RUSH: Folks, the regime, Obama and the others, as you know, are desperate to distract everybody from this horrible economy.  Anything they can do to divert people's attention from it.  The latest attempt is an attempt to give birth again to the war on women, and the way they're doing it is with Augusta National now.  Don't laugh.  I'm telling you this is what they're trying to do.  This is a diversion, it's nothing more.  You know, most women don't care.  Most women couldn't care less who the members of Augusta National are.  Most women wouldn't have the time to be offended.  Most men will never be members at Augusta National.  The vast majority of men in this country will never see the place. 

Women play golf at Augusta National every day. Other than during the tournament, women play there constantly. Women play there frequently.  They're not disallowed from playing.  But I'm gonna tell you why this is going on, and this needs to be refocused.  These diversion attempts have got to be stopped.  It's fun to play along with them for a while, but Obama's trying to say, "I'm for women. I'm the guy that cares about women. Women are my base."  And he's trying to make a case for this with Augusta National membership.  He couldn't be further away from relating to most women.  This is not gonna irritate most women.  It's gonna look like it. The media's gonna carry the water and they're gonna make it look like every woman in this country cares only about Augusta, more than birth control pills now. 

This week and next more women are gonna care about the policies at Augusta National than they are about birth control pills, according to the media.  They're gonna do whatever they can to further Obama's attempt to divert things.  But the question needs to be asked:  How many women are affected by any of the issues this president raises respecting condoms, Augusta National, birth control pills?  How many women are really being denied contraception?  None.  How many women really want to become members of Augusta National, or better stated, how many of them care?  It's infinitesimal.  And that's why the Republicans have so many opportunities to address the real problems Americans face, women and men, and to stop allowing Obama and the left to push 'em into wedge issues, which are largely nonissues. 

Contraception is a nonissue.  Augusta National membership is a nonissue.  Birth control pills are a nonissue.  And if, for example, if Augusta National, for some reason, caves to all this and allows women to become members, how is that gonna help women find work?  How is that going to help lower the price of gasoline?  How is that gonna help the housing market?  So Obama wants to focus on Augusta National, okay, fine, what a bunch of rotten Cretans they are.  Okay, let's say hypothetically Augusta National is made to do what Obama wants.  Fine.  What does that do for the women paying for gasoline?  What does that do to lower housing prices?  What does that do to help anybody find a job?  Zilch, zero, nada.  It's a nonfactor.  It is irrelevant. 

We know what Obama's doing.  We know what he's doing.  He's diverting.  Our job is to not fall for it, is to not be taken off message.  And the way you do it is easy.  You simply point out how women don't fare well under Obama's policies.  The way you expose Obama is to turn the tables.  And it's gotta be the Republicans that do this.  It can't just be a talk show host here or there.  It's gotta be the Republican presidential nominee.  I'm gonna tell you something.  Mitt Romney coming out and griping about Augusta National, pandering, is not the thing to do.  I saw that, and I said, "Get ready," 'cause this is why the people that don't like Romney don't like him. 

Out of nowhere here comes a nonissue, women membership at Augusta National, and Obama goes out, sends the "spokeskid" out there, Jay Carney, "Well, the president thinks that women should be allowed."  And within minutes there's Romney saying the same thing and I'm putting my hands over my head, "No, tell me it didn't happen."  This is falling for the trap.  This is falling right for the trap, allowing yourself to be diverted, letting Obama set the premise, responding to it.  It's silly.  The thing to say is it doesn't matter if women are admitted to Augusta National.  How does that help them find work? How does that help lower their gas prices?  How does that fix the housing market? How does it get their husbands jobs? 

You gotta point out how women are not faring well under Obama's policies.  Not only that, women don't do well working for this guy.  There are stories in the media for the past two years about what a boys club the Obama administration is. Except for a couple of women, they're all shut out.  And speaking of golf and women, Obama played 23 rounds last year before he allowed a woman in a group.  So much hypocrisy here.  But the key is to not get distracted.

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RUSH:  You know, ladies and gentlemen, Obama talks about free contraceptives for women.  What do we talk about?  We should talk about women who've lost health care coverage under his presidency because they've lost their jobs.  He's talking about free birth control pills.  Let's talk about what really matters.  He talks about Augusta National and the right to membership.  We should talk about all the women who've lost their jobs under his presidency who don't care what happens at Augusta National. 

This guy, to me, is easy pickings.  I don't like the fact that still so many in the Republican Party are intimidated here by what they think is his superior intellect or his magic ability to communicate with people or the racial component.  There's no reason to be fearful now.  There's no reason to be afraid.  There's no reason to be defensive.  Obama is easy pickings.  The other day we played these sound bites of Ryan trying to react to the outright lies that Obama was telling about his budget.  Republicans want to poison the air and poison the water, contaminate the food.  Ryan was confounded because he immediately felt he had to go on defense. 

No, you don't go on defense.  You ignore the lies and you stay on offense and you point out everything about Obama's record.  Obama should have to answer for some things, not Paul Ryan.  He should have to answer for what actually is 10.9% unemployment.  For the longest period in our history, more people have dropped out of the workforce than at any time in modern history.  Obama needs to be made to answer for this.  More foreclosures than at any time in our history. More people losing their homes than at any time in recent history, more debt, more deficit spending than ever before in our history.  Obama needs to be forced to answer to that.  Paul Ryan doesn't have to defend anything.  Paul Ryan hasn't done anything to anybody.  Paul Ryan's budget's not even been enacted yet.  Paul Ryan's a bad guy. Paul Ryan's budget's the killer? 

We're living in the midst of utter destruction, brought about by the policies of one man who should be forced to answer for them.  He is the least competent person to ever sit in the White House to lecture anybody about budgets and spending and priorities.  Thankfully, there's a guy at the RNC, a researcher has found some things.  Since Obama took office, the unemployment rate for women has gone up from 7% to 8.1%.  Since Obama took office, the number of female workers has declined by 683,000.  You think they care about Augusta National or birth control pills right now?  Since Obama took office, the number of women unemployed has increased almost 900,000.  The poverty rate among women rose to 14.5%, up from 13.9% in 2009, the highest rate in 17 years.  This is women. Obama, the Democrats, they care about women.  Republicans have the war on women.  This needs to be turned around on them.  This defensive posture over Ryan's budget brought to a screeching halt.  These people need to answer for what they have done.

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RUSH:  I'll go through these numbers again in a moment, a little slower, but who's waging war on women?  As far as Augusta National is concerned, Mr. President, it's none of your business.  It's a private club.  They can do with it what they want.  None of your business, period.

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RUSH: Do not get diverted.  Do not be placed on defensive.  Paul Ryan had nothing to explain.  Obama goes out, attacks Ryan's budget, the Republicans, dirty water, dirty air, contaminated food, no jobs, no defense, no nothing.  And Ryan said, "Gee, I don't know how to deal with it."  Don't.  You don't have to anything to defend, Congressman Ryan.  Turn it back and make him explain what he's actually done.  You've got a budget that's filled with projections.  It's an idea. It's a starting point.  Not one thing of what you want has happened, but three-and-a-half years of what this guy's done is causing havoc.  Make the Obama administration defend what they've done.  Make them answer for what they've done. 

Now, these numbers on women.  When you hear these numbers, ask yourself, who is it waging a war on women?  It isn't the Republicans.  Women are not threatened with birth control pills, and they don't care about who gets into Augusta National.  And it's none of Obama's business who gets in there anyway, and it's none of Martha Burk's business who gets in, none of the NAGs business, none of the feminists business.  It's nobody's business who gets in there except the guys that run the place.  Pure and simple.  Augusta National is not harming anybody.  In fact, you could say that the net impact of Augusta National on this country and everything it touches is a net positive. 

Believe me, whatever problems this country faces, you're not gonna find them at Augusta National. But you'll find 'em in the White House. You'll find the problems etched out, spelled out, happening each and every day in the Oval Office in the West Wing.  Now, these numbers on women with the new unemployment numbers are both Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics.  And they are by Joe Pounder, who is a researcher for the RNC.  "Since Obama took office, the unemployment rate for women has increased from 7.0% to 8.1%."  By the way, these numbers ought to actually be higher, just like today the 8.2% unemployment number, if the same number of jobs existed today as in 2009 when Obama took office, the unemployment rate today would be 10.9%.  If the labor force participation rate were the same. 

The only way that unemployment rate's down to 8.2% is that the administration has simply waved a magic wand and eliminated over two million jobs from the universe of jobs to be found in this country.  They did it.  They run the department.  They are in charge of the numbers.  If they say that there are two-plus million fewer jobs today than there were in 2009, then that's operative.  But because they say it, the unemployment rate instead of being 10.9% is 8.3.  So the unemployment rate for women has increased from 7 to 8.1% probably more like eight to nine-and-a-half percent.  But we'll use these numbers.  I just want to make that point.  Since Obama took office, the number of female workers has declined.  Labor force participation rate.  The number of women working, who have jobs, has declined by 683,000. 

Since Obama took office, the number of women unemployed has increased 858,000.  The poverty rate among women since Obama took office is up to 14.5%.  That's last year.  That's up from 13.9% in 2009.  This is the highest poverty rate among women in 17 years.  The debt, the slowness of our recovery, highest and worst ever, in our history.  The regime needs to be forced to answer to this with the Republican Party and its presidential candidate staying on offense and not joining these silly, pandering moments of getting on the train and saying, "Yeah, I think Augusta ought to be made to admit women."  Doesn't mean anything. 

So the perennial question, Mr. Snerdley, what do women want? This is the question that men since Adam, cavemen, you know -- (interruption) That's right.  Only women know.  What do women want?  But I can get pretty close when talking about this stuff.  I don't think women are losing sleep over who gets into Augusta National.  I don't think women are losing sleep over where their next birth control pill is gonna come from.  And I actually don't think women who want abortions are losing sleep whether or not they're gonna be able to get one.  I don't think they feel threatened that way.  And I don't think most women are comforted by the fact that Obama is having a woman's forum today in the White House.  I don't think most women give a hoot, because I don't think most women think it's gonna matter to them. 

What I think most women care about is their children and their future, as well as their present.  What kind of a mess is their school?  What is the country going to be like when their kids grow up and get out of school?  What are their kids going to know when they get out of school?  Are they gonna be properly educated?  This is what I think women care about.  I think some women are worried that they're going to lose the ability to worship as they want.  Women, mothers, are very much involved with the education system.  As such, they are well aware of the problems, and they are terribly worried that their kids aren't learning anything that matters, and it's important. 

I think a lot of women are highly offended that another woman is trying to tell them what their kids can eat.  I think a lot of women are offended by the fact that their kids go to school where there are federal agents taking lunches away from them, made by these women, mothers at home, and substituted with what Michelle Obama thinks they should eat.  I think they're scared to death of the jobs picture, the debt, the tax rates that they're going to be paying and their children and grandchildren before they even get their first jobs.  They are worried about whether or not their kids are even going to be able to afford to go to college, and then they're worried about what they're going to learn once they get there.  They're worried about being able to stay in their homes right now.  And they are terribly worried that their kids may not have a chance to own a home, if things don't change. 

I think a lot of women are fed up with being molested at the airport by TSA people.  I think they're fed up not having the freedom to be able to pick their own doctor soon down the road.  There are a lot of everyday, real-life things that a lot of women and men view as falling apart in this culture.  And if anything has 'em bothered, it's that.  Women who have sons and daughters in the US military are also worried just how much their commander-in-chief is committed to the mission that their sons and daughters are assigned to.  They are worried whether or not it's all worth it.  They're worried if they're going to come home.  They are not worried about Augusta National or birth control pills, and they're not sitting out there thinking that Republicans want to deny them all this stuff.  And it's silly to even consider the possibility that a lot of women are thinking -- you might have some leftist women, young college student women, of course, but we're talking about a majority of people here.