{"id":8194,"date":"2014-10-06T17:20:20","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T17:20:20","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-10-06T17:20:20","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T17:20:20","slug":"republicans_are_missing_out_on_a_huge_opportunity_to_connect_with_voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/10\/06\/republicans_are_missing_out_on_a_huge_opportunity_to_connect_with_voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans are Missing Out on a Huge Opportunity to Connect with Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: I\u2019m sorry. I don\u2019t know what to tell you. If I knew what to tell you I\u2019d tell you. I just don\u2019t know what it means. And there\u2019s no way of knowing what it means. Too often I have said that poll is crazy. Last time that I have thrown out poll results to my regret was the 2012 presidential race. I thought there\u2019s no way Romney was down six or eight points. I thought those polls had to be full of it. I thought they were using incorrect turnout sample, and those polls were right on the money. So I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a safe bet to just reject polls that apparently don\u2019t make sense to you.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m being flooded with e-mails from people who are in, not a panic, but, I mean, they\u2019re curious. Okay, so we have this polling data<\/a> out here. Voter opposition to Obama at 16-year high. It\u2019s a Gallup poll. These are people who say specifically that the reason they\u2019re gonna vote is to register opposition to Obama\u2019s policies. It\u2019s a record high for that poll in Gallup. It\u2019s a big number. It\u2019s huge, the number of people who say in a poll the reason they\u2019re gonna vote is to send a message to Obama that they hate what the hell he\u2019s doing. <\/p>\n

Okay, so there\u2019s that. And then over here in North Carolina, Kay Hagan, I gotta be very careful here. But that\u2019s one example where she\u2019s leading. NBC has a poll, she\u2019s ahead of Thom Tillis. It doesn\u2019t make any sense. People say, “Rush, what does this mean?” I don\u2019t know, folks. In the past, my instinctive reaction would be that the polls have been doctored to keep you dispirited, to keep you depressed, and to counter what the Drive-Bys and their polling units know is gonna be a bad year for Democrats. But as I say, the last time that I actually thought that was the 2012 presidential polls, and I was dead wrong. I\u2019ll tell you the mistake I made. <\/line><\/p>\n

By the way, welcome back. Great to have you, El Rushbo here at 800-282-2882. <\/p>\n

I was looking at the 2010 midterms, which was the closest election to 2012, and I was thinking, why in the world are the pollsters not using that as a model, \u2019cause that was a Tea Party turnout, it was an anti-Obamacare turnout. And the pollsters all said because a presidential turnout is different from midterm. It doesn\u2019t matter what\u2019s happening in the midterm. And you\u2019ve gotta compare polls from 2008 to 2012, not 2010. You have to have a poll that\u2019s got the same turnout size, same basic makeup. And the polls that did that show an Obama win by anywhere from four to eight points. <\/p>\n

I was stubbornly stuck here saying, “How in the world can there be a 2010 turnout that gave the Republicans the House, that lifted the Tea Party to vast stages of relevance be ignored?” And the pollsters all said, “It\u2019s not the same turnout, Mr. Limbaugh.” Dick Morris was on Fox basically saying the same thing, that these polls were all miscalculating, they were using a skewed sample that was not relative to the current circumstances, and they were hearkening back to the 2008 turnout using that as a model. And they turned out to be right. <\/p>\n

So, much as I would love to tell you that while you have a poll here that shows a tremendous number of people can\u2019t wait to go vote to register their anger and disgust with Obama, over here your senator, your incumbent Democrat in the midst of all that is still leading. I would love to tell you that I think it\u2019s a skewed poll, but I don\u2019t dare anymore. And it may well be, not just Kay Hagan, but Landrieu. Landrieu\u2019s aren\u2019t great, but you\u2019re looking at a runoff there. <\/line><\/p>\n

That\u2019s another thing. Obama\u2019s not gonna do amnesty \u2019til after that runoff is over. He\u2019s not gonna do it before the Senate is finished being shaped. He is not gonna do amnesty \u2019til that runoff with Landrieu is over and that race decided. He\u2019s not gonna do anything that\u2019s gonna harm the Democrats\u2019 chances. The only way he\u2019s gonna do amnesty is if he can figure out a way to blame it on the Republicans. And I don\u2019t doubt they\u2019re gonna continue to try. <\/p>\n

How do you do that? Somehow you finagle it so that the Republicans are out there publicly advocating it, which they have been. Well, they\u2019ve gone silent on it — well, not silent, they\u2019ve dialed it back, their support for amnesty right now. But not that long ago, a month, six weeks ago, everybody knew they were all for it. So I\u2019ve always felt that when it comes to amnesty, Obama\u2019s never gonna do that. There\u2019s no credit. Whoever does that, whoever\u2019s seen as responsible for it is not gonna get any credit. It\u2019s nowhere near a majority support issue. <\/p>\n

I mean, amnesty is gonna be the biggest flying finger in our face that there has ever been in politics. Amnesty is going to be, “Take this.” It does not have majority support; it\u2019s not even close. It is going to be the epitome, the essence of governing against the will of the people. And because of that, Obama\u2019s not going to do it \u2019til after all these Senate races are over and have been determined. And the last runoff would be Landrieu\u2019s in late November, early December, I forget. I think it\u2019s early December. <\/p>\n

Folks, I wish I could help you. I wish I could explain to you why apparent empty suits are not suffering, Democrat incumbents, why they are not suffering at the same time the whole country\u2019s down on Obama. All I could tell you is all politics is local, that old adage, the old theory, but I think this is where the reality that the Republicans are not presenting an agenda, or if not an agenda, a set of things that they\u2019re gonna do to fix things, this is where it might be coming back to haunt them. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s being left up to individual candidates to do, and depending how good they are, depending how good their advisors are. Let\u2019s face the facts. Something that I have gleaned in listening and watching sporadically, I must add, Republican campaigns, be they for the House or the Senate, one of the things I note is a common belief that they must somehow persuade the media of something. And that, to me, is a guaranteed loser because it\u2019s not possible. The media is never gonna see the light. <\/line><\/p>\n

If you do a candidate\u2019s debate with the idea of changing the media coverage, never gonna happen. If you do a campaign appearance or if you have a program or whatever that\u2019s designed to change media coverage, isn\u2019t gonna happen. The media\u2019s not gonna end up supporting a Republican challenger to a Democrat incumbent. It\u2019s not gonna happen.<\/p>\n

Remember that orientation I went to in 1994, I told them, “You think you\u2019ve won and the media in this town\u2019s gonna love you? They\u2019re gonna resent the hell out of you and they\u2019re gonna try to trip you up and they\u2019re gonna be mad at you for winning. They are gonna wish Tony Coelho still ran the show, not Newt. They\u2019re not your friends,” and I even said, “If Cokie Roberts comes up and bats those big eyebrows at you and tries to seduce you into thinking she\u2019s on your team, don\u2019t fall for it.” <\/p>\n

When I finished that speech, a bunch of reporters from the Washington Post and others in the room, they came up, I assumed my seat at the circular dinner table after I finished speaking, “Do you really think all of that you just said?” I said, “Damn right I do. I know full well you resent being in this room tonight. Here you are covering the Republican freshmen orientation, the guys that are gonna be running the House, Saturday night, I know damn well you don\u2019t even want to be here. You\u2019d rather be out partying with Ted Kennedy.” And they\u2019re writing furiously my remarks and comments. <\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s a waste of time, and when I hear candidates say, sometimes to me or another, “Yeah, we had a really good debate, you know, I think the media\u2019s starting to –” Wrong focus. The media\u2019s not, but the Republicans can\u2019t get past it. They can\u2019t get past the notion that they can\u2019t win unless the media\u2019s on their side. And it\u2019s never gonna happen. Well, I don\u2019t know about never, but certainly not in the anywhere near future. Focus has always got to be on the people. You gotta try to relate, build a bond of connection to people and how they\u2019re thinking and feeling. And when the subject of immigration comes up in a debate, how hard is it to say you support jobs for Americans? How hard is it to say that you don\u2019t understand why, all of a sudden, in this current Obama economy — or, if you don\u2019t want to say Obama, “in this current economy.” Why you want to flood the market with low-skill, low-wage workers doesn\u2019t make any sense when there are plenty of Americans looking for work. How hard is that to say? The media\u2019s gonna beat you over the head for it. They\u2019re gonna call you bigots and anti-this, but you\u2019re gonna resonate with voters. To me this is where I have to be very careful. <\/line><\/p>\n

I want to phrase this correctly. This is where, for some reason, there isn\u2019t a lot of helpful tutelage from consultants on how to build a bond, how to connect with voters and let them know that you\u2019re on their side and you understand where they are and that you, like them, think we\u2019ve got a mess that needs to be fixed, and pretty damn fast. But that\u2019s just me, and I always have to issue this caveat: I\u2019m not in politics. I\u2019m in broadcasting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an entirely different proposition. Getting an audience is a much different thing than getting votes, and I will be the first to acknowledge it. So I say all these things with the caveat that I could very well be wrong about how to get votes. (interruption) No. It\u2019s not my business. There are people whose business is getting votes, and they… (interruption) Well, I know they haven\u2019t been doing well, but it\u2019s just…<\/p>\n

I understand the frustration. You see the polling that shows a nationwide rising tide of disgust with Democrats, and you wonder, “Well, why isn\u2019t the Democrat in my state paying the price?” (interruption) How did…? How…? (interruption) What…? (interruption) Now, now wait a second. Snerdley is asking me: How did I know that McCain wasn\u2019t gonna win before the election? That wasn\u2019t hard. That didn\u2019t… (interruption) Well, the consultants said that McCain was gonna win. <\/line><\/p>\n

Well, look… (interruption) The McCain loss… I mean, that I don\u2019t want to rehash. But that was easy to spot. It was easy to spot. That was easy to spot. I\u2019ll tell you when the first realization happened. When I saw McCain for the two years, even before he got the nomination, I thought, “If he gets it, he\u2019s in for the biggest shock,” because all he did… He was on MSNBC every night, courting Chris Matthews and at the time Tim Russert.<\/p>\n

He was courting all these people and he really thought the media was his “base.” He really did. That was what he did. That was his strategy. He was joking about it. That was his strategy. The media was gonna elect him. Well, sorry. It was the easiest prediction in the world to make. “Whenever the Democrats got a candidate, McCain becomes the enemy and all this fun and friendly back-and-forth on MSNBC is gonna end. He\u2019s gonna become enemy number one, and he\u2019s not gonna know what hit him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I\u2019m sorry. I don\u2019t know what to tell you. If I knew what to tell you I\u2019d tell you. I just don\u2019t know what it means. And there\u2019s no way of knowing what it means. Too often I have said that poll is crazy. Last time that I have thrown out poll results to […]<\/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},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRepublicans are Missing Out on a Huge Opportunity to Connect with Voters - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/10\/06\/republicans_are_missing_out_on_a_huge_opportunity_to_connect_with_voters\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Republicans are Missing Out on a Huge Opportunity to Connect with Voters - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: I\u2019m sorry. I don\u2019t know what to tell you. If I knew what to tell you I\u2019d tell you. I just don\u2019t know what it means. And there\u2019s no way of knowing what it means. Too often I have said that poll is crazy. 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