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Aug. 31, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:54
August 31, 2012, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Hey folks, how are you doing?
How are you?
How's everybody?
It is the EIB Network, excellence in broadcasting, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-feeling, all-sensing, all-concerned, maha-rushy, ready to go on Friday.
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I thought it was fantastic.
I thought the Romney speech was great.
I don't have any complaints about it.
Maybe a couple of nitpicks, but I think mission accomplished.
Now we see.
How many of you saw it, how it can be built upon?
I have the convention built.
I'm going to go out on a limb.
I'm going to say something.
You know, I usually don't say controversial things.
But I'm going to take a little risk here.
When this convention started, Monday, I mean, even though they took the day off, I mean, they still...
When the delegates gathered, when they first got together at the convention hall, the arena, whatever it was in Tampa, I think, fair to say...
safe to say that that was not Mitt Romney's convention.
And by that I mean the people gathered there were not jazzed to be part of Mitt Romney.
I think the unifying thing at the convention early on was we got to save the country.
We have to beat Obama.
We're unified.
We have a sense of purpose here.
There were some doubts.
And I think by the end of last night, it had become Mitt Romney's convention.
And I think it's become Mitt Romney's party.
And I think it has become Mitt Romney's cause.
And I think they did an amazing thing.
Romney, his organizers, the people there started.
I think that's the starting point.
I really do.
You may disagree with me.
And by that, I mean, when I saw camera shots of the first night of the convention, if Romney would have shown up, surprise appearance, hey, look, there's Mitt.
Okay, cool.
No big deal.
They were there.
He's the nominee.
He's going to do the speeches.
We're going to nominate him.
We're going to move on.
But that's not why everybody was there.
There were doubts.
There was some fears.
But by the close of business last night, it had become his convention.
It had become his party.
It became his cause.
And everybody is on board.
I mean, some stragglers, of course.
But I think it was a great unifying three days.
It was real.
From beginning to end, it was real.
It wasn't staged.
It wasn't phony.
Real people.
Just average ordinary people doing things, saying things, reacting, speakers, people in the crowd.
It was real.
And the values, the values that were front and center day and night in this convention.
I'll probably get into a little trouble for saying this because people will think it's not helpful.
But the values that we got throughout this convention, the things that we heard, the stories people told, the way they look at their lives, the way they live their lives, the way they look at the country, the way they see the future, what their hopes and dreams are.
It was an America of 40 years ago, 30 years ago.
It was last night was what I think used to be normal for vast swaths, vast majority swaths of this country.
Last night was almost a time machine where we went back in time to an America that we all grew up in, an America we all desperately hope exists again.
And I'm talking about it in the standpoint of values.
I'm not talking about skin color or war on women, ethnicity, religion, any of that.
I'm just straightforward values.
Every speaker, Marco Rubio, Susanna Martinez, you name it, every Nikki Haley, every speaker had a rags to riches story that defined and explained by virtue of the story alone, the greatness of this country.
The greatness of America was on display throughout this convention.
There wasn't anybody up there doesn't like this country.
There wasn't anybody up there blaming this country.
It was quite the opposite.
It really was heartwarming.
Then some of the individual stories last night, this need to humanize Romney, it offends me.
It has always offended me, by the way.
This need to humanize conservatives anyway offends me.
The idea that conservatives somehow don't have compassion just by definition of being conservatives has always offended me.
But some of the stories that were told about Romney last night, the 14-year-old kid with cancer, Romney befriending him, hospital visits frequently, writing the young man's will.
People were in tears listening to this story.
Things people didn't know.
People didn't know that Romney's dad put a red rose on his mother's bedside every morning or every night.
And that's how his mother learned his father had died.
One day the rose wasn't there.
People hadn't heard that story before.
There were Marco Rubio's speech last night.
Marco Rubio is speaking in that speech.
Marco Rubio speaks the future of America by defining and reminding people of our greatness in the past.
Marco Rubio was speaking for an entire generation or two of Americans, young today, who have their lives ahead of them.
I think Rubio's speech, I think the way he delivered it, I think it resonated with people all across the fruited plane that you wouldn't even think.
But from beginning to end, we had a celebration of the uniqueness and the exceptionalism of America.
Every person, there wasn't one angry person angry at the country.
There wasn't one person who wanted to blame the country or anybody else, other than Obama, of course.
And I thought Romney, and I'll be honest with you, I had a lot of people, friends, family, told me yesterday afternoon, last night, they were scared.
They were worried.
Romney was going to blow it.
He's just too stiff.
He can't pull this stuff off.
Rush convention should have ended Wednesday night.
If it had just ended it Wednesday, it would have been perfect.
And I told everybody that said that to me, I have a different feeling, just a gut instinct.
I think Romney's going to be good tonight.
I think Romney's going to be fine tonight.
I think you're going to be surprised by Romney.
And then I saw one of the excerpts, one of the lines excerted from the speech that they put out before he gave us, oh, no, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.
That's the line where he said he'd hoped President Obama succeeds.
So why do we have to say that?
But that line, when delivered, kind of got in there, got it, and got out.
It didn't linger.
It turned out not to be a focal point, nor was it thematic.
It was just tossed in there.
There are people today who are nitpicking and saying, you know, Romney should have other people tell these stories about him.
He can't do it himself.
At Staples, why get some, why all just the executives at all these companies at Bain Safe?
Why not get some people that work there whose jobs are saved and stuff?
I understand that.
But I think great progress was made.
I think the storytelling that was part of this convention needed to happen.
I think to counter the drivel that comes from the left, such as Romney caused my wife's cancer, those stories are real.
People out there who believe that stuff.
So I'm happier even today than I was yesterday that we didn't go second, that the Democrats are now on defense.
You look at these testimonials about Romney last night throughout this convention.
Do we have anybody?
Does Obama have anybody to tell a story like that about?
His brother can't tell a story about charity.
His brother can't tell a story about personal compassion from Obama.
There's nobody.
I mean, the Democrats have to be scrambling right now.
Well, that's what I'm talking about.
Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright.
I mean, nobody knows Obama.
Even in these four years, people he taught, supposedly, at Chicago or the University of Chicago Law School, where are these people that say they've been inspired by Obama?
I mean, Romney's got them from every day that he's been alive.
With Obama, we can't find them.
We don't know who they are.
And they've never been eager to put these people forward.
I think telling these personal stories was a great approach because I think most, see, this is what I'm ultimately getting at.
I believe, regardless, the cultural depravity that has occurred in this country over the years and the watering down of values, I still think that most people live their lives as conservatives.
May not know it, just like Susanna Martinez didn't know she was a Republican until she sat down and talked to a couple.
So when you had these stories told last night, I think a lot of, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't know who.
Maybe I live in Dreamland and I think I live in Rioville and maybe I'm not.
Maybe I'm in Dreamland.
You tell me.
But I don't know how anybody who heard any of this convention could not like The United States of America as described.
But they do.
But I think they're fringe.
The people that did watch this, I think it was real progress that was made.
The line of the convention, sum up the whole convention, Mitt Romney.
And by the way, in addition to the line, the delivery, the timing.
Let me look.
I just got the soundbite roster.
I haven't even checked if we've got.
I know we've got it.
I just want to make sure we've got the whole.
Well, I'll find it during the break.
Here's the line.
President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans.
Pause.
Slow building laughter among the attendees.
Romney's facial expression, perfect.
Sense of timing, perfect.
He paused.
At just the right moment, he continued, and heal the planet.
Laughter continued and crescendoed.
Romney paused again with great timing.
My promise is to help you and your family.
That's it.
It's number 25.
Here's this.
How long is that bite?
Okay, then we have an edit.
That's good.
Okay, here's the bite.
Here it is.
The only thing you can't see here, obviously, Romney's facial expression, but they were priceless.
President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet.
My promise is to help you and your family.
I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour.
President Obama began his presidency with an apology tour.
America, he said, had dictated to other nations.
No, Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.
President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans.
There was a long bit of laughter.
And then heal the planet.
My promise is to help you and your family.
That whole thing without editing takes 40 seconds, and it is priceless.
And then another great line: when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American.
Yeah, hearken back, folks, to the days, and when he talked about Neil Armstrong and landing on the moon, how everybody, I was alive, people that were alive then, we felt like we were part of the greatest nation on earth.
There was a visceral pride that people felt in their country.
It's not felt today.
There is no commensurate pride in America, right?
But it was revived last night.
It was brought back to life by people who still live it, who still believe it, and who want to make it again the reality.
I was struck.
I really was struck.
I can't remember who wrote them.
It might have been Michael Daly in the New York Post.
I think it was.
He wrote a piece a month ago paraphrasing.
Romney's biggest problem is when he was born.
His view of America just doesn't exist anymore.
And I was thinking about that last night.
And I can see why some people might think that.
You always hear people say, well, you can't go back.
You can't turn back the hands of time.
You can't go back to a simpler, more innocent time, we're told.
And I understand that.
But this convention and the stories that were told and the speeches that were given and the reverence for this country, the greatness of this country, the opportunity, the exceptionalism, the uniqueness, it was all on parade.
And it made me feel like it can be grasped again.
That it can come back to life as it was.
And there was nothing wrong with it.
It's certainly, whatever America was, and it's always had its faults, it was never guilty.
America has never been guilty of anything.
It never deserves to be cut down, disciples, or punished, or what have you.
When the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American.
Do you know that on MSNBC that's racist?
That, well, because Obama's not an American, so he wasn't born here.
It's a birther.
That was Romney's secret code speak to birthers.
Because Obama's not an American.
That's what Romney was trying to say.
That's how base, that is how shallow and baseless they are.
I got to take a break.
I'm way long.
Don't go anywhere.
I am not joking, and I'm not making it up.
There are, my God, the Democrat tweets and emails all over the place about Romney saying when the world needs somebody to do the really big stuff, you need an American.
There are people out there tweeting that they loathe Romney for this.
They hated him before that, but when he said this, now they loathe him.
And it's a connection to the birthers.
Even Alan Combs of Fox News, a couple hours ago, calls this Romney's nod to the birthers.
Where do we get these people?
What happened to these people?
What happened to make them have such a perverted view of the United States of America?
I cannot really, all I can do is try to understand.
I can't relate to somebody who does not understand when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American.
Well, okay, who you rather have?
When the world really needs somebody to do the really big stuff, who else but?
That's the way it's always been.
And Condoleezza Rice made the point.
Why?
Because of our values, our morality, our liberty and freedom.
We're the beacon.
Who was it that said last?
It might have been Rubio or could have been Romney.
There are people trying to turn this country into the kind of country people leave other places for to come here.
But how in the world you can be offended when the world needs somebody to do the really big stuff?
You need an American?
Especially in the context of praising, memorializing Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.
But they're out there, folks.
They're among us.
Think about it.
Think about it, folks.
Could Obama have given Romney's speech last night?
He'd have choked on it.
He would have been embarrassed.
Plus, he'd have been pelted rotten eggs and stuff from the people at his convention, were he to give a speech like Romney gave last night.
Here is the soundbite I was referring to earlier.
It's Marco Rubio who made the comment I just paraphrased.
This from his speech last night.
Our problem is not that he's a bad person.
Our problem is that he's a bad president.
These are tired and old big government ideas that have failed every time and everywhere they've been tried.
These are ideas that people come to America to get away from.
That's it.
That's it.
No, no, keep going.
Keep going.
Sadly, millions of Americans are insecure about their future.
But instead of inspiring us by reminding us of what makes us special, he divides us against each other.
Exactly.
He tells Americans that they're worse off because others are better off.
Exactly right.
That rich people got rich by making other people poor.
Hope and change has become divide and conquer.
That's exactly right.
Rubio was fabulous last night.
And folks, I can't get over it.
I was moved by this convention.
I hate to tell you, only 3 million people watch it on BC.
This may be, when all the numbers are in, may be the lowest watched presidential acceptance speech TV history, which is a shame.
It's too bad because it was good.
Yeah, I loved Eastwood.
I even thought that was bold and good.
And I'll tell you what, folks, let me just give you a little hint on how to translate the left today.
The left, and this is predictable, they're destroying Eastwood and Hollywood types are destroying Eastwood.
Oh, Clint, what's happened to poor old Clint?
Oh, he looked like he's got Alzheimer.
Oh, no, you see how Clint was.
He didn't even know where he was.
I mean, they are dumping all over Eastwood.
And you know why?
Because they can't hit Romney.
And they've got to hit something.
But Romney's speech doesn't have a whole lot hitable in it.
Oh, they were sending out their emails last night.
We're on their mailing lists.
Every five, ten minutes, they were sending out emails asking for three bucks.
The Democratic, various fundraising organizations asking for three bucks.
That Paul Ryan, he lied through his teeth.
And now Romney, he's lying through his teeth.
But that stuff is pro forma.
The target that Eastwood's become.
And by the way, let me tell you something.
Eastwood succeeded in getting under Obama's skin at 12:30 last night.
Somebody, on behalf of Obama, and for all I know, it was Obama himself, tweeted a picture of Obama in an official presidential chair.
Looks like it's in the cabinet room.
Might be in the oval, but regardless, official presidential chair.
And it's got a little miniature plaque on the back of the chair that says President U.S. 2009.
And the tweet is, this seat is taken.
Now, this is the old stress he, we've talked about this.
So here they needle Obama.
He's so transparent.
We can depict this guy as an empty chair.
And it must have gotten to him because he tweeted at 12:30 or somebody did in his name.
Tweets that, nope, sorry, this tweet's taken, rather than ignore it.
So you see, here's somebody who chose the philosophy of responding, of replying, of fighting back.
And now a lot of people say, aha, it worked.
It got under his skin.
And it did.
And I wondered what the heck was going on.
I didn't get it for a while because my hearing is such I had to wait for closed captioning to catch up with what Eastwood was saying at the beginning.
And whoever was doing the transcribing didn't know what he was saying because it was ad-lib.
They didn't have any of it on a prompter, so they couldn't have pre-loaded it for the captioners.
So I'm starting to get nervous.
And then, and I saw that empty chair, and what is that doing in there?
Took me a while to figure out that Eastwood was looking at the empty chair, and it was Obama there.
He's having this imaginary conversation.
And I realized what was going on.
This is a great bit.
And Eastwood was the essence of simplicity.
How somebody not doing a job, let them go.
Just simple as it could be.
Real world simple.
Plus, it was hilarious.
It was funny.
Of course, we are people who like laughing at Obama.
The other side doesn't.
Also, this has not been reported on much.
I haven't seen it anywhere.
I got a secret email yesterday afternoon.
Stan Greenberg and James Carville have this company.
It's called Democracy Corpse.
And they go out there and they do polling.
And you recall that it was Carville who warned Obama some months ago: don't go out there and talk about the economy, especially an economy and a recovery.
Don't go out there and try to convince people that we're roaring back because we're not, and they know it because they're living it.
He warned Obama, stay away from it.
Well, guess what?
Carville and Greenberg have just released a new poll, and it's devastating for Obama among independents.
The precious, eagerly sought, oh, God, everybody loves them, independents.
Romney leads Obama.
This is a poll this week by 15 points, 53 to 38 in independence.
This is remarkable.
This is a Stan Greenberg and James Carville poll.
Independents disapprove of Obama's job performance 56 to 40 percent.
And when looking at intensity, disapproval is greater than two to one, 47 to 20 percent.
It is devastating.
This is James Carville's own poll.
Now, according to exit polling, Obama won a majority of independence in 2008.
That was 52 to 44 is what he got, eight-point majority in the election 2008, according to exit polls.
His cratering of support among swing voters reflected in this Carville poll and in many others is the equivalent of losing more than 5.3 million independent voters from his 2008 total.
This is undoubtedly the kind of polling data they have in the White House, the often referred to internals, meaning the real stuff.
The candidates have to know the truth.
They do not put out polls to try to affect news, the shape opinion.
They have to deal in Realville when it comes to polls.
We never see the polls.
The candidates do.
We never.
All we see are the polls from the news networks and other polling organizations.
And of course, they have their own agendas.
But the candidate polls, or in this case, the White House polls, this is as close as we're ever going to get to seeing one, the Carville and Greenberg poll.
And if people live and die, A, with polls, and then live and die, the independent vote, right now to see Obama down 15 points.
And this was before the convention added this.
They got this yesterday.
And the convention had not been going on long enough to have been a large factor.
Now, here's why.
Here's why the deficit.
President Obama's government-centered policies created the chasm that he now faces with independence, and any likability advantage that he holds has been unable to bridge the ideology divide.
So his likability is not making up for the chasm that independents have, or the chasm created with independence over big government.
The independents are rejecting big government, government-centric policies, according to a poll from Carville and Greenberg.
So I'm sure this is what they've got in the White House.
And this is why they're panicked.
And it's why they've been panicked for a while.
And the likability isn't making up for it.
Now, it's fascinating.
Folks, there's a story that without me putting these two things together, you might not be able to assemble in the proper context.
Our old buddy Jim Rutenberg at the New York Times, who is one of maybe three people there in the last 24 years who has written fairly of me.
That's why I call him our old buddy.
It's hurt him a little bit, but we stick with it.
Emotional ties to Obama may be central to the election.
Now, remember what we just heard?
Independents prefer Romney by 15 over Obama from a Stan Greenberg-James Carville poll.
The reason the independents don't like big government and government-centric policies of Obama and his likability is not bridging the gap.
Ergo, New York Times, through three nights of gauzy videos, sentimental testimonials, and finally his own speech to the nation, Mitt Romney, worked hard to show he has a heart.
But he still needs to tackle the much harder job of convincing those Americans who so emotionally invested their hearts in Obama four years ago that it's time to accept that his presidency did not work.
Now, the point of Rutenberg's piece here, the emotional ties to Obama make it hard for people to accept that he is a failure as a president.
That's their hope.
That's what they're clinging to here.
That's what this means.
His presidency is a failure.
Everybody knows it.
But there was so much hope and there was so much emotion tied to Obama, so much invested.
Oh, we love the guy and he's such a new fresh face.
He's the first black president.
We wanted him to succeed.
And the theory is that the tie, the strength of that emotional bond is such that not even a failed presidency can break it.
But, but, we go to Carville-Greenberg.
Uh-oh, contradictory.
The emotional tie is not enough to keep the independents from disapproving of Obama by 15 points.
So my take is Greenberg-Carville comes first.
They put their information out.
This is yesterday.
The next day today, we get this story, the New York Times, basically refuting it.
That the emotional ties of Obama voters who now acknowledge he's a failure as a president will make it tough for them to abandon him.
And in the Greenberg-Carville poll, they already have.
Why are you frowning?
Am I not making this?
Good.
I thought you were frowning in there because you didn't understand what I was saying.
And I don't know how much clearer I can make this.
So what's your question?
What are they going to do to change the emotional tie?
No.
Keep their people from getting depressed.
Keep their people from getting dispirited.
Give them something to hold on to.
They're not trying to change reality.
They're trying to blunt reality.
They're trying to tell, don't worry, don't worry.
People still love the guy, and that's going to be enough.
That's the point of the New York Times story, even though Carville and Greenberg's poll says it ain't even close to enough.
Well, this is interesting.
Romney, first stop leaving Tampa today, New Orleans.
Obama, first stop, Texas.
Guess what?
Obama changed his itinerary.
Obama's now going to New Orleans.
I kid you not.
Romney announces he's going to New Orleans.
That's been a lead item on Drudge for an hour or so, leaving Tampa.
Also, same item on Drudge.
Obama headed to Texas.
What's Obama doing in Texas, by the way?
And what's he doing all this time in Iowa for?
Now, why is he going to New Orleans?
They've written Louisiana off.
That's why Obama and the boys haven't been there during the actual hurricane or the storm.
I mentioned this yesterday.
I've already written it off.
Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, going Romney.
There's no reason to send FEMA in there.
The photo op, don't need that.
It's all about electoral votes now.
But now that Romney's headed down, they get Obama's itinerary changing a little bit.
And Obama's going into New Orleans.
Fascinating.
Rubio said something in that soundbite of his.
Let me find it.
Why didn't I keep it?
There it is.
Our problem is not that he's a bad person.
Okay?
Let's go to soundbite number one.
Marco Rubio.
Our problem with Obama is he's not a bad person.
Here's Ed Rollins yesterday afternoon on Fox with Megan Kelly.
Megan Kelly said, you know, it was clearly a theme last night over and over again.
They pounded that it's something to be proud of in this country to be successful.
The foundation of what this country was built on is success.
Ed, did the Republicans make their case?
They certainly did, to a certain extent.
The president and his team are not bad people, in spite of Rush Limbaugh going to criticize us for saying he's not a bad guy.
They just have a different viewpoint.
And I think the viewpoint is that we need government to interfere.
We need to redistribute wealth.
Government needs to be the referee.
Our perspective is stay out of our way and let us just go.
Give us the freedom to go achieve the things that we want to achieve as an American.
Where does this idea get started that I want the Republicans at the convention to say Obama's a bad guy?
Where did that?
I have no such desire.
I've never stated that I want them to talk about Obama being a bad guy.
My express desire has been that there be some leadership.
It's almost as though, and you couple the Rutenberg piece, the emotional ties that Obama voters have with him.
Rubio and Romney, almost, you could almost say that their approach was to tell those, it's okay to not vote for Obama.
Now, you don't have to.
You have permission not to vote for him.
And that's an acknowledgement of that emotional tie.
And I don't dispute it.
They're acknowledging that there's this emotional tie people had.
First black president, they think he's a nice guy.
Yip, yip, yep, yip, yahoo.
And so their theme was: rather than bash Obama, which I don't want anybody bashing Obama.
It's never what I want to talk about.
But I do think I've only got 45 seconds, and I'm not going to be able to say everything I want to say in 45.
My whole, if I've had a desire, has been for there to be, while we're explaining who we are, all I've asked for is some ideology.
Just explain liberalism.
Just tell them who Obama is in that regard.
They obviously didn't want to do it.
They were obviously afraid to say things like, Obama doesn't have the same view of America we do.
In his world, America is guilty, doesn't deserve to be a superpower because we have stolen.
There's a movie out there that people are showing up to in droves to see that makes this point.
Maybe they're relying on it.
I don't know.
But I don't want to say he's a bad guy.
All I've ever said is get some ideology in this.
Explain what conservatism is.
Explain what liberalism is.
It's so easy to do, and it's highly educational.
Anyway, sorry to tease you, but I have to take a break.
Got to go.
Look, folks, it's never been that I want them to say he's a bad guy.
I did sort of blanch when I thought they were going to say he's a good guy.
A good guy does not accuse you of causing another man's wife to die of cancer.
A good guy does not accuse you of shoving grandma over the cliff to die in a wheelchair.
Nice guys, good guys don't do that kind of stuff.
Anyway, we'll get to your phone calls in the next hour.
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