RUSH: To the audio sound bites. We’re going back to the Democrat debate yesterday. The theme of the debate was that we should be talking with our enemies. The Breck Girl said that he’s going to sit down at the table with Iran and make a proposal.
EDWARDS: I think we have a clear path for America and for — for our friends on Iran, and that path is to work with our friends in Europe to put up a choice between carrots and sticks on the table for the Iranian people.
RUSH: Okay. When it comes to the real enemy, though, Edwards will not negotiate with evil, the drug companies. He will not appear on Fox News. But he will indeed go talk to the mullocracy, if you will, Ahmadinejad in Iran.
EDWARDS: There’s a fundamental question here. Whether you believe, whether voters believe the way we’re going to have universal health care is to deal with those people, to make a deal with them. I don’t. I don’t think it will work.
RUSH: Universal health care, single payer, that means everybody pays for everybody’s health care in the form of much higher taxes and a rotten system that would result from it. But he doesn’t want to get the drug companies involved; not going to talk to them; can’t be done; can’t strike a deal with evil pharmacies; can’t strike a deal with Big Pharma, can’t do it, no, no, no. We can go talk to Iran. We go talk to Castro. We can talk to all these people, but we can’t talk to the drug companies, can’t talk to fellow Americans. They are the real enemy. He was also asked a question from an e-mailer. Stephanopoulos read it. E-mail question from Seth Ford of South Jordan, Utah. ‘My question is to understand each candidate’s view of a personal God. Do they believe that through the power of prayer, disasters like Katrina or the Minnesota bridge collapse could have been prevented or lessened?’
EDWARDS: The answer to the question is no. I don’t — I — I — I prayed before my 16-year-old son died, I prayed before Elizabeth was diagnosed with cancer. I think there are some things that are beyond our control, and I think it is enormously important to look to God, and in my case, Christ, for guidance and for wisdom, but I don’t think you can prevent bad things from happening through prayer.
RUSH: All right. You may not be able to prevent bad things from happening through prayer, but you can make brilliant and great things happen by voting Democrat. October 11th, 2004, on the campaign trail.
EDWARDS: When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.
RUSH: Right. So we’re not going to pray to God for anything, no, no, no, but Democrats are going to do these be miracles. Democrats can stop the bridge collapses. Democrats can stop Hurricane Katrina. Democrats could re-steer that after Bush and Rove are steering it right into New Orleans and Minneapolis. But all of this, folks, is really insignificant compared to a story on an ABC blog that I found over the weekend. ABC News’ Rick Klein reports, ‘When an Iowa resident asked former Senator John Edwards whether the US should follow the Cuban health care model, Edwards deflected the question, saying he didn’t know enough to answer it.’ The Breck Girl said, ‘Well, I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know a lot about Cuba’s health care system. Is it a government-run system?’ Now, folks, this is perhaps the dumbest thing a political candidate has ever said. Yeah, ABC. ‘He also flip-flopped in the same appearance whether he had seen Sicko or not. First he said he had, and then he said he hadn’t.’
Why do you have to see Sicko to know what Cuba’s health care system is? This is worse than Dukakis and the tank. This is worse than Dan Quayle spelling potato with an e on it. This ought to disqualify him. He doesn’t know what Cuba’s health care system is? ‘Is it a government-run system?’ I think this comes close to Gerald Ford with that faux pas in his debate where he said that the Eastern bloc of countries was not under Soviet domination. A guy running for president, we just heard a bite, talking about universal health care, he will not talk to the drug companies about it; he’ll go meet with Iran and offer them a deal; we can’t deal with real Americans; can’t deal with the drug companies. But he doesn’t even know what type of health care system Cuba has, when by reputation it’s the best in the world, according to people on his side of the aisle.
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RUSH: Rick in Malibu, great to have you, sir, on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Yeah. Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call. Just a quick comment on John Edwards not knowing if Cuba has a state-run health care system. It goes beyond idiocy, because what in Cuba is not state run? It shows that he doesn’t even understand what socialism is all about. What in the whole nation isn’t government run?
RUSH: I know, but he’s got to know this. If he doesn’t know it, that’s one thing, but, look, folks, you cannot tell me that John Edwards does not understand socialism. He is campaigning on a socialist platform. Everything he’s talking about is a socialist platform. Every one of his enemies of the United States is a United States corporation. This business about doesn’t know the Cuban health care system, I think, was intertwined with his flip-flop on whether he had seen Sicko or not, and he was trying to escape any scrutiny on that. But he’s campaigning on a socialist platform. I can’t believe he doesn’t know what Cuba is.
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RUSH: Also about Cuba, and John Edwards not understanding that the Cuban health care system is ‘government run.’ Look, let me get his exact quote here: ‘I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t know a lot about Cuba’s health care system,’ Edwards said at an event in Oskaloosa, Iowa. ‘Is it a government-run system?’ I don’t care whether he’s trying to fake us out or not, it’s the dumbest political statement in the world. The context is he had flip-flopped on whether he had seen Sicko. First he said, I think, he had seen it, then he said he hadn’t. The reason, he says, ‘I don’t know anything about Cuba’s health care system, is it government run?’ is because if he had seen Sicko there would be no doubt. But how can there be any doubt that he knows or doesn’t know, because what isn’t government run in Cuba? In fact, listen to this. This is from an AP story in June of 2005.
‘The government [of Cuba] stopped issuing self-employment licenses last fall for 40 categories of jobs ranging from computer programming to auto body repair. Self-employment in these professions was legalized only in 1993 during the severe economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet bloc… The roughly 150,000 self-employed Cubans represent just 2.1 percent of Cuba’s work force, and officials say the state system has recovered sufficiently from the shock of the early 1990s to absorb more workers.’ To absorb more workers? This is AP, and this drives me nuts. ‘The government has finally gotten through its crisis, and so it’s now capable of absorbing more workers.’ The translation is: the government got frightful and scared that so many people opted for the self-employment ranks, that they are denying them the freedom to do that to avoid a cultural crisis and a revolution! The government can absorb more workers? So the self-employment licenses lasted for two years.
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