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Rush Limbaugh

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RUSH: Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer talking to Axelrod, says, ‘When John Boehner, the Republican leader of the House, was here talking about the things where the two sides could work together, I said, ‘Why don’t you and the president announce jointly that the two of you will pledge to try to stop smoking?’ Do you think the president would be willing to join in some kind of a campaign like that?’

AXELROD: You know, we sorta started that campaign, Bob, because we — we — we waged a big battle in the Congress to get the FDA to regulate tobacco so that we could stop the marketing of these products to children.

SCHIEFFER: But he still smokes.

AXELROD: Yeah, but the president, uh, has — is doing a pretty good job on that, by the way, but — but the bigger issue is this. They can be role models for sure, but, if we allow the tobacco companies to market their products to children, then we’re creating a whole new generation of people who are addicted to tobacco.

RUSH: I watched the fascinating episode of Mad Men last night. It’s the penultimate episode for this current season, which is season four. Look, I don’t know how many of you are TiVoing this. If you are, this is going to be a spoiler alert. If you’re TiVoing it and you haven’t watched it, turn the radio off for a minute or so because I really have to tell this story and I’m not trying to spoil this for you. The new agency… I’ll give you five, four, three, two, one. You should be gone by now; if you’re not it’s your problem. You’ve been warned. Don Draper and his buddies founded this new agency and their number-one client was Lucky Strike cigarettes and that was $20 million, and that kept them afloat. They allowed them to start their own agency and branch off from the previous one that had been taken over by a British firm.

Well, Lucky Strike took their business elsewhere and the agency is threatened. Now, the short version of the story is that Don Draper writes a letter to the New York Times that ends up being a full-page ad in which he denounces ever taking tobacco money as an advertising agent and an agency. The letter is an ad for his agency trying to attract business, and he says, ‘Look, nobody in the advertising agency can claim success for tobacco. It’s addictive. There’s no amount of promotion or advertising necessary to sell cigarettes. All you gotta do is get somebody to try ’em the first time and they’re hooked. They can’t do anything about it,’ and this is an actual portrayal. This actually happened. One of the cofounders of Foote, Cone & Belding actually did this back in the forties: Abandoned the advertising business because of tobacco.

My point is here we are in 2010. This started in the forties, in the fifties, back when the health concerns became serious and the government got involved. But, as long ago as the forties, we have had people proselytizing and preaching against the ills of tobacco while so much of our society feeds off of the tax revenue and the sale of the product. So here is Axelrod in 2010! Boy, you would think an investor had one suit, not one lawsuit against a tobacco company. You would think these guys are still out there lying to congressional committees and Senate committees. ‘No, tobacco’s not addictive. No, tobacco’s perfectly healthy. Joe Camel is a wonderful cartoon character.’ You would think that nobody’s ever gone after tobacco before. Now, here’s Axelrod in this sound bite. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Obama’s doing a pretty job quitting there, but the bigger issue, they could be role models for children.’

‘But, if we allow the tobacco companies to market their products to children, we’re creating a whole new generation of people addicted to tobacco’? Mr. Axelrod, it’s 2010! This is an illustration of how the Democrat playbook is simply recycled. This is nothing new. Who in the world does he think he’s inspiring with a great political idea, a novel political idea for the Obama regime to stand behind? The Obama regime’s leader smokes! Axelrod admitted it here, and now he’s starting to jump on the tobacco companies. Even though people have been running against and suing and winning (eventually) the tobacco companies for 60, 70 years; and still the product is not banned, and still the taxes from tobacco fund children’s health care programs and who the hell knows whatever else. Education? So we have all these phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n’ rollers out there denouncing it.

It’s like a page from the Democrat Party playbook, all the while feeding off of it. On the one hand, they’re so concerned for the people and ‘the children.’ Why, this product can kill people! But they don’t take the step of banning it. To me, it’s ultimate hypocrisy. But the greater illustration here is how nothing the Democrats wail against is new. It’s simply recycled bilge and drivel that’s 70, 80, 90, 100 years old, and recycled to be something new for each generation coming to adulthood. Obama, I think said, Axelrod made him accept tobacco money for his Senate campaign. ‘You have to take it where you can get it. You have to take where you can get it,’ and this is why people have been playing holier-than-thou with tobacco for years. Even Mr. Foote of Foote, Cone & Belding was a chain smoker when he joined the American Cancer Society condemning tobacco. He eventually quit. He died recently at age 85. That’s how I know any of this. He died in a convalescent home, by the way. He was a massively famous, famous guy.

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