RUSH: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump. I got an e-mail over the weekend. I get lots of e-mails. I read an e-mail over the weekend. “Rush, do you realize your show has become nothing but three hours of Trump and Hillary?” Well, that’s what’s in the news. Of course, that characterization is not entirely correct. This program’s discussed a lot other than that. For example, when I discussed Deflategate, I heard about that from the Stick-to-the-Issues Crowd.

But Trump and Hillary big in the news today. And in Hillary’s case, how many do-overs does the woman get? Here’s the headline at the Washington Post. “After a Wilting Summer, Clinton Hopes for a Fall Rebound.” Do you realize this is gonna be the third or fourth restart for her campaign? I think everybody’s pretty clear who she is, and everybody knows how she behaves. The real news in the Hillary campaign is the very public appearances of Plugs Biden over the weekend.

Now Plugs, in a couple of polls, has already moved past Bernie Sanders — and Rupert Murdoch apparently tweeted out, “Hey, Biden looks like he’s gonna get the nomination. Biden is gonna be tough to beat.” That’s Rupert Murdoch tweeting. So the question is: What is all of this? ‘Cause I still don’t… I mean, at this stage, I don’t see anybody but Hillary. I just don’t. I’m not sure what this Biden thing is beyond dipping toes in the water, if it’s strategic, if it’s genuine.

With the Democrat Party, you don’t really know. Then Richard Trumka is out there talking about how his organized labor guys love Trump. You know why they love Trump? ‘Cause Trump’s out there attacking trade deals. Trump’s out there attacking the ChiComs and all these other people that are exporting to us. They’re not importing anything from us. Trumka says that Trump’s buds like it.

Oh, speaking of Trump. Now, this got me to thinking over the weekend. Did you see the poll? It was SurveyUSA, I think. Trump’s got 25% of the African-American vote right now, so 25% of his support is African-American. Did you see that? Now, at this stage, a lot of people say, “Come on, Rush! It’s too soon. It doesn’t mean anything. Even you have told us all of these years that polls this far out really can’t be counted on to give long-term forecasting of what’s gonna happen.”

Maybe so. That’s probably true, and I would probably hold firm to that. But still, when’s the last time you heard of anybody other than a Democrat getting 25% of the black vote anything, an election, a poll, bake sale, whatever it is? When’s the last time you ever heard of it? So let’s pretend for a moment — just for a second — that it’s real. Let’s say the poll is accurate, they got it right, and 25% of African-Americans support Trump. Why would that be?

Everybody out trying to portray Trump as a racist ’cause of this Mexican stuff. They’re trying to portray him as bigot because of this Mexican immigration stuff. Why’s got 25% of black support? (interruption) Well, you’re missing it, Snerdley. It’s a good guess. It’s a good guess. Snerdley said, “Because he wants a strong economy, ’cause he’s right on immigration. African-Americans want the same things.” Well, there’s a difference.

The guy is a Republican. It doesn’t matter what they stand for. Just because they’re a Republican, they’re disqualified. You can’t, if you’re an African-American… (interruption) Well, why is he not perceived as a typical Republican? If he’s not perceived as a typical Republican… You don’t have to be typical, untypical, atypical, sort of typical. All you have to have is that (R) by your name and you are automatically disqualified.

In 90% of the African-American vote, all you need is that letter: (R). That’s all. That disqualifies you. You are everything evil that there is in the world. You’re a racist slave master, bigot, sexist, homophobe, all of that. No matter what kind of Republican you are. So why is Trump — and he’s not a Democrat, either. You want to say he’s not your average Republican. He’s not a Democrat.

(interruption) Well, now you’re getting a little warmer. Now you’re getting a little closer. The answer to this… When I saw that 25% of the African-Americans in this poll support Trump, I was taken back to what I had heard was the establishment Republican theory on how Trump was eventually going to fade away and die out or be beaten, and it reminded me of a couple things.

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RUSH: In other political polling data: “Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump leads Democrat Hillary Clinton head-to-head…” This is SurveyUSA. The poll came out over the weekend, and it rocked everybody. It’s the first time it’s happened: Trump beats Hillary head-to-head. Trump beats Bernie Sanders. Trump beats Joe Biden. Trump beats Algore.

“Trump’s surge past Clinton marks a dramatic turnaround in the polls. A CNN/ORC sampling of national voters in late June — just days after Trump entered the race — found that 59% supported Clinton to 34% picking Trump in a head-to-head race.” It doesn’t matter if you look at it approval-disapproval or the straight head-up polling, Trump has performed an amazing 180 in record time. We spoke last week. Back in May, Trump’s favorables were 29%, unfavorables 62%.

Today, they’re just the exact opposite.

They’re either 59% to 62% approve and in the high twenties disapprove. That is major image makeover. That is dramatic. Everybody in polling says, “You just can’t do that! You can’t change your public perception that fast. It’s not possible! It takes years, and it takes a series of glowing articles — I mean, sycophantic suck-up stories year after year — before somebody’s public image changes for the better. You can lose it overnight, but rebuilding like this? It doesn’t happen.”

So it then leads to, okay, how is it that Trump in this SurveyUSA poll (I think it’s SurveyUSA) is getting 25% of the African-American vote? Snerdley, what did you say your theory is? It was that he’s a celebrity? Is that what your explanation for why Trump’s got 25% of the African-American vote? (interruption) That’s pretty close. You know the Republican theory on Trump was that his name recognition was 100%.

He had nowhere to go except down. “People already know him, and they know what they think of him, and so the other candidates have a long way to go to get their name recognition up and their public image of Trump. All they can do is fade.” Except that’s not happening.

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RUSH: Now, back to Trump and the 25% of the black vote. The Republican theory, the establishment theory is that Trump has only one way to go when it comes to name recognition and public image, and that’s down. Since he’s got 100 percent name recognition then people have already formed their opinions of him.

So they think that he’s just going to eventually fade away as the other candidates start spending money to let people know they exist, get their names out there, that Trump will eventually fade away. This is the consultant class favored theory to explain Trump. All of it went out the window when they saw this massive reversal from unfavorable to favorable, from May to the present, Trump, then 25% of the Hispanic — by the way, 30% of the Hispanic vote on the same poll where Trump was getting 25% of the African-American vote.

Well, let’s look at Trump maybe a different way. Politics, I’ve always said, is show biz for the ugly. You know the White House Correspondents Dinner. That is the political equivalent of the Oscars. There big soiree of the year. But look at what has to happen for that party to have any glitter at all. They have to import real celebrities because political celebrities are not really celebrities. They might think they are, and there are a few who are exceptions, like Bill Clinton. But even at that, you wouldn’t put Clinton in the A-list in the same way that a movie or TV celebrity is a star.

Now, how do most people know Donald Trump? They know him through a bunch of things, but primarily through a television show. Actually two TV shows, The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice. And what happens on those shows? Have you ever watched ’em? You haven’t? Well, of course the “you’re fired” slogan is the one. But on those shows Donald Trump’s the boss. There are people of all races on those shows, contestants, people of all genders, orientations, ethnicity, nationality. They’re all treated the same.

They’re all treated with respect. They’re all treated as they are, winners or losers, and if they’re losers, Trump tells ’em they’re losers. He gives everybody a shot though. There’s no favoritism. There’s no special treatment. He is the commanding presence. He is perceived as the expert in everything and anything that comes up for discussion on either of those shows. He’s seen as likable. He’s seen as fair. There is no racism on that show. There is no bigotry. There is no homophobia or any of that. And it is also what? Reality TV. It’s not scripted. Although it is. But it’s not perceived as scripted. It’s perceived as real.

And I’m telling you that millions and millions and millions more people have seen Trump on those two shows than have ever seen The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Millions, millions more. So you have that. That’s people’s real-life experience with
Trump, watching him on TV. Which is a big deal. People think TV’s a big deal. It makes you a star being on TV. So here comes whoever it is in the media or in the party over here saying Trump’s a racist or a bigot ’cause of what he said about the Mexicans or that.

But that conflicts with what the people who’ve watched him on TV have seen. And they haven’t seen any of that. They haven’t seen any bigotry. They haven’t seen any mean-spiritedness. They haven’t seen any extremism. They’ve just seen a very successful, funny guy dead-serious about people succeeding. And if they don’t, they are gone. They are there to make him look good, and it’s his job to get the best to do what has to be done and if they don’t qualify, they’re gone.

It doesn’t matter if he knows them or not. There’s no favoritism; there’s no special treatment. Everybody’s treated the same. In fact, who was one of the biggest stars to come out of those TV shows? A black woman named Omarosa Stallworth, who is still a recognizable celebrity. I think she’s got a cameo-type appearance still on one of those shows. So the whole Republican establishment theory about what’s gonna take Trump out is maybe challenged a little bit by the reality of how it is that he’s seen.

He’s got a name recognition of 100%.

His favorabilities now have moved up to the sixties.

The people that were being polled back in May, unfavorable-favorability, may have been strictly people that make judgments based on politics and so forth. But whatever. There’s been a dramatic shift in Trump’s favorable and unfavorable numbers, and he’s doing things that candidates on the Republican side haven’t shown in polls or elections in decades. So you can either say, “Well, it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t matter. It’s so early. It’s just people having fun. Nobody’s taking Trump seriously. Like Schwarzenegger, Rush! It isn’t gonna matter. In fact, if he wins it’s gonna be disaster, blah, blah.”

Or you can say it’s real and start asking why.

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RUSH: To the phones, and we are gonna start Toledo, Ohio. This is Norm. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush.

RUSH: Hey, hey.

CALLER: How are you doing?

RUSH: I’m great, sir. Thank you for asking.

CALLER: Man, it’s just such an honor to talk to you.

RUSH: Well, thank you very much. I understand. I appreciate that very, very much.

CALLER: I didn’t even actually think I’d be this soon, to tell you the truth anyway.

RUSH: Well, it happened. You need to make it count.

CALLER: The thing I wanted to talk to you about today is Donald Trump.

RUSH: Donald Trump, yes.

CALLER: The thing that I just don’t think the people understand is that they just don’t get it. The columnists, the writers, the talking heads — all these people that think they know politics and tradition and how it’s done and all this other stuff — I just don’t think that they understand that the people that support Donald Trump, they want John Wayne in the office. An American. A man’s man.

RUSH: You know, I have a really… It’s a long piece. It’s a good piece here by a website called The Conservative Treehouse, no doubt inspired by me. Well, most of the conservatism in the media is inspired by me. I mean, there wasn’t any of it ’til I came along.

CALLER: Of course.

RUSH: I mean, it is what it is. The Conservative Treehouse: “An Open Letter To Jonah Goldberg — RE: The GOP and Donald Trump.” Jonah Goldberg at National Review wrote a piece recently saying if Trump’s conservatism, count me out. I’m not conservative. And these guys are responding to it. It’s actually quite good. I’ll share it with you got more time in the next hour. Let me ask you a question. Another guy, Ben Shapiro — who is a young conservative columnist admittedly inspired by me — says he likes Trump.

But he’s a little frightened because he sees parallels to this and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the sense that Schwarzenegger goes on TV one night, the Jay Leno Tonight Show, and all of a sudden the next thing he knows he’s the governor of California. He’s a candidate, and everybody’s going, “My God, exactly what we need!” It’s exactly what you said: John Wayne, tough guy, no nonsense. Well, what happened?

Well, Schwarzenegger ended up hurting the Republican Party and conservatism, if you like, to the point now that the left and the Democrat Party literally own the state of California. According to Ben Shapiro, Arnold Schwarzenegger was an abject, total disaster ’cause he really wasn’t a conservative, and it mattered.

He really wasn’t, and when he got into office it was too easy. Warren Buffett was able to bully him out of it and a bunch of other people were able to bully him, and it became just whatever the Republican Party of today is: “Like me! Love me!” whatever it takes. Do you have that…? Do you see any kind of similarity to that and what Trump is and could be?

CALLER: No.

RUSH: Well, that didn’t take long.

CALLER: Not today. That was then.

RUSH: That was then; this is now?

CALLER: This is now, because I want to tell you something.

RUSH: “Trump is not Schwarzenegger.” That’s what you’re going to say.

CALLER: No, and this country… You know what I love about him is that he says what he says and he means what he says, and —

RUSH: There’s no question. Look, I have to be rude and interrupt because of time. I gotta go. I really do. We’re out of time. I don’t mean to be rude. I really wasn’t being rude. I had to do it.

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RUSH: Henry in Findlay, Ohio, you’re next. It’s great to have you here on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Yes, sir. Earlier I was wondering if you could provide some analysis and comment. Earlier you were talking about the drastic turnaround in the Trump polls, on how he’s continuing to surge and all. And what did it for them was last week when Jeb Bush decided to get into it with him, and he was speaking to a group on TV in Spanish.

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: Mr. Trump came back and said, “In America, would you mind speaking English?” Something to that effect.

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: And that’s what pretty much put my feet in concrete. You’ve been right all along about this. They don’t get it; they don’t understand. We’re dumb out here, but we’re also very angry. And Mr. Trump has found a way to tap into that and put a voice to it, and I was wondering if you could provide some analysis here for ’em.

RUSH: Well, the interesting thing about the Trump image turnaround is that it’s from May to the present, and in May… These are political polls. Now, somebody help me. Had Trump announced in May? (interruption) He hadn’t announced in May, right? So he had favorable… It was in the mix. It was thought that he might. He was toying with it, but he had not come down the escalator at Trump Tower and launched his announcement speech.

So before Trump had ever made a political speech… It was June 16th. Long before Trump had made a political speech of any kind, the only news about Trump was that he’s thinking about running and people were laughing at him and joking about him and calling him a TV star and an egomaniac and so forth. So the disapprovals versus approvals were 29% approve, 60-some-odd percent disapprove. Those were numbers basically made by the media. Now, people were watching his TV shows like The Apprentice.

They didn’t attach a political element to Trump while watching the show. That connection just wasn’t made. Just watching a television show. Trump’s a figure. He’s a celebrity. He’s likable, he’s funny, and he’s perceived to be all those things. But then the media starts talking about him as a potential political candidate, starts mocking at him, laughing at him, making fun of him. And the pollsters start calling people and people think:

“Maybe the smart thing to say here is that Trump’s a jerk and I don’t like him,” but then all of that changes when Trump announces. On June 16th, it’s all over. At that point, everything changes. Now Trump is defining himself; the media isn’t. While Trump is defining himself, don’t forget, the media is saying every time he says something. “That’s it! He’s stepped in it. That’s the end. It’s over for Trump; he doesn’t know it. Nobody can survive a stupid statement like that.”

Trump expands his support every time he makes a statement the media or establishment thinks is gonna doom him. So Trump’s favorable-unfavorable turnaround is due exclusively to Trump. And being on TV a lot. But don’t forget, there’s a foundation for the positive approval numbers. It’s my contention that his TV shows, The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, mean a lot in this.

People watch television. They love reality TV. It’s not scripted, not a drama. This is real TV. This is Trump with real people, and they’re seeking jobs with him and projects to accomplish and he’s assessing them. And as they watch the show, they see a funny guy, a fair guy. They don’t see a racist. They don’t see a bigot. They don’t see a homophobe. They don’t see any of these things that people normally associate with the Republican brand.

And now you add to that Trump’s comments on immigration and who’s emigrating and why, and then his comments on McCain and his comments on the economy, and it all makes sense that his approval numbers would do a rapid turnaround, based on the media attention, the foundation he has from his TV shows, and the fact that people in this country are fed up (a lot of people are) with the establishment and everybody in it.

The establishment consists of the media. It consists of the Republican Party and the Democrat Party and the inside-the-Beltway New York power corridor. Anybody perceived to be in that people are fed up with. They don’t think they’re listened to. They don’t think they’re respected. They’re laughed at, made fun of, they’re not taken seriously. The elites, the ruling class, whatever, are perceived to be insensitive and uncaring about the plight of normal, everyday life and people in this country. Here comes Trump, it makes perfect sense.

RUSH: There’s a piece I referenced earlier. The Conservative Treehouse. They published this on September 7th, so it was yesterday. “An Open Letter To Jonah Goldberg — RE: The GOP and Donald Trump.” It prints out here on my printer to about four pages. What happened is Jonah Goldberg at National Review and a syndicated columnist who appears in, among other papers, the Los Angeles Times, wrote a piece and basically said if Trump is conservative, then I’m out. If Trump is the new conservatism, then I’m not conservative, want no part of it, Trump isn’t a conservative.

It was another one of these pieces written by conservative media people claiming that Trump is a disaster and portends disaster because he is causing people to abandon their conservative principles in order to support him. It is deathly bad for conservatism and please don’t do it, Trump’s a fraud, don’t fall for it.

Now, I have explained my own analysis of this, and I spent a lot of time on it a couple of days last week, and I don’t want to recap it here. Well, I don’t want to go through it in great detail here again, but it can basically be summed up this way. Okay, you guys — this is what Trump supporters are saying — you guys that claim to be the conservative leaders in the media and Republican leaders in Washington, what have you done for us? You’ve got all your conservative theory and you have your conservative principles, but where are they? What are you doing besides writing them? What are you doing besides espousing them on TV? We don’t see ’em being implemented. We see a lot of candidates promising they are going to, but then they get elected based on a promise and they get to Washington and we don’t see it.

Your average Trump supporter is saying conservative conshmervative. You guys may be brilliant writing about it, and you might be the smartest guy in the room on conservative theory, but we don’t see any of it being implemented. Where is it? Along comes Trump. And Trump represents what all of his supporters think conservatism has been about. All of Trump’s supporters believe that Republicans and conservatives understand that they are supposed to stop Obama and stop the Democrats and beat them. And they’re not seeing that. They’re not seeing anybody stopping Obama. They’re not seeing anybody defeat Obama. They’re not even seeing anybody try.

So they’re saying, “What good is all this conservatism if it just is words? If all anybody’s gonna do is think about it and talk about it and argue about this principle or that principle, what the hell good is it? There’s a real world out here, and we’re being overrun by Obama and the Democrats.” Up comes Trump saying he’ll stop it. It’s not hard to understand this, folks. But I will share with you some pull quotes from the Conservative Treehouse piece, ’cause it’s really good.

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RUSH: Conservative Treehouse. The Jonah Goldberg piece, if I’m remembering the right one, essentially is that all of you Trumpsters are having a temporary little temper tantrum, and you’re gonna come to your senses at some point. This is just your summer of discontent, and you’re all gonna get behind Jeb at some point. But this discontent has Jonah and a lot of people bothered because it has great potential to destroy conservatism. And then these guys like Jonah and others have written pieces on what they’re worried that Trump might do, how they can destroy this or harm that.

Well, from the Conservative Treehouse guys, a list of things here, questions, actually.

“Did the GOP secure the border with control of the White House and Congress? NO.

Did the GOP balance the budget with control of the White House and Congress? NO.

Who gave us the TSA? The GOP

Who gave us the Patriot Act? The GOP

Who expanded Medicare to include prescription drug coverage? The GOP

Who created the precursor of ‘Common Core’ in ‘Race To the Top’? The GOP

Who played the race card in Mississippi to re-elect Thad Cochran? The GOP

Who paid Democrats to vote in the Mississippi primary? The GOP

Who refused to support Ken Cuccinnelli in Virginia? The GOP

Who supported Charlie Crist? The GOP

Who supported Arlen Spector? The GOP

Who supported Bob Bennett? The GOP

Who worked against Marco Rubio? The GOP

Who worked against Rand Paul? The GOP

Who worked against Ted Cruz? The GOP

Who worked against Mike Lee? The GOP

Who worked against Jim DeMint? The GOP

Who worked against Ronald Reagan? The GOP”

So they’re asking here, you want to talk about damage that Trump will do? You’re worried about the damage Trump will do? What about the damage you have done and are doing? And you wonder why people are frustrated and desperate for a person who can articulate some kind of push back, which is what Trump is doing. Conservative Treehouse, published yesterday, open letter to Jonah Goldberg.