RUSH: Vladimir Putin just said that Russia’s response to our defensive missile shield in Poland will go beyond diplomacy. Vladimir Putin said, ‘You put those missiles in there, and I’m going to do something other than talk.’ Now, this, ladies and gentlemen, is a moment of truth. Imagine President Obama versus President McCain. You just signed a deal with the Polish to put an Interceptor base with ten Interceptor missiles in Poland to protect them against attacks from people like the Russians. Vladimir Putin fresh off a total stomping of Georgia that nobody did anything to stop, now says you put those missiles here, and our response is going to be much more than just diplomacy.
What does Obama do? Well, he comes from the school of William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, who have taught him that America is usually to blame for these kinds of stalemates. My guess is that Obama would fold. My guess is Obama would cancel the missile shield in Poland. That’s what the conflict resolution studies would teach one to do. Would McCain fold on something like this? You know what Putin’s trying to do here. We have had things in our hemisphere where we’ve said, ‘You don’t come into our hemisphere — Monroe Doctrine — you don’t come in here, and you don’t mess with our 48, you don’t mess with our neighbors.’ Well, Putin, same thing, ‘Hey, look, this is my part of the world, and we’re going to build it back up, the Russian dynamo again, and we’re going to be very proud of ourselves and you’re not going to put any missiles in here,’ da-da-da-da-da. And so it’s moment of truth here for The Messiah.
(playing of Putin spoof)
The Russian national anthem behind Vladimir Putin there.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to go back to this Russian business for a second, in case you’re just joining us, this is major. This is big. Vladimir Putin, the Russians, have finally acted officially now to the decision by us and the government of Poland to put Interceptor missiles — these are not offensive. They don’t have tips on them. They don’t have nuclear tips. They’re not offensive weapons, they’re just launched in case somebody launches a nuke at Poland, so they can blow ’em out of the sky.
Russians have said, ‘our response,’ if you do, ‘will go beyond diplomacy.’ There is no mistaking what that means. What Putin is saying is, ‘Hey, I’m not just going to react with words,’ and there’s also a little slam at us because that’s exactly what he’s done as he’s marched out of Georgia and South Ossetia all he’s wanted. All we’ve had are words, from Obama, McCain, Bush, Rice. That’s all we’ve had is words. It is what it is. Putin is saying, ‘It ain’t going to be me. I’m going to do something other than talk if you do this.’ Now, it’s time to start figuring out who is best prepared to deal with this circumstance, and it ain’t Obama. Everything he’s been taught would make him fold. He would fold on the shield. He’d tell the Poles, ‘Sorry, we can’t do it, we don’t want the Russians running around militarily,’ and he’d just cancel the whole thing, there’s no doubt.
Don’t think McCain would be anywhere near as likely to fold or to cave. One thing about Putin, I remember after he met with Bush, first time, came over here, and remember when Bush said, ‘I looked into this man’s eyes, and I saw his soul.’ It was something akin to when lady Thatcher said that, after she met with Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev that she could ‘do business’ with him, and I remember the next day, because that happened after the program, and I remember the next day in the monologue, I said, ‘I’m not so trusting of this, because the guy is a communist. He’s the KGB. He’s not Boris Yeltsin; he’s not these reformers! He wants to reform the other way.’ Look, folks, nobody ever leaves the KGB. I don’t care what they call it. They change the name of it, Committee for State Security, whatever it’s called now. Nobody leaves it. Voluntarily. But when I really knew the truth about Putin — I’m not making this up — is when he first came over here to meet with Bush.
Bush took him down to Crawford, Texas, and had a good old Texas barbecue, and the next day Putin was less than enthusiastic about it. He didn’t much care for barbecue. Now, folks, if you don’t like barbecue, you’re not one of us. You don’t like barbecue, fine, but don’t tell everybody about it. You go out there and express your lack of appreciation for Texas barbecue? You’re going to give vodka and borscht versus Texas barbecue, I’d take the barbecue every time. That little episode told me a lot. Little things like that tell me a lot. (interruption) Well, Putin’s not a vegetarian. Don’t give me that. That’s not why he didn’t like Texas barbecue. What do you mean, Putin is a vegetarian? No, he’s not a vegetarian. Come on, you’re trying to make excuses for the communists now but poor Pootie-Poot, he was just a vegan. I guarantee you if he was a vegetarian Bush would not have had a barbecue; they’d have found that out at the White House. The CIA or somebody would have known it. Putin, vegetarian.