RUSH: This Howard Dean comment that their team, that their field, Hillary and Obama looks like America, and our field looks like the 1950s and sounds like the 1850s, I kind of skirted past that, but this deserves some comment, because there have been countless conservative black candidates, conservative high officials, and they have never been treated with respect that is demanded of Obama supporters in and out of the media. We can start with Clarence Thomas, Dr. Thomas Sowell, Michael Steele in Maryland. Condoleezza Rice has been disrespected and mistreated like nobody in the left ever is, by liberals, by Democrats, full-fledged hate for these people, because they are considered traitors. This hate for everybody that the left has is the basis for their philosophy and their politics. As far as I’m concerned, they don’t get to lecture us, folks. They don’t get to lecture us on who we are, what year we’re from, and what century we’re from, and they don’t get to lecture us and tell us what America is and what America looks like, and that they’re it. Because when they do, what they’re talking about is they’re the good people when it comes to race.
Well, Lynn Swann, Clarence Thomas, Michael Steele, Ken Blackwell in Ohio, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Conservative black candidates have never been treated with respect from the left. Certainly not the respect that they are demanding Obama be treated with by the media and everybody else. Howard Dean is out there talking about the 1950s, the 1850s, which is interesting. In the 1850s, the Democrat Party stood for slavery. In the 1950s, the Democrat Party stood for segregation. Did Howard Dean support Michael Steele or Ken Blackwell or Lynn Swann? No. He and his party defeated them, with the whitest of white males and did everything they could to defeat them. And not just defeat them, but destroy them. Did Howard Dean and his party support Clarence Thomas? No. They smeared him, with the whitest of white politicians — Biden, Kennedy, and all the rest of them. This is why I say the hate in this culture is predominantly on the left, the hypocrisy is predominantly on the left, the disingenuousness, the sanctimony is on the left. Obama’s being hailed not because he’s black, he’s being hailed because he’s a liberal, pure and simple, and they think that they have a chance with Obama.
I’ll tell you really why they’re so excited about Obama, and it has nothing to do with them being black, except in this regard. They think that Obama being black will shield him and other liberals from being criticized as liberals. Remember, to them, the dirtiest word in our culture today is ‘liberal.’ We have made it a dirty word. They resent that. They foisted a candidate up here who will be immune from any criticism whatsoever because he will say, ‘I resent being criticized this way.’ The Democrats will say he resents being criticized that way, and we resent you criticizing him that way. And their purpose is to camouflage and mask who they really are, and with Obama they get to do that. Obama is not even leading a campaign. He’s leading a movement, as I’ve said. He’s got a bunch of followers who have invested in faith, not policy matters, as is traditional. Speaking of all this, it was a black day yesterday in the Clinton campaign as old guard civil rights leaders John Lewis decided to split the scene, made a break for it, joining the Obama camp. This is last night on NBC’s Nightly News, Andrea Mitchell had this conversation with John Lewis.
LEWIS: Forty-three years ago I marched across the bridge in Selma. That was much easier than the decision that I have to make, but I had to make it.
MITCHELL: You’re saying this decision was harder than the Selma march?
LEWIS: It was much tougher. All I had to do in Selma in 1965, to put on my trench coat and my suit, my backpack, and walk and look straight ahead.
MITCHELL: Congressman, you got your head beaten in. Your face was covered with blood.
LEWIS: But this is tougher. I’m dealing with friends, people that I love, people that I admire, part of my extended family.
RUSH: Andrea Mitchell says, ‘Congressman, you got your head beaten in and your face was covered with blood.’ She’s saying, are you nuts? That’s what she’s saying. It was harder to leave the Clintons than it was to march across the bridge in Selma, and John Lewis says it was. Now, he may know something that we don’t. I mean he’s making a break for it. He is abandoning Clinton, Inc. Now, whether he’s exaggerating a bit here, believe me the difficulty here in leaving is if she happens to come back and win this thing or even not, he knows what happens to people who abandon or cross Clinton, Inc. Why would this be so hard? I mean marching across the bridge in Selma was no piece of cake, folks. He did get beaten up. He was bloodied real bad and he wants us to think this was harder.
I think part and parcel of this also, there’s a message to the Clintons: ‘I really have no choice here. You have to understand what I’m doing. It’s so hard. I’ve never had anything harder to do than abandon you.’ He’s asking for protection. Uncle Bill’s burden. John Lewis was an Uncle Bill, abandoned the black guy, Obama, to stay with the white master, to seek favor with the white master, to seek favor with the white master who has bestowed power on John Lewis and the Reverend Jackson and others in the civil rights leadership. So Mrs. Clinton, she conducted a sad interview with Judy Woodruff on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, and Judy Woodruff said, ‘We just had it confirmed this afternoon that John Lewis, longtime friend of yours and President Clinton’s [an Uncle Bill] has confirmed that he’s going to support and will vote for Barack Obama at the convention. Do you have a comment?
HILLARY: He is a dear friend, and I respect him so greatly, and I understand the incredible pressure that he’s been under. So he’s my friend today just like he was yesterday, and he’ll be my friend tomorrow.
RUSH: Uh, yeah. That’s what the Corleone family said to the Hollywood producer before he woke up with the horse’s head in the bed. So Woodruff then says, ‘Well, people look at what’s happening in your campaign, Senator Clinton, they say, ‘What’s happened?’ All of last year you were the front-runner, you were headed for the nomination, and January comes along, boom, Senator Obama starts winning primaries, he’s won 11 in a row. How do you explain what’s happened?’
HILLARY: None of this is surprising to me. You know, last spring when I looked at how the race was shaping up, I knew that it would be a close contest, and I assumed it would be with Senator Obama. And, at that time, you know, I said, ‘We’ve gotta start thinking about Texas.’
RUSH: Oh, give me a break!
HILLARY: I think it’s great that this has been a close contest. I don’t have any problem with that. I don’t think I’m entitled to anything. I hate being the front-runner. I find that to be somewhat —
RUSH: Oh, what a crock!
HILLARY: — burdensome.
RUSH: She knew last spring it was going to come down to Texas? (laughing) This is her problem. None of this is surprising? It’s all surprising. Go back and look at her interview with Katie Couric prior to Super Tuesday, ‘What do you do if you lose?’ ‘I’m not going to lose.’ This is mine. ‘I knew this would be a close contest. I assumed it would be Senator Obama. At that time last spring I said we gotta start thinking about Texas’? Last spring, ten months ago, she wants us to believe that she knew it was going to be about Texas. Folks, the dirty little secret here is that Hillary’s campaign had no ground organization set up after Super Tuesday in February in any of these states. Obama did. She didn’t. He had all kinds of campaign offices pockmarking these various states. She didn’t have any of them. Always knew it was going to come back to Texas. First the firewall was New Hampshire, then the firewall was South Carolina, then what was the next firewall? All these firewalls and these firewalls have been blown down. Now the next firewall is Texas, says she knew that last spring. Finally, Judy Woodruff says, ‘You’re not disagreeing that inspiration is a part of leadership?’
HILLARY: I don’t disagree, and I think I inspire a lot of people. I see them coming, they start crying on the rope line, they flood my events, they are contributing to the tune of a million dollars a day on the Internet. I am very proud of the incredible support that I have and the vision I have for America and, you know, the dreams that I have that I can help to deliver, you know, a better future for people.
RUSH: People crying on Hillary’s rope line? Probably the interns unhappy Bill didn’t show up.
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