Posted on 01/22/2008 9:14:16 PM PST by kellynla
Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh stunned his listeners by announcing that he might not support the Republican presidential nominee in this year’s election.
Limbaugh said on Monday’s show: "I can see possibly not supporting the Republican nominee this election, and I never thought that I would say that in my life."
The reason: “You don’t have a genuine down-the-list conservative” among the GOP candidates.
“Wherever you go here in this roster of candidates, you're going to be able to point out ‘not conservative, what he did there is not conservative’” Rush said.
The Republican front-runners want the nomination “because it's their turn,” he also stated. “We tried that in '96 with Bob Dole and now they're running the same scenario…
"I'm telling ya, it's gonna come down to which guy do we dislike the least. And that's not necessarily good."
After Rush’s pronouncements, Los Angeles Times blogger Andrew Malcolm wrote: “Across the country, people were dropping their coffee cups, choking on sandwiches, fainting and driving off the road. The king of conservative talk radio not supporting the Republican nominee?”
But Limbaugh’s remarks are not quite so surprising in light of statements he made about GOP candidates Mike Huckabee and John McCain last week:
“I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it. A lot of people aren't going to vote. You watch.”
CALLER: Earlier you had mentioned that when the time comes, you're going to announce or get behind somebody, and I'm just wondering, what's your selection criteria for picking a candidate, and two, how do you decide when that time is that you're going to announce? I'm more interested in how you pick a candidate. Because especially this year with -- there's really not a true conservative. How do you narrow it down?Then he explained how he would decide -- and it's clear Romney is one of those he can support:RUSH: That's an excellent point. I don't have a time frame, just to address that first. I don't have a time frame.
CALLER: All right.
RUSH: And I also, I can see possibly not supporting a Republican nominee.
RUSH: In a situation like this, where you don't have a genuine, down-the-list conservative, you have to look at variables. It's easier for me to support a Romney than a McCain, for example, because I believe his conversion is genuine and he's not lying about past positions. He's not trying to tell people that they're wrong when they assess his past positions. He explains why he changed his mind and what it was that caused him to change his mind. And so I don't want to go through that whole list again, but that's pretty much how I would do it. It will be up when we update my website this afternoon to reflect the contents of the program. But this is really difficult. But depending -- there are a couple people -- I can't take these endorsement calls, because I'm just --
BTW, Here is Rush Limbaugh getting pissed off at people (like a lot of fred-heads last week here) who falsely claim he is endorsing (or in this thread, rejecting) candidates when he has not explicitly said so:
I'm the one who has this in perspective. Now, you ask, on the one hand, you want me to endorse somebody, and I say no. Then you think I have, when I haven't, and I get hell on the phones from people who think I've endorsed somebody. I haven't. Now, you want to know why I haven't endorsed anybody? Screw the word "endorsement." You know why I'm not coming out and saying, "I support this guy more than the other" in those exact words? It's because I can't control these people. Let me give you a hypothetical. Let's say that long ago I said, "Folks, I have surveyed the scene, and there's only one guy in this race that's worth supporting, and that man is Fred Thompson." All right. So I say it, and Fred runs along with his current position in the polls, and then decides to get out. What if Fred decides to endorse McCain, or throw his support to him? It's entirely possible. Where does that leave me? I'm not going to put myself in this position. Tie your life to a politician, or link yourself to a politician? If you endorse one, you gotta defend everything they say, otherwise you gotta cancel the endorsement. Then, what the hell? When you have a roster where there's no genuine conservative... It's like I've been telling you.Note that when he said "there's no genuine conservative", Fred Thompson was still in the race.
Who says that Rush has such powers to annoint folks to the throne? All’s I is saying is that in this election, it was wrong of Rush not to back the only conservative running against the hoards/herds of RINO’s.
the poster above is right. We can live through 4 more of clinton. She will either go center or republicans will win in 2012. Call me whatever you want I will not vote for mccain.
Rush is a little late to the party, as the RINOs have been acting this way for years, but this is welcome news. It’s niceto know that there are limits on how far some of us will bend our principles.
Perhaps he’ll help us get a real conservative in the race.
Pat is like a nasty Huck, that’s why
You nailed it. A lot of people who voted for Reagan, who call themselves “conservatives,” simply are not conservatives by the definition of folks here. My father, rest his soul, was in his heart of hearts the biggest New Dealer who ever walked the planet, but he revered Reagan and voted for him twice. My father-in-law thinks LBJ was the greatest president who ever lived, but he voted for Reagan twice. More often than not, those two men were at polar opposite to the tenets of conservatism and at polar opposites to what Reagan espoused, but they still voted for him because he connected with them.
That’s easy. McCain/Feingold.
True to that, but unfortunately, they were the only 2 conservative candidates. Now we are left with none.
Did he include Romney? I didn’t hear everything.
This is F*ing Crazy!!! For starters I’m not sure that the Republican Party wouldn’t be better off for not having the support of Rush, though I’m positive that he’s either just drumming up some press for himself or is back on the drugs, but he’s gonna support the Republican nominee. All that aside, I’m a libertarian at heart and being that there’s actually a reasonable libertarian candidate to support I’ll be voting for Ron Paul in the primary – save your Paul bashing for another day, I’ve read plenty of it on here – nevertheless in November, assuming Paul isn’t the nominee, I’ll def vote Republican. Even if that means voting for Mitt take my guns Romney, but John McCain is a fine choice and a pretty decent Republican. He’s generally fiscally conservative, he’s great on national security, he actually has some foreign policy experience – something no other candidate in either party can claim – he’s pro-life, and he truly supports the 2nd Amendment. He’s not my favorite man either but I’d def support him; however I kinda hope Republicans do abandon him in November, if he wins the nomination. Eight more years of a Clinton White House would serve everyone of you right. I just hope I have a gun or two left and can afford to pay my taxes. But hey, on the bright side for me, gay marriage would def me legalized, and that’s a pretty libertarian thing.
I just hope he wises up for next time.
which fred supported
Have been doing quite a bit, but thanks for enlightening me on something of which you have no knowledge. Since there has only been a couple of primaries and caucuses, none in my state, I don't know quite what more I could've done.
I do agree that we get what we deserve. My state voted Rick Santorum out of office in 2006, a true Conservative.
He explains exactly why he puts Rudy on the “good” side of the chasm, and it’s in the transcripts on his web site. I’m not a giuliani supporter, so I don’t read much of what he writes about him.
You can use google advance search, and look for “Rudy Giuliani” on “www.rushlimbaugh.com”.
I’d hate to summarize it and get it wrong.
o baloney...Romney is conservative although his history is not perfect. Reagan’s was not perfect either and even had some tax raises in California. Romney vetoed the employer mandates and the penalties for those who didn’t get the healthcare insurance, but they were overidden by the leftist legistlature. His plan would have been much better if it had not been screwed with by the liberals...and of course he gets the blame. I think Rush gets a bit hyped up at times and isn’t calm and reasoned...at times.
He went on to clarify he didn’t say he won’t, he said he MIGHT not, but in the end he’ll decide the country is more important than the Republican party, IMO.
Actually, there is one:
Alan Keyes.
Right. The President will have power ofver the nation, but a Republican President will also have power over our party, which is ours means of opposition and our means of doing better next time.
Hey, I don’t have a dog in this fight over what Limbaugh said...I just posted the Newsmax article and that’s what they quoted him as saying...
I’m too busy here, to listen to his radio show...
in fact, I don’t listen to any of these guys over the radio...
Misleading resconstruction of Rush’s comments. It was clear he was talking about John McCain.
My hearing Rush, I took it as knocking both mcpain and huckleberry.
I’m with Rush on not casting a ballot for mcpain or huckleberry. Just ride out the next totally screwed up 4 years, ossamma obamma will be totally overwhelmed and do zero and slick won’t shut up or got out of our face for a minute and even the libs will be sick of hitlery in 4 years.
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