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Figuring Out the “Undecideds”

by Rush Limbaugh - Oct 24,2012

RUSH: Here’s Daniel in Las Vegas. I’m glad you called, sir. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Well, mega Las Vegas, cigar-smoking dittos, sir.

RUSH: Hey, you’re right up my alley. In fact, I got a stogie going even now.

CALLER: Well, bless your heart. Bless your heart.

RUSH: You know what? It’s indoors. It’s indoors and it’s around other people who cannot make me stop. It’s the way America used to be!

CALLER: Yes, sir. I agree.

RUSH: Total freedom: Not hurting anybody here and enjoying life.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: And that’s what bugs the left.

CALLER: I know. I agree. (chuckles) I agree. I was gonna tell you this little story but I want to get to my question. I got a three-part question for you, but I want to thank you for being the professor and helping me understand this coming election.

RUSH: Well, it’s what I do.

CALLER: I know.

RUSH: Look, I gotta put you hold on here. I didn’t realize I had so little time before the break. So don’t go away, Daniel. We’ll come back and we’ll get to your three-parter right after this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Daniel. We go back to Daniel in Las Vegas who had a three-parter for me. I’m glad you waited during the break. Thanks very much for that.

CALLER: You’re welcome, sir, and thank you again for not dumbing down talking to us the way the Obama administration is with their video excuse for this terrorism. Anyway, my three-parter starts with the undecided voters and who are they and why are they undecided? I was decided when Sarah Palin ran, you know, in ’08, when she spoke at that acceptance speech with John McCain and the hairs on my neck raised up. She was hitting to the core of what we needed. And my mind was made up then that this president would not see a second term. And I want to know who was undecided — I mean, you have to be blind, deaf, or not have a radio, TV, homeless.

RUSH: Let me tell you who the undecideds are, my theory.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Because I understand what you’re saying, there’s so much media.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: There’s so much opinion out there. There’s so much that you can access and learn, how could anybody be undecided.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Well, and I’ve been thinking of doing this, by the way. I think that there is — I don’t know how large a percentage of the population, but I think there are some people, how to put this, ’cause I don’t want to sound like an Oprah viewer saying this. I think there are some people who, in effect, need permission to vote against Obama. They voted for him the first time and they bought into all the reasons why. Now they know that’s all fluff, but he’s still the first black president, and he’s trying so hard. He’s got so many people against him now, and it’s not enough for these people to be told by somebody like me or somebody else who is confidently decided like you. I think they might need to hear from others just like them who are going to vote against Obama this time so that they know it’s okay. In other words, I don’t think there’s so much undecided as afraid. There’s a little guilt they might feel. There was a lot of guilt in voting for Obama in 2008, Daniel, you’ll have to admit. A lot of people voted for Obama thinking that it would say great things about them. They could go out and say, “I voted Obama, I voted the black guy. I’m not racist. When you think somebody’s racist, I’m not, look at me, I’m not.”

CALLER: But isn’t that the actual reverse discrimination or reverse racism? ‘Cause if you ask a black person, would you vote for a white person, they would say no.

RUSH: Yeah, but they’re allowed, see, they’re the minority, and in the popular culture it’s impossible for blacks to be racist because theoretically they don’t have the power to do anything with their racism. And besides, they’ve been perpetual victims for so long, you know, they’re the victims of the nation’s original sin, got a lot of latitude. Two sets of rules, double standard, doesn’t apply. Now, let’s talk up the others. The genuine real undecideds, and are they really, like when Luntz put together his focus group of undecideds, not this last debate, but two debates, the second debate, there was a focus group put together and there was a guy in that focus group who has now been a routine guest on cable networks.

CALLER: I saw that.

RUSH: His name is Ladke, I think, I’m not sure, it’s close to that, and this guy, every time I listen to him speak it sounds like he’s made up his mind, but he continues to profess being undecided. He’s waiting a little bit more for more economic data. He’s just a little concerned about what Obama, but on the other side, something about Romney he doesn’t like. But he’s getting a lot of face time as an undecided. And, remember, look at the value we attach to undecideds. Why, they’re the kingmakers. You can get a lot of attention if you luck out being an undecided on TV in a focus group and how do you lose that? By making up your mind.

CALLER: I know. They make you think that they were raised without a father.

RUSH: Well, no, no. No. The psychological component to the undecided is that they are a little bit more open-minded, they’re a little bit more tolerant, they’re not as partisan, not as closed-minded, they vote the issues. They don’t vote the party. There’s a lot of perceived exceptional value in being an independent, or a moderate, because we’ve just allowed the perception to be that you’re more open-minded if you haven’t made up your mind.

CALLER: So most Democrats vote Democratic because they think that it rhymes with the word democracy; is that right?

RUSH: Well, I’m sure that there are some, ’cause there’s an explanation for everybody. Not everybody is monolithic. Some people vote Democrat ’cause they’ve always been.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: They just grew up that way. Their parents, grandparents, unions, what have you. Same thing with Republicans. And some people have no concept of ideology. Conservative, liberal doesn’t mean anything to them. It’s all just party. There lot of people out there clueless.

CALLER: Yes, I know. It makes you wonder how can they be clueless in this modern day and age, you know?

RUSH: That’s really your question, isn’t it, with all the media out there. But there are still people who do not use computers, don’t know what the Internet is. There are people that just read newspapers and listen to the nightly news, and that’s it.

CALLER: You know, I early voted the other day, and there was a sign in the parking lot where I voted, and it said, “Vote for the American.”

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: I just wondered, is that what Donald Trump’s gonna drop?

RUSH: No, no, no. Vote for the American. How did you interpret that? Who’s the American in this race?

CALLER: Romney.

RUSH: Okay. (laughing)

CALLER: (laughing) I mean everybody’s talking —

RUSH: Do you think any undecideds are among the early voters?

CALLER: No, ’cause they’re still not decided.

RUSH: Right, they can’t be, right?

CALLER: Can’t be.

RUSH: But your real question is how undecided are they really. You just don’t believe there are that many undecideds, right?

CALLER: Yes. And why do they have to say after the debates that they’re polling countries around the world and who they would vote for. They have nothing to do with this election, so why are they worried about other countries?

RUSH: No. Let me tell you something else here, Daniel. This is a fact of life, too, that you can’t ignore. And that that you just mentioned, people worried about what others around the world think, I’m sure you know people who are obsessed of what people think of ’em.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: That’s a large part of the undecided. That’s why the vote for Obama, they wanted to be thought of as not racist. They wanted to be thought of as not bigots. They wanted people to think of them in a positive way. They weren’t voting issues. They weren’t voting intelligently. They were voting selfishly. There’s so many different reasons to explain this. There’s so many people so obsessed with what people think of ’em. So many people go through life, their number one objective is to be liked. I gave that up at two months. I knew it wasn’t possible for me.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Peggy in Howell, Tennessee. Hey, Peggy, I’m glad you waited. Thanks for the call.

CALLER: Oh, thank you so much, Rush.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: Two quick things. Thanks to Snerdley for taking my call. He’s a neat guy to talk to.

RUSH: Isn’t he so sweet? Thank you so much for saying that.

CALLER: Yeah. Oh, he’s great! And the second thing, back to the beginning of the show about PMS? I believe it’s true, but I think intelligent women know the difference between hormonal imbalance and logic. So…

RUSH: Here’s what it is. “New research…” It’s out of Atlanta, by the way. “New research suggests that the phenomenon of premenstrual syndrome, known more commonly as PMS, may not occur the way many have thought over the years.”

CALLER: Oh! Well, I just know, don’t ask me to do anything between the 13th and the 16th of the month and I’m okay.

RUSH: Yeah, well… (laughing)

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: I decided to read this and then forget it and never bring it up.

CALLER: Well, what I wanted to ask your opinion on is that the first debate really wasn’t a debate because we all know Barack wasn’t there. The second debate, I didn’t personally like them up, you know, walking around and shaking hands and talking and stuff. But to me I really enjoyed the third debate the best because that’s me. I’m not a really highly emotional person, and I like someone to tell me a facts, like Jefferson. You know: Tell me the worst so I know what to expect. I really liked what Romney was presenting, how he was calm. He said: This is the way it is; this is what I’ll do. You know, attacking me is not an agenda. I like the way he phrased things.

RUSH: Let me ask you this: Did you also like it when he said to Obama, “We can’t kill our way out of this problem”?

CALLER: Well, I did like that. There were a couple things that he said that I didn’t think they were real snide but they were to the point. But, you know, you talk to so many people with people calling in and then people that you talk to in your social and private events.

RUSH: Not really that many. I don’t really like people that much.

CALLER: (laughing) Well, sometimes I have that feeling, too. But do you think that…? See, I want to have the impression that Romney, if he’s elected, is an intelligent enough man to know his limitations, and he will put people in key political positions that can make changes. See, ’cause Romney was not my big choice. I mean, I stick with the Republicans because I think that the Democratic Party has been overrun by socialists.

RUSH: Well, did Romney make you think that he would accommodate for his own lack of intelligence or experience in some area by putting somebody qualified in that position?

CALLER: I want to think that by how he acts behind the scenes. You know, you were just alluding to that a few minutes ago about people not wanting credit for what they do. There are millions of Americans in America today that do all kind of things for their community, their family, their friends, that go without appreciation. Not that you need it. You know? I mean, they were talking about Romney helping some guy dig up a stump. And, you know, he didn’t ask the press to come out there to watch him do that. And I think that as Americans, that’s kind of what our character is known for. We do things because it’s our duty to our fellow man.

RUSH: Basically you liked what Romney did in that debate?

CALLER: I do. And I hope that because of his personal life, the way he grew up with his values, that I want to believe that he’s going to put people like —

RUSH: We’ll find out. I have to take a break here ’cause I’m really up to it against the time clock, but I’m glad you called, Peggy. Thanks very much.