{"id":3928,"date":"2016-03-15T17:03:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T17:03:57","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-06-28T10:35:11","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T14:35:11","slug":"gop_establishment_wise_men_gather_to_tell_us_everything_wrong_with_the_party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/03\/15\/gop_establishment_wise_men_gather_to_tell_us_everything_wrong_with_the_party\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Establishment Wise Men Gather to Tell Us Everything Wrong with the Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: I can\u2019t glance at TV without seeing somebody whining now about all the free media Trump has gotten. I have here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a story from mediaQuant. It\u2019s a firm that tracks media coverage of every candidate and computes it dollar value based on advertising rates, and it\u2019s been published here in the New York Times.<\/p>\n

According to this study, Donald Trump has earned close to $2 billion worth of free media during the campaign. The pull quote from the story: “Mr. Trump earned $400 million worth of free media last month, about what John McCain spent on his entire 2008 presidential campaign. Paul Senatori, mediaQuant\u00c2\u2019s chief analytics officer, says that Mr. Trump ‘has no weakness in any of the media segments\u2019 — in other words, he is strong in every type of earned media, from television to Twitter.” You name it.<\/p>\n


\nSo now everybody, “It\u2019s not fair, it not fair, Trump\u2019s got all this free media.” And it\u2019s Republicans saying this, naturally. Do they ever ask themselves why? It\u2019s 2016. Maybe we\u2019re learning something else here, too. Why does all of this stuff have to fall on me to be said? I\u2019m gonna end up being universally despised and hated by everybody, no matter where I go. How is it that in 2016 a major political party still doesn\u2019t understand modern media, how to use it, instead of complaining about it being unfair? The media? Really? When did that realization hit you, that the media is unfair? When did you figure out the media does not like you, Republicans? When did you figure out the media does not like you, conservatives?<\/p>\n

Did you ever stop to ask why all this is happening? Why does Trump command all this? Why do these networks, I don\u2019t care who they are, televise hours and hours of Trump appearances, when he pretty much says the same thing, maybe just not in the same order? Everything to me is a teachable moment, a learnable, if you will, opportunity.<\/p>\n

But to complain about the unfairness of it, I\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t have a sympathetic ear for that. I have a phrase I use, it\u2019s become a cliche. I recall believe in it. “It is what it is.” It\u2019s not what you wish it was. It\u2019s not what you hope it was. It is what it is. And that\u2019s why I\u2019m the mayor of Realville.<\/p>\n

Okay, to the audio sound bites, which tell a story. You may have seen excerpts of this. Mark Halperin, who has a TV show on the Bloomberg network with his buddy John Heilemann, went to Showtime and pitched an idea. The idea resulted in a program called The Circus, Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth. The premise of the show is that Halperin hangs around with a bunch of Republican establishment guys during this campaign and gets them on tape reacting to what\u2019s happening in the campaign, which is pretty much getting their reaction to Trump.<\/p>\n

The cameras follow them around as they\u2019re in cars, they go to dinner. Anywhere these establishment types gather, the cameras are there. The establishment types are, for example, many of them are from the George Bush 41 days. You have Vin Weber, former member of Congress from Minnesota. You have a fundraiser and strategist by the name of Rick Holt. Former George H. W. Bush advisor Ron Kaufman from Boston. There\u2019s some others like Ed Rogers. There are four or five of these guys.<\/p>\n

Oh, and Mark McKinnon, who is a renowned media expert who ran all of George W. Bush\u2019s media in 2000 and 2004 and thus is heralded as a great media guru. He\u2019s also the guy that started the revered and exalted No Labels movement with a bunch of other liberal Republicans who don\u2019t like labels and who don\u2019t like conservatives and thought that they could separate themselves and not be identified with the redneck hoi polloi by calling themselves No Labels. He\u2019s part of this group, too.<\/p>\n

This is gonna air at some point. It may be airing on Showtime; I don\u2019t know. But they have released excerpts of this on YouTube and we have some of them for you. It\u2019s March 6, Showtime\u2019s The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth. This is during a dinner gathering of Republican establishment fundraisers and strategists.<\/p>\n