President does the right thing (dismissed global warming report)Rush Limbaugh

President Bush has dismissed the report put out by his administration warning that human activities are behind climate change that is having significant effects on the environment. The report to the UN, written by the EPA, puts most of the blame for recent global warming on the burning of fossil fuels by human beings. The president said, dismissively, as described by AP, "I read the report put out by the bureaucracy."

Folks, I had a conversation with people in the White House this morning over all of this, and this is pretty much what I heard. The EPA was referred to as a "bureaucracy," that did things on its own over there, and the report went out, with not a whole lot of attention paid to it. Much of what was interpreted by the New York Times was not correct, in terms of the administration's view of the report. Now we have the president dismissing the report.

We played the sound bite of the president's remarks on Tuesday's show, and you can hear it for yourself in the audio link below, along with more analysis, but here is a transcript of the question, and the president's entire answer:

BUSH: No - I have laid out that very comprehensive initiative. I read the report put out by the bureaucracy. I do not support the Kyoto treaty. The Kyoto treaty would severely damage the United States' economy. And I don't accept that. I accept the alternative that we've put out - that we can grow our economy and at the same time, through technologies, improve our environment.

This sounds to me like a pretty clear, open and shut case dismissing the contention of the report. One of the central aims of the Kyoto Protocol is to blame human activity for global warming. The president is saying that he does not agree with that when he says, "I read the report put out by the bureaucracy. I do not support the Kyoto treaty." This is a big step. There are few who would do this, who would make a correction like this in the heat and the thick of things. President Bush has done the right thing here, and that is ultimately worth a whole lot of support and applause.

Perhaps this episode is sort of like when we learned that the federal government was going to buy up all those oil and gas leases in Florida to see to it that there was no new oil drilling or gas drilling either in the gulf or on three wildlife reserves in Florida. The reason the administration gave was, "We don't want to destroy the environment. We don't want to do damage to the pristine countryside." In the process, they undercut their own desire to do just that, drill for oil in ANWR. We were all scratching our heads trying to figure that out. I don't know that I have an answer, but it may well be that some things are just not calculated as far out as they should be. It will be interesting to see if anyone is held responsible at the EPA for this, as we discuss in From Rush's Stack of Stuff: Bush Dismisses EPA Report, But Will He Dismiss Those Who Put It Out?

One thing that we know for sure, my friends, is that in most cases the attempt to do the right thing is always there with this administration. I know that actions are more important than intentions, but couple that with the fact that we're talking about somebody here, George W. Bush, who has a profound level of integrity and decency. People want to believe and trust the president. That's why his approval numbers are so high. What he has done today is one of the reasons why his approval rating is understandable, and greatly deserved.

Folks, here's just a little bit more on the Bush strategy, and a few things to keep in mind as you try to analyze this: The White House thinks their strategy is working like a charm and, really, who could argue with them? Their strategy is not to really spell out their own agenda and fight for it no matter what. Their strategy is to advance a centrist agenda that consists of a sizable percentage of the left's agenda, issue by issue. In the process, they're picking off Democrat votes. They're doing two things. They're denying Democrats issues to run on, and at the same time giving specific members of the Democrat coalition reasons to vote for Bush or against the Democrat candidates. The way they're looking at it, it's working.

The second element to this is a little less clear, but there's something at play here that I underestimated for a long while and I won't again. Whether it's right or wrong, or whether it's an incorrect standard, is not the point now. Bush is benefiting from the fact that there was a far greater dislike and disgust with the Clinton administration among the general population than we ever knew.

We were following presidential approval polls and concluding that over half the country thought Clinton was just the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that's not the case. What we saw in those polls was the natural tendency of people in this country to support their president, whoever and whatever he is. It takes a lot for presidents to destroy the bond of trust they have with the American people, because the American people have such respect and awe for the office of the presidency. So in contrast, Bush is so far ahead of Clinton when it comes to these basic human characteristics - honesty, integrity, decency, and character - that he's getting a double whammy benefit from all of this.

Plus, we can't leave the war out of the equation. The way he has conducted himself in the aftermath of September 11th inspires confidence. As long as he doesn't do anything to interrupt or weaken the bond of trust that people have, he's going to be riding high, and it's going to be smooth sailing ahead. Bush doesn't look political at all. He doesn't appear to be doing anything he's doing because of politics, even though he is, but it doesn't look that way. He's just riding high for all sorts of reasons. As far as he's concerned, this strategy of his is working and I don't see what there is to suggest that he needs to change the way he's doing things.

The desire that so many people have to want to believe the absolute best of this man is not going away. This belief is being reinforced every day by his own actions, as it was on his dismissal of the EPA report on global warming. The investment in George W. Bush is being validated each and every day as people see him, listen to him, and hear him speak. He's really riding the crest of a wave that few presidents have, and he's making the most of it, in his own way.

I can think of 20 million reasons why you're wrong.

Can you explain the 20 million thing..... is that unique listeners in a hour, day, week, etc,?
Or is it total listeners in a week, many of which have tuned in each day... thus repeat counts

I've looked for rating numbers to see how they actually rate the listeners in radio but can't find anything. I think it is Arbitron that does the ratings...

Here is a news flash genius.

Thank you for acknowledging my intellectual prowess.

WE DO HAVE A CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT.

Review the Constitution and consider the laws, regulations and tax burden we have. Then think about the UN, NAFTA, WTO and other bodies that apparently supersede our sovereignity.

I worked in radio for a number of years.

Those are Arbitron numbers, and anyone can take them and shape them any way they want.

When "the book" comes out, you'll hear every radio station in town declare "WE'RE #1!" And they will all be correct. It just depends on how you read the numbers.

This is no slam at Rush. The fact is that Rush built his career on 8 years of Clinton and the anger he generated amongst folks that finally had a public forum to vent it in. Rush even pondered out loud what would happen to conservative talk radio once Clinton was gone and a Republican president was elected. Political talk radio only thrives when there is an audience angry enough to listen and call in. Rush is no idiot, he is stirring the pot to keep the juices flowing and keep a large enough audience to stay in place.

Look at it this way. How long would FR last if everyone were fat dumb and happy? I come here for only one reason, there are still enough folks around to debate, argue and yes even flame to make it interesting. This article points out one important thing though, Rush knows he went overboard and knows that he had to do something but his ego will not allow an admission that he really jumped the gun on this one. I hope he has at least enough class not to spin this later as Bush did this because Rush shamed him into it.

Review the Constitution and consider the laws, regulations and tax burden we have. Then think about the UN, NAFTA, WTO and other bodies that apparently supersede our sovereignity.

You have yet to point to an Unconstitutional example other than what is in your own mind. Try again.

Ultimately the buck stops with the President in matters like this. HOWEVER, it's very likely that this report was put together by career people within the EPA and approved by Christine Whitman. I doubt the President even saw it before it went to the UN.

Having dealt with the EPA at both the state and federal levels I can tell you without a doubt that many policy decisions are made by lower rung individuals without any quality control from up top.

I'm glad to hear the President has poo-pooed this report and believe him when he basically says he had no part in it. The President has done quite a few troublesome things in the past few months, but this ain't one of them. It's basically a non-issue now. Too bad the cretins that released this report will only be re-assigned to new jobs as opposed to fired.

Someone at the EPA needs to be FIRED

I sent Bush an e-mail about 10 days ago and told him there were a number of people in his administration to whom he should show the door.

I'm not 100% sure. I heard Rush explain it once and got the impression that it represented the number of different people who had listened to the show within any given week. It doesn't mean they were all listening at one time, just that they all heard the program at some point during the week. Pretty confusing if you ask me.

how's your man doing? still stuck at 1%?

To me the important thing is how politicans affect America.

I'm against uncontrolled immigration, particularly illegal.

I favor American workers over multinational corporations.

I don't like our role as globocop.

I think the federal government should be limited to the role the founders envisioned.

I believe the Republicrats are corrupt and should be removed as any other cancer in a body.

Those are Arbitron numbers, and anyone can take them and shape them any way they want.

My question really is the 20 million that is tossed about by Rush and his followers. This isn't unique listeners is it? In other words he may have 20 million in a week but if someone listens 5 days a week then he is counted five times..... so if he has a bunch of daily repeat listeners then in effect they are counted several times is that correct.

So, you are going to believe an AP report and Rush over reading the President's actual words?

No...what I meant was that President's actual words were a dismissal of the Global Warming report in my opinion, and Rush, and the AP report apparently agreed with my interpretation.

I wonder if you could lay out your bio so that we might see your conservative credentials. Just to see how they match up against Limbaugh's.

Rush has been remarkably consistent all along. He's a conservative American, first and foremost. He'll criticize Bush when Bush needs it...somewhat often so far, and he'll be the first in line to congratulate and compliment the President when he lives up to his conservative billing. Rush may have jumped the gun yesterday, but he was man enough to reverse course today...he deserves credit for that.

Thanks for defending Rush...he's been one of the TRUE stalwarts of the conservative movement and he deserves as much credit as anyone, anywhere, that the GOP is where it is today.

It's called the cume persons, which is the total number of different people who tune to a radio station during the course of a daypart for at least five minutes.

He takes all the cume persons from each of his affiliates for his time slot and adds them together to get the 20 million.

I've never bought into this (not just Rush's ratings, but anyone's).

got the impression that it represented the number of different people who had listened to the show within any given week.

Thanks.... I have no idea.... just trying to understand

Does the EPA serve at the will of the President or are they beyond his control?

Like I said, the buck ultimately stops with the President. However, the EPA is a totally out of control agency that honestly believes it answers to no man.

Thanks for defending Rush...he's been one of the TRUE stalwarts of the conservative movement and he deserves as much credit as anyone, anywhere, that the GOP is where it is today.

You mean bending over and trying to appropriate Democrat positions whenever they can?

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