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RUSH: How about Obama ceding the presidency, not just the podium, but ceding the presidency to Bill Clinton for a half hour, or 45 minutes last Friday after this program is off the air. Man, oh, man, we’ve got sound bites of females in the White House press corps. Folks, it’s as we always knew it. In fact, as I’m listening to them asking questions, the camera’s not on them, I think they’re taking their clothes off in front of Clinton while they’re asking him questions and saying, ‘Please, can I be next?’ What does Monica have that I don’t have? What does she have that I didn’t have? It’s hilarious. And what’s Obama’s excuse? Michelle’s waiting. He’s got to go to a Christmas party. That’s how I know the tax deal’s going to get done this week, because Obama’s vacation in Hawaii starts. As Michelle didn’t want to be late to a Christmas party, I know damn well she’s not going to want to be late getting to Hawaii. Ha! So you can count on this, and it’s not a good deal. Unless some things change, this is not worth the Republicans signing onto. It really isn’t, which we detailed for you throughout the busy broadcast on Friday.

But I mean, let’s go back, shall we? This is January 7, 2008 during the presidential campaign. It’s at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire during a town hall meeting and this is Clinton during the town hall meeting talking about Obama.

BILL CLINTON: Give me a break. (Applause). This whole thing is the biggest fairytale I’ve ever seen.

RUSH: This whole thing is the biggest fairytale I’ve ever seen. And don’t forget it was Clinton, who I think, not on mic, maybe it was, we don’t have the audio of this, but you remember he was in South Carolina at some place complaining to some of his people. He said, and you’ll remember this, he said, (imitating Clinton) ‘Yeah, you know, two years ago this guy would have been fetching us our coffee.’ Remember that? ‘Two years ago, this guy, yeah, he would be getting us our coffee. They’re playing the race card on me?’ Now, Clinton is a phony alibi for Obama’s supposed supply side transformation. Why did they call Clinton? It’s not Clinton’s tax rates that they are trying to keep in place. It’s Bush’s. Why didn’t he call Bush? It’s Clinton’s tax rates everybody’s trying to avoid. Has anybody thought of this that way? No. That’s why I’m host. And why did he call in Bill instead of Hillary? You know, the nags ought to be furious about this because it just shows when they think something has to be done you gotta go back to the old boys network. Hillary does all the grunt work all over the world going places nobody else wants to go. She got eaten up during the campaign, cheated on, cheated against, all that kind of stuff, made to look like a cleaning woman on Sundays, and they then go to Bill Clinton to bring him back as the savior of Obama.

Now, Clinton, ladies and gentlemen, Clinton is no dummy. He knows Obama is a failure. He knows it. That’s why he’s helping him out here. Do you know what Obama is now going to owe the Clintons for this if this thing ever comes to pass? You know, Clinton wants to come off as some magnanimous guy just trying to help his president, but you know that he and Hillary are laughing themselves silly. Obama has dug himself a hole and he forgot to take a ladder in to climb out. So he’s down in the hole, he’s yelling up to the top, ‘Hey, Bill, Bill, can you give me a hand?’ And Clinton said, ‘Hell, yes, man, whatever you need me to do. What do you want me to do?’ And Clinton goes out, takes over the press conference, stands there, starts clapping and so forth. Then Bill turns to the press and says, (imitating Clinton) ‘Hey, you know, isn’t this guy great? I mean, have you ever seen a harder working guy besides me? Now, I’m only going to have a half hour to answer your questions, a couple, maybe 15 minute extensions. I don’t want to get in Obama’s way. He’s digging like a real pro down there. He’s got no way out except for me.’ Every aspect of this is just predictable. The press corps are loving it. It’s two tingles up Chris Matthews’ legs. The Clinton White House press corps are just beside itself with how excited they are over this and we get to watch this and chuckle because it’s Clinton’s policy everybody’s trying to avoid. It’s the Clinton tax rates that will be reinstated if all of this falls apart and nothing happens to save the Bush tax rates by December 31st.

Now, who is the party of no here? Democrats and Obama were calling the Republicans the party of no and now the Democrats are chanting ‘just say no’ to all this. By the way, who was it? You Blue Dogs, remember I told you on Friday that none of the Democrats who retired or who lost are allowed into the meetings or allowed to vote on the deal. Now, who was it that told you Blue Dogs that Pelosi doesn’t care about you? Who was it that told you? It was I, El Rushbo, who was looking out for you all during the campaign. And I know you chose not to listen to me. I don’t know why any of our journalists didn’t ask either Obama or Clinton about these Bush tax cuts. What is it now suddenly we’re going to save the middle-class? How come nobody asked if this didn’t prove that conservatives have been right all along? Why didn’t somebody ask these, ‘Wait a minute, you guys keep talking about saving tax cuts for the middle-class but, Mr. President, I can remember you saying for the last three years that the Bush tax cuts were for millionaires and billionaires. Are you now saying, Mr. President, that the Bush tax cuts included the middle-class?’ We didn’t get that question from any reporters, and Clinton didn’t get that question from any reporters, but it would have been a valid question: What is this tax cuts for the middle-class? You guys said there weren’t any. It was tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

And speaking of that, they kept talking about preserving these tax cuts for the middle-class, which I didn’t think were in the Bush tax cuts. Shouldn’t the president and the Democrats want to improve the lives of all Americans? Isn’t the president the president of everybody? Not just the middle-class? Aren’t they representatives of all Americans, both the rich and the non-rich? I mean, if extending the Bush tax rates is good for the middle-class, won’t it be good for the so-called rich as well? Well, of course it would, but they can’t say that.

Now, whatever happened to equal protection under the law? Or do we, in fact, have two Americas now? Do we have two Americas presided over by Obama and Clinton? We have to now call this the Obama/Clinton presidency, you realize that? You know Clinton thinks so. He loved it. They couldn’t get him off that podium. And the great thing about it is he knows he’s not accountable for anything. He can say anything. He can answer anything; he can get all the love and the adulation, all the appreciation, and he’s not accountable because at the end of the day he’s not president. But it looks like the Obama/Clinton presidency.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, I was also serious about this. No, seriously. Obama cedes the presidency for 45 minutes to Bill Clinton. On the table are Bush tax rates and their extension. So, now that Obama and Co-President Clinton have confessed that they were dead wrong on Bush tax cuts, because isn’t that what happened? Even for two years, if they want an extension of the Bush tax rates for two years, remember for the last ten years the Bush tax cuts were the reason we’re in this economic problem, the reason we’re in a recession! The Bush tax cuts were the reason we went to Iraq. The Bush tax cuts were the reason we’re in Afghanistan. The Bush tax cuts were the reason you don’t have a job. The reason we had to buy General Motors? The Bush tax cuts! The Bush tax cuts were singularly the most destructive thing that’s happened to this country in the last ten years, and here are Obama and Clinton both advocating for their extension for two years.

But wait! The same people told us that Clinton’s tax increases in 1993 led to a booming economy throughout the nineties. So if Clinton were intellectually honest — I know, I know, but if he were — shouldn’t he have taken the occasion…? And we know how egocentric he is, and we know how desirous he is of having a legacy. We know that he still doesn’t have one. He’s trying to overcome the Monica business and the lying under oath. Shouldn’t Clinton have supported and insisted on tax increases to help Obama’s economy? That’s what Clinton did. Clinton raised taxes on everybody. It’s 39.6%, the top rate. That’s what we’re going to go back to if these rates aren’t extended, and those rates led to a booming economy, so they say. So why didn’t Clinton do that? Why didn’t he insist on tax increases to help Obama’s economy?

He didn’t, because he knows the truth. They know that in these times — and Clinton led us to believe the economy, when he took office, was just as bad as it is now. It was ‘the worst economy in the last 50 years.’ So now that Obama and Co-President Clinton have confessed they were dead wrong on the Bush tax rates, now would be a good time for them to admit they were dead wrong about Obamacare bending the cost curve down and saving Americans $2500 on their premiums. It’d be a good time to admit their stimulus bill was a slush fund, a good time to admit that Bush and Cheney were right about Gitmo. If they’re going to admit the Bush tax cuts were the right thing to do, isn’t it time to come clean on everything the Republicans have done good?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We start with Co-President William Jefferson Clinton last Friday afternoon at the White House. Here’s what happened, by the way. This is what I’m told happened. Clinton and Obama have a 90-minute meeting in the Oval Orifice, and then they head to the Briefing Room in the West Wing and it’s locked. There’s nobody in the West Wing or very few people that matter because it’s a Christmas party, in fact, going on which we were to later find out. So Clinton and the President of the United States start tooling around the West Wing trying to find somebody to open up the Briefing Room or alternately to find Robert Fibbs! Because nobody knew what was coming.

Clinton and Obama agreed to this amongst themselves, which raises all kinds of questions. Did Obama agree to it and Clinton propose it? Or did Obama propose it and Clinton agree to it? We don’t know. Anyway, they eventually found a key to the Briefing Room where the press was gathered. They sent out a message, ‘Okay, look, we need to get a key to the Briefing Room and get in there and call the press and get them in here.’ The press was assembled, they got in there, and Obama announces he’s got to go to a Christmas party and asks Clinton to take over the press conference on the tax deal. During an exchange about what Clinton gave Obama about dealing with an opposition Congress, the reporter said, ‘Mr. President, what do you think? ‘

OBAMA: I’ve been keeping the First Lady waiting for about half an hour. So I’m going to take off.

BILL CLINTON: I don’t want to make her mad. Please go. (chuckles)

OBAMA: You are in good hands and Gibbs will call last question.

CLINTON: Yeah. Help me. Thank you.

OBAMA: Uhh.

CLINTON: Thank you. Yeah, uh, go ahead.

RUSH: Obama gets a question: ‘Mr. President, what do you think?’ ‘Well, I’ve been keeping the First Lady waiting a half hour. I’ve got to take off.’ That’s his response to the question. Clinton says, ‘I don’t want to make her mad. Please go,’ and, of course (Clinton impression), ‘Is the First Lady mad? Hey, I understand what you’re talking about there, old bud. Go! (chuckling) Get out of here. I can handle this all by myself. I look forward to it,’ and Obama says, ‘You’re in good hands,’ the females in the press corps start taking off their clothes. Obama says, ‘Gibbs will call last question.’ Clinton says, ‘Thank you. Yes, go ahead,’ and then he starts speaking.

BILL CLINTON: I still spend about an hour a day trying to study this economy. I want to make full disclosure: You know, I make quite a bit of money now, so the — the position that the Republicans have urged —

RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait just a minute. Cue this back to the top. Here we go again with this guy bragging about how much money he makes. Obama’s up there; it’s always about him. Clinton gets up there; it’s always about him. Clinton or Hillary get up there, they first have to tell us how much money they make. (impression) ‘Yeah, I’ve made quite a bit of money now. Ha! So the Republican position out there, it’s going to benefit me.’ Here’s the whole bite now.

BILL CLINTON: I still spend about an hour a day trying to study this economy. I want to make full disclosure: You know, I make quite a bit of money now, so the — the position that the Republicans have urged will personally benefit me. I think the people that benefit most should pay most. I just got back from a trip to Asia with my foundation. Hong Kong, super-free market place, had a stimulus. Well, I guess we’re not supposed to use that word anymore.

RUSH: Yeah, you are! You are supposed to call this deal a stimulus. You are certainly to use that word again. You are supposed to call this tax extension a stimulus. But now, wait a minute. ‘The position that the Republicans have urged will personally benefit me. I think the people that benefit most should pay most.’ Well, that’s Clinton talking about himself, but what does he end up doing? He ends up taking a position that’ll benefit him — and, believe me, folks, he didn’t have to study this for an hour to learn that part of it. He did not have to study for 60 minutes to figure out that keeping current tax rates will benefit him. Okay. So Obama leaves the room and they start the Q&A with Clinton. An unidentified female reporter says, ‘Some of your fellow Democrats are saying the president just didn’t go in and fight hard enough for his core principles, that he caved in. Politically, some say he should be a one-term president. Has he damaged not only his own political path but has he let the party down?’

BILL CLINTON: I did 133 events for him. I — I believe the Congress in the last two years did a far better job than the American people —

RUSH: Wait! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop the tape! You heard this, right? The question is, ‘Has he damaged…?’ The question is all about Obama. He didn’t do this, didn’t do that, should be one-term president, ‘Has he damaged not only his own political path but has he let the party down?’ Clinton says, ‘I did 133 events for him.’ What? The question wasn’t about you! Now, once again it’s all about him.

BILL CLINTON: — thought they did, and I went to extraordinary efforts to try to explain what I thought had been done in the ways that I thought were most favorable to them. But we had an election. The results are what they are. The numbers will only get worse in January in terms of negotiating. This is a good deal and the best he could have gotten under the circumstances.

RUSH: He didn’t answer the question: ‘Has he damaged not only his own political path but has he let the party down?’ (impression) ‘That’s the best he could get because, you know, next month the cavalry shows up here. The Republicans are going to start running the House of Representatives. This is the best they can get,’ and that’s exactly why it’s mystifying to me. The Republicans are caving here at this point. They can get much more than this next month. Republicans are saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, but if we have to make this retroactive, it’s just going to screw up the IRS’ tax tables and computer programs. It’s going to make it a logistics nightmare for everybody to have to go back and redo their taxes, start paying higher taxes and get rebates, refunds and then start paying a new rate. It would just be simpler to do this.’ I understand all that as one who hates that kind of minutia, but they pay a lot of people in government to take care of a lot of that kind of stuff, and I don’t think that ought to be the primary argument for standing in the way of improving the deal and getting rid of all of this pork and all of this spending, which just keeps adding up in this bill. It’s even worse than what we informed you of on Friday. Another unidentified female reporter: ‘There’s a lot of comparisons being made between the ’94 election and the 2010 election. Do you think those are analogous? Are they similar situations?’

BILL CLINTON: We played political Kabuki for a year, had two government shutdowns. The only reason we could do that is that the deficit was already coming down in a time when interest rates were the problem and the economy was coming up. People just didn’t feel it yet in ’94. We can’t afford that. We don’t want to slip back into a recession.

RUSH: No, no. There hasn’t been a slip out of one yet. So now we get this whole double-dip business. We haven’t gotten out of the first recession so we can’t ‘slip back into’ one. But again I say, folks, look, this is just me, but up until Friday the Democrat position was that the Clinton tax increases brought us a booming economy in the nineties and that the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 gave us the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war, 4,000 dead soldiers, and the economic collapse, the recession, the subprime mortgage, homelessness, foreclosure program headed by GM and Chrysler. I mean, every horrible thing that happened because of the Bush tax cuts. Right? And every great thing that happened in the nineties was because of Clinton tax increases.

So would somebody explain to me why all that’s now been thrown out or thrown upside down? And in order to prevent a recession, we have to extend the Bush tax cuts. Hmmm? Can some of you libs help me out here? And again just to remind you, they have all said these tax cuts were for billionaires and millionaires only and now all of a sudden we have to extend the Bush tax cuts so that the middle class will not be hurt? I thought the middle class didn’t have their taxes affected at all by the Bush tax cuts. I’m so confused — and can you blame me? Tax increases in ’93, ’94 led to a booming economy, Bush tax cuts destroyed that same economy, and now what is it that Clinton/Obama want to preserve? The things that they claimed the last ten years have destroyed the economy and the country. I need help figuring it out.


BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Can we, by the way, say that, I guess, Clinton was the first black president? I mean, when Toni Morrison said that he was, he didn’t, he did not object. Remember Bill Clinton campaigned for his first election with the promise of a huge middle class tax cut, and he immediately reneged shortly after being immaculated. Clinton called a press conference? He said (doing impression), ‘I have worked harder than I’ve ever worked on anything in my life. I’ve studied this, I’ve looked at it, but I just can’t do it. Uh, we just can’t, uh, follow through with that middle class tax cut. In fact… In fact, it’s just the opposite. I’m going to have to raise taxes and make them retroactive.’ (interruption) Well, let the IRS have it. Look, that’s what the IRS does!

The IRS commissioner is out there saying, ‘Look, we’ve already got our computer program written. It’s going to delay people’s refunds.’ He’s saying all the stuff to get people on his side. ‘We don’t want to delay our refunds. It’s what’s going to happen out there.’ By the way, Hillary blamed the Bush tax cuts for the 2001 downturn when we had a recession. Not 9/11. She blamed the Bush tax cuts. So I’m, I’m serious. I don’t know what really has happened here. If the Democrats believe Clinton’s tax increases led to a boom economy and Bush’s tax cuts destroyed the economy, why do they want to extend the Bush tax rates? Why wouldn’t Clinton say, ‘I tell you what, now that I got this podium — heh, heh — and we sent Obama off to that Christmas party with Michelle, whatever, what we need to do here is raise taxes!

‘That’s what I did. That’s what I did in 1993, ’94. Look what happened? Look at that boom!’ Clinton could have said that, because it’s true to everything the Democrats have been saying! They have been blaming the Bush tax cuts for everything and now the architect of a boom economy with tax increases wants to extend the Bush tax cuts? Haha! That’s what these guys are both admitting that they have been wrong on everything — or, no, they are both admitting they have been lying, Obama and the Clinton both. They’re just admitting by supporting the continuation of Bush that they have been lying. Here’s Peter, Lynchburg, Virginia, we start with you on the phones today, sir. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: How are you, Rush?

RUSH: Fine.

CALLER: I thought I was watching a WWF wrestling match on Friday. It looked like President Obama was speaking first and then had Bill Clinton reach into the public arena through the ropes for a tag.

RUSH: Yeah. Heh heh. Then Obama leaves. And what did he say is the reason? His wife was getting mad.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: His wife was waiting for him for a Christmas party.

CALLER: Yeah, he leaves the arena and leaves President — former Rresident — Clinton to wipe up the mess.

RUSH: Yeah. Umm, well… Yeah. Essentially. You know, let Clinton have this. Let Clinton deal with this. Obama says, ‘I’m not a hands-on guy.’ He has said this. He has said he doesn’t like the day-to-day minutia. He provides inspirational leadership. He’s the guy that inspires people to go out and do great things. He doesn’t like all this hands-on. He has said that before. He’s said it during the campaign. He said it before he was immaculated. No, no question. But one thing: When you’re talking about Clinton, don’t say ‘wipe up the mess.’ You know, that… (laughing) Well, it just doesn’t work. You know, it just reminds people of stains and blue dresses and lying under oath, pizza deliveries at all hours of the Oval Office. It’s not a good thing. (interruption) Cigars, yeah. Human humidors. It doesn’t work. Clinton, ‘clean up the mess,’ just doesn’t work.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Chris Matthews Friday night on MSNBC…

MATTHEWS: This is the alliance made by God and the Democratic Party. You’re laughing because there’s Bill Clinton back. He grabbed that podium so fast, he didn’t want to leave (sic) go of it.

RUSH: ‘[T]he alliance made by God and the Democrat Party,’ Clinton and Barack Obama.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Allen in Atlanta, it’s great to have you, sir, on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hey! Hey, Rush, how you doing?

RUSH: Very well, sir, thank you.

CALLER: Good. On this Obama/Clinton situation about the podium? I was telling Snerdley I have friends tell me that it reminds me of the same thing when Sammy Davis, Jr. kissed Nixon’s hand. I don’t know how many years ago. Not racial but it’s still… You know what I’m saying? As far as him walking away from that podium leaving another president. It would have been no problem if that would have been somebody on his staff or somebody — you know, as far as politics is concerned — lower than him. But once you get somebody at the same level as another president, then he… In other words, he gave up his podium for another president.

RUSH: Well, you know, that’s, that’s the way I looked at it from that standpoint. You just lowered yourself.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: When the president finishes talking, that’s the end.

CALLER: Should be.

RUSH: Presidents don’t cede the podium, unless there’s a joint presser with another head of state. But presidents don’t cede. Now, your analogy here is interesting. I remember. I was alive. This would have been, I think, ’72.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: It was in Miami at the Republican convention Sammy Davis, Jr. came out and I remember he caught a lot of grief not just from African-Americans back then, from the Hollywood crowd, too. I mean, that was —

CALLER: And most males. Most males in general didn’t like the idea.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: But, yes, from the black American crowd, he was dropped like a hot potato.

RUSH: So you think it…?

CALLER: From that point on.

RUSH: Do you really think that Obama has lost some respect in the African-American male crowd here because of that?

CALLER: I’m 65 years old and that was my first thought when I seen him walk away from that podium, and I do believe that.

RUSH: But you —

CALLER: And I’ve also been watching his polling. It’s going down rapidly.

RUSH: Now, did I hear you say at the beginning of your call that it’s not because of race? Or did you say it is because?

CALLER: Right. I mean, it’s because… Well, I had a friend. I didn’t want to bring it up, but since you said it like that, I must explain myself. I had a friend that we normally go over to their house and she was Democrat and we always kid her about, ‘How do you like this hope and change?’ stuff like that. Well, her comment was that, ‘Just like Clinton being the first black president,’ she said, ‘Well, yeah. Now we’ve got the first…’ Umm, what is it? ‘Light-skinned, Uncle Tom.’ In other words, her last words were Uncle Tom —

RUSH: (laughing) Oh, gee.

CALLER: — because of that situation. And I wasn’t looking at it like that but once she said that, then I started, ‘Well, whoa,’ and that began my Sammy Davis, Jr. theory.

RUSH: Wait, now. Allen, just so I understand. Who of the two is ‘the light-skinned Uncle Tom’?

CALLER: Obama.

RUSH: Obama was the light-skinned Uncle Tom?

CALLER: Yeah, she was comparing the two saying, ‘Yeah, we had Clinton that had been called ‘the first black president,’ and so Obama was called…’ What is the word? I can’t think of the name because I’m nervous, but during the slavery times when they had a racial child…

RUSH: Are you thinking mulatto?

CALLER: There you go! That’s it. I know you’d get it. That’s it. That’s what she called him: The first mulatto Uncle Tom.

RUSH: By the way, that was 1970 that Sammy Davis, Jr. hugged Nixon. It was 1970.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: And not ’72.

CALLER: And that’s, that’s the reason why the black race didn’t care for that because that’s what they called him. So he just dropped popularity all the way.

RUSH: All right. Well, there you go: ‘mulatto Uncle Tom.’ We’ll see if you happen to be right about this, if it manifests itself. I don’t know how we’ll know short of an election coming up. But Allen, that’s fascinating. (interruption) Well, no, I wasn’t… Snerdley is laughing himself silly. Which one was the light-skinned Uncle Tom? Well, because Clinton was the first black president and I just wanted to make sure that I had the picture right. I was just trying to get the picture right as far as what Allen was talking about. It was just an effort to be accurate here and make sure I understood what he was saying. Remember I live in Literalville. Symbolism doesn’t always do it for me. I need to know the facts about things. Allen, thanks much.

This morning in Washington Harriet Tubman Elementary School signing — and I watched a little bit of this — The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. This is a Michelle My Belle deal, modus, this obesity stuff. Anyway, Obama was there, and this is a portion of what he said.

OBAMA: They couldn’t be here today but they played a huge role in making this happen. Senator Harry Reid, uh, the majority leader in the Senate. Uh, Senator… Uh… Mike McConnell, the ranking Republican who helped facilitate the smooth passage of this bill.

RUSH: ‘Mike’ McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader ‘Mike’ McConnell. He couldn’t remember that it was Mitch. It still didn’t come to him it was Mitch. It finally came out ‘Mike McConnell,’ and they said that Bush was the idiot. You know, I guess, Allen, I know you’re still out there. I guess we could be thankful that Clinton didn’t ask Obama to go fetch him some coffee because you know during the campaign, Clinton was caught off mic saying (interruption), ‘Yeah, I just, I don’t believe this. Two years ago we would be asking this guy to go get us our coffee!’

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