RUSH: Even though I was not here Thursday or Friday, I was the subject of discussion for much of the cable news programs Thursday night, Friday night, and into Sunday. This is Sunday’s Chris Matthews Show on NBC. Matthews and Michael Duffy have this exchange about moi.
MATTHEWS: People like Rush Limbaugh are already out there blaming this recession on Obama. He’s calling it ‘the Obama recession’ on the argument that the market has anticipated higher taxes and bad policy. That’s why it’s crashing.
DUFFY: That’s how some people in the Republican Party are trying to resurrect the Republican Party. They’ve actually kind of handed the — thrown the keys at the Obama team.
RUSH: Uhhh, well, he really doesn’t understand the theory behind what I’m saying here, does he? Matthews is beside himself that I’ve labeled this the Obama recession. He understands the theory behind it, which is true. And that is, the market. What is the market? The market’s down again today. At least it was the last time I looked. The Pittsburgh Steelers. I read a story yesterday in the Pittsburgh papers; it looks like Dan Rooney and his son Art the Second have finally found a way to put together some financing to buy out percentages of his four brothers that would give Dan Rooney the majority ownership. The NFL requires that the primary owner be 30% and each of the Rooney people has 16. There are five of them, and then there’s a family that was friend of the founders. They got 20%.
Dan Rooney needs to get a 14 more percentage and he’s been trying to buy it and they’ve had troubles and troubles, and Dan Rooney was a big Obama supporter. But he’s the buyer, so capital gains doesn’t affect him. The four brothers want to get this done before the end of the year to avoid Obama capital gains taxes. Now, if people like the Rooneys (and there are a lot of other people doing this) want to take as much cash in calendar year 2008 as they can, if they want to close transactions in calendar year 2008 for the express purpose of beating brand-new capital gains taxes, and now I’m hearing not 20% but 25% — we’re currently at 15. So if you go from 15 to 25%, you know damn well people in the market are thinking this way.
So how can you not attribute the market plunge, the market fall to him? In fact, even the 4,000-point plunge, the markets work six to nine months ahead. Believe me, I know these people on Wall Street that run these firms. They’re a bunch of lib Democrats. No question about that. We’ve figured this out. The average investor and these people to whom the money really counts are trying to get as much thrown into this calendar year as possible. People are selling off, taking their gains, which is what led to the plunge. There’s no question it’s the Obama recession. There’s no question. We didn’t have any of this going on during the heart of Bush economic times.
And isn’t it interesting that China is now… We’ve got a story from China today about their demand. The Chinese nation’s demand for oil has plummeted; their demand for gasoline has plummeted. Why? Because the situation in the US economy has led to a slowdown all over the world. Can you believe..? You want to talk about us being a superpower no longer? You want to talk about people who think we need to be cut down to size? Can you believe that the United States subprime mortgage debacle has led to this global mess? So it’s not only correct to say that this is the Obama recession. It’d be even more accurate to say that the worldwide recession has been brought on by the Democrat Party in the United States of America.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here is the Chris Matthews Show again on Sunday, National Public Radio liberal Michele Norris, listen to this.
NORRIS: The first 60 days of a presidency are so important, and that’s why you hear Rush Limbaugh saying these things on the radio. It’s why they’re passing a baton to him hoping that it’s so heavy, that he’s got so much on his plate in that starting gate that he can’t help but stumble and they know that that sets the tone for the rest of the administration.
RUSH: That’s why Rush Limbaugh is saying these things on the radio, that’s why they’re passing the baton to him, hoping it’s so heavy, he’s got so much on his plate, the starting gate, he can’t help but stumble? Folks, it is our job to define Obama as who he is, because the Drive-Bys have not done so. So once again, I guess they say the leadership role in this is coming down to me.
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RUSH: Back to audio sound bite number two. Michele Norris, National Public Radio on the Chris Matthews Show on Sunday.
NORRIS: The first 60 days of a presidency are so important, and that’s why you hear Rush Limbaugh saying these things on the radio. It’s why they’re passing a baton to him, hoping that it’s so heavy, that he’s got so much on his plate in that starting gate that he can’t help but stumble, and they know that that sets the tone for the rest of the administration.
RUSH: Now, what she’s saying… She’s not talking about them passing the baton to me. She means to Obama. ‘That’s why they’re passing a baton to him hoping that it’s so heavy, that he’s got so much on his plate in that starting gate that he can’t help but stumble.’ Now, this Michele Norris is an NPR liberal, and she thinks that if I — the titular head of the opposition — successfully label Obama a failure, then he might be in trouble. This is part of politics. You do try to define your opponent, campaign or otherwise, before he defines himself. And Obama really hadn’t defined himself because he’s image. Obama is symbolism. He hasn’t really done anything yet but his presence has led to fear in the economic markets. This is undeniable. The prospect of his election also led to fear and resulted in market sell-offs. There are whole bunch of factors, but he certainly is one, and he remains one if people want to take whatever gains they have out of the market before this guy starts raising taxes on people. I don’t look at this as ‘defining’ Obama so much as telling the truth about him. You know, we’re into information, entertainment, and education here; and since the Drive-Bys refused — remember Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose? ‘We really don’t know much about him, Charlie. He’s written a couple books, read a couple speeches.’ Yeah, you could have dispatched a reporter to find out. You didn’t want to find out about him. But we do. We have. So we’re doing the job you used to do.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Chris Matthews Show on Sunday talking with Howard Fineman of Newsweek, Erin Burnett, CNBC. Matthews says, ‘Who’s going to be the voice of the opposition the next couple of months? Is it going to be Pawlenty? Is it going to be Palin? Is it going to be McCain? Is it going to be Jindal?’
FINEMAN: It’s going to be Rush Limbaugh and what’s left of the conservative commentariate.
MATTHEWS: So the ticked-off voices?
FINEMAN: The ticked-off voices, and Rush will be the guy.
BURNETT: I agree. I would say Rush Limbaugh. We know he likes Governor Jindal.
RUSH: The Drive-Bys are convinced that — well, Dawn, you’re smiling for the first time today. Maybe Snerdley’s everybody’s boss today. Have you been too bossy with her? (laughing) Bob Shrum last Monday, New York City, Harold Evans moderated a discussion of the role of the media in the 2008 campaign. One of the panelists was Democrat strategist Bob Shrum and Harry Evans says, ‘Was Senator McCain smart or not going to Sarah Palin to appeal to the base?’
SHRUM: It was a disaster and one of his biggest mistakes. I do not think this was a year when there was going to be a base election. I think if you had a base strategy you were doomed. He should have, if he couldn’t pick Lieberman, he should have picked Tom Ridge. Pennsylvania would have been in play. He would have been criticized by Rush Limbaugh. There would have been a revolt on the floor of the Republican convention. Assuming he could have overcome it, he would have become a genuine independent maverick.
RUSH: I just love these Democrat telling us what we have to do to win. And, Shrum, you basically told McCain what he ended up doing. He may not have picked Lieberman and had a floor fight at the convention, but he didn’t govern and campaign as a conservative, and I’ll tell you, these people, they are lying through their teeth knowingly about Sarah Palin being a drag. Not only exit polls and polls taken since the election prove this, she was down in Miami late last week for the Republican Governors Association, she owned it. She owned it. I am wont to mention any names, but she so owned it that others in attendance cut short her press conference. I’m telling you, folks, Sarah Palin is the most popular Republican governor among the American people, among voters and so forth, and there’s some stuffed shirts, blue-blood country club types in the Republican Party that do not like it at all. And they’re trying to destroy her right now. You know, it’s just like this babe at NPR saying, ‘Yeah, Limbaugh, if he can define Obama here in the first 60 days, he can hurt him.’
In my case, I’m not lying about Obama. I’m just telling you who he is and sharing with you some of my expectations of what he’s going to do based on what I know about him and his past and who has influenced him and so forth because the media is not doing it. But in Sarah Palin’s case, it’s not just Shrum and the Democrats. There are a lot of Republicans that are trying to destroy her, all these leaks about the clothes and that stuff, full-fledged lies, and we know it’s lies and we know that Carl Cameron sopped it up and spit it out eagerly. There are a lot of people threatened by her because she is effective. She connects with people, and the Democrats don’t want to deal with her. I guarantee you the Obama campaign was more worried about her than they were McCain. They could see those rallies. They could see the excitement. This battle is not over between the Rockefellers, even though they took us down to this giant defeat, they still think that they have the prescription for victory even though they’ve shown their prescription loses.