RUSH: Some thumbnails here. I thought Michele Bachmann, who inexplicably is detested more and more on some of our blogs — I don’t know why — some of our conservative bloggers and others just don’t like Michele Bachmann. I thought she was very strong last night. She’s always composed, extremely professional. She is most times that I see her speak. Was there something she said last night that was way off base or problematic or wrong?

No. Was there something she said last night that was cockeyed, crazy, or kooky? No. Others said cockeyed, crazy, and kooky things, but she didn’t. She won the Iowa straw poll,
and it’s almost like that has relegated her to irrelevancy with a lot of people. But I think, as we mentioned earlier in the first hour, I think Bachmann right now is being hurt a little bit by Palin’s indecision or lack of an announced decision; and if Palin gets in, then of course Bachmann will be hurt even more. But I have nothing but the highest regard for Bachmann’s intelligence, her conservative grit, her love of country, her commitment to what she believes in.

I think she deserves a lot of respect. Romney did pretty well last night. He did pretty well in the prior debate. A lot of others have been critical of him. He dances around Romneycare. He’s not gonna give it up, but understandably as a front-runner, he’s cautious. I understand the need to be cautious when you’re the front-runner. I just don’t want cautiousness in the Oval Office. My point is this: I, El Rushbo, the Big Barbarian at the Gate, am not going to trash any of those people that were on that stage last night; because, as Newt said, any one of them is preferable to what we have now.

Any and all of them are preferable to what we have now — and, admittedly, we’ve got a lot of people on that panel last night that have no prayer and they’ll be winnowed out as the days unroll before our very eyes.