RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, and my fellow citizens, according to the latest polling data from the McClatchy news organization, you are listening to one of the most popular Americans in the country. Rush Limbaugh, host of the most listened to radio talk show in America, heard right here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network. It’s great to have you with us. The telephone number if you’d like to join us, as always, is 800-282-2882.
Speaking of that, Open Line Friday on Wednesday today. I’m out tomorrow and Friday on a long-scheduled charity outing. Open Line Friday on Wednesday means that when we go to the phones, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about, not what I demand be discussed here. And, by the way, that demand comes from the fact that I’m a benevolent dictator. I just don’t want to talk about things that bore me because nobody is going to want to listen to that, but on Fridays I take a great risk, for those of you new to the program, and turn over the programming content here to lovable and adorable, but nevertheless rank amateurs. I am the highly trained broadcast specialist, steering this program through the currents, but on Friday we let the deckhands have at it and it’s always fun. So we’re going to do that on Wednesday. Again, 800-282-2882, and e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
The McClatchy Company, it’s just hilarious. I used to work for them, by the way. The radio station in Sacramento that still carries my program, KFBK AM 1530 is owned by McClatchy, they own the Sacramento Bee. The newspaper hated me when I was there. But they have done a poll, they have done a national poll, and they have found that about a third of the American people have a highly favorable opinion of me. Ladies and gentlemen, that makes me one of the most popular Americans in the country. Yeah, they’re the ones that found me. McClatchy is the one, you’d have to say, that gave me my big break. But if I have an approval rating above a third, that makes me higher than Congress, that makes me higher than lawyers, that puts me with a higher approval rate than Hollywood, and also, my approval number of 33% is higher than Obama’s numbers are going to be when his presidency is over in 2012. And my approval number, 33%, that’s higher than Vice President Biden’s IQ. So this is fabulous news.
The Rasmussen poll is out today and the daily tracking poll, the president’s approval numbers at 56%. They are not climbing. The presidential approval numbers and plus the presidential approval index, that’s the difference between strongly approve and strongly disapprove, is now just plus six. And those two lines, it started out, when he was inaugurated, at plus 30. So he’s gone from around plus 30, presidential approval index, to plus six. He lost 24 points. That’s big. Now, those two lines — there’s a graph here on the Rasmussen website — when those two lines intersect and get to zero, it’s going to be big problems. We’ve had another American titan, business titan admit that he voted for Obama, but now says it’s time for The Messiah to get rid of the chaos, to stop the chaos. This is Andy Grove, retired now, but chairman emeritus I think at Intel Corporation, and it’s right out of the page of Jack Welch yesterday and Warren Buffett yesterday and Barton Biggs yesterday. ‘Oh, we love the guy. Ho, have you seen the family? They just look so great in the pictures there on the cover of People magazine, we just love the guy. His policies are destroying the country and there’s chaos out there, but we love the guy, we voted for the guy.’
It’s going to be a while before these people actually have — see, they’re all saying privately, we know what they’re saying publicly, they’re saying publicly, ‘Hey, you gotta stop the chaos. Hey, these policies are not working, they won’t work, Mr. President, you gotta do this. Love the guy. Is it wrong for a man to love another man?’ But you have to imagine what they’re saying in private about this now. I guarantee you, the people who know what they’re doing in business, regardless of their political persuasion, have got to be concerned, especially, did you hear the president’s press conference today? Sorry. He doesn’t do press conferences. Excuse me. President Obama does teleprompter conferences. Have you noticed by the way, that President Obama is now doing all of his appearances either before this program or after this program? Do you know why? Want to know why? Because the White House is convinced, despite this latest poll from McClatchy, the White House is convinced that they have driven my polls. I’m a radio guy. Now, admittedly, my friends, I understand where I am now. I understand what’s happening.
I have transcended media now. I have transcended mere broadcasting. Still I’m a radio guy. They think that they have so successfully driven down my numbers that they’re perfectly content for the president not to conflict with me now. They believe that the more people who hear me, the better it will be for the president. Now, I know there were no polls when Paul Revere began his ride, but I’ll bet his numbers weren’t very high. Don’t worry, folks, I live in the world of principle, I don’t live in the world of polls, and I shall not be deterred in standing up for what I think is right, and for my country, plain and simple. Have no fear. My brother, God love him, my little brother David, noted columnist, attorney, broadcast agent, audio-video expert, sent me a little note last night and said, ‘Are you okay? How are you holding up?’ I said, ‘Well, what?’ because it was about 9:30. He said, ‘All this demonization.’ I said, ‘What demonization, I haven’t seen any tonight.’ ‘Oh, it’s all over the place.’ ‘Well, I haven’t had the television on. I’ve been doing other things.’ I wrote back, ‘The thing that people don’t understand is that this is not new. This demonization has been going on for 18 years.’
I am not burdened. This is very, very key. For those of you — and I love you, and you know who you are — for those of you who are worried about me, please don’t be. I am not burdened with the hope of expectations that those in the media and the Democrat Party are all of a sudden going to love me. And as such, I’m never disappointed. I’m never surprised. It’s like I’ve told you, don’t look to the media to determine whether or not conservatism is winning the day. You’re looking to the wrong places for validation. I’m not burdened with the expectations of validation for places I know it’s not going to come. I know what I’m into, and it is what it is. I appreciate everybody’s concern, but I’m actually having more fun here than I’ve had in years. This is exciting each and every day ’cause I’ll tell you what I see, and it’s plain as day. A lot of other people see it but they won’t admit it, but there are huge problems inside the White House. There are huge problems with the White House relationship with the world. There are huge problems among the intelligent people, business people that voted for this man. There is a lot of concern out there over this ain’t the way to go.
We can beat this back. Do you understand, folks, that if the Republicans can get their act together and somehow win back a significant number of seats in the House and Senate, we can stop and prevent a lot of the first stimulus package from going into play because it doesn’t go into play ’til 2011 and 2010. And now, by the way, did I tell you? Stimulus 2. The only thing I was wrong about, they’re not waiting ’til the summer to talk about it. We need a new stimulus. Washington Post has it right here: ‘Congress May Need to Fund Another Stimulus.’ Economists don’t see the three-and-a-half million jobs being saved by the $1.6 trillion spent so far. It’s too small. This was always in the cards. There is no job being saved or created because there’s no stimulus in the first bill. This was nothing more than a head-fake trick to get all of these liberal pet projects into law, and now supposed stimulus will come, and then there will be TARP 2.
There’s no mystery what’s happening here. It’s just that people, like we were discussing yesterday, people are reluctant to admit what they really know about liberals and about liberalism even though it’s been in front of their faces for years. They have to see it happening at the moment. This is going to wake a lot of people up. I’m encouraged, I’m optimistic about this. I see an administration on the run here. I see a president who won’t take questions from the press.
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RUSH: Here’s another thing. In addition to McClatchy determining that I am one of the most popular Americans in the country today with a personal approval rating of 33%, do you realize that I have achieved this 33% approval rating without pandering to anybody and without giving away your money to other people? Can you imagine what my approval number would be if I had the ability to give away your money to other people? Why, I’d be over 50%, too! But I, my friends, don’t live in the world of polls. I live in the world of principle.