RUSH: The president and the concussion summit today at the White House. Is anything more worthless than a concussion summit at the White House, convened by the president? In the big scheme of things, is this the kind of thing that actually ought to be going on at the White House? (interruption) Well, it is on the same level of a hashtag, when you get right down to it.
“Mr. Limbaugh, are you saying that you don’t care about the safety of our children or our citizens hitting their heads when they play violent sports?” No, I’m not going to that at all, Mr. Castrati. I’m saying that this is worthless. This is not how anything’s gonna happen. A concussion summit? If football causes concussions, and you want to eliminate concussions, what are you gonna have to do?
You’re gonna have to eliminate the way football is played, pure and simple. If there were a helmet that prevent concussions, it would be on the market, and whoever made it would be extremely wealthy and popular. But there isn’t. If there was a way of playing the game as it’s played today that would eliminate concussions, somebody would have implemented it.
So this is a feel-good exercise and it’s really targeted at the low-information voters. It is a counter to all of the other negative Obama news out there, and it’s supposed to show, “He really cares. See, he really cares! He’s focused on us. He really cares about people.” It shores up the good intersections and the desire to protect people and all this. But outside of that, in terms of the genuine stated objective…
In fact, I don’t even know what the stated objective is. How many jobs summits has Obama had, and where’s the evidence they matter? How many other summits on various aspects of the economy has Obama convened and where’s the evidence that they matter? You know, I’m the mayor of Realville. To me, it’s a frustrating thing that so much symbolism counts for substance today.
And symbolism is just that. It isn’t anything substantive. Symbolism over substantive. Image, buzz, and PR over reality. But that’s where we are. People that are able to pull that off get lots of applause and love and respect, and they’re thought to be really cool and really helping and, “Wow!” So let’s listen. Here’s the first of three bites.
OBAMA: Before the awareness was out there, when I was young and played football briefly, eh, there were a couple times where I’m sure that that ringing sensation in my head, uhh, and the need to sit down for a while might have been a mild concussion — and at the time, you didn’t think anything of it.
RUSH: Awwwww. He won’t get any argument here that he’s had some brain injury. (chuckles) But isn’t this classic? So you convene a concussion seminar/summit, and you start off by saying, “Hey, I’ve had ’em! I’m sure, man! I had my bell rung back when I was out there playing the rough, tough, really masculine game of football.” This from a guy who throws baseballs in mom jeans and can’t even cover 60 feet.
So here is Obama describing the power that he has to even make this summit happen…
OBAMA: Some people’s, uh, brains may be more vulnerable to — to trauma than others are. Uh, we don’t know that yet, but there may be some evidence, uh, that, uh, is worth exploring. So, with all these questions swirling around, as a parent and as a fan — uh, and in discussions with a lot of other parents and fans, uh, who happen to be in this White House — uh, we decided, why not use, uh, our convening power, uh, to help find some more answers?
RUSH: Man, is this really great? Folks, the future is so wonderful. Look at this: “Some people’s brains may be more vulnerable to trauma than others. We don’t know that yet, but we’re still gonna convene a summit to find out.” Is this not great? I mean, all these people that play organized sports can rest easy now.
They can have full confidence to keep going ’cause in Washington they’re gonna fix the concussion problem. I just think it’s wonderful. I think it’s great. Why don’t they tackle every problem this way? This is so cool. You know what? By the end of the day, the concussion problem is gonna be solved. Here, one more bite.
OBAMA: That’s what today’s about. It’s to give parents the information they need to help their kids compete safely. Let’s keep encouraging our kids to get out there and play sports that they love and doing it the right way.
RUSH: The right way, yeah.
OBAMA: That’s not a job just for parents —
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: — but it’s a job for all of us —
RUSH: Of course.
OBAMA: — and that’s why the public-private partnerships like these are important.
RUSH: Exactly right.
OBAMA: In a few minutes, I know that many of you, uh, are gonna take this discussion a step further, uh, with this panel of experts moderated by Pam Oliver.
RUSH: Sure, we’ll have the panel of experts. We’ll have people break into groups, go to various corners of the room, having their summit meetings, reporting back to the president five o’clock — and no more concussions. We’re gonna tell parents how to do it the right way. We’re gonna have a government-parent partnership to wipe out concussions.
This is so cool. This is just so, so great!
Man, I just think it’s so great!
I love this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Will Mrs. Clinton be appearing at the concussion summit? She had one, you know. It was very bad. I wonder, folks, what Vladimir Putin reaction will be when he sees videotape of the president convening the concussion summit. Will he be scared?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Anybody out there know whether…? No, that’s not the right. Do you ever remember hearing that Obama played tackle football or organized football? That was news to me. He’s never written about it. Maybe he got a concussion somewhere and it’s made him think he played football. I read the two auto-autobiographies. I didn’t know that he played football. Maybe he didn’t. I don’t know. …
So there’s this summit on concussions at the White House today. At the end of the day, problem solved. There won’t be any more. At the end of the day parents will have all the information they need about concussions — and so, problem solved. Now, since this is the way we solve problems, where is the seminar/summit on the VA?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ray, Livermore, California, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Concussion Summit dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you very much. Great to have you on the program, are you okay?
CALLER: Yes. Yes.
RUSH: Oh, good.
CALLER: Only a slight ringing from a possible football injury, but you had mentioned that the president hadn’t cataloged his fall experience in his books, and so the ringing in the ears could be caused by football, but it’s more likely on something that’s cataloged in his books, which was the smoking of a lot of dope in a car with the windows rolled up with the choom gang.
RUSH: Can that cause ringing in the ears? I guess it’s possible, ’cause I’m not aware he played football until today. I never heard a word about him playing football. Nor did I know he had concussions. It makes a lot of things clear now, but I didn’t know it.
CALLER: He may have read about it in the paper that he had a brief history with football.
RUSH: Anything’s possible because the media takes a lot of liberties reporting on the guy. He could have read the media reported he did play football in Hawaii. “Oh, yeah, that’s right.” Anything’s possible here.
CALLER: Fantastic work, Rush. Wonderful show.
RUSH: I appreciate it. Thanks, I appreciate it very much.