RUSH: Peter in Branson, Missouri, let’s go ahead and start on the phones here. Peter, hi, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I just want to warn you: I’m a liberal Democrat, I’m a poli-sci professor, but (chuckles) I wanted to comment on Sarah Palin show. We are, honestly — I’m just being honest with you, Rush. We fear Palin as a Republican candidate because she can beat President Obama. I’m just gonna flat-out tell you. She is providing something that the other candidates aren’t providing, and Romney and other people who are trying to destroy Palin, us liberals, we’re loving it because they’re taking out their star quarterback, you know, before the game’s even started. So we’re kinda quiet about the whole thing, and it’s like you said: It’s the Republicans that are taking on Palin right now, and we’re just sitting back on the sidelines and we just can’t believe that this is going on.
RUSH: Let me ask you a question. You’re in Branson, Missouri; you’re a liberal political science professor.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Now, why are you calling me to tell me this?
CALLER: I tell you, because there’s this misconception. I teach. You know, I have to stay balanced no matter I do when I teach.
RUSH: Why? You’re a liberal. Why does that matter?
CALLER: (giggles) Well, because it’s good for our students to make up their own mind, you know, and —
RUSH: Ah, now, come on! You’re not a liberal.
CALLER: (giggles)
RUSH: You can’t risk your students making up their own minds!
CALLER: Well, you know, I still have my own beliefs, but — you know, and they’re different from yours but — the main thing I’ve seen, this is the first part I’ve ever seen in the history of politics is I’ve never seen this type of attacking by a party against their own star player. It’s kind of amazing to see this whole thing, you know, develop — and I have tons of material to teach about, just because this is happening right now. That’s why I’ll say: It’s not the liberal media that’s going after Palin. I mean, everyone has blame, but it’s really the right-ring media that’s after her.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Everyone’s going after Palin; it’s not really us.
RUSH: No, you guys are doing your share. I mean, the Democrats have done their share from Katie Couric, to Charlie Gibson on down. It’s an opportunity here on both sides. But you’re right about the Republicans. The Republican side has done their best. You say — and you are the first and probably the only who will ever say it on your side of the aisle —
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: — that Palin can beat Obama and that that’s what your side really feels. See, my instincts tell me that the Democrats, the liberals, the left, will always tell us who they fear the most by who they spend the most time trying to destroy, and that’s Palin. You could say the same thing about the Republicans, too. For some reason, they fear her. If she’s this idiotic and this stupid and she doesn’t have a prayer, why — why? — do all of this to try to impugn and destroy her? Because it doesn’t make sense.
CALLER: We get upset even on like our liberal kind of TV programs when they even mention her name and they always follow with a laugh, but it’s a nervous laugh. You know, “Oh, Palin’s coming here,” and then they start laughing a little bit — and I won’t name the programs, but — I’m just like, “God, just quit mentioning her name, quit underestimating this person.” That’s how we feel in the academic community that this person is just on a whole other different level than Romney and even President Obama.
RUSH: Why do you think she could beat Obama?
CALLER: I’ll just be really honest with you. Even as a liberal Democrat, it’s leadership. That’s it. It’s not necessarily qualifications or things of that nature, but America right now is searching for a certain leadership, and she has that one trait — and she pretty much gets people from different communities, different backgrounds, different economics, and it’s just she provides a certain leadership.
RUSH: I’ve never heard this from anybody. The story on Palin is — the book on Palin is — that she’s divisive, that she’s polarizing; she doesn’t unify anybody. Here you are a liberal political science professor saying she’s the only one that exhibits true leadership characteristics and has the ability to bring people together.
CALLER: Yup.
RUSH: I mean, that’s what they told us about the Bamster.
CALLER: Her worst enemy is — and I’ve written about this before, but her worst enemy — is Romney, and so as long as that fight’s going on, we don’t have much to fear, but if she becomes serious, that’s when we start worrying. We don’t even know how to compete against her, because she’s not really orthodox in her methods, so it’s very difficult —
RUSH: You know what I would tell you guys? I’d say, “You don’t know how to compete against her,” and I also want to prepare you for something else, Peter, and that is that a vast swath of my audience — and don’t take this personally; don’t get your feelings hurt by it. But I guarantee you, a vast swath of my audience doesn’t believe you, that you are a liberal political science professor.
CALLER: (laughs)
RUSH: A, you sound too nice.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: B, you don’t sound arrogant enough. You do not sound cocky or condescending enough to be a liberal professor. You just don’t. I’m just telling you, you’re gonna have a lot of people doubt you.
CALLER: We get labeled a lot because, you know, we look at everything, all the circumstances. We look at American history and politics from all sides and —
RUSH: No, you don’t. That’s the thing. Liberals do not. They don’t. Never will a fact get in the way of an agenda. Never will the truth get in the way of the end result. The end is what matters. No, no, no. That’s —
CALLER: You’d be surprised, Rush. Professors make sure that both sides are argued in their classrooms. We keep our own personal agenda to ourselves.
RUSH: Look, you are professor-ing in Branson. You’re not at Harvard; you’re not at Yale.
CALLER: Yeah. I’m actually professor-ing in Springfield, 40 miles north of Branson.
RUSH: Springfield. All right.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Well, here’s the bottom line when you talk about Palin. If I were you guys and I’m thinking about Palin, and you were talking about your guys, your side doesn’t know what to do — wouldn’t know how to destroy her — you got something there. Because everybody has thrown everything that they’ve got at her, including the proverbial kitchen sink. They have gone after her kids, they have gone after her family, they have gone after her husband, they have gone after her. I’ve never seen anything like it short of Ronaldus Magnus and Nixon. I’ve never seen anything like it. They’ve thrown everything at her — and yet she puts the family in a bus and the same people get into a race to follow her wherever she’s going, all the while proclaiming how stupid she is? I would be concerned if I were you guys. “What are we gonna do to destroy this woman?” ‘Cause everything they’ve tried, and she’s still there, and she’s still drawing crowds, and she’s still making a lot of money, and she still has a lot of support. After all this effort to destroy her, I don’t know what her political plans are, but as a human being — enjoying life, able to earn money — you haven’t dented her. Not at all. Exact opposite. I appreciate the call out there, Peter.
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