RUSH: So I checked the e-mail during the break, and there was a fairly decent point. “Rush, you’re ripping into Jeb’s campaign people. But don’t you realize, if it weren’t for Trump, Jeb would probably be the guy with 20 points right now and this thing would be over?” Well, there that word is again: “If.” Yeah, well, “if” a lot of things, then things would be different. But that actually kind of buttresses my point. You say, “If it weren’t for Trump…” Well, it is for Trump. Trump is there. You’d better be able to adapt to it and you better be able to figure out why Trump is doing well.

And if the only ammo you’ve got with Trump is, “He’s gonna blow it, he’s gonna fade, he’s gonna step in it, he’s not gonna last, he doesn’t really mean it, he’s gonna get out,” and that’s all you can do, then you’re not doing your job. It’s not hard to explain Trump’s success. It’s really rather easy. That’s why when I see The Politico story, “The Incredible Shrinking Trump.” In their dreams. They haven’t the slightest idea what they’re talking about. “The Incredible Shrinking Trump — The usual blustery billionaire offered a downright demure performance at the third GOP debate.”

If these hacks in the media were not Democrat Party activists, this story could just as easily be written as, “Donald Trump Shows More Maturity as Campaign Evolves.” But, no, because the Democrat media does not see Republicans and conservatives in any way anywhere near a favorable, fair, even almost human way. It’s not possible for them. Trump is a cartoon character to all of them, not just Harwood. He is a cartoon character to all of who they hate. I got an e-mail question last night during the debate.

“Okay, Becky Quick and whatever other women have been moderating: Why do they hate these guys so much?” I said, “Are you kidding? Abortion! What do you mean, ‘Why do these female Democrat hacks hate Republican candidates?’ The answer is easy. And in most cases it’s one word: ‘Abortion.’ Or, another word: ‘Republicans.’ They’re hated.” These people have their minds made up. They’re not interested in having their minds changed. They’re not interested in learning if they’re even right, because, in their minds, it’s inconceivable that they’re wrong.

So Trump, who many people might say was behaving a little bit more serious. Less bombast, less personal assault and attack last night. They might say Trump is becoming more serious. Trump is becoming more mature, whatever. But, if you’re not inclined to note anything positive or synonymous with what you would say is growth in a human being or candidate, if all you can see is somebody’s a cartoon character and a buffoon, and if you think the Republican electorate is so stupid — which they do…

Remember, you people are a bunch of mind-numbed robots to the Drive-By Media. You are incapable of thinking on your own. Your public opinions are nothing but the result of whoever it is influencing you. Me, Fox News, whoever. You’re incapable of independent thought, critical thought, what have you. You put these two things together and Trump’s where he is precisely because he’s a cartoon character, and you people are so shallow and so dense that that’s what you want in a president.

You want reality TV.

You want low-rent scum as your leaders. You want this kind of thing, and that’s who you’re supporting, and then when those people, when the buffoons stop acting buffoonish and when the cartoon characters don’t act cartoonish, uh-oh, they’re in trouble. And we get a headline, “The Incredible Shrinking Trump.” They haven’t the slightest idea what they’re talking about. They think Trump is fading. They think Trump may be losing support because he was quieter last night, because less bombastic, ’cause he was less Trump.

All this does is show how these hacks fail to understand the bond that exists between a candidate and his audience or voters. Let me give you one little hint, media. Donald Trump cannot be hurt by something he does not say. Donald Trump, nor any other candidate, cannot be hurt by something he does not do. Last night, Trump didn’t do a bunch of stuff. “Wow, he’s fading away!” Wrongo. For you people in the media and in the Republican establishment to boot…

For you people waiting for Trump to blow it, waiting for Trump to step in it, whatever you think is gonna happen, it’s typical and traditional from people who think their job is to take people out, and that’s what the media thinks their job with us is, is to take us out. Trump was so low-key, nearly invisible, didn’t light it up. Typical of this way of thinking. The only way Trump’s gonna be taken out is if somebody comes along and is better. The media didn’t make Trump. So, little hint, you media people: You can’t take him out.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: According to all the online polls, ladies and gentlemen, after the debate, some of them were scientific, some of them were not, but regardless, according to the all of the online polls, including Drudge and TIME and even CNBC’s own poll, Donald Trump won that thing going away last night. Now, a lot of people, “Rush, how can that be?” And the media, “He didn’t say much. He didn’t insult anybody.” If you don’t understand this — this is the point I made earlier in the Jeb campaign not recognizing where they are, what they’re up against, the nature of the electorate this time around.

Trump has established a bond with his voters. There hasn’t been anything happen that makes them lose any enthusiasm for him. The media isn’t gonna be able to do that. Other candidates aren’t gonna be able to do that. You’re not gonna be able to beat Trump by taking him out. The only way anybody’s gonna beat Trump is being better than he is, which is as it should be. The media thinks they can take anybody out they want to take out. So they’re all: “Trump’s in decline. Trump didn’t show up last night. Trump was not nearly as bombastic. Trump wasn’t who Trump is. Trump didn’t insult Mexicans.” Doesn’t matter. Trump showed up. Trump was engaged. Trump had things to say and they made sense and he scored points, mission accomplished. What do you people think, that he has to go out and insult people like that’s what you think he does and that’s why you think people like him?

I tell you, all of this is so insulting to me. Trump’s only there because we have a bunch of bigoted Republicans that hate Mexicans and Trump went out and tapped into it, and that’s what they think, and that’s why they don’t deserve our attention and our time whatsoever on their networks for any amount of serious discussion about the next presidency and the future of this country because they are not interested in anything but their own bigotry, their own racism, their own small-mindedness. The time has long passed that we need to stop catering to these people, as we though somehow need them. Because that’s the message of this campaign: We don’t need them. The leaders in this campaign have done it despite the media and without them, and that is a good lesson for everybody to learn.