{"id":223202,"date":"2009-02-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-28T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?p=223202"},"modified":"2021-03-12T09:03:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T14:03:04","slug":"rushs-first-televised-address-to-the-nation-conservative-political-action-conference-cpac-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/28\/rushs-first-televised-address-to-the-nation-conservative-political-action-conference-cpac-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush\u2019s First Televised Address to the Nation: Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BEGIN TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all very, very much. Thank you all. I can\u2019t tell you how wonderful that makes me feel. It happens everywhere I go, but it\u2019s still special here.<\/p>\n<p>[Laughter]<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/standalone\/?284357-3\/rush-limbaugh-remarks-conservatives\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nIf you all will indulge me, I learned something, I guess, it\u2019s early Friday morning that I didn\u2019t know. Friday morning is when I learned this. I learned that Fox, God love them, is televising this speech on the Fox News Channel, which means, ladies and gentleman, this is my first ever address to the nation.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Now, I have someone in back taking phone numbers. In fact, I would like to introduce to you my security chief, a man who runs all of my security. His name is Joseph Stalin. Joseph, would you please &#8212; [Laughter ] I am safe from any liberal attack, in public, because they would be afraid of offending Stalin. [Laughter] Now the opportunity here to address the nation, a serious one, it really is. And I want to take it seriously. I want to address something. I know that people are probably watching this who never have listened to my program and may not even really know what conservatism is. They think they do based on how they\u2019ve been told &#8212; the way we\u2019ve been impugned and maligned and so forth. One of the things that is totally erroneous about me &#8212; and I just want to get this up front &#8212; is that I\u2019m pompous.<\/p>\n<p>[Laughter]<\/p>\n<p>And that I am arrogant. Neither of these things are remotely true. I can tell you a joke to illustrate this. Larry King passed away, goes to heaven. He\u2019s greeted by Saint Peter at the gates. Saint Peter says, &#8220;Welcome, Mr. King, it\u2019s great to have you here. I want to show you around, give you an idea of what\u2019s here, maybe you can pick a place that you\u2019d like to reside.&#8221; King says, &#8220;I just have one question: Is Rush Limbaugh here?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No, he\u2019s got a lot of time yet, Mr. King.&#8221; So Saint Peter begins the tour. Larry King sees the various places and it\u2019s beyond anything we can imagine in terms of beauty. Finally, he gets to the biggest room of all, with this giant throne. And over the throne is a flashing beautiful angelic neon sign that says &#8220;Rush Limbaugh.&#8221; [Laughter]<\/p>\n<p>And Larry King looks at Saint Peter and says: &#8220;I thought you said he wasn\u2019t here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said, &#8220;He\u2019s not, he\u2019s not. This is God\u2019s room. He just thinks he\u2019s Rush Limbaugh.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>[Laughter] [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>So you see I\u2019m not pompous.<\/p>\n<p>[Laughter]<\/p>\n<p>Now, seriously, for those of you watching on C-SPAN as well, and on Fox, I want to tell you who we all are in this room. I want to tell you who conservatives are. We conservatives have not done a good enough job of just laying out basically who we are because we make the mistake of assuming people know. What they know is largely incorrect based on the way we are portrayed in pop culture, in the Drive-By Media, by the Democrat Party.<\/p>\n<p>Let me tell you who we conservatives are: We love people. [Applause] When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don\u2019t see groups. We don\u2019t see victims. We don\u2019t see people we want to exploit. What we see &#8212; what we see is potential. We do not look out across the country and see the average American, the person that makes this country work. We do not see that person with contempt. We don\u2019t think that person doesn\u2019t have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government. [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. [Applause] We believe that the preamble to the Constitution contains an inarguable truth that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Liberty, Freedom.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>And the pursuit of happiness.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Those of you watching at home may wonder why this is being applauded. We conservatives think all three are under assault.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause] Thank you. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t want to tell anybody how to live. That\u2019s up to you. If you want to make the best of yourself, feel free. If you want to ruin your life, we\u2019ll try to stop it, but it\u2019s a waste. We look over the country as it is today, we see so much waste, human potential that\u2019s been destroyed by 50 years of a welfare state. By a failed war on poverty.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>We love the people of this country. And we want this to be the greatest country it can be, but we do understand, as people created and endowed by our creator, we\u2019re all individuals. We resist the effort to group us. We resist the effort to make us feel that we\u2019re all the same, that we\u2019re no different than anybody else. We\u2019re all different. There are no two things or people in this world who are created in a way that they end up with equal outcomes. That\u2019s up to them. They are created equal, given the chance &#8211; -[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t hate anybody. We don\u2019t &#8212; I mean, the racism in this country, if you ask me, I know many people in this audience &#8212; let me deal with this head on. You know what the cliche is, a conservative: racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe. Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen of America, if you were paying attention, I know you were, the racism in our culture was exclusively and fully on display in the Democrat primary last year.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>It was not us asking whether Barack<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-223206\" src=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/RushCPACBack.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"277\" height=\"206\">Obama was authentic. What we were asking is: Is he wrong? We concluded, yes. We still think so. But we didn\u2019t ask if he was authentically black. We didn\u2019t say, as some Southern Christian Leadership Conference leaders said: Barack is not authentic, he\u2019s not got any slave blood. He\u2019s really not down for the struggle, but his wife is. So don\u2019t expect the race industry to go away. Southern Christian Leadership Conference &#8212; you may not know this, because it wasn\u2019t reported in the Drive-By Media &#8212; the racism, the sexism, the bigotry that we\u2019re all charged with, just so you across the United States of America know, and you\u2019ll see demonstrated here as the afternoon goes on, doesn\u2019t exist on our side. We want everybody to succeed. [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>You know why? We want the country to succeed, and for the country to succeed, its people &#8212; its individuals &#8212; must succeed. Everyone among us must be pursuing his ambition or her desire, whatever, with excellence. Trying to be the best they can be. Not told, as they are told by the Democrat Party: You really can\u2019t do that, you don\u2019t have what it takes, besides you\u2019re a minority or you\u2019re a woman and there are too many people that want to discriminate against you. You can\u2019t get anywhere. You need to depend on us.<\/p>\n<p>Well. Take a look, someone has to say this &#8212; I am thrilled for the opportunity to say it in my first national address to the nation &#8212; and I\u2019m going to touch on this in more detail in a moment, but this is just to get you thinking &#8212; take a look at all the constituency groups that for 50 years have been depending on the Democrat Party to improve their lives. And you tell me if you find any. They\u2019re still complaining, still griping about the same problems. Their problems don\u2019t get fixed by government. And those lives have been poisoned. Those lives have been cut short by false promises, from government representatives who said don\u2019t worry about it, we\u2019ll take care of you. Just vote for us.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>For those of you just tuning in on the Fox News Channel or C-SPAN, I\u2019m Rush Limbaugh and I want everyone in this room and every one of you around the country to succeed. I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness to succeed. And I want any force, any person, any element of an overarching Big Government that would stop your success, I want that organization, that element or that person to fail. I want you to succeed. [Applause] Also, for those of you in the Drive-By Media watching, I have not needed a teleprompter for anything I\u2019ve said. [Cheers and Applause ] And nor do any of us need a teleprompter, because our beliefs are not the result of calculations and contrivances. Our beliefs are not the result of a deranged psychology. Our beliefs are our core. Our beliefs are our hearts. We don\u2019t have to make notes about what we believe. We don\u2019t have to write down, oh do I believe it do I believe that we can tell people what we believe off the top of our heads and we can do it with passion and we can do it with clarity, and we can do it persuasively. Some of us just haven\u2019t had the inspiration or motivation to do so in a number of years, but that\u2019s about to change.<\/p>\n<p>[Cheers and Applause]<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-223207\" src=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/RushCPACCNN2013.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"585\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/RushCPACCNN2013.jpg 585w, https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/RushCPACCNN2013-300x128.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 585px) 100vw, 585px\" \/>For example, we gather here &#8212; I understand that. I talked to David and Lisa in the super exclusive private green room that nobody, but about 55 people were allowed into, and they said that there\u2019s a sense of liberation here among all of you that are attending CPAC. I understand what the sense of liberation is about. But don\u2019t make the mistake at the same time of feeling liberated as thinking we\u2019re better and we can do better as a minority. Because we\u2019re not a minority. And if you start thinking of yourselves as a minority, you\u2019re going to be defensive. And you\u2019ll allow the majority to set the agenda and the premise and you\u2019re responding to it. The American people may not all vote the way we wish them to, but more Americans than you now live their lives as conservatives in one degree or another. And they are waiting for leadership. We need conservative leadership. We can take this country back. All we need is to nominate the right candidate. It\u2019s no more complicated than that.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Now, let me speak about President Obama for just a second. President Obama is one of the most gifted politicians, one of the most gifted men that I have ever witnessed. He has extraordinary talents. He has communication skills that hardly anyone can surpass. No, seriously. No, no, I\u2019m being very serious about this. It just breaks my heart that he does not use these extraordinary talents and gifts to motivate and inspire the American people to be the best they can be. He\u2019s doing just the opposite. And it\u2019s a shame. [Applause] President Obama has the ability &#8212; he has the ability to inspire excellence in people\u2019s pursuits. He has the ability to do all this, yet he pursues a path, seeks a path that punishes achievement, that punishes earners and punishes &#8212; and he speaks negatively of the country. Ronald Reagan used to speak of a shining city on a hill. Barack Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some dark night in a corner of America that\u2019s very obscure. He\u2019s constantly telling the American people that bad times are ahead, worst times are ahead. And it\u2019s troubling, because this is the United States of America. Anybody ever ask &#8212; I\u2019m in awe of our country and I ask this question a lot as I\u2019ve gotten older. We\u2019re less than 300 years old. We are younger than nations that have been on this planet for thousands of years. We, nevertheless, in less than 300 years &#8212; by the way, we\u2019re no different than any other human beings around the world. Our DNA is no different. We\u2019re not better just because we\u2019re born in America. There\u2019s nothing that sets us apart. How did this happen? How did the United States of America become the world\u2019s lone super power, the world\u2019s economic engine, the most prosperous opportunity for an advanced lifestyle that humanity has ever known? How did this happen? And why pray tell does the President of the United States want to destroy it? It saddens me.<\/p>\n<p>The freedom we spoke of earlier is the freedom, it\u2019s the ambition, it\u2019s the desire, the wherewithal, the passions that people have that gave us the great entrepreneurial advances, the great inventions, the greatest food production, the human lifestyle advances in this country. Why shouldn\u2019t that be rewarded? Why is that now the focus of punishment? Why is that now the focus of blame? Why doesn\u2019t &#8212; Mayor Bloomberg the other day, ladies and gentlemen, resisting his Governor\u2019s call for an increased tax on the rich in New York had some astounding numbers. Eight million people live in New York. 40,000 of those eight million pay roughly 60 to 70% of New York\u2019s operating budget. He was afraid that if he raised taxes on those people some of them might leave. Mayor, one already has, by the way. [Applause] Stop and think of this, though. Stop and think of this. Forty thousand people out of eight million. He\u2019s right, if 10,000 of them leave, or 5,000, they\u2019ve got a huge problem. Because New York has its own welfare state inside the one the federal government\u2019s created. They\u2019ve got a dependency class that has grown up and been educated that their entitlement is to be fed and taken care of by these evil mean people who have more than they do. If New York City, New York State or Washington, DC were a business, these 40,000 people would be taken on golf tournament trips to Los Angeles, and they would be wined and dined and they would be thanked and they would be encouraged to keep it up. They wouldn\u2019t be told they\u2019re the problem. They wouldn\u2019t be told, except there\u2019s &#8212; I pride my accuracy rating. There is one other business where the customer is always wrong and that\u2019s the media. Sorry about that.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever called to complain about whatever they do? They say, yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full. They hang up and say you\u2019re too stupid to know how they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re doing. You can\u2019t get it. You\u2019re not sophisticated enough. So that\u2019s another business where the customer is always wrong. But, seriously, the people who have achieved great things, most of it is not inherited. Most wealth in this country is the result of entrepreneurial, just plain old hard work. There\u2019s no reason to punish it. There\u2019s no reason to raise taxes on these people. Barack Obama, the Democrat Party, have one responsibility, and that\u2019s to respect the oath they gave to protect, defend and follow the US Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>They don\u2019t have the right to take money that\u2019s not theirs, from the back pockets of producers, and give it to groups like ACORN, which are going to advance the Democrat Party. If anybody but government were doing this, it would be a crime. And many of us think it\u2019s bordering on that as it exists now.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>President Obama is so busy trying to foment and create anger in a created atmosphere of crisis, he is so busy fueling the emotions of class envy that he\u2019s forgotten it\u2019s not his money that he\u2019s spending. [Applause] In fact, the money he\u2019s spending is not ours. He\u2019s spending wealth that has yet to be created. And that is not sustainable. It will not work. This has been tried around the world. And every time it\u2019s been tried, it\u2019s a failed disaster.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s the longest war in American history? Did somebody say the war on poverty? Smart group. War on poverty. The war on poverty essentially started in the \u201930s as part of the New Deal, but it really ramped up in the \u201960s with Lyndon Johnson, part of the Great Society war on poverty. We have transferred something like 10 trillion, maybe close to 11 trillion, from producers and earners to nonproducers and nonearners since 1965. Yet, as I listen to the Democratic Party campaign, why, America is still a soup kitchen, the poor is still poor and they have no hope and they\u2019re poor for what reason? They\u2019re poor because of us, because we don\u2019t care, and because we\u2019ve gotten rich by taking from them, that\u2019s what kids in school are taught today. That\u2019s what others have said to the media. You know why they\u2019re poor, you know why they remain poor? Because their lives have been destroyed by the never-ending government hay that\u2019s designed to help them, but it destroys ambition. It destroys the education they might get to learn to be self-fulfilling. [Applause] And it breaks our heart. It breaks our heart. We lose track of numbers with all of the money, with all the money that\u2019s been transferred, redistributed, with all the charitable giving in this country.<\/p>\n<p>Ladies and gentlemen, there ought not be any poverty except those who are genuinely ill equipped. But most of the people in poverty in this country are equipped for far much more. They\u2019ve just been beaten down. They\u2019re told don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll take care of you. There\u2019s nothing out there for you anyway; you\u2019ll be discriminated against. Breaks our heart to see this. We can\u2019t have a great country and a growing economy with more and more people being told they have a right, because of some injustice that\u2019s been done to them or some discrimination, that they have a right to the earnings of others. And it\u2019s gotten so out of hand now that what worries me is that this administration, the Barack Obama administration is actively seeking to expand the welfare state in this country because he wants to control it.<\/p>\n<p>George Will once asked Dr. Friedrich Von Hayek, tremendous classical economist, great man, 1975, George Will, Dr. Von Hayek, why is it that intellectuals, supposed smartest people in the room, why is it that intellectuals can look right out their windows, their own homes and cars and look at their universities and not see the bounties and the growth and the greatness of capitalism? And Von Hayek said: I\u2019ve troubled over this for years and I\u2019ve finally concluded that for intellectuals, pseudo-intellectuals, and all liberals, it\u2019s about control. It\u2019s not about raising revenue. You think Obama has any intention of paying for all this spending? Folks, if he had any intention of paying for it, he wouldn\u2019t do 90% of it because we don\u2019t have the money. [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>They don\u2019t care about paying for it. All that\u2019s just words. All that\u2019s just rhetoric paying for it because he knows you have to worry about paying for it. He knows we all have to be concerned &#8212; oh, except, wrong again. Except the words of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd who were given homes that everybody knew they could never pay for, and now Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, the architects along with Bill Clinton of the policy that gave us the whole sub-prime mortgage crisis, get to sit around and act as innocent spectators to investigate what went on when they largely had the biggest role in causing it. [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Congressman Frank\u2019s definition of affordable housing is you get a house you don\u2019t have to pay for that everybody else in the neighborhood will pay for. Why? Because it\u2019s unfair that some people can have a house and some people can\u2019t. Geez, it\u2019s just unfair. So here we have two systems. We have socialism, collectivism, Stalin, whatever you want to call it, versus capitalism. Admittedly over on the right side capitalism there will be unequal outcomes because we\u2019re all different. And some of us care more and have more passion and we know what we want to do and others are still struggling for it. Some people are just going to work harder than others. Okay. You get what you work for. Those who have a genuine inability for whatever reason are taken care of. We\u2019re compassionate people. On the left side when you get into this collectivism socialism stuff, these people on the left, the Democrats and liberals today claim that they are pained by the inequities and the inequalities in our society. And they believe that these inequities and inequalities descend from the selfishness and the greed of the achievers. And so they tell the people who are on different income quintiles, whatever lists, they say it\u2019s not that you\u2019re not working hard enough, you could have what they have, perhaps, if you applied it. They\u2019re stealing it from you.<\/p>\n<p>So what liberals do, and I say this again to the &#8212; another thing, I know people in the country are watching. I was watching a focus group after some event this week. Might have been after Obama\u2019s State of the Union show. [Laughter] And they had &#8212; it was a typical, you know, Drive-By Media focus group. They round up losers &#8212; [Laughter] &#8212; who hear Obama speak and think that the next day their gas tanks are going to be filled up and get a new house and a new kitchen and a new car. And so this one guy said &#8212; oh, it was some guy responding to Bobby Jindal. Oh, by the way did you hear about Joe Biden? Joe Biden was mystified how Bobby Jindal got his shift off at 7-Eleven that night to make the speech. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Time out. Suspend speech for explanation. People watching at home. I\u2019m glad this happened. Glad this happened. You think I just made a joke, an ethnic joke about Bobby Jindal, don\u2019t you? I didn\u2019t. I made a joke about the bigotry of the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden. It was Joe Biden while walking through the train station he knows so well because he\u2019s such a real guy, that he made a comment that you can\u2019t go into a 7-Eleven without seeing some Indian guy behind the counter. They\u2019re all over the place.<\/p>\n<p>Now, let a conservative say something like that and he\u2019s brought up before John Conyers\u2019 committee with Pat Leahy wanting at you next. Many people think I lose my place in these speeches because &#8212; by the way what time is it? We have plenty of time. We have to be out of here by &#8212; [Applause] We have to be out of here by 6:00 &#8212; okay, depends on how you behave. I\u2019ll decide as we go on. What liberalism &#8212; Democrats, for those of you in the country, I really want you to believe this because it\u2019s the truth. I\u2019m not saying it just because I believe it. This is a core. I want the best country we can have. We want the most prosperous people. We want to be growing. We want to lead the world. We want everybody to come here legally. We want this country to be so damn great and we just cringe to watch it &#8212; basically capitalism be assaulted and our culture be reoriented to where the people that make it work are the enemy. That\u2019s not the United States of America. The people that make this country work, the people who pay on their mortgages, the people getting up and going to work, striving in this recession to not participate in it, they\u2019re not the enemy.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re the people that hire you. They\u2019re the people that are going to give you a job. They\u2019re the people that are going to give you a raise, the people that need you to do work for them. [Applause] President Obama, and take your pick of any Democrat, love to say we\u2019ve tried it your way. Meaning Reaganism. We\u2019ve tried it your way. We tried it your way in the \u201980s and it didn\u2019t work. We tried it your way eight years, the last eight years and it didn\u2019t work. Excuse me. Excuse me. Have you ever noticed those of you watching around the world in my first international address to the world, Fox is on some international satellites. They\u2019re watching this in the UK right now going (cringing). When Obama talks about past economies, he somehow always leaves out the recession of the \u201980s as worse than this one. Why does he leave it out? Because you know why he leaves it out, America? He leaves it out because we got out of that recession with tax cuts. [Applause] For those of you watching at home, I\u2019m not nervous it\u2019s just really hot in here. These people are wired. We got out of the 1980s recession with tax cuts. Do you know that President Obama, in six weeks of his administration, has proposed more spending than from the founding of the country to his inauguration?<\/p>\n<p>Now, this is not prosperity. It is not going to engender prosperity. It\u2019s not going to create prosperity and it\u2019s also not going to advance or promote freedom. It\u2019s going to be just the opposite. There are going to be more controls over what you can and can\u2019t do, how you can and can\u2019t do it, what you can and can\u2019t drive, what you can and can\u2019t say, where you can and can\u2019t say it. All of these things are coming down the pike, because it\u2019s not about revenue generation to them, it\u2019s about control. They do believe that they have compassion. They do believe they care. But, see, we never are allowed to look at the results of their plans, we are told we must only look at their good intentions, their big hearts. The fact that they have destroyed poor families by breaking up those families by offering welfare checks to women to keep having babies no more father needed, he\u2019s out doing something, the government\u2019s the father, they destroy the family. We\u2019re not supposed to analyze that. We\u2019re not supposed to talk about that. We\u2019re supposed to talk about their good intentions. They destroy people\u2019s futures. The future is not Big Government. Self-serving politicians. Powerful bureaucrats. This has been tried, tested throughout history. The result has always been disaster. President Obama, your agenda is not new. It\u2019s not change, and it\u2019s not hope. [Applause] Spending a nation into generational debt is not an act of compassion. All politicians, including President Obama, are temporary stewards of this nation. It is not their task to remake the founding of this country. It is not their task to tear it apart and rebuild it in their image.<\/p>\n<p>(Crowd chanting &#8220;USA&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>It is not their task, it is not their right to remake this nation to accommodate their psychology. I sometimes wonder if liberalism is not just a psychosis or a psychology, not an ideology. It\u2019s so much about feelings, and the predominant feeling that liberalism is about is about feeling good about themselves and they do that by telling themselves they have all this compassion. You know, if you really want to unhinge a liberal it\u2019s hard to do because they\u2019re so unhinged now anyway, even after &#8212; but all you have to do is say you know that the things you people do, the things you people believe in are cruel. That\u2019s the last way they look at themselves. They are the best people on the &#8212; they\u2019re the good people. You tell them that their ideas and that their policies are cruel and the eggs start scrambling.<\/p>\n<p>I have learned how to tweak liberals everywhere. I do it instinctively now. Tweak them in the media. And no reason to be afraid of these people. Why in the world would you be afraid of the deranged? There really is no reason to be afraid of them. And there\u2019s no reason to assume they\u2019re the minority. And there\u2019s no reason to let them set all the premises and all the agendas to which we respond to. I\u2019m getting a little bit ahead of myself here but everybody asks me and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s been a focal point of your convention: What do we do as conservatives? What do we do? How do we overcome this?<\/p>\n<p>Well, the one thing, and there are many, but one thing that we can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat them is with better policy ideas right now. I don\u2019t want to name any names. It\u2019s not the point. But I talk to people about the Obama budget or the Obama Porkulus bill or whatever else TARP 2 whatever it\u2019s going to be, and they start talking to me in the terms of process and policy. I say stop it. What do you mean? Who is setting the process or policy? They are. You want to tweak it? No. This is philosophy, folks. This guy, I forgot &#8212; the guy in the focus group after Bobby Jindal said, I didn\u2019t want to hear him talk, he said: Republicans and Democrats. Republicans and Democrats. Ladies and gentlemen of the United States of America, that\u2019s exactly what your future is about, who wins, Republicans or Democrats, conservatives versus liberals. The notion of partisanship, false premise. Let me define bipartisanship for you. Bipartisanship &#8212; everybody seems to go orgasmic over the concept of bipartisanship. Don\u2019t worry, I checked with Fox, that word\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n<p>[Laughter] [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Remember, they covered the Lewinsky thing, so that\u2019s my &#8212; bipartisanship occurs only after one other result, and that is victory. In other words, let\u2019s say as conservatives liberals demand that we be bipartisan with them in Congress. What they mean is: We check our core principles at the door, come in, let them run the show and agree with them. That\u2019s bipartisanship to them. To us, bipartisanship is them being forced to agree with us after we politically have cleaned their clocks and beaten them. And that has to be what we\u2019re focused on. [Applause] Why would any of us in this room who hold the core beliefs we believe, somebody tell me where is the compromise on all of this spending? Where is the compromise on all this punishment of the achievers. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>[Laughter] [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Where is the compromise between good and evil? Should Jesus have cut a different deal? Serious. From the standpoint of what we have to do, folks, this is not about taking a policy or a process that the Democrats have put forward and fighting around the edges. If we\u2019re going to convince the minds and hearts of the American people that what\u2019s about to happen to them is as disastrous as anything in their lives in peacetime, we\u2019re going to have to discuss philosophy with them. We are going to have to talk about principles, because our principles are not present in what\u2019s happening here. So where the hell do we go to compromise what we believe in when our principles are not their principles, they\u2019re just the opposite of what\u2019s happening? [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>The American people &#8212; it\u2019s a tough challenge. I admit &#8212; I admit it\u2019s a tough challenge, but it\u2019s worth it. It\u2019s worth it. The way I just defined bipartisanship you could turn it around and liberals will define bipartisanship when we surrender and say okay we give. We\u2019re not quitting. We are not giving up. The country is too important. [Applause] There are certain realities. We don\u2019t have the votes in Capitol Hill to stop what\u2019s going to happen. What we can do is slow it down, procedure, parliamentary procedures, slow it down and do the best we can to inform the American people of what\u2019s really on the horizon. I know it\u2019s going to be tough. At some points, I don\u2019t think it can happen even right now. This is still the honeymoon period, and there\u2019s a lot of devotion to the Obama administration. It doesn\u2019t have anything to do with intellectual thinking, it\u2019s feelings. It\u2019s going to take some time for this to play out. But I spoke to David Keene, interviewing him for my newsletter. I asked him about this. He said they\u2019re going to overreach. Wouldn\u2019t you say they have?<\/p>\n<p>[Laughter].<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re going to overreach. At some point, at some point people have got to realize none of this is possible. You can\u2019t have people living in homes they don\u2019t pay for. You can\u2019t have people driving cars they don\u2019t pay for. I mean, you can for a while. But after a while the people paying for it &#8212; screw this. We\u2019re not putting up with it. And you\u2019re going to see &#8212; you\u2019re already starting to see evidence of these. All the tea parties that are starting to bubble up out there. Those are great. Fabulous. [Applause] And here\u2019s the big question. Here\u2019s the big question. And I ask this again in the context of my first address to the nation. [Laughter] You don\u2019t know how I love saying that, how excited I am about this. Aside from the bastardization of the Constitution that the Obama plans are, that TARP is, it\u2019s not constitutional. Aside from that, where is the evidence that the people offering all of this have ever succeeded in any similar plans before? There\u2019s none. There is no evidence it works. [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>So you say how is he getting it done? Dumb down public education. Emotions. And the ongoing &#8212; this is why I think it\u2019s such a waste for a man as gifted as President Obama with the communications skills, you know he could wipe out the Republican Party. He can wipe out the Republican Party if he would inspire this country to be the best it could be, but we don\u2019t have to worry about that because that\u2019s not what he wants. He wants people in fear, angst and crisis, fearing the worst each and every day because that clears the decks for President Obama and his pals to come in with the answers, which are abject failures, historically shown and demonstrated. Doesn\u2019t matter. They\u2019ll have control of it when it\u2019s all over. And that\u2019s what they want. Because they think they can do it better. They see these inequalities, these inequities that capitalism produces. How do they fix it? Do they try to elevate those at the bottom? No! They try to tear down the people at the bottom. It\u2019s not fair you\u2019re up there. So they whack us. That\u2019s not what made the country great.[Applause] And no evidence of it is in play here.<\/p>\n<p>John Kerry [Boos], who served in Vietnam. [Laughter] Think about this, and, by the way, Barney Frank got involved with this, too. Northern Trust, a bank in Chicago &#8212; by the way, which holds the mortgage to the Messiah\u2019s house, purchased by Tony Rezko, Northern Trust holds the mortgage. Northern Trust was forced, like Wells Fargo was forced, to take TARP money. The Wells Fargo CEO said they were taken into Paulson\u2019s room and they were given until 5:00 to sign it. They weren\u2019t getting out until they did. They wanted it spread all over the banking business. Northern Trust was in there. They didn\u2019t want it. They took $1.6 billion. As you know, they went out and they sponsored the LA Riveria Open two weeks ago that Phil Mickelson barely hung on and won.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>And we find out they hired some liberals to entertain, but it still wasn\u2019t good enough. They hired Sheryl Crow. And they hired the rock crooner group Chicago, but they had the audacity, Northern Trust did, to entertain their clients, to try to reward their best customers, to get new customers, banking is in trouble, Northern Trust is trying to do what they always do, what all businesses do, and that is mine for new clients and reward existing good customers. Not since they took $1.6 billion, I guess. The haughty John Kerry wrote a piece of legislation said: He\u2019s getting sick and tired, sick and tired of these CEOs using taxpayer money to throw all these lavish parties. And I\u2019m saying where do you get yours, Senator? [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Sad thing, sad thing is it works. They\u2019ve created class envy in so many average Americans that they love hearing that. Yeah, you get even with those bank guys. How is it going to improve here? Let me ask a question for those of you watching my first national address. Take the favorite villain you\u2019ve got, maybe it\u2019s John Thain at Merrill Lynch, because he used his own money, his company\u2019s own money, his company\u2019s own money, to redecorate a bathroom in an office for $1.2 million. By the way, to do that he had to hire a contractor. They got paid. Had to hire a designer and buy furniture, that\u2019s called stimulus. And he did it.<\/p>\n<p>But all of a sudden John Thain\u2019s thrown out. John Thain is thrown out. He\u2019s humiliated and embarrassed; how dare he? He did it a year before they took the TARP money. And all these Congressmen are standing up saying this is not going to happen. We are not going to watch these people capping executive pay while Obama tries to live like one. You know, he\u2019s trying to emulate the lifestyle he is attacking. That\u2019s what liberals do. Two sets of rules: One for them; one for everybody else. But it\u2019s coming. See, if you think that John Thain or the Northern Trust CEO, if you love them getting attacked, if you love them being ripped, ask yourself the next day, do you have any more money in your pocket? Is your life any better because that guy got taken out or down by some haughty senator from Massachusetts?<\/p>\n<p>If you ask yourself this, you\u2019ll realize your life is no better off. That the Democrats and Obama are asking you to feel better simply on the basis that they\u2019re going to get revenge for you, but your life isn\u2019t going to improve, somebody else\u2019s is just going to be destroyed and they want you to be happy over that. That\u2019s sick. And that is not the United States of America. [Applause] Besides, as far as John Kerry is concerned, if it wasn\u2019t for his varicose veins, he would be totally colorless. [Laughter]<\/p>\n<p>Now let\u2019s talk about the conservative movement as it were. We, ladies and gentlemen, have challenges that are part and parcel of a movement that feels it has just suffered a humiliating defeat when it\u2019s not humiliating. This wasn\u2019t a landslide victory, 52 to, what, 46. Fifty-eight million people voted against Obama. There would have been more if we would have had a conservative nominee.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t mean that &#8212; I mean that in an instructive way, as a lead-in to what I\u2019m talking about here. No humiliating defeat here. I can\u2019t &#8212; sometimes I get livid and angry. We do have an organizational problem. We have a challenge. We\u2019ve got factions now within our own movement seeking power to dominate it, and worst of all to redefine it. Well, the Constitution doesn\u2019t need to be redefined. Conservative intellectuals, the Declaration of Independence does not need to be redefined and neither does conservatism. Conservatism is what it is and it is forever. It\u2019s not something you can bend and shape and flake and form.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause] Thank you. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>For the purposes of this occasion, I\u2019m not going to mention any names, I bet with you I won\u2019t have to. People watching my first address to the nation might be curious what I\u2019m talking about. They\u2019ll find out in due course, trust me on this. I cringed &#8212; it might have been 2007, late 2007 or sometime during 2008, but a couple of prominent conservative but Beltway establishment media types began to write on the concept that the era of Reagan is over.<\/p>\n<p>[Crowd Booing]<\/p>\n<p>And that we needed to adapt our appeal, because, after all, what\u2019s important in politics is winning elections. And so we have to understand that the American people, they want Big Government. We just have to find a way to tell them we\u2019re no longer opposed to that. We will come up with our own version of it that is wiser and smarter, but we\u2019ve got to go get the Walmart voter, and we\u2019ve got to get the Hispanic voter, and we\u2019ve got to get the recalcitrant independent women. And I\u2019m listening to this and I am just apoplectic: The era of Reagan is over? When the hell do you hear a Democrat say the era of FDR is over? You never hear it. Not only that, the President of the United States today thinks he\u2019s FDR, thinks he\u2019s Abraham Lincoln, and sometimes, Tuesday night, thinks he\u2019s Ronald Reagan. Our own movement has members trying to throw Reagan out while the Democrats know they can\u2019t accomplish what they want unless they appeal to Reagan voters. We have got to stamp this out within this movement, because it will tear us apart. It will guarantee we lose elections.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>We have to. You see, to me it\u2019s a no-brainer. It\u2019s not even something to me: How do you get rid of Reagan from conservatism? The blueprint &#8212; the blueprint for landslide conservative victory is right there. Why in the hell do the smartest people in our room want to chuck it? I know why. I know exactly why. It\u2019s because they\u2019re embarrassed of some of the people who call themselves conservatives. These people in New York and Washington, cocktail elitists, they get made fun of when the next NASCAR race is on TV and their cocktail buds come up to them, those people are in your party? How do you put up with this? It would be easy to throw them overboard, so as to maintain these cocktail party\/Beltway\/New York City\/inside-the-Beltway media relationships. But I tell you: This notion that Reaganism is dead, conservatism needs to be refined, let\u2019s take a look at this. We\u2019ve got to go get the Walmart voter. I opened my remarks tonight by telling the people watching on Fox who we conservatives are. When I look out at you in this audience, I don\u2019t see a Walmart voter. And I don\u2019t see a black, and I don\u2019t see a woman, and I don\u2019t see a Hispanic. I see human beings who happen to be fortunate enough to be the luckiest people on Earth since you are Americans. [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Conservatism &#8212; for us to make the decision that we\u2019ve got to figure out policies, to get the Walmart voter &#8212; psst, we\u2019ve got most of them already, is the bottom line. Conservatism is a universal set of core principles. You don\u2019t check principles at the door. This is a battle that we\u2019re going to have. And there are egos involved here, too. When the situation like ours exists, there are people who want to lead it. They want to redefine it. Their egos are such that they want to be the next X, whoever it is. So there will be different factions lining up to try to define what conservatism is. And beware of those different factions who seek as part of their attempt to redefine conservatism, as making sure the liberals like us, making sure that the media likes us. They never will, as long as we remain conservatives. They can\u2019t possibly like us; they\u2019re our enemy. In a political arena of ideas, they\u2019re our enemy. They think we need to be defeated. Why do you think &#8212; you all in this room know this. For those of you watching at home, my first address to the nation &#8212; [Laughter] &#8212; I\u2019m sure you paid close enough attention, that you knew at one time Senator McCain was the favorite Republican of all the cable news networks and the Sunday shows. And they would just &#8212; I mean their tongues would be on the floor. The media people (panting) when they knew McCain was coming. And they would treat McCain as the greatest guy in the world. Did you wonder why? You were told he was moderate. He was not strict. He was not an authoritarian, he was able to walk to the other side of the aisle, able to get along with the enemy. And everybody wants love and bipartisanship.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not why they invited Senator McCain. They invited Senator McCain because he happened to be the loudest at criticizing his own president and his own party and that\u2019s what they want, is people from our side &#8212; and there will be factions in our movement, folks, who are going to make an effort to say we have to grow, we can\u2019t stay stale, I think I heard the term used the other day. Nothing stale about freedom. There\u2019s nothing stale about liberty. There\u2019s nothing stale about fighting for it. Nothing stale whatsoever. [Applause] Freedom. Are you getting tired of standing up, I don\u2019t blame you. By the way for those watching on TV you think the standing &#8212; people are just tired. They\u2019ve been up and out of their chairs 100 times here. [Applause] Thank you. Freedom &#8212; freedom is the natural yearning of the human spirit as we were endowed by our creator. And the United States of America is the place in the world where that yearning flourishes, where freedom is expected because it\u2019s part of the way we\u2019re created.<\/p>\n<p>I loved it when the Soviet Union went down and the wall went down and the liberals in our country said you know they may not be ready for freedom over there. They\u2019ve been oppressed &#8212; yes, liberals will gladly tell you who can have freedom and who can\u2019t. And that\u2019s what the pieces of legislation are all about, folks, freedom, liberty, economic prosperity, they\u2019re all entwined here. We\u2019ll have to as a conservative movement understand that our job, after we come to an agreement among ourselves, which shouldn\u2019t be hard but it\u2019s going to be difficult because the people that think they\u2019re smarter than everybody else are going to be out there forging alliances with people that try to make themselves look like new power brokers, and they will become the spokesmen, by the way.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, explain that to you. This is a funny story. Show you how I can hijack a news cycle even by doing anything. The Tuesday before the inauguration, President Bush invited me to the Oval Office for lunch. And it was on and off the record, some of the conversations. And he brought out, interesting, at the end of it &#8212; my birthday had been the day before. He brought out a chocolate birthday cake, a microphone, and stood beside me with Ed Gillespie and sang happy birthday. Photographers taking pictures. I wish my parents were alive. My parents wouldn\u2019t believe my life. They came out of the Great Depression. They didn\u2019t think it was possible for somebody who did not go to college &#8212; and even for people who did &#8212; they didn\u2019t think this was possible. Life has changed so much for the better in this country. That\u2019s why I cringe when I see what is in store.<\/p>\n<p>So as I\u2019m flying home from lunch, I\u2019m watching television and I see that the word has leaked out that Obama is hosting a dinner with conservative media pundits at the home of George Will. I said: I wonder who these people are? [Laughter] In the media, one of them is going to have to leak it. Sure as heck, one did. Now, we all know who were there. And let\u2019s see &#8212; I can\u2019t remember all the names, so I won\u2019t mention any. But let me tell you Obama\u2019s purpose. Does anybody really think that Barack Obama had dinner with a bunch of conservatives hoping they would change his mind?<\/p>\n<p>CROWD: No!<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: Hell, no. His purpose &#8212; and his purpose really wasn\u2019t to change theirs &#8212; his purpose was to anoint them as conservative spokesmen. These are the people that Obama\u2019s willing to break bread with. These happen &#8212; some of the people there happen to be the people who think the era of Reagan is over, who believe that conservatism needs to be redefined. Of course Obama would try to lure them in. Well, all of a sudden I land. I get home about 5:00, and my e-mail is jammed with questions from reporters, are you, is that why you took the day off today? Is that why you\u2019re not on the air? Are you going to dinner with Obama? By the way, I left out a crucial part of the story. Was this a Monday, Kit? It was a Tuesday. I had forgotten to tell my audience that I was going to miss the next day. I signed off the show saying I\u2019ll see you tomorrow. That\u2019s the last thing I said. The staff reminded me you\u2019re not going to be here tomorrow. I came up with a plan, that the guest host the next day would say that I was called out of town to Washington at midnight the night before. Just an innocent little trick on the radio audience. Everybody picked that up and thinks I\u2019m invited to the Obama dinner. So those people that were invited to it got less coverage than I did and I didn\u2019t even know about it. [Laughter] It was fun.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Conservatives are naturally happy. We seek happiness. We pursue it. It\u2019s part of who we are. So what can you do? Live your life. I swear, folks, you do not know in just the everyday life that you live in your homes, your neighborhoods, the favorite word of this administration, your &#8220;communities.&#8221; Remember the root word there is &#8220;commune.&#8221; [Applause] Be happy, live your life according to your values and principles. Know you\u2019re going to fail, no human being is perfect, you\u2019re going to make mistakes, but live your life &#8212; you\u2019ll be stunned at how many people you impress. Don\u2019t be afraid to tell children that they\u2019re wrong. They don\u2019t know what you do. They simply haven\u2019t lived long enough. It\u2019s not their fault, but they\u2019re being fed a bunch of garbage in school and don\u2019t be afraid to tell them that they\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t go the Oprah route and say gotta be friends with my parents, my kids, first and foremost. Understand they\u2019re going to hate you for a while and they\u2019re going to rebel against you and someday they\u2019re going to think you\u2019re the smartest person they ever met. But you owe them the truth. You owe them the truth about things. You owe them the truth about morality. You owe them the truth about values. [Applause] You owe them the truth about politics. Next thing, we\u2019ve got to stop treating voters as children. [Applause] Somebody says they want something that\u2019s bad for them, do you give it to them just to be nice? Or do you tell them, regardless of their age, no, you shouldn\u2019t have that? Well, it\u2019s none of your business. Maybe not. And then you back out of it. But you still have to have the ability to tell people what\u2019s right and wrong. And that\u2019s not authoritative. That\u2019s not authoritarian. And it\u2019s not trying to deny somebody a good time. It\u2019s not trying to interrupt somebody\u2019s hedonism, pleasure, it\u2019s about all of us with shared values trying to make sure that people live the highest quality lives they can. Ultimately, it\u2019s their decision as to what they do. But the point is, don\u2019t treat them &#8212; especially voters &#8212; as kids just &#8212; they say they want it okay we\u2019ll come up with a plan to give it to you.<\/p>\n<p>Have any of you seen the movie &#8212; I\u2019d never heard of it, but I happened to get a DVD the other day. Anybody see the movie Swing Vote with Kevin Costner? You know, it\u2019s kind of a moronic movie like most things out of Hollywood are. But this is fascinating in the way &#8212; tell you a short story, because a voter screwup in New Mexico there\u2019s one voter who is going to elect the president. His vote didn\u2019t count because his daughter voted for him. I won\u2019t give the whole story away. But New Mexico\u2019s electoral votes, New Mexico\u2019s electoral votes determined it. And they have a two-week period before this guy can vote again. So the challenger and the president both relocate to where this guy lives in New Mexico and they end up like the Democrat played by Dennis Hopper stands for antiabortion. The Democrat candidate comes out with a commercial for life. The Republican candidate comes out, because this guy is an idiot and doesn\u2019t know what he believes, and every utterance that he makes these politicians react to it throwing their principles on the floor, just to get his vote. Sadly, this is what some of the conservative intellectuals in our movement want to do, essentially. And that we cannot do. We\u2019ve got to stand for what we believe and treat people as adults and understand they can learn.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause] Go optimism.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Biden, ladies and gentlemen, was watching CBS &#8212; when did you start here? Thursday. You might have seen this. The days run together. It might have been Wednesday, but Biden was on the CBS Early Show. And he was asked &#8212; the anchorette &#8212; sorry. I\u2019m trying to change my ways. I\u2019ve been doing women summit programs so not to offend women. The anchor, Maggie Rodriguez, went out and got some man-on-the-street questions. And one guy, woman, I think question for Biden. What is in the stimulus package for small business? Biden was clearly stumped because there isn\u2019t anything in the stimulus package for small business. So what Biden said, honest to God, what Biden said was: Well, if there\u2019s a bridge to your small business, we\u2019re going to make sure that bridge stays open so that you can get to your small business and your customers &#8212; honest. I kid you not. Now, of course, the media today is a bunch of hacks, they\u2019re out there as PR agents; they\u2019re starting to get a little embarrassed. Maggie Rodriguez says, Senator Biden, there\u2019s a website that answers all these questions. What is the name of the website and Biden says I don\u2019t know. He looks off stage. &#8220;Does somebody have the website number?&#8221; [Applause] I realize those of you watching at home during my first address to the nation, you have never heard liberal Democrats be made fun of in this way. Get used to it. [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Two other things and we\u2019ll get out of here contractually over time. The president\u2019s stimulus package, the TARP, the whatever, the budget, relies on one thing for its success. Well, aside from authoritarian government power. It relies on the complacency of the American people. It relies on their belief that they can convince the American people that there\u2019s such a crisis that only government, the only entity that can fix it is government, as Obama has said. So they get complacent and they sit around and they wait. See, this is something liberals will never understand about the United States of America and it\u2019s right under their noses, right in front of their faces, we are a competitive people. We strive, enough of us do, to be the best. We strive to win. We strive to avoid defeat. Enough of us still do. Don\u2019t believe otherwise. The liberals have made efforts to shut that aspect of our nature down. Wherever you live, I am certain that you, when you were a child or your kids today in youth sports are told not to keep score, because the losers, it\u2019s just not fair. They\u2019d be humiliated, especially if one girl\u2019s basketball team can defeat another one 100 to nothing. And let\u2019s fire the coach who put that game together. It\u2019s so unfair. So let\u2019s not keep score. Well, here\u2019s the dirty little secret. The kids are keeping score. [Applause] You know they are. They don\u2019t want to lose. They know what winning and losing is. They\u2019re saying, well, why go out there and put on the pads and play football or T-Ball if the objective here is to not keep score. So they\u2019re keeping score. They get in the car with mom and dad and they tell mom and dad: Yeah, we kicked their butts tonight. Wait a minute, I thought you weren\u2019t keeping score. They weren\u2019t officially. They keep score. We\u2019re competitive people. Adults are doing the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t take long for people to get fired up when they figured out that they\u2019re going to be paying mortgages for people who should never have been lent money in the first place for the bogus excuse of maintaining property values in the neighborhood. This is something that &#8212; the complacency of the American people is something they\u2019re going to rely on along with their authoritarian efforts to control it. But they will not succeed at this. Because we\u2019re not quitters. We don\u2019t acquiesce. We\u2019re not going to give up the American dream and watch idly while it is restructured and transformed.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>As I say, we want the best: Happiness for everybody. Now, about my still-to-me mysteriously controversial comment that I hope President Obama fails. I was watching the Super Bowl. And as you know, I love the Pittsburgh Steelers. [Cheers and Applause] So they have this miraculous scoring drive that puts them up by four, 15 seconds left. Kurt Warner on the field for the Cardinals. And I sure as heck want you to know I hope he failed. I did not want the Cardinals to win. I wanted Warner to make the biggest fool of himself possible. I wanted a sack, I wanted anything. I wanted the Steelers to win. I wanted to win. I wanted the Cardinals to fail.<\/p>\n<p>This notion that I want the President to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we\u2019ve got. That\u2019s nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it, why in the world do I want what we just described, rampant government growth indebtedness, wealth that\u2019s not even being created yet that is being spent, what is in this? What possibly is in this that anybody of us wants to succeed? Did the Democrats want the war on Iraq to fail! CROWD: Yes!<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: They certainly did. They not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure. There\u2019s Dingy Harry Reid waiving a white flag: [doing Harry Reid impression] &#8220;This war is lost. This war is&#8221; &#8212; [Cheers and Applause] They called General Petraeus a liar before he even testified. Mrs. Clinton &#8212; [Crowd Booing] &#8212; said she had to, willingly suspend disbelief in order to listen to Petraeus. We\u2019re in the process of winning the war. The last thing they wanted was to win. They hoped George Bush failed. So what is so strange about being honest to say that I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed? [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Let me add a caveat here. My friends, I know what\u2019s going on. I know what\u2019s going on. We\u2019re in the aspects here of an historic presidency. I know that. But let me be honest again. I got over the historical aspects of this in November. President Obama is our president. President Obama stands for certain things. I don\u2019t care, he could be a Martian. He could be from Michigan, I don\u2019t know &#8212; just kidding. Doesn\u2019t matter to me what his race is. It doesn\u2019t matter. He\u2019s liberal is what matters to me. And his articulated &#8212; his articulated plans scare me. Now, I understand we can\u2019t say we want the President to fail, Mr. Limbaugh. That\u2019s like saying &#8212; this is the voice of the New Castrati, by the way, guys who have lost their guts. You can\u2019t say Mr. Limbaugh that you want the President to fail because that\u2019s like saying you want the country to fail. It\u2019s the opposite. I want the country to survive. I want the country to succeed.<\/p>\n<p>[Cheers and Applause]<\/p>\n<p>[Crowd Chanting &#8220;USA&#8221; ]<\/p>\n<p>I want the country to survive as we have known it, as you and I were raised in it, is what I mean. Now, I have been called &#8212; and I can take it. Pioneers take the arrows, I don\u2019t mind what anybody says about me, any time ever. I don\u2019t have time for it. I don\u2019t give other people the power to offend me. And you shouldn\u2019t either, by the wasted time being offended.[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>I mean, there\u2019s some people you can\u2019t say you want the President to fail. Ladies and gentlemen of the United States, the Democrat Party has actively not just sought the failure of Republican presidents and policies and now wars for the first time, the Democrat Party doesn\u2019t stop at failure. Talk to Judge Robert Bork or Justice Clarence Thomas about how they tried to destroy lives, reputations and character, and I\u2019m supposed to say I don\u2019t want the President to fail? [Applause] We\u2019re in for a real battle. We are talking about the United States of America &#8212; and there will always be an America, don\u2019t misunderstand me &#8212; we\u2019re talking about it remaining the country we were all born into and reared and grown into. And it\u2019s under assault. It\u2019s always under assault. But it\u2019s never been under assault like this from within before. And it\u2019s a serious, serious battle.<\/p>\n<p>So as you leave here, as you leave here optimism, confidence, not guilt, it\u2019s not worth it. There\u2019s nothing to be guilty about. Don\u2019t treat people as children. Respect their intelligence. Realize that there\u2019s a way to persuade people. Sometimes the worst way is to get in their face and point a finger. Set up a set of circumstances where the conclusion is obvious. Let them think they came up with the idea themselves. They\u2019ll think they\u2019re smart that they figured it out. Who cares how you persuade them, the fact they can be persuaded is factually correct, it\u2019s possible. But the main thing to do here is stop thinking that we are a minority. Stop thinking that it is being in the minority that liberates you. It is your beliefs. It is your core principles, it is your confidence that liberates you. It\u2019s not being in the minority.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, for those of you watching my first national address and still hanging in there, we really are not that happy about being a minority and we\u2019re out to change it. [Applause] So I have &#8212; I\u2019ve gone over my allotted time by an hour.<\/p>\n<p>[Applause]<\/p>\n<p>I want to thank all of you so much for everything that you have meant to me and my family in my life.<\/p>\n<p>CROWD: Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: I understand it\u2019s mutual. And I hear people &#8212; you have made my heart grow so much that it barely fits in my chest cavity here tonight. But the things that by virtue of your listening to my radio show and being active in this movement that we all cherish and love, you have meant more to me, my family and my life than whatever it is I might mean to you, even though I know that\u2019s considerable. [Applause] You still can\u2019t outdo the absolute joy and awe and thanks I feel for all of you. I\u2019ve been doing this for 20 years and the numbers just keep growing. And I can\u2019t tell you how appreciative I am and proud to be in a movement with the same passions, desires and core beliefs that all of you have, because we know that it\u2019s right for the country, and we know it\u2019s right for people. It\u2019s not something that has to be forced on them. It\u2019s not something that has to be authoritatively pressed on them. We are what is, and that\u2019s why we are an enemy because we\u2019re effective. The people that do want control look at us as the enemy. We\u2019re always going to be &#8212; don\u2019t ever measure your success by how many Drive-By Media reports you see that are fair to us. Never going to happen. Don\u2019t measure your success by how many people like you. Just worry about how they vote. And then at the end of the day how they live, but that\u2019s really none of your business once they close the doors. Thank you all very much. It\u2019s been great.<\/p>\n<p>END TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all very, very much. Thank you all. I can\u2019t tell you how wonderful that makes me feel. It happens everywhere I go, but it\u2019s still special here. [Laughter] If you all will indulge me, I learned something, I guess, it\u2019s early Friday morning that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rush&#039;s First Televised Address to the Nation: Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Speech - 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:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/28\/rushs-first-televised-address-to-the-nation-conservative-political-action-conference-cpac-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Rush&#039;s First Televised Address to the Nation: Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Speech - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Thank you so much. 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