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RUSH: Birmingham, Alabama, we’re going to start. This is Gail. Thank you for calling. You are up first today on the EIB Network.CALLER: Good morning, Rush. I really want to say that when this man took office in 2009 I was an independent more than willing, more than willing to work with him and see him as our president.

RUSH: Why?

CALLER: Well, because as an independent, I’m willing to listen. He got voted in, and he said, ‘I’m going to do what no one’s been able to do as our government has grown. I’m willing to start doing things a different way.’ But what does he do right out of the gate? He didn’t change any politics. Right out of the gate when he had opportunities to really speak to the American public, he goes to different Democratic groups of caucuses, he’s on TV, and he’s making fun of and he laughed — there’s the tipping point, Rush, when he laughed. It was like laughing at me, laughing at those of us who have a different point of view on what our country is. You know it’s one thing to differ. But he outright made fun of the Republicans, which is fine, go right ahead, but he’s laughing at all of us who differed. So he doesn’t need to try this on me anymore, and little Axelrod, he can just go back where he came from because he’s part of the problem. This president has divided our nation absolutely because he is laughing at us. And I, for one, will crawl over broken glass to get to any election to vote for somebody that will absolutely believe in our America. I know I sound like I’m giving a speech, but I am so proud of our country and so dissatisfied with this president and his minions.

RUSH: Are you still an independent?

CALLER: I cannot really — yes, absolutely because I won’t cut the so-called Republicans any slack, absolutely not.

RUSH: Here’s the thing. Hold it, hold it —

CALLER: They call me and I’ve given them a lot of money —

RUSH: I have to take a commercial break but I want to say something more to you. Can you hang on for a few minutes?

CALLER: Sure. Thanks.

RUSH: Good. It might not be pretty.

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RUSH: I guess it’s safe to say that being a community organizer and agitator, we can confirm this does not prepare anybody for being president for all of the country. Rudy Giuliani was right to laugh at Obama during the Republican convention as a community organizer. He thinks that somehow qualified him to be president. We now know quite obviously that it does not. We’ll get back to Gail in Birmingham right when we get back.

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RUSH: I want to go back to Gail in Birmingham, Alabama. ‘Cause Gail, don’t misunderstand, I loved what you said. What you said is right on, right on, right on, right on. But here’s my question. You started out by saying, proudly, that you were an independent, right?

CALLER: Correct.

RUSH: Now, you ticked off rat-tat-tat exactly what was wrong with Obama. You’re a very smart woman. What was it that prevented you from seeing this in Obama during the campaign? Because I agree with everything you said, but I knew it and a lot of us knew it, suspected it, pretty sure this is who the guy was because a Democrat, he’s a liberal Democrat. I’m really curious, I’m really interested, don’t misunderstand the tone of my voice, I’m not being critical, I’m genuinely curious how it is that this guy was able to pull it off and pull one over on you and you didn’t see who he was until he started doing what he did.

CALLER: Well, part of it is I think I’m very much like most people in America. We’re really willing, almost to a point of a flaw, we’re willing to give someone a chance. And he said the right things, and he surely did because we’ve had these concerns about the government. For example, the Republicans and Democrats are pretty much going in the same direction, they’re just going at a different speed so they’re increasing the government, and I agree, the Democrats are a faster speed, they’re increasing the taxes, reducing our liberties. I’ve seen that. So I’m not oblivious to it. But what he did for me and many, many others, he said the things we wanted to hear almost like a lover who says you’re just wonderful and I just can’t live without you and I believe the same thing you believe, and you just really get —

RUSH: Okay, now wait, wait, that’s fascinating. Let me stop you. Don’t lose your train of thought. Are you married?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: If your husband at this stage in life said those things to you, would you believe him?

CALLER: No.

RUSH: You would or would not?

CALLER: I would not.

RUSH: Okay. That’s my point. So you’re married, you know your husband left and right, and if he comes at you that way after you’ve been married long past the romantic period’s over, you’re not gonna fall for it. I mean, you’ve been there, done that with him. Here comes Obama sweet talking you and he swooped you off your feet.

CALLER: Well, he does because he did the kind of things those of us who — and again, I am very much like everyone else. We saw our government going in the wrong direction for years, for decades, and we know that, and we think, okay, okay, he’s a bright man, they present him to us as this so-called educated man. And, by the way, just having a Ph.D. doesn’t get it for me because we have some real good thinking people, the degree doesn’t do it but he talked the line we wanted to hear, and he said he was going to do it, he gets into office and I remember when he brought in all of his people and said we’re going to be the most ethical group, and I was cheering, isn’t that wonderful, that is terrific. He’s telling all these people we’re not going to have any of these people here that have been involved in any money — if you’ve been a lobbyist, you’re not going to be here. Well, I got sold on that, too. And then we’re told not one dime more. Taxes aren’t going to go up, not one dime. No, they’re going to go up hundreds of dollars.

RUSH: All right, now, let me interrupt you again because I’m assuming here when you proudly claim you’re an independent, what you also mean is that you are not ideological, you’re not liberal, you’re not conservative, at least you don’t think so.

CALLER: I grew up on a farm in western Pennsylvania, so I’m very conservative. And my family —

RUSH: Well —

CALLER: — would have been some of the Founders of this country years ago.

RUSH: All right.

CALLER: So, no, I’m very conservative but I consider myself open. And, by the way, as a general rule people in America are very bright, but they can be taken in by hucksters. And we just get taken in, and we’re like incredulous. We’re going, ‘How did this happen?’

RUSH: I understand that.

CALLER: Now we can’t get out of it.

RUSH: I know. It is the so-called independents who —

CALLER: Sure.

RUSH: — you’ve been kicked in the gut by what Obama’s done so far. Now you’ve compounded things for me. Remember the rubric here, I’m trying to understand because in my mind there was nothing new about Obama. We’ve been there. We’ve had LBJ. We’ve had expanding government. I mean he was talking about government-run health care, he was talking all the things that he’s done. He was maybe not as honest and forthcoming about growth of government and stimulus, but as a conservative, and Obama as a Democrat, liberal, I know what he’s going to do, and I’m not cowed by what he says. You’re a very smart woman, I can tell, and as an American and of course in my role here as commentator, talk show host, it is a constant, perplexing thing to me, which is why I’m so thrilled to talk to you, to know how so many people could have been fooled by this guy. It’s like I know people who are fooled by John Edwards, who did this. They can’t believe what kind of guy he turned out to be, whereas I’m not surprised, because, see, they’re liberals, they’re Democrats, and to me they all lie. Now, you might say, well, that’s pretty closed-minded of you, Rush. They can’t all lie. Well, in politics, they do! I mean the history is replete with it. And yet you were so eager for something new to come along to change the direction we were headed, that was so bad — I want you to specify for me — what was so bad about America in 2007 and 2008 that it required and dictated a massive change in direction? What did you think was so bad?

CALLER: So bad was the inability of the current government, the people in Congress to do anything constructive. What I’d really want is term limits and flat tax. Wasn’t gonna get that, but we needed to get these people that we have installed, Americans have installed all of these folks, these congressmen, these senators in Washington. And they’re just you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. And that’s exactly what they’ve done. So I never saw a difference like you did. And, by the way, you are the lifeline to sanity for all of us out here, so thank you — thank you —

RUSH: But I wasn’t until you rejected me. I don’t take it personally, don’t misunderstand, but I was saying all this during the campaign. I was warning everybody about Obama, but you didn’t listen to me. You instead invested in your hope that he was what he said he was. So my being a lifeline was worthless to you because you rejected it. I’m not Bill O’Reilly and taking it personally, I’m not going to write a book about it — a little humor — I wonder, because you’re a smart woman. Maybe I’m defining independent wrong. When I think of independent I think of somebody who thinks they’re in the middle. They’re not Republican, they’re not Democrat, they sit and listen and they’re open-minded and then they decide what they think is best based on things that are not ideological. Maybe that’s not what you are. You just admitted you’re a conservative, but yet you call yourself an independent.

CALLER: Well, I can be a conservative and not be a Republican or a Democrat, ’cause I don’t think much of either group. I mean I think a lot of Jim DeMint and some of the others that are saying — they’re Republicans, but they’re really more in tune with the average individual in America who wants what’s best for America. And we thought we needed a new beginning, and this man will tell one lie after the other, which is why I think everyone’s so puzzled because we’re so honest in America to a flaw. We can’t believe somebody could lie to us day after day, and they do.

RUSH: Okay, let me ask you a question, Gail. You call yourself an independent, but you sound, to me, like you’re more conservative than the average Republican. Am I right?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Well, then we need a new term for you because you don’t fit, I don’t think, what the conventional wisdom definition of independent is, at least not that I understand. That’s where I’m having my trouble understanding what you’re doing and your thought process.

CALLER: I am very much anti-government, the way they built it, the regulations that they have, our loss of liberties is so tragic —

RUSH: Now —

CALLER: — that the Department of Education, so tragic what they’ve done to our schools and our states’ rights.

RUSH: Right. Now, when you say that, what then doesn’t compute is that you can be fooled by or support any national —

CALLER: We were.

RUSH: — Democrat.

CALLER: The independent people voted the man in. I mean that’s who did it.

RUSH: I know.

CALLER: But they had to fool the folks that were willing to vote for the R or vote for the D.

RUSH: What did Obama ever say that reflected your worldview? What did he ever say that was conservative?

CALLER: He said nothing conservative, plus I did read Dreams from My Father. I read that, and I read all of the things to know that he had some inherent hostility with America, and he had a grudge. I knew all that. I know what you’re saying. I have listened. I knew he had a grudge. I read that book, plus understand I’ve read Greenspan’s books, I read to understand, so I knew —

RUSH: Let me narrow —

CALLER: — intellectually what you’re saying.

RUSH: Let me narrow this, then. Were you ticked off at George Bush, and if so, why?

CALLER: To me McCain was a problem. I love Sarah Palin, but McCain was a problem.

RUSH: Ahhh —

CALLER: I needed somebody to go in and be a change agent. I didn’t expect him to be essentially a socialist.

RUSH: You couldn’t pull the trigger for McCain as a conservative, right?

CALLER: No, no, I could not, and —

RUSH: Are you Republicans listening to this? Now, we finally got to it. We finally got there. I have wandered and meandered, I apologize for not being as direct as I should have been with you, but you’ve just answered my question. You couldn’t pull the trigger on McCain no matter what so you’re willing to take a risk with a guy who at least represents the promise of something new.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: You rolled the dice.

CALLER: I cannot abide by the current Republicans, and they need to know that. They need to know that there are those of us who abide with the words that you’re hearing out of the folks in the Tea Party. Rush, I actually took two weeks of my summer vacation and traveled on a motor trip across the country just to talk to real people, to see if I’ve lost my mind. I’m thinking maybe other people feel this way, too. Just want to see what they’re saying. And you know, Rush, they don’t sound very different from me. They’re very angry at both parties for selling our nation short.

RUSH: Yeah. Yeah. I hear you. That’s exactly who the Tea Party is.

CALLER: The Republicans need to listen to —

RUSH: I agree.

CALLER: The Democrats I don’t expect it.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: There are good Democrats. Rush, there are good Democrats. They are just as outraged. I have friends who have voted Democratic all their lives —

RUSH: Well, they’re not elected, they’re not in office, I’m talking about the ones in office. I’m talking about the ones in power. I’m sure Reagan Democrats, there are some Democrats out there who are as you say, but they’re not in elective office.

CALLER: No. No. They’re part of the establishment, who is selling our country short. They are making it so that we are no longer a prosperous nation. They are actually producing poverty among individuals that should be out there working, making a living and being proud to be an American.

RUSH: Fascinating.

CALLER: I’m not very impressed with the government. Not very impressed at all, and yet it’s the finest country in the world.

RUSH: Now, there’s going to be a Democrat run for president someday again. Gonna be somebody come down who is a smooth talker. At what point are you going to say to yourself they’re all the same, a Democrat is a liberal who believes in government first and foremost, and you know that government doesn’t create wealth and only confiscates it. At what point do you think you’ll ever get to the point where if it’s a Democrat I can’t pull the trigger? I’m talking about for president, I’m talking about big, powerful national office.

CALLER: I mean I couldn’t even consider at this point a Democrat. I’d have to waterboard them first to get the truth out of ’em.

RUSH: Well —

CALLER: They smooth talk us when they come home from Washington — the tipping point, by the way, Rush, do you remember that young lady in Washington, Pennsylvania, that confronted Specter? She was a young lady, and she had the same tone I have. In other words, you could tell the heart was racing. You could tell she was frantic. She was just a young mother and she was frantic over this. And I heard, actually felt this same feeling when I watched her and how they made fun of her. These people in Washington are literally laughing at the working Americans, the people who built this country.

RUSH: Yep.

CALLER: Both parties are laughing at us. And we’ve really had enough. That little girl said that, we have had enough. Specter got booted out. I used to call his office every day, by the way, ’cause I’m from Pennsylvania and I have family there and a farm there. And I would call in, and I’d say, ‘You still there, you gonna let me talk to Arlen?’ And I said, ‘He’s going to get booted out,’ and I suspect when November comes — and people really do need to make it something that’s first on their list, not last, go out and gather up everybody because I assure you, I know there — what’s being done in various communities to get other folks to vote, but get folks to vote who want to build our nation back. Make sure they’re at the polls. Don’t vote Republican or Democrat, but you better know your person because they apparently can turn on you on a dime. That’s what we just learned. So we don’t trust anybody.

RUSH: Gail, I appreciate your holding on and undergoing my cross-examination here. Thank you very much.

CALLER: And you’re my hero. Thank you.

RUSH: All right. It’s Gail from Birmingham, Alabama. If you’re just joining us, if you didn’t catch the beginning of this hour or the conclusion of the previous hour, Gail called herself an independent. You have just listened to somebody who may as well be a leader of the Tea Party movement, called herself an independent and voted for Obama. I was intent here to figure out how that could happen. That’s what this was about.

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RUSH: There obviously is some confusion about the political term ‘independent.’ A lot of people hear the term ‘independent,’ and it means that you are in the middle of the political spectrum, that you are neither a liberal or a conservative or a Republican or a Democrat. And these people, by the way, are fought over by these political consultants. The people identify themselves as independents, anywhere from 15 to 20% of the electorate, this is where the Mike Murphys and the Roves of the world go every election to try to win for their clients. And whatever it takes to get ’em, if it’s ideology, fine. If it’s pork, fine, whatever. But apparently this woman thinks she’s an independent but she’s further to the right than most Republicans are. And she gets ticked off at both parties for growing government. And there are probably some independents who are further left than the Democrats are, if that’s possible. So moderates, another term that gets lumped in with independents, and I’ve always thought moderates are just liberals that don’t have the guts to say so, and I stand by that.

There’s no such thing as a moderate. McCain calls it a moderate and what’s the definition of a moderate? He works with Democrats. Big whoop. (imitating McCain) ‘That’s right, Limbaugh, I can cross the aisle.’ Fine, okay, that makes you a moderate, you work with the other guys, you work with the enemy, makes you a moderate. But that’s not who independents are. So these ruling class types, we have to figure out, it is the independents, this woman is right, they were the margin of victory for Obama, and they have abandoned him. Obama can go to all these college campi all he wants, and he can try to rev up the youth vote all he wants. It isn’t gonna matter. He can promise ’em to do anything, he can try to inspire them however, relive or reignite whatever existed during the campaign, but who he’s lost are the independents. And the independents — is a wild guess here — are going to the Republicans now the same way they went for Obama in ’08. Change. Don’t like what’s going on now and whoever’s running the show is responsible. So it was Republicans running the show 2007-2008, even though in the House it was the Democrats from 2007 on, they’re back and forth. But at some point, at some point we’re going to have to get these independents to realize there’s no such thing as a new liberal and they’re all bad.

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RUSH: Hey, try this as a new definition of a moderate. A moderate is what you get when you cross a Democrat with a human being. And that’s being charitable.

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RUSH: Gail from Birmingham talked about the woman at a town meeting with Specter. Her name was Katy Abram. This is August 2009, Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

ABRAM: I am a Republican, but I’m first and foremost a conservative. I don’t believe this is just about health care. It’s not about TARP. It’s not about left and right. This is about the systematic dismantling of this country. I’m only 35 years old. I have never been interested in politics. You have awakened a sleeping giant. We are tired of this. This is why everybody in this room is so ticked off. I don’t want this country turning into Russia, turning into a socialized country.

RUSH: That’s Katy Abram, town hall meeting with Specter 2009, that’s what Gail in Birmingham was telling us about. Now, Gail voted for Obama. This was the great disconnect.

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RUSH: I got a note from a friend who heard the call from Gail in Birmingham, Alabama. ‘Rush, that was a great call, but I don’t think you’re so much uncovering something new about independents as you’re simply reaffirming something you said constantly in 2006 and 2008. While it never came up in your conversation with her, you were inundated with calls in 2006 and 2008 by conservatives, now known as Tea Party types, who told you they were either not voting at all or were voting Democrat in order to punish Republicans for betraying conservative principles. I suppose these folks were independent in the sense that they surely were the Democrats and they were fed up to here with Republicans, but they were not independent in the usual sense that we think of that term,’ which, yeah, I understand that, independent being in the middle, neither Republican nor Democrat. That’s not who they are. People who listen to all sides, don’t take a position.

That’s not who the independents are. At least this woman wasn’t. I suspect she’s representative of far more independents. The people who created the impression in our mind that the independent is this open-minded, indecisive, smarter than anybody else, waits until the last moment until examining all the issues and then votes Democrat, the media have given us that definition, the media and political consultants of both parties have given us that definition of independents because that’s where they live and work. Political consultants left and right, Democrat, Republican, are hired by candidates to get ’em elected, like Bob Shrum, who’s never succeeded at it but he gets hired all the time, and they live in that 20%, 15 to 20% undecided, independent. And they convince their candidates, they’re the guy, they know how to go get ’em, they know what will get the independents to move to their candidate.

So, obviously, to make themselves look good, they paint this picture of independents as open-minded, not closed-minded like conservatives. They see things in shades of gray rather than simple-mindedly black and white, and they’re sophisticated and they wait until all the issues are examined, and they put all of the issues through their own grinder, and they examine these things intimately, intricately using their superior intelligence, and at the end of the day they decide who they’re going to vote. And of course since they’re the smartest of all, whoever they end up voting for is said to be the most brilliant candidate, and in most cases the political consultants like to tell us independents end up voting Democrat. And what my friend here is saying is that’s not who these independents are. These people are really Tea Party types just fed up with the Republicans. And they voted the way they did to teach the Republicans a lesson. Some of them, as Gail said, were really intrigued by the possibility that Obama was something new and unseen and held a lot of promise.

But, my friend says to me, ‘Rush, you warned ’em. Much as we were justifiably furious at the McCain RINOs who had taken over, you warned them there would be woeful consequences to electing Democrats. I think the woman you talked to is a perfect example of somebody who has chosen to forget that she voted for Democrats not to give Obama a chance, but in sheer exasperation over the GOP. But it’s not like she wasn’t warned even though she now wants to say she was fooled by Obama.’ So this is a friend of mine who in his own mind and mine is a very smart guy. It’s one of his takes. Everybody is telling me their take on that woman. Everybody is giving me their thoughts in e-mails on Gail from Birmingham. (interruption) She said something about the new beginning. I know. Obama was out selling the new beginning, and that has a magical potential, the new beginning, the new frontier, and of course you and I know that there’s nothing new since Genesis, and it clearly isn’t Obama. There was clearly nothing new about Obama. I mean that really is the source of frustration. (interruption) Well, I didn’t say we wanted to cleanse our national soul. The national soul didn’t need to be cleansed. The national soul’s been polluted here. The national soul has been distorted. We don’t want to cleanse our national soul.

Look, I’m going to throw another thing into this mix. I think some of these people couldn’t help themselves after years and years and years of Bush being pummeled into an approval number of high thirties, with Bush and the White House not fighting back and these people were leaderless. And then you add to it their representatives and senators joining in all this massive spending, and they were just livid, and they felt like the people they voted for didn’t care about them and there weren’t any leaders anyway so it was, ‘Okay, well hell, show you, and maybe this guy does hold some promise, who knows.’ But, see, I said earlier today, how many more of these examples, how many more of these experiences are we going to have to go through? Went through FDR; we went through LBJ; we’d been through the New Deal; the raw deal with Clinton. We’ve been through the Great Society; we’ve been through the war on poverty; we’ve been through the Soviet Union; we’ve been through Cuba. We have been through China; been through Venezuela. It doesn’t work. When? When? I ask the heavens. When are people going to realize — I’m talking the smart people — I’m not talking the dunces, plenty of those out there.

When are intelligent people going to realize — I’ve always said — well, not always, recently, if people just start looking at Democrats and Republicans ideologically, and wherever you see a liberal run the other way, don’t vote for one, and nine out of ten Democrats, 99 out of a hundred, 999 out of a thousand Democrats are liberals. Why would you vote for one, especially after all of this? Now, even if McCain, if you want to punish yourself even further, let’s live very briefly in a moment where McCain had been elected. Does anybody think — I’m asking — does anybody think we would be in this much debt? I’m just asking, would we have had a $1 trillion Porkulus bill? Well, I don’t know. I’m asking, maybe. Would the Democrats have proposed it and McCain, in order to show the country he can work with the other side, would he have signed? I don’t know. Would we be in the dire straits, would we have an entire political party joined by the president attacking and destroying the private sector of the country? Would that have happened? We would have cap and trade. McCain was for cap and trade. We would have had a moderate destruction of the country.

Here’s what these people know ’cause this is a toss-up. This really is a toss-up at first glance. Okay, we pretend that McCain’s been elected and the same stuff happens to one degree and maybe some lesser degrees. How bad would it be if we’re in this shape and Republicans are to blame for it? What if 95% of this stuff that we’re going through had happened anyway, what if, what if 75% of this has happened, policy-wise? The country is still in the process of being attacked and destroyed, and yet a Republican in the White House being blamed for it? Do you think that the media would just slavishly be supporting whatever McCain was doing? No. We would probably have the total destruction of the Republican Party, had McCain won. And even half of this stuff happened. I predicted that, I said that, but I still didn’t want Obama because with the Republicans it would have been an accident. With this guy it’s purposeful. And McCain did vote against the stimulus. He called it generational theft.

McCain would have voted against Porkulus, but the Democrats had the votes to override a veto in the House. And they had 60 votes in the Senate, needed 66 to override in the Senate. So you can’t automatically say the stimulus would not have happened if the only thing different was McCain in the White House. I know this is all a bunch of ‘if’ and it didn’t happen and even by my own theory, philosophy, ‘if’ is for children. But since this all been inspired by this call Gail gave us today about even though she knew all that — and folks, if you missed her call, she rails against Obama like you do, like I do. Never again, she said. Ain’t going to happen. Yet she voted for him. That’s the difference. You and I didn’t. She did. That is why I was zeroing in like a laser, like a Blu-ray laser trying to understand how it had happened.

Now, if McCain had won, the recession would not have ended in June, we’d still be in it. In fact, if McCain had won we’d be in a depression. They’d be talking about the big D if McCain had won. Oh, the media would be a totally different animal. Instead of the country being built up and all this wonderful stuff happening, it would all be portrayed accurately as a disaster so as to end up blaming McCain.

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