RUSH: Matt, Charleston, South Carolina. It’s great to have you on the program, and welcome.
CALLER: Rush, I wish I could say ‘mega dittos’ today, but I’m having a hard time doing that.
RUSH: Well, what do you think ‘dittos’ mean? You might still be able to say it.
CALLER: Okay. Agree just to the bobble-head, Rush, because you are —
RUSH: No. You know what? I’m glad you said this. I’m not trying to distract you; you’ll have a full complement of time to make your point. ‘Dittos’ simply means, ‘You know what, Rush? I love the show. Please don’t ever stop doing it.’ It does not mean blanket agreement with what the host says. It never did that.
CALLER: Well, I was mistaken then. Um, but I’ll see if you can change my mind. The Hitler mustaches, the Nazi talk, wearing-the-gun-strapped-to-your-leg stuff. Yeah, we have the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, but it’s stupid. The other side is painting us — in some cases effectively — I’ll give you a sound bite I heard driving into work this morning about the Barney Frank town hall. And of course you’re brilliant, Rush. You analyze the big picture. You look at everything. People don’t have time to do that, and we’re giving them ammo and in some cases they’re being effective in painting us as a bunch of whack jobs, and it needs to stop, Rush. All of it. The sign you have on your website, the Obamacare thing compared to the Nazi stuff. I think it needs to stop, Rush. It’s hurting us.
RUSH: Really?
CALLER: Yes, I do.
RUSH: Would you —
CALLER: This is —
RUSH: No, no, no. How is it hurting us?
CALLER: Because we’re giving them ammo, and… Here’s a sound bite I heard coming to work this morning. Before I listened to you in the full analysis I got the sound bite, and it was a slam dunk. It seemed like —
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait a minute. What sound bite? You mean the woman at Barney Frank’s town hall?
CALLER: Yeah, when said, you know —
RUSH: What planet are you on while he occupies Uranus?
CALLER: Well… (laughs) Great analysis, I like that, but the sound bite was, ‘What planet are you on?’ and they stopped it right there. It made it… It was a slam dunk in his favor. It made her look bad. It sounded bad, Rush. It’s just… I think all the signs with the Hitler mustaches and carrying the guns strapped, it’s just too much. It’s over the top. And, Rush, I tell you, everybody I talked to is saying the same thing. It needs to stop.
RUSH: Matt —
CALLER: I know we have a right… We have a right to do it, Rush, but in this case it’s just stupid.
RUSH: Wait. My only problem with this, Matt, is that it’s not hurting.
CALLER: Well —
RUSH: The support for Obama and his health care plan is plummeting.
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: His presidential approval numbers are plummeting. These town halls and the things that are happening out there —
CALLER: Rush —
RUSH: — are precisely what has forced Obama into retreat —
CALLER: (big sigh)
RUSH: — and are the things that may actually prevent him getting this bill done.
CALLER: Well, do you think it’s a good thing if he gets it through with 51?
RUSH: I don’t think they’re going to go the 51 route. If they do that they’re committing suicide on anything else they want to do.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: But you mean you’re talking reconciliation rather than going the normal route?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: That’s another thing. You’re saying that the woman showing up with these Nazi posters and my website and so forth is —
CALLER: We need to… Yeah, we need to rise above it. It’s giving them ammo. It’s giving them ammo to come up with the sound bites that make us look bad.
RUSH: Uh, I don’t think it’s playing out that way. I think —
CALLER: I disagree, Rush.
RUSH: You’re making a mistake here of seeking validation in the media.
CALLER: No, no, no.
RUSH: You’re not looking at the hardcore results here. I’m almost starting to think you might be a seminar caller.
CALLER: No way. Rush! That’s crazy. That’s crazy talk, man.
RUSH: Well, but so is what you’re saying is a little crazy.
CALLER: I think —
RUSH: Because you’re looking success right in the face and saying, ‘We gotta stop this.’
CALLER: No. No, no. Only a couple things I think are over the top. The Hitler mustaches, I think, is over the top.
RUSH: Let’s examine that.
CALLER: Okay. I’m open. I got time.
RUSH: Why can we not use Hitler, who was the architect of National Socialism in Germany?
CALLER: Because, Rush, it’s just… It’s not… It’s a mistake because —
RUSH: Nope. Nope. See, this is where —
CALLER: Rush, people don’t —
RUSH: I have explained this. I have explained this in great detail. I’m going to do it again. The reason, say, that we shouldn’t be using Hitler and this Nazi stuff is because everybody associates genocide with Hitler. And you’re afraid that people are going to think that we’re trying to say that Obama is identical to Hitler in that way, and I have made it plain: Obama is not Hitler and Pelosi is not Joseph Goebbels. But this health care plan and the entire Obama agenda is frighteningly close to the National Socialism policies of Nazi Germany. Far close are the Democrats and Obama and their policies to National Socialism in Germany than anything we on the right believe. We’ve been sitting here and we’ve been tarred and feathered for 21 years, about the length of time I’ve been doing this show, about how we are Hitler. The conservatives are like Nazis!
Hitler was a man of the left. And the Democrats are getting a taste of their own medicine here. If there is a close association to Hitler in this country policy-wise, the Democrat Party owns it, particularly this version and this strain of it. Now, I look at the polling data, I look at conservatives now outnumber liberals in all 50 states. I look at people showing up at these town halls. The Joker poster. You know, everybody was saying, ‘That has to be the some militia guy that put the Joker poster out!’ It was not. It was not only was the guy not a right-wing nut, but he wasn’t white, and he wasn’t right-wing. The guy is from Chicago. He’s from Illinois. (interruption) He’s a what backer? Yeah, that’s right! He loves Kucinich. The guy that did this is a far leftist. I think you’re misreading this. Listen to Charles Krauthammer. Charles Krauthammer used to say, Matt, the same thing you’re saying. Krauthammer said, ‘Ah, these tactics, they’re just going to hand Obama victory on a silver platter. They’re just over the top. We gotta go out there, and we gotta be civil.’ But he’s totally taken it back, done a 180. Monday night on Special Report with Bret Baier, question: ‘Is this a cat-and-mouse game, Charles, with the semantics? Are we just seeing the end result now that they’re going to eventually pull it off the table?’
KRAUTHAMMER: It’s a full retreat. Look, Obama had wanted the public option a lot, because it is the road to a government-run system, which is what in his heart he wants. But he’s not going to get it and he knows it and he knew it early but he hung on because it would be a bargaining chip when he goes for the minimal plan, which would be health insurance reform where he slaps a lot of restrictions on the insurance companies where there are no preconditions, et cetera. The reason he had to drop it now is because of the town halls and the public rebellion. It’s because of the reaction — the angry agitated, educated reaction — of people against the public option understanding that it’s a way to national health care that it became a distraction and a liability.
RUSH: So here’s Krauthammer, who had the same opinion. I understand why. You know, on our side, we are very sensitive to the notion that ‘independents’ and average Americans who are not, you know, all in the game ideologically or politically don’t like partisanship. When the Republicans do this, the Republicans yell and scream, ‘Ooooh, it’s just bad, and those people run to the Democrat Party,’ and it’s always been a lie. It has always been a lie, because the Democrat Party is the most angry, partisan, mean-spirited, insulting, filled-with-rage bunch of people I have seen in my lifetime. The idea that mild-mannered people who only want us all to get along are going to up and run to find solace with a bunch of hatemongers in the Democrat Party because some Republican stands up and offers criticism, has always been absurd. Matt, you’re falling prey to an attempt by people to get us to shut up.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, folks, there are always going to be sound bites out there that can be edited to make conservatives get defensive, but let’s not forget where all this started: Nancy Pelosi. You know, we keep forgetting this. Nancy Pelosi called us all Nazis. Dick Durbin has used the term. Harry Reid has had some things to say. But we’re the only ones that edit those sound bites. We don’t even edit them! We play ’em in full to show who they are. The days of us being defensive and worrying about what the media is going to say or worrying about what these precious independents are going to say or something, it’s over. You know, going on offense here is what has worked. There’s a huge lesson. Moderate Republicans need to take note here of how you win, and you don’t do it by being moderate. You don’t do it by pretending you’re part of the Oxford Debating Society.
I mean, when you’re dealing with a guy like Obama and the Democrat party, who are going to impose Nazi-like socialism policies on this country, you’ve got to say it! And at the same time you say it, you have to go out and point out: ‘We’re not talking about the genocide. That’s at the tail end of Hitler.’ But, you know, the stuff that preceded it. Look who is acting Nazi-like anyway? Who is it that’s sending out thugs to beat people up at these meetings? Who is it that is organizing passionless people, at least on the issue? It’s the Democrats. It’s the Obama White House. Who is it that had the snitch website that they finally admitted and that they’ve taken down? We are dealing with a known quantity. We are dealing with people, and we have to point it out. A new poll here: 3% more say that they oppose Obama health care. If the protests are hurting, how is that happening?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Look, folks, the bottom line is these protests are working. The media don’t want anybody to realize that, and that’s why they’re behaving as they are. But they’re working, and they’re working big time, and the White House is totally flabbergasted by all of it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’ll tell you, that caller last hour who said, ‘You gotta stop the Nazi stuff, Rush. You’re sophisticated enough to understand it but it’s making us look bad out there, these people showing up with Obama with the Hitler mustache pictures and so forth, gotta stop it, Rush, making us look bad.’ You know, checking the e-mail during the break and some of the calls we’ve got coming up when we get to the next segment, people are fired up. This is, I think, monumental what is happening, what has happened here. We have one-party rule in this country. They can do whatever they want to do, and they are unable to get it done. Try to put this in some kind of profound context. Here we have a bunch of people who want to ram something down our throats that they know we don’t like. They don’t care. But they do have an election coming up in 2010, especially Democrats in the House and quite a few of them in the Senate, Harry Reid being one, and that is what they’re concerned about is, of course, their reelection, which is their number one job. The second job is spending money. Maybe spending money first to help ’em get reelected. But they could ram this down our throats any time they wanted to and they’re being stopped.
They’re not being stopped by the Republican Party. They’re not being stopped by the media. They’re being stopped by you. They’re being stopped by the people who make this country work. As I pointed out, there’s a new poll from NBC: ‘Two weeks since the town hall meetings on health care became a national story, Americans remain skeptical about White House plans to overhaul the health care system. A plurality believes Obama’s health plan would worsen the quality of health care.’ That is stunning. They’re right. And who’s gotten that message out for them? It hasn’t been the Drive-By Media. It hasn’t been the State-Run Media. How is it that people know this? ‘A plurality believes Obama’s health plan would worsen the quality of health care, a result that is virtually unchanged from last month’s NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. What’s more, only four in 10 approve of the president’s handling of the issue, which also is unchanged from July. And a majority — 54 percent — is more concerned that the government will go too far in reforming the nation’s health care system, while 41 percent is more worried that the reform will not do enough to lower costs and cover the uninsured.’
In other words, nobody’s got any confidence that anybody on the Democrat side is going to be able to accomplish what they say they’re going to accomplish. There are doubts galore. Now, if the protests are hurting our cause, how come these numbers? If the protests are hurting our cause, how come Obama’s approval number is plummeting? How come his support on the health care issue is plummeting? They are working. They’re working big time. And here’s another thing. You go to these kook web pages, Daily Kos, for one. At the Daily Kos, you have John Kerry has a page with a blog or post, comments. Hillary has one. Ted Kennedy, Pelosi. Every other top Democrat has a page there. And they go to their conventions, and they praise their great works, like Hillary did. Now, how come they’ve never spoken out about how the writers at Daily Kos have mentioned Hitler at least 15 million times, and I’m not making it up? You do a Google search, Hitler, Daily Kos, 14,900,000 English pages where the word Hitler, Bush, or Republicans has been mentioned over the course of the past number of years. How come these Democrats don’t care about that? Bush was Hitler, we had to listen to how it was art to read a book on how to assassinate Bush. All this Nazi stuff, it’s just phony baloney. It’s the Democrats unable to take the heat. It is the media not wanting you to know that these protests are working.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Bill in Carlsbad, New Mexico, as we get to the phones. It’s great to have you here, sir, and thank you for waiting.
CALLER: Thank you so much for taking my call. I want you to know that thanks to a gift subscription by my friend Barclay Gibson, I am a 24/7 subscriber. And I would like to get you to comment on something. My concern is with the attitude of the last caller. If we were to recognize that what is taking place in the United States today is very similar, almost identical to what took place in Nazi Germany — apart from all the atrocities — then I think we’d be yelling louder. I don’t know that people understand that we are on the verge of the fundamental collapse of the United States as we know it. Would you comment on that, please?
RUSH: Yeah. I’ve said as much. I think that there is an effort here to remake the country in a new image. I think Obama has got a chip on his shoulder about how unjust and immoral this nation’s been since its founding. This is what people recognize. It’s clear as a bell now vis-a-vis this health care bill what the overhaul Obama agenda means. Let’s not forget the stimulus package, which has not created any new jobs. The economy is not getting any better after Obama’s done his ‘magic.’ So the bloom is off the rose.