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RUSH: Yesterday on this program we had a caller who said — and I don’t think he was joking. I don’t even think he was half joking. I think this caller was serious. He said (paraphrasing), “You know, the Republican establishment’s really missing the boat here. If they really hate Trump, and if they really want to get rid of Trump, they should all come out and endorse him. And if they did that then half the Trump supporters out there, since they hate the establishment, would think something’s up and maybe abandon Trump and go to Cruz or something.”

And, lo and behold, we wake up today to the news — well, maybe some of you saw it last night. I was still working on my battery problem. I was. I was working on the battery, and I isolated it. I know what it is. I’m unable to fix it because I don’t run iCloud. But, anyway, I isolated it, I figured out the problem. I haven’t isolated the exact — but I know what the problem is. So it may have been news last night, but Bob Dole has come out and said (paraphrasing), “Oh, yeah, Donald Trump, far, far, far more preferable than Ted Cruz.”

And then I have a story here in the Stack of Stuff about all of the donors that are warming up to Trump. From TheHill.com: “Republican donors are quietly coming around to the idea that Donald Trump could be their partyÂ’s nominee for president.

While many major Republican donors still cannot abide the idea of Trump as their partyÂ’s 2016 standard-bearer — and some remain flat-out in denial about the strength of his candidacy — interviews with GOP business owners and CEOs in six states suggest shifting attitudes toward the controversial billionaire.

“Trump has to date rejected financial support from wealthy donors, saying he does not want to owe them if he gets into office. But winning the acceptance — or even the favor — of donors could prevent a big-money assault against Trump and ultimately benefit him in a multi-billion dollar general election.” I don’t know if Trump said he wouldn’t accept any money in a general election. I don’t know. He might have only meant the primaries when he said he wasn’t gonna take any money. Who knows. But it is kind of coincidental, the timing.

All of a sudden these establishment types come out for Trump. And what it really signifies is their hatred for Ted Cruz. Folks, it’s the most incredible thing to sit here and watch all of this. They literally despise Ted Cruz. They are beside themselves with hatred for Ted Cruz that goes beyond the rational. Except it is rational if you understand the establishment’s absolute hatred and distaste for conservatism. These people are out there, some of them are actually saying that they would actively, publicly support and vote for Hillary Clinton over Ted Cruz. Other elected Republicans are saying so, Republican consultants, typical establishment members, even some donors.

And make no mistake. If there is an establishment shift here to Trump, it is to cut Cruz off at the pass. They clearly think that they could make deals with Trump. If they look down the road and they see Trump as president, they think they’ll be able to go to Trump and make deals and agree with the Democrats and come up with compromises and so forth. But they are aware that no such deal-making that damages the country will occur with Ted Cruz. And so they are telegraphing their fears, letting it be known exactly where they come down on all this.

So Bob Dole was dragged out of there, from wherever he was: Trump would be a better nominee than Cruz. It’s fascinating to watch this stuff. It really is. I sit around, I marvel, I look at this, I try to keep track of it all and have it make sense. And that’s what we do here, analyze all this and explain it to you.

There was a shock poll result that came out of New Hampshire yesterday. This was after the program, I got home, and I’m in the midst of isolating and tracking down my battery life problem. And it’s on every device, by the way, it’s every iPhone and every iPad. I took a break from it, went back to working the program today, and I get this headline: “For John Kasich, a New Wind in New Hampshire.

The story is out of the Cincinnati Enquirer, but basically it’s the Real Clear Politics rolling averages poll, Kasich is in second place in New Hampshire. He’s 20 points behind Trump, it’s like 32 to 12, and then Cruz is at 11. And everybody is saying, “What happened here? How in the world did this happen? Kasich?” So it was just a minor blip that caused people to scratch their heads just a little bit and to realize that none of this means anything now, maybe even not for a fundraiser, get right down to it. Doesn’t mean anything ’til the actual votes come in.

North Carolina, Donald Trump is adding to his lead there, at 38% and has the highest favorability. North Carolina was the first place that polling ever found Donald Trump leading the Republican presidential race. He just keeps getting stronger there. This is from Public Policy Polling, the liberal bunch headquartered in North Carolina. Their latest numbers have Trump at 38, 16% for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio is at 11, Ben Carson’s at eight, Mike Huckabee and Jeb at 6% each, Chris Christie at 4%, and then the others — John Kasich, for example, North Carolina is at 2%, after coming in 12% second place in New Hampshire. Trump is up five points over where he was a month ago.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: To Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is Bob. Bob, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: How are you?

RUSH: I’m great, sir. Thank you.

CALLER: My comment was, if Trump wanted to kind of wrap this thing up right now, he could both defang Cruz and flatter him at the same time while winning over Cruz supporters if, say, next week he came out and announced that Ted Cruz was gonna be his first nominee to the Supreme Court if he was elected as president.

RUSH: That wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t work because Trump’s out there telling everybody what a bad guy Cruz is. If he’s not eligible to be president, he’s not eligible to be on the court. If he’s qualified to be president of Canada, prime minister Canada… Trump’s doesn’t think he has to do anything anyway. Look, folks, I mean, if we want to start… Let me throw a philosophy out. If we want to say what Trump can do to wrap this up, let me say what Cruz could do to wrap it up: Paint a dollar sign on his forehead. That would send a signal to the donor class, a secret signal.

A dollar sign on his forehead tells the donor class he’s secretly one of them. He’s in it for the money just like they are. How would that work? (interruption) Snerdley’s considering it. (interruption) “Hey, you know what? That’s not a bad idea.” Ask: Why all of a sudden do you think that Bob Dole and some of these establishment guys are warming up to Trump? (interruption) No, no, no. Well, that’s part of it. They’re scared. They hate Cruz. They just hate Cruz.

Why they hate Cruz? ‘Cause they don’t doubt Cruz is an outsider, and they don’t doubt Cruz is gonna change the way things are done. Don’t you find it interesting that this move toward Trump comes the day after he signs on to the ethanol thing? This the kind of stuff insiders like. I don’t know. I’m just thinking off the top of my head here. I mean, I’m responding to callers with their own theories, so I thought I’d throw a couple mine out there. What the heck?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Get this. I just got a note. I just got — I haven’t had a chance to read it in detail. What’s the link? AP, The Big Story: “Still, Cruz has become such a pariah that one of his colleagues, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, told supporters at a campaign fundraiser for his own re-election that he would vote for liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders [Liberal? Communist!] for president before Cruz, according to one person who attended the event. Burr did not appear to be joking, said the person, who demanded anonymity to discuss the private gathering.”

So it’s the word of one guy who was at a private gathering, said Burr obviously trying to make a point here. “I’d vote for Bernie before Cruz.” Ah, man, I tell you. See, these establishment guys, they’re not learning anything. They’re doubling down on whatever their animus toward conservatism is. And, believe me, Republican voters, when they hear stuff like this, they react to it. They don’t get scared. They don’t say, “Oh, wow, you know what? I better abandon Cruz or we’re gonna lose Richard Burr!” (laughing)

Do you think any of them react that way?

“Oh, my God, really? We might lose Richard Burr’s vote? Oh, geez! Okay! I’ll not support Cruz anymore.”

It’s the exact opposite.

“Hey, Burr? Take this!” Then they sign up for both Trump and Cruz.

Holy smithereens.

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