RUSH: South Bend, Indiana. Bob, welcome to Open Line Friday. Hello.
CALLER: Well, good afternoon. What an honor! Thank you.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: Merry Christian Christmas to you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I know you sit down and have breakfast every morning with the president, and I know you really got a lot of influence there.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: Well, yeah! You know you do. Would you ask him to ask his press secretary, that new lady, not to accept any questions from the press where the word ‘Iraq’ and the word ‘war’ are linked? Actually there is no ‘war’ in Iraq; there is a ‘battle’ in Iraq, and the whole world has associated those two words together. We’ve lost the battle of the Twin Towers twice. We lost the battle of the Cole. We’ve lost the battle of the embassies, but we’re in the process of winning the battle of Iraq and we’re in the process of winning the battle in Afghanistan, and when you look at it that way, we’ve been 25 years into this war —
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: — and we’re going to be another 75 before it’s over with.
RUSH: I understand your point. This is one theater in the overall war.
CALLER: Yes. It drives me crazy.
RUSH: Afghanistan —
CALLER: I want to throw my brick at the TV.
RUSH: Well, it’s a toughie. I’m having brunch with the president in Crawford on Sunday on my way to Missouri, and I’ll mention this.
CALLER: Okay. (laughing)
RUSH: But I think that it’s so ingrained now that you’re going to have a tough time —
CALLER: I know it is. But, hey, with your broad influence and this show you got, you could do it. I know you can. I mean, it would be easy for you.
RUSH: Oh, yeah! It’s easy. (laughing)
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: Yeah. (laughing) I was e-mailing Tom Brady back and forth earlier in the season, the quarterback of the Patriots. I think they were 6-0.
CALLER: Yeah?
RUSH: I played golf with him out at the AT&T now and then. So I sent him a note, and I said I was looking at the future schedule. I said, ‘Okay.’ I went through all the teams they had left on the schedule. I said, ‘Okay, these guys, you own ’em. No problem, you own these guys. These guys give you a little bit of trouble. You got the Steelers. You own the Steelers. They’re not going to be a problem. You own the Dolphins. The Dolphins in Miami could be a trap game, but…’ I’m going through the whole thing, and Brady replied. After I took him through his 16-0 season he wrote back and he said, ‘Oh! Why don’t you become a coach? This is so easy. I think I’ll just phone it in and I’ll go out to California and take some time off. It’s so easy. Yeah, you just look at the schedule and say, ‘Mark that one on off. Mark that one.’ Why, we don’t even have to play ’em,’ he said. So that’s why I reacted when you said, ‘It’s easy for you.’ (laughing) Yeah, it’s easy.
CALLER: I know I’m an untrained, rank amateur.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: But would you like to hear what’s gonna happen at the Republican convention?
RUSH: Oh, sure. What’s going to happen?
CALLER: It’s going to be deadlocked. This is what I’m hoping for: a deadlocked convention, and then they’ll go ask Newt Gingrich to run, and he’s going to pick Condi Rice as his running mate, and that will be my dream ticket.
RUSH: Well, we’ll put that prediction over there.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Another example of how easy this is: Just predict a locked convention, a deadlocked convention and a draft Newt movement? (interruption) What? What? What? Okay, I… (interruption) Oh, Snerdley wants to know if Dallas is going to recover. Yes, yes, yes. Look, Dallas had a bad game. Terrell Owens was joking, he says, about Jessica Simpson being up there in that cute little pink Cowboys jersey, the pink number nine. I saw Romo couldn’t keep his eyes off of her, though. Will the Giants make the playoffs? Yeah, I think they’ll make the playoffs. But you know Kevin Everett, the Buffalo Bill that was paralyzed in the opening game of the season? They’re going to bring him back Sunday. He’s walking now. He’s going to be at Ralph Wilson Stadium (Cosell impression) ‘in Orchard Park, New York,’ and the Bills, who are now out of it… It’s amazing. Teams can get fired up to be spoilers, and it might be rainy. I think the weather might be somewhat inclement, but not snow. The Giants are sort of like where the Steelers are now: Every game is a roll of the dice. You just don’t know. The Cowboys are going to recover. They’ll be fine. They’re playing Carolina Saturday night. You don’t lose to Carolina unless you’re Seattle.