RUSH: This morning on CNN’s American Morning the cohost John Roberts talking with Mike Allen of the Politico, and John Roberts says, ‘Will the sheer force of momentum of McCain’s victory say to conservatives, ‘You better get on this train’?’
ALLEN: Conservatives in Washington, I can tell you, are talking about, ‘Is there a way to stop this? Do we really want to give him the keys to the Oval Office?’ You saw the endorsement of Governor Romney by Liz Cheney, the vice president’s daughter, State Department official, that’s the leading edge of some Washington conservatives saying, ‘We want to stop this.’
ROBERTS: Yeah, every time Rush Limbaugh gets on the air, he takes the flamethrower to John McCain.
RUSH: That’s John Roberts of CNN. Speaking of The Politico, Mike Allen from The Politico, here’s a story by Ben Smith and David Paul Kuhn. Now, tell me what you think of this. Here’s the headline: ”Rudy Defeat Marks End of 9/11 Politics’ — Rudy Giuliani’s distant third-place finish in Florida may put an end to his bid for president, and it seems also to mark the beginning of the end of a period in Republican politics that began on Sept. 11, 2001. Giuliani’s national celebrity was based on his steady, comforting appearance in Americans’ living rooms amid the terrorist attacks, and his campaign for president never found a message beyond that moment. The emotional connection he forged that day, it seems, has proved politically worthless. After months of wonder that the former mayor seemed to have no ceiling to his support, he turned out to have no floor, trading fourth-place finishes with Ron Paul, a little-known Texas congressman. ‘There’s a paradox for Rudy,’ said former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, who was a member of the 9/11 Commission. ‘One of the things he did very well on 9/11 was say, ‘We’ve got to get back to normal.’ And that’s what’s happened. We’ve gotten back to normal.”
So 9/11’s over. It’s over, folks, and libs have won on that, 9/11’s over; no reason to talk about it; no reason to have any concern about it; certainly no reason to use it in politics. Look what happened to Rudy. See, this is the left successfully trying to get us to stop talking about a security issue, because they know that they are weak on it. So success in battle and at home has brought on a lack of interest, the Drive-Bys say, about 9/11. I would suggest to you it’s just the opposite. I would suggest if you look at the exit returns down in Florida, most of the elderly vote went for McCain, a lot of the military vote went for McCain, and there are two reasons for it. One is this notion that he’s the only guy that can beat Hillary, and the other is he’s constantly talking about national security where the other candidates appeared to be weak on it. I frankly think that it’s a mistake for any Republican voter to think that any Republican candidate doesn’t care about national security. Maybe Ron Paul. The Democrats you should have that concern about, but just because McCain was the only one talking about it prominently, does anybody believe — well, okay, Huckabee did sound a little bit unprepared on the issue. Does anybody doubt that Rudy, or Fred Thompson even, or Romney would not respond accordingly if there were another 9/11 type attack? We’ve only got one candidate in our midst that we can trust to do the right thing? Balderdash, flummery, poppycock.