{"id":5517,"date":"2015-08-28T17:22:08","date_gmt":"2015-08-28T17:22:08","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2015-08-28T17:22:08","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T17:22:08","slug":"caller_how_did_it_really_feel_to_go_deaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2015\/08\/28\/caller_how_did_it_really_feel_to_go_deaf\/","title":{"rendered":"Caller: How Did It Really Feel to Go Deaf?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: Eric in Charlotte, North Carolina, you\u2019re up first today, Open Line Friday. Great to have you. Hello, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you. Mega dittos and mega kudos, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I want to talk about Donald Trump and Ben Carson in a moment. But hopefully toward the end, if time permits, I got a personal question for you, if your grace will provide it. I\u2019ve been a Ben Carson fan — big time Ben Carson fan, for a second, Rubio fan\/supporter for a good while. Trump, I just respect his businessman. He\u2019s a huge ego but what guy runs for president doesn\u2019t have one? But I hadn\u2019t really been too much on board with him. I\u2019d be really scared if he ever ran on third party. But this thing this week he made the pledge that he\u2019s not gonna run under a third-party ticket is a game-changer. They sort of forced his hand down there.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t… Has he made the pledge or did he just verbally assure the GOP brass that he would not go third party?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay, if he assured… He\u2019s probably a man where his word is his bond and he is the equivalent.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But this is a huge game-changer. I think with South Carolina playing hardball saying that if you don\u2019t take the pledge we\u2019re not gonna put you on the ballot, that sort of shook him up. He probably did a little powwow with them. The RNC probably saw that this guy\u2019s not stopping, he\u2019s not slowing down, and they did a powwow with him, and they\u2019re on his side. And a lot of people are beginning to see, “Okay, this guy is just a businessman.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s smart, he\u2019s brilliant, he knows what he\u2019s doing. He\u2019s kind of shoots from the hip a lot but he\u2019s no fool, he\u2019s no idiot,” and the thing is I am now a supporter of his simply because of the fact that he took this pledge pretty much that, hey, he\u2019s not gonna bail out and run third party, \u2019cause that would ruin everything. If he chose Ben Carson, this would be an unstoppable, undeniable, unbeatable ticket, or even Rubio. But the bottom line is: I think now this thing, him making this type of move, he had no —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Eric, wait a minute. Why do you think choosing Ben Carson…? Don\u2019t infer any opinion here. I\u2019m not judging you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Sure.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019m curious. Why do you think Carson as his choice makes it unbeatable? Is it because Carson will attract enough black votes from a Democrat candidate to doom them?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Without a doubt that. That\u2019s not gonna be the main thing, but everyone knows that this man is a brilliant guy. He\u2019s a neurosurgery surgeon. Being black is definitely a huge plus. There are white people who will vote for him just because he\u2019s black, not to mention just so black people vote. He will garner a number of support — a big support from them, because he\u2019s a true black American and he\u2019s not half-black, half-white like Obama, who is not the first black president. That\u2019s another discussion, but the point —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right, right, right. “Authenticity,” you get into little murky gray areas.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, but the point is —<\/p>\n

RUSH: What\u2019s the personal…? What\u2019s the personal question that you have for me?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Rush, I\u2019ve been listening to you for years. A lot of people don\u2019t know that you are deaf without that implant, because you have new people who tune in. And I have been wondering. I think it\u2019s amazing that you can do this show the way you do, but I have always wanted to know about your own emotions. During that time when you were losing your hearing and when you finally realized it\u2019s gone…<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve never really expressed your deep, deep emotions. And I said, “You had to have been going through anguish, hell at that time, and you had to try to relieve yourself with medication, and everybody knew that was kind of a disaster because it affected the way you were delivering your talks and the way you communicated. It was horrible.” But I always just wanted to know: What did you go through deep in your soul emotionally? You\u2019ve never really expressed that to us.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, you\u2019re right. I haven\u2019t. I haven\u2019t spoken much about it, only because I consider that to be bleeding on people publicly, which I\u2019ve never been a fan of. It\u2019s not that I\u2019m afraid talking about my emotions. It\u2019s just that I\u2019ve never… I\u2019ve thought it was sort of unfair to burden people with them. Because it didn\u2019t matter, really, to anything. You know, my feelings about it? They ran the gamut. <\/p>\n

You know, the hearing loss started in small doses before I really knew it was hearing loss. I was losing my hearing, and I just was chalking it up to different things, like a fan in my cigar room in New York didn\u2019t sound at full speed. So I had \u2019em come out and said, “Something\u2019s wrong with the fan.” They came out and they said, “Why?” I said, “Because I can barely hear it. It\u2019s running at half speed. I know there\u2019s something wrong with it.” They came out and said, “No, no. Everything\u2019s fine.” <\/p>\n

Okay. What was happening was, I was losing my hearing and didn\u2019t know it. And first in my left ear, and then I started noticing the TV wasn\u2019t loud enough and I went to the doctor and gave them my family history. He said, “Well, you\u2019re getting at that age where you lose some hearing. It\u2019s genetic.” And then didn\u2019t stop. I was losing 10% of my hearing a week. No, it was a month, 10% a month. <\/p>\n

So after 30% of my hearing was gone, they sent me to specialists, and some dibble-dabble took place. I guess if I\u2019d have gone to the House Clinic at the outset, they might have been able to save it. But that\u2019s an “if,” and I really don\u2019t live in “if” \u2019cause I didn\u2019t do that, because nobody realized what was happening was catastrophic. Then when they did the drugs that you talk about, they threw every drug in the world at me.<\/p>\n

They threw chemo drugs, anything to stop my immune system, to shut it down, because it was an autoimmune attack on my inner ear, my ear cells. And that didn\u2019t work. And now I\u2019m out of time to answer your question, which I still haven\u2019t gotten to it, but I will. I\u2019ll answer the question during the program today, because I don\u2019t think I ever really have, and I promise to do this on Open Line Friday, so I may as well.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I have to begin is this hour with the answer to an Open Line Friday question from the previous hour. I ran out of time, and I can\u2019t duck the question. I promised that I would take the question. It\u2019s what Open Line Friday is. I extend the invitation. The guy called and after telling me that he thinks the great ticket would be Trump and Ben Carson, he wanted to know what my emotional experiences were as I was losing my hearing. My staff was saying, “Don\u2019t answer that! Save that for the movie!” <\/p>\n

I said, “What movie? There isn\u2019t gonna be a movie. If there\u2019s ever a movie, it\u2019s not gonna be one I do.” <\/p>\n

“You can\u2019t! That\u2019s a great, untold story. You can\u2019t share that.” <\/p>\n

I said, “I\u2019m already committed.”<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that much to it, anyway. Look, I could spend the next hour talking about this or I can answer this question in two minutes, max. Which version do you want? You tell me in there. (interruption) Which…? (laughing) Here\u2019s the two-minute version, as best I remember it. Remember now, what was this? When did I lose my hearing? Was it end of…? Oh, that\u2019s right. I was losing it during 9\/11. That\u2019s right. That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

On 9\/11, I was on my way to play in a Warren Buffett charity the golf tournament, and 9\/11 happened, and the FAA gave every aircraft in the sky 45 minutes to land. We didn\u2019t… There\u2019s no way to get back home, so we landed and turned around somewhere. (interruption) No, because we\u2019re on the way to Omaha. It was like somewhere in Tennessee we had to turn around and got back to a strip in Florida.<\/line><\/p>\n

But we still had to drive an hour and a half or an hour to get back here, and I remember not being able to understand a thing on the radio. And one of the flight crew was driving me, and I was having them repeat to me what the details were of 9\/11. I had not seen any pictures yet, and I was unable to even hear the flight crew. I mean, at that point I really hadn\u2019t… All I\u2019d had was hearing aids, but they were only amplifying the noise of things I could not comprehend.<\/p>\n

I really could not comprehend speech. I will never forget the day that I came in here. Back in the old days before we needed any assistance, I was in here by myself every day during this program, and came in one morning and made the phone call to New York to establish the connection and could not understand. And that was the fateful day. I could hear it. It was dim; it was in the distance. I could not comprehend. My hearing had gotten to the point where I just could not make out words people were saying. <\/p>\n

Now, that was scary. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m kind of jumping ahead here. But I had no way that day of taking phone calls. I didn\u2019t have a court reporter, didn\u2019t have a transcriber, didn\u2019t have any of that by that time, and there was no way that I would be able to take a phone call. Then eventually we a got court reporter in and I remember getting a call from Rudy Giuliani one day. All this is running together. Let me stick with the emotions. The first emotion was denial. “Well, it\u2019ll little stop. It\u2019s genetic.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s gotta level off at some place and hearing aids will fix it and then I\u2019ll continue to lose my hearing as I get older.” But it just kept going and just kept going. So I started going to specialists, and everywhere I went I had the same tests. Nothing was being advanced. Every place I went it was as though I was going in for the first time. They did the same hearing tests that I\u2019d already done at the previous stop. It got a little frustrating, and became clear to me that nobody knew. <\/p>\n

It became clear that nobody had a clue until it was too late. These people at House Clinic diagnosed it for what it was. It was an autoimmune attack. I mean, my immune system thought my ears were a disease and were flooding them with white blood cells, killing the hair cells, is what was happening. That\u2019s why they put me on every chemo… I was taking Enbrel, had to shoot that up. I don\u2019t even know what it\u2019s used for, but they had me on a cocktail of things just to stop the immune system. <\/p>\n

And of course that put me at risk for other things. I remember one Friday during the program, during the treatment of all this I get an e-mail from a local doctor saying, “You have got to stop what you\u2019re doing and get yourself to the hospital now.” They had just gotten some blood tests back and I was bleeding internally from all this medicine. They said, “If you don\u2019t get over here fast, you\u2019re in trouble.” So I finished the program, and I went over to the hospital, and I was there for a weekend getting all kinds of transfusions with blood replaced. <\/p>\n

The medicine was just… It was vicious. It was multiple different things that they were throwing at me just to try and stop the immune system, but none of it worked. But when it first was explained to me that I could lose every bit of my hearing, I asked, “What\u2019s the solution?” They said, “This thing called cochlear implants,” and the way they were explained to me, it sounded like a perfect solution. So even as I was losing my hearing, I was confident that I was gonna be able to get it back. <\/p>\n

And at some point… I mean, there was real fear and so forth. I mean, I was looking at the end of my career and everything, but I never… Honestly, folks, I never gave in to that. I assumed that the implant would work at least well enough that I would continue to be able to do the job, and it did. I was actually totally, 100% deaf for two months before I had the surgery for the first cochlear implant, and it was two months instead of one.<\/p>\n

I was supposed to have the surgery after 30 days, and then I got an infection and they couldn\u2019t do surgery because I had a cold or something. So it was two months. I did the radio show every day, had court reporter transcribing phone calls. I had no idea what I sounded like. I even asked, “Look, do I even need this? You know, I\u2019m a voice student. I know how my voice feels. Can I just do this? Will I be able to sound normal to people?” And they said no. If you can\u2019t hear yourself, you at some point will lose it.<\/p>\n

“You couldn\u2019t do your job. Your voice will change, the way you speak will change, and it will become apparent that you have a disability.” So there was no option. I had to do the implant, and they can\u2019t even tell you it\u2019s gonna work, because it\u2019s different in every person. There are no guarantees. The only thing they tell you is, “Yeah, you\u2019ll be able to hear. You\u2019ll hear environmental sounds. Whether or not you\u2019ll be able to comprehend speech, we won\u2019t know until a month after the surgery.”<\/line><\/p>\n

And I was very lucky.<\/p>\n

I first tested out of 80% speech comprehension. But I don\u2019t know. The short answer to this emotion business is I don\u2019t remember ever caving to the idea that I was finished. I don\u2019t think it ever… I mean, the possibility crossed my mind, but it never seemed real. The idea I wouldn\u2019t be able to do this never seemed real. And, by the way, there wasn\u2019t a whole lot of time for emotion, folks, because the ongoing effort to save the hearing was quite time consuming. <\/p>\n

Every free moment I had was spent with doctors and tests and various ways to try to save the hearing, consultations. It was quite busy. There wasn\u2019t a whole lot of downtime to just do nothing but feel sorry for myself, and I can honestly tell you I didn\u2019t feel sorry for myself at any stage. I never have. I don\u2019t know why. I just never have done that about anything. ‘Cause there\u2019s always, to me, options. There\u2019s always a future. It\u2019s nothing\u2019s ever definitively over or the end. <\/p>\n

So I had faith the implant would work. I didn\u2019t know what it would mean, but I was assured that some kind of hearing would be restored. So that\u2019s the short answer to the question on the emotion. There was initial fear. Well, denial was the first thing, then the fear. And, yeah, there was some… I was scared for a while. One of the doctors told me at one point, “You know, you\u2019re really scared. You know this.” I said, “I am?” “Yeah, you\u2019re trying to cover it up, but you\u2019re scared. It\u2019s understandable you\u2019d be scared to death.” <\/p>\n

The most fascinating thing to me about all this, honestly, is not what\u2019s happened to me. The most fascinating thing to me about all this is how other people deal with it, not me. That has been the most mind-opening thing about all this that I could ever… The last thing I would ever think would be the big experience of, the big experience has been the way other people react to it, or don\u2019t. It has been a real eye-opener. It has taught me so much about people, various types of people, various human characteristics. <\/p>\n

That has been the real fascinating thing. And I know you\u2019re saying, “Well, what do you mean?” Well, I\u2019ll give you an example, just one. All of my close friends obviously know that I can\u2019t hear. But they don\u2019t know it. They don\u2019t know it, because I can. I have these implants, and they can talk to me. So they have no concept. A person that can hear cannot conceive of deafness. You can\u2019t manufacture it. Total deafness, I mean. You can\u2019t create it. <\/p>\n

You can cover your ears. You can put cotton in your ears. You can do everything to plug them, but you cannot create total deafness. And, as such, you can\u2019t understand it. You can pretend to be blind and know what that\u2019s like. And you can pretend that you can\u2019t walk. You can put yourself in a chair and imagine not being able to move and what that would entail. But you cannot imagine not being able to hear, unless you can\u2019t. <\/p>\n

And I mean total deafness, not hearing loss, and not hard-of-hearing. I mean total deafness. You can\u2019t relate to it. As such… I was playing golf one day, and I ran into a guy didn\u2019t even know. It was up at Jupiter Hills and I ran into a guy. I was coming off the practice range. The guy came up to me and said, “You know, I really admire what you\u2019re doing.” <\/p>\n

I had no idea what he was talking about. I said, “Why?” <\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t know how you\u2019re still working. You\u2019re deaf, for crying out loud! You\u2019re deaf!”<\/p>\n

I said, “Well, implants, this, that,” explained to him. <\/p>\n

He said — and I\u2019ve never forgotten this. He said, “Hearing loss, deafness is the only disability where the victim is blamed. Have you found that?” <\/p>\n

I said, “What do you mean?” <\/p>\n

“Do people get mad at you for not being able to hear them?”<\/p>\n

I laughed. “All the time.” <\/p>\n

He said, “That\u2019s what I mean. You\u2019re the one that can\u2019t hear; they get mad at you. Because they can\u2019t relate to not being able to hear. And when they\u2019re around you and you\u2019re wearing your implant, you can hear them, so they think you can hear them all the time. They do not get it. They just don\u2019t,” and he was right. He was dead-on right. And the way it manifests itself is… Well, let\u2019s say I\u2019m on the golf course. I\u2019m on the driver\u2019s side. Let\u2019s say before I got the implant on my right ear, so I can only hear out of my left. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m on the driver\u2019s side. My good buddy, whoever it is sitting on my right talking to me in a normal tone of voice as we\u2019re motoring along and the golf clubs are rattling and making noise and the wind is going through the microphone. I can\u2019t understand a single word. Two years later, same circumstance. The guy still doesn\u2019t speak up, doesn\u2019t aim for my left ear, just keeps talking. It\u2019s just… I don\u2019t know how to explain it. <\/p>\n

As I say, it\u2019s been fascinating to study it and try to understand it, and I don\u2019t complain about it. You know, I just I\u2019ll stop the cart and I\u2019ll turn my head and get three inches from them and say, “Could you say that again,” and it\u2019ll happen after I do that. Five minutes later they\u2019ll try to talk to me with all the racket again, and I\u2019ll stop the cart, and I\u2019ll turn my head and get three inches. They don\u2019t learn. And that has been the fascinating thing about it. <\/p>\n

And this is not a criticism. It\u2019s human nature. It\u2019s just the way… I think it\u2019s all rooted in the fact that people simply can\u2019t relate to it, even people I\u2019ve explained it to in great detail — and I can\u2019t explain the acoustics. Here\u2019s another example. Sometimes at the front of the airplane, I can hear what is being said 20 feet behind me. With all the racket, I can hear it. I cannot I understand what somebody directly across the aisle is saying. If, in an example like this…<\/p>\n

Oh, the racket from the galley and whoever is taking things out? I hear perfectly fine. Somebody straight across the aisle just two feet away from me, I cannot hear \u2019em. I can hear \u2019em; I can\u2019t understand what they\u2019re saying. So on one instance like that, a good friend of mine is in the back of plane. He\u2019s a doubting Thomas. He\u2019s one of these guys that thinks that I am lying to him when I can\u2019t hear him. He thinks that I\u2019m making it up to avoid conversation with him. <\/p>\n

So he happens to be back in the plane, and he cracks some joke about something, and five minutes later I say that was a funny joke. See, you can hear! You can hear. You have selective hearing like everybody else. I said, “No, no, no. I\u2019m not selecting what I hear at all. I\u2019m trying to tell you, I can\u2019t explain it. When I tell you I can\u2019t hear you, I can\u2019t hear you. I\u2019m not making it up.” How many of you have somebody in your family hard-of-hearing and you think they\u2019re just not paying attention to you? <\/p>\n

I did. My dad was losing his hearing; I didn\u2019t believe it. I thought he wasn\u2019t trying. I thought he didn\u2019t want to talk to me. I thought he was just ignoring me and didn\u2019t want to go to the trouble. We all thought that. Now I know the difference. It\u2019s different than losing your sight. It\u2019s different than losing your ability to be ambulatory. It\u2019s something about hearing and people\u2019s inability to relate to deafness that explains it.<\/p>\n

That kind of thing, by the way, has had an effect. I put myself in very few… Well, that\u2019s not the way to put it. Let me think about how to explain this. Let me take a break. I have to do that anyway. I\u2019m sure you\u2019re fed up with all this by now anyway. See, I gave not the two-minute version, but longer than I intended. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Lou Bega here, Mambo Number 5. And if I didn\u2019t know what it was, it would just be noise to me. Since I\u2019ve heard this song before I lost my hearing, my brain, my memory tells me what the melody is. But if I didn\u2019t know what this song is, it would be noise. It\u2019d be the same note, and it would be flat. The real challenge with hearing as a disability is it\u2019s the only one you can\u2019t see. You can\u2019t… Well, except in my case. <\/p>\n

I mean, you could see these things on the side of my head. I don\u2019t know what people think they are. The odds are most people have never heard of a cochlear implant so they don\u2019t know what that is, so they think it\u2019s some side of maybe a secret communication device or maybe it\u2019s a Bluetooth thing to help me with my phone. But other than that, you can\u2019t see deafness. But you can see somebody who\u2019s blind. You can tell.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re wearing dark glasses or they can\u2019t make eye contact with you, and if they do you can see that they can\u2019t see you; so you know. A wheelchair tells you that somebody is unable to walk. Other disabilities are clearly visible, and being able to see them clicks something in the brain. But hearing loss, being deaf, you can\u2019t see it. Plus, if you happen to listen to the radio every day and you hear me every day — and if I sound normal and if you\u2019re able to hear me converse with callers — you don\u2019t think I have hearing loss. <\/p>\n

So it\u2019s all understandable that people don\u2019t get it. But it\u2019s still… To me, it\u2019s fascinating to study it to try to alleviate some of it.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Just a quick second on Open Line Friday. Just couple of more things, and I promised to answer our first caller\u2019s questions about this. Now, as to the emotion when this was all happening? Look, folks, all I can tell you is, I never — even in moments of solitude and quiet — cried about it, and I never went, “Woe is me,” and I never felt like anything was unfair. I\u2019m the mayor of Realville. You know, I just… Whatever is, is. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry. I know that distances me from most people, in terms of being able to reality to things. But I\u2019m a hard, hard, cold, literal realist, and that\u2019s what was happening. And so the emotional focus I had outside of fear… There was plenty of that over not being able to continue my job, which I love. But it didn\u2019t dominate because the effort to save the hearing was intense, and it had serious medical consequences such as the internal bleeding, intestinal\/internal bleeding from all the medicine and all the testing.<\/line><\/p>\n

I was a guinea pig for a lot of things, as they were trying to save my hearing. In fact, I\u2019ll tell you: Shortly after my experience, I got a call from Tom Hicks, who was the owner of Texas Rangers. The same thing was happening to him in one ear and he wanted to know what I had done, and I told him. In my case, it was autoimmune, and he was dealt with in a way they were able to save his. And they did it with direct injections in the ear of whatever the drug cocktail was working. I don\u2019t mean to be giving anything away.<\/p>\n

It was flattered that he called, and it worked for him. I think it might have been his brother now that I think about it. But it differs from person to person. You just never know. They don\u2019t know, particularly when it comes to cochlear implants. They don\u2019t know why some people do exceedingly well with them and others don\u2019t, because it\u2019s the brain, and every brain\u2019s different and every set of circumstances is different.<\/p>\n

One of the things they tell you is, “Once you lose your hearing, do not wait to get an implant. The longer you wait, the greater the odds your brain\u2019s gonna forget how to hear.” That\u2019s how they explain it to you — and in my case, it\u2019s true. I did my implant in my left ear within two months, and at first had 80% speech comprehension. I\u2019m down to 50% now for reasons I won\u2019t get into. I waited, whatever it\u2019s been, 10 years, 13 for the right side, and the right side\u2019s useless by itself. <\/p>\n

It has no volume. It\u2019s fuzzy. Everybody sounds like chipmunks. It only works if I have the left side attached to it. If all I had was in my right side, I could not be doing this job. That\u2019s how bad it is. One side of my brain forgot how to hear. That\u2019s how they explain it. Now, one other thing I want to explain here \u2019cause I get this question a lot. It\u2019s not related to hearing. “Why aren\u2019t you on TV more?” I\u2019ve always told people I don\u2019t like TV, which is true. I really don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The reason I don\u2019t like TV is \u2019cause I\u2019m not a collaborator, and television is collaboration. Directors have to know what\u2019s coming next; producers have to know. Stage managers, camera have to know what\u2019s coming. I don\u2019t work that way. I\u2019ve never had a meeting to do the radio show. I don\u2019t. Sometimes I don\u2019t even decide in advance what I\u2019m gonna talk about; it just happens. You can\u2019t do that on TV. It\u2019s impossible. But there\u2019s another reason now, and that is, I cannot do remote television appearances. <\/line><\/p>\n

I mean, I cannot go to a satellite studio here, say, and appear on a Fox program. I simply can\u2019t hear it. I cannot hear the IFB. I just cannot comprehend what\u2019s said. Plus, there\u2019s more than one voice. You hear the director and you hear the host; I simply cannot. That is worse than a cell phone connection, and I cannot hear what\u2019s being said to me. It simply is not… My hearing is why I don\u2019t do TV. The reason why I don\u2019t do too much studio TV is because even there, I have to plug in in order to hear.<\/p>\n

If they\u2019re gonna play audio they want me to react to or if they\u2019re gonna take phone calls and I have to plug in, it\u2019s not as bad as being on remote. But the problem is, I have to concentrate 120% of the time on what I\u2019m hearing. And when I devote 120% concentration to what I\u2019m hearing, I\u2019m not even thinking about what I\u2019m gonna say. And I don\u2019t hear everything. I\u2019ll miss two or three words. My mind has to race trying to tell myself what I just heard, based on the context of things.<\/p>\n

I wish I could give you an example. This happens in person all the time. I\u2019ll be in the car or somewhere, and somebody will say something to me. And let\u2019s say they use 20 words and I hear 15 of them. Those 15 words I hear, I have to try to get the five words I missed, and this is in split seconds. I have to take those 15 words, combine them with the thing we\u2019re already talking about, and then guess what they\u2019ve said. <\/p>\n

That concentration, to do that on TV, I would look like a deer in the headlights because my total focus is concentration, trying to understand what\u2019s being said. And that just doesn\u2019t look good. The only time I could do TV is if nobody was talking to me and I was simply up there rattling off a monologue or speech or whatever I was doing, like the CPAC thing. My First Address to the Nation<\/a>. But a guest on a TV show, I simply can\u2019t do it, unless the person is right here next to me and I don\u2019t have to hook up to hear it.<\/p>\n

If there are electronics involved, I\u2019m stuck. So that\u2019s why you don\u2019t see me on TV. I literally cannot do it. I cannot hear remotely, and even if I\u2019m in a studio and I\u2019m hooked up, I don\u2019t hear every word, and then I have to start guessing at what I\u2019ve heard. And, believe me, it\u2019s not conducive to a flowing conversation. There\u2019s no court reporter. There\u2019s nobody transcribing what\u2019s being said on a TV set for me to look in case I need some help. It just isn\u2019t there, and that wouldn\u2019t work on TV anyway, because no matter how fast it is, it\u2019s not instantaneous. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s that. <\/p>\n

Enough of that. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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