{"id":31387,"date":"2009-01-12T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:55:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T02:55:07","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:55:07","slug":"obama_on_stephanopoulos_show_reality_and_symbolism_disconnect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/01\/12\/obama_on_stephanopoulos_show_reality_and_symbolism_disconnect\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama on Stephanopoulos Show: Reality and Symbolism Disconnect"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s go to This Week with Stephanopoulos, whose question was, ‘Which of your ambitions, which of your campaign promises will you have to scale back on because of the economic downturn?\u2019<\/p>\n

OBAMA: I want to be realistic here. Uh, not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace that we had hoped.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Reeeeeeeeally? Not everything we promised, not everything we talked about we\u2019re going to be able to do. But remember, my friends: it\u2019s not what Obama says, it\u2019s how he says it. Even he admits now his campaign promises were just a bunch of smoke and mirrors. And, see, it goes to something that I shared with you last week. Elections are not about winning arguments. It\u2019s not about telling the right things to people. It\u2019s about telling them what they want to hear, and then after you get into office… I mean, this is just Bill Clinton all over again. (impression) ‘I tell you, I got in here, and the Bush people didn\u2019t tell me how bad this was. I have never worked harder in my entire life and I just can\u2019t find a way. I can\u2019t find a way to come through with those middle-class tax cuts right now,\u2019 and he never found a way for them. So it\u2019s a rerun; it\u2019s a replay. ‘I want to be realistic here.\u2019 So Stephanopoulos then presses The Messiah on everybody having to sacrifice, have some skin in the game. He said, ‘Well, now, at the end of the day you\u2019re talking about over the course of your presidency some kind of grand bargain? You have tax reform, health care reform, entitlement reform, Social Security, Medicare, where everybody in the country is going to have to sacrifice something, accept change for the greater good?\u2019<\/p>\n

OBAMA: Yes.<\/p>\n

STEPHANOPOULOS: And when will that get done?<\/p>\n

OBAMA: Well, uh, I, the — the — Right now I\u2019m focused on a pretty heavy lift which is making sure that we get that reinvestment, uh, and recovery package in place.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: But what you describe is exactly what we\u2019re going to have to do. What we have to do is take a look at our structural deficit, how are we paying for government, what are we getting for it — <\/p>\n

RUSH: Really?<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — and how do we make the system more efficient.<\/p>\n

STEPHANOPOULOS: And eventually sacrifice from everyone.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: Everyone\u2019s going to have to give. Everybody\u2019s going to have to have some skin in the game.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Who is ‘everybody\u2019? We\u2019re going to have to define this word, ladies and gentlemen. Who is everybody? Because I don\u2019t think he means everybody. But did you notice how Stephanopoulos gave him the answer to the question? He\u2019s speaking here in the continual flowery platitudes. He didn\u2019t get specific, but I\u2019m sure Stephanopoulos walked out of the studio yesterday and said, ‘Well, I made some news! I told Obama what\u2019s going to happen; he said, ‘Yep, it\u2019s exactly what you said we\u2019re going to do.” So Stephanopoulos may as well be David Axelrod conducting this interview. Here\u2019s the next question — and this, for you (laughing) you anti-war people, it\u2019s a bad sound bite. This is Stephanopoulos. ‘You also agreed on Guantanamo, when you say you want to shut it down. You say you\u2019re still going to shut it down. Is it turning out to be harder than you expected?\u2019 What kinda questions are these? Of course it\u2019s turning out to be harder than expected because Obama has already said so! This is a softball served up. ‘Will you close [Club Gitmo] in the first 100 days?\u2019<\/p>\n

OBAMA: It is more difficult than I think a lot of people under — uh — realize.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh?<\/p>\n

OBAMA: And, uh, eh, we are going to get it done.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: But part of the challenge that you have is —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — that you\u2019ve got a bunch of, folks, that have been detained.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — many of whom may be very dangerous.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Nooooo!<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — who have not, uh, been put on trial.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No!<\/p>\n

OBAMA: Uh, and have not gone through some adjudication.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: And some of the evidence against them may be tainted, even though it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

STEPHANOPOULOS: So not necessarily first hundred days? <\/p>\n

OBAMA: That — that is the challenge. I think it\u2019s — it\u2019s going to take some time.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So you can forget Gitmo closing, exactly as I told you. You can forget the warrantless wiretaps going away. You can forget all of this stuff necessary to protect America being scratched, because governing is different than running, whole different set of responsibilities. (interruption) I know because I know liberals, Snerdley. I just know these people, as you well know. But this is… I mean, when\u2019s the last time — when is any time during the campaign — that he acknowledged that anybody in prison at Gitmo was really dangerous? He never did! They were all victims of US civil rights abuses. None of them deserve to be there. They didn\u2019t have habeas corpus; they hadn\u2019t been charged with anything. Now Obama, on the verge of being immaculately inaugurated, says that, ‘Well, you know, the evidence against them may be tainted even though it\u2019s true.\u2019 He is finding out just how right Bush and Cheney were to set all this up. <\/p>\n

‘We\u2019re going to get it done. Well, not in the first hundred days; we\u2019re going to get it done.\u2019 He plays this both sides of the game really brilliantly, I think. You know, his left-wing kook fringe base is also clamoring for war crimes charges and trials against Bush administration people. Now, that will never happen, but Obama is out there saying, ‘Well, you know, before you can do that, you have to have investigations, and I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to have time.\u2019 So he\u2019s saying, ‘Yeah, if there\u2019s evidence that needs to be investigated, we\u2019re going to investigate it.\u2019 So he\u2019s assuring that there might be investigations, but that there won\u2019t be any charges. Of course he\u2019s not going to engage in charging Bush or Cheney with war crimes! The biggest people he\u2019s gotta run roughshod on in that regard are people like John Conyers and some of the other loony birds in the House of Representatives. Now, Stephanopoulos said, ‘Former defense secretary William Perry said this week at a conference that you will almost certainly face a conflict, a crisis with Iran in your first year in office. Based on what you\u2019ve learned, do you agree with that analysis, and are you ready for it?\u2019<\/p>\n

OBAMA: I\u2019ve outlined, uh, my belief that engagement is the place to start. And I think that sending a signal that, uh, we respect the aspirations of the Iranian people, uh, but that we also have certain expectations in terms of how, uh, a [sic — an] international actor behaves —<\/p>\n

STEPHANOPOULOS: But a new emphasis on respect?<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — uh, is one that we can initiate. <\/p>\n

OBAMA: Well, I think a n-new emphasis on respect and a new emphasis on, uh, being willing to talk, but also, uh, a clarity about what our bottom lines are.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right, more gobbledygook. These questions are derived from Obama\u2019s campaign statements. And what Obama\u2019s basically saying here is, ‘Well, yeah we\u2019re going to respect them. We\u2019re going to talk to them, but we respect the aspirations of the Iranian people.\u2019 Mr. President-elect, that\u2019s because the whole focal point of the Bush administration\u2019s Iran policy, has been to make sure the Iranian people understood that we got no grudge against them. You\u2019re not breaking any new ground here. But I hate to tell him, we had the news last Friday, the mullahs have said, ‘We\u2019re not talking until two things happen.\u2019 They have set preconditions with The One, and the two preconditions are: Get out of Iraq, and stop supporting Israel. The mullahs said, ‘We\u2019re not going to talk to the new president until those two things happen.\u2019 Meanwhile, he\u2019s sitting here talking, ‘Well, yeah we\u2019re going to treat \u2019em with respect, a newfound respect.\u2019 See, everything with Stephanopoulos and the media, everything is based on the fact that all these people hate us only because George Bush was president, and that once Bush is gone, all this hatred and animosity is gonna vanish, which it won\u2019t. The disconnect here between reality and symbolism continues to just amaze me, to be profound. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: First off from The Politico today: ‘White House reporters for The New York Times predict that the market collapse will force President-elect Barack Obama to abandon for now many of his campaign promises.\u2019 Now, this is from yesterday. (interruption) We\u2019ve already… Why give…? (interruption) I know, but why give the New York Times credit for this when Obama said so yesterday with Stephanopoulos? He said we\u2019re going to have to do with less. Well, anyway, that\u2019s not the point of the story. ‘If his stimulus plan ‘doesn\u2019t work out, he may very well be a one-term president,\u2019 said Jeff Zeleny, who covered Obama\u2019s campaign. ‘It\u2019s hard to imagine that he could be reelected if the economy\u2019s in the exact same position four years from now. <\/p>\n

‘A lot of the things he said on the campaign trail you can now dispense with,\u2019 said correspondent Peter Baker. ‘For the moment he has to focus on the economy.\u2019 … And for all of his campaign trail talk about collective sacrifice, Baker observed, Obama has seemed reluctant to call for austerity in a challenging economic moment.\u2019 He hadn\u2019t asked anybody for sacrifice. He did ask! These guys are two days ago behind the scenes. He did say everybody is going to have to have some ‘skin in the game.\u2019 Everybody is going to have to sacrifice. He said this. Including Al Sharpton, who has already sacrificed. All these years of sacrifice. But Obama is in the White House. At any rate. He\u2019s already said everybody is going to have ‘skin in the game.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Everybody is going to have sacrifice. We need to define ‘everybody.\u2019 I hate you tell you this. When he says, ‘everybody,\u2019 I can\u2019t… Everybody? The poor? ‘It\u2019s hard to imagine he could be reelected.\u2019 So New York Times reporters are warning of a one-term presidency for The Messiah if the stimulus plan does not work. Wow. People are not gonna put up with this, if the plan doesn\u2019t work? And, let\u2019s see. Oh. There\u2019s one other story: big changes to Obama\u2019s stimulus plan. There will be more green spending, less tax credits. So the plan is under constant revision and review. We can\u2019t hold him to what he said in the campaign, right? Of course we can\u2019t. He doesn\u2019t have a clue what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Let\u2019s go to This Week with Stephanopoulos, whose question was, ‘Which of your ambitions, which of your campaign promises will you have to scale back on because of the economic downturn?\u2019 OBAMA: I want to be realistic here. 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