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RUSH: Now, there are two headlines here for the Mark Halperin piece at TIME.com. One is: ‘Why Obama Is in the Jaws of Political Death,’ and the other headline is: ‘Why Obama Is Losing the Political War.’ And the answer is he’s a jackass. Now — (laughing) — well — (laughing) — I still am amazed that of all the criticism, that that’s what bugs ’em. I basically call him a Manchurian Candidate here designed to destroy the country, that’s fine, don’t even refute that charge. Jackass just sends ’em into orbit. You know, people say to me, ‘My dog doesn’t know how big she is.’ Your dog doesn’t know she’s a dog. Your dog has no concept of size. A fish does not know that it’s wet. A fish does not know that it’s in water. Maybe Obama’s kind of like that. Maybe Obama doesn’t even realize that he’s a capitalist-hating socialist. He’s never met anybody who wasn’t. He’s never formed a relationship or friendship with anybody who wasn’t. So maybe he doesn’t even know.

I’m helping to answer Halperin’s questions here. This regime has spent two years, ladies and gentlemen, dragging America kicking and screaming in a direction it didn’t want to go, that we don’t want to go. Now they wonder why they’re so unpopular. Why are we losing the political war? Why are we in the jaws of political death? It’s policy, pure and simple. ‘Barack Obama is being politically crushed in a vise,’ writes Mark Halperin. ‘From above, by elite opinion about his competence. From below, by mass anger and anxiety over unemployment. And it is too late for him to do anything about this predicament until after November’s elections. With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions.’ Politically engaged elites? I mean this is just out of the box now. Here’s who we are. We are the elites. We are politically engaged, and we are the elites. And Halperin is talking to and speaking for them.

I don’t think they polled the elites. I guess the elites know who they are, H.R. It’s sort of like when I said ban the ugly from the streets in daytime. People said, ‘How you gonna do it?’ I said, ‘Make it voluntary, the ugly know who they are.’ Maybe the elites know who they are. Halperin knows who the elites are, ’cause they don’t wear signs. You can tell by the way they talk, the way they speak, and you can tell by where they live, in many cases, or in some cases what part of the town they live in.

‘With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community –‘ now infested with foreigners, ‘– or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House.’ It is? You mean to tell me that all these cable TV people, from Tom Brokaw, to Bob Schieffer, to Brian Williams, to Diane Sawyer, to Katie Couric, all of these TV people, all these people at the Washington Post and the New York Times, they all think Obama’s in over his head, isolated, insular, arrogant, and clueless? Well, that’s ‘the view held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.

‘On Friday, after the release of the latest bleak unemployment data — the last major jobs figures before the midterms — Obama said, ‘Putting the American people back to work, expanding opportunity, rebuilding the economic security of the middle class is the moral and national challenge of our time.’ But elites feel the President has failed to meet that challenge and are convinced he will be unable to do so in the remainder of his term. Moreover, there is a growing perception that Obama’s decisions are causing harm — that businesses are being hurt by the Administration’s legislation and that economic recovery is stalling because of the uncertainty surrounding energy policy, health care, deficits, housing, immigration and spending.’

You know, if I didn’t have a stronger, thicker skin, I would accuse this man of plagiarism. How long have I been saying this? Since before he was immaculated. I hope he failed. Remember that? Now the word ‘failure’ is all through this piece. Elites feel the president’s failed to meet the challenge. They’re convinced he’ll be unable to meet the challenge the remainder of his term. Over his head, isolated, business hurt. That’s why jackass resonated, because everybody knows. I just happened to cut through all the noise and say it first. There is a lot of noise out there, from all the punditry to all the media people. I just cut through it. He’s a jackass. He’s an economic illiterate. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. That’s why it penetrated. And now everything that I have said is being attributed to Mark Halperin. I have nothing against Halperin, don’t misunderstand, the plagiarism. I’m just trying to make a point. It’s not really plagiarism, it’s just that these guys have just now arrived at this thinking when it’s been true since before Obama was immaculated. This is the frustrating thing.

How is it that the so-called elites do not see this stuff before it happens? When it’s telegraphed, it’s there for anybody and all to see because we know what liberals are, we know what people who think like Obama believe and are going to do. We’ve seen it. It doesn’t take much to realize who his friends are, and then extrapolate that in the kind of person he is. It’s not difficult. I don’t know if Halperin’s calling me a member of the politically connected elite, but I’ve said all this. My name’s not mentioned in the story. It probably wouldn’t be good for me to be thought of as one of the elites, so I’m happy they didn’t mention my name here. But I am mind over chatter. That’s what ‘he’s a jackass’ is. I could be more respectful. I could call him a jackass-in-chief, and I could call his policies jackassian. I could do that.

Now, I’ll tell you about Halperin, just to be fair here. Almost immediately after the elections, Mark Halperin (he used to write The Note at ABC) Mark Halperin had the honesty to admit that the election media coverage was, quote, the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war. It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage. He had to get in a dig at the Iraq war, but still, he wrote that. Now, this business that the president has failed, that sentiment is spreading, Halperin says. ‘Many members of the general public appear deeply skeptical of Obama’s capacity to turn things around, especially, but not exclusively, those inclined to dislike him — Tea Partyers and John McCain voters, but also tens of millions of middle-class Americans, including quite a few who turned out for Obama in 2008.’

So elites feel the president has failed to meet the challenges, and that sentiment is spreading to members of the general public. Ergo, you are not elite. So the elites — remember the sentiment is spreading. Now, this is crucial. The elites came to this first, see. You dummkopfs, you Tea Party people, you’re late arrivals to this notion that the president’s failed. The elites, the Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters, congressional leaders, governors, business people, they knew all this first. The sentiment that Obama’s failed is spreading. Many members of the general public now appear deeply skeptical. ‘But Obama has exacerbated his political problems not just by failing to enact policies that would have actually turned the economy around.’ Halperin is admitting there are such policies that would turn the country around. We have articulated those policies for 23 years on this program. So here is a self-identified member of the elite writing about and speaking for the elite, admitting that Obama has exacerbated his problems by failing to enact policies that would have actually turned the economy around.

Mr. Halperin, can I ask you a question? If he knows there are policies that would turn the country around and refuses to enact them, is there anything to conclude? Also, I don’t know how long Halperin’s going to have this job at TIME because he’s now referred to Fox News pundits. I mean, normally it’s Fox News (raspberry). But he’s elevated ’em now to pundits. So if there are policies that would turn the economy around and he knows about it and has not enacted them, is there anything we can learn or conclude from that? Obama has also exacerbated his problem ‘by authorizing a series of tactical moves intended to demonize Republicans and distract from the problems at hand.’ Well, if he knows that there are problems he has created, that there are solutions for that he ignores, and then demonizes Republicans to distract from the problems he created, is there something to conclude from this, hmm, as in maybe, Mr. Halperin, man up, guts time, could it be on purpose, for whatever reason?

‘Throughout the year, we have been treated to Obama-led attacks on George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Congressman Joe Barton (for his odd apology to BP), John Boehner (for seeking the speakership — or was it something about an ant?) and Fox News (for everything). Suitable Democratic targets in some cases, perhaps, but not worth the time of a busy Commander in Chief.’ So Mr. Halperin is now not only calling Obama a failure, also incapable of overcoming his failures, knows that there’s solutions, he’s ignoring them, trying to demonize and isolate people or distract people from the disaster around him and now says he’s busy. Nobody has ever said Obama’s busy. He played his 52nd round of golf Sunday. I don’t play golf that much, to Hank Haney’s chagrin. I don’t play golf that much. I played golf Saturday for the first time in three weeks. I had some practice out there, but I mean actually going out and spending four hours on the golf course, first time in three weeks. I’ve been busy. And I’m in trouble again. They say Obama is busy. This is incredible here. Attacking Limbaugh’s not worth the time of a busy Commander-in-Chief. Nobody’s ever accused Obama of being busy before. This is stunning.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: One more observation before we go back to the phones. Mark Halperin, about whom I just spoke and quoted from the TIME Magazine piece, was the coauthor of the book Game Change; and in the book Game Change… That was a book where the reporters on the campaign trail saved up a bunch of stuff that they did not report during the campaign. They saved it for afterwards, for the money. Also, I don’t think Mr. Halperin in the book Game Change wrote anything that indicated he noticed Obama was in over his head. But we all knew it. It’s amazing how this stuff… (interruption) Well, now… (interruption) Okay, yeah, I knew it and so forth. But it… (interruption) I know, they said he was a pragmatist. This kind of stuff… See, these elites, they’re the smartest among us! This stuff doesn’t exist until they figure it out, bottom line.

RUSH: Anyway, Chance in San Antonio, Texas. I’m glad you waited. You are on the air.

CALLER: Yes. So pleased to finally get a hold of you. You’re a very well protected and insulated individual, no doubt. It’s very hard to get a hold of you but for what you do to this country every day —

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: — in trying to disparage Barack Obama and anyone who voted for him, uhhh, (whines) you’re — you’re — you’re quite disgusting. And you think you gonna get away with this, you think you’re gonna capitalize on this. You think you’re gonna fool people because you know that you prey on the politically enabled, the ones out there who —

RUSH: Wait a minute, wait a minute! Now, wait a minute. Wait! Whoa, whoa. Are you calling Obama politically disabled?

CALLER: You’re so (bleep)ing smart, you think you’re so (bleep)ing smart, you gonna re…? Okay?

RUSH: We gotta bleep that, we gotta bleep that. Yeah, he’s very mad. He dropped the F-bomb in there, folks. He’s very, very hot. F-bomb, the A-word. He did everything but call me a ‘whore’ and a ‘jackass’ in that call. There you have it. (laughing) I wish he had hung on ’cause I was going to ask, ‘Did you really vote for Obama?’ Because this the best evidence that we coulda had of what’s gone wrong in the country, but we had to go in there and bleep him. We had a delay system. We had to do it, folks. He’s just unhappy. He’s throwing everything he had at me: His show, his kitchen sink. Of course, it’s like trying to sink battleships with a BB. (interruption) He didn’t throw a book at me. I’d-a seen the book. Unlike Obama, I wasn’t looking at the teleprompter.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, it’s very simple. Very, very simple. You can hear the real story today, every day, on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, or you can wait two years and read it in TIME Magazine. Great to have you back. It’s 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program. Speaking of Obama, you know he got the Nobel Peace Prize. Don’t you think therefore that he is qualified for the Nobel Prize in economics? Because obviously he’s done as much for economics as he has for world peace. So I think it’s only natural he should be nominated for it.

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