RUSH: Now, one thing I just want to remind you, the Celinda Lake thing, she’s a Democrat pollster, the Democrat half of the Battleground poll. It was she who came out yesterday after extensive reporting of her polls to the Democrats: Look, do not defend this. It isn’t defensible. Nobody likes it. You cannot run for reelection defending Obamacare. What you have to do is say we’re gonna fix it. What you have to say is, you didn’t vote for this.

Now, if you remember, it was in our discussion of the special election in Florida, the David Jolly victory. Remember, that election was a lot about Obamacare. The Republican establishment was all over Fox trying to tell us it wasn’t about Obamacare, but it was. It was about Obamacare. It was about climate change. It was about immigration. It had every issue in it and every position that the Republican took was a winner. And after that election there were a number of people pointing out that this was gonna further isolate Democrats in the Senate running for reelection.

I pointed out, “Wait just a second, now. If the Republicans can run against this, the Democrats have a way to do it, too, and that is to say, this isn’t what they voted for. And it’s not. It’s been changed so many times, it’s been delayed so many times that they can say with a pretty good level of credibility, that they didn’t vote for what Obamacare’s become, and that they oppose what it is. They can do that, and they can follow Celinda Lake’s advice, which is, again, do not defend it.

Any Democrat that runs for reelection defending this is in big, big trouble. So this is how the Democrats hope to get around the albatross that Obamacare is. And folks, in a political sense, trying to forecast election outcomes, it does go back to a question. It is obvious that Obama and the Regime are announcing all of these delays and these extensions so that their implementation happens after an election. And it’s clear that the Regime thinks the vast majority of this country is a bunch of blooming idiots and will not realize what they’re doing and therefore will not react cynically to the Regime.

The Regime is rolling the dice that most people will give thanks to Obama for understanding their plight and delaying the pain, while they try to fix it. When in fact what Obama’s doing is delaying the full implementation, and he has no intention of not implementing this. He’s just delaying it so that these people don’t feel it before an election.

We got polling data that shows a vast majority of Americans oppose Obamacare. But if Obama fixes it so there’s less and less pain associated with it, are people gonna be wise enough to realize that he’s being very cynical about this and not let him get away with it in and this we don’t know. Put this into the same hopper with Celinda Lake and what she is advising Democrat candidates to do. She’s telling ’em, again, don’t defend it. You didn’t vote for this. You don’t have to run away from this ’cause it’s not something you voted for. Just talk about fixing it and so forth, ’cause that’s what people want. And they think they’ve got a winner there, folks. I’m just warning you.

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RUSH: Tim in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Glad you called, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Good afternoon. Twenty-eight-year Army veteran dittos to you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Hey, I just want to make a quick comment on the Democratic pollster and the recommendations for Democrats that they talk about, you know, this isn’t what they voted for. If I’m a Republican candidate against them, I’m ready for this. I’m loving it because, first of all, I’m pointing out the incompetence of my opponents. Really what’s happened here is the meat of the bill hasn’t changed. It’s just the implementation of it. Everything that was in the bill that they voted on is still there. And then I’m turning around and whiff at ’em, pointing out that this is a significant vote, too. This is one-sixth of the economy and if what they’re saying is this isn’t what they voted on or they didn’t understand it, well, you know, that’s pretty important to us as well.

RUSH: Well, you’ve got good thoughts there. Folks, just to catch you up here. Tim’s replying and responding to a comment we had almost an hour ago. Very quickly, Celinda Lake, Battleground poll, the Democrat half of that poll has told Democrat candidates: do not defend Obamacare. Do not defend it. Just run and say you want to fix it, and if you want to, you can say that you didn’t vote for it because it’s changed so much. It’s not what you voted for and you can’t be tied to it. It’s not what you voted for.

And what Tim is saying that the Republican response should be: “I don’t care. You people are still incompetent. The guts of the bill are still the guts of the bill, and we wouldn’t be dealing with this if you hadn’t voted for it.” Look, you’re right, there’s all kinds of ways for the Republicans to knock that advice out of the park. I’ll tell you what it’s gonna come down to, Tim, and I don’t mean to be negative about it, but there is a school of thought that the Republican establishment really doesn’t want to get rid of Obamacare. That would be too much work. It’s been signed into law. It’s being implemented however poorly, and it would be better just to change it, but they don’t want to repeal it. If that’s true, it’s going to matter in terms of how they campaign against it.

So if a Democrat candidate for Senate, an incumbent, running for reelection, uses this advice and says, “Hey, I’m not defending that bill. It is horrible. This is not what I voted for. This is not the health care that I voted for. I don’t support it. I want to fix it.” The easy reply is, “We wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t voted for it. Don’t try to tell us you didn’t vote for it. You did vote for it, and that’s why we’re here, and that’s why the health care system’s screwed up, and that’s why you need to be replaced.” Will the Republicans say that? Because if they don’t, if their heart’s not in repealing it, it’s gonna be interesting to see.

Because, you’re right, Tim, there’s a ready made — I mean, it’s a hanging curveball, that strategy that she’s giving the Democrats. I don’t mean to say it’s a winner, but it is something they can say, “Hey, I didn’t vote for this.” But the retort to that is, “We wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t voted for it, so don’t try to tell us you didn’t vote for it. We are in this mess because of people like you, and you need to be replaced.” Whether the Republicans will go that hard on it, we’ll just have to wait and see, folks. I can’t predict that.

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RUSH: You know what the real answer is? If you are a Republican running in a race for the Senate against on an incumbent Democrat, and if that Democrat thinks the advice I’ve been giving or Celinda Lake has been giving is good and says, “Hey, hey! I didn’t vote for that,” the real retort is, “How do you know what you voted for? You didn’t read it.” Remember, it was Pelosi who said, “We’ve gotta pass it to find out what’s in it.”

They didn’t read the bill!

I wouldn’t even let ’em off the hook with, “That’s not what I voted for. There have been so many changes in this law, I didn’t vote for this version.” No, you don’t know what you voted for. You didn’t read the bill. Your staff didn’t read the bill. They’ll then probably deny it. “I certainly have read that bill and my staff’s read the bill.” Oh, so you did know what you were voting for? “Yes, and I did not vote for this.”

You voted for something, and it’s given us this mess.

It’s easy. It’d just be easy to swat that down.