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April 19, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:42
April 19, 2012, Thursday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24 7 Podcast.
From Sun Splashed Midtown Manhattan and the EIB Northern Command.
How's everybody?
Mark Davis from Texas, but in New York today and tomorrow, filling in for Rush, who returns on Tuesday.
I've thoroughly enjoyed hearing Rush's last three days, uh listening to one of those days while tootling around uh New York City with the family.
We are up here.
I've been to EIB Northern Command before just to blow in, say hi to everybody while in the midst of other business, but my usual fill-in work has been from Texas, and what a joy it is to sit here and look through the glass uh at Bo Snerdley, look through the glass at Mike Mamon and at Ally getting ready to screen your calls today and just to be here in uh in Michael Bloomberg's Enclave of Terror.
Uh just just invoked yesterday by Rush with the cigar dinner story, which gives me various points of departure on the overall subject of liberty.
This is something so many people do not get.
You do not have to be a smoker.
In fact, I guess the stats are that most of you are not, and that's a good thing.
I'm not either.
Occasional cigar, but that's it.
I mean cigarettes, cigars, anything.
Most people don't smoke anymore.
But if you let those rights be trampled, if you let the rights of restaurants to establish their own smoking rules, if you let those things go because you're not a smoker.
You remember the old adage, you know, they came for this group, I didn't belong to that group, so I didn't care.
Then they came for the people who are members of this group.
I didn't belong to that group, so I didn't care.
Eventually they came for me, and there was nobody left to defend me.
Uh we're going to put that to the test in a in a number of ways with a number of subjects.
Um we've got a lot to do just in terms of hot fresh political news.
The ga gaff is is a gaff a bad thing?
Is the inherent definition of gaffe a bad thing?
Then is it a gaff or not if Marco Rubio says, if I do a good job as vice president, it was a national journal event and he's and everybody had a good laugh about it.
Ha ha ha.
But it there's already if indeed the window for presidential nominee talk has closed.
If indeed it is Romney, and let's face it, it is, uh then we now default to vice presidential talk.
And there's a poll out now, I mean, amid all the Rubio, Christie, Mitch Daniels, you know, Bobby Gindal, I mean, there are a number of folks who would be great.
Paul Ryan, obviously.
I mean, how many times do these guys need to say I'm not interested before we believe them?
And the answer is we never will, because when that phone rings, you're gonna take the job.
But there's a poll out now indicating an enormous amount of interest in Condoleza Rice.
Well, okay.
I'm what an amazing woman of uh of incredible accomplishment.
And I I I was a huge fan of her in a national security role.
But when everybody was all geeked out about Condoleezza Rice as the actual president of the United States, I had some silly questions like, what does she believe about stuff?
I mean, it I mean, pardon me for for busting the flow here, but lovely woman, great, incredible American, loved her on national security stuff, but what kind of Supreme Court justices would she uh would she appoint?
How does she feel about the second amendment?
How does she feel uh uh about Roe v.
Wade?
Until I have those answers about somebody, I can't get real enthused.
Uh I can't get pre-enthused, front loaded to be excited about them as president, or as vice president.
So anyway, there's Senator Rubio with a little bit of a f perhaps a Freudian slip.
Uh I I'd be I would love a Romney Rubio ticket.
And isn't the narrative that Romney needs a running mate to placate those of us who wanted a more conservative nominee?
Those of you who are familiar with me, however, my occasional uh walks through uh through Limbaughland or the local show I've had uh know that I was a Santorum guy, and I said I would be a Santorum guy until there was a reason not to be a Santorum guy anymore.
His withdrawal from the race constitutes that reason.
The day that happened, the day that happened.
Uh I was listening I had a lot of company here.
This did not make me unique or or even noteworthy, but I was among the large and growing chorus that said, okay, the fight's been fair, the system is the way it is.
It's time to get behind Governor Romney and put aside every well, not okay, not put aside the doubts we have about him, but to subjugate those doubts, help him work on those doubts, unite behind him.
If there's anything I feel about Governor Romney, it's that he's very reflective of the people around him.
Uh and I don't mean that he's a f that he's more of a follower than a leader or anything like that.
He's been an amazing business leader, but politically he can kind of be a reflection of the mood around him, whether it's a heavily democratic Massachusetts or any one of a number of other environments.
So if Governor Romney is prone to reflect the mood, the instincts, the flavor of those who are around him, let's surround him with as many strong spined, strong willed conservatives as we can find during the campaign and hopefully during the presidency to follow.
Because there's another thing I've said a lot.
I've said that I believe that Governor Romney has it in him to pleasantly surprise us in a number of ways.
And that don't get ahead of me.
Anything's a pleasant surprise when your expectations are this low, but um boom.
Well, my expectations for him are not low.
They never have been.
Am I chilled by his willingness to foist an insurance mandate on his people in Massachusetts?
Yes.
Do I believe him when he says he would not do that to the country at large?
Absolutely I do.
In no way do I believe that because Governor Romney gave birth to Romney Care in Massachusetts, that automatically believes that he favors it for the entire country.
He has said it was a state level solution and not something I would do to the entire country.
And I believe him.
However, he was still willing to do it to his state.
One either thinks such a mandate is a good idea or one does not.
If if you do it to the country, it's unconstitutional.
Let us pause for a moment of prayer that the Supreme Court has the clarity to recognize that.
If you're willing to do it to your state, you are guilty only of a non conservative thought.
And therein lies our tension.
How many non conservative thoughts are knocking around in Governor Romney's head?
And the answer I believe is some.
Well, how many can we squash between now and November?
Uh can we get with him on climate change and convince him of of the absurdity of of presuming that man not wondering, stroking the chin and thinking, gee, I wonder if man is responsible for uh for any change in global temperature, but presuming that he must be.
That's not just a flaw of science, it's a flaw of logic.
So are there people that can get around Governor Romney and and make him better than he was in Massachusetts, maybe even better than he's been on the campaign trail so far.
And I have to tell you, the the the Mitt Romney of the campaign trail so far has contained some frustrating moments of of gaffed, there's that word again, and of um of ideological um sort of lukewarmity.
Luke warmity, the state of being lukewarm, ideological, not flip-flops per se, but but just where you just don't know where the guy's core values are.
But you know what else has been in there?
I remember when he was on Charlie Rose talking about free market economics.
He was great.
I remember his uh speech after his victory in the Florida primary.
He was great.
Just the other day, talking to Diane Sawyer with his wife Anne by his side, got a message for President Obama, what would it be?
Yeah, sure.
Pack your bags, that's great.
He is willing, it seems, to go at the media, not with a gingrich like gusto, but then who has that other than Newt?
But I I f what he's gotta do, what Romney has got to do, and let's talk about this with you today.
You know the rush phone number, one-eight hundred-282-2882-1800-282-2882.
We should all be about making Romney better now.
If you got problems with Romney, okay.
They no longer matter.
They no longer matter.
I I will hear nothing of hissy fits and and and and petulant tantrums, Oh my guy didn't win.
Listen, I was a Santorum guy.
I would have crawled on broken glass to vote for Santorum.
A Newt is a genius.
I love Newt.
I wondered about Newt's electability.
But I love I love Newton now more than I did a year ago.
He's an unbelievable icon of American conservatism and we are a better country for him and a better party for him.
But I was a Santorum guy.
Well, guess what?
He's not in the race anymore.
He ran it honorably.
The race was better for his being in there.
The country is better for his voice having been heard.
The race has been run.
It's all over but the shouting.
1144 is if it's not inevitable, it's in the suburbs of inevitable for Mint Romney.
It is time to unite.
It is time to make him better.
It is time to constructively and civilly suggest some things that he needs to start doing and stop doing in order to do what we all know has to be done.
Return Barack Obama to private life.
You hear a lot about the enthusiasm gap.
And it was true.
I mean, you know, Newt had incredible enthusiasm.
Santorum had incredible enthusiasm.
Nobody has enthusiasm like Ron Paul.
Lord knows you know that.
And you'd go to a Romney event, and the theatrics would be incredible, the lights would be perfect, they'd roll a bus into a high school gym at just the right moment, the bus's tires were armor alled.
I I mean it was just was glorious.
It was an amazing thing to be at a Romney event.
It had everything.
A Romney event had everything you could want from Iowa to New Hampshire to wherever else.
A Romney event had everything except one thing.
Passion for the candidate.
Oh, there are people there who liked the candidate, admired the candidate, cheered for the candidate, but it was nothing.
Like what you'd see at a Santorum rally, a Gengar Tally or Ron Paul Rally.
Michelle Bachman for her, you know, uh sliver of time there.
So um, I'm here to give you a theory.
You can agree, disagree, we can have some fun with this.
I believe the enthusiasm gap is not going to be a problem for much longer.
Because we are going to achieve some clarity and realize that if up till now, if up till now you've had trouble wrapping yourself around Mitt Romney, trouble thinking about the excitement of getting to the polls there in November and voting for Mitt Romney.
If that just has not floated your boat, has not propelled your sails so far.
That's largely been because there have been other people in the race that you've been more excited about.
Okay, that's fine.
It's also over.
It's over.
You want an enthusiasm gap?
You want you want to close up the enthusiasm gap?
I'll give you enthusiasm right now.
There's one human being on the face of this earth that can end this presidency.
One.
It is Willard Mitt Romney.
God bless you, sir.
We will help you.
Please listen to us as we try.
We are for you.
We are behind you.
You won fair and square.
Please go get a good running mate.
We'll help you with that too.
And on today's Rush Limbaugh show, oh, we'll help all kinds of things.
We'll help all kinds of people, all kinds of causes, all kinds of topics.
I got a bunch of stuff to talk about in a minute.
Um we've got to take the first break.
When we come back.
Uh I don't know if you'll ask yourself for the rest of your life, or if you'll remember for the rest of your life where you were when you heard that Dick Clark had passed away.
I don't know if it rises to, you know, JFK or you know, levels or stuff like that.
I mean Dick Clark is is but in terms of pop culture, has there been a greater loss?
I'm listening, we can do that parlor game all day long.
But I'll I'll just tell you something that is just flat out bizarre.
Wherever you were, you remember it because it was yesterday.
You heard that Dick Clark had died.
Know where I was?
I had just left Dick Clark's iconic perch.
I had just left Times Square.
I get I I get we had the Ditto Cam fired up, you'd see chills on me on the HD right now.
What an amazing career.
In fact, let me just wrap a bow around this right now, and then we'll get it behind us and go on everything else.
The thing I loved about Dick Clark is he was a radio guy.
1956, right?
They tap him in Philadelphia to do uh American Bandstand.
He what had he been before that?
He was a radio guy.
He understood the personal, the bonding, the kind of relationship, the special thing that God bless TV, the TV will never have.
And God bless print, but writers will never have.
Radio, radio's with you in the car, radio's with you in the shower.
There's nothing more personal than radio.
Rush has proved it in the talk world.
Plenty of music people, DJs have proven it over the years.
Dick Clark was a radio guy first, and he brought that charm, that relatability, that incredible personality, that eternal flame of youth to American Bandstand and to a bunch of other things.
I loved him as the host of $25,000 pyramid.
God bless Dick Clark and Tony Orlando had it right.
Tony Orlando had it right.
Only God created more stars than Dick Clark.
God bless you, sir.
All righty.
Telephone number is 1800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882.
I'm Mark Davis in for Rush.
Some calls, some more thoughts from me.
We'll intermingle them next.
It is the Thursday Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mark Davis filling in today and tomorrow.
Rush is back on Tuesday.
We'll go to your calls here in just a second.
1-800-282-2882.
Here in New York at the EIB Northern Command, it's a very special trip.
It's a very special room.
New York, this is the city where the entire Limbaugh phenomenon took shape in the heady years of 1988, 89, where Rush did his show from the same building, from the same floor as proud New York Limbaugh affiliate WABC.
And we took a plane load of listeners from Texas, brought them up here to New York to see the and boy, I'd let us all gather together and miss this, the Rush Limbaugh TV show.
Brought everybody up here circa 1995, came back again in 96, and Rush came in and sat down and was a guest on my show in Texas.
He was as gracious as you could ever want him to be.
And so to walk into this room, which is not at WABC but elsewhere in Manhattan, uh is very cool.
And the reason I mention this is because I could sit here and describe it to you, but why do that when there's such a thing as haha, twit pick.
Every time I'm here, they're they're more than kind to let me drop the Twitter on you a couple of times.
You can follow me at Mark Davis, M-A-R-K-D-A-V-I-S, Mark Davis, and you'll get my pronouncements and you know, goofy family pictures and things that occur to me in the middle of the night and you know tweeting during debates.
But you know what you'll get this morning or this afternoon, whenever you're listening?
Know what you'll get?
Pictures of the room I'm in.
The picture I just took with Bo Snerdly and his loving care.
The picture I just took with Mike Mamone.
The the view as I sit right here at this desk in front of it's not the golden EIB microphone.
That one's in Florida with Rush.
So if you want to be in the room with me, got a couple of uh a little of the video clip and a couple of stills right up there at Twitter right now at Mark Davis, M-A-R-K-D-A-V-I-S.
And then if you do that, uh follow up with maybe some things of uh topical substance as we work our way through the day.
All righty, 1-800-282-2882.
Let's do some calls.
I got fourteen other things, but let's put people on the radio.
We are in Reno, and we have time to head over here and say hi to Steve.
Welcome.
How are you?
Yeah, good morning, Mark.
Um your opening monologue pretty much uh uh expressed uh what I was calling about, and it's the fact that uh, you know, as a strong-willed conservative, uh I'm concerned, as many of us are, that he uh Romney lacks that passion, but possibly, as you stated, as time goes on, he will uh he will become more passionate and uh and really go after Obama.
That's that's the big frustration.
We just don't see it.
Uh uh O'Reilly asked him one time, he said, Are you a socialist?
And he said, or he said, is Romney a social.
Yes, is Obama a socialist, right?
I'm on a little nervous.
No, it's okay.
It's okay.
At any rate, and uh and uh Romney said, uh oh, I just think he's a little bit misguided.
Um that's just one example, but uh very briefly.
Well, you want to see let's pause on that for a second and examine what a strong-willed but smart conservative candidate ought to say.
All right, and let me give you an let me give you my version, and you tell me if this would be okay.
Do we need our nominee out proclaiming that the president is an actual socialist?
That answer is no.
It'll Get the the fists pumping in red meat land and all love it, but but the independents will go, oh man, that's over the top.
However, there is an answer that involves a few more syllables that says, look, socialist is a word that has a meaning in the dictionary.
The President of the United States is not a textbook socialist.
However, his policies take us in that direction in a way that no American should ever want.
The notion of heavy-handed government in our life, the notion of government's uh eyes and ears and long clumsy arms in every faction of our lives.
That that has a flavor of socialism that has an aura of socialism that we shouldn't even take one step toward.
Now that took a few more seconds, but would that answer have been okay?
Got about ten seconds.
I think that's an excellent answer, and I think the definitively socialism, I probably didn't totally understand it, but I have been one who has called him a socialist.
Uh very quickly.
And you know what?
There is no such thing as very quickly with five seconds to go.
Get us back soon.
Who knows?
Maybe I'll even be here.
Mark Davis, in for rush, sit tight back in a moment on the EIB network.
Thank you, Johnny.
The clock is a cruel mistress, and we ran out of time at the very bottom of the hour there, and and the gentleman was in the middle of a very good point, and it deserves another sixty seconds of of attention.
If you have seen a Mitt Romney who has seemed at times to lack the kind of uh of of passion, the kind of directness, um the kind of razor sharp rhetoric that you would like in your nominee.
I think we're going to see him ramp that up now.
Because it is a very different thing.
It's a very different thing to be on a debate stage with three other guys.
Man, at one point, yeah, it was on the he was on a debate stage with eight other guys.
One debate they let Gary Johnson into.
Anyway, uh I I really do believe, and this all fits into my narrative that Romney is about to pleasantly surprise us, maybe a little, maybe a lot.
And again, the amount of your uh pleasant surprise involves where your expectations are.
And mine are moderate to uh yeah, I know that's the problem.
So is he, but um boom.
No, my expectations are middling for Governor Romney.
I don't think he's gonna be a terrible candidate.
Uh I don't think he's gonna be Reagan.
I don't think he's gonna tear up the debate stage like Newt Gingrich would have.
I don't think he's going to energize conservatives like Rick Santorum would have.
I don't think he's going to um uh put that thrill into young folks like Ron Paul does.
Uh, none of those things are gonna happen.
But the enthusiasm for Romney will come from our aggregate recognition that he's the only human being on the planet that can end this presidency.
And I don't know about you, but that excites me right now.
So as this plays out, and as it it becomes clear that that he doesn't have to pay any attention to Santorum or Gingrich or Paul or anybody else anymore, that all he has to do is pay attention to Obama.
Think about it.
Hasn't he been fairly good, maybe better than fairly good in the moments when he has waxed eloquent about Obama's failings, especially economically?
And there are polls already starting to come out that show that that that Romney is trusted more on economic matters than Obama.
And if this election is going to be about the economy, then that's nothing but good news.
All right.
1 800 282 2882.
Let us head into Central Ohio.
Jim, Mark Davis in for Rush.
How are you?
Hi, Mark.
Hey.
Hey, um the question is why do you think that Centorm hasn't uh given this delegate court to Romney?
I have uh I have a colossal name drop that I'll offer to answer that question, and you tell me what you think.
The day Rick Santorum came out of this race, I was driving around running some errands, and I heard him talk about how faith and family were the reason he got in.
Faith and family are the reasons he gets out.
He is a man of substance, a man of character, a man of passion.
Now I say this not to, you know, talk about how cool my life is, but to describe the measure of a man.
Three hours later, he called me.
Now I know there are people listening in Texas saying for all the water you carried for him, he should have called you, should have sent you a box of cigars.
Uh but the fact of the matter was there we wanted to know, just don't see how I was doing, et cetera, et cetera.
This is the this is an amazing, amazing man.
And we spent about three or four minutes talking about Karen, talking about the family, talking about what next.
But ultimately, uh uh you know the political junkie in me had had to know, so I asked him, I said, uh, Rick, uh, you you know you're you know you gotta endorse Romney, right?
You you know you have to.
You you know that it will that the abse that it'll be s your endorsement will be conspicuous by its absence.
That if it's not there, people are gonna go when Centorum gonna endorse Romney.
It's been seven days, it's been t and he did not say I know and I'm going to.
But he did say I'm gonna do everything I can to help Governor Romney.
Okay, so why pardon the long answer?
So why not by now?
Why not today?
Why not tomorrow?
There's something that I don't know if you or I will ever understand.
The actual organics of running for office.
Have you noticed as a voter, I've noticed as a voter and talk show guy, we've all noticed anybody paying a glancing attention to politics, knows that during the primary season, they're bludgeoning each other, they're beating each other to death, and then once there's a nominee, they're it's all kumbaya, he's the greatest guy ever.
He's fantastic.
I love this guy.
And it all seems just so crazy.
The secret though is though, that takes a little time.
It's not binary.
It's not like flipping a switch.
Yesterday he was my rival, today I endorse him.
It's going to take a little bit of time.
It's going to take a little bit of time.
It's not, pardon the metaphor, an etchisketch.
You can just turn go shook.
Thank you, Mike.
It is uh it's it takes some time.
So do I expect Santorum to endorse Romney?
Yes.
Did he tell me he would?
No.
Does he know that his endorsement would be conspicuous by its absence?
Yes.
So patience, young Jedi, patience.
Your turn.
What do you think?
So you'll think he's going to wait till the ending.
I don't know.
I I and please, and and this has d I I will tell you things that I derive from the many, many, many firsthand moments I had with Senator Santorum, and I will cherish them always.
I have made a friend here, and I love that man.
I truly love that man.
This is not from that closeness at all.
This is just me thinking, analyzing from, you know, from an objective perspective.
I don't think he will wait until the convention, because waiting that long will be perceived, and rightly so, as as mischief, as just like you can't let go.
And I I think Senator Santorum's a bigger man than that.
I I don't think I don't think we'll be sitting here in August going, dang, where's that endorsement?
I I don't think so.
And and I I know all Santorum's people, so if I'm wrong, somebody text me now.
So uh that would be my thought, Jim.
Thank you.
Appreciate it very, very much.
Okay, next up.
I know Greenville, South Carolina.
I know Greenville, North Carolina, I obviously know Greenville, Texas.
We're about to learn about Greenville, New York.
Ed, Mark Davis, in for rush, how are you?
Good Mark.
Good afternoon.
Hi.
Uh I just wanted to say that the Republicans need to come up with an effective strategy to counteract the fairness uh word that's out there from the Obama administration.
And I think it's that like hope and change, fairness is a it's a vacuous campaign slogan.
Yeah.
And you know, it really conjures up different things in different people's minds and amounts to nothing more than a bait and switch campaign strategy.
You're completely correct.
Fair as a word, fair fairness is worse and more dangerous than hope and change.
Hope and change are empty, lofty, nebulous, happy words.
Fair fairness is something we all like.
We all r I mean we all like hope, we all like change, whatever.
But fairness is something we've know we should all aspire to.
The problem is what's the stinking definition of it?
What what in the world is fair?
Some people think it's fair to brutally punish the achievers in our society that that somehow those in the lower end are lifted up if those at the upper end are brought down uh on the economic scale.
Other people think that fairness is the same tax rate for everybody.
That would be me.
I'm a flat tax guy.
So i people are gonna be throwing that fairness word around all over the place.
Everyone needs to recognize, and Mitt Romney needs to point out, that a great word like fair, a wonderful concept like fairness, when in the hands of the left is a damaging, dangerous, poisonous concept that involves soaking those who are in a position to create jobs,
so like a couple of other terms one could describe of uh uh a nice, sweet, kind, wonderful, laudable concept uh once co-opted by the left becomes something of which you should be afraid, very afraid.
Yeah, I hope that the Romney campaign is is, you know, uh dealing with this because it's obvious that from the Occupy Wall Street people on the bottom to the Axel Rods in the White House down that fairness is going to be the word of the season.
I think you're absolutely correct.
I appreciate the call.
Now when we come back, he and I can Governor Romney do that.
Can he articulate that at least as well as I have?
Well, one hopes so.
But is there is there a an obstacle?
Is there a barrier?
And is it Mitt Romney's own wealth?
At times it seems that he is comfortable and even has a little fun with it.
At other times, and Rush invoked this just this this past week.
And maybe embarrassed isn't the exact word, but he sure doesn't like talking about it, and I think it's because he knows that uh he needs to get comfortable with his wealth and doggone it, be proud of his wealth.
It is not ill gotten.
He worked hard for it, and and for everybody, and Lord knows the Obama campaign is filled with people who will do this.
For everybody that will try to make voters despise Mitt Romney purely because of his wealth, Mitt Romney and his surrogate should be around saying, you know what?
Rather than hating Mitt Romney, how about emulating what he's done?
How about bringing that kind of family ethic, that kind of work ethic?
How about trying to achieve some of your own wealth rather than begrudging him his?
How about that?
How will Mitt handle you know the elephant in the room?
Pun totally intended.
How will he handle that as as the campaign uh wears on?
I'll have a thought or two about that in a moment.
Mark Davis in for rush on the EIB network.
Good times indeed.
Mark Davis in for rush today and tomorrow.
I've told you Rush is back on Tuesday.
This invites the question.
Who is subbing on Monday?
I don't know.
It's all I could do to get through this.
No, I have just been informed of who fills in on Monday.
And as a listener, I am stoked.
Are you ready?
Do you know whose company you're going to enjoy on Monday?
The wonderful, the always gracious, the always smart Mary Matalin filling in on Monday.
And she'll be answering questions like, how can Romney win?
Can the Republicans take back the Senate?
And how in God's name do I continue to live under one roof with James Carville?
All these questions to be answered.
Okay, maybe not that third one, by Mary Madeline on Monday.
Can't wait to listen to her.
And can't wait to uh take some more of your calls.
So let's do.
We are in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Tom, Mark Davis in for Rush.
How are you?
Yes.
Good afternoon, Mark.
How are you?
Doing great.
Uh I like your point about Dick Clark.
Um, one point I would like to make about uh Dick Clark is that he was such a great person insofar as he brought people together, black, white, people who could dance, people who couldn't dance.
What I'd like to say is perhaps he should have been president.
And the man who's president today should have been the game host, the game show host.
Let Obama host Times Square and let Dick Clark run the country.
You know something?
I don't know.
That there's there's something.
There's a kind of a nice flavor to that.
We're gonna let the ball drop now.
I don't even try to do Obama, but that's tremendous.
I'd like to say one thing about Obama.
He's a great mathematician always.
I want to say something positive.
He's a great divider, you know.
And um, he should be on that show, a new show called the 16 trillion dollar pyramid.
Indeed.
So you know what I walked by just down the down the street from here is uh and it's it's great that this is in the middle of Midtown Manhattan where there's a mindset that contributed so much to it, that huge national 15, 16 trillion dollar debt clock is clicking away just down the block, even as we speak.
Tom, thank you very, very much.
I sure do appreciate it.
We are in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Trevor, hi, Mark Davis, in for rush.
How are you?
Hey, Mark, nice to meet you.
Uh appreciate you taking my call.
Nice to meet you.
Um just kind of wanted to talk about how Mitt's really got a great opportunity to turn this country around.
And I really don't believe that he'll fumble the chance.
I mean, you look at all the success he's had in business and stuff like that.
He's taking advantage of opportunities time and time again.
So he can take this Carter like administration and Turn it around and make it look like a Reagan administration.
He can.
He he can.
He has it with the moment he is inaugurated, please, Lord, let that be January twentieth, two thousand thirteen, as Mitt Romney takes his hand off the Bible and he and Ann head off to be America's first couple.
Uh he it it will be completely up to him what kind of presidency he carves out.
The Reagan Carter nineteen eighty model is so you know what's fresh in my mind because I'm old enough for it to be and I'm fifty-four.
I mean that I shouldn't it shouldn't I I it's I have to keep reminding myself that there are people walking around who are 31 who go nineteen eighty.
Haha, what's that?
And and what you have to know, what everybody has to know is was it partially the magic of Reagan, or was it mostly the the the potential feeling that Reagan could fix a lot of things that propelled him to win?
Of course it was.
But a whole lot of it was that we were just sick of Carter.
We had just been beaten down and brutalized and worn down to a nub by the failures and the noxiousness of the Carter administration.
And um i if we got that kind of dynamic going here, then can Romney win?
Of course he can.
It's it's April, everybody, it's April and so much lies ahead, and that's why I feel so strongly about the need for all of us to to stop uh bickering at each other and fuss with each other and keep our eyes on the prize and get behind Governor Romney and do whatever we can to help him win.
We are next in Memphis.
Hey, Eleanor Mark Davis, in for rush, how are you?
Mark.
Hi.
Hey, great.
I didn't it went static there for a second.
Hey, just wanted to get right to the point.
I just want to make the point that how we got here.
We had the Dole, then we had the McCain, now we have the Romney, and we're just gonna continue to compromise our principles, electing the worst of the two evils.
That's what got us here in the first place.
That's how Republicans got out of control, and yet we're gonna run this campaign based on the fact that Obama is terrible.
But that doesn't get us anywhere because then four years from now, two thousand sixteen, now the Republicans have a bad image because of what we've done.
Okay, maybe.
Let's let's spend a minute on this, because the Dole model and the McCain model are certainly not.
You talk about stuff that's fresh in our memory, you got stuff that's fresh in our memory.
But th they may not be apples and apples.
Dole came along when?
In the middle of the Clinton presidency, when we had relative peace and relative prosperity.
Was the Dole campaign a little lackluster?
Yes, it was, but he was up against the buzzsaw that is Clinton.
You don't have to tell John McCain about the buzzsaw that he was up against.
I don't think there's any way any there is not a Republican who could have beaten Obama, okay?
Right now, there is not a Republican who could have beaten Obama.
Oh I may get some pushback from this.
I'd love to know who that is, and I may learn it in the next commercial break.
Uh it was just his time.
So here's the thing.
Now it may just as strongly as it was his time to arrive, now it may be as strongly his time to go.
This is not like coming up against Clinton in ninety six.
This is not like coming up against Obama in two thousand eight.
Does the Romney ascendancy bring to mind the notion of, well, who's the next guy in line?
Well, okay, go for it.
Yes, it does.
But I have a feeling that the chemistry is just a lot different this time.
All righty, one-eight hundred, two eight two eight eight two.
Uh when we return, uh perhaps a thought or two about a Republican who could have beaten Obama.
I'd love to hear this and love to find the time tunnel to go back and put it to the test.
Mark Davis in for rush.
Be right back.
Mark Davis in for Rush.
All right, second time is the charm.
Let's head down to the banks of the Mississippi.
We are in Memphis.
Hi, Eleanor, Mark Davis in for rush.
How are you?
Very good, thank you.
But I'm not in Memphis, I'm in uh in Connecticut.
Oh well Anyway, I just would like to say that uh Mitt Romney cannot surprise us here because we have very high expectations of him because we'd think he would be the best thing out of since Ronald Reagan.
First of all, he's got a good economy, and uh we wouldn't like to vote for Nuft or or Rick Santorum.
Because like uh we just uh want someone who is not going to divide a country, probably unite them, and it's not standing out so far.
We are very happy for Mitt Romney and he can even win Northeast, like the others wouldn't be able to win the Northeast.
Well, I I I don't know.
The Northeast is funny in terms of Republican land, depends on what part of the Northeast or how one defines it.
Uh I would I would probably wonder where one gets the notion that expectations for Romney are high.
Uh in fact, we got a minute.
What if what why I cause I really don't think so.
What makes you think ex I mean it beh behave as a matter of fact, let me let me take this up to the top Because th maybe we need to talk about expectations in the next hour.
Maybe we need to take a little time and talk about where are the expectations because he is so smooth and so good and has a campaign skill set.
Is that something that places our expectations high?
Or because we have wondered where his core values are and what they are, does that mean that our expectations are low?
We'll spend a little time talking about that and a variety of other things as we work our way through today's Rush Limbaugh Show.
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