{"id":10251,"date":"2014-02-03T18:39:47","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T18:39:47","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-02-03T18:39:47","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T18:39:47","slug":"the_trouble_with_the_o_baxter_interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/02\/03\/the_trouble_with_the_o_baxter_interview\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble with the O\u2019Baxter Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: We\u2019ll start in Yakima, Washington. This is Ron. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes, sir. Longtime listener, longtime Seattle fan.<\/p>\n

RUSH: It\u2019s great to have you on the show. You know, I don\u2019t know all, but I know one thing Yakima is famous for. Yakima, Washington — you may find this fascinating — was the first city in the entire country where the 90-gallon trash can on wheels was tested for sanitation purposes. It happened in 1984-1985, and because it was deemed a success there (they were big enough for Dumpster diving but big enough to handle the usual house load full of garbage and you get it out to the truck) and that\u2019s why they\u2019ve been popularized all over the country. It started in Yakima, Washington, the 90-gallon, on wheels, gray plastic things.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Trash cans. So congratulations.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, thanks. (silence)<\/p>\n

RUSH: So what\u2019s up? You\u00c2\u2019re a big Seahawks fan?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

CALLER: Seahawks fan. I\u2019d like to talk about O\u2019Reilly first, if I could.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, yeah. Whatever.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, you know, to me, Super Bowl Sunday is football<\/a>, food, and fun. O\u2019Reilly, I think, is a little arrogant. He\u2019s got his show five days a week.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Self-assured, self-(unintelligible). That\u2019s fine. I can tune out or tune in, but I don\u2019t want him on Super Bowl Sunday<\/a> interviewing the president who just had a State of the Union, so he had his chance to speak.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, let me give you a little history, because it\u2019s not by any means unusual, and it\u2019s something that every network does when its your turn to televise the Super Bowl. When NBC has it, normally it would be somebody like Tim Russert or their Meet the Press host, maybe their political guy who would interview the president. When CBS does it, it\u2019s Bob Schieffer or somebody. <\/p>\n

When it\u2019s Fox\u2019s turn, they don\u2019t have a news division, so you gotta go to Fox News Channel, and so they went to O\u2019Baxter and so he got the interview. It\u2019s not unique to Fox, a presidential interview. It\u2019s not unique for Obama to appear on one. My only thing is that, in this, we have to be honest about stuff. O\u2019Baxter… (sigh) O\u2019Reilly asked Obama some questions he\u2019s not been asked before. In fact, the Associated Press accused O\u2019Baxter… (ahem)<\/p>\n

CALLER: (chuckling)<\/p>\n

RUSH: They accused… I feel like Dr. Strangelove and I can\u2019t keep that right arm down. The AP accused O\u2019Reilly of asking Republican questions. They were about Benghazi. They were about disastrous health care rollout in the website. They were questions that should have been asked a long time ago. The only problem — and I think this is what you mean, Ron. Correct me if I\u2019m wrong, \u2019cause I don\u2019t want to put words in your mouth, but you said it. You\u2019re not there. The television network is doing the pregame. You don\u2019t have your TV on the Super Bowl to hear about Benghazi. That\u2019s for Sunday morning or some night or whatever, but this is not the place where you\u2019re gonna be interested in it, right?<\/p>\n

<\/a>CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: If you want to hear a president being interviewed in the pregame, you want to hear the president talk about America.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Football.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You want him talking about sports and football and innocuous stuff. My fear now is that this has happened and nobody wanted to hear it. So it can now be said, “Well, Obama hadn\u2019t dodged any questions. He was asked the tough questions. He answered the tough questions. There\u2019s no fallout, everything\u2019s fine, nothing to see here.” And it\u2019s over and done with, and the questions aren\u2019t gonna be asked again at a time when more people will be watching for a specific reason. So it\u2019s just a missed opportunity as far as I\u2019m concerned.<\/p>\n

CALLER: My complaint is, I think it\u2019s arrogant to think that Bill O\u2019Reilly is gonna take 12 minutes of airtime —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Bill O\u2019Reilly isn\u2019t doing it. Fox is.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, whoever. Do you think that a president that has repeatedly lied to the American public time after time after time is gonna come to Jesus in a 12-minute interview —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, but that\u2019s —<\/p>\n

CALLER: — on Super Bowl Sunday —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — and cleanse his soul?<\/p>\n

RUSH: No.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, he\u2019s not. So why waste my time?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Because that\u2019s —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Give me a chicken wing recipe or a dip recipe or something relevant.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I just told you why: Because now it\u2019s done. Now he answered the tough questions.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now he said what he said, and you didn\u2019t get mad, and neither did anybody else, and so it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well —<\/p>\n

RUSH: “Get over it. Don\u2019t badger the president anymore with this stuff. He\u2019s answered it already. Move on, can\u2019t we?” That\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No. He didn\u2019t answer it. That\u2019s the problem. He\u2019s not gonna answer it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, no. He did. Whether he did or didn\u2019t, he did. The questions were asked; he answered. Forget what he said. And from the Fox standpoint, you know, you\u2019re making the classic mistake of looking at this as substance rather than marketing.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well —<\/p>\n

RUSH: The way Fox does this, the way they look at it when it\u2019s over, they were not. They got their questions in. They got the PR for their guy. They got their number one guy on TV with the president at the Super Bowl pregame. Done.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well —<\/p>\n

RUSH: What happened on it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I —<\/p>\n

RUSH: From Obama\u2019s standpoint, he dodged the questions.<\/p>\n

CALLER: They hire reporters to go to the press conferences. Let \u2019em ask. Why don\u2019t they ask it there?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Because they\u2019re not going to. Those are Republican questions and they\u2019re not gonna ask Republican questions.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, we\u2019re in deep trouble. That\u2019s all I can say.<\/p>\n

RUSH: O\u2019Reilly doesn\u2019t go to the press conferences. I wouldn\u2019t, either. Don\u2019t anybody misunderstand. Here, I\u2019ve got the sound bites, some of the questions. Look, Ron, I appreciate the call. I understand your frustration. But did you think, Ron, that two hours before the Super Bowl started you were gonna get the truth of what happened in Benghazi?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah. That\u2019s —<\/p>\n

RUSH: You did? Did you think you were gonna get the truth about it?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, no.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You think Obama\u2019s gonna say, “Yeah, we knew the website wasn\u2019t gonna work, and it\u2019s not about that anyway. It\u2019s about controlling your life and make sure you can\u2019t.” Do you think that\u2019s what you were gonna get?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, of course not.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No.<\/p>\n