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March 8, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:45
March 8, 2012, Thursday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 247 podcast.
Folks, uh, you um let me let me read something real quick.
Yeah, yeah, I'll do the video.
Just got asked to do a sponsor video.
I'll do a sponsor.
Yes.
Uh okay, let me.
I gotta read something else here, folks.
Hang on just a second.
All right.
Are you uh folks?
Are you all still loaded for bear out there?
Will you indulge me for one more inside baseball moment here?
Won't take very long.
Uh, but this one needs to be dealt with uh quickly, and we'll move on.
Because we got I mean, uh unemployments back up and Gallup, according to them, it's big.
And uh other things are happening as well.
They always are this time of year and in this type of year.
Great to have you here, Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network of the Limbaugh Institute for advanced conservative studies.
Yesterday, I explained to you how it is that we have not lost whatever the number is today, 45 or 43 advertisers.
Today there's a more blatant example of what journalism has become, and it's in the Washington Post.
It's a story written by a woman named Alexandra Petrie, or Petri, P E T R I, if you're spelling her last name.
I don't know how it's pronounced.
Alexandra Petri.
And let me read to you the headline of this news story.
I don't know if it's in the newspaper or just on their website.
But here's the headline.
Rush Limbaugh's show targets jerks, judging from the latest ads.
Rush, so named for what advertisers are now doing away from him.
Advertisers learned something about Rush Limbaugh's demographic this week.
Here we thought a lot of pleasant, upstanding people were listening to and enjoying the national ratings that uh things that Rush had to say.
Apparently not.
Turns out that people who really truly still enjoy Rush Limbaugh's show, how do I put this are jerks.
So the Washington Post is characterizing you.
At least that's what the new advertisements moving into the vast empty lot of Rush Limbaugh Inc.
implies.
So far, he has picked up AshleyMadison.com, the site where you go to cheat on your wife.
And another website that is explicitly for sugar daddy matchmaking.
There's only one problem.
We are not running spots or commercials from AshleyMadison.com.
In fact, when we find that they are running in our program in local markets, we call the local affiliate and tell them don't run these ads in our show.
We do not sponsor companies that help people cheat on their spouses.
Right here it is in the Washington Post claiming that we are.
Now the people that run Ashley Madison are out saying they're willing to advertise on our program.
There are stories in advertising blogs about this, but we have not accepted it.
Yeah, right here in the Washington Post.
Ms. Petrie, I I don't know who feeds you your information.
I have a pretty good guess.
But you might you might want to double check here because you've written something that's patently false.
It's an out and out lie, complete with your BI itchy opinion in it.
And it is untrue.
We are not running commercials.
We wouldn't accept commercials.
We have rejected their offers from outfits that do this kind of thing.
Provide a way for you to cheat on your spouse.
We have never knowingly had this company in our program.
And again, there are two ways you can get on this program.
You can come and be an official EIB sponsor, or you can buy commercial time on one of our local affiliates and become one of 18,000 plus advertisers that we will never know about.
Except at things like this, when we find out we do our best to clear this inventory.
So I wanted to set this straight.
It is an out and out, just like every other report about Lost advertisers and everything else that you're seeing, nothing could be further from the truth.
We have new sponsors coming on in the next two weeks, three of them at least.
As I said yesterday, current advertisers had canceled or a couple meetings with that.
They're asking to come back in.
There's literally nothing factual being reported about this.
So just so you know, as though you don't know, I'm sure you do, what is in the Washington Post, either in their newspaper or on their website, is an out and out lie.
I mean, it's not it's not even close.
This is a so-called reporter, Alexandra Petrie, who simply accepts false information from a site, probably Media Matters, who knows, that she trusts.
We are not running spots from this company that tells you how to cheat on your spouse.
We never have.
And when we find out that they're running on local stations, EIB affiliates, we call the affiliate and we ask them not to.
Nor will we ever accept such advertising because you are not jerks.
You and this audience are among those who make this country work.
In the second page of this story, Ashley Madison, the website for people seeking extramarital affairs and seeking arrangement.com, which, as Politico reported, self-proclaimed world's largest sugar daddy and sugar baby dating website, are firmly both on board the Rush Limbaugh Pro.
They are not firmly on board.
They never have been firmly on board, and they never will be firmly on board.
Folks, there is one, I must be honest.
At one time months ago, we considered taking AshleyMadison.com because we know that Bill Clinton listens to this program.
So we know one member of the audience cheats on his spouse.
Did so in the Oval Office.
And in an attempt to perhaps include everybody, we thought maybe we would help out, but we decided no.
We didn't know anybody else in this audience who cheats on their spouse besides Bill Clinton.
So we rejected it.
Any more like this that pop up, I'm going to.
John Edwards listens, but there were two of them.
That's John Edwards listens to the program.
I I yeah.
Ted Kennedy listened to the program.
But we decided to reject.
We have never run ads from either of these two companies.
We never will.
And again, for the last time, when we find out that they are running on local stations during this program, we ask the stations to move the commercials.
Just that simple.
No, Alexandra Petrie, P-E-T-R-I, Washington Post, has got the snarky lying full of holes, so-called report today.
And she's, and I guarantee you, she'll run another story tomorrow saying I made this all up, and I'm trying to cover my rear end, but folks, it isn't true.
According to Gallup, as we move on now, unemployment rate in February, 9.1%.
Now, tomorrow, this is uh this is Wednesday, right?
What is no, this is Thursday.
This is Thursday.
Weeks going by.
We're gonna get the federal unemployment number here pretty soon.
And we will hear what the Obama regime is claiming the new unemployment number is.
Now, unemployment compensation requests or uh applications went up by about 8,000 jobless claims jumped 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 362,000 in the week ending March the third.
This according to the uh labor department.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast that claims would rise by 2,000.
So this was unexpected.
Claims rose by 8,000.
That's the government.
Gallup says that their unemployment rate is 9.1%.
Now bear in mind, Gallup does exactly what the Bureau of Labor Statistics does to get their monthly employment rate.
That is, they take a survey, they do a poll.
For their survey, Gallup interviewed 27,275 people.
The government claims that they survey 110,000 adults.
The only real difference between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Gallup is that Gallup does not make any so-called seasonal adjustments like the government does.
That seems to be the seasonal adjustment, seems to be the government's secret sauce.
Maybe that's the government's pink slime.
But isn't it magical?
How without using any seasonal adjustments, Gallup's monthly unemployment rate's always a good bit higher than the regimes.
Now the AP, their version of this story.
I rarely have seen, other than this Washington Post story by Alexander Petrie, which is an out and out lie.
This AP story on unemployment applications perhaps is one of the most intentionally misleading headlines and lead paragraphs that I have ever seen.
After reading this, I'm wondering why doesn't the Associated Press have to register with the Federal Election Commission as an Obama super PAC?
Because that's what they are.
The AP, MSNBC, CBS NBC, ABC, they're all part of the Obama super PAC.
They give advertising away to Obama.
They give it away.
It's free media.
He doesn't have to buy anything from these networks or these publications.
Headline, U.S. unemployment applications hover near low levels.
Slightly more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the overall level stayed low enough to suggest the job market is strengthening.
8,000 new unemployment applications in ABC says that's okay.
AP says that's okay.
That's such a low number that that means that the expansion is continuing.
The job market is strengthening.
This is an out and out lie again.
It's intentionally misleading.
The headline and the lead paragraph.
Tell me in one significant way, are they any different from the rest of the advertisers on the Obama re-election campaign?
You have 8,000 new, according to government.
And this is going to be seasonally adjusted again and revised, probably up.
8,000 new applicants.
Over last week, slightly more Americans applied for unemployment benefit.
The overall level stayed low enough to suggest the job market strengthening.
U.S. unemployment applications hover near low levels.
This is shameless.
Absolutely shameless.
Andrew Breitbart was laid to rest this week.
Andrew Breitbart...
I mentioned he grew up in West Los Angeles.
He was surrounded by West LA liberalism.
He grew up as one, goes to Tulane University, graduates, comes out of there a liberal.
It wasn't until later.
Clarence Thomas hearings is what he says that this entire symbiotic relationship, this incestuous relationship between the media and the Democrat Party is what jarred him awake.
It's what alerted Andrew Breitbart to how the scales are weighted vastly in favor of the Democrat Party of the American left because of the media.
And Andrew Breitbart's objective was to bust up the Democrat Media Complex, as he called it, the takeoff on the military industrial complex.
And that's what his heirs at Big Journalism and Breitbart.com are going to continue to do.
And it's Flat out necessary.
Every day on this program for 23 plus years.
Example after example after example of not just media bias, but journalistic malpractice, an entire industry lying to and misleading and misrepresenting the American people.
They hide behind the First Amendment and the freedom of the press.
They hide behind the cloak of objectivity, but they're not objective.
They're advocates.
They are surrogates.
They are part of the agenda.
They advance it.
And it is the primary problem that so many things in this country are out of whack.
Because one political party gets a pass.
One segment of the American population gets a total pass.
And this AP unemployment story, just the latest in countless daily, multiple times a day examples of the irresponsibility that exists in what is called the mainstream media in this country.
Quick timeout here, folks.
We'll be back much more straight ahead, as you know.
We only just started right after this.
Hey, did you know that today, uh, ladies and gentlemen, is um international women's day.
I will probably be accused of misogyny just for showing up to work on uh on international women's day.
Once again, once again, my highly overrated staff has let me down.
Not telling me that today is a worldwide holiday.
Well, I don't know, holiday, but it's international women's day.
Now you'll be shocked.
You will be shocked and amazed to hear that International Women's Day was the invention of socialists.
The uh first International Women's Day was observed on the 28th of February of 1909 in the U.S. following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America.
And today, I guess the 101st anniversary of International Women's.
What are you doing to celebrate, Don?
Did you even know it was well, I didn't need it, and nobody told me.
Uh no big sales, uh, you haven't heard you know where that's a good point.
No big sales.
I haven't no Hallmark cards.
I haven't seen any advertising from the malls, you know, special white sales and stuff like that.
Where's the big?
No, no lights to put the lights into anything.
No turkey.
That's a shame.
I mean, women are being disrespected all over the place.
Look at this story.
This is from Danbury, Connecticut.
Onlookers in Danbury, Connecticut got quite a show yesterday.
A homeless couple was arrested, actually, in Tuesday.
Homeless couple arrested for having sex on an outdoor pavilion stage on the Danbury Green, according to the cops.
Jonathan Price is a picture of him here, and Shannon McClung, 38, and there's a picture of her, were charged with breach of peace and public indecency after the police received several complaints and an officer found them having sex on the stage shortly after two in the afternoon.
The couple unknowingly drew an audience, police say a bunch of women were watching the couple conduct their business.
A bunch of women.
I wonder if these two were using birth control.
Wonder if there's any contraception being used by these two on the uh Danbury Green.
And here's a real turd tearjerker, folks.
This is this is gonna make you feel very, very bad.
It's on the Hill.com.
President Obama's re-election campaign said yesterday that the prolonged Republican primary is hurting its fundraising.
Yeah, did you know that it's not Obama's fault that he can't raise money?
It's the Republican primary's fault.
It's the Republicans' fault.
They're soaking up all the news.
The Republicans are occupying the news cycle.
The Republicans are getting all the attention.
People are giving money to the Republican candidates.
No mention in this story about how Obama is not helping the Democrats in the House and Senate.
He's not going to give them any money.
He's not going to fundraise for him.
He's going to do one campaign appearance each for the Democrat and House re-election committees, and that's it.
Obama's campaign team and the said that the Republican fight in general, that's good for Obama, but chief strategist David Axelrod said that it isn't the best for filling Obama's coffers.
Axarod had a press call scheduled the day after Super Tuesday.
He said, I do think it's easier to raise money when you have one opponent.
The regime raised 68 million dollars in the last part of 2011.
That's a low number after speculation last year that Obama could raise one billion for his re-election campaign.
So the ongoing Republican primary to lack of one opponent is somehow responsible for Obama's fundraising being weighed down.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have Rush Limbaugh behind the golden EIB microphone, serving humanity simply by showing up.
There was a column by Daniel Henniger, the Wall Street Journal.
It's some months ago now.
And I'll never forget this piece.
It was uh Henniger writes really brilliant stuff pretty consistently.
And in that column some months ago, he made the observation that Mid Romney, good guy, was always going to have to be nudged to conservatism.
He was always going to have to be nudged to the right as he navigates his way through the Republican primaries.
And I mean Henniger has been borne out.
His piece is accurate.
Romney has become a better debater.
But the real evidence of Henniger's, I don't know if it was desire, but certainly his prediction came in the form of a revised tax plan that cut taxes across the board.
Romney initially announced the tax cut plan.
There were some people that complained that it it contained the language of the left, the 99 versus the 1%.
Romney reacted to it.
he has also reacted, he's changed in a proper way his announced support for the minimum wage.
When he did that, there are people at Rose that, No, no, no.
The conservative position on minimum wage is not what you said.
He changed it.
Now some people are saying this is evidence that Mitt Romney can be nudged to the right.
It's also evidence that he'll change his mind.
And if it goes one way, it can go back in the other direction, too.
And this is what one of the fears that people have.
So now that Romney has embraced supply-side tax policy.
What's left?
Well, he's promised to cut cap and balance the budget.
He's been pretty strong on immigration.
The obvious issue is Romney care.
That's that's the elephant in the room for Mitt Romney, and he knows it.
Everybody on his team knows it.
Every Republican primary voter knows it.
That's a burr in a saddle for all conservatives.
And Romney has been resistant to pressure to criticize his uh his creation.
That's the one thing that he has not shown any flexibility on.
To that end, there are two good pieces in the Wall Street Journal that will keep the pressure on Romney.
Daniel Henniger is back.
Henniger traveled to Cuyhoga Falls, Ohio.
He watched Santorum deliver a 35-minute speech that focused on the unfriendly ties between personal freedom and Obamacare.
And this is this has been Santorum's theme is freedom and how it is at stake, freedom as we know it, freedom as it is defined in the Constitution and our founding documents.
And Santorum is right on the money to focus on freedom and how it is being lost, little by little, and in some cases by big gulps.
So it's a good theme for Santorum.
And these two pieces in the in the Wall Street Journal, Henniger writes, the uh he watched Santorum delivered his 35 minute speech that focused on the unfriendly ties between personal freedom and Obamacare.
And here's what he concluded.
Rick Santorum should stay in the race, repeating from now until summer, the perverse link between the Obamacare mandate and the American idea of freedom.
It looks like the best argument the GOP nominee will have for a win in November.
It resonates with Americans.
It does hit Romney where he's vulnerable.
On the same subject in the Wall Street Journal, Paul Jigot, who's the editor, I think he's the editorial page editor, reports on an exit poll in Massachusetts about Romney care.
And here's a brief excerpt of uh of Jigo.
The exit poll asked voters their opinion of the Massachusetts health care law.
This is an exit poll in Massachusetts now about Romney care, and they poll asked voters their opinion of the Massachusetts health care law were the options of did not go far enough about right and went too far.
Fifty-one percent said, this Massachusetts voters in an exit poll.
51% said that Romney care went too far.
37% said that it was about right, and uh 6%, very small number said that it wasn't enough, didn't go far enough.
Jigo writes, granted, these are Republican primary voters who are largely conservatives, but the result reveals how unpopular government-mandated health care is even in its Massachusetts birthplace.
Mr. Romney says during debates that Romney care is popular in Massachusetts, and that's true among all voters, but the exit poll shows why the health care bill continues to be a political liability for Romney in the Republican primaries.
So this is why we can see why Santorum has honed his message to focus on Romney care and to focus on freedom.
Santorum's done his homework.
He has uh, I don't know, I guess an intuitive feel that that's what's needed in the contest.
Because he knows the American people, and the numbers well over 50%.
In some polls, it gets close to 60.
The American people want Obamacare repealed.
A vast majority of the American people understand full well what life in this country will be the moment that thing is fully implemented.
They know in their collective guts that it's a freedom killer.
They know that it's going to bankrupt the country while destroying the doctor-patient relationship.
There's nothing, nothing of any consequence that is an improvement or is any good in Obamacare.
Not with 2700 pages or 2200 pages, not with all the times the phrase, as the secretary shall determine, repeated in this legislation.
So what Santorum has concluded is that defeating Obama and repealing Obamacare is the key to the country's survival as founded.
Obviously, the American people want a leader they can trust and who'll carry their message, fear and anger, whatever, all the way to November.
Now, if you watch the debates, it's pretty clear that Santorum appears to know Romney care pretty well.
He understands its intricacies.
And he's out telling people that Romney care is a liability.
And if Romney doesn't find a way to deal with it to the satisfaction of Republican conservatives, he's going to take body blows all the way to the nomination.
Uh convention, what have you.
Now, I don't know.
People ask me how I think this is going to turn out, and you know as well as I do.
Convention wisdom is that this is over.
It's going to go on, but it's over.
It's I had a comparison I read yesterday that Romney's winning like Dukakis did in uh 1988.
It was winning, but any big rah-rah attached to it.
And he's not winning as a strong dominating victor, but just plowing ahead.
So I don't know.
Conventional wisdom is that that while it's going to go on a long time, that Romney is the nominee.
That's, I'm just telling you that's what the conventional wisdom is.
It may well be, folks.
I don't know.
Time will tell that Santorum may have started his surge a little too late here.
We'll see.
A lot of it depends on how long Newt decides to stay in, but this is why the primaries are helpful to the party's eventual nominee.
They're warned, they're told, they are shown their weaknesses.
They're given the chance to learn and adjust.
I'll take you back to Hanniger, who pointed out months ago, Romney will be forced to be nudged to the right.
He'll not get there on his own, was Henniger's point.
But it's been demonstrated that that kind of pressure can get Romney in that direction.
Now, there is a piece that ran in a Daily Beast yesterday.
Let me quote to you from it.
Daily Beast is uh newsweek.
It's not a conservative publication.
Consider this.
This is their statistical investigation.
If Mitt Romney wins every remaining all or nothing state but one, and then wins half of the remaining proportional delegates, he would likely still fall short of the nomination number of 1,144.
Let me repeat that again.
That's what they say to Daily Beast.
If Romney wins every remaining all or nothing state except one, and then wins half of the remaining proportional delegates, he's still going to come up short.
That would force him to rely on unpledged delegates.
That's the Republican version of the superdelegates that Obama needed in 2008 to beat Hillary.
The delegate math, according to their calculations, this is not going to be good news for Axelrod and the Obama fundraisers.
The delegate math shows that the earliest the Republican primary could be over is May.
And the latest, Utah in late June or even August in Tampa.
They say here, unless Santorum Gingrich or Ron Paul can be prematurely pressured to get out, this contest is going to go on.
Momentum drives the storyline, but math drives the delegate count, and that may be all that matters in this year's proportional fight for the Republican nomination.
Now that's just one take, but that's the second place that I have seen that this thing could go on until May.
Find out if it's right that if Romney wins every remaining all or nothing state but one, and then half of the proportional delegates still is not over the top, then the math would be right if it works out it will go on to May.
Or maybe longer.
And about the a lot of people say, oh, gosh, we gotta wrap it up.
Rush, all the dirty laundry being aired and all that destruction.
I I'm not convinced of that.
The longer this goes on, the longer Obama can't attack our nominee because we don't have one.
And you've heard them salivating over what they've got waiting for Romney.
We've had the sound bites, well, this week, previous weeks.
They're bragging.
They're bragging about all the opposition research they've got on Romney.
It's gonna be brutal.
It's gonna be like nothing we've ever seen.
They can't wait to unleash it.
They're out there saying no way Romney can stand up to it.
But they can't deploy it until Romney's the nominee.
The longer Obama is delayed, along with his sycophants in the media from attacking our nominee, the better.
And I also happen to agree with this notion that the longer this thing goes on, uh, and the longer it takes for a realization of sinking that conservatism is what will be the deciding factor whether we win or lose, that that's good too.
We'll see.
Now there are, of course, differing points of view.
One of them is uh Senator McCain, who was on Face of the Nation on uh Sunday.
And McCain said, Look, the longer, the longer this goes out, the worse, the worse our chances are.
I mean, I have to tell you, it takes he makes me very, very worried about our chances to win in November the longer he goes on.
I don't like it.
I don't like it one bit.
Oh, I hear full speed 360.
So, both points of view there.
Of course the establishment's worried about this.
This isn't what's supposed to happen at all.
This was supposed to be over before it started, really.
Splitting the conservative vote was supposed to guarantee victory for Romney.
Hasn't worked out that way.
So that's the latest take on this.
And where we all are.
And I these these two Wall Street Journal pieces, I mean, the Wall Street Journal, you would have to say, would be inclined to be in the Romney camp.
And you have two pieces here, pointing out the big problem still remains Romney care.
And being nudged to the right.
No, no, I don't think Romney can denounce it now.
He can't renounce it.
He can't he can't go back.
It's too late for that.
So he's got a he's got a different challenge with it.
What Santorum is learning is that he's got a theme now.
A simple, all he's got to do, not a multiple faceted message, but just one or two things.
And one of them is freedom and Obamacare.
And it's resonating.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
Your guiding light Rush Limbaugh, America's real anchor man, America's truth detector, the doctor of democracy here combined into one harmless, lovable little fuzzball.
The longer the primaries go on, the longer Romney will have to sound conservative.
Maybe it become a habit.
Now I want to stress I've not picked anybody.
Nothing's changed.
None of this represents a preference or a choice.
I'm looking at what's out there and I'm telling you what's out there.
Pure and simple.
Nothing more.
So far Romney has wanting 52% of the delegates.
He only needs 48% of the remaining delegates.
It's eminently doable.
The conventional wisdom is it's over, it's just going to take some time.
And that's what the math indicates.
Now, in the next hour, folks, I have a story unrelated in the well, no, it is related.
Once it's related to media malpractice in a way, but it is how you have been lied to, and how everybody has misunderstood the relationship to cholesterol and heart disease.
And everything you think you know about it apparently is wrong.
Everything.
Everything you're doing, medicine and diet to lower your cholesterol is wrong, according to a heart surgeon.
I am going to lead with that in the next hour.
First, a couple sound bites here.
This morning on Joe Scarborough's program on MSNBC, he had former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, former Democrat presidential candidate, talking about the Republican primary.
Here's Howard Dean.
This is fascinating.
People have asked me, well, do you fear Romney?
I've always feared Romney the most of any candidate since 2008.
I actually fear Santorum more, not because he's a right-wing extremist, which he is, but because he actually can connect with people.
I actually think he would be tough for us, much tougher than I would have thought given his positions.
Now, what's going on here?
With these guys, it's never apparent.
Too often they mean the exact opposite of what they say.
And Howard Dean's saying, you know what, this guy's a right-wing extremist, but I'm shocked he's connecting with people.
And I think he might be tougher than I would have ever thought given his positions.
Well, now, wait a minute.
Governor Dean, how can he connect with people if his positions are so wacko?
Don't the two kind of go hand in hand.
If you're going to connect with people, don't you have to sort of say things that they agree with, relate to, understand?
That's part of connecting with people.
I mean, if he's a right wing Hayseed extremist.
That must mean, oh, I get it.
That's right.
Howard Dean thinks all of you are right wing Hayseed extremists, and that's why Santorums connect.
Okay, and that's why Romney isn't.
Okay, but at least Howard Dean says, I don't know, this guy could be a bigger problem than uh than uh we thought.
Heart Surgeon says that what we're doing to fight cholesterol is actually causing the problem to get worse.
Obama, according to the politico, is lobbying Democrats to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.
We've barely scratched the surface here on the EIB network today, folks.
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