RUSH: Big news still coming outta Washington on Stanley McChrystal, General Petraeus, but everybody’s missing this. As I said yesterday, the reason you listen to this show — I mean these people are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites, all this praise for Petraeus now? We’re gonna go back 
and we’re gonna revisit all of the audio sound bites of all these Democrats ripping Petraeus a new one. Look at this in The Politico: ‘How Obama Took Command,’ by Mike Allen. I predicted this. I’m going to play you the prediction from the program yesterday. I predicted that this would be Obama rising to the occasion. Joe Klein, TIME Magazine: ‘The sort of moment people write books about.’ I feel like I’m on another planet. We’ve already written 50,000 books on this guy trying to buck him up and now you have to sit here and say how Obama took command? If you have to write a story that says Obama took command, it’s obvious that he hadn’t taken command, and I’m still not sure that he has.
What a pathetic example of journalism. ‘How Obama Took Command.’ He’s only been commander-in-chief for a year and a half. He’s only delivered how many speeches at West Point. He’s only dithered how long about all the policy in Afghanistan. He tried to affect the elections in Afghanistan, got Karzai out of there, and now because he fires the general, they come up and say, ‘How Obama Took Command.’ Well, what’s he been doing up to now if he didn’t have command? This is nonsense. This is flat-out absurdity, journalistic malpractice trying to portray something here. It’s like the first year of Clinton, ‘He’s still searching for his voice. Bill Clinton is still searching for his voice.’ I don’t know.
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RUSH: You know what would be funny — and, by the way, it would be totally intellectually honest — is if the Senate Armed Services Committee does not confirm Petraeus. Well, they’re going to hold the hearings starting next week on Petraeus. That has to happen, as the new commander in Afghanistan. Now, everybody in that committee, the Democrats — and they’re the majority and you’re gonna hear the audio coming up in due course in the program today. They all accused him of being a liar. They all said he was incompetent. They all said the surge wouldn’t work. They all said the war was lost. For these guys to come now and confirm him? (snorts) What hypocrisy is that? If these guys were intellectually honest, they would say to Obama, ‘This guy is gonna guarantee to lose Afghanistan like he lost Iraq. We can’t confirm this guy! Who do you think you are?’ We know that’s not going to happen. That would be the intellectually honest thing to happen.
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RUSH: Why do you listen to this program? Here is why. This is me yesterday.
RUSH ARCHIVE: Yeah, let BP run the show, said now, now, he’s on top of things, he took care of McChrystal, it’s going to help him out here, looking like a leader now. That’s what the spin’s going to be: Obama finally taking control, Obama finally kicking ass, Obama finally asserting his authority here.
RUSH: Yeah, The Politico: ‘How Obama Took Command.’ And here’s a media montage, the same stuff.
WHIT AYRES: The President came out smelling like a rose today.
WOLF BLITZER: He showed he is the Commander-in-Chief.
MICHAEL SCHERER: Obama’s done very well at asserting himself as the Commander-in-Chief.
BARRY MCCAFFREY: The good news is you’ve got a Commander-in-Chief that took decisive action.
SGT. SCHULTZ: There’s no question who the boss is. It’s the Commander-in-Chief.
FRAN TOWNSEND: It was a brilliant and inspired move to look to General Petraeus.
DAVID RODHAM GERGEN: I would rate this as one of the best decisions he’s made as president. He managed a brilliant choice in General Petraeus.
BLITZER: A very brilliant move to tap General Petraeus.
CHIP REID: It sounds like a pretty brilliant decision.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: It seems like a brilliant choice.
ERIN BILLINGS: Petraeus was a brilliant choice.
CHUCK TODD: It’s going to be seen as a brilliant choice by the president.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: The recruitment of General Petraeus for this new assignment is brilliant. It’s perfect.
RUSH: I really do not understand any of this. These people all ripped Petraeus to shreds. Every one of these media people, and every one of these people in this bite that are not media like Fran Townsend — well, they’re all media now, I guess. Brilliant choice to choose Petraeus? Wait ’til you hear the sound bites we have coming up illustrating what people like this were saying about Petraeus during Iraq. But let’s put this in perspective. The best decision Obama ever made, to go with George W. Bush’s general? Do they not realize that’s what they’re saying? The best decision Obama ever made is to go back to George Bush’s general? I mean honestly, folks, that’s the take. The president came out smelling like a rose today. ‘He showed he’s commander-in-chief,’ that’s Wolf Blitzer. What do you mean, he showed he’s commander-in-chief yesterday. What’s he been doing for the past 18 months?
Do these people not realize how they sound? Do they not realize what they’re saying? For the first time in 18 months, we’re proud of him. It’s kind of like what Michelle said, ‘For the first time in my life I’m proud of my country.’ Well, these guys are saying, ‘For the first time in the last 18 months I’m proud of my president. Why, today he sounded like commander-in-chief, why, today he took control.’ What are some of these other quotes? ‘Obama’s done very well asserting himself as commander-in-chief.’ Asserting? ‘The good news is you got a commander-in-chief that took decisive action.’ That’s Barry McCaffrey. What the hell, you mean it’s a crapshoot when we elect somebody? Yes, in this case it was a crapshoot and all these comments prove it. That’s why you listen.
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RUSH: Oh, yeah, folks, I love it. Best decision Obama ever made, to go with George W. Bush’s general. Ha! Doesn’t Obama run around complaining about what he inherited from Bush? He’s just inherited his general. He just inherited Petraeus. Ha! Folks, I love this. So is he gonna start complaining about having inherited Petraeus from Bush if things go wrong over there? And how decisive is it to fire somebody and then realize you don’t have anybody else that can replace him, so you have to make his boss do his job, too? He didn’t know anybody else in the military other than Petraeus ’cause in the Senate hearings he didn’t like him. This is a joke, it is a total joke!