RUSH: You remember that 21-year-old superdelegate that was wined and dined by Chelsea Clinton? His name was Jason Rae. He’s a Wisconsin superdelegate. He was ‘taken out to breakfast by Chelsea Clinton in the run-up to that state’s Democratic primary. Two days after the vote, the college junior — who will be the youngest superdelegate at this year’s Democratic National Convention — is undecided no longer: he’s backing Barack Obama. ‘The Democratic Party is fortunate to have two very talented individuals running for President this election,’ said Rae in a statement released by the Obama campaign Thursday. ‘It is a difficult choice for anyone, but in the end, the choice for me has become clear. I am proudly supporting Senator Barack Obama.’ He cited Obama’s support from an overwhelming majority of young voters as the major reason for his decision.’ Now, I don’t know if this story I’m about to tell you is instructive, if it’s illustrative or not, but I saw this this week in one of my show prep stacks and I didn’t get to it, it was about a young Obama supporter just as excited as she could be, typical of these Obama crowds that you see. She was from New Jersey, but she was in New York, and she got sick and she just wasn’t able to get across the river and go vote for Obama.
So you gotta wonder if the young vote’s going to do a 180 this year and show up in greater numbers than they usually do. It was the Obama Girl, did all the commercials in the primary, ‘I’m an Obama Girl,’ and she didn’t, when she had a chance to vote for the guy, she didn’t, because she got sick. So we’ll see if the yute vote actually shows up. You know, it’s a striking contrast. It’s so obvious. Mrs. Clinton cannot give a speech, when you contrast Obama out there and his rallies or whatever these things are to Mrs. Clinton, it’s just so, so obvious, the glaring weaknesses of Mrs. Clinton and her campaign, charisma, lack of it, what have you. I mean, try this headline: ”Even Blowing His Nose, Obama Gets Applause.’ — It’s probably safe to say that you have arrived as a politician when your audience applauds when you blow your nose. Yes, just a day before a debate in Texas, Sen. Barack Obama had a head cold. And about a half-hour into a speech here, the Illinois Democrat announced that he had to take a quick break. ‘Gotta blow my nose here for a second,’ Obama said. Out came a Kleenex (or perhaps it was a hankie), and he wiped his nose. The near-capacity audience at the Reunion Arena, which his campaign said totaled 17,000, broke out in a slightly awkward applause,’ when he blew his nose. Will that handkerchief be for sale on eBay, is the real question.
This is from the Times Online, the UK Times Online, a blog, I believe. It’s called ”Clinton’s Spin Machine: Spun Dry’ — Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton for the ninth and tenth straight time last night, with blowouts in Wisconsin and Hawaii.’ Look, here’s another: ‘Analysis: Clinton Could Turn Toxic as Options Dry Up.’ I have noticed several stories that reference how dried up Hillary is. You know what I think is going on, something I called and something I predicted, and nobody will ever admit this, but I think what’s going on here is ageism, folks. I really do. I predicted this. You can’t avoid it, the contrast of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in these headlines, ‘Analysis: Clinton Could Turn Toxic as Options Dry Up.’ ‘Clinton’s Spin Machine: Spun Dry’ These stories are just subtle ways of saying we just don’t want to watch her melt. We just don’t want to watch her melt. I mean that’s what these stories are all about.
Did you know she’s in debt $7.6 million? From the New Republic: ‘For many weeks, a growing chorus of political observers have wondered why, exactly, Hillary Clinton hadn’t fired the architect of her thus far woefully unsuccessful strategy, Mark Penn. Politico.com at last supplies a perverse answer. She owes him too much money. Hillary Clinton ended January with $7.6 million in debt, not including the $5 million personal loan she gave to her campaign in the run-up to Super Tuesday. More than $2 million of the red ink is owed to Mark Penn.’ This is just another one of these stories, ‘Oh, what’s wrong with the Hillary campaign?’ ‘Well, it’s a bad strategy from Mark Penn. And Howard Wolfson, he’s not a pretty good spokesman. He looks old and worn out in there, all these old Clinton people.’ It’s her, and none of them just want to say it. It is the candidate.
Lisa Lerer, Politico.com: ”Obamamania verges on obsession’ — Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings has held elected office for more than a quarter-century, so he’s seen his fair share of politicians come and go. But apparently he’s never seen one quite like Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. ‘This is not a campaign for president of the United States, this is a movement to change the world,’ he said as he introduced Obama last week in Baltimore. ‘You do not get 13,000 people in this auditorium with a campaign.” George Clooney, who makes Bill Press look like Einstein, said, ‘He walks into a room and you want to follow him somewhere, anywhere.’ Actress Halle Berry said to the Philadelphia Daily News, ‘I’ll do whatever he says to do. I’ll collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear.’ That’s what she said. It’s what she said. It’s right here in the ThePolitico.com. ‘I’ll collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear.’ Yeah, it’s fascinating to watch this, folks. We’ll see where it goes. It’s clear there are a lot of factors tied up in support for Obama, but very few of them have anything to do with substance. Speaking of the Obamas, Michelle Obama is on her clarification tour. She took some heat here for saying this is the first time she’s been proud of her country. WJAR television Providence, reporter Bill Rappleye interviewed Michelle Obama, and he said, ‘You want to clarify those remarks of yours?’
MICHELLE OBAMA: Yeah, I think it’s, you know, the clarification has been made. What I was clearly talking about was that I’m proud in how Americans are engaging in the political process. I mean, everybody has said what I said, which is we haven’t seen these record numbers of turnouts, people who are paying attention, going to rallies, watching the debates. I mean, for the first time in my lifetime I’m seeing people rolling up their sleeves in a way that I haven’t seen and really trying to figure this out. And that’s the source of pride that I was talking about.
RUSH: How old is Michelle Obama? Is she in her forties? Okay. So that would mean that in the nineties, Michelle Obama was an adult, right? If I’m Hillary Clinton, I have to be seething, because the Clintons think that they were in the nineties what Obama is today, people stuffing envelopes and attending rallies and going bonkers and cheering and so forth and so on, and Michelle Obama has just dissed the Clinton nineties, which for the longest time defined the Democrat Party. The next question from the reporter Bill Rappleye, ‘Have you always been proud of America when we abandoned the people in Rwanda, the disparity between the rich and the poor?’
MICHELLE OBAMA: We’ve got work to do. But you don’t run for president of the United States and put yourself and your family through this if you don’t feel some level of deep pride and possibility for your country. That’s pretty much all I can say is I love my country. I wouldn’t be in this if I didn’t care deeply and didn’t believe that the kind of possibility that I had as a kid should be available for every single child, and it shouldn’t be up to luck or based on race or gender or political affiliation, and I think people in this country know that, and that’s why they’re hungry for something different.
RUSH: Okay. So she wouldn’t be in there, she wouldn’t be doing this, she wouldn’t be doing all of that if she didn’t care deeply. Obviously felt the need to go out there and do the clarification tour on being proud of her country for the first time in her life. One more, Beaumont, Texas, yesterday, at a Hillary campaign event, Bill Clinton spoke. Very quick, just nine seconds, here’s what he said.
CLINTON: If she wins in Texas and Ohio, I think she’ll be the nominee. If you don’t deliver for her, I don’t think she can be. It’s all on you.
RUSH: She’s toast. It’s Texas and Ohio or bust, this from Bill Clinton. So once again, points the finger at the voters: (doing Clinton impression) ‘It’s all on you, it’s all on you. It’s not up to Hillary to get your vote, okay? She deserves your vote. I mean, she’s owed your vote. It’s up to you. Get out there and support her, and we are going to be watching.’
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RUSH: The news just continues to pile up, and it’s not good for Mrs. Clinton. ‘Major organized labor endorsements continue to be delivered to Sen. Barack Obama, with union leaders increasingly sending signals that they believe the time is rapidly approaching for Sen. Hillary Clinton to exit the Democratic nomination race. ‘We do think it is time to bring this nomination process to a close,’ said Anna Burger, chair of Change to Win, an umbrella group that represents seven unions with 6 million members. Burger made the comment during a conference call with reporters to announce the group’s endorsement for Obama. ‘There is certainly a movement blowing here,’ she said, adding that it may be time for Clinton to ‘recognize’ that Obama is benefiting from that desire for change.’ Who woulda thunk this? I know it’s unions in Texas, but who in the world would have thunk this? That we’ve actually got union organizers and leaders suggesting to Mrs. Clinton that she scram.
Stan in Bristle, Virginia, Stan, welcome to the program, nice to have you with us, sir.
CALLER: Hey, prophet, how you doing?
RUSH: Good, sir.
CALLER: Listen, I could have sworn I just heard Michelle Obama say she wanted kids today to have the same opportunities she had.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: When she was a kid. Let’s go back. That puts her right about the Reagan administration, if I’m not wrong.
RUSH: Well, it’s gotta be something like that.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a good point you’re making out there.
RUSH: Well, she’s stumping for conservatism, is what I’m getting at, and as part of the McCain show prep, you know, we gotta do what we can for the boy. That’s all we can do. That’s all we can do, brother, is tell the truth. She was a kid when Reagan was around. She had all kinds of opportunities, what was going on?
RUSH: Yeah, where did those opportunities emanate from, a Republican administration. That obviously is the point that you’re making.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: She needs to go home and be quiet.
RUSH: Well, the thing is, there are more opportunities today than there were when she was growing up. This is the point that I keep trying to make to people day in and day out when they keep hearing about how rotten the economy is. By the way, did you hear about the unemployment numbers? Unexpectedly, the unemployment numbers dropped, ladies and gentlemen! A big drop. We’re at 4.9% unemployment. We’re supposedly heading into a recession. The thing that somebody should tell Michelle Obama, this is what the Democrats and media are trying to make you think, that back when they grew up, back when Barry and Michelle were just little apples in their parents’ eyes, there’s is wondrous opportunity in this country, and of course Stan’s point is, when was that? The Reagan years. We’re not supposed to reference that. Now all of a sudden the country’s gone to hell in a handbasket, Michelle and Barry went to Harvard, yeah, wherever the hell they went, Ivy League schools, he’s a senator, she was working for some hospital group, their millionaires, nice house, but somehow something’s gone wrong — must have happened in the nineties for us to lose all this ground, for there to be no opportunity.
There’s more opportunity than there was yesterday. There’s more opportunity yesterday than there was a week ago. There’s more opportunity today than there was in the 1980s. This is the United States of America. As long as we continue to be devoted to the free market capitalist system, there will continue to be more opportunity each and every day. Every day in America is better than the day before. I’m not doing an Obama on you here and uttering little platitudes, but they’re out trying to make you think that the salad days are behind us, ‘Oh, woe, we’ve got ours, and we feel so bad, Barack and I, we got ours, we got everything, and I want my kids to have the same chance.’ They’ll have more a chance than you did, Michelle. What they do with it is another thing, but it’s still going to be the case.