I'm paraphrasing now, you've been saying that young black kids need to take janitor jobs and so forth.
Don't you understand?
How that can be insulting and off putting.
And Newt said, no, don't understand that at all, and then proceeded to explain how that is a great starting thing for anybody to learn the concept of work and getting paid.
He had a great line, and at some point in it, which you will hear if you missed it last night, he got a standing ovation.
The thing that he did that was different, he never said one word of it to Juliams in the sense he never, as in previous debates, looked at the media guy who asked the offensive question.
This is what you media people always do.
You're trying to get us fighting together.
And let me tell you something about you immediately.
He didn't even mention the media at all.
He took the question, he answered it.
He swung for the fences at a grand slam, did not mention Juan Williams' name, did not accuse Juan Williams of ill motives, just answered it.
And to me, it stood out as a different strategy for to get the same thing accomplished.
Because what happened in that debate last night, if you watched it and you saw the applause, you may have seen that standing O. What every time 100% conservatism was explained in a positive, enthusiastic, cheerful way, it just drew unstoppable positive reaction from the crowd.
It was the greatest illustration yet of what the thirst is for, of what the hunger is for, and what it will have been that wins, or would have been that wins.
It was it was everything that the establishment of Republicans don't want to hear, don't want to see.
It was just I I have to say I think it was the best debate yet.
It was Newt's night, but they all did well.
This is Newt's best debate so far, by far.
And most of his have been good.
And it's going to boost his standing with people who think it's important to we nominate somebody who can go toe to toe with Obama in the debates.
Obama doesn't stand a prayer.
If Newt were to nominee and had a night like he had last night, Obama didn't stand a prayer in the debates.
Now Obama's probably not going to agree to do very many debates.
There's no way Obama's going to agree to do three.
Max two.
Why should he?
Yeah, he's the hell with standard fair.
He's got more to lose the more debates he does.
He's got nothing to defend.
He can't.
There's no law that says the sitting president, the incumbent has to take three debates.
Now he won't look like a coward, and he can make it look like he's gotten time for it.
President United States have time for these chihuahuas nipping at his ankles.
Yeah, he's too busy screwing up the country.
Too busy running around making all kinds of messes here to get distracted here by talking with the extremists and so forth.
There's only a number of ways that he could uh he could repel it.
But anyway, I have the sound bites here, and what I've done, I've asked Cookie to put together a montage of the Newt statements, and with the applause left in.
I told her, leave the applause in us.
I don't care how long the sound bites go.
And then we have the bites of standalone by themselves.
One thing the thing that became crystal clear to me, it always is crystal clear, but the thing that surfaced again, made itself omnivorously present last night.
It is clear with Obama and his crowd.
They want the government to do everything for everybody.
And Newt had so many great lines.
99 weeks of unemployment benefits, that's an associate degree.
99 weeks in school is an associate degree versus 99 weeks on unemployment.
What are we talking about here?
It's way too long.
The whole concept of Obamacare and the uh uh what to do about illegal immigrants, and it became crystal clear again that the message from the liberal Democrats, and this is what's this is the challenge for us.
The message from the liberal democrats is that government will do everything for you.
And that the role of government is to do everything for you.
And our message is we want to teach you to do it yourself.
We want to teach you to do it for yourself, and how much better off you are and everyone else is if you do it yourself.
Which is the message behind Newt's theory on young poor people taking jobs, no matter where they are.
In schools, janitorial jobs, or what have you.
So it's the ongoing competition that we face.
We're up against people who want to tell people we'll do it for you.
We'll plan your life for you.
We'll plan your health care for you, we'll plan this or that.
And then later, as the program unfolds, I have swerved into, you know, the last couple weeks I've been making a point about money and how it is the central number one motivating, animated feature of why people go into politics.
And two or three stories just happen to occur in show prep today that combined make a very excellent point that I want to make about money and there's one of the stories is a research piece.
You've heard the old adage, money can't buy happiness.
Research piece that's dead wrong and has always been wrong.
Money does buy happiness and can.
And the story goes on to say that explain why there is no such thing as enough.
Why people, no matter who they are and what they have, always want more.
And how that's healthy.
Now that's not bad.
And how it's healthy, it's always been the case.
It's a good piece.
It is an excellent piece.
And then there's a piece, this is a long- I don't know, this is one of these pieces that would be tough to break down for radio.
It's Susan Kane piece of the New York Times on the 15th of January a couple days ago about the rise of groupthink.
And how the rise of groupthink in schools everywhere, in business, is choking off creativity.
That groupthink, Putting people in groups in offices, in schools, brainstorming sessions, all this is depriving people of their own individuality and creativity.
And how it's horrible.
It is a it's a it's a rotten mistake that our culture is making.
And essentially you can say here that collectives retard and hamper progress.
Groups can stifle individual effort and creative thinking.
It doesn't happen.
Cites all the great artists and all the great inventors and all the great thinkers and asks you to think about what group were they part of.
Like who helped Picasso Paint?
Where his who are part of his brainstorm sessions.
So forth.
It's pretty good.
So this is going to be a challenge to break this down.
That's what we do here.
We make the complex understandable.
That's a great piece.
So a lot to do here today, plus the debate sound bites, and amidst all of this, your wondrous phone calls.
At 800-282-2882.
So sit tight, be patient.
We'll come back and get started with all of it right after this.
Got a mixed minus problem.
I can't hear the uh there it is, it's barely there.
And we're back.
L. Rushball and the excellence in broadcasting network.
Here is the newt montage.
Ladies and gentlemen.
This is the montage of the whatever you want to call them, the uh the home runs, the grand slams, the uh uh just the salient points that he made during the debate last night.
Only the elites despise earning money.
Thank you.
I know among the politically correct, you're not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable.
So here's my point.
I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness, and if that makes liberals unhappy, I'm gonna continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and learn someday to own the job.
Standing O. Standing O at this point.
The Social Security Action where I estimated if you make it a voluntary program, you actually reduce wealth inequality in America by 50% over the next generation because everybody becomes a saver and investor, and you have a universal investing nation.
Andrew Jackson had a pretty clear cut idea about America's enemies.
killed them.
99 weeks is an associate degree.
Thank you.
We actually think saying to somebody, I'll help you if you're willing to help yourself is good.
And we think unconditional efforts by the best food stamp president in American history to maximize dependency is terrible for the future of this country.
Thank you.
All right, that's a montage, and as we go further, we'll play the individual questions and hear those answers in context as uh as the as they happened.
And the uh the standing O came from the answer, here's my point.
I'm gonna continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and then learn someday to own the job.
And the place erupted.
The place erupted, and we all know why it erupted.
The place erupted because people on the Republican side of the aisle are thirsting for somebody to say what they believe in a philosophical sense.
In an ideological sense, this country is under assault from people who want to strip away all of our humanity.
They want to take away all of our individuality.
They want to make every decision for us because they have an inherent view that we are All incompetent.
They treat us in a condescending manner.
They're better than we are.
They look down on us.
They want to manage and control every aspect of our lives.
And the people in the uh in the Myrtle Beach building last night and the audience watching know full well what made this country great.
What full will is needed to continue this country's greatness.
And to save it from the assault that's being waged on it by Barack Obama, the liberal Democrats.
And they don't hear it articulated.
They hear instead people afraid to be critical of liberalism, afraid to be critical of Obama.
So some somebody last night cast aside the fear.
And just hit them between the eyes.
I mean the left.
With what's wrong about what they do and what they want and what's right about what we want and how what we want is great and good for everybody.
It doesn't matter their gender or their skin color or their sexual orientation.
Sticking with the sunbites from the debate last night, here's Frank Lunch.
This is with Hannity after the debate last night.
I've never seen it in a debate.
A standing ovation in the middle of a debate.
Remember, there's only five candidates up there, so you would assume that only 20% would award them their support.
Newt Gingrich got a standing ovation, and he did so fighting with your own Juams over the whole welfare issue.
Yeah, but Newt did something last night that he's not done before.
Juan Williams asked the question, and Newt just answered it as though Juan Williams was a robot.
He didn't say, see, here we have another again example of a distorted biased media.
You people trying to get us fighting with one another when we all up here want to go and he didn't even waste any time going after Juan Williams.
Didn't accuse Juilliams of ill motives, didn't even acknowledge Juan Williams had a motive, just answered the question.
Here's an example.
Speaker Gingrich, it's Juan Williams speaking.
You recently said black Americans should demand jobs, not food stamps.
You also said that poor kids lack a strong work ethic and proposed having them work as janitors in their schools.
Can't you see that this is viewed at a minimum as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans.
know, I don't see that.
Thank you.
New York City pays their janitors an absurd amount of money because of the union.
You could take one janitor and hire 30-some kids to work in the school for the price of one janitor, and those 30 kids would be a lot less likely to drop out.
They would actually have money in their pocket, they'd learn to show up for work, they could do light janitorial duty, they could work in the cafeteria, they could work in the front office, they could work in the library, they'd be getting money, which is a good thing if you're poor.
Only the elites despise earning money.
Thank you.
As I say, it's all cookie to leave the applause in here.
Juan Williams followed up.
And he got booed.
You saw some of this reaction during your visit to a black church in South Carolina.
You saw some of this during your visit to a black church in South Carolina, where a woman asked you why you refer to President Obama as the food stamp president.
It sounds as if you are seeking to belittle people.
Juan Williams got booed.
Still, Newt didn't take the bait.
The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.
Now I know among the politically correct, you're not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable.
The area that ought to be I-73 was called by Barack Obama a corridor of shame because of unemployment.
Has it improved in three years?
No.
They haven't built the road, they haven't helped the people, they haven't done anything.
I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness.
And if that makes liberals unhappy, I'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and learn someday to own the job.
Standing O. Now remember.
Remember, this question, this line of questioning, was all racially tented from Juan Williams.
Newt Gingrich did not take the bait and answer in a racial context.
He answered within the context that we're all people and that we as conservatives want the best for everybody.
I might say.
I've felt...
No, I'm not going to say that.
I'm not going to say that.
Okay, now I have to, since I can't tease you like that.
I actually felt we were getting much the same kind of philosophy I tried to express in my CPAC speech.
That we are for everybody doing well.
That we conservatives do not see black and white, male, female, gay straight when we look at people down the line.
We see potential.
We want the best for everybody.
We know what's holding them back, and that's government.
Government central planners.
People like Barack Obama, Pelosi Reed, who look at people and see them with contempt and condescension.
See them being incapable.
And they treat them that way, and they devise systems to deal with them that way, and they keep them forever dependent, which destroys their humanity, which makes us sick.
It breaks our hearts.
What breaks our hearts is to look at conditions in black America and see how they haven't improved under the tutelage of Democrats for 50 years.
It breaks our hearts because there are people who have better ideas for making those people's lives better, and they aren't Democrats.
And the sooner the people being subjugated by Democrats break free of them, the better off they're going to be.
And that's what Newt was telling them.
We want everybody not only to get a job, to learn to do a better job, and then someday own the business.
In a context of a racially tinted question, Newt Gingrich essentially saying, I want black kids to own their own businesses.
What in the hell is there to boo about that?
What's racist about that?
Absolutely nothing.
And that's why that audience was standing O. Because this audience, made up of conservatives, is like you and me.
We are sick and tired being called racists and bigots and sexists when all we want is the best for everybody.
We are sick and tired of this categorization.
When in fact it is the people leveling the charge who are the racists, who look at these people and see no possibility, who see no potential, who see them only as voters, who want to dumb them down, who want to keep them poor, who want to keep them dependent.
It's not us that want to perpetuate the misery of people who vote Democrat continue to exist in their lives.
It is a never-ending sea of human misery.
And we hate that.
And we despise it.
And we want it to end because we want a great country.
And we know that a great country is made up of great individuals.
There was also a standing O that occurred there.
The reason for it was that a media member got smacked down without being directly spoken to.
It was when they went to the after-debate analysis.
Of course, everybody knew that Juan would have his take on it, and he did, and he admitted to being shocked.
Just as he was shocked at the audience reaction to his questions, as just as he was shocked when he found out that there were educated people who did not believe that man was behind global warming.
When he first came across Lord Moncton, he'd never heard it before.
He was shocked that the audience had the reaction they had.
He said, it's going to be a...
He said, This tonight, I'm paraphrasing, is going to open the eyes of a lot of people and a lot of Democrats, because this crowd clearly loved what Newt said.
Group think on display.
There's only one way of looking at people in poverty.
There's only one way of looking at people of color.
It's Juan Williams' way.
It's a liberal Democrat way, and it is that is a lifetime condition they've been born into, and it's it's uh somebody else's fault, and there's no way they can get out of it, so we got to do just what little we can to make their lives somewhat passable.
There's no attempt to improve those people's lives.
If there were an attempt to improve those people's lives, it'd be to get government out of their lives.
Government doesn't improve anybody's life other than if you own Cylindra, or if you're a big donor to a Democrat and they pay you back with government money, but that's it.
Average ordinary Americans do not do anything but get harmed by a central planning big government that thinks it's got all the answers rooted in its phony fake compassion.
So what we had last night in the Newt portion of the debate alone was the pure and simple, forceful, passionate articulation of conservative principle and belief.
That before last night was missing for whatever reason, people afraid to express it.
The candidates really aren't conservative enough to have it in their hearts.
We know now that it's in Newt's heart.
It's there.
Sometimes I think Newt ought to try his job like I do, half his brain tied behind my back.
Get rid of the other half that thinks all those liberal thoughts.
You know, as a you know, get the Eisenhower part of his brain lobotomized.
What do what divide?
Oh no, the divide can't be overcome.
I don't think the divide can be.
That's why the people that's why Juan Williams, we're not here to persuade Ron Williams.
We're here to make Juan Williams a member of the permanent minority.
He can think whatever he wants to think.
We just need to be a people who think differently than him, and a majority of people think differently.
Bridge the divide.
I uh the cultural divide.
I don't think we can bridge the cultural divide.
Not in this election, maybe not in a generation.
It's too deep.
It's too entrenched.
The pop culture alone, we don't have any entree into it.
Pop culture alone is as much responsible for the cultural divide as politics is.
Now, we're not there.
We don't have anybody in pop culture.
I mean, the Twitter thing after the Fox debate last night is clear illustration.
So, bridging the cultural divide?
Nah.
The cultural divide is as much a matter of principle to the left as anything else.
They're not gonna give up their principle on this.
They believe the period people are inferior.
They believe people are in comp.
Oh, yeah, the headline.
There's a headline uh that I that I saw.
Uh some guy named Jason Easley, Republican debate audience hits a new low by cheering child labor.
Newt's answer, that's how it's portrayed in the media today.
Republican audience hits new low cheering child labor.
No, it's totally believable.
That's who they are.
Now nobody sane thinks Newt Gingrich was promoting child labor.
Anybody with a brain, a thinking brain, had to realize that Newt Gingrich only wants the best in terms of possibility for poor people, and he thinks that food stamps are not the best.
He thinks work is.
Work is a good thing.
Getting paid for doing work is a good thing.
The lessons learned is a good thing.
Mr. Snerdley, the Democrats have spent 60 years building the cultural divide.
It's the Berlin Wall of our country.
The cultural divide is the is the Berlin wall.
It's their Berlin wall.
They have built the Berlin Wall as the cultural divide to keep their people in it.
We are the people on the free side of the Berlin Wall in this country.
Juan Williams and his bunch are the East Germans.
Newt, the West Germans last night.
Newt wants to tear down the wall.
Look what had to happen for that to happen.
They build their wall, cultural divide to keep their people in.
And it's worked, by the way.
And now they want to add the Hispanics to it.
And the illegal immigrants to it.
I gotta take a break.
There's much more.
Don't go away.
There was no fear in Newt Gingriz's answer.
He did not preface his answer with any politically correct excuse.
He just launched.
Now, Snurdley asked me, does this mean we're going to bridge the culture divide?
Who asked the question?
Juan Williams.
And what was his question?
Don't you understand, Mr. Speaker?
Don't you have the slightest idea?
Let me get the question exactly what he understand.
Poor kids lack a strong word that this at a minimum is insulting to all Americans, particularly to black Americans.
This is the guy who got fired from NPR because of insensitive comments about Muslims.
Now you would think that after having gone through that, Juilliams would have a different perspective.
NPR cans him because he said he admitted that on an airplane flight, I think it was that something made him nervous.
Couple Muslims on an airplane flight made him nervous.
Then he found out that they also fired him because they had a prejudice against Fox.
So Juan Williams fired by the liberal NPR for insensitive remarks about Muslims getting on an airplane and then getting fired for working at Fox, then gets hired full-time by Fox, conservative bunch, with a salary increase, and becomes the NPR guy asking the same questions that got him fired.
And you ask me if we're going to bridge the cultural divide.
Yeah, but not in the same way.
When I when I'm shocked by something I think about, but not Juan Williams is not thinking about, gosh, what did I miss here?
He's not thinking that.
He's thinking, my God, we we don't understand how crazy these people are.
They're even nuttier than we think.
They're more racist than we believe.
Democrats are going to be shocked.
That's what he's thinking.
Never comes back to them.
They're never doing anything wrong.
They never held a wrong view.
My gosh, these people are the biggest superiorists you've ever run into.
Juan Williams said he gets nervous if he's at an airport and sees people who are in Muslim garb.
Bam, he's gone.
Mr. Speaker, don't you see this is viewed as insulting to all Americans, particularly to black American?
No, no, not at all.
Well, he doesn't see how this is insulting.
Man, his audience doesn't see how this is a man.
Man, these people are even worse than we thought.
That's how his shock manifests itself.
They never, Snerdley.
This is we're talking to news media.
The only business where the customer is always wrong.
Customer of a newspaper complains about bias.
What do they say?
Well, you're too stupid to understand how we do our business.
Go ahead and cancel your subscription.
We don't give a damn.
So people cancel their subscriptions.
And the journalist wears a badge of honor.
We got fewer and fewer readers.
Fewer and fewer people sophisticated enough to understand what we're doing.
Their owners look at the bleeding ink and the red ink.
Oh my God, journalists decry the fact they have to have fealty to the bottom line.
Fewer but better readers.
Readers that are not going to send them complaints.
Rude readers that are not going to question how they do their jobs.
Readers are going to question their judgment.
The news business, the only business where the customer is always wrong.
By definition.
So, yeah, there was a the lot, a lot of stuff was illustrated last night.
And we're focusing on Newt here because Newt did get the standing go.
Newt was the unchallenged leader last night in the articulation of pure simple conservatism.
Rick Perry may have had his finest moments in the debate last night.
Romney Is a good debater.
He makes good points.
He deflects arguments well.
He tends not to make any unforced errors, but he never wins debates outright.
He survives them well enough that he comes out with hardly any scars.
I got a quick timeout.
We'll take it and be right back.
Don't go away.
Either way, Newt also, as a prelude to his answer on young kids, starting off as janitors in the schools that they attend, mentioned that his daughter did just that.
Thank you.
Might have given him some credibility in the answer, although I don't think any credibility was needed.
But we all have stories like my first job was shining shoes in a barbershop at age 13, made 50 bucks when I was 13 years old.
Parents thought I was too young to go to work, but I did it again.
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