RUSH: Snerdley came to me today and said, ‘Do you have any idea what the date was that you first said you wanted Obama to fail?’ I said, ‘Well, it was sometime a year ago. It was before the immaculation.’ So we checked. It was January 16th. We’re just over three days beyond a year ago when I made the following comments. We’ve gone back to the archives, I’m going to play it. It’s about five minutes long. It is still reverberating to this day. In fact, the mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, told a largely black congregation on Sunday that if Marcia Coakley loses the Senate race in Massachusetts, it will be a victory for people who want President Obama to fail. There’s only one guy who said that, everybody else chided me for saying it, even people on my own side chided me for saying it.
Every conservative knew that Obama’s policies were destined to fail in terms of whether or not it’s good for the country, but it just wasn’t polite to say so, you see. I mean, the first black president, it’s historic. Every new president gets a honeymoon period. It just wasn’t polite. I know Bush didn’t but that was the aftermath of the Florida recount. Now, five minutes long, and this is the whole story, the whole genesis of ‘I hope he fails,’ and I also want you to listen to how prescient I was about what was happening in this country, what was going to happen with Obama’s agenda.
RUSH ARCHIVE: I got a request here from a major American print publication. ‘Dear Rush: For the Obama [Immaculate] Inauguration we are asking a handful of very prominent politicians, statesmen, scholars, businessmen, commentators, and economists to write 400 words on their hope for the Obama presidency. We would love to include you. If you could send us 400 words on your hope for the Obama presidency, we need it by Monday night, that would be ideal.’ Now, we’re caught in this trap again. The premise is, what is your ‘hope.’ My hope, and please understand me when I say this. I disagree fervently with the people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, ‘Well, I hope he succeeds. We’ve got to give him a chance.’ Why? They didn’t give Bush a chance in 2000. Before he was inaugurated the search-and-destroy mission had begun. I’m not talking about search-and-destroy, but I’ve been listening to Barack Obama for a year-and-a-half. I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don’t want them to succeed.
If I wanted Obama to succeed, I’d be happy the Republicans have laid down. And I would be encouraging Republicans to lay down and support him. Look, what he’s talking about is the absorption of as much of the private sector by the US government as possible, from the banking business, to the mortgage industry, to the automobile business, to health care. I do not want the government in charge of all of these things. I don’t want this to work. So I’m thinking of replying to the guy, ‘Okay, I’ll send you a response, but I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.’ (interruption) What are you laughing at? See, here’s the point. Everybody thinks it’s outrageous to say. Look, even my staff, ‘Oh, you can’t do that.’ Why not? Why is it any different, what’s new, what is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. Liberalism is what’s gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here. Why do I want more of it? I don’t care what the Drive-By story is. I would be honored if the Drive-By Media headlined me all day long: ‘Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails.’ Somebody’s gotta say it!
Were the liberals out there hoping Bush succeeded or were they out there trying to destroy him from before he was even inaugurated? Why do we have to play the game by their rules? Why do we have to accept the premise here that because of the historical nature of his presidency that we want him to succeed? This is affirmative action if we do that. We want to promote failure, we want to promote incompetence, we want to stand by and not object to what he’s doing simply because of the color of his skin? Sorry. I got past the historical nature of this months ago. He is the president of the United States, he’s my president, he’s a human being, and his ideas and policies are what count for me, not his skin color, not his past, not whatever ties he doesn’t have to being down with the struggle, all of that’s irrelevant to me. We’re talking about my country, the United States of America, my nieces, my nephews, your kids, your grandkids. Why in the world do we want to saddle them with more liberalism and socialism? Why would I want to do that? So I can answer it, four words, ‘I hope he fails.’ And that would be the most outrageous thing anybody in this climate could say? Shows you just how far gone we are. Well, I know, I know. I am the Last Man Standing.
I’m happy to be the last man standing. I’m honored to be the last man standing. Yeah, I’m the true maverick. I can do more than four words. I could say I hope he fails and I could do a brief explanation of why. You know, I want to win. If my party doesn’t, I do. If my party has sacrificed the whole concept of victory, sorry, I’m now the Republican in name only, and they are the sellouts. I’m serious about this. Why in the world, it’s what Ann Coulter was talking about, the tyranny of the majority, all these victims here, we gotta make sure the victims are finally assuaged. Well, the dirty little secret is this isn’t going to assuage anybody’s victim status, and the race industry isn’t going to go away, and the fact that America’s original sin of slavery is going to be absolved, it’s not going to happen. Just isn’t, folks. It’s too big a business for the left to keep all those things alive that divide the people of this country into groups that are against each other. Yes, I’m fired up about this.
RUSH: That was me, ladies and gentlemen, January 16th of 2009. And I must credit Mr. Snerdley for giving me the idea to replay this when he came in and asked me what the date was. That was January 16th, which was five days prior to the Obama immaculation. Quite prescient, was it not? I called virtually everything that’s happened here in five minutes. In five minutes I ‘splained everything that was going to happen.