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April 19, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:43
April 19, 2012, Thursday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast from Sunsplashed 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, listening to one of those days while tootling around 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 at Bo Snerdley, look through the glass at Mike Mamone and at Allie getting ready to screen your calls today, and just to be here in Michael Bloomberg's Enclave of Terror.
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 were 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.
We're going to put that to the test in a number of ways with a number of subjects.
We've got a lot to do just in terms of hot, fresh political news.
Is a gaffe a bad thing?
Is the inherent definition of gaffe a bad thing?
Then is it a gaffe or not?
If Marco Rubio says, if I do a good job as vice president, it was a national journal event and everybody had a good laugh about it.
Ha ha ha.
But 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, 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 Jindahl, 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 going to take the job.
But there's a poll out now indicating an enormous amount of interest in Condoleezza Rice.
Well, okay.
What an amazing woman of incredible accomplishment.
And 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, pardon me 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 appoint?
How does she feel about the Second Amendment?
How does she feel about Roe versus Wade?
Until I have those answers about somebody, I can't get real enthused.
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 perhaps a Freudian slip.
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 walks through Limbaugh Land or the local show I've had 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, I was, listen, I had a lot of company here.
This did not make me unique 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 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.
And I don't mean 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 don't get ahead of me.
Anything's a pleasant surprise when your expectations are this low.
Ba-boom-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 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?
Can we get with him on climate change and convince him of the absurdity of presuming that man, not wondering, stroking the chin and thinking, gee, I wonder if man is responsible 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 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 Mitt Romney of the campaign trail so far has contained some frustrating moments of gaffes, there's that word again, and of ideological Sort of lukewarmity, lukewarmity, the state of being lukewarm, ideological, not flip-flops per se, 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 speech after his victory in the Florida primary.
He was great.
Just the other day, talking to Diane Sawyer with his wife Ann 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 what he's got to do, what Romney has got to do, and let's talk about this with you today.
You know the rush phone number: 1-800-282-2882-1-800-282-2882.
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 will hear nothing of hissy fits 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.
Newt is a genius.
I love Newt.
I wondered about Newt's electability.
But 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 Mitt 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 armoralled.
I mean, it was just 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 Gingrich rally, a Ron Paul rally.
Michelle Bachman for her, you know, sliver of time there.
So 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 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, we've got to take the first break when we come back.
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 JFK or levels or stuff like that.
I mean, Dick Clark is, but in terms of pop culture, has there been a greater loss?
Listen, you can do that parlor game all day long.
But 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 we had the Ditto Chem 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 American Bandstand.
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, that TV will never have.
And God bless print, but writers will never have.
Radio.
Radio is with you in the car.
Radio is 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 1-800-282-2882.
1-800-282-2882.
I'm Mark Davis in for Rush.
Some calls, some more thoughts for 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.
All right, 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 planeload of listeners from Texas, brought them up here to New York to see the, and boy, 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, is very cool.
And the reason I mention this is because I could sit here and describe it to you.
Why do that when there's such a thing as, haha, twit pick?
Every time I'm here, 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?
You know what you'll get?
Pictures of the room I'm in.
The picture I just took with Bo Snerdley and his loving care.
The picture I just took with Mike Mamon.
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 little video clips 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, I'll follow up with maybe some things of topical substance as we work our way through the day.
All righty, 1-800-282-2882.
Let's do some calls.
I got 14 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.
Your opening monologue pretty much expressed what I was calling about, and it's the fact that, you know, as a strong-willed conservative, I'm concerned, as many of us are, that he, Romney lacks that passion, but possibly, as you stated, as time goes on, he will become more passionate and really go after Obama.
That's the big frustration.
We just don't see it.
O'Reilly asked him one time, he said, are you a socialist?
And he said, or he said, is Romney a socialist?
He asked, is Obama a socialist?
Right, right.
I'm a little nervous.
No, it's okay.
It's okay.
At any rate, and Romney said, oh, I just think he's a little bit misguided.
That's just one example.
But very briefly.
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 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 fists pumping in red meatland and all love it, 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 governments, eyes and ears and long, clumsy arms in every faction of our lives, 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 10 seconds.
I think that's an excellent answer.
And I think definitively socialism, I probably didn't totally understand it, but I have been one who has called him a socialist very quickly.
Right, 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 the gentleman was in the middle of a very good point, and it deserves another 60 seconds of attention.
If you have seen a Mitt Romney who has seemed at times to lack the kind of passion, the kind of directness, 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, he was on a debate stage with eight other guys.
One debate they let Gary Johnson into.
Anyway, 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 pleasant surprise involves where your expectations are.
And mine are moderate to I know that's the problem.
So is he, but boom, boom.
No, my expectations are middling for Governor Romney.
I don't think he's going to be a terrible candidate.
I don't think he's going to be Reagan.
I don't think he's going to 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 put that thrill into young folks like Ron Paul does.
None of those things are going to 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 becomes clear 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 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, my question is: why do you think that Santorum hasn't given this delegate for two Romney?
Yes.
I have a colossal name drop that I'll offer to answer that question.
Then 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 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.
He should have sent you a box of cigars.
But the fact of the matter was that we wanted to know, just want to see how I was doing, et cetera, et cetera.
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, the political junkie in me had to know.
So I asked him, I said, Rick, you know, you got to endorse Romney, right?
You know, you have to.
You know that it will, the absence, that your endorsement will be conspicuous by its absence.
That if it's not there, people are going to go, when's Santorum going to endorse Romney?
It's been seven days.
It's been.
And he did not say, I know and I'm going to, but he did say, I'm going to 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, 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 etch a sketch.
You can just turn and go shook a shooker shooker shooker shooker.
Thank you, Mike.
It is, 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 all think he's going to wait till the ending till the convention or something?
I don't know.
Please, and this has, I will tell you things that I derive from the many, many, many first-hand 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 an objective perspective.
I don't think he will wait until the convention because waiting that long will be perceived, and rightly so, as mischief, as just like you can't let go.
And I think Senator Santorum is a bigger man than that.
I don't think we'll be sitting here in August going, dang, where's that endorsement?
I don't think so.
And I know all Santorum's people.
So if I'm wrong, somebody text me now.
So 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.
I just wanted to say that the Republicans need to come up with an effective strategy to counteract the fairness word that's out there from the Obama administration.
And I think it's that, like hope and change, fairness is 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 are 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.
Fairness is something we all like.
I mean, we all like hope, we all like change, whatever.
But fairness is something we know we should all aspire to.
The problem is, what's the stinking definition of it?
What in the world is fair?
Some people think it's fair to brutally punish the achievers in our society that somehow those in the lower end are lifted up if those at the upper end are brought down 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 people are going to 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, a nice, sweet, kind, wonderful, laudable concept once co-opted by the left, becomes something of which you should be afraid, very afraid.
Yeah, I hope that the Romney campaign is dealing with this because it's obvious that from the Occupy Wall Street people on the bottom to the Axelrods 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, can Governor Romney do that?
Can he articulate that at least as well as I have?
Well, one hopes so.
But is there 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 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 he needs to get comfortable with his wealth.
And dog on it, be proud of his wealth.
It is not ill-gotten.
He worked hard for it.
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 the elephant in the room?
Pun totally intended.
How will he handle that as the campaign 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 Madeline 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 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.
I like your point about Dick Clark.
One point I would like to make about 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 something.
There's a kind of a nice flavor to that.
We're going to let the ball drop now.
I don't even try to do Obama.
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 he should be on that show, a new show called the $16 trillion pyramid.
Indeed.
So, you know what I walked by just down the street from here?
And 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 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.
Appreciate you taking my call.
Nice to meet you.
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 taken 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 can.
He has it the moment he is inaugurated.
Please, Lord, let that be January 20th, 2013, as Mitt Romney takes his hand off the Bible and he and Ann head off to be America's first couple.
It will be completely up to him what kind of presidency he carves out.
The Reagan-Carter 1980 model is so, you know, what's fresh in my mind because I'm old enough for it to be, and I'm 54.
I mean, that shouldn't, I have to keep reminding myself that there are people walking around who are 31 who go, 1980, what's that?
And what you have to know, what everybody has to know, is was it partially the magic of Reagan, or was it mostly 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 if we got that kind of dynamic going here, then can Romney win?
Of course he can.
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 stop 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.
It went static there for a second.
Hey, just wanted to get right to the point.
I just wanted 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 going to 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 going to run this campaign based on the fact that Obama is terrible.
But that doesn't get us anywhere because then four years from now, 2016, now the Republicans have a bad image because of what we've done.
Okay, maybe.
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've got stuff that's fresh in our memory.
But 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.
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.
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 96.
This is not like coming up against Obama in 2008.
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.
Alrighty, 1-800-282-2882.
When we return, 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 Connecticut.
Oh, well.
Anyway, I just would like to say that Mitch Romney cannot surprise us here because we have very high expectations of him because we think he would be the best thing since Ronald Reagan.
First of all, he's got a good economy, and we wouldn't like to vote for Noft or Rick Santorum because we just want someone who is not going to divide the country, probably unite them, and it's not standing out so far.
We are very happy for Mitch Romney, and he can even win Northeast, like the others wouldn't be able to win the Northeast.
Well, 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.
I would probably wonder where one gets the notion that expectations for Romney are high.
In fact, we've got a minute.
Because I really don't think so.
What makes you think?
I mean, as a matter of fact, let me take this up to the top because 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.
Mark Davis filling in.
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