{"id":281656,"date":"2018-08-07T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T20:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?p=281656"},"modified":"2018-08-08T15:48:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T19:48:38","slug":"election-day-whats-at-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2018\/08\/07\/election-day-whats-at-stake\/","title":{"rendered":"Election Day: What\u2019s at Stake"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: The panting and the salivating and the tongues on the sidewalk, you cannot escape \u2019em. The Drive-By Media desperately hoping, salivating, panting that this Ohio special election today, the Trump-endorsed candidate, loses, quite naturally is what they hope. And they\u2019re making bold predictions, and they\u2019re saying, “If Trump\u2019s endorsed candidate loses, it validates everything we\u2019ve been saying about the country hating Trump.”<\/p>\n

Greetings, my friends, and welcome. Rush Limbaugh. A lot to do today on the EIB Network, including, how about this headline: “Beer Made From The Vaginal Lactic Acid Of Hot Models Finally Goes On Sale.” That story is coming up later on the EIB Network. And I did not make that up. That is from… what\u2019s the website? Washington Examiner. Daily Wire. Exactly.<\/p>\n

\"\"Anyway, we\u2019re talking about Ohio 12. This is why Trump went into Ohio on Saturday to Lewis Center to do a rally. I want to give you a little bit of information on this election, who the combatants are, some of the history of this particular district, and what is on the line here. It\u2019s a special election, and no matter the outcome of this election, it\u2019s gonna be held again in November. This is simply to fill out the remaining months of a term of a retiring Republican.<\/p>\n

But the Drive-By Media has devoted pretty much everything they\u2019ve got into this election. Some others today, too, of course. There are five different big elections going on, five states having elections today. But Ohio 12 is where the Drive-Bys are focused because they are so convinced that Troy Balderson\u2019s gonna lose this. That\u2019s the Trump-endorsed candidate. They just can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n

This seat, Kasich had this seat for 18 years, nine terms. It\u2019s been in Republican hands for 36 years, essentially. And they\u2019re just looking for a flip here. It\u2019s a solid Republican district. And if the Democrats can win this one today, you will not stop hearing about what it means for the midterms, the blue wave and 2020. Thirty-five years this district, Ohio 12, has been held by Republicans.<\/p>\n

The Republican retiring is Patrick Tiberi. He\u2019s decided to leave early like a number of House Republicans are. Some of them are leaving because they\u2019re chairmen of committees and they\u2019re term-limited. They can\u2019t serve as chairmen anymore. They don\u2019t want to go back to being just regular rank-and-file members, and so they are retiring. They are getting out of there.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s creating a lot of seats that the Republicans have to hold. It\u2019s one of the reasons why the Drive-Bys and the political scientists and consultants have been suggesting the Republicans are gonna lose the House, because so many solid incumbents are leaving.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s another thing. They\u2019ve been telling us that these solid incumbents are leaving \u2019cause they hate Trump. These Republicans can\u2019t stand Trump. They\u2019re embarrassed of Trump. They\u2019re embarrassed to be Republicans. They\u2019re embarrassed to be in the House. They can\u2019t wait to get out of there.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a load of bull. It\u2019s simply their chairmanships, in most cases, have been term-limited, and it\u2019s like a CEO being told he\u2019s going back to the mail room. He doesn\u2019t want to go back to the mail room. He wouldn\u2019t go back to the mail room. And these guys don\u2019t want to go back to being back-benchers after having been chairmen of powerful committees.<\/p>\n

The Democrat nominee, the Democrat candidate in this race is named Danny O\u2019Connor. He is, I think, 31 years old. The Drive-Bys are talking about how great he looks, he young, he\u2019s vibrant, he\u2019s exactly what the future of the Democrat Party is, and that probably isn\u2019t the case, but more on that in just a moment.<\/p>\n

\"\"Now, the Republicans have held this seat since 1983. The party and relative conservative political action committees have spent more than $4 million to stop what is being called a Democrat surge here. The Democrats have spent less than a million on this race. Saturday Trump went in to do a rally to stump for Troy Balderson. And the candidate said he would win if Trump supporters put in the work and get-out-the-vote. The winner of the race today is just gonna serve out the term of Tiberi, and both O\u2019Connor and Balderson will face off again in November.<\/p>\n

Regardless the outcome of today\u2019s election, it will happen again in November with these same two guys. That aspect of this is not getting a lot of press, because the Drive-Bys want this to be set up with O\u2019Connor winning and that\u2019s gonna be it, that will be the last thing you hear about it, “Democrats take the seat” will be the news, “Trump on the way out,” “Republicans rejecting Trump.”<\/p>\n

You know the drill. Everybody embarrassed of Trump. This is the beginning of the blue wave. That\u2019s what they\u2019ve got invested in this outcome today. Here\u2019s another little wrinkle. There has been early voting in this district, and it says in all that I\u2019ve been able to find about this that both parties agree that the Democrats won the early vote. They turned in more absentee ballots than Republicans did in a district where the president\u2019s party has usually begun with a lead.<\/p>\n

Republicans say that they\u2019re gonna have to overcome O\u2019Connor\u2019s lead in Franklin County. It\u2019s the biggest population center. This is suburban Columbus we\u2019re talking about here, by the way, for those of you not familiar with the districts and their numbers in Ohio. Franklin County is suburban Columbus. Troy Balderson has been leading. He\u2019s had a two-month lead on this. In fact, up until about a month ago, his lead was 43-33 in a Monmouth University poll.<\/p>\n

But the lead was vanishing in an Emerson poll. 43-33 a couple of months ago. When Trump showed up Saturday, that had changed to 47-46 lead for O\u2019Connor. So statistically a dead heat. Margin of error dead heat. But if you believe the polling data, the Republican, Balderson, had a 10-point lead a couple months ago that\u2019s now gone. And Trump went in there hopefully to reverse that and change it around.<\/p>\n

\"\"Now, most Republican insiders expect Balderson to eke out a victory. They expect it to be close, but they think that Balderson is gonna win. One consultant said, “I still think it\u2019s Troy Balderson\u2019s to lose.” But they all are hedging their bets, talking about the idiosyncrasies, the special elections, and things of this nature that need to be kept in mind. So this is election day there. And we talked about this yesterday.<\/p>\n

You know, we had the president on here last Wednesday<\/a>. And I asked him specifically about his base and its relationship to the midterm elections. And he openly said, “I\u2019m not sure. I don\u2019t know if the support for me transfers into races where I\u2019m not on the ballot,” such as the midterms here. What he was talking about was coattails. But it\u2019s not really coattails \u2019cause he\u2019s not on the ballot.<\/p>\n

And so what it\u2019s gonna boil down to is Republicans in this district and every other district realizing what\u2019s at stake: Republican voters. It is axiomatic that the party that wins the White House loses 15 seats in the next congressional elections two years after any presidential race. That\u2019s just statistics. It\u2019s born out. There have been some exceptions, 2002 was one, following the Democrats meltdown when the Wellstone memorial happened.<\/p>\n

Now, I mentioned yesterday that every effort on the part of Democrats to win the House is rooted not in getting people to vote for Democrats based on policies. It\u2019s the most amazing thing. They\u2019re rallying people to vote simply on one thing: hatred of Donald Trump. Not policy. Even in these local races, the Democrats are out there urging people to get out and vote because they hate Trump, not because the Democrats have any such great-shakes policies, because they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I mean, in the Old World terms of politics, the Democrats would not have a prayer here. They don\u2019t have any policies that they can espouse. The policies that they do believe in we suffered for eight years with those policies under Barack Obama. In just a year and a half after Obama, there\u2019s been a massive turnaround in the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n

Political consultants argue among themselves what is the seminal issue in some of these races, and a lot of people think Trump ought to be out there really, really pounding the economy, and other people say, “Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Immigration. Immigration is what turns out Trump\u2019s base.” Why not do both? Why either\/or? Why not a message that contains both?<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s what it boils down to, not just in Ohio 12, but in all these places. If you want the momentum of the current year and a half of the Trump presidency to continue, then you have to vote for the Republicans to hold the House, because if they lose it, the Trump agenda and the Trump presidency is gonna be ground to a screeching halt because the Democrats are gonna do nothing but oversight.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re gonna have committee hearings after committee hearings. They\u2019re gonna be subpoenaing these people and that people. They\u2019re gonna bring the Trump administration to a screeching halt. They\u2019re not gonna be able to kick Trump out of office. They\u2019re not gonna be able to impeach him, but they can try to bring everything to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n

So it is of fundamental importance that each of these Republican candidates on the ballot today essentially be seen as Trump. Republicans in these districts need to look at this election as voting for Trump. Now, some people, “Rush don\u2019t say that. That\u2019s scary. What if people don\u2019t like Trump?” That\u2019s the point. They want you to think that everybody now hates Trump. They\u2019re doing everything they can to convince you Republicans who voted for Trump to second-guess yourselves about it now.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been trying this ever since Trump won. Drive a wedge between Trump\u2019s voters and Trump, and they\u2019re continuing it here in this election in Ohio 12 and elsewhere. So let\u2019s go some audio sound bites on this. We\u2019ll start first with Trump. We\u2019ll go back to the rally Saturday night, Lewis Center, Ohio.<\/p>\n