{"id":4254,"date":"2016-02-08T17:47:02","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T17:47:02","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-02-08T17:47:02","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T17:47:02","slug":"the_real_question_why_won_t_anyone_but_rubio_and_cruz_say_obama_is_destroying_the_country_on_purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/02\/08\/the_real_question_why_won_t_anyone_but_rubio_and_cruz_say_obama_is_destroying_the_country_on_purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Question: Why Won\u2019t Anyone But Rubio and Cruz Say Obama Is Destroying the Country on Purpose?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: On the Republican side, what do you think the most talked about aspect of the Republican debate Saturday night is? Without question it is the exchanges between Governor Christie and Senator Rubio, and Senator Rubio\u2019s repeated contention that Barack Obama is not incompetent, that he\u2019s not bumbling around and screwing things up accidentally. That instead what Obama is doing is explicit, by design, and on purpose. <\/p>\n

And he repeated it four or five times in such a way that people said, led by Christie, “Look at this! There it is again! The guy, he doesn\u2019t know what to say. He\u2019s a robot. He\u2019s got his 25-second speech. He\u2019s got his canned answer followed by the 25-second campaign. There it is! There it is! You see it!” And the media Saturday night all chimed in saying, “This is it for Rubio, Rubio has blown it.” Even on Fox News some were comparing it to Dan Quayle\u2019s moment with Lord Bentsen, and I said, “Wait just a second. It\u2019s nowhere near that.”<\/line><\/p>\n

And I think… This is what I was talking about earlier when I say, “I think some of these professional media analysts…” God bless them and they do hard work, and many of them, they\u2019re just fine people. But I don\u2019t know that they have the ability to see these debates the way people watching the debates on TV see them. Meaning: I don\u2019t know how big a faux pas this was for Rubio. Clearly it was not a positive; clearly it was not his best. But I don\u2019t think it ruined his chances and wiped him out like some in the media opined. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s get to the audio sound bites. I want to start with this. It\u2019s the fastest way to get into this. Because this is important, folks. This is really, really important. There are only two people that I\u2019m aware of that are making a consistent point of this. Rubio, actually, is atop of this. Rubio and Cruz are the only two in the entire Republican field. Carly Fiorina may have said something like this occasionally. With Rubio, it\u2019s a theme. With Cruz, it\u2019s close to a theme. And the real question is: Why do the other Republicans in the field disagree? <\/p>\n

Why do they not say it themselves, that Obama is doing what he\u2019s doing on purpose and by design? That is a brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed plan to transform America into something it was not founded to be. This is something crucially important to Republican voters. To people inside the Beltway, it\u2019s kind of a chuckle. “There they go again, those right wingers!” To people inside the Beltway, to the elites, to the establishment, Obama\u2019s just the latest Democrat to come along. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s no different than any other Democrat. “It\u2019s just the Democrat Party, and they have a president.” They don\u2019t see the country in crisis in any way. Not because of the economy, not because of immigration, not because of foreign policy. In no way are we in a crisis. And, as such, they don\u2019t see what Obama\u2019s doing as anything except maybe a young, inexperienced — this is Christie\u2019s point — incompetent boob. Well, that\u2019s not who Obama is. Rubio\u2019s opponents are using it to disqualify him. “See! Obama doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s doing, and Rubio\u2019s the same kind of guy, just a few short years in the Senate running for president. We can\u2019t afford it.<\/line><\/p>\n

“Meanwhile, the governors! We\u2019re the guys. We\u2019re the tough guys. We\u2019ve had to make tough decisions,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The governors will not admit who Obama is. The governors will not admit it, and Trump does not agree that Obama is purposely doing this. Trump thinks he\u2019s a blithering incompetent. This is crucially important. But let\u2019s get to the audio sound bites to set this up first. Here is Christie. And by the way, I told you (and this is not a hard prediction) that Rubio was gonna be the target of this debate on Friday.<\/p>\n

I told you Rubio was gonna be in the crosshairs of all of these other guns because of the momentum he had coming out of Iowa. And have you noticed, coming out of Iowa, the so-called Republican establishment seemed to gravitate almost immediately to Rubio? Rubio was where the donor class was gonna go, and Rubio was where the establishment was gonna go because it just doesn\u2019t look like Jeb\u2019s gonna get there. Kasich may have a decent showing in New Hampshire. We don\u2019t know. But beyond that…<\/p>\n

Now the establishment can\u2019t wait to dump Rubio over this debate performance Saturday night. The establishment can\u2019t wait. Now they\u2019re struggling to find somewhere to go. They thought it was gonna be Rubio. Why did they drop Rubio like a hot potato? I don\u2019t think it\u2019s because of his debate performance. I don\u2019t think so. It may be a factor, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the number one reason why the establishment all of a sudden decided to jettison Rubio. I think there\u2019s another reason. Let\u2019s get to the audio sound bites just to replay what\u2019s happened here. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Christie, Saturday night, Manchester, New Hampshire. The moderator at ABC, David Muir — and this is another thing, by the way. I saw Carly Fiorina on Fox complaining she wasn\u2019t on the main stage, and I saw some people upset that Martha Raddatz tried to nail Ted Cruz on foreign policy, which she was. You know, Ted Cruz had a great night, and the evidence of that is that nobody wanted to talk about it. If Ted Cruz had had a bad night, folks, you would still be hearing about it, everywhere. CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS.<\/p>\n

But Cruz could barely even get a mention Saturday night, and the only mention he got was this back-and-forth with Ben Carson over the silliness talking about Iowa and supposed cheating and stealing of votes. But aside from that, Cruz got hardly any mention. Oh, yeah, when his name was brought up they said, “Yeah, he was solid. He was there. Didn\u2019t hurt himself, didn\u2019t help himself.” Given that none of the people we\u2019re talking about want to see Ted Cruz anywhere near the nomination, the fact is had he done poorly like some of the conventional wisdom was, that would have been their headline. <\/p>\n

But since he didn\u2019t bomb and since he actually was pretty solid on everything that came his way substantively, they ignored him. That\u2019s the best indication of the solid performance he turned in. But my point is, everybody complaining at the way Martha Raddatz went after Cruz. What…? If you\u2019re gonna have ABC moderate your debate, what do you think is going to happen? George Stephanopoulos is a former — I actually think still an active Democrat operative. George Stephanopoulos is from the Clinton war room. <\/p>\n

What do you think you\u2019re gonna get when you have ABC host a debate? Stop complaining! If you\u2019re gonna make the decision to go there you have to realize that Martha Raddatz wants Hillary Clinton to be elected and Hillary Clinton\u2019s weakness is foreign policy. Ted Cruz comes along and happens to run rings around Hillary or anybody else in foreign policy. She\u2019s gonna try to take him out, and she\u2019s not gonna show any respect at all.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what happened. You have to know what\u2019s gonna happen when you put your debate on ABC, or CNBC, or NBC. You have to know. Anyway, David Muir, ABC: “Governor Christie, you said, ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,\u2019 when it comes to electing a first-term senator. You heard Senator Rubio make the case that he does have the experience. What\u2019s your response?”<\/line><\/p>\n

CHRISTIE: You have not been involved in a consequential decision where you had to be held accountable. You just simply haven\u2019t. And the fact is when you talk about Hezbollah Sanctions Act that you list as one of your accomplishments and just did, you weren\u2019t even there to vote for it. That\u2019s not leadership. That\u2019s truancy. … He simply does not have the experience to be president of the United States and make these decisions.<\/p>\n