RUSH: Here’s Dan Rather. This is CNN’s Newsroom last night. Dan Rather, by the way, in case you don’t know works at HDNet, has a show called Dan Rather Reports. He runs around and he does stories on how wood shavings imperil union workers at timber factories in Oshkosh, such stuff. They asked him about the presidential race, and along the lines — you know, Donna Brazile said — in fact, grab that again, grab number seven again. If you’re just joining us, this is Saturday night after the ABC debate, Democrat strategerist Donna Brazile is on with Stephanopoulos and their senior political correspondent Jon Karl, and they have this exchange about who won the Republican debate and why.

BRAZILE: Mitt Romney won tonight because no one touched him — and for Democrats, you know what? It was good news for us.
KARL: Why is that?

BRAZILE: Because we believe that the weakest candidate is the candidate that the Republicans are not attackin’, and that’s Mitt Romney.

KARL: Oh, come on.

STEPHANOPOULOS: No, you don’t believe that, Donna.

RUSH: “No, you don’t believe that,” that’s Stephanopoulos. Donna, shut up! You don’t believe that, Donna! Donna, don’t let the cat out of the bag like that. I’ll tell you something else. Bain Capital is going to be become the new Halliburton if Romney gets the nomination. Newt’s already trying to turn it into that, which I think is a mistake, but that’s for another time. Bain Capital will become the new Halliburton. It’s so predictable. This is all in the cards.

So here’s Rather, and this is another thing: It makes news when Rather says it. Of course, I have been saying it for a year.

RATHER: I think he’s the underdog. Uhh, not the underdog by much. If the election were held today — uh, depending on who the Republicans nominate, of course — uh, I think he might very well lose in a close election. His chances, buoyed just in the last few days. The unemployment figures are still terrible but at least they are now headed down.

RUSH: There’s Dan Blather saying that Obama would lose if the election were today, and as you people well know: I have been saying this for a year. Gallup has information about Obama’s standing in addition to this poll that 40% of American voters are now independents. Obama approval/disapproval in Gallup: 42% approve, 49 disapprove. Among white people, Obama is down to 35% approval. In 2008 he had 43% of the white vote. Among Hispanic people, Obama’s at 46%, down from 67%. By age-group, Obama is at 47% approval among voters under 30. In 2008 he got 66% of their vote, but now he’s at 47. He’s plummeting, folks. He has been in a downward spiral for two years, and it continues — and he would lose not in a close election, but in a landslide in the election were today. Make no mistake about it.

Of this I am as confidant as anything. I know it’s not reflected anywhere else in the media and it’s not reflected too many other places in conservative media, but I’m telling you he’s toast. Just as Jimmy Carter was toast, and nobody knew it until election night. Among voters 65 and older: Obama at 41%. He won 47% of their vote in 2008. In the East, Obama’s approval at 52%. But in the South, the West, and the Midwest he’s at 40%. Now, the Republican elite happens to be in the East, so they see the 52%. They live among the 52%. The Republican elite live among people who love Obama: the media and Democrats. They have an entirely distorted view of life outside the Eastern Seaboard. They do. It’s no more complicated than that in terms of explaining this, and, not only do they have a distorted view of life outside the Eastern Seaboard, they also have (like a lot of Democrat elites) some resentment for people who live outside the Eastern Seaboard. “They’re not as cultured.” There are still, for example, Republican women who will not marry men west of the Hudson River.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I am, I’m a voice in the wilderness here on this whole “Obama is landslidable” business. I was a voice in the wilderness among Steelers fans on Sunday versus the Tebows. I was right about that — and if the election were today, it would be a landslide loss. Well, let me define “landslide.” Five or seven points. It would be big. It would be huge. These people who are doing the polling have no idea of the voter enthusiasm in the anti-Obama ranks out there, no idea whatsoever. On the contrary, they think that you are getting dispirited. They think that the Republican primary fight is boring you and depressing you, and they think a lot of you can be inspired to sit home and not vote because you don’t have a prayer. They think they can create that mind-set in you. That’s what they’re banking on. I happen to know that that isn’t gonna work. There are way too many people who love this country way too much. That isn’t going to happen.