RUSH: Glenn in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, nice to have you on the program, sir.
CALLER: Thank you very much, Rush. I just felt an opportunity to call because of the president visiting Rhode Island today, my former state —
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: — and needless to say he’s not endorsing the Democratic candidate for governor, Frank Caprio. His comments in regards to being questioned about that, (paraphrasing) ‘Tell him to shove his recommendation,’ and that’s plain English.
RUSH: We’ve got the audio sound bite. I really don’t quite understand this because Obama’s not endorsing anybody. But here’s the way it went. This is the sound bite. This morning in Providence on the radio, the anchor, John DePetro — do you remember DePetro, Snerdley? You remember him from WABC, right? Oh, yeah. John DePetro interviewed the Democrat candidate for governor, Frank Caprio, and DePetro said, ‘Very exciting day. Obama will be in Rhode Island today, front page of this morning’s Providence Journal it says: ‘Obama won’t endorse Caprio during the Rhode Island visit.”
CAPRIO: He could take his endorsement and really shove it. We had one of the worst floods in the history of the United States a few months back, and President Obama didn’t even do a flyover of Rhode Island like President Bush did when New Orleans had their problems. He ignored us and now he’s coming into Rhode Island treating us like an ATM machine. So what I’m saying to President Obama very clearly is I’ll wear as a badge of honor and a badge of courage that he doesn’t want to endorse me as a Democrat.
RUSH: That’s a Democrat speaking, the Democrat gubernatorial candidate, Rhode Island, Frank Caprio. Not to be confused with Frank DiCapra. You have to understand now that this is really maladroit on the part of the White House. This is not skillful. To go into Rhode Island and not endorse anybody, go in there and raise money, what are you going for? I mean you’re going in there hoping people win, right, you’re campaigning for people that run for Congress, but you don’t even mention the guy running for governor? And so the gubernatorial candidate: ‘He can take his endorsement and really shove it. We had one of the worst floods in the history of the US a few months back, he didn’t even fly over. He ignored us and now he’s come into Rhode Island treating us like an ATM machine.’ Mr. Caprio, I hate to tell you this, and although Obama doesn’t know it, he’s doing you a favor by not endorsing you.
You know, Obama is running around saying Republicans want to undo his reforms. That is an endorsement for every Republican that Obama’s running against. Everybody wants Obama’s reforms undone except about 25% of the country. So Obama’s running, (imitating Obama) ‘Yeah, the Republicans, why, they want to undo my great work.’ Hurray! Vote Republican! That’s the reaction to that. So, Mr. Caprio, while it may have ticked you off and you look at it as a sign of disrespect, at the end of the day it’s a net plus for you that Obama did not endorse you. He’s doing you a favor. You really have to be amazed at the wonderful eloquence of the Democrats. ‘He can take his endorsement and shove it.’