RUSH: I had a number of people e-mail today during the course of the first hour of the program, ladies and gentlemen, expressing anger and dissatisfaction with the callers on today’s program, claiming the callers have not been up to the usual caliber and so forth. Others are writing to express their confusion over the program today. Let me just give you a sample. I address all this, by the way, to those of you who are new to the program. Here’s just an example. This is just one sample. ‘Dear Rush, I’m a fairly new listener, and I’m confused. I thought I understood your message about Obama getting all the credit for each step of the rescue…’ In fact, there’s one aspect of the rescue that the Obama administration has not been properly credited for — and it’s big one — and I want to be the first to bestow upon our brave new president the credit for this operation, because if this hadn’t happened, none of the rest of the operation could have.
Remember when the ship’s captain offered to trade himself as a hostage to the pirates, if all the other crew would be released? And that happened. So what has not been properly bestowed upon our brave new president is when he gave that order to the captain to trade himself to the pirates, the merchant marine organizers, so that the rest of the crew could be released. I mean, that’s a fundamental aspect of the story. It’s not just that Obama personally ordered the shooting to start and gave the order to fire. But had President Obama not given the order to the captain to offer himself in exchange for all the other crew members that were hostages, then we would not have been able to have the operation that we had on Sunday. The operation on Sunday required only one hostage. Obama knew this a week ago.
Everybody is complaining that Obama took a week to figure this out. No, no, no, no! What’s happening here is somebody in the White House has not gotten the story out to the stenographers in the Drive-By Media. Because had Obama not given the captain, Mr. Phillips, the order to trade himself for all the rest of the hostages, then it would have been impossible for the Navy ‘snippers’ to commit ‘snipper fire’ on Obama’s orders. There could only be one guy there, and he had to get himself out of the way. So it’s a brilliant, brilliant thing here that President Obama pulled off, and that’s one aspect here that hasn’t been reported. Back to the confused e-mail… Dear Rush,
I’m a fairly new listener and confused. I thought I understood your message about Obama getting all the credit for each step of the rescue but then those two callers yelled at you. It seemed to me they didn’t get your point, but you didn’t set them straight. You didn’t explain the sarcasm. Now I’m not sure if I understand as well as I thought.
Signed, JuneRUSH: I don’t want to mention her last name because she’s confused and I don’t know where she lives. She didn’t say so. To all of you new listeners, hang in there. What’s happening here on this program is sort of common. I mean, you can’t listen to just a half hour or an hour or two hours or even a day and have it all figured out, unless you have not been poisoned by our popular culture and its media. Now, June here is wiser than she knows, but she doesn’t know how wise she is at all, because June says, ‘I thought I understood, but then those callers started yelling at you.’ That’s exactly right, June, and who were those callers? If you’re just joining us, we started out by agreeing with Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online that when President Obama does great things, we have to acknowledge it. We can’t sit here and act unhappy and upset that President Obama excelled at something.
We can’t do that, so here we have — and we know that he’s totally responsible for all that happened here. He gave the order to the SEALs to shoot. That was on ABC at the top of the hour. He planned the rescue strategy, the timing and so forth. But who is it that’s calling here? Who is it calling and yelling at me about this? Why, it’s none other than Obama supporters! None other than people who voted for Obama. A couple of them have come from Chicago, but these people calling and yelling at me and insulting me and telling me that I’ve lost my mind, these are people that voted for Obama. And they are calling essentially to tell me that I’m wrong. These Obama supporters and voters are calling to tell me, essentially, that he doesn’t deserve the credit. They’re disagreeing with me. Their hatred for me is such that even when I praise President Obama, they have to call and call me names and tell me I’ve lost my mind or whatever.
So what you’re hearing here today is — and I don’t know of any other radio show where this would happen, where Obama’s supporters would call a host praising President Obama and tell the host he’s nuts. It’s a monumental achievement here today, if you understand the context, the rubric under which this program operates. So if you’re confused, if you’re disappointed in the quality of the callers today, keep in mind one thing. We’re all professionals here. We’re highly trained professionals. What you hear is what we want you to hear. What happens here is not by accident. What happens here is not beyond our control. I’m a benevolent dictator. What you hear on this program is precisely what we want you to hear. There are no mistakes that have been made today. We have not made any errors. (interruption) I am not revealing secrets. I’m telling people how the program operates.
What is Open Line Friday about? You know, I tell people, ‘Monday through Thursday we only take the calls I want to take.’ What day is it? Monday! I’ve even had some people call and say, ‘This sounds like Open Line Friday.’ Well, okay. (laughing) You’re starting to get it, but don’t think that… You know, we’re not just a ragtag operation here like a lot of other media programs are that whatever happens, happens. This program is among the most tightly screened programs in all of major media — call screened — and always has been. For you to think that somehow I am being bamboozled or we are being fooled by the people that call, you are not giving us the proper credit as professionals. We’re all professionals here, and we know what we’re doing.
Every program is a brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed strategy. I understand that some of you new listeners are going to be confused. That’s the idea. If this program were simple, if it were on the surface, then you would never be confused. You might say, ‘But, Rush, you’re a communicator. You’re a highly trained specialist. You’re in the business of communication. Why do you not want people to understand what you’re doing?’ Oh, I do. I just realize that there are far more powerful ways to make a point than to say something in five or six seconds. It’s about inspiring your own brains to get into gear, to start thinking about things. Even some of my closest friends have said it — which is what tells me that this program — not only all of the libs who have called here to essentially criticize their president — a bunch of libs, angry at me have called here to say, ‘Obama doesn’t deserve all this credit,’ that I’m out of my mind.
There’s no other program that could make that happen. Even some of my closest friends have called to say, ‘Good Lord, what’s wrong with Snerdley today?’ So I’m compelled to say, ‘Nothing. He’s following orders flawlessly, perfectly.’ And, June, your confusion has been experienced by virtually all the other 20 or 22 million people who listen to this program. Well, not all of them. Some of them were never confused, but a lot of people have been, but not for long. Just as I said before the previous hour ended: Hang in. Hang in, because it all makes sense at some point to everybody. When that point happens — when that moment in time comes where it all makes sense, where all the lights go off — you then understand how fortunate you are to have me as your host and this program as your chosen one.