RUSH: There is more in that Charles Babington story at AP, and rather than have me tell you, since some of you wish to doubt me — and by the way, when I say some of you, we in this audience understand there are probably a whole lot of new people tuning in today, and I realize some of you have had a lot of skepticism about me. You may be a bit more curious because of the speech, which we’re going to get to in just a moment. I’ve been talked into replaying parts of the speech. For those of you new to this program, something you must understand is I really don’t like talking about myself. I always move forward. What happened yesterday happened yesterday. But my staff and my e-mail are overwhelming. ‘Why aren’t you talking about the speech?’ The speech was the speech and it’s out there. But I will relent. If the public demand is that I replay elements of my speech and we talk about it, so be it. We will do so in just a second.
But want to share with you one more passage from the Charlie Babington AP piece, the analysis piece, in which he says the Republicans ought not try to win ’cause if they win in battling Obama they might lose, which tells me that Babington thinks the American people are a bunch of uneducated sheep who actually want to see the United States economy continue to decline. And I, ladies and gentlemen, refuse to believe that that’s the mind-set of the American people. Charlie Babington, AP, reported on the actual agenda behind Obama’s budget. He says Obama’s proposals are this, quote, ‘An interrelated plan to undo major elements of President Ronald Reagan’s conservative movement.’ By the way, I’m doing this program without a teleprompter. I just saw Obama — it’s happening right now — introducing Kathleen Sebelius as the new Tom Daschle, secretary Health and Human Services. He needed a teleprompter to introduce a cabinet appointee! No teleprompter here, folks, and no teleprompter Saturday in Washington for my speech.
Obama admits his budget is an attempt to reshape the foundations of our country. Just as I said Saturday, he calls his plan a threat to the status quo in Washington. He wants to undo major elements of President Reagan’s conservative movement. Precisely that. That’s why I am being targeted, because I represent it. Sad to say, but I am the most prominent voice for conservatism in America today. I don’t mind being a prominent voice, but it’s a shame that my political party wants to throw it overboard. So many people who campaigned for office and got elected on it are now wimping out in our party, out of fear, fear born of mainstream media criticism, fear born of not being critical of somebody because of the color of their skin, or just plain fear for whatever reason. So the effort to marginalize me and to impugn me, mischaracterize me since I represent the most prominent national voice on conservatism is the explanation for why they’re doing it. They want to wipe out conservatism. Conservatism is the antithesis of what Obama and his people believe in.
Conservatism works. Conservatism is the foundation of our country. I opened the speech — I’ll tell you what, I was driving into town Saturday afternoon after landing at Dulles, I’m driving in, and I realize that Fox, I didn’t know that CNN was also going to televise it, I realized that Fox and C-SPAN are going to televise this speech. Oh, here’s another thing. It’s supposed to be 30 minutes, 5:00 to 5:30. Well, they were running ahead, they sent me out there at 4:45, and at the 30-minute mark, ‘Keep going, keep going, keep going,’ so I kept going and going and going and going, and it went on for an hour-and-a-half. But driving in, I decided that, hey, this is my first address to the nation on television, this is going to be carried by two networks — it was three as it turned out but I didn’t know CNN — so why not treat it as such? Why not take the opportunity here and go beyond just the audience in the hotel ballroom at the Omni Shoreham.
So I thought driving in, what would be a proper way to start? See, I don’t script my speeches, either. They’re all winged; they’re all ad-libbed. As I said during my speech, I don’t have to write down my core beliefs. They’re in my heart. I don’t have to write down my principles to remember them. They’re in my heart and my passionate belief in them allows my memory to recall them whenever I want. I don’t need to write down anything, and very few conservatives actually write anything, if it’s in your heart. We’re not a series of calculations. Conservatism is not a bunch of calculations on how to fool people, how to persuade them, how to lie to them in order to make them think we’re something that we’re not. So why not start out knowing that there are going to be people watching this who will not fit the profile of the passionate conservatives inside the ballroom at CPAC, why not tell them what ‘conservative’ is? I didn’t want to give a classic Burkian or Buckley definition of conservatism. I wanted to give a definition of conservatism that addresses the criticism, the popular criticism of conservatism throughout the country, from the left and the Drive-By Media. And this was it.
RUSH AT CPAC: Let me tell you who we conservatives are: We love people. (applause) When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere — when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere — we see Americans. We see human beings. We don’t see groups. We don’t see victims. We don’t see people we want to exploit. What we see — (applause) what we see is potential. We do not look out across the country and see the average American — the person that makes this country work — we do not see that person with contempt. We don’t think that person doesn’t have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government. (applause) We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. (applause) We believe that the preamble to the Constitution [sic] contains an inarguable truth that we are all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, (applause) liberty, freedom, (applause) and the pursuit of happiness. (applause) Now, those of you watching at home may wonder why this is being applauded. We conservatives think all three are under assault.
CROWD: (wild, sustained applause)
RUSH: Now, the reason that they’re under assault — by the way, I misspoke. It was a rhetorical error. That’s obviously from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. The reason that we believe life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are under assault, let me go through each one. Life. We are all endowed by our Creator certain inalienable rights. Life. There is a political party and a psychological, slash, ideological movement which is hell-bent on defining its political success by counting the number of abortions that happen. I don’t want to get into discussion of abortion here, Snerdley. I don’t take any phone calls about that. But the point that we conservatives all understand is, is that we all are created, we have one life that’s God-given, and it is a blessing that too many people take for granted by getting caught up in the day-to-day minutia of the difficulties of life. But it is the most precious thing. And to see it under assault under the guise of, well, you know, it’s a disease or the convenience or inconvenience to the living will be caused by birth or we’ve heard arguments that we don’t want people born into poverty. Why, who would want to be born into that?
Some of the greatest people in the world were born in poverty. Most people are in fact born in poverty around the world. So life is under assault, both in the womb and when you get toward the end of life. The Democrats, the left always come up with new organizations, assisted suicide, placing the power of determining who lives and who dies outside the family. Liberty, freedom. There’s no question that liberty and freedom are under assault straight from Washington, DC, and your state governments. And the assault on freedom and liberty being led by the Obama administration to this day, virtually every aspect of Obama’s plan results in less individual liberty, the growth of government equals less liberty, more laws, more regulations. We’re going to get to the point where we’re going to have to ask ourselves what we can say and can’t say, where we can say it, where we can’t say it, what we can drive, what we can’t drive, what kind of lightbulbs we can have and what kind of lightbulbs we can’t have, what kind of toilet paper can we use, how can we feel and energize our homes. All these decisions will not be ours.
And the pursuit of happiness. Interesting to find that in the Declaration of Independence. Of all things, here these people, Founding Fathers are trying to construct a reason to declare independence from the tyranny of King George. Pursuit of happiness. You see, tyranny, living under tyranny does not promote happiness. It doesn’t even promote contentment. Its hallmark is fear. Our Founding Fathers did not want any fear among the people aimed at government. They wanted government afraid of the people. That’s why there were accountabilities; that’s why the Bill of Rights; the first ten amendments to the Constitution; that’s why there are elections; that’s why there are checks and balances. But they look out across the country, and just use the last eight years for those of you who are tuning in now, maybe for the first time, ask yourselves, when’s the last time you saw a happy Democrat, a happy liberal? They’re not happy. Even liberal comedians are enraged and angry. Their jokes are rooted in a rage and anger. These are the people that wrote books and made movies about the assassination of George W. Bush and called them great literary and film works that even if we didn’t agree with the premise we must understand the art that went into it, the art that was behind it. But we don’t find happiness on the left, and we don’t have anybody on the left encouraging anybody else to be happy.
The leader of the Democrat Party, Barack Obama every day makes statements that are designed to engage people in feelings of negativism and in some cases even panic. Panic. There’s no inspiration. There’s no uplifting. There is no hope. It’s just the opposite. So that’s why, in a very brief explanation, we fear. And that’s why I was applauded when I defined conservatism as standing for life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. People were applauding it because it’s under assault from the Democrat Party, from the White House on down. We’re not supposed to be happy until as much of our lives as possible are controlled by these people in Washington who ostensibly have our best interests at heart. Yeah, maybe their intentions are good, but their results are abysmal. Every government program designed to elevate achievement, happiness, prosperity for the poor and the downtrodden has only increased the numbers of poor, feelings of misery, and, by the way, anger. How many Democrat voters are angry? Some have been angry for 50 years over the same things, and for 50 years the Democrats have been promising to fix it. ‘We’re going to get even with those Republicans that are stealing your money. We’re going to make sure the Republicans get outta your way. We’re going to make sure there’s no discrimination,’ and yet, nothing changes. Their grievances have not changed in 50 years.
The Democrat Party has utterly failed to deliver on their promises to people. The Democrat Party has succeeded in expanding misery, trying to spread as much possible. The Democrat Party is doing everything it can to create crisis mentality on a daily basis: angst, anger, and frustration. So there is no pursuit of happiness with these people. Life, leave it up to them and it’s a crapshoot. Liberty? They’re trying to stamp out as much of it as possible. Just examine your daily life and you’ll understand it. And, by the way, your freedom, as far as you’re concerned, might not be directly impacted, although it is, but you may not really feel it. But I’m sure you can notice people in your neighborhood — ah — sorry, ‘community’ is the preferred word now — in your state or around the country. Property owners are told what they can and can’t do with their land because of a tiny little snail darter or some such thing. Just imagine it happening to you one day because if nobody stops it when it’s happening to others, it’s eventually going to get to everybody.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Back to the CPAC speech Saturday afternoon, the Omni Shoreham hotel, my first nationally televised address to the nation.
RUSH AT CPAC: For those of you just tuning in on the Fox News Channel or C-SPAN, I am Rush Limbaugh and I want everyone in this room and every one of you around the country to succeed. (applause) I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness to succeed. And I want any force, any person, any element of an overarching Big Government that would stop your success, I want that organization, that element or that person to fail. I want you to succeed.
CROWD: (wild applause)
RUSH AT CPAC: Also, for those of you in the Drive-By Media watching, I have not needed a teleprompter for anything I’ve said. (applause) And nor do any of us need a teleprompter, because our beliefs are not the result of calculations and contrivances. Our beliefs are not the result of a deranged psychology. (laughter) Our beliefs are our core. Our beliefs are our hearts. We don’t have to make notes about what we believe. We don’t have to write down, ‘Oh, gee, do I believe this? Do I believe that?’ We can tell people what we believe off the top of our heads and we can do it with passion and we can do it with clarity, and we can do it persuasively. Some of us just haven’t had the inspiration or motivation to do so in a number of years, but that’s about to change. (applause)
RUSH: It will change, ladies and gentlemen. There’s a lot of fear at the RNC, there’s a lot of fear within the Republican Party, but that will change. We keep saying that the American people need leadership. I keep saying the conservative Republicans, ‘Just get some leadership.’ You know what? You know who needs leadership? The Republican National Committee and Michael Steele need a little leadership. The Republicans in the Senate, the elected Republicans around the country, they’re the ones who need leadership. We’ve been looking in the wrong areas for leadership. Turns out we are the leaders. We’re going to have to drag them kicking and screaming back to our core. They’re caught up in so much fear because of where they live and work in Washington, DC. That’s why I say it will change. This fear that paralyzes the Republican Party will change.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I got three more speech sound bites. Let’s get to one and I’ll get a couple phone calls and get another bite, and then a couple of phone calls.
RUSH AT CPAC: This notion that I want the president to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we’ve got. That’s nothing more than common sense, and to not be able to say it? Why in the world do I want what we’ve just described, rampant government growth, indebtedness that has — wealth that’s not even been created yet is being spent. What is in this? What possibly is in this that any of us want to succeed? Did the Democrats want the war in Iraq to fail? Well, they certainly did. And they not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure. There’s Dingy Harry Reid waving the white flag, ‘This war is lost.’ (cheers and applause) They called General Petraeus a liar before he even testified. (crowd booing) Mrs. Clinton (crowd booing) said she had to suspend, willingly suspend disbelief or whatever to listen to Petraeus. We’re in the process of winning the war. The last thing they wanted was to win. They hoped George Bush failed. So where is it, what is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed? (Cheers and applause.)
RUSH: Indeed. Indeed. It’s like I also told the group I’m a Steelers fan. The Steelers with a miracle two-minute drive to go up by four points, last two minutes of the game, fifteen seconds left, Kurt Warner with the ball for the Cardinals near midfield. I wanted Kurt Warner to fail. I’m pointing out that people root for other people to fail all the time. This is far more serious than just the Super Bowl winner and loser, except for the gamblers. This is far more important. The country is failing in front of your face. Our economy is failing, our jobs are being lost. A year ago, where was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 11,000, 13? Its peak was 13. We are at 6,882, down 3,000 since Obama was elected. And what’s the solution? Oh, health care. I forgot. That’s what we’re going to do, health care, I forgot, we’re going to do health care. We’re going to speed up universal health care. That will save so much money that we’ll inspire the economy to rebound.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All right, there’s another sound bite we have here. It is number 22, Mister Broadcast Engineer.
RUSH AT CPAC: My friends, I know what’s going on. I know what’s going on. We’re in the aspects here of an historic presidency. I know that. But let me be honest again. I got over the historical aspects of this in November. President Obama is our president. President Obama stands for certain things. I don’t care, he could be a Martian. He could be from Michigan. I’m just kidding. It doesn’t matter to me what his race is, it doesn’t matter. He’s liberal, is what matters to me, and his articulated, his articulated plans scare me. Now, I understand, okay, ‘We can’t say we want the president to fail, Mr. Limbaugh, that’s like saying –‘ this is the voice of the New Castrati, by the way, guys that have lost their guts. ‘You can’t say, Mr. Limbaugh, that you want the president to fail, because that’s like saying you want the country to fail.’ No, it’s the opposite! I want the country to survive! I want the country to succeed! (cheers and applause)
RUSH: Right on, right on, right on. Now, when you listen to that…
CROWD: (chanting) USA! USA!
RUSH: When you listen to that and then you turn on your Drive-By Media later and you hear them saying, ‘Rush wants Obama to fail, ‘you have to ask yourself, ‘How in the world can they get that from what I said?’ And they all watched it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s part of the parting message from my speech Saturday at CPAC at the Omni Shoreham in Washington.
RUSH AT CPAC: So as you leave here, as you leave here, optimism, confidence, not guilt, it’s not worth it, there’s nothing to be guilty about. Don’t treat people as children. Respect their intelligence. Realize that there is a way to persuade people. Sometimes the worst way is get in their face and point a finger. Set up a set of circumstances where the conclusion is obvious, let ’em think they came up with the idea themselves, then they’ll think they’re smart that they figured it out. Who cares how you persuade them, the fact that they can be persuaded is factually correct, it’s possible. The main thing to do here: stop thinking that we are a minority. Stop thinking that it is being in the minority that liberates you. It is your beliefs, it is your core principles, it is your confidence that liberates you. It is not being in the minority. In fact, for those of you watching my first national address, if you’re still hanging in there, we’re really not that happy about being in minority and we’re out to change it. Now —
CROWD: (wild cheers and applause)