{"id":31477,"date":"2009-01-21T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:50:26","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T02:50:26","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:50:26","slug":"don_t_dare_compare_obama_to_me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/01\/21\/don_t_dare_compare_obama_to_me\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Dare Compare Obama to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: This is Galen in Cincinnati, as we return to the phones. Thank you for waiting, Galen, great to have you here.<\/p>\n

CALLER: How you doing, Rush? Look, I wanted to tell you that I think you may have this wrong, in terms of Mr. Obama being The Messiah and people looking at him as such. I don\u2019t think that people look at Mr. Obama any differently than the people who follow you or who are hanging on every word that you say, and follow you. You are a person who speaks for a certain segment or generation of society, and they hang on your every word. Well, the same is true of Mr. Obama. Just as you lead people, people look to him as a leader. Now, understand, I\u2019ve never voted for a Democrat, I did not vote for Mr. Obama. I am a Republican, but I have backed far enough away that I can actually see the forest now, I\u2019m no longer in the trees —<\/p>\n

RUSH: What does that mean? Wait a second, what does that mean?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Here\u2019s what it means. You\u2019re so close to this that you can\u2019t see it objectively, you can\u2019t give this man credit. I\u2019m actually a Dittohead. I\u2019ve been listening to you for 18 years, all right? All my friends here in Cincinnati know me and they know that I am.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What were you doing the first day you heard me, what was I talking about?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I was working at a T-shirt company and I don\u2019t know exactly what it was you were talking about, but a friend of mine came to my desk, and told me, he says, ‘You gotta listen to this guy,\u2019 so I turned you on and I was the only black person working at this company and this guy said, ‘Is that offensive to you?\u2019 and I said, ‘No, the guy, what he\u2019s saying is right.\u2019<\/p>\n

RUSH: I have to tell you, I appreciate that, but nothing\u2019s changed. I\u2019m no closer to the trees than ever. I\u2019m further away from them than I\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I don\u2019t know. At times it doesn\u2019t appear that way, it definitely appears you have a certain bias and with —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, no, you\u2019re misunderstanding. I\u2019m glad you called because I\u2019m in the communication business and if I\u2019m failing to communicate in a way that you understand the points I\u2019m trying to make it\u2019s my problem because you sound like an intelligent guy.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You might be giving me a little too much credit.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What did you hear me say that you think makes me think I\u2019m too close to things or I\u2019ve lost touch or whatever you would say? <\/p>\n

CALLER: I mean, let\u2019s go to the point of why I called. You mentioned the fact that people are looking at this man as a single person to cure their ills. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s any truer of him than it is of you because —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, wait a second, it most definitely is. You said I\u2019m too close or too —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Allow me to explain in context.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You did. You did earlier. You\u2019re going to be repeating it here.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: The people in this audience are not waiting for me to do things for them. They\u2019re not waiting for me to cut their taxes or to punish somebody or to give them a check or to make their small businesses healthy. I\u2019m not a messiah to these people, I\u2019m not godlike.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I didn\u2019t say for the same reasons. You\u2019re misconstruing what I\u2019m saying. I said in the same way. In an analogous way, you inspire people, okay? I\u2019m inspired myself. I\u2019m inspired to do things that I probably wouldn\u2019t have done in my life if I had not listened to you for so many years. I understand politics. Politics before was boring to me. You do take the complex and you do make it simple. Well, in the same way, Mr. Obama speaks to a generation of people who don\u2019t have a lot of hope, that\u2019s why ‘hope\u2019 is a big old word to them, they don\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on and why it is the way it is, why they feel so negative or why generations before them —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, but I do.<\/p>\n

CALLER: They don\u2019t. I\u2019m just saying —<\/p>\n

RUSH: I do.<\/p>\n

CALLER: This man has put language in a context and in a style that they can comprehend and get behind.<\/p>\n

RUSH: A style. He has no substance.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I didn\u2019t say he did or didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

RUSH: He has a style of speaking that people think he\u2019s going to do things, and my audience doesn\u2019t think I\u2019m going to accomplish one thing for them. My audience is not waiting around for me to do things or to cause things to happen for them. The comparison, if I were a less secure person, I\u2019d be sitting here thanking you for flattering me like this by comparing me to a messiah. But I know I\u2019m not a messiah. He really thinks he is. He just said at this signing ceremony, the American people are really counting on us now. Well, I know that\u2019s true, and that depresses me. I want the American people to count on themselves.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Rush, that\u2019s true of every administration. That\u2019s true every administration.<\/p>\n

RUSH: It is not.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — an administration to lead them, to make wise decisions —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Obama, now, this is key here, Galen. You know, you could say that Reagan was great because he made people feel better about themselves.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You might say that Obama did the same thing. The problem, the difference is Reagan made them understand they are the ones who make the country work, that America\u2019s greatness is defined by them. Obama is telling people that it is government that is the only institution that can save them. That, sir, is sacrilegious to me. That\u2019s heresy as a capitalist, that\u2019s heresy as an American, that\u2019s not inspiring. I think Obama, quite frankly, is depressing people.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I\u2019ll tell you, I think you\u2019re wrong. I didn\u2019t see anybody on television yesterday that was depressed. All the people that called me on my phone did not express depression. You know, so I don\u2019t see that. But in any case what I\u2019m trying to tell you, from what I see, is that Mr. Obama is someone who people respect and they think of as a leader, just like you, just like any other person who in the media who is exciting people. The problem here for other people is that they don\u2019t realize that this is a contextual situation.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s the problem. All right, look, Galen, I appreciate what you\u2019re trying to do here, but there\u2019s so many — Galen, I don\u2019t run the country. I\u2019m not trying to tell people, I\u2019m not trying to come up with policies that are going to require people to live the way I damn well want \u2019em to. I\u2019m not the one coming up with plans telling them what they can do and when they can\u2019t do it, how much they have to give me, Obama, to make sure everybody else is happy. I\u2019m taking nothing from anybody. I\u2019m giving nobody anything. I cannot raise their taxes. I cannot redistribute their wealth. I cannot deny people their earnings. I cannot rearrange society. I cannot proclaim this group of people unfair and those people need to be gotten even with. I can\u2019t pick winners and losers in this country. I can\u2019t tell you that you deserve to lose some so somebody else can win some. Obama has that power, and, my brother, he wants that power, he wants to be able to pick winners and losers. <\/p>\n

I deal in ideas. I inspire people to think. I inspire people to be positive and optimistic because I believe that\u2019s the way life is enjoyed, and that\u2019s the way people get things done. Obama is inspiring people to sit down and wait for help from Washington. I already see what has happened to a whole population of people who have been for 50 years, Galen, sitting around and waiting for help from Washington. Their families are destroyed. They are single mothers, they are drug-infested neighborhoods in which they live in, and they have no hope. Because for 50 years they have been sitting around and waiting for help from Washington. And every four years they complain about the lack of help from Washington arriving. And the people promising the help from Washington blame it on people like me because we are racist, sexist, bigot, homophobes who are holding those people who need help from Washington back. I seek no power over people. I seek people to have and own their own power and their own confidence and their own optimism. I seek to have people realize that they live in the greatest country on earth and it\u2019s the greatest country on earth because of them, not a single figure, not a personality, not a celebrity, not a single hero. <\/p>\n

This country is an idea that is bigger than any mortal individual. I can punish nobody. I cannot reward anybody. I cannot close a prison where terrorists are housed and let them go and call it national security. I cannot meet with Hugo Chavez or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and claim, in doing so, that I\u2019m making them my friend. I can\u2019t do anything Obama can do. I don\u2019t want that kind of power. That kind of power invested in one person who believes he has it scares the hell out of me. And you compound that fright with the fact that so many people do not have the guts, the strength, the education to resist the tug of popular sentiment, and we have a nation of lemmings believing lie after lie after lie, myth after myth after myth, liberal idea, failed liberal idea, failed liberal idea after failed liberal idea. I don\u2019t compel anything. I don\u2019t try to confuse people. <\/p>\n

I simply turn on the Golden EIB Microphone and share my honest passions and beliefs with people. And they\u2019re free to go elsewhere. They\u2019re free to ignore; they\u2019re free to believe; they\u2019re free to be entertained, I don\u2019t care. They\u2019re free to do whatever they want. But a lot of people aren\u2019t free to smoke cigarettes where they want; they\u2019re not free to drink where they want; they\u2019re not free to eat the kind of food they want to eat; they\u2019re not free to eat trans fats; they\u2019re not free to drive certain places. Pretty soon we\u2019re going to be told what kind of cars we have to drive. I can\u2019t cause that. I can\u2019t restrict anybody\u2019s freedom. We\u2019ve elected a guy who can, does, and wants to, all under the guise of saving us. So I appreciate the effort, and I appreciate somewhat losing my temper here. But don\u2019t compare me ever to an authoritarian who thinks so little of people that without him they can barely breathe on their own. Don\u2019t ever do that.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s go to audio sound bite number 12, shall we? As a backup. By the way, if you want something chiseled in marble, what I just said needs to be chiseled in marble. Right, Snerdley? All right. Here\u2019s Obama. Last night, ABC TV, during the coverage of the Neighborhood Ball. By the way, American Idol outrated the Obama inaugural coverage last night. But that ain\u2019t good. Look at the two choices. I mean, they\u2019re both pop culture cellar dwellers. On one group, you\u2019ve got a bunch of people with no talent on a music show. On the other group you\u2019ve got people with dangerous talents running the country. Anyway, here\u2019s Obama. He was interviewed by Robin Roberts of ABC. She said, ‘When you walked out and you saw that sea of humanity all the way back to the Lincoln Memorial, what are you going to remember most?\u2019<\/p>\n

OBAMA: You know, I think it is just the — the way that the American people have made this about more than just an election, and that kind of spirit, part of what I wanted to communicate, uh, in, uh, my inauguration speech, was that government\u2019s gonna work. We\u2019re going to make it work.<\/p>\n

RUSH: There is a commitment to government. So Marie in Discovery Bay:<\/a> a commitment to government. We\u2019re going to make government work. It\u2019s an insult to Bush, and it is a message to sit back and wait. ‘We\u2019re going to make government work. We\u2019re going to make government work for you.\u2019 If only that were true, if only government really did work for us. We work for it! We work for government. We are totally dependent on what the hell they do and what obstacles they put in front of us. But there you have it: government, government, government, government, government — and Big Government is not the answer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: This is Galen in Cincinnati, as we return to the phones. Thank you for waiting, Galen, great to have you here. CALLER: How you doing, Rush? 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