RUSH: Presidential politics here, dirty tricks are starting. This is so classic. This is from HillaryClinton.com: ‘Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle just sent the following message out to Hillary supporters in key early states.
Dear Friend,
I wanted to let you know immediately about reports our campaign has received about possible dirty campaign tactics in Iowa and New Hampshire — and ask for your help. In Iowa, we have heard reports that Hillary supporters are getting calls that tell them incorrect caucus locations. Supporters have also told us about push polls — when they tell the pollster they support Hillary, they are given negative talking points about her and asked which attacks are the most effective. In both Iowa and New Hampshire, we have heard that Obama staffers are berating Hillary supporters on the phone with negative attacks against her.’
Whhhaaa! (crying) So the Clinton campaign is back to playing victim status, and guess what, folks? Every woman in the Hillary camp, every man in the Hillary camp, is a liberal. And all of these liberal women perfectly play the victim card. Nobody plays the victim card better than liberal women! I don’t know whether it’s going to work or not, but this is about as ridiculous as the Clinton campaign accusing Obama’s PAC of being a slush fund. The Clintons accusing somebody of having a slush fund? I guarantee you the Clintons are doing push-polling. I guarantee you if any of this is going on, it’s the Clinton campaign doing it. This is a Clinton technique. Accuse your opponents of what you are at present doing. So the victim card is back now. Also, she is nose-diving in Iowa, and this is an attempt, I think, to delegitimize the entire outcome there. ‘Well, there were dirty tricks going on, Tom, and you know, we really couldn’t compete against the dirty tricks out there. Obama’s team was push-polling my supporters and putting negative thoughts in their heads. We really don’t think the Iowa vote counts much because of this.’ This is what they’re setting up.
Captain Ed at the Captain’s Quarters, Ed Morrissey, writes today: ‘Recall the pushback when we linked to the Zogby poll that showed Hillary’s support eroding at the end of November? The numbers showed Hillary losing ground against all Republican contenders, and had some correlation with Rasmussen’s numbers as well. Nonsense, came the response; Gallup’s polling in November — two weeks earlier — showed Hillary maintaining her momentum. Oops: Though both candidates maintain their leads, Rudy Giuliani continues to lose support and Hillary Clinton drops nine points in Gallup’s latest poll.’ They knew this last week, that her ship has begun to take on water. ‘No text report has been posted by Gallup, but the trend for Hillary looks bad and seems to be accelerating. She had polled at 50% this summer, when she appeared invincible and her competition couldn’t quit making mistakes. Now, after a gaffe-filled month capped by her attack on Barack Obama’s kindergarten ambitions, Gallup has her at 39%, dropping eight points in a month.’
By the way, Hillary’s out there saying, her staff, (paraphrasing) ‘We were just kidding about the kindergarten thing, can’t you take a joke? We were just kidding about the kindergarten thing.’ At any rate, Captain Ed writes this: ‘USA Today has the polling results, and they look even worse for Hillary. In 16 days, she dropped nine points overall. Obama, Edwards, Richardson, and Biden split Hillary’s castoffs almost equally. She dropped eleven points in a month. Her negatives have gone from 44% in October to 50%, and now has a favorability deficit of -3, the worst since the beginning of summer.’ Ed Morrissey said this would be a free-fall if the Democrats had a candidate who could take advantage of Hillary, and it’s been handed to Obama on a silver platter, from the slush fund thing to the kindergarten thing, it’s just been handed to him, and what are we hearing from him about this, essentially? Nothing. Come on, Obama, get some onions out there. This is your golden, golden, golden opportunity. It may not get any better than this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Try this headline in the New York Times: ‘Vulnerable Democrats See Fates Tied to Clinton.’ It’s the second article I have seen like this. ‘Nancy Boyda, a Democrat who ran for Congress in this district [in Manhattan, Kansas] last year, owed her upset victory partly to the popularity of the Democratic woman at the top of the ticket: Kathleen Sebelius, who won the governor’s seat. Now, with a tough re-election race at hand in 2008, Ms. Boyda faces the prospect that her electoral fate could be tied to another woman: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mrs. Clinton is a long way from winning the Democratic presidential nomination, and over the last few weeks has struggled to hang on to the air of inevitability that she has been cultivating all year. But the possibility that she will be the nominee is already generating concern among some Democrats in Republican-leaning states and Congressional districts, who fear that sharing the ticket with [Mrs. Clinton] could subject them to attack as too liberal and out of step with the values of their constituents.’ Ha-ha-ha! ‘Democrats say they have not polled on the issue, though a private survey that surfaced this year found that the nomination of either Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama could cut into support for House Democrats in tough districts.’ Weeeell. Well, well, well, well, well. This is the second time I’ve seen this story. I’m telling you, folks: Inside Clinton, Inc., it’s not smooth sailing in there. There’s a bunch of panic going on. This is not supposed to be happening. This was not going to happen.
By the way, Norman Hsu was indicted today. He’s ‘alleged to have swindled $20 million from investors in a Ponzi scheme,’ and among the things listed in the indictment is this in Manhattan. ‘Federal prosecutors want Norman Hsu, who was named today in a 15-count fraud indictment, to forfeit a ‘saxophone autographed by a former president of the United States.’ The indictment does not name the former president, but Bill Clinton would seem a good bet considering Hsu’s prior role as a chief fundraiser for Hillary Clinton and the fact that I don’t know too many former presidents that are still alive that played the saxophone.’ (laughing) So they ordered him to give back a Clinton-autographed saxophone. Too rich.
RUSH: I want to go to the audio sound bites here. We’ve been talking about Mrs. Clinton a lot today. She does appear to be in trouble. This was Sunday in Bettendorf, Iowa, at a campaign event. It’s only nine seconds long, but you have to wonder, what in the world she’s thinking, saying this about her relationship with Iowa voters.
HILLARY: So, you see, I want a long-term relationship. I — I — I don’t want to just have a one-night stand with all of you.
RUSH: You know, I don’t know if her husband’s in the corner, hanging around backstage, but when a Clinton starts talking about one-night stands with all of you, with voters, I don’t care if it’s Hillary or Bill, when a Clinton starts talking one-night stands, you gotta raise your eyebrow a little bit over this. Here’s the next one. Sunday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at a news conference. Mrs. Clinton:
HILLARY: I have been four months on the receiving end of rather consistent attacks. Well, now the fun part starts. We’re into the last month, and we’re going to start drawing the contrasts, because I want every Iowan to have accurate information when they make their decisions.
RUSH: BS! You don’t want ’em knowing jack… squat. You do not want them knowing a thing. Now the fun starts? That means she can’t wait to start zeroing in on poor Barry. Means I can kneecap Obama now. We’re in the last month, and he deserves it because he’s lying about how long he’s wanted to be president. He said he wanted to be president all the way back in kindergarten. He’s also got ethics problems, Mrs. Clinton said. Unknown reporter in Cedar Rapids on Sunday, ‘Does Senator Obama have a character problem, Mrs. Clinton?’
HILLARY: It’s beginning to look a lot like that, where somebody who runs on ethics and — is found out to have at least skirted the FEC rules and to use lobbyists and PAC money to do so.
RUSH: That’s the old slush fund. Does this question sound like a setup? ‘Does Senator Obama have a character problem?’ ‘Well, it’s beginning to look a lot like that.’ We know the pattern of Clinton plants in the audience. It’s beginning to look a lot like he’s got ethics problems. He’s got a slush fund. Obama, where are you? Now she goes after Obama for skipping the Iran vote. This is a portion of her remarks. This is yesterday, Clear Lake, Iowa.
HILLARY: Well, if he really thought it was a rush to war, why did he rush to campaign and miss the vote? A president can’t vote ‘present.’ A president can’t pick and choose which challenges he or she will face.
RUSH: This was the Iran vote where Mrs. Clinton agreed that the Revolutionary Guards in there are mass murderers and procurers of weapons of mass destruction, all this other stuff, and I guess Obama chose to avoid the vote simply to void any problem with the kook fringe anti-war base. She wasn’t through. Yesterday in Cedar Rapids, again, talking about Obama.
HILLARY: You decide which makes more sense. To entrust our country to someone who is ready on day one to make the decisions and the changes we need, or to put America in the hands of someone with little national or international experience who started running for president as soon as he arrived in the United States Senate. How did running for president become a qualification to be president?
RUSH: Mrs. Clinton, you started running for president and control of this country in Yale, maybe all the way back at Wellesley. What is it about you, Mrs. Clinton, as first lady and as senator, that qualifies you to be president? You know, I think what we ought to — how about this? Just to make a point here. I think that Laura Bush ought to get into the presidential race on the Republican side. Why, she’s been right by George Bush’s side for almost eight years, seven years. And she’s seen it all up close. And she’s done everything Mrs. Clinton did. We don’t know what all she’s done. She’s worked behind the scenes. She may have been more involved in things than anybody knows. She has more experience than Mrs. Clinton might have. Well, I know what you’re saying, ‘Laura Bush, nice woman, but she’s not qualified.’ So why is Hillary, then? Why is this automatic conclusion made that Mrs. Clinton is qualified because she was there for eight years? You know, big deal. She’s a wartime first lady, Laura Bush was. She was a school teacher. She’s been all for the children and so forth.
The idea that Laura Bush is a joke, why is Hillary not a similar joke? Realize the Drive-Bys and the Democrats, ‘Well, Laura Bush wasn’t co-president and Hillary Clinton was.’ Oh, wait a minute, I thought Bill Clinton just the other day said health care and that boondoggle was his doing, not hers? So she really wasn’t that much involved. (doing Clinton impression) ‘That’s right, Limbaugh, you know what, got it straight. I’m glad you finally got to tell the truth about us, because Hillary didn’t blow that; that was my problem. And believe me, boy, I paid for it.’ I don’t know. This is a practical joke. The Hillary Clinton candidacy is a practical joke. We have so many sycophants in this country that sit there and soak up the notion that she’s a viable candidate, that she’s qualified. For what reason? Somebody tell me what she’s ever done that’s worked! It is a giant practical joke. The Clintons gotta be laughing themselves to sleep every night over what they’ve pulled off here.
Now Obama. Obama did respond to some of this stuff. I want you to hear it. At Grandview College in Des Moines yesterday, an unidentified male asked Obama, ‘Senator, would you like to respond to what Mrs. Clinton said about you lying about how long you wanted to be president. You said you didn’t decide you wanted to be president ’til shortly after you got in the Senate, and she says you wrote an essay in kindergarten or the third grade or whatever, that said you wanted to be president. What’s the truth, Obama?’
OBAMA: It’s — it’s silly season. I understand she’s been quoting my — my kindergarten teacher in Indonesia. So —
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Senator, actually she said your candidacy represents all (unintelligible). Do you think your candidacy represents all folks?
OBAMA: Thank you so much, guys.
RUSH: Barry, psst — this is not how you do this. She said some surprising things. ‘It’s silly season. I understand she’s been quoting my kindergarten teacher in Indonesia’ You’ve just been accused of lying about how long you’ve wanted to be president, and they uncovered something from the kindergarten days that said you wanted to be president, and you just call it ‘silly season’? Does his camp know what a golden opportunity he’s got here to make a real dent? It’s making me think he doesn’t want to. We’ll see. Here’s Obama’s response yesterday in Des Moines to the slush fund attack.
OBAMA: Folks from some of the other campaigns are reading the polls and starting to get stressed and issuing a whole range of outlandish accusations. Everything that we’ve done is in exact accordance with the law, and unless they can show that it hasn’t been, I suggest they focus on trying to get their supporters to caucus in Iowa.
RUSH: Wake up! You’ve just been accused of having no ethics and of running a slush fund by the people who are the architects of slush funds and no ethics! You’ve gotta learn to fire back. You’ve gotta learn to say, ‘They are saying what about me? The people who had all those money orders for the Clinton legal defense fund run through a Chinese restaurant in Little Rock are saying what about me? The people who had all this money raised by a representative of the Peoples Liberation Army in China and who half the people who are involved in the fundraising fled the country before the trial and nobody knows where they are, are saying what about me? That I ran a slush fund? The people who had to give back something like $800,000 in illegal contributions in one year are saying what about me?’ But what did we get? Number 13. Play this again. You just heard my passion. Listen to this answer.
OBAMA: Folks from some of the other campaigns are reading the polls and starting to get stressed and issuing a whole range of outlandish accusations. Everything that we have done is in exact accordance with the law, and unless they can show that it hasn’t been, I suggest they focus on trying to get their supporters to caucus in Iowa.
RUSH: Well, everybody’s got their own strategeries and theories on how to deal with this. You be the judge. Last night on PMSNBC, Live With Dan Abrams, he’s talking with Democrat strategerist Chris Leheinous, used to be big-time involved with Algore, I believe. Abrams said, ‘About gotcha politics, so knowing that, what are they doing citing kindergarten and third grade essays of Obama?’
LEHANE: There’s a serious point and a fun point here. Serious point is that Barack Obama did attack Hillary Clinton —
RUSH: Stop the tape for a minute, stop the tape. I think it is unconscionable of you, Ed, to speed up this tape and make Chris Leheinous sound like a chipmunk. Now take this back to the beginning and play it at the real speed. Let me know when you’ve got it recued back to the beginning, and I want to play this at the real speed. I’m not going to sit here and have people’s voices made fun of. Okay. Here’s the question again from Dan Abrams. Says, ‘So knowing that, what are they doing citing kindergarten and third grade essays of Obama?’
LEHANE: There’s a serious point and a fun point here. Serious point is that Barack Obama did attack Hillary Clinton several weeks ago claiming that she and — and the former president had a 20-year plan. They opened up the hypocrisy door. Clinton campaign got a litany of facts today documenting the fact that he had talked about running for president in the past, it goes to the hypocrisy issue, which is a core character issue that people look for in presidential campaigns. Now, I think — I actually think that you’re taking the third grade and the kindergarten thing a little too seriously. My sense is they put that out with a wink-wink and a little bit of chuckle themselves.
RUSH: I have to apologize to the engineer, I could have sworn that it was sped up and make the guy sound like a chipmunk. So they were just joking about kindergarten and third grade. They got busted and they send Leheinous out there. One more quick bite. ‘Do we cite this kindergarten and third grade essay, yes or no, Chris?’
LEHANE: I think you cite a litany of factors and have a little bit of fun with it. You cite people who quoted what he said in college; you cite former staffers; you cite law school friends; all of those things were in the collection of information that was put out today, in addition to having a little bit of fun with a third grade essay.
RUSH: [Chris Lehane impression] And time for us to take a quick time-out here at the EIB Network. We’ll be right back after this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Do you know what Obama ought to say out there? He ought to go out there and say, ‘Look, if my wife is first lady for eight years, I promise to fix health care.’ Bill Clinton’s out there, he’s wagging his finger at the Drive-Bys in an AP story just out 15 minutes ago. ‘Clinton said that if reporters covered the candidates’ public records better, his wife’s presidential bid would be far ahead of her rivals. Clinton said, ‘I’d pick her, and I’d be here even if we weren’t married.” Uh, no, he wouldn’t pick her, and he wouldn’t be anywhere near there, if he weren’t married — and this we all know.