RUSH: This is Chris Hernandez who is NBC Action News, Kansas City. When we played sound bites of Obama's political speech yesterday on patriotism in Independence, we listened to it, and it sounded like there was the usual Obama throng, correct? Thousands and thousands of people fainting, shrieking, throwing their underwear up there, going wacko. Not the case. Here's the report from Kansas City's NBC affiliate last night.

HERNANDEZ: There were a couple of hundred empty seats even though Obama's staff says all 1,000 tickets were given out in just two hours Saturday, and this was a much quieter crowd than at previous Obama events.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE OBAMA SUPPORTER: It was very quiet in there at one point. I felt like I was at church, almost, right before he came out.

HERNANDEZ: A member of Obama's staff tells me they didn't want to overbook and then have to turn people away, but apparently some people who got tickets Saturday didn't show up today. The quieter atmosphere may have also been because this was considered a more serious speech, and no political leaders came out to whip up the crowd before Obama started speaking.

RUSH: I didn't know that that was necessary. Political leaders whip up the crowd? Political leaders usually put 'em to sleep. I thought it was Obama that whipped up the crowd. I thought it was Obama that was The Messiah. I thought it was Obama who caused people to shriek and lose sense of their dignity and go nuts. Two hundred empty seats. They were giving them away all morning long. In a place that holds 1,000 people. So we would have never known this, we would have never known it, and outside of Kansas City nobody did know it until you just heard the Kansas City NBC report just now. That is another example of this program providing a much-needed public service, doing the job the Drive-By Media used to do but won't, i.e., tell you the truth.