RUSH: Those of you that were listening to this program yesterday, do you remember the call from Jill in Ithaca, in the first hour, calling me a liar because I was interpreting correctly what Mrs. Clinton said Sunday on Stephanopoulos’s show in which she made it plain: (paraphrasing) ‘There’s no way I’m going to get out of Iraq if I’m president. I don’t know what I’m going to inherit there. It would be irresponsible to get out of there.’ ‘You lie,’ she said. I said, ‘Jill, not only that, no Democrat who’s elected president is going to pull us out of Iraq if they’re in the White House. Ain’t going to happen, Jill.’ And, furthermore, I said, ‘Jill, if a Democrat wins the White House, there will no longer be any ‘bring the troops home’ resolutions offered by Democrats on Capitol Hill, because they’re not going to want to embarrass — you might have some wacko like Conyers do it just for the sake of it, but not any serious resolutions.’
Here are the audio sound bites from last night. The question from Tim Russert — he did a great job last night, by the way. It’s coming up, too, he just really nailed Hillary on a couple things. She had her worst debate performance to date last night. Question: ‘Senator Obama, will you pledge that by January 2013, the end of your first term, more than five years from now, that there will be no troops, US troops in Iraq?’
OBAMA: I think it’s hard to project four years from now. I think it would be irresponsible. We don’t know what contingencies will be out there.
RUSH: ‘Senator Clinton, you have said that you will not pledge to have all troops out by the end of your first term, 2013. Why not?’
HILLARY: It is very difficult to know what we’re going to be inheriting. You know, we do not know, walking into the White House in January 2009, what we’re going to find.
RUSH: Plain as day. The next question, ‘Senator Edwards, will you commit that at the end of your first term, 2013, that all US troops will be out of Iraq?’
EDWARDS: I cannot make that commitment.
RUSH: Now, I wonder how Code Pink is feeling today along with Jill in Ithaca and all of the others, like MoveOn.org. Code Pink is probably a little blue today, as is MoveOn.org. These people gotta be fit to be tied. I haven’t checked because they’re always fit to be tied, they’re always enraged. But they can’t be happy out there. Now, this, ladies and gentlemen, this debate last night was like a Saturday Night Live skit. Did you watch it, Mr. Snerdley? You watch any of it? This was not a 180. Let me tell you what happened last night with the Democrat debate. We’ve got some sound bites. I know you’re thinking, ‘I don’t want to hear these people.’ You gotta hear ’em. You gotta hear ’em because there are teachable moments here. This was a 360 followed by a back flip. Then they did a handstand, front flip, followed by a 180. These people were so all over the board last night it was comedic. As you just heard, Russert asked, ‘Will you pledge to have all the troops out by the end of your first term?’ Mrs. Clinton would not. No surprise there. She can say whatever suits her whenever it suits her.
Obama, the man who opposed the war before it started, said he will not pledge. Mrs. Clinton did pledge a few short weeks ago to have the troops out. But people have forgotten this. The Breck Girl proudly changed his mind after he voted for the war, proudly changed his mind, said, ‘I’m the only one who admits my vote was wrong,’ and even he is now starting to change his mind again. The only one who voted for the war admitted his vote was wrong and admitted that it’s now wrong to pull out. So Edwards’s position is — and you need a highly trained broadcast specialist and a keen mind like mine to keep up with these people — Edwards was first out there saying that he was proud to admit that he had made a mistake in voting for the war. He says, ‘I’m the only one who voted for the war who has admitted my vote was wrong.’ And after voting for the war and proudly admitting that his vote was wrong, now he admits that to pull out is wrong. Jill, Ithaca, are you following this? I can’t make it any plainer. What’s going on here, folks, seriously? How could Mrs. Clinton, a few short weeks ago — by the way, Jill, in Ithaca and the rest of you lib Democrats, I’m going to make a bold prediction to you right now.
You left-wing activists out there, you anti-war activists, you’re about to be swept under the rug in terms of your relevance and importance, other than your vote, in defining the issues that will make up the 2008 presidential campaign. When they realize this, I fully hope that they will show up at the Democrat convention in Denver and raise hell like they did in Chicago in 1968. They’re getting ready, I’ll tell you, with all these Democrat top-tier candidates committing to stay in Iraq, and that’s what they did. They didn’t just commit to pull out by then. They committed to stay until 2013. So, folks, fireworks are ahead and down the road. But here’s Mrs. Clinton. Now, a few short weeks ago, days ago, maybe, she makes a pledge. She said, ‘If President Bush won’t pull the troops out, I will.’ (clapping) She said it to some group that wanted to hear that. Then in the debate last night, she does her impression of Jackie Gleason on the Honeymooners, ‘humma humma humma humma humma,’ that’s how Jackie Gleason avoided dealing with anything. Everybody watches the reruns of that show. You watch the reruns of that show, the Honeymooners? ‘Alice, to the moon!’ Couldn’t do that on TV today if you wanted to. Now, what’s caused these people to change their minds so publicly?
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So the question I have, my friends, is this — the one question yet to be asked — when will the real Democrat candidate come forward, the man or woman who wants to lead the country? We don’t have candidates for leadership up there on that Democrat stage last night. You know what those candidates were? They were campaigning for a new title in the government called ‘navigator-in-chief.’ They were navigating all through the night, avoiding tough issues, maneuvering through tough questions and trying not to answer them, steering clear of any core beliefs, giving a wide berth to real issues, changing course every time a new poll comes out. Mrs. Clinton is already a professional navigator, Obama is getting the hang of it, and Edwards ditto. But leaders? Any of them come off as leaders? Would you entrust any of those people, if you watched this last night, with your family’s health care? But people are about to do it.
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RUSH: We’ll go to Connecticut. This is Ron. Welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: So I’ve been a little anguished over the years listening to you and Sean and some of the others talk about ‘liberals’ and anti-war movement, ‘liberals’ and big government. I just… Yesterday I sort of had it when you were talking about the liberals against the war. You know… Heh. There may be… I mean, there is… There’s a political sentiment on the left that I think political scientists call ‘weenies,’ and — but they weren’t ‘liberals.’ And there are ‘progressives,’ and they aren’t ‘liberals.’ You know, the ultimate liberal is JFK, you know, ‘We will pay any price and bear any burden to assure the progress of liberty.’
RUSH: Right, I agree —
CALLER: That was liberal.
RUSH: But ‘was.’ He ain’t now alive, and that which he believed will not be found coming out of the mouth of any elected Democrat today.
CALLER: Well, that’s — but just don’t call ’em ‘liberals.’ You know, you can call —
RUSH: I’m sorry. I’m not going to be talked out of this. A liberal today is a liberal. If it doesn’t fit you, then stop being a liberal. Join us! If you’re a JFK ‘liberal,’ you’re a conservative. It’s time you crossed the aisle. We have a home for you. But I’m not going to sit here and change the definition of the term just so people don’t get their feelings upset, because there’s no way in the world that anybody alive today associates liberalism with JFK. Reagan tax cuts? When is the last time you heard a Democrat talking about tax cuts, serious reductions in tax rates. It doesn’t happen. Now, I understand to be a liberal is tough. That’s why the term ‘progressive’ is invented, or ‘open-mindedness,’ to make sure that the term does not apply to you. The truth is the truth, and I’m sorry it offends.
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