{"id":16962,"date":"2012-01-04T18:19:44","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T18:19:44","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-01-04T18:19:44","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T18:19:44","slug":"do_i_help_or_hurt_republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2012\/01\/04\/do_i_help_or_hurt_republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I Help or Hurt Republicans?"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Steve Schmidt\u2019s out there again. This is the guy that ran McCain\u2019s campaign. Let me find it. It\u2019s audio sound bite number nine. Last night, PMSNBC, special coverage of the Hawkeye Cauci<\/a>. Steve Schmidt\u2019s the guest, and the question: “Would the old conservatives who hold a lot of money embrace Rick Santorum?<\/a> They can\u2019t stand Romney. Richard Viguerie told me, ‘Not Mitt now or ever,\u2019 so who?”<\/p>\n

<\/a>SCHMIDT: There will absolutely be a constituency of people out there that rally around the alternative to Mitt Romney<\/a>, and you saw it absolutely in, uhh, 2008, uhh, with Senator McCain. Ironically, a lot of those people were rallying to Mitt Romney, endorsed him as the conservative candidate. Didn\u2019t make a lick of difference. Rush Limbaugh was on the radio every day lambasting Senator McCain, and he still wound up winning South Carolina. (gasp) He wound up winning Florida. People don\u2019t turn over their voting franchise to talk radio hosts and to the activist leaders of the base.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, I tell you: These guys are saying this so much, they\u2019re clearly worried about it. Every week we got some political consultant going on television saying, “Talk radio doesn\u2019t change anybody\u2019s votes! These guys don\u2019t have any influence. Limbaugh and these people, nobody bases their votes on what they say. In fact, everything Limbaugh wanted didn\u2019t happen in 2008.” Of course, they conveniently leave out that I didn\u2019t get involved or endorse anybody, but it\u2019s neither here nor there. Now, there is a countervailing view in the American Spectator today. There are actually two articles — one article, one blog. Jeff Lord has a blog post.<\/line><\/p>\n

Jay D. Homnick of The American Spectator “And the Winner in Iowa is…” dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut! “Rush Limbaugh,” and his claim that I\u2019m the winner is that the winner, Santorum<\/a>, actually mentioned me, actually cited me — and, frankly, I, in my ignorance, never even considered this. But Mr. Homnick points out that Republican consultants advise their clients not to mention me because it\u2019ll irritate the independents. It\u2019s the same thing as, “Don\u2019t criticize Obama! If you criticize Obama, the independents gonna run away from you, they\u2019re gonna think you\u2019re racist and a bigot,” and apparently the consultants are advising their candidates saying, “Don\u2019t quote Limbaugh. If Limbaugh supports you, don\u2019t say so. You don\u2019t want to go anywhere near Limbaugh! Limbaugh will kill your campaign, because Limbaugh will send the independents running away from you.”<\/p>\n

This is apparently what Mr. Homnick says in his article, but Santorum didn\u2019t listen to this. Santorum actually cited me and quoted me in a couple of ads and on the stump and ends up doing well. Mr. Homnick says the opposite of what Steve Schmidt says. Regardless, I sit here and what am I doing? I\u2019m minding my own business like everybody else, trying not to bother anybody (which is hard to do, but I still try not to bother anybody) and at least once a week some Republican consultant goes on MSNBC to point out how voters don\u2019t care what I say or any other talk show host — not just me — that we don\u2019t move votes, that we don\u2019t influence thinking. We\u2019re just a bunch of entertainers or what have you. If we\u2019re so inconsequential, why keep talking about it? (interruption)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an article in the American Spectator. I just told you what\u2019s in it! It\u2019s a long article. I don\u2019t want to read the whole thing. You know I don\u2019t like talking about me. All right, here we go”Despite the fact that Republican candidates have always vied to get some air time on the show, the political consultants they hire have steered them away from quoting Limbaugh by name in other venues or using his name in advertising. The fact that he generally refrains from openly endorsing particular candidates has enabled them to get away with this brand of disloyalty. They can\u2019t very well be expected to cite him in an ad if he has not specifically expressed his backing, can they?<\/p>\n

“Thus the paradox. Five minutes on Limbaugh is worth more than all the campaign ads put together, yet mentioning him in a commercial is seen by campaign managers as taboo. It will anger the independents, they say, and the moderates\u00c2\u2026 and the women\u00c2\u2026 and the minorities\u00c2\u2026 and on and on. The consequence of this strategy is that we wind up with colorless compromisers like Bob Dole and John McCain as presidential candidates, and elections are written off as losses before the first lever is pulled in the voting booth for a Republican or in the mortuary for a Democrat. This time Santorum broke the mold.<\/p>\n

“He ran a bold ad quoting accolades tossed in his direction by Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Rush Limbaugh. That willingness to name names sent a powerful signal, electrifying the fence that most Iowa Republicans had been sitting on. There are an awful lot of conservative voters who have been waiting a long time to hear their heroes acknowledged. In my estimation, that single advertising spot put Santorum over the top in Iowa.” So Mr. Homnick\u2019s point here is that, contrary to Mr. Schmidt, Republican voters do want to hear the candidates acknowledge their other heroes. It cements the notion of “team.” Mr. Homnick points out the consultants, even though they admit getting five minutes on this show would be great, say, “Don\u2019t dare mention Limbaugh by name,” because they\u2019re defensive and scared.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, tell you what now. Now we\u2019re getting into an area of the program where I\u2019m genuinely uncomfortable, and that is where I am the subject. I\u2019m the subject everywhere else but we try to keep this program focused on the ideas and the issues. But let me just say: Since I\u2019ve come up now — since they\u2019re out there savaging me — let me just ask you all a question. Why was Barack Obama\u2019s first words as president, “Don\u2019t listen to Rush Limbaugh”? He had the Republican leadership, the House and the Senate. He had Boehner and the boys up there and he said, “You gotta stop listening to Rush Limbaugh! That\u2019s not how things get done in this town,” right? On the other hand, Steve Schmidt said, “Nobody listens to Limbaugh! He\u2019s not influencing anyone.”<\/line><\/p>\n

Obama, first thing out of his mouth to the Republicans: “You gotta stop listening to Rush Limbaugh.” So, according to the political consultants, Obama should tell everybody to listen to me so I would run \u2019em off! If Steve Schmidt\u2019s right, all I do is harm Republicans. So Obama ought to be telling everybody, “Listen to Limbaugh! Quote Limbaugh!” But that\u2019s not what Obama\u2019s doing. Obama is telling people not to listen to me. Here\u2019s another thing: If having the primaries go on so long is so bad for the Republicans — which is what the media montage we had at the beginning of the program: “Oh, this is good! Obama\u2019s the big winner! The longer this goes on, the better for Obama, the longer the Republican fight.”<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s true, how come with each passing day each Republican candidate scores higher in polls against Obama? Right now Romney, to cite an example, is ahead of Obama by more than six points, according to Rasmussen. Really? How can that be? Because the Democrat media is telling us that the longer the Republican fight goes on, the better it is for Obama, and Obama\u2019s the big winner! Last I looked Obama is tanking, even if nobody has the guts to say so. Now, there aren\u2019t too many Republican consultants who have the guts to say so because they\u2019re just scared to death of any criticism of Obama. Here is last night a guy named Jon Jacobson, a supporter of Santorum. This is during the Hawkeye Cauci, and this is before the votes, and all the cauci attendees show up. This is a Santorum supporter, Jon Jacobson.<\/p>\n

JACOBSON: Rick Santorum has taken arrows for our cause, leading Rush Limbaugh to say, quote: “If Rick Santorum were elected president, I wouldn\u2019t have one doubt any day what he would be fighting for, not one.”<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah. That\u2019s somebody trying to gin up votes at the Hawkeye Cauci for Santorum quoting me. Now, the Republican consultants say that that\u2019s gonna drive voters away, quoting me. Santorum came outta nowhere and finished in a dead heat. You could say he\u2019s the winner last night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Steve Schmidt\u2019s out there again. This is the guy that ran McCain\u2019s campaign. Let me find it. It\u2019s audio sound bite number nine. Last night, PMSNBC, special coverage of the Hawkeye Cauci. Steve Schmidt\u2019s the guest, and the question: “Would the old conservatives who hold a lot of money embrace Rick Santorum? They can\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDo I Help or Hurt Republicans? - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2012\/01\/04\/do_i_help_or_hurt_republicans\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Do I Help or Hurt Republicans? - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Steve Schmidt\u2019s out there again. This is the guy that ran McCain\u2019s campaign. Let me find it. It\u2019s audio sound bite number nine. 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