RUSH: Last night C-SPAN’s Q&A, during a discussion about the 2010 midterm elections, George Mason University history professor and author Richard Norton Smith was a guest and said among other things, this…
SMITH: I’m wondering if the Obama administration from the very beginning, by really putting Limbaugh and Palin out there as the face of the Republican Party, doesn’t in fact have a strategy to encourage a latter-day Goldwater. Obviously, they’d like to run against the most vulnerable — most, quote, ‘extreme’ Republican candidate — and the real test will be whether the Republican Party sort of falls for that or whether there is a conservative candidate who may not set their hearts pounding but who is acceptable because they want to win badly enough.
RUSH: Ohhh! So the new mantra from the left here is that Obama really is brilliant; he was years and years and years ahead of everybody. It’s that what Obama was doing by calling me and then Palin ‘the leader of the Republican Party’ was really very crafty. By making me and Palin the face of the party he was hoping that the Republicans would say, ‘Well, I guess that’s what we need to do: Nominate a Palin or a Limbaugh to be the face of our party,’ and then get skunked like Goldwater did in 1964, because this historian thinks Goldwaters get skunked. He has forgotten Reagan, obviously. He has forgotten Ronaldus Magnus. We will see who gets ‘skunked’ tomorrow. But I think this is all hocus-pocus. I don’t think this guy singled me out. Obama, he didn’t single me out or Palin out because he wanted the Republicans to adopt us as leaders. He was hoping that they would denounce us!
That’s what Obama was hoping for. He was hoping that Boehner or some Republican in that meeting two weeks after he was immaculated would agree with him that Rush Limbaugh is ‘not how things get done in Washington.’ That’s what he was hoping. At the time he was courting the ‘conservatives’ he knew he could influence and control, the David Brookses, the David Frums, that bunch that had dinner with him at George Will’s house. That’s who he was trying to anoint as the new conservative leadership. He was just dying to. I told Boehner this. Boehner said, ‘Rush, why you think he did that?’ ‘Because he wanted you to go out of the room and agree with him, John. That woulda made their day if just one of you in that meeting woulda gone out and said, ‘You know, the president’s right. We’ve gotta stop listening to Rush Limbaugh.’ If you’d-a done that, you’d-a made his day. The fact that you didn’t gummed up all his entire works.’
Cokie Roberts, ABC’s This Week during the roundtable talking about (although she doesn’t mention it) Reverse Operation Chaos.
ROBERTS: What we do know is that any time a president is challenged from a primary he loses in the general election, and there’s very — I would not be at all surprised to see this president challenged.
RUSH: Cokie Roberts thinks that Obama will be challenged in 2012. She thinks… (interruption) Yeah, she’s still around, and she thinks that Obama will be challenged, and she said that no president challenged by his own party ever wins. Jimmy Carter, a recent example. Lanny Davis. Lanny Davis this morning on MSNBC got a question from Chris Jansing, the hostette. ‘I have to ask you. I know you saw polls that said almost half of the Democrats want Obama challenged for the nomination in 2012, and the number one person they think should challenge is Hillary Clinton. Is that all polling and fun? That may be some reality going on out there. Do you have any [poof]?’
DAVIS: I haven’t talked to her but I’ll tell you what I know about her: The answer is absolutely not. She loves being secretary of state, she’s a strong supporter of Barack Obama, and she — and I’ve not talked to her so I’m just speculating. The answer is she’s very happy and she will not challenge a sitting Democratic president who she strongly supports.
RUSH: Right. So Lanny Davis says no ‘poof’ whatsoever that Hillary will seek the nomination. He hasn’t spoken to her, but he knows that she loves being secretary of state and loves Obama. He knows that she won’t do it. Now, what’s he gonna say if he knows that she is gonna do it? Is Lanny Davis gonna go on television, ‘Oh, yeah, I know that Hillary’s gonna challenge Obama in 2012.’ Is he gonna say that? Of course not. Of course he’s not gonna say that. Let’s play audio sound bite number 15. This is Saturday in Canton, Ohio. A Democrat National Committee campaign rally, former President Clinton was there, and while he was speaking, Representative John Boccieri (Democrat-Ohio) quickly left the stage because his wife went into labor. Clinton said this…
CLINTON: The baby is now being born! Tell him good-bye! You’d be amazed how many times I take a picture with a very pregnant woman and she immediately gives birth like that.
CROWD: (cackling)
CLINTON: I want some credit for your fifth grandchild being born into the world. We got another Democrat. I wish we could register that baby before it’s like too late.
RUSH: Does he not realize how this sounds? (impression) ‘Yeah, I can’t tell you how many times I take a picture with a very pregnant woman — ha-ha-ha — nine months after first time I met her. It’s amazing. Every time, every time I pose for a picture, pregnant woman, nine months after I met her she immediately gives birth, like that! We got a new Democrat. Right on.’ Does he not get this? (laughing) I don’t think so. I really don’t think so.