RUSH: Some audio sound bites here from the roster before we have to close out today. Al Sharpton, last night on television in New York on NY1, the host, Dominic Carter asked him the question: ‘Is Barack Obama the nominee?’
SHARPTON: There’s no possible scenario that I see without the total destruction of the Democratic Party for Hillary Clinton to become the nominee. The worst thing in the world is when an entertainer doesn’t know when the show is over. The audience is gone, the lights are down, they’re getting ready to cut the lights off, and you’re still on the stage singing.
RUSH: So.
SHARPTON: All right, it’s over, come sing another day. But this show is over.
RUSH: So, Al Sharpton sending the signal that the show is over. Hillary Clinton says, no, the show must go on. Obama on the Nightly News with Brian Williams last night: ‘Have you had any discussion about declaring that victory on the 20th after Kentucky and Oregon are decided?’
OBAMA: That will be an important day. If, at that point, we have the majority of pledged delegates, which is possible, then I think we can make a pretty strong claim that, you know, we’ve got the most runs and it’s the ninth inning and we’ve won.
RUSH: As I said at the top of the program, he doesn’t want her out before then. He wants her to stay in through West Virginia, Kentucky, because if she gets out, she’s still going to win those. If you’re going to win both of those states, it will look very bad if he’s losing those two states and she’s not even on the ballot. Well, she’d be on the ballot, but she’s not in the race because she has pulled out. That’s the dirty little secret about the Obama campaign. Bill Clinton yesterday on the campaign trail in West Virginia.
CLINTON: Before Indiana, Hillary’s opponent said, ‘Well, she’ll win Pennsylvania and I’ll win North Carolina, and Indiana will be the tiebreaker.’ Then on election night, the story changed. It was, North Carolina’s a tiebreaker, because in Indiana she came roaring from behind, and the first state that borders Illinois was outspent four to one, four to one, and won anyway, because of people like you in places like this. (cheers and applause) So don’t let anybody tell you she can’t win. They want you to vote in low numbers so she doesn’t get ahead in the popular vote. If you vote in high numbers and your neighbors in Kentucky follow suit, we’re gonna roll through this thing.
RUSH: We are going to roll through this thing. So they’re not listening to the Reverend Sharpton. The former president then continued.
CLINTON: Don’t believe all this stuff you read in the press. She could still win this thing if you vote for her big enough. They’re going to have to resolve Michigan and Florida, and when they do, she can win the popular vote. If you want to make absolutely sure we didn’t go to all this trouble for nothing, and we can win in November to turn this country around, she is your best choice. She won’t quit on you. So don’t you quit on her.
RUSH: (doing Clinton impression) ‘I’m the only one allowed to quit on her. Don’t you do it.’ Read what you want into this, but clearly they’ve got no intention of going away any time soon, nor of creating the impression that they are going away any time soon. Now, the Breck Girl, we haven’t heard from the Breck girl in a while, but he’s been back. He was on the Today Show today with Matt Lauer, and Matt Lauer said, ‘Hillary is saying that Senator Obama’s support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, the whites in both states, Indiana and North Carolina, who hadn’t completed college were supporting her. And that’s raised some eyebrows because even though campaigns plot these things or chart these things behind the scenes, they don’t often come out and say, whites are supporting me. Did she make a mistake? Is this just politics, old-style politics?’
EDWARDS: This is a battle. It’s a fight in both cases for their political future and for the future of the country. And I think they’re just in there fighting. I think that’s what she’s doing. I think that’s what she’s doing, and I —
LAUER: But does that help the Democratic Party, that comment?
EDWARDS: Here’s the question. Once this is resolved — and let’s assume Barack is the nominee, because it’s certainly headed in that direction. If Barack is the nominee, the question is, will we all be together and united in ensuring that all these voters that we’re going to need in November come out and vote for Barack Obama?
RUSH: Ooh! Breck Girl doesn’t sound confident about the prospect of unity in the Democrat Party. Then Matt Lauer said, ‘North Carolina primary was on Tuesday. You had to go out in the voting booth and make a choice.’
EDWARDS: I did.
LAUER: Who did you choose?
EDWARDS: (laughing) I voted, and I’m going to keep that between me and the polling booth.
RUSH: Ooh, interesting, the Breck Girl wants nobody to know who he voted for. Very simple reason why: He’s holding out for attorney general in either administration. He doesn’t want to make any of them mad. Then on Morning Joe today on MSNBC, David Shuster said, ‘There’s been a lot of talk about how Hillary’s campaigning. Nobody here thinks that she necessarily ought to stop. The argument becomes not so much about here’s why I’m the most electable, becomes here’s why this guy isn’t electable. Do you see any problem with that campaign?’
EDWARDS: I think that they’re in a tough fight, and it’s hard to change, to move off of that. You know, I think about when I made the decision to get out of the race, you know, and I was accumulating delegates, continued to get, you know, votes and actually doing reasonably well but it became pretty clear to me that I was not going to be the nominee.
RUSH: Yep. And it also became clear to you that your endorsement in North Carolina wouldn’t even matter because you couldn’t even carry North Carolina as Kerry’s vice president.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Gonna go back to audio sound bite number ten, ladies and gentlemen, because Bill Clinton is right about this. He was on the campaign trail in West Virginia.
CLINTON: Before Indiana, Hillary’s opponent said, ‘Well, she’ll win Pennsylvania and I’ll win North Carolina, and Indiana will be the tiebreaker.’ Then on election night, the story changed. It was, North Carolina’s a tiebreaker, because in Indiana she came roaring from behind —
RUSH: That’s exactly right, stop the tape. They changed the scenario. He’s exactly right. The Obama camp said, look, Indiana is going to be the tiebreaker. That’s why they got all fed up and started blaming me, Operation Chaos. And now they’ve changed the scenario around. And, look, what this means is, you have Obama, strip it all away, the guy’s a constant whiner. I don’t know if I can handle four years of whining.