{"id":28656,"date":"2008-03-12T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:10:09","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T04:10:09","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:10:09","slug":"mccain_issues_strict_talking_points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/03\/12\/mccain_issues_strict_talking_points\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain Issues Strict Talking Points"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: The is a most amazing story. I have never heard of this before. It\u2019s on The Politico. ‘After being forced to respond to three separate incidents in recent weeks of conservatives alluding to Barack Obama\u2019s middle name, John McCain\u2019s campaign manager today sent a memo to top supporters urging them to stick to the campaign\u2019s preferred message — and to avoid taking gratuitous shots at their Democratic rivals. ‘Overheated rhetoric and personal attacks on our opponents distract from the big differences between John McCain\u2019s vision for the future of our nation and the Democrats,\u2019 wrote Rick Davis in a document the campaign e-mailed to Republican officials and staffers this afternoon. ‘This campaign is about John McCain: his vision, leadership, experience, courage, service to his country and ability to lead as commander in chief from day one.\u2019 McCain, Davis added, ‘has held himself to the highest standards and he will continue to run a respectful campaign based on the issues. We expect that all supporters, surrogates and staff will hold themselves to similarly high standards when they are representing the campaign. To help guide you, please find talking points below.” <\/p>\n

So the McCain campaign has sent out talking points to supporters, surrogates, and staff telling them what to say. ‘Those talking points focus entirely on McCain\u2019s biography and positions on key issues.\u2019 This is Jonathan Martin\u2019s blog at Politico.com. I have to tell you, this doesn\u2019t apply to me, folks. No, it doesn\u2019t. I\u2019m not trying to be provocative here. This does not apply to me. I\u2019m not a surrogate. I am a liberated American who will discuss the candidates as I see fit, without the help of the McCain campaign and their talking points. Can you believe this? Talking points? This is going to extend beyond just surrogates and staff and anybody that speaks for McCain, is going to be asked to stick to these talking points. I\u2019ve never heard of a candidate issuing talking points to supporters, telling them to stick to those points and not to express their own views their own ways. (laughter) You know, this is why they don\u2019t like us on talk radio, folks, because they can issue all the talking points in the world but, you know, what are we going to do with them? (tearing paper) So they can… (doing McCain impression)\u2019I knew Limbaugh would do this! I told you not to put those talking points out! I knew he was going to make fun of it. Damn it! Damn it to hell!\u2019 <\/p>\n

This is still pandering to the lib media, folks. Just stick to this, if you would, please. Just say that McCain has the experience, the judgment, the character to lead America in a dangerous world. That\u2019s one of the primary talking points. So anyway I wanted to get that out of the way, get the Republican stuff out of the way, because the chaos that we\u2019ve created here in the Democrat Party is too juicy. We have sound bite stories all over the place. Romney says that he would take the vice presidency, and went out there and called McCain the ‘big dog.\u2019 Mitt Romney said in his first interview with — it was with Hannity, wasn\u2019t it? Yeah. ‘I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included.\u2019 So Romney wants it, if it\u2019s offered. Some people said it will never happen because there\u2019s just too much animosity between these two guys. Romney was the most hated guy in the campaign. Huckabee. Oh! By the way, by the way, I meant to mention this yesterday and it slipped my mind. I know that there are many of you Republicans out there still in a tizzy over my Operation Chaos in the Rush Vote, urging Republicans to vote for Hillary in these primaries. <\/p>\n

‘This is not the way we Republicans do things. We don\u2019t do this. You\u2019re — you\u2019re asking us to compromise our principles. This is something the Democrats do.\u2019 You remember the calls. ‘Where is your integrity on this? Blah, blah, blah.\u2019 You remember all this. What I meant to mention yesterday, remember what happened in the Republican primary or caucuses I guess it was in West Virginia? After the first round, who was leading? Mitt Romney was leading by quite a lot. And then what happened? Before going in and voting in the second round, the Huckster threw his support — or McCain, one of the two — threw his support to the Huckster. I guess… Who was it that won West Virginia? Was it McCain who won West Virginia or Huckabee? It was Huckabee. So McCain said, ‘Okay, I\u2019ll throw this state out. I don\u2019t need it,\u2019 and the McCain forces joined the Huck forces to oust Romney in West Virginia. Now, what do you think of that? That\u2019s our side doing it. Does that bother you? Does that give you pause? Does it make you question the integrity of Governor Huckabee and Senator McCain? Because they clearly ganged up on Mitt Romney. They hated Romney, because he was running all these ads and he was paying for them himself, and there was nothing that was going to stop them, and they thought the ads were personal and unfair, direct hits and so forth. Romney said, ‘No, these are ads that are just on the issues.\u2019 So, I meant to mention that yesterday.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Speaking of McCain\u2019s talking points, they\u2019re all upset here about the use of Obama\u2019s middle name and they\u2019ve had three instances now where it\u2019s happened, so the McCain campaign\u2019s put out some talking points and told the surrogates and staff and supporters, ‘Just talk about McCain. Don\u2019t talk about Obama. Don\u2019t mention his middle name.\u2019 There was a piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, a story, rather, Bret Stephens. Do you know who the first person who started this Hussein business, the first person to use the middle name of Barack Obama, was? It was Barack Obama. This was October 18th, 2007, talking to Tavis Smiley, PBS. ‘Well, I think if you\u2019ve got a guy named Barack Hussein Obama, that\u2019s a pretty good contrast to George W. Bush. If you believe that we\u2019ve gotta heal America and that we gotta repair our standing in the world, then I think my supporters believe I\u2019m the messenger who can deliver the message.\u2019 The point being that on October 18th of last year it was Obama himself using his middle name, saying the fact that my middle name is Hussein and whatever connotations are attached to it, why, this is going to help bring us together. This is going to help America heal. This is going to increase our standing in the world. <\/p>\n

How do we deal with this, folks? Obama was the first to use his middle name. He did so in the context of healing and improving our standing in the world, and now McCain has ordered nobody to use the middle name. Maybe McCain\u2019s campaign — Rick Davis, I know you\u2019re out there — send Obama McCain\u2019s talking points. We gotta stop this. Obama\u2019s wrong. He can\u2019t use his middle name. It makes McCain look bad, so you\u2019ve got to send those talking points over to Obama. Somebody\u2019s gotta get hold of Obama and let him know what the right thing to do here is. This is kind of like the Boston Globe story we had Monday or Tuesday pointing out how back in 2004, Obama\u2019s out there saying, ‘We can\u2019t leave Iraq until the job is done.\u2019 And they said in the headline, yes, his position has evolved on this. <\/p>\n

Kathy in Plano, Texas, we\u2019re going to start on the phones with you on the Rush Limbaugh program. Great to have you here. Welcome.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you! Good to talk to you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I know. Thanks.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019ve listened to you for a long time, and I really love you, but I\u2019ve got a question for you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CALLER: How is your criticism of the manager, the campaign manager for McCain and his suggestion to others about what not to talk about, how does that differ than your suggestion to the Republicans who to vote for in the primaries?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, you\u2019ve gotta be kidding, Kathy.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No. I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019m not demanding anything. <\/p>\n

CALLER: No.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You have free will out there.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: The people on McCain\u2019s support staff, his surrogates, do not. They have been ordered to only stick to those talking points that McCain\u2019s camp has put out. Their speech has been limited, yours hasn\u2019t, I can\u2019t do that to you, wouldn\u2019t even think of it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Mine is a suggestion that you go out and create the chaos, but you don\u2019t have to. I\u2019m not going to kick you out of the audience if you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: McCain might kick you out of the campaign if you violate his talking points.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, that is different.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, it\u2019s a major difference, major difference out there. Absolutely.<\/p>\n

CALLER: If he\u2019s making a suggestion to supporters of how to keep it on the up-and-up or to not be critical of the other candidates, then I think that, you know, that\u2019s his suggestion and trying to keep the campaign positive.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m not a big McCain supporter, don\u2019t get me wrong, but I would rather it be him than Barack or Hillary. <\/p>\n

RUSH: You think I wouldn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No. No, no, no, not at all. I just want to —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Don\u2019t you understand what I\u2019m doing here is about winning? I\u2019ll tell you something, Kathy, just between you and me, don\u2019t tell anybody else.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I actually think that the McCain campaign loves the fact I\u2019m doing this so that they can take their so-called high road, because they know I\u2019m not going to stick — you have to know. You just have to know that in the bowels of the Republican Party complex, they\u2019re sitting there laughing themselves silly over Rush the Vote and Operation Chaos. They don\u2019t have the gonads to do it: We\u2019re doing it. They can sit around and laugh and yuk it up, then McCain can go out there and take the high road while we create the chaos they ought to be creating. They\u2019re happy to let us do it. <\/p>\n

CALLER: And they do need the free advertising, airtime, you know, it will help them because they don\u2019t have the finances–<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait a second, wait a second, whoa, whoa, whoa. I need free advertising time for what?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, no, no. Not free, the airtime, just the exposure for the McCain camp. You\u2019re talking about them. And they don\u2019t have the finances that the Democratic Party — I mean candidates, either one of them.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, you say I am already doing that. I am offering them cost-free support in a roundabout, circuitous way.<\/p>\n

CALLER: In a roundabout way, yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Because you\u2019re talking about them.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019m talking about the Democrats. We\u2019re creating chaos on the Democrat side, which can only benefit the Republicans. I don\u2019t care what these high and mighty Republicans are out there saying, ‘Oh, we would prefer this not to be happening, we, of course, play on the up and up.\u2019 They are loving every minute. But I don\u2019t care whether they love it or not. That\u2019s not the reason that I\u2019m engaged in this. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019ve explained it. This is all about winning. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is about our side winning.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, it\u2019s about the future of our country.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Same difference.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Same thing.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Absolutely.<\/p>\n

RUSH: It really is.<\/p>\n

CALLER: All right. Well, keep up the good work.<\/p>\n

RUSH: At the end of the call, now it\u2019s good work. Thank you, Kathy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: The is a most amazing story. I have never heard of this before. It\u2019s on The Politico. ‘After being forced to respond to three separate incidents in recent weeks of conservatives alluding to Barack Obama\u2019s middle name, John McCain\u2019s campaign manager today sent a memo to top supporters urging them to stick to the […]<\/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 Issues Strict Talking Points - 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\/03\/12\/mccain_issues_strict_talking_points\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"McCain Issues Strict Talking Points - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: The is a most amazing story. 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