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RUSH: Here is Aaron in Chico, California. Hi, Aaron. I’m glad you waited. Great to have you on Open Line Friday.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Mega dittos. I was listening to your program talking a little bit about Charlie Rose, what they didn’t know about Obama back in ’08 and —

RUSH: Yes, Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw.

CALLER: Yeah. And I’m a 24/7 member, and I like to listen to some of your previous broadcasts, some of your really great shows, and one of them was a show following the election. It was on November 6th, and it was actually Charlie Rose talking to Evan Thomas and Jon Meacham, more about the circumstances of the new president and so forth.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: I remember it was Evan Thomas who was talking about an interview Obama gave, and they were talking about how creepy he was, but one of the things that Evan Thomas said was that Barack Obama is quoted as saying that this creature that he’s designed isn’t necessarily a real person, and if you really want to be informed, you should watch that whole interview ’cause it’s amazing.

RUSH: Well, we have the sound bites. We went back to the sound bite archive, and we have the two sound bites that you are talking about. I’m glad that you reminded me. I have never forgotten the Charlie Rose-Tom Brokaw stuff, but these two are just as bad.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Or instructive. They’re just as profound. So you can listen Aaron while we play it for everybody else. This is November 5th. This is the day after the election, literally the day after the election. And they are talking about Obama’s victory speech in Grant Park in Chicago on election night. And if you remember that, the people that showed up that had voted for, supported Obama, literally looked like zombies. It looked like the village of the walking dead. Their minds were totally gone they were just enthralled. It was indescribable, the looks of vacancy on their faces, and yet they were as euphoric and happy as they could be. But you get the impression they didn’t know why. They just were.

And so on Charlie Rose, this is a week after he and Brokaw are telling each other they don’t know anything about Obama. The week before the election. “I don’t know what books he reads. I don’t know what his foreign policy is, I don’t know. It’s a good question, what his advisers are telling him, I don’t know.” So you’re right, Charlie Rose talking to Newsweek’s Evan Thomas and Jon Meacham. Neither of those two guys are there now. Charlie Rose, this is after he’s elected that they conceded, you’re right, that there’s something “creepy” about Obama.

MEACHAM: He’s very elusive, Obama, which is fascinating for a man who’s written two memoirs. At Grant Park he walks out with the family, and then they go away.

ROSE: Mmm. Mmm-hmm.

MEACHAM: Biden’s back, you know, locked in the bar or something.

ROSE: (haughty chuckle)

MEACHAM: You know, they don’t let him out. And have you ever seen a victory speech where there was no one else on stage?

ROSE: Mmm.

MEACHAM: No adoring wife, no cute kid. He is the messenger.

THOMAS: There is a slightly creepy cult of personality about all this. I mean, he’s such an admirable —

ROSE: Slightly. Creepy. Cult of personality.

THOMAS: Yes.

ROSE: What’s “slightly creepy” about it?

THOMAS: It — it — it just makes me a little uneasy that he’s so singular. He’s clearly managing his own spectacle. He’s a deeply manipulative guy.

RUSH: And they couldn’t wait to vote for him. These are the guys running interference for him all during the campaign, Meacham, Evan Thomas. Evan Thomas, by the way, to remind you, back in 2004 admitted that the mainstream media’s support was gonna be worth 15 points to John Kerry. He’s one of the voices you heard here. These guys are both top executives and writers at Newsweek and they’re talking about how manipulative and how creepy and how egomaniacal Obama is. “I’ve never seen a victory speech, a presidential victory speech with nobody else on stage. No cute kid, no wife, just Obama. Manipulative, creepy, cult of personality.” And these guys voted for him. Here’s the next bite.


ROSE: Watching him last night in that speech, he finishes —

MEACHAM: Yeah.

ROSE: — and he sort of — it’s almost like he then ascends to look at the circumstance.

MEACHAM: He watches us watching him.

THOMAS: Watching him!

ROSE: Exactly!

THOMAS: He does —

MEACHAM: It’s amazing.

ROSE: It is amazing.

THOMAS: He writes about this metaphor being a screen upon which Americans will project. He said they want Barack Obama; I’m not sure I am Barack Obama.

ROSE: Mmm.

THOMAS: He has the self-awareness to know that this “creature” he’s designed isn’t necessarily a real person, and he’s self-aware enough —

ROSE: Ahhhhhh.

RUSH: Unbelievable! He’s not a real person, and he knows it. This creature he’s designed isn’t necessarily a real person, he’s self-aware enough to know that. Charlie Rose is the one who said, “Watching him last night in that speech, he finishes and it’s almost like he then ascends to the circumstances.” He meant heavens. He ascends, and he is above us, and he’s watching us watch him. And they’re fascinated. Obama ascends on the third day. He rose from the stage. And he’s up there after ascending, and he’s watching us watch him. That was Meacham who said he watches us watching him. And Charlie Rose said, “Exactly.” Not exactly. But “ex-actly.” He’s watching us watch him. He does, too. This metaphor, screen upon which Americans will project. So creepy, singular, cult of personality, managing his own spectacle, deeply manipulative guy, watches us watch him. He knows that he’s not necessarily a real person. This is the day after Obama is elected on the Charlie Rose Show. Aaron, thanks for the reminder.

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