RUSH: Let’s go back to me on this program yesterday about Senator McCain and the Republican Party.
RUSH ARCHIVE: Let’s pretend the election is today and that McCain wins it and he wins it with a sizable margin, and he does so by attracting Democrats, liberals, and independents to his otherwise Republican coalition. Do you know what’s going to happen then, folks? I’m not trying to depress you; I’m trying to prepare you. You know what’s going to happen then? We are going to have a revival of the whole notion that Rockefeller Republicans, that country club blue-blood Republicans are the way to go and the way to get victories, that conservatism — the conservatism of Reagan — is dead.
RUSH: I said that on this program yesterday. Keep that in mind as we listen to the next sound bite. Last night, Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, Bob Beckel and Sean Hannity have this exchange.
BECKEL: Your conservative cycle, your and Hugh [Hewitt’s] it’s over, man. That’s the eighties and nineties.
HANNITY: Alright.
BECKEL: This country is now 5% center-left. It was 15% center-right.
HANNITY: Thank you, Bob Beckel.
BECKEL: It is not there anymore, and you guys, frankly, you’re dealing with a lot of dinosaurs.
RUSH: All right, there’s Bob Beckel confirming exactly what I said in terms of what this country is going to look like — and in his mind, looks like now. The point of this and the reason that I wanted you to hear the sound bite, Bob Beckel is a Democrat. He ran the campaign of Walter F. Mondull. Beckel might have had something to do with the notion of superdelegates. Somebody told me that, too, and I’m not sure if I heard that correctly. But regardless, he’s a big, big Democrat — and he’s out there saying, ‘Hey, look, pal, it’s a 5% center left country. It was 15% center right. It’s not there anymore. You guys, frankly, are dealing with a lot of dinosaurs. Your conservative cycle, it’s over, man. That’s eighties and nineties.’ The problem is, this is the exact point of view of many conservative media-types who are attempting to make that prediction by Beckel or that statement a reality, by trying to simply… It’s bad enough, it’s serious enough (well, it’s actually par for the course) when the left tries to write off conservatism and portray it inaccurately as a minority movement and losing ground and so forth. When people on our own side pick this up and then start championing it, which is what has happened, then you got a problem.
Beckel wasn’t even talking about the election of McCain, but I’m telling you that if McCain wins this, according to the conventional wisdom of today, by getting a lot of Democrats and independents, that’s exactly what people on our side are going to say. They’re going to say, ‘There is no conservatism anymore. There never was. Reagan wasn’t even a conservative. You conservatives, you never have been as powerful as you think. You’re whistling Dixie. You’re longing for an icon from the eighties. There’s only one of those guys, and he wasn’t even that conservative. Get over it. We are now a centrist party,’ meaning moderates, independents, and so forth. The reason the so-called conservatives on our side like that notion is because they’re Big-Government guys. They’re Big Government. They’re part of the Washington establishment. Washington is government, and the bigger the better and the more positions you can get and the more influence you have over Washington policy; the bigger you think you are — and, of course, conservatives want to eliminate as much of government as possible.
It’s not the focus of our endeavors, infiltrating it and growing it and using it as our base. We believe individuals and the free market and liberty and freedom, are the keys to American greatness, continued prosperity, not government. All these centrists, be this leftists, Democrats, or Republicans, by comparison, those are actually liberals, and they want to get their hands on government to use it to empower themselves in a whole bunch of different ways, and this is what we face with a McCain victory. I also came across from the Center for Immigration Studies last night, something fascinating. You know, the illegal immigration issue, the open borders people on our side — the open borders people in the so-called conservative media — have been saying, ‘Immigration is not going to be an issue. It’s irrelevant. You guys that are, you know, big on illegal immigration, you’re really going to ruin the party here because we gotta have open borders. We gotta have these people in. Immigration made the country great. It’s not going to be a political issue. It’s not going to be a big issue at all, they say,’ and they cite McCain.
‘Look, McCain won the Republican nomination. He’s a huge open borders guy.’ I mean, the McCain-Kennedy bill to open the borders and let the illegals keep coming in and to grant them amnesty, so how can you guys,’ meaning me and others like me, ‘say illegal immigration is a big issue when McCain got the Republican nomination?’ I may have the answer. ‘A new poll using neutral language, finds that primary and caucus voters have little knowledge of candidates’ immigration positions. The results also show that voters often don’t share their candidate’s position. Among the findings,’ this is fascinating, ‘only 34% of McCain voters correctly identified their candidate as favoring eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements. Only 34% of McCain voters correctly identified his position! Forty-two percent of Clinton voters correctly identified her position. Fifty-two percent of Obama’s voters know what his immigration position is,’ and, by the way, the position from all these three candidates is identical.
You know: Open borders. Amnesty! Let ’em in. Let ’em register to vote. Let ’em get into college. These three candidates have the same view. But only 34% of McCain voters know what his view is, and get this: ‘Of McCain voters, 35% mistakenly thought he favored enforcement that would cause illegals to return home. Another 10% thought McCain wanted mass deportations, and 21% didn’t know his position.’ So if you add up these numbers, 66% of McCain voters are totally clueless about his position and his role in the issue of illegal immigration. ‘Voters often held different positions from the candidate they supported. Only 31% of McCain voters had the same immigration position he does. Whoever wins the presidency,’ it says here, ‘will face significant opposition to giving eventual citizenship to illegal immigrants. Just 25% of Republicans and 50% of Democrat primary voters said they would support amnesty, eventually citizenship.’ Just 25% of Republican voters said they would support it, 66% of McCain’s voters don’t have any idea what his position is. (sigh) You can add the numbers up, and you can put this together, and it’s a disaster waiting to happen.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Senator McCain was on Good Morning America today with Diane Sawyer, and she said, ‘On the big things, is America in for four more years with a McCain presidency of a Bush presidency? Is that a fair question to ask you, Senator?’
MCCAIN: There are very different policies that I have with the president. Climate change is one of the — the major issues that — differences. For nearly four years I have fought hard against the failed strategy in Iraq and called for the new strategy that’s succeeding. There’s a number of issues, but the point is, I’m not running on the Bush presidency. I’m running on my own service to the country, my own record in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate and my vision for the future.
RUSH: Okay. So McCain is not running on the Bush presidency, he’s running on global warming. He’s going to give us what a Gore presidency would be other than the war in Iraq. ‘Very different policies that I have with the president, climate change, one of the major issues that — differences. Four years I fought hard against the failed strategy in Iraq.’ I’m holding my fire. I know, I know, Harry Reid — don’t get me started — Snerdley, if I get started here. Jack Murtha uses the same words, the failed strategy, Harry Reid uses the same words. Nancy Pelosi uses the same words. So then Diane Sawyer’s next question, well, we have the whole exchange.
SAWYER: Today you’re going back to Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, part of your biographical tour. We got the yearbook. It says here that your nickname was Punk. Anything you want to say about that?
MCCAIN: (laughing) Listen, I loved this school. I was a kid who was rebellious, and we all know that. Some of my happiest times were here, but I certainly was not exactly the model student.
RUSH: But we all don’t know that. What do they mean, everybody knows that he was rebellious? We all know that? Hell, 66% of his own voters don’t even know what his immigration position is. Time for the Grooveyard of Forgotten Favorites, Senator McCain being rebellious.
(playing of McCain spoof song)