There's Nothing Obama Could Have Said That Would Change What He Has Done

September 07, 2012

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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I ran the unemployment numbers. I did some quick "arithmeticking," and I figured out that another four years of Obama, unemployment will be down to 7% and another five million people will drop out of the workforce.

How convoluted is this, 368,000 people drop out of the workforce, and the unemployment rate goes down 8.3 to 8.1%? What you need to know is, if the labor force were the same size today as it was when Obama was immaculated, the unemployment rate today would be 11.4%. The U-3, the U-6 would be close to 20% unemployment. But so many people have stopped looking for work that they're not even counted as being unemployed. These are people that have burned through their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Think about it. In August, four people gave up looking for work for every person who actually got a job. Folks, I have to tell you something. I have a summary of media headlines. They are not trying to paper this over. They are not trying to sugarcoat this. The only outfit that is is the WhiteHouse.gov website. They're not even trying. The media, State-Controlled Media, is not even trying to spin this. It is an unmitigated disaster no matter who's looking at it. And this guy on CNN, his name is Ali Velshi, he told poor old Soledad O'Brien, who's desperately hoping for some good news. (paraphrasing) "Soledad, it's not just that there aren't any jobs; it's that the jobs that are being created are worthless jobs."

These are not careers that are starting out there. These are the old hamburger flipper jobs. These are service jobs. These are jobs that Democrats have always made fun of, and now that's the only jobs that they're creating. Real people behind every one of these numbers. And there was Obama last night not even addressing -- you know, I want to be very honest -- well, I always am, folks. But look. When I sat down to watch the Democrat convention last night, I was making myself physically ill. I felt physically ill. I did not want to watch this crap. I did not want to subject myself to it. I wished that the football game had been last night. I almost went back. I didn't watch the whole game Wednesday night. I almost went back to TiVo and watched the full game front to start rather than the Democrat convention.

I knew what the Democrats were gonna say. What made me feel sick, and literally I was feeling sick to my stomach, and I was depressed, not over what I knew I was gonna hear, but over the fact that so many people were gonna believe it. So many people were gonna fall for it.

(interruption)

What, you don't think people did, Dawn? Oh, don't kid yourself. That's the Democrat Party that I know and love that was on display last night, folks, and I tell you they put their best foot forward. That's who they are. And, you know, these 88 million people not in the workforce, they're eating, they're using their cell phones, they're watching their wide-screen, big-screen plasmas. They got their unemployment compensation checks. They're doing okay. And how many of 'em might want to vote to keep that gravy train going? We have to remember here that we don't see this convention the way the Democrats see it.

I'm trying to be as up-front with you as I can about this. When the convention started I actually thought about not watching it, and Kathryn said, "You can't, you've got to."

I said, "No, I don't have to."

"Yes, you do. You have to watch this."

"Ah, jeez, you're right." I got sicker. Kerry came out, and he starts in with that... did the guy have an eyebrow job? He looked like he had a brow job, in addition to the Botox. Anyway, he comes out, and the first thing that struck me is this party all of a sudden loves military. This party is just over the top excited, loving the military. Is this a Nixon-to-China moment that we're looking at here? And I had to remember it was John Kerry who called our troops terrorists during the Iraq war and compared 'em to Genghis Khan. I see they did a 180 at their convention. And then Biden came out, and, folks, I'm telling you, I just got ill. Again, all of the half-truths and the blatant lies and the straw men. I asked myself, how in the world we ever gonna win when these people get away with the literal crap that they get away with?

And then Obama came out. The moment he hit the stage, the moment the applause started and he started, I started feeling better. Before he said a word, something didn't look right to me. I can't pinpoint it. All I can tell you is... I don't do them much anymore, but I have done major addresses to big rooms. I don't have a teleprompter to fall back on if I don't have it that night. I panic before these things start over whether I'm gonna have it or not, whether it's gonna be there, 'cause I totally ad-lib and improv, and, if my mind isn't working, if it's not creative, if the neurons aren't firing, then I have to fake it, and that's like phoning it in. Nobody else may know it, but I do, and it's distracting while I'm in the middle of giving the speech or doing the performance, and, my friends, I want to tell you, I thought last night that Barack Obama phoned it in.

I thought that speech last night was a halfhearted effort. This whole convention -- and it finally hit me last night -- this entire Democrat convention, from beginning to end... It was highlighted by Bill Clinton, fortified by Joe Biden. This whole convention has been an explanation of failure, amid assurances no one could have succeeded. That was Bill Clinton's whole point. We were to forget the magnificent promises of four years ago. We were to forget the messianic aura that existed four years ago.

We were to forget the idea that magic had finally descended upon the country. We were to forget the idea that all things were possible, that all ills were curable. We were to forget that everything bad could be made good. And we were told by the Democrats that no one could have succeeded, not even Barack Obama. That's how bad it is, and was. No one could have succeeded. And as Obama continued to speak, I literally started feeling better. I mean, I could chronicle it.

I was consciously aware of becoming happy again! I didn't feel sick to my stomach any longer. This was very weird. I don't recall being on such a roller coaster as this. No, I didn't feel like all was lost before last night. It was just that I knew that these people -- and this is another way of looking at it. These people had three hours of uninterrupted primetime to tell the country anything, to make their case, to rise to the occasion, to rise to the moment. They had three hours to wrap this up, and they didn't do it.

Particularly Obama. It was dismal, disappointing. Every Democrat in Charlotte, from last night through today, as they leave, is asking themselves, "What was that last night?" They are asking themselves that, and the media is, too. They're asking themselves, "Why? What was the point? Why did Obama blow it? He had a golden opportunity to cream Romney and Ryan forever, to make himself out to be whatever he wanted to try to convince people to be, and he chose the Greatest Hits."

He went the Seinfeld route. His sayonara stand-up routine was a repeat of one of his early ones. Seinfeld actually did that after his TV show. Obama's speech was the low point of the night. I'm just shooting you straight here, Joey. Obama's speech was the low point, and I actually began to think he was phoning it in. Seriously. I've been there, folks. I have been distracted in the middle of a speech. I have not wanted to be there. I have not had it. I have been in the middle of it and my mind isn't working.

I'm not firing on all cylinders, and I know that it ain't my best while I'm in the middle of doing it. I know how that feels. Except I don't have a prompter to rely on 'cause I don't use one. I don't use notes or anything. He had the prompter to rely on. He had the words. He didn't have to worry about remembering the words, but it didn't work. I'm really wondering if he wants to win this now. I know, in my heart, he does. I know he does, but, folks, this was such an opportunity that was blown.

I can't begin to tell you. Well, I did begin to grab hold of a possibility. For the last five years, we have been presented with the idea that Barack Obama is superhuman. Barack Obama is unlike any of us or anyone else. And he isn't. In fact, he's much less achieved and much less accomplished than most who have gotten half as far as he has, and I think maybe what we saw was the best. The best that they can do, given reality. This whole convention seemed to be predicated on the fact the Republicans were in office.

They're running as challengers. Honestly. Even Obama last night made me say, "Have you forgotten you're in office, pal? You're describing all these problems; they're yours!" He had as much time as he wanted to seize the moment, to make his case, to explain why -- and we got a fizzling Roman candle. Two big decisions he had to make, two big things. They had an opportunity to tell us how wonderful the stimulus was and how we needed another one.

They had an opportunity to tell us how great Obamacare was and how it was gonna be even better than anybody knew. They get away with whatever lie they want to tell, as far as the media is concerned. Don't doubt me. They could have... Obama could have gone out there and spun a tale about all kinds of wonderful things he's got planned for the next four years. "You're gonna have a new car, a new kitchen!" It coulda been anything!

And what did they do?

They said the two big accomplishments were bin Laden and the auto industry? And they didn't even portray this bin Laden thing as a great achievement. They billed that as a great "decision." Well, there's a problem. The Bob Woodward book is out, and we know Obama doesn't make decisions. Other people have to prod him to make decisions. The bin Laden story is another one of those. Who was it? Somebody, Hillary or Valerie Jarrett had to tell him...

No, Valerie Jarrett didn't want to go get him. That was it. Somebody had to tell him three times to pull the trigger on bin Laden. The two big decisions, the two big achievements. Biden focused on it, all the speakers. The "bumper sticker" is Bin Laden and the auto industry -- which was a bailout with the government buying General Motors and Chrysler, and giving the majority of it to the United Auto Workers? George W. Bush did the auto bailout!

Yeah, Obama asked him to, but Bush did it. It was already done by the time Obama got there. They didn't talk about Dodd-Frank, financial reform. They didn't talk about making it fair for people to get back into homes. It's so much left on the table. And then getting up there and totally ignoring the real issues: economic decay, collapse, unemployment, economic malaise, misery, no confidence in the future.

And Obama is unwilling to tell people it's gonna get better? His message was, "I have hope in you, in us." He mocks and makes fun of tax cuts? He couldn't highlight Obamacare? Why a rehash of all this old stuff that sounds like you're the challenger and not the incumbent? Why do this? 'Cause when this was over, I can't tell you... I felt 180 degrees better. 'Cause this was a dismal performance. I know a lot of people have said this. I'm not unique in this take.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This was boilerplate. It was liberal boilerplate. There was nothing new. The stuff in Obama's speech, I've been hearing all my life: 50 years. This stuff was older than the stuff he said four years ago. I heard Chris Wallace before the speech say, "I've got a copy of it here, and it looks like it's a rehash of stuff we heard four years ago." Some of it was, but much of it was older than that. Liberal boilerplate. Stuff that's been in their playbook since FDR.

Now, you put that against the expectations this crowd had? Forget inside the convention. Those people are lunatics. We had the audio yesterday of these people who want to ban profits. That party, folks -- these people in that hall -- many of them are dyed-in-the-wool lunatics. They're lost. They're gone. They're irretrievable. That's the base of the Democrat Party you saw in there. But I'm telling you, people watching this on TV (if they did) are scratching their heads.

And you see, the fact of the matter is there's this little problem called reality, and it happens to everybody -- even messiahs like The Big O. And the fact is, there's nothing Obama could have said that would change what he has done and what he has caused, and that was his problem. There's nothing, not a thing he could have said to change people's perceptions of his failure. It's that simple. He struck out before this thing even started.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The whole convention was an explanation of failure amid assurances no one could have succeeded. You go back to 2008. "Yes, we can!" You remember that? "Yes, we can! Yes, we can!" What did Clinton say? (imitating Clinton) "Uh, you know what? Not even I could have fixed this mess." And last night, that message was carried through all the way through to Obama. But Realville trumps Obama last night. Nothing he could have said that would have changed what he's done. Nothing he coulda said would have changed what he's caused.

Obama had these economic numbers last night, by the way. All day yesterday the Drive-Bys kept teasing us. They kept saying, "Obama's gonna have the economic numbers, I'll betcha they're gonna be really good." The expectations were pretty high, by the way, I should tell you. The experts all thought the job numbers today would be great, and they were hoping and they were predicting, Obama, he will allude to it in his speech. He'll say we've turned the corner. He'll say we're coming back and we'll wake up tomorrow and get all this great economic news. Well, I'll tell you, Obama knew the news last night, he knew how bad the numbers were. He knew they're not spinnable, and I think that was a factor in Obama's attitude last night. I'm struck, folks, by how just subpar it was.

Yeah, the experts are running around, some of them are predicting 250,000 new jobs in August. Their hopes. When have the experts ever been right? Ninety-six thousand new jobs; 68,000 dropped out of the labor force. There are now about 89 million Americans not in the labor force, and if the same number of people had jobs today, or if there were the same number of jobs today available as there were four years ago, the unemployment rate would be 11.4%. It is just devastating what this man and his administration have done to this country. It's almost indescribable.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This actually struck me yesterday, but it but it was drilled home last night. One week ago last night at the Republican convention we had all those testimonials to the character and the life of Mitt Romney from average people. People that, before the Republican convention, nobody ever heard of: The family with the 14-year-old boy with cancer, the family with the sick little girl in the hospital.

All these people were character witnesses and they were many and numerous. Who were the character witnesses for Barack Obama during this convention? There were three. There was Bill Clinton. (chuckles) That's big. When you got Clinton as a character witness, you're in there. Number two character witness was Michelle Obama. And the third one, who was the third character witness? Joe Bite Me last night. Joe Bite Me. (impression) "I've sat there! I've sat next to him. I'm gonna tell you something, something my dad said.

"He said, 'Joey, if somebody punches you in the nose, you kick 'em in the groin, and you look at 'em like they're Republicans and you kick 'em again,' and that's this guy. I have never seen a guy with a tougher spine of steel. That's this guy! I've seen him. I've sat next to him." This is the reason we're to reelect the guy. "Michelle, you know, you've seen the guy. I've seen the guy, too. I've worked up close, and let me tell you: I've never seen tougher. Nobody. Nobody. There's just nobody!

"And you know why? 'Cause this guy's got courage. Awww! Oh, this guy's got courage in droves. Let me tell you. No, no! No! Wait. Courage, incalculable courage. I've seen it. Ohhh! I've been up close for four years. I have been there. It's like my dad said, 'Joey, get the hell out of the house. I'm sick of looking at you.'" That was it, folks. That was the sum total of character witnesses, and that was the reason to vote for Obama. He cares and Biden has seen enough to know that he's a great guy.

There wasn't a word about his charitable acts. There wasn't a word about Obama's interaction with people that he's inspired. There was none of this. You know, Krauthammer used the word "empty" to describe Obama's speech last night. I think the whole convention ended up (because of the way it ended) being that way. Now, I actually think there's something else going on in the dynamic of the Democrat Party. I think there's a bunch of competing strings, ropes that are being pulled within this party.

I think you have the blind and the totally devoted who think that these last three days were nirvana and heaven, and they've never seen anything like it. They're happy as clams, and it's the most wonderful thing, and it's great. Then you have people who think, "You know what? This isn't working. I feel uncomfortable with it." And then you have people in the Democrat Party who know that if they don't do something fast, it's not just Obama that's gonna go south. It's the whole party.

There aren't very many of those. But yesterday, I spent some time on the program detailing for you recent news stories from slavish State-Controlled Media that love Obama. New York Times and Politico. The Politico talked about how this guy hasn't given a good speech in four years! The New York Times on Sunday ran a piece saying that everybody thinks the guy's cocky and arrogant. I said, "What is this?" And it's as I told you.

If these people in the media and if other powerful Democrats think -- if they get it in their heads -- that Obama's gonna lose, they will throw him overboard to save the ideology. The ideology must be saved and will not be blamed, and that's what they're setting up when they say before last night that Obama hasn't given a good speech in four years -- and, by the way, that's still accurate. And that was Politico.

Obama hadn't given a good speech in four years. The New York Times piece on Sunday. If they think things are going south, if they think they're gonna lose, they will start making sure that people understand it was Obama who blew it, not liberalism that was rejected. Not big government that was rejected, not spending that was rejected, not debt. Not all the things that equal liberalism. None of that was rejected.

Nope, it was Obama.

They're gonna have to, because the ideology comes first.

Obama will become the latest passing personality.

There are already a lot of stories on that. Like that New York Times story was replete with examples that people don't really like the guy, they don't really know him. How about the Woodward book now? "He can't even make a decision. The guy's not there! Who's running this shop?" Let me tell you something: The things that are being said about Obama now -- three months before the election -- by media and journalists who love the guy (supposedly), who are in the tank for the guy...?

If you know how to read the stitches on a fastball like I do, if you know how to see the spin and note the curveball coming before it breaks, you can see something is being set up out there. Within the bowels of the Democrat Party, there is a rising number of people -- an increasing number of people -- who think this is over. Their fears were confirmed after Obama's speech last night, and that number is going to increase. If it weren't for a bunch of mitigating factors, Obama would be down 15 or 20 -- and ought to be.

The real question is: How are this race and these polls still even? Especially now given that speech last night. That speech, when you boil it all down, was the latest bit of evidence of what a failure Obama is and what a failure his ideas are, what a failure liberalism is, what a failure statism is. It was all wrapped up in that speech last night. Again, for a simple reason, folks: There was nothing he could have said that would change what he's done.

There was nothing he could have said that would have changed the perception of what he's done. There was nothing! This is why he didn't try it. I'm convinced. There was nothing he could have said that would have rebutted the idea that he has failed. And that's why he went back to the liberal boilerplate. Shore up the base. That's why he went back to the 30-, 50-year-old playbook. That's why he started making fun of taxes and rich people. He started talking about how they care and we don't.

He went back to the basics. That's all he's got is to shore up the base, because there's nothing he could have said that would have made himself look like a success. I'm telling you, there's nothing he could have said that could change what he's done. There's nothing he could have said that would have changed what he's caused. There's nothing he could have said to make the 89 million people out of work think that that's good.

There's nothing he could have said (and that's why he didn't say it), that would make people think the next four years are gonna turn this around and be better like he said they were gonna be four years ago! He didn't get specific about what the next four years are gonna be because they're not gonna be any better. His ideas fail. There's nothing he could have said, nothing he could have done to change reality.

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