RUSH: The election’s over, Chuck Todd said so today on MSNBC. All the polling data, a tipping point’s been reached, folks, it’s all headed in the direction of Obama. The only good sign for McCain is that the debate is tonight with Palin, but Palin is so incompetent and unqualified, that’s a loser. Gwen Ifill is going to be totally fair, we got nothing to worry about here. It’s over. Early voting in Ohio going on, that means a lot of fraud probably taking place there. That’s what they want you to believe. Don’t buy it. That brings me to the vice presidential debate tonight. You’re being told by the media propagandists that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be vice president. You’re being told she’s dumb. You’re being told she’s a religious extremist, that she’s dangerous. Let me be as clear about this as I know how. These attacks on Governor Palin are attacks on you and attacks on me. They are attacking every single person outside the Beltway, outside the New York-Washington axis, outside their social circle of elitist friends that represents what’s great about this country.
Sarah Palin is a real story of accomplishment. She is a real fresh face, a fresh voice in this election. She is genuinely American. Her story can be vouched for by hundreds. Obama’s story must be hidden. Obama’s story must be rewritten. Obama has no one vouching for his story. She, Sarah Palin, she is the real citizen activist. She got involved in government at the local level, first at a PTA, ’cause the school was screwing up; then the city council; then as mayor, and she did it all on her own. She took on several well-heeled and well-known politicians to win the Republican primary and then the general election to become governor. She took on corruption in her own party. She is not only as far from the Washington cesspool as anybody can get, but she doesn’t think like a Big-Government Washington politician. And this, my friends, is what distinguishes her so profoundly from Joe Biden and Barack Obama. She thinks like we do, you and I. She reacts like we do. She talks like we do. And by that I mean she brings a citizen’s perspective to issues. Not the perspective of people who have been in government their entire lives or who have been around those who advocate government control of private property all their lives.
This is precisely why Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, and most other anchors, so-called reporters, are repulsed by her. They are repulsed by her just as they are repulsed by you and your averageness. I hear ’em downplay her record as governor. Well, I understand she didn’t get some massive spending bill passed through Congress, which the libs love. I understand she didn’t promote the appointment of left-wing activist judges to the federal bench like Biden. I understand she wasn’t wrong on every major foreign policy issue as Biden has been. And I understand that Sarah Palin did not block drilling for more oil offshore or anywhere else. No wonder they hate her. She is a one-woman wrecking crew of their agenda. I’ll say this, though, in her 20 months as governor, she negotiated a deal for a new pipeline in Alaska involving Canada and the oil companies that will do more to provide and increase supply of natural gas to the people of this country than anything Barack Obama or Joe Biden have ever done or will ever do.
In other words, in that one act alone she has done more than Obama or Biden have ever done for this country. So naturally it’s ignored and downplayed. These debates have become setups. Just listen to how the liberal media talk about them in the lead-up. The tie goes to Obama last week, and why is that? Well, because they say so? I thought Obama was The Messiah based largely on his ability to have people eating out of his hand, his great persuasive skills, his great oratory skills; and yet, it’s a tie? It’s a tie and it goes to Obama? He was beaten soundly by that 72-year-old guy we were previously led to believe can’t hold his own against Obama. Now it’s the vice presidential debate.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s go to audio sound bite number eight, as we turn back to the vice presidential debate for just a second. Today on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos appeared with cohostette Robin Roberts, who asked Stephanopoulos, ‘Let’s move ahead to tonight’s great debate. New poll numbers out there, George, what do they tell you?’
STEPHANOPOULOS: That Sarah Palin is becoming more and more of a drag on Senator John McCain as she heads into this debate tonight. We asked voters, uh, ‘Do you think she has the experience it takes to serve as president?’ and there’s been a big shift. Look back on September 7th, it was a close call: 47% said yes; 45% said no. Now today — on September 29th — 60% of voters say that she does not have the experience it takes to serve as president. That’s a big jump, and that is starting to hurt John McCain. A third of voters, just about a third of voters now also in our ABC News poll, say they are less likely to vote for McCain because of Sarah Palin.
RUSH: Isn’t this cute? This dovetails right along with Chuck Todd earlier today saying (summarized): ‘Hey, the race is over. We’ve reached the tipping point. This is it. The polls are all favoring Obama. Palin’s become a big drag. It’s over. It’s fini. There’s only one chance that McCain has, the debate tonight with Palin,’ and, of course, Palin has become a ‘drag on the ticket,’ so there’s no hope for the McCain campaign. One thing the AP poll that’s similar to this one and nobody is talking about: only 56% think that the Democrat PRESIDENTIAL nominee is ready to be president. That’s bigger news than what people think of a vice presidential nominee, and that’s going to change after tonight anyway. But of course notice that nobody, nooooobody out there is talking about what Biden has to do tonight.
Nobody is talking about what expectations we have of Biden. Nobody is talking about what a drag on the ticket Biden might be. I’ll tell you what Biden’s big challenge tonight is, is to avoid being himself — and I’m going to tell you something, folks. It’s much easier to be who you are than it is to fake it and try to not be who you are, and Biden’s got to do the latter. Biden has got to avoid being himself. We’ll see. This woman is gutsy. She is courageous. She is fearless. She has been here before in debates. We’ll just see all of this Drive-By Media conventional wisdom. We’re told that Governor Palin has an impossible hurdle to jump. She has to prove she’s ready to be veep. She has to prove she deserves to be on the same stage as the sage Joe Biden. Who decides all this for us? Well, Gwen Ifill, the partisan moderator! Charles Gibson, Katie Couric, the flunkies is the NBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post.
That is the same people that endorse Obama and Biden are telling us what she has to prove. If this debate, ladies and gentlemen, is about who knows how to name all the federal agencies and legislation ever been proposed in the last 35 years, Biden wins the brass ring for that. If this debate is about who can name all the leaders of every fifth-rate power that means nothing to our future, I’m sure Biden can win the brass ring on that. If this becomes a Trivial Pursuit pop quiz (which is I’ll bet you what Gwen Ifill will do with part of this, particularly in foreign policy), then it makes a mockery of this whole procedure and will establish what I maintain all along, which is these are just made-for-made-by-the-media events. But if this debate allows the public to take the measure of the candidates, to see who will bring the best temperament, judgment, character to making decisions that no single person can know tonight will have to be made, then Palin will win the brass ring.
She is so superior to Joe Biden and Obama when it comes to common sense and representing the values and traditions of this nation and its people. There is no contest between Sarah Palin and Obama and Biden in understanding us, and the traditions and the institutions that made this country great. She has lived them! Sarah Palin’s problem with the Drive-By Media is that she did not become successful the right way. I didn’t become successful the right way! I didn’t complete or enjoy college. No reason to take me seriously. It’s the same thing with Sarah Palin. She’s gifted, highly accomplished, but she didn’t follow the path of those who have to struggle to become successful. See, she’s a natural. Governing is not rocket science. That’s why Andy Griffith’s show was so popular. Americans knew that bright, grounded, decent people were needed in public office, and there weren’t any.
Sarah Palin did not follow the prescriptions necessary. She’s good at virtually everything she does: daughter, athlete, outdoors person, musician, wife, mother, businesswoman, mayor, governor. But she doesn’t approach those things the way others that sit in judgment might have. Let me give you a little illustration. Questions from Gwen Ifill tonight, all hypothetical: ‘You were an accomplished basketball player. Tell us the three most influential WBA or NBA players in your playing style.’ Sarah Palin, ‘I can’t think of any. I don’t watch television. I enjoy playing basketball.’ Ifill: ‘Have you ever attended an NBA or major college basketball game?’ Palin: ‘No.’ Drive-By conclusion: ‘Palin isn’t serious about her sport.’ The only problem is, she was an outstanding player. These recipes that people have! She didn’t go to an elite school, didn’t get an elite degree, and doesn’t have a network friends in Washington and New York. That’s why she’s not qualified, in their eyes.