RUSH: Let’s listen a little bit to Romney’s acceptance speech.
ROMNEY: Tonight is a victory for optimism over Washington-style pessimism. (applause) What we’re going to see in the next few days is Democrats say that they’re the party of change. (grumbling) You’re going to hear Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards, saying that they’re the party of change, and I think they would bring change to America, just not the kind we want. You see, I think they take their inspiration from the Europe of old: Big Government, Big Brother, big taxes. They fundamentally in their hearts believe that America is great because we have a great government — and we do have a great government, but that’s not what makes us the best nation, the strongest nation, the greatest nation on earth. What makes us such a great nation is the American people. I take my inspiration from Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush, who said we are a great and good people. It’s exactly what we are, it’s why we will always be the most powerful nation on earth.
RUSH: We cut the applause out of all these speeches last night just to save time. What did that sound like to you, Mr. Snerdley, his acceptance speech there? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. You heard some of that on this program yesterday, is that what you said? (interruption) Yeah. I didn’t want to say it myself but Snerdley apparently confirms my suspicions. Now, let’s listen. You just heard Romney. He’s all rah-rah on America. Let’s listen to Huckabee, who made his concession speech last night in South Carolina.
HUCKABEE: Months ago, when none of the other Republicans were talking about the economy, when they all said it was doing great, I said, ‘You better keep your eye on it, because if you’ just not (sic) spend your time talking to people, but if you spend some time listening to people, you’re going to find out that there’s a world of hurt out there in America.’
RUSH: Okay, so that’s a pretty good contrast between these two speeches. One’s a concession speech, Huckabee, and the other an acceptance speech by Romney. So you people wonder what populism is, you just heard it. ‘I know you’re hurting. Everybody is hurting, and nobody hears it but me, because I’m out there listening to you. Everybody is just talking to you, but I know you’re hurtin’.’ You know, human nature is what it is. People would love the sympathy of people who think they’re hurting. In fact, what was it last night? I forget what network I was watching. It must have been Fox. They had somebody analyzing the latest polls on the economy, and, of course, no big surprise. They found most people doing fine, but they think their neighbors are doing bad. It might have been Mike Barone. I’m not sure who it was. It doesn’t matter who it was, but what you learn from this is that there’s not a ‘world of hurt’ out there. There’s always economic angst.
The housing market is, of course, a source of angst for people as the value of their homes declines. Well, it’s a paper loss, and that’s why people sit tight. It’s going to come back. There’s no question. But they still see the value of the house falling, and there’s nothing they can do about it, and so it does cause some angst. The problem is taxes. Once again, it always is overlooked. It’s never mentioned by people, but the taxes are not falling as the value of the homes value. Your property tax isn’t going down; your assessments aren’t going down, but the value of your house is. Now, that’s where you need to look. All trails, all roads lead to Rome. All roads lead to government. You want to find out why things are costing you too much and why things are being devalued, I’m telling you, folks: look to government, and you’ll find in most cases, not all, the explanation for it. But to say that there is a ‘world of hurt’ out there is an attempt to create as many people thinking that as possible — and then, of course, accompanied by, ‘I’m going to take care of your pain, because I’m the only one who understands that you are feeling any.’