RUSH: Yesterday morning on WLS in Chicago, the Don Wade & Roma Morning Show, our 50,000-watt blowtorch affiliate in Chicagoland, they talked to the chairman of the Republican National Committee Mike Duncan. And Don Wade said, ‘So, here we have the Rush Limbaugh problem. How are you going to get Rush Limbaugh on the Republican team?’
DUNCAN: Well, obviously we hope that everyone joins the team, and what I’m seeing right now is that nine out of ten Republican voters are rallying around John McCain. On the other side we’re seeing, depending on the state, but in some states as many as a third of the Democrats say they won’t vote for Barack Obama this fall. Overall, it’s about 19% nationally. So we’re doing a good job of bringing independents and Democrats over to the Republican side, and they’re not doing a very good job of bringing Republicans to Barack Obama, because there’s such a stark contrast. Do we want to go back to the 1960s failed ideas of higher taxes and bigger government and judges who legislate from the bench and not having a strong defense? I think the answer is no.
RUSH: Mike, Mike — (laughing) — would you calm down, Snerdley! Snerdley is blowing a gasket in there. He says here that nine out of ten Republicans are rallying around John McCain. That means, ladies and gentlemen, that I, because I was in the question, that means that I am one out of ten Republicans not joining John McCain so far. And that’s okay. Don’t need me and don’t need those of you who also comprise the one out of ten who may not be enamored of Senator McCain. Then he goes on to talk about how proud they are they’re getting Democrats, how excited the Republican National Committee is to be getting Democrat and independent votes, and Senator McCain is out there actively cultivating them, the Republican National Committee is telling us all here, thanks to Don Wade’s question on WLS in Chicago, that they’re happy to have these Republicans. And then he says at the end, ‘Do we want to go back to the 1960s failed ideas of higher taxes and bigger government and judges who legislate –‘ Mike, you’re bringing in people that vote that way. (laughing) You’re seeking the votes of Democrats who indeed want to go back to the sixties failed ideas of higher taxes.
These people that are joining McCain are not enamored of McCain. They are angry women fed up with the Democrat Party. They’re not looking at McCain as their ideal candidate in terms of issues and ideas. They’re joining McCain as a slap at the Democrat Party. This is what I feared. This is what I feared way, way back many, many moons ago — a little Indian lingo there. I told you that the problem the Republican Party faces, if they’re going to go out and recruit Democrats, they better recruit them as converted-to-Republican conservatives, as Reagan did. No, we’re happy, we’re ecstatic, we’re going out there recruiting Democrats because the American people do not want higher taxes, bigger government, judges who legislate from the bench. Well, that’s exactly whose votes the Republican National Committee seems to be honored to have.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, I wish somebody would explain to the Republican National Committee and to Senator McCain that you don’t win an election with the most independents. This is not how elections are won! Both parties try to secure their bases, which is fascinating about this election because it appears that both party bases are upset with who the parties have nominated. You’ve got a lot of Democrat women who are fed up. You got a lot of Republicans, more than one out of ten — in fact far more than one out of ten Republicans — who are dissatisfied with their party’s nominee, John McCain. But in the old math, what you would do, you’d go out and solidify your base first. The typical math (it changes every election, but theoretically) you’ve got 40% of the country Republican, 40% is going to vote Democrat, leaving 20% in the middle. And what you do is you firm up your base first. You shore up your base and then you go out for your share of the independents.
What’s happening here is that they’re going out for all of the independents first and saying, ‘To hell with the base.’ This is…convoluted. I’ve never seen it done this way before. We’ll just have to… (interruption) Okay, Snerdley, what is it? What is it got you so agitated? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. All right, all right, all right. You’ve gotta stop taking this stuff personally. He said to me, ‘Do you understand how angry we all were when they were trying to marginalize Bush?’ Snerdley says, ‘You don’t understand how angry we are in here and how angry your audience is. The Republican National Committee just tried to marginalize you and you don’t seem…’ That’s what he’s saying here in the IFB. ‘They’re marginalizing you! They say you don’t matter; you’re just one out of ten.’ I don’t take this stuff personally, Snerdley. You gotta stop taking this stuff personally. It’s the name of the game in politics. Here… Oh, by the way, this charity that’s going to pay for the lone big bash for the Democrat National Convention, Friends of New Orleans?
I went to their website. I looked at their website and read their mission statement, and they say they’re a ‘nonpartisan’ organization. So? What does that matter? Okay, so the Republicans can ask Friends of New Orleans to pay for their parties, too. That’s not the point. What is a charity devoted to rebuilding and helping the people of New Orleans doing paying for parties at anybody’s convention? I don’t care whether they’re nonpartisan, partisan or not. These are the kinds of things that just don’t make sense. Hell, if Hillary had been the nominee, rather than Obama, none of this would have happened because all the parties could have been paid for by the ChiComs. I mean, there’s a big debt to pay there. The Red Chinese military could have been tapped to help foot the bill, the Lippo Group. The Republican National Committee is running an ad targeting Democrats. They released this ad. It’s an Internet video of Democrats questioning Obama’s readiness. So the RNC is out there targeting Democrats who theoretically respect the people in this ad. Here’s the first half of the ad.
HILLARY: In this election, we need a nominee who can pass the commander-in-chief test, someone ready on day one to defend our country and keep our families safe. And we need a president who passes that test.
JOHN EDWARDS: Rhetoric’s not enough. Highfalutin language is not enough.
HILLARY: There’s no time for speeches and on-the-job training. Senator McCain will bring a lifetime of experience, uh, to the campaign, I will bring a lifetime of experience — and Senator Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002.
RUSH: Okay, so the first half of the ad is Hillary and John Edwards talking about Obama and his lack of qualifications. So far so good? It’s a Republican National Committee ad. Here is part two of the ad: Senator Biden, Senator Clinton, George Stephanopoulos, and former President Bill Clinton talking about Obama.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You were asked, ‘Is he ready?’ You said, ‘I think he can be ready but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.’
BIDEN: I think I — I stand by the statement.
CLINTON: When is the last time we elected a president based on one year of service in the Senate before he started running? He will have been a Senator longer by the time he’s inaugurated, but essentially once you run for president full time you don’t have time to do much else.
HILLARY: I think it’s imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief threshold, and I believe that I’ve done that; certainly Senator McCain has done that and you’ll have to ask Senator Obama with respect to his candidacy.
RUSH: All right, so here’s an ad. It’s a Web ad. It runs about 70 seconds. It’s run by the Republican National Committee, featuring all these Democrats talking about Obama’s unfitness, lack of experience. It’s reaching out to Democrats. Now, I haven’t seen the videos. I don’t know what kind of graphics are there, but just in the audio here, I find it fascinating that here is an ad ostensibly to convince people to vote for Senator McCain that does not ask them to do that. Here’s an ad that simply takes these Democrats and talks about how Obama is unqualified, and somehow this is a come-on to Democrats: ‘Hey, join us. Join us on the Republican side.’ What is apparent to me is that the RNC understands that there is some — Uh, uh, how should I say? — lack of enthusiasm among some Republicans for Senator McCain, and so they’re going to have to go out and get these Democrats if they have a chance. And of course since the idea of parties is to win elections, in that sense you really can’t blame ’em.