RUSH: I have never seen it like it this, folks. My good friends, I’ve never seen this before. Seventeen sound bites… How many do we have? Let me count how many we have here. Okay, we have 27 sound bites in the sound bite roster today, and the first 17 are about me — and not just casual, throwaway mentions. Cookie, she doesn’t do that. She looks for ones where I am the focal point. I don’t know what to do.
As you know I try not to make the program about me. I try seldom to ever talk about myself ’cause we stick on the issues on this show, but I’ll give you the subject matter. Obama is blaming me for the gridlock in Washington. There are more comments on that. It’s not Obama. We already did Obama saying it. For one example, Joe Trippi (former Democrat consultant, now at Fox) says that this is a huge error for Obama to be making.
The comparison between the Trayvon Martin case and Chris Lane murder in Oklahoma. There are a bunch of people that say, “Why in the world should we sit here and let Rush Limbaugh claim that there’s anything similar or that there ought to be race involved in the Chris Lane story?” Then we have the Democratic National Committee chairwoman weighing in on whether or not I should host a Republican debate. There’s more on my comments about Ashton Kutcher.
You know what’s interesting about that? Everybody’s commenting on Ashton Kutcher now, after we took the lead on that. Then we have audio sound bites on the White House petition on Ben Affleck as Batman. The effort is being made to convince both Warner Brothers and Obama to get rid of him, and that’s a carryover from Friday. We have a former NFL player ripping me for saying the NFL has become chickified. Leonard Marshall of the New York Giants — who I’ve met one.
He wouldn’t remember it. We met at Rochester Big & Fat. It was a joint promotion in New York. I think it was 52nd Street. They had just gotten back into town. It was a Wednesday, and they had just gotten back, the Giants had, from a Monday night game against the Fort’iners. But he wouldn’t remember. We have a sound bite here from a sales manager at one of our radio stations talking about the value of my audience — you — to people in the radio business.
It’s seven topics, 17 sound bites. I’m of a mind here just to broom ’em and then get to the other 10. (interruption) Well, I’m not going to make this program about me. Everybody else makes their program about me. If I talk about me, that’s all that’s gonna be in the media! (interruption) You mean just play ’em back to back to back? No commentary, just play ’em? Just play ’em all? (interruption) All right, let’s do that. Let’s get started.
Since I’ve got it at the top here, grab number 17. We’ll start with Leonard Marshall. This was last Wednesday morning on the radio, and Leonard Marshall is being interviewed during a discussion about… Well, it says here “my criticism of the NFL for instituting new rules ostensibly in the name of player safety.” The host says, “What’s your response to Limbaugh saying the use of concussion-preventing technology in the NFL proves that everything in our culture is being chickified?”
I did not say that!
See, this is how this stuff gets started. So Leonard Marshall has an entirely skewed question. I never once talked about that! The only thing I have said about this concussion-preventing technology is that it is not settled science. It’s like global warming. It really isn’t settled science. There’s nobody that can tell you unalterably that are there long-lasting effects from hits to the head playing football. Everybody thinks it’s conventional wisdom now. Everybody thinks it’s a fait accompli.
Everybody think there’s no question about it. But it is not settled science, either at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where one of the research areas is, or in Boston. That’s why there’s gonna be a lawsuit about it. But it’s not settled science. Anyway, I never once have been critical of the NFL for trying to reduce concussion-related injuries! Now, we have talked about wearing pink accouterments in the month of October and other elements of football that are becoming chickified, but not the concussion prevention!
Anyway, here’s what Leonard Marshall had to say about it, even though he’s answering a question with a false and phony premise.
MARSHALL: It’s irresponsible! It’s very irresponsible. How about you become the father of a 17-year-old boy who plays in a football game on a Friday night and is in need of medical attention. It takes 15 minutes for the medics to get there to attend to this kid who gets injured, and your kid dies on the football field. How about being that parent? Watch and hope that there’s change coming down the pike. Be part of that change. Be part of trying to empower young people with knowledge and information about the risk associated with playing tackle football.
RUSH: I’m telling you, this game is finished. It’s just a matter of time. I have said that, and that’s due to the chickification. But, anyway. I’m not gonna be able to go through all 17 of these, Snerdley, and not comment. I got an interesting e-mail from someone this morning. You know, Mark Levin’s book opened at number one on the New York Times list, and every book Levin has written has been number one on the list, and then Ann Coulter’s books rank up there, my brother’s books.
So the question I got was: “How in the world can all of these conservative books reach number one on the New York Times list and the country still be in the shape it’s in?” The question means, “How can all these people buying all these books, conservative books,” they all end up at number one on the New York Times list, “and how in the world does it not make any difference?” That’s what she was asking: “How in the world does it not make any difference?”
And it got me to thinking, I responded two or three different times as things occurred to me to explain it and there are a number of answers to the question, but one of them is right here in this question to Leonard Marshall. I never said what he is being asked to respond to. I have never said that trying to lessen concussions in the NFL means the chickification of the league. I’ve never said that. Therefore, one of the answers to the question is that the people we are trying to reach…
There has been a successful demonization of all conservatives, at least for 25 years, and it’s obviously longer than that because Reagan underwent it, too. But Reagan had the ability to overcome it because he had the bully pulpit of the presidency, and he reached every American when he spoke. But we conservatives don’t. There’s no other conservative who does reach every American.
Reagan did and was able to obviate and essentially disqualify all the demonization of him that took place. But the left is not interested in debating us, and they’re not interested in winning a debate in the arena of ideas. They are scared to death of our ideas — and, as such, the way they go about winning is to try to discredit anybody and everybody who’s credible with alternative ideas to liberalism. There are other answers to it that are more specific to it.
But we’re a divided country — and we have been for a long, long time — and the polarization is great.