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RUSH: There is an ‘election’ — and I say election in quotes — in Iran today. The turnout, we hear, is astronomically high. It is so high that they had to extend voting by a full hour. President Mahmoud — listen to this from the government-run media, Reuters: ‘A representative of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the conservative president was ahead in Friday’s presidential vote.’ Note, the conservative president, the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Why, yeah, there’s no difference between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ronald Reagan. There’s no difference whatsoever. They’re both conservatives. Anyway, this whole election is a farce. Anybody with half a brain knows that the mullahs run the show. No matter who the president is, the mullahs run the show. The mullahs are the ones that are making decisions on whether to nuke up, go weapons or what have you, make no mistake about it, but nevertheless I want you to listen to a Drive-By Media montage we put together, the breathlessness and the excitement in these comments from members of the State-Run Media. Listen to this.

WILLIAMS: The election is being watched closely for any signs among other things that President Obama’s recent Middle Eastern venture made a connection.

CAFFERTY: Can President Obama’s speech to the Muslim world help defeat Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

BREWER: It’s election day in Iran. The outcome could be an indication of how President’s Obama’s message of change is being received in the Islamic world.

NOVOTNY: President Obama delivering his historic speech to the Muslim word in Cairo, is that having any impact on today’s election?

ENGEL: Obama’s message to Iran and the Islamic world, that has appealed to many university students.

GREGORY: Is there an Obama effect here? A policy toward Iran of this unclenched fist, of more engagement. How do the Iranian people respond?

RUSH: This is just absurd. It is literally absurd. Whoever the mullahs want to be president is going to president, I don’t care if it’s Ahmadinejad or if it’s Benjamin Netanyahu. Whoever the president of Iran is going to be is whoever the mullahs pick. Who do you think is counting these votes? But look at what we’re being set up here to believe, that Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo may have so moved the people of Iran that they’re going to get rid of the leadership that is provoking the world with nuclear weapons. It’s not only silly and stupid, it is dangerously naive, and I don’t even know how naive it is. I think it’s actually agenda-oriented. If the Iranian mullahs replace one puppet with another in their so-called election, it will have nothing to do with Obama. Zilch, zero, nada. Do you think the Iranians want the news worldwide that Obama’s speech affected internal politics in Iran? If they do want that it will be to soften everybody up and to dissuade people from looking carefully at what Iran is doing.

So desperate, so desperate are these people that Barack Obama, with one speech, with a bunch of empty, meaningless words, can shape and change the direction of politics in the Middle East, particularly Iran. They must have to check their brains at the door when they walk into an NBC office or a CNN office because I don’t know how anybody with a half functioning brain could, with a straight face, issue breathless news reports of such meaningless hope. I guarantee you this, if somebody besides Ahmadinejad is chosen by the mullahs get ready, because that’s going to be the theme, Obama changed the direction of the Middle East. Obama with one speech in Cairo has shown that change and hope can extend beyond the borders of the United States and he’s going to be feted as president of the world, god of the world. Meanwhile, the US economy is tanking. Barack Obama is destroying health care. He is destroying the American private sector. He is destroying the solvency of the United States government. And none of this is remarked upon. All that we hear about is this stupid, meaningless stuff going on in Iran.

A friend of mine made a good point to me the other day. Obama is all of a sudden now interested in paygo, right? We gotta pay for it as we go, we can’t do any more deficit spending. Fine, if that’s the case why not stop the rest of the stimulus spending? So far, only three-to-five percent has been spent. So if Obama would say, ‘You know what, we’re not going to spend any more.’ You could save $700 billion or so. Can you imagine what a great shot in the arm that would be for the economy and for economic psychology and so forth? It will never happen; this is my point. This is my point. He’s not concerned about deficit spending. He doesn’t care what he’s spending; he doesn’t give a rat’s rear end, he doesn’t care what is happening to the country at large. All he wants is more control.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is President Obama. This is this morning in the Rose Garden.

OBAMA: We are excited, uh, to see, uh, what appears to be a ro-robust debate taking place in Iran.

RUSH: Yeah.

OBAMA: And obviously after the speech that I, uh, made in Cairo we tried to send a clear message that we think there is the possibility of change, uhhh, aaaand — ehhh, yuh– oh — Ultimately the election is for the Iranians to decide, uh, but, uh, just a-as has been true in Lebanon, what’s, uh — can be true in Iran as well is that you’re seeing people looking at new possibilities. And, uh, whoever, uh, ends up winning, uh, the election in Iran, uh, the fact that there’s been a robust debate hopefully will help, uh, advance our ability to engage them in new ways.

RUSH: The ego of this man is simply incomprehensible to behold. Didn’t President Obama say that we shouldn’t impose our values on others? And wasn’t Iran included in that? And now he’s out taking credit for a ‘robust debate’ because of his speech? I’m glad he put the qualifier in there: ‘Well, even if we don’t end up with a new leader at least we’ve had a robust debate that will advance our ability to engage them in new ways.’ This is the Practiced Art of Deceit. President Obama knows that whoever the president of Iran is, is not relevant, that the mullahs run that country. It is the Islamic Republic of Iran. This presidential election and having a ‘president’ is a buffer. It is to create an image to the world that there is some sort of freedom of choice in terms of the leadership in Iran, when we know there is not — and Obama knows there is not. And yet here he is already taking credit for the election results in Lebanon and the ‘robust debate’ in Iran. This guy has an ego and a narcissistic complex about himself, ladies and gentlemen, that can only be described as unhealthy and dangerous.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, I’m not in the best of moods anyway. I can’t stomach this. I have been fired. I’ve worked for people liked this, and I was unable to sit by and let ’em think they were getting away with this kind of stuff on me. I called ’em on it once, and I got canned for this. Just listen to this again.

OBAMA: We are excited, uh, to see, uh, what appears to be a ro-robust debate taking place in Iran. And obviously after the speech that I, uh, made in Cairo we tried to send a clear message that we think there is the possibility of change, uhhh, aaaand — ehhh, yuh– oh — Ultimately the election is for the Iranians to decide, uh, but, uh, just —

RUSH: No, it’s not.

OBAMA: — a-as has been true in Lebanon, what’s, uh — can be true in Iran as well is that you’re seeing people looking at new possibilities. And, uh, whoever, uh, ends up winning, uh, the election in Iran, uh, the fact that there’s been a robust debate hopefully will help, uh, advance our ability to engage them in new ways.


RUSH: All right, what the hell is he talking about? Let’s go back and look at something very little noticed. Marc Thiessen, National Review, pointed this out. Something little noticed in that speech that Obama gave that now he’s out flexing his own muscle. ‘Look at me! Look at me! Look at what I did! Look at what I did. Look at what I did! I made the Middle East safe. They like us now. My speech made change! My speech made change! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it!’ It’s just unseemly. It’s unbecoming an adult. ‘[L]ittle noticed’ in his stupid speech ‘was the fact that Obama announced a major shift in U.S. policy in the Holy Land. In 2002, President Bush declared in his Rose Garden address that America would only engage ‘Palestinian leaders not compromised by terror.’

‘In Cairo today, Obama reversed this policy, declaring that Hamas has ‘to play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people.’ This is naive and dangerous.’ Yeah, there’s been big change. We have now legitimized a terrorist organization in peace talks, so-called, with Israel. Big change! ‘Obama’s talk about democracy…’ Now he’s taking credit here in this bite for all this wonderful, ‘robust debate’ taking place in Iran, wonderful robust debate in Lebanon and the election results in Lebanon. ‘Look at how good I am! Look at the power of my words. Look at the power of my presence! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I’m making the world safer!’

I feel like he’s in a Charlie Brown cartoon. His talk about democracy was all platitudes, no specifics, as if he had to check a box so that he wouldn’t be criticized for ignoring it. But he made no mention of freedom or democracy in Egypt. ‘President Bush repeatedly called for release of Ayman Nour, the opposition presidential candidate who was jailed for four years. In February, Nour was finally released — but is now banned from appearing on TV or running for office. Obama made call for such restrictions to be lifted, no call for greater openness in the country where he was speaking. He made no mention of democracy in discussing Afghanistan. He made no mention of democracy in discussing Iraq.

‘He made no mention of the advance of freedom in the Middle East that has taken place in recent years, or any commitment to continue it,’ and that would be Iraq. He has made no mention of the advance of freedom. In his worldview, our Iraq policy set us back and set the Middle East back decades — and only now, by virtue of his presence and his one speech in Cairo, finally now we’ve got major change. Why, we’ve got a robust debate in Iran! And he didn’t even talk about democracy in the Middle East in that speech. I know I ought to not let it bother me so much. But it just does. This personality type, I have trouble dealing with it and I probably ought to just ignore it, but I can’t help but take the occasion to share all of this with you because it’s just as offensive as it can be and to watch people just fall in line with it from the State-Run Media makes it even sicker.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, ladies and gentlemen, from the UK Times, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is claiming victory in the elections before the polls have even closed. Officials are estimating at least 70% of the, quote, unquote, ‘electorate’ will have voted, one of the highest turnouts since the Islamic revolution in 1979 and supposedly the heavy turnout favors the opponent of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but Mahmoud’s claiming victory now in the — this is all so bogus. These are puppets.

Barack Obama fires the inspector general at AmeriCorps. He endorses voter intimidation. Remember, he dropped charges against the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia for voter intimidation, typical Chicago thug behavior. He fires private sector CEOs; he nationalizes industries.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Mohammed in Richmond, Virginia, as we go back to the phones. Thanks for waiting, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Yeah, how’s it going, Rush?

RUSH: Very well. Thank you.

CALLER: I’m a huge fan of yours. I saw you actually in CPAC back in February. You were amazing there.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I saw the president’s speech to the Muslim world the other day and, you know, with all due respect to the president, as a conservative and a Muslim, I was a little bit offended, because instead of apologizing for whatever, I didn’t even know what he was apologizing for, he should apologize about presidents over the years ignoring the problem of terrorism until it killed 3,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Muslims around the world. Like the likes of Jimmy Carter and, you know, when Clinton ignored the Dar es Salaam and Nairobi attacks and then the Cole attack and all of these things and eventually we get this. It was not convenient for them to deal with it at the time. You know what? Apologize about that. Don’t apologize about what America did to defend itself. I think America was justified to use military force against those who I don’t even consider to be Muslims because our religion says respect the other and love people. It does not say blow yourself up in the name of God and in the name of the Prophet.

RUSH: Well, the militant Islamists say they can quote you chapter and verse where whatever it takes to beat the infidel is permissible and okay. You’re a Muslim and a good guy, I don’t want to argue with you about it, I want to focus on your first point about President Obama apologizing for the country. He is the first president I know of who has made it a task and made it an objective of his to run around the world and blame this country for the world’s ills and say, ‘Okay, now that I’m here we’re going to change it.’ This is a man who does not represent US interests abroad; he does not champion this country; he does just the opposite. And now this Mirandizing of terrorist suspects on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and that’s going to proceed — I mean where does this stop? They gonna get a public lawyer if they can’t afford one? You’re on the battlefield, you’re a soldier, you capture a guy, how do you read him Miranda rights if you don’t speak his language? And if you read him his Miranda rights in English and he comes back in court and says to you, ‘Well, I didn’t understand.’ Then he gets a US lawyer, gets in the court system, this whole thing is just — we’ve been down this road. See, this is another thing. Everything Obama is trying, somewhere it’s been tried in the world, oftentimes many times, and it’s failed every time. Trying to deal with terrorism as a legal matter is an abject failure, and all you need to do is look at the Clinton administration for evidence of it. Thanks, Mohammed, appreciate it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, that democracy breaking out all over Iran that President Obama talked about this morning? Man, it must really be something over there. Listen to this from State-Controlled Reuters. ‘Voting in Iran’s presidential election was extended by a fourth extra hour on Friday to 10 p.m., said state television,’ and then there’s an update: ‘Voting was extended by six hours to midnight in Iran, which that’s 3:30 p.m. our time.’ The Iranians can’t even set their clocks right. They’re off by a half hour. I mean, they don’t even have ACORN! Can you imagine…? This is utter chaos at the polls, and they don’t… Well, we don’t think they have ACORN. Maybe Obama sent them over there. Do you realize Obama…? Mike, I want you to grab that sound bite. What is it, number 25 with Obama taking… Yeah, grab it. You gotta hear this again. Like I said earlier, folks, this personality type I don’t have any tolerance for, or very little.

I have been fired by a guy who was just like this. ‘Cause I called him on it, I couldn’t handle the BS anymore. I couldn’t handle the narcissism. It was just more than I could take it from the guy. I’ll tell you what happened. The guy gave me a line, the biggest line of bull. I just finally said to him, ‘You know what? Don’t try this with me. You don’t know 90% of the people you say you know. You haven’t accomplished 10% of the stuff you say you have. You’re a nothing and a nobody and you can’t tell me how to do what I’m doing.’ This is my young, brash days. So I go home, and a half hour later I get a call from the owner of the radio station saying, ‘We understand you had a meltdown today. You’re out.’ ‘Cause this narcissist had called (laughing) the owner of the radio station because he’s in to cover his rear. He was afraid I wouldn’t keep it to myself. Here’s Obama claiming credit from a single speech in Cairo to massive changes for good in the Middle East.

OBAMA: We are excited, uh, to see, uh, what appears to be a ro-robust debate taking place in Iran. And obviously after the speech that I, uh, made in Cairo we tried to send a clear message that we think there is the possibility of change, uhhh, aaaand — ehhh, yuh– oh — Ultimately the election is for the Iranians to decide, uh, but, uh, just a-as has been true in Lebanon, what’s, uh — can be true in Iran as well is that you’re seeing people looking at new possibilities. And, uh, whoever, uh, ends up winning, uh, the election in Iran, uh, the fact that there’s been a robust debate hopefully will help, uh, advance our ability to engage them in new ways.

RUSH: It’s not a real election! These ‘presidents’ in Iran are puppets! The mullahs run the show! What did the mullahs do, call the White House and give him a little update? ‘Hey, we think we’re going to replace Mahmoud.’ I think the Iranians would love for Obama and the rest of the world to believe that they’re moderating. They would love for everybody to believe that this little man-child can go make a speech and change everybody’s outlook in the Middle East. That would take the heat off of Iran. Obama’s out there saying, ‘Yeah, we got a robust debate. Yeah, look what’s happens, just because of my speech!’ So everybody says, ‘Okay, we don’t need to worry about Iran anymore,’ and hello a nuclearized Iran shortly down the road.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to listen to this next sound bite coming up. On National Public Radio — and we have the audio coming up. The host is Steve Inskeep, and he interviewed the Carnegie Endowment’s Karim Sadjadpour about the election in Iran. Somebody is still going to have to explain to me how Obama throwing Israel under the bus relates to the voting in Iran — and the voting in Iran is irrelevant anyway because the president’s a puppet. But I just want to you listen to Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment as he answers the question, ‘Who is still in Ahmadinejad’s corner?’

SADJADPOUR: He ostensibly has the support of the Supreme Leader, a lot of the lower income classes in the provinces, kind of Iran’s, uh, uh, uh, Republican states, if you will — and certainly elements of Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia. So I think his supporters are kind of akin to evangelicals in the United States in the sense that they’re not considered a sizable portion of the population, but they’re considered very committed. They — they go and vote every time.

RUSH: All right. So National Public Radio has just… (laughing) You just have to laugh. The supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are akin to Republican evangelicals and his support comes from a lot of lower income classes in the provinces, kind of Iran’s Republican states. When somebody sent me this, I was speechless. ‘This can’t possibly be,’ and then I heard it and said, yes, it actually happened on NPR. So go back, grab audio sound bite number 25. We gotta play this again. This is Obama this morning in the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Orifice.

OBAMA: We are excited, uh, to see, uh, what appears to be a ro-robust debate taking place in Iran. And obviously after the speech that I, uh, made in Cairo we tried to send a clear message that we think there is the possibility of change, uhhh, aaaand — ehhh, yuh– oh — Ultimately the election is for the Iranians to decide, uh, but, uh, just a-as has been true in Lebanon, what’s, uh — can be true in Iran as well is that you’re seeing people looking at new possibilities. And, uh, whoever, uh, ends up winning, uh, the election in Iran, uh, the fact that there’s been a robust debate hopefully will help, uh, advance our ability to engage them in new ways.

RUSH: This just infuriates me. This is so, so, so childish and immature. In the first place, this trying to find some way to insinuate himself into a good outcome in Iran? The outcome is irrelevant. There’s no good or bad outcome. The only thing that would change Iran is if the mullahs were dispatched, and the mullahs are there. And you heard this clown on NPR saying that the mullahs still support Ahmadinejad. Well, if they do, I can tell you right now who’s going to win. Okay, so we’ve got Obama insinuating himself with this: ‘I did it! I made it happen! I’m really good. One speech, and, boy, we got democracy going there. Yip yip yip yip yahoo,’ and then Karim Sadjadpour from the Carnegie Endowment talking about who Ahmadinejad’s supporters are.

SADJADPOUR: He ostensibly has the support of the Supreme Leader, a lot of the lower income classes in the provinces, kind of Iran’s, uh, uh, uh, Republican states, if you will — and certainly elements of Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia. So I think his supporters are kind of akin to evangelicals in the United States in the sense that they’re not considered a sizable portion of the population, but they’re considered very committed. They — they go and vote every time.

RUSH: (laughing) Not very large but they go and vote all the time. Okey-doke. The question was also asked, ‘Do the clerics and the conservatives still support the president?’ Do the clerics and the conservatives still support the president? Don’t forget Reuters called today, called Ahmadinejad the ‘conservative’ candidate. Now, don’t forget, this guy has been embraced by Columbia University, which is not a conservative citadel. He has been embraced by the United Nations. (laughs) They love Ahmadinejad because he gave Bush fits.

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