Reagan Sound Bites from 1980 Resonate Across the Fruited PlainJune 22, 2011
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RUSH: I know a number of you are just dying to know, did I break 80 yesterday when I went out and played Bel Air again? No. I had 84, 85. One of those two, I forget which it was. No, I'm not playing as much as Obama is. I mean, to play as much as Obama I'd have to play for three straight weeks every day. He's playing every weekend this year so far.
It was one week ago today that we launched Two If By Tea, two, t-w-o. One week ago today history was made on this program. Yesterday was one of the greatest programs in the history of the program. I want to thank all of you for the nice thoughts that you expressed in your e-mails about those Reagan sound bites. I went out to the golf course yesterday. I got out there an hour after the program ended, and I met R. J. Wagner, Robert Wagner. It turns out Robert Wagner is a friend of a friend of mine in Palm Beach, the noted thriller author Ted Bell. And I didn't know that R. J. -- that's how he introduced himself, folks, so don't get on me -- it's R. J. Wagner, great actor. And all these people were going on and on and on about the Reagan sound bites yesterday.
President Ronald Reagan - Liberty State Park [Pt. 1]Ronald Reagan - Liberty State Park [Pt. 2]It was just wonderful because we hear all these people telling us what Reagan was and who Reagan was and how Reagan did things. And most of the time people with their stories are not correct. They got this incorrect view of Reagan, and those bites yesterday of Reagan going after Jimmy Carter at the Statue of Liberty in 1980, people were shocked. Pleasantly surprised, let's put it that way. Even people old enough to have remembered Reagan and have been actively involved, 1980, you know, 30 years ago. To me, all that seems like yesterday. The eighties really does seem like yesterday to me. Sacramento, I moved there in 1984. Seems like yesterday. Honestly. But it's still a long time ago. And even though I remember all of these things about Reagan a lot of people have forgotten, obviously, and they hear what Reagan went after these people and they contrast it to what they hear Republicans suggesting as the right way to do it today, and then they are led, as we did yesterday, into an analysis, okay, who's winning and losing elections and how are they doing it, and it becomes abundantly clear that for all this talk about remaining true to the ideals of Reagan, the Republican Party's forgotten how to do it. So it was a lot of fun yesterday. The Huntsman announcement provided a lot of fodder.
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RUSH: I want to revisit one more time, Ronaldus Magnus and his reigniting his campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1980 at the Statue of Liberty on September 1st, and this is important. (I'm gonna leave Jon Huntsman out of this time; it's not the point.) The whole Republican Party needs to wake up and understand what's at stake here and how to go about it. We have enough destruction taking place here. To sit here and simply say, "To be nice about this, under the guise of civility, isn't going to get the job done." When you got somebody that's causing great problems, this is how you campaign against them...
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)
RUSH: And finally, sound bite 28. There's this...
REAGAN: I'm looking forward to meeting Mr. Carter in debate, confronting him with the whole sorry record of his administration -- the record he prefers not to mention. If he ever finally agrees to the kind of first debate the American people want, which I'm beginning to doubt, he'll answer to them and to me.
SUPPORTERS: (applause)
REAGAN: This country needs a new administration with a renewed dedication to the dream of America, an administration that will give that dream new life and make America great again.
RUSH: That's how you do it.
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