http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/08/24/i_m_just_giving_you_the_lay_of_the_land_on_trump_but_i_m_not_suggesting_anythingI'm Just Giving You the Lay of the Land on Trump, But I'm Not Suggesting Anything
August 24, 2016
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The lead story in the Drive-By Media, there are two lead stories. The first lead story is that Trump is softening on immigration. The Drive-Bys are attempting to say that Trump is doing what everybody knew he was gonna do, and that is he's not gonna build a wall and he's not gonna deport a bunch of people, and all that talk during the primaries and all that talk in the early stages of the presidential campaign about the building the wall and sending people home was never gonna happen. The Drive-Bys say, we told you, and now Trump is admitting it. Trump is softening on immigration and the Drive-Bys are out doing man-on-the-street interviews with Trump supporters.
They are trying to find Trump supporters who are ready to throw in the towel now. They want to go out there, they want to find Trump supporters that feel betrayed. They want to find Trump supporters that are mad about it, and they can't. What they're finding is exactly what I told them would be the case last fall. They don't understand the connection between Trump and his supporters. It's not that hard to understand, particularly when I explain it so well. It must be hard to accept. It isn't hard to understand.
I think one of the problems the Drive-Bys and others who don't understand it are having is that they may never have experienced it. They may never have experienced this kind of connection. What is happening, at least with the people on the street that the Drive-Bys are finding, that Trump supporters are making excuses for him. They're saying things like, "Well, you know, you have to do what you have to do to build your campaign. Sometimes you have to moderate what you're saying. Sometimes you have to do things in a different way to build your base. Sometimes you have to change a little bit."
Whatever, they're finding any number of ways to excuse Trump, supposedly softening on immigration. By the way, I'm not accepting the premise yet. I'm just throwing it out as the Drive-Bys are suggesting it. Byron York has a piece today on the Washington Examiner saying that whatever they're doing, the Trump campaign is now obviously confused and they don't know what they're doing and they don't know how to do it, and their immigration policy seems to be up for grabs now. I'm paraphrasing Byron York's story. But this is the premise that the Drive-Bys are operating under.
Oh, here's something else too, by the way. I'm getting a lot of email after the program yesterday from people who are objecting to what they think I said yesterday. I'm always fascinated by what people hear. You know, as the nation's leading communicator, as America's Real Anchorman, as America's Truth Detector, one of my objectives every day is to actually be understood. And I go to great lengths, I say things sometimes in two or three different ways. I, in explaining things, try to anticipate things people might understand and address them and re-explain. I go the full mile trying to communicate exactly what I mean. But it always happens that there will be some who don't get it nevertheless. It's nobody's fault; it's just human nature.
Now, I received a number of emails last night and yesterday afternoon from people who say, "Rush, you're really beginning to sound desperate on Trump." I looked at them; I said, "Wow, that's curious. What in the world...?" What they were talking about was, "You know, you keep talking about this guy in the Washington Post, Robert Costa, who reported about a month ago that many in the Hillary campaign and many in the Drive-Bys --" which is one and the same "-- are actually very concerned about people that are not being polled because they haven't voted in a long time because they're so fed up."
There are two numbers you put together, 70% of the American people think the country's headed in the wrong direction and that's borne out in a number of different polls. And then the other number is roughly 50% of the American adult population doesn't vote every presidential race, every four years. So, you put those two numbers together and you end up with a large number of people who may think the country's headed in the wrong direction but who don't vote.
And Mr. Costa's point in the Washington Post, he was talking to Charlie Rose, said, "What if they show up? What if those are the people that really, really love Trump. They're just fed up with everything about American politics. They're fed up with the insider stuff. They're fed up with just everything that's happen, and their protest is to not vote and tune out and just try to take care of themselves, what if Trump's really, really firing 'em up?"
And then there was a column yesterday by Salena Zito, who's a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review in which she stated she'd ridden around the state of Pennsylvania and she found in all these rural areas, and not just rural, but small towns, outside the big cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, she'd found Trump yard signs everywhere. No matter where she went there was overwhelming evidence of massive support for Donald Trump.
And she described these people to a T. These were people that, you know, used to define what was moral and immoral, they used to define cultural dos and don'ts. They used to define values and so forth, and now they don't. They have been superseded by cultural rot. And they have tuned out, too. So I talked about both of those, and I alluded to the possibility, not with any hope -- I mean, I'm not doing this with any hope -- that polling is missing them. And I did make mention that there could be some great silent majority out there.
Anyway, the emails I got from people last night, "Boy, you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Rush, do you really think those people aren't being polled? Do you really think there's a whole giant mess of people out there waiting to show up and give Trump a landslide win that nobody's finding and nobody's polling and nobody's talking to and everybody's ignoring?"
And I never have said that 'cause I don't know. I'm just sharing with you the thoughts and opinions of a couple of people here that intrigue me. Robert Costa writing in the Washington Post and Salena Zito's piece yesterday intrigue me. I'm not suggesting that there is this giant swell, this giant unseen, waiting-to-be-unleashed movement that's gonna deliver a landslide victory to Trump. Nor am I sitting here trying to be phony and artificially optimistic about anything.
I'm just giving you the lay of the land and analyzing it as I see it. I thought I have been very clear about this, so I was happy to get the emails to find out how people are hearing this. That they think that I am doing what I can to get people to not give up, to hold out hope.
And the point of the emails, most of the ones that agreed, were it's not possible that there are that many people not being polled, that nobody knows about, that are lurking out there waiting for Election Day to show up and turn Trump into a landslide winner, "and you're doing your audience a disservice, Mr. Limbaugh, if you keep talking that way."
I'm not suggesting anything. I'm merely reporting and reacting to what other people are saying about it.
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RUSH: We have a new Reuters poll out. Clinton leading Trump by 12 points. This is a Reuters national poll, and it's among likely voters. It's her strongest showing this month, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released yesterday. Now, remember something here, folks. Reuters has recently changed their polling methods and their techniques. Remember? They no longer count undecideds.
Nobody is allowed to be undecided in a Reuters poll, and yet people are undecided. There's still a bunch of people. In any sample that you're gonna poll there are gonna be some undecideds. So what does Reuters do? Well, Reuters assigns those people to either Trump or Hillary based on what they think they are hearing those people say. And ever since Reuters decided to not allow people to say they were undecided -- I mean, even though they are, they're not allowed to say so, ever since they did that, Hillary's numbers have gone up.
And Pat Caddell's made a big deal out of this. This is one of the most, not dishonest, but this is one of the most misleading results that you could get, because undecideds are a huge number. The undecideds are a very important number in any poll. The undecideds and when they break, you know, when do they make up their mind?
If you're gonna do a poll where nobody in it is allowed to be undecided and the pollster gets to ultimately determine where those people fall, they're obviously assigning more undecideds to the Hillary camp than they are to the Trump camp. So I just wanted to mention, if you see the Reuters poll and it shows Hillary up by 12, remember they've done away with the undecided aspect.
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RUSH: Nathan in Lynchburg, Virginia. You're first today. It's great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How you doing, man?
RUSH: Very well, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, I was born in 1978, and I grew up with Reagan. I loved him, as I knew him as a child. It was a really good time. I remember a lot of good things about those days. I didn't really get involved in politics, and I have never voted before in my life. I just registered, and the ironic part is it, I had a liberal friend who's campaigning for Sanders, that loved Sanders so much. She believed in democracy and in voting, and she convinced me to go ahead and do it, all the first time. As soon as I saw that Trump was running, I said, "There is a chance," and I told everybody around me, all, my friends.
Because I would always pick on them, 'cause they voted and I didn't believe in the system. I picked on them all the time about it, and I said, "You know what? I'm gonna register and I'm gonna vote this year." This is gonna be the first time that I've ever voted, and it's not so much that my beliefs about the system and the rigged system -- as Trump says. He just speaks my language, and I truly believe that he is Reaganesque, and I believe that he can do something because he's not a politician. And I do believe in Trump. And I tell you, it takes a lot for me to believe in someone.
RUSH: Well, what was it about...? I mean, you grew up as a child; you admired, you liked Reagan in the eighties. I agree with you. I mean, even though I got fired a bunch of times, those are good times. Those are good economic times. The country seemed solid. But what is it? You went through that, then you got soured on everything. What was it soured you on it so that you didn't want to register and participate?
CALLER: The first Bush, he was... He seemed to me to be weak and impotent and old and, like, feckless altogether. And, you know, I was young at the time, but I could probably have voted for him. And then Clinton came along and then the second Bush, and the second Bush was nothing but a trap. And I wouldn't call myself a Republican. I would never classify myself as a Republican, especially nowadays. But I would lean more towards being a conservative.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: The Libertarians are just full of it. They're just wannabe Tea Partiers. I like the Tea Party but I could never really back them.
RUSH: What about the Alt-Right guys? You like the Alt-Righters?
CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.
RUSH: Well, you might want to revise that later, but we'll take it for now. But still, Trump's excited you and has made you want to get engaged and get involved and participate for the first time. Is that basically the upshot of it?
CALLER: Yeah, that is it. And, you know what? I probably will never vote again after this one, unless someone like Trump comes along who speaks my language, who knows the problems and is not afraid to say it.
RUSH: Okay, we'll throw that in the hopper. He's representative of the kind of people that Robert Costa's talking about out there in the Washington Post.
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