You know, the New York Post today, they got a tip last night — and they felt comfortable with it, and the cover of the New York Post says it’s Gephardt and it still could be. Kerry could flip-flop tonight and name Gephardt tomorrow. So until this is actually done and we see ’em together… Kerry didn’t have Edwards up there, when he made the big announcement in Pittsburgh. Why Pittsburgh? Kerry’s got zilch connection to Pittsburgh except one of his wife’s 13 or 14 estates is there. Big union town, that’s why. I got depressed. I watched the feed before Kerry actually came out; Franco Harris was one of the guys warming up the crowd. Oh, my hart sank. I’m a big Steelers fan. There’s Franco Harris, eating a lot of doughnuts. By the way, owns a doughnut shop — and I think he’s eating the product. (Cough) I played golf with him not long ago. He gave me a business card, owns a doughnut shop. Anyway, what else? Uh, tst, tst, ts. I had something else. Well, they’ve taken this abortion thing off the front pages. Nobody’s even talking about it. That’s a huge flip-flop.
Did you see Kerry over the weekend out there trying to make it look like he’s a farmer? He’s out there talking to the cattle! He was telling the cattle who his veep choice going to be but he wouldn’t tell anybody else. Pictures of him talking to the cattle and then he’s out there, you know, picking up gun and looking — just amazing. Yeah, he’s a farmer. He says he has experience on farms. He got dirty once, and he drove a tractor. It was air-conditioned, but he drove a tractor. Anyway. (Laughing.) Folks, I really am having (laughing). You know, you can hear it my voice. I’m having trouble taking it seriously, because the bottom line is this. The Clintons’ phasers are now going to be switched from “stun” to “kill,” because this cannot stand. I mean, if this ticket wins, Hillary has got a fight on her hands that she doesn’t want to have in 2008, so just keep a sharp eye. I saw Clinton earlier today on TV. They I asked him about Hillary and whether or not she was ever on the list, and he said (Clinton impression), “I don’t even know if she’s on that short list or not.”
Like he doesn’t know what’s going on in the party! She probably never was on the list and probably wouldn’t have taken it anyway. Because if she had wanted to be on the list, and if she wanted to be veep, she would be, is probably the best way to analyze this. So people are going to be hitting us all now with things that Edwards has said over the years and things that Kerry said and the things they said during their campaign, and it’ll be fun entertaining stuff but it isn’t going to matter much, I don’t think. The thing to focus on with Edwards is who he is and what kind of experience he has — which is very little. He spent six years in the Senate, basically running for president is what he was doing. He’s leaving the Senate, and the reason why he wasn’t going to get reelected. You know, Kerry said early on in his campaign (Kerry impression), “Well, everybody makes a mistake of looking South.” So he goes and gets this guy from North Carolina he thinks is going to help get the South. They’re not going to win North Carolina; they’re going to win the South. This is not going to change anything.
In fact, Kerry has actually chosen somebody who brings some weaknesses to this ticket when it comes to national security. Edwards, if you recall the Democrat primaries, when he went out there to talk he had this whole thing of “two Americas,” meaning that… It’s the same old class warfare, class-envy card the Democrats have been playing all their lives, and he’s trying to make a case that this one America where nobody is doing well. Nobody’s happy, nobody has a chance and then there’s the other America where the gigolo John Kerry lives and the 50 millionaire John Edwards lives. By the way, you know, we could call this the Hooker Ticket: two Johns on the road, wealthy Johns on the road looking for approval. I was playing with that today. Also a friend of mine sent me a suggested campaign slogan: “Flush the Johns in ’04.” (Laughing.) “Rush, aren’t you willing to take this seriously? Yes, my friends, I’ll take it seriously at some point.
I’m just telling you you’re going to make a huge mistake if you watch the media, because they’re going gaga. They’re just going gaga and they’re having so much fun. The reason they’re excited is because there’s a candidate on the ticket now, I’m telling you, has a personality. If they’re not careful — and I think one of the reasons that Edwards was not in Pittsburgh today was that he would upstage Kerry. He’s gonna to upstage Kerry when thee appear together, and Kerry knows it, and that’s why Edwards is still in his multimillion-dollar mansion down in Georgetown, supposedly huddling with aides, and tonight they’re going to fly into Pittsburgh, have a big dinner there at one of Teresa’s homes. I don’t know what the chef is going to prepare for these average Americans who understand your plot and plight in life, but I’m sure there will be delicacies that Kerry will not have to use his hands to actually touch the food. Knife and fork will work. That kind of menu. Let me go to the audio sound bites here for just a second. I want you to hear. I heard the loudest applause I ever heard at a John Kerry campaign rally this morning, the longest and the loudest sustained applause — and there hasn’t been much of that no matter where you go but there was today. That’s why it stood out and I want you to hear what it was that caused this raucous display of public applause, affection and excitement at the John Kerry campaign rally.
KERRY: I am pleased to announce that, with your help, the next vice president of the United States of America will be Senator John Edwards from North Carolina. (Applause)
RUSH: Whoa! Oh, did it end? It went on and on and on and on and on. It was the longest applause I’d ever heard. I want you to hear a typical applause line from a Kerry rally. This is back in February, and here he is speaking to the firefighters, one of his biiig lines.
KERRY: If George Bush wants national security to be the central issue of this campaign, I’ve got three words for him that I know he understands. Briiing iiit ooon! Bring it on. (Light applause.)
RUSH: It’s tepid applause. By the way, the NEA, the National Education Association endorsed Kerry today. That’s a big blockbuster news story, head lightened all over the press today, as though that’s any kind of surprise — and Kerry actually mentioned when he announced Edwards. He did his usually stump speech after he announced Edwards and he mentioned this, for some of you who may not know it, but he was a boat captain in Vietnam.
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RUSH: I want to go back to what I said at the very beginning of this program and that is that I believe one of the fundamental reasons the choice was made today was that Kerry really stepped in it over the weekend when he said, “Life begins at conception,” because when you say that, you undercut the building block foundation of the pro-choice movement. With “life begins at conception,” bye-bye any rational for abortion if you really believe it; if it’s a fundamental belief that you hold. Now, he said it, and he can’t take it back. Don’t know why he said it. It makes no sense. All it’s going to do is cause heart flutters and other bad things in his base. Well, I do think there’s a reason. I think he’s trying to mend fences with priests and the Pope and the hierarchy at the Catholic church, and he’s probably — it’s a typical Kerry move. This is a flip-flop. He’s going to go out there and say (Kerry sing-song voice impression), “Well, I belieeeve that life begins at conceeeption.” Oh, really? “But I stiiill favor partial-birth abooortion, and I still favor a litmus test for pro-choice (judges).” Why? “Well, because I cannooot impose my religious views on Ameeerican people and Jews and Protestants and aaatheists.”
You can’t enforce the view or impose…? Well, then why are you going to impose your view on taxes on us? Why are you going to impose your view on France and Germany on us? Why are you going to impose every other view you have, but this one, you believe life begins at conception, you’re not going to impose that on people? By the way, “impose”? Where does this word come from? You’re not “imposing,” anyway. You’re supposed to be “leading.” You’re supposed to be sharing. See, this is what these liberals think. They have to impose their views on people, because they so oppose them. So he has to impose his views on us, otherwise we wouldn’t accept them on our own. Just like they think we impose freedom on people around the world who live in dictatorships and under tyrants. But I’m telling you, this is going to come back. There are people that have not forgotten this.
He’s trying to sweep it off the front page today with this VP choice. But this is going to come back, and he’s going to have a lot of explaining to do, and he’s going to be flip-flopping all over the place when he does it. I mean, this is extraordinarily cynical, folks. To sit out there and say, “I believe life begins at conception,” and then to hold every view he claims to hold when it comes to aborting human life. I mean, he says — and it’s, by the way, more of the same. He says he’s strong on defense, yet he’s opposed virtually every major weapons program during the last 20 years. He said he believes marriage ought to be between a man and a woman, and yet he’s opposed every effort to preserve the traditional meaning of marriage. Senator Kerry says he believes intelligence is “crucial” to winning the war on terrorism, yet he’s voted to gut the intelligence services every chance he’s gotten as a senator.
He says he has “conservative values,” yet he has the most liberal voting record in the entire United States Senate. He opposed the war before — he voted for it — and he opposed Senator Edwards before he chose him! And now he’s out there saying that life begins at conception. If you believe that, how can you be in favor of ending that life? How can you? And yet he’s got to make this case. So when all this Edwards hubbub is over, this kind of stuff, being stockpiled and he’s going to be asked about it. He’s going to have to explain it, and primarily for people on the left. I’m guaranteeing, when Kate Michelman and these babes at the NAGs (National Organization for Women) heard that, I guarantee you there were some red flag e-mails flashing around this country at all these liberal activists because that, folks, that is (exhale) you do not understand. That has the potential to be the biggest gaffe of this election campaign so far. Mark my words.
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