RUSH: I’ll tell you what I want to start with today. I was shocked. I was really, really surprised. This explains a lot of my frustration and my curiosity and my wonderment. I didn’t see it, but I had a couple of e-mails from people who told me about it. Fox News ran (on Friday night at ten o’clock) a one-hour special on the life of Dr. Krauthammer, and it’s in conjunction with his new book, which came out last week, which is a good thing for him that it came out last week.

It’s a compilation of his columns. And in the one-hour special, it was revealed — now, get this, folks. When I first heard this, I had to double-check it because I really didn’t believe it. Dr. Krauthammer, in that one-hour special, talks about not getting who and what Obama was early on. He says even after dining with him after the election, he didn’t know. George Will says the same thing. They did not really get that Obama is who he is. This explains so much. You know, I’m sitting here and I’m assuming that all conservatives know a socialist when they see one.

I am convinced that all conservatives know a statist and a big-government redistributionist when they see one, especially people like Krauthammer and George Will. It doesn’t compute with me that they didn’t know. In the one-hour special on Krauthammer, he talks about — along with George Will — not getting what Obama was about early on, even dining with him after the election and not understanding until five weeks after he was sworn in. It took him five weeks ’til after he was sworn in that they understood what it was Obama was all about.

Now, contrast that with me on January 16th, a couple of weeks — or a week or maybe ten days — before Obama is immaculated, and I’m all over everywhere saying, “I hope he fails.” I’m on Fox. I’m on with Hannity. I’m on with Greta. I’m everywhere, and I’m figuring that every conservative knows exactly why I’m saying it and what I’m talking about. I went to great pains to explain it. I mean, I walked it step by step with Hannity on his show. I did the same thing with Greta. I don’t want anybody calling these guys. I’m not being critical here. That’s not my point. I’m way beyond that. I made an assumption that every rock-ribbed conservative knew who Obama was during the campaign.

I mean, for crying out loud, it’s all there. Rules for Radicals, community organizer, all of the audiotape we had of Obama telling the SEIU people that his objective was single payer. Here he is five days before the election promising to transform the United States of America. And these guys, they say in that one-hour special, it took them five weeks, which is about stimulus time. It took them five weeks to understand what Obama is about. You know, isn’t it their job to know a socialist when they see one?

Now, I understand the conservative establishment not getting it because they probably didn’t want to understand or see Obama that way. If you go back, if you can remember, from the time Obama was elected all through the transition period and then into January of 2009… Well, let me just tell you a quick little story. After Obama was sworn in and he announced… I think it was the national security advisor. I don’t remember the name. Maybe it was chairman of the chief joints of staff, James Jones. That’s who it was. I remember Newt going on and TV celebrating. He said, “If you woulda told me that” da-da-da-da-da-da, “somebody as leftist as Barack Obama would have nominated somebody like James Jones to run the Pentagon,” and it was accepted as a sign he’s a moderate and so forth.

And then Eric Holder is nominated, and our legal intellectuals made a mad dash to the microphones praising the selection of Eric Holder. And I said, “Okay, what’s going on here?” I just figured that they were saying the right things, trying to get off on the right foot. We’ve got a new president. It’s historic. It’s the first black president. Nobody wants to be seen as being critical. They want to avoid the racist charge, but at the same time they wanted to be perceived by these gazillions of Obama voters as fair. And I’m figuring that they’re just saying it. They don’t really mean it, they’re just saying this stuff.

But it turns out, folks — and I think this illustrates why there is a Tea Party, and that’s because the revered thinking inside the Beltway didn’t even see what Obama was during the campaign or in the transition. I just do not, myself — and again, please, folks, I don’t mean this as criticism. That’s not why I’m even mentioning this. I’m mentioning this because it explains so much to me. I’ve shared with you my wonderment and my puzzlement over what seems to be the dwindling number of real conservatives out there, particularly in Washington. And this kind of opens my eyes a little bit about it.

I don’t know how you can not know who the guy is. Maybe you read his autobiographies and you fall for that, maybe. With everything that was out there? I mean, Reverend Wright? Think about all the stuff that was out there! There was either a willful refusal to see it or there was just real blindness about it. And I’m thinking, “No wonder they look at Ted Cruz and Mike Lee the way they do.” Maybe you want to throw some other names in there — Sharron Angle or Sarah Palin.

How in the world you do not know. Forget conservative! As a Republican, how in the world you do not know who Barack Obama is, and then five weeks later… Don’t forget, David Brooks during this period of time — the “conservative” columnist, New York Times — actually says that after having dinner with Obama at George Will’s house… Dr. Krauthammer was there. David Brooks is talking about this guy, and says based on the crease in his pants, this guy’s gonna be a great president. I kid you not.

So we’re sitting here laughing. It turns out these guys were dead serious! Those kinds of things, to Brooks, apparently were really telling about Obama. I guess somebody cares enough about the crease in their pants can’t be, what, socialist? I don’t know. In fact, when I was first told this, I didn’t learn this ’til last night ’cause I didn’t watch this show on Friday night. I didn’t watch the special that Fox did. I had a note about this last night. I said, “Nah.” It didn’t compute. So I checked it out — and, lo and behold, it was true.

If you don’t get who Obama is, then what must you think of Pelosi, and what must you think of Harry Reid or Bill Clinton? And that’s our side. So to these people, to a lot of ’em, folks, you and me are the problem — and Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, they’re the problem. I don’t mean to make this personal, but when I said, “I hope he fails,” that was not in a vacuum. I mean, it was all over everywhere. I wonder what people who didn’t get Obama at the time, by their own admission, thought of that. They were probably just shocked and aghast and embarrassed. “Oh, my God, this is not the way to kick off a new presidency, saying you hope he fails.”

Well, now George Will is saying he hopes Obamacare fails. He didn’t say it on the air. He said it on the Fox News website after Fox News Sunday yesterday. Let’s go to the audio sound bites. This is Fox News Sunday’s website. They continue the show, but only on the Web. It’s called Panel Plus, and they do this after the show ends. They stay there for a while and just continue doing the TV show but only on their website. Juan Williams is on the panel and they’re talking about Obamacare and the rollout. Again, by the way, speaking of that, wait ’til you hear this Obamacare Stack today. I mean, they had a “glitch.” It was out of service for 14 states! I’m getting ahead of myself. (Rein it in, Rush.) It’s one of those times here when I want to say 15 things and the mouth can only say two. So here’s Juan Williams on the Web version only of the Fox News Sunday Panel Plus yesterday.

WILLIAMS: I just think there was a lot of schadenfreude on the panel this morning, people [saying], “Oh, yeah. You know, gosh isn’t it terrible. Oh, my gosh, Obamacare is having trouble.” Come on.. Republicans don’t want this thing to work. That’s the bottom line here.

RUSH: Okay, so Juan Williams. I didn’t see Fox News Sunday yesterday. I don’t watch any of ’em anymore. It’s because I stopped learning things that I didn’t know on them. That’s why. It’s not that I dislike any of the people. It’s all formulaic. But apparently on the panel there’s a lot of people, like they’re doing on Saturday Night Live now, making fun of Obamacare. They really trashed Sebelius on this thing. Oh, do you know Obama didn’t know the NSA was spying? He doesn’t know jack, folks. Obama doesn’t know jack. He doesn’t know anything, and he’s really opposed to it when he finds out. There’s nothing wrong with spying on Merkel. That’s the kind of spying we ought to be doing. (I’m getting ahead of myself.) So Juan Williams is upset that all the conservative commentators on Fox News Sunday yesterday seemed to enjoy the fact that Obamacare’s rollout was in trouble. Here’s George Will — on the Web, not on the air.

WILL: I want to assure brother Williams that there’s no schadenfreude here because I’m not even pretending to be sorrowful. Of course I want Obamacare to fail, because if it doesn’t fail it will just further entangle American society with the government that is not up to this. For a hundred years, Juan, the narrative of progressives — from Woodrow Wilson and on — has been progress will come if but only if we concentrate more and more power in Washington, more and more Washington power in the executive branch, and more and more executive branch power in the hands of experts, disinterested experts such as those who designed HealthCare.gov.

RUSH: They’re the people that designed Obamacare. So here’s George Will perfectly comfortable now saying, of course, “I want Obamacare to fail.” Well, if you want Obamacare to fail, you want Obama to fail. And that’s all I said. It’s the same thing, except I said it two weeks before he was immaculated. For the exact same reasons he gave here on Obamacare, I said I want the whole kit and caboodle to bomb out.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, so after that sterling opening monologue, I’m putting the audio sound bite roster back together ’cause the two bites I played were 16 and 17. I got my hands full, Brian walks in here and hands me something, and I said, “I can’t take it. Just put it down there.” So I look at it, and it’s the new book by Dr. Krauthammer. I said, “Well look at that. I got a publisher’s copy.” How about that? So I open it up, and darn if it isn’t signed. “To Rush with admiration, Charles Krauthammer.” And then there’s a note included that describes the book. “With respect and my very best wishes.”

I looked at the staff. I said, “Your timing couldn’t be more impeccable.” How long has this thing been here? (interruption) Since FedEx got here today? It’s been here since Friday. The Krauthammer book has been here since Friday. (interruption) Right, right. You were gonna put it on my desk this morning, you forgot, and my monologue reminded you of it, right?

This is why I said, folks, “Don’t you love it? A loyal staff.” Remember what we were talking about last week, wanting the leader, the boss, to look good; being willing to work as hard as it takes. This is why I said during the monologue, “I don’t want anybody calling or writing anybody.” I was not being critical. I was expressing genuine incredulity. I don’t know how anybody on our side doesn’t know who Obama is, but there were a lot of them who either refused to or didn’t see who Obama is. We got Woodrow Wilson incarnate, or FDR incarnate. How do they not know?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Snerdley thinks that the answer to my incredulity over this — and I’m not gonna belabor this. I’m getting near the end of this here. He thinks that everyone in Washington was just totally caught up in the historical nature of this. We had the first African-American president. There was love. Everybody just got caught up in it and there was no desire to be critical of it, no matter what. It didn’t seem proper. And, of course, there I am on January 16th. I got past the historical aspect of this the day after the election.

Then the guy became president of the United States. His policies matter not skin color. It didn’t matter to me at all. What he intended to do is all I saw. I didn’t see any history. As I say, been there, done that, back after the election. Maybe a couple minutes after the inauguration, but after that the guy’s president. I don’t care if he’s from Mars. Anyway, I think it explains a lot. (interruption) No, no, no, Snerdley. Look, Dr. Krauthammer knows I admire him. Remember we got in a little contretemps. I forget what it was even about, but the press was trying to make a big deal out of it. I said that I had such admiration for Dr. Krauthammer, that if I had a child I would name him “Krauthammer Limbaugh,” and he commented on Special Report about how he wouldn’t do that to a kid, and I said, “No, I would do it,” knowing full well it isn’t gonna happen.

So I got this personalized copy of Dr. Krauthammer’s book that the staff has had here since Friday, and they present it to me after the opening monologue this hour. Okay. There we go. Now moving on. Well, no, not moving on, because I’m still asking, “How?” Okay, let me get beyond the “how.” I’ve explained the “how.” Look at what else it explains. I’ve been making way too many assumptions about what I think is my team. I’ve been thinking they know a liberal when they see one and that they oppose it, and I’ve been thinking they know a socialist when they see one, and they oppose it. And I’m thinking some of them are smarter than I am. They see it even before I do. They see it better than I do. Not the case, apparently.

Then you take so many events that proved to be controversial that I didn’t understand the controversy of any of them, but now I think I do. Palin is one example. The Tea Party, for crying out loud. You know, this Obamacare rollout, let me put it out this way. This Obamacare rollout has proven every prediction made by the Tea Party in spades. Already Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have been vindicated. Everything they predicted and said has already happened. It only took two weeks, if that. And at the same time, the rollout of Obamacare has proven our news media guardians and pundits wrong on every single point. So who do they mock and ridicule at every turn? The Tea Party, of course, which is our news media in one compact little nutshell.

But the troubling thing is that people that you and I think are just as conservative as we are apparently are not seeing things. I mean, I’ll tell you what. I am as shocked as if somebody told me that Bill Buckley had said, “You know what, I didn’t know who Obama was ’til five weeks after he was inaugurated.” I would not have believed that, but it does explain other things. Pick a controversy I’ve been involved in, in any of the last five years, and check various reactions to it. This might not make sense, but it offers at least a bit of an explanation.

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RUSH: Cookie went back to the Fox News one-hour special on Dr. Krauthammer, and she found the segment in question. This is Charles Krauthammer talking about his having met President-elect Obama at a dinner party at George Will’s house a week before the immaculation in 2009.

KRAUTHAMMER: I remember before the president-elect arrived saying, “You know, I haven’t been able to figure this guy out. Is he a centrist who will occasionally throw a bone to the left or is he a lefty who will occasionally throw a bone to the right?” Nobody had any idea.

WILL: Well, that was part of Mr. Obama’s great strength. He was a national Rorschach Test.

KRAUTHAMMER: So we spent three hours with this new man, he leaves, and we’re staying behind a little bit, and I say — same question — “Is he a centrist? Is he a lefty?” Nobody knew.

BAIER: Five years later you think you’ve figured out him out?

KRAUTHAMMER: I figured him out after that first State of the Union speech, five weeks later.

RUSH: (big sigh) I just think about what could have been. I intellectually don’t know how you can not figure out Barack Obama. There’s just too much on the record, votes as a senator. Forget the campaign. It was all smoke and mirrors. A liberal is a liberal. We knew. We passed the Rorschach Test here. There wasn’t any Rorschach Test. I know Obama, for the low-information crowd, could be whatever you wanted him to be — a blank canvas — but, for crying out loud, we’re not talking about low-information people here.

I don’t want to make too big a deal of this from the standpoint of being critical of these guys. Again, it’s not the point. They’re not the only ones, folks, who didn’t get it. They’re not the only ones who didn’t see who Obama was. Moderate? Wasn’t able to figure him out? Why? This is my lament. I don’t care who the liberal is.

If they’re a liberal, you can 100% type them. Unarguable. Pick one. Elizabeth Warren, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi. Pick one. Show me a moderate anywhere in the Democrat Party today and I’ll show you one who’s a liberal. It’s that simple. Okay, here’s Brad, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as we start on the phones. I’m glad you called, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Well, Rush, mega dittos. Just calling to tell you that as an economics professor in 2009 I was proud to be a part of the Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies trying to explain to my students what you meant when you wanted Obama to fail, that you didn’t want him personally or the country to fail.

But you needed his policies to fail because they were bad for the country, that socialism promises economic advancement for all but it’s free enterprise that actually delivers on that promise, and that’s what economic theory, facts, and history have proven time and time again. So I just want you to know, I feel your pain, and I was doing my part —

RUSH: I appreciate that.

CALLER: — in my neck of the woods.

RUSH: What kind of success rate did you have in explaining this to students who didn’t quite get it?

CALLER: It actually is very remarkable that when you actually get into it, and explain the facts, they’re there. And they respond. And they understand. The only problem is that most of my colleagues that teach economics — and unfortunately many in business today —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — in higher education are socialists and actually hate the free enterprise system.

RUSH: Precisely. Precisely. You know, here’s another point. This is, intellectually though, just common sense. Who in the world…? I mean, I’ve been doing this for 20 years. At the time all this was happening, who in the world could have possibly thought that I meant I wanted the country to fail? It was the exact opposite.

I didn’t want the country to be harmed, I didn’t want the country to be damaged, I didn’t want Obamacare, I didn’t want all of this that he’s done. I’ve never understood what was so hard to understand about that. How could anybody think that — unless they’re told by people, unless they’re easily influenced.

But how in the world could anybody believe that I wanted the country to fail or that I had no respect for the office of the presidency? I’m long past the historical aspect of this when I say that. To me, he’s president, I know what his ideas are, I know what his philosophy is, I know what he’s gonna do because he said so to his various groups during the campaign, fundraising events.

I know who his pastor was. I know what he thinks, I know what he believes, I know how he’s gonna go about it. I can’t believe I’m the only one. To this day… Well, I’m not the only one, but, I mean, I just don’t believe others didn’t see it. It really doesn’t compute. And I’m —

CALLER: Well, it does seem to be a tactic among Democrats to attack your integrity as Republicans. You and Republicans address issues, just like Ted Cruz in the recent discussions, and they’re ridiculed and condemned as human beings but they don’t want to engage in the discussion because they know they lose on the facts.

RUSH: Well, exactly. No question about that. And I’m fully aware that I’ve been demonized and ridiculed, impugned, and all that kind of thing. But even at that, look, the idea that I wanted the country to fail just because my guy didn’t win the election? I didn’t really have a guy running. It was lesser-of-two-evils kind of thing. Anyway, Brad, I appreciate the call and the yeoman effort that you made in the classroom. Thank you.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So I got a note from a friend trying to explain this to me, how inside-the-Beltway conservatives in a two-year presidential campaign could not tell what Barack Obama was until a month or two after he was immaculated. Now, see what you think of this. He says, “Rush the reason people took so long to get Obama is that many ‘sophisticates,'” quote, unquote — sophisticates, sophisticated people in their own mind, “don’t believe that anyone in public life has principles or serious beliefs,” and much of the time that’s true. But the signals from Obama were absolutely unambiguous.

Now, if that happens to be true, then I am doubly whammied here. How in the world? Now, let me try to understand. Okay, you’re inside the Beltway, and it’s the establishment, and it’s Republicans and Democrats, and the government, everything’s good and all that, and I guess what is meant here is, “Look, nobody in that universe, in that world thinks anybody really has any principles or serious beliefs. It’s just whatever you have to do at the time to get done what you need to get done.” I mean, I guess it could be true. I cannot relate to it. Principles and serious beliefs, I thought, were what defined people, at least in this arena.

But maybe this is true. Maybe the inside the Beltway culture is that nobody has any real beliefs or anything. But, see, I don’t know how you can say that. Every liberal that we’re up against has serious beliefs and hard-core radical principles. And I’m sorry, I don’t understand how that’s overlooked. I don’t understand how that is not seen. I didn’t intend to make this big a deal, but the longer I ponder it, I guess the more incredulous it’s possible I become. And then these explanations come rolling in.

See, I can’t relate to not having principles. But I guess that really does maybe define the inter-workings of politics. No real principles, just do whatever you have to. Maybe that’s what bothers all these people about Cruz and Mike Lee. Maybe it is, folks. I mean, there’s no question Mike Lee and Cruz have principles and serious beliefs, and maybe that is what’s the threat, and the Tea Party. The Tea Party’s made up of average Americans who are hell-bent in their seriousness. The Tea Party’s made up of average Americans who are dead serious about their beliefs and their principles. And maybe that is what bugs people inside the Beltway. Maybe that is what makes them uncomfortable.