RUSH: Joe Biden’s campaign plane, the press section, is empty. This is from Jim Geraghty reporting at National Review Online’s campaign spot. ‘Since the Delaware senator left Obama’s side and ventured out on his own on Labor Day, he has hardly garnered any national media interest at all. His plane, a blue chartered 737, now crosses the country with about three-quarters of its seats empty, rows and rows with nary a warm body to be found. Biden’s supporters maintain that he is connecting with voters and garnering positive media interest.’ Like he did in Columbia, Missouri, last week, introducing that local state Senator that everybody has a lot of great love for, you remember how that went.
BIDEN: Uh, Uh, Chuck Graham, state senator is here. Stand up, Chuck. Let ’em see you. (rimshot) Oh. God love you. What am I talking about? (rimshot) I tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up, though, pal. (rimshot)
RUSH: Stand up for Chuck!
BIDEN: I’ll tell you what, stand up for Chuck. (rimshot)
RUSH: And then he followed that up with the admission that Obama chose incorrectly.
BIDEN: Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. (rimshot) Let’s get that straight. (rimshot) She’s a truly close personal friend. (rimshot) She is qualified to be president of the United States of America. She’s easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America, and, quite frankly, might have been a better pick than me. But she’s first rate. (rimshot)
RUSH: So you remember the story we told you at the beginning of the program, Biden is there in Charlotte, North Carolina, home state of John Edwards, saying that his grandkids had a slumber party with Obama’s kids at the Democrat National Convention, that’s what people want, the American people want people they can be comfortable at a sleepover with, meaning himself and Obama. (rimshot) And nobody was in the press section of his airplane on the trip from Wilmington to Charlotte on Sunday. He’s the best show on the road, and nobody — well, Palin’s the best show on the road. But for pure entertainment and laughs, if you’re a Drive-By Media guy and you’re fed up with politics as usual and the same old, you’re looking for something new and exciting, how do you not get on Biden’s plane? Now, Biden was in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, trashing Bush for not reaching across the aisle and running down the economy.
BIDEN: Remember the promise to reach across the aisle, to change the tone, to restore honor and dignity to the White House. We saw how that story ends, a record number of home foreclosures, (rimshot) home values tumbling, (rimshot) and the disturbing news that the crisis that you’ve been facing on Main Street is now hitting Wall Street, (rimshot) taking down Lehman Brothers (rimshot) and threatening other large financial institutions. (rimshot)
RUSH: So Bush did this, Bush and McCain economic policy did this. Run down the country. Now, I understand this is a campaign and you have to run down the status quo when you are a running for office, but these guys ought to learn that people don’t want to hear just constant whining and groaning and complaining about this, they want to hear some solutions other than to say we’ve gotta get rid of the people that are in there. But remember that promise to reach across the aisle? Yes, we do, Senator Biden. We remember it so well, ’cause it happened way too much. Senator Biden, have you forgotten that Ted Kennedy wrote the education bill? Have you forgotten the massive comprehensive amnesty bill, immigration reform? What do you mean Bush didn’t cross the aisle with you guys and McCain didn’t cross the aisle and so forth? Record number of home foreclosures, yeah, because people like you made sure that people who couldn’t pay the loans back were given mortgages. Now it’s soup line America in this next bite.
BIDEN: We’ve seen eight straight months of job loss in America. (rimshot) Nearly 46 million Americans without any health insurance. (rimshot) Average income is down, while the price of everything, from gas to groceries is going up and up. (rimshot) A military stretched thin from two wars, one a necessity, and one a choice. (rimshot) Multiple deployments of not only regular military, but National Guard as well as Reservists. (rimshot) A nation more polarized than I have seen any time in my career. (rimshot)
RUSH: Why?
BIDEN: And a culture in Washington where the very few wealthy and powerful have a seat at the table, and the rest of us are on the menu. (rimshot)
RUSH: The rest of us are on the menu? You are part of the Washington elite. You’ve been there longer than McCain has been there, Senator. And this is a clever line, I think, they wrote for Senator Biden.
BIDEN: If we forget this recent history, we’re going to be doomed to repeat it. (rimshot) We’ll get four more years just like the last eight. (rimshot) If you’re ready for four more years of George Bush, then John McCain’s your guy. (rimshot) You know, just as George Herbert Walker Bush was nicknamed Bush 41 and his son was nicknamed Bush 43, John McCain could easily become known as Bush 44. (rimshot)
RUSH: Now, isn’t it interesting that all of a sudden these guys have gotta go out and run against George W. Bush. That’s what they’re doing. Why do they have to do that? What happened to the hope campaign? What happened to the change campaign? What happened to Obama as The Messiah? What happened to Obama as the anointed one? What happened to Obama as the one we’ve been waiting for? What happened to Obama as the great unifier? What happened to Obama as the Guy who’s going to stop all this partisanship? It ain’t working. They’ve got nothing to say about Obama, so now let’s go back, let’s trash Bush, let’s run against Bush again by saying that McCain is just going to be an extension of Bush. The mistake they’re making on this is that Bush’s popularity numbers may be down, but he’s not disliked by the great middle of this country. He’s hated and reviled by the kook lunatic fringe on the left, but he’s not personally disliked. And these people, Biden, Obama, are coming off with personal hatred aimed at George W. Bush, and that’s not going to fly. They’re still imploding.