{"id":8960,"date":"2014-07-08T18:16:21","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T18:16:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-07-08T18:16:21","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T18:16:21","slug":"gop_thinks_presidency_hinges_on_ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/07\/08\/gop_thinks_presidency_hinges_on_ohio\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Thinks Presidency Hinges on Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: The Republican National Convention site for 2016 has been announced. Cleveland is where the Republican Party convention will be held, Cleveland, Ohio. That\u2019s, I guess, Hispanic outreach. What is that?<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, by the way, I made a flippant remark going into the top-of-the-hour break about the Republican convention in Cleveland. I don\u2019t want to be misunderstood. We love Cleveland here! We own Cleveland. We have one of the highest audiences in any city in Cleveland and we have had for a long time. Cleveland loves and adores this show. <\/p>\n

I asked rhetorically: Why Cleveland? <\/p>\n

There is an answer to this, and here\u2019s what it is: The Republican Party has concluded that the presidency cannot be won by anybody if they don\u2019t win Ohio. Given the political realities of the day, the demographics and voter registration and all of that, the calculation by the party (I don\u2019t necessarily agree with it) is that the Republican Party believes that they can\u2019t win the presidency unless they win Ohio. <\/p>\n

There was a point, if you go back to 2012 if I\u2019m remembering this right (and I probably am), when it was thought that the 2012 race was going to be so close that the winner of Ohio could end up winning the electoral vote and the presidency but still lose the overall national raw vote total, the popular vote, like Bush in 2000. It was thought to be that close. To give weight to that thinking, remember how Karl Rove just would not give it up on Election Night? <\/line><\/p>\n

Fox News where Karl was doing analysis, eventually called Ohio for Obama, and Karl said, “No, no, no, no. You can\u2019t be right! There are too many counties left.” He and Megyn Kelly walked down to the wise men\u2019s room where the computer analysts and so forth were looking at the data. After the call, they walked down there. It was a much talked about thing, but that\u2019s how important Ohio was.<\/p>\n

It turned out that Ohio would not have made the difference, but there was a point in time where it was thought (and I guess they still do think) that Ohio is a must. If they don\u2019t win Ohio, it doesn\u2019t matter what else happens. Well, now, when you stop and think of that… Again, this is just me, and politics is not my business, contrary to what many people think. I got in a big argument with a friend of mine out in California.<\/p>\n

He said, “What do you mean, you don\u2019t do politics?”<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t. Politics is not my career. Radio is my career, broadcasting.” <\/p>\n

“Oh, are you telling me you\u2019re not political?”<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m saying my success is not determined by who wins. My success has never been determined by who wins elections. I\u2019ve made a point of that. If my success were determined by who wins elections, I wouldn\u2019t be here. So, yeah, in that sense I\u2019m not political.” <\/p>\n

“Yes, you are! All you do is politics.” <\/p>\n

“No. I talk about a lot things besides politics. I\u2019m not in the politics business. Getting an audience is much different than getting votes, and vice-versa.” <\/p>\n

So from that perspective, I sit here and when I\u2019m told, “Hey, if the Republicans don\u2019t win Ohio, it\u2019s all over, no matter what else happens,” well, then what in the name of Sam Hill is wrong with the message if that\u2019s the reality? Am I wrong about that? Now, I know there are various realities you have to deal with, the electoral votes.<\/line><\/p>\n

Some states are locked for the Democrats, and some states are locked for the Republicans, and it doesn\u2019t matter. But I think the Republican Party buys into too much of that. I think the Republican Party buys into whatever the Democrats tell them, just like they bought into the silly idea that every election is determined by the independent vote. <\/p>\n

That trick has been played on the Republican Party my entire life, and the way it manifests itself is that when you get to the presidential election, the Republican Party is aiming at 20% of the voting populace, not all of it, with their message. So the theory is, “Okay, you get your 40% and that\u2019s in your base,” and they\u2019re not doing that, by the way. There were four million Republicans that sat home in 2012 rather than vote for Romney, for whatever reason. <\/p>\n

So they didn\u2019t solidify the base, number one, but they thought they had, so then you go for the 20% independent. Well, Romney won independents going away! It wasn\u2019t even close, and they didn\u2019t win the presidency. But the trick is believing that every presidential race is fought over 20% of the voting population. Well, when you tailor a message to 20% of the voting populace who are independents?<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t really know what message, number one.<\/p>\n

What do you say? How do you campaign to independents? <\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s the next trick. The next trick the Republicans have fallen for hook, line, and sinker is this idea that if you are too partisan or if you criticize the Democrat candidate — I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s Obama or if it\u2019s Hillary or whoever — independents do not like that. They do not like at all, and when you criticize Democrats, independents are gonna run right back home to the Democrat Party. <\/line><\/p>\n

So the Republicans have been talked into being docile, nonideological, campaigning for 20% of the vote. And you know this is true. The Republican consultant class runs around and tells all the candidates, “I\u2019m the guy that can get you the independent vote. I\u2019m the one, hire me, I know how to get the independent vote.” Meanwhile, the Democrats are out there shooting for everybody. The Democrats have a plan for every different group. They\u2019re going for everybody. Reagan went for everybody. Reagan went for Americans first, and then they got subdivided. <\/p>\n

So when I hear that if we don\u2019t win Ohio, even with this set of circumstances — my question is, what\u2019s wrong with the message, if it comes down to one state? See, that\u2019s why I say, \u2019cause I\u2019m sure if I had some political professional sitting here and I\u2019m asking that question, I\u2019m sure I get an answer, “Well, Rush, you just don\u2019t quite understand. Here\u2019s the way these elections shape up. I get a list of states that are locked for Democrats no matter what, no matter who, no matter how, no matter what we do, Democrats get \u2019em. And then here are the states that we get,” blah, blah, blah. “And I would get county by precinct, by this, by that. I\u2019d get the independent vote, the Hispanic vote, women vote, single women.”<\/p>\n

All of that escapes me. I don\u2019t care about it, \u2019cause I don\u2019t know how you chop your message up into 15 different parts and have it still mean something. Well, you hire consultants and you do it with TV ads, and then you make sure there\u2019s nobody with a video camera when you\u2019re talking to the donors, I guess. That\u2019s why I say I\u2019m not in politics. I live in this naive little world which I happen to believe that the most pro-America, optimistic we can be, great message would win a lot of people. I live in that world and apparently it\u2019s just stupid thinking. “No, Rush, that message is not gonna work. Gotta realize, Rush, over half the country\u2019s bought and paid for by the Democrats. There\u2019s no way that we can counter that with a message of hard work. I mean, it\u2019s a guaranteed loser.” <\/p>\n

Yeah, may have a point. The old standard message of hard work, American dream gets laughed at because half the country\u2019s being supported already by the Democrats. Well, that message hasn\u2019t been tried in a long time. My message. When\u2019s the last time it was tried? I don\u2019t know. It hasn\u2019t been tried in a long time. Not nationally. It\u2019s Marco Rubio\u2019s message when he stays on message, that\u2019s what his message is. And it\u2019s Ted Cruz\u2019s and a couple of others. And see what happens to them, even in their own party. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: The Republican National Convention site for 2016 has been announced. Cleveland is where the Republican Party convention will be held, Cleveland, Ohio. That\u2019s, I guess, Hispanic outreach. What is that? BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, by the way, I made a flippant remark going into the top-of-the-hour break about the Republican convention in Cleveland. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"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":"\nGOP Thinks Presidency Hinges on Ohio - 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\/2014\/07\/08\/gop_thinks_presidency_hinges_on_ohio\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"GOP Thinks Presidency Hinges on Ohio - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: The Republican National Convention site for 2016 has been announced. Cleveland is where the Republican Party convention will be held, Cleveland, Ohio. 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