{"id":28710,"date":"2008-03-18T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:05:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T04:05:36","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:05:36","slug":"the_rorschach_test_speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/03\/18\/the_rorschach_test_speech\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rorschach Test Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Myron in Detroit. Myron, I\u2019m glad you called, sir. Great to have you here.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah, how you doing there, Rush?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Fine, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah. I hate to go against you, but I think you\u2019re all wrong about the Barack Obama pastor. And what I\u2019m saying is, because I\u2019ve been in the church for twenty-some years, and you don\u2019t take one thing out of a church sermon and say that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about. You don\u2019t do that in church. You gotta play the thing totally out so you can get all the messages instead of one statement of it. I think that\u2019s totally wrong for doing something like that.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I understand, look, I\u2019m taken out of context a lot, Myron, on television. But even when I\u2019m taken out of context, you don\u2019t find me saying stuff like this. This isn\u2019t even about race, Myron, I tried to make that point earlier today. This man\u2019s just steaming with rage and hatred. He\u2019s got serious, serious anger management issues. This guy is enraged. He is mad, he\u2019s stuck in a time warp, and it\u2019s okay, except he\u2019s got all these 4,500 people there that are standing up and cheering all this nonsense. It\u2019s not good. It\u2019s not good for them; it\u2019s not good for him; it certainly hasn\u2019t been good for Obama.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But the thing dealing with the church, you go there for yourself, you can accept what he say or not, it\u2019s not making the reverend a god, he\u2019s not no god. He\u2019s just trying to give a sermon to let you know something. By taking a segment out of, it, we don\u2019t know what he truly said. I was sitting here listening to you the last two days, we don\u2019t know what he\u2019s trying to get —<\/p>\n

RUSH: We do know what he said.<\/p>\n

CALLER: How can you know what he said when you just took a segment out? He might have said something after that to rebut what he just said.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Because it\u2019s on DVDs. You can buy DVDs from the guy\u2019s church. He\u2019s selling the stuff. Fox News didn\u2019t do a deep inside investigation to come up with secret videotapes. This guy sells this stuff.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hm-hm. Then I would say you shouldn\u2019t just play a segment for your listeners to listen to instead of playing the whole thing. That is totally wrong to play a segment of it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right. All right. Look, I understand. You\u2019re trying to protect the guy. You\u2019re trying to join Obama and trying to protect the guy. But, you know, this is what it is. You can do what you can to try to smooth this over. Here\u2019s the thing. Here, grab audio sound bite 22. Obama, in his speech today, actually refers to the Reverend Wright as a conservative.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: Ironically, this quintessentially American and, yes, conservative notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright\u2019s sermons.<\/p>\n

RUSH: How do you know? You weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: What my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change. The profound mistake of Reverend Wright\u2019s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Hatred.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — it\u2019s that he spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress had been made.<\/p>\n

RUSH: He doesn\u2019t want any.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: As if this country, a country that has made it possible for one of its own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, well, he doesn\u2019t want it to change, Barack. It\u2019s static because he wants it to be static for whatever reasons, I\u2019m not even going to impute reasons. Some might say he raises a lot of money this way, gets paid a lot, sells a lot of DVDs, who knows, but we can\u2019t assume he\u2019s stupid. He may be uninformed or ignorant, but he can\u2019t be stupid here. He\u2019s not speaking about racism, he\u2019s speaking about hatred. For those of you who think — Myron and the rest of you who think we\u2019re taking the Reverend Wright out of context, then why didn\u2019t Barack say that today? Barack tried it Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, by the way. Friday night on his TV tour, Barack tried to say, (paraphrasing) ‘Well, you can take anybody, 20 years of their work and take snippets out.\u2019 Didn\u2019t fly. So Barack had to do the speech today, and in doing the speech today, Barack, he didn\u2019t complain about segments. He condemned the remarks that had been played, Myron. So actually, you called the wrong guy. You need to call Obama and say you disagree with the way he\u2019s handling it. <\/p>\n

Richard in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, you\u2019re next on the EIB Network. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Rush, I really appreciate your taking the call, and I agree with everything that you had told Billy instead of wallowing in self-pity or any of the other things that you said to him. We\u2019re totally understandable and right on line with what you say most of the time.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: However, I do have a different take on Barack\u2019s speech today. I actually found it inspirational. I didn\u2019t think that he tried to justify racism in America. I thought that he tried to elevate our thoughts on what we thought about racism. I thought that he tried to make a case that it was understandable, both the way the middle class white man felt, and the black individual felt as to things that had happened to them, that it was understandable, not just (unintelligible). He in no way tried to condone what the reverend said. I think that if half of what he says, he believes, I find it an inspiration, and I\u2019m a die-hard conservative. I found it refreshing. I found it insightful. I also don\u2019t agree with his solutions on hardly anything. I think he\u2019s identified the problem. I think his solutions are all backward.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right. So let me guess. What you really liked about it was that you finally heard a powerful black man say he understands why white people are upset about all this at the same time?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, actually that isn\u2019t what I heard. I heard something else, too. I\u2019ve heard a lot of powerful black men say things about that. I\u2019ve heard Ken Hamblin, I\u2019ve heard Joe Madison, I\u2019ve heard James Golden, all with different points of view, but I\u2019ll tell you, they\u2019re powerful people, and they have a lot of people that listen to them, maybe not on the same side of the spectrum. I also thought that he wasn\u2019t trying to point out you and Reagan. I actually thought he was trying to take issue with some other talk show hosts and some other presidents.<\/p>\n

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

CALLER: Wait a minute, let me finish, please. Bill Clinton stood before the American people and remembered those churches burning when he was a child and tried to make a race issue out of something that never even happened. How good was that for America? Al Sharpton\u2019s made a career out of race baiting, Jesse Jackson\u2019s made a career out of race baiting, and those are black leaders.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: And they\u2019re nothing but trash. And you know something? Somebody put it to them the right way, J.C. Hayward said they\u2019re nothing but poverty pimps that dwell on people\u2019s misery. This man is not trying to play the race card that way. He\u2019s trying to inspire people to get together. Now, maybe he\u2019s full of it, but, boy, what he said, one thing that rings true over anything else I have heard in a long, long time is, let\u2019s get rid of the status quo. And you more than any individual in this country have been preaching that for the ten years that I\u2019ve been listening to you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, but Obama says we all want to move in the same direction, and I don\u2019t want to go in Obama\u2019s direction. I don\u2019t want nationalized health care; I don\u2019t want to lose in Iraq; I don\u2019t want any of his liberal agenda. I don\u2019t hate corporate America. I don\u2019t hate entrepreneurism. I don\u2019t want higher taxes. I don\u2019t want anything of what he wants. I think you\u2019re being trapped here. I think what we\u2019re getting from Obama is the same thing Shelby Steele said in his piece today in the Wall Street Journal. We\u2019re just looking at a different tactic. The objective here, Richard, is a presidential campaign. The objective is not solving the race issues in this country. The objective is to get Barack Obama elected president. That\u2019s the context in which the speech took place. It took place in Philadelphia, where the next big presidential primary is. This was about his presidential campaign. This is about him being elected president. Every candidate uses tactics. He\u2019s got a different tactic on race. He\u2019s even written about it in his book, how to make white people like you, don\u2019t make any sudden moves. So this is simply a tactic to make somebody think, ‘Oh, it\u2019s a different guy. He wants to bring us together.\u2019 Well, I don\u2019t know that I want to come together with liberals on their terms. You know, and that\u2019s what I have been, quote, unquote, preaching all of these years. But, look, I appreciate the phone call, I really do. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, we\u2019ve taken enough calls here, folks. I think that I can safely say that the Obama speech is proof that the Rorschach tests live. This speech, this Obama speech could be whatever you want it to be. This is Obama\u2019s candidacy. It\u2019s as he has said: He\u2019s a blank slate. You can make him whatever you want him to be; you can make this speech whatever you want it to be. Now, I heard the whole speech. Somebody correct me if I\u2019m wrong on this. I have not had time to read the text of the speech, but I don\u2019t think that Obama spoke to why he removed Reverend Wright from that advisory role in his campaign. (interruption) Okay, he didn\u2019t bring that up. All right, then. Here\u2019s another question. This is not emotion for me, folks. I\u2019m not swooning. I don\u2019t get caught up in the flowery. I don\u2019t get caught up working together in the unity, because I know that\u2019s not what\u2019s on tap here. Barack Obama no more wants unity with us politically than we want it with him. Fall for it. I beg you. Here\u2019s the point. Here\u2019s the question. If he profoundly disagrees, as he said today, with Reverend Wright — and his grandmother!<\/p>\n

By the way, Wolf Blitzer, I\u2019m told, even thought it was a low blow for Obama to trash his grandmother as a racist. Well, I didn\u2019t hear Wolf say it. I\u2019m just told that. It doesn\u2019t matter. Here\u2019s the question. If you profoundly disagree with the Reverend Wright, why give him an advisory role in your campaign? How many people do you have…? Well, look, I have nobody on my staff with whom I profoundly disagree. Zilch, zero, nada. We have devil\u2019s advocates, but that\u2019s just to spur intellectual thought. I don\u2019t have people who actually disagree with me profoundly ‘advising me\u2019 or whatever. By the way, we don\u2019t discriminate against liberals, don\u2019t misunderstand. They don\u2019t even apply, is the point. But, forget me. Why would you do this? Somebody you profoundly disagree with? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Myron in Detroit. Myron, I\u2019m glad you called, sir. Great to have you here. CALLER: Yeah, how you doing there, Rush? RUSH: Fine, sir. CALLER: Yeah. I hate to go against you, but I think you\u2019re all wrong about the Barack Obama pastor. And what I\u2019m saying is, because I\u2019ve been in the church […]<\/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":"\nThe Rorschach Test Speech - 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\/18\/the_rorschach_test_speech\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Rorschach Test Speech - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Myron in Detroit. Myron, I\u2019m glad you called, sir. Great to have you here. CALLER: Yeah, how you doing there, Rush? 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