Rush: Vulgar Obama Acting Like a Celebrity, Not a President

The following is a transcript of several segments of Rush Limbaugh’s radio show on Friday:
RUSH: I know, I know, I know. I’m sitting here, and I’m recalling all of these instances, such as when Peggy Noonan said that Sarah Palin was somewhat vulgar and David Brooks was talking about the elegance of Barack Obama. I can’t help but think what a bunch of dopes. We’re dealing with a mean and cold guy here, folks. And what’s he doing bowling in

the middle of an economic crisis, for crying out loud? Who cares what the score is?

JOHNNY DONOVAN: Live from the Southern Command in sunny south Florida via New York City, it’s Open Line Friday!

RUSH: And it’s great to have you with us, folks, as we wrap up another big week of broadcast excellence. Rush Limbaugh here. You know the rules. Open Line Friday, when we go to the phones the program is all yours. You get to determine what we talk about. That is a major, major, major gift from me to you. That is a huge career risk, taken by me, America’s Real Anchorman. So here’s the phone number: 800-282-2882. The e-mail address, [email protected].

This comment about the Special Olympics, his bowling score was so low, “It’s like the Special Olympics or something.” He’s apologized for it. Everybody involved is accepting the apology, the Special Olympics people, Mr. Shriver is talking about how this is a teachable moment and so forth. This shouldn’t surprise you. There are some media websites entities who are a little bit upset about this. ABC’s The Note is very angry about this, some people at The Politico are not happy about this. Jake Tapper at ABC is not happy about this. Everybody is using the, “Well, what if Bush had said it?” Folks, there’s a double standard here and it’s a mistake to start playing that game. Everybody knows that if Bush had said something like this, that it would be roiling headlines, there would be no such thing as a teachable moment even if he had apologized. I still think there’s something larger than this. I still think that whole appearance last night was a mistake. The whole appearance last night was not presidential. Now, that’s just me.

What I really fear is that we have a culture in this country now that thinks this is what a president ought to do. I think we have a culture in this country that thinks that is cool, that finally the president is just like a real guy going on all these television shows like every other celebrity does, like every other pop culture icon does. So whereas you and I of a certain age and a certain generation have certain expectations and standards about what is presidential, it’s changed with a lot of people. A lot of people think this is really neat and a lot of people think this is real cool. They don’t care what Obama says. The fact that he went on the program shows that he’s also a new president. He’s in touch with us. He goes places that we watch. We have a bipolar country. We have a bipolar country. It’s not just enough to say that we’re polarized, but we have here a bipolar country.

Now, the fact that he can make this joke about Special Olympics people, there’s no question that’s something very mean to say, and it’s not the first time. He made a joke about Nancy Reagan and seances. I’m telling you, this man is angry and he has a chip on his shoulder, and his wife does, too. They are some angry people. They’re really angry. But above and beyond all of this, Mitt Romney said this last night on Larry King Alive, “Where’s the focus?” We’ve got major, major problems here. He’s out making them worse, and he’s acting like a pop culture celebrity…. and this is what people want in their president these days. We’ll discuss this in greater detail.

By the way, we do have — (laughing) — our microphones are everywhere. I have some friends at the Tonight Show. We had a microphone backstage. Leno rehearses everything. You may think this is an improv show, but it is rehearsed to the T. Leno rehearses, rehearses, rehearses, and we have a little bit backstage audio pre-show.

(playing of Leno spoof)

Everybody’s picking up on this teleprompter business now, everybody. I saw the funniest picture. You know the picture of Obama walking out of the ocean in his swim trunks when he was over in Hawaii? It’s a teleprompter that’s been Photoshopped in the picture — (laughing) — you know, to a certain segment of the country the man’s a joke. To a certain segment of the country, Barack Obama is a bad joke, a scary, frightening, incompetent joke. Not the kind of joke that you laugh at. The kind of joke that goes, “Oh, my God, what…did we do?” To another part of America, this guy is The Messiah, this guy is exactly what we need and there is no amount of logic, no amount of information, contradictory or whatever to what they believe that is going to change their minds. Nothing is going to change their minds about the man. They are predominantly young people, and what would you say, Snerdley, the phenomenon probably extends to people in their thirties? In some cases, early forties, but I mean it’s almost a hundred percent when you get into the twenties, the early twenties to late twenties, early thirties. You might have some stragglers in the forties and so forth.

But I think once you start getting to that age you’re just talking about loyal Democrats that are going to stand by the guy no matter what. I’m talking about a cultural shift that has taken place. These people are possessed. They’re like zombies. They really are zombies. He can’t do anything wrong no matter what he does, but to us appearing on The Tonight Show, no sitting president’s ever done that. There’s a reason. Presidential comportment, behavior is very serious. It’s not given to lighthearted joking, particularly in times like this. Now, that’s what it is. We now know, the White House says it was an offhand remark. That means off teleprompter. It was an off-the-cuff remark. That means off the teleprompter. Hey, you know, he was just shooting from the hip. That means he’s shooting without the teleprompter. Careless remark, careless remark, he’s very sorry for it. He hit a political market bottom last night, if you ask me. I’m not going at this from the political correct angle, folks. It’s far more indicative of a truth.

We live in a world in which the American left is basically a myth, a series of myths that we have been told, that they are the compassionate ones that, they are the cares once, that they’re the ones that have all the love and the tolerance, that they’re the ones that care about the downtrodden and the little guy, when in fact they make fun of them, when in fact the left holds these kinds of people in contempt and uses them for their own advantage. The disadvantaged, I don’t care what category of disadvantaged, the downtrodden economically, they’re props, they’re nothing but props, they are used, they are never assisted, they are never genuinely helped, and yet everybody believes that the real compassion — Peggy Noonan and these people, “He’s so elegant, he’s so refined. Sarah Palin is so vulgar.” Let’s do some audio sound bites here. And, by the way, before we get to that, the real outrage today continued to be AIG and what happened yesterday in Congress. To me, this is unacceptable. We now have mob rule, the way it started in Nazi Germany. We have people up in Southport and Fairfield, Connecticut who are harassing AIG employees in their homes, in their front yards. This is mob rule that has been ginned up.

The United States Congress needs to be ashamed. The United States Congress is an embarrassment. The United States Congress is incompetent. The United States Congress is dangerous. They put the bonus law in the stimulus bill that nobody read! The stimulus bill contained the details of these bonuses. I don’t care if it’s Chris Dodd, I don’t care if it’s Geithner, the bonuses were in the stimulus bill that nobody read, and I can’t stomach the fact that every damned one of these members of Congress, I don’t care what party we’re talking about, gets to sit up there and act like they were blindsided and didn’t know about it. Maybe they were blindsided and didn’t know about it. The only way they could have blindsided and not know about it is if they did not read what they voted on, and most of them didn’t, but then to get to sit there and destroy the lives of individual citizens tells me that the whole concept of the individual in this country is on the wane.

When the United States Congress, in conjunction with the White House, can target with legislation individuals and do so with dishonesty and blame the individuals, and then create mob rule and death threats against these individuals, it’s irrelevant to me whether or not these bonuses are moral and whether or not they’re right. What is happening is irresponsible. It is unconscionable; it is unacceptable in a free society. In the America I know this would cause protests in Washington, not in Fairfield, Connecticut. What happened yesterday at the United States House of Representatives would cause people marching in Washington; every incumbent would be thrown out in 2010. This is unacceptable. We are not Soviet Russia and they are not the Politburo. But you can’t tell the difference some days in the way they act, in the way they speak. Yes, we know that Richard Holbrooke was on the board of AIG. Yes, we know that Richard Holbrooke pocketed $800 grand over six years, whatever. We’re not surprised by this.

It’s an inside game. It is a cabal. It is these egghead academic Ivy Leaguers who just make a circuitous route stopping at AIG, then they’ll go to Citibank, then they’ll go to the administration, then they’ll go to the Fed and after they leave there then they’ll go back to the private sector, all the while pocketing whatever they can from every stop along the way, and then they portray themselves as the best and the brightest and the smartest among us. They are going to ruin this country. They’re in the process of it now, and while this is happening, the president of the United States is appearing on a late–night comedy show, he admits that he’s bowling in the White House bowling alley, he admits he’s not working, and he makes a joke making fun of disabled people and apologizes for it and everybody accepts it. “It’s a teachable moment, teachable moment, because we all know he really didn’t mean it.” Sorry. He did mean it. You can tell what’s in people’s hearts when they’re not on the teleprompter.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to return to a comment I made at the opening of the program, the vulgarity of Sarah Palin. I don’t care that members of the left — people on the left and Democrats — trashed her and said she was vulgar. That’s because she was effective. But what infuriated me all during the campaign was how supposed conservatives, pseudo-conservatives, people on our side who are pseudo-, phony intellectuals of the New York, Washington media axis, who have a desire to be accepted by the wrong crowd in politics, had to also go after Sarah Palin as unfit and vulgar and uncouth and raw around the edges. So last night while Barack Obama is making fun of Special Olympics people, Special Olympics kids — while he’s making fun of them — Sarah Palin, on March 7th, 13 days ago, addressed the 2009 Special Olympics on her website, SarahPAC.com. As you watch this, she’s holding the baby, Trig, and she says this…

PALIN: When I first held Trig, it was like an hourglass turned upside down. My heart filled up with love, as my mind emptied itself of all the different worries and fears and concerns that I had. I had carried those while I was carrying him. Everyone wants their baby to be perfect. And with Trig, that’s exactly what we got. Everyone worries about what the future holds for their newborn child. With Trig we have hopes and concerns and dreams just as we do for all our children, but one thing is certain for our family, and that’s that Special Olympics is going to be a big part of his and our future.

RUSH: Sarah Palin — the uncouth, the unpolished, the rough around the edges, the vulgar — discussing her special-needs child, Trig, and the Special Olympics. Later, in her website post, she added this.

PALIN: Now thanks to Special Olympics, we know for certain that Trig is going to have every opportunity to enjoy sports and competition that all of our other than children have. I know I don’t have to worry that he’s going to be on the sidelines, when he wants to be in the game. You know what the difference is between a hockey mom and a Special Olympics hockey mom? Nothing. For our family and for millions of other families with special, special children, Special Olympics gives us confidence and excitement for his future, and we’ve got big plans for this little guy — and we can’t wait.

RUSH: Sarah Palin on her website SarahPAC.com talking about this. She did an address there to the 2009 Special Olympics on her website as she was holding her Down syndrome child, Trig. I just wanted to contrast that — the supposedly vulgar and uncouth, rough-around-the-edges, embarrassing Sarah Palin — with, of course, the elegant, the suave, the cool, the calm, the willowy, the weightless Barack Obama and his “teachable moment,” of making fun of Special Olympics people. Grab audio sound bite number two, Joe Biden. In fact, where is it? We have it. Where is it? Grab cut nine. We’re going to use cut nine again. Cut nine first. This is Joe Biden back during the campaign talking to a Missouri politician who’s in a wheelchair.

BIDEN: Uh, uh, Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up, Chuck. Let ’em see you. (rimshot) Oh, God love you. What am I talking about? (rimshot) I tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up, though, pal. (rimshot) I tell you what, stand up for Chuck. (rimshot)

RUSH: Stand up for Chuck! There’s Joe Biden. Ah, these people are so elegant. They’re so sensitive. They’re so aware. They’re so compassionate. Here’s Biden Wednesday in Washington, speaking at the White House Recovery and Reinvestment Act Implementation Conference.

BIDEN: Because of the rules, the President, I can’t stop you from doing some things, but I’ll show up in your city and say, “This is a stupid idea.” If you think I’m kiddin’, this is the only part the president was right about: “Don’t mess with Joe,” because I mean it.

AUDIENCE: (nervous laughter)

BIDEN: I’m serious, guys! I’m serious! I’m absolutely serious.

RUSH: Ooh-hoo-hoo! They’re frightened out there. Joe Biden. Yes. He said, “This is the only part the president was right about: ‘Don’t mess with Joe.'” What a pair. What have we done? What have we done to our country? This is absolutely horrible. So he shows up and he’s talking to state officials about the implementation of the stimulus bill, the Community Recovery and Reinvestment Act Implementation Conference; and he’s telling these people if they don’t do it right, he’s going to show up and he’s going to tell ’em that they’re stupid. “If you think I’m kidding, this is the only part the president was right about: ‘Don’t mess with Joe,’ because I mean it. I’m serious, guys. I’m serious! I’m absolutely serious.” This administration is a joke. It’s not the kind of joke you laugh at, though. It’s a joke that makes you cry.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right, back to the phones. It’s Open Line Friday. Dan in Muskegon, Michigan. Hello, sir. Thank you for waiting.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, accident dittos, mega dittos, and continuing-and-ongoing mega, mega dittos.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: You are my savior, to be sure. I am humbled at your feet, sir.

RUSH: Well, now, let’s not go that far. I can’t make a cabinet, either, just like Obama can’t.

CALLER: You know what I find just outrageous is the difference of the media coverage. Like when Katrina smacked New Orleans, Bush was just ripped right apart.

RUSH: Bush steered that hurricane into New Orleans.

CALLER: Exactly. But now we’ve got our economy in the toilet, and the media is fawning over this guy, while he goes on a comedy show like a Third World, tinhorn dictator. It is just amazing!

RUSH: Well, you know, I understand your frustration. You’re going to have to come to understand something that I have figured out. We live in a bipolar country now. People like you and me, Dan, we look at… You know, forget the Special Olympics comment for a moment. We just look at it as, “Presidents don’t go on comedy shows, at any time, particularly during crises.” I mean, George W. Bush stopped playing golf during the Iraq war. George W. Bush stopped going on vacation during hard times and controversial times. It didn’t help him at all. It didn’t help him at all. Barack Obama is not working. He’s going on comedy shows and he’s doing town meetings — which don’t accomplish anything for the country; they do for him.

He’s bowling! He’s comparing his bowling to the way Special Olympians bowl, and you and I look at this and say, “This is just demeaning the office. This is not presidential,” but we live in a new America, and there are millions and millions of Americans who think just the opposite. They think these town meetings have substance, because Obama is listening to them. They think Obama’s cool…They think Obama’s cool…. ‘Cause he, to these people, is a celebrity. He’s a pop culture celebrity and icon….

He could do anything of this sort. He could do anything that degrades the office of the presidency in the pop culture and many, many Americans are going to think it’s a welcome change from the stuffiness, that he gets out of that town. He’s out circulating among the people. Because the people that voted for Obama wish they could go on these shows. They wish they could be on The Tonight Show. They wish they could get in the audience to see it. They don’t care what he says. It’s just he’s there. They don’t listen to what he says. All that matters is what they think he hears them say at a town hall. He doesn’t have to do diddly-squat. He doesn’t have to get Henrietta Hughes a house. All he’s gotta do is listen. “Mr. President, I love you! I love you!” All he has to do is act like he heard what she said. He’s a pop culture celebrity. He is a man of very little substance. He’s a man of show, a man of the teleprompter.

But when it comes to real substance, he’s lost without the teleprompter. He’s a walking gaffe machine — and the reason they keep that teleprompter tied to him at all times is ’cause when he’s off that teleprompter, in addition to the stutters and the lack of focus, you find out what’s really in his mind, and find out what’s really in his heart. This is an angry man. His wife’s mad, too. And he’s not cool. He’s cold. This is a cold, cold guy. It takes the prompter to create the aura of feeling and compassion. Think about that. It takes an electronic gizmo with a hard drive that works with nothing but ones and zeros, the binary code, to give humanity. I know a lot of people think, “Rush, how can you say this? This is one of the most warm and sensitive people ever.” This man is participating in the destruction of the concept of the individual. This man is participating with his party in the wholesale assault of the concept of the individual and individual liberty, in the process of remaking this country in an image that he thinks is more just. You know what I really wonder? We’ll never know this. I really wonder how many real Democrats are scared out of their pants over what they see happening.

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