{"id":25182,"date":"2007-04-03T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:45:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T05:45:03","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:45:03","slug":"bush_doesn_t_confront_opponents2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/04\/03\/bush_doesn_t_confront_opponents2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush Doesn\u2019t Confront Opponents"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s St. Louis and Rich. A little stormy there today, Rich.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi. How are you? I\u2019m from the opposition, but I do want to point out to you I listen to you a lot. You\u2019re absolutely the greatest spin master there is. But I have a question for you, okay?<\/p>\n

RUSH: (Laughing.)<\/p>\n

CALLER: My question to you is, on 9\/12, 13, 14, the week after 9\/11, the president\u2019s popularity was at 90%. Could you explain away why it\u2019s about 30 or 29 or 28% now and I really mean this sincerely.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I just did in the previous monologue<\/a>, a lot of it is that, but there\u2019s another factor. There\u2019s another factor, and that is: the president does not confront his opposition. The president (I\u2019m guessing, based on some experience), I think, views the presidency as such a revered office that it\u2019s beneath the office of the presidency to get into partisan ideological confrontations with the opposition party. As such, he hasn\u2019t fought back on any of this stuff. He\u2019s not retaliated against any of the personal assaults that have been hurled his way. He doesn\u2019t react to 90% of what Democrats have said the last six years — and another thing, just from me personally. He\u2019s conservative on some things but he\u2019s not a conservative, and as such he\u2019s not leading a movement when he articulates his agenda and philosophy. If you listen to Reid or you listen to Pelosi, every time they speak, it\u2019s based on their ideology. They are articulating a movement: liberalism. The president doesn\u2019t do that. So there is a conservative vacuum out there which, when there\u2019s a conservative vacuum, conservatives are not going to respond to somebody that\u2019s not or is not articulating it. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve said constantly. One of the real problems in Washington is the absence of elected conservative leadership. There\u2019s no reason for him to be at 30% in the polls right now other than his lack of intervening on behalf of himself.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Barry in Henderson, Kentucky, hello, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Good morning, Mr. Limbaugh, how are you, sir?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Fine and dandy, never better.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Unlike your previous caller, I am not a part of the opposition. I\u2019m on the team of which you are the captain. I\u2019m 52 years old. I live in a pretty small town in Kentucky, and I listen to you when I can. There are times, Rush, that you are so on your game that it kind of brings little bumps up on my arm, and this is one of them. That\u2019s one of the most brilliant monologues<\/a> I\u2019ve ever heard you give, and one of these days this group that represent you, me, and others who think like-minded, are going to step up, and they\u2019re going to wake up. I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s going to take, but I just am so honored to get a chance to tell you just how strong that monologue was and how it spoke directly<\/emphasize> to my feelings about the current political climate in America.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I appreciate that, sir, very much. What it\u2019s going to take — and I don\u2019t say this regretfully. It\u2019s just it\u2019s human nature. What it\u2019s going to take is leadership. The American people are desperate for it. I will tell you that you look at this 30% approval number that the caller from St. Louis asked me to explain, after Bush had had 90%. The Iraq war is, what, fourth or fifth year, whatever it is. Cite for me, from your memory, Barry, give me one day you remember where there was positive<\/emphasize> news out of Iraq or, B, a story of the heroism and valor of United States troops.<\/p>\n

CALLER: For ten years in a row, I have listened to you. You have awakened me. I am a sane individual who sometimes watches the evening news (I am not a part of that Geritol set yet), and it has not happened, and it is not going to happen, and you can almost tell within the first moment that you mention or talked to anyone about this subject, that that is their only source of information, and you\u2019re right. It has not happened; it is not going to happen.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Couple that with not only can you not recall, nor can anyone else recall a single story highlighting the success in the Drive-By Media in Iraq. Now, you might be able to remember stories that are reacting to all these negative stories. ‘Oh, yeah, there\u2019s great news out here,\u2019 but you don\u2019t see it in the Drive-By newscasts or in their print pages. Couple with that: look at all of the stories on what a bunch of barbarians the United States is because of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and take a look at all the stories of the Koran being ‘flushed down the toilet,\u2019 all the torture and all the mistreatment and the military in this country being co-opted by the judiciary in this country, and the commander-in-chief being co-opted by the judiciary, unable to practice or execute the war according to the constitutional authority. You look at four to five solid years of this, seven days a week.<\/p>\n

CALLER: It\u2019s relentless, as you say.<\/p>\n

RUSH: It\u2019s relentless, but there\u2019s another component to it, as I said. When there\u2019s no retaliation other than — well, sometimes the president goes on television. ‘Yeah, I admit it\u2019s bad, but we\u2019re working. We gotta change it around.\u2019 There just hasn\u2019t been any retaliation to this. There has been no response to it. It has been allowed to sit out there unchallenged. Well, you can\u2019t blame people for accepting it and for not challenging it on their own. That\u2019s not the way people work. Four years of a steady diet of any piece of information, the central theme with exclamation points and various derivatives, people are going to believe it when there\u2019s no counter to it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Rush, it\u2019s — Pardon me, sir, I didn\u2019t mean to interrupt. It\u2019s a form of brainwashing that\u2019s ongoing and relentless, as you said. And, Rush, I know you have lots to do and I don\u2019t want to take a minute of your time, but I know all of us who have careers and jobs have challenges, and I know that that pressure is relentless on you at times. Son, you just keep it up. You are the voice, and you are a part of that leadership this country needs. Thank you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, thank you, but I\u2019m not. Well, look, I\u2019m not trying to reject what you say, but I\u2019m not elected. I appreciate when people think I face a lot of pressure in my life. Folks, my life is charmed<\/emphasize>. A lot of people say to me, ‘How do you put up with these lies and distortions about what you say and what you do?\u2019 I have three hours every day to address it. I can respond to it, the stuff that\u2019s worth responding to. Most of it\u2019s not. Most of it\u2019s from small fry. If I came here and complained every day about what they\u2019re saying, it\u2019d just elevate some small fry into significant characters and that\u2019s the last thing I\u2019m going to do it. Some nameless, faceless, irrelevant blogger writes about me and I\u2019m going to talk about it? It\u2019s not worth it. You know, it\u2019s the old competitors competitor\u2019s creed. You don\u2019t talk about the people that don\u2019t exist, and in my world they don\u2019t exist. To me, this is a sign of effectiveness. I take all that stuff as a sign of success. It was tough. I tell people this. <\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t expect any of this. Nobody prepared me for this, and I must be honest with you. When you started and wanted to be in radio, I would never have envisioned that this would be how it would manifest itself. I remember I talked to my mother every day when I moved to New York, 1988. I talked to her every day. I\u2019d call her and she\u2019d ask me how the day was, and after awhile I said, ‘You know, mom, I guess it was a pretty good day. Half the country hates my guts again,\u2019 and she would laugh. ‘No, they don\u2019t,\u2019 and I said, ‘Well, maybe not half, but a decent number of them do,\u2019 and the toughest thing for me personally has been to take that as a sign of success, as a measure of success and stay sane. Most people do not grow up wanting to be hated and despised. Most people grow up just the opposite. They want everybody to love them, and they\u2019ll do whatever it takes to make \u2019em love \u2019em. It\u2019s just what it is. That was the hardest thing, but even with all of that that happens, it\u2019s just part of the territory now. My life is charmed. It just is! All of that other stuff is just little gnats running across the rug. <\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t harmed me. They haven\u2019t succeeded and damaged me in any way. Stations, business-wise, there\u2019s been no damage to any of this. So why should I be concerned about it? People who are going to hate me are going to hate me. People who are going to hate Bush are going to hate Bush. They\u2019re going to hate Gingrich or hate anybody. They\u2019re going to hate \u2019em no matter what they do, what they say, no matter what\u2019s said about them. The thing here though you talk about and I mentioned, is leadership. This is key, folks, and this is why I have lamented the construct of the current GOP presidential field. I still believe — and this is based on knowledge; this is based on a review of history; this is based on experience — if there were a profound conservative leader who was elected or running for office, you would see an entirely different political landscape. All of you people out there who are echoing the sentiments here of Barry, or who when I did the monologue about a half hour ago, if you thought I was describing you to a T, I\u2019ll guarantee you that if there were somebody running around nationally in the political arena, you\u2019d bond. <\/p>\n

You would rally, and you wouldn\u2019t see this 30% approval. You wouldn\u2019t see all this doom and gloom. The American people will respond to effective leadership, and there\u2019s an absence of it right now on our side of the aisle. I\u2019m talking about elected conservative leadership, or somebody who\u2019s conservative seeking to be elected. We have a lot of Republicans running, and they\u2019re all good people, but not one of them is what I would call, from top to bottom, a conservative. I\u2019m not holding out for 100% purity, because you get that very rarely, if at all. But the thing that I have constantly told you that worries me is that whoever of these three or four nominees out there happens to prevail, don\u2019t tell me that they are the new definition of conservative. I don\u2019t want to sit here and have conservatism redefined so that it fits the character or the mold or the policies of a particular candidate who is not conservative. It doesn\u2019t mean I won\u2019t support whoever the nominee is. I\u2019m not saying that at all. But conservatism is the key here, and somebody who\u2019s eloquent and articulates it and can do so with verve and vigor and confidence, would own the country! <\/p>\n

Look at the number of you out there. That\u2019s really what you\u2019re crying for. You want somebody that has more power than you do to stand up and say about Pelosi or Reid or any of these other people, that it is flat-out BS. It\u2019s almost treasonous. We\u2019ve brought Jane Fonda back and we\u2019ve made her speaker of the House, and you\u2019re fed up and fit to be tied with it — and you look to your party and you don\u2019t see anybody who has even the slightest bit of emotion about this. So that\u2019s the void. The void is not the American people have changed and they\u2019re buying hook, line and sinker what the Drive-By Media are saying. It\u2019s just there\u2019s no outlet for them. So you\u2019ve gotta contain your frustration within yourself and friends, your family, or you call here on the programs and vent and this sort of thing. (sigh) You know, if I were running, if I were one of these three Republicans running for the nomination, I would have been all over this Pelosi stuffed so fast that the Drive-Bys wouldn\u2019t have time to be celebrating her.<\/p>\n

I would have created such a media storm over this. I would have said what I thought this is all about, how destructive this is. I\u2019d be out there saying, ‘The Democrats are engaged in wanting to quit. They want to lose this war. They want the United States to lose.\u2019 I\u2019d be out there saying, ‘The Democrats are imperiling the future of this country as we have known it. They\u2019re over there making friends with terrorists. Essentially what Pelosi is doing is what John Kerry said he wanted to do, and what they\u2019ve always done in the past. She\u2019s over there talking to Bashar Assad and these other people saying, ‘Just sit tight. Sit tight, wait \u2019til we\u2019re in charge, and you won\u2019t have a problem with us anymore.” That\u2019s what they\u2019re saying. State sponsor of terrorism! <\/p>\n

If she had the guts, if she had the chance she\u2019d go to Iran and meet with Ahmadinejad and do the same thing. She may well do it before the 2008 election. I wouldn\u2019t put it past her. It\u2019s what Clinton and Gore have been doing by going over to the European theater all through Bush\u2019s administration, and saying, ‘Just sit tight. Just sit tight. We know our president is an idiot. We know our president\u2019s a cowboy frat guy. We know that he\u2019s going to blow up the world, but sit tight. When we\u2019re back in power, everything\u2019s going to be okay and you can like the United States again.\u2019 They\u2019re out there selling the country out. That\u2019s what I\u2019d be saying if I happened to be one of these Republican nominees, and if I was serious about wanting the nomination. But that\u2019s not who they are. Obviously they\u2019re not saying this at all. There are plenty of domestic things you could talk about with the same type of approach, or same type of attitude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Here\u2019s St. Louis and Rich. A little stormy there today, Rich. CALLER: Hi. How are you? I\u2019m from the opposition, but I do want to point out to you I listen to you a lot. You\u2019re absolutely the greatest spin master there is. But I have a question for you, okay? RUSH: (Laughing.) 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