RUSH: ‘Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has dominated news coverage of the 2008 White House race, partly due to negative segments about her on conservative talk radio, according to a new study released on Monday. Clinton was the main subject of 17 percent of stories during the first five months of this year, almost twice as much coverage as the leading Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, who had 9 percent, the study found. The tone of coverage for the two during that period was about equal — roughly 37 percent of stories were negative while 27 percent were positive. … Conservative radio show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh have criticized Clinton for years, from her days as the first lady in the 1990s to New York senator and now candidate for the November 2008 presidential election. The review found that 86 percent of…’ the Rush Limbaughs of the world comments and ‘their segments on her were negative.’
My friends, this is not good enough. We are not doing our job. Only 86% are negative? Who are the ones making the 14% positive comments? That’s what I want to know. Who among us, the Rush Limbaughs of the world? We have work to do here, folks. This needs to be up to 100% negative, if we are said to be doing our job. By the way, this survey was done by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. That happens to be where Marvin Kalb works. So this was distressing to me. Only 86% negative. Of course, I wonder how many positive stories NPR, the liberals’ official government radio network, has done on George W. Bush? Could we have a study of that, you people at the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Shorenstein Center for whoever at Harvard? Just a little tit-for-tat would be nice.
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RUSH: We’ll go to Colorado Springs and start with John. Nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. I just wanted to comment that years ago I read a series of science fiction books, and that’s what it was about, how the race split in two. One of them was nice, and the other one was hideous, by a lady named Julian May.
RUSH: Julian May wrote it?
CALLER: Yes, Julian May.
RUSH: So what are you saying? Are you saying that this scientist in Britain stole the idea?
CALLER: Well, I’m saying maybe he’s read too much science fiction and didn’t get enough sleep.
RUSH: Okay, well, I appreciate the call out there, John, thanks much.
Jim in Bloomington, Indiana, hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, it’s a pleasure to speak with you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Actually, I’m vacationing in sunny Fort Myers, Florida. I’m down here enjoying the global warming for vacation, and, as I was telling Snerdley, you are an influential person, whether other people agree with that or not, because whenever I plan a trip, I always go on and find out what station I can pick you up at on my way and then once I get to the destination, what are my different choices, because I don’t want to lose you as I’m traveling so I’m always trying to pick out what station I can pick you up at and where it is so I can continue my education in your school.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. That’s an admirable effort that you’re making, and I understand it. It’s well worth your while.
CALLER: Well, after all these years I’ve been listening to you, I just can’t — you know, I can’t go, especially a week, without listening to you, so I made it a point years ago to, you know, know what stations, to learn what stations carry your broadcast, so I can continue my education. You know, one thing, Rush, we’re going to have to get you to Bloomington, Indiana. I’m a conservative and I’m surrounded by liberals. It’s evidently the place to be because the Dalai Lama was there last weekend.
RUSH: Yeah, the Dalai Lama has been everywhere. The Dalai Lama was in the White House. Every time I see the Dalai Lama, I say, ‘Cover the arms. You know, we’re not in the bedroom here.’ But I’m being unfair. If the Dalai Lama has been to Bloomington, Indiana — Bloomington may not be big enough for me to be honest with you. I’ll have to think about it. I only go to big towns. I’m just kidding. Just kidding. In a rare mood today. Jim, thanks for the phone call. I appreciate it.
A story here from the French News Agency: ‘Democrats Seek Direction as 2008 Polls Loom.’ I want to go back to this little study that we got out of Harvard and the Center for the Project for Excellence in Journalism, and they say that conservative talk radio is critical of Mrs. Clinton, has been, 86% of the time that she is discussed in the last five months. You know what I would like to see? I don’t need to see it, actually, I don’t need to see it. How about the Drive-By Media and all of the time they spend, not just the last five months, but the last six years on what do the Democrats have to do to get back in power; what must the Democrats do. There never, ever, are stories of what Republicans must do to hold the White House; what Republicans must do to retake the majority in the House of Representatives and Senate, no, no, no, no, no. The media is obsessed with story, after story, after story on what do the Democrats have to do to win, and here’s another one.
‘Almost a year on from snatching Congress from the Republicans, US Democrats say they are doing a tremendous job — but voters don’t seem to be listening. Riding a wave of anger over the Iraq war, Democrats carved narrow majorities in the House,’ and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. ‘But they have disappointed supporters who hoped they would halt the war, recently sparked a nasty foreign policy row with Turkey, and have found that Bush, though wounded, remains a ferocious adversary.’ I’ll say. He’s kicking their butt at each and every turn on issues of importance that matter to him and matter to them. ‘Democrats are also still short of the two-thirds House and Senate majorities needed to override presidential vetoes. … Repeated failures to force Bush to accept troop withdrawal timetables, changes to US strategy, and longer rest periods for American troops, appear to be overshadowing the rest of the Democratic agenda. A new CNN/Opinion Research poll spells bad news for Democrats, finding Congress is less popular than Bush, with an approval rating of only 22 percent. Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, has his own woes: His popularity ratings in his state of Nevada have tumbled to just 32 percent.’ I have a higher approval number in Nevada than Dingy Harry does.
So apparently what’s happening here, the Democrats once again, if you read the balance of the story, what you will conclude is that they’re not getting their message out. The Drive-Bys and the Democrats just don’t believe that the Democrats are getting their message out. Well, let me give you a hint, or a helpful tip, an idea for you Democrats who want to get your message out. Just tell us what you really stand for. We get these stories periodically. Democrats can’t get their message out; Democrats seek direction as 2008 polls loom. How many new directions in just the last six months have the Democrats needed to forge? You realize this new direction, or any new direction, is simply another way for the Democrats, ‘What do we need to do to fool these people and get them to approve of us?’ They can’t tell us what they really think, they can’t do that. For one, if they could articulate it, people would run away from the Democrats as if their hair was on fire.
Then there’s this companion story. This is from The Hill: ”Internal Dem Memo Faults Party Message.’ — Democrats are losing the battle for voters’ hearts.’ See, this is a second story. They’re both from Friday, October 26th. ‘Democrats are losing the battle for voters’ hearts because the party’s message lacks emotional appeal, according to a widely circulated critique of House Democratic communications strategy. ‘Our message sounds like an audit report on defense logistics,’ wrote Dave Helfert, a former Appropriations spokesman who now works for Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii). ‘Why are we defending [the State Children’s Health Insurance Program] instead of advocating a ‘Healthy Kids’ plan?” Helfert sent the memo this week to an e-mail list of all Democratic press secretaries and communications directors after staffers met on Monday to discuss rolling out the Democrats’ latest message. He said the meeting left him cold because it focused on what polling shows voters want rather than how to present persuasive messages.’
Let’s see. We’ve had George Lakoff (rhymes with) then somebody came in and took his place from Yale. This guy apparently didn’t get the job done. Now they’re talking to a staffer that works for Neil Abercrombie, and they still can’t find a way to get their message out. You know, we talked about this last week. This party is in deep, deep trouble. They are not unified. Steny Hoyer, who was Nancy Pelosi’s number-one lieutenant, has said that they’re going to go back to a four-day work week starting in 2008 so that members can spend more time with their families. Now, remember, when they took office earlier this year, ‘We’re going to roll up the sleeves and we’re not going to have this four-day work week like the Republicans, we’re going to get in there, we’re going to get it, we’re going to get out and we’re going to make things happen here.’ They haven’t made anything happen. Pelosi is reeling from recent setbacks. Dingy Harry, these two are the most ineffective leaders Democrats have had in either the House or Senate in my lifetime. And I think Steny Hoyer now announcing the four-day work week, where’s Pelosi? This is the kind of thing she ought to be announcing.
So I think deep in the bowels of the party, they’ve got all kinds of problems. They have bent over backwards and forwards to please the kook fringe, and in doing so they have marginalized themselves. Why do you think they’re so concerned with polls? And when these Drive-Bys are doing these stories — you have to understand these stories are not accurate representations. These are panic-driven stories, and the Drive-Bys are trying to help the Democrats come up with another new message, another way to fine-tune the message, because whatever they’ve been doing now isn’t working. And that’s how to take this. This is a reason for people to be confident. One Democrat leadership aide said, ‘Everybody’s a message expert. The fact of the matter is Democrats are working hard to communicate our accomplishments,’ which is a problem, folks, because there aren’t any. Minimum wage, anybody? Yip, yip, yip, yip, yahoo. I don’t want to relive the past because we at the EIB Network are constantly moving forward, but I’m starting to see letters to the editor all over the country from people who have written their local newspapers complaining about the lack of coverage in the Drive-By Media the Dingy Harry smear letter episode got.
We have intricate monitoring systems for letters to the editor and newspapers all over the country, folks, and it’s stunning, the number of people, number of letters to the editor chastising the Drive-Bys. There was one on Saturday in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The woman that wrote the letter says, ‘A local resident has just seen to it that, through an act of the abuse of power of Congress, $4.1 million is going to a Marine charity, and none of the media singles out this local resident.’ Yet some local resident will spend $900,000 on a party to generate $100,000 to a charity, or $1 million. Of course, the net is 100,000, and they get thousands of pages and pictures written of the beautiful people who attend these things. This kind of thing is happening all over. My point is that you live in this Drive-By Media bubble where you don’t see these kinds of things reported. I’m not talking about the Dingy Harry story; I’m talking about people’s attitudes.
But this stuff that they’ve been engaging in, the Petraeus stuff, all of the criticism of the military, the investment in defeat, don’t think this stuff is not being noticed by a lot of people, and the key, the trick to understanding it here is, once again, last Friday, two more stories on what the Democrats have to do to refine their message. And how about this business Democrats are losing the battle for voters’ hearts because the party’s message lacks emotional appeal? The problem with the Democrats is that everything is emotional. They cry over a tree that falls in the forest. They cry over Greenland melting supposedly. The real empathy and compassion and emotion that they should have for people gets washed out whenever it does exist because they’re totally emotional, and the reason they’re not connecting with people is not because their message lacks emotional appeal. It’s because it lacks honesty and it lacks credibility, and it lacks believability.
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RUSH: Jim in St. Louis, it’s nice to have you on the program, sir. Welcome.
CALLER: Well, Rush, it’s an honor to speak with you. Real quick, I wanted to tell you that I like the message that you give to people about how individuals need to get things done, and what I want to try and communicate is that the Drive-By Media, which I agree with, everything right now in America is a mess: The roads are a mess; health care is a mess; the war is a mess; the climate’s a mess. I believe that people are trying to keep up. They read the paper; they watch the news, but they’re busy. They got jobs. They got sick relatives. So they’re trying to deep up, and they’re frustrated. Everything is a mess. Somebody should do something. ‘It won’t be me. I’m busy,’ or, ‘I don’t want to. I don’t want to take the chance of losing my money or my job. So maybe the government should do something, because somebody should because isn’t everything a mess?’ Well, the message that you give is that, no, not everything is a mess, and you also tell people that there are things that they can do to make it better. The press does not tell anybody anything they can do to make it better.
RUSH: No, they don’t want it to get better. They want it to get worse! It’s all about electing Democrats, and the theory is, the worse things can be made to appear, the more unrest and upset that there will be amongst the people out there and they will want a ‘change.’ The thing the Democrats and the Drive-Bys are overlooking is, we’re automatically going to get a change! George W. Bush can’t run. His name’s not going to be on the ballot. So they’re trying to make it out to be a party change, but they’re not running against Republicans. They’re running against Bush. We’re going to get change automatically. The fear is Hillary represents ‘new.’ She’s not change! She’s as much inside the Beltway and establishment as anybody in this race can be. Look, I do cringe. I understand. Believe me, my friends, I have compassion and understanding, and I know that there are challenges and ups and downs in life, and I know that there are some economic circumstances that are presenting a true, real hardship to a lot of people right now in terms of the housing situation, the mortgage situation and all that, the rising oil price — which, by the way, do you know that most of the oil price going up is just because of speculation?
It’s not really the price. It doesn’t represent the real true price of the stuff coming out of the ground. The speculation market is bidding the price up. I mean, it’s a real price. It costs real money, but the speculators are doing this. All this news does tend to impact people in a negative way, and the way it works is, if you’re doing really well in your life, you say, ‘Okay, this stuff is not affecting me. I’m doing pretty good. It must be bad for my neighbors. It must be bad for everybody else out there,’ and then you’re on the way to a slippery slope of having ‘somebody do something’ about it. There’s also another personality characteristic or character trait that is somewhat related to procrastination. It’s kind of related to that, although it’s not. People think, ‘Ah, it isn’t going to happen.’ You watch the movie The Lives of Others, and say, ‘It’s not going to happen here.’ Socialized medicine? ‘It ain’t going to happen here.’
You think that those kinds of bad things aren’t actually going to happen, and so when you have that attitude you are not enlisting in the battle to prevent them from happening, and you’re leaving it to others who may have the same attitude, and that provides an opening for those who do want these kind of things to happen, and I’m telling you who those people are. They are liberals, and they are relentless, and they do not stop. Those are the kind of things that animate them, coming up with policies that expand the government, have more and more control over your life, while you’re out there focusing on your life and how to improve it — economically, morally, spiritually, any number of ways. The liberals are plotting how they can take over your life, and it animates them. So these things can happen. They’re slowly creeping upon us even now in a whole bunch of areas. Well, we’ve been through this a number of times. I only have a limited amount of time before I have to take a break here. But it’s something that, despite all this, there’s no better place in the world to live. The opportunity for prosperity and happiness is greater here than anywhere else in the world. Despite all this, it’s worth fighting for and holding on to and teaching to others who these little skulls full of mush are being propagandized right before our very eyes in our little schools in the neighborhood.
That burns me up, by the way.