RUSH: You want to know the Romney story? You want to know what I think about the Romney story? You know what the Romney story is? He’s back. He may run again. Oh, yeah, he’s on the campaign trail and the subtext of the Romney story is he can win this time if there isn’t a black guy on the ballot. That’s what nobody’s saying, but that’s the subtext. That the only reason Romney lost is ’cause he couldn’t win. There was a black guy running for reelection. There was no way the country was gonna send the first black president packing.

That’s not why. People are looking at this the wrong way. Mitt Romney is a fine man. Mitt Romney may be one of the most decent people you’ll ever run into. But folks, with the economy as bad as it was, with Obamacare ticking time bomb that it was, if the Republicans nominate somebody that forced four million Republicans to sit home and not vote in this climate, why in the world are they thinking of doing it again?

Now, I think I know the answer. I think I know why Romney is attractive. There’s some people that want to head Jeb Bush off at the pass. There are others that want to head off any conservative nominee at the pass. It’s really, when you come to the Republican Party, first and foremost is all about making sure that somebody like Cruz or anybody with ties to the Tea Party doesn’t get the nomination. And I’m telling you the subtext, “Hey, you know, Romney had a great message, great guy. If he’s running against somebody, there’s no black person on the ballot, then he may have a chance.”

I’m telling you, that’s a totally wrong way to look at it. A, Romneycare, Obamacare, they cancel each other out. But with the economy as bad as it was, with Obamacare lingering, with everything that was known — Benghazi and everything that was known — if poor Mitt was not able to capitalize on the absolute worst four years of a presidency we’ve had in my lifetime, what in the world makes people think he’s gonna be able to do it again? I mean, history is history.

There are real-world events to judge from and making up reasons why he lost and making up reasons why he might win again — (interruption) well, of course he might be running against the first woman candidate, which would be the same thing all over again, just trade race for gender. And the Democrats get the same campaign, but before you even get there, as I say: You won’t find, in terms of just a nice man, you won’t find anybody greater. Morality and family, you won’t find anybody better. But it takes more than that. And there was a lot. Obama was screwing up left and right big time. There are some who think that 2012 should have been a slam dunk Republican landslide. And I’m close to being one of them.

Now, I know the exit polling data. I know that Obama still succeeded in having Bush blamed for the economy, and I know that Obama had finished really high in this question, “Cares about people like me.” But that’s my point. There was plenty of time to make the case in the campaign for who Obama was. “Rush, nobody was gonna do that because nobody was gonna attack the first black president.” That’s the problem. He was no longer the first black president by then. He was simply the president with a record, with a set of policies that were leading to disaster. The sad thing is that there are a lot of us not surprised with where we are. None of this was a mystery to me. And I’m sure not to a lot of you. Okay, so that’s that.