RUSH: See, I got a question real quickly for those of you who are a little worried (maybe, oh, paranoid) that the Osama Bin Laden kill operation will give Obama a bump in the polls. Ceremony question: Were Obama’s poll numbers falling — were they, in fact, in freefall — because he had not gotten Osama? No. They were in freefall for purely domestic, primarily economic reasons. Have circumstances changed in that regard? No. Rasmussen says they’re not gonna be much of a bump. Even F. Chuck Todd, NBC, says there isn’t gonna be a bump; maybe there aren’t bumps anymore.
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RUSH: Thomasville, North Carolina, let me sneak a call in here before we have to go. Jo, I’m glad you called. Welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Good afternoon, sir.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I have questions for those who are calling this gentleman who cloaks himself in the presidency of the United States and the leader of the free world where this person has been for the last three months. We have Texas burning to the ground. It was at that time. Wheat, corn, other crops destroyed. We’ve had flooding all up the Mississippi, through the Ohio Valley. Prior to this horrible tornadic activity of the E4 and E5s in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, 18 counties in my own state… Now, I’m far removed from the damage. I’m in Piedmont, North Carolina. But 18 counties of my fellow North Carolinians have been destroyed. Destroyed! Not a word. No boots on the ground from the leader and his Missus in North Carolina.
RUSH: Well —
CALLER: Not only that, he brings up this birth certificate thing and then says he has more important issues we should be addressing. He says that before the tornadic activity.
RUSH: Well, he was playing golf. Playing golf.
CALLER: Beg your pardon?
RUSH: Playing golf. He was playing golf.
CALLER: Well, not only that, he was also out at the Facebook crowd —
RUSH: Well, that’s true.
CALLER: — at $35,000 plus a plate.
RUSH: You’re absolutely right. They had to drag him off the golf course to the Situation Room. He only played nine holes. He had to go to the Situation Room.
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RUSH: CNN, you can tell they’re disappointed with the release of their latest poll. Obama got a one-point bump in his approval number, up to 52% from 51% because of the death and the kill operation for Osama Bin Laden. One-point bump.
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RUSH: CNN says Obama just got a point, a bump of one point in the polls. They’re clearly unhappy about this. There’s a Washington Post Pew poll out now. Now, get this. This is quite telling. Washington Post Pew poll out now that says Obama has had his approval for the way he handled terrorism boosted to an all-time high of 69%. Washington Post Pew poll, Obama, all-time high in approval of how he handles terrorism, 69%. So SEAL Team 6 will be ecstatic to hear that it all worked out, it was worth it. Weirdly, though, on the economy, Obama still sits at 40% approval, a career low. How is that possible? It’s because you can’t put Osama Bin Laden’s blood in your gas tank. It’s because you can’t take Osama Bin Laden’s turban to Walmart and exchange it for a box of crispies. But why is the media going crazy running all these polls? Wasn’t killing Osama a good thing? It was a bipartisan thing. Why are they running all these approval polls anyway? I thought this was simply the right thing to do, to kill Osama Bin Laden? Even if it didn’t help Obama in the polls, this was just the right thing to do. They’re still running all these questions, all this polling.
Let me ask it this way. When did we land on the moon? When did Neil Armstrong take the first step out there on the moon? Remember the year, Snerdley? That’s right, 1969. July, 1969. Who was president? Richard Nixon. Did the country celebrate Richard Nixon after the moon landing? They didn’t celebrate Nixon? They didn’t? We didn’t celebrate Nixon? But Nixon was in the White House when we landed on the moon. Why didn’t Nixon get the credit for it? ‘Cause it was JFK’s baby, right? It was JFK’s objective to put a man on the moon in the next decade. Well, the country came together on Sunday night over the takedown of Osama Bin Laden. The country instantly unified around that singular event. Now, the media wants everybody to think we unified around Obama. The White House thinks — they want us to think — we unified around Obama, do they not? That’s exactly what they want us to think. Even Obama last night — I felt bad for Ted Baxter. His show was interrupted. Fox cut away from The O’Reilly Factor last night to go to the White House to show Obama getting a standing ovation from members of the congressional leadership for unifying the country.
Obama was talking about how, yep, okay, finally had some unity here. But what was the unity about? Unity was about the country coming together over an achieved objective. The killing or the capture of Bin Laden was something this country solidly dedicated itself to for the past decade, just like the moon mission. JFK gets the lion’s share of the credit for America’s putting the first man on the moon, even though it was not accomplished on his watch, but he set the whole thing in motion. The country didn’t celebrate Richard Nixon after the moon landing. Why would we? We were celebrating the accomplishments of NASA, the astronauts, those that saw the vision through. We know who was responsible. We didn’t need to be told by a political opportunist or a political class who was responsible. And now we’re cutting NASA. We got the final shuttle launch coming up, what, yesterday at the earliest. I know they scrubbed it, but I don’t know when they’ve scheduled it. They haven’t rescheduled it? Well, the point is we come together on issues we all agree on. But we are not unifying around liberalism here, folks. We are not unifying around Obama.
Every narcissist’s dream is to have the world agree with them and adore them but that’s not our dream here, that’s not what this unity is all about. No, the American dream concerns our families, our life goals, jobs, homes, those that still have them, our disposable income, those that still have that, and the liberty, those that still have that. I mean there’s really nothing to leverage here. The celebration over Osama’s assassination isn’t transferable to a domestic political agenda. But they’re trying. You see, the American people know what to celebrate. We did that. We know what not to celebrate, too. And that’s liberalism. We don’t do that no matter how it’s positioned. And asking us to set aside our principles as a means of showing unity is absurd. Transparently absurd, but that’s what they’re doing.
I have made executive decision. We’re gonna post 45 minutes of the audio of the first hour on our Facebook page, as an added bonus. Normally you gotta be a subscriber at RushLimbaugh.com to get it. We’re gonna put the first 45 minutes on our Facebook page. Koko at the website working on that even now.
The Associated Press, Monday, May 2nd, 11:26 yesterday morning. “Officials: CIA interrogators at secret prisons developed first strands that led to Bin Laden.” Our buddies at NewsBusters have captured this in the cache in case AP pulls this off their site. “Officials say CIA interrogators in secret overseas prisons developed the first strands of information that ultimately led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Current and former U.S. officials say that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, provided the nom de guerre of one of bin Laden’s most trusted aides. The CIA got similar information from Mohammed’s successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi. Both were subjected to harsh interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Poland and Romania. The news is sure to reignite debate over whether the now-closed interrogation and detention program was successful. Former president George W. Bush authorized the CIA to use the harshest interrogation tactics in U.S. history. President Barack Obama closed the prison system.”
So they want to know if this is gonna reignite the debate? I think it closes it. It ends the debate. This is how it worked. And this regime having nothing to do with it other than trying to shut it down utilized this and a lot of other policies put in place by the Bush administration, policies they opposed, policies they tried to get rid of, policies they campaigned against, and yet there it is, right there on AP. “CIA interrogators at secret prisons developed first strands that led to Bin Laden.” It doesn’t say Obama interrogators at secret prisons. It doesn’t say Obama developed first strands. Obama’s not even in the story. Audio sound bite number two, F. Chuck Todd this morning, daily rundown, MSNBC.
TODD: George W. Bush got a bump for 105 weeks after 9/11. Roosevelt got a 46-week bump after Pearl Harbor. The most recent one is the capture of Saddam, a 15% bump for George W. Bush. That lasted seven weeks. The question is, do we live in a country that does political bumps anymore?
RUSH: That’s because their internal polling is showing that there’s no big bump for Obama. CNN, a one-point bump. This is in his approval number. Now, the Washington Post poll is how he’s dealing with terrorism. That’s an all-time high, but his overall approval numbers are not moving. And the media can’t believe it. And, so now, well, maybe the country just doesn’t do it anymore. It’s over for everybody. I mean if Obama can’t get a bump out of it, why, nobody could. And, then, of course — yes, that’s right, Snerdley — then F. Chuck Todds of the world say, who’s to blame for this? Who is to blame for the fact that there is no bump? Who is to blame that maybe nobody gets a bump anymore?
The country gets a bump. We’re unifying around the killing of a terrorist, a specific terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. And Obama and the Democrats don’t want to kill terrorists. They don’t even want to call them terrorists, and yet they want a bump? And they want all the credit? They employed policies they steadfastly tried to dismantle, and they want credit for it. David “Rodham” Gergen with a Limbaugh echo. Beware what happened to George H. W. Bush. He was on In the Arena last night with Client No. 9. Question: “Enormous stature boost for the president at every level,” said Client No. 9. “Of course, the question is, will it carry forward into the debate? The debate over the debt ceiling, which is gonna be very contentious.” Oh, so Client No. 9 wants to know if this will have any effect on the debt ceiling debate. Here’s the answer from David “Rodham” Gergen.
GERGEN: It’s important to remember the cautionary note of President George H. W. Bush. President Bush, along with Secretary Baker, organized this massive alliance, sent in 500,000 troops and kicked Saddam the hell out of Kuwait, did it masterfully. His approval rating spiked up to 89%. But the economy was lousy, and the year and a half that followed he went down 60% in the polls and he lost reelection. So it’s way too early, this economy, there’s a big, big question on that.
RUSH: Client No. 9 did not want to hear that. That was not the answer.
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RUSH: Tomball, Texas, and Tony. Tony, thank you for waiting. Great to have you with us on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: What I want to talk about, I’m gonna thank you for staying on target with this Obama deal. I’ve been able to keep my radio on for you. A lot of channels I’m switching off. I’ll tell you a story. I called a radio talk show this morning, and they told me, “That’s off topic.”
RUSH: What was off topic?
CALLER: Obama. Talking about Obama. They’re celebrating, and I said, “Well, here’s the deal. Obama has done more damage to my family, me, my fellow citizens, and America than 10,000 Bin Ladens could ever do,” and if you think, everything this man does is political. He came out on May 1st, which is May Day, to make this announcement, which is Commie Day.
RUSH: So they didn’t want to let you on the air on this show because you said that Osama Bin Laden has created much less damage than Obama has?
CALLER: Yes, exactly — and look at the fuel prices right now. They’re going through the roof. My food bill, I ain’t gonna be able to afford my food pretty soon! I’m not gonna be able to afford to do anything, take a trip. This country seeks to come to its knees, and we’re celebrating with Obama? Gimme a break! Give me a break.
RUSH: This is why there’s not gonna be a bump. This is exactly why there’s not gonna be a bump and they say exactly why the people in Washington, the Drive-Bys, are totally missing this. It’s like I say: You can’t put Osama Bin Laden in your gas tank. You just can’t — and even if you could, what good would it do you? Sue in Boone, North Carolina, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I have been steaming ever since this news came out. I didn’t even watch Obama’s speech because I knew that he would take full credit for it, and I’m just (groans).
RUSH: Wait a minute. What about all the unity that was happening out there?
CALLER: Oh, right! I’ll tell you what, I love George Bush, and I love Texans, and I love that guy that was on before me — and when I think of all that Bush endured, and Cheney, and his administration —
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: — and then everything that he despised about Bush, and berated Bush for was used to take down Osama. And I’ll tell you what: When they start using this as a reelection tool (groans)? I mean, what a hypocrite.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I’m just furious.
RUSH: Yeah. Well, you should be. I’m glad you stuck it out listening today. It was a very important program today, I thought. It was a very important first hour, show open, to have this stuff said.
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RUSH: Question: When will this president and the attorney general, Eric Holder, when will the trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be? It took ’em two years to abandon the civilian trial idea. Remember they were gonna have the trial in New York. Two hundred million a year just for security. Nobody wanted that trial in New York. We all knew what a trial in New York would be. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his lawyers, with no obstacles in their way to just rip this country to shreds. It didn’t fly. So when now will the trial be? It took ’em two years to abandon the trial in New York. Now he’s supposed to be tried at a military tribunal in Club Gitmo. What’s up with that? When is the trial?
Don’t forget, now, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured during the Bush administration. And, by the way, if you recall at that time there were all kinds of challenges by the libs to military commissions. Didn’t one military commission, “No military tribunals, they weren’t fair, they denied civil rights.” But is not the road clear now? I mean we got Bin Laden. We’ve murdered Bin Laden. Why don’t we proceed with the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Maybe they can put him on trial in October of 2012 and get a bump. Hey, there’s an idea, put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on trial in October of 2012 and then wait for a bump. See if that helps Obama. Oh, what, you don’t think this is all about Obama? USA Today, Susan Page: “Bin Laden Demise Boosts Obama,” but doesn’t ensure reelection. That’s exactly how they look at virtually everything.
“These are the moments that presidents hope to be remembered for: The operation to get Osama bin Laden, a goal that eluded George W. Bush, brought Barack Obama a triumphant achievement and the most unifying episode of a presidency held during sharply partisan times. ‘There’s no question it will be seen by history as a critical accomplishment of his administration and of his,’ Democratic pollster Mark Mellman says. ‘When you say, “Quick, name one thing President Obama has done,” this is going to be the first thing on the list.'” Hey, Mellman, are you proud of that? Look at all the things that you are so happy and proud Obama’s done, and this is it? When you say, “Quick, name one thing Obama’s done,” this is gonna be the first thing on the list? And it’s not gonna have one shred of impact on his reelection. I tried to provide aid and comfort to all of you yesterday who feared, remember we had a call from a guy, “That’s it, Rush, the election’s over.” I said, “No way.”
New Orleans, Debbie. Wonderful to have you with us here on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. It’s the first time I’m calling. I have a little scenario here. I don’t think Obama had anything to do with ordering the strike on Osama. I really don’t. I think he thought the CIA would never come up with a plan to get him. After ten years it’s like if you don’t have him yet, you’re not gonna get him.
RUSH: Wait a second. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. Let’s go back. Did you just say you don’t think Obama had anything to do with the ordering the strike on Osama? Well, then who did?
CALLER: I think the CIA came to him with a plan. I think they came to him and told him, “Look, we have him.”
RUSH: There is a story out there on a website that I’ve never heard of. I probably shouldn’t mention this. I don’t know if it’s a kook site or not. I don’t know. It says that the real story is that Panetta ordered this, and why I’m giving this any mention is because her theory is the CIA did it, and Panetta is from CIA. This website claims that they couldn’t get Obama to stop dithering about this and somebody had to pull the trigger. And the reason Obama went out to play golf on Sunday was for appearances, to continue the charade that nothing special was up.
CALLER: No, I think he did finally order it, but his back was to the wall, either he agreed to do what the CIA presented to him or if he didn’t he ran the risk of Osama slipping through his fingers like Clinton. And then that would just ruin his reputation, you know, forever, how history regarded him. I think he didn’t have a choice. I think he didn’t have a choice.
RUSH: Oh, okay. See, here again, regardless, at this point doesn’t matter why people think what they think. It’s just he doesn’t get any credit, it’s why there’s no bump. Folks, there’s some really hardscrabble reality out there. This country’s economy’s been destroyed, it’s in the process of going down the tubes, and this is not anything that’s changing people’s lives. You know, I mentioned this mere moments ago. The real telling aspect of this is to listen to 9/11 families talk about it. There’s no euphoria. There’s no joy. There’s no closure. There’s none of what the administration is reflecting itself. We don’t feel unified. We don’t feel there’s any closure here. The people who are the closest to this event are not at all feeling anything like the regime and the media are hoping to make everybody feel. So it’s fascinating to listen to people and their reactions to this.
I have to tell you, this Mark Mellman quote, the Democrat pollster, “When you say, ‘Quick, name one thing Obama has done,’ this is gonna be the first thing on the list.” Do you realize here’s a Democrat pollster who thinks that killing Osama Bin Laden is bigger than Obamacare? That will tell you how much people hate Obamacare. That will tell you how much these Democrats know how much people dislike Obamacare, that this is gonna be the first thing people mention when they’re asked to name something Obama has done? It means they know that there is universal opposition to Obamacare. And note also when Mark Mellman, the Democrat pollster — and he’s involved, he ranks — name one thing President Obama has done, he doesn’t list any domestic achievement. Stimulus, creating the jobs, saving the economy, whatever all this rigmarole that they come out with each and every — no, no, no, no. Killing Osama, that’s the achievement. Osama.
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