Huntsman was Too Much Like Reagan?January 16, 2012
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RUSH: I knew that it was over for Jon Huntsman, when Fox trotted Geraldo out to report it, "the Grim Reaper." You know, when Fox brings Geraldo out somebody is dead or there's been an accident and people might day or something with dire consequences has happened. Geraldo normally doesn't show up on Mondays on Fox, but there he was, and this is what he said...
THE GRIM REAPER: This is the Fox News alert! Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman will withdraw Monday from the race for the presidential nomination!
RUSH: Oh, wait a minute, that was last night.
THE GRIM REAPER: That despite his respectable third place finish in New Hampshire!
RUSH: Okay, I saw a replay of that. That's live last night. I saw a replay of it this morning. I didn't see it last night. That makes my point even better, that there's Geraldo last night pointing it out. That's all you need to know. You don't need any denial after that is pointless -- and here was Huntsman. He was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and this is what he said among other things...
HUNTSMAN: This race has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and personal attacks not worthy of the American people and not worthy of this critical time in our nation's history. At its core the Republican Party is a party of ideas. But the current toxic form of our political discourse does not help our cause. I believe it is now time for our party to unite around the candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama. Despite our differences and the space between us on some of the issues, I believe that candidate is Governor Mitt Romney.
RUSH: And so here he gives an endorsement of Romney and then qualifies it. "Eh, It's not all that hot. It's now time for our party to unite around the candidate best equipped despite our differences and the space between us on some issues. That candidate is Mitt Romney," and the only reason that candidate is Mitt Romney is because Huntsman's a Republican. It's cast in stone. It's etched in stone, whatever the phrase is. It's just Romney is the establishment pick. Huntsman is a party man, he is a Republican; ergo, there you go. But he had to make it clear that there's a lot of difference between him and Romney on the issues.
Now, a lot of people are... I saw a story last Thursday. I forget where it was but it was a story about the three billionaires in the Republican race who could keep it alive. One of the billionaires is Sheldon Adelson who is giving money to Newt's super PAC. The other one is a guy named Friess, F-r-i-e-s-s. I forget who he's giving money to. The other one's Huntsman Sr., Jon Huntsman's dad. The person I was talking to about this said that, and I said, "Yeah, that's true. I mean, Huntsman can stay as long as he wants." "Nope, nope, nope, nope. You're wrong." I said, "Why?" "His dad doesn't want to spend the money." Really? That's why?" "Yeah, his dad doesn't want to spend the money on this. Dad's got it, but Dad doesn't want to spend it.
"Huntsman doesn't want to spend his own on this. The candidate, Junior or Senior, didn't want to spend the money." The Politico had the story on the three billionaires. But what's interesting about this, Huntsman is being called a rock-ribbed conservative. He's being called a rock-ribbed conservative, but he just wasn't partisan enough for the haters in the Republican base. That's the line that's being used. He wouldn't call Obama a Marxist! He wouldn't call Obama a socialist! He wouldn't get up there and roll up the sleeves and he wouldn't use the language of hate that the Republican base wants to hear, and that's why Huntsman didn't have a prayer even though he is the most conservative.
This is what they're saying. When I say "they," I'm talking about the media. The media, the Republican establishment, say, "He is the most conservative of all these guys, but he doesn't stand a prayer." How can that be? Somebody explain to me how you can be the most conservative in the race and finish where he's finishing in a primary of conservatives? How can that be? Well, it can't be. So who's lying to who here about when is a conservative? "Rock-ribbed conservative! He just won't use the hate language." Let's see. Huntsman supports gay rights. He believes in manmade global warming. He wants to surrender in the war on terror. He thinks we have a great relationship with the ChiComs.
According to New Hampshire exit polls, 51% of Huntsman voters were satisfied with Obama, and they're trying to tell us that else the rock-ribbed conservative in the race. Also, according to exit polls in New Hampshire, 70% of Huntsman's voters describe themselves as moderates and liberals. I wasn't gonna do this. I wasn't going to do this 'cause ... you know the reasons. But now I gotta do it because I've set it up. I've gotta give you appear example of it. So grab sound bite number ten. Gosh I hate having to do this, I just hate it, but I can't sit here and tell you that people are saying it when I got evidence of it and not play the evidence. Scarborough, who holds himself out to be Mr. Conservative, or at least who is and we've all leftist the reservation. He's the lone real conservative left. He's the guy among others saying all this about Huntsman. This is on Morning Joe today, and they were all talking about Huntsman dropping out.
SCARBOROUGH: I will just tell you on a personal note: I hate to see it because he is one of the true conservatives in this race. We are now left with big government conservatives. Jon Huntsman was the most conservative Republican, small-government conservative in this race, bar none. But because he had a moderate temperament, like another guy named Ronald Reagan, he was not seen as being conservative enough. Because he didn't call Barack Obama a Marxist or a fascist or a socialist, he was somehow deemed unworthy, as not hating enough to be a true conservative. If that is how the Republican Party defines conservative in 2012, then they have turned their backs not only on Ronald Reagan but also on leaders like Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels.
RUSH: So that's the kind of thing that's being said, haters. He's the most conservative guy in the race, but you can't get anywhere because we're such haters. Tell me that that makes any sense at all -- and now, now Reagan was a big moderate! "Oh, yeah, Reagan never talked like that! Reagan never said mean stuff! Reagan didn't do any of this other stuff. These conservatives are gonna kill the party." A guy like Huntsman supports gay rights, believes in manmade global warming, wants to surrender on the War on Terror and thinks we got a great relationship with the ChiComs, and 51% of his voters satisfied with Obama. Seventy percent of his voters describe themselves as moderate and liberals, and they tell us he's the most conservative.
It's bogus. It's just the latest technique for these clowns to come in and bash mainstream conservatism and say, "Look at this reasonable, dull, and boring guy. He couldn't get anywhere because he wouldn't call Obama a Marxist or a socialist. They need to be more like Reagan." Well, I wasn't gonna do this, either, 'cause I wasn't gonna do number ten. So I wasn't gonna do number ten, I can't do numbers 11, 12, and 13 which I'm looking for now. Here they are. Start with number 11. Let's go back and listen to Ronaldus Magnus in Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey, September 1st of 1980.
REAGAN: The Carter record is a litany of despair, of broken promises, of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten. His answer to all this misery? He tries to tell us that we're only in a recession, not a depression, as if definitions -- words -- relieve our suffering. Let it show on the record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind a dictionary. Well, if it's a definition he wants, I'll give him one: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his!
SUPPORTERS: (cheers and applause)
President Ronald Reagan - Liberty State Park [Pt. 1]RUSH: Oh, oh. Oh, no. Oh, no. I made that up. That's really not Reagan! Reagan was never that mean. Reagan was never that tough. Oh, he never went after people personally like the conservatives want conservatives to go after Obama. Reagan never did that! Well, there you have it. I've got two other sound bites of Reagan jamming on Carter. I don't have time for 'em right now 'cause I gotta do this break.
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RUSH: From the Associated Press. Basically, folks, here's the reason that Huntsman just couldn't cut it: He was too civil. He was just too gentlemanly. He was too nice. We conservatives, we want a hater. We want somebody that's gonna articulate the message of hate! "To stand out in a crowded field, Huntsman positioned himself as a tax-cutting, budget-balancing chief executive and a former business executive who could rise above partisan politics. That would prove to be a hard sell to the conservatives, who are dominating the early voting contests especially in an election marked by bitter divisions between Republicans and Democrats and a boiling antipathy for Obama."
So by the media's logic, Romney is winning because he's throwing out all this red meat because he's calling Obama a socialist and he's calling Obama... except, wait, he's not. Except Romney went out there and said, "No, I'm not going to call him a socialist. I'm not gonna call him a Marxist. I just think he's in over his head! He's an incompetent boob and he doesn't know what he's doing. Nice guy, trying to do the job, but he's incompetent." Well, now, wait a minute. Romney's not thrown out any red meat either and looks to be running away with this.
"The former ambassador to China in the [Obama regime] found a poor reception for his brand of moderate civility that he had hoped would draw support from independents as well as party moderates," and he had a campaign adviser who advised McCain in 2000, a guy named John Weaver, whose strategy was the Republican strategy for winning the general election: Screw conservatives, make the media your best friend and do everything you can to be civil and moderate and attract independents -- and that's what Huntsman did, and that's why he lost.
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RUSH: In all candor, folks, this is out there. They're trying to say this! The onslaught against conservatism never stops. The personal, vicious, vile attacks on conservatives never stop. Mitt Romney will not call Obama a socialist or Marxist, and he's running away with this. Huntsman is said to have not gained any favor in the Republican primary 'cause he wouldn't call Obama a socialist or a Marxist, that he wouldn't use "the language of hate" that the average Republican primary voter uses.
But if you look at the facts, if you look at the truth, 51% of Huntsman voters in New Hampshire are satisfied with Obama. Those are not conservatives. I don't care what they're saying, and I don't care how they talk, they're not conservatives. This is New Hampshire exit poll data: 70% of his voters describe themselves as moderates and liberals. Well, by definition they're not conservatives, and yet Huntsman's loss is a golden opportunity for the people who fear us to once again besmirch and impugn the average American citizen -- and, by the way, I should remind you that far more Americans identify themselves as conservatives than anything else.
Only 21% of Americans have the guts to call themselves liberals; 35% say they are independent; 40% say they are conservatives -- and that's why this never ending assault takes place. Now, one other thing. You want to talk about who wins and loses, in football or in politics. In the Huntsman case -- and when we speak about this, I'm not making any friends in the process, by the way. Not that I had any in this area to begin with, frankly, but I have been critical of certain Republican campaign consultants (the people candidates hire to tell them how to win) and I have attempted to tell you, as often as possible, that the Republican Party problem with independents is directly traceable to the consultants and pollsters and probably many of the high-ranking elected officials as well, who believe that fully articulated conservatism scares the independents and will lead to landslide defeats, such as Barry Goldwater.
They'll tell you that every election is won fighting only for 20% of the voters, and that's what happened. It's exactly what happened to Jon Huntsman. He had a consultant, a guy named John Weaver, who, in a primary, devised a strategy to go after 20% of the voters -- or, according to polling data, 35%. The 20% stems from 40% of Republican, 40% Democrat, and 20% are independent. And the 40% Republican auto vote Republican, the 40% Democrat auto vote Democrat. "It's that great 20% that you gotta win every election in," and these consultants go out and they sell themselves to these candidates: "I'm the guy that can get you a majority of the 20%. I'm the guy that can make the independents love you! I'm the guy that can make the independents hate your opponents."
You know, liberals do not govern this way, and they don't run their campaigns this way. When's last times you ever heard a liberal consultant tell his client not to attack his opponent 'cause it might tick off the independents? You notice there's only one group of people that gives this advice? Republicans! Republicans are the only people that tell their candidates, "Don't attack the opposition. You can attack fellow Republicans," because the strategy -- and, by the way, Weaver, I never met him but I know what his strategy is. He ran McCain's campaign in 2008, and the strategy is, "You make the media your best friend." Where have you heard this before? It's still the desire of way too many elected DC Republicans and Republican-establishment types: They want to be the best friends of the media.
If they can't be best friends 'cause mostly that's Democrats, they still want to be friends, want to be friends with the media. So the strategy for Huntsman, I'm convinced the strategy was, "Let's get the media to like us -- get the media to like you, Mr. Huntsman." This is in a primary, now. "Let's make sure that you are the guy that's seen as Mr. Civil. You're Mr. Reasonable. You're Mr. Even Keel. You are the guy who can tell the genuine smart people out there, the independents, that you're the Republican not to be afraid of." That's the strategy in a primary, and you see how it worked. I'm telling you, that was the strategy in a primary.
If Huntsman had won, which would have been impossible with that strategy, by the way, that would have been also been the strategy for the general -- and it will be the strategy for the Republican nominee in the general. I guarantee you: "Try to win over the media and focus on the independents," and get ready for it 'cause that's what the Republican Party believes. Meanwhile, the Democrats, not one consultant of theirs is gonna tell their nominee, Obama, "Don't attack the Republicans! Don't attack Romney! Don't do it. Don't get personal. You're gonna run the independents off." That never happens. So our entrenched intelligentsia is automatically rooted in a position of being defensive.
They accept these false premises: A, that Republicans are hated because they're racist, sexist, bigot homophobes -- or they're mean-spirited, or what have you. They want people to die. They don't want people to get well when they get sick. They start out thinking that's what the electorate thinks of us, and the reason that they want to make the media their best bud is because the media is the outfit that says all that. The media describes Republicans that way, on television, in the newspapers. In the 2008 campaign, remember McCain's running around saying, "The media's my base!" I remember saying, "The media is gonna turn on you. No matter what. They're just roping you in.
"All that Straight Talk Express and the media talking about how much fun it is to be on your bus? Senator, they're gonna turn on you. They do at every presidential election because their objective is to defeat the Republican whoever it is." What our side can't seem to come to grips with is that they're trying to defeat the Republican before he's even nominated. They're trying to pick our candidate who could be most easily defeated (in their view, anyway). That's what the media is up to. Romney just tweeted, or the Romney campaign just tweeted this: "I salute Jon Huntsman and his wife Mary Kay. He ran a campaign based on unity, not division, and love of country, and I appreciate his support." Rick Perry on Huntsman's dropout. Are you ready for this? Are you ready for what Rick Perry said?
I'll tell you, gotta love Perry 'cause he either knows what political correctness is and says, "Screw it," or he doesn't know. He said, "I'll miss Jon's girls." I'll miss the Jon girls, meaning his daughters. I'll miss seeing the Jon girls! I'll miss Huntsman's daughters out there on the campaign trail. (interruption) Have I heard the Huntsman daughters speak? I have not. This is exactly what I deal with. He's asking me if I've ever heard the Huntsman girls speak. How many times do I tell you people I use closed-captioning, that I can't hear a television? Everybody, even people who know me intimately forget that I can't hear. So, no, I've never heard them speak. My TV mute is on. The only time my mute is not on, on television, is when Kathryn's watching with me. The... (interruption) "Whoa," what? Is that a good or bad whoa, watching them speak? Now, see, you've got me intrigued. I haven't heard them speak. I've only read the words they said in closed-captioning. I can't... (interruption) Oh. Oh. Well, that's something that I can't confirm or deny because I've never heard them speak. "Airhead" doesn't come across in closed-captioning. I would never know.
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RUSH: Here's another thing, folks, about all this. If the independents are everything in an election, if we've gotta get somebody who can get the independents, then how come Jon Huntsman didn't win in Iowa and New Hampshire, particularly New Hampshire? Both were open to independents, both were open to Democrats, particularly New Hampshire. And, in fact, by the way, just go back to the exit polls again. Seventy percent of Huntsman's voters describe themselves as moderates and liberals, and 51% said they liked Obama. That sounds like the independents to me.
South Carolina is also an open primary. So if the recipe is independents, how come all these guys that are supposedly the independent magnets just aren't pulling it off? I know it's a Republican primary, but there is such dislike for conservatives and conservatism in the media and the Democrat Party especially, that truth in reporting what's going on in the Republican Party, the explanation by a candidate in the Republican primary, why he didn't catch hold. "Yeah, yeah, he didn't use the hate language that we want to hear, he didn't talk about Obama." And, by the way, I say Obama's a socialist all the time. What the hell's hate-filled about that? There's no hate in that. I go even further. I call him a Marxist. That's not hate.
Don't you know that when you use those words, socialist and Marxist, if that equals hate, doesn't that kind of tell you what the left is defensive about? Doesn't that kinda tell you what the left doesn't want to be described as, 'cause it's accurate? So that's how they intimidate people into not saying things that are true. Huntsman did not win the independents in New Hampshire, and yet there's the guy that his consultants say, "This is the guy that can win our party's nomination. He's gonna win the presidency cause he's a guy that the independents are gonna love." He didn't win the independents in New Hampshire. Romney did. So go figure.
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