{"id":4193,"date":"2016-02-15T17:24:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T17:24:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-02-15T17:24:30","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T17:24:30","slug":"my_take_on_the_gop_debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/02\/15\/my_take_on_the_gop_debate\/","title":{"rendered":"My Take on the GOP Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Of course I\u2019m gonna discuss Trump. Of course I\u2019m gonna discuss the Republican debate. Actually I think I\u2019ve got that figured out, too. I think I know what happened there. I think I know what the objective was. I think I know what the game plan was. (interruption) Well, not to terrify the party. That\u2019s the end result. I don\u2019t know that was the objective. No, just wait \u2019til you hear it then you can start poking holes at it. Don\u2019t start poking holes at it before I\u2019ve told you what I think.<\/p>\n

I know you\u2019re gonna poke holes anyway. Everybody does.<\/line><\/p>\n

Just wait \u2019til I\u2019ve told you what I think went on there. There\u2019s a whole bunch of things at work — and I\u2019ll tell you what it boiled down to. It boils down to the fact that… Here, let me just give you one caveat. George Will was on television and he just said, “This is it,” and William Kristol has said, “This is it.” Trump\u2019s behavior in that debate, that\u2019s going to show up now. We\u2019re going to see Trump lose some support. They are confident that that\u2019s gonna happen after Trump\u2019s performance, behavior, whatever you want to call it, however you want to characterize it on Saturday night. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m here to tell you that if it doesn\u2019t — and I\u2019m not gonna make a prediction on that because I really don\u2019t know. I can tell you that in any other case, anybody else, any other time in American history, they\u2019d be finished. That would be the end of it, no matter what the establishment wanted, the supporters would abandon that candidate. But I don\u2019t know that that\u2019s gonna happen this time. And if it doesn\u2019t, it is just going to add about 10 exclamation points to how ticked off people are at the people running this country. Which I still don\u2019t think they understand inside the Beltway. <\/p>\n

I still don\u2019t think they get it. I think they understand there\u2019s some anger out there, but I think they think it\u2019s fleeting and temporary and irrational and will eventually die out and go away. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s taken seriously. I know full well the establishment of both parties not gonna respond to it. They\u2019re not gonna react to it in a way that says, “Okay, I guess we\u2019re gonna have to modify or change.” They haven\u2019t reached that point yet. All this anger and support for Trump, as far as they\u2019re concerned, is still irrational and uninformed, and so they\u2019re not gonna react to it yet. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s those people who think that this is the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back, this is the step too far. We will see. And if that doesn\u2019t happen, if Trump doesn\u2019t lose support or a significant amount of support, it\u2019s just going to mean they still don\u2019t get how angry people are. What if Trump gains support? Nobody\u2019s even thinking about that. What if his support goes up because of this? But I\u2019m getting ahead of myself because I haven\u2019t gotten into my analysis of why it was all done. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spoken to nobody, folks. <\/p>\n

I really haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a… I really don\u2019t do that. It\u2019s very rare.<\/p>\n

I mean, they call me sometimes, but I do not make an effort to reach out to people to get inside, behind-the-scenes information so that I can share it with you without actually telling you I\u2019ve got it. I don\u2019t do any of that. I\u2019m just like you. I have news sources available to me that you have to you. But in this instance I\u2019ve not talked to anybody at any campaign before that debate and I haven\u2019t talked to anybody since that debate. And nobody has reached out to me to. Nobody has tried to talk to me about it.<\/line><\/p>\n

So… The only thing that happened was that Chris Wallace on Thursday night said, “You know, I got a great idea…” He sent me an e-mail. “I got a great idea. Why don\u2019t you come on Fox News Sunday Sunday morning and analyze the Republican debate. Man, that would be fun.” But I can\u2019t. I said, “Chris, there\u2019s not enough lead time here. I\u2019ve got something I can\u2019t move and you\u2019re going live, and I can\u2019t. I need to do it in my studio for my hearing challenges and all that.” So that didn\u2019t happen. I ran into Brit Hume on the golf course Saturday. <\/p>\n

I was just finishing my round down here. <\/p>\n

I was just finishing my round. I was in the locker room on my way out, and somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hi, I\u2019m Brit Hume.” (chuckles) I know it\u2019s Brit Hume. “It\u2019s Brit Hume! Hey, how are you?” We had a little five- or ten-minute conversation about The Haney Project he had watched. He\u2019s a golf nut. He watched The Haney Project. He told me he\u2019d watched every episode and was asking me questions about it. So I had to leave, and he was just heading out to play when I was coming in. But I was unable to do the Fox News Sunday show yesterday, so nobody knows yet what I think of any of this that happened. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I was analyzing the Republican debate on Saturday night, Trump, and what I think he\u2019s doing, or what I think he was trying to do Saturday night. And if you know something, you should know this. To this day a majority of Americans still blame today\u2019s economy on George W. Bush. The recession and the home mortgage crisis, all of that is still majority blamed on Bush. Obama does not get blamed for it. He may be criticized for ineptly dealing with it, but it isn\u2019t, to this day. No aspect of this economy is his fault, and nothing in foreign policy is either because of Iraq. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have time to go further in analysis, but stick with me \u2019cause all of this will be made clear as we unfold.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, let\u2019s move on to the Republican debate on Saturday night. Let me cut to the chase and tell you — and again, I\u2019ve talked to nobody, nobody\u2019s called me, I haven\u2019t called anybody. I don\u2019t ever call anybody. I don\u2019t reach out. I don\u2019t try to get to know people on campaign staffs and ask \u2019em questions. I don\u2019t want to be spun. I may hear from them now and then. It isn\u2019t very often. So my point is that what I\u2019m about to tell you is the result of conversation with nobody. Or, more properly said, is the result of no conversation with anybody. <\/p>\n

If you look at South Carolina, it is an open primary, meaning Democrats can vote. We took advantage of this, Operation Chaos, Democrat side back in 2008. Democrats can vote, independents can vote. And the things that Trump said and did Saturday night came out of nowhere. They didn\u2019t make any sense. Here we are in a Republican primary, and Donald Trump, out of the blue, starts blaming the Bush family for 9\/11, for knowing that the intelligence was made up, that there never were any weapons of mass destruction, and they knew it, Trump said. <\/line><\/p>\n

Michael Moore doesn\u2019t even say that. The World Trade Center came down when George W. Bush was president so don\u2019t anybody tell me, Trump said, he kept us safe. He jumped all over the Bush family and the Iraq war and claimed that he was on record way, way back as always being opposed to the Iraq war, that it was going to muddy up the Middle East and cause a quagmire. Nobody can find any record of Trump having opposed the Iraq war in 2001, 2002. They asked him about that, and he said (paraphrasing), “I wasn\u2019t a politician back then, so the things I was saying weren\u2019t getting noted like they would be had I been a politician, but I said it.” <\/p>\n

On the stage at a Republican debate, Donald Trump defended Planned Parenthood. Not the abortion stuff, he said, but the fact that they do great things for women\u2019s health. Folks, there were a number of occasions where Donald Trump sounded like the Daily Kos blog, where Donald Trump sounded like the Democrat Underground, sounded like any average host on MSNBC. And I said to myself, “Now, wait a minute. What\u2019s going on?” Trump is not — I don\u2019t care what any of you think, he\u2019s not stupid. He has political advisors. He has a lot of people who are conservatives who are there to tell him where the boundaries are, and he crossed those boundaries on Saturday. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how many people in his circle knew where he was going Saturday night, if he was gonna go there and how far. But on a Republican debate stage, defending Planned Parenthood in language used by the left, going after George W. Bush and Jeb Bush and the entire Bush family, for the most part, using the terminology of Democrats, people think that Trump was out of control, that he had emotional incontinence that night. You like that term? Emotional incontinence. Lost control. Was out of control. Well, maybe, but I still think there was a strategy going into this. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Short version, I think Trump strategically was making a move on independents and Democrats in South Carolina since it\u2019s open. And I think that he wants to wrap this up ASAP. I think he wants a blow \u2019em out, going-away win in South Carolina. I think he just wants to wrap this up. I think he thinks he can. I think the audience booing him ticked him off. It\u2019s been happening the last couple, three debates. The donors have gotten a majority of the tickets. I don\u2019t recall any Republican debate with the amount of booing that I heard on Saturday night. <\/p>\n

I remember debates with very little applause, but not outright booing. And it wasn\u2019t just Trump. It was Cruz as well. The establishment\u2019s trying to rig these debates as they are seen on TV. The establishment was trying to humiliate and embarrass Ted Cruz and Trump. And I think it really ticked Trump off and may have been — I\u2019m wild guessing here — may have been one of the reasons why he was a victim of emotional incontinence. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. Grab sound bite 21. And let\u2019s grab number 20, 21, 22. Anyway, greetings. Greetings. Welcome back, folks. Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network. <\/p>\n

So, Trump literally with Democrat lingo — liberal Democrat lingo — in the debate on Planned Parenthood, on the Iraq war, on 9\/11, on weapons of mass destruction. Never before has he said it, but never before have we had an open primary yet. This is an open primary. Democrats and independents can cross and vote. If there\u2019s something else going on here, that Trump lost control, and who he really is surfaced, then it was gonna happen at some point, and it happened on Saturday night. If that\u2019s what really happened. <\/p>\n

If this was strategic, as I have described, coupled with… I don\u2019t think that you can overestimate how angry… Did you see…? By the way, this moderator, John Dickerson? You can\u2019t get more Democrat operative. This guy\u2019s George Stephanopoulos without the job at the Clinton war room. John Dickerson is the son of a Drive-By Media person. He has lived in Washington his whole life. He grew up in Washington. That is all he knows. He is a Democrat Party hack. He\u2019s liberal through and through. <\/p>\n