RUSH: From Reuters: ‘Americans Grim Over Economy Before Elections.’ This is a poll. It’s a Reuters report on the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released yesterday. ‘Pessimism over the economy is rising and the grim mood could hurt both parties in the November 2 congressional elections.’ Sixty-six percent of Americans believe the economy will worsen before it gets better. That’s up from 53% who felt that way in January. Nearly 60% of those surveyed said the country is headed in the wrong direction. More than half of the respondents said they disapprove of the way Obama is handling the economy. Seventy-two percent of respondents disapprove of the job Congress is doing. And Reuters, hopefully pointing out here: ‘a finding that could bode ill for 
incumbents of both major parties seeking re-election.’ They wish. Everybody’s conceding the Republicans are gonna win the House. Now the focus is on the Senate, will they win there? If the Republicans are going to be hurt, Reuters, why is anybody talking about all these Republican gains?
Even if — and I don’t like this talk, by the way, of taking back the House, taking back the Senate, it’s too early, too premature — but even if that doesn’t happen, we know that the Republicans are going to score huge gains and not for any reason other than they are not Democrats. Because they’re not really putting forth any agenda. So how can Reuters sit here and say that the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll bodes ill for both parties when everybody concedes the Republicans are going to have sincere, massive gains? ‘Only 24% of those polled expressed positive feelings about the Republican Party. That’s a new low in the 21-year history of the survey. Democrats were only slightly more popular, but also near an all-time low.’ Now, that’s interesting. Granted, this is partisan political operative media, and therefore a partisan political operative poll. But let’s just assume this is true for a second, only 24% expressed positive feelings about the Republican Party. How could they change that? What is the Republican Party doing that has people down on it? In this day and age. In fact, they’re benefiting tremendously from not being Democrats, so what are they not doing or doing that’s causing this problem? And what’s the fix? And you and I both know the fix.
The fix is start standing for something and make what you’re standing for conservatism. You want to raise that 24% to over 50? Then get in line with a majority of people in the country. Republicans need to forget about being part of the ruling class. And remember what the purpose of their existence in government is. This is in the Wall Street Journal, this word ‘grim’ is in their own story of their own poll, ‘Grim Voter Mood Turns Grimmer,’ is the Wall Street Journal report on their own poll. ‘Pessimism Rises on Economy and War; Bad Reviews for Both Democrats and GOP.’ There’s nothing the Democrats can do. They’re in charge. The Democrats can’t do diddly-squat to help themselves. By their very existence, with total unchecked power, they are doing themselves damage that can’t be stopped and can’t be reversed. The only option they have — Karl Rove points this out in his column today in the Wall Street Journal — the only option they have is bashing Bush, and that’s not a good one, but it’s the best one they’ve got. They cannot point to anything they’ve done with pride. In fact, they’re being told not to brag. They’re being told not to run on their accomplishments. Why is that? Because they know that nobody wants them!
Nobody wanted health care as we have it; nobody wanted the Porkulus; nobody wants the financial regulatory reform bill; nobody wants the way Democrats are doing things. So there remains a huge opportunity for Republicans to contrast who they are, and all they’d have to do is start espousing the values and principles of our founding. And keep in mind as is in the case with every poll, every poll they oversampled Democrats. So there are far more Democrats in this poll than there are Democrats in the country. And that happens practically with every pollster. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama told the Democrats: run on health care, vote for health care, vote for it. Remember Clinton running around telling these guys at meetings, (imitating Clinton) ‘Hey, you know, I lost Congress in 1994, you know why? We lost it ’cause we did not pass health care. If I had stuck with that, if we’d passed that, then that Newt Gingrich revolution wouldn’t have happened. Now, you sit out there and you don’t fall for this notion of voting for this is gonna hurt you. Voting for health care is the only thing, the best thing you can do to help yourself.’ And now what?
Now they voted for it. And is Clinton out there saying, ‘Now, stand up for yourselves, go out there and run for reelection. It’s like I told you, I told you this the only way to save yourself, you vote for health care, you run out there and you tell everybody you did’? No. They’re getting letters from Clinton and Hillary and Begala and everybody else. (imitating Clinton) ‘By the way, when you’re on our campaign, don’t start bragging about your support for health care, don’t even mention you voted for it. It’s not something we want to talk about right now. And don’t talk about financial regulatory reform bill. In fact, just don’t say one thing about anything you’ve done. Just bash Bush.’ It’s all they got. Golden opportunity here for the Republicans. But they sit there and they’re just gonna try to take what comes their way by not doing anything.