RUSH: I want to thank Mark Steyn for being able and agreeing to do the program yesterday on short notice. It was a tough day Sunday, and I kept holding out hope that it would pass, one of these 24-hour intestinal things. It eventuated that late Sunday night I couldn’t get in here and Mark was able to do it so I sincerely appreciate that.

I was still able, ladies and gentlemen, I figured I was sick, why not watch Obama. What more damage could be done. So I watched the silly Rose Garden thing yesterday. The Limbaugh Theorem was right there, and even The Politico in a random act of journalism, gets close to calling Obama on it. They’ve got a headline on their story here: “Obama’s Passive Voice.” I said it’s “almost” a random act of journalism. But, I mean, this was classic. There’s Obama standing in the Rose Garden, and he’s got 13 people behind him. There’s only three sign-ups, of the props?

Now, I have a question, and I’ll bet that many of you were asking the same thing. Where’s the Republican Party yesterday and today? No, no, no. Seriously. Forget Tea Party, establishment stuff. Where is pushback from the Republican Party? I know it’s a rhetorical question, but I’m gonna mention it anyway. You’ve got the president of the United States, his signature piece of legislation is a bomb, it is an abject failure. He has to sound like he’s selling — what’s that guy, the infomercial guy, Ron Popeil and the Ginsu knife. It’s like Obama’s out selling bamboo steamers yesterday.

It would seem to me that the Republicans could easily call a press conference or some kind of an appearance and bring out a bunch of people who tried to sign up, haven’t been able to sign up, get them to tell their stories, and, in the same vein, let it be known that the Republican Party is looking out for you, the people of the country and so forth. I mean, in the old days this might have been done. I don’t know how old the days would have to be for the Republican Party to have done something like that, but clearly the establishment of the Republican Party doesn’t want to do anything to incur the wrath of the media.

Now, it could also be — see what you think of this. We know the active theory, the Republican consultant class is, that Obamacare is gonna go ahead and implode so just stand aside and let it. Don’t get in the way when your opponent is making fool of himself or when your opponent’s committing suicide, political suicide, just get out of the way and let it happen. But, in this case, you know, a little nudge. The fact that it isn’t being done, the fact that there aren’t ads on TV does raise questions to me that are not new, it just sort of illustrates the point where we are.

You know what the Republican Party could do? If you want to talk about unity, the Republican Party could have some Republicans up there and some conservatives up there and Tea Party people, establishment people, all unified in an appearance designed to let people know that they would do anything they can to help them and to see to it that this thing doesn’t go any further and get embedded into our culture as an absolute disaster.

Marco Rubio says he’s going to introduce a bill to delay the individual mandate until HealthCare.gov is up and running normally and for six months. Now, it’ll never be signed into law, obviously, but Marco Rubio is attempting to make a statement and use the legislative effort here as an illustration of the absolute mess that this thing is. Even the Drive-By Media, my Obamacare Stack today is littered with Drive-By Media criticism. I mean, they’re really worried about this. They’re really worried about Obama for this. And most of them are really surprised. Most of them really thought that this was gonna be better than anything. Most of them are shocked. Most of them can’t believe it’s this bad. That’s how much faith they’ve got in Obama. That’s how much faith they’ve got in government.

Jay Carney yesterday said Obama is frustrated with the rollout. Yeah, right in line with the Limbaugh Theorem. Obama himself said that he’s very, very distressed about this. “Nobody madder than me about the fact the website isn’t working as well as it should.” It’s his website! It’s his stupid health care plan! It is his signature health care! It’s called Obamacare! Nobody madder than he is? You know, folks, I haven’t watched a network nightly news show in years. I kid you not. I haven’t done so in years and last night I found out why, or I reacquainted myself with why.

When I turned on the tube it came on to the NBC affiliate here, Channel 5, so I must have been watching football on Sunday, that’s what it was, and I must have given up even before halftime. I said, “I can’t. I gotta go to bed.” The Broncos and Colts game, I didn’t make it to halftime. So I turned off the TV. I then turned it on and right at the beginning Brian Williams introducing F. Chuck Todd on the White House lawn with an update in the story on what had happened with Obama in the press conference. “I’ll watch this.” There’s Brian, “And now we take to you our man on the scene, Chuck Todd, White House correspondent, NBC News political director,” and couple of other resume points.

“So, Chuck, what’s going on there at the White House?” Of course, it’s dark, Chuck’s on the lawn, some lights there. “Well, Brian, there’s some problems up here.” Brian, in his intro, said (parphrasing), “Chuck, we gotta admit if something this bad had happened in the private sector, either the CEO would go or the company would fold, be out of business. I mean, this really wouldn’t be tolerated. So Chuck, what’s the scoop with it?” And Chuck said, “Well, Brian everybody up here knows that they’ve got a problem, and they’re working hard on it, and Kathleen Sebelius’s job is safe.” Who’s worried about Kathleen Sebelius’s job? But I felt reassured. I was deathly afraid that Kathleen Sebelius was gonna be canned, and I was comforted to know that Chuck Todd told everybody that she was safe, her job’s safe.

He went on to describe how the White House is working very hard. They know they don’t have much time to get this right, Brian. They know they don’t have much time. They’re gonna be putting in the midnight oil. They’re gonna be working hard on this. They figure they’ve got about three weeks, Brian. I’m sitting there, and I’m watching this — and this is not verbatim, by any means. Chuck Todd knows exactly what he’s not saying and what he is. He knows what he’s reporting is a bunch of — it’s just nothing but line crap. Here’s the latest line of the day. This is the narrative. This is the template, and this is what’s gonna be reported. “White House knows they’ve got a problem. They’re working hard on it. The president wants 150% effort from the IT team.”

What the hell is that? Who talks that way? (imitating Obama) “Yeah, you give me 150% effort, that IT team, you get ’em in here, 150% effort, that’s what I want on this.” Well, who talks this way, in the real world? Anyway, my whole point was that it was just propaganda. It was just a report designed to carry forth the notion that Obama’s a bystander and he found out it wasn’t going well and he was really mad. But Kathleen Sebelius safe, don’t have any fears about that. She’s cool.

Do you know this company, this IT company that they hired, this is from Joel Pollak at Breitbart: “Obamacare Tech Firm Tried, Failed to Build Gun Registry in Canada.” You think this might be why they got hired? “CGI, the Canadian company whose U.S. subsidiary built the failed Obamacare website, was once contracted to build a federal gun registry for the Canadian government, Breitbart News has learned.

“CGI’s contract was canceled in 2007 after a report by the Auditor General found that the Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS) being built by CGI was ‘significantly over budget’ and that it had been plagued by delays. … The failed gun registry was only one of CGI’s many Canadian failures, which included canceled contracts to build health care databases in the provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick. Despite CGI’s checkered record, the Obama administration awarded its U.S. subsidiary, CGI Federal, the $93.7 million contract to build healthcare.gov, part of $678 million in health care services contracts awarded to the company.”

For crying out loud, not only did they waste a bunch of money, they hired a firm which had a track record of failure. This is exactly what happens. As long as you are trying to do something to advance and further the agenda and you’re right in line with the cause, doesn’t matter how much you fail, you’re gonna get promoted. So here’s a group, tried to put together a gun registry in Canada. Oh, yeah, we love those kinds of people. Oh, yeah. Gun registry, that’s the kind of people we need. And while we’re working on health care they can in a stealth way be establishing one of those here maybe. Just ruminating here. Don’t know anything about that. But still, not one success on the resume. Nothing but failure after failure, and then Obama says he’s gonna call Verizon and ask them to help fix this.

(interruption)

Well, the reason you wouldn’t call a successful company in the first place is because there’s nobody better than government. That’s why you wouldn’t. This is what’s ironic about this. Every one of these Drive-By stories I’ve got, they’re really worried. Ron Fournier’s piece today at National Journal, I mean he’s a big Obama guy. He’s scared to death that this thing is an absolute disaster, and he can’t believe it. These people all think Obama is Harvard, he’s Harvard Law, he’s whatever. His qualifications are just far and above way better than anybody else’s. No real-world experience. Doesn’t matter. He’s just so smart. He knows how to do these things, and we love government, and government does this better than anybody, except they don’t. And so when that’s illustrated, oh, no, they’re really let down. You can see it. I’ll share this with you as the program unfolds today.

USA Today: “Health and Human Services Brings in Verizon to Help HealthCare.gov — The international telecommunications company Verizon has been tasked with helping the government fix the federal health exchange,” which at first blush here, folks, that’s very peculiar, ’cause we all thought the government could do anything, and especially better than the private sector. Of course, there’s less private sector now thanks to the overreach of the Obama administration. This article acts, by the way, this USA Today piece, it writes as if Verizon is not a government contractor, even though they later quote somebody who says it is a government contractor.

One of the experts that they quote only gives Verizon a 50-50 chance of fixing the problems, which is still better odds than one would give the government for fixing them. So here’s Verizon, you coulda called anybody, you coulda call Jeff Bezos, you coulda called people at Apple or people that run websites. You coulda called ’em left and right to get this thing fixed if you wanted to. Nothing against Verizon. What I a come-down to have to call the private sector to fix your health care website. Gee, for $98 million, I would have set up the website. I would have set it up for $50 million. And it would work, and I’d have it up running a lot sooner than these clowns did.

Of course, if I’d set it up it woulda backfired on ’em without them knowing it. But nevertheless, three years and Obama’s been a bystander. He only now learned of the trouble, only last week. And then he blamed it on the shutdown and he blamed it on the Republicans. Meanwhile, in low-informationville, the big news today is that Kanye West proposed to Kim Kardashian. Did you know that? And CeeLo Green gave some babe ecstasy. Of course, in his case it might be —

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Folks, I don’t offer this as an excuse, but if it takes me a few seconds longer to come up with a word or thought that I’m looking for, I just want you to know I still have a low-grade fever in here, sometimes hot flashes or chills. I don’t offer that as an excuse, just as an explanation in the event things sound strange or slow to you. That would be the only reason.

Grab audio sound bite 12 and 13. You gotta hear this if you missed it. This is Obama at the Rose Garden yesterday morning talking about Obamacare, the ongoing problems with the website. Two sound bites. This is number one.

OBAMA: Here’s the bottom liine. The product, the health insurance, is good. The prices are good. It is a good deal.

RUSH: No, it’s not.

OBAMA: People don’t just want it. They’re showing up to buy it.

RUSH: They’re not.

OBAMA: Nobody’s madder than me about the fact that the website isn’t working as well as it should.

RUSH: “Nobody’s madder than me.” Limbaugh Theorem. He’s got nothing to do with it. He’s a bystander. In fact, The Politico, I kid you not, The Politico’s all over the board with this. Depends on who’s writing about it, because Edward-Isaac Dovere, if he still has a job there, has a piece running today called “Obama’s Passive Voice.” This is one that’s an “almost” random act of journalism. They walk right up to the Limbaugh Theorem, but then they fall a little short. They don’t quite make the connection.

In another Politico story they say that Obama was so busy negotiating the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling that he was blindsided by these website problems. I kid you not. Now, apparently The Politico missed all the times Obama said he wouldn’t negotiate. Now, think about something. Who can take the fall for these glitches? Now, on Sunday, F. Chuck Todd said that they’re gonna have to have a fall person. He actually said that — fall person, not a fall guy — and that Sebelius was very nervous. He said that on Sunday. Then it was last night that he said everything’s okay, she’s cool, don’t worry about her.

But who can take the fall for these glitches? It can’t be Obama because it would be racist. He was so busy trying to save the government during the middle of the Republican inspired shutdown, so it can’t be Obama. It can’t be Sebelius because she’s a woman, that would make it sexist. So who can they blame this on? Maybe somebody who’s no longer there, blame Van Jones or somebody. They’re gonna need a fall person for this, if they go that route.