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RUSH: The sun is shining a little brighter today in places where it’s shining, and the world’s a little warmer today in places where it’s been cold, and the country is a little friendlier today in places where people have been mean. The reason is, Henry “Nostrilitis” Waxman has announced his retirement from the House of Representatives. He said today he will not seek a 21st term in his Los Angeles-based House seat. He’s been there for 40 years. I think I’ve been here 25. He’s been there 40 years, ladies and gentlemen! Forty.

He’s decided that 42 would be too many. Nostrilitis said, “At the end of this year, I would have been in Congress for 40 years. If there’s a time to move on to another chapter of my life, I think this is the time to do it.” He’s now the 17th member of the House and the seventh Democrat to announce retirement. Now, why? Well, there’s a little interesting story (you might call it a companion story) here at The Politico, and the headline: “Democrats Cede the House in Order to Save the Senate — With the Democrats’ grasp on the Senate increasingly tenuous…”

Did you know about this? Did you know that the Democrats were thinking privately they might lose the Senate? Did you know that? (interruption) You did? Have you seen that in the news, or is it because you’re talking to people privately and all that? It has not been in the news. It hasn’t been in the news… (interruption) Well, the point is the public doesn’t know. I mean, yeah, they have to defend more seats, but the media’s not reporting the Democrats are in any trouble in the Senate. I mean, who knew?

If you listen to the media, up ’til you heard this story, the question is, “Can the Republicans hold the House?” But the apparent truth is that the Democrats have given up on the House, if we can believe this. I mean, there’s always that caveat. (interruption) Well, I know, it says the donors. Look, it’s Politico, it’s the Drive-By Media, and anything could be a feint. It could be a trick. I don’t know what the trick would be, but I’m just saying we have to remember who we’re dealing with here.

We normally doubt pretty much everything comes out of the Drive-By Media, and I’m just saying continue to do so. (interruption) One way they could lose the House? Yeah, immigration. So I don’t know what this means. Democrats cede the House to save the Senate? Republicans are gonna lose the House if they pass immigration, even if Obama doesn’t sign it. If they pass immigration that’s got anything like amnesty or path to citizenship in it, they’re gonna lose the House — and not because Democrats are gonna be so happy, they’ll show up in droves.

It’s gonna because Republicans won’t vote.

Anyway, this story: “With Democrats’ grasp on the Senate increasingly tenuous — and the House all but beyond reach — some top party donors and strategists are moving to do something in the midterm election as painful as it is coldblooded.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: If this Politico report is true, if it’s true that the Democrats have given up on winning the House, and if it’s true that they are not sure they can hold the Senate, then why do the Republicans need to rebrand themselves? Why do they need to become more like the Democrats, if the Democrats hold on everything is as tenuous as the Politico reports that it is? There are two issues that, as we sit here today, are driving the November midterm elections. In the House of course the issue is immigration. In the Senate, and should be in the House as well, is Obamacare.

Now, I think the reality on the Democrat side, in order to accept, agree, understand this perception, or this theory, you have to divorce yourself from what you’ve heard and hear daily in the Drive-By Media. The Drive-By Media daily is gonna be focused on Democrat success, Obama’s success, or what do the Democrats and Obama have to do to be successful to beat Republicans. And of course the news is always gonna be slanted in such a way that that’s happening. Republicans are on the ropes.

The truth of the matter is, I think the Democrats hold on the Senate is really tenuous and there are a lot of Democrats up for reelection who are scared to death about their previous votes and positions, and they want nothing to do with Obamacare and they want nothing to do with Obama. One of them is Mary Landrieu. There are a bunch of others. And this is why we’re getting a story today about the Democrat hold on the Senate being so tenuous, so tenuous that they have given up trying to win the House.

I think Waxman resigning from the House is also one of those little indicators. He’s at a stage in his career, he doesn’t want to be there and be in the minority. Has no desire, there’s nothing in it for him anymore. If this was year four, year five, even year 10, it would be a different thing, but year 41 and 42, sorry. So you might interpret from his announcement to retire that he thinks that the conventional wisdom is that the Democrats aren’t gonna win the House. But then again here the Republicans over here on immigration, and I’m going to treat you to an entirely different analysis of that here later.


I just want to stick now with the two issues and where we really are. And where we really is that the American people, the vast majority of the American people are fed up with everything that’s happening in the country right now. Now, some of them may not blame Obama as much as we would like them to, but they’re still upset. They’re upset at the party in power. The Democrats and their behavior will tell you this. Obamacare’s an absolute disaster. The president can go out and make as many speeches as he wants. He can go out and try to create lies and false premises and pictures of it, but it is a disaster.

Now, the other day when Obama did this interview with the New Yorker, I joked about it and had fun with it. There’s a reason why he does these things, folks. You know, Howie Kurtz had it right. This is like the fifth or sixth time recently that he’s called me out, and it’s clear that they have polling data and focus group data which tells them that their base gets really motivated and inspired when my name is mentioned or when Fox News is mentioned. They hate us. So that’s an attempt to rally the base. Why they want to do that, I mean, if things are going to smoothly here, and Obamacare is doing so great and job market’s coming back and everything Obama lied about in the State of the Coup address, why do they have to go out and gin up their base?

They’re in trouble. My point, they’re in real, real trouble. The Democrats are in real, real trouble. Not only do they not have a chance of winning the House if the Republicans leave immigration alone, but they could legitimately lose the Senate, too. This could be 2010 all over again, and every time this happens, nobody in the media has any idea it’s gonna happen. In 1994, Contract with America, Republicans, massive. First time they won the House in 40 years. Got up, day after election, nobody in the media could believe it. Nobody had ever conceived the idea that it could happen.

These people live in such an insulated, isolated world where they assume everybody is like them. They hate Republicans, they think everybody does. They think Republicans are racist, sexist, bigot, homophobes, they think everybody is. The Tea Party, minority, kooks, freaks, everybody laughs at ’em. They think everybody laughs at ’em. They have no clue. They are really not in touch. None of this, by the way — and I must stress — and this is frustrating. None of this potential right now, just as it was the case in 2010, none of this potential disaster for the Democrats has anything to do with the Republicans. It’s happening to them by default. The Republicans are not opposing much of this. The Republicans that do stand up and oppose it are slapped down by Republicans, such as Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.

If the Republicans were actually engaged as an opposition party pushing back and attempting to make connections with the American people on Obamacare and on immigration, this coming midterm could be a wipeout along the lines of 2010, and it may be close to that anyway. Because in the Senate, the driving issue is Obamacare. And it has got Democrats in the Senate just… they don’t want to even appear with Obama anywhere he goes.

Now, do not make the mistake of thinking I am betraying myself with false optimism. I am the last to get on a phony optimism roll. That doesn’t serve me or anybody else. I’m simply painting the picture for you as I see it now, reading the tea leaves, looking at what’s happening and listening to the primary players. And then this Politico story hits today. “With DemocratsÂ’ grasp on the Senate increasingly tenuous — and the House all but beyond reach — some top party donors and strategists are moving to do something in the midterm election as painful as it is coldblooded: Admit the House canÂ’t be won and go all in to save the Senate.”

Now, this meme, if you will, this narrative is brand-new. In the mainstream media, it is a brand-new narrative. Prior to today, the narrative has been the Republicans are on the verge of being wiped out as a party. Now all of a sudden, the narrative has become: Democrats can’t win the House and have given up on it and Democrat donors are dictating to Democrats, you know, you guys had better work fast on saving the Senate because you’re losing there, too.

Alex Isenstadt is the writer of this Politico story. “Their calculation is uncomplicated. With only so much money to go around in an election year that is tilting the GOPÂ’s way –” When did you hear that? When have you heard that the election was tilting the GOP’s way? Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the mainstream media nothing is ever tilting the GOP’s way, is it? “Their calculation is uncomplicated. With only so much money to go around in an election year that is tilting the GOPÂ’s way, Democrats need to concentrate resources on preserving the chamber they have now. Losing the Senate, they know, could doom whatever hopes Barack Obama has of salvaging the final years of his presidency.

“The triage idea is taking hold in phone conversations among donors and in strategy sessions between party operatives. Even some of the people who have invested the most to get House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi back into the speakerÂ’s chair are moving in that direction,” meaning away from Democrats winning the House.


Now, I’m just here to remind you, you would never know any of this from the recent reporting that we’ve seen in the Drive-Bys. Or, you wouldn’t know this even if you listen to some of the elite Republican strategists, the consultants. So where is this coming from? According to them, the Democrats are gonna easily hold on to the Senate and probably gain control of the House because the Tea Party has ruined the Republican brand forever. That’s what the Republican establishment believes. They do. They think, no way we can win the Senate, and the Tea Party’s gonna blow it for us in the House because everybody hates the Tea Party.

But if this report is true, it certainly explains Obama’s recent change in tone, in which he’s basically throwing in the towel on the midterms and vowing to go it alone with executive actions that bypass Congress. It could well mean that these promises to just, “Okay, to hell with you guys.” It could well mean he’s signaling that they know internally that they’re not gonna win the House.

“ItÂ’s a delicate decision for Democrats and one they are not taking lightly. None of them wants to surrender the House to Republicans for another two years, leaving Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and a rowdy band of Tea Party lawmakers in charge. Ceding ground to Republicans this year would make it that much harder for the party to win back the House in 2016, which could be a more favorable year for Democrats.” And that’s another bogus assumption they’re making, because they believe that Hillary is unbeatable, is inevitable, and infallible.

So something is going on out there that is 180 degrees different than what has been the normal day-to-day narrative in the media. I think there’s another thing that’s happened that explains this, and it is that the State of the Coup speech didn’t save any bacon. The State of the Coup speech did not change anybody’s fortunes, did not reverse anything for Obama. In fact, Democrats just got angrier. Democrats got even more let down or depressed or what have you.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Help me just cut to the chase here, the bottom line. And again, I have to stress, folks — I don’t want anybody misunderstand — this is as we speak today, but this Obamacare is an abject disaster. The media, they’ve reported problems with the website. They don’t have the slightest idea. They’re not in touch with people. The media has no connection with their audience. They’ve got an audience.

There are people watching CNN, not very many. They’re people that read the New York Times and watch MSNBC. But there’s no connection. They don’t really know. Most journalists do their job for other journalists, anyway. You know, F. Chuck Todd will go on MSNBC or on the Today Show and do a report, and he’s really aiming it at journalists at ABC and CBS, trying to impress them. There really isn’t a connection with their audience.

If there were, they wouldn’t be seeing their vast audience ratings erode. It’s just Media 101. They’re not connecting with their audience — and as a result, folks, they don’t really know the emotions that are coursing through Americans over Obamacare. They don’t know the fear, even though they’re responsible for it. Year after year, the Democrat Party (aided and abetted and promoted by the media) has told people, “You are one paycheck away, one illness away from bankruptcy!


“Republicans want to take this away from you, take that away from you — and if they do, you’re dead. You’ve got nothing.” Well, they’ve been hearing this and they believe it, and now they’re getting cancelled. People in the millions are losing their health insurance, and to them, it’s a deeply personal thing. It is, maybe, in a lot of people’s lives, the most important thing. It’s related to their lives; it’s related to staying alive.

It’s related to not getting sick or getting well when you do get sick. On its own, it’s prohibitively expensive. You can’t engage in responsible health care without an insurance plan, and they’re being cancelled left and right. I mean, people are livid. They were lied to for three years about if they liked what they had, they could keep it. The Democrats and the media do not understand the bond that they have broken here with people.

The website not working?

They have no faith in the government to do anything right in this regard. Then you add to it the security concerns. People who have signed up now are told that all of their personal data is accessible by anybody in the government who wants to see it, the NSA spying. Health care alone, Obamacare alone — the utter disaster that it is — is huge. The Democrats are on the verge of a big loss.

They could lose six or seven seats, and if that happens, the Republicans pick up the Senate. I want to stress — it’s a very frustrating thing to say — it’s not because of anything the Republicans are doing, just like 2010 wasn’t. Democrats lost all the way down the ballot in 2010, but not because there was a Republican idea they were voting for, not because there was a Republican or Tea Party leader they were following and supporting.

They were just scared and angry over what Obama was doing to the economy, what they knew health care was going to be, the debt, what that meant for their kids and grandkids in terms of future taxes and taking away disposable income — and it’s only gotten worse. There hasn’t been any improvement. There isn’t any improvement in the job market. College graduates buy into this, “Go to college and it’s your ticket,” but it’s not anymore.

You can’t afford that without an insurance company or a loan. I mean, nothing is real. Folks, the disconnect here is major, and they don’t understand it, because they don’t have the connection with their own audience. So I think they’re just now starting to accept the reality here that in big trouble because of it and that’s why we got The Politico story. Now, sadly, even though I’m in the midst of a great roll here, I have to stop again.

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