RUSH: Now, a couple thoughts here. I meant to get into this yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, and events just superseded my intent. But I had a bunch of stories, and I talked about it on the margins yesterday, all these Drive-By Media stories, there was one Washington Post story mentioning Obama is black four or five times. There were three or four other Drive-By Media publications focusing on Obama’s race and how what a great step this is for the United States of America, we’ve passed a major milestone. It just is so wonderful and so forth. Interestingly, there’s a story today from Reuters: ‘Black Americans savored Barack Obama’s unprecedented victory in the Democratic race for U.S. president, but said on Wednesday the higher stakes raised the prospect of deep disappointment in November.’
So Reuters has a story here on, ‘Wow, this is so wonderful, why, tonight we’re on the inside, we have overcome the one obstacle in our face, racism, slavery, discrimination, and now, uh-oh, oh, no, what if we lose? Oh, no, we’re going to be so disappointed if we lose.’ They actually do a story on this. I’m going to give you the details of this a little bit later as the program unfolds. But as I read all these stories, there’s no question this is a major achievement. I’m not bemoaning it at all. But there’s nothing really new here. I mean you gotta win the election, yeah, but what we have here is a pure, unadulterated, undiluted liberal! That’s what matters to me. Not anybody’s race! After you go through the emotional realization that, yeah, for the first time ever, we’ve got a pure, unadulterated, radical liberal that’s been nominated by the Democrat Party. After a while you can see all the liberal white guilt throughout the Drive-By Media because they won’t let the subject of Obama’s race go. I mean they’re making a huge fuss about this, being black, being African-American, biracial or whatever. But I have news for those of you in the Drive-Bys. If Obama wins the election, he would not be the first black president. And I’m not talking about Bill Clinton and the phony baloney first black president bit.
Thirteen years ago in 1995, Time Warner, Incorporated, inaugurated a black president, Dick Parsons. Eleven years ago, 1997, American Express inaugurated a black president, Ken Chenault. Seven years ago, Merrill Lynch inaugurated a black president, Stanley O’Neal. Now, three of our greatest corporations, what the left calls greedy corporations, formally ended racism by elevating an African-American to the presidency. Now, you may know this and you may not know it. But these were incredible events, too. They didn’t get that much news coverage, it didn’t fit the media template or the action line or the talking points of the left because the Drive-By Media is so hell-bent on trashing America, on dwelling in the past, on inflaming racial confrontations, on elevating racial entrepreneurs that they underreported the real state of race in America. My point here — and I realize it might have offended you to say, hey, he’s not the first black president. I did that to get your attention. The point is that the real state of race in this country continues to be underreported. We continue to hear that we are no different now than we were in 1965 and in prior years. There’s just as much discrimination, there’s just as much racism, and incidentally, there’s just as much sexism and we’re not making any progress whatsoever, and that’s why Obama’s nomination is being hailed as some great point that has never been reached, and in fact it has.
Now, I understand the difference in a board of directors and a committee hiring somebody to be the CEO of a corporation and the votes of American citizens of a political party electing or nominating someone. I fully understand the difference. My primary point is that we have made so much progress in race relations in this country that people who are responsible for underreporting it or not reporting it, and the people who are responsible for continuing to try to keep this country roiled with racial strife are the very people who are now celebrating this wondrous event in the nomination of Obama, as though its only meaning is that he’s black, and it’s not its only meaning. He stands for things that are pretty bad. He’s got some associations with people that are pretty questionable. All that’s swept aside, all of that is ignored because of the momentous racial achievement.
I don’t think we have, at least as it has been defined in the past, racism in this country. We have underclassism. We have broken-familism. We have single-momism. We have you’re-a-victimism. We have the failure of the Great Society-ism. We have a bunch of isms that are genuine and real, but racism, said to be the root of all these, is not. If we were as racist as the left wants to portray us, there wouldn’t be the phenomenon known as Oprah Winfrey; there wouldn’t have been Bill Cosby. I could go on down the list. There wouldn’t be Obama. There wouldn’t have been Ken Chenault and American Express. There wouldn’t have been Dick Parsons at Time Warner. There wouldn’t have been Stanley O’Neal at Merrill Lynch, and there are countless other examples of this in smaller corporations. Herman Cain is one. And all of the truly achievement-oriented black leaders who don’t fit the liberal mold are ignored or they are impugned. You’ve heard the names, don’t need to mention them. Clarence Thomas is one, Dr. Sowell himself, Walter Williams.
So while the media is trying to catch up with old news, first black president, and signals they’re ready to acknowledge America’s fairness, ask yourself, why do the Drive-Bys say they’re in the news business when they’re actually in the old news business? That’s what they thrive on is the past, narratives, action lines, and templates from the past. Congratulations are due to Obama, there’s no question, but not for being black, what an insult. Hey, congratulations, Obama, welcome to politics, the first black presidential nominee. What an insult. The reason you congratulate Barack Obama, he’s a guy who took on and beat the pantsuit off the Clinton machine, even if he did crawl across the finish line.
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RUSH: Washington. Irving. Hello, sir. Nice to have you here.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Limbaugh. It’s a pleasure to speak with you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I’ve been trying to call you for about four years since I first heard your voice on the radio at Fort Benning, Georgia.
RUSH: Well, terrific. I’m glad you made it through.
CALLER: Well, I was calling to say that I personally believe that Mr. Obama’s candidacy does represent a very historic event. And the reason is because, I’m a 26-year-old African-American young man myself, a soldier in the United States Army; and I personally believe that growing up in the America that I grew up in, anything is possible. But Mr. Obama is actually proving that anything is possible. I have a son that’s six years old; and when I tell him he can be anything when he grows up, he can actually be anything when he grows up, and he can see an example of it. Even if Senator Obama doesn’t win the election — I think he will, but even if he doesn’t — it’s still proof that anything is actually possible in this great nation.
RUSH: Well, that is a good point, and I’m all for role models and all for people who inspire others. But do you really think it took the nomination of Obama to be able to say to people, ‘You can be whoever you want to be in this country’?
CALLER: I think that in a lot of instances, it takes someone. People have to see someone succeed at something before they believe it’s actually possible.
RUSH: Look, you said before you started talking about your son that you thought that anything was possible in America. How did you come to believe that before Obama?
CALLER: I believed that anything was possible. I still believe that anything is possible, you know, but that was just optimism. You know what I mean? Now I know it to be a reality. Because ultimately I feel like as long as I work hard and do what I need to do, I can — as long as I put my mind to something, I’ll probably be able to accomplish it. Now, for I don’t know how long there has been a debate, you know, whether America was ready for a female president or a minority president. You know what I mean?
RUSH: Oh, that’s a good point. That’s a good point. By virtue of Mrs. Clinton’s defeat, do you think if you had a daughter, that your daughter would say, ‘Dad, I can’t be president. The country just rejected Mrs. Clinton?’
CALLER: No. I was… I think my daughter would say that it’s still possible, because —
RUSH: Well, then why wouldn’t…?
CALLER: — 17 million people voted for Senator Clinton.
RUSH: Well, why wouldn’t your son be able to say the same thing if she had beaten Obama?
CALLER: He would still be able to. By virtue of him being a viable candidate, you know what I’m saying? My son would be able to say the same thing. It’s just —
RUSH: You know, I beg to disagree. I really believe if Obama had lost, the same phenomenon that’s happening to Hillary would be happening with black voters who support Obama. I think the race industry would gin up, and I think you’d have the Sharptons and Jacksons — especially if the Democrat superdelegates had taken the nomination away from him. Or, in another circumstance, if he had lost narrowly, legitimately narrowly without having the superdelegates get involved. See, this is a problem. I appreciate the historic nature of this, but I think in the areas I was discussing that inspired your phone call, nothing is going to change. The racial industry in this country is going to take any instance it can to keep this country roiled. For example, this story, Irving, from the Reuters News Agency. It’s out of Atlanta: ‘Black Americans savored Barack Obama’s unprecedented victory in the Democratic race for US president, but said on Wednesday the higher stakes raised the prospect of deep disappointment in November. …
”Black Americans are treading on thin ice, moving very delicately. This (Obama’s) opportunity is frail and fragile (and many say) let’s make sure that nothing happens to ruin it,’ said [William Jelani] Cobb, a professor of history at Atlanta’s Spelman College.’ So already there are people savoring this historic victory who are now beginning to think, ‘Uh-oh. We’re just going to be really disappointed if he loses. This may not be worth it.’ And, see, this is just the racial industry getting up and rearing its head and sending out the feelers: ‘Hey, don’t think nothing’s historic yet, dudes. He hasn’t won the big house. Until he wins the big house, nothing’s happened — and you better be prepared to be disappointed.’ I think this is horrible. This is not inspiring. These are people afraid of success. ‘You know, I don’t think we want to win because to win we might have to risk losing. If we do lose everybody is going to be sad and disappointed and I don’t know if we can take that.’ That’s why I wish race were… I know it’s historic racially, but there’s far more at stake here than just the fact that we’ve elected or nominated a black guy. You know, Martin Luther King said something, Irving, and I know you’ll remember this. Martin Luther King said, ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content their character.’ We are ignoring Obama’s character and Jeremiah Wright’s and Tony Rezko’s and we’re only talking about his color. So I don’t know what kind of progress has actually happened.
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RUSH: There’s another huge error in this Reuters story on blacks. It said the Obama presidency would eliminate from the scene Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton. Wrong. It would elevate them. These people don’t understand the race industry.
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RUSH: Lori in Manhattan, Kansas, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush, first-time caller. I’m a little nervous.
RUSH: What can I do? What can I do to settle your nerves?
CALLER: I’m not really sure. Just be nice.
RUSH: (laughing) Well, that’s sweet. Be nice, as though that would be a change.
CALLER: Well, true. You’re always nice.
RUSH: I hope you’re relaxing even now.
CALLER: I think so, a little bit.
RUSH: Yeah, good.
CALLER: I am. More so than with your call screener even. You just have that relaxing, soothing voice.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. Well, he’s in a hurry in there. He’s gotta judge people’s capability and qualification on the fly and if he doesn’t he’s gotta zoom on. I’ve heard him, ‘Rush Limbaugh Show, what do you want?’ And then it’s up to the caller to — is that pretty much what he said to you?
CALLER: Well, he was a little bit better than that.
RUSH: Then he’s slipping.
CALLER: Well don’t get mad at him. He was all right.
RUSH: All right. Now, are you sufficiently relaxed?
CALLER: I think I am, yes.
RUSH: See how this works? Okay. Let ‘er rip.
CALLER: Okay. In response to the first caller of the day, I was thinking that, it’s not a direct response, but it got me thinking this. And for all the Obama supporters that are supporting him primarily because he’s black and that they want to see a first black president, I think they’re missing the big picture. It seems they want him to succeed so badly that they’re overlooking the fact that he may fail as a president and what those ramifications may be. For example, I think it’s probable he may end up being another Jimmy Carter or worse, and if I were an African-American, I would be afraid that that would set us back more than him not being elected in the first place.
RUSH: Well, they are afraid, but they’re afraid for different reasons. They’re afraid he might lose. This is really psychologically interesting, Lori. Reuters went out and they talked to a bunch of black intellectuals at universities and average black people on the street and they’re all excited, ‘Oh yeah, Obama finally got it,’ but they are distressed, they’re anxious and they’re a little nervous because he might lose and that would be disappointing. These are people that can’t deal with success. We’ve talked about this before, people who are afraid of success, something successful happens to them, ‘This is not deserved,’ and they undermine themselves, and so they’re in the process of doing that now. In terms of Obama actually failing as a president, they’re not thinking of that. That’s not even the point. He can’t fail. You have to understand the psychological mind-set of the left. Having him elected is all that matters. David Dinkins, General Dinkins, one of the worst mayors in New York. First black mayor. I’m pretty right about this, Snerdley, pretty bad mayor. He was one of the worst. To this day that’s not said about him. Just the fact that he was the first was all that mattered. And one of the things that the left does, these guilty white liberal plantation owners, they almost expect black failure. Why else is there something called affirmative action? They almost expect blacks to not be able to achieve things. That’s why affirmative action and quotas were set up, so as to give them a boost. And once they rise to the top here, then they don’t fail, failure is not possible, because they made it. The only failures are black conservatives. So his qualifications don’t matter, he’s running an image campaign anyway. Pure and simple.