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RUSH: In my show prep perusal today, ladies and gentlemen, it is clear that Jon Huntsman is gonna announce tomorrow, the former ambassador to the ChiComs for Obama, former governor of Utah. He isgonna announce. The Drive-Bys are orgasmic. They can’t wait. They are just over the top with excitement. Everywhere you look today there are stories about Huntsman and how there are sighs of relief within the power structure of the Republican Party. “Finally somebody reasonable! Finally an adult.” And all this is happening at the same time that Rick Perry happens to be rocking’n’ rolling.

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RUSH: Rick Perry over the weekend in New Orleans delivered, as it’s reported here at MSNBC, “an unapologetically socially conservative speech before a friendly crowd.” Unapologetically? What, “social conservatives” are supposed to apologize before they make speeches about social issues? Yeah, I guess so, given the website: MSNBC. We have sound bites on this. Let’s first go to yesterday and this morning. We have a montage of people at MSNBC: F. Chuck Todd, Joe Scarborough, former White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton and Paul Gigot talking about Rick Perry and former President Bush.

F. CHUCK TODD: I’ve had, quietly, some Republicans say Rick Perry is just a little too Texan —

SCARBOROUGH: (snickering)

F. CHUCK TODD: — this close to Bush.

SCARBOROUGH: That’s Rick Perry doing George W. Bush.

BURTON: Rick Perry is a pretty extreme version of George W. Bush.

GIGOT: Is the country, particularly those northern suburbs, ready for another Texan after eight years of George W. Bush?

RUSH: What is this groupthink? Where does this come from? The idea that voters in this country are going to say, after hearing Rick Perry — or anybody — “Oh, no, no, no! We can’t elect Rick Perry. He comes from the same state Bush came from.” Is the Bush Derangement Syndrome so distorting of these people’s minds that they really believe that voters would decide on a candidate because he was the same state that George W. Bush is from? I mean, this sounds like a stretch — and even Paul Gigot from the Wall Street Journal, who was the last voice you heard there, seemed to agree with the sentiment. It was F. Chuck Todd here who says, “I’ve quietly had some Republicans say that Rick Perry is just a little too Texan this close to Bush.”

Well, now, so Texas is hated along with Bush? Sorry, folks, I don’t buy this. This is yet another example… It’s like the New York Times. New York Times has a story about Clarence Thomas. It’s one of the most convoluted stories that you’ll ever encounter. It’s a story about how he may have acted improperly in trying to save a museum. Something as harmless as a museum. He may have acted improperly — and when you read the story you really don’t see anything that was improper and you’re left scratching your head, until you realize the purpose. The purpose here (this is the New York Times) is they’re already starting to work on judges, justices of the Supreme Court vis-a-vis Obamacare. ‘Cause everybody knows that Obamacare’s gonna end up there — and they’re now starting to work on the justices.

Make no mistake about it. They’re gonna be doing puff profiles of Anthony Kennedy and others in the Washington Post Style section trying to buy their vote on this. Clarence Thomas is constantly a target, but this story? There’s no way that you come away thinking he’s done anything wrong, but it’s a warning shot. In fact, this story is not even for the readers. This story is aimed at Justice Thomas himself, trying to intimidate him. Now, this Rick Perry. “Nah, we can’t go for Rick Perry; he’s in Texas — and Bush is from Texas! Everybody hates Bush, ergo everybody hates Texas, or everybody hates Texas politicians. Why? Why all of a sudden are they talking this way about Rick Perry? Saturday afternoon in New Orleans, the 2011 Republican leadership conference, we have some comments by Rick Perry, and we have edited the applause. It was substantial. But we’ve edited the applause in the interests of time.

GOV. PERRY: We need to stop apologizing for celebrating life.

RUSH: Right on.

GOV. PERRY: We need to stop apologizing —

RUSH: Right on.

GOV. PERRY: — for wanting to protect an individual’s right to build a business.

RUSH: Right on.

GOV. PERRY: We need to stop apologizing about stemming the tide of entitlement mind-set that’s out there. We ought to be proud of our efforts to give local parents and communities a say on how their children are educated, protecting that fundamental right of private property ownership. Our party cannot be all things to all people. It can’t be. And our loudest opponents on the left are never gonna like us so let’s quit trying to curry favor with ’em!

AUDIENCE: (applause)

RUSH: Right on!

GOV. PERRY: Let’s speak with pride about our morals and our values and redouble our effort to elect more conservative Republicans. Let’s stop this American downward spiral!

AUDIENCE: (applause)

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you know what? I now know how you feel when you’re listening to me. I now know how you applaud it. I now know how you get all revved up when you’re listening to me. Damn straight. Finally! Why in the world do we apologize? This comes from this defensive position that you always end up in when you accept somebody else’s premise in an argument. He’s exactly right: Why apologize at all for celebrating life? Stop apologizing for wanting to protect an individual’s right to build a business? Of course, the MSNBC story: “Rick Perry delivered an unapologetically socially conservative speech,” as though he’s supposed to apologize. I just love this bite. We have this one and…let me see… a couple more. And again we’ve edited the applause just in the interests of time.

GOV. PERRY: This administration in Washington that’s in power now clearly believes that government is not only the answer to every need, but it’s the most qualified to make essential decisions for every American in every area. That mix of arrogance and audacity that guides the Obama administration is an affront to every freedom loving American and a threat to every private sector job in this country.

AUDIENCE: (applause and cheers)

RUSH: All right. So he’s out there articulating the truth, he’s getting stupendous applause and yet, “Nah-nah-nah can’t have Rick Perry. He’s from Texas. He’s too close to Bush. We don’t want anybody from Texas! Bush is from Texas. We hate Texas — or not ‘we,’ but the voters. The voters don’t want anybody else from Texas.” This is the message from the elites, the inside-the-Beltway geniuses who like to tell us what we will and what we won’t vote for or who we will and won’t vote for. I think Perry understands who we are. We have a choice. We have a decision to make as Americans.

GOV. PERRY: Will history view us as the generation of Americans that kinda collectively shrugged their shoulders and said, “I guess there’s nothing that I can do? Will we just watch our nation continue this slow backwards slide? Will future generations of Americans living a life without any direction or decision that’s not made by some bureaucrat wonder: “Why didn’t somebody do something?” I’ve got more confidence in America’s energy and character. I totally believe it’s time to reconnect with the greatest attributes of our nation, to regain that resiliant spirit and recapture that love of freedom, remembering its true price. We’re all facing the same challenges in America. I stand before you today a disciplined conservative Texan — a committed Republican and a proud American — united with you in the desire to restore our nation and revive the American dream.

AUDIENCE: (applause)

RUSH: Right on, right on. Again, we edited the applause there. Now, this is not sitting well with the Drive-Bys and the State-Controlled Media. We have now a bite here from Scarborough’s show morning on PMSNBC. We had Scarborough, we have Mika Brzezinski, we had a cohost Willie Geist — and Mark Halperin, the TIME Magazine editor-at-large — having this conversation about Rick Perry.

BRZEZINSKI: I watched this, I felt like an alien watching this —

SCARBOROUGH: (guffawing)

BRZEZINSKI: — from the audience —

SCARBOROUGH: Felt like an alien?

BRZEZINSKI: I did. I felt like an alien.

REPORTER: What do you mean? I don’t get it.

BRZEZINSKI: Well, this was the Republican leadership conference in New Orleans.

SCARBORUGH: Right.

BRZEZINSKI: The crowd was chanting, “Ruuuun, Rick, run!”

SCARBOROUGH: You know, I — I think I saw this guy on Broadway.

GEIST: One man show.

SCARBOROUGH: What was it called?

HALPERIN: Uhhh, “Thank you, America?”

GEIST: You’re welcome.

HALPERIN: You’re welcome.

SCARBOROUGH: That’s right, Will Ferrell doing George W. Bush.

RUSH: Do you believe that? Have you seen the Will Ferrell one-man show? It’s juvenile; it’s banal. It’s not even funny. It’s just gratuitous. It’s almost like a comedian impressionist has nothing else left in his act except to impersonate Bush, years after Bush is gone. I guarantee you, George Bush doesn’t say these kind of things. He certainly didn’t say these kind of things in the last two, three years of his administration. But man, oh, man! Here’s Mika Brzezinski saying she feels like an alien listening to this? I think this illustrates the great divide that we face. We feel like she’s from another planet when we listen to her.

We feel like Obama from another star system when we listen to him. Listening to Obama, it feels like Darth Vader has taken over in real life. But they think Rick Perry is alien. This is just, as far as I’m concerned… (interruption) I’m not endorsing the guy. No, no, no, Snerdley. I’m not doing anything of the sort. I’m just telling you what happened. I want to contrast this with Rick Perry with what Jon Huntsman. There are reams and reams and reams of newsprint and copy over Huntsman announcing tomorrow, and they’re excited, and they can’t wait — even the people in the State-Controlled Media.

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RUSH: One more Rick Perry sound bite here, folks, talking about American exceptionalism, and he does so genuinely here. There might be some other candidates bringing it up. See what you think of this.

PERRY: I see a stronger America, built on the solid foundation of spiritual strength, of individual liberty, of self-determination. We must recapture that vision and begin the hard work of lighting the way for millions of Americans who are adrift in the sea of economic misery. Let’s lead ’em to the safe harbor of American renewal and the shores of American exceptionalism. (applause.)

RUSH: Rick Perry, they say he looks like an alien, my God, just look at Obama’s Supreme Court nominees for crying out loud. You want me to name ’em? Sonia Sotomayor, alien anybody? Elena Kagan? Look at some of the czars and look at some of the cabinet members. And of course notice the logic here. Perry, he’s an alien. He’s like Bush, who was elected president twice. George W. Bush was elected president twice, so who is out of the mainstream here? But ultimately it’s a good sign the media feels that Perry is an alien.

Now, on the Huntsman side, Mike Allen at Politico puts a thing out, a little blog every morning, and the first page and a half — everything is printing much smaller out here, this could be two or three pages — is about Huntsman. And the first thing that’s mentioned here is, there’s a New York Times Magazine piece next Sunday, six days from now, on Huntsman. And it’s entitled, “Is He Always Like This? — I first met [John] Weaver, a longtime professional and personal rival of Karl Rove, aboard John McCain’s Straight Talk Express in 2000. Weaver was one of McCain’s small coterie of adoptive little brothers, furtive and a bit mysterious but also creative and, over drinks at one or another hotel bar, surprisingly idealistic. … Political strategists are forever in search of the next big thing, some undiscovered talent who might someday be enshrined in marble — or at least make them household names the way Bush did for Rove or the way Obama did for David Axelrod.”

So, you see, Huntsman, as contrasted to Rick Perry or any other Republican, not just Rick Perry, Huntsman, why, this guy could turn the next consultant into the next superstar consultant, like Rove became, or like Axelrod became, or like Carville and Begala became with Clinton. That’s the power of Jon Huntsman. That’s one of the things that’s exciting. So the consultancy community, if you will, all excited here. Now, remember, who are we talking about? We’re talking about people who know one thing in politics, and that’s how to lose presidential races. I don’t know Weaver. I’ve never met Weaver. I’ve never met McCain, but contrast this. Bush, elected president twice, alien. Hated so much, we can’t have anybody from Texas as a Republican nominee because the country hates Texas, ’cause the country hates Bush. But we are going to listen to the architects of loser after loser after loser in the presidential field.

These are the people that are gonna tell us how to win elections, not the people who have actually won them. These are the also-rans. It’s like listen to John Kerry, have him go out and tell us how to win a presidential race. That’s how convoluted this is. And that’s just one small paragraph on Huntsman. “A lot of political handicappers — particularly those on the left, who tend to view the Republican base as monolithic and somewhat medieval — doubt that Huntsman can even win enough delegates to earn himself a decent speaking slot at the convention. … Some of the more sober-minded Republican insiders in Washington and New Hampshire, though, persuaded me that by distancing himself from some of the party’s more populist influences, Huntsman was giving Republican and independents,” a chance to win. So it’s the same old recipe for defeat that’s shaping up here.

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RUSH: Yeah, it’s amazing, tell us how to lose. Let’s go get the people that are the architects of defeat. They’re the experts. They know what we have to do to win even though they have never pulled it off, and that’s who we’ll listen to, and that’s what’s shaping up.

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RUSH: Ron, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Thank you for waiting, sir. You’re up next. Hi.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. I think Rick Perry is more like John McCain than you know. I was watching Greta, and they were flying with the helicopter over the border and he was talking about how much of a waste of money building the fence would be, as well as the trans-Texas corridor or the NASA superhighway, which he’s in favor of. I don’t know if you’re aware of those two things.

RUSH: Yeah, there’s some things about all these people that I have problems with. When Mitt went out and answered the question about global warming, (paraphrasing) “Oh, yeah, I think it’s getting warmer and I think people are causing it.” I cringed, I said, “Aw, jeez, not that.” I mean it’s a hoax and we know it’s a hoax. And then I find out that Perry believes in in-state tuition for the children of illegals, has talked about the highway stuff that you just mentioned.

CALLER: As well as the amnesty, you know, he’s like Bush, he wants to push it down our throat, and I just don’t want to see that in a Republican nominee.

RUSH: Yeah, I don’t know about push it down our throat. This is one of the inherent realities, slash, problems with politics. I don’t know how you really change this. What is he? He’s governor of Texas. What do you have to do to win in Texas? He obviously thought that he had to appeal to a lot of Hispanic voters. And the assumption is Hispanic voters want free tuition or very low price tuition for in-state illegals, want amnesty and this kind of thing, large Hispanic population in Texas. It’s no different than pork and members of Congress and the Senate being regaled and credited for bringing home a lot of bacon and federal spending in their states and so forth. But every candidate is going to have something like that that’s going to disappoint somebody in their support group. You wait. Something’s gonna be up, Michele Bachmann, they’ll find something that will surprise you, that will surprise people, things that she may have said or believed years ago. Nobody’s pure. I’m gonna be very crystal clear about this. I have not endorsed Rick Perry. But I’ll tell you, when I hear these sound bites, when I hear what Rick Perry said to the Republican leadership council over the weekend in New Orleans, forget specifics, what do you think — I’ll ask you this off the top of my head Ron — that was the thing, if anything, that stood out to you in listening to Rick Perry?

CALLER: I didn’t listen to the speech. The one that I like best is Jim DeMint, and no one’s even talking about him. As far as the presidential candidate he’s got the muscle, he’s consistent.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: He never does this pandering like Rick Perry, “Oh, I better try and get the Hispanic vote,” or whatever.

RUSH: Is he running?

CALLER: Well, I’d like to see you push his name in the circle.

RUSH: Well, that’s not — no, no, wait a second. (laughing) Now we get to the bottom line, I’m supposed to do all this.

CALLER: Well, you got the muscle.

RUSH: Yeah, that’s why I have to be very careful in flexing them.

CALLER: I agree.

RUSH: There’s a tremendous amount of responsibility that goes with this awesome power that I’ve got here. The thing about Rick Perry, if you look at this speech and we played the sound bite from it today, let me ask you a question, folks. How many candidates — he’s not the only one — but how many candidates do you hear talking about the greatness of this country? Do you realize how badly people want to hear that? Do you realize how badly people want their leaders to believe in the country, too? Do you realize how fed up people are with the current crop of leaders who feel the need to apologize for this country or to criticize it? That stands out, I’m telling you, because it sadly is something that’s so rarely said by elected people in high positions of power.

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RUSH: Folks, look, the only candidate I have said I would vote for is Elmer Fudd. I have not said I would vote for anybody else. I have made it a point of saying I’d vote for Elmer Fudd over Obama. Yes, it’s an endorsement if you want to call it that.

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