{"id":31061,"date":"2008-12-04T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:00:39","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T03:00:39","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:00:39","slug":"rush_s_interview_with_barbara_walters_fascinates_the_drive_by_media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/12\/04\/rush_s_interview_with_barbara_walters_fascinates_the_drive_by_media\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush\u2019s Interview with Barbara Walters Fascinates the Drive-By Media"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Barbara Walters has her Ten Most Fascinating People of the Year special. It runs tonight at ten o\u2019clock, after Grey\u2019s Anatomy. I am one of the ten. I didn\u2019t realize this. The first time she did this show in 1993, I was one of the twelve. There were twelve most fascinating then, and since then it\u2019s been reduced to ten. I sat with her three weeks ago for the interview and one question was, ‘We gotta do a what-if.\u2019 It was known that, you know, Hillary and her camp had leaked the fact that Obama was thinking of nominating her to be secretary of state, but it was still in the leaking stage and the denial stage and negotiation stage, and Barbara Walters said to me, ‘Well, I gotta ask you a question just in case he nominates her and she accepts it, what you think of it. I said, ‘Oh, okay.\u2019 <\/p>\n

So she rolls tape, asks me the question, I gave her the answer, and the Drive-Bys are all over my answer. Some of them are getting it, but most of them have totally misinterpreted what I said. They said I gave my blessing to this. They say, ‘Oh, a brilliant move on the part of the Obama,\u2019 as though I agree with the concept that there be nobody better at secretary of state than Hillary Clinton. It\u2019s stunning to watch. The Drive-Bys love me. From NPR to The View, they love me because of this, it\u2019s incredible. A couple of them got it right. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: This was Scarborough\u2019s show today, MSNBC, the cohost Mika Brzezinski plays a clip of the Barbara Walters special with me and here is the exchange.<\/p>\n

WALTERS: What do you think of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state?<\/p>\n

RUSH ARCHIVE: I\u2019m stunned that she took it. Hillary has always worked for herself. I think this is a brilliant stroke by Obama. You know, the old phrase, you keep your friends close and your enemies closer?<\/p>\n

WALTERS: Hm-hm.<\/p>\n

RUSH ARCHIVE: He puts her over at secretary of state, how can she run for president in 2012, no matter how badly he does. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s figuring that if she goes over there, she\u2019s going to have to quit in 2010 — running for president\u2019s a two-year job — and then she\u2019s gotta run against the incumbent and be critical of him, the one who made her secretary of state. So I\u2019m surprised she took it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, so that\u2019s the clip they released and they\u2019re playing it all over the place. We just happened to take that from Morning Joe today. So that\u2019s what I said. Now, Snerdley, you heard that. What does it sound to you like I\u2019m praising Obama for? Pretty stealth political move \u2019cause here\u2019s Hillary Clinton, who you know wants to be president — the one thing that I forgot to tell Barbara Walters, you go back in hindsight and fix anything, but I forgot to say, ‘Plus, Barbara, there\u2019s one thing I should point out. It would be much easier to undermine his administration from within it than from over in the Senate.\u2019 But I forgot to say that. So, anyway, I\u2019m praising Obama for taking her out of the presidential sweepstakes in 2012, because she\u2019s gotta start running in 2010. You know how early people start running. I mean, even if you\u2019re going to run against the incumbent in your own party, you gotta start raising money, make obvious moves that you\u2019re doing it. That would look like an act of disloyalty, and to go after the first black president in your own party, very, very difficult move. And I am surprised she took it, on that basis. So, let\u2019s now take a tour around the rest of the Drive-Bys. Tuesday morning, CNN\u2019s American Morning, here\u2019s a montage of Jim Acosta\u2019s report about the nomination of Hillary as secretary of state. You\u2019ll also hear Krauthammer in this.<\/p>\n

ACOSTA: This is not the honeymoon Democrats expected. Some high-profile Republicans are praising Mr. Obama\u2019s national security team. Republican reaction to Barack Obama\u2019s national security team is being described as a love fest.<\/p>\n

KRAUTHAMMER: Boy, that\u2019s a change I can believe in.<\/p>\n

ACOSTA: Hillary Clinton as secretary state, a brilliant stroke, says Rush Limbaugh. Ditto, says President Bush\u2019s former media guru, Mark McKinnon, who applauds Robert Gates staying on at the Pentagon. As for all this gushing from the right, it may have less to do with Mr. Obama\u2019s pragmatism and more to do with a bipartisan desire for the country to get on the right track. As one Republican strategist put it, ‘Enjoy it while it lasts.\u2019<\/p>\n

RUSH: These people are hopeless. That is one of the most idiotic bits of analysis. Who is this guy? Jim Acosta says, ‘It may have less to do with Obama\u2019s pragmatism and more to do with the bipartisan desire for the country to get on the right track.\u2019 They throw me in with bipartisanship? (laughing) You people with elderly parents or young kids, do you ever get frustrated over how long it takes them to understand what you mean when you\u2019re saying something as plain as day? I mean, if there\u2019s one person in the Big Media who has been consistent and definable for 20 years, it is me. And now all of a sudden I have become a pragmatist with one lifted bite from a Barbara Walters interview. Here\u2019s NPR gushing over the whole thing.<\/p>\n

INSKEEP: President-Elect Barack Obama\u2019s national security team has won praise in surprising quarters. His choice for defense secretary is acceptable to the Bush administration, since President Bush chose the same man.<\/p>\n

MONTAGNE: Hillary Clinton\u2019s nomination as secretary of state won praise from Rush Limbaugh. The conservative radio host told ABC News it was a brilliant stroke for political reasons.<\/p>\n

RUSH: MSNBC is so excited about my supposed support for Obama that they now want to put him on Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

SWEET: I think he\u2019s looking already towards being the fifth face on Mount Rushmore, and you want the story to be written of a smooth launch of the administration, where he was able to have some of the biggest names in our country fill key spots and that the story line is just much better with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state than with anyone else. <\/p>\n

SHUSTER: And, Bob, what about Hillary Clinton\u2019s perspective? I mean Rush Limbaugh told Barbara Walters that this is a brilliant stroke by Obama because it eliminates Hillary Clinton as a potential political rival and opponent. Do you think that Hillary Clinton is essentially taking her presidential aspirations off the table?<\/p>\n

BENENSON: Well, you would have to think so, given that it would be very difficult for her to challenge Barack Obama in 2012 even if Obama has a difficult first term as president in the 2012 primaries.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s stick with MSNBC last night on David Gregory\u2019s show. He had Michelle Bernard of the Independent Women\u2019s Forum, and she was asked about my analysis of Obama\u2019s brilliant stroke.<\/p>\n

GREGORY: Such strong praise from Rush Limbaugh for this move.<\/p>\n

BERNARD: I don\u2019t know what Rush is thinking, but I actually know him personally so I know he\u2019s got a strategy behind what he has said to Barbara Walters. Maybe Rush is right. If she were to start running for president while she is secretary of state, should she be confirmed, it was be disastrous and I think that she would not win and it would look very bad for her legacy, so Rush is probably correct in this was a stroke of genius on behalf of the president-elect.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So even the people who understand that I was praising Obama\u2019s political acumen here with this brilliant appointment are still associating me with everybody else who\u2019s saying Obama\u2019s brilliant, period. See, this is how easy it is, and I wasn\u2019t even trying for this. This is how easy it is to make the libs like you. Now, I\u2019m going to destroy it all here in the next couple hours. I mean, one five-second little comment on Barbara Walters and they love me.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is CNN Monday night on The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer and Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, I mean they seem to think that I\u2019ve endorsed Obama\u2019s national security team.<\/p>\n

<\/a>MILBANK: He\u2019s getting rave reviews for this so far. Obviously the risk is down the road, whether this deteriorates. but certainly everybody from Rush Limbaugh all the way — and the far left has been quiet about it unexpectedly. So he has really gotten away with it.<\/p>\n

BLITZER: It\u2019s pretty amazing when you think about it. I haven\u2019t heard a mainstream Republican complain about it at all. They seem to like it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, the clowns don\u2019t even know I was out sick Monday. Here\u2019s The View, this is Tuesday, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck are talking about the Obama national security team, and Behar said, ‘The accusation that he wasn\u2019t experienced enough, he certainly has overcome that by appointing every experienced person that you can find,\u2019 and she added this.<\/p>\n

BEHAR: The right wing love these choices, even Rush Limbaugh was saying —<\/p>\n

HASSELBECK: Actually Hillary Clinton —<\/p>\n

BEHAR: Aren\u2019t you glad he won, Elisabeth? Tell the truth.<\/p>\n

HASSELBECK: What is this? I told you, I had a very excited moment. I feel like I\u2019m excited to see what happens. I think given the choices he\u2019s made, I feel as though they\u2019re sensible.<\/p>\n

BEHAR: It\u2019s win-win for everybody.<\/p>\n

HASSELBECK: But if you listen to what he\u2019s saying, he actually sounds a lot more like George Bush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: They\u2019re talking about the national security team. Look it, this is no surprise to me. Folks, who was it? It was I, I\u2019ll just not even ask you the question. Who was it that told you that there\u2019s no way the Democrat nominee for president, if he won the election, was going to hang the loss of any war around his own neck? And there\u2019s no way he\u2019s pulling out of Iraq before we have clearly won it, there\u2019s no way the Democrats — this is what makes them so reprehensible and irresponsible. They were trying to secure defeat during the campaign, they were trying to secure the defeat for the United States and the US military for two to three years prior to the campaign so they could saddle it around Bush\u2019s neck and so forth, but they\u2019re not going to saddle themselves with defeat. <\/p>\n

Their leftist wacko nuts are going to be very disappointed when Obama does not pull outta here. And I\u2019ll tell you something else, he\u2019s not going to close Gitmo. I\u2019ll guarantee you. They\u2019re going to find it\u2019s going to be much tougher to close Gitmo than he actually thought. Nobody wants those reprobates that are in Gitmo. Where do you take \u2019em? And they\u2019re not going to bring \u2019em here for trial. The left-wing trial bar may be disappointed about this and the kook left-wing fringe. Ain\u2019t going to happen, especially after this Mumbai thing, Bombay for those of you who voted for Obama. You watch at how little is going to change. Hasselbeck here actually swerved into some things. This team is gonna end up looking like George W. Bush when they come out of the gate in January when the Obama team is inaugurated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Barbara Walters has her Ten Most Fascinating People of the Year special. It runs tonight at ten o\u2019clock, after Grey\u2019s Anatomy. I am one of the ten. I didn\u2019t realize this. The first time she did this show in 1993, I was one of the twelve. There were twelve most fascinating then, and since […]<\/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":"\nRush's Interview with Barbara Walters Fascinates the Drive-By Media - 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\/12\/04\/rush_s_interview_with_barbara_walters_fascinates_the_drive_by_media\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Rush's Interview with Barbara Walters Fascinates the Drive-By Media - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Barbara Walters has her Ten Most Fascinating People of the Year special. 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