RUSH: This is Chuck in Bradenton, Florida. Chuck, welcome to the program. Nice to have you with us.
CALLER: Rush.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: It’s a pleasure, sir.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Very much so. I’m a little nervous, so bear with me.
RUSH: No problem.
CALLER: First-time caller here. First off, I’ve converted my ex-wife from a liberal to a Republican. So there’s gotta be some credit given there somewhere to you because, after listening to you for all these years, why, I was able to use some of the things you’ve said over the radio and spew it towards her, and it works, brother.
RUSH: I’m so happy to hear this, it’s so rare —
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: — but I have to tell you something. It could not have been anything you did to convert your wife, because husbands can’t do that. It was all me.
CALLER: You’re right, husbands — at the very least, ex-husbands. (laughing)
RUSH: That’s true, too.
CALLER: You know? (laughing)
RUSH: Yeah. (laughing)
CALLER: As a husband, you at least stand a little bit of a chance, you know. As an ex-husband, forget it. Listen, her and I put our 20-year-old on a plane in Tampa yesterday, bound for Iraq.
RUSH: You know, God bless you people. I think people like you, we talk about the troops a lot, but the families are not shown proper respect and appreciation often enough. So really, God bless all of you.
CALLER: Our question to you, and I know she’s probably listening even at work, our question to you is, who do you think, I mean I just heard you talk about Hillary, or whoever their nominee is making a big swing after the primaries —
RUSH: It’s a prediction, it’s a prediction.
CALLER: I know better than to trust any Democrat. My question to you is, on the Republican side, do you see someone that we can count on to take care of not only our son, but the rest of the sons and daughters over there?
RUSH: I think any of them would.
CALLER: Well —
RUSH: Our candidates, people are not all excited about them and so forth, but I’m going to tell you something. Compared to that roster of Democrat candidates, the Republican roster is filled with real quality. Well, there might be a couple exceptions, but I mean they’re good, good people, and eminently, all of them, qualified to represent the party, in most ways. None of them are genuinely, thoroughly conservative, you can’t always get what you want in that regard.
CALLER: Well, that’s true.
RUSH: In terms of the question you’re asking, any one of them would put the defense and protection of this country first and foremost. You shouldn’t have any doubt about that.
CALLER: I mean, she’s a big Huckabee fan. She leans a little towards McCain, and I’m following Romney. Listen, I gotta tell you, as an average American, I don’t trust any of them, because they’re all politicians. Okay? I really don’t.
RUSH: I understand that.
CALLER: However, I do have — you know, as an American, I will do my part to cast my vote, and so I pay very close attention, or try to, anyway, as best I can. So, you know, I just thought, well, you know, let’s give the Rush a call and see what he has to say about it.
RUSH: Look, let me tell you what this election is going to be about. It’s not just national security. But the Democrats have given everybody reason to doubt their commitment to it.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: They have invested in defeat.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: But this election is not going to be about Iraq. Iraq is going to be off the table, because things are going well, Bush is not on the ballot. This election is going to be about the future of the country and whether it’s going to drift more towards socialism or whether we’re going to maintain our capitalist roots, entrepreneurial spirit, rugged individualism, it’s a seminal, serious question. This is, the ’08 presidential race, is the last chance for sixties, anti-war radical Baby Boomers to get their hands around this country, their arms around this country, and shape it in the image that they have wanted it to be for 40, 45 years. If the Clintons lose this, they’re done, in terms of the White House. You’re going to have to a new generation of candidates come along in 2012 and beyond. So this is it.
By the way, the Republican candidates will be Baby Boomer, too, but not anti-war radical Baby Boomer. So this is it, this is the final battle of the sixties Baby Boomers, anti-war radicals, and that means the future of the country is what will be on the table and what it will be like and what its purpose in the world is. It’s going to be a vicious, dirty, mean campaign to rival none other. It’s going to outdo anything that we’ve ever seen. It’s going to be exciting for people like me. It’s going to be frustrating for people who get turned off by that kind of stuff in politics, be up to people like me to keep ’em interested. We’ll do that. Future of the country, including national security. Make book on it.