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Oct. 11, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:52
October 11, 2013, Friday, Hour #2
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Time Text
And greetings.
Welcome back, folks.
Great to have you.
Rush Limboy ending a fabulous week of broadcast excellence once again.
We find ourselves here on Friday.
So let's.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
No, I'm not going to divulge the rumor.
Geez!
Do I want people to be blindsided if it happens?
Well, they would be blindsided anyway.
I mean, I'm not.
Snerdly, a stupid, bogus poll has totally destroyed everybody today.
I'm not piling on wood.
I'm just, I'm not.
It really is amazing.
It really is amazing.
Obama's taking it on its hand.
The Obamacare rollout's an absolute disaster.
Wherever you look elsewhere, the polling of the people of this country is such America's satisfaction with the U.S. government drops to new low.
Americans speaking out on government shutdown.
I think Obama is being kind of crappy.
In the NBC Wall Street Journal poll, 51% think that Obama's doing this just to advance his agenda.
He didn't really care about any of this.
And yet, one bogus aspect of this poll has totally destroyed everybody.
Our first caller up there, Shelly, she's beside herself.
I don't know how you're going.
Let's take the call.
Is she ready?
Shelly in Port Angeles, Washington.
I've referred to you twice here.
I'm as well.
Say hello.
Hi.
Well, then I'm getting famous, I guess, Rush.
Thank you for taking my call.
Yeah, you were going to be famous anyway, just by appearing here, no matter how much pre-pub you got.
Well, I just, as my dad would say, I have to admire your spunk because you still carry on.
With the media, it's our bike machine.
Shelly, let me tell you the truth: the American people are not in love with Obama.
The American people are not in love with Obamacare.
The media is, but the American people aren't.
But it doesn't matter because with all your reaching of the choir, the media, the lion at the gate, no matter what the true message is, is stopping the word from getting out.
No.
How can it be?
How can, even in this Wall Street Journal poll that's got you so ticked off, 51% of the people think Obama doesn't care about anything just doing this to advance his agenda.
I've got two other polls.
American satisfaction with U.S. government drops the new low.
Americans speaking out on government shutdown.
I think Obama's being kind of crappy.
Nobody likes Obamacare.
The media loves Obama, loves government, loves Obamacare.
Why?
The reality is, Shelly, that the media is not successfully propagandizing everybody.
You just think they are.
Well, I sure hope you're right because the biggest problem that you have, I'm telling you, you would not feel this way if your party were fighting back instead of just somebody on the radio.
But they don't have the propaganda machine like the left does to get it out there.
They censor it.
The propaganda machine, the media, the drive-by media, has all the bully pulpits.
And just because Obama makes a statement, it is so, and leaves it out there.
I do not.
Well, I don't reject any of that, but they don't win everything.
You know, George W. Bush was elected twice.
Ronald Reagan was elected twice.
They don't get everything they want.
They can't make everybody love Obamacare.
They still don't have their amnesty, and they've been trying like hell's half acre to get it.
They're not winning everything.
You've got to try to stay focused on the reality things.
Sure, it's unfair.
Yes, the media is a bunch of bunk.
Yes, what they're doing is irresponsible.
Yes, what they're doing is not even.
I understand all of that.
But you can't make you can't assume.
Look at what you're having.
Shelly, in order for you to have the mindset you've got, you are sitting there believing that the media is convincing everybody, that everybody believes them.
And then furthermore, even when I say Republicans push back, you don't even think that would work.
You've already given up.
You've already acting defeated.
And no matter what anybody proposes as an idea to counter this, you're not willing to accept that it can work because you think the media already has secured defeat from novel the end of time for us.
Is that right?
My argument.
You even said they're teaching the producers of TV programs to get the message out so it's all kind of subliminal.
The low-information voter sees that on a TV program.
And yeah, that underscores how they feel.
They may hate Obama, but they're not going to admit they're wrong, and you're not going to see him hit the other candidate on the ballot.
They will stand in line no matter what argument you give them that all of this is trumped up, that it's all wrong, that they don't see what's happening to this country, that they don't have anything removed.
Then what is your solution?
Now, there is the $64 million question.
What is the solution?
I don't know unless somebody who's all-encompassing buys out the media and gets our message out there like these cunning liars do.
It's not possible.
It's not possible.
The media owns all the bully pulpits, as you said.
It doesn't matter.
It isn't possible.
You've just told me it isn't possible.
That's what I'm saying.
So you make my argument.
You make my argument.
I mean, I'm glad you're there.
I am glad you're there.
You pump us up and you have all the right facts.
But I'm not.
When I try to bring those facts to somebody who's on the other side, they don't want to even go there.
They don't even want to hear the facts with their feet dug in.
Shelly, let me try one more time.
I'm not denying the points you make about the media.
I'm not even trying to correct you.
What I'm trying to do, even though the media exist as they do, how come most people oppose Obamacare and don't want anything to do with it?
The media has done nothing but say how great it is.
The media has done nothing but say how great Obama is.
The media has done nothing but say how fair and wonderful Obamacare is.
And yet, clear majorities of people increasing every day want no part of it.
How did it happen?
I hope you're right.
I hope I'm wrong.
I still hope I'm wrong.
It's not a question of being right or wrong.
It's a question of not giving up and trying to be grounded in reality.
What's happening is you're falling prey to your fear.
Your fear is the media is persuading everybody.
But they haven't persuaded you.
How did that happen?
Are you the only one that sees it?
Are you the only one immune to them?
Are you the only one that hasn't been fooled by them?
I don't think so.
So how's it happening?
You know what Hollywood's doing, but they don't propagandize you.
Hollywood doesn't get away with making you love Obama or Obamacare or climate change, but you're living in fear that they're making everybody else stupid and dumb and that they're convincing when the reality is they aren't.
And the reality is that the people of this country are fed up with government and that includes Obama.
And I've got the polling data that says, and it's right here in the AP, and it is in Gallup.
And these are mainstream, so-called dominant media news organizations.
I'm not trying to buck anybody up here.
I mean, I'm not trying to artificially keep you in a good mood or keep you positive.
I'm just telling you what's really happening out there.
Let me, the Republican strategy on Obamacare is to stand aside, let it happen, let it roll out, let it be such a disaster that they claim it's going to be, that it just, it's too big, it can't possibly work.
Well, that strategy can only work if the people are able to conclude that it sucks as they attempt to use it.
And I'm telling you, the vast majority of people don't want any part of it already.
51,000 people have signed up.
I don't know how many more have tried, but there isn't a mad dash to healthcare.gov going on.
That's why they won't tell us the numbers.
There is not a mad dash to sign up.
The biggest characterization of people signing up is the curious to see what the hell it is.
But there is not a groundswell of, oh my God, I love Obama.
Oh, I love healthcare.
Oh, I love Obamacare.
Oh, I want to sign up.
Oh, I can't wait to get the healthcare.
That doesn't exist.
51,000 people have signed up.
51,000 people out of a population of 300 some-odd million, and it happens to be the law of the land.
And if you don't sign up, the IRS theoretically is going to find you and assess a tax on you or a fine if you don't.
Shelly, my only you asked me how do I go on?
I go on because I know that people like you are out there, and you've got to learn to do the same thing.
You've got to get rid of this fear that you're the only one who sees the truth.
You've got to get rid of this fear that everybody is succumbing to the temptations of the drive-by media.
And I'll guarantee you that if your political party, the one you vote for and the one you have hopes of opposing this, were actually fighting back, you would know about it and you would be happier than you are now when they don't fight back.
And you would know about it whether the media covers it or not.
And you'd be happy about it.
The biggest problem that we have right now is that the elected representatives of the people who oppose this just aren't showing up.
And it's been this way for a while.
And in fact, it's worse than that.
The people you expect to be fighting back are trying to figure out how to get along.
And by the speaking of that.
Let me go to the second story here in the stack that I have.
Right.
Here it is.
This is from thehill.com.
Shelly, this story is going to make you mad because it's more media lying.
But may not be media lying, but it's still going to make you mad.
Here it is.
Headline, White House sees GOP on the ropes.
Why?
What happened?
Well, they compromised.
The Republicans heard the call.
The Republicans heard the groundswell, the supposed groundswell of the people.
The Republicans heard from where?
The media that the people were demanding compromise.
The Republicans heard that the people were demanding cooperation.
The Republicans heard that the people were demanding that they get together and talk.
And so the Republicans said, okay, you know what?
We will gain favor with the people and we will go talk.
And so they had a big confab at the White House with Obama yesterday.
Guess what?
They went up there and it's damned if you do and damned if you don't.
All the good compromising does, all the Republican offers, all their efforts to reach a compromise are now being held against them.
As always, the Republicans are damned if they do and damned if they don't negotiate.
Senior administration officials and White House allies point to the unsteady political maneuvers taken by Republicans in recent days as proof that the president's no-negotiation strategy is succeeding.
Really?
I thought the American people wanted us to negotiate.
The American people were told that.
I mean, the Republicans were told that.
We want to negotiate.
We want to negotiate.
We want to hear negotiation.
We want to see negotiation.
Obama's saying, no, no, he was taking it on the chin for not negotiating.
Obama had to call a press conference.
Obama had to go out and start lying through his teeth about how he was willing to talk to anybody.
He was losing on it.
Republicans went up and talked to him, good faith effort.
They thought he was serious.
And the whole point was for him to say no, for him to kick him out of the White House.
They go home at the end of the two-hour negotiating period.
They get portrayed as a bunch of extremist wackos who came in here and basically told Obama to quit and resign.
Essentially, that's not precise, but that's the point they try to make at the exaggeration.
And so Obama turns out was right all along.
It was just better if he didn't negotiate because these Republicans are so demanding and so unreasonable and so stupid and so silly.
It would have been better if they just held out.
It's always the case.
Every time they get sucked in by doing, and what are they doing, Shelly?
They're just trying to curry favor with the media.
That's all they're doing.
Frustrating as it can be.
Just trying to curry favor.
They live in this dream world where that can happen.
They actually live in a dream world where media is going to like them.
Media is going to respect them.
It never works.
The only thing that works is holding out for what you believe.
I'll tell you this too, folks.
Speaking bluntly, if Ted Cruz and Mike Lee would go away, which is what the Republican donor class is supposedly demanding, the Republican consultants class is demanding.
McCain is demanding it.
You know, the, get off my lawn people are demanding it.
All of the age-old, tired, worn-out Republican losers are demanding that Cruz and Lee go away.
And if they did go away, the problem would remain because Cruz and Lee aren't the problem.
The content of the Republican Party, the product, the brand, you know, whatever way you want to characterize it, is not what the best customers want.
The heavy users want.
This is the only, again, it's a business analogy, and I admit that it's flawed, but it's as close as I can get.
Any brand that sells a product or service has its best customers, and they do whatever they can to keep them.
My God, by definition.
Particularly in a brand crisis or any other kind of, the Republican Party is doing the exact opposite.
They're taking their best users and acting embarrassed of them and trying to find ways to get rid of them.
And it just makes no sense.
And so the brand remains diminished in a culture that is hostile to the perception of what Republican has come to mean.
And the leaders of the Republican Party do not understand that it's not the Mike Lee's and the Ted Cruzes and the Rush Limbos or whatever name of a conservative you want to add into this list.
That's not the problem with the Republican Party brand.
I haven't lost an election yet.
No, I haven't run for one either.
But Ted Cruz wins elections.
Mike Lee wins elections.
The fact of the matter is that you can't keep, this party just can't keep nominating McCain's and moderates and Northeasterners and establishment types who think that the future of the party is to be Democrat-like.
That's not going to fix the brand damage, but they think it is because they think the brand damage is because of conservatives.
It's not.
Anyway, I have to take a break.
I just saw the clock.
Well, we're engineer getting scared here.
Up next at Cleveland, this is Tanner.
Tanner, welcome to the EIB Network.
Great to have you here.
Hi.
Hi, how are you doing, Rush?
Thank you so much for taking my phone call.
Thank you.
You bet.
I'm nervous.
I'm just going to let you know I am a young Republican.
I'm actually a politician for the state of Ohio.
Now, I'm nervous.
I'm very, very nervous of what's going to happen.
If the GOP wins or loses this shutdown, no matter what, I believe myself and probably other Republicans, we will not win 2014.
I am very nervous.
The media has been blowing this up.
It's the GOP's fault on Facebook, on Yahoo, every social media.
So they are brainwashing the voters and telling them.
Tanner, how old are you?
I'm 19 years old.
Okay, I've got to take a break in 30 seconds here, which is not enough time.
So can you hang on to the break?
Oh, yes, yes.
I want to very politely encourage you to change your perception and the way you're thinking.
And I'm going to do it with actual, real life history.
Okay.
That occurred right around the time you were born.
So you might not have been told the truth about it yet.
So hang on and don't go away.
Okay, we're back now with Tanner in Cleveland.
Tanner, 19 years old, and is worried that the Republicans can't possibly win in 2014 because they're taking it on the chin so badly right now.
Now, in 1995, there was a government shutdown, Tanner, that was worse than this one.
You were either just born or were one year old in 1995.
So you wouldn't remember it.
Do you know anything about the 1995 budget?
There's no wrong answer here.
I'm not trying to put you on the spot.
No, no.
Okay, well, let me tell you about it.
Let me tell you about it because there's a key element to it.
In fact, the way it ends that I really want you to know.
In fact, you did I hear you're correct.
You're thinking about becoming a Republican politician at some point?
Yes, yes.
Okay, good.
In 1995, the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, hated, reviled, old, white guy.
Time magazine had put him on the cover as the Gingrich who stole Christmas.
Bill Clinton was the president.
He was the beloved, most popular, young, virile president ever with a first lady, Hillary Rodden Clinton, who wanted to take over the health care system in the country and run it by the government, have a government run it.
And the government shut down in 1995 over a budget impasse, much as it has right now.
But the budget, the budget shutdown, the government shutdown in 1995, I think in the media for Republicans was at least as bad as this, if not worse.
Because during that shutdown, Tanner, there were stories that the Republicans wanted to starve kids.
There were lies in the media that the government, the Republicans, wanted to cut the school lunch program.
The Democrats and the media leapt to this one, and they had little school kids, second and third graders in New Orleans, writing letters to the Republicans begging them not to let them starve because they couldn't study and learn if they were hungry.
And there were no cuts in the school lunch program.
The budget was actually going to grow.
And throughout that shutdown, the media was destroying Republicans then as they are today, and every bit as bad.
And the president was as loved by the media back then as Obama is today.
The difference is that back in 1995, the American people were far more supportive of Bill Clinton than they are Barack Obama.
Back in 1995, the people didn't want Hillary care and were able to stop it.
But Clinton personally, his approval numbers were in the 60s.
They were not 37 like Obama's is.
When that thing ended, and I'm giving the short version of it, the next election, after the budget shutdown, the Republicans gained two seats in the Senate.
And they only lost seven seats in the House, which in a presidential year was unreal.
They should have lost a lot more.
The media reporting was such that the Republicans were going to lose the House.
Gingrich was going to see that the speakership was moved to the Democrats.
It was so bad.
Gingrich was so stupid.
He was so dumb.
He was so mean.
He was so ugly.
He was so white.
He was so fat.
He was so hated.
They were starving kids.
The Republicans are going to lose.
It was every bit what you're seeing today.
And in the media, the Republicans did lose.
They got shellacked.
But when it came time to vote, they actually gained two seats in the Senate.
So you say the Republicans can't win in 2014.
Do you remember what happened in 2010?
That's just three years ago.
You were 16.
Do you remember what happened?
Oh, yeah, we dominated, basically.
Yeah, but now I want to ask you about that.
How did that happen?
Personally, I think people were just, well, I think people still now are sick of Obama.
That's exactly right.
There wasn't a Republican on the ballot then, was there?
Nope.
There wasn't a central Republican idea that was inspiring people.
What that was in 2010 was the people rising up and saying, we don't want this health care business.
We don't like what Obama's doing.
The Republican Party failed to capitalize that when it came time for the 2012 presidential race.
They didn't nominate anybody that could turn that same vote out.
I'm telling you, Tanner, if you want to get into Republican politics, you go right ahead and you can win.
And the party can win in 2014.
I'm not calling you silly.
The proposition that this is killing Republican electoral chances is more of the same media crap that is featured throughout this story and was part of the 1995 budget shutdown story.
It's all crap.
There's nobody, who knows how the 2014 elections are going to come out.
There's so much to happen between now and then.
This Obamacare thing is going to be an utter disaster.
We have no clue the things are going to happen between now and 2014.
By the time the 2014 elections come around, they're going to be about things that have nothing to do with this shutdown because it's going to have long been in the past.
So the book of Genesis says pretty much everything.
There's nothing new, Tanner.
Now, in your perspective, this is the first time something like this is happening in your life.
So it is new, and it's bad, and it's the media is making it out to be rotten as it can be.
But it's all happened before, and it's all been said before.
And the Republicans were dead and buried back in 1995.
Some of the most successful politicians in the world have ended up losing elections when they stood on principle.
They were later rewarded by the same voters down the line on another election.
It's a fluid process, and it's just not true that the Republicans can't win another election.
It's not true that they can't even improve where they are in 2014 based on this.
This can backfire and go against the Democrats.
And the one thing, keep in mind, what you're reading in the media about this, Tanner, is not what the American people at large think about it.
When you read the media, when you watch television, you're seeing what Washington thinks of all this.
You are not seeing what St. Louis thinks of it or Dallas or Denver or take your pick of any city.
You're not seeing it.
So don't be despondent about this.
We've been through this before, and it was worse.
There, aren't you glad you called?
Yes, I am.
Well, yeah, I listen to you every day, so I have to, I had to call today.
Well, I'm glad you did.
And I look at, you know what?
I really appreciate your listening.
I really appreciate it.
A lot of people wouldn't have.
It's such that most people's minds would have been made up and didn't want to listen to anything that was counter to what they believed.
But believe me, 1995, budget shutdown, every bit as bad.
I mean, you can't get any worse than Republicans starving kids.
Remember, this time it's Obama who let sick kids not get treated.
This time it's Obama who closed the National Mall to World War II veterans and opened it for illegal aliens.
And the people out there know that.
There is no Republicans starving kids.
The media has its templates and its narratives, and they just repeat them.
And if they aren't working, then they commission a fake poll, like the NBC Wall Street Journal poll today is.
Hang in there, Tanner.
We need you.
By the way, ladies and gentlemen, I was just made aware.
You know, the latest survey guru out there is Nate Silver, who left the New York Times and went to join ESPN.
Nate Silver has accurately analyzed polling data and selected which polling data he thinks accurate and has made accurate predictions based on it.
His track record's pretty good.
He is basically saying this NBC Wall Street Journal poll doesn't mean anything because it doesn't, particularly, it doesn't mean anything about future elections because it doesn't provide any data about that.
The sample is skewed and so forth.
He said he's not convinced things look bad for the Republicans yet at all in 2014 because the generic ballot hasn't caved on the Republicans yet.
The generic congressional ballot asking people, you vote Republican or Democrat for not a candidate's name, keep people's congressmen's names out of the question, just party affiliation, generic ballot.
The bottom has not fallen out of the Republican Party on that.
And folks, I'm not trying to keep you bucked up or from walking over the ledge.
I'm just the mayor of Realville here.
I know how this stuff works.
It's Obama that's taken it on the chin this week.
Are you aware that truckers want to shut down Washington because of Obamacare and Obama regulations?
Are you aware that military families are fit to be tied over Obama?
Did you hear what he tried to do the other day on this death benefit thing?
This was unbelievable.
Okay, so the story gets out.
26 military families purposefully not being given their death benefits because their family members killed in action.
They are being denied on purpose.
The regime knew this was to inflict pain and have it be blamed on the Republicans because of the shutdown.
Well, all hell broke loose on this because the media doesn't control everything.
And it broke loose all over TV and radio.
And one of the members of the Fisher family, this great, great family from New York, which has built the Fisher houses, which are kind of like Ronald McDonald's houses, except they're for families of military people.
And they're on the ground, say, at Walter Reed, when somebody's wounded and recovering, the family stays at these Fisher houses, and they're all over the place.
Well, the Fisher family representative went on TV and said, we'll pay it.
And then Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, went, well, since Fisher House is going to pay it, Obama doesn't think he should.
And I was like, God, I don't believe this.
A, they're violating the law.
B, hiding behind a charity.
Well, we don't have to pay it now, the charity.
Obama was taking it like you can't believe he had to go out and correct that.
They had to go out and make the decision.
Okay, we're going to pay the debt.
Obama's kept citizens out of parks and let illegals in.
Pelosi credited him for it.
Obama chose not to chose not to fund the National Institutes of Health.
Kids with cancer couldn't get treatment.
Obama did all this.
And Obama was taking it big time for this.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have done anything he's done this week.
He wouldn't have called the press conference.
He wouldn't have made these speeches.
He wouldn't have gone out there and talked about how he's willing to negotiate.
It was Obama taking it on the shorts.
So here comes NBC Wall Street Journal with a rigged poll to stop the bleeding.
And that poll came out last night, yesterday afternoon, and it stopped the bleeding.
And now everybody is beside themselves because all this is now being blamed on the Republicans.
Sorry, the American people are not blaming military families not being paid on Republicans.
They're not blaming kids with cancer not being allowed to go to the NIH on Republicans.
They are not, the truckers who want to shut down the beltway over regulations, gas prices, and everything else are not mad at the Republicans.
President Obama has either a 41 or 37% approval rating.
He is not universally loved and beloved.
The Obamacare rollout has been an absolute disaster.
It doesn't work.
51,000 people have signed up.
Let me give you some of the headlines in the Obamacare stack.
Small business sound off on Obamacare definition of full-time.
At a House hearing Wednesday on health and technology, small business owners joined Representative Chris Collins, Republican New York, to sound off on Obamacare's definition of full-time employment.
Full-time employment now, according to Obama, is 30 hours a week.
They changed the definition so as not to take any criticism.
So Sebelius, technically on Stewart, was right.
There are all kinds of new full-time jobs because Obama defines them as 30 hours a week.
It's BS.
There was a big, folks, I can't tell you, this is so yesterday in Pittsburgh at Ketchup Field, where the Steelers ostensibly play, the owner of the Steelers, Dan Rooney and Kathleen Sebelius, sent out this big press release, going to be a big, big rally at Heinz Field.
And they're going to tell people all about how wonderful Obamacare is.
And they're going to have ways you can sign up for Obamacare.
And you too can finally have affordable health care and keep your doctor and every other lie they've been telling about it.
And there was going to be a retired Steeler, meaning a good one, that was going to show up.
And you know how many people showed up at 60,000-seat Heinz Field?
100 people.
100 people.
The headline, Sebelius Visit, fails to reassure as healthcare website glitches persist.
Sebelius and Steelers chairman Dan Rooney were at an enrollment and education event on Thursday at Heinz Field to promote healthcare.gov.
But people who showed up encountered problems in signing up for the coverage on the website.
Sebelius, who is making similar trips to cities across the fruited plain to spread the word about the website, told an audience of about 100 people that healthcare.gov is open for business.
Folks, do not believe the crap that you are hearing in the meeting.
100 people in Pittsburgh headlined by the owner of the Pittsburgh Steeler.
100 people and the beloved Kathleen Sebelius.
You could get 5,000 people to pay to get into Heinz Field if you would put a scrimmage in there that was going to last five minutes.
You might even be able to put 50,000 people in there paid to watch that.
But 100 people show up.
There isn't this groundswell, folks.
There isn't massive, unconditional love for Barack Obama and the Democrat Party.
And they know it.
And so does the NBC Wall Street Journal polling unit know it, which is why they had to put out a rigged, rushed, hurried-up poll.
UK Daily Mail, 51,000 people complete Obamacare applicants.
51,000 people.
Look, folks, let me know.
The Republicans may be losing a few things here and there, but I don't even like admitting that.
But the thing is, the Democrats are not winning anything.
And that's what you have got to remember.
The Democrats are not winning anything.
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