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<\/a>CHRISTIE: When you have serious people from across the spectrum, not to mention from all across the country, passionately calling on you to do something as consequential as running for president of the United States, I felt an obligation to earnestly consider their advice. Together with Mary Pat and our children I believe I had an obligation to seriously consider what people were asking me to do.<\/p>\nRUSH: So he did reconsider it, and there were a lot of people. The pressure was really on Chris Christie, folks. I mean it… (interruption) Don\u2019t smirk in there, Snerdley. I happen to know the pressure was on him. I\u2019m not talking about Bill Kristol. There are other kinds of people. Big money people were leaning on him like you can\u2019t believe, like the Home Depot cofounders and so forth.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Here are two more Christie sound bites from his announcement today that he\u2019s not running for president. Here\u2019s the first of two remaining bites that we have.<\/p>\n
CHRISTIE: I\u2019ve explored the options, I\u2019ve listened to so many people and considered whether this was something that I needed to take on. But in the end, what I\u2019ve always felt was the right decision remains the right decision today. Now is not my time. I have a commitment to New Jersey that I simply will not abandon. That\u2019s a promise I made to the people of this state when I took office 20 months ago. To fix a broken New Jersey. So New Jersey, whether you like it or not, you\u2019re stuck with me. (laughter)<\/p>\n
RUSH: A question was asked during the Q&A, unidentified reporter: “You mentioned the priority you put on a leader as president. Why is that so important, and what advice do you have for the people running?”<\/p>\n
CHRISTIE: The president\u2019s failed. And if you want to know why it\u2019s so important —<\/p>\n
RUSH: What? What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, gotta hear that again. Roll that one back. Chris Christie, question: “You mentioned the priority you put on a leader as president. Why is that so important, and what device do you have for the people running?”<\/p>\n
CHRISTIE: The president\u2019s failed. And if you want to know why it\u2019s so important, you were there, read the speech I gave at the Reagan library. I think this is, you know, just an example of somebody who has failed the leadership test. And more than anything else in these jobs what I\u2019ve learned is, there\u2019s no substitute for knowing how to lead. Everything else you can be taught. You can\u2019t be taught how to lead and how to make decisions, and unfortunately, even though there are areas as you know that I support this president in, overall —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Where?<\/p>\n
CHRISTIE: — he\u2019s failed the American people because he\u2019s failed that absolute litmus test to be president of the United States and that\u2019s to know how to lead and decide, and he hasn\u2019t done that.<\/p>\n
RUSH: So there\u2019s Christie, that\u2019s pretty blunt, president\u2019s failed. But has he? Some things he has, yeah. But he\u2019s succeeded in way too much. We\u2019ve been through all of that. Christie basically said that he\u2019s not gonna run. He\u2019s gotta stay and fix New Jersey. If that\u2019s the criteria, he\u2019s never gonna run because New Jersey is never gonna get totally fixed. But a lot of people disappointed, lot of people disappointed that he\u2019s choosing not to run.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Here\u2019s Michelle in Hoover, Alabama. Michelle, I\u2019m glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hi, Rush.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Hi.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I have to say that I normally agree with you 99.8% of the time.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.<\/p>\n
CALLER: (giggles) But you\u2019re wrong on something today.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Oh. What?<\/p>\n
CALLER: You\u2019re wrong about the Chris Christie weight thing.<\/p>\n
RUSH: What did I say that I\u2019m wrong about?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, I believe that if it was a woman and that, you know, she was as large as Chris Christie is, that people wouldn\u2019t vote for her. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a reason not to vote for someone, because you should vote for them on their ideas but you even pointed out that Hillary, people didn\u2019t want to watch her age in office.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n
CALLER: And I agreed with you on that.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Very shrewd of you to remember that.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Oh. Well, thank you. (giggles)<\/p>\n
RUSH: I don\u2019t think I said that, per se. I asked the question which irritated them even more. But it wasn\u2019t a statement.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, irritating them is a good thing.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yes, it is, obviously. But you might have been confused. I was reading from a Washington Post column by a female named Ruth Marcus; and she was saying that a woman as large as Christie, a female candidate, would never even have a chance at being president because she woulda never been elected governor because she\u2019s too fat, that there\u2019s a prejudice against fat women that doesn\u2019t exist against fat men. That\u2019s what she was saying.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, I don\u2019t know. I just think that, you know, people… Look at what happened Kennedy and the Nixon debates, you know, people thought Kennedy won the debate because they watched it; people thought Nixon won the debate because they listened to it. Unfortunately, it\u2019s a sign of the times. People pay attention to those things.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Oh, there\u2019s no question about it, but… (chuckles) Look, let me just shoot straight here: There are countless examples of ugly people being elected to office. Now, I don\u2019t know about president, but there are lots of ugly politicians. Remember: Politics is show biz for the ugly. It\u2019s where people who can\u2019t get on television or can\u2019t star in movies go: Politics.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, I mean Margaret Thatcher wasn\u2019t attractive; she got elected.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Uhhh, that\u2019s not who I had in mind.<\/p>\n
CALLER: (laughing)<\/p>\n
RUSH: But that\u2019s my point.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, I understand your point on that, but in today\u2019s culture — and especially in this country — people pay attention to that. I don\u2019t think they should. It should be about people\u2019s principles and ideas and how we\u2019re gonna get this country back on the right track. I just thought you were wrong and it pains me to say that, “Rush, you\u2019re wrong,” but you\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay, tell me again. Wait a minute, I\u2019m still confused. Tell me again what I got wrong.<\/p>\n
CALLER: If I understood you correctly you said that the weight gain wouldn\u2019t be an issue, that she would not be elected. The article said the woman wouldn\u2019t be elect governor because of if she was overweight, correct?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah. The point of the piece was to show the inherent unfairness to women, that fat women in politics don\u2019t have a prayer whereas fat guys do, and that\u2019s all she\u2019s saying. It\u2019s a reality, and it ticks her off that it\u2019s a reality. She thinks it\u2019s anti-woman, thinks it\u2019s another burden that women have and they have to face going through life. Look, she\u2019s right. Why do you think I so thoughtful and creatively wrote Undeniable Truth of Life number 24? “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.” The very fact that that so irritates people is proof of how right it is, because in many cases today the most offensive thing anybody can say is the truth about something. Political correctness was created to mask and hide the truth. The same liberal columnist who says a woman as large as Christie would never have a chance at being president is part of a liberal mind-set to trash thin conservative women who run for office, including Palin and Bachmann. They trash conservative women no matter what. (interruption) Janet Napolitano? Janet Napolitano was a governor. That\u2019s right. Let\u2019s see, so was… No. I was gonna say Shalala. Shalala was university president. Different thing. Michelle, thanks for the call. I appreciate it.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Look, I checked the e-mail during the break. As is predictable, I got it coming at me from every imaginable direction on this whole business of weight, appearance and so forth. Let me just tell you point-blank, folks, I don\u2019t care what Ruth Marcus said, the truth and the fact of the matter is that female politicians get a pass on every aspect of their appearance. You would never have stories about how some female politician is fat like there are stories about Christie being fat. You wouldn\u2019t have those stories. When\u2019s the last time you saw a story on Barney Frank being fat? (interruption) Well, it fits, is it still fits. All these stories about Christie being fat, they\u2019re all over the place. “Will he have the stamina? Will he have the energy? Will he have the health?” You don\u2019t have those questions. There are plenty of lard-ass women in politics, and they get a total pass on it.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Here\u2019s Chris Christie. He got a question from a reporter about weight. “Are you too overweight to be president? Is that a fair question to ask?”<\/p>\n
CHRISTIE: To say that because you\u2019re overweight you are therefore undisciplined, no, I don\u2019t think undisciplined people get to achieve great positions in our society, and so, you know, that kind of stuff is just ignorant. And the people who wrote it are ignorant people. What they do is they further stigmatize people in a way that is really irrelevant to people\u2019s ability to do a particular job. And so, you know, those are the people that we should really look down upon, are those folks.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho. That\u2019s going on offense. If you go back and look at pictures, we\u2019ve had some pretty hefty presidents. You know, there was a time in American history where being fat was the quintessential sign of achievement and success. It was not at all a negative. I\u2019m talking about the days even before air-conditioning, it was that far ago, it was 1900s, it was a sign of status. It was. Yep, yep, you were affluent and so forth. Now of course we know that you don\u2019t have to be affluent to be a pig — uh, uh — to be overweight. William Howard Taft was over 300 pounds. He got stuck in the White House bathtub once, Taft did. He\u2019s a Republican, too. Clinton didn\u2019t get stuck in the bathroom. He got stuck in the bathroom off the study, yeah, in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n
But he said an interesting thing here. “I don\u2019t think undisciplined people get to achieve great positions in our society.” There\u2019s this whole notion that obese people are undisciplined. There are some stereotypes that attach to being overweight, and that sadly is one that\u2019s never gonna go away, no matter what anybody says or does the fact that an overweight or even obese person is always going to be considered undisciplined, there\u2019s no escaping it. Now, other people are described as having outsized appetites for life in general, passions at large, but when the appetite is for food, it just has a negative connotation to it that no matter what isn\u2019t ever gonna change. Look at Roseanne Barr, look at all she accomplished. She wasn\u2019t exactly Tinker Bell, you know, floating in there on the couch of her TV show. And Anna Nicole Smith. Any number of examples here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: Well, there it is, Chris Christie says, “This is not my time to run for president.” Now we\u2019ll wait to see if he says it\u2019s his time. He\u2019s already said it\u2019s not mine. I\u2019m just kidding. He was referring to himself. Oh. Oh. Oh. Okay. I guess I let my ego get away with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n