RUSH: Yesterday, during an interview with a public radio station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — we own Harrisburg, so probably very few people heard this on the PBS station there — here’s a portion of what Senator McCain said.
MCCAIN: I think it’s very clear that Russian ambitions are to restore the old Russian empire, not the Soviet Union, but the Russian empire.
RUSH: Well, this is not sitting well with the American left and with the Obama campaign. Last night on Hardball, they actually took some time off from covering the tertiary Olympic events that nobody cares about, putting them on MSNBC, and they went to Hardball and they had a fill-in host out there, David Shuster. He talked to Obama foreign policy advisor Susan Rice. And the question was this. ‘Would the campaign support imposing economic sanctions on Russia as some Republicans are calling for?’
RICE: By reviewing all aspects of our bilateral relationship with Russia, as Senator Obama has advocated, we’ll be able to take account of what steps are appropriate. But here’s the thing, David, we cannot shoot from the hip. We cannot act on the basis of ideology or preconceived notions. When this crisis began, Barack Obama, the administration indeed, and all of our NATO allies took a very measured and reasoned approach because we were dealing with the facts as we knew them. John McCain shot from the hip, very aggressive, very belligerent statement, and he may or may not have complicated the situation.
RUSH: (laughing) McCain’s made the situation worse! This is the American left. Obama calmed the situation by saying both sides are to blame and asking them to stop. But McCain may have complicated the situation. Barack’s thing, according to his own advisor here, we’re going to look at everything and then we’re not going to do anything. We’re going to wait ’til we have all the facts and then we’re going to take into account what steps are appropriate, and we’re not going to do diddly-squat about this ’til we get all the facts. Unable to recognize naked aggression, the Obama campaign is now blaming — I told you all this was going to happen yesterday. You didn’t believe me, did you? You did not believe it would get this bad. I told you.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Bill in Glenview, Illinois. You’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Nice to have you here, sir.
CALLER: Yes, sir. Very nice to talk to you. I was born in one of the former Russian satellites. I was freed by Gorbachev during glasnost, perestroika. Russia usually has three patented reasons for going in a country. A is to liberate, of course. Two is to put down unrest, like in Hungary; and of course the third one is ’cause somewhere, somehow, some Russian citizens in the field were killed, so they had to go out and straighten things out.
RUSH: Wait a second. Now, wait. Wait. Wait just a minute. I want to make sure I heard you right. The Russians generally go into countries for three reasons.
CALLER: Well, that’s usually what they talk about. They’re liberators or they put down on unrest or —
RUSH: Wait. Let me ask the question. Is this what you say the Russians are doing, or what they say the reasons are that they go in these countries?
CALLER: That’s most of the reasons they say that (garbled).
RUSH: Okay, so they’re going in to liberate people, like in this case they are ‘liberating’ the people in South Ossetia?
CALLER: (laughs) Well, I’m not sure that is in this case. They had probably other reasons like oil, but they could say that liberating these people and that’s one of their patented reasons that they’ll always use to go into countries.
RUSH: Right. Well, they have passed out a bunch of phony passports, Russian passports to people living there. They can say now they’re oppressed by the people of Georgia.
CALLER: Well, you know, if they say that certain Russian citizens there are oppressed or were killed and so on, they don’t have to prove it. They just say that’s what it is and go in.
RUSH: Right, because the Drive-By Media will accept what the Russians say about this.
CALLER: Well, of course. I hope Obama is listening, because a guy like Putin would probably eat him for breakfast and spit him out without him knowing what transpired.
RUSH: Here, Putin is already responding. Grab the special exclusive address, Ed, that we have from Vladimir Putin, that we played in the first hour. I want you to listen to this.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: You haven’t read it yet, Ed? Okay, here it is.
(playing of Putin spoof)
RUSH: There you have it. He can’t wait to work with Obama. By the way, whatever Russia says is believed. Here’s a montage of Bill Schneider assigning blame.
SCHNEIDER: It could be just what John McCain needs to highlight his strengths. McCain has talked tough from the outset of the crisis. His statement on the radio was ominous. Some voters may worry: Does he want to start a new Cold War? The risk for McCain is that he could overplay the issue and frighten war-weary voters whose priorities are at home right now. The Russians are doing a pretty good job of frightening people already.
RUSH: So here’s McCain, lumped in by CNN’s Bill Schneider, with the Russians in ‘frightening people.’ Bill, let me tell you what really frightens people, and that’s Obama, is what really frightens Americans.