O Times Arab Speech to Dodge Rush (and to Give Away the Store)

RUSH: No, seriously, can there be any doubt here, folks, that the president is delaying the start of this latest giveaway speech to the Middle East to coincide with the start of this program? It was supposed to start at 11:30, and in a couple of minutes he’s gonna be walking out there. I’ll bet you that Barack Obama is never late for dinner. I’ll bet you he is never late for his tee time on the golf course. They’ve had all the media waiting, they’ve had the audience waiting in there much like the cadets at West Point had to wait for hours and hours and hours. This is arrogance, it is obnoxiousness. He can’t even keep his word about a start time, not even disciplined enough to show up on time. This is being billed as a major speech, folks, on the Middle East.

This is actually gonna be good because I’m gonna be able to tell you what this speech is before he gives it, and we’ll be able to see how much of what I say is right. I’ve got a whole little cheat sheet here of notes that I made, comments that I was gonna make about this speech, but he hasn’t made it yet. He’s gonna be making it while we’re doing the program. I will not have a chance to hear this guy while he makes his speech, other than during a couple commercial breaks. That won’t be enough to get a full-fledged idea.

By the way, welcome, Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, where it’s always the right place, it’s always the right time. Our telephone number is 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program.

Newt Gingrich will be here at the top of our final hour, top of the third hour. It’s a little bit after two o’clock Eastern time today.

It seems like every two to three weeks President Obama needs the nation to stop everything it’s doing and listen to him give a speech. Sometimes he has big news like Bin Laden’s killing, although he screwed that speech up, but most of the time it’s some policy announcement or whatever. Most of the speeches are an attempt to find a way to get in front of issues that he’s either screwed up or hasn’t been heard on before, and he needs to try to draw attention to himself, try to convince people that he’s in charge after letting things spiral out of control. And that’s exactly what’s going on here. The Middle East is spiraling out of control and he’s trying to get in front of it. All the diplomats and all the wonks, the think tank people are calling this thing the Arab Spring, and it supposedly is a flowering of democracy, an uprising. So Obama’s out there trying to get in front of it and own it. But I’ll take you back to some of the all-time favorite sound bites that we played on this program.

Our old buddy Nic Robertson at CNN who was down there at Tahrir Square, which is a circle in Cairo, he found Mustapha and he found Ahmed, and he’s asking them, “What do they think of President Obama?” And they couldn’t have cared less. They said Obama’s not on our side. Obama hasn’t done anything for us. Obama’s been all over the ballpark on this, and Nic Robertson was forced at the end of those two sound bites, “Well, as you can see there’s a growing appreciation for President Obama.” No, there wasn’t a growing appreciation for President Obama. What he’s gonna do here is give away the store. We are broke. If the Middle East needs money, it’s called Saudi Arabia; it’s called Qatar; it’s called Bahrain; it’s called the oil producing states; it’s called Dubai; it’s called the United Arab Emirates. That’s where the money is. We’re continuing the myth here that we are the world’s power broker, when Obama doesn’t even believe that. Obama doesn’t want us to be the power, but he wants himself to be. He doesn’t want the country to be.

USA Today headline: “Obama to Propose Economic Help to Egypt, Tunisia in Middle East Speech.” He’s gonna tell ’em how to create jobs. What, is he gonna sell his T-shirts over there? He’s got some birther T-shirts. Ever since the birth certificate thing was resolved he put the long-form birth certificate out there. They actually have their own thriving merchandise business. They’re selling Obama birther T-shirts or something. What’s he going to do, tell the Middle East how to lower health care costs while he’s at it? “Obama to Propose Economic Help to Egypt, Tunisia in Middle East Speech. … Economic growth is a key to Middle East reform, aides said, and the president will discuss ways that countries can help create jobs while reducing corruption.” He’s gonna tell them this? What, did our NASA Muslim outreach bomb out? He now has to come in and do it himself?

I’ll tell you what, don’t be surprised if there’s a subtle reference here to Israel being a problem. If he does this in this speech, if he pushes Israel to make peace with the terrorists, the closet terrorists in Hamas and Fatah, then he deserves to be hammered, ’cause it will be obvious he’s got a Jewish problem, if he takes the occasion of the speech to do that. I would not be surprised at all. Hillary’s out there doing the warmup now. The speech is at the State Department, so she’s doing the warmup, and you have Obama’s latest world historic speech bumping up right against the start of the big show here, which is probably the main reason he’s giving it. It’s not an accident, folks. They advertised this thing at 11:30, then 11:40, and for 45 minutes all the networks had their little graphic at the bottom of the screen, “We are moments away from President Obama’s big speech on the Middle East.”

Ben Stein, we all love Ben Stein here. CBS News on their Sunday Morning show, I want to share with you what Ben Stein said about the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring is an uprising against Israel. That’s what the Arab Spring is. It’s not a flowering of democracy. Whatever it is, Obama’s gonna try to shape it in the minds of the American audience that he has here today and try to get out in front of it, as I said. Most of his speeches are an attempt to find a way to get in front of issues that he’s messed up or hasn’t been heard on before, trying to draw attention to himself, convince people that he’s the one in charge, after letting things spiral out of control.

Here’s Ben Stein. “The ‘Arab Spring’ as a force for democracy, human rights and peace in Egypt seems to me to be a fraud. The dictator and his entourage who were kicked out in Egypt were pro-West, a bit restrained on Israel, open to free enterprise, and resistant to Iranian-sponsored terror.” He’s talking about Mubarak. “Egypt is now rapidly becoming anti-Israel, pro-Iran, pro the Iranian-sponsored terrorist group Hamas, and very far from being pro-human rights.” He’s talking about Egypt, the Arab Spring. “They are arresting businessmen right and left in Egypt just for the crime of being successful. They have arrested Mubarak’s sons, and have said they plan to try Mubarak. The most potent of the political forces in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, hates the United States, loathes Israel, condemns the killing of bin Laden (whom they praised as a martyr), and have been wedded to terror for their entire existence.” That’s the Muslim Brotherhood, about which security people in this regime have told us, ah, they’re no big deal.

Okay, Hillary has ceded the stage — c-e-d-e-d, not s-e-e — don’t get the wrong idea. We’ve been talking about seeding things a lot lately here in terms of Schwarzenegger in his bid to become a real Kennedy. She’s ceded the stage now, and The One is now ready to speak.

Ben Stein says the Muslim Brotherhood “will probably take over Egypt completely sooner or later. … Has anyone noticed that the common denominator of all the successful Arab street movements is that they are sympathetic to Iran? When the dust settles, Iran is going to own the Middle East – except for maybe Saudi Arabia, if we have the guts to help them (which I very much doubt). We are going to lose our pals in Bahrain — not nice guys, but pals of the U.S.A. anyway — and we are going to lose our pals in Yemen, and it will possibly have an actual al-Qaeda government. There is a gigantic regional coup by Iran taking place. We are doing very little, if anything, to stop it. We are going to regret helping the Egyptians kick out Mubarak as much as we regret helping Khomeini force out the Shah. You can call it ‘Arab Spring’ if you want. But with Iran now the regional superpower, it is a lot more like an extremely bleak Mideast winter. You heard it here first.” That is Ben Stein from this past Sunday on the CBS Sunday Morning show.

I have to tell you, when I first heard about this speech, I just assumed Obama was gonna kick off another apology tour, but it’s being billed as an outreach to the Arab world. And it looks like Obama’s plan, based on everything I’ve read here — we’ll see if I’m right when this thing’s over and we can review the sound bites — it looks like Obama’s plan is to get the Middle East to love us by giving them more money, which makes sense because Obama has been spending other people’s money to buy loyalty or votes for his entire political career.

Now, let’s review. Since the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978, we have been giving Egypt $2 billion a year in aid. And now Obama wants to double that, according to advance notice of the contents of his speech today. He wants to forgive them a billion dollars in debt and give them another $1 billion in new aid, a total of $2 billion. And we can’t even be sure the Muslim Brotherhood won’t be running the show a few months from now. It’s likely that they will be, so we’re just handing $2 billion to the Muslim Brotherhood here, eventually. But no price, my friends, is too high. No price is too high if it will allow Obama to take credit for the Arab Spring as he seeks to define it today. That is, if it turns out okay.

If the Arab Spring doesn’t turn out okay he’ll just blame everybody else. It’s not like it’s his money, after all. It’s China’s, when you get down to brass tacks. And just remember, Obama’s speech today, bear in mind the next time you hear him talk about the need to rein in spending to cut deficit, you can laugh in his face when you hear about all the money and all the aid he wants to give to Middle Eastern countries, you keep that in mind the next time you hear him talk about the need to rein in spending and get our deficit under control.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, folks, I don’t know how to interpret this. I listened to a little bit of this speech, and it’s dead. It’s dull in there. He even managed to work Rosa Parks into this speech. I don’t know the context. Now, I think it’s wonderful Bin Laden has come back from hell, new tape out there, give us a preview of this speech. But what I just saw, I really need some help in analyzing this, because Obama made this great statement that, to me, sounded like it was an applause line, and he waited and waited and waited for the applause, but there wasn’t any. You can hear a pin drop in there. Obama just said the protesters have accomplished more in six months in the Middle East than terrorists have accomplished in years. He waited and waited. You can’t tell me that wasn’t an applause line, and there was no applause.

But here’s the question, does he mean that terrorists and protesters have the same goals? What the heck kind of a thing to say is that? The protesters have accomplished more in six months than the terrorists have accomplished in years, as though they’ve got the same objectives? Now, here’s what I assume. And again, this speech is happening, I can’t hear it while I’m hosting the program, but I am assuming, ladies and gentlemen, that President Obama will propose for the Arabs — and, by the way, he is convinced that this is a flowering of democracy. He’s positioning himself here, this is the greatest thing that ever happened to the Middle East and it coincides with his presidency. We got democracy, he had some sickening line, it was like breathing fresh air for the first time in my life in Egypt, like breathing fresh air, the dignity of a call to freedom, some other guy in Damascus. I mean it’s just insulin-shock-inducing.

I assume, ladies and gentlemen, that Obama will propose for the Arabs and the Muslims what he has done here in the US. Why not? I assume that he will tell them that they must spread the wealth. He will tell them they must implement national health care now. He’ll tell them they must institute cap and trade. He’ll tell them to nationalize their banks. He’ll tell ’em to print money and devalue their currency. He’ll tell ’em to eat organic food and less fatty foods. And he’ll say, mobilize your wives to get into the schools, to get the kids eating the right things. All 50,000 of your wives, get ’em out there, that’s what I do. This is how you promote liberty and the rule of law and prosperity, after all. That’s what he says he’s doing here. So will he suggest an identical agenda for the people of the Middle East? I mean all of his plans are working here, are they not?

I mean, come on, folks, if it’s good enough for America, surely Obamaism is good enough for the Middle East, is it not? I would expect the president to tell these Middle Eastern countries to unionize all their activities, massively grow their governments, destroy all of their private sector with regulations and disincentives. This is the road to prosperity this century as defined by this president. He’ll tell ’em to drive up the costs of electricity and gasoline. He’ll tell ’em to drive up the cost of food. He’s got all the answers. The Obama agenda, the agenda for the future. Will he tell them to emulate Obama policies here, while giving them the money to do it? I’m surprised, I thought he fixed everything with the first Cairo speech. I guess he’s taking a Mulligan.

Hey, Bush and I killed Saddam and Osama. Hey, you can do it the way we did. Bush and I did this. I’ve extended the Bush tax cuts. I’ve kept Guantanamo open. Join me in taking advantage of the information from enhanced interrogation. Look at all of the wonderful agenda items responsible for a growing, rebounding United States. If it’s good enough for us, why not share it as part of the Arab Spring?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Yeah, I’m watching this, folks. It’s my job. I’m watching this. I’m listening to it during the commercial breaks, and I have to tell you, whenever Obama uses a teleprompter, I get the feeling I’m watching somebody watch a tennis match, head goes back and forth following the ball.

They just jumped all over Bashar Assad. Remember he told Khadafy, “You gotta go.” He more or less has called for serious President Bashar Assad to either accept democracy or to step down. Now, how many Middle East rulers has Obama now told to step down? Mubarak, Khadafy, and now Bashar Assad. Now, is this the same Barack Obama who used lecture us on how we shouldn’t meddle in the internal affairs of other nations? Again, the segment I just was privileged to hear, the president is trying to convince his audience how vital the Middle East is to our country’s interests. But isn’t this the same guy who was against the invasion of Iraq, called it a distraction from our real problems. Isn’t he the guy who mocked Bush’s idea of trying to promote democracy over there? The Democrat Party laughed at the whole democratization of Iraq idea that Bush put forward. Now this whole speech is that the Arab Spring is a giant flowering of democracy, and guess what? (imitating Obama) “I did it. Hey, hey. My fault. I made it happen. ‘Cause I’m Barack Obama.” So we will continue to monitor this.

I want to go back to our Grooveyard of Forgotten Favorites. You’ve gotta hear these sound bites. This will put this in perspective. Here you’ve got Obama — and I still haven’t heard any applause. Now, maybe there is not gonna be. Maybe this is a church service for all I know. It looks like one. Folks, when I listen to it during commercial breaks it sounds dead in that room. It doesn’t seem there’s any vigor, any excitement, but again, I’m not able to listen to the whole thing. But here’s Obama trying to get out in front of all it is, telling us that we’ve got this wonderful outbreak of democracy and freedom and fresh air and blue skies, the birds are chirping, that whole ball of wax, trying to make it look like he’s responsible for it, his influence made it happen.

Let’s go back, February 11th — it doesn’t seem like that long ago — February 11th. Today is May 19th. Three months ago this was. Pharaoh Obama, big speech on Egypt. CNN went over there to Tahrir Square, which is a circle, to get the reaction of all the wonderful things Pharaoh Obama was doing. They sent Nic Robertson, senior international correspondent Nic Robertson, and he’s talking to a man identified as Achmed.

ROBERTSON: Achmed, you’ve been here, down here on the Square for many days. The United States and the international community. You’ve just listened to President Obama saying that America will support Egypt if it wants help and assistance, and hopes that there will be a good transition for jobs for the young people. What would your message be for President Obama?