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4 years of this?
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.”
No doubt, the SCOTUS appointments is a big, lasting concern.
But there’s also the damage to the party and conservativism of putting someone like McCain, an anti-conservative, at the top. That could impact us for many years too, including future SC-appointment opportunities.
This is crazy… How exactly did John McCain “betrayed both the constitution and the Republic”?
Rush has been extremely supportive and positive towards Mitt Romney the past two months, especially when compared to how he criticizes ALL the other candidates.
It is not hard to tell Rush's positions by the adjectives he uses, by his voice inflections, by the callers he allows on, and by the media stories he reads ... and summarizes.
I'd say 90% of Rush's attitude toward Romney is positive. Rush notes that Romney is saying the right things, and framing the issues fairly conservative.
The only thing Rush disliked was when Romney talked about a $20 billion research cooperation with the auto makers in Detroit.
Although many perceived that as a business government co-op similar to what occurs with pharmacuticals and defense corporations, Limbaugh seemed to think it was a bailout of sorts.
Today, however, Limbaugh was back to the pro-Romney rhetoric. Which is good for the GOP and good for conservatism.
Two words: McCain. Feingold.
No McCain none of the time!
BTTT
I’d rather save the party and lose this election, than have it the opposite way.
You’re right, it’s not his job to. His only “job,” I suppose, is to jabber on talk radio. But I was under the impression that El Rushbo was a staunch defender of conservatism. I know that it is his policy not to get involved in the primaries, but this time around it was the wrong path to take. In this election, all the front runners are RINO’s with fat wallets. Meanwhile, the MSM shuns and blacklists the our conservative candidates. Rush could’ve help to rally the base instead of standing on the sidelines. Now there are no true conservatives left in the race.
So, Rush is saying that Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson are NOT conservatives....correct?
“Any of the RINO’s will be better than Hillary as President”
This is so true. We CAN’T let the Clinton take over control of the country again. Our lives and the lives of millions could literally depend on it. We live in a dangerous world.
The choices are slim.
I would support McLaim (vs put up with Clinton)as a holder until we can re-build the base and put up a decent candidate in 2012
However, he criticises all the candidates, including Thompson.
In Monday's show, where he had his meltdown, he said THIS about Fred Thompson:
Enough said. 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." The one guy that has the least of that is Fred Thompson, that's what I've said, but Fred Thompson was right in there supporting McCain on McCain-Feingold. That's a red flag. I make my living with my mouth and what comes out of it, and that was a direct assault on what comes out of certain people's mouths around election times. Once you chip away successfully the First Amendment, it's easy to do it the next time, second time, third time, fourth time, and 50th time.
Here is what Rush said about Mitt Romney directly following that, in response to a question about him:
RUSH: Well, sure, I'd be happy to. People have been asking me to go down every one of these guy's records and do A-B -- that's not what I do here. I don't have Romney's record in front of me. Let me give you this. You mentioned McCain. I don't see the left-wing media propping up Romney like they are propping up McCain. I don't see them calling Romney a maverick, and the definition of a maverick is one who constantly goes against his party. McCain is a maverick, and he is loved and adored for that and he gets away with the straight talk stuff because, to them, the straight talk is ripping his own party, and ripping his own president, and it got him fawning press coverage. I haven't seen any of that said about any of these people. Well, maybe Huckabee to a certain extent but the press and the Drive-Bys are trying to destroy Romney; they're trying to destroy Fred Thompson; they're trying to destroy Rudy. If you look at who they're propping up, absent a list or a record of these guys, there are certain indications that you can get. The press is ignoring Ron Paul. That should also tell you something; they don't consider him to be a serious contender for the ultimate prize.Then Rush said this about Romney, remember this was Monday, and Fred Thompson was still in the race:
RUSH: She accused me of saying Romney is the only true conservative in the race. I haven't said that because there isn't one. But there are some in the race who are trying to destroy conservative while saying they're conservative, and they're trying to redefine it. I'm telling you, I'm not going to sit by and just shut up while that happens. There are other people who are not conservative down the line, but they're not trying to destroy conservatism and they're certainly not trying to redefine it totally to fit them, but there are those in the race who are. So let me speak generally, here. In order to have a change of heart on issues or a real conversion -- because every one of these guys has had a liberal position or more at some point in their past, and they're all out there saying they've changed their minds. Romney's changed his mind. McCain says (impression), "Well, I get it now, Limbaugh. I get it! I gotta do enforcement! (grumbling) I gotta do the borders, and then we'll make 'em legal. How's that?" And then, of course, Huckabee wanted to bring 'em all in and give them health care and welfare and Medicare, and now he wants to kick 'em all out.Then Rush explains what makes Romney different from McCain and Huckabee:
Look, I say this because the best we can do here, folks, is to try to measure the candidate's record and recent comments, and you have to judge whether what they're saying today is expedient or serious. Let's take abortion, for example, shall we? Romney was pro-abortion. He now says he was wrong. Says he was for it when he ran for governor. But he talks about the moment he changed his mind and why he changed his mind. He doesn't claim to have been "misunderstood." He doesn't claim to say that he was pro-life. He doesn't say, "Well, I never was pro-choice. I have always been pro-life." He doesn't try to obfuscate or cloud his record. He comes out and apologizes. You have to judge whether that's a real conversion. It's up to you as a voter, but it's far easier to make that judgment when he says, "I made a mistake. I was wrong. Here's why and how and when I changed my mind," and when he doesn't say, "Look, you're misunderstanding me." He's not saying that.Then Rush makes again the clear distinction between Thompson, Romney, and Giuliani on one hand, and McCain/Huckabee on the other:
Romney, Rudy, Thompson supporters don't talk this way for the most part. Romney, Rudy, and Thompson people are not telling us to shut up. They're not telling us that we're causing problems. They try to argue that their guy is the best when comparing their records and speeches to a true conservative template.Whether they're convincing or not is another thing, but that's what's going on. Rudy, McCain, and Thompson are trying to say, "We are going to continue the conservative tradition." The other two guys are saying, "We need to rewrite it. It's old hat. We need to let go of it. We got new issues."
When you make false claims that Rush said he wouldn't support Romney, you need to be called out on it. Rush has the right to his own views, and you don't have the right to change them to suit your own nefarious purposes. The transcripts are available, next time try to read them before making up what you WISH Rush had said.
Well, it is a bailout. What sort of research monies do pharma companies get from the federal gubbament? I do know that they spend many billions trying to comply with regulations, but had never heard of them getting money to subsidize research.
I’m from Minnesota where Republican votes for President never matter anyway, because it always goes blue. We were, IIRC, the only state to be blue for Reagan.
All of this is academic for any conservative voter in Minnesota, though I wish it were otherwise.
I vote because the Senators and Representatives may have the necessary influence, and my vote does matter in those races.
How so?
Limbaugh says “I can see possibly not supporting the Republican nominee this election, and I never thought that I would say that in my life.”
Sounds pretty “cut & dry” to me...
“It was clear he was talking about John McCain?”
Well, you must be clairvoyant! LMAO
“I’m telling ya, it’s gonna come down to which guy do we dislike the least. And that’s not necessarily good.”
On rare occasions is this not the case. The last time I voted for someone that did not fall into this category was Ronald Reagan. Every other time it has been choosing the lesser of two evils. Without a doubt, any Republican is going to be better than Queen Hillary.
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