RUSH: Saturday night. I have to tell you about that at some point today, too. I had dinner at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home, with a tour of latest improvements and changes they’ve made at the George Washington museum. While there, I had a couple of people tell me, “Boy, this Obama. He’s really, really making a mess of things.”
I said, “What do you mean?”
“Well, you know, these scandals…”
“Wait a minute. Obama isn’t ‘making a mess’ of anything. Obama may be one of the most successful presidents that we’ve ever had.”
The person kind of got bug-eyed and looked at me, “What in the world do you mean?” He thought I was nuts.
I said, “He’s getting everything he wants. He’s transforming this country in ways that no one ever thought possible. He is succeeding at every turn, and he has a scandal pop up at just the right time every moment some big transformation’s taking place so that we’re all distracted. Everything the guy wants is happening one way or the other, sooner than later, later than sooner. Whatever. Nobody’s stopping Obama. Nobody’s stopping the Democrats. They’re getting everything they want.
“They’re getting everything they want with the Republican Party going along with most of it! Now, if your definition of a successful president or a failure as a president is somebody who is making a mess of things? Yeah, then he’s a miserable failure. But from his standpoint, Obama’s objectives, his goals? I’ll bet you Obama, in private, can’t believe how easy this has been. I’ll bet you when he and Holder and Valerie Jarrett and the rest of them get together, they laugh and talk about how easy this has been.
And how much sooner and how much quicker they’ve been able to effect all these transformations than they thought they’d be able to. It may not take them 15 years to get to single payer. They may do it before Obama leaves office if these exchanges are as screwed up as everybody says. But we now know what the Obamacare exchanges are all about. They’re just ways for Obama to deeply entrench the Democrat Party as the majority party of this country in perpetuity.
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RUSH: Folks, a quick question. How many of you care where Edward Snowden is? How many of you care whether he’s in Russia, whether he’s heading to Ecuador, whether he’s gonna be sheltered by Putin or not, how many of you care? Well, judging by the Drive-By Media, everybody does. Judging by the Drive-By Media, everybody is obsessed where Edward Snowden is.
I have a little prediction to make for you. It’s June 25th. If and when amnesty is rammed through Congress and signed into law, the news media will go back to not caring one whit about Edward Snowden or any of Obama’s other scandals. Not caring where Edward Snowden is or what the NSA is doing, not caring what the IRS does, not caring about what the DOJ does to even report it, all that will leave the news once amnesty has been signed into law, because the media is using all the rest of that stuff as distractions, I believe, from keeping people as — well, they can’t totally hide the amnesty story. But they can relegate it to secondary importance status by covering the Zimmerman trial. I mean, there’s all kinds of things out there that they can throw up as smoke screens that once amnesty is signed into law, you’re not gonna see these stories much, because their usefulness will have come to a screeching halt.
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RUSH: So Putin, Russian president Vladimir Putin, is telling us that he will not extradite Edward Snowden, that Snowden’s in Moscow and he’s free to fly wherever he wants. There have been conflicting stories coming out of Russia. Snowden is there; Snowden isn’t there. Again, I had people yesterday say, “Boy, don’t you just love the way Putin and the ChiComs are handing it to Obama?”
I said, “You guys are totally misunderstand. Yeah, Putin may look like he’s embarrassing Obama, but this is exactly what Obama is reveling in the idea here of a deflated, declining superpower status. The idea that…” Obama’s not taking this personally, that Putin is doing whatever he’s doing, that he won’t extradite Snowden, that he’s telling Obama no.
All it means to Obama is that the United States isn’t as feared nor is it as respected. In Hong Kong they wouldn’t extradite Snowden. I’m telling you, this is right up Obama’s alley, to preside over the decline of the superpower once known as the United States. Look, there isn’t any doubt about this any more. There’s no doubt about what Obama’s agenda is. There’s no doubt about what his plans for transforming the country are, and there’s no doubt that he’s just profoundly successful with all this.
There’s no doubt about this now. Anybody out there, including low-information voters, who thinks that Obama’s trying to accomplish the opposite of what’s happening are just hopelessly irretrievable. If anybody really believes Obama’s trying to spur and grow this economy, create a growing private sector with growing private sector jobs, they’re hopeless. If anybody really thinks that Obama’s trying to strengthen the US border and all this, they’re hopeless. They’re lost. We’re coming up now on the five years of this.
At some point, you’ve gotta wake up and realize that what you’re witnessing is happening because somebody wants it to happen. Not because they’re making mistake after mistake after mistake. Not because powerful forces out of your control are making things happen. At some point, you have to admit what’s happening is happening. I saw Krauthammer. I didn’t hear him say it. I watched a little segment on Fox this morning. Bob Beckel was on there with Mary Katharine Ham.
Apparently, Krauthammer said something that in Beckel’s mind was highly insulting, and I don’t have what Krauthammer said right in front of me, but it was the equivalent of saying, “The world is laughing at Obama. The United States carries no weight. It has no impact.” Beckel was talking about how dangerous it is to say that. “We don’t need to be undercutting the president of the United States like this! That’s just outright absurd.”
What nobody apparently come to grips with is that the idea this country is being laughed at is what’s by design. This is the world’s last remaining superpower. There is no reason for what’s happening to this country to be happening unless somebody wants it to. We have the ability to project power anywhere in the world we want, and emerge victorious anywhere. Be it Iran, be it Iraq, be it Afghanistan, there’s nothing stopping us except us.
I wish I had Krauthammer’s words right in front of me, but it really had Beckel all in a tizzy because it was of the nature that Obama’s a laughingstock around the world. Obama’s not. The country is. That’s what nobody’s getting here. The fact that Obama’s coming up on five years in office now… Look at this story: “76% of Americans are Living Paycheck to Paycheck.” Well, what would you expect, when all of these jobs have been lost?
They just vanished.
When taxes are skyrocketing, when costs of living are skyrocketing, energy and everything else — and now the coal industry is next, and so the cost of energy is gonna continue to skyrocket; it’s gonna go up, gasoline. We have an administration steadfastly opposed to the discovery and the creation of more domestic energy. The Keystone pipeline is just the most glaring example. We have an administration that’s dead-set against any policy that would increase our own supply of fossil fuel energy and thus reduce prices.
At some point you have to admit, “You know what? This isn’t just a mistake. This isn’t somebody not qualified for the job and doesn’t know what they’re doing. This is somebody who knows exactly what they’re doing.” So when you see CNN Money has the story, “76% of Americans are Living Paycheck to Paycheck”? Well, what do you think is gonna happen when you have an administration that’s doing everything it can to take people’s wealth?
What do you think’s gonna happen when you have policies designed to prevent the accumulation of wealth? What is going to happen when you have policies that shrink the United States economy? The federal government is the only thing growing. It’s getting bigger and bigger. Now, the oil and gas industry is booming in places Obama can’t stop it — i.e., on nonfederal lands. You would think, using common sense, “Okay, we’ve got an oil and gas boom in the Dakotas, and it’s happening because of fracking.”
You would think that an American president would see this and say, “Man, look what we could do nationwide if we expanded this outside the Dakotas! Look at the jobs we could create. Look at the energy we could find. Look at the lack of dependence that we could create on Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern oil-producing states! Look at all the good that could come from this.”
No!
What do we have?
We have an administration that is trying to limit it to the Dakotas, punish the people doing it there, and make sure it doesn’t happen anywhere else. And this is an accident? This is somebody who doesn’t know what they’re doing? “He’s just a good guy, Rush! He’s just inexperienced, you know? He just doesn’t have that much knowledge. He’s trying as hard as he can.” This is not gonna fly any longer. “Roughly three-quarters of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little to no emergency savings, according to a survey released by Bankrate.com Monday.
“Fewer than [25% of] Americans have enough money in their savings account to cover at least six months of expenses, enough to help cushion the blow of a job loss…” What do people expect? The cost of everything to do with health care is rising, and you know how much people care about that. So they spend money on it left and right or they access services that cost a lot. What could happen? What other than this could happen with the kind of policies that are in place and the kind of policies that are coming?
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RUSH: Here’s what Krauthammer said. He said, “Nobody worries or cares about what Obama says because it carries no weight,” and that had Beckel tied in knots. He was really ticked off about that. That he was earlier today on Fox News.
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RUSH: Let’s grab some telephone calls. People have been waiting patiently. I’ve got the Krauthammer and Bob Beckel reaction I was telling you about so I’ll get to that here in just a second. Eric Holder is upset that the Supreme Court’s doing what Congress shoulda done, and that’s exactly why the court did it ’cause Congress didn’t have the guts to do it.
Julie in Reno. Julie, great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. How are you doing?
RUSH: I’m fine. Thanks very much.
CALLER: Good. Hey, I don’t disagree with you very often. As a matter of fact, I can only think of one other time. But I think you might be mistaken with Obama and his assessment of Putin and you think this is how Obama wants it to be. I think Obama is not used to having somebody not do what he wants —
RUSH: May I, with all due respect, and I understand, I understand that you think Obama’s ego is such that everybody should bow down. May I remind you what he said to Dmitry Medvedev in the summer of 2012. He said (paraphrasing), “Look, tell Vlad, just hang on on this nuclear warhead stuff, and I’ll have a lot more flexibility after the election,” meaning, tell Vlad I’ll be able to get rid of a lot more nukes after I win reelection. So it’s clear that he wanted Medvedev to pass on to Putin that, “Hey, I’m doing what you want, pal. Everything’s cool, we’re gonna get there.” I understand your assessment of Obama’s egotistic or egoistic, actually, personality. He can’t stand being publicly disrespected like this.
CALLER: He’s got a huge ego.
RUSH: Yep.
CALLER: And I just think when Putin is thumbing his nose at him, I think he takes that more personally than anything else.
RUSH: Well, you could be right, but even if that’s true, the fact that Putin is indicating that he doesn’t care what Obama wants or what this country wants, where Snowden or anything else is concerned. I mean, do you disagree with me when I say that Obama presiding over the decline of the United States as a superpower is something he wants?
CALLER: I believe that is exactly what he wants, and —
RUSH: Well, this is it. I mean, this is what happens when we decline to be a superpower and we cease to be respected, this is exactly what happens.
CALLER: But what do we put first, his ego or what he wants to do to the country?
RUSH: What does it matter? What does the reason matter, when you get right down to it, the fact it’s happening. The fact is we’ve got this guy out there giving up our secrets, and we say, “You give him back,” and they say to us (raspberry), what difference does it make why? I don’t mean to be yelling at you. Please don’t misinterpret my tone of voice.
CALLER: (laughing) Hey, I’ve been listening to you long enough, I know how it works, Rush.
RUSH: Great. Thank you very much.
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RUSH: All right, here is Krauthammer. This is last night on Special Report with Bret Baier on the Fox News Channel. This the All-Star Panel. And they’re talking about the difficulty Obama’s having in getting Edward Snowden back from wherever he is. And Bret Baier said, “You have China, and you have Russia not offering a hand. It looks like Ecuador has offered asylum. You had Iceland weighing in early, Cuba. There’s kinds of countries are adding to the mix.”
KRAUTHAMMER: The fact that people do not like the United States is not new. What’s new is that these non-likers have no respect for the United States. Nobody worries or cares about what Obama says because it carries no weight. If there’s no element of respect or fear — and you saw it in the summit with the head of the United States and head of Russia and China within the last two weeks. They care nothing for what Obama says, and they know that when he makes a threat it carries no weight behind it.
RUSH: I would add to that: Can anybody remember any time Obama has taken it to Putin and chastised Putin for anything or stood up to Putin? It never happens. Anyway, so there’s Krauthammer. “It doesn’t carry any weight. Nobody worries or cares what Obama says.” So this morning on Fox News, America’s Newsroom, Martha MacCallum spoke with Beckel and Mary Katharine Ham. MacCallum said, “Those are very strong words, Bob. You disagree with that?”
BECKEL: With all due respect to my friend and colleague Dr. Krauthammer, I was a assistant secretary of state in… Uh, I know a little bit about foreign policy. I think Charles should stick to psychiatry and the Middle East, which he knows. When you say something like that about the president of the United States, what did he expect we’re gonna do? All this is doing is perpetuating (sic) our enemies. Saying the United States is weak and we can be run all over? I would never do that to George Bush, I wouldn’t do it to Ronald Reagan, and it’s an insult that they would do it to Barack Obama.
RUSH: “I wouldn’t do it to Ronald Reagan.” Of course you wouldn’t to Ronald Reagan, because nobody would ever have said it about Reagan! For crying out loud, Bob, that’s the point. Nobody would have ever say it about him! They did say it about Carter, and now they’re saying it about Obama. “You disrespect the president of the United States! Stick to psychiatry. I wouldn’t say that about Reagan.” So that’s what that kerfuffle was about. I wanted you to hear it. I referenced it earlier, and I didn’t remember the exact words everybody had used. That’s it.
To the phones. Grant. Bakersfield, California. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: What a pleasure to speak to you, Rush.
RUSH: I appreciate that. Thank you.
CALLER: My point is that I was raised a Democrat, my entire family was Democrat, and because of you — and I’m not here to pump you up or stroke you, but the truth will set you free, and you have taught me truth. I’m sitting here in the middle of the oil fields, Rush. I’m a one-man operation. My wife is a schoolteacher, went back to school in her thirties, and we are living paycheck to paycheck. Just a side point: I bought… I went out and I bought my wife a computer, an Apple notebook last night, and somebody broke into our home and they stole it. I called the local sheriff’s department, and because of budget restraints, eight hours later, they came out and asked me to file my report online.
RUSH: You know, I have read things about this kind of in California —
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: — where crime in California has gotten so bad, this kind of report is not even worth it for the cops to spend any time on. Because there’s so much worse to be able to deal with that your computer being stolen, ho-hum.
CALLER: That’s right, Rush, didn’t even want to make a report. And like I said, we live paycheck to paycheck. It may not be important to them, but it was important to us. And I’m just a frustrated American who is now a powerful conservative who listens to you each and every day, and the truth will set you free.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. I really do. This guy’s in the oil business and his wife had to go back to work. He’s a one-man oil operation. Grant, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.