{"id":28237,"date":"2008-01-29T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:20:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T04:20:19","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:20:19","slug":"drive_bys_mccain_vs_limbaugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/01\/29\/drive_bys_mccain_vs_limbaugh\/","title":{"rendered":"Drive-Bys: McCain vs. Limbaugh"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: The Drive-Bys, ladies and gentlemen, are still obsessed with the fact that it is me versus McCain rather than Romney. On the Situation Room on CNN last night, Wolf Blitzer was talking with Jack Cafferty, and Blitzer said, ‘Hey, Jack, between Mitt Romney and McCain out there, they\u2019re trading barbs left and right.\u2019<\/p>\n

CAFFERTY: All of a sudden John McCain is being decried by the conservative wing of the Republican Party, guys like Rush Limbaugh are saying, ‘If this guy gets the nomination, the party is going to be ruined forever.\u2019 But it\u2019s all about electability, who can be elected in November, and at this point it looks like McCain might be the least objectionable.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right, now, how do we interpret this? CNN\u2019s resident curmudgeon Jack Cafferty says that despite what I\u2019m saying McCain is the Republican most palatable to Democrats and therefore should be the nominee. It boils down to he\u2019s the only guy that can beat Democrats, electability. It does not come down to electability with me. Been there, done that, folks. I went through all this in great detail yesterday. Let\u2019s continue with the audio sound bites. Same show, Situation Room, panel discussion, Jeffrey Toobin and Gloria Borger decide to add this to what Cafferty just said.<\/p>\n

TOOBIN: It\u2019s not all about electability. I mean, there are real conservatives out there who have principles positions who say that, on immigration, on campaign finance reform, who simply say, ‘You know what, he\u2019s just not one of us.\u2019<\/p>\n

BORGER: And that\u2019s why Romney will stay in even if he were to lose in Florida, that Romney\u2019s going to stay in. I was talking to one of his advisors today who said, ‘Look, there is a concerted campaign out there against McCain, run by Rush Limbaugh, et cetera, et cetera. Why should we get out? We\u2019ve got a lot of conservative support.\u2019<\/p>\n

RUSH: They\u2019re claiming that a Romney advisor said hell, yes, we\u2019re going to stay in, we\u2019ve got Limbaugh campaigning for us. (laughter) There was no meeting, H.R., there has been no meeting. (laughter) No, I didn\u2019t. Nobody sent a limo for me and nobody sent a memo to me, either. I haven\u2019t seen any memo. So the Romney camp is saying that they\u2019re going to stay in this because they got Limbaugh running interference for them, or what is the exact quote? ‘There\u2019s a concerted campaign out there against McCain run by Rush Limbaugh, et cetera, et cetera, why should we get out?\u2019 That has nothing to do with it. He\u2019s not going to get out because he\u2019s got all kinds of money. He can write a check any time he wants to. That\u2019s not why he\u2019s going to get out. There are a lot of people saying that whoever wins Florida wins the nomination. I\u2019ve had a couple people tell me, Rudy has said that, whoever wins Florida wins the nomination. It\u2019s too soon to be saying anything like that. I don\u2019t know. I just call your attention to the chapter in my early book, ‘My success is not determined by who wins elections.\u2019 David Brooks, to the Republicans, watch the hatred. He was on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and Lehrer said, ‘What about McCain and Romney in Florida?\u2019<\/p>\n

BROOKS: The wild card here is the hatred, and it came out today, it\u2019s come out —<\/p>\n

LEHRER: Between these two guys?<\/p>\n

BROOKS: Between these two guys. I think they both are in danger of just destroying themselves. They should look at what happened on the Democratic side. This is one country.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t know what planet he is on. This is what happens to conservatives when they end up writing for the New York Times. This is what happens to conservatives when they write conservatism for liberals. I think they\u2019re both in danger of destroying themselves. They should look at what happened to the Democrat side. This is one country? What does that mean? And then Ruth Marcus on the same show, Jim Lehrer, she\u2019s from the Washington Post, said, ‘Do you agree there\u2019s a message here that the Republicans need to listen to?\u2019<\/p>\n

MARCUS: I think that there is the, within — between McCain and Romney hatred, but it will also be a test of the resistance to John McCain of some segments of the Republican Party. Obviously, Rush Limbaugh has been after him.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Once again, it\u2019s me against McCain, and I am being measured against my ability to defeat Senator McCain. Unreal, is it not, Mr. Snerdley? I have not seen this. I have been doing this 20 years. The closest that we\u2019ve come to anything like this was after 1988 when H. W. Bush beat Dukakis, these people saying, ‘Well, that\u2019s it for Limbaugh because his side won, so there\u2019s nothing to talk about now.\u2019 When Clinton won in \u201992, they said, ‘Well, that\u2019s it for Limbaugh. His side\u2019s just been discredited. There\u2019s nothing for him to talk about.\u2019 But in this case, I have never been matched up as a candidate, in effect, when I\u2019m not running. I\u2019m running a campaign, running a Romney campaign, and now it is a test of me versus McCain, according to these people in the Drive-Bys. In a spate of a week-and-a-half, I\u2019ve gone from irrelevant, to relevant, to spearheading a campaign, to now being measured by the Drive-Bys. They would just love to write the story. If McCain wins today if Florida, they\u2019ve already got stories written, you know this. ‘McCain trounces Limbaugh, Romney in third place,\u2019 something like that. (laughing) <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here is Amy in Alexandria, Virginia. Amy, I gotta tell you: Amy is in my all-time, top-ten favorite female names list.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, well, thank you. I think your last 15 minutes actually proved my point, and I never thought these words would cross my lips, but I think the Drive-Bys actually got it pretty accurate when they said that you do not support the pseudo-Republican McCain for the nomination — and, you know, I listen to your show every day and you think you make it abundantly clear that if the Republican Party goes the direction of McCain, we are in big, big trouble. (giggles) So you can beat me up now.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Why would I want to beat you up?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, because you couldn\u2019t believe that the media said these things.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You didn\u2019t quote the media right. You say that the media says I\u2019m not supporting the pseudo-Republican. That\u2019s not what they\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, no, no. <\/p>\n

RUSH: They\u2019re saying that this is a race between me and McCain, as though I\u2019m on the ballot running for something and my objective is to keep McCain from winning. Now, do you accept that? <\/p>\n

CALLER: (child babbling in the background)<\/p>\n

RUSH: I guarantee you if McCain wins tonight — and it probably will be late before we know, because there are a million absentee and early votes that have to be counted, manually — if McCain wins, you know the Drive-Bys are going to report ‘McCain Soundly Beats Limbaugh.\u2019<\/p>\n

CALLER: I think you\u2019re right about not supporting him, but I do think it\u2019s impressive — not impressive — I think it means a lot the way you feel about it and the fact that you say that, because my husband doesn\u2019t get to listen to your show but I\u2019ve even told him. I said, ‘Wow, you should hear the way Rush feels about if we choose McCain,\u2019 and I\u2019ve actually have made that point to him, and it meant something to him and I think that\u2019s what they\u2019re saying. Granted a week ago they said you were insignificant, but I do think it\u2019s significant, and I think it\u2019s worthy of reporting.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Significant, insignificant, worthy of reporting? Look, there are a lot of people opposing Senator McCain, Amy. It isn\u2019t just me.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No one\u2019s as big as you, though.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But none of the others are being positioned as they are positioning me.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Charlie Crist is no Rush Limbaugh. (laughs)<\/p>\n

RUSH: But Crist is for McCain. Crist has endorsed McCain. <\/p>\n

CALLER: (unintelligible) (laughs)<\/p>\n

RUSH: You\u2019re right about Charlie Crist not being Rush Limbaugh, but nevertheless I mean I\u2019m a radio talk show host. What am I? Amy, I\u2019m not arguing with you here. I\u2019m not beating you up. So please get that thought all of your mind. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, no.<\/p>\n

RUSH: If you thought you were going to get beat up you\u2019re very courageous and brave for calling. <\/p>\n

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

RUSH: What am I supposed to do here when I have definitive, heartfelt, passionate opinions about all of this? What am I supposed to do, squelch them?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, no! I think it\u2019s awesome that you do it, but I also think that the media is okay to report what you\u2019re saying. They may be trying to set it up as a fight, but I do think it\u2019s newsworthy that you feel so strongly about it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t care that they report what I say. It\u2019s not that. That\u2019s fine. What they\u2019re reporting is that it is me running a campaign; that it is me against McCain. They were very happy when McCain ran South Carolina. They ran stories about how I\u2019m ‘irrelevant,\u2019 that I failed to mobilize my voters — and the fact of the matter is that to believe that that\u2019s what I do here, you have to accept the premise that all of you in the audience are a bunch of mind-numbed robots, incapable of thinking for yourselves. You sit out there and wait for me to tell you what to do and then go do it. That\u2019s the only way this analysis works.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, unlike most campaigns, you are actually providing hard facts that help us make informed decisions.<\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughs) I know. I probably would be a pretty good campaigner, but that\u2019s not what I\u2019m doing. <\/p>\n

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

RUSH: I was a little stunned to hear somebody on CNN say that the Romney campaign said, ‘Why should we get out? We got Rush Limbaugh running a campaign against McCain for us.\u2019<\/p>\n

CALLER: (giggles)<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, that did sort of set me back. Anyway, look, you agree with the Drive-Bys on this. Look, Amy, I\u2019m glad you called. Is that a little baby that I hear crying in the background?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, she\u2019s talking, yes. She\u2019s three.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, talking, crying. It\u2019s all the same to me. <\/p>\n

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

RUSH: What\u2019s her name?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Her name is Shelby.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Shelby.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes. It\u2019s a good southern name, Shelby.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Very cool. Very, very cool. What does she want to be when she grows up?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Probably an astronaut. (laughs)<\/p>\n

RUSH: See, this is good. Already has an idea. This is the kind of passion that leads to success. It\u2019s never too early to know what you want to do. Amy, thanks much for the call. I appreciate it so much. What am I supposed to do here, folks? Seriously. Am I supposed to just shut up? Am I supposed to not tell you what I think? Am I supposed to squelch my thoughts? (McCain impression) ‘Yes, Limbaugh, squelch them! If you don\u2019t, I will.\u2019 (sigh) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: The Drive-Bys, ladies and gentlemen, are still obsessed with the fact that it is me versus McCain rather than Romney. On the Situation Room on CNN last night, Wolf Blitzer was talking with Jack Cafferty, and Blitzer said, ‘Hey, Jack, between Mitt Romney and McCain out there, they\u2019re trading barbs left and right.\u2019 CAFFERTY: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDrive-Bys: McCain vs. Limbaugh - 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\/2008\/01\/29\/drive_bys_mccain_vs_limbaugh\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Drive-Bys: McCain vs. Limbaugh - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: The Drive-Bys, ladies and gentlemen, are still obsessed with the fact that it is me versus McCain rather than Romney. 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