RUSH: This is CNN’s Election Center, last night the host Campbell Brown talking to Roland Martin, and she says, ‘Roland, what did you think about the candidates’ answers dealing with the questions of faith at the Compassion Forum in Philadelphia?’
RUSH: (laughing) See? See how foreign it is, ‘It’s great to see Democrats embracing the issue of faith,’ as though that’s odd, that’s unique, it was great to see them doing so. What I specifically referred to was, I’m sure a decent and good-hearted man stood up and asked Obama if he would commit to reducing poverty by 50% in ten years. Now, if you’re going to ask a question like that to a socialist, I mean what kind of answer do you expect? You think Obama’s going to say no, we can’t do it in ten years? The fact of the matter is that we have had a war on poverty since 1964. That’s what, now, 44 years later, am I right, doing quick subtraction? Forty-four years later, and have we made a dent? Expressed as a percentage, we have not. The way to fix poverty is economic growth, not redistribution politics. Of course Jesus talked about the disadvantaged and the poor, and nobody who is a Christian is ignorant of that. But the answer is not to make everybody poor in the process of fixing poverty. And that is not what Jesus said.
And yet they want to rewrite it. It’s no different than saying, like they did ten or so years ago, that the homeless are the modern equivalent of Mary and Joseph. These people bastardize religion.Can you imagine liberals, who get all bent out of shape when anybody brings up God, this is one thing I have to note. Here we had a Compassion Forum, here a bunch of liberals, Hillary and Obama at Messiah College, and here they are talking about faith and politics. When that happens on the Republican side, Good Lord, folks, you’ve gotta put it to a stop, separation of church and state, who do these people think they are? When liberals do it, why, isn’t it wonderful? And isn’t it unique?
Here’s Joe Klein of TIME Magazine on Charlie Rose last night essentially admitting Operation Chaos is working. He doesn’t use those terms, but you can listen to all of these comments from these people about the unsettled nature of this campaign, and there’s one reason for it: Operation Chaos. Charlie Rose said, ‘Joe, you’ve written a column called The Patriotism Problem. Dick just talked about the idea of sort of seeing Obama as an American and how some would like to play and talk about his religion and talk about his flag, what’s in his lapel, all those other issues. What is his patriotism problem, Joe? Not what is reality, but what’s the perception about patriotism for Obama to deal with?’
KLEIN: One of the greatest problems he has is one of his greatest strengths. He has a very highfalutin way of talking. When he says, you know, if you’re a typical, you know, working-class American, working two jobs trying to get your kids through college, you come home from your second job banging the cash register at 11 o’clock at night, you turn on the TV and there is this guy saying, ‘We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,’ you say, ‘Huh? What’s that about?’ And I think that he has made some adjustments to talk about the meat and potatoes things that people care about, but something like this kind of knocks him off stride.
RUSH: What is Klein saying here? Is he saying that these people aren’t smart enough, these working class stiffs aren’t smart enough to understand Obama’s brilliance? What is he saying? Notice also the liberal characterization of working stiffs, working people. Typical working-class American, working two jobs, trying to get your kids through college, you come home from your second job banging the cash register at 11 o’clock at night, you turn on the TV, and there’s this guy saying, ‘We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.’ I don’t even know what he’s talking about. Who’s the one we’ve been waiting for, Obama? We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for. Whatever. So here’s Joe Klein in the northeasterner enclaves of elitism looking out over middle class Pennsylvania and sees a bunch of dorks slaving away for whatever pennies an hour they get during the day, and they gotta go home after banging the cash register at 11 o’clock at night. What kind of cash register are you banging up ’til 11 o’clock at night? The Kwik Shop? The 7-Eleven? The porn store? Where are you, banging a cash register at 11 o’clock — you get home, you turn on the TV, and you see Obama, and what do you do? You’re too stupid to understand what he’s saying. Obama needs to get back on stride and learn how to talk down to these idiots.
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RUSH: We have another Klein sound bite. All this, by the way, is the product of Operation Chaos. Remember, now, that’s the theme under which all of this is taking place. In the next bite, Klein goes on to admit that Operation Chaos is working. Doesn’t say Operation Chaos no, no, no. But that’s not the point. We’re not here for credit. Operation Chaos has created chaos. He details the chaos here in this bite.
KLEIN: The thing is that what’s happening now is I think that both of these candidates are diminishing themselves as the weeks go by. Obama is being diminished by the attacks against him, and Clinton is being diminished by the fact that she’s launching all these attacks in a way that is very unusual for a Democratic candidate. You don’t see a Democratic candidate often playing the race card even in the subtle ways that Clinton has played it.
RUSH: That’s exactly right, but that’s what Operation Chaos is creating! The race war in this country is in the Democrat Party, and the Clintons brought it to the surface. I kind of like this lament from Mr. Klein. Obama’s being diminished by the attacks against him, and Clinton’s being diminished by the fact that she’s launching the facts. These liberals, they’re wringing their hands, ‘Oh, this is not good.’ Now, when George Bush is being diminished, that’s great, that’s wonderful, we need to diminish George W. Bush. Joe, from an average, regular person here, it is Obama who’s diminishing himself. Obama’s not just trucking along here, innocently and acting as the messiah and running a campaign like he was before all this stuff with Reverend Wright hit. He’s saying these things, Joe! They are coming out of his mouth. It is obvious he believes these things. He’s diminishing himself. What’s Mrs. Clinton supposed to do? She’s seeking the nomination for herself. What’s she supposed to do? Just ignore this? Finally, Charlie Rose asks Dick Polman, who is also a guest on the program, ‘Are they diminished by this, Dick, or are they strengthened?’
POLMAN: Absolutely diminished. What I hear the most from people is — Democrats, is that they’re getting increasingly concerned, maybe to the point of being petrified in some cases, about the prospects in the fall, this notion that these two very good candidates are just kind of like, you know, pull each other down and clear the way for McCain.
RUSH: Operation Chaos once again the objectives being met and competed. Now we move on to PMSNBC live, late yesterday, Norah O’Donnell speaking with former Congressman Tim Roemer who was on the 9/11 Commission, and she said this to him.
O’DONNELL: Rush Limbaugh went off on Barack Obama today, not that that’s a huge surprise, but he said this. Quote, ‘Barack Obama hangs around people who are bitter to the core. His entire inner circle is filled with almost insane rage. Barack Obama has been attracted to extreme radical elements his entire life.’ You now have this narrative that’s developing on the Republican side, essentially, that Barack Obama is an elitist, out-of-touch snob, that he’s, you know, a liberal. I mean, do you see this narrative sort of developing, and could that be harmful in the way that Republicans painted John Kerry as this windsurfing elitist in the 2004 campaign?
RUSH: We didn’t do anything! He windsurfed! He went out there and windsurfed. Anyway, here’s Roemer’s response to the question.
ROEMER: Here’s Rush Limbaugh who’s the expert at ripping America apart, and I never hear any answers from him, never any solutions as to how to bring people together and solve problems. Just kind of ripping at the seams of how to — how to tear people apart. Senator Obama is talking about, how do we bring people together, and where is he getting his support? His support is built on the small towns of Mississippi and Alabama and Kansas and Missouri.
RUSH: Might have been.
ROEMER: — the $50 and $60 donation when they can hardly afford filling up their gas tank with the price of gasoline these days to put in their truck, they’re sending it to Barack Obama.
RUSH: To put in their truck! And they’re sending 50 or 60 — doesn’t it strike you as strange, if that is true, with gas prices and food prices, milk prices the way they are, why are these people sending all this money to Obama? Obviously Mr. Roemer’s never listened to this program. Ripping America apart? Sorry, Mr. Roemer, your party is doing that, every day, doing do good a job of it, Mr. Roemer. Never hear solutions or answers as to how to bring people together and solve problems? We provide answers each and every day. It’s very simple. Defeat liberalism. Inspire people. Let them know that they’re far better than they think they are. They can do more than they think they can. They are more capable than they even know. With the proper motivation and inspiration and with people around them with high expectations. You know, stop talking to them about how they have no future in a rotten country but instead tell them how great this country is and how much opportunity is out there. Your party doesn’t do that, Mr. Roemer. We do that on this program each and every day. But he probably doesn’t even listen.
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RUSH: Get this. Friday night, CNN’s Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer talking to Jeffrey Toobin and Jack Cafferty. You won’t believe this. Blitzer says, ‘Jeff, what do you think of Hillary Clinton’s reaction to Obama’s ‘bitter’ remarks?’
TOOBIN: Hillary Clinton is clearly distorting what Obama said. And, by the way, what Obama said is factually accurate. It’s been true throughout history, that people who have economic problems lash out against various others. I mean I just think it is embarrassing for the Clinton campaign just to hang on to this as if it’s some sort of gaffe.
CAFFERTY: Look, Jeff’s right, they call it the Rust Belt for a reason. The great jobs and the economic prosperity left that part of country two or three decades ago. The people are frustrated. The people have no economic opportunity. What happens to folks like that in the Middle East, you ask? Well, take a look, they go to places like Al-Qaeda training camps. I mean, there’s nothing new here.
RUSH: You heard right, Jack Cafferty has just compared small town Americans to Islamic terrorists. They both like guns — well, the Islamic terrorists like bombs. Yes, you did hear that, and first of a two-part series today from the Detroit News, ‘Bulging Prisons Drain Michigan’s Budget.’ I ought to send this to Jack Cafferty. Jack, if you want to know what’s killing Michigan, take a look which political party’s been running that state for how many years. This is a devastating story by a Detroit newspaper on the status of Michigan, and it has nothing to do with Rust Belt economics. It has to do with liberalism.
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RUSH: I quoted Michael Barone in his piece, and I wanted to finish it because this whole argument that Obama advanced or started with his statement about these idiots in the small towns of Pennsylvania and around the country, they cling to their religion, they cling to their guns when economic times are bad, Barone says it reminded him of the argument of Thomas Frank in What’s the Matter With Kansas? Frank’s argument is that low earners are too stupid to realize that their real interests are in voting Democrat and that they are hugely stupid for voting Republican because of their religious beliefs or their views on trade or their views on gun control or their anti-immigrant sentiments.
That’s right, I remember this guy’s book, I couldn’t believe it, all these liberal Democrats all over the country voting for Republicans, voting against their best interests, voting against government handouts. That’s what Obama meant, folks, there’s no other way to interpret this. Don’t you find it interesting that we can play sound bites from Jeffrey Toobin and Jack Cafferty and any number of other leftists who think, he was right, Bob Herbert, not only was he right, he didn’t go far enough, he shoulda called those hayseed hicks in Pennsylvania racists. Meanwhile, Obama is out trying to rephrase what leftists think is the correct thing to say in the first place. I want you to hear this CNN bite again with Jeffrey Toobin and Jack Cafferty commenting — this is audio sound bite number nine — commenting on Hillary Clinton’s reaction to Obama’s remarks.
TOOBIN: Hillary Clinton is clearly distorting what Obama said. And, by the way, what Obama said is factually accurate. It’s been true throughout history that people who have economic problems lash out against various others. I mean, I just think it is embarrassing for the Clinton campaign just to hang on this as if it’s some sort of gaffe.
CAFFERTY: Look, Jeff’s right, they call it the Rust Belt for a reason. The great jobs and the economic prosperity left that part of country two or three decades ago. The people are frustrated. The people have no economic opportunity. What happens to folks like that in the Middle East, you ask? Well, take a look, they go to places like Al-Qaeda training camps. I mean, there’s nothing new here.
RUSH: (laughing) You heard this right. So you people in the Rust Belt and the small towns, when the economy goes south, you turn to guns and bombs. And you go to church. Now, I mentioned the Detroit newspaper with a first of a two-part series, ”Bulging Prisons Drain Michigan’s Budget’ — State faces hard choices as get-tough laws put more behind bars.’ The story written by Charlie Cain and Gary Heinlein. ‘Michigan runs one of the nation’s largest and most costly prison systems, a $2 billion-a-year expense that is crowding out other spending priorities at a rate many officials fear the state can no longer afford.’ You want me to summarize this? Those on welfare and those in prison are going to be the only two types of people in Michigan left. There won’t be anybody there to pay the taxes to support either of them, because they’re all going to become terrorists, according to Jack Cafferty. According to the Detroit News, this state is a harbinger of what would happen if liberals gained unchecked control over the country. New Orleans is the same thing and what happened after Hurricane Katrina.