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My Take on the GOP Debate
Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | February 15, 2016 | Rush Limbaugh

Posted on 02/15/2016 1:28:11 PM PST by Kaslin

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Of course I'm gonna discuss Trump. Of course I'm gonna discuss the Republican debate. Actually I think I've got that figured out, too. I think I know what happened there. I think I know what the objective was. I think I know what the game plan was. (interruption) Well, not to terrify the party. That's the end result. I don't know that was the objective. No, just wait 'til you hear it then you can start poking holes at it. Don't start poking holes at it before I've told you what I think.

I know you're gonna poke holes anyway. Everybody does.

Just wait 'til I've told you what I think went on there. There's a whole bunch of things at work -- and I'll tell you what it boiled down to. It boils down to the fact that... Here, let me just give you one caveat. George Will was on television and he just said, "This is it," and William Kristol has said, "This is it." Trump's behavior in that debate, that's going to show up now. We're going to see Trump lose some support. They are confident that that's gonna happen after Trump's performance, behavior, whatever you want to call it, however you want to characterize it on Saturday night.

I'm here to tell you that if it doesn't -- and I'm not gonna make a prediction on that because I really don't know. I can tell you that in any other case, anybody else, any other time in American history, they'd be finished. That would be the end of it, no matter what the establishment wanted, the supporters would abandon that candidate. But I don't know that that's gonna happen this time. And if it doesn't, it is just going to add about 10 exclamation points to how ticked off people are at the people running this country. Which I still don't think they understand inside the Beltway.

I still don't think they get it. I think they understand there's some anger out there, but I think they think it's fleeting and temporary and irrational and will eventually die out and go away. I don't think it's taken seriously. I know full well the establishment of both parties not gonna respond to it. They're not gonna react to it in a way that says, "Okay, I guess we're gonna have to modify or change." They haven't reached that point yet. All this anger and support for Trump, as far as they're concerned, is still irrational and uninformed, and so they're not gonna react to it yet.

And it's those people who think that this is the straw that broke the camel's back, this is the step too far. We will see. And if that doesn't happen, if Trump doesn't lose support or a significant amount of support, it's just going to mean they still don't get how angry people are. What if Trump gains support? Nobody's even thinking about that. What if his support goes up because of this? But I'm getting ahead of myself because I haven't gotten into my analysis of why it was all done.

I've spoken to nobody, folks.

I really haven't.

I'm a... I really don't do that. It's very rare.

I mean, they call me sometimes, but I do not make an effort to reach out to people to get inside, behind-the-scenes information so that I can share it with you without actually telling you I've got it. I don't do any of that. I'm just like you. I have news sources available to me that you have to you. But in this instance I've not talked to anybody at any campaign before that debate and I haven't talked to anybody since that debate. And nobody has reached out to me to. Nobody has tried to talk to me about it.

So... The only thing that happened was that Chris Wallace on Thursday night said, "You know, I got a great idea..." He sent me an e-mail. "I got a great idea. Why don't you come on Fox News Sunday Sunday morning and analyze the Republican debate. Man, that would be fun." But I can't. I said, "Chris, there's not enough lead time here. I've got something I can't move and you're going live, and I can't. I need to do it in my studio for my hearing challenges and all that." So that didn't happen. I ran into Brit Hume on the golf course Saturday.

I was just finishing my round down here.

I was just finishing my round. I was in the locker room on my way out, and somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Hi, I'm Brit Hume." (chuckles) I know it's Brit Hume. "It's Brit Hume! Hey, how are you?" We had a little five- or ten-minute conversation about The Haney Project he had watched. He's a golf nut. He watched The Haney Project. He told me he'd watched every episode and was asking me questions about it. So I had to leave, and he was just heading out to play when I was coming in. But I was unable to do the Fox News Sunday show yesterday, so nobody knows yet what I think of any of this that happened.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I was analyzing the Republican debate on Saturday night, Trump, and what I think he's doing, or what I think he was trying to do Saturday night. And if you know something, you should know this. To this day a majority of Americans still blame today's economy on George W. Bush. The recession and the home mortgage crisis, all of that is still majority blamed on Bush. Obama does not get blamed for it. He may be criticized for ineptly dealing with it, but it isn't, to this day. No aspect of this economy is his fault, and nothing in foreign policy is either because of Iraq.

I don't have time to go further in analysis, but stick with me 'cause all of this will be made clear as we unfold.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, let's move on to the Republican debate on Saturday night. Let me cut to the chase and tell you -- and again, I've talked to nobody, nobody's called me, I haven't called anybody. I don't ever call anybody. I don't reach out. I don't try to get to know people on campaign staffs and ask 'em questions. I don't want to be spun. I may hear from them now and then. It isn't very often. So my point is that what I'm about to tell you is the result of conversation with nobody. Or, more properly said, is the result of no conversation with anybody.

original

If you look at South Carolina, it is an open primary, meaning Democrats can vote. We took advantage of this, Operation Chaos, Democrat side back in 2008. Democrats can vote, independents can vote. And the things that Trump said and did Saturday night came out of nowhere. They didn't make any sense. Here we are in a Republican primary, and Donald Trump, out of the blue, starts blaming the Bush family for 9/11, for knowing that the intelligence was made up, that there never were any weapons of mass destruction, and they knew it, Trump said.

Michael Moore doesn't even say that. The World Trade Center came down when George W. Bush was president so don't anybody tell me, Trump said, he kept us safe. He jumped all over the Bush family and the Iraq war and claimed that he was on record way, way back as always being opposed to the Iraq war, that it was going to muddy up the Middle East and cause a quagmire. Nobody can find any record of Trump having opposed the Iraq war in 2001, 2002. They asked him about that, and he said (paraphrasing), "I wasn't a politician back then, so the things I was saying weren't getting noted like they would be had I been a politician, but I said it."

On the stage at a Republican debate, Donald Trump defended Planned Parenthood. Not the abortion stuff, he said, but the fact that they do great things for women's health. Folks, there were a number of occasions where Donald Trump sounded like the Daily Kos blog, where Donald Trump sounded like the Democrat Underground, sounded like any average host on MSNBC. And I said to myself, "Now, wait a minute. What's going on?" Trump is not -- I don't care what any of you think, he's not stupid. He has political advisors. He has a lot of people who are conservatives who are there to tell him where the boundaries are, and he crossed those boundaries on Saturday.

I don't know how many people in his circle knew where he was going Saturday night, if he was gonna go there and how far. But on a Republican debate stage, defending Planned Parenthood in language used by the left, going after George W. Bush and Jeb Bush and the entire Bush family, for the most part, using the terminology of Democrats, people think that Trump was out of control, that he had emotional incontinence that night. You like that term? Emotional incontinence. Lost control. Was out of control. Well, maybe, but I still think there was a strategy going into this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Short version, I think Trump strategically was making a move on independents and Democrats in South Carolina since it's open. And I think that he wants to wrap this up ASAP. I think he wants a blow 'em out, going-away win in South Carolina. I think he just wants to wrap this up. I think he thinks he can. I think the audience booing him ticked him off. It's been happening the last couple, three debates. The donors have gotten a majority of the tickets. I don't recall any Republican debate with the amount of booing that I heard on Saturday night.

I remember debates with very little applause, but not outright booing. And it wasn't just Trump. It was Cruz as well. The establishment's trying to rig these debates as they are seen on TV. The establishment was trying to humiliate and embarrass Ted Cruz and Trump. And I think it really ticked Trump off and may have been -- I'm wild guessing here -- may have been one of the reasons why he was a victim of emotional incontinence.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016debates; rushtranscript; sc2016
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1 posted on 02/15/2016 1:28:11 PM PST by Kaslin
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More in the link including CBS videos


2 posted on 02/15/2016 1:29:24 PM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
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To: Kaslin

“Of course I’m gonna discuss Trump”

Of course he is. That’s all he ever talks about.


3 posted on 02/15/2016 1:30:02 PM PST by Durbin
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To: Kaslin

Trump was preparing for the general election.

George aw is the legacy that cost us the last two elections. Trump inoculated himself from those attacks.


4 posted on 02/15/2016 1:31:11 PM PST by TigerClaws
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To: Kaslin

Rush is right. Trump has already won the Primary and is now playing to win the General election.


5 posted on 02/15/2016 1:31:37 PM PST by patq
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To: Kaslin

Rush is a Bushbot. He exposed his dirty panties.


6 posted on 02/15/2016 1:32:22 PM PST by dforest
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To: Kaslin
Trump today: "Obama is a terrible negotiator with everyone except the Republicans".

How many times can people be hoodwinked and lied to?

Rush has totally exposed himself as as a supporter of those being bankrolled by insider special interest and lobbyist.

Is there anything else anyone needs to know?

7 posted on 02/15/2016 1:45:07 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Kaslin

Rush is wrong that anti-war fervor was restricted to the left.

Here is Pat Buchanen at the very start of the Iraq Invasion:

http://buchanan.org/blog/pjb-costs-of-war-already-coming-in-527


8 posted on 02/15/2016 1:55:03 PM PST by xzins (Have YOU Donated to the Freep-a-Thon? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: xzins
I, too, was vociferous in my opposition. Here on FR.

I was and now am convinced we killed the wrong country, and that all the Middle East chaos we see now is a result, in one way or another, of that ill-conceived regime change.

9 posted on 02/15/2016 2:01:57 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18 - Be The Leaderless Resistance)
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To: Mariner

I supported taking out Saddam, but not doing nation building. Hit, destroy, depart.


10 posted on 02/15/2016 2:03:00 PM PST by xzins (Have YOU Donated to the Freep-a-Thon? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: xzins

In retrospect, Saddam would have been much better as our ally for the march on Riyadh.


11 posted on 02/15/2016 2:08:09 PM PST by Jim Noble (I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone, and I won't question what or when or why when I'm gon)
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To: Kaslin

Maybe when Trump is through running against George W. Bush, he will start running against Ronald Reagan. It seems he wants to run to the left of Barack, Hilary, and Bernie.


12 posted on 02/15/2016 2:20:31 PM PST by ChessExpert (The unemployment rate was 4.5% when Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.)
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To: Jim Noble

There is so much hypocrisy in this position

Some of us have lost family members. Some have seen PTS break their families apart.

Those who did absolutely zero but criticize the management of gulf war Desert Storm for leaving Hussein in power.

I said it then and I say it now He was a stabilizing force.

Join the military and do something then you can criticize.

But no now we have the bushes were wrong

I dodn’t care about trumps politics here.

People need to just shut up about it.
not a f ing thing but kill Hussein why didn’t we kill Hussein

Now nothing

JUST everyone could just shut up about this

Hussein was left in and we heard


13 posted on 02/15/2016 2:29:36 PM PST by stanne
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To: ChessExpert

SC is a crossover vote state. Politically, might be a dumb move or very smart.


14 posted on 02/15/2016 2:41:33 PM PST by Rational Thought
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To: Rational Thought

It may be smart for Trump.

It’s not smart for anything I care about.


15 posted on 02/15/2016 2:58:55 PM PST by ChessExpert (The unemployment rate was 4.5% when Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.)
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To: xzins

Pat is also against World War II.

I think Pat opposes every American war fought in the 20th and 21st centuries. A better question for Pat is, which American wars would you consider good wars? Pat is Pat, and that is OK. But it’s a mistake to advance his opposition to a particular war as being of any particular significance.


16 posted on 02/15/2016 3:03:12 PM PST by ChessExpert (The unemployment rate was 4.5% when Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.)
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To: Jim Noble

Saudis just do a better job of pretending to be our friend, which makes them much more dangerous.


17 posted on 02/15/2016 3:04:08 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: patq

“Trump has already won the Primary and is now playing to win the General election.”

Probably, but he is also working to wipe out the obsequious jerks from the GOPe (Yebbie, Kasick and Boobio). They are still there like three fat turds plugging up the “Political Drain.” By forcing them to “suspend” their campaigns, he makes certain that they can’t collude with the GOPe at the Convention and force him out of the nominaton. And for the porposes of the SC Primary having them there serves to “spread” the “party loyalist” vote. As for Cruz, well, he can’t even get the support of the local press in Texas.


18 posted on 02/15/2016 3:09:02 PM PST by vette6387
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To: Jim Noble

“In retrospect, Saddam would have been much better as our ally for the march on Riyadh.”

Saddam was never going to be our ally.

He devoured Kuwait. We could have sat back and done nothing. In time, he probably would have moved on to Saudi Arabia. I don’t think that would have made for a better world.

Today’s messes are on Hussein Obama. He has had eight years. As Dinesh D’Souza predicted, our allies are less secure, our enemies stronger, and the US is more vulnerable.


19 posted on 02/15/2016 3:15:31 PM PST by ChessExpert (The unemployment rate was 4.5% when Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.)
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To: Jim Noble

Lol


20 posted on 02/15/2016 3:27:16 PM PST by xzins (Have YOU Donated to the Freep-a-Thon? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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