RUSH: Ah, yeah, you can just see it. The Drive-Bys are just ecstatic, so happy to have Obama back home, back in Washington, back from Hawaii. Now they can resume the soap opera, put him as the lead character of the Washington soap opera back on the air. And, of course, income inequality and unemployment extension benefits happen to be the two plot lines of the soap opera today. And they will be for as long as it takes to make people forget the misery of Obamacare and the misery of Obamanomics or economics.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: President Obama returned to Washington from his 17-day vacation in Hawaii yesterday, great relief for the Drive-By Media, which can now resume their soap opera. Several articles out today outlining the plot lines for the upcoming months of the soap opera in Washington that is called the news. There is no news. It’s all a soap opera. The plot lines are, “Can Obama successfully save Obamacare? Can Obama overcome the mean Republicans and extend emergency unemployment benefits? Can Obama do something about income inequality?” Those are the main plot lines of the Washington soap opera today.

Back with much more after this. Oh. That’s right, you know what? I got screwed up. I looked at the clock and I’ve got more time than I thought.

So it’s exactly what is happening, folks. French News Agency: “Obama Back from Pacific Break to Face Sea of Troubles.” They got to take the focus off Obamacare. It continues to be a total disaster. And so minimum wage, income inequality, and extending unemployment benefits, those are the soap opera plot lines. You’ve probably already seen them talked about already in the news.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: President Obama left Honolulu’s Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham just before nine p.m. with his daughters. Michelle stayed behind as a birthday present. I guess her birthday is on January 17th, so the news says that Obama let her stay, as a birthday president. You think that’s how it actually happened? Obama says to, “Honey, you know what? Uh, your birthday is coming up, and you know, I’m gonna allow you to stay here.”

Ha! You think that’s really how it happened? What do you think actually happened? Come on, Snerdley, take a stab at it. Do you really think Obama said, “You know what? Your birthday is coming up, and I’m gonna allow you to stay here”? Mmm-hmm. Now, I just don’t… (interruption)

No, I don’t think she said anything about the Danish playmate. You mean from the Mandela event?

No, no, I don’t think so. No. But I don’t think she’s saying because Obama allowed her to stay. I don’t think there’s any allowing going on here from Obama to Michelle. There might be the other way around, but something tells me that that’s not the way this all shook out. Anyway, Obama’s back, folks. Right here says it says, “As part of her birthday gift from the president, the first lady will remain in Hawaii to spend time with friends ahead of her upcoming 50th birthday.”

Oh, I’m sorry. Her birthday is January 30th. I’m sorry, I saw January 17th. That must be the day she’s coming back. Anyway, the story then says (this is the French News Agency), “With his approval rating languishing at near record lows and locked in a cold war with Congress, Obama needs quit victories in the run-up to his State of the Union [show] at the end of the month.

“After 16 days of rest in Hawaii, Obama must oversee the final implementation of his troubled health care reform and find a way to help thousands of long-term unemployed stripped of their benefits.” That did happen. Over the Christmas break, some number of Americans’ extended unemployment benefits ran out. They expired. After four years. Yeah, it can add up to four years of unemployment benefits.

It’s 99 weeks, and then there have been some extensions added on the top of it, and some of them just ran out, and so now it’s crisis. So we have to extend unemployment benefits again, and the Republicans will go along with it. Don’t think that they won’t. In addition to that, we’ve got “income inequality.” That’s the next thing Obama’s gonna be talking about, taking his cue from de Blasio.