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RUSH: There was genuine trouble with Mrs. Clinton because the typical Clinton behavioral mode is not working. The Drive-Bys are not going along with it anymore, at least for now. And these apologies, by the way, I want to see where she actually said to Obama, ‘I’m sorry.’ We have the press spokesman out there saying, ‘Mrs. Clinton has apologized on the tarmac at Reagan National on the way to the Iowa debate.’ Well, I want to see if she actually said, ‘I’m sorry,’ or she said, ‘My campaign’s not going to ever do this again.’ In the meantime, they say they’re never going to do it again, they mention the word ‘cocaine.’ One of Hillary’s advisors is on television last night saying, ‘Those allegations of cocaine use–‘ So it’s a nonapology apology. Mrs. Clinton just today in an interview in Iowa, alluded to the fact that there are huge surprises in Obama’s past and that people will be stunned when they learn what they are.

This was classic, not a pretty moment. Well, depends on your view of ‘pretty.’ Obama was asked by this dreadful debate moderator — did you see her, Rachel? Carolyn Washburn? Whoa. Man. I’ve seen the type in my life before, but this takes the cake. Just takes the cake. Obama was asked about former Clintonistas on his advisory staff. It’s audio sound bite number eight, Mike. Here’s Carolyn Washburn. She says, ‘Senator Obama, you have Bill Clinton’s former national security advisor, state department policy director, Navy secretary, among others advising you, with relatively little foreign policy experience of your own. How will you rely on so many Clinton advisors and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you’re promising voters?’ Does anybody doubt this is a setup and planted question? I for one do not. This is a short bite. It goes 15 seconds. Obama starts out, and Hillary, you know, she interrupts, and then we hear the cackle in there, but I mean this is like an egg hitting her square between the eyes when she thought that her planted question was going to destroy the guy. So again, ‘How will you rely on so many Clinton advisors and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you’re promising voters?’

OBAMA: Well, the — you know, I am —

HILLARY: I want to hear that. (laughter)

OBAMA: Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me as well. (applause)

RUSH: Oh, yes! Right on, right on, right on. In that moment, much of the remaining air in the flawless inevitable campaign just like came out of the tires. Now, I think people have missed the main point on this, and that’s why I am here, of course, to provide the main point. Oh, by the way, the steroid thing. I’ve had a chance to look at this, this baseball steroid thing, I’ve got some updated thoughts on this, too, that will be part of the program as it unfolds today, but the question asked by this odd and scary newspaper woman was purposely designed to underline the Hillary claim of Obama’s inexperience versus hers by citing all those former Clinton advisors Obama has on his staff. Now, my question is, ‘Why the hell are they not with her? What do they know that we don’t know? Why did they go with him? Why did they jump the Hillary ship?’ But, in addition there is that brilliant and unique observation, which is not really brilliant because it’s so obvious but nobody else has come up with it.

It is obvious! He has a bunch of former Hillary advisors on his staff and nobody thinks to ask, ‘Why did they leave her?’ The question in my mind was completely planted by the Clinton camp, and that it backfired is just another show of the desperation that Hillary is in right now. On top of a very bad, horrible day, she has been bested by this young, inexperienced guy, who they are attacking behind the scenes as a potential possible drug dealer? He’s the first legitimate black presidential candidate? The Democrats and liberals are attacking this guy as a drug dealer while Mrs. Clinton is down in Selma trying to sound like a black? And Andrew Young is out there saying Bill Clinton’s been with more black women than Obama has and that’s somehow a résumé enhancer for Democrats and blacks? Obama’s comeback was great, Hillary shut up. He was finally able to shut her up, and that is the story. He shut her up, and he could have said even more, ‘Well, I wonder why I have so many of your former staffers advising me now, Mrs. Clinton.’

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look, I want to address this one more time here, folks. People have been commenting on me all morning in the e-mail asking me, ‘You really believe it’s the end for Hillary? Do you really believe this?’ We’ve got all kinds of stories, flood of campaign operatives causes worry, Obama surprises, the Democratic chief in Wyoming saying Clinton would hurt the party if she’s the nominee, Howard Fineman, the surprising falls and unexpected gains ahead of Iowa’s caucuses. He starts out by saying, ‘Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is teetering on the brink, no matter what the meaningless national horse race numbers say. The notion that she has a post-Iowa “firewall” in New Hampshire is a fantasy, and she is in danger of losing all four early contests, including Nevada and South Carolina — probably to Sen. Barack Obama, who is now, in momentum terms, the Democratic front-runner.’

Now, I know they didn’t plan for this, and this is a shock and a surprise to everybody. Mrs. Clinton, her whole candidacy, I think this inevitability is off the road. Inevitable candidates cannot lose, not once, certainly not twice, and certainly not four times. In addition to that, I want to make this point again. If you want to trace the beginning of her problem, you have to go back to me. On a Tuesday I read a report in New York Newsday about Hillary’s tough position on New York driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, that it was a nuclear issue, that she really hadn’t said anything about it, and I shout to the reporter, ‘Well, ask her! Don’t just sit there and say it’s a nuclear issue. Ask her about it. You’re a reporter.’ That night, in a Democrat debate on PMSNBC, Russert asked her about it, and she flubbed it, she flubbed it big time. It was after that that she brought on Bill, and when Bill gets going trying to help you, you don’t succeed. Ask Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, ask Gray Davis, ask the Democrat that ran for governor in Hawaii against Linda Lingle.

It’s a giant myth that the country loves the Clintons. There are some pockets of the Democrat Party that do, but it’s a huge, huge myth that these people are national icons. They’re soap opera characters. Their lives are soap opera. He’s not looked at today as a political statesman to recommend his wife to be president. He’s a soap opera figure. Andrew Young, ‘He’s been with more black women than Obama.’ This is a soap opera. Bill Clinton didn’t get a majority of votes in either of his two presidential elections, 43% in ’92, 49% in ’96. Everybody is living out these giant myths. At the same time, they are soap opera figures, and they play for keeps. All this talk about Hillary’s, you know, perhaps past the point of no return, they’ve got so many political lives, she does especially, that it would be silly here to start assuming this far out. I think we’re, what are we, two or three weeks from the Hawkeye Cauci? January 3rd. Three weeks from the Hawkeye Cauci, and until I see the house fall on her — for those of you in Rio Linda, that’s a reference to the Wizard of Oz, when the house finally fell on the bad witch.

Until I see the house fall on her and those legs curl up underneath the house and the body in the casket, she is not dead, she is not finished. Don’t forget, folks, there’s an old soap opera rule, and she’s a soap opera figure along with her husband, and that is, ’til you actually see the body, the person’s not dead. And in soap operas, villains don’t die. Villains don’t get written out. Good guys get written out. The Clintons are a soap opera. There’s no question she is in trouble. Whether or not it keeps up is another matter, and it probably will.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Ron in Atlanta. You’re up first today. Nice to have you with us, sir.

CALLER: Sir, it’s an honor to speak to you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: Mega dittos from a transplanted Yankee. Did anybody else notice how often that obnoxious moderator cackled and laughed at the Democrats, but yet at the Republicans all she did was continually interrupt them and tell them their time was up when she let the Democrats, on a 30-second question, oftentimes go into 40 and 90 seconds of time?

RUSH: I think everybody notices this stuff by now. I really do.

CALLER: I hope they do.

RUSH: They do. You can trust me.

CALLER: Thank you, sir.

RUSH: Don’t doubt me.

CALLER: Take care.

RUSH: Trust me on this. Thank you. Rick in Phoenix, Open Line Friday, you’re next, hello.

CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: From the land of the sun. I got a question for you.

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: Let’s assume Hillary does not get the nomination, which I hope she doesn’t, who’s gonna file for divorce first, her or Bill, because she doesn’t need him, and he doesn’t want her. So I was just wanting to get your opinion on that.

RUSH: I thought you were going to ask me who will be blamed, her or Bill.

CALLER: Well, I mean, she’s going to blame Bill, so, you know, she doesn’t need him anymore.

RUSH: I frankly haven’t given any thought to that because we’re not at that stage yet, and I’ve evolved a theory not too long ago, and that is to try to not tell myself stories, particularly in the context of serious analysis, because, frankly, what happens after she loses, if she loses? I really don’t care. She’ll stay in the Senate. I don’t think she’ll try another presidential bid down the road. But let’s cross that bridge when we get to it. In a question of who would file divorce first? These people need each other, folks, business, career, politics, they need each other. In fact, I’m going to tell you people a little story. I have never repeated this. I’ve never told anybody this. This goes back to 1995, and I got a phone call from — I will not mention the name — but I got a phone call from a very prominent media baron, he said, ‘I want to have dinner with you.’ ‘Oh, cool.’ I never met this man. This was a very nice thing to do, so I went and had dinner. ‘You know what I think?’ he said to me. ‘This couple, this Clinton, she’s going to divorce him, she can’t stay with him, she just can’t.’ This might have been ’96 or ‘7, I forget which.

Now, I thought about this after dinner, I went home and I said, ‘This is awfully weird.’ I never reported and retold the story, never told the story, period, certainly not on the air. This is the first time. And, of course, they didn’t get divorced. I actually think what it was, as I look back on it, I think a bunch of people wanted me to go on the air the next day and announce a big exclusive, a scoop, something that I had that I would then be immediately tarred and feathered and discredited for, and it didn’t work, because I didn’t repeat it. I’m not that easy. I am not a journal. I need at least ten sources before I go with anything, not just one.

All right, George in Vacaville, California, you’re next. I’m glad you waited.

CALLER: Hello. Mega dittos, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I was wanting to ask you a question on what do you think Fred Thompson’s electability is.

RUSH: Well, he’s electable. Can he win based on where he is in the primaries right now is another thing. He got a late start. He had that great performance in the debate on Tuesday, but everybody said it was the most boring debate in the world.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: I don’t think too many people saw it. The Republicans are thinking of actually doing another debate —

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: — the week after Christmas between New Year’s.

CALLER: Yeah, because this is the last debate before the Iowa caucus.

RUSH: Well, it may not be. There may be another one. He’s got a lot of ground to catch up. I would caution everybody, I keep saying this, these polls are interesting to track and they show right now that Huckabee’s made this big move. But it’s easy for people in a poll to say anything. I really try to discount polls like this that fluctuate, go back and forth, because when people get in the privacy of either the Hawkeye Cauci or the voting booth, you never know what they’re really, really going to do. We’re not anywhere near the finish line yet, really, and so these polls in the strict sense are meaningless. They may be giving us an accurate indication, we don’t know, and we won’t know until the votes are taken. So I’m content to sit back and watch all this stuff fall out, take shape, and try to make some sense of it. George, I appreciate the phone call.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Everybody wants to play the what-if game and I don’t really like what-ifs, because you can’t know. It’s crazy to start telling yourself stories, particularly solutions and answers that you have no idea about, but we’ll play it because everybody wants to know, ‘What happens if Hillary loses, Rush, what are Bill and Hillary going to do?’ Don’t rule out the possibility of third party. Don’t rule it out. You don’t know, folks, if you are pooh-poohing me on this, you do not know how they think they are destined for this! You do not know how focused singularly both of them are on this. It is the only thing that they see when they look out the windshield. They will not be denied this. This is a generational thing. This is the last gasp of the sixties anti-war left to get their hands on direct control of the upper echelons of leadership in this country.

If she thinks that Obama is going to be a weak national candidate, I’ll tell you what, if Obama and Huckabee, if Obama and Huckabee are the nominees, I will make this — ah, it’s not a prediction. But don’t be surprised if you see Hillary, Michael Bloomberg, on a third-party ticket. Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of Nuev Orc. I frankly, you know, we keep hearing about all the discord in the Republican Party, nobody satisfied with their candidates, doesn’t look like there’s a whole lot of satisfaction of the Democrat candidates, either. Why is there no talk of a third-party liberal candidate? If they’re so unhappy and split, why not another candidate as an independent liberal? This is how they try to beat us. We should encourage it, an honest, socialist anti-war third-party candidate. They’re out there pushing for a third-party Republican candidate is what I’m talking about, the media is. Ron Paul, or whoever it might be. Why rule this out on the Democrat side, either?

Brenda in Cadillac, Michigan, hi, I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Hey, Rush.

RUSH: Hey.

CALLER: How are you?

RUSH: Couldn’t be better.

CALLER: Good to talk to you. I listened to you for a long time, happy to finally get through.

RUSH: I appreciate that. You know, you’re very subdued. Most people tell me what an honor it is and how excited they are and how nervous they are, and you’re all business. I like that. Get in, get it, and get out.

CALLER: Well, that’s kind of what I was told to do, so —

RUSH: Yes. Yeah, but how many people do what they’re told to do?

CALLER: Well, I guess I’m a very compliant person.

RUSH: I bet you’re not. (laughing)

CALLER: Oh, little do you know.

RUSH: I mean that in a complimentary way, too, that you’re not a pushover.

CALLER: Oh, thank you. That’s right, that’s right, I’m not. I had a comment about Hillary.

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: It seems like her latest mantra against Obama, she’s kind of mocking him about his theme of hope, ‘Well, it takes more than hope to lead a country,’ and —

RUSH: I saw that. ‘It takes more than hope. It takes experience. I’ve been fighting.’ Her answer is as vacuous as his is.

CALLER: What’s really hilarious about that comment, that mocking the whole hope thing, is that when Bill Clinton ran his first campaign, he ran on the little platform that he was the man from Hope.

RUSH: That’s right. And, by the way, so is Huckabee.

CALLER: Yeah. He says if a governor from Hope, Arkansas —

RUSH: Exactly right. I think we’ve got these two sound bites. Let’s go ahead, Brenda, I’m going to play these because I want them to know what you’re talking about. But you’re right, that it is kind of ironic, but the Clintons are having a lot of things called on them that they don’t expect to be called on, and you know something else that is becoming patently obvious to people? And that is a Hillary presidency, nothing changed about it. A Hillary presidency is we’re going back in time to the nineties. We’re going backwards. That’s what she keeps talking about under the guise of change. She was asked about the Bill Shaheen comment. This is this morning in Johnson, Iowa, she held a press conference, asked about the Bill Shaheen comment made about candidate Obama, and here’s what she said. Number three, we’re staying in order here.

HILLARY: I made it clear it was not authorized, in no way condoned. I didn’t know about it, and he stepped down. On January 20th, 2009, I’m going to have to start dealing with two wars, ending one as quickly as I possibly can, and trying to salvage the other. I’m going to have to deal with the way we’ve alienated the rest of the world, all the people calling Leonard, they call me. What is going on in America? What are you going to do to repair the damage? We’re going to have to keep faith with the American people, get this economy working for everybody, begin to reverse the inequity that President Bush has enshrined in our tax policy, and then take on the big challenges. This is a big job, with a lot of big challenges. I’m up for it, and that’s why I’m making my case, and others are making their cases, and I want to keep focused on what I intend to do as president

RUSH: So she’s back to that. We don’t have the bites right now that I was thinking about. I saw ’em on television today that Brenda in Cadillac, Michigan, was talking about. Her answer was entirely vacuous. She said, ‘We need something more than hope,’ and then she went on to just be vacant, intellectually vacant about her experience and how she can forge change and so forth. She went on to say in this press appearance today that she is vetted, and then, listen.

HILLARY: I have said for months in this campaign, I am vetted, I am tested. The Republicans will go off whomever we nominate. I think all of you know that, every single one of you know that. And I’ve been dealing with their incoming fire for 16 years, and I’m still here. And I think that voters should take that into account, because I’ve been through those fires, and I have emerged, and not just survived, but thrived, much to their amazement and dismay. So I think that’s a very strong factor in favor of my being the candidate for Democrats to nominate. I apologized to Senator Obama yesterday.

RUSH: Yeah, she had to get that in. I’ll tell you why. She didn’t mention specifics in this interview this morning, but she drew a contrast with unnamed rivals, with Shaheen’s claim that unexplored elements of Obama’s candidacy will make him an easy Republican target. She said, I’ve been tested, I have been vetted, there are no surprises, there’s not going to be anybody saying I didn’t think of that, my goodness, what’s that going to mean? She’s aiming right at Obama — she is letting it be known that there are surprises, that she’s got surprises for Obama. That’s why she threw in here that, ‘I apologized to Senator Obama yesterday.’ So the same tactics continue, even the nonapology apology continues. But she’s all over the board here, and this is not persuasive stuff, this is not substantive in any way, shape, manner, or form. And see, this is another thing they’ve got to think about on the Democrat side. If she does get the nomination, she cannot go for the rest of the year, because it will happen early in February. She can’t hide for ten months without getting specific on things. She’s going to have to amuse beyond platitudes, and the more she shows up in public and the more she speaks, there’s a corresponding drop in her numbers.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We have that audio sound bite of Mrs. Clinton that I referred to in the previous hour. This is from the debate. It’s her answer about hope, because that is one of Obama’s primary campaign themes. In fact… (muttering) I’m just reading the transcript here of the sound bite that I’m also going to play, to see if it mentions hope. (muttering) It doesn’t, that I can see real quick. Here’s what Mrs. Clinton said, trying to attack Barack Obama’s campaign theme.

HILLARY: Everyone wants ‘change.’ Well, everybody on this stage has an idea about how to get change. Uh, some believe you get change by demanding it. Some believe you get it by hoping for it. I believe you get it by working hard for change.

RUSH: Stop the tape!

HILLARY: That’s what I’ve done my entire life.

RUSH: Stop the tape! Will somebody please explain to me what is the ‘change’ with the Clintons getting back into the White House? Would somebody please explain to me why we’re even talking about here as a serious candidate? She was a crumby first lady! Here’s the rest of this…

HILLARY: That’s what I will do as president. I will end the war in Iraq and bring our sons and daughters home, I will get quality affordable health care for every single American, and I will not rest until every child has a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential. So I hope you will go caucus for me on January 3rd. Stand up for me and I’ll stand up for you, during this campaign and when I’m in the White House.

RUSH: This is nothing but platitudes. She says she’s not going to rest ‘until every child has a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential?’ Where’s this? Here it is. New York Times today, and the headline says it all: ‘School Recess Gets Gentler, and the Adults Are Dismayed.’ The New York Times just came up with this. This has been something that’s been percolating throughout our culture for years. It’s from Montville, Connecticut. ‘Children at the Oakdale School here in southeastern Connecticut returned this fall to learn that their traditional recess had gone the way of the peanut butter sandwich and the Gumby lunchbox. No longer could they let off their youthful energy — pent up from hours of long division — by cavorting outside for 22 minutes of unstructured play, or perhaps with a vigorous game of tag or dodgeball. Such games had been virtually banned by the principal, Mark S. Johnson, along with kickball, soccer and other ‘body-banging’ activities, as he put it, where knees — and feelings — might get bruised.’ Where has the New York Times been? This is a cultural story that’s been around for ten or 12 years, if not longer.

‘Instead, children are encouraged to jump rope, play with Hula Hoops or gently fling a Frisbee. Balls are practically controlled substances, parceled out under close supervision by playground monitors. The traditional recess, a rite of grade school, is endangered not only in the Oakdale School here in Montville, [Connecticut]. From Cheyenne, Wyo., to Wyckoff, N.J., recess … is being rethought and pared down.’ Frankly, Mrs. Clinton, what are you going to do about this? You’re not going to rest until ‘every child has a chance to live up to his or her potential.’ When the National Education Association teachers union (a bunch of libs, that’s who’s behind this) says (New Castrati impression), ‘We can’t push our children too far, Mr. Limbaugh. These are gentle young things. We make ’em grow up too fast as it is. They could get terribly hurt. They could get bruised egos, and in tag if you’re not IT, your self-esteem suffers.’ You know, this is the way these people think. Now, I think that at the root of this is modern-era feminism, which has emasculated a bunch of, heretofore, men. Men, in too many places — particularly in education — are not men anymore. They’ve been emasculated. The chickification, the feminization of the culture — and it’s rife throughout. It’s not just here in recess. It’s even in the classroom in some of these skrools. At any rate, Mrs. Clinton will do just the opposite. She believes in this kind of stuff. The NEA is a mirror image of Hillary Clinton and vice-versa.

So to say that she’s going to run out there and make sure she doesn’t rest ’til every child ‘has a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential’?

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