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RUSH: To the audio sound bites. As you recall, it was revealed in the New Yorker magazine that the president blames me and Fox News (and apparently now blames me more than Fox News) for his inability to convince a majority of Americans to agree with him policy-wise. Friday night in New York City, on NY1’s Inside City Hall, the host, Errol Louis, interviewed Chuck-U Schumer. And Errol Louis said, “Do you expect Tea Party and other conservative politicians to try and fight with you for those issues of income inequality?”

SCHUMER: They’d have to break with the wealthy people who have funded the Tea Party, created the Tea Party, and sort of captured this mass of people and the power of the Tea — and look, let’s not forget. They have a message machine. They have Fox News. They have Rush Limbaugh. They… Somehow, you listen to those news shows, and they find one small government frailty, and that’s all they show. And when government does something good, (it’s) never mentioned. They’ve sort of brainwashed people.

RUSH: All right. So you, ladies and gentlemen, are brainwashed by me. You are the mind-numbed robots who do not appreciate the benevolence and the greatness of your government because of me. And, of course, the Tea Party… See, the Tea Party… Well, what was the stupid question? “Do you expect that Tea Party and other conservatives to fight with you on these issues of income inequality?” See, this is the soap opera. For the soap opera scriptwriters, “income inequality” is the next theme.

That’s what the cliffhangers are gonna be about, and so now the Tea Party is the villain. Did you know the Tea Party was created by rich people? They funded it, and that created the Tea Party? Hilary Rosen was on CNN, Erin Burnett OutFront, with the guest host Don Lemon, and Lemon said, “The president says, ‘I’m not the caricature you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh,'” and Lemon says, “Can the president blame Fox News for his problems? There are liberal outlets out there do the same thing on the other side. Isn’t the president above that? I mean, why is the president punching down this way?”

ROSEN: The president is expressing a frustration that is very real, which is if there was an environment where he could just have an actual communication about policy — with people that often in the past have agreed with many of his proposals and now they reject them for political reasons — then that’s a legitimate frustration for him to express.

RUSH: So it’s a legitimate frustration. The most powerful man in the world is legitimately frustrated and should be. He’s legitimately frustrated with Rush Limbaugh because I am preventing him from having this discussion with all of the people in the country about his policies.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Back to the audio sound bites. This is Wolf Blitzer on Friday night, the Situation Room. His guest is New Yorker magazine Washington writer Ryan Lizza. During a discussion about the New Yorker magazine interview with Obama where he blamed me and Fox News, Wolf Blitzer and Lizza had this little back and forth.

BLITZER: “I’m not the caricature that you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, but I’m somebody who is interested in solving problems and is pretty practical.” Uh, what did that tell you, the — those comments from the president?

LIZZA: I mean, it tells me that he’s accepted reality. I do think… One of my big criticisms of Obama is that his analysis of American politics back from 2004 to 2008 was flawed. He really believed that the polarization of this country was something that any president could overcome. Look at how Bill Clinton was treated by the conservatives.

RUSH: You know, this is amazing. When I hear these people talk about the world in which they work and the world in which they live, I am continually — and I ought not be, but I am continually surprised. So this guy, Ryan Lizza, thinks that Obama misjudged “American politics back from 2004 to 2008… He really believed that the polarization of this country…” Why were we polarized in 2008 2004 to 2008?

Why was the country polarized? Who did it? Who did it? Who did the polarization? Who polarized this country? George Bush won reelection handily in 2004. What happened in the next four years? The Democrats started their body count with the war in Iraq. The Democrats started their campaign to lose the war in Iraq. The Democrats started a campaign about how mean and rotten and all that Bush was. The Democrats began a campaign to try to convince people we were in a depression or a recession.

The Democrats basically began a campaign to destroy George W. Bush, and the media was right in there helping him, perhaps leading it. That’s what caused the polarization. They did it on purpose. The Democrats thrive on polarization. That is what’s so frustrating when we hear people like McCain or Christie — or you pick your favorite Republican — say, “We need to work these people! We need to cross the aisle!” They don’t want to work with you. They thrive on the polarization, because the polarization…

What is polarization?

Yeah, it’s people taking sides, but polarization — the current modern manifestation of it — is hatred of Republicans. That’s what the polarization is. Okay, so that’s the bottom line, hatred of Republicans. Now, here comes Obama complaining that not everybody hates the Republicans. And why? Me! If I weren’t doing what I was doing, Obama would have free rein and everybody would hate the Republicans, and he wouldn’t have any opposition, and there wouldn’t be any polarization.

It’s like I’ve always said, there is no controversy on this program because everybody listening to it agrees. So what controversy? They’ve always called me “controversial.” I’m only “controversial” to people that are threatened by me or (and it’s much the same) who disagree with me. Partisanship in this country is translated as hatred of Republicans. That’s what the partisanship is. Therefore, it’s up to the Republicans to stop being hated. How do they do that?

Do what Democrats want them to do! That’s why you and I get so damn frustrated with Republicans falling for this, accepting the blame that they’re the reasons for the partisanship, and then they have to fix it by agreeing with Democrats. Then the problem is the partisanship never goes away, does it? The hatred of Republicans never goes away no matter what Republicans do. You couldn’t get a bigger shout-out than what Obama got from Chris Christie.

You couldn’t get a bigger assist in a presidential election than Chris Christie gave Obama, and what are they trying to do to Chris Christie? Take him out! Chris Christie, I’m sure, thought that he was buying some insurance. He was being bipartisan. He had a state to protect, a big disaster. Obama’s got the money. So he’ll work with Obama, walk hand in hand, arm in arm, down the boardwalk, and show we can work together — and here they’re subpoenaing everybody they can trying to get Christie thrown out of office over traffic jam.


A traffic jam!

That’s not how it’s supposed to happen, right? Christie’s supposed to be loved by the Democrats now. Partisanship is the practiced art of ginning up hatred and dislike for Republicans and conservatives. That’s all it is. So whoever stands in the way of Republicans being universally despised and hated — that would be me and, I guess, Fox News — then we become a problem. So what Lizza is saying here is, “Yeah, you know, Wolf, I’ll tell you, the president has accepted he can’t overcome Rush Limbaugh.

“He misjudged American politics. The president thought that he could be the first president ever to bridge the gap, to unify the people.” That’s not his goal. Obama didn’t want to unify people. That wasn’t his purpose. I mean, if that had happened, it would have been great from his standpoint because of how it had happened and what it would mean, but he wasn’t trying to unify people in the way people who voted for him thought.

That’s not his plan. Obama’s definition of unity is eliminating opposition, not agreeing with ’em and peacefully coexisting with ’em. It’s eliminating them, and what Lizza is saying here is, “The president’s come to realize you can’t eliminate ’em. The president has realized here that he wanted to change the world, and finally get rid of Republicans as a serious body of opponents. He can’t do it.” Later on the same show, the Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer has Gloria Borger on. Gloria Borger heard what you just heard and then she reacted.

BORGER: When President Obama was elected, the hope was great in this country, and I think the president himself has told people that he was surprised at the extent of the opposition that he faced. He shouldn’t have believed that Republicans were gonna roll over, which is why I would argue that perhaps he should have gone about dealing with Republicans, you know, in a different way.

RUSH: So Gloria Borger says that Obama should never have believed the Republicans would roll over or he should never have believed that he had the messianic power to make them roll over and go away. But, of course, they have in many ways rolled over and gone away. I mean, the Republicans are leading the charge for amnesty now! The Drive-Bys and everybody are talking about how amnesty is dead for 2014? Not if the Republicans have anything to say about it.

He should have dealt with the Republicans in a different way. What? Throw ’em in jail? What’s the different way? What could he have done differently, Gloria, that he hasn’t done? I mean, he’s just a couple inches shy of criminalizing being a Republican. What else could he have done?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Back to the audio sound bites. Just like to illustrate this, this is Howie Kurtz on Fox News Sunday morning, Fox & Friends Sunday. Howie’s got his own media analysis show on Fox called Media Buzz, and he’s talking about this New Yorker magazine in which Obama blamed me (and to a lesser extent, Fox News) for the reason he can’t get his message out. Clayton Morris is the cohost interviewing Kurtz.

He said, “This New Yorker piece where the president’s gone back to the trough to say once again the reason he can’t get his message out there is ’cause of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. He said, ‘The issue’s been the inability of my message to penetrate the Republican base so that they feel persuaded I’m not the caricature that you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh but I’m somebody who’s interested in solving problems and is pretty practical.’ Basically if they don’t watch Fox News, then America’s problems will be solved,” and here’s Kurtz…

KURTZ: I can’t understand why President Obama keeps going there. It’s at least the fifth or sixth time that he’s taken a whack at Fox and at Rush Limbaugh, and while it might please his liberal base, what is he really saying? He really is saying that even though I have the most powerful megaphone in the world to get my message out in a million different ways, one cable news network and one radio talk show host are ruining my reputation!

RUSH: Yeah, but Howie, previous sound bites that we’ve aired today from Hilary Rosen, Ryan Lizza, and others, say he’s entirely justified in this. Howie, check it out: Others are saying he’s totally legitimate in having this feeling, this thought; that he’s right. Same network, different show. Now this is Kurtz’s Media Buzz show, and he’s talking with the managing editor at USA Today, Lauren Ashburn, about the New Yorker interview.

Howie said, “He told the New Yorker, the issue has been the inability of his message to penetrate the Republican base so they feel persuaded that he’s not the caricature you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, but instead he’s somebody interested in solving problems and is pretty practical.” So, Howie, after weighing in earlier on his incredulity at all this, then asked the USA Today babe what she thinks.

ASHBURN: If I were in his inner circle, I would say, “Knock it off. You sound like a crybaby here. You’re giving Fox and Rush Limbaugh ammunition against you.”

KURTZ: I mean, this is the fifth or sixth time by my count that the president has brought up — and look, he may really be steamed at what Rush Limbaugh says about him. There has been a lot of criticism of him on Fox News, but doesn’t he have a pretty big megaphone himself?

RUSH: See, this is where these people don’t get it. This is where his people don’t get it, people like Howard. I mean, they don’t understand Obama. They really don’t understand who he is and what makes him tick and why he’d be mad at something like this. They are looking at it as though they were president and I would be, you know, a yapping Chihuahua at their ankles. They wouldn’t have time, couldn’t care less. “What does it matter? A guy on the radio and a cable news network.

“So what?” But Obama, if there’s any opposition at all, it’s intolerable. It’s not permitted. It’s not something to be accepted. It’s something that has to be dealt with. It’s a little bit more involved than that. Here’s Bob Beckel. This is Friday night on The Five on Fox with Eric Bolling. They quote him again blaming me and Fox News, and Bolling said, “Bob, why can’t this man get us and Limbaugh out of his mind?”

BECKEL: Well, because every day he’s getting bludgeoned. That’s probably one reason he can’t get it out of his mind. There are people like me who strongly support Obama in some areas, but I’ll tell you right now, they better… This is not the time to be picking fights with people. I mean, when you’re sitting where you are in the polls right now, the general rule of thumb in politics is, “Let your enemies be quiet, try to embrace your friends, but don’t attack your enemies.” I’ve tried to tell my candidates this, and this is the wrong time.

RUSH: This is just amazing to me. Honestly, folks, I mean, I probably ought not say any more about this ’cause I don’t want to give these people any more ideas on how to deal with this. But this is flat-out stunning. So here you have Beckel (imitating Beckel), “Well, I mean, he’s justified, ’cause Limbaugh’s bludgeoning him every day. He can’t get it out of his mind ’cause there are people out there ripping him.” I’ll just give you one hint. If I were president, I don’t know that I would have time to be concerned with what’s being said about me on the radio or in the media.

Now, I understand presidents get worried about the New York Times and all that. But Obama’s a different character. He’s a different creature in this regard, and it’s not hard to understand this at all. But these people are judging him by plugging him into the mold of every previous president and politician. You can’t do that with him. Until they understand the whole depiction of Rules for Radicals by Alinsky, they will never understand what’s going on. And, as such, they really don’t understand very much at all about how Obama has been governing and his policies or any of that. He just gets plugged in. He’s just the latest Democrat president. He’s just latest Democrat and we’re gonna have a Republican someday, they’re gonna win the next election. The debt, everything he’s done policy wise, that is just the latest Democrat president. They really don’t get it, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. So Bob Beckel says that Obama, he’s justified in calling me out, he’s being bludgeoned. What is being bludgeoned? How am I bludgeoning Obama? All I’m doing is holding a mirror up to what he does. I get bludgeoned, if I may interject this. All we do is hold a mirror up. Look, we’re not the guy, we’re not the people that told you your health care premium’s gonna be coming down $2,500 a month. We’re not the ones who told you that two years ago we’d be producing 600,000 jobs a month with our policies. We’re not the ones who told you we’re gonna fix the roads and the bridges and the schools with a stimulus, they’re gonna get the economy going again.

We’re not the ones that told you that all you gotta do is work hard and the American dream is yours. We’re not the ones who told you that you could keep your doctor and keep your insurance plan if you like it. We’re not the ones who told you that all we cared about was jobs and that we’re laser-like focused on creating jobs. We’re not the ones who started blaming George W. Bush for everything.

Here’s the bottom line. Folks, if Obama had fixed the roads and bridges and schools and if we didn’t have 92 million people out of work but if instead the unemployment rate was a genuine 4.7% like it was with Bush, and if everybody that wanted a job had one, and if people were advancing in their careers, it wouldn’t matter what I said. The only reason what I’m saying resonates is because it’s true. And the only place you hear it is here and Fox News. You don’t hear it anywhere else in the media. And that’s what he’s really ticked about.

What he’s really ticked about is that he doesn’t own us and that we tell the truth about what’s happening in the country. We don’t let him get away with the fact that he wants you to think he hasn’t had any control in five years. In fact, I’m the one that concocted the Limbaugh Theorem to explain to you how he’s doing it. He’s not being bludgeoned. He’s just having his claims, promises, commitments measured against reality, and he’s coming up way short.

Nothing that he told you he was gonna do has happened. Nothing has gotten better. There isn’t any green energy revival. There isn’t any new renewable energy. Nothing. None of these great things. The world doesn’t love us any more than they hated us when he took office. He hasn’t gotten us out of Club Gitmo. He hasn’t ended the war in Afghanistan. None of it. But in his world, being honestly critiqued equals being bludgeoned, and that’s gotta be stopped.

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