RUSH: You know, this Pew Center for People and the Press poll also found that Obama is losing independents in droves. Obama is losing the precious independents, and that’s why independents aren’t precious anymore. You independents, your salad days are gone. If you don’t vote for Democrats, you’re not gonna get anything special. You’re just the latest group of dorks. Romney won the independents big. Cuccinelli won the independents big.

Remember that old saw that the Democrat consultants always used to tell the Republicans and they would believe it? You know, folks, this is worth mentioning again. The Republican Party gets tricked so easily. They get tricked into not criticizing Obama, they get tricked into not being for what they should be for, and they even get tricked into campaigning for only 20% of the vote. Ever since I’ve been dabbling in this, I’ve heard every year, “You don’t win unless you get the independents.

“You got to win the independents. Your base is gonna vote for you, and the Democrat base is gonna vote for it,” and so the consultants go to all these Republican candidates and sell themselves on that ability. “I’m the guy that can get you the independents,” and what do they do? They turn these candidates into squishy, linguine-spined moderates, on the theory that’s how you get the independents.

Another thing we’re always told: “Do not criticize Obama! Do not criticize Democrats! Do not raise your voice, the independents don’t like that.” Remember? “If you do that — if you raise your voice, if you criticize Obama — the independents gonna run in droves to the Democrats, because they don’t like all this bickering.” Now, the Democrats can call us terrorists and rapists and murderers and muggers, and it doesn’t ever seem to bother the independents.

But if we criticize Democrats?

So the Republicans have been tricked into shutting up, and every four years they’ve been tricked into campaigning for 20% of the voting public, the independents. They’re winning the independents and they’re losing elections. You know why? Because they are abandoning their base, and the assumption is the base is always gonna be with you, but the Tea Party is not the case. So Obama is losing independents big.

In this Pew poll, only 32% of independents approve of Obama’s job performance. Sixty-one percent of independents disapprove. He’s losing ’em. So you don’t hear about the independents anymore, do you? You don’t hear the media tell Republicans what to do and how to do it, regarding the independents. You don’t hear about ’em at all because since they’ve abandoned Obama, they don’t matter anymore.

The independents — and I know who you are, and you independents know who you are, and you were made to feel special by the media. You were portrayed as the really smart people. You weren’t ideologues. You decided things issue by issue. You had open minds, not closed minds. You weren’t bigots like the Tea Party. Oh, no, no, no! You independents, you were the cream of the crop — until you stopped voting for Democrats. Now you’re dirt. Now you’re scum.

Now you’re not even worth being talked about because you are abandoning Obama. So I’m telling you, there’s nothing special about you independents anymore, and the word that will be used to replace independents is “moderates” now, because the trick must continue. Even though the independents are now siding against Obama — and that means usually with Republicans, but not always.

At least they’re turning on Obama. Well, the trick must continue to be played on the Republicans. So now moderates will replace independents, and the Republicans will be told, “You’re not gonna win anything unless you convince the moderates to vote for you and only way you can do that is come out for amnesty and abortion and getting rid of guns. If you don’t do that, you’ll never win.”