RUSH: Well, if you look at the last couple of polls that I have seen where the so-called generic congressional ballot, where they go and they ask people, ‘If the election were held today, who would you vote for, for Congress?’ without mentioning a candidate’s name, it’s tied, Republicans and Democrats. And I saw something the other day where as many people today identify themselves as Republicans as identified themselves as Democrats. You know about the Pew poll, and you guys at Fox even had a poll which shows that a majority of Americans for the first time in a long time are against the pro-choice position. They are pro-life. So I don’t buy the fact that people are majority Democrat.
I think this last election, you had eight years of media pounding on the Bush administration. The Bush administration was not defending itself as forcefully or as often as it should have, not singing its praises, not — certainly economically, not — talking about the good things. Plus, you know, the Republicans today are kind of hamstrung, because the Bush administration did go wild in spending. And so Republicans today, they think in Washington if they start talking about reducing spending, they are opening themselves up to charges of hypocrisy. But Bush never did anything like what’s happening with Obama. Then you add the whole aspect of the cult-like appeal of Obama. I mean, you look at polls and people are really beginning to not like his policies, but they love him.
And this has got Republicans bamboozled, too, because they have got nobody that people love as a personality — and even if they did, the media would go out and destroy that person, or try to. So what is going to have to happen here is all of the things that Obama is doing — he’s just barely past 100 days — are going to have a dramatic impact on people, so all that people like me are telling them will actually be happening rather than something they’ll just have to believe. The Chrysler dealers are a great example of finding out exactly what Barack Obama as president meant to them. I’ll bet many of them voted for him, but now he is putting 3,300 of them out of business, many of them successful. So it’s going to take time for this damage to affect as many people personally as possible, and you will see them flee the Democrat Party as quickly as they can.
RUSH: Well, that is not the job of the RNC chairman. The pressure on Steele is sort of compounded because there isn’t — right now — an identifiable, single Republican person candidate that everybody is focusing on as the next hope. The RNC chairman or the DNC chairman is really not the boss of the party. It’s whoever gets the presidential nomination in 2012 that’s going to be the leader of the Republican Party. That’s just politics. That’s the way it is — and that person, we may know who it is, we may not. The list is large. But it’s going to be bloody, because the Republican Party, as I said, they cringe at people like Sarah Palin. They cringe at the tea parties. Our own party has blue-blood members that look at this California vote yesterday and say, ‘Oh no! We are trying to get rid of tax cuts! That’s too Reagan. That’s too old-fashioned. People want big government.’
Colin Powell. He is a guy who says a couple of weeks ago: the Republican Party, the country wants bigger government; they want to pay more taxes — and then California shows just the opposite. The Republican Party is made up of a lot of people like Colin Powell who also wanted to vote for Obama but did not. But he did. So it is fascinating to me to watch all of this and chronicle it, because I think there’s an opportunity here to literally contrast ourselves. I think the Democrats are so damn vulnerable, Greta, with what they are doing and destroying individual liberty and prosperity. They are doing great damage to the middle class out there who dreams the American dream, and it is getting harder. It’s going to be almost impossible to achieve if Obama accomplishes everything he wants. When they’ll figure it out is when the ‘revolt’ or ‘revolution’ will begin.
VAN SUSTEREN: Where does former vice president Dick Cheney sort of fit into this whole formula in terms of the Republican Party? Does he help them right now, or hurt them as he speaks out?
RUSH: Well, now, see, that is a great question. This is why you are number one at ten o’clock. Dick Cheney gets results! Dick Cheney, the past two weeks, has been out saying, ‘This country is less safe with Obama and his policy. Club Gitmo? Fine,’ and guess what? Every foreign-policy decision that was the Bush-Cheney foreign policy fundamental war on terror is being adopted by the Obama administration! They are going to keep Guantanamo Bay open. They are not going to release prisoners into this country or into prisons here. Dick Cheney gets results. And you’ve got Republicans. I saw on your network some hack GOP ‘strategist’ yesterday afternoon or the day before, saying, ‘Dick Cheney is the wrong messenger for our party today, and there are some others who are the wrong messenger.’ For crying out loud, he’s the only one who is speaking out in opposition to what Obama is doing — and he’s getting results! So I don’t think… You miss the point if you people think Cheney is on the outs and is causing problems. He is getting results, and he is showing the way. He has got courage and guts. God bless him.
VAN SUSTEREN: Rush, as always, thank you very much for joining us.
RUSH: You bet, Greta. Thank you so much, and I always enjoy being with you.
VAN SUSTEREN: And I love it, and I especially love being surprised by the call. Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: You bet.