RUSH: I got an e-mail from one of my golf buddies late yesterday afternoon, just beside himself, just depressed as he could be. He said, “What in the world is going on in this election? We got a guy who’s making up things on the economy. We got a guy who’s responsible for six-dollar-a-gallon gasoline.” And he cited all the economic stats, all the unemployed people, 13 to 14 million. All of the homes underwater. All the economic stats. All of this is going on and we got Obama lying, now suggesting pond scum as a new energy source, making fun of and putting down drilling. “Why are we talking about contraception and abortion?” As though I’m responsible for it. And he was demanding an answer.

Now, this is noteworthy because this guy follows stuff every day. He ought to know that we’re talking about this because of a Democrat trick. We’re talking about it because Obama brought it up via George Stephanopoulos. We’re talking about it because Obama mandated contraception on the Catholic Church. That got all this started. He knows that, and yet he’s ticked off the Republicans. So I sent him something. There was a story in the Washington Post. I was busy doing show prep last night, and it’s a shock poll from the Washington Post/ABC News. I sent him a little paragraph from it. I sent a lot of my friends this. “Rick Santorum Winning More Support from Republican Women.” I sent this to him, and I said, “Patience, man, patience.”

Let’s set this up. Grab audio sound bite 24. Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post was on Morning Joe today with Joe Scarborough, and they were talking about Santorum. Scarborough said, “For Rick Santorum to be scaring pro-life voters off, it’s not an indictment against the pro-life movement so much as his own view, which is I think extreme by modern political standards, on contraception.” He doesn’t have an extreme view on contraception. He’s not said a thing about it other than he wouldn’t come up with a government program to deal with whatever his view is. There’s nothing extreme about it. This is how this stuff gets started. So, after making the claim that Santorum’s views on contraception are extreme, this is what Capehart said.

CAPEHART: Yeah, very extreme and then you get to a point where someone like me who has no dog in this fight at all listening to him but concerned about the impact of what he’s saying, being very uncomfortable by what Rick Santorum is saying. Hearing what you have been saying about your wife and Republican women, you just backed out of the kitchen to listen to them talk about what Republicans are saying and doing on contraception and abortion issues and just being completely uncomfortable by the tone and tenor of what Rick Santorum is saying.

RUSH: Stop the tape. “Rick Santorum Winning More Support from Republican Women.” Washington Post. We are talking about contraception because the mainstream news media controls the conversation. We’re talking about it because Obama wants it discussed, and the media won’t let it die no matter what the Republicans do. Amy Gardner at the Washington Post: “Over the past several weeks, Republicans have watched squeamishly as presidential contender Rick Santorum has waded into multiple controversies that risk alienating half the 2012 electorate: women.

“But, in fact, Santorum has grown more popular among women while talking about his opposition to abortion, his disapproval of birth control and his view that the federal government shouldnÂ’t pay for prenatal screenings. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows not only that Santorum is doing better among GOP women than he was a few weeks ago, but also that he is less unpopular … among Democratic and independent women than his Republican rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.” He is less unpopular than those two among Democrat and independent women. How is this possible?

By the way, you Romney people chill. Your moment in the sun is coming on the program. I’m dealing with an e-mail I got from a friend of mine who’s in a state of panic — like I imagine a lot of people are — and I’m trying to calm everybody down about this social issue stuff. It’s not a killer. Abortion is the killer, not the Republican Party. Obama is the guy who supports infanticide, not us. The American mainstream culture has not yet gone to hell, and that’s partly shown and illustrated by this poll. Jonathan Capehart is sitting there at the MSNBC studio all holier-than-thou, hoity-toity, Republican women, Santorum and the boys want ’em pregnant in the kitchen, can’t stand ’em outside the kitchen. Doesn’t have the slightest idea what he’s talking about, living in the world of cliche after cliche after cliche.

“Voters and political strategists alike say SantorumÂ’s rise has less to do with his views on these issues than on his ability to relate to the daily struggles of the middle class.” Oh, okay, so they’re claiming that his popularity is due not to the abortion stuff, but to his ability to relate to the daily struggles of middle class. And, by the way, this abortion stuff isn’t hurting him. That’s the point of the story. In fact, he is less unpopular among Democrat and independent women than Romney or Gingrich. Now, the only other possibility here is the Washington Post and ABC News got together and totally made this up because they want Santorum to keep talking about this stuff. That’s the only other possibility. They totally made it up. It’s a giant head fake. Is a total attempt to sandbag us. That’s the only other thing this could be.

So I sent my buddy this and I said, “Patience.” And I didn’t hear back. I think he’s watching a continuous loop of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. He’s a big golfer. He’s out in Arizona. (interruption) What? What, Snerdley? No, no. No, no. No. Did not say more popular. Less unpopular. How can Santorum be less unpopular than Newt? Well, he’s less well known, for one thing, but he’s less unpopular with Democrat and independent women than Romney and Gingrich. My guess, Snerdley, it might have to do with the fact that it’s now widely known that Santorum is a loving and devoted father. You think that might have something to do with this? He’s got a little girl that’s lived three years beyond her life expectancy. She was just in the hospital. He suspended the campaign. Do you think that might affect women positively? Could well be.

We know he’s not Bill Clinton running around trying to score with soccer moms, but at least she’s showing himself as a good family man. I’m just guessing, but I think that could have something to do with it. They say here, “But there is no evidence that SantorumÂ’s position among women in either party has dropped in recent weeks. That is a surprise to some Republicans, who have watched uncomfortably as he has engaged in high-profile discussions about abortion, contraception and prenatal screening.” Yeah, he’s asked questions about it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: A little bit here on the methodology of the Washington Post poll. Sure enough it was a poll of “adults,” not “voters.” Not “voters,” not “likely voters,” not “registered voters,” but “adults.” That means… (interruption) No, no, no, no. Don’t smile, Snerdley. What that means is that statistically and based on experience, two-out-of-three respondents in this poll don’t vote. That’s why polling done with “registered voters,” “likely voters” and “adults.” So the Santorum ABC poll where he’s less unpopular than Romney and Gingrich, and where he’s becoming more popular with Republican and Democrat and independent women, is a poll of “adults.” A group polling-wise, statistically that two out of three don’t vote. So that lends credence to the notion that the poll’s rigged, that it’s faked to produce a desired result for the pollster.