RUSH: Here is Mel in Saratoga Springs, New York. It’s great to have you on the program. Hi, sir.
CALLER: Oh, yes. Good afternoon, Rush.
RUSH: Saratoga Springs.
CALLER: The horse racing capital of the world.
RUSH: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve been there.
CALLER: My pleasure to speak with you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Thank you for taking my call. As an African-American, a former Democrat now independent for over seven years, I really can’t see myself — as I did the last time –pulling the lever for this president. Not after this term and the fact that his immigration policies are so weak and watered down. He’s leaning so far to the way of leniency toward the laws that this land that we live in is made up of. He’s willing to break the law to appease a certain segment of society.
RUSH: By the way, Mel, you just nailed it. That’s exactly what’s happening. He’s broken the law. He has simply bypassed Congress.
CALLER: He has.
RUSH: Congress defeated this. Congress defeated the DREAM Act. And Pelosi is out there today saying she totally supports this because of what the Republicans did. Republicans are not allowed to turn back Democrat ideas. And so having Obama basically sign this portion of the DREAM Act into law today, she’s cool with it. But you’re right. He’s breaking the law. He does not have the constitutional authority to do this.
CALLER: Well, I just can’t… I don’t have any other word that I can say but I can’t vote for him again. I cannot; I will not. You couldn’t put a gun on me and make me pull the lever for this fellow after this term.
RUSH: But you did in 2008, right?
CALLER: That I did. That I did.
RUSH: Were you an independent in 2008?
CALLER: Yes, I was.
RUSH: Well, why’d you vote for him in 2008?
CALLER: Well, the reason I voted for him of us that, you know, I felt that we had an opportunity. This country will always afford anybody an opportunity to prove that they are worthy of holding the highest office in this land. Well, here we are. We had a guy who’d already been there two terms. Nobody else seemed to be a candidate that I could really put my faith into as far as trust.
RUSH: I can see that.
CALLER: Now, as Mitt said: He’ll build that pipeline, that Keystone pipeline himself if he has to.
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, that’s Romney. Romney is saying, by the way, he will build the Keystone pipeline himself if he has to get it done. You hear what Mel said? Mel said there wasn’t anybody else. Bush had two terms; I didn’t like McCain. Here was a fresh new young guy. I guarantee you a lot of people voted for that reason and other things. It had nothing to do with Obama or his policies or anything of the sort. And, by the way, Obama himself admitted (we played the sound bite) this is illegal. He admitted he doesn’t have the power to do this, years ago. But he did it anyway.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Mike in Pennsauken, New Jersey. Welcome to Open Line Friday. Great to have you here, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, how you doing, Rush?
RUSH: Good. Thank you very much.
CALLER: I’m an African-American. I’m a conservative. I’m also a combat veteran. And I’m tired of people associating, you know, this immigration fight with civil rights. It ain’t got nothing to do with civil rights. All right? Barack Obama’s policies do not mirror what black people believe, all right? So I’m really upset with that.
RUSH: What about the notion that gay marriage is an issue that has roots in the civil rights movement?
CALLER: Rush, Barack Obama ain’t never done nothing for black people since he’s been in office. He gave the gays marriage; he gave the Latino citizenship. All he gave us was a music video. And, by the way, the music wasn’t even that good.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: All right?
RUSH: (clapping)
CALLER: And I want to say something to Americans: The next time they want to do a Jackie Robinson experiment, at least make sure that the guy is an American at heart, all right, that puts American values first.
RUSH: Wait, let’s just clarify what he said. The next time America wants “to do a Jackie Robinson experiment,” make sure he’s “an American at heart.”
CALLER: At heart.
RUSH: I got what you mean. See, let me tell you something. Mike, the reason why he’s doing all this stuff… You think he isn’t doing anything for blacks. And, by the way, you’re probably safe in that assumption. Black unemployment is way up. He’s taking you for granted, man. He thinks your vote is gonna be there no matter what he does.
CALLER: I think they all do. You know, they all do, and I’m sick of that. And Americans — black Americans — should send him a message in November. A real message.
RUSH: Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen.
CALLER: I do, Rush.
RUSH: I don’t know whether to believe these polls in North Carolina that Obama has lost 20% of the black vote. It might be true now. On Election Day? Well, it might impact turnout. It might depress turnout. You’re right. That could be a factor. That poll could be right today, when the poll was taken. Twenty percent of black voters in North Carolina could be telling pollsters they’re not gonna vote for him. But when the Election Day actually comes — when they head off to the polling place, and when they go into the booth — everything changes. We will see.
But I wouldn’t think, just off the top of my fertile mind here, that amnesty for illegals would be popular with blacks. And this number of 800,000 young people? They’re job seekers. That’s the reason they’re being made legal. They’re getting work permits. They’re not being granted citizenship. Yet. But they’re getting work permits. Where are the jobs for these people? We’ve got people leaving the labor force because they can’t find jobs. What’s gonna happen to the job market with this influx? So I don’t think these…
They don’t score things dynamically. They look at things in a very static way. And I don’t think they have the slightest understanding the pushback there’s gonna be and the blowback there’s gonna be on this. It may never, ever be recorded until the election. But if they think that the American people are just gonna sit around and ho-hum this, they’ve got another think coming. If they’re gonna act ignorant of what the American people think (on a vast-majority basis) of illegal immigration and amnesty — if they’re gonna ignore that — they’re gonna do so at their peril. I don’t care, folks, if they can add their coalitions together. They don’t have enough to overcome their opposition.
I know this is Catch, Release, Vote.
That’s my name for what the real objective for this is down the road.
But he’s shoring up a constituency that’s not happy with him: Latinos.
Every one of his constituencies is unhappy with him.