RUSH: Here’s Kimberly in Dayton, Ohio, as we go to phones. Kimberly, Merry Christmas! I’m glad you called.
CALLER: Thank you. Merry Christmas. I just wanted to call — and I don’t want this to sound like a rude call so I apologize if it does. But you really underestimated Hillary. Everything you said made sense when she ran in New York. She shouldn’t have won that. You go up there and you run, you don’t even live there; you buy a house to run. She shouldn’t have won — and everything that you said in the 2006 election about the Cut-and-Run Conservatives? It all made sense, but I kept trying to call and tell you, it’s really happening. I’m here in Ohio, and I can tell you that —
RUSH: Wait! Wait! I’ve lost you now.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Let’s go back to the beginning. Where I was wrong about Hillary was I predicted she wouldn’t run, and she did. After she said she would run, I don’t think I ever predicted she would lose. I never expected her to lose.
CALLER: She’s been running since she walked into the White House the first time. I think we seriously underestimate her passion for world domination here —
RUSH: Oh! Okay.
CALLER: — and how many people she’s going to cut the legs off of to get there, and the thing is, is that I also think that you seriously — (sigh) and I’m sorry, but that it’s the case, you have no idea how sorry I am, but that you seriously — underestimate how many uneducated people there are in this country that don’t listen to your show, and they aren’t educated, and they go out there and they vote. My daughter is going to school with a whole (unintelligible) of them who are going to vote for Hillary Clinton just because she’s a woman and they know nothing about her. We have got to have a serious, intense contrast to just who this woman is. Not just the mediocre moderate, but a serious, intense contrast so that the people in America can see, don’t give up hope. We need a founding father. I know people keep saying there’s not going to be another Ronald Reagan, but I really think that there are good people out there who don’t necessarily have to be senators or governors. They’re in office right now.
RUSH: (sigh)
CALLER: They know how to do the thing, but they’re overlooked because the Republican Party is pushing their machinery through —
RUSH: (breathing heavy)
CALLER: — and that’s what makes everybody upset, because they keep shoving people like Mike DeWine down our throats and they don’t give us the real thing.
RUSH: (hyperventilating)
CALLER: I think the only thing that’s going to beat Hillary Clinton is rallying the women, educating them, getting the real thing.
RUSH: (Breathing hard.)
CALLER: I’m sorry. (Laughing.)
RUSH: (Breathing hard.) Oh my gosh. I’m hyperventilating! I’m getting dizzy here trying to keep up with you.
CALLER: I’m breathing.
RUSH: Let me see if I understand. You are scared to death of Hillary?
CALLER: I’m not scared to death.
RUSH: Yes, you are!
CALLER: No. No.
RUSH: You could have said what you just said in three words.
CALLER: I’m scared to death of the ignorance of the American people. That’s what scares me.
RUSH: Well, look, that’s something we’re always going to have to deal with, the education system being what it is. You started by saying that you disagree with me that I don’t apparently think there’s a lot of idiots out there. I do. I think there’s plenty of blooming idiots. It’s not so much they’re idiots; it’s they don’t pay attention as closely to things that you and I do. They’re interested in other things, and when they do pay attention, the places they go is where the little brainwashing starts or the propaganda.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: They go to Big Media places or, in the case of young people, they hear about it in school from teachers and professors and this sort of thing.
CALLER: Yeah, but, Rush, I’m not talking about those people. I’m talking about the people who are paying attention, the conservatives, the real conservatives, the home schoolers. The people who know what’s going on, they’ve lost hope, and I think that they’ve lost —
RUSH: Well, then vote for Barack Obama.
CALLER: Oh, please! That’s not the answer!
RUSH: Oh, but he’s the man of hope.
CALLER: No, he’s not!
RUSH: We’ve had a man from Hope; now we’ve got the man
CALLER: He’s the schmuck of the party!
RUSH: You need to calm down out there!
CALLER: I’m trying to tell you: I am the norm, and —
RUSH: I understand.
CALLER: — and they keep saying, “As Ohio goes, America goes.”
RUSH: You’re fine but everybody else is screwed up. You’re fine, but everybody else is worried.
CALLER: (giggling) So can we unscrew them up? That’s my problem!
RUSH: You’re fine, but everybody else is depressed. You’re fine, but everybody else wants to commit suicide. You’re fine, but everybody else is going to throw up their hands and say, “I quit! I’m moving to Switzerland so I can renounce my US taxpayer status.”
CALLER: You know what? How do we stop that? How do we keep that from happening? How do we give them hope?
RUSH: Well, gee, I don’t know! I’m a radio guy. I’m not trying to get votes and the people in this audience have hope. The people in this audience enjoy their lives. I don’t run around in fits of depression all day long. Well, Isometimes I get down in the dumps but I know how to get out of it now, whereas I used to not know how to do that. I don’t live there when that happens to me, and I’ll tell you what, Kimberly: I’ll be damned if I’m going to let whoever becomes president ruin my life. 
CALLER: But they have the ability to do that in many physical ways. You’re right, mind-set is mind-set and you can overcome it, but they have the ability to put us in a place — I mean, six years is way too long to send a message, and we sent a lot of messages for six years into Washington, and that’s going to have a very, very big impact on all of our lives, and people did that on purpose. I saw them walk into the polls with their eyes closed. “No, I don’t want your voter information,” even if it was nonpartisan. They went with a mission. They went to send a message, and now we have to live with this message. How do we keep that from happening in 2008? I guess that’s my question.
RUSH: Well, who went where for six years and did what? I lost you there.
CALLER: Sherrod Brown is now the senator —
RUSH: Oh.
CALLER: — representing Ohio for six years!
RUSH: Fine.
CALLER: And he’s not the only one! All across the country, we set some really good people in place in various places around the country, and they got locked out for a message.
RUSH: Look, let me tell you something: We are replaying the aftermath of the election here. I think I finally understand what you’re talking about. We sent people to Washington for six years or whatever, and they didn’t do what they were going to do. They didn’t fulfill their promises and so forth, and what happened to them happened. They lose in that circumstance. That’s how the process works. If they want to get their power back they’re going to have to come out and figure out what it is that their supporters and voters want and then campaign on it, and then try their best to deliver it after they get elected. These things are repeating cycles. What’s frustrating is that the losers never seem to learn from it! They expect that these winning and losing cycles are going to continue and that when they lose, it’s not that big a deal, as these things happen in politics. At any rate, I appreciate the call, Kimberly. Thanks. Try to calm down. It’s never as bad as you think it is.
After all, you were just named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year!