RUSH: Listen to this real quick. This is Wolf Blitzer. This is CNN. This is after Ted Cruz’s announcement he’s running for president. He’s speaking with the national political correspondent for CNN, Peter Hamby, about Ted Cruz announcing his candidacy. And they discover here that there’s no real birther question, but they’re gonna talk about it anyway.
BLITZER: He was actually born in Canada. His mother is American. There’s no questions of birtherism or anything like that. He’s a natural born US citizen, even though he was born in Canada. But nobody’s raising that issue as they did, obviously, with President Obama.
HAMBY: No.
BLITZER: Even though he was born in Hawaii. He wasn’t born in Kenya.
HAMBY: Right and, you know, some on the left tried to raise questions about that saying, “A-ha there’s a double standard here with the Tea Party. He might not be a US citizen because he was born in Calgary.” He renounced the Canadian element of his citizenship I believe last year.
RUSH: So they start out by saying there’s nothing to see here, and they spend 32 seconds talking about it. This is exactly how they do it, folks. They’re gonna be very worried, they are very worried about Ted Cruz for a host of reasons. I don’t think right now — and I must be totally honest. I don’t think anybody in the Drive-By Media thinks Ted Cruz has a ghost of a chance of being elected president. But they’re not gonna take any chances.
They do believe he’s a second-tier candidate. They do believe that everybody sees him the way they see him. That he’s just a malcontent flamethrower who shut down the government and that everybody is gonna be driven to hate just as they drove everybody to hate Sarah Palin. I make that statement with a fair amount of confidence. But I know for a fact that they don’t think he is a real contender for the presidency. But because he articulates conservatism irrefutably, because he does it without a teleprompter, because he does it so well, in other words, they are going to try to destroy him.
If they ever do, if things change in their perception and if the Drive-Bys, along with the Democrat Party ever think, if they come around to the idea that he may actually get the nomination, you’re going to see all the stops pulled out, it’s going to be palpable fear, and they will do everything they can to convince as many people as possible that he is not qualified, that he is stupidWell, you know. You’ve seen the drill run.
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RUSH: Jim in Montgomery, Ohio. Greetings, sir. It’s great to have you with us. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, it’s a great honor to talk to you. I’ve listened to you many years. You’re a great guy, a great American, and like you, I love Ted Cruz. I think he’s one of the best we have. I’m passionate about him. When I heard his speech, hair stood up on my neck. But I’m really troubled because, as much as I love Ted, I love the Constitution first. What I’ve studied and learned in the last several years about the true meaning of natural-born citizens, as far as I can tell, Ted’s dad was not a citizen at the moment of Ted’s birth, and Ted was not born of two American citizen parents, and that means he is ineligible. And it really troubles me because I love this guy.
RUSH: Really?
CALLER: This would exclude Ted, but it’s a double-edged sword. It cuts both ways. If we would adhere to our Constitution, it would exclude the best we have, Ted Cruz, and that really troubles me. But you know what? That would have excluded Barack Hussein Obama because Barack Hussein Obama’s daddy was never an American citizen.
RUSH: Right. Didn’t matter, did it?
CALLER: When you go back and study this, it says you must be a natural-born citizen or —
RUSH: Right, right. Look, I’ll tell you what. I’m very happy you explained this to me. I’m gonna call Ted. I have his number now because I am a powerful, influential member of the media. I’m gonna call him and I’m gonna tell him, “You wasted your time, bud! You’re not qualified. You can’t run for president. I had a caller today tell me so.” And he’s gonna be say, “Really? Okay! Well, then, I’ll just keep making speeches, but I won’t run.”
Well, what is this? I mean, even Wolf Blitzer announced that there’s no birther issue here, even though they talked about it for 45 minutes. This is exactly what I was talking about just moments ago, folks, when I said we run the risk of taking out our own people with nitpicky perfection-type things.