RUSH: About that press conference yesterday. The president came out, he was mad. He just found out about it, despite talking about this during the campaign and blaming the VA’s problems on Bush, by the way, in the campaign, that he didn’t know anything about it yesterday until he talked to Shinseki.
And, by the way, yesterday was the first time in months that he’d ever talked to Shinseki. So he goes out and he says that he was really, really mad and he’s not gonna tolerate this. And Major Garrett this morning on CBS News is all excited ’cause they’ve got a new poll, a new poll that since Obama went out there and said how mad he was, Obama is not being blamed for the scandal, and they’re all excited about it. Charlie Rose said to Major Garrett, “Dozens of patients may have died waiting for a doctor visit. The president vows to fix problems with the VA medical care yesterday. Is the president confident the veteran affairs secretary is up to the job?”
GARRETT: For now Obama is not being blamed for the persistent problems some veterans have encountered trying to obtain health care or for the fact that some veterans either died or became gravely ill waiting for that health care through the VA system. The blame, according to a new CBS News poll, falls squarely on Veterans Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki and local VA hospital facilities.
RUSH: So excited, the president is not being blamed, just like he doesn’t get blamed for anything. And why not? The Limbaugh Theorem. He didn’t know. It’s all everybody else. It just seems to work. However, there’s just one caveat here, just a small, little catch. The CBS survey was a survey of veterans, not the voting public at large.
GARRETT: Our survey of veterans — not the general public, but veterans — found that 36% hold Shinseki responsible; 29% blame those local hospitals within the VA health care system. Less than a fifth blame the president.
RUSH: Why would they blame the president? He’s got nothing to do with it. He didn’t even know about it. See, he’s trying to fix it. He cares. This may frustrate you. And, by the way, this dovetails with another thing right here at the top of the Stack of Stuff. And that is the Democrats have done all the focus-grouping and polling data, and they have come up with only one thing they think can help them: win in the midterms or stave off a disaster. And it is very simply: Republicans don’t care about you. Democrats care. Democrats care about people like you. Republicans don’t.
Remember that focus group question in the 2012 exit polling data, Obama won that question 81 to 19 over Romney, “Cares about people like you,” question. And apparently that’s still — I don’t know that it is that great of a percentage for the Democrats now, but they still have a majority. And the story: “Democrats Seek Issues to Lure Midterm Votes After Races Buoy GOP,” is all about how the thing the Democrats can hang their hat on is that people still think that Democrats care more about people like them than Republicans do. And they’re gonna go to town with it.
You might say that this poll of the VA of veterans here, Obama doesn’t get the blame, he cares. He’s working hard to fix it. He wants to fix this. He doesn’t want this to be happening. He can’t help it if people put in there are incompetent boobs like Shinseki. So let’s go back. Let’s review our montage. Because this is the Obama strategy, and like it or not, it’s worked so far with the low-information crowd. A scandal, a bad scandal, and the way Obama handles it is to act like he didn’t know a thing about it, he just found out about it, and he’s livid. This is our montage from yesterday. This covers issues from 2009 up to yesterday.
OBAMA MAY 15, 2013: It’s inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it.
OBAMA OCTOBER 21, 2013: Nobody’s madder than me about the fact that the website isn’t workin’.
OBAMA OCTOBER 18, 2011: It’s very upsetting to me that somebody showed such bad judgment, that they would allow something like that to happen.
OBAMA APRIL 15, 2012: If it turns out that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course I’ll be angry.
OBAMA MAY 13, 2013: I’ve got no patience with it, I will not tolerate it, and we’ll make sure that, uh, we find out exactly what happened.
OBAMA JUNE 3, 2010: I am furious at this entire situation. I would love to just spend a lot of my time venting and yellin’ at people.
OBAMA MAY 15, 2013: We’re going to hold the responsible parties accountable.
OBAMA MAY 16, 2013: The minute I found out about it, then my main focus is making sure that we get the thing fixed.
OBAMA MARCH 18, 2009: I think people are right to be angry. I’m angry!
OBAMA MAY 21, 2014: I will not stand for it, not as commander-in-chief … None of us should. [I]t’s dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and I will not tolerate it. Period.
RUSH: Well, according to the CBS poll, it worked. Veterans don’t blame him. They blame Shinseki. They blame other people, other forces. Those statements, none of ’em are repeated. They were about the IRS targeting the Tea Party, the Obamacare rollout, the website not working, the Fast and Furious scandal, Secret Service scandal, drunkenness on the job down in Rio. Another revelation about the IRS targeting Tea Party scandal he was upset about. The Gulf oil spill, BP. IRS targeting two more of those, bonuses on Wall Street, and the VA scandal. Every one of those issues he came out with: “I’m mad. I’m not gonna tolerate this,” and, apparently, it works.