RUSH: I want to try to explain to you in a little different way why this whole Sandy business, I don’t think, has anything to do with what this election’s about except as a microcosm in one way, and it’s this. I said to people last night, and I’ve tried today, too, when I talk about fundamentals. There’s a reason why Obama doesn’t have any momentum. There’s a reason why the momentum’s all Romney. There’s a reason why Obama is flailing. He’s been a lousy president. People wonder, “Well, what can he do here, Rush, three days, Hurricane Sandy, what can Obama do?” He can’t do anything.
He hasn’t been able to do anything about unemployment for four years, folks. He hasn’t been able to do anything about the economy in four years. He hasn’t been able to do anything about gas prices in four years, except make it worse. He has not been a good president, and there’s nothing that can happen in these three days that changes that. There’s nothing that can happen here. You want to say, “Well, he could make it look like he feels or cares.” People know that, or think that anyway. As for, “Well, it gives him a chance to look presidential.” He’s supposed to. He is the president. He’s not gonna get points for looking presidential. The reasons Obama’s in trouble are too deep. They aren’t shallow. In fact, this whole Sandy and its aftermath, you can almost portray it as a microcosm of why Obama’s in trouble.
New Jersey and Queens and all that, they’re gonna be rebuilt. But not because of a president. Not even because of a governor. They’re gonna be rebuilt not because of any politician. These areas are gonna be rebuilt because of people, the people who make the country work, local communities, neighbors helping neighbors, churches, you name it. Individuals and families will pick themselves up. They won’t wait around. There are not very many people in this country that wait around for the government, but New Orleans was one of them. Well, that’s what liberalism does to people. They wait. They don’t take charge of their own lives. This is not gonna happen here. This disaster illustrates what a president cannot do. This disaster illustrates what a government cannot do. And to me that’s what this election’s all about. Government’s become way too big, way too important, way too big a factor.
Way too many people have shucked their own responsibility, they’ve set aside their own ambition and ability in exchange for government coming along and doing something to help. Way too many people are in that circumstance, and it’s a disservice to those people that they’ve been led down that path. Churches, synagogues, other faith-based organizations, local communities, people, families, and, by the way, the private sector profit motive is going to play a large factor in stuff getting rebuilt. Don’t think that it won’t. There are insurance companies. New Jersey’s gonna get rebuilt just like San Francisco rebuilt after the earthquake and just like any other community has after a hurricane. The area is gonna get rebuilt, Queens, all these areas, they’re gonna get rebuilt because that’s what Americans do. It’s what Americans have always done.
Politicians come and go, communities, neighborhoods, cultures are permanent. Obama can’t wave a magic wand. There isn’t one. He can’t do anything, not substantively, to fix this. And nor can Christie, and nor can Bloomberg. It’s not how it’s going to happen, the fix for this. And it doesn’t serve any purpose to run around like Governor Cuomo’s doing and blame it on global warming to try to further another plank of liberalism and politics. I don’t believe that people sitting in New Jersey and Queens, I don’t think most of them really think that they can just sit around and do nothing and it’s gonna magically get fixed. They built it in the first place.
Chris Christie did not build what was destroyed, nor did Obama, nor did Bloomberg, nor did Clinton. In fact, after the BP oil spill, what did Obama do? He put a moratorium on drilling for oil and further hammered the region. If you want to talk about what he did for the Gulf, he handcuffed them even more. I just am of the opinion here that rather than look at this three day interval here in fear, “Oh, my God, how’s this gonna help Obama?” What this is doing is illustrating what Obama can’t do. This is illustrating what Obama can’t do. No president can do, and that’s what this election’s about. Too many people have turned over too much of their lives to government thinking government’s the answer, government can give ’em health care, government can give ’em this, and government can’t.
Look at the welfare numbers. We’re spending $60,000 a year on every welfare recipient in this country, and we still got poverty. How does that happen? Seriously, how does $60,000 per person below the poverty line, and we’ve still got poverty. How is that possible? We do it every year, and we’ve been doing it since 1960. How is that possible? You think it might be because the people living in poverty don’t do anything but get that money from the government? You think maybe that wasn’t the purpose for the Great Society and LBJ and the Democrat Party to begin with, to create this level of dependence? They’ve done a good job at it. I just think we got a great lesson here to teach everybody.
That picture on Fox, these people standing in line to get gasoline, you know what they’re trying to get gasoline for? To power their generators. Now, note that they weren’t waiting at home for somebody to deliver it. They knew that if they wanted that generator up and running, they were going to have to go get the fuel because there isn’t any fuel being delivered. Obama can’t make it happen. Bloomberg can’t make it happen. Cuomo can’t make it happen. Christie can’t make it happen. No politician can make it happen. They had to do it themselves. They had to be, what, self-reliant.
How many disasters have we had since Obama’s been president? I mean natural acts of God disasters. And tell me just what the hell has he done? To warrant all of this hope that he can do something about it, this guy can’t fix an economy in four years. He can’t do anything about gas prices in four years. He can’t reverse the job market in four years. He can’t do anything about the Iranians and nukes in four years. You name it. He hasn’t done it, in terms of positive repairs, fixes, even changing direction. So these expectations
are wildly out of proportion and not based in any reality.
ItÂ’s the people who make this country work. It’s the people who make things happen. And I’m gonna tell you: The only thing a government does is shackle people. The reason why conservatives are better for people is ’cause they get government regulation out of the way. I’m gonna make a prediction for you: If Romney does win this, you just watch. You are not gonna have to wait for his inauguration to see a major up-tick in economic activity for the good.
You’re not gonna have to wait. People are gonna instinctively know that shackles will be removed. Regulations and punishment for succeeding won’t happen. Mark my words. And people thinking that way are not gonna have whatever happens here in these three days change their minds. The realization that Obama’s in over his head, is incompetent, or worse is too settled. It’s too deep, too shallow.
My thinking… (chuckles) I could be dead wrong about this. I just don’t think the depth of the disappointment, the depth of the dissatisfaction with Obama can be reversed in three days with a storm where he doesn’t fix anything, where he doesn’t do anything. And sitting in the White House looking like a president isn’t gonna cut it. HeÂ’s supposed to do that anyway.
And, by the way, can we see the pictures of you in the Situation Room when four Americans were killed in Benghazi, sir? Can we finally hear what you knew and what you did when you found out that this was going on, and when did you find out it was going on? You have the gall to say at the store, (impression) “We leave no one behind.”
Tell that to Tyrone Woods and Christopher Stevens and the other two Americans.
“We leave no one behind.”
Not.
True.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let me amend, folks. I don’t know what’s gonna work here. I’m going to be honest that I don’t know, ’cause I remember… I was telling some people the other night when people started expressing their fears and concern to me. I said, “Well, remember the late charge from the media and the Democrats in 2000, the Bush DUI?” That nearly cost Bush the election. And that happened late. I mean, in the last three or four days.
What is undeniable here is that Obama was flying around all over the country doing his campaign appearances, and it wasn’t working. So now this is the strategy. Sit around in the White House during the disaster to look presidential and then go out there with Christie. That’s the latest strategery. The flying around wasn’t working, and the way I know that is because… Folks, this is still weird to me.
Sunday afternoon he leaves Washington for Florida and a campaign appearance on Monday. And on Sunday when he left, the forecasts for the storm were just as dire as they were the next day. And yet he spent the night in Florida on Sunday night and went back Monday morning without doing a campaign appearance. And they let it out because they thought it wouldn’t look good if he wasn’t in Washington when this happened.
But he left town not worried about that. Something happened. Somebody on his staff said, “You know, I’m overruling you, Mr. President. We’re taking you back. This is silly. These campaign appearances aren’t working, but that’s still weird to me.” You leave Sunday, when you know full well every bit the forecast on Monday. ItÂ’s no different in terms of the storm.
You leave and you don’t do the appearance and you make a big deal of flying home, maybe that’s what it was. I don’t know.