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August 24, 2021 13 mins

RUSH: Well, Senator McCain, who some are calling Senator McCrazy, Senator McCain is back. He’s sucking up to the Drive-By Media and taking cheap shots at President Bush. He was in Ohio yesterday campaigning for and with Senator Mike DeWine, said this at a news conference.

MCCAIN: I think one of the biggest mistakes we’ve made was underestimating the size of the task and the sacrifice that would be required. “Stuff happens. Mission accomplished. Last throes. Few dead-enders.” I’m more familiar with those statements than anyone else because it grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be.

RUSH: I’m going to go back. I have a quote here from President Bush on April 28th of 2003. May I read that quote to you? “Iraq can be an example of peace and prosperity and freedom to the entire Middle East. It will be a hard journey. But at every step of the way, Iraq will have a steady friend in the American people.” I am not aware of the president — well, I’m not aware of myself ever thinking this was going to be a cakewalk, and I’m not aware of the administration making the case. I think that mission accomplished banner on board the aircraft carrier, some could say that was misleading, but the mission at that time was accomplished. That was getting rid of Saddam. The war in Iraq actually was quite successful and didn’t take very long. It is the aftermath, the quest for peace, so to speak, that is taking a long time. I don’t think the president misled anybody about it. Anyway, here is what McCain wanted. He wanted coverage on all the evening news, the cable channels, Drive-By Media adulation. McCain, McCain, McCain, McCain, and he got it. Here’s a montage.


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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well. Senator McCain, who some are calling Senator mccrazy. Senator
mccayn is uh is back. He's sucking up to the
drive by media and taking cheap shots at President Bush.
He was in Ohio yesterday campaigning four and with Senator
Mike DeWine said this at a news conference. I think

(00:22):
one of theest mistakes we made was underestimating the size
of the task and the sacrifice that would be required.
Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throws a few dead enders.
I'm as more familiar with those statements than anyone else
because it greaves me so much that we have not

(00:44):
told the American people how tough and difficult this task
would be. I'm gonna go back. I have a quote
here from President Bush on April of two thousand three, right,
may I read that quote to you. Iraq can be
an example of peace and prosperity and freedom to the
entire Middle East. It will be a hard journey, but

(01:06):
at every step of the way, Iraq will have a
steady friend and the American people. I'm not I I
am not aware of the President. I'm well, I'm not
aware of myself. Ever thinking this was going to be
a cake walk. Uh, And I'm not aware of the
administration making the case. I think that mission accomplished. Banner
on board the aircraft carrier. Uh. You know, some could

(01:29):
say that was misleading. Uh, but the mission at that
time was accomplished. That was getting rid of Saddam. The
war in Iraq actually was quite successful and didn't take
very long. It is the aftermath, the quest for peace,
so to speak. Uh, that is taking a long time.
I don't think the President misled anybody about it. Anyway.

(01:52):
Here is what McCain wanted. He wanted coverage on all
the evening news at cable channels, drive by media adulation, McCaine, McCain, McCain, McCain,
and he got it. Here's a montage. Senator McCain says
that the administration misled the public about the war, led
the public to think it would be a day at
the beach. War of words. Senator John McCain comes out swinging,

(02:14):
accusing the President of misleading the American people, making them
think it would be some kind of day at the beach.
Tough talk. McCain ripped into the administration for painting too
rosie a picture and trying to lead the American people
into believing the war was some kind of day at
the beach. President Bush faces tough criticism, and this comes

(02:36):
from McKay supporter Republican Senator John McCain. McCain blamed the
Bush administration for leading the American people to believe the
war in Iraq would be a day at the beach.
Senator John McCain is turning up the volume on his
criticism of the war in Iraq. McCain blasted top Bush
officials for painting to Rosie a picture in the war
tough talk. One very prominent member of the GOP. Strong

(03:00):
words from John McCain. John McCain has not simply been
a cheerleader. He has told people a lot more the truth.
Senator John McCain hit the administration hard. Could it be
a revival of the straight Talk Express that was? That
was our old friend Claire Shipment at ABC panting away?
Are we going to get this dratark Express back? This

(03:21):
is why Senator McCain is going to have trouble in
the Republican primaries. He is appealing to the the base
instincts of the drive by media. The Republican primary voters
have no love for the drive by media. Anybody pandering
to the drive by media is not somebody the Republican

(03:42):
base is going to be excited about. Then you add
to that the fact that McCain, in pandering to the
drive by media, had to go out and tack the
administration on an area in which the administration shows its
strongest suit. The American people are behind well, that the
Republican base was to stick with them, very much behind
the president in this whole effort. In fact, USA Today

(04:02):
had this poll out yesterday to confirms something that I've
been thinking about for the longest time. Pole has his
approval rating back up to and the excuse according to
the poll, the reason that the approval numbers up is
is that, Uh, the American people loved the response to

(04:24):
recent acts and tempted acts of terrorism. Illustrating one of
my theories that over the course of these recent months,
where his approval numbers have been in the mid to
high thirties, Uh, it's not because people disapprove per se
of the way Bush is doing this or doing that.
It's because they wish people would Republicans anyway, the Pole

(04:46):
wish you would do more Project US power go in
and kick butt and show the world what we're capable
of and end this thing with a stunning victory and
with a pole shooting up to overt two p in
USA today, I think that view tends to be validated
now in all fairness, uh and I want to mention

(05:09):
this to you in in in conjunction with Senator McCain's
pandering to the drive by media and criticizing this administration
for its words about the war in Iraq, ABC last
night had a very rare positive report on ABC's World
News Tonight. Charles Gibson reported encouraging news from Baghdad. The

(05:31):
decision was made to redeploy thousands of US troops from
the Baghdad area from other areas of rock to secure
the city and reduce a number of daily attacks. Well,
the numbers are preliminary, but it seems to be working.
After two weeks I Rocky authorities say that the number
of vital attacks has gone down by thirty percent. ABC
reporters said by saturating some of the most dangerous neighborhoods,

(05:54):
they have reduced violence across Baghdad by almost a third.
US figures calculated differently show it drop either way. The
Americans are fired up. And my quote Lieutenant Patrick Patterson
of the cavalry, who says, yeah, it's been great. We've
got a lot of smiles, We've got a lot of waves. Still,
despite the positive tone, ABC is McArthur concluded, hope has

(06:17):
often gone sour in the rock. If they can't make
their own peace, America's success in Baghdad could quickly be reversed. Well,
that's the new, not new, that's the formulaic balance that
the media has to put an egg or again. All
kinds of great news, but but just so we're fair,
it could all go to hell in a handbasket in

(06:39):
the next five minutes. So on the day, Senator McCain
goes out and uh and is critical in order to
get this this loving slavish attention from the drive by media,
the news out of a rock pretty good. That's almost
the same kind of thing. It happens with Democrats opening
a door right into their noses and so forth. Uh.

(07:00):
And this, as I say, was reported on ABC's World
News Tonight last night. Amy Louisville Open Line Friday on Wednesday, Hello,
Hi Rush negative is from another rush baby. Thank you,
um and I just had a comment quick comment Singer
McCain what he said. I'm a military wife and my
husband went over to Iraq as soon as the war

(07:21):
and as Sissadam fell, and um, I all fail this,
lad at all. He told me. My husband told me
before he went over there that this would be the
hard part. Um, not the actual itself, but the stabilization.
And um, I personally have not heard any President Bush
say anything, but it's going to be a tough road. Well,
you know, look, the lid just something trying to make

(07:42):
a big case out of this, uh bush lode. You
know that the theme is bush lode. So when you
have the banner that says mission accomplished, Bush, Lad, when
Cheney says the insurgency is in its last throws Cheney
laud um what what? What's uh? You know what? What's
continued troubling about this? He is Senator McCain's pandering to

(08:04):
the drive by media at the expense of his own party,
uh and his own president. On the one hand, he's
very supportive of the president, very supportive of the war.
On the other hand, he thinks Rumsfeld because that fits
and dovetails right with where the drive by media is
on Rumsfeld to come out and say that the American
people were misled on this. Why don't you tell us

(08:26):
this at the beginning, senator, Why don't you go when
the President said what he said or said what you
thought he said, or when when when Cheney said what
he said? Why didn't you stop what you were doing,
stand up and say, wait a minute, I don't think
this is right. American people need to be told something else.
Why didn't you come in after the fact with armchair
quarterbacking in hindsight like anybody can do. But we played
for you the montage there, folks, all the coverage McCain got,

(08:49):
and that's what he was angling for. And if he thinks,
if he thinks that this is going to help him
with the Republican base, I'm he's sadly, sadly mistaken. Marty
in Washington, your next. Nice to have you on the program.
Thanks for us pleasure. Listen, everything you're saying about McCain
is right. He was a complete jerk and an idiot

(09:10):
for saying what he did when he did. But you
know now that the elephants on the table. I have
felt this way for a long time. I mean since
I saw those buildings, you know, five years ago, go
down on the TV set, is it? I did not
understand why in the ensuing days and in the past
five years, the president hasn't beat the living daylights out
of this to tell people this is gonna be hard.

(09:30):
It just hasn't come across and and and I don't
know if the fault his I think it is to
a great degree or certainly, as you point out, the
media's traditional media has got its own template on this thing.
But I mean, this is why Democrats are so much
smarter than Republicans. Their pr thing. They always prepare you
for the worst. This is going to have to be
a horrible sacrifice. And if if Butch had done that

(09:51):
when he had the political capital of five years in
the last five years and just hammered, hammered that home
over and over again, and how desperately we need for
our security to have a democracy in Iraq, he I
don't think he'd be having the poll numbers that that
he does. And again, you know, McCain was an idiot
for doing it, But he's just saying something that every

(10:13):
probably everybody in the Republican Party knows. Well, uh yeah,
I think my memory is that when it comes to
the entire war on Terror, which I've always considered a
rock to be part of. I think the President has
gone out of the way to talk about how long
this is going to take, that it's going to go

(10:33):
on longer than his administration. Now, if you separate the
two and think I Rock is different, which is what
what many of the President's opponents do, and say it's
just an isolated little campaign over there that has no
relationship to the war on terror. Uh, then you could say,
you know, the president has come out and specifically said
he has a couple of times. I gave you one
quote from two thousand three, but he said it's going

(10:55):
to be hard. It's not that he hasn't said it.
Your point is he hasn't set it enough. Um Um,
you know it's it's arguable you talk about the Democrats
having great pr by telling people how rotten things are
going to be. I don't know that that's great pr.
I don't think it's uh, you know, a great way
to boost morale of the fighting forces that are over there.

(11:16):
At the same time, he's been great as far as
boosting the morale of the troops. And maybe that's because
he's too good of the commander in chief. But on
the other hand, the downside of that is, you know,
darn well when it drags on, then the public back
at home, the upbeat messages just starting in sync with
what's going on, and I just you know, it's it's
it's it's a problem. He's too principal of a man

(11:37):
to engage in these democratic pr things that they always
seem to win. And now we're paying the price. We're
gonna pay the price. Um, well, are they winning on
what basis? Are you saying they're winning pulling data? Well,
I'm just just pulling data that. Yeah, I'm wait till
November to see if they're winning. I reject that. I

(11:58):
don't think they're winnings. I think that is part of
the mindset that many conservatives had that for forty years,
the Democrats always seem to be Outsmartinus, they always seem
to be a couple of steps ahead of us. There
pr always seemed to be brilliant and coordinated and organized.
I think they're not winning elections these days. There and there,
there there. That party is falling apart, whether anybody wants

(12:20):
to admit it or not. The Democrat Party is falling apart.
The idea that the Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and John
Kerry and Jack Mirtha represent a brilliant pr campaign and team.
I just I reject that, and I don't fall prey
to that. The one thing I do want to talk
about though, before you go, and that is you wish
the President had come out more often and uh and
more forcefully reminding the American people is a worthy cause.

(12:42):
And here's what we're doing. This is why it's gonna
take a long time. We can't level a country because
we're trying to establish a beacon of democracy there. We
need to show the Iraqi people that we have nothing
against them. We're not gonna blow up their buildings, are
not gonna blow up their schools, We're not gonna level
the country. Um. And and thus it's gonna take a
long time. We're battling a number of surgencies and so
forth terrorist actions. Uh, and it's a new kind of warfare.

(13:04):
I would love for that to have happened as well.
But more than that, I would have loved a really
true American projection of power. Had there been a true
American projection of power, had there really been shock and all.
I think the American people would have a little bit
more understanding or patients for this, and apparently the polls

(13:27):
say that they have. I'm glad you called Marty. Thanks
much

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