RUSH: Rhonda from Edenton, North Carolina, been waiting a long time, and I appreciate that. Hi, Rhonda.
CALLER: Hi, Rush, what an honor to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: Mega traditional Republican dittos.
RUSH: (laughter)
CALLER: I was calling about that call yesterday about the TV conservative. I was quite upset yesterday, but I must admit that Romney’s victory toned me down quite a bit.
RUSH: The tunnel vision guy, right?
CALLER: Yes, yes, because he said he was just so mad at the woman because she said if McCain or Huckabee were the candidate, she was not going to vote, and he said, ‘Oh, and we’ll have Clinton, Edwards, or Obama elected, and they might appoint judges, and are they going to appoint,’ I think he said, ‘a Scalia or a Ginsburg or Stevens?’
RUSH: That’s right.
CALLER: And I hate to tell him that Stevens was a Republican appointee, I believe. But anyway, as far as I’m concerned, if I went out and voted for Huckabee or McCain, these compassionate conservatives, I would be voting for Democrats. And do you think McCain is going to appoint any judge that Kennedy is not going to put the seal of approval on? I mean this is crazy. And Huckabee reminds me of Clinton. I mean, he’s got the instrument, he’s on the talk shows, he’s got the Hollywood entourage and he’s constantly whining about Mitt Romney’s money.
RUSH: (laughter.)
CALLER: And he’s also from Arkansas, he’s from Hope, he’s got the accent, he’s got it all. He’s got the entire kit. Now, I would not vote for McCain or Huckabee, but I would not sit home.
RUSH: What would you do?
CALLER: I would start to energize. We’ve got the Internet, we’ve got everything now! I would try to energize a write-in campaign, if I had to. I mean, I’m not going to talk to you and apologize for being a supporter of Mitt Romney. I love Mitt Romney. You know why I love Mitt Romney?
RUSH: Because he’s good-looking?
CALLER: Well, his whole family is good-looking, but what I love was, last night he was like a little kid at Christmas. He was not condescending. He didn’t act as if he was about to be crowned. He wanted to bring everybody with him. And he’s got it all, because he’s got the business degree, and he understands the law because he has a law degree, too, but he —
RUSH: You are the second woman who has called today swooning over Mitt Romney.
CALLER: I adore that man because he is a good, decent man. Do you see the way his wife looks at him? Do you see the respect and the enjoyment that his children get being around him?
RUSH: I see all that, yeah.
CALLER: People are so jealous of this man, not to mention that they are scared to death and they have a hatred of Mormons, which they don’t even understand. If this man is evil and he’s dangerous, would you please show me the evidence?
RUSH: Right, yeah. You know, you remind me of something. Somebody sent me a list of things, one of these e-mails that’s going around, a list of things that are without question true, but that you don’t know it. Like right now, somebody you don’t even know is thinking about you, or right now somebody that you don’t know loves you, loves you to death.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: It was this kind of thing.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And one of the items on the list was — I really got to thinking about this — one of the items on the list was, somebody really hates you, what it means is, they wish they were you.
CALLER: Amen. You got it.
RUSH: You believe that?
CALLER: I believe it 100%. And, you know what? The fact that the media doesn’t want to follow Romney is the very reason why I want to follow him! Who cares if they approve?
RUSH: Well, you know, this is one thing the Drive-Bys are not going to learn, they will not learn. They’re going to do everything they can to try to shape your opinion without realizing they are driving you the opposite direction they want you to go. It’s a fascinating question, these people that say that they aren’t going to vote if Huckabee or McCain get the nomination. Now, we haven’t discussed this, because the time hasn’t really been right, but lurking out there is the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. I think I mentioned this one time. I play golf at certain places in the Northeast, or I play golf at a place down here where there are a lot of members who summer from the Northeast. And they love the guy.
These are Republicans. ‘What do you think about Bloomberg?’ They see Bloomberg — these guys are all business types — they see Bloomberg and the Bloomberg Network and his 13-billion-dollar wealth, they see somebody that’s cool. ‘The guy has that much business savvy.’ Anyway, he’s lurking out there as a potential third-party candidate. He’s out there doing polls to find out if this person is a Democrat nominee, if this person is the Republican nominee, do I get in? And I’ll guarantee you, if Huckabee is our nominee, he gets in. He’s going to realize that there are a whole lot more Republican votes he might be able to get if Huckabee is the nominee. McCain, I don’t think he’d step on. Then the question becomes, if a guy like Bloomberg gets in, does he hurt Hillary or the Republican more? There’s no consensus on that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Do you remember, we came up with a term here; we’ve had the gender gap, what other gaps have we had? We’ve had the minority gap; the gender gap. We had the NASCAR gap. But we also, we invented a term, the ‘Arousal Gap.’ And that was all these lib Democrats and the Drive-By women reporters just swooning over Bill Clinton. ‘Why not me?’ they would ask. We get these stories about the power crackling in his jeans and so forth. So we had an Arousal Gap problem. Do you realize, I don’t know, ladies and gentlemen, if I can extrapolate here from two calls.
We’ve had two women today simply going bonkers over Mitt Romney. Now, I don’t know if they are part of the Romney organization. I’m not trying to castigate them here. You just don’t know, and I didn’t ask them, but I’m just going to assume here they’re just ardent, just pumped-up Romney supporters. If Romney gets the nomination, and all of these, if there are indeed a lot of these kinds of women out there, they look at Romney, and he’s a good-looking guy, they see the family, and it’s a wholesome, really good-looking family, a lot of things to recommend it, in terms of if you look at what women look at versus men, and political candidates and so forth, can you imagine the Arousal Gap being on the Democrat side? Well, here’s the difference. There’s a big difference with the Clinton women and Romney women. The Romney women know they don’t have a chance of sleeping with him, but they don’t want to. The Clinton women all wanted to sleep with the guy. Remember Nina Burleigh, TIME Magazine reporterette, she said, ‘I would personally give Bill Clinton oral sex for saving abortion.’ Oh, they were all over. You could see them swoon in the press conferences. So if the Arousal Gap — especially if Hillary is their nominee (laughter) the Arousal Gap, can you imagine? Can you imagine the Drive-Bys and the Democrats going nuts if there is a huge amount of women in this country who are going to swoon over Romney the way these two who called here today swooned over him? Whoa, that’s going to be fun to watch, if that all transpires, the Arousal Gap Two.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Ruth in New Paltz, New York, nice to have you on the program.
CALLER: I’m honored to speak with you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I don’t know what is more exciting today, me getting through to you or you getting the third female from across this beautiful country of ours who is just applauding Romney’s win last night in Michigan.
RUSH: So you’re a big Romneyite, too?
CALLER: Well, I have to be honest with you. I did not know who Romney was quite so until the beginning of the debates, which I have been watching, and watching, and watching, and listening, which I wish everybody else would do. I have always been, since my younger years as a teenager on through adulthood, I’m a year older than you are, but that’s not too far — a true conservative Republican, and I listened to what this man was saying and the principles that he stood for, and he won me over. He won me over and I had been hoping that people would start to just pay attention, pay attention. Keep to their values, as you have been saying, and pay attention to what Romney is saying. And they did. And the only thing that made me —
RUSH: I’m wondering — it’s hard to say this with three calls in one busy broadcast — but I wonder if we’re uncovering something here that’s being missed, and that is that there’s this army of women who apparently are really drawn to Romney. In all the analysis, breakouts of exit polls, men and women, I’ve not seen it on the Republican side, they haven’t broken it down by gender that I have seen, but this is new to me. You’re right, you are the third babe today that’s just going on and on and on about Mitt Romney. It’s all based on policy, right, it’s not based on how he looks?
CALLER: It is based on policy, yes. He’s a very good-looking man —
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: — but it is based on policy, because we women who are true conservative —
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: — Republicans —
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: — and comfortable in our own skin —
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: — and would never vote for anybody based on gender or race, want to listen to what these candidates are saying.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: And we’re listening.
RUSH: What do you think of his wife and family?
CALLER: I think that he has a lovely wife and five beautiful sons and daughters-in-law and grandchildren. He comes across as a very wholesome American. More important than that, though, is for us to begin to see that he believes in Americans’ ability to use their own mind and ingenuity, to produce the best ideas and products, and hope that the government would just step aside and allow the free market system to work and let our government just continue to protect us so that we remain the strongest country in protecting freedom and homeland security and the war on terror, and I —
RUSH: Let’s get to the character side. I’m running out of time. Does Romney, to you, exude a powerful morality?
CALLER: He exudes the most powerful morality I have seen in any candidate.
RUSH: So you have no doubts he would never cheat on his wife?
CALLER: That is correct.
RUSH: This is fascinating. Ruth, I can’t thank you enough.
CALLER: I thank you, Rush, and just keep up the wonderful work. My husband and I listen to you every day, and we love you, and just keep that faith, because there are Republican conservatives out there who will prove who the true candidate will be, and I believe it will be Romney.
RUSH: We’ll see. I’m glad you called, Ruth.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have decided to come up with a name for you babes who are smitten with Mitt Romney, first of many, but this works: Mittens. We’re going to refer to you as Mittens.