{"id":9962,"date":"2014-03-06T17:56:17","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T17:56:17","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-03-06T17:56:17","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T17:56:17","slug":"cpac_analysis_cruz_and_christie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/03\/06\/cpac_analysis_cruz_and_christie\/","title":{"rendered":"CPAC Analysis: Cruz and Christie"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: I\u2019ve got some CPAC sound bites. Governor Christie just finished speaking. He spoke for about I guess, 20, 25 minutes, and he started just before the program began, and it is reported — I didn\u2019t see it — he got a standing ovation, standing O when he showed up, and I think Dana Bash, the infobabe at CNN, said that he got a louder applause than Ted Cruz. Now, I could be wrong. She didn\u2019t mention Cruz — well, I didn\u2019t hear her actually name the person she was comparing Christie\u2019s applause to. I\u2019m assuming it was Cruz \u2019cause he\u2019s the only other guy there that got raucous applause today. <\/p>\n

The National Review Online<\/a> is reporting that Christie got a standing O, and, as he exited stage left, Christie said, “We don\u2019t get to govern if we don\u2019t win. Let\u2019s come out of this conference resolved to win elections again.” Now, that can be interpreted in any number of ways. It could be that — and I doubt this — but some in the establishment think that you and the Tea Party are more interested in being right, making statements, and having elected people say what you want to hear than you are in winning elections. And the establishment thinks, just like I told you I talked to this prominent elected GOP guy last week, who told me they don\u2019t think the Republican Party can win simply by turning out its base. <\/line><\/p>\n

Now, they\u2019re wrong about that, but they believe that. And so when you make a comment, “We gotta come out of this conference resolved to win elections again,” some could interpret that and say, “Look, we gotta win. Before we can govern, before we can implement or idea, we gotta win.” Meaning, lay low while we go about winning, and then we\u2019ll be okay when we get into office. Now, when an establishment person says this — I\u2019m not attributing this to Christie — but when an establishment person says to you, “Hey, let\u2019s come out of this resolved to win elections again,” it could mean, “Ignore me while I pander to the left.” <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re an establishment guy, and if the establishment thinks you can\u2019t win by turning out the GOP base alone, then the obvious conclusion is they gotta go out and pick off Democrats. So, one philosophy says, “We gotta come up with a plan for African-Americans. We don\u2019t need \u2019em all, Rush. If we could just get 5, 10% of the African-American vote, we could totally destroy the Democrats.” Okay, cool. “And then, Rush, we gotta go get some Hispanics. We don\u2019t have to get \u2019em all, maybe 5, 10% of the Hispanics, and we could bust the Democrats\u2019 coalition. And then, Rush, we gotta go out, we gotta pick off some women, we gotta get some single women.” <\/p>\n

So what they\u2019re saying is, “We have to go out and get some votes of people that don\u2019t like us, and to do that, we may have to say things you don\u2019t like, but that\u2019s all part of winning elections, so just be quiet and let us professionals do what we do.” That\u2019s one way of interpreting that comment, because if you say, “Let\u2019s come out of this conference resolved to win elections again,” isn\u2019t there some body of thought that says there are people that don\u2019t want to win? Isn\u2019t that the objective of a political party is to win elections? Who doesn\u2019t want to win? Well, the establishment must think that somebody in the Republican realm doesn\u2019t want to win, at least that\u2019s not the priority, that there are other things that come first. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m probably making too big a deal out of this. But I do find it an interesting comment, particularly after having had the conversation with — if the establishment believes that they can\u2019t win by turning out the base — and, by the way, they could have. There were four million Republicans in 2012 that didn\u2019t turn out, stayed home. If they would have all shown up and voted just the party line, we\u2019d have beaten Obama by two million votes. We could have won the White House by turning out the base. We didn\u2019t turn out the base. So it\u2019s obvious that the establishment of the party believes that the population of the country has organized itself in groups now, and you have to appeal to \u2019em that way. <\/p>\n

You can\u2019t go out and appeal to a single American culture, or a singular American ideal. You cannot come up with a political campaign or strategy or philosophy that encompasses everybody. You\u2019ve got to go to the groups where these people are and pick \u2019em off. That\u2019s the inside-the-Beltway strategy on the establishment part. Now, you and I — I won\u2019t lump you in with me. I don\u2019t hold to that. I think you get into big trouble when you start bifurcating your message for this group or that group over here because then, you know, you\u2019re watering down your essence. <\/p>\n

But still, as an active proposition, you do have to win. Everything else is academic if you don\u2019t win. It\u2019s just a agreement over how. And then, of course, the mandate that you have after you win depends largely on how you campaign. So I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll have some Christie bites. Ahem. I\u2019m sure the audio production staff, ahem, is even now, ahem, working on assembling them. Let\u2019s listen to Ted Cruz at CPAC today. We\u2019ve got four sound bites here, and he got a raucous reception, no question.<\/p>\n