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RUSH: I promised Mitt Romney sound bites from CPAC and we\u2019re we go. We have one, two, three…. We have four of them here. And, well, just run \u2019em here. We\u2019ll comment on \u2019em as warranted.<\/p>\n
ROMNEY: As conservatives we\u2019re united by a set of core convictions. Not everyone has taken the same path to get here. There are college students at this conference who are reading Burke and…<\/p>\n
STUDENTS: (cheering)<\/p>\n
ROMNEY: My guess is some of you got here by reading Burke and Hayek. When I was your age you could have been told me that they were infielderers for the Detroit Tigers.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Whoa, that doesn\u2019t sound like it went over very well. No, what Romney\u2019s doing there is he\u2019s acknowledging that he hasn\u2019t been a conservative from conception or he has arrived at his conservatism via his own path. By the way, I\u2019m told anecdotally — I haven\u2019t seen picture myself — that the crowd at CPAC this year is huge and that it is large. I don\u2019t know how many of them are Ron Paul bots, but that could be account for some of the yutes who are there. But Burke, of course, is fundamental to understanding conservatism. So is Friedrich Von Hayek. And Romney is saying, “Look, I\u2019m one of you. I\u2019m a conservative. I just didn\u2019t get her the way you did. Back when I was your age, I didn\u2019t know who Friedrich Von Hayek was. And I know, some of you, when did you learn who Von Hayek was.”<\/p>\n
And I know some of you are asking (snidely), “When did you learn who Friedrich Von Hayek was, Limbaugh?” That would be from National Review<\/a>, William F. Buckley\u2019s magazine. In fact, I\u2019ll tell you a little story — a short little story. Back in the seventies, I heard about National Review, and I thought you had to have permission to subscribe to it. I know that sounds stupid, and it was. It was silly. I remember I kept hearing about it, but I\u2019d never seen it so I thought it was very exclusive. I never saw it on newsstand, I\u2019d never seen anybody that had it, but I\u2019d heard about it. So I got the guts one day to call them and I\u2019m sure I sounded very tentative and nervous on the phone. <\/p>\n I didn\u2019t even know if I had the permission to even call, so the operator answered, “Hi, National Review.” <\/p>\n I said, “Hi, I\u2019m calling from Kansas City. Is there anything special I have to do to subscribe to the magazine?” <\/p>\n She said, “Yes. Pay for it.”<\/p>\n “Is that all? I don\u2019t need permission?” <\/p>\n ROMNEY: In business, if you\u2019re not fiscally conservative, you\u2019re bankrupt. <\/p>\n AUDIENCE: (applause) <\/p>\n ROMNEY: I mean, I spent 25 years balancing budgets, eliminating waste. (chuckles) By the way, keeping as far away from government as humanly possible.<\/p>\n AUDIENCE: (applause) <\/p>\n ROMNEY: I did some of the very things conservatism is designed for: I started new businesses and turned around broken ones. And I\u2019m not ashamed to say that I was successful in doing it. <\/p>\n AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause.)<\/p>\n RUSH: So there. He\u2019s explaining had you his business experience brought him to conservatism and you heard the applause. It went on and on a little longer. We\u2019ve edited it for brevity here, but again he\u2019s making the proclamation that he\u2019s an ashamed of his success. Here\u2019s the next bite.<\/p>\n ROMNEY: When I am president I will defend the Defense of Marriage Act —<\/p>\n AUDIENCE: (applause) <\/p>\n ROMNEY: — and I will fight for an amendment to our Constitution that defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. <\/p>\n AUDIENCE: (applause) <\/p>\n ROMNEY: During my term in office I also stood up to those who wanted to call into question the very definition of life. I vetoed a bill that would have opened the door to cloning and to embryo farming. I vetoed a bill that would have allowed young girls to obtain access to abortion-inducing drugs. I fought for abstinence education in our schools. <\/p>\n AUDIENCE: (applause) <\/p>\n ROMNEY: My state was a leading indicator of what liberals would be trying to do across the country and they\u2019re trying to do now, and I fought against long odds in a deep blue state, but I was a severely conservative Republican governor. <\/p>\n AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause) <\/p>\n RUSH: I\u2019ve… Look, I don\u2019t want to make anybody mad here. It\u2019s the end of a really hectic and busy week here — and you know I\u2019m not a complainer. You people have no idea of the distractions that each program has had this week that I\u2019ve had to fight through and try to ignore because I don\u2019t complain. So don\u2019t get mad. I may be a little giddy here. I have never anybody say, “I\u2019m severely conservative.” Don\u2019t get mad. I\u2019m not… (interruption) No, I\u2019ve never heard anybody say it. (interruption) No, I\u2019m not challenging his claim to be conservative, don\u2019t misunderstand. I don\u2019t want to get inundated here by Romney supporters. I\u2019m not putting him down. <\/p>\n I\u2019m just observing here. I\u2019ve never heard it said, “Yeah, I\u2019m a severe conservative.” But I know what he\u2019s trying to say. Now, I should add something here. Remember last year during the early days of the campaign — before the votes even began, before any of the primaries had taken place — I successfully, correctly identified for you what the Republican establishment strategy was. They were running a primary campaign 180 degrees out of phase from normal. The way you normally run a primary campaign, either party, is (and this is conventional wisdom) to get the base of your party\u2019s votes, you pander to them. You speak to them. You just go, in this case Romney\u2019s, and you be conservative. <\/p>\n “Let\u2019s have this thing done with,” and they were doing it running not for the conservative vote, but for the moderate and independent votes. And I\u2019ll tell you what that\u2019s resulted in. This morning, before his speech, Romney (or maybe it was yesterday) had a meeting with conservative leaders to assure them that he is one of them. He had a private meeting in a presidential suite in the hotel to assure various leader from the NRA and other such conservative groups that he is conservative, “severely conservative.” He had a meeting to say, “I\u2019m severely conservative.” (interruption) I don\u2019t know if it was a “severe” meeting. I wasn\u2019t there. But… (sigh) I don\u2019t know. Let\u2019s just go on to the next Romney sound bite, shall we? And I\u2019ve lost my place. Where are we? <\/p>\n Oh, “severely conservative” governor. Here\u2019s the big finish. This is the last Romney bite that we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n ROMNEY: We believe in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence! We believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! We know the brilliance that suggested that individuals pursuing their own dreams would make us the most powerful nation on earth, not a government trying to guide our lives. This is who we are! This passion we must take to the American people. This is our moment! This is why we\u2019re conservatives. The task before us now is to reaffirm the convictions that unite us and go forward, shoulder to shoulder, to secure victory that America so desperately needs and deserves. <\/p>\n CROWD: (cheering)<\/p>\n ROMNEY: Let\u2019s do it together! Thank you, and God bless America. <\/p>\n CROWD: (cheers and applause)<\/p>\n ROMNEY: Thank you.<\/p>\n RUSH: Right on, dude. Right on. I mean, that\u2019s… What did you think of that, Snerdley? Did you it? That was! It was severe. It was. It was “severely conservative.” You know that I\u2019m just gonna get beat up so bad for this.<\/p>\n BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n RUSH: I haven\u2019t had a chance, obviously, to watch much of what\u2019s gone on at CPAC. But apparently all the speeches that people telling me about it, all the speeches they have seen have been excellent. Positive, uplifting. Especially the Republican candidates and their supporters. They have, for the most part, stuck to laying out their vision for conservatism rather than sniping at each other. If that\u2019s an accurate representation of what\u2019s going on there, it\u2019s a good thing. Newt\u2019s up this afternoon sometime, and that\u2019ll take care of the candidates for the most part. <\/p>\n RUSH: Paul in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, great to have you on the program. Hello, sir.<\/p>\n CALLER: (heavy static) Yeah, great to speak with you, Rush. Listening to those clips by Mr. Romney, I have to say that it\u2019s going to take some kind of a Jedi mind trick for him to convince those of us on the conservative side of the party that he\u2019s conservative. But, anyway, the last —<\/p>\n RUSH: Hold it! Hold it! Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it a second. So the sound bites we just played did not convince you, Romney did not convince you of his conservatism there?<\/p>\n CALLER: Not at all. If you look at his record and what he\u2019s been saying so far in the campaign, they\u2019re almost polar oppose. But what I wanted to do is get to —<\/p>\n RUSH: Okay, wait, wait, wait. No, no. You\u2019ll have time. I just want to make sure I get this. So you didn\u2019t think that that speech that you heard, the sound bites from the speech, alleviated any fears people might have over the record that you think he\u2019s got? That speech didn\u2019t make you think, “Okay, that\u2019s the past. This is the real Romney now. This is the guy, I can go forward with.” It didn\u2019t work like that with you?<\/p>\n CALLER: No, it\u2019s a wonderful speech. He presses all the right buttons, he says all the right words, but the problem is we know what he\u2019s been doing in the past. He has a record he has to live with.<\/p>\n RUSH: Okay, so is there…? For you, is there anything he could do to change your perception of him?<\/p>\n CALLER: In my case, no.<\/p>\n RUSH: Okay. That\u2019s fair.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/Road-to-Serfdom-66_large.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>She was dumbfounded that I was asking permission to subscribe. So, anyway, I subscribed to it and I started reading it. Next up was the American Spectator<\/a>. I don\u2019t even remember who wrote the piece. It might have been Mr. Buckley himself, but he talked about Hayek and taxation. I was enthralled immediately, and I said, “I never heard of this. Who is this?” I began to learn everything I could about Friedrich Von Hayek, and the two primary books are The Road to Serfdom<\/a>, which the Heritage Foundation<\/a> has given way to people in this audience for a time when they joined the Heritage Foundation) and then The Constitution of Liberty<\/a>, which is a really deep. That\u2019s deeper than The Road to Serfdom, but they\u2019re brilliant books. They\u2019re definitional. They\u2019re defining. And all Romney\u2019s saying here is, “I didn\u2019t know who Hayek was.” It almost might be just dropping the name now, in fact. We don\u2019t know that he\u2019s read Hayek, Von Hayek. He wants people to think that he has. Here\u2019s the next bite, and we will analyze as warranted.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/Romney-cpac_large.jpg\"\/)