RUSH: Here’s some of the e-mails.
‘Dear Rush, I’ve always listened and agreed to what you have to say. I’m a lifelong conservative Republican from Alabama. I love President Bush. I can proudly say that the first president I ever voted for was Reagan. I was so excited to vote as a college student at Auburn. You have always been an intelligent person in the political area of life. Yet I am so disappointed in how you are damaging this wonderful party of ours. Ronald Reagan would be horrified with your actions. To suggest that we should not support Senator McCain is the most ignorant thing I’ve ever heard. Personally, I love Governor Huckabee but I will support Senator McCain if he’s my party’s choice. Do I want Hillary Black Panther Supporter Clinton or Obama So Smooth It’s Scary to be my next president? No. You’ve lost it. You need to go on vacation, reevaluate the harm you’re doing. My soccer mom coffee group of conservative Republicans have all agreed. We can no longer listen to your show. Get a clue, Rush.’ This is from R. B. in Alabama.
The next one’s Sue, Orlando, Florida. ‘Rush, what’s with you? Did your addiction to the synthetic heroin kill off that many brain cells that you’re taking such an incredibly stupid stand on this election? If you’re still enfranchised and actually have a vote to hold hostage, you’re essentially voting for the socialist opponent. This election has two clear choices: socialism or democracy. You’re very disappointing. You’ve become a kook. Good-bye, and good riddance, Rush, Sue, Orlando, Florida, conservative Republican, member of conservative church.’
‘Dear Rush, you have such power. We have to vote for McCain. Please get behind our candidate. Is there going to be another choice? Hillary or Obama is not a choice. If they win, we’re in deep doo-doo. I have a daughter serving in the US Navy. She will be deployed soon to the Persian Gulf. Please use your power to elect a Republican. Thank you, Sarah. Please.’
Mike in Watertown, New York. ‘Dear Rush, it is possible that in a time when WMDs existed, Rush Limbaugh will go down in history as the name of the person who helped elect a President Obama or Clinton whose foreign and security policies were so destructive that America was never able to recover from them no matter how hard the conservative president that followed tried. Survival of America, Rush, and you are on the wrong side.’
Now, I know what this is all in response to. It’s not in reaction to anything I’ve actually said on the program. It is a reaction to a quote that has been in the Drive-Bys that was in Howard Kurtz’s piece last Tuesday. The quote was, if I believe, ‘if’ being the operative word here, ‘If I believe that there will be no difference between a Hillary or Obama or McCain candidacy, and if I believe the country is going to go down the tubes with either of the three, I would just as soon the Democrats take the hit.’ That is the quote that has spawned all of this. And of course the Drive-Bys are getting so much of this wrong as they extrapolate, just as they got wrong my attempt here to save Hillary’s candidacy by raising money for it, but regardless, that’s what it is. The operative word there is ‘if,’ this is November. I’m talking about down the road. It’s a long time between now and the general election. The quote in the Kurtz story was not meant to indicate I had made up my mind.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Karina in Kennebunkport, Maine. Great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi! Hi, Rush. Oh, it’s a delight to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Mega dittos from beautiful, snowy New England.
RUSH: Thanks very much.
CALLER: Well, the reason I wanted to call is because I’m going to — pardon the bad pun — rush to your defense. Anybody who thinks that you would suddenly support Hillary Clinton, clearly is not a Dittohead. They can’t be. When I first heard, I was like, ‘Okay, so, what’s the punch line?’ and then everybody seemed to be so serious, ‘Oh, now he’s supporting Hillary,’ and I thought, ‘No, that can’t be,’ and then one of your letters the person had said something about Ronald Reagan would be horrified. I think Ronald Reagan would have laughed and offered to donate a toilet to collect the funds in.
RUSH: (laughing) Donate a toilet to collect the funds for Mrs. Clinton. I’ll tell you why. Karina, I appreciate this. I appreciate your intelligence, your perceptiveness in understanding this, but the reason something like this is allowed to take hold that I would actually support Mrs. Clinton and vote for her, is the Drive-Bys have chronicled my problems with Senator McCain. So it’s easy for me to then extrapolate and say, ‘This guy’s got a problem with McCain so much he might vote Hillary,’ and he puts that out there and people see it, and, ‘Whoa! I didn’t hear Rush say this.’ They start writing e-mails and so forth.
CALLER: But it still doesn’t make sense, because even if you hear it in the Drive-By Media, you’ve gotta understand the Drive-By Media often gets it wrong, more often than not —
RUSH: Well —
CALLER: — and especially they get it wrong with you.
RUSH: Let me tell you something. That may well be, but I’m going to tell you the bottom line here, Karina. For all the Drive-By Media and the power of the monopoly they have lost; I’m here to tell you that the Drive-By Media has chosen our candidate, and the Drive-By Media is going to choose a Democrat candidate. Right now it looks like if the Drive-Bys get their way — they did on our side — if they get their way on the Democrat side, it’s going to be Obama.
CALLER: Yes, I believe it. I totally I believe it. Well, I can say at least one good thing about Maine: Maine voted for Romney. So there’s a little bit of sense out there in the world still.
RUSH: Yeah. The Drive-Bys didn’t report that, though, when Mitt Romney won the Maine primary and the caucuses. He didn’t get any of that reported. Thanks for the call, Karina, appreciate it.