RUSH: President Obama is now in the middle of his opening statement at his press conference somehow, coincidentally, scheduled for one o’clock Eastern time today. I got to listen to a little bit of 
it prior to this program’s second hour beginning. He said he called McConnell and Boehner last, said we’re gonna have to work together which is exactly what Boehner and McConnell want to hear, by the way, this is what they expect to hear. They’re both of the belief that Obama will have to move to the center, that Obama will read the tea leaves of the election and understand what’s happened here. The American people have rejected him. He’s gonna have to move to the center to get things done. This is what they hope happens. Obama also said there are things that we cannot compromise on.
Look, let me lay it out here. I don’t care what he says in this press conference. What he says in this press conference is all BS, and it’s designed to give everybody in the Republican Party what they want to hear, and then he’s gonna leave, he’s gonna go to India. When he comes back there’s gonna be none of this, he’s not gonna compromise. This guy is committed to his agenda and he’s not going to abandon it. In fact, he’s set up now. I will bet you Obama’s disappointed that he didn’t lose the Senate. My prediction way back when, I think Obama was happy to lose the House and was looking forward to losing the Senate because he wants to run against Republicans in 2012. Well, now he’s not gonna be able to run only against Republicans. He’s going to have a bunch of Democrats in the Senate. They’re gonna run that show and he’s not gonna be able to intellectually, honestly say the Republicans are the party of ‘no.’ He’s gonna do it anyway but he’s not gonna be able to get away with it. But this is a giant setup. Do not doubt me.
I know this guy. I know the kind of person he is because of what he believes. I know liberals. I know socialists. I know Marxists. I know exactly how they do things. I know people that understand and love Saul Alinsky. I understand exactly what the tactics are. I know how they go about achieving what they want. (interruption) What do you mean how can he pivot on health care? What is there to pivot on health care about? He’s got health care. (interruption) When the Republicans are trying to repeal some of it? Well, he’s not gonna go for that. He’s not gonna pivot on health care. Of course there’s no common ground between Republicans and Obama, unless the Republicans decide they want to have some. There is no common ground. That’s the best way to describe this. What do we have in common with the guy? I don’t have anything in common with him in terms of his view of this country, where he wants to take it versus what I think it is and where it should go. Nothing in common there. Pivot on health care? I mean that’s one of the things he’s checked off on the list, ‘Okay, got that.’ He’s gonna dare ’em to repeal it.
He’s gonna run around saying, (doing Obama impression) ‘Hey, you know what I did? I have given you free health care, first time in American history, your health care is free, and look at what these people want to do, they want to take it away from you.’ That’s what he’s gonna do. He’s not gonna say, ‘Oh, man, I lost, I’m gonna have to agree with Republicans on maybe not funding some of it or maybe delaying some of it or maybe repealing some of it.’ Do you actually think that’s gonna happen? Obama’s gonna start the minute that starts, the minute the Republicans make a move on health care, he’s gonna call another presser, he’s gonna act shocked and outraged, after all the hard work, after all of these decades, first time in history, only industrialized nation not to have national health care, we finally got it with him, (doing Obama impression) ‘I’ve finally given people $2500 less premiums every year. I have given away free health care and now look, these Republicans just think they won an election, they think they can come in here and take it all away from you. It isn’t about me, folks, it isn’t about me. They’re gonna take your health care away from you.’ That’s exactly what he’s gonna do.
And of course the Republicans, ‘No, no, no, we don’t want to take anybody’s health care away from them, no, no, no, no.’ (imitating Obama) ‘You do, too, you do, that’s exactly what you’re doing, exactly why you want to win the election.’ There’s no compromise here. That’s why I say the heavy lifting begins now. Now, folks, it might be tempting to watch the Democrats divide themselves, and make no mistake, the Clintons are calculating. There’s blood in the water. The Clintons are taking the temperature of the blood. They’re taking the temperature of the water. You’re looking at it. The more blood in the water the better. With losses of this magnitude, and this was a wipeout, this was a teanami. With losses of this magnitude, Clinton Democrats will not be able to resist the political blood in the water. Obama is a failure.
Let me draw you an analogy. By the way, I want to give a little shout out here. Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator has a very long piece today. I only learned that he was writing this piece two days ago. I did not participate. He didn’t talk to me. I didn’t contribute to it at all. It’s called, ‘The Winner: Rush Limbaugh.’ We’ve linked to it at RushLimbaugh.com. It is an amazing piece. It recounts the last two years. He calls what happened last night a Rushslide as opposed to a landslide. Jeffrey Lord, American Spectator, ‘The Winner: Rush Limbaugh.’ Let me take you back to the Harry Reid phony soldier thing — another incident where I did not cower. Remember they tried to drum up this notion I was attacking soldiers, military people, claiming they were liars, phony soldiers. All of it was trumped up and made up. Harry Reid writes a letter to the president of my syndication partner, Clear Channel, and to Mark Mays and demands that I apologize.
The most powerful in the US Senate sends my syndication partner a letter demanding that he and I apologize for this phony soldier business. We put that letter up for auction on eBay as an example of authoritarianism, denial of free speech rights, intimidation, the kind of things the Founding Fathers wrote a Constitution to prevent people in government from doing. And of course you know the rest. We ran a thing on eBay, and I promised to match whatever it ultimately got as a donation, $2.3 million is what somebody paid for that letter. So I had to match it. The money went to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. Now, wouldn’t you think at the end of that that Harry Reid would be a little humble, realize, you know, I just had my lunch handed to me? You would think that Harry Reid would go to the floor of the Senate and say, ‘Okay, you know what…’ He went to the floor of the Senate and took credit for it. He went to the floor of the Senate and actually praised the guy he sent the letter to demanding my free speech rights be interrupted. He tried to piggyback. He tried to in fact take credit for the fact that so much money was raised because he wrote a letter.
Anybody thinks that Obama’s gonna do anything different, that Obama is going to somehow move and moderate our way and so forth? These people in no way, shape, manner or form are going to acknowledge one bit of achievement or accomplishment or allow one bit of credit to accrue to anybody but them, no matter what is obvious. You and I would not have the guts to brazenly lie like that on such a national stage. To Harry Reid and Barack Obama, it’s par for the course. Because they know they’ve got the media right behind ’em promoting it and even amplifying it. So this business that there’s gonna be movement toward us from Obama, and compromise, forget it. Obama is a failure. Last night’s elections, yesterday’s elections put the exclamation point to it. He was on the agenda. His agenda was on the ballot, he said so. Obama is a failure. This is no longer one man’s prophecy. This is no longer my opinion. It’s no longer my expressed desire. It’s a fact.
Obama’s first team has already exited the White House. And Pelosi is history. All of Obama’s number one aides, Rahm Emanuel, they’re gone, Axelrod’s leaving, all the A-team, they’re gone, heading back to Chicago, to the cave, wherever they’re going back to, academia. Pelosi is history, the shortest speakership in history, ding-dong the witch is dead. The Senate has been weakened, Obama has no momentum. Zilch, zero, nada. There is going to be a power struggle within the Democrat Party. Obama’s $200 million-a-day trip to India will only fuel the struggle. Obama has not mesmerized and does not hold the Democrat Party in mesmerization. He’s not got everybody snowed any longer. The Democrats know Obama’s poison. The Democrats know today that Barack Obama is a liability. I doubt that you’ll hear anybody on the Republican side saying what I’m saying to you today, but it’s true. Obama has lost his momentum. There’s going to be a power struggle within the Democrat Party, blood is in the water.
There are Democrats who think they would be a better president than Obama. Obama says we can work together on earmarks. Work together on earmarks. What does that mean? How do you compromise when your avowed policy is to end them? No earmarks. If we go for earmarks, we lose. If we compromise on earmarks, say, ‘Okay, you know what? We’ll do earmarks, we’ll just do fewer of them and we’ll have the overall expenditure total on earmarks be less.’ We’re finished if we do that. It’s not what this election is about. This election’s about ending earmarks. This election’s about ending gratuitous federal spending that benefits only the spender. Work together on earmarks? What kind of working together does it take to say there aren’t gonna be any anymore? And do you think Obama holds that position? Do you think Obama’s position is no more earmarks? Without earmarks Harry Reid would be history. (interruption) He’s saying earmarks are history? He doesn’t want any earmarks? Obama is saying he doesn’t want any earmarks. I don’t believe it. I don’t believe him for a moment. He’s a Democrat. A, they lie; B, they survive on things like earmarks. Obama is saying he doesn’t want earmarks anymore, and that’s where he’s willing to compromise? That’s a trap. He’s setting it.
The bottom line here is there’s gonna be a power struggle within the Democrat Party. This trip to India is not right. The optics of the Obama regime, they’re just not right. The regime has been rejected. The Obama agenda has been repudiated. This was a wipeout. The Democrats know this. They will never say it publicly, folks. They’re plotting for 2012. You’re not gonna have public airs of disloyalty. You’re not going to have a Democrat Party publicly falling apart. You might have some unnamed Democrats leaking to the Politico now and then, or the Huffington Post, elements of what they’re gonna do. But my reason for saying all of this is the Republicans cannot rely on this dynamic to propel them to victory in 2012. Do you realize if the Republicans had actually stood for something last night in addition to just being against Obama, we would have won the Senate? If the Republicans had advanced an ideological, philosophical-based agenda or platform, or just an identity, ‘Here’s who we are.’ If they had simply taken to the airwaves, the television commercials, radio commercials to draw the contrast between Obama and themselves, we would have taken the Senate.
The Republicans didn’t want to rock the boat. Republicans didn’t want to make waves. They saw Obama and the Democrats self-destructing, and there is a school of thought that says when that’s happening get out of the way and let it. When your enemy is committing suicide, don’t throw ’em a lifeline. So the Republicans calculated that now was not the time to get into a series of explanations on who they are and what they are. It was in their minds sufficient for people to know that they were not Democrats, they were not Obama. I’m simply saying had they articulated who they are and this is what we’re for, not just the Pledge that they put forth, but sooner. I’m not talking about a Contract with America. Just articulate conservatism! If they woulda just said, ‘Here’s what we believe. This is where it’s gone off track and where to put it back on,’ they would have won the Senate. But hindsight is hindsight.
My point is they can’t do this anymore. They can’t sit by and rely on Democrats to self-destruct in 2012. What worked to create this landslide yesterday will not work in 2012. Republicans are gonna have to earn the trust of the American people. Marco Rubio, from whom you’ll hear in just a moment, has this exactly right. We’re past photo-ops. The country needs results. The deficit has to be cut. Taxes cannot be raised. Taxes must be reduced to spark growth. We don’t argue in the margins about earmarks. We just don’t do them. Waiting for Democrats to destroy themselves was last year’s plan. It will not work going forward.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Look at me, folks. Look at me. Listen to me. We simply cannot wait any longer for the Democrats to destroy themselves because when they destroy themselves they take us and the country with them, as has happened the last two years. We’ve had enough. We’ve had enough of letting them destroy themselves. Because, when they do, they take us and the country with them. All this talk of compromise, all this talk about partnership, do you know what that’s geared to? All of this talk of compromise and bipartisanship is geared to one thing and one thing only and that is getting the GOP to shoulder the blame for the things Obama implements by executive fiat from his bipartisan deficit commission.
That’s what this all about. Do not forget, the deficit commission in a month is gonna make some recommendations — and they’re gonna have VAT tax increases, other kinda tax increases, you wait and see. ‘The deficit’s a monster. The deficit’s a crisis!’ Elected officials have washed their hands of it, the blue ribbon committee is gonna come forth with its suggestions. All this talk of compromise, all this talk of bipartisanship is geared to getting Republicans to go along with whatever Alan Simpson and ‘Irksome’ Bowles have to say next month. He is gonna point to higher taxes, new taxes, VAT tax, reductions in Social Security and Medicare, and he’ll say, ‘They can’t blame me. They voted for it, too. It’s a bipartisan commission!’
And don’t get caught up in earmarks. Earmarks, they’re a trap. If we get rid of earmarks, and this is where Obama’s offering to compromise, let me tell you what happens. If we agree with him to get rid of earmarks, big whoop. If we get rid of earmarks, we get rid of about one half of 1% of spending. Earmarks were a big McCain issue. (impression) ‘That’s right, Limbaugh! That’s right! Earmarks, earmarks, federal spending, it’s over the top. End earmarks.’ Right. End earmarks and we’ve ended one half of 1% or less of federal spending. Fine. So get rid of earmarks, but earmarks are a side issue, and the fact that Obama brought ’em up makes it a side issue. He would loooooove to get compromise like earmarks.
The Republicans ought to say, ‘Ain’t no big deal. You want to compromise there, fine, but that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what needs to be done.’ But, folks, look, I cannot emphasize for you enough. There’s another thing happening today. The Federal Reserve in 45 minutes is going to have a meeting, and they’re gonna talk about Quantitative Easing 2 (QE2) and I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. The Federal Reserve, if the best guessers are right, is going to be injecting $500 billion into the hands of certain people to continue to buy equities and stocks. The objective is going to be to create a little inflation. This will give the appearance of economic growth. Five hundred billion at least, QE2. We’re going to print money, and they’re gonna announce it at 2:15 this afternoon, QE2. Spend money. The deficit commission reports in December. All this talk of compromise is to force Republicans to go along with whatever the commission says.