RUSH: I thought Newt was outstanding last night. Once again, Newt illustrated a point: When the pressure’s off is when you do best. And Newt’s pulled out of Michigan. Not really “pulled out,” but he’s not going to make any effort in Michigan. And Newt claims that he expects Santorum to win Michigan. So he’s pulling out. Ron Paul… Get this, now: Ron Paul is not really competing in Michigan, but he’s running anti-Santorum ads in Michigan. Even though Ron Paul is not viable in Michigan, he’s still running anti-Santorum ads. But Newt pulling out is gonna coalesce support to Santorum, and Paul pulling out… See, I don’t know. The thing that’s interesting to me about the Paul-Romney alliance is I don’t know how the Ron Paul camp is gonna feel about that.
If this alliance is actually a purposeful strategically assembled alliance and if it has an electoral purpose here to benefit Romney, I don’t know how Ron Paul’s crowd is gonna react to that. They may love it. I don’t know how Ron Paul supporters feel about Romney. I don’t know if Romney’s their second choice or not. If they don’t like it, and if they figure out there’s this alliance, who knows? But this is gonna increase Santorum’s odds in Michigan with Gingrich putting no effort forward there. Now, I don’t think Gingrich is doing this to benefit Santorum, per se. I think Newt still wants to win this himself.
He’s positioning himself so that a poor finish cannot be talked up to a poor finish following a full-fledged, all-out effort to win. If you don’t make a big effort, if you make no effort at all in state and you don’t do well, “Well, it’s not unexpected that you wouldn’t do well.” So Michigan and Arizona are next Tuesday, and we shall see. But I thought Newt, with no pressure on him, hit Obama better than anybody did last night. He reminded CNN’s audience that Obama, as an Illinois state senator… This is what Newt is so great at. They tried to focus on Santorum and contraception and Newt said (summarized), “You know, let me tell you something. Why don’t we ever talk about the president of the United States who, as an Illinois state Senator, voted for infanticide?
“Barack Obama voted to allow babies who survived an abortion to go ahead and be killed, to let the doctors do it. Because the original intent was the abortion, if the abortion fails, the doctors are permitted to go ahead and complete the job — and Barack Obama promoted that and voted for it. If we’re gonna talk about contraception, let’s talk about that,” and the audience went nuts. These are the kinds of things that Newt did last night, and he’s so good at it. And he had the courage to use the word “infanticide.” It’s exactly what was being defended. And unbelievable as this may sound to those of you who never heard about this, every word of it is true. It is the most shocking and underreported significant story I can ever remember.
It’s all on the record: Obama and infanticide.
And we talked about it during the 2008 campaign. Nobody wanted to hear it. The hopey-change thing was just too big of a theme. It was absorbing all the energy. But it was shocking, the details of this story. He also — Newt had some absolutely brilliant conservative thoughts on education and on our schools. Newt noted three fundamental mistakes on education. They assume that teachers unions care about kids. He talked about this self-esteem nonsense where kids hear about self-esteem, but they can’t even spell it. They’re taught that they have self-esteem, they’re taught that they’re wonderful little darlings, they’re taught all this, but they can’t even spell the word “self-esteem”!
And then he talked about the bureaucrat-driven curriculum. He wanted to talk up charter schools, suggested the Department of Education be shrunk down to nothing. And about teaching, he said — and this I think is accurate. When I was in school, this is what we all thought of, of the profession. He said, “Teaching is a missionary vocation, and regulation kills it.” Bureaucracy kills it. So Newt, spot on. There weren’t as many giant applause lines, and there weren’t as many instances of standing ovation applause. I don’t know that there was a standing ovation at all last night, but Newt was on his game.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have the sound bite. This is Newt. This is Newt and Obama voting for infanticide, and it’s an exchange between John King and the Newtster.
KING: “Which candidate believes in birth control, and, if not, why? (crowd booing.) As you can see, it’s a very popular question in the audience, as we can see. Look, we’re not gonna spend a ton of time on this but it is — please.”
GINGRICH: Can I just make a point?
KING: Sure.
ROMNEY: These guys are gonna give some feedback here, John.
KING: I see that.
ROMNEY: I think they’re gonna make it very clear.
GINGRICH: I just want to point out, you did not once in the 2008 campaign, not once did anybody in the elite media ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide. (cheers) Okay? You know, let’s be clear here.
RUSH: Our bite ends there, but he went on to explain what infanticide is. He went on to explain, the abortion is botched, the baby is born alive, and the doctor is permitted to finish the job. And that was a piece of legislation Obama pushed. Obama voted “present” most of the time in the Illinois senate, but this, he couldn’t wait to vote “yes.” In fact, he was one of the leaders spearheading this thing.
Now, at the other end of the spectrum, grab audio sound bite 36. This is Mark McKinnon, he of the No Labels group. McKinnon ran the media for George W. Bush in 2000, 2004. McKinnon is the guy — (interruption) you’re looking at me like you don’t know who he is. He’s the guy who told McCain, “If you criticize Obama, I’m outta here.” He was working for McCain, “If I hear one criticism of Obama, then I’m outta here,” and he started this group called No Labels, which is a home for wayward liberal Republicans: The front door’s locked. And they’ve had to go find an orphanage for themselves. The No Labels bunch thinks that we could advance our culture and society a lot further if there were no liberals and no conservatives, if there were just liberals that didn’t have to say they were liberals.
He was on Morning Joe today on MSNBC. McKinnon’s a co-founder of the group. They’re having a discussion about a bill in Virginia that would have required women seeking abortions to receive a transvaginal ultrasound first. The left just hates that. It stands in the way of the profit associated with abortion. Joe Scarborough said, “Bob McDonnell, governor of Virginia, stepped back yesterday from the cliff and said he wouldn’t support that part of the bill.” Very interesting. And here’s what McKinnon said.
MCKINNON: He tried to, you know, Republicans are supposed to be against government, big government inserting themselves into our lives and then we have this situation in Virginia where the Republicans are literally trying to insert themselves into women’s bodies.
RUSH: Okay. So that’s Republican media strategist, Mark McKinnon, who ran the media for George W. Bush. Describing Republicans in Virginia as trying to insert themselves into women’s bodies. I thought Republicans were so stupid they didn’t know where to do that. I thought they’re so blockheaded and old-fashioned and so forth. “What do you mean insert ourselves into a woman’s body, where would we do that?” is the impression.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Craig in Richmond, Virginia. Hi.
CALLER: Rushbo! Fifteen-year dittos, my friend.
RUSH: Well, thank you. Thanks very much, Craig. Great to have you out there, buddy.
CALLER: Yeah, I’ve been laughing and learning the whole 15 years. While I’ve been on hold, you have a brilliant team that puts these things together. When everyone else hears a commercial, I’m being interested brilliantly.
RUSH: (laughing) Well, thanks very much. They — They —
CALLER: They do a great job. Two points. I know I’m up against the clock here. Two quick points. Did I miss you go on about Lindsey Grahamnesty forgiving Newt; he now understands? I mean, he should ask Newt to forgive him. He talked for an hour about how —
RUSH: Wait a minute. Whoa.
CALLER: — Newt got bitter, and now he understands what he was up against.
RUSH: Craig, hold on out there, old buddy, old pal. What is this, Lindsey Grahamnesty is…?
CALLER: You missed it, Rush? He was being interviewed. I think it was ABC one of these Sunday morning shows, and I was just like, “Wow, I can’t wait to hear Rush talk about that Monday!”
RUSH: What did he do? What did he do, Craig, old buddy, old pal?
CALLER: Well, he said that Newt Gingrich… The coup to oust Newt was launched in his own office and that he wishes he could take that back because he recognizes it.
RUSH: You are pulling my leg.
CALLER: Oh, no, I’m not. I am not! You gotta Google this! I now need to take back what I said about your team. (laughing) My goodness, nobody told you about this, Rush?
RUSH: Well, that’s why when you were going on and on praising ’em you heard I was a little reserved there.
CALLER: (laughing) But they gotta dig this up for tomorrow. He said that he recognizes that Newt was up against it, that he was up against a very brilliant politician and Bill Clinton. And the things that Newt got done were just so amazing to take a look at it from the hindsight of now that he’s had all these years to govern.
RUSH: (groaning) Oh, man.
CALLER: He had no right to be angry at Newt, that Newt would say one thing and he’s come back from the White House and he’s had something totally different. But now he understands.
RUSH: Craig, I appreciate the heads-up on this. It’s very rare — it’s very rare — that a caller informs me of anything of this nature. (interruption) That’s… Don’t go there, Snerdley. Craig, you won’t believe this. You want to hear how the staff is it trying to excuse the fact that they blew this? You know what they’re saying to me now? They’re saying, “Come on, who cares about Grahamnesty?” That’s not the point. I might. I might care about Grahmnesty. Grahamnesty forgiving Newt, saying he’s sorry he ran a coup against him? That’s newsworthy. Craig, I appreciate the heads-up. We’ll dig it up out there and I’ll have it for you tomorrow if after I look at it, I judge it to be worth anything. I appreciate the call.