{"id":28413,"date":"2008-02-18T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:15:22","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T04:15:22","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:15:22","slug":"mccain_s_trouble_isn_t_with_rush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/02\/18\/mccain_s_trouble_isn_t_with_rush\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain\u2019s Trouble Isn\u2019t with Rush"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Roy in Naples. Roy, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thanks. Go ahead and bawl \u2019em out. My question is, I\u2019m a conservative with core beliefs, and I\u2019m a little fond of Ronald Reagan. Reagan made it a policy to support the party nominee.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: What should I do?<\/p>\n

RUSH: You gotta do what\u2019s in your heart. You gotta do what\u2019s in your mind. You gotta follow your gut. You gotta follow your instincts. You gotta do what you think is right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I don\u2019t think you\u2019re answering me. <\/p>\n

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

CALLER: That\u2019s a very good answer, Rush, but it\u2019s not up to date.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Love these Monday holidays. What do you mean, it\u2019s not up to date?<\/p>\n

CALLER: If I don\u2019t vote, based on what I hear from you, if I don\u2019t vote, I am actually voting for the guy I don\u2019t want. There\u2019s no way out of that.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Roy, are you saying you\u2019re waiting for me to advise you how to vote?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, I\u2019m trying to figure out what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What do you mean, figure out what I\u2019m doing?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I think you\u2019ve put a lot of people who listen to you and have some respect for your positions, put them in a corner, maybe yourself in a corner with your opposition to McCain. That may be your core belief, but McCain is the nominee of the Republican Party. You\u2019re telling them just follow their core beliefs? They follow their core beliefs, they don\u2019t vote for McCain?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Not necessarily. Depends on where your core beliefs are. I don\u2019t know what yours are specifically.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hmm.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No matter what I say, it\u2019s not good, it\u2019s not enough. (laughing) First two calls I\u2019m 0-for-2 today. I\u2019m not trying to slither out of your question here. I\u2019m not going to tell you how to vote. That\u2019s up to you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay. I know what I\u2019m going to do. I think I know what Ronald Reagan would do. And that\u2019s what we hear from most of our conservative talk show hosts and telling us to quit on McCain.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Nobody\u2019s —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes, you are.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Nobody is telling you to quit on McCain.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You\u2019re certainly putting him in a hole somewhere.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You think I\u2019m telling you to quit on McCain?<\/p>\n

CALLER: You\u2019re telling me he\u2019s not very good to vote for.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, I have not said that.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh. Come on, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I have not said he\u2019s not good to vote for. No, you have not urged anybody to vote against Senator McCain.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hmm. Well, that\u2019s not what I\u2019ve been hearing.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What I have done was what I always do, and that is to share with you my concerns about Senator McCain.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, let\u2019s put it a different way. Is there any condition under which you would vote for the Republican Party nominee?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, of course. I\u2019m sorry that you have missed that. I have said on this program and in two recent major Drive-By outlet interviews that I would never vote Hillary or Obama.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hmm. Well, we\u2019re getting close.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I have also said —<\/p>\n

CALLER: I think that\u2019s what every conservative —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait. Now, wait a second here, Roy. I have also said that I probably am doing Senator McCain a big favor by not endorsing him. Senator McCain\u2019s campaign right now is based on attracting a number of Democrats, moderates, and independents to the Republican Party. Democrats, moderates, and independents have no love for me, as you know. Many of them prefer McCain over Obama or Hillary, particularly in New York, I have discovered, having just been there. If I were to come out and become one of the biggest foot soldiers for Senator McCain, I could drive a hole right through his primary strategy. I\u2019ve thought about this every which way from Sunday.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But he also needs a lot of support from the base.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes, and —<\/p>\n

CALLER: He may get all those moderates and independents —<\/p>\n

RUSH: You know something, I\u2019m going to play a sound bite for you. I want you to listen to this. This is amazing. This is Chip Reid of CBS, and he\u2019s on Reliable Sources yesterday with Howard Kurtz. Chip Reid used to be with NBC. Grab audio sound bite number five, Mike. Get it now! All right, now — (laughing)<\/p>\n

CALLER: Don\u2019t bawl him out, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: We\u2019re just having fun here. Howard Kurtz said, ‘Chip Reid, some conservatives don\u2019t like McCain, they\u2019re reluctantly supporting him, but the guy has all but won the nomination. A remarkable comeback. I wonder if journalists are just putting too much emphasis –‘<\/p>\n

REID: I don\u2019t think this story is McCain versus Limbaugh and company. It\u2019s McCain versus the base. And I was at the CPAC convention last week, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve mentioned Limbaugh in any of my stories, but I sure have mentioned these people who just don\u2019t like him and may not show up. And that\u2019s the story. The story is not just conflict. The story is that he could end up losing this thing in the fall because a lot of the base stays home. And we need to keep the focus on that rather than this rivalry between Limbaugh and McCain.<\/p>\n

RUSH: A little Drive-By Media, one Drive-By Media guy understands what\u2019s going on out there. Chip Reid used to be with DNCTV and is now with CBS. Understands what\u2019s going on out there, Roy. McCain\u2019s problem is not me. In fact, I said in a TIME Magazine interview last week it would be a mistake for Senator McCain to try to reach out to me. He is who he is. He needs to continue to be who he is. His job is not to satisfy one person. It\u2019s a different thing than trying to appeal to me. That\u2019s just a horse race type thing that the Drive-Bys are all caught up in. Thank you, Chip Reid, for getting it. He\u2019ll be the only one that gets it even after he said it, though. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: President George H. W. Bush endorsed John McCain today at Houston Hobby Airport. It\u2019s the old airport in Houston. The new modern airport in Houston is George Bush Intercontinental, but George H. W. Bush lives closer to Houston Hobby. And, by the way, Houston Hobby is where the chartered and private aircraft fly in, primarily, and which McCain flew in there. So no big deal. I just wanted to point out that the older airport in Houston is Hobby and that\u2019s where McCain flew into because it\u2019s where the chartered jets go. George H. W. Bush in his endorsement said that the attacks on McCain are unfair. ‘Former President George H.W. Bush urged disgruntled conservatives on Monday to rally around John McCain, calling their criticism of the Republican presidential front-runner ‘grossly unfair.\u2019 The father of President George W. Bush said he was annoyed by attacks within the conservative wing of the Republican Party against the Arizona senator. The elder Bush said even former President Ronald Reagan, an icon of the conservative movement, faced attacks from the right wing of the party, citing several quotations from diaries written by Reagan in his early years in office. One lambasted Reagan for ‘betrayal of the conservative cause\u2019 and another, in the Conservative Digest, accused Reagan of being a ‘kind of turncoat conservative.”<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you find this interesting that here we have — by the way, this is such a tough day — I started out in such a great mood, but, you know I have such respect for President Bush. I have played golf. I\u2019m a member of the First Tee organization that he\u2019s the honorary chairman, but he was the one who accused Ronald Reagan of engaging in voodoo economics. I just find it amazing that in an endorsement of Senator McCain, the focus of that endorsement tended to be turned on conservatives who were being grossly unfair. It does seem to indicate that the people behind Senator McCain here do have a sense of the problem he faces with the base. ‘Even former President Reagan, icon of the conservative movement, faced attacks from the right wing of the party, citing several quotations from diaries written by Reagan in his early years in office.\u2019 I don\u2019t know how many times I gotta say this. This is not a personality cult. This is not identity politics here. Nobody is comparing Senator McCain to President Reagan, except Senator McCain. It\u2019s been an examination of Senator McCain\u2019s record, pure and simple. But that\u2019s water over the dam, under the bridge, he\u2019s the nominee. So at any rate — yes, Snerdley, I think he was talking to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Roy in Naples. Roy, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Thanks. Go ahead and bawl \u2019em out. My question is, I\u2019m a conservative with core beliefs, and I\u2019m a little fond of Ronald Reagan. Reagan made it a policy to support the party nominee. RUSH: Yes. CALLER: What should I do? RUSH: You […]<\/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":"\nMcCain's Trouble Isn't with Rush - 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\/02\/18\/mccain_s_trouble_isn_t_with_rush\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"McCain's Trouble Isn't with Rush - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Roy in Naples. Roy, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Thanks. Go ahead and bawl \u2019em out. 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