I Haven't Endorsed Anyone, Folks

RUSH: I've got more on Scott Walker here, but I want to spread this out, spread the Scott Walker stuff out. Let me make something very clear: I haven't endorsed Scott Walker or anybody else, as per usual. I don't endorse, particularly this far out. I mean, we don't even have any real official candidates here. But even if we did, that's not what happens on this program, by policy. There's some things that Scott Walker...

I'm getting e-mails, "Hey, you'd better be careful! You know, Scott Walker's not exactly good on immigration, Rush. You don't want to embarrass yourself here by going overboard." Folks, everything's cool here. My point about Scott Walker is I thought what everybody out there -- I thought all of you were so upset about. I know I have been. My whole point is that defeating the left is not easy, but clearly it can be done. And when it's done, using conservatism, with the right candidate, done the right way, it wins!

The Republican Party's not even interested in that, as we've documented and discussed. My only point about Scott Walker is: If you want to beat back the left, there's the guy that's done it, and he's done it against all odds. He has written the blueprint how to do it.l And I thought that's why we were all here, is to restore this country and beat back the left and their desired transformation of this country. Scott Walker has shown how to do it in the belly of the beast.

He hasn't done it from a think tank. He hasn't done it from position papers and theses and all this. He hasn't done it as a consultant. He's done it with his name and reputation on the line. He's done it as a candidate, as a sitting governor campaigning for reelection. He's done it. He's shown how it can happen, and it's not even tied to geography. Yeah, Wisconsin's a Northern Plains state, but it's a blue state.

The unions ran that state! That's who he had to take on and boat back, along with the media. He had to take on every illegal act they tried, every act of personal destruction against him and his family. My point is, for 25 years ago I've been receiving phone calls, "Why don't the Republican do this? Why don't the Republicans do that? Why don't they fight?" Here's your answer. Scott Walker has been doing everything you wish the Republican Party at large would be doing.

In terms of beating back the opposition, in terms of taking them on and beating back, showing how to do it, he's succeeding at doing it. There's the blueprint. Not even that complicated. Anyway, the media hasn't yet zeroed in on him full time. The Wisconsin media did to a certain extent with the national media, but now they are going to start focusing because of his speech Saturday. The brand-new attention he's getting outside...? (interruption)

What are you laughing at? What in the world is so funny? What now? Okay... (muttering) I just called it, I just predicted it, and then you got a caller, somebody to say it. Okay, make sure he doesn't go away. It's a guy. Josh, Decatur, Alabama, hold on. Do not go away, Josh. I have not endorsed Walker. I just made that point. I've said the same kind of things about Ted Cruz over and over and over again. I've said many of the same things, not quite with the same verve and energy, about Mike Lee.

I've said roaringly good, positive things about Rick Perry over the years. So I've not endorsed anybody.

RUSH: Here's Josh in Decatur, Alabama. Josh, we're not gonna get you all in in this segment. We're gonna get you started though. What's up?

CALLER: Hey, Rush, it's really a pleasure. I've been listening to you for 15 years.

CALLER: You're the man, and I know you said you didn't endorse him, quote, unquote, but you've all but endorsed Walker. And I just gotta ask, I'm in the tank for Cruz. I told Snerdley I'm a Cruz seminar caller, but what about Walker on Common Core and amnesty?

RUSH: This is why I haven't endorsed Walker and I didn't say he's perfect and I did not get into anything specifically policy. He beat the left by being conservative and fearless and taking them on and not trying to become a partial liberal. He didn't do it by being cooperative and working together with them. He's not perfect, and that's why I didn't endorse him. I haven't endorsed anybody. Now, hang on out there, Josh. Don't go away.

RUSH: Back to Josh in Decatur, Alabama. You were very bold, Josh, unabashed Ted Cruz seminar caller.

CALLER: Yes. Yes. And I totally agree Walker makes a very compelling case, but --

RUSH: No, well, partially it's a governor thing, but look, Cruz has won his own battles, and he's fearless. He does not back down from either --

RUSH: Nope. Doesn't waver. And if you're gonna have a conservative scorecard, he's gonna probably be a hundred percent on the thing when it comes to anything you care about: amnesty, social issues, you name it, Cruz is gonna be right there. I would love if Ted Cruz be elected president. But Walker has been, for the most part, laboring in obscurity, despite all his success. I think probably, of all Republican candidates outside of presidential campaigns, Scott Walker has had more thrown at him consistently than any Republican out there and has not --

CALLER: He slayed the dragon, I give you that. He totally slayed the union dragon, no question.

RUSH: Now, stick with me here. 'Cause you're gonna end up happy here, Josh, and I know that's why you called. You feel let down by your radio show today, and I'm not gonna let you hang up here having that be your lingering thought as you head into the rest of the day.

RUSH: I'm gonna tell you why I think -- you want boldness, you want honesty, you want to know why Fox News did a segments on me touting Scott Walker, why do you think they did it?

RUSH: You said it. You said it in your opening criticism of me. Or your, not criticism, but your complaint --

RUSH: No. It's immigration. They touted me touting Walker because that puts me touting a guy who is not quite an open borders guy, but he's not really opposed to doing this amnesty for the illegals already here. He's really good on closing the border, he's excellent on border security, but he's also got a position here on Obama's executive amnesty that bothers some people. He's certainly not as solid on that as your guy Ted Cruz is.

CALLER: And Cruz is a rock star. You talk about great with a speech. I mean, did you hear Cruz's speech at Iowa?

RUSH: Yeah. It was great, too. Every speech Cruz gives is great. But the Republican Party is as afraid of Cruz as they were Palin.

RUSH: Well -- (laughing) -- that's magnanimous of you. Now, that's the kind of compromise this party needs. I'll take my amnesty guy on the veep side but I don't want him getting the big show. I gotcha on that. Josh, thanks for the call. Appreciate it. Look, I'm under no illusions here. Let's be frank. Cable news can highlight things that I say every night if they wanted to. I mean, let's call it what it is. It's not that something happens here that's so unique it's newsworthy, 'cause everything that happens here is newsworthy, but I'm not under any illusions here.

The Republican establishment is pro-amnesty, there's no question about it. And if you look at Scott Walker, that would be the one area where people would have red flags going up. And so here comes Fox News, "Hey, man, Walker, big bump from Rush Limbaugh. Does that matter?" "Oh, yeah, that could be exactly what he needs, big push, big push." With Dr. Krauthammer and O'Reilly both agreeing. And it's right in there, one of the reasons I'm convinced -- I could be wrong. It doesn't matter either way. Don't anybody tell anybody I'm mad about anything. I'm not mad. I don't get mad over things like this. It's not useful. To me it's fascinating.

But I think that's one of the reasons why all of a sudden I'm not an albatross. All of a sudden I'm not a problem for the Republicans. All of a sudden, why, the Republicans are happy with a positive mention from me all of a sudden, in this case -- (interruption) You think I've got a point on this, Mr. Snerdley? (interruption) Absolutely, there's no question about it. It doesn't diminish anything I said about Scott Walker, but I'm glad old Josh called here because I made it clear as I can that I'm not endorsing anybody.

Look, folks, I am a combination mad, ticked off, and frustrated like you can't believe of being led everywhere we look in this country by a minority. The left is a functioning minority in this country, and I'm sick and tired of our side being afraid of it. I'm tired of our side afraid to stand up for what they know and really believe. I'm tired of our side unwilling to stand up and show this contrast and draw this great distinction that exists between us. I'm so fed up with this belief that we have got to join amnesty in order to win. I'm fed up with all of this, "We were not elected to stop Obama, but rather to make Washington work." All of this stuff just frustrates and angers me to no end.

Now, coming here and being mad and frustrated every day, nobody wants to hear that. But with Scott Walker, and my whole point has been ever since I've been touting the guy, "There's the blueprint on how to beat 'em back." It was a governor's race. I do not know to what extent immigration, illegal immigration, amnesty factored in the campaign. What I do know is that Scott Walker was personally targeted on education and unions. They tried to destroy him every which way possible. We want winners, do we not? They keep talking about these same moderate Northeastern Republicans that the donor class likes to get behind, but they don't win. It'd be great if they did, but they don't win.

McCain didn't win, Romney didn't win, and they're not going to. They may be fine men, probably are. Romney, I don't think you could find a more solid citizen. But Romney -- I'll give you a classic example -- all of a sudden found it necessary earlier this week or last week to publicly announce that he has now changed his mind on global warming, and he's one of the people now that believes man is negatively impacting, destroying the climate. Why would you do that? Who in the hell are you trying to get votes from by doing that?

We're not gonna win by trying to siphon off liberals. You know where that thinking comes from? It comes from the idea that we are second class. It comes from the defensive posture that the minority in this country actually is the majority. These people must think that the left and the Democrat Party are the majority of everything and we're gonna have to get some of those people if we're gonna win. And the only way to get some of those people is to say a couple things that they agree with. We can't be totally different. We don't have a prayer. And that just totally misses the boat and it is not an accurate picture of reality.

Presidential turnouts are what they are. You can't deny Obama's last two election victories, but you can explain why Romney lost this second one. Let me put this way. Romney had a far better chance of beating Obama in '12 that McCain ever did in '08, and squandered it. Obama could have been defeated. The 2010 turnout, the 2014 turnout, those midterm election turnouts, it is clear where the people who care enough in this country to show up and vote, stand. It's not with the Democrat Party, and it's not with Obama, and it's not with his agenda. It's not people who want to work with that agenda and activate, implement, maybe a little of it here and a little of it there.

People want Obamacare gotten rid of. They want no amnesty, particularly by virtue of executive order. They revere the Constitution and they want it revered by the people who are elected as stewards. They don't want dictators or authoritarians. They don't want people who are gonna reach and grab for far more executive power than is permitted. They want -- and this the vast majority of people in this country, if presented -- and this is the point. Walker presented a total contrast in a blue state and won three times.

Look, I'm gonna stop mentioning this because it's gonna start irritating those of you who hear it all the time, but you do have to say things over and over again sometimes for them to make an imprint on people. I'm telling you, the point with me about Scott Walker, he's the blueprint. That's how it's done. It shows it can be done, by the way. Not just how, but here it works. And I don't think he's a dryball like everybody's trying to intimate with this business, "Hey, where'd this guy go to get a charisma transplant?"

It's gonna be an interesting campaign from a lot of standpoints, but I tell you what it's gonna boil down to, and this is gonna be a real challenge, I think, for people. For people like Josh. The perfect candidate doesn't exist. There isn't a single Republican who scores 100 on everything. Right? There are single issue crowds out there. Every issue has their single-issue people in there, and no matter what candidate you nominate, there's gonna be a constituency group that isn't gonna like him or her.

Now, normally it is the left that gets everybody in trouble in their pursuit of perfection. Now, the left believes that people can be perfected and that institutions can be perfected, and that businesses can be perfected. That is the root of their major evil and problem, this endless quest for perfection when it's simply impossible. But, by the same token, people on the right, conservatives, Republicans, whatever, by the same token, demand a perfect candidate in terms of this issue, that issue, and I don't think that candidate exists. So there's gonna be fallout during any kind of a primary and a campaign.

Anyway, I'm a little long. I have to take a break. We're gonna be developing all of these theories as the days unfold. We've by no means gotten to the end of any of it.

RUSH: Now, just one more thing on this Scott Walker business, just so nobody misunderstands, because I am totally into being a top-notch professional communicator. It was I, on this program, who explained over and over again, detail after detail about 529 and Obama's plans to cancel the tax cut for the middle class in it. And they canceled it. By the same token, folks, the Republican Party, the RNC, Republican National Committee, Republican consultants, you name it, nobody in Republican Party officialdom was touting what Scott Walker had done. And I thought it needed to be touted.

I thought it was phenomenal and I thought it was crucial that people know it. Do you realize how many Republicans there are, voters, who are depressed thinking we can't win 'cause the deck is so stacked against us? The media, Hollywood, music, books, TV shows, the news, wherever you turn the left dominates it, the campus, the academy. They think we can't win. They're depressed. They're down in the dumps.

The Republican Party's not out there saying, "Yes, we can win. Look at our guy in Wisconsin." So I decided to do it, plain and simple. I think people needed to know. I still think it's phenomenal what he did. It didn't even become a factor until he finally shows up and speaks outside Wisconsin at this conservative confab in Iowa last Saturday. However it happened is fine and dandy with me. I just think you needed to know.

I think people need to know they can be beat. I think people need to know there's a way to beat Democrats. There's a way to beat the left. It's called conservatism. It works most every time it's tried on the national stage.

It’s been all over the news this week how strongly Rush has gushed about Walker. That’s what he’s been doing through the week. And, as I said, “virtual endorsement”, which implies something different than a formal endorsement.

And no, he doesn’t gush about any and every Republican candidate in the news.

And those who aren’t gushing about Walker are ****ing Rubio from the Koch ‘interview’.

Ted got 2X the applause Walker did. Pretty much everybody at Iowa last weekend knows Walker.

I get the impression Ted would take Scott as VP, but not the other way around, which tells me Walker is more serious about himself than turning around the wreck zero has morphed the USA into. And he behaves with the confidence of someone who’s got the Chamber of Commerce in his back pocket.

I really think we are done for. Again we are dissing one of the best candidates we have possibly running for President. I guarantee that you will find some negatives on Cruz once all is said and done. However, we need to stop bashing our candidates. If we want to bash candidates lets bash Bush and Romney and Democrats. I think we are going to end up with Bush when it is all said and done. We will continue as 2012 to shoot ourselves in the foot. I guess we love that or something. Walker actually said he is suing Obama Administration over immigration executive order and also he was mass deportation for illegals.

“There’s nothing squishy / rino / moderate about Scott Walker.Nobody in the field can touch his policy successes. Flipping a nine digit deficit to a ten digit surplus. Stripping government labor organizers of their bargaining rights. Front line successes on voter ID. And on the candidate quality the GOP has most desperately lacked - electability - Gov. Walker won three well financed dirty races in four years. Walker doesn’t simply win squeakers. He is indestructible. Constant death threats and bogus John Doe probes by an autonomous hack special prosecutor haven’t slowed him a bit. He caught my interest years before i proudly voted for him as Milwaukee county executive. He wins big chunks of MKE’s black vote. In 2008 BamBam O’Hamas took Wisconsin with 67%. Walker won the governor’s mansion that day with 60%. He’s the real deal Nobody in the field is worthy of standing on stage next to him. “ A true conservative wrote this and it wasn’t me.

Ted would take Scott as VP, but not the other way around,

That would be a shame for Ted Cruz to turn down President Walker’s request for him to be Vice President. That is one area that Cruz could gain some executive experience which he does not have at this time. With Walker leading, Cruz could learn a lot. But alas we will end up with Jeb.

...”Carson is not a conservative”...

Correct....I did some checking on him early on when he began surfacing as a potential candidate. So I agree....besides he’s not who we need as a Presidential Leader for our country. Too soft...to get along..I think he’d bend easily just to keep the peace, and that’s not what we need ahead.

My only problem with Dr. Carson is that he has never run a political race, let alone won one. Honestly, I will have a hard time voting for anyone at any level who is not solid on the illegal invasion. Walker, BTW, is dull as dishwater. Even if he was great on every issue, he has no charisma. I wish he had it, but he doesn’t. Bob

Rush screwed Walker here.

The average Primary voter knows Walker is good on unions and tax cuts. Limbaugh didn’t need to tell them that.

The more publicity Perry got, the worse he went.

What they didn’t know is Walker is weak on immigration. Limbaugh just outed him to millions.

When Rush says that he made no endorsement, he meant it.

The problem you are having is due to a lack of context for Rushes praise of Walker.

For years now, Rush has been leading the charge against wishy-washy scared to death Republicans who keep avoiding conservative issues and mantra, yet at the same time, claim they carry the mantle of Reagan and are 100% Conservative.

For years now he has been pointing out that conservatism wins every time it is tried.

Walker, is doing it and walking the conservative walk and talk in a blue state and has won every battle.

Any disagreement on any single issue is irrelevant to Rush’s point. The point was that acting, governing, and fighting as a Conservative wins! That walker is doing it, and this is directly contrary to what appears to be what over 90% of our elected GOP believes as they attack the tea party and the conservative base of the party to avoid ticking off their precious independents..

That’s the point in a nutshell. That is the only point.

It’s been all over the news this week how strongly Rush has gushed about Walker. That’s what he’s been doing through the week

And we, and a lot of other people, are talking about it. A lot.

Would LOVE to see how this is impacting Rush's ratings. Could there be a "completely coincidental" uptick as a result of the controversy buzz he's now generated?

Now, I like Rush a lot. And he's done really good work over the last 25+ years, reaching and speaking to what was an incredibly under-served audience. Building a strong industry that gives voice to Conservatives in the process.

But I also understand that he's a Conservative entertainer (most people tend to forget that last part) who lives and dies (and is enriched) by his ratings.

So he's been able to fill a whole week's worth of airtime talking about Scott Walker. I'm willing to bet that he gets a couple/few more days out of it next week as well.

I get the impression Ted would take Scott as VP, but not the other way around, which tells me Walker is more serious about himself than turning around the wreck zero has morphed the USA into

There are non-ideological strategic considerations involved as well.

Cruz would do well to pick Walker as VP because Walker brings executive experience to the table and a respectable (altho by no means certain) shot at carrying Wisconsin.

Walker, on the other hand, doesn't need help to carry Texas. So Cruz would bring two major things: potential increase in Hispanic votes and shoring up of Movement Conservatives who may be put off by some of Walker's GOPe leanings (which are decidedly fewer than either McCain or Romney).

So Walker could conceivably pick Rubio, which would give a good fighting chance at Florida and picking up Hispanic votes. Downside being that Rubio wouldn't benefit and would probably hurt with Movement Conservatives. But, as we've seen in many elections Movement Conservatives still usually end up coming over to the GOP when it comes time to vote.

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