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Oct. 23, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:02
October 23, 2012, Tuesday, Hour #2
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The views expressed by the host on this show documented to be almost always right 99.7% of the time.
The views expressed by the host on this program are that right because we daily, relentlessly pursue the truth and we find it and we exclaim it and a left goes nuts.
Great to have you here.
Telephone number 800-282-2882, the email address.
L. Rushbo at EIBnet.com.
F. Chuck Todd, just to repeat this, Ed, this is at the conclusion of the previous hour.
F. Chuck Todd, NBC News, who just yesterday said, well, you know, the incumbent at 47% in the gallery.
Well, it's two weeks out.
That's okay.
If it's one week to go and the incumbent's at 47%, we got a problem.
F. Chuck Todd, after last night's debate, said Obama has now lost the opportunity to attack Mitt Romney and to disqualify Romney.
He lost that.
That's what last night was.
F. Chuck has given it up.
Last night, world media hoping for blood from Romney in the water.
Last night, Romney was to be disqualified.
That was the agenda.
That was the objective.
The problem is Romney did not play.
Romney didn't cooperate.
And so F. Chuck Todd now says it's too late for Obama to disqualify Romney.
He has to re-qualify himself.
And Jim Rutenberg, our old buddy Jim Rutenberg at the New York Times, basically says the same thing.
Jim Rutenberg says that it's now unmistakable Obama is protecting his safest turf and Romney is seeing new opportunities to take it.
They are despondent all across the media.
They had such high hopes for Obama based on 2008.
Then, after the first debate debacle, they thought he really won the second one.
Last night, going to disqualify Romney on foreign policy.
Remember at the outset, at the outset, before the debate started, the left and the media all said foreign policy.
Last debate, that's Obama's strong suit.
They really, F. Chuck has given it up here.
They were going to disqualify Romney last night, and Romney didn't disqualify himself.
Interestingly, to people on our side, he did.
Snerdley's got the look of a curious puppy on his face to me, but no, I don't even want to get into it, but well, no, didn't go after him on Benghazi, agreed with him on Afghanistan, didn't attack him on Pakistan.
China.
So they just, they thought there were so many opportunities to go in here and just destroy Obama, and Romney didn't do it.
Here's Tina Brown.
She, the Daily Beast and Newsweek.
Tina Brown, another social doyen.
She's the Sally, what's her face?
Sally Quinn of New York.
Throws the best parties.
Goes to all the openings.
I mean, she's the social doyen.
She determines who's hip and who's not.
Ran Vanity Fair for the longest time.
And she was on Charlie Rose last night, as they all are.
And they were talking about the debate.
And here's what she said, big lib here, about Romney's performance.
I'm sure that John Bolton was wanting to throw himself out of the window when he watched this debate.
But I thought he just came up as wildly plausible.
So we have to be wildly plausible.
Bolton, I'm sure, is one of these guys that was devastated last night watching Romney.
You know, once Obama's ideology attacked, once it is.
And so she's right about that.
Bolton probably was wanting to throw himself out the window, but Romney came across plausible.
He did not disqualify himself.
That was the objective that the Obamaites had.
Here's Mike Allen, Politico.
He's on C-SPAN 2 last night.
He's the chief political correspondent for Politico, which is the official media campaign arm for Obama.
The Wall Street Journal using the word surge as they reported their poll for the president today.
And part of it is the tightening in these states, but also the fact that he's improving as you dig into the polls.
He's improving among women.
He's improving among how he would handle the economy.
Amazingly, Washington Post, ABC is out tonight with a poll showing the race tide, 49-48, the president had.
That's a wash, but also showing them almost tied in how they would handle terrorism, how they would handle foreign affairs.
For the commander-in-chief to, in the eyes of the voters, be on the same rung as Mr. Romney is quite remarkable.
They can't believe it.
There was another poll last night, one of these flash polls.
Who appeared commander-in-chief-like?
And it was Obama 63, Romney, 60.
But wait, if you already are commander-in-chief and only 63% say you came off that way, that is not good for you.
You already are commander-in-chief.
You better get close to 95 or 100 on that dude.
And to show up at 63, huge problem for Barack Hussein Obama.
Now, let's go back to 1980.
October 28th, Cleveland, Ohio.
The only debate between Ronaldo's Magnus and Jimmy Carter.
And it was the, the subject here was foreign policy.
It may be useful to hear this.
Some might say, I wouldn't say it because I don't want to destroy friendships here, but some might say that Romney might have been following a Reagan blueprint.
We have two sound bites here.
U.S. News and World Report press panelist Marvin Stone.
Governor Reagan, you've been criticized for being all too quick to advocate the use of lots of muscle, military action, to deal with foreign crises.
Specifically, what are the differences between the two of you on the uses of American military power?
I believe with all my heart that our first priority must be world peace and that use of force is always and only a last resort when everything else has failed.
And then only with regard to our national security.
We cannot shirk our responsibility as the leader of the free world because we're the only one that can do it.
And therefore, the burden of maintaining the peace falls on us.
And to maintain that peace requires strength.
I have seen four wars in my lifetime.
I'm a father of sons.
I have a grandson.
I don't ever want to see another generation of young Americans bleed their lives into sandy beachheads in the Pacific or rice paddies and jungles in Asia or the muddy battlefields of Europe.
Wow, pretty bland.
Didn't call the Soviets an evil empire in that sunbite.
Didn't say Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall.
This all came later.
During the debate in 1980, in this segment, Reagan was pretty generic talking about peace.
Barbara Walters was also a debate moderator.
Well, she was a panelist.
And she said, Governor, the eyes of the country tonight remain on the hostages in Iran, but the question of how we respond to acts of terrorism goes beyond this current crisis.
What have we learned from this experience in Iran that might cause us to do things differently if this or something similar should happen again?
I would be fearful that I might say something that was presently underway or in negotiations and thus expose it and endanger the hostages.
And sometimes I think some of my ideas might involve quiet diplomacy where you don't say in advance or say to anyone what it is you're thinking of doing.
Your question is difficult to answer because in the situation right now, no one wants to say anything that would inadvertently delay in any way the return of those hostages if there is a chance that they're coming home soon or that might cause them harm.
Well, he took a pass.
He basically let Carter's failure speak for itself.
I don't know.
Do you want to draw an analogy to that clip to Romney not talking about Benghazi?
I mean, the hostages were in the news.
Everybody knew what had happened.
Everybody knew Jimmy Carter's failed attempt to rescue him.
Everybody knew Jimmy Carter was an absolute buffoon when it came to foreign policy.
Everybody knew Jimmy Carter was a buffoon in the economy.
Here's Reagan.
He's got a chance to go in there and hammer Carter.
Just lowered the boom on the hostage.
I don't want to say anything.
There might be something going on I might not know about that could upset delicate negotiations or whatever.
He won in a landslide.
And then after sounding pretty bland here, we all know who Ronald Reagan was.
And we knew before this debate and before these two soundbites who Ronald Reagan was.
There was no mystery about who Reagan was.
There was no mystery about his anti-communism, his devotion to low taxes, to restoring the military.
Everybody knew it.
They also knew that Carter was a buffoon.
Just as today, people know that Obama is a disaster.
New Republic, in fact, today, headline, Romney plays Reagan and does it well enough.
New Republic, left-wing journal of opinion.
Romney plays Reagan, does well enough.
There's a fundraising letter.
I must have had 10 people send me this so far.
It's a fundraising letter that Obama sent out today.
I want to read to you the beginning of the Obama fundraising letter.
Dear Biff, I don't want to lose this election.
Not because of what losing would mean for me.
Michelle and I will be fine no matter what happens as we build the Barack Obama Center for Social Justice in Hawaii.
It doesn't say that, but that's what he's going to do.
But I don't want to lose this election, not because of what it would mean to me.
Michelle and I will be fine because we're rich, but because of what it would mean for our country and middle-class families.
The race is very good.
Does this not sound a little pathetic?
The incumbent president, after a debate performance that everybody says he won, But that it didn't matter, stop and think of that, has a fundraising letter out saying, I don't want to lose this election, not because of what it would mean for me.
Michelle and I, we're going to be cool, we're fine.
It's because of what it's going to mean to you and the middle class.
And then he goes on to ask for $5.
Time is running out to make an impact.
Don't wait any longer.
Donate $5 or more dollars today.
The Democrat National Committee is borrowing money.
They're out of money.
They are borrowing money.
Incredible.
Got a brief time out.
We'll come back.
More of your phone calls when we return.
And we are back.
And to the phones we go to Kansas City.
This is Chris.
It's great to have you on the EIB Network.
Hello.
Greetings, Mr. Lumbaugh.
Thank you for having me on the show.
I wanted to bring up talking about China and getting tough on China.
Barack Obama said that his administration was going after China for trying to dump cheap Chinese tires on the U.S. market.
So he came right out to the American public and admitted that he's raising the cost of basic goods that we need, like replacing our tires.
You think a lot of people picked up on that?
I almost jumped off my couch with that.
So his administration is going after ChiComs or trying to dump cheap Chinese tires.
ChiComs are dumping cheap everything.
Romney made a point that they're dumping cheap knockoffs.
It's not necessarily even, you know, China, but South Korea can make some things cheaper than we can here.
It all comes out to the unit cost.
Is it cheaper to make it there and send it here?
We can buy it for a lower price?
Or is it cheaper for it to be made in America?
And a lot of these problems.
Well, overall, let me ask you overall, the exchange on China, did anything about it upset you either way, Obama or Romney?
Because at some point, Bob Schieffer said, Governor Romney, it sounds like you're maybe on the verge of a trade war with China.
And Romney said, no, no, no, no, no.
Trade war.
We're already at a trade imbalance with China.
We can't afford that.
And then he launched into how we need leadership to deal with these people, live happily ever after.
And so, how did all that come off to you?
I think Mitt Romney was absolutely right that China is basically already in a trade war with us.
You know what are really cheap the ChiComs make is binders.
Have you ever had a Chinese binder?
Those are the cheapest damn binders that I have ever seen.
You don't want to buy, I don't care whether the binders fill the women or not.
You don't want a Chikom binder.
No, I've probably had quite a few of those fall apart on me quickly.
Yes.
No matter what's in them.
But anyway, I interrupted you.
What was your overall take of the discussion of China?
I thought Mitt Romney came off much better position because as he pointed out, China needs our markets more than we need China's markets right now.
They don't have, I mean, they've got many more people than we do, but they don't necessarily have more money to spend than most Americans would wind up with if our economy were running properly instead of being deranged as it is.
So they would want us to stay on friendly terms with them and not force them to play fair.
Well, it didn't come up, but one of the aspects of our relationship with China is their ownership of so much of our debt.
You know, that was unmentioned last night, but it is also a factor.
Chris, I appreciate the call.
Patrick, Naples, Florida, you're next.
It's great to have you with us.
Hello.
Rush, how are you doing, buddy?
Pretty good, sir.
Oh, good to talk to you.
First time caller.
Long time listener.
I want to talk about the debates.
I think Romney played it masterful.
I think what he did was after he really won that first one, the administration's policy or their attack plan was to try to make Romney look like a liar with a comeback that's just not true.
Check the facts.
One thing Romney is, and maybe a lot of things, he's not a liar.
I think most of America sees that.
And this ticky-tacky policy they got to try to make him a liar is just blown up in Barack Obama's face.
I think that's kind of an underlying thing.
Yeah, it's an interesting thing that you bring up.
I got an email today from the guy who runs the blog, The Right Scoop, Seton Motley.
And he'd gone back to the archives of this program.
May 22nd, Charlie Rose, PBS, was talking with Time magazine, Mark Halperin.
And you remember back then, they were trying to link Romney to Bain Capital and to Wall Street, and they wanted Romney.
If you forget, I maintained from the beginning that the Obama campaign wanted Romney.
Occupy Wall Street was created to oppose Romney.
Romney was Wall Street.
Romney was Bain Capital.
They were going to try to disqualify Romney on the basis of the 1% and so forth.
It's fascinating to go back here to May of this year.
Mark Halperin discussing the strategy of going after Romney with Charlie Rose.
The economic fundamentals are really against the president.
The Washington Post poll that was mentioned shows that something like, I think it's 14% of the people think they're better off than they were before the president took office.
That's a startling number.
I think that Governor Romney is surviving this Bain attack.
He may not in the long run, but I think the facts of it and the way they're burning it out, it was an issue earlier.
I think that a lot of the attacks they're going to make on Governor Romney may burn themselves out before the general election.
And I think that Obama people may be overestimating the extent to which people are paying attention now.
So for the press and for some people, I think they're burning him out too quickly.
And I think, again, when the time comes when people start to pay attention, if Governor Romney rises to the occasion, I think he's got a chance to win this much better than I thought before.
That's Time magazine Mark Halperin back in May with Charlie Rose.
When it comes, it comes with people, the time comes, people start to pay attention.
If Romney rises to the occasion, I think he has a chance to win much better than I thought before.
And that's because the regime's attempt to link him to Bain wasn't working then.
So Charlie Rose said to Mark Halperin, well, he has essentially survived all that in the bitter primary process, Mark.
If they don't disqualify him the way President Bush disqualified John Kerry, I think he'll be able to win.
If Governor Romney looks strong month to month, a lot of conservative millionaires and billionaires are going to give to these super PACs in a way that may give Governor Romney a huge advantage, a huge advantage in money in the 9 to 12 states that will decide this.
And again, that can help him survive.
As long as the Democrats don't knock him out, I think he'll win.
That's back in May.
So Halperin was being upfront honest with his, I'll call them fears, because I don't think Halperin really wants Romney to win this, and I don't think he wanted Romney to win it back in May.
But even back in May, he had misgivings about the regime's campaign.
And if they didn't take Romney out on all this stuff, Halperin was saying he's going to win because Obama's got nothing here.
Only 14% of the people think they're better off now than when Obama took office.
That's not a re-elect number, only 14%.
So they've given it their best shot, and now they're going back to recycling earlier campaign strategies.
They haven't disqualified Romney.
And that's what that debate last night was supposed to do, foreign policy.
And it didn't happen.
You're guiding light through times of trouble, confusion, murkiness, tumult, despair.
Actually, through all of the times, folks, this is the one place every day tunes in to find out exactly what something means.
This is it.
Happy to have you here.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882.
The email address, LRushpo at EIBnet.com.
I've got the soundbite roster, and I'm going to go out of order, and I'm looking to where I want to go.
I got so many debate soundbites, and I'm not really crazy about those because we all saw Fox had a record number last night, by the way.
11.5 million.
Baseball, I think I read baseball had an 8 million audience.
And Fox still had a record, had a higher viewership for last night than the second debate.
By the way, the Rasmussen poll, I meant to mention that earlier.
9.30 this morning, Rasmussen Obama is at 46.
Romney at 50.
The first time in months, either one of these guys has been at 50, not counting post-convention or debate bounces.
In Gallup today, it's a five-pointer.
Romney 51, Obama 46.
Rasmussen was in the top two of accuracy in terms of the 08 presidential polls.
Gallup was like 15 or 16.
And this is likely voters.
So Rasmussen 50-46.
Gallup 51-46.
This will not, this includes the second debate.
Rasmussen does not include last night.
Billings, Montana.
Mary, I'm glad you called.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
I am so honored to speak to you.
Thank you very much.
Same here.
I'm a first-time caller.
I raised a Rush baby who's now in college, and I now have a Rush foster baby, maybe your first publicly identified Rush foster baby.
God bless you.
She's fighting your battle at her senior high school every day.
God bless you, madam.
God bless you.
I really appreciate your saying that.
Thank you so much.
I have to confess, I voted for Obama in 2008.
Okay, next call.
Who do we have?
Let's see.
Just kidding.
Just kidding.
I know, I know.
It was the first time I've ever voted for a Democrat for president.
Tell me why.
Tell me why.
Be honest.
Tell me there's no criticism.
Nobody's going to.
Why did you do it?
I was disgusted with the Republican Party because it kept nominating fiscal moderates.
I believe George H.W. Bush was not fiscally conservative.
I believe George W. Bush was not fiscally conservative.
And then along comes McCain, and you know he's not a fiscal conservative.
And then he picked Sarah Palin, who, although I think she is a very good conservative wife, I don't think she was ready to be commander-in-chief by any stretch.
I thought it was premature for her to come to that public stage at that time.
And at that point, I thought the nominees of my party are not conservative.
Did you think Obama was?
No, but I thought if we're going to let a liberal program run this country, let's put a name on it that matches the program.
And it was a liberal, or at least a moderate program, so let the Democrats own it because right now they do own it.
And Obama has done such a thoroughly horrible way.
I want to make sure I understand.
Was part of your thinking, look at, as long as we're going to elect a liberal Democrat, let's go hog wild and let's have them own it.
Let's show the country what it's going to be like with these people running the show.
Was that part of your thinking?
That is my entire thinking, right, in a nutshell.
Good job.
Yes.
Do you realize how close you came to participating in the destruction of this country?
Well, sometimes you have to grab the American public by the lapels and say, do you really want to give everything you earn at work away to people who choose not to work?
Do you think that is why Obama is having trouble now because people have figured out that he is not good for them economically?
Well, hell yeah.
He's not good for me.
Let me ask you this.
What impact, if any, have you always been for Romney in this campaign?
Yes.
Okay.
Never mind that.
I was going to ask you what impact did Romney's first debate performance have on you, but like I thought, you've been all in for whoever the Republican nominee is because no more liberalism, no more Obama, it doesn't matter.
You're all in with a Tea Party, for all intents and purposes.
We can't handle this anymore, right?
We can't.
We cannot allow four more years of this because we are headed toward the same kind of fate as Greece.
We can't, there aren't enough people at work like myself to support and carry everybody who's not working.
I mean, look at 47 million people on food stamps as opposed to, what, 30, 30-some million?
23 million people not working.
The labor force participation rate shrinks weekly.
One out of every six Americans in poverty, and Obama wants to take even more money away from the remaining members of the workforce.
I'm a single mom.
I am hardly making it on my own, and it's hard to do it.
And I can't see another four years like the last four years.
Do you have any guilt over what you did?
I absolutely do not because we had to bring America to a sobering moment to say, I'm conservative, dammit, and I'm proud of it, and I want conservative political policy.
You think that your vote, which helped elect this disaster, you think your vote ultimately has saved America by educating and informing enough Americans exactly what they're going to get with guys like Obama and the rest of the Democrat Party.
Is that what you think?
I think so.
I hated to do it.
My parents didn't talk to me for three weeks after I told them I voted for Obama.
But I thought this country has to be ready to embrace fiscal conservatism again because we haven't been proud of it since Reagan.
We have not embraced it.
Do you think Romney is a fiscal conservative?
I think he has come to that belief and realization.
I don't think he was there four years ago, but I am very much in confidence and hope that he believes it now because he's a smart man.
He's a smart businessman.
He sees what's happening in Europe.
I believe he has come to the same point that a lot of Americans have, that we have to get our fiscal house in order or we will sink like the rest of these countries we've seen over the last year or so just fall apart.
Or worse.
Or worse.
I actually think.
We're the last bastion.
If we don't do it.
I actually think if this guy gets elected, we're really, that thought scares me like I haven't been scared before.
It really, it really, really does.
I hope everybody's as scared as you in Ohio are.
I think more people than we realize are.
Well, Mary, I appreciate the call.
I appreciate your honesty here.
You called here.
You willingly admitted culpability.
And you did so with great diplom and even confidence, great pride in what you've helped bring about here.
Your hope is it had to happen.
I mean, too many Republicans apologize for wanting conservative fiscal policy, and we've got to stop apologizing for that.
And I think we're there now.
Well, that's yet to be seen, but we're on the right road in that regard.
There's always – look, I don't want to go there now.
I'm going to do that after the election, but there are challenges ahead.
I'll just, Mary, let me just tell you one thing about that because I don't want to be accused of teasing.
So if, let's do hypothetically, if Romney wins, and that's the reason I ask you the question, if Romney wins, there are going to be, there will be a competition in the Republican Party for people who want to take credit for it.
And basically, you're going to have two factions.
One faction will be the Republican establishment, which will say their strategy of moderation, cooperation, reaching across the aisle, not scaring the independents, Romney's first debate performance, that's what did it.
The other faction will be the Tea Party and conservatives who will say, if you guys don't wake up and realize that what won this election for you is this far-left agenda of the Democrat Party scaring this country to the point that people didn't want any more of it, if you don't realize what that means, you're going to have to go back to the 2010 midterms.
If you want to understand why Romney won this election, go back to 2010 midterms.
It was everything Obama stands for was rejected, and there wasn't a Republican on the ballot then.
That's right.
But that's for down the road.
It may not even materialize.
But if it does, that will be the, you know, even in the best families, there are arguments and there are disagreements.
And it'll be the case here in due course.
But if Romney wins, there will still be a lot of work to do.
We've got to win the Senate, too.
If we have any hope of repealing Obamacare, we have to win the Senate.
Have to.
That's why I keep touting to you what our great sponsor, the people at Freedom Works, are doing.
Their grassroots efforts are focused.
I mean, the presidency is an election that, by definition, involves everybody across the country.
But the Senate, that's what grassroots people are working on right now.
Get rid of Harry Reid.
Get rid of the Senate leadership, the Democrat Party.
It's crucial.
That has to happen along with Obama being sent back to the Obama Center for Social Justice in Hawaii, wherever they build it.
No, it's not going to be.
No, no, it'll be Hawaii, Snirdly.
Don't even tempt me to tell you.
Here's Mike in Houston, Missouri.
It's great to have you, sir, on the EIB network.
Hi.
Hi, Rush.
We didn't need to re-indict Obama last night, and that's why the prosecutor Romney didn't have to on any other subject but the economy.
And November 6th will be the conviction and sentencing.
Okay, let me ask you a question.
Now, seriously, I'm not trying to put you on the spot.
I'm trying to learn.
You just said something intriguing to me.
You said essentially he doesn't need to indict Obama on Benghazi.
Everybody knows about it.
Right.
Well, everybody knows about the economy, too.
And we love it when he hammers Obama on the economy.
I mean, everybody's living this economy.
Everybody in the world is living this economy.
And when Obama gets hammered on it, when Romney recites those stats, we stand up and cheer.
And that's what a lot of people wanted to do last night on Benghazi.
They wanted to stand up and cheer.
We're talking about four dead Americans here.
And Americans, they don't want the apparent result that Obama's getting away with it.
Your opinion is that he's not getting away with it.
Everybody knows, and that Romney didn't need to go there.
Rush, this president has done enough to have been impeached two or three different times.
And we know after the last episode that November 6th is when he will be impeached.
In a manner of speaking.
In a manner of speaking.
Yeah.
But thank God we have that ability to get someone like this out of office.
Yeah, but along with it, we have the opportunity to put him in office.
That's, you know, the people that put him in office are as scary as he is.
Except they're coming around now.
You know, there were a lot of people.
That caller we had who voted for Obama, she was just fed up with the GOP.
She was not even voting for Obama.
She was just protesting.
She'd had it with W, and McCain comes along, and folks, we all know, I mean, that was a stinker.
That was a hole your nose and pull a lever.
She said, hell with it.
There are a lot of people who voted for Obama because they thought it's historical.
First black president.
A lot of people voted for him because they bought into this, never had anybody like this before.
We're going to get rid of all the problems.
Regardless of what the reasons were, that's the context you have to look at Obama today in 2008.
And he doesn't measure up in any way.
In not a single way does Obama remind anybody of who he pretended to be and who they told us he was in 2008.
And that's what he can't overcome.
And he doesn't have an economic record he can tout.
And Mike here is right.
I mean, there's he's been indicted by the American people already.
We'll be back.
It's the fastest three hours in media, and we've got one more to go.
One more remains.
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