Flip-Flop Label Won't Stick to Obama as He Moves to the Right by Rush Limbaugh

Source: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_070708/content/01125106.guest.html

July 7, 2008

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RUSH: We have Obama -- and, by the way, folks, on this flip-flop business, let's not use the word flip-flop. I don't think it's going to persuade anybody. It worked with Kerry because Kerry was such n idiot. I mean, his flip-flops were just funny. "I voted for it before I voted against it." You gotta remember one thing about these flip-flops, and I'm going to stop using the term here in just a second. Most people are not really paying close attention right now to all this, despite what might be record levels of attention, those of us who are involved in this on a day-to-day basis, we are absorbed, and we are detail-oriented; we know Obama upwards and forwards and backwards and hindwards and all that.

By the time most people start tuning in, his centrist positions, his so-called flip-flops, are actually going to be the things about him that they know. So we have to portray this guy as inexperienced, far leftist, despite what he's saying about moving to the center. You know what I find most irritating about this, all these moves to the center here, be it abortion, be it Iraq, by the way, did I not tell you a year ago -- I hate doing See, I Told You So's, folks, because it sounds like I've got a big ego and I don't have a big ego. My ego is totally a hundred percent in check. But I told you a year ago, that the Democrats, there's not one of these candidates running for the White House, that if they win are going to pull us out of Iraq if it means we lose. They are not going to saddle themselves with a military defeat, mark my words, and I said that the far-left fringe kooks that define the left wing of the Democrat Party today are going to outraged when this happens, and they're going to say things like, "Hey, you know, Bush was not honest with us. He didn't tell us everything going on and now we find out what's going on, it would be a mistake to pull out now." There was no way this was ever going to happen, and, in fact, Obama now suggesting that he would be pragmatic about this and talk to the commanders -- I knew it. This is just common sense.

I don't care how anti-America some of their fringe is, they, as a political party, are not going to saddle themselves with defeat. They might be happy to try to claim victory on this, because there's a story in the BBC or UK Telegraph or something I have here in the stack -- it's all coming up -- about the amazing success that is taking place over there. The word "victory" is being used consistently in much of the foreign media. But here's what bugs me most about these so-called flip-flops. Every national election, every one of them the liberal Democrats know full well they cannot win. Can you imagine how Hillary Clinton feels today? Obama is now campaigning like Hillary was in the remaining primaries. After Texas, and after Ohio, Obama has now totally taken her campaign, just seized it. She was going after the white working class that was very much upset and disabused of the whole notion of Obama. So now he's moving in that direction. They do this 'cause they know that far-left-wingism will not win national elections.

They may lie to themselves and say that conservatism is cracking up. They may lie to themselves and say that the era of Reagan or the era of conservatism is over, and that we're getting ready to usher in a new, far-left agenda. They're gonna do that if they win, but they're not going to campaign on it, because it loses. Here's what's frustrating. All of these people on our side of the aisle, our so-called media intelligentsia and a number of the country club blue-blood Republicans, the Rockefeller bunch, they think they can't win as conservatives. They think the Republican Party cannot triumph with a conservative identity, so they go moving left. They move to the Democrats and they move to independents and they try to come up with all these policy shifts that deemphasize the Republican Party base, try to attract the Democrat Party base and get the favorable treatment from the media. In the meanwhile, what are the Democrats doing?

The Democrats are moving in our direction. Obama is moving right. Now, they may say he's stopped his move right in the middle and in the center, but when he starts flip-flopping on victory in Iraq, when he starts flip-flopping on abortion, when he starts doing a number of these things, gun control, you tell me conservatism -- this is maddening. This is maddening. So what could happen here is that as we head into August, when we get to the Democrat National Convention, and Obama starts giving his speech, and if he keeps this stuff up, he may end up sounding just as, quote, unquote, conservative on many things as McCain does. You couple that with his mantra for change and so forth, it may be attractive. The Republican Party is going to have a big job to portray Obama as he really is. He is The Messiah, also known as Senator Obama. He's not Senator Obama also known as The Messiah. He's The Messiah also known as Obama.

I was working all weekend. Even though I was not behind the Golden EIB Microphone I'm watching all this stuff Obama is doing and saying, and he's embraced the flag, he's holding the flag now. I got in my chair and chilled out, but I also paid attention because I have a responsibility to my country here.


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Obama, from the Los Angeles Times on July the 5th, this little blurb here: "He's not president yet, but Barack Obama has already given some thought to White House decor. Asked at a town hall-style meeting in Fargo, ND, about any decorating plans for the Lincoln Bedroom, Obama described a visit to the White House after he became a US senator. 'You have all these mementos of Abraham Lincoln, but you have this flat-screen TV in there,' Obama told the crowd at the outdoor event. 'I thought to myself, "Now, who stays in the Lincoln Bedroom and watches [ESPN's] 'Sports Center'?" You've got your clicker. . . . That didn't seem to me to be appropriate. So I might take out the TV, I don't know. You should read when you're in the Lincoln Bedroom! Reread the Gettysburg Address. Don't watch TV.'"

I also read a speech, it dovetails with this that Abraham Lincoln gave during predebate with Stephen Douglas on the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, and it is just brilliant, and this attitude of Obama's, you must, we're going to make you do service to your country, we're going to make you do this, you must do that, you must stop driving your car for this or you must stop changing your car, you must change your car, whatever, Lincoln said that's the attitude of kings. That's the attitude of kings and tyrants, that nobody's capable of doing the right thing on their own, they're just a bunch of little victims, we'll give 'em what they need to stay mollified and happy. We're gonna make 'em do things they wouldn't otherwise do because they're not good people. He was accusing Stephen Douglas of this by leaving certain people out from the tenet from the declaration that Thomas Jefferson wrote, that all men are created equal. Douglas, no, they're not. The Germans are not included here. We are a country of English people who came here, the Germans don't count, the Swedes don't count, they don't get the same protections, that was Douglas' position. And Lincoln said, it's impossible, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence says just the exact opposite.

The whole point was, to me, when I was reading this, they say The Messiah, also known as Obama, transcends politics. He transcends nothing. He's not new. He's not unique. There's nothing special about him in terms of, "Gee, we've never had this kind of countenance and presence among us in American politics." Lincoln didn't transcend anything. The Declaration of Independence does not get transcended. You can't transcend it, but they want to transcend the Constitution, they want to transcend the Declaration. Anyway, it was a great piece. This business about flat-screen TV in the Lincoln Bedroom, as you people may remember, I, El Rushbo, have been in the Lincoln Bedroom. By the way, I wonder if Obama even knows what the Lincoln Bedroom was. When Lincoln was in the White House, that was his office, and it's upstairs in the second floor in the residence. Tight across the hall is what's called the Queen's Room. It's another bedroom, but it was an office. That's where Lincoln and his buds ran the civil war. It was not a bedroom. I don't think there was a West Wing then. I don't think there was an East Wing then. And I wonder if Obama even knows this.

Now, when I was there, there wasn't a flat panel there but there was a television, and I didn't turn it on and watch it, I was too busy calling my mom saying, "Hey, guess where I am? You won't believe this." She didn't believe me, so I called her again with the White House switchboard placing the call. But it's like a hotel room, you set the alarm, you get a wake-up call, the White House steward comes and brings you coffee and newspapers in the morning. It's just down the hall from the main living area. I mean, it's a long distance, but it's on the second floor of the residence. I bet there have been tons of people in there, predominantly in the Clinton administration, watching more than ESPN on that TV. I bet they brought in their own tapes. I bet they brought in their own DVDs, if you get my drift.


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RUSH: I got a quick question for Obama. Obama, how long does it take, The Messiah also known as Obama, how long does it take to read the living, breathing Constitution in the Lincoln Bedroom? How long does it take to read the Gettysburg Address while in the Lincoln Bedroom? How long does it take to read the Declaration of Independence while in the Lincoln Bedroom? Did you see where The Messiah, also known as Obama, is pondering a major address at the Brandenburg Gate, the spot that once marked the Berlin Wall? Obama is going to go over there, he's going to go to the Brandenburg Gate where the Berlin Wall once stood. I'm wondering what side he'll be on? On what side will Obama make the speech? Just kidding, folks. But I do have a serious question. If he is going, if The Messiah also known as Obama is going to go to the site of the Berlin Wall and make a speech, where is he scheduling the Sermon on the Mount? Is he going to give a Sermon on the Mount, and if so, when? (interruption)Yes, I saw it, Mr. Snerdley. I don't understand it. Obama's plane, his campaign plane was on the way from Chicago down to North Carolina for a campaign appearance, and they had a detour to St. Louis because they had a problem in there; they couldn't control the pitch of the airplane, the elevation of the nose, so they had to touchdown for a maintenance fix, and I was watching this, he gets off the airplane and he's on a cheap MD-80. I wouldn't be caught dead on one of those regardless, and his campaign plane is an MD-80? Nothing against Midwest Airlines, but it's like flying in a sardine can. I don't know how old these things are, but gee whiz, I mean that was disappointing. I mean not even an Obama logo on the side of the thing.

Anyway, let's go to the audio sound bites. I want to add some things to this so-called flip-flop business of Obama. Let's go back on March 19th, 2008, this year, Fayetteville, North Carolina, at a campaign event, here is what Obama said.

OBAMA: In order to end this war responsibly, I will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. We can responsibly remove one to two combat brigades each month. If we start with the number of brigades we have in Iraq today, we can remove all of them in 16 months.

RUSH: Right, 16 months is going to get everybody out of there, start immediately when he was inaugurated, said that back March 19th in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I knew this was a lie. They're not going to pull these people out of there immediately. They're not going to secure themselves with defeat, no Democrat would. Hillary wouldn't do it, either. Then last Thursday in Fargo, North Dakota.

OBAMA: When I go to Iraq and I have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I'm sure I'll have more information and will continue to refine my policies.

RUSH: Continue to refine my policies? I guess these are policy pirouettes. I guess these are recalibrations. But people did not react to this well. His kook fringe base does not like this. So he had to go out there and do a second reference to this, and he's out there not only wearing the American flag lapel pin, he's out there clutching a flag as he makes these speeches. Here is John Kerry, the haughty John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, from Face the Nation yesterday. Bob Schieffer said, "So, is this a change in policy? Some in the McCain campaign go so far as to say it's a flip-flop, Senator Kerry. Explain this for us."

KERRY: Barack Obama has a plan for ending the war. John McCain has a plan for continuing the war, and he has said so very clearly dozens and dozens of times. What the McCain campaign is trying to do is take the normal statement of anybody smart enough to be president of the United States and is ready to be president, he says he'll refine -- may refine tactically what you might decide to do over the course of that withdrawal and how you protect American troops and how you in fact get the Iraqi army to stand up faster, but it is no change whatsoever in his fundamental determination to end the war.

RUSH: (laughing) I can't take these people seriously. Yes, it is Senator Kerry. He now wants to win the war. McCain doesn't want to continue this thing, either. But I mean here's Mr. Flip-flop himself, John Kerry (laughing) defending (laughing) I thought Obama had all these new things that nobody had ever done before.


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RUSH: Poor old DNCTV up there, some poor supporter is questioning whether Obama is shifting policies. That's the point. He is not shifting policies. He is shifting statements. He is a leftist. He is going to remain a leftist. He is going to grow the government as fast and as large as he can, all of this, all these new positions and so forth. You people on the left ought to just cool down, just chill out. If I were you, I'd be asking a different question. Why does Obama hate the environment? Flying around on a junk airplane burns a whole lot of fuel, not efficient at all, cramming all the press people in there in sardine-like conditions. I got nothing against the MD-80, but I wouldn't be on one. I mean, of all the planes out there, and, by the way, speaking of all of this, we keep hearing in California, you know what they're going to make you do? They're going to make you put a sticker or there's going to be some requirement that on your car, the car you drive has to have a score in terms of how much pollution it's causing and how much global warming it's causing and how much destruction to the climate it's causing.

Meanwhile, Big Sur is half gone. Look at the carbon footprint that these fires are causing, and I don't hear one complaint from the environmentalist wackos. I don't hear one complaint from the global warming fools led by Algore. I do not hear it. There's a much bigger carbon footprint with these fires going on than people driving their automobiles around. I can imagine what their reaction will be. "That's right, Mr. Limbaugh, you're exactly right, but the difference is those fires are natural. Those fires were started by lightning." This is the voice of the new castrati, by the way. "We can't stop that, Mr. Limbaugh, those are natural, but cars are manmade, and the fires are not manmade. Mr. Limbaugh, manmade things are destroying the planet." That would be their reaction to this. I got another question: Why is John Kerry, the haughty John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, why is he dumping all over his buddy, John McCain, a man that Senator Kerry, who served in Vietnam, considered making his vice presidential candidate back in 2004? Also on Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer talking to the haughty John Kerry. "I remember back in 2004 you were thinking seriously about adding McCain to your ticket. Now you're being very hard, it seems to me. This is not the first time you've said that McCain didn't understand the lessons of 9/11. You've said he didn't understand them in the least. What's happened here? Has John McCain changed or have you changed?"

KERRY: John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising and, frankly, upsetting. He is not the John McCain as the senator who defined himself, quote, as a maverick, unquote. This is a different John McCain. This is, you know, not the "Senator" John McCain, this is "nomination" John McCain, this is "wannabe president" John McCain, and the result is that John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues than, you know, I was even ever accused possibly of thinking approximate. I mean this is extraordinary what he's done. He's changed on taxes. He's now in favor of the Bush tax cut. If you like the Bush economy, if you like the Bush tax cut and what it's done to our economy, making wealthier people wealthier and the average middle class struggle harder, then John McCain's going to give you a third term of George Bush and Karl Rove.

RUSH: This is -- (laughing) -- I don't know. I just have to laugh at these people. I don't even feel like parsing this. It's just difficult to -- I mean, John Kerry, loser? All of these Democrats that lose end up rising to the top of their chart, their depth chart, it's just a resume enhancement, because they become victims, they have been victims of the evil Republican machine. They were denied what was rightfully theirs. As such, they are to be honored as great soldiers who have gone down in a great fight, trying to improve America, ahem, while getting savaged and lied about by the evil Republicans. Right. Just another incompetent United States senator, John Kerry, who wrote the definition. I mean you look up the term "flip-flop" anywhere, you're going to see this giant picture of Lurch standing there, because he's the guy that popularized this. Now, listen to this. This is last Wednesday. This is on CNN's Election Center. This happened after we left the broadcast complex. CNN correspondent Michael Ware talking about Obama. Michael Ware is the guy that had the one-day fling with Lara Logan of CBS.

WARE: And one thing I'd like to hear from Senator Obama. It's fine to have this notion to pull the troops out. Who isn't tired, who doesn't want the troops to come home? But I want to hear Senator Obama say he's prepared to pull those troops out while listing all the costs to American power, interests, and status, not to mention the slaughter that almost certainly will follow. Then he can say that he's ready to pull the troops out. Let's hear him say he knows what it's really going to cost.

RUSH: That's right. You heard it, a CNN reporter, who had an affair with Lara Logan of CBS, wanting to know from Obama, "Hey, do you understand what's going to happen here if we pull out? I want to hear from you, sir." But he's not going to pull out. That's what this is all about. I think what's happened here, to sum all this up, what's happening here is that Obama is now campaigning like Hillary Clinton. He has basically taken charge of her campaign in the remaining months when she was still trying -- during the Operation Chaos phase. He's basically campaigning like Hillary. These reports that he has moved to the center are infuriating because he hasn't moved anywhere. He is talking center, but he's not going to govern center if he wins. But, again, the Democrats have to do this in order to win. Amidst all the arguments that conservatism has seen its better days, that the era of Reagan is over and all of this, what are the Democrats showing once again? That in order to win national elections, they have to be more like us. And what are we doing this time around? For some damn fool reason, we're campaigning like we think we have to be more like them. So we have a meeting here in the center going on as we stand now between Obama and McCain, and on some things, you know, this is a little bit of a stretch, but Obama, just by virtue of what he's saying, may end up occupying a position or two further to the right than McCain.


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RUSH: Yeah, might play it once just for the fun of it. I was thinking just a temporary little theme song here for Obama's incompetent, foolish pandering here, Stuck in the Middle With You, by Stealers Wheel. "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. Stuck in the middle." The problem is that the clowns and the jokers are the ones in the middle. So if we play that song about Obama, we're calling ourselves jokes and lifting him up, so it won't work. It was a nice try. Fertile mind on fire here today, folks.


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Read the Background Material...

• LA Times: Obama Has a Vision for the Lincoln Bedroom
• Chicago Tribune: Obama Insists No Shift on Iraq
• Politico: Obama's Iraq Remarks Dominate Sunday Shows
• NewsBusters: Obama Abortion Flip-Flop Buried in NY Times Blog Item about Rove