The Day Is Finally Here

RUSH:  You see where Hillary said that she was humbled to vote for herself?  She probably regrets she couldn’t vote more than once.  Humbled?  That’s what’s missing in the entire ruling class of Washington, DC.  There isn’t any humility there.  There is the expectation of total subservience by the people. 

Anyway, greetings, my friends, and welcome. 

Here we are.  This is the day that everybody has been thinking about for a year-and-a-half, I mean, in an intense way.  We’ve been thinking about it for much longer than that.  Some of us have been thinking about it since 2012 and even some since 2009, but in terms of the recent campaign, everything that’s gone on has led to this day. 

And, after all of these months and all of the news that we’ve had and all of the polling data and all of the expert commentary by the commentariat, by the punditocracy, by learned analysts, noted strategists, and respected anchors, nobody knows jack about what’s gonna happen.  Despite being told assuredly by partisans on both sides what’s gonna happen for the past year-and-a-half, there isn’t anybody that knows. 

There’s fear and anticipation on both sides.  I find that fascinating on a number of levels, and alternately I find it comforting and assuring and I’m sure if you want to find negatives, you can.  I’m not predisposed to that.  But many people are.  It’s a natural state, I think, of the human condition is pessimism, and you have to fight it, and this is certainly one of those times where you have to. 

So I want to start here by going through some of the latest polling data.  Some of it’s very interesting and we’ll go on from there, we’ll take your phone calls, of course.  We’ve got Governor Pence slated to be here at about 12:35, in 25 or 30 minutes or so from now, depending on his schedule and everything. 

I have to share this with you.  I got an email from a friend this morning, and the subject line of the email was: I predict that you will regret tomorrow.  I predict you will regret tomorrow not sticking your neck out this time, at least I hope so. 

So I said, “What does this mean?  What would I possibly regret?”  So I wrote back.  “Are you regretting that I have not campaigned with Trump, not endorsed Trump, not been more vocally for Trump from the get-go, I did not stick my neck out, what are you thinking?”  He thinks it’s going to be such a Trump landslide that I’m gonna regret not predicting it. (interruption) No, no, no, no, no.  It’s not about — that’s what I thought too.  I thought I was chiding me. 

Here’s the thing.  I have been hit from every side there is.  The Never Trumpers have hit me for betraying conservatism.  The blogs hit me for betraying conservative.  I am Mr. Conservative, they said.  I’m the guy that got all this started, and when it was nip and tuck time, when it was crunch time, when it was pedal-to-the-metal time, did I choose conservatism in the primaries?  No.  Therefore on one level I have betrayed conservatism and I don’t deserve to ever be listened to ever again. 

On the other side, I haven’t been forceful enough for Trump.  I didn’t endorse Trump. I didn’t give people the comfort to go out and support Trump.  There were a lot of people that wanted to that were waiting on me.  I’ve heard it from virtually every angle there is, every group of Republicans, conservatives, Never Trumpers, quasi-conservatives, Tea Partiers, populists, nationalists, they’ve all had a beef with me at some point during the election. 

But one thing I know, folks, audience levels have just skyrocketed during this period, even more so than usual during elections. It’s something that is bankable, I mean, it’s seasonal, predictable, but it’s through the roof even more so this time around.  But I did what I’ve always done, I didn’t change.  That’s the thing, folks, I mean, you can call it boring if you want, but the one thing you never have to doubt is who I am and what I believe and what I tell you I believe.  I have been Mr. Consistent for the entire 28-plus years I have been hosting this program. 

There hasn’t been a single, solitary, fundamental, foundational, principled change in anything I state or say that I believe, not one, while everything around me seems to be changing with the wind, changing with popular opinion. It seems like a lot of people you used to be able to count on, now you don’t know what they believe, but I have been there. 

This one emailer thinks that we’re just gonna see a landslide today or tonight and that I’m gonna regret not having predicted it.  That was his point.  Not that I haven’t supported Trump.  He’s had no problem with what I have done or how I’ve done it here.  Just one more explanation on that. 

Folks, I have total trust in you.  I have never looked at those of you in this audience as needing to be led.  Sure, everybody needs to be informed, and I take great pleasure in informing you on things, and I love telling you what I think.  I’m very proud of what I think.  I love hearing myself say what I think, and I’m very, very sure of myself when I say it.  If I’m not sure of myself, I won’t say it.

I think that certainty rubs a lot of people the wrong way.  Nobody’s supposed to be that sure of themselves.  There’s too much gray area, you can’t possibly be that sure. It unnerves some people, moderates and independents.  The thing I’ve always trusted is you.  For example, I’ve had so many people say, “You gotta tell people to go vote.”  I don’t need to tell you people to go vote.  How many of you people out there don’t know it’s Election Day and how many of you out there are waiting for anybody, me, anybody, to tell you to go vote?  None of you. 

Now, there may be. Because of the audience expansion and because of the incredible growth, there have to be some people in the audience who even now remain unsure.  They’re gonna go vote, but they don’t yet know who and they’ve got some problems with both candidates and they don’t know how to resolve them.  I will be addressing that before the program ends today.  I don’t think this is complicated at all. Even stripping away my preferences and bias, I don’t think this is complicated. 

For example, I do not understand — and nobody’s gonna ever be able to make me understand — how a Republican could vote for Hillary Clinton.  I just am never going to understand that.  Nobody can make me understand it, and nobody can make me accept it, particularly Republicans that have been around and paying attention for the last 25 or 30 years. There is no way, and a lot of them are.  I don’t know “a lot.”  A significant number of publicly known Republicans are going to either not vote or they are going to vote for Hillary. 

They’re going to do something that is essentially a vote for her — and that, I don’t understand.  I can understand some people that might have problems with Trump, but I do not understand at all any admitted Republican or conservative who will vote for Hillary Clinton.  That just doesn’t compute and make any sense, and I will explain why as the program unfolds before your very eyes and ears.