RUSH: We are here on the Left Coast. We’re in Hollywood. We’re in Los Angeles, broadcast excellence for the fourth straight date out here, and one more to go after today. We’re having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
I showed up yesterday, played at a golf course called Saticoy up in Reagan country. You know where it is? It’s up there in Camarillo. So we drove up there, you need meal money to get up there from here. And we show up, go to the 18th hole, it’s a long par five. I, El Rushbo, I’m hitting the ball off the tee as well as I have in I don’t know how long. Bammo, it’s about a 535 yard par five. The second shot, 3-wood, bammo, straight down the middle. I have about 80 yards in, and I sort of yank, come over the top on the gap, wedge ends up in the trap, the green side bunker. And we’re one down here, this is gonna tie it up and not losing any money. And of course everybody thinks I’m in the bunker. I’ve got a reputation for being a bad bunker player. Okay, it’s over.
So I go in there, I take my first swipe in the bunker and the ball doesn’t move. I whiffed, I got right under the ball, but I kept the pose, I kept the pose as though I had hit the best shot ever. I was just trying to cover my embarrassment in case anybody from high up the hill in the clubhouse is looking. So then I look down, the ball is still there, I bop up, take another shot at it, two hops in the hole, holed out from the green side bunker, for a five, wiping out the opposition. Been a long day, it’s a hilly golf course up and down, just took all the juice out of ’em. That was it, another successful, fun day brought to an exciting conclusion. And here we are ready to kick it off again, happy to have you along, folks. Telephone number is 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program. The e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
Now, as I told you during yesterday’s excursion into broadcast excellence, I was not gonna have a chance to watch the Bamster’s speech on Afghanistan. I actually didn’t need to watch it; I knew what he was gonna do. But it’s my job to watch it in large part so that you don’t have to. I would come in here and tell you what you missed, and as an added bonus, sometimes to tell you what to think about what you missed, but even at that, folks, after the sterling day on the golf course we went to dinner, place in Malibu, I forget the name of the place, but high up on the hill overlooking the ocean looking south, beautiful place up there, and got home and I was just exhausted, just zapped. I didn’t even fire up the computer. I toyed around on the iPad for a while, and I came in, I talked to a couple people and found out what happened and we basically put together a summary for you. If you didn’t watch it either, hell, I don’t blame you. We’ve got it summarized here in, what, about a minute and a half? I think that’s about all it takes to summarize what happened last night.
(playing of spoof)
RUSH: Pretty much sums it up, right? Did you watch it, Dawn? You didn’t have to. Now you know. I’m sure you have a wonderful idea exactly what happened last night, Obama and his address to the nation. Stumbling through the show prep today, and I do mean stumbling, trying to stay on an East Coast schedule when I’m out here, and if I did that would mean going to bed at 11. I go to bed at two a.m. So that would mean going to bed at 11 here and getting up at four and getting in here at about five. It hasn’t been working out. I’ve been going to bed at two o’clock here and getting up at five o’clock here, after all of these action-filled days doing the program and then hustling outta here and heading to the golf course of the day, and then going out and having a tasty morsel at dinner, then back home, do some show prep before getting to bed. So I’m a little bit on the frazzled side, but you wouldn’t know it if I didn’t mention it to you.
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RUSH: We do have a couple sound bites from Obama, and his own trial balloons here in trying to make this whole claim that the Republicans are purposely destroying the economy; the Republicans are responsible for all of this. Two sound bites, maybe three, from Obama’s White House speech last night on Afghanistan.
OBAMA: We take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding. Fewer of our sons and daughters are serving in harm’s way. We’ve ended our combat mission in Iraq with a hundred thousand American troops already out of that country.
RUSH: Yeah?
OBAMA: And even as there will be dark days ahead in Afghanistan —
RUSH: Oh, yeah!
OBAMA: — the light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance.
RUSH: Yeah, there it is.
OBAMA: These long wars will come to a responsible end.
RUSH: Those “long wars,” started long before I got here, “will come to a responsible end,” and he kept going. He wasn’t finished.
OBAMA: Over the last decade we have spent a trillion dollars on war at a time of rising debt —
RUSH: Stop tape.
OBAMA: — and hard economic times.
RUSH: Stop tape, stop tape. There you have it. You see where this is going? “For the last decade,” translation: Since Bush, “we’ve spent a trillion dollars…” There’s the magic number. His health care bill cost less than that, see? I mean, it actually doesn’t, but that’s what they wanted everybody to believe. “Trillion dollars on a war, rising debt, hard economic times over the last ten years.” Let’s continue.
OBAMA: Now we must invest in America’s greatest resource: Our people.
RUSH: Stop the tape! So now it’s time for change. “I’m Barack Obama, and I just got here! You elected me in November of 2008, but today is my first day on the job; and after ten years of absolute purposeful destruction of the economy by my predecessor and his party — and after wasting a trillion dollars on this war — I have finally shown up, and it’s time to invest in you. So I, Barack Obama, am starting that today,” or in his case, last night. Let’s keep going.
OBAMA: We must unleash innovation that creates new jobs and industries, while living within our means. We must rebuild our infrastructure and find new and clean sources of energy. America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home.
RUSH: That’s right, “I’m Barack Obama, and I just got here! Yeah, it’s time to unleash innovation, new jobs, shovel-ready infrastructure. We haven’t tried that yet. I was elected in 2008, but I’ve been playing golf, you know? I just now showed up. It’s time to invest in you. We’re gonna have shovel-ready jobs. We’re gonna unleash innovation that creates jobs.” See, he hasn’t been doing any of this the past two years. No, folks, he hasn’t been doing it. All stuff that’s the been going on the past two years? They’ve been trying to dig themselves out of the swamp that George W. Bush created — and finally, two years after we get rid of Bush (finally!), as of last night (finally!) it’s time to start rebuilding ourselves here at home.
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RUSH: This is David “Rodham” Gergen. Now, this is CNN’s special coverage of Obama’s address on the beginning of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. And Anderson Cooper, 920, speaking to David “Rodham” Gergen, and he said, “What did you make of Obama’s speech here?”
GERGEN: It was a very good speech. I thought he summarized very well what he believed and, you know, I thought he was concise and he made his points.
RUSH: Okay. That was a very good speech out there, Anderson. I thought he summarized very well what he believes. And, you know, I thought he was concise and made his points. Well, there was a problem. Anderson Cooper decided to probe a little deeper. He said, “Do you see this, by any chance, as a victory for Joe Biden?” Now, you see when you ask David “Rodham” Gergen about the substance of the speech, not whether or not Obama made his points and summarized very well, you get into the substance with him then you get a different take.
GERGEN: There’s no question about that, General Petraeus and Secretary Clinton and Bob Gates all have been reported tonight to have reluctantly accepted this outcome. They wanted them more robust. And I frankly must say, what I’m partly puzzled about is when you’re trying to wind down a war, and everybody agrees you have to wind it down in Afghanistan, you’ve got a general who’s turned around two wars, he’s the most successful general of modern times and he comes to you with a recommendation on how to do it and you say, “No, thank you, I’m gonna do it a different way.”
RUSH: Oh. So we learn David “Rodham” Gergen is not so happy with the speech when he starts examining the specifics and the substance. The answer to this is actually very simple. Petraeus is a goof; he’s an idiot; all he’s ever been is a military hawk. All he’s ever been is somebody that loves killing people, shooting guns and so forth be. The theoreticians at the faculty lounge at Harvard are much more compassionate than that. We’re much more sophisticated than these warmongers. I’m not gonna listen to some warmonger, I’m Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm, and I’m not gonna listen to some warmonger. Besides, I’m not out to win this thing, ’cause I don’t like victory, makes me nervous. I don’t like having to see Emperor Hirohito show up and surrender. I just don’t like that. Emperor Hirohito, of course, didn’t.
David Ignatius, a columnist at the Washington Post, basically says it doesn’t matter, Obama is the commander-in-chief, screw the generals. Charlie Rose asked him a question: “Here’s what intrigues me – is the President’s mind. What has happened between the 2009 assessment, that long, drawn out assessment, that everybody who participated said was very interesting and very productive for them? What’s happening between then and now,” when Obama says, screw it, we’re getting out of there?
IGNATIUS: This president has become commander-in-chief. This is the president who took a very gutsy decision to send the SEALs in to take out Osama Bin Laden, and I think that changes you —
ROSE: Becoming commander-in-chief changes you in what way?
IGNATIUS: Well, what he’s deciding is, I’m gonna make up my own mind, despite what the generals are telling me, and General Petraeus, a pretty aggressive arguer, and he’s deciding what I think works is counterterrorism, and I’m gonna have the force that supports that and I’m not gonna send in the COIN force as the generals want, and I’m gonna set the policy.
RUSH: Okay, there you have it. So he’s a commander-in-chief, screw the generals, screw Petraeus, there, Mr. Gergen, is your answer. Obama’s a commander-in-chief, Obama’s maturing right before our very eyes, Obama single-handedly — we’re back to this now — can handle all of this.
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RUSH: There’s no question this speech last night was a campaign speech. What better way to fire up the Democrat base than to announce you intend to lose the war in Afghanistan? That’s what the Democrat base wants. So Obama essentially says, I’m out to lose, and the Democrat base is happy. They’re all excited about it. You know, what do General Petraeus and Gates, the defense secretary, what do they know? They were both opposed to Obama when he made his gutsy call, don’t you remember that? Only Obama knew how to go out and get Bin Laden. Only Obama understood all the pratfalls. Only Obama was able to see all the things that could go wrong. So he’s a brilliant guy getting Bin Laden, and now he’s a brilliant military strategist. You know, Hitler’s generals tried to argue with him, too, fools.
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RUSH: President Obama, in a nutshell, now says we cannot continue to fight in Afghanistan. It’s too expensive. But what is the logic here? Doesn’t he insist that massive government spending is the only thing that will lift us out of recession and that we have to do a lot more of it? But somehow all that spending on the military in Afghanistan, that won’t cut it. As we speak, Dingy Harry and Senate Democrats are pushing for yet another round of stimulus spending. But the war in Afghanistan would suffice. In fact, it was World War II that got FDR out of the fire. It was Paul Krugman — just to remind you, New York Times, Paul Krugman — saying just a few months ago, back in September, 2010 that we needed another World War II to get us out of the recession.
Even Krugman was finally admitting that it was only World War II that finally lifted us out of the Great Depression. It was not the New Deal. So if massive government spending is good for the economy, how come the war in Afghanistan isn’t actually helping the economy? I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you why. It’s real simple. Don’t doubt me on this, folks. You’re going to think that this is over the top; it’s not. It’s reelect time. It’s run-for-reelection time. Obama is losing his base; he’s lost the independents. He has got to get the base down. He’s gotta get ’em back. You don’t get the base of the Democrat Party by winning wars. You do not hold the far-left fringe of the Democrat Party as ardent, energized supporters manning phone banks for you and running around bundling funds and raising funds.
That’s not gonna happen among the base if you go out and win a war. Lose a war? Ah, now we’re talking! Go out and lose a war, and maybe humiliate a general or two in the process, then you have a chance of reclaiming the Democrat base. Don’t doubt me. “Mr. Limbaugh, that’s simply ‘unassistable’ that you can say something like that about citizens of the country of the United States.” It’s true, Mr. New Castrati, and you know it as well as I do. I mean, you’d have to admit Obama’s campaign speech last night was, for what it was, one of his most impressive so far. It was clear that Obama needed and wanted to shore up his anti-American base, known as the Democrat Party.
If I had to guess, I’d say that most of Obama’s fringe is not all that happy he killed Bin Laden. He’s probably been paying a little bit of a political price. Maybe not so much for killing Bin Laden, but he’s been out there doing this Tarzan business, “Ahhh!” and beating his chest and claiming credit as a big-time warrior now, “I killed Bin Laden,” that doesn’t sit well with the Democrat base. Announcing he’s now planning to lose the war in Afghanistan was may be one of the best moves he coulda made to reconnect with the Democrat base.
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