RUSH: The Indiana primary is coming up next week. Interesting, too, the way this is shaping up because what does Trump do? Trump goes out and gets Bobby Knight. Bobby Knight, one of the biggest people in Indiana. One of the most beloved, respected, and, by the way, a fighter. If Bobby Knight didn’t agree with the refs, he’d throw a chair at ’em all across the court if he had to.
So here’s Bobby Knight talking about the guy that can get it done, and that’s Donald Trump. Same day that Ted Cruz announced Carly Fiorina as his vice presidential pick. So you have two strategies here, and they’re on display side by side. Cruz announces a VP pick, Carly Fiorina, strategic for California there, I think. And also an attempt to change the narrative. And Trump appears on stage in Indiana with Bobby Knight, which is to keep up the momentum from the massive sweep of the Tuesday Northeastern primaries and then win Indiana and pretty much close it out, set up California.
So Cruz, his strategy is delegate strategic, Carly Fiorina in California trying to hold off Trump in Indiana. And Trump is going for voter intensity with Bobby Knight in Indiana and using celebrity and the power of celebrity to change the narrative and get people all hyped up for his side of things. Cruz is obviously the master of the inside game, Trump playing the people’s choice card here.
And of course the media, this is the thing, folks, sad to say, the media’s always gonna gravitate to the guy on stage with the celebrity. It’s the way it is in America today. So Bobby Knight, big celebrity — by the way, the media hates Bobby Knight. You should know this. The sports Drive-Bys hate Bobby Knight. They hate him ’cause he won and he did kowtow to them, and I don’t think Bobby Knight broadcasts whatever his political affiliations are.
He’s known as choosing what he thinks is the best guy for the job, whether he’s Republican-Democrat, liberal-conservative, I don’t know that it’s widely known, and if it is, it’s just because he’s been in Indiana for so long and so many people know him, but he doesn’t really broadcast it one way or the other. But the media will gravitate to the man of the people, the celebrity in his own right.
The insider game is not sexy, ’cause you don’t see it. I mean, the insider game is Cruz working these state conventions for delegates, and nobody sees that, and even if anybody did, it wouldn’t be exciting to cover. “Our cameras are live now at it San Cordoba state party convention where Ted Cruz is wooing local carpenters who might end up as delegates.” Nobody’s gonna watch that. It’s not exciting. So you got Bobby Knight out there. But it’s countered a little bit with Carly Fiorina.
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RUSH: John in San Diego, I appreciate your patience. You are next, sir. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Thanks for taking my call. I have a question on the vice president pick. I think it’s a brilliant stroke for Ted Cruz as far as, you know, an outsider businessperson in Carly Fiorina. And, you know, how are they gonna go after her, you know? Are they gonna, like Sarah Palin, Saturday Night Live, are they gonna break out that playbook? And I had a comment on John Boehner, if I may, as far as, you know, what he said on Ted Cruz. That’s name-calling, that’s right out of second grade, you know, if you’re losing the argument, what do you do? You start name-calling, and I learned that a long time ago. If someone’s calling names, they lost the argument.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I started listening to you, you know, back in the day, I go, “Why are they calling Rush all these names?” back in the early nineties. And I started listening, and I’m like, well, wait a minute, that’s all they could do.
RUSH: You’re right on. Nobody ever takes me on on the substance. Nobody ever says I’m wrong. They just either get mad at the way I say it or who I happen to say it about. No, that’s a good point. Name-calling does tend to indicate a lack of anything else to say. The Fiorina pick, it’s gonna be categorized depending on who does the categorizing any which way you can imagine. It’s gonna be called a desperation move. It’s gonna be called a brilliant move. It’s gonna be called a great tactical, strategic move for California, delegate selection and winning outright in California. It’s necessary to get women because Trump’s negatives with women are very high.
And then you’re gonna have the Trump oppo research people going out and saying, “Hey, wait a minute, did you know that this woman, Carly Fiorina, we got videotape here where she is just loving on Hillary Clinton.” And Carly will say, “That was years ago, that was then, this is not now.” I mean, a pick like this, it’s gonna have its pros and its cons. You’ve got two different strategies, right out in play. Like Trump, Bobby Knight is capitalizing on the media, slash, celebrity, big nature of things. And Cruz is using an insider strategy of trying to actually win delegates, a procedure that nobody sees ’cause it’s not covered, ’cause it’s not sexy, it’s not exciting.
We’re gonna know here, aren’t we, after Indiana? A lot of people think they already do. A lot of people think it’s already over. But it isn’t yet. But people are acting like that to try to create that mind-set with certain people.
As far as the selection, I think she’s great. She goes out and she has the ability to hit Hillary and hit Hillary hard with credibility. And I think she’s fast on her feet. She’s a sharp and quick thinker. But it is a move that usually is not made at this time. Reagan tried it in ’76, to get the nomination, he chose Richard Schweiker, the governor of Pennsylvania. It did not work then. But it was a move that probably was the only one he had left.