RUSH: This is Leanna in Cincinnati. Great to have you. You’re up first. Welcome.
CALLER: Thank you. Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I absolutely loved last night. I loved the fact that somebody finally took it to them. It was kind of like the Wellstone memorial. It was so over the top that they were really the cartoons. And I just hope that we keep it up, because it can’t just happen and have no response.
RUSH: Well, now that’s an interesting comparison, the Wellstone memorial. If I get your analogy, the Wellstone memorial was the left-wing just over the top and just offending everybody and —
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: — driving everybody away, at what was supposed to be a funeral-like service.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: It was a memorial service for somebody that everybody supposedly loved, and they turned it into a giant partisan event. You know, one thing about this last night that is of interesting is will there be any lasting effect to it? In other words, how long will people remember it?
CALLER: Well, I don’t know. And it also, it really, for me, crystallized my want to support Ted Cruz, because he really took it to them, and it was very enjoyable to watch.
RUSH: Speaking of that, I just… Thanks very much, Leanna, for the call. I appreciate it. I just received CNBC’s website. “Are You Smarter Than a GOP Candidate? — Grade-level assessment of candidates’ spoken words in the first three Republican debates. … Donald Trump is at the youngest end of the spectrum — averaging a fifth-grade level of vocabulary. And maybe that’s why he’s done so well in the polls…” Well, what did I just tell you? These people on that stage, the CNBC moderators — it doesn’t matter, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, you name it — they all have a certain set of beliefs.
“Republicans are stupid. They are Neanderthals. You are mind-numbed robots. You like Trump because you think he hates Mexicans and you hate Mexicans, and that’s why you love Trump and that’s why Trump’s doing well.” That’s what they think. They don’t hear Trump say he’s gonna make this country great again. They don’t hear Trump say, “We’re gonna start winning. We’re gonna beat ISIS. We’re gonna beat China. We’re gonna beat Mexico in trade deals. We’re going to return to being a legitimate superpower.”
No, the media doesn’t hear that because they are so obsessed and so convinced that you’re stupid, that you’re dumb, that you’re dense, that you’re racist, that you’re sexist, that you’re bigoted, that you’re homophobic, that anybody gets your support must also be the same. And that’s the starting point. All of that, they assume. All of that, they know they’re right about. So Trump’s support is illegitimate. It’s made up of mean-spirited, stupid, Deliverance-type bigots. And that is what they really think.
This is why I don’t have any patience for any of our so-called pseudointellectuals in Washington who want to make friends with these people, who want to be in the club with them, who want to be wherever with them. We have nothing in common. They have no desire to see us as similar, equals, with respect or any of that. Their avowed purpose is to render us irrelevant as a political power. That means defeat after defeat after defeat, and they don’t care how. Their minds are never going to change about who we are and about who Trump is.
So here we have, “Are You Smarter Than a GOP Candidate?” from CNBC. “Grade-level assessment of candidates’ spoken words in the first three Republican debates. … Donald Trump is at the youngest end of the spectrum — averaging a fifth-grade level of vocabulary. And maybe that’s why he’s done so well in the polls: His simple, straightforward talk has resonated with the electorate. The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
“But the competition isn’t all that great. On the other extreme end we have Ted Cruz. … Ted Cruz sounds like the smartest guy in the Republican room,” and his vocabulary represents that of a ninth grader. (interruption) You can say whatever, I’ve got it right here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. (interruption) Of course it’s straight-up BS. And the day after the debate. You expected these people to be humble after this shaming last night? You expected them to be apologetic? You expected them to be chagrined? (interruption)
Hell, no, not sheepish! They’re doubling down. “Are You Smarter Than a GOP Candidate?” So Donald Trump speaks at a fifth grade level. But, you know, the competition isn’t all that great, because Cruz sounds like the smartest there, but he speaks at a ninth grade level. Ted Cruz has more intellect in his little finger than John Harwood will accumulate in his entire worthless life. You know, this business about qualifications? Who the hell is Becky Quick? Who is Carl Quintanilla? Who is Harwood?
Why are they vaunted authorities over these people seeking the presidency? Why are they accorded status such that they get to determine whether or not somebody’s qualified? Because they are “journalists.” Well, what’s the qualification for a journalist today? Very simple: “Democrats good; Republicans bad.” “Good, you got the job!” That’s all it takes. That’s the nub of it. “Democrats good; Republicans bad,” you get the gig. Turn it around. What have these journalists…? Here you have Ben Carson. There is no finer human being on this earth.
There’s no finer man in terms of character, morality, dignity, love of his fellow man, children. He’s a pediatric surgeon, has performed surgical miracles. And here we have three insignificant nabobs trying to destroy him last night, on the basis that he can’t do mathematics or that his tax plan doesn’t add up or some such thing. Sorry, folks. I have lost my patience for this. Becky Quick? What is Becky Quick without somebody at CNBC deciding they need somebody looks good on TV and they hire her ’cause she can talk about crony capitalism?
Which is what CNBC does. You would think a business network would be pro-business. You have a business network that’s pro-government, and pro-business that is in bed with government. But businesses that aren’t in bed with government, they’re the bad guys on CNBC. We are to sit here and receipt how our candidates have no better than ninth grade speaking ability, versus what we saw on CNBC last night and every day on their network — which, by the way, nobody’s watching anymore.
Another curious reason why Reince Priebus chose ’em to host the debate. But that’s a whole other story. I just… I’m insulted by this presumption that all of them are the brainiacs, they’re the smart ones, they’re the qualified ones. Here’s Donald Trump. I don’t care what you think of his personality. Frankly, it’s none of your damn business. You go do what he’s done and then tell him he’s worthless. Go do what Ben Carson’s done and then tell him and tell the rest of us that he doesn’t know what he’s doing, or any of the others up there.
Going after Carly Fiorina on this H&P business and giving Hillary Clinton a pass? Well, I know, it’s the name of the game, but the point is, this has so long ago been obvious. I mean, why do the War on Women even exist? Do you believe the folly, the War on Women, the whole idea that a political party seeks to win elections by conducting a War on Women. And the only reason that exists is because a Clinton hack moderated a debate on ABC, taking time off from his job as a host of an early morning show on ABC. We have a Clinton war room specialist disguised as a journalist on ABC, and he moderated a debate, and he asks Mitt Romney about contraception somewhere, and it becomes a War on Women.
The intellectual folly of the whole concept of a political party having a War on Women, and yet it’s alive and well, and it lives and breathes and it’s out there each and every day, and it exists as a legitimate arsenal in the Democrat Party weapon? It boggles the mind. And to me it would be so easy to nuke this stuff with Ted Cruz showing the way for people. This is the way to deal with these people each and every day, on Meet the Press, on Face the Nation, wherever you encounter these people. Throw it right back at them.
If you’re gonna go on their shows, you have to treat them for what they are. You are going on shows moderated by Democrat Party campaign activists. Paul Begala is over there at CNN, James Carville is where anybody will have him. Now David Axelrod, he’s making the rounds from MSNBC to CNN. David Plouffe, who ran the Obama campaign. Meanwhile, the Republican consultants that get hired are all the losers who are running around basically agreeing with all that the Democrat Party consultants say. They all have the same enemy: conservatives, you and me. It’s legit, because we are their biggest threat. We do threaten their power, because we can beat them.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, I’ve got the story on Harwood lying about Rubio’s tax plan. He corrected his own lie in his previous column and lied about that, so I’ve got that here. I don’t want to get bogged down with individual lies. The whole thing last night was a lie. Every one of those moderators is a lie. They are liars and pretending falsely who they are. The whole thing from the get-go was staged. There was nothing legitimate about that last night. Of course Harwood’s a liar. Of course he misrepresents what Republicans do. Of course he lies about their tax plan.
And we got CNBC with their big story today: “Are You Smarter Than a GOP candidate? College level speaking not required at the GOP debates,” is the subhead. Well, I just happen to have a story here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. Who runs the damn schools in this country? Is it not the Democratic freaking party and the American left who have had monopoly control over it for as long as you and I have been alive?
Detroit Public Schools, 93% are not proficient in reading. Ninety-six percent not proficient in math. Harwood probably could teach there. “The Department of Education has published fiscal information on the Detroit Public Schools for the 2011-2012 school year. That year the Detroit Public Schools had total expenditures of $18,000 per student. It included $13,000 per student for current expenditures, $3,000 per student for capital outlays, and $1,700 per student for interest on the school system’s debt.” Ninety-three percent not proficient in reading, Detroit Public Schools. Sixty-seven percent of eighth graders not proficient in reading nationwide.
Who’s running the school system? The very people moderating that debate last night with their smug arrogance telling us they’ve got all the answers, they’re the brilliant ones, they’re the smart ones, they have all the policies. They have destroyed this country. They’re in the process of governing a country in decline. They are engaged in implementing policies which will further this decline. We have people running for the presidency who are trying to save this country, and of course they’re the enemy. They would be Republicans. But every one of the cities on this list, the national is 67%. Detroit is 93%. Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore city, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, DC, Fresno, Jefferson County, Kentucky, Los Angeles, they’re all over 50% in students that cannot read at an eighth grade level.
And we get a story of how the Republican candidates are so stupid that the smartest one speaks at a ninth grade level. Well, I guess that means everybody in America can relate to ’em, thanks to the Democrat Party running the country’s education system. Look, folks, I apologize. I normally don’t get this agitated, but this is a little bit of an explosion here after 25 years of reacting to all this stuff in a muted and restrained way. But after this boondoggle last night and what it really was, you know, I’m kind of frustrated. I’m beyond that point where I’m just content to wait for people to figure it out, meaning what’s going on. I mean, our country’s hanging in the balance because of this stuff.
The idea that we somehow feel we have to kowtow or impress or whatever these people in the media if we are to win or advance our ideas, is just — I think that was illustrated last night the exact opposite. And I don’t think by any stretch, if you look at public opinion polls on various industries and businesses and the public opinion of them, journalism is below the public opinion of Congress. Now, Congress, public opinion’s always in the gutter. That’s always been the case. Journalism’s even below that, for a reason. Even low-information voters don’t think they’re getting the truth. It’s one of the reasons so many of ’em have turned to the Kardashians. At least when they lie about them, it doesn’t matter.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: On C-SPAN today a caller named Victor in Silver Spring got through to the Washington Journal.
VICTOR: Finally the candidates are realizing that the mainstream media is not their friend, that the mainstream media is part of the Democrat Party. And for years, I mean, for years Rush Limbaugh has told us over and over again that the mainstream media is a part of the Democrat Party, and it’s a good thing that the candidates pointed this out last night. So it shows me that some of the candidates are definitely listening to Rush Limbaugh.
RUSH: And they try to tell us that we’re stupid. Here’s another brilliant guy on our side getting through to C-SPAN.