RUSH: Mitt Romney was in New Hampshire this afternoon announcing his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. We have two sound bites, plus one of me. Here’s the first of the Romney sound bites.
ROMNEY: A few years ago Americans did something that’s really quite American in its nature. It’s the sort of thing we like to do. We gave someone new a chance to lead the country, someone we hadn’t known for very long, someone who didn’t have a long record but someone who promised to lead to us a better place. At the time we didn’t know what kind of president he would make.
RUSH: Yes, we did.
ROMNEY: It was a moment of crisis for our economy. When Barack Obama came to office, we wished him well, and hoped for the best. Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than slogans and promises to judge him by.
RUSH: Oh, jeez.
ROMNEY: Barack Obama has failed America. (cheers and applause)
RUSH: Yeah. Right on, right on, right on, right on. Now, you people know, I like Mitt. I have a lot of respect for Mitt. I know what they’re doing here. “Rush, when you run for president you gotta attack Obama’s policies, you can’t attack Obama.” I disagree with that. Before this program ends today I want to tackle this whole notion that somehow we cannot mention Obama. We gotta go after his policies, we can’t mention him. I’m gonna deal with that straight up before we finish here today. But, “at the time we didn’t know what kind of president he would make.” Yes, we did. Admit it, you did. Now, I could understand people having hope. I can understand people having hope, and even some of you people, I can understand you hoping, but, for crying out loud, he’s a leftist liberal. There was Reverend Wright. There was Saul Alinsky. There was Bill Ayers that we knew, we knew what he had said, we played the sound bites from 2002 about single payer health care, we knew it all. And so I, El Rushbo, January 16th, even before the regime was immaculated.
RUSH ARCHIVE: I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails. What are you laughing at? See, here’s the point. Everybody thinks it’s outrageous to say. 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.
RUSH: I said it, and they lived off of it for a year. And, of course, there are Republicans running around, “We actually don’t really hope the president fails.” Well, if you didn’t hope he failed then you had to be supporting of his policies. See, this is why I could never do politics. I could never do it. If I had made a speech and said, “We all hope the president succeeds,” I’d go home and I would tell myself I had been disingenuous, dishonest, and I gotta get back there the next day and apologize for misleading my audience. Now, Mitt then went on to pledge to repeal Obamacare and return the responsibility of health care to the states.
ROMNEY: I will cap federal spending at 20% or less of the economy and finally, finally, balance the budget. (applause) My generation, your generation will pass the torch to the next generation, not a bill. And I’m gonna insist that Washington learns how to respect the Constitution including the Tenth Amendment. Now, we’re gonna return the responsibility and authority to the states for dozens of government programs. And that will begin with a complete repeal of Obamacare. (cheers and applause)
RUSH: Right on, right on, right on, right on. (laughing)
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: “Less than an hour before Mitt Romney was to announce his second bid for the White House in New Hampshire, Sarah Palin appeared in Romney’s hometown and set about picking apart the health care plan he supported as governor of Massachusetts, suggesting it may be a fatal flaw for his candidacy.” One hour before he went out there drawing crowds that the Republican Party is accusing her of siphoning away from Romney today. I don’t know, folks. “Game on,” do you think? Pshew! That’s interesting stuff.
END TRANSCRIPT
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