×

Rush Limbaugh

For a better experience,
download and use our app!

The Rush Limbaugh Show Main Menu

RUSH: Last Thursday on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. We put together a montage of unidentified C-SPAN callers about the extension of my partnership agreement with Clear Channel.

C-SPAN CALLER #1: I couldn’t be happier. I listened to Rush for 20 years. I feel like he’s a friend. He deserves it. Rush is entertainment. He’s fun, he’s upbeat. Rush brings out the best of our country, what the United States really stands for, what it means to be an American, and it’s so important for people to understand that the United States of America is the greatest country in the world.

C-SPAN CALLER #2: We like him, and we’re glad he’s on. We’re sick of the constant negativity from the so-called mainstream media, and I am so glad that Rush is here to stay.

RUSH: I should take this occasion to thank all of you who have sent me similar messages in the e-mail, just thousands and thousands and thousands of them since last Wednesday when this whole thing became public. It’s been very, very gratifying. One aspect of the new arrangement was discussed last Thursday on Kudlow & Company, Larry Kudlow’s show on CNBC. He had University of Virginia’s political scientist, Larry Sabato, and Jonah Goldberg from the National Review discussing it.

KUDLOW: Rush Limbaugh, you saw the headlines today: $400 million contract, out to, what, 2016? He’s still the king of radio. He’s still an influential guy, isn’t he, Larry?

SABATO: Well, sure, with his audience, but obviously that’s — compared to the national electorate, that’s a — that’s a small piece of the action.

KUDLOW: How many people does he reach, Jonah? I thought he reaches a hundred million or something.

GOLDBERG: I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head, but I seem to recall it’s something like 10 or 20 million people a week, something like that. I mean, it’s a big, big bunch of people.

KUDLOW: You can do a lot of damage with that, Larry Sabato?

SABATO: Yeah, but you’re going to have 130 million people vote, all right? So, yeah, you could do some damage, or you can encourage that segment to get out and vote, but it’s a small piece of the action.

RUSH: Hey, Mr. Sabato, what’s the audience size of an average classroom of yours? What’s the audience size of the average cable show that you attend and appear on? (interruption) I know, Snerdley. You can’t take these snarky little things personally. You just can’t do it. You just know it’s eating them up, Snerdley.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: A quick question for the University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato. Dr. Sabato, why bother writing books when only a few thousand people, maybe a hundred thousand people, are going to read them? Why bother teaching in a classroom when so very few people, even over a course of years, are going to show up there? Why bother wasting your time, Dr. Sabato, on cable television programs that reach a paltry number of people? It’s such a waste of your time to engage in media that has such small audiences.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This next sound bite is somewhat interesting. It is pretty interesting. It was from last Thursday on DNCTV, the Scarborough show early in the morning. Mika Brzezinski, daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski. She’s a cohost, and she had two strategerists on. She had Liz Chadderdon, a Democrat strategerist; and Brad Blakeman, a Republican strategerist; to talk about me. So Mika Brzezinski said to Liz Chadderdon, ‘Liz, do you believe Rush Limbaugh had an impact on the Democrat primary? Do you think he will continue to have, if you think he did, an impact in the fall?’


CHADDERDON: Mika, I actually do think he had a little bit of an impact on the primary in certain states, particularly Texas, where he asked his Republican listeners to go out and vote in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton. That was the nominee he thought would be, I think, easier to beat in the fall. Uh, I don’t know if it had a huge impact, but I think it probably had a little bit of an impact. I mean, he’s got a huge following.
You’ve gotta give it to him. And in terms of the fall, you know, his — his listeners are not Barack Obama voters for the most part, but does he have a huge following that could be impacted by what he says in terms of voting for McCain, not voting for McCain? Absolutely. He could play a huge role.

RUSH: All right, so that was Liz Chadderdon, a Democrat strategerist last Thursday on DNCTV, suggesting — acknowledging that I have a major impact — contrary to Larry Sabato, in the previous sound bite. But listen now to Brad Blakeman. Mika Brzezinski says, ‘Brad, Limbaugh’s introduced a segment in which he uses a designated Obama criticizer, a man that he calls, quote, ‘certified black enough to criticize Obama,” and that’s in quotes. ‘With all the racial sensitivities out there, Brad, does McCain run the risk of a backlash if Rush helps him too much, pushes the envelope too far?’

BLAKEMAN: Well, if Rush becomes a lightning road, certainly it’s not helpful to the McCain campaign. On the other hand, I think Rush Limbaugh wants to win. His — he has much better, uh, fodder in the fall if John McCain is the president, and I believe will still have a — a House and a Senate that’s in Democratic control. So it’s in his best interests, selfishly, that, uh, John McCain be the president.

RUSH: So, the Republican strategerist sounds like a Democrat blogger in one sense, and that is, I’m only in this for my own self interest, that I don’t really care about the country. I’m just in this to make this show the best thing it can be. The Democrat strategerists seem to have a — correct me if I’m wrong on this, but as I listen to it, the Democrat strategerist seems to have a — better handle on what goes on here than the Republican strategerist. Would you agree with that? Now, it could just be me. It could just be me.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This