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RUSH: People asked me in the e-mail, I checked it during the top of the hour. “Why didn’t you talk about Michelle’s speech?” Folks, I’ll be glad to talk about it. But I don’t think she believed a word of it. Masterfully given speech. Look, as a performer and judging it as a performance, it was exceptional. It was, as a performance, Michelle Obama’s speech was perfection. Looked at through the prism of what she intended it to accomplish. It was flawlessly executed. It could not have been better in terms of performance. But it was all lies. She didn’t believe any of it. She didn’t believe anything that she said in that speech.


It left me cold. It was a real contradiction. As I’m watching it, I’m listening to it, I’m marveling at her performance. But I knew she didn’t mean it. And by that I mean if they had said, “Michelle, go say what you really want to say.” If they weren’t in trouble, if they weren’t down in the polls, if they weren’t lagging in fundraising, you would have heard all about eating right, impacting the grocery store. You would have heard what she says every day of the week except last night. We don’t hear her talk this way. And the sob stories, “What do you mean, was she lying?” I don’t know how to tell you this. It’s sort of a no-win position, but she and Barack did not come from poverty, folks. They didn’t face deep “struggh-les.”

Michelle’s dad, in the ’70s, his name was Fraser Robinson, and he was a pump operator at the Chicago city water plant. It’s been said that he earned 50, $55,000 back in the ’70s. I went to the inflation calculator. Do you know what $50,000 in the 1970s is equivalent to today? $282,000. I left home at age 20 and I was making $12,000, 13,000 a year. I also made that in 1980. Regardless, it’s the equivalent of $282,000 a year. Her dad was a Democrat precinct captain in the Daily Machine. He was political. He was a ward healer. And her mother, Marian Robinson, was a long-time secretary at Spiegel’s, the catalog store. I get so, frankly, worn out with this incessant need to try to convince people that you came from nothing, because the problem with it is we want to attach virtue to that, which, of course, it deserves. But there’s a problem, and that is that somehow now if you’re not born to the “strugg-hle,” then whatever you have is illegitimate.

If you’re born upper middle class, if you happen to be born in an upper income level, somehow your accomplishments and your achievements, they just aren’t the same. It’s all part of this class warfare stuff that tears this country apart. So this incessant need to fabricate the “strugg-hles” and the hardship you come from, hers wasn’t that tough. Neither was Barack’s. And if you want more details I’ll be happy to provide them. But I was left cold by it because none of it was true. It’s not the kind of stuff she really believes. But it made me smile in a sense because it reaffirmed for me the trouble these people are in and they know it. That convention last night, I’m going to tell you again, that convention demonstrated better than anything that’s happened yet that they know they are governing against the will of the people. They know that who they really are is out of step with the mainstream of this country. They know it.

The prime-time parts of that convention last night had to be structured on falsehood after falsehood after falsehood if they were to even have a prayer of garnering support from undecided independents, whoever. I mean, even the fact that Julian Castro goes out there and even mentions this bootstrap business and pulling yourself up and self-reliance, that means that they know this country still believes in that. This country still believes in rugged individualism. This country still believes in all the things that 364 days of the year they speak out against. They know it. I’m telling you, I think these people are having an identity crisis today.

The media is trying to portray this last night as this gigantic home run because of Michelle’s speech. But, folks, I’m telling you when you live falsehoods and lies, they catch up with you eventually. And if you have even a tiny bit of conscience, then you have a little guilt. I’m telling you, all is not unified and happy on the leftist front.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Michelle Obama. Another thing that struck me. Her husband has been president for four years, and she had to tell us who he is last night. Stop and think about this. Stop and consider that. Four years ago, empty canvas. He was the Messiah, the One, whatever anybody wanted him to be. But now she had to tell us about him. She had to tell us who he is. After four years, it just struck me as strange, and there’s a lot of stuff she said that I didn’t know.

MICHELLE: When Barack was a senator and presidential candidate, to me he was still the guy who picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out I could actually see the pavement going by in a hole in the passenger side door. He was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he found in a dumpster, and whose only pair of decent shoes was a half size too small.

RUSH: Oh, gee, poor guy. And his brother in the hut is still living that way. I wonder if Michelle’s ever seen his college transcripts. Do you think she has? Do you think she knows about his college transcripts or anything that he wrote, Law Review, Harvard. Her parents actually let her get in a car that had rusted out holes in the passenger side door? Do we really believe that Obama’s proudest possession was a coffee table extricated from a dumpster dive? Sorry, folks, I just wasn’t buying.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Why were Obama’s shoes a half size too small? We’re supposed to conclude from that: The guy was so poor, had so little, and was barely surviving! His most-prized possession was a coffee table from a garbage dumpster, and his shoes that were a half size too small. (interruption) He didn’t care about material things? (interruption) So he goes in to buy a pair of shoes and buys them a half size too small because he doesn’t care to buy a pair that fit?

You’re telling me that he didn’t buy the shoes? He had to get those out of the dumpster, too? Obama was working for a law firm when he started dating Michelle! He wasn’t wearing shoes a half size too small when he was dating Michelle Obama. He was working at a law firm! I don’t care. The point is, it’s tugging at our heartstrings. Obama did not grow up in poverty. His grandmother, the “typical white woman,” worked in a bank! (interruption)

Don’t give me this “down with the strugg-hle” business. He wasn’t “down with the strugg-hle.” (interruption) That’s the whole point. You go back to 2008 and the Democrats were wringing their hands because he wasn’t authentically black. (interruption) That’s the reason the Reverend Sharpton had a problem with him, and they wrote that column in the LA Times about “the magic negro.” He wasn’t “down with the strugg-hle.” He doesn’t have “slave blood.” You’re the Official Obama Criticizer. What are you telling me? (interruption)

That’s my point. They’ve revised the story. It’s a new campaign. It’s time for a new story. Obama was raised by a banker. Obama went to the top private school in Hawaii. It had swimming pools and tennis courts. It had photo studios! They both attended elite schools. Michelle went to Whitney Young. Whitney Young was a public magnet school for Chicago’s upper class. That’s where Michelle went to school. Barack went to Punahou, which is the private prep school for the top strata of Hawaii society.

Then they were both accepted to Ivy League schools despite having, uh, less-than-stellar credentials. You might say that they were affirmative action admissions. But they didn’t come from poverty. So why is he wearing shoes a half size too small? Does he not like to cut his toenails? What is the explanation? See, these are the things that I ask myself when I listen to this stuff. (interruption) Don’t get on me! Michelle has admitted that she was an affirmative action admission at Princeton. (interruption)

They’re trying to whip me up into a frenzy on the other side of the glass in there, but I’m not falling for it.

Okay, we’re going to go the phones. People have been waiting. I know you want to weigh in on this. We’ll start with Sterling Heights, Michigan. Kevin, thanks for your patience. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Rush, I’m a longtime listener but a first-time caller. I’m not nervous because I’m not afraid to speak to the truth of which you represent.

RUSH: Well, thank you, sir, very much.

CALLER: One thing I’ve learned as a conservative is to not take anything at face value but to do my homework. And as I was watching the first lady last night speak, it just seemed somewhat contrived to me. I did my homework this morning, and I found out that — yes, indeed — Michelle had gone to school on scholarships that were basically given by black activist groups.

I also found out that the way that her and Barack Obama met is because she had been mentoring Barack Obama when they both worked at the same law firm. And the question came to my mind: “You know, why is he dressing shabby, garbage picking and driving a car with a rusted hole in it when he was working at a law firm?” I drove a car like that working in a fast-food restaurant.

RUSH: Well, let me tell you the answer. You’ve asked a legitimate question. Obama detested his work in the private sector. He has said that. He wrote about it. He felt like he was “behind enemy lines.” He was driving a Ford Granada. That was his car. He was trying to show that he was down for the “strugg-hle.” All of this is designed to create an image that he and Moochelle are both down for the “strugg-hle.”


CALLER: Mmmm. I also started wondering about Michelle herself, and I discovered they were living in her aunt’s house at the same time that they were taking vacations at a cottage that they owned in White Cloud, Michigan. And Michelle’s as old as I am. Now, she would have been of school-age during the Jimmy Carter years, and I’ll tell you what: My family couldn’t have afforded a cottage anywhere (chuckles) when Jimmy Carter was president.

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: I just found the whole thing to be very contrived.

RUSH: I love that! (laughing) “My family couldn’t afford a cottage anywhere when Jimmy Carter was president.” Let me tell you something: You’re touching on some things here that happen to be true. Neither Michelle nor Barack Obama ever had summer jobs. They did not work while they went to school. That’s why, folks, the performance of that speech last night was incomparable. It was maybe better than anything I’ve ever seen in the context of what it was for and where it was given and what its purpose was.

The little things that… I mean, it was on the teleprompter but you would never know it. It was really professionally unassailable. It was on the prompter. That was on the prompter, but you wouldn’t know it. That’s how good it was (sigh), but it just wasn’t true, and she didn’t believe any of it. That’s not what she would say if there weren’t any constraints. That’s not what she would say if they were up ten points in the polls. That’s not what she would say if they said, “Michelle go out there and let rip with whatever is bugging you.”


That’s not what she would have said last night. She wouldn’t get anywhere near what she said last night. Obama himself went on vacation to Indonesia, Pakistan, India. He has written about the family going on month-long vacations to national parks and flying over from Hawaii. Yet last night they were trying to paint this picture of poverty, abject poverty! Not just poverty, real abject poverty: rusted-out car doors and shoes that were a half size too small. Kevin, I appreciate the call.

This is Mary in Houston. Great to have you here on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you for taking my call.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: I, too, was impressed by Michelle’s performance last night. It truly was flawless, and I agree with you that she did not mean those things and that much of what she said was actually diametrically opposed. But it was very manipulative, particularly the second part of the thing. And everybody was caught up in it. They would pan the crowd and people were crying and very emotionally caught up in what she was saying. I thought it was… She kept going over and over again about how, “Barack cares, Barack cares, Barack cares.” It was like a mantra. And then when she finished, I turned and said, “Now America has her own Eva Peron.”

RUSH: Uhhh, yeah?

CALLER: You know Eva Peron, the wife of Juan Peron, the Argentina dictator? The one Evita was done about? That woman?

RUSH: Ehhh…?

CALLER: She was the wife of the president of Argentina, and they made the movie Evita about her. She came up from poverty, and she would work the crowds like that. She would talk to the poor and say all they were doing for them and all the wonderful things they were doing to bring the country up, et cetera. And all the time, she’s dressed to the hilt in all the expensive clothes.

RUSH: Who would you rather be compared to, Eva Braun or Eva Peron?

CALLER: (laughing) I might rather be Eva Braun. (laughing)

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: To tell you the truth. (laughing)

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: I don’t think she was as manipulative as Eva Peron.

RUSH: We don’t know. Back then, women weren’t allowed to be as prominent.

CALLER: But they did for them what the Obamas are doing for us.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: They took Argentina from a First World country to a Third World country, and it has not recovered. And ours won’t either if we stay with Obama.

RUSH: All right. I appreciate the call, Mary. Thanks very much.

CALLER: You’re welcome.

RUSH: You have a wonderful rest of the week, okay?

CALLER: Bye-bye.

RUSH: Bye. Did…? Did what just happened happen? Did somebody in my audience actually ask me if I knew who Eva Peron was? I heard that right? That really happened?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I checked the e-mail during the break: “Do you really think that she didn’t believe any of that, Rush?” Look, I understand, because the previous caller made a good point. The last half of Michelle’s speech was manipulative. It was a giant emotional tug, and there’s no question that was the intent. Who are they going after? They’re going after women. They’re trying to shore up the female vote, and they’re doing that with a strictly emotional pitch. Did anybody catch, by the way, when she presents her family history and Obama’s, what’s obvious about it? They both grew up in normal two-parent American homes. Healthy, mom and dad, two-parent, American families. That’s something that doesn’t happen enough in this country anymore.

There are way too many single parent homes out there. These two do not have, contrary to what they are attempting to accomplish here, they do not have a past that is replete with a lot in common with modern-day poor people, modern-day lower middle class people. They don’t have a lot in common. Their family upbringing and family structure was quite normal, the kind of stuff that television shows in the ’50s were made about, to be quite honest with you. Black-and-white TV days, exactly. Now, Michelle’s parents never were divorced. Barack’s were, but still there was always a father there somewhere, and the upbringing was solid middle class.

The expectations to go to college, go to school, make it happen. They did it. Neither of those two thought they weren’t going to live past age 21, for example, which is what I hear is common in poor neighborhoods today. But I’ll share with you some other thoughts that I had. By the way, I mispronounced the name of the highfalutin school. It’s Punahou. It’s Punahou in Hawaii. It’s for the upper crust out there. That’s the place. That’s the Sidwell Friends. That’s where everybody wants their kids to get into. Parents work as hard there as anywhere else to get their kids into that school. That’s where Obama went. I don’t know if he had a voucher to get in there or not. I don’t know what the finances were. His mother [sic] worked at a bank, was not nearly as bad off as Michelle’s, what was this, glass ceiling, people she trained that got promoted above her, yeah, let’s yank the heartstrings again.

Now, based on Michelle’s speech last night, I’m supposed to know now that the Obamas don’t care about material possessions. She said that. Despite the cost of her wardrobe, despite the lavish parties, despite the Hollywood fundraisers. She said she traveled this country, I said what about the world? How about all these separate vacations that you take, madam, with the separate airplane and a traveling party of 35 or 40 that you’re not paying for. And you want us to believe that you don’t care about material things? Sorry. I didn’t swallow that one. I was unable to forget these lavish vacations as I was listening to this hard scrabble story last night.

Now, I was told that I’m supposed to accept and believe that they are caring people, despite Barack’s half brother still living in a hut and having to ask virtual strangers for help to pay his medical bills. Despite that, Barack cares. That’s what they told me. I have to trust that Barack cares, but his brother still lives in a hut. If my brother lived in a hut and I heard about my brother living in a hut, some days I’d leave him there, but I’d get him out of it. And you would, too, particularly after the world found out about it. If the world found out that you’re a multiple millionaire and your brother’s living in a hut, you don’t do anything about it and your wife goes out and gives a speech to the nation telling us that he cares, asking us to believe a lot. As I said, I was curious why she felt the need to reintroduce herself and her father and her husband.


I was asking myself last night, did the past four years not happen? Do we not know that she has a garden? Do we not know that she wants to impact the food in the grocery store? Are we supposed to judge her husband on his composite biography and their dates and the car and the dumpster diving coffee table? Not the unemployment. Not the under-employment. Not the deficit. Not the 47 million people on food stamps. Not the $4,000 annual drop in median family income. That doesn’t matter. We’re supposed to support this guy because he cares and he picked his wife up in a car with a hole in the door and dumpster dove for a coffee table. The shoes are a half size too small. That stuff doesn’t matter to me. And there’s nothing she could say last night that would make that matter to me. Twenty-three million Americans out of work matters to me. Economic malaise, collapse, that matters to me.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Boy, you know, folks, people just can’t wait ’til I make a mistake. They are just all over me — as Ali said — “like white on rice.” Well, I goofed up. It was a minor error, which doesn’t take away from the point that I was making. It was not Obama’s mother that worked at a bank. It was his grandmother. His grandmother, the “typical white woman.” His grandmother worked at the second-biggest bank in Hawaii. His mother ran off, left him with the grandparents, and had another baby.

She married the Soetoro guy who ended up adopting Barry. He was “Barry” back then. But you oughta see it. “You were wrong! You were wrong! You were wrong! This is what really…” It’s because I make so few mistakes, people just love it. Even when they’re little nitpicking errors that don’t even take away from the overall brilliant point that was being made. Don’t you just hate it when that happens to you?

This segment of the speech by Michelle Obama, I literally came out of the couch when I heard this. And then there was another portion of the speech. This actually happened. When she was talking about how Obama doesn’t care if you’re a Republican or whatever, Kathryn and I both (at the exact moment) shouted, “Bullsh…!” at the TV. We didn’t even look at each other. “Bullsh…!” Tell that to Paul Ryan. Obama doesn’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat? For crying out loud, he’s the most partisan president we’ve ever had in office — and that’s saying something.

Anyway, here’s Michelle talking about Obama hunched over late at night reading the letters written by the “strugg-hling” and the “suffer-hing” all over the country.

MICHELLE: You see, that’s the man who sits down with me and our girls for dinner nearly every night patiently answering questions about issues in the news, strategizing about middle school friendships. That’s the man I — I see in — in those quiet moments late at night, hunched over his desk, poring over the letters people have sent him. The — the letter from the father “strugg-hling” to pay his bills.

RUSH: Again, “strugg-hling.”

MICHELLE: From the woman dying from cancer whose insurance company won’t cover her care. From the young people with so much promise but so few opportunities. And I see the concern in his eyes.


RUSH: Now, wait.

MICHELLE: And I hear the determination in his voice —

RUSH: Wait! Wait for it!

MICHELLE: — as he tells me: “You won’t believe what these folks are goin’ through, Michelle. It’s not right. We’ve got to keep working to fix this. We’ve got so much more t’do.”

CROWD: (applause)

RUSH: I about threw up. I stood up. I could not contain myself. He’s the President of the United States, and it requires letters from the “strugg-hling” for him to know the pain and suffering out there? And then when he learns about it he says, “You won’t believe what these folks are goin’ through, Michelle. We’ve gotta keep working to fix this.” Michelle, you won’t believe it? What the hell does 23 million unemployed mean to this guy? What does median family income dropping from $51,000 a year to $47,000 a year mean to this guy?

What does annual budget deficits of $1 trillion-plus mean to this guy? What does a $16 trillion national debt mean to this guy? This was another classic illustration of: This thing is all a pack of lies. And she doesn’t believe any of this. This heartstrings stuff, the people that fall for that (we talked about them yesterday) are morons. “I see the concern in his eyes, and I hear the determination in his voice. He tells me, ‘You won’t believe what these folks are going through, Michelle.'”

You’re causing it!

Mr. President, you’re causing this. Mr. President, your policies are making all of these things happen to real people. That’s what’s always bugged me about these unemployment numbers or job growth numbers or economic growth numbers. They’re real people! Real lives are behind these numbers. These are real people that want to work who can’t find jobs. These are people who want careers, not just “workers” who want “wages.” We have people in this country who look at having a career and making something of themselves.

“You won’t believe what these folks are going through, Michelle”? Shouldn’t the President of the United States — particularly this one who “cares,” who has all this empathy — know better than any of us what everyone’s going through? He’s the guy that’s had all the summits, all the job summits. He’s commissioned all the panels, all the experts to try to come up with solutions. And we’re told last night that he doesn’t know how bad it is until he gets these letters from people?

“It’s not right. We’ve got to work even harder. We have so much more to do.” Well, if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, the numbers of people sending you letters like that are going to expand geometrically. I just didn’t believe that. That’s probably the only time in the speech I got mad. That’s when I thought my intelligence was being insulted. The other times I know she was trying to insult everybody else’s. When you try to insult my intelligence, that’s it. ThatÂ’s when I start taking it personally.

(caller)

Well, you talk about golf scores. I wonder if she ever sees him leaning over the golf scorecard at night while he’s erasing 5s and making them 4s. You know, for presidential posterity. And I wonder: Has it ever occurred to Michelle that her husband has caused so much of the misery that she says he’s fretting over? Does it ever occur to her that the cause of all this misery she sees every day is him? (Obama impression) “Hey, Michelle look at this! I don’t believe what these people are going through, Michelle.

“By the way, did we lock in that trip to Martha’s Vineyard? Michelle, I don’t believe what these people are going through every day. Uh, how was Spain, Michelle? I don’t believe what these people are going through, Michelle. Did I tell you what happened at Clooney’s house in Hollywood at the fundraiser, Michelle?” This guy is barely at the White House! I don’t know if he sees these letters he receives. Anyway, once again, where are we?

Another election cycle where the real Barack Obama is concealed by the Democrats, and the made-up Barack Obama is who they want you to vote for. They’re out there constructing a brand-new Barack Obama, folks. You are not to see the guy you’ve seen every day for the past four years. That’s not the real Barack Obama. No, no, no! The 23 million Americans unemployed, all the Americans whose family income has dropped, all the Americans who can’t afford to send their kids to college, all the Americans who can’t afford health care? All those things?

We’re not supposed to see that Barack Obama. Nope, nope, nope. Time now to make up another version of Barack Obama. Create a new Barack Obama V 2.0 for you to vote for this year. He cares and he’s a saint. That’s right. Fact-checkers are not going to be checking much of this, which is why I am. Instead we’ve got media types on all the networks and all the cable stations impressed with the delivery, as I was, too, but they leave it at that. The delivery is the sole aspect of judgment. The delivery of Michelle’s speech is the only way it’s being judged. The content, not even being looked at by very many people.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Honestly, folks, I thought for much of the speech Michelle was talking about Paul Ryan, how Paul Ryan grew up. He had to work as a 16-year-old. Remember, his father died. His mother had to start a family business at age 50, totally restructuring the lives of everybody in the family. Had to struggle with his brothers and sisters, his widowed mother. How he lived his life. I thought she was talking about Paul Ryan last night. And then I remembered she’s not married to Paul Ryan. It was Barack who struggled through prep school, through Ivy league college, law school, struggled working for a law firm. Struggled with a joint income of over $300,000 a year. She had the no-show job at the hospital.

Obama struggled, state senator advocating for infanticide. That’s when the aborted baby is alive and you go ahead and finish the job outside the womb. He voted for that, led the charge for that. Obama struggled for 92 days as US senator, and he continues to struggle as president against the Republicans. He struggles against big business, Wall Street, the banks, Bush family. The millionaires and billionaires, it’s a constant struggle for Obama, because everybody’s out to get him. He’s had to struggle his entire life. Obama’s life is a never-ending struggle. He needs to write a book called Time to Strugg-hle. Third autobiography. Barack Obama: Time to Strugg-hle.

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