{"id":28374,"date":"2008-02-13T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:15:31","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T04:15:31","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:15:31","slug":"is_el_rushbo_helping_mccain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/02\/13\/is_el_rushbo_helping_mccain\/","title":{"rendered":"Is El Rushbo Helping McCain?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: I want to get a couple of audio sound bites here before the program comes to a screeching halt today. <\/p>\n

As I mentioned, ladies and gentlemen, we had a little fun yesterday with the Drive-Bys. CNN was the first to pick up on this, and then it was all over the place. I actually said at the program open yesterday, people said, ‘Why don\u2019t you endorse somebody?\u2019 The worst thing I could do. If I wanted to torpedo the McCain campaign, I would enforce him. ‘What do you mean, Rush? What do you mean?\u2019 Well, simple. He\u2019s appealing to independents, some Democrats and moderates. Those people don\u2019t like me. I have taken out after moderates on this program quite often, call \u2019em Jell-Os. These are people that have no independent thoughts, they sit around and wait for the majority to form or for some emotional tie and then they go there. But by definition moderates cannot have an opinion. They\u2019re smarter than everybody else. They\u2019re open-minded and they remain above the fray, typical school yard fray. If I endorse McCain, all these independents and Democrats that despise me would abandon him. I\u2019m the greatest asset McCain has. And the Drive-Bys bit on it. Let\u2019s go to the audio sound bites. This is Fox &amp; Friends this morning, Steve Doocy and Alisyn Camerota.<\/p>\n

DOOCY: Rush Limbaugh on his show yesterday was talking about how he was actual — this is great. Says he\u2019s actually doing John McCain a favor. Now, keep in mind, Rush Limbaugh has said that John McCain is not conservative enough.<\/p>\n

CAMEROTA: Rush Limbaugh now says he\u2019s doing him a favor by not endorsing him because he thinks that he would be the kiss of death to John McCain if he endorsed him because John McCain is so popular with independents and moderates, that Rush would alienate them even though he\u2019d hand him his tremendous listening base. It\u2019s reverse psychology.<\/p>\n

DOOCY: But it\u2019s brilliant.<\/p>\n

CAMEROTA: Is it?<\/p>\n

DOOCY: May be.<\/p>\n

CAMEROTA: (laughing) <\/p>\n

DOOCY: Yeah, I\u2019m not going to get anywhere near that guy or else everybody\u2019s going to hate him because they hate me.<\/p>\n

CAMEROTA: And by not getting near him, I\u2019m supporting him.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And then later in the program the other two on this show got involved, this is Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade and Doocy as well.<\/p>\n

CARLSON: We want to talk a little bit Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh is saying, look, I am McCain\u2019s most valuable asset. I\u2019m doing him a big favor by not endorsing him because, quite frankly, if I did, then all the independents and liberals would run away from John McCain.<\/p>\n

KILMEADE: That\u2019s true, too. Rush Limbaugh saying this, says he\u2019ll get the moderates, independents will stay with McCain. However, did you see what happened yesterday? Three-to-one margin he lost the conservatives to Mike Huckabee. So little is not going to get you the election.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. And I have not endorsed Huckabee. I don\u2019t think anybody else in talk radio has, either. So this notion that — we talked about this earlier in the program — they\u2019re now exit polling me, they did in Virginia and they did in Maryland. This has been a brilliant, brilliant insertion of myself into this campaign, folks. Don\u2019t tell anybody. That\u2019s just between us. You have to admit this has just been brilliant. Scarborough, MSNBC, Morning Joe today, the cohost Mika Brzezinski, the daughter of the former Carter national security grand pooh-bah Zbigniew Brzezinski, says to Scarborough, ‘A very healthy portion of those polled listen to conservative talk radio. New question we put in,\u2019 as though Mika had anything to do with it, ‘the voices are being heard. The question is, ‘How does John McCain deal with that, as well as get to the voters he needs on both sides, independents and Republicans alike?” And here\u2019s what Scarborough said.<\/p>\n

SCARBOROUGH: I don\u2019t think John McCain cares what Rush Limbaugh says or thinks. He\u2019s proven that time and time again, and he thinks he can win on his own without their support. I wouldn\u2019t want to do it if I were a Republican nominee, but John McCain does.<\/p>\n

RUSH: He does. He does. He is where he is. He walks across the aisle, he\u2019s very proud. He said earlier this week that he\u2019s the right guy at the right time because he can reach across the aisle. If he\u2019s going to do that, pandering or appearing to pander to those of us who have problems with his lack of fealty to conservatism, he can\u2019t do it. He can send emissaries out maybe, but he can\u2019t do it. They hired Nicolle Devenish. Do you know who Nicolle Devenish is? She is the cutest little thing. She was in the Bush White House and she was in the Bush campaign in the press office. I remember back during the debates of 2004 between Bush and the haughty John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, Nicolle Devenish was one of the Bush campaign spokeswomen. She was sharp, she was just young, attractive, exactly the kind of face you want on the Republican Party. Well, she left the White House, gave \u2019em six years and was hired by CBS. That\u2019s when a red flag went up for me. Hired by CBS. And she got married. She went to Greece to get married, her name is Nicolle Wallace now, and she\u2019s a consultant at CBS. She was on the CBS morning show today with Harry Smith, and they had this exchange.<\/p>\n

SMITH: This lingering Huckabee thing. Huckabee got a lot of votes in Virginia. These conservatives, they\u2019re still — they\u2019re not happy. They\u2019re not happy about this guy.<\/p>\n

WALLACE: And — and, you know what, Republicans are beginning to say that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

SMITH: Oh, okay.<\/p>\n

WALLACE: The more that we see kind of the crazies out attacking John McCain, the better Republicans feel that their chances are in the general election.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So here\u2019s this young woman who I admired and thought represented the future of the Republican Party, called me a crazy on CBS today. It wounded me to the heart. And she says maybe it\u2019s a good thing that they\u2019re attacking McCain, which was my point yesterday.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Chris Matthews on DNCTV last night during their coverage of the Potomac primary. After hearing the vapid but really powerfully delivered speech of Obama, Chris Matthews had this to say.<\/p>\n

MATTHEWS: I have to tell you, you know, it\u2019s part of reporting this case — this election. The feeling most people get when they hear a Barack Obama speech… My… I felt this thrill go up my leg. I mean, I don\u2019t have that too often.<\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughing) He felt a thrill… (interruption) He didn\u2019t say which leg, Mr. Snerdley. (laughing) A thrill go up his leg? Normally these tingles happen in the spine. Which way did it go on the leg, up or down? Here\u2019s the next bite.<\/p>\n

MATTHEWS: McCain\u2019s problem is, he\u2019s over 70. He\u2019s standing there with John Warner, who is much older than him —<\/p>\n

VOICE: And is about to retire. <\/p>\n

MATTHEWS: He\u2019s standing with Tom Davis, who is retiring.<\/p>\n

VOICE: About to retire.<\/p>\n

MATTHEWS: Looks like an army in retreat in Virginia. That\u2019s what it looks like.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, Chris, we\u2019re getting personal here. See, I told you this is going to happen. This guy, Matthews, used to be McCain\u2019s number-one champion! McCain may as well have been a co-host on Matthews\u2019 show. Eight years ago, Matthews was saying the things about McCain that he\u2019s saying about Obama today! He would sit there, and he\u2019d look like a star-struck girl when McCain would get into his straight talk rap about whatever — and now all of a sudden McCain\u2019s old, and everybody around him is old, and ‘looks like an army in retreat.\u2019 (laughing) Chris, just put on the Obama button! Bill Kristol is wearing his McCain button over on Fox. You can balance each other out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I want to get a couple of audio sound bites here before the program comes to a screeching halt today. As I mentioned, ladies and gentlemen, we had a little fun yesterday with the Drive-Bys. CNN was the first to pick up on this, and then it was all over the place. I actually […]<\/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":"\nIs El Rushbo Helping McCain? - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/02\/13\/is_el_rushbo_helping_mccain\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Is El Rushbo Helping McCain? - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: I want to get a couple of audio sound bites here before the program comes to a screeching halt today. 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