RUSH: I think, ladies and gentlemen, I might have started something, because I’m holding here in my formerly nicotine stained figures a story from TheHill.com, and the headline: “White House: Checked-Out Obama is a Media Myth.” The White House is reacting to this now. Everybody in the Drive-Bys is worried that Obama has checked out, that he’s not interested, and I’m cautioning everybody. There were two things. There was one thing I mentioned yesterday, and that is the White House, up until today, was not trying to push back on this.

But there’s another. You know that picture of Obama 10 minutes after the attempt at the solemn reaction to the murder of James Foley? Yeah, the picture of him laughing and yukking it up on the golf course. That was not a paparazzi picture. That was taken by the Regime. It was a White House released picture. They don’t allow paparazzi on Martha’s Vineyard. Indian casinos, yeah. But not… (interruption) Oh, you haven’t heard about that? Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho. Well, sit tight. No. The Regime took that picture. That was a White House photo, and they released that photo.

Now, from TheHill.com: “The White House is bristling at suggestions President Obama is disconnected, checked out or out of touch. White House allies maintain that the storyline of a checked-out president is a myth drummed up by the news media during the summer doldrums. ‘ItÂ’s [BS]’ said one former senior administration official. ‘This is a guy who reads 10 letters a day simply to keep in touch with the American people.'” Oh, that’s a ringing endorsement. He is so busy, he reads 10 letters a day just to keep in touch with the American people.

“He spends all his time thinking about the economy and improving lives of the American people.” It’s time wasted. He’s not doing that. That’s a hell of an admission, for this former staffer to say he spends all his time thinking about the economy and improving lives of the American people. It ain’t working.

“HeÂ’s constantly in touch.” You know, it’s pretty darn scary to learn that a senior White House official thinks that reading 10 letters a day and thinking about the economy constitutes hard work and being in touch. That is quite eye opening, is it not? Here you have a former White House official attempting to disprove the notion the president is checked out. And I think, folks, this is pretty scary, the evidence that he hasn’t checked out: he reads 10 letters a day and is thinking about the economy all the time. That constitutes being in touch.

I’ll tell you what I think is going on. I think the Drive-Bys know that he hasn’t checked out, too. I think it’s a stratagem, folks. I think it’s a media stratagem designed to allow him to be disconnected from what is happening. There’s evidence of that in a story today. You may have seen it yourself, and I wonder if you noticed it on TV. Here’s an AP story: “Sources: US Surveillance Planes Fly Over Syria.”

Now, listen to this first paragraph. What stands out here? “The US has begun surveillance flights over Syria after President Barack Obama gave the OK.” On cable TV there was a story: “Obama Approves of Drone Flights Over Syria.” What is this “gave the okay and approves”? It’s his decision. Is he approving of himself? Did he write himself a memo and give the okay? I mean, what is this? This is another example of it.

So here’s this guy, he’s in North Carolina, and somebody said, “Yeah, yeah, we want to fly some drones over Syria.”

“Okay, I approve. I approve that. I okay that.” (interruption) What? (interruption) Well, yeah, that’s another thing. (laughing) You mean up ’til now we haven’t been flying drones over Syria? That’s another matter. The point here is that we’re flying drones over Syria, who knows and who cares when it started, and the story is that the White House, Obama, approved it, that Obama gave the okay.

This is what I’m talking about. The way they strategically position this guy so that he’s not initiating anything, that he’s not directly responsible. So let’s say a drone crashes and blows up Bashar Assad’s house, take some example, an accident that happens,. Obama, he didn’t initiate it. Somebody else came up with the idea. Yeah, he approved it, he okayed it, but he has some distance.

I think what’s going on here, I think the Drive-Bys know Obama hasn’t checked out, but they are tired of him looking like he has because it isn’t gonna look good and isn’t gonna help the 2014 midterms. I think the media and the Democrat Party are trying to ratchet up this criticism of Obama as a way of forcing him to get engaged and to do some more executive orders. I think that’s what this is all about.

And, in fact, how about this. Luis Gutierrez, Democrat, Illinois, proudly squawking around all over yesterday telling everybody to get ready for executive amnesty for at least five million illegals by Labor Day. Luis Gutierrez is running around squawking about everybody has to get ready, this is gonna be major, it’s gonna be huge, and we’re gonna have to get ramped up and make this a reality. Because after Obama grants amnesty via executive order, then some real-life things have to start happening.

We have to find those five million. We have to identify them because there’s supposedly 11 or 12 million of them. But Luis Gutierrez is excited. He can’t even contain himself, he’s so excited about this. And I think that the stratagem of appearing — this is the most ideological president we’ve had in the White House in I don’t know how long. The most partisan, committed president we’ve had in I don’t know how long. And the idea that he’s checked out and has lost interest is a trick. I’m telling you, it is a ruse to allow him to get away with even more.

You see evidence of it, and I think that the media and some Democrats don’t like the strategy. I don’t think they like the trick because they’re looking at low-information voters reading and seeing these news reports about how Obama’s bored and he’s checked out, and that’s not good. “I mean, if our hero doesn’t care anymore and if he doesn’t like us anymore, and he’s not gonna take care of us,” then why vote?

So I think they’re really concerned. I think they want him to issue more executive actions to overcome this sweep that’s gonna happen in November, the likely sweep. That’s another thing. Larry Sabato, political scientist at University of Virginia, the Sabato Center, is holding up his hands and saying, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, there is no evidence here of a wave. Where is this wave? There’s no evidence the Republicans are gonna take the Senate. All this talk about the Republicans taking the Senate, where’s the evidence?” meaning where’s the polling data. And that led to a very interesting investigation.

Jim Geraghty at National Review, Campaign Spot, found out there aren’t any polls. Do you understand, the media’s not taking any polls on these up-for-grabs Senate races. There aren’t any. I wonder why not? I wonder why there aren’t any polls being taken. So you have Sabato saying, “Where’s the wave? There isn’t any evidence of a wave.” Jim Geraghty says, “Wait a minute, that’s right, polling data. There isn’t any.”

So the Drive-Bys, the Democrats, do not like the Obama strategy of appearing disconnected, bored, checked out, tired, what have you. And, believe me, the White House is responsible for that. Again, the picture of Obama yukking it up 10 minutes after the James Foley speech is a White House photo, not a paparazzi picture.