{"id":6785,"date":"2015-03-24T16:13:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T16:13:13","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2015-03-24T16:13:13","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T16:13:13","slug":"as_predicted_conservatives_attack_cruz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2015\/03\/24\/as_predicted_conservatives_attack_cruz\/","title":{"rendered":"As Predicted, Conservatives Attack Cruz"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday Ted Cruz makes his speech at Liberty University, and I shared with you the fact that I had spoken with Mr. Cruz on Friday. And I shared with you additionally that I had told him one thing after he asked. It\u2019s important for you to know that he asked. I did not sit there and tell him how to do his business. I warned him, I told him that something I have noticed in the last probably three or four presidential primaries, certainly the last two or three, what happens is that conservatives take out conservative candidates<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I mean the Drive-Bys do, too, don\u2019t misunderstand. Like CNN. You know what CNN\u2019s done? CNN edited video of Ted Cruz\u2019s speech yesterday, and they drew an arrow to a portion of the back of his jacket and said, “This is what happens when you don\u2019t use a podium.” They had found a bulge in his jacket. They don\u2019t state it, but they imply that Ted Cruz was getting advice, was getting help from somebody backstage through a communications device, because he didn\u2019t have a podium. <\/p>\n

<\/a>It all boils down to he didn\u2019t have a prompter, and they just can\u2019t believe that somebody could go out there and speak like that without a prompter. So he had to have somebody coaching him. Remember, they tried to accuse George W. Bush of this in one of the debates he was having with Algore. And all it was is the battery pack and the wireless transmitter for the wireless mic that Cruz was using. But there\u2019s CNN with a full-fledged implication that Cruz was cheating. So we know the Drive-Bys are gonna go after Cruz. That\u2019s a no-brainer. <\/p>\n

But one thing I\u2019ve noticed is that this quest — in some cases it\u2019s a quest; in other cases, another reason for it — this quest for perfection that seems to possess or obsess many conservative groups leads them to nitpick and find a single issue or maybe two that conservative candidate X is supposedly wrong on, and they immediately launch into criticism. And when conservatives launch criticism of conservative candidates, the media just eats it up. They just love it, and they glom onto it, and they amplify it even more than their own criticism. <\/p>\n

I warned Senator Cruz that this would happen to him, and it already has begun. I forget the name, a blogger at National Review Online<\/a> wrote that Cruz is gonna have to learn how to speak better. He speaks at people rather than to them and he comes off like a used car salesman at a motivational rally or some such thing. It\u2019s just uncanny. You got some conservatives out there, we had a call yesterday, the birther issue is back, saying Cruz is disqualified \u2019cause he\u2019s not a citizen, not a real one. And of course the Drive-Bys eat that up, too. And the Drive-Bys are saying, “See? See? It just proves that the attack on Obama and his birth was racist, because they\u2019re giving Cruz a pass on it but they didn\u2019t give Obama a pass on it so it\u2019s racist.” <\/p>\n

Then yesterday on Fox, The Five in the afternoon dumped all over Ted Cruz for one thing or another. That\u2019s somewhat understandable for reasons I can\u2019t explain. You have to figure that out yourself. And then last night, grab audio sound bite number 11 on Special Report with Bret Baier. They were talking about Cruz and his announcement yesterday. Shannon Bream was filling in as the host for Bret Baier. She turned to Charles Krauthammer and said, “He talked a lot about the Constitution and freedom and liberty and very broad policy, repealing Obamacare, some of things he has been working on and talking about since he got in the Senate.” Here\u2019s Dr. Krauthammer.<\/p>\n

KRAUTHAMMER: First term senators, we already tried a first term senator, and that\u2019s why when Scott Walker says a proven track record, what Walker has, he doesn\u2019t have the fluency on issues that a Cruz does and he\u2019s made a lot of stumbles thus far. Cruz talks about you have to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk, you have to have done something, but that\u2019s not his record in the Senate. He\u2019s a good rhetoritician but when Walker says: I ran the state. I took on the unions. I took on the liberals and I won. I think there\u2019s gonna be a strong argument.<\/p>\n

<\/a>RUSH: Now, I have no argument with that. I have made it myself when it comes to Scott Walker. But really, is one of the knocks on Ted Cruz gonna be that he\u2019s just like Obama? That he doesn\u2019t have enough experience? Just like Obama, he\u2019s only served a certain number of days in the Senate and he has not run a state, and he hasn\u2019t really walked the walk and accomplished anything, just like Obama? What is this? <\/p>\n

If Obama had run a state or if Obama had been in the Senate longer, he\u2019d have been okay? Obama would have been a better president if he had just been in the Senate longer, maybe been a governor? Is that all this is about? This is horse hockey, folks, that Barack Obama is what he is only because of a lack of experience? I don\u2019t know how you come to that conclusion. Barack Obama is who he is because of his ideology. <\/p>\n

Barack Obama could have come straight from the community organizer office and become president and been exactly who he is. He could have serve the governorship, served as governor of Illinois for two terms, become president and be the same president he is today. This argument that we\u2019re gonna disqualify Ted Cruz because we\u2019ve learned how bad an inexperienced president can be. Obama and his foibles, Obama and his presidency that is a disaster has nothing to do with the fact that he\u2019s inexperienced. It has everything to do with who he is. Ditto, Ted Cruz. It\u2019s who he is that is the determining factor here. <\/p>\n

And, by the way, let\u2019s talk about this experience for just a second. Here we have a two-year Senator, Barack Obama, he serves two years, 160-some-odd days. He\u2019s a first term Senator. He becomes president. Obama is running circles around the entire Congress, which is made up of what? All kinds of experienced politicians. Obama is embarrassing them. Obama\u2019s making mincemeat of professional career politicians with decades, in some cases, worth of experience. And I don\u2019t like that. That embarrasses me that a supposed neophyte who\u2019s never done anything comes into town and starts running rings around professional politicians? <\/p>\n

<\/a>I think that illustrates how wrong-headed — by the way, Krauthammer, I\u2019m not harping on him. Krauthammer\u2019s not the only person mentioning this criticism. There\u2019s all kinds of people coming up with all kinds of creative reasons, on the conservative side, to disqualify Ted Cruz, exactly as I predicted would be the case. But I think it stretches credulity to say that, “Oh, man, this is what happens, Barack Obama, this is what happens when you elect somebody that doesn\u2019t have much experience in Washington.” <\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t matter how much experience Obama had because experience does not determine who he is. And ditto for Cruz. And again, just to repeat this argument that we\u2019ve got this neophyte inexperienced Obama and that\u2019s why he\u2019s been a disaster, somehow running rings and embarrassing all of these seasoned, experienced, brilliant, inside-the-Beltway politicians in the House and the Senate. <\/p>\n

You see, a conservative who leads, who is unafraid, unflappable as Cruz is, and who is principled, who can relate, who can articulate and who has a mission, can do a great deal as president, whether he was a governor, a senator, or whatever. I\u2019ve heard the arguments against electing senators because they don\u2019t have any executive experience. They\u2019re one-man operations and they\u2019re fraught with overinflated egos.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been persuaded by that argument now and then, but it\u2019s always dependent on who we\u2019re talking about. People are individuals and no two are the same, and to simply start broad brushing people — I mean, the thing I think that\u2019s flawed here is the assumption that Obama\u2019s as bad as he is because he didn\u2019t have any experience. If Obama had been a two-term governor in Illinois, what would be different in the Obama presidency? I dare say, in terms of substance, very little would be different. <\/p>\n

Anyway, we\u2019ve got a whole roster of sound bites here to give examples for you, to you, of the kind of criticism that Cruz is getting, all of it predictable. Some of it quite frustrating. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Another criticism I\u2019ve heard of Ted Cruz, swerving into a different subject here, in addition to the fact that he\u2019s like Obama, he doesn\u2019t have enough experience — which I think is bogus. Obama\u2019s not as bad as he is \u2019cause he doesn\u2019t have experience. He\u2019s as bad as he is because he\u2019s a liberal, extreme radical. Another criticism of Ted Cruz is, “Well, show me what he\u2019s done? Hell, Ted Cruz hasn\u2019t done anything. Scott Walker, he\u2019s done things.” <\/p>\n

I can\u2019t disagree with the fact Scott Walker\u2019s done things. But Ted Cruz has been in the Senate. At this stage, if you ask me, I humbly point out, it\u2019s not a matter of what has Ted Cruz done. It has a little bit more relevance to me to ask, “What has Ted Cruz stopped?” The objective here the past six years has been to stop Obama. We have not had the majority in anything until a couple of months ago. There was no way we had the votes to stop Obamacare. What do you mean, what has Ted Cruz done? <\/line><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s list his accomplishments, which is more than we get out of Obama. He\u2019s beaten the GOP leadership in election after election. He was in Texas. He\u2019s a Harvard graduate. He\u2019s got all these qualifications. He\u2019s got a great resume. What do you mean, what\u2019s Ted Cruz done? These are criticisms coming from conservatives, by the way. As I… (interruption) The real question is: What has Ted Cruz stopped? That takes us to what the left loves to point out, and that\u2019s the government shutdown. <\/p>\n

Ted Cruz has done his level best to stop as much of Obama as he can, and he still is. That, to me, is more relevant than asking, “What has Ted Cruz done?” The whole point of Ted Cruz and anybody who\u2019s able to articulate an agenda like he is, is we\u2019ve gotta be pretty confident what he will do, if given the chance. Unless of course he\u2019s just saying all this “for domestic consumption,” like the Ayatollah Khamenei. “Death to America! Death to America!” <\/p>\n

That Ted Cruz he\u2019s so stupid. He\u2019s so dangerous! We\u2019ve gotta destroy Ted Cruz. <\/p>\n

“Death to America! Death to America!” Oh, he\u2019s just saying that for the Iranian people. We don\u2019t have to worry about that.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s Bob in the Bronx, as we kick off the phones today. Bob, I\u2019m really glad that you waited. I appreciate your patience. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No problem, Rush. Hi. Yeah, Rush, I\u2019m calling because I like Ted Cruz a lot. I\u2019ve seen his full hour on Hannity last night, and he answered the questions, I felt, the right way. I must be a masochist, but this morning I was home, I decided to turn on The View. And of course you know the cast full well there, Whoopi and Michelle Wallace, you know, kind of a very weak-kneed Republican —<\/p>\n

RUSH: That would be Nicolle Wallace.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m sorry. Nicolle Wallace.<\/p>\n