RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, you can’t escape the media and what’s going on here, and it’s all very predictable. If you just landed from Mars and turned on the TV, you may be confused over who was Barack Obama and who was Nelson Mandela, based on the way it’s being covered. Well, I’m just telling you. The Washington press corps and even the White House are moving here at full speed to associate Barack Obama with Nelson Mandela. Here, grab number three. This just gives you a taste of it here. This is Scott Pelley on the CBS Evening News last night reporting on the death of Nelson Mandela.

PELLEY: Nelson Mandela kept in his office a photograph of himself with another trail-blazing president: The first black president of the United States, Barack Obama. The photograph was taken when Mandela visited Washington in 2005, and Mr. Obama was then a brand-new United States senator from Illinois.

RUSH: Now, forgive me, but if you are a low-information voter and you’re watching the CBS Evening News last night, you would come away with the impression that the important thing about Nelson Mandela’s death was that he had looked up Barack Obama when he came to town and had a picture of Obama when he died. Classic, folks. Absolutely classic — and the rest of the media, it’s so predictable.

It’s not even worth spending a lot of time on it, because you can see it as well as I, and even the White House is in on this. The White House is publishing Obama photos about the death of Nelson Mandela, and everything the White House is putting out about the death of Nelson Mandela has Obama in it. They’re called “selfies” now, these pictures. It’s like when Rosa Parks died, Obama made a beeline to the museum where the bus is that Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of and he took a seat.

He sat where Rosa Parks sat, and then the White House took a picture, and there’s Obama looking out the window as though he, too, faced such horrible consequences and discrimination. I know it was arranged months and years in advance.

“On Thursday, in the aftermath of South African iconic leader Nelson MandelaÂ’s death at age 95, President ObamaÂ’s White House account tweeted a tribute to Mandela,” and what do you think the tribute was? Honest to God, what do you think it was? The White House tweeted a tribute to Nelson Mandela. What do you think it was? It was “a picture of Obama in MandelaÂ’s Robben Island prison cell.” I kid you not. I know it’s really. It’s beneath… You talk about somebody who walk about thinking everything is about him.

You know, I’ve known people with healthy egos, and they’re off putting, folks. I’m sure you’ve known them. But this, the official White House tweet upon the death of Nelson Mandela is a picture of Obama in the jail cell, after the jail cell has been closed and memorialized itself, just as President Obama published a picture of himself sitting in the same seat in the same bus that Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus on. (laughing) You know, wait ’til Obama finds out the White House did this.

I’m sure he’s going to be livid.

I’m sure when Obama finds out that somebody in the White House tweeted a picture of him in Mandela’s jail cell on the day of Mandela’s passing… Well, isn’t that the excuse? “Obama didn’t know!” He didn’t know about the website not working, he didn’t know a lot, he didn’t know anything. I’m sure he didn’t know the White House tweeted the fact that Obama was in Mandela’s jail cell. When Obama finds out, he’ll be mad, just like Obama sure didn’t know they hired Van Jones until they had to get rid of him.

Obama didn’t know that the health care website wasn’t working, and he didn’t know that you weren’t gonna be able to keep your doctor, and he didn’t know that a bunch of things happened. So many people have been lying to Obama. It’s a shame the way they use him. (interruption) “He didn’t know he lived with his uncle.” That’s exactly right. He got screwed by his own uncle. He didn’t have any idea he was living with his uncle illegally in the country.

He didn’t know, and can you imagine how mad he got when he was told? Now, can you imagine the media? “Limbaugh opened his show making the death of Mandela about Obama!” No. Limbaugh opened his show reporting how Obama has made the death of Mandela about Obama. You know, if I had been to Robben Island where Mandela was held, and if I had had a picture of myself taken in the jail cell, and on the death of Mandela, the day he died, I tweeted that out with me?

What do you think the reaction would be? “Limbaugh attempting to capitalize and use the death of Nelson Mandela to promote himself! How unseemly!” I know a lot of you think I’m on the edge here and say, “Rush, let it go.” We’re just having fun here, folks. Lighten up. That’s what I always say: Keep the faith and lighten up. I mean, it’s unfortunate that the White House tweeted this picture out with Obama in Mandela’s jail cell ’cause it makes the president look narcissistic and we know that isn’t the case.

Ahem.

So another aide has let the president down. Well, wait a minute. Here’s another picture. See. Obama posts second selfie in tribute to Mandela. Now it’s Obama standing somewhere looking at a computer. Oh, President Obama’s looking at pictures on the computer of him and Mandela.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s a New York Times story: “Obama’s Path was Shaped by Mandela’s Story.” From the article: “Without Nelson Mandela, there might never have been a President Obama.” I think that’s just a crock. It would be no different than if they said, “Without Barack Obama, there would never have been a Nelson Mandela.” What is it with these people? Why can’t individual achievement stand on its own?

Without Mandela there might not have been an Obama? I’ll tell you who’s putting this out there. It’s Obama doing everything and anything he can to link himself to Mandela, and the Clintons are the same thing. We got a nickname for him, The Funeral Crashers. I mean, they’ll show up anywhere where there’s a camera. This kind of stuff, the Drive-Bys, I’m telling you, they’re doing everything they can to make the news of Mandela’s death all about Obama.

Now, if you’re Obama — speaking quite honestly here, folks — who could blame Obama for thinking everything is about him? The media makes everything about him. Did you hear what Chris Matthews said? Chris Matthews finally got the tingle-up-his-leg interview with Obama, and they kicked a bunch of ballet kids out of Washington’s American University rehearsal hall in order to do the interview. Now, that’s another thing. I’m gonna tell you something, folks.

If George W. Bush was scheduled to do an interview with somebody, George W. Bush would not allow a rehearsal for young girls practicing ballet or whatever to be cancelled or kicked out for him. He would have gone somewhere else. But Obama and Chris Matthews are doing theirs so let’s get rid of the kids. The kids had to move, take their rehearsal somewhere else.

Chris Matthews said, it was great, Obama “came amongst us.” Obama “came amongst us.” He actually walked amongst us! It’s creepy. But if you’re Obama and you on the receiving end of this kind of coverage, I mean, you might be excused for thinking that you are the most important person in the world and that everything is about you, because this slavish Drive-By Media makes everything about Obama. New York Times:

“President Obama’s Path Shaped by Mandela’s Story.” Washington Post: “Mandela’s Cause Shaped Obama’s Political Awakening.” You know who shaped Obama’s political path? I gotta be real careful because if you start getting into Mandela’s politics, I mean, what was the African National Congress, after all? They were communists. I mean, they were. Well, there’s always a reason. There was a reason, but I don’t even want to go there. But it’s true. But, I mean, to say that…

This is the soap opera. This is exactly what this is.

This is the Washington soap opera. The hero… I tell you, folks, that characterization of my buddy Andy McCarthy came up, and it’s just perfect to describe things. There is no news; there is no media. It is the daily soap opera, the daily suspense and the building up of heroes and so forth. Politico: “Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela: Inspiration from afar.” That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Bob in Huron, Ohio, let me grab a quick phone call here before the break. Hi, Bob, great to have you on Open Line Friday. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Yeah, I reacted immediately when I heard that Obama was gonna have a comment to make on TV last night. I felt that he was probably going to try to jump into the reflected glory of Nelson Mandela, and I was hoping that the comparisons between the two leaders would also include a comparison of their honesty, their integrity, their humility, and their genuine concern for the welfare of those that they lead.

RUSH: And as you’ve watched the news, has Mandela measured up to Obama?

CALLER: I think the other way around. I think Obama doesn’t measure up to Mandela.

RUSH: Well, I know, but I’m saying as you watched the news, did Mandela measure up to the standard set by Obama? That’s the question.