{"id":16910,"date":"2012-01-09T20:00:19","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T20:00:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-01-09T20:00:19","modified_gmt":"2012-01-09T20:00:19","slug":"thoughts_on_haley_newt_huckabee_mccain_and_romney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2012\/01\/09\/thoughts_on_haley_newt_huckabee_mccain_and_romney\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Haley, Newt, Huckabee, McCain and Romney"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I just got an interesting e-mail, and it reminded me of something. I don\u2019t know what it was, \u2019cause it doesn\u2019t say, that spawned the question in the e-mail. The person wanted to know, “Rush, why was Romney so disliked in 2008?” By the candidates he was disliked, I don\u2019t mean so much by voters. There\u2019s a reason for that. Back in 2008, Romney<\/a> was the only guy, much as is the case this time around, who had his own independent money. Romney\u2019s independently wealthy, and people have forgotten it \u2019til this guy asked me this question. I had, too. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now, we talk often about how Huckabee and McCain joined forces, but there was a reason for it. Romney <\/a>was out running a series of negative ads against every Republican, and a lot of them resented the heck out of it, and he was doing it early in the Republican primary. Giuliani hated it. I mean there were a number of Republicans back in 2008 who thought it was unnecessary and gratuitous. And so Huckabee and McCain joined forces in West Virginia and a couple of other states. In fact, you know what I say? Huckabee, he\u2019s out there saying I loved me some Romney back in 2008, what\u2019s happened? I would say, what happened to you? You hated Romney in 2008. You\u2019re lined up against Romney in 2008, you and McCain did your best to take Romney out. What\u2019s changed, Governor? <\/p>\n

How come now Romney\u2019s the cat\u2019s meow and four years ago you couldn\u2019t stand the prospect of — just \u2019cause you\u2019re not running this time around? I don\u2019t recall when you got out of the race in 2008 you lining up with Romney. All these people that tried to take Romney out in 2008 now are in his camp? This is simply party politics. I had dinner the other night with a lovely group of people who still have a high school civics 101 version idea of politics. They think it\u2019s all about ideas. And these people have — I\u2019ll just mention, these people have done a lot to help Nikki Haley. They\u2019re very angry at her now. They\u2019ve done a lot to help Nikki Haley in South Carolina, the governor, and these are Gingrich people, and they think they were led to believe that Nikki Haley would be in there supporting Gingrich. <\/p>\n

They were telling me, “We don\u2019t know what happened, Nikki was so… and now she won\u2019t.” I said, “Well, don\u2019t blame her.” I tried to walk \u2019em through, I said, “What party is she a member of?” “Well, she\u2019s Republican.” “Okay, right, she\u2019s a governor, right?” “Yes.” “To whom do you think she is going to be loyal for her own career advancement? She\u2019s gonna do what the party wants.” It\u2019s no different, you know, freshman members of Congress are brought into the leadership, both parties. It\u2019s part of their party orientation. Okay, look, here\u2019s the way this works here. You\u2019re freshman, and you\u2019re feeling your oats, but you\u2019re nothing unless we help you. You don\u2019t get a committee chairmanship, you don\u2019t get a subcommittee chairmanship, you don\u2019t get a sub-subcommittee. You get no campaign assistance, nothing, unless you support us. If we can count on your vote, leadership, then you\u2019ll go far here. If you\u2019re gonna stay independent maverick, then you\u2019re on your own and we\u2019re gonna be working against you. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s no different. It\u2019s a business. It\u2019s the way it works. So they were just sad that Nikki Haley has endorsed Romney. They thought Nikki Haley would come out and endorse Gingrich. It\u2019s not the way party politics works. So I just find it fascinating that Huckabee and McCain, you name it, from the 2008 roster, hated Romney. They were doing everything they could to sabotage Romney. Now four years later, guess what? They are loving themselves some Romney. As the Huckster\u2019s out there saying, they\u2019re loving themselves some Romney. Now, they\u2019re asking me, “What happened to you?” Well, yeah, there\u2019s no McCain in the race this time around. Every race is different. In 2008, Romney had an entirely different position among the candidates than he does now. <\/line><\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t changed. I\u2019m still who I am, my ideas, I\u2019m consistent. I don\u2019t change. And, by the way, I don\u2019t recall endorsing anybody in 2008. And I think, you know, after McCain got the nomination, we did our best. There wasn\u2019t a whole lot that could be done but we gave it our best here. We did, Snerdley. We did. After the nomination took place. But I think the question\u2019s only being asked half correctly. Huckabee wants to run around and say, “Oh, Rush is being a big flip-flopper. Rush flip-flopped!” No, you\u2019re flip-flopping. Governor Romney was actually targeted by Governor Huckabee. Governor Huckabee actually took steps to take Governor Romney out and now he is loving himself some Romney. The question I think is for Governor Huckabee. What\u2019s changed? What\u2019s different? Of course nobody\u2019s asking the question but me. <\/p>\n

But anyway, the reason for bringing all this up, was this question I got from people, why is Romney so disliked? And I think with all of this money that Romney has spent — Romney hasn\u2019t, but his super PAC against Gingrich, it\u2019s a multimillion-dollar attack on Gingrich. And I think, I could be wrong, but I think that may come back and haunt Romney because others have learned from him. So people like Ron Paul now and a lot of the other candidates are now engaging in these scorched earth tactics because when Romney did it against Newt, it worked. <\/line><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s unfortunate it\u2019s come to this. I don\u2019t like seeing any of this transpire. But this is why Giuliani doesn\u2019t support Romney. It\u2019s why Fred Thompson hasn\u2019t come out for him. It\u2019s because they don\u2019t like the super PAC spending all this money in scorched earth and they remember it\u2019s what Romney did in 2008. Now, it\u2019s also fair to say, hey, this is politics, this is what happens and money is the way this is — and that\u2019s all true, too. I\u2019m not condemning Romney, don\u2019t misunderstand. I\u2019m just saying that you start this process, you demonstrate that it works, you\u2019re gonna cause copycats, and it\u2019s now starting to take place. Several others who were dealt this way by Romney or Romney\u2019s PACs in 2008 are now starting to respond in kind. The media keeps asking, for example, what\u2019s Newt\u2019s problem with these attacks? I mean this is politics. What the hell does he expect? And these are not attacks. Newt\u2019s engaged in self-defense. Newt was wandering around minding his own business, he got hit, he got hit, and he got hit, finally some people have sent him enough money that he can retaliate now. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not Newt that\u2019s doing the attacking. It\u2019s Newt that\u2019s doing the defending. And, you know, Romney took a chance, it helped him in Iowa, he was able to really cut Gingrich off at the knees in Iowa, and he showed the others that it\u2019s okay to slam away that way. So they\u2019re now slamming away, everybody is slamming away at everybody on the Republican side. It\u2019s just once it starts and once it\u2019s shown to be effective, then here come the copycats. So Newt now is going after Romney on this Bain Capital business, and you might say that they\u2019re not defensive, but I don\u2019t know that Gingrich would be doing this had Romney not taken the steps he took in Iowa. But Newt\u2019s out there saying, (paraphrasing) “This guy, he\u2019s not a conservative. All he does is go in and take over companies and fire people, lays \u2019em off. This isn\u2019t capitalism.” He\u2019s laying into Romney the way the Democrats are going to. Bain Capital is going to be the Halliburton of 2012 if Romney does indeed get the nomination. <\/p>\n

Bain Capital is Romney\u2019s hedge fund investment firm, and they did, they went over, they bought companies and in not very many cases but in some they downsized, let some people go, which is what happens, you streamline. One of the reasons the company was for sale was it was in bad shape, you buy it, you have to streamline it, make it more efficient, and that involves laying people off. Now, grab sound bite 34. Romney, you have to tell me if he stepped in it here. (interruption) No, I know, Newt\u2019s ad on Bain Capital looks like something the Democrat National Committee will put out, and just like I didn\u2019t like in 2000 when George W. Bush said he wasn\u2019t gonna balance the budget on the backs of the poor. No! He was talking about compassionate conservatism, using the language of the left. <\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s to get the moderates and the independents and so forth, and Newt is using the language of the left in going after Romney on Bain Capital. That makes me uncomfortable, too. That\u2019s what I mean: Once this stuff starts, Katie bar the door. So this morning in Nashua, New Hampshire, at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting, Mitt Romney had a few words, and among those words that he spoke were these…<\/p>\n

ROMNEY: I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means that if you don\u2019t like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people that provide services to me.<\/p>\n

AUDIENCE: (laughs)<\/p>\n

ROMNEY: If someone doesn\u2019t give me the good service I need I want to say, “You know, I\u2019m gonna go to somebody else.”<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, now, there are — let\u2019s see — one, two, three, four, five, six, seven words here that are going to be: “I like being able to fire people.” You can see the ad now, can\u2019t you? A smiling Mitt Romney with the biggest grin, biggest smile they can find — huge — right in the middle of the TV screen; underneath it: “I like being able to fire people.” Newt will run an ad that says, “See, I Told You So!” (laughing)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I just got an interesting e-mail, and it reminded me of something. I don\u2019t know what it was, \u2019cause it doesn\u2019t say, that spawned the question in the e-mail. 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