RUSH: We have the State of the Union show tonight. And this is itself, ladies and gentlemen, yet another opportunity. I mean, look at what Obama’s gonna do. His official guest is going to be a Syrian refugee. Not some hero that the seat has traditionally been occupied by since Reagan started this tradition after the airline crash, Palm 90, Air Florida, into the Potomac. One of the rescuers was highlighted by Reagan — invited to watch a State of the Union show — and he was pointed out. Ever since then, every State of the Union address has featured a hero of some kind, depending on the president and his attitude toward heroism.
I guess Syrian refugees (representing illegal immigrants) are now the heroes of the hour because they will be represented tonight. In addition to that, there’s gonna be an empty seat. Will be an empty seat in the first lady’s seating area — the first lady’s box, whatever they call it up there in the viewing gallery of the House chamber. And the empty seat is to represent the 4,000 victims of “gun violence” in this country. And the president’s gonna point all of this out. And once again we have a State of the Union address tonight where the president, his last one, is gonna give it his best shot in pointing out what all the problems are.
You know what you’re gonna see on display tonight? You’re gonna see the Limbaugh Theorem on display like you’ve never seen it. You’re gonna see the president, in his eighth year, describe problems in this country that have only worsened during his tenure, the seven years that he’s been in office. You’re gonna hear those problems detailed as though they trace back to George W. Bush. Those problems are going to be things that currently exist that he will have had nothing to do with. He’s going to give a speech tonight that will be reminiscent of a campaign speech he would give before the election in 2008.
You mark my words.
The Limbaugh Theorem will be on total display tonight, where President Obama will list and detail all of these problems, all the problems we’ve got, as though he has yet to take any action on fixing them — ignoring the fact that most of them have his fingerprints on them. Legacy building within the minds and bodies of the low-information voters. The Politico is all over the place today. I can’t wait to get the two stories they have on Trump. You talk about contradictory? But before we get to those, The Politico has an article today with the headline: “Obama Struggling to Get Attention for the State of the Union.”
Struggling to get attention? I don’t know. When I turn on cable news — I’ve got it on on two monitors here — I see one network practically wall-to-wall on it and doing a countdown for the last two days on how many hours remain before the thing starts. I have read a bunch in the Drive-By Media that practically have their tongues on the floor in eager anticipation (panting) waiting for the State of the Union address, the big and final one. What do you mean, Politico, “Obama Struggling to Get Attention”? In the real world, Obama would not want much attention to an honest State of the Union speech tonight.
Does Obama really want Americans to think about the state of the union? If they did, they might ride him out of town on a rail. But instead, he’s going to do a State of the Union speech. I mean, it’ll feature all of his great achievements, and he will have details on how the country’s never been better and never better positioned. But, he can’t help himself. He will also start ripping and criticizing and pointing fingers. That’s where the Limbaugh Theorem will be on display, where Obama will start talking about things that he’s had seven years to deal with. He has tried to fix certain things; they’ve only gotten worse.
The presidency is an abject failure, in one sense. It’s an abject failure in the sense that liberalism has failed. There is no utopia. There is no growing economy. There is no expanding private sector job base. There is no expanding pool of wealth. People are not doing better economically. There are not great careers and jobs to be found out there. Obamacare is an absolute mess and disaster. American foreign policy is an embarrassment. He’s a total failure in representing the United States and growing it and securing it. But that’s not his perspective.
His perspective is that he’s a total success in his ongoing efforts to transform America, and in the process of transforming it, i.e., changing it, it has to get worse, by definition. What Obama wants to do is turn this country more leftward. By definition, that’s gonna make it worse. There’s nothing good in liberalism. You can go around the world and look at it. You can look at every derivative of liberalism you want. You can look at socialism, look at communism. You can look at totalitarianism. Whatever derivative. There isn’t one successful example anywhere, aside from the leaders of these various countries, and they’re all dictators or tyrants.
But it doesn’t work for the people. Liberalism does not improve the lives of the majority. It improves the lives of the elites. It improves the lives of the chosen, the selected few who are acknowledged to be at the upper strata of society. It is they who are taken care of; everybody else experiences worsened and declining existences.
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RUSH: I just want to remind you, ladies and gentlemen, of a couple of things from Obama’s State of the Union last year. Among other things, Obama bragged, quote, “In Iraq and Syria, American leadership, including our military power, is stopping ISIL’s advance.” One year ago the president said that in the State of the Union show. Now, in the State of the Union show tonight, he’s going to promise the moon. He’s going to promise all kinds of things he knows are never gonna happen. But he’s gonna promise. This is legacy building.
It’s establishing his intentions — which, of course, Democrats score big on intentions. This will end up in the history books as what Obama wanted to do but was thwarted at every turn by mean-spirited, uncooperative Republicans. It’s how Obama’s banking on it being. He’s gonna close Gitmo. He’s finally gonna do it! In his last year, he’s going to close Gitmo. Which means he’s going to free more of the terrorists from Gitmo. He is also gonna release more prisoners from our jails. He’s going to try to succeed in additional gun control laws, either actually taking some guns away or making it even harder to get them.
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RUSH: Okay. Here is what I’m talking about. This is Obama on the Today show today with Matt Lauer, who interviewed Obama in the White House. They’re walking along a dingy hall. It looks like a dungeon there in the White House. I’ve been there. It’s right off the diplomatic entrance. I’ll tell what… If you watch this, it’s obviously a lower level of the White House. It’s right off the diplomatic reception room, and it’s where the doctor’s office, the official White House physician. There’s a lot there, but the elevator that runs you up to the residence quarters on the upper floors of the White House. That’s there, too, low ceiling, archways.
Anyway, this is where Matt Lauer is walking along — which is, of course, a TV requirement. If you interview somebody, you’ve gotta get B-roll of live walking, strolling along, deep in conversation. This is done to raise the stature of the TV journalist that the president (or any other guest) would willingly take a stroll with a journalist. I know this stuff. It was one of my first interviews was with Barbara Walters for something. I forget why she did it. It was at the Pierre Hotel, across the street from The Plaza, essentially.
And when the interview was over she said, “Okay, okay! We’ve gotta go outside Central Park and walk to get a little B-roll. I said, “What?” “Yeah, we gotta go over there and just walk. We’re not talking. We’ll talk, but there’s no microphone, just B-roll. We’re walking to the park.” “So why do we have to do that?” “Well, that’s just the way it’s done.” “Well, what’s the point? Why do you want to spend time showing that with no audio? What’s the point?” “Well, that’s just… It’s the formula,” and it is. So that’s the mental picture I want you to see: Obama strolling along with Matt Lauer in lower levels of the White House, and Matt Lauer says, “You were gonna change the tone in Washington. You wanted to unite people. But they aren’t united. Has it been a failure?”
OBAMA: Sometimes we look at the past through rose-colored glasses. It’s been pretty divided in the past. There have been times where people beat each other with canes (snickers), and we have things like the Civil War. So there have been times where it’s been pretty rough. But there’s no doubt that politics in Washington with so much more divided than the American people are. Part of what I want to do in this last address is to remind people, “You know what? We got a lot of good things goin’ for us, and if we can get our politics right, it turns out that we’re not as divided on the ideological spectrum as people make us out to be.”
RUSH: Well, that’s a gold mine. I mean, it depends on who you’re talking about here. In my lifetime, I’ve never seen the country as divided as it is. I may… Now, let me think about that. The media hated Reagan. The media hated Nixon, Watergate. But the country wasn’t so much divided. Once they figured out that they’d agreed or discovered that they thought Nixon was guilty. The country was not divided during Reagan. The media was, the establishments were, but the country was all-in, totally united behind Reagan.
The other interesting aspect is “Washington.” He says, “There’s no doubt politics in Washington is so much more divided than the American people are.” Well, I’m not so sure about that. You know, the day-to-day image is of a Washington divided. But if you ask me, the Republican and Democrat establishments are on a lot of the same pages, which I think is what is leading to all the divisiveness among the American people. Half the American people feel like they’ve got no representation in Washington whatsoever. But the divisions are real, and they are marked.
And the big reason is Barack Hussein Obama and his undisguised, now, efforts at transforming and changing this country into something it was not founded to be. And all of this disunity, this division? It’s justified, it’s warranted, just like the anger associated with it is totally justified and warranted, and understandable. And it is unique to Obama. He has brought it about. And he’s gonna sit there and try to tell the American people tonight, “If we get our politics right, it turns out we’re not as divided on the spectrum as people make us out to be here in Washington, and that there’s a lot of good things happening out there you just don’t know about.
“You just gotta hang in there, be tough, and let me finish my work.” Like Loretta Lynch. Did you see what she said? She’s attorney general. Loretta Lynch actually said that she is in the process of putting things in place that will make it impossible to dismantle the Obama influence in the Department of Justice for years. “No matter who the next president is and no matter who the next attorney general is,” she says, “we are putting in place various things to make it veritably impossible…” These are my words, not hers, but her intent is clear: “veritably impossible to unravel what we’re done here.”
Well, now, one of the things she’s talking about is putting career people into positions of great authority — not appointed people, but career people — who are leftist and liberals, who will not be leaving the DOJ with the outgoing administration. They’re there for life or as long as they want to stay or until somebody fires them. And I guarantee you what they’re counting on being the case is let’s say new president (pick your name, whoever it is) the Republican president comes in and starts firing people. You know left and right, the media and Obama — in this case Loretta Lynch — are gonna start squealing like stuck pigs and throwing allegations and accusations around.
This is gonna happen no matter what the Republicans do. Whoever becomes the next president, if it’s a Republican, had better get used to what’s gonna happen, because it’s also gonna be unprecedented, the involvement of not just Obama, by the way. But a lot of people in his administration are gonna do everything they can to continue to be involved in the governing of the country, compared to say someone like George W. Bush who vanished, who disappeared, who didn’t have a single comment for years about what Obama was doing, because that’s the gentleman’s agreement.
The election’s over.
The new president won.
He gets to do what he wants to do.
There’s an implied trust that every president elected is going to revere and honor the Constitution, and so you get out of the way. You had your time as president, you’re gone, and you stay gone. And most prior presidents did that. Reagan was that way. Clinton was for a while, but that was mostly ’cause of Lewinsky. But it didn’t take long for Clinton to get back in gear. He and Algore both got back into gear going overseas and making speeches against the United States and against the Bush administration, to both American allies and American enemies. So here’s the next bite from Obama, and this is the big dose of the Limbaugh Theorem I think you can expect tonight.
OBAMA: No. I think… (sigh) Y’know, we went through a lot over the last 10 years. Uhh…
RUSH: Stop that just a second. Stop that. I forgot to tell you what Matt Lauer’s question is, and it’s kind of relevant. It was not a continuation of the previous comment. Matt Lauer said, “I know in your speeches it’s traditional to say, ‘The state of the union is strong.’ When it comes to the emotional state of our union — and when I go out and talk to people — the words I hear most often in terms of how they are feeling right now, they talk about fear. They talk about frustration. They talk about fatigue. Any of those words surprise you?”
OBAMA: No. I think… (sigh) Y’know, we went through a lot over the last 10 years. Uhh, we went through Katrina.
RUSH: What?
OBAMA: We went through the Iraq War.
RUSH: What?
OBAMA: We went through, uh, the worst financial crisis in our lifetimes.
RUSH: What?
OBAMA: We are still battling terrorism. Uhhh, people are still recovering from some of the economic blows that hit. And it is sometimes important for us to step back and take measure of how far we’ve come.
RUSH: There you have it! That’s it! That’s the Limbaugh Theorem on display! Matt Lauer says, “The words I hear when I talk to people out there are fear, frustration, fatigue.” Obama answers, “Well, it’s understandable,” and he lists things that happened before he took office. Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq War. In other words, “George W. Bush! George W. Bush! “Worst financial crisis in our lifetime.” George W. Bush!” These things all happened before Obama took office. “Still battling terrorism,” as though that all predates him, too.
“Still battling terrorism” as though, “Yeah, it’s just another part of the day like so many other things going on.” None of what the president wants to acknowledge the American people are afraid of have to do with him. None of what’s happened the last seven years are a factor in people being afraid, fearful, frustrated. This is what I mean by the Limbaugh Theorem on full display. He’s going to clearly try to blame, continue to blame as much as he can on Bush and what he inherited — and then claim that if people are upset and unhappy and dissatisfied, it’s ’cause of that stuff. Not because of things he has done.
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RUSH: So in effect Matt Lauer with a softball question. (imitating Lauer) “Hey, Mr. President, when I go out there, the things I hear from people, they’re fearful, they’re afraid, they’re frustrated,” and what does Obama have in his reservoir to come back with? Bush and Bush.
(imitating Obama) “Yeah, Hurricane Katrina, people are still livid over, Matt, still very afraid. Yeah, and the Iraq war, you understand, Matt, people are so ticked off about the Iraq war. Oh, yeah, still afraid, still humiliated, still embarrassed. And then a financial meltdown, Matt. All that stuff that happened with Bush, yeah, it’s understandable people are mad.” He could not list or point to a single accomplishment.
But no, Obama has nothing positive. Obama has nothing he can point to in his own seven-year resume to dispel anything. No, what Obama wants to do is affirm it. Well, yeah, Matt, they ought to be mad. Hurricane Katrina. Yeah, Matt, they ought to be scared, financial crisis. Yeah, Matt, they ought to be ticked off, Iraq war. Yeah, Matt, they ought to be mad, George W. Bush is still alive. I find it puzzling, curious, even marginally incredible that Obama’s instincts are not even to go positive. I don’t think he knows how. You know, as a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, all you are is an apocalyptic critic. That’s how you get where you’re going. You’re an agent of crisis. You’re an agent of fear. You sponsor it. You promote it, fear and crisis. That’s how you get what you want. That’s how you get people supporting it, you scare the hell out of ’em every day.
Undeniable Truth of Life. There isn’t any positive in liberalism. There isn’t any optimism. Optimism is the enemy of liberalism, by definition. If there’s optimism there can’t be any liberalism going on. I think Obama demos that, proves that.
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RUSH: So Obama’s out there, he’s being interviewed by Matt Lauer, and Matt Lauer is talking about the country being divided, and Obama doesn’t understand this, got things to work on. I’m gonna give you an example that he knows exactly why this country’s divided and how he promotes it, sponsors if, agrees with it, and is behind it all. I think if you have an honest perception and understanding of liberalism, you understand that all of this rot that’s happening to the country, the cultural rot, the political rot, wherever you look, it is part and parcel of liberalism.
Liberalism is not in any way, shape, manner, or form associated with positive. Have you ever seen a liberal optimist? Do you ever see liberals writing books on happiness and feeling good, being better than you can be and generally that theme? You don’t. Liberalism write books about how things are rotten and should be worse, they’re gonna get worse and this is what you need to do to prepare for it. Liberals write books and do television shows on the misery and suffering in life and how to cope with it.
Liberalism is not teaching people to rise above anything. Liberalism is not teaching people that they may be better than they even realize. Liberalism is not about positive thinking or anything of the sort. Liberalism can’t survive in that place, in that arena. Liberalism cannot in an argument in the arena of ideas in this country or anywhere else. It’s why liberalism has tyrants as leaders. It’s why liberalism does not like Constitutions. Liberalism does not like freedom of this or freedom of that. Liberalism believes that people must be controlled because basically people are incompetent and incapable of doing what liberals want them to do. And so they must be controlled and ordered to do things and punished if they don’t.
Look at Obamacare, for crying out loud. You will have health care. You will love the fact that you have health care, and if you don’t, we’re gonna fine you, and we might even throw you in jail, depending how bad you behave. They use fear and crisis and panic in order to keep people in line. They do not trust individuals. They hold people in contempt.
So when Obama is asked a question about claiming that he wanted to unite the country and unite the world, but now it’s really divided. And everybody knows that, by the way. Even these Drive-By acolytes of Obama can’t help but notice the division. It’s another reason why liberals are constantly unhappy, ’cause they’re reminded every moment how what they believe in doesn’t work.
Now, here’s the State of the Union tonight. From TheHill.com, “Muslim Group’s Officials Invited to State of the Union.” We got the San Bernardino massacre. We have 9/11. We have repeated attempts at terrorism in this country that are — how should I say — committed by largely militant Islamists. I’m talking about acts of terror; not your average, run-of-the-mill street crime like in a Steelers-Bengals game. I’m talking about — yeah, I just had to throw that in there. So, of all people to invite and to herald and single out at the State of the Union of the United States, we’re gonna bring in CAIR, the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations.
“Two officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations will be attending the State of the Union address Tuesday as guests of Democratic lawmakers. Reps. Zoe Lofgren (Calif.) and Alcee Hastings (Fla.) will both be hosting representatives from CAIR chapters in their respective states, the group announced Monday. Lofgren will be bringing Sameena Usman, a government relations coordinator in the San Francisco office, while Hastings will host Nezar Hamze, the chief operating officer of the nonprofit’s Florida branch.”
Will security pat them down? Will they have to go through metal detectors, or will that be considered too offensive? I just wonder. “Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, challenged Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to bring a Muslim American as one of his guests to the speech. ‘This is an opportunity to really drive the point home that there are no Americans who are suspect just based on their religious identity, that all Americans are welcome in the peopleÂ’s house,’ Ellison said.”
So it’s not enough that Zoe Lofgren and Alcee Hastings are bringing in some CAIR people. No, now the demand went out to Paul Ryan that he bring in some, too. Actually Mr. Ryan’s proving the point that Keith Ellison wants proven. Paul Ryan has invited a group of nuns from the Little Sisters of the Poor who have been targeted by Obama and the Obamacare contraception mandate. He’s bringing in actual targeted Americans, Paul Ryan is. But Zoe Lofgren and Alcee Hastings think they’re bringing in people been targeted unfairly, biased against, prejudicial against, and so forth. But these are all provocative things, and everybody involved knows it. That’s why they’re doing it. There’s not a pretense at unity here.
Folks, look, the left does not want to unify, just like the Democrats in Congress do not want to work with the Republicans. They want to cream them. They want to eliminate them. They want to wipe ’em out. They don’t want to cooperate and work with ’em. Ditto liberalism in general. These guys don’t want to work with anybody.
This is in-your-face. This is screw you. This is too bad if you don’t like it. There’s no question it’s provocative. It’s certainly not aimed at unity. There are ways to do this if unity is really your objective. But these people are constantly at war with us, they’re constantly in battle. That’s the definition of their lives. Every day is a battle for dominance, supremacy, and power with the objective being the elimination of any opposition, pure and simple.
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RUSH: The Official Program Observer just asked me a question. Mr. Bo Snerdley was unable to hear portions of the program ’cause he’s screening calls. He asked me, “Who is the empty seat? What’s it supposed to represent?” The empty seat up there next to Michelle Obama tonight is supposed to symbolize all the people killed by guns in America, in some recent time frame. The number being bandied about is 4,000 plus. So look at the people being honored. People being killed by guns, an empty seat, and there will be a Syrian refugee in honor of illegal immigrants and refugees.
As I said earlier, I mean, these are in-your-face. These are not unifying moves, folks. The people doing this know full well this is not about unification. This is in-your-face. This is, “Take this!” That’s exactly what it is. It’s provocative. They’re purposefully provoking people with this. I mean, if all of us were a bunch of Vontaze Burficts, nobody would be safe in that place tonight. That’s my point. But we’re not all Vontaze Burficts, and we’re not all Pacman Joneses.
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