Rush Limbaugh Remarks to Conservatives

Feb 28, 2009

American Conservative Union Conservative Political Action Conference

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh spoke to conservative activists about the future of the conservative movement and Republican Party. In his remarks he criticized the Obama administration's economic proposals and suggested that the conservative movement might benefit from the president's failure. He also spoke about developing political .. Read More
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh spoke to conservative activists about the future of the conservative movement and Republican Party. In his remarks he criticized the Obama administration's economic proposals and suggested that the conservative movement might benefit from the president's failure. He also spoke about developing political strategies and a voice for the conservative movement in the next several years. This speech was given at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which was sponsored by the American Conservative Union at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

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TRANSCRIPT

TIME SPEAKER TEXT
00:02:52 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all very, very much. Thank you all. I can't tell you how wonderful...

00:05:02 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Now, I have someone in back taking phone numbers. In fact, I would like to introduce to you my security...

00:06:13 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

And that I am arrogant. Neither of these things are remotely true. I can tell you a joke to illustrate...

00:06:43 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

"No, he's got a lot of time yet, Mr. King." So Saint Peter begins the tour. Larry King sees the various...

00:07:10 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

And Larry King looks at Saint Peter and says: "I thought you said he wasn't here."

00:07:12 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

"He said, he's not, he's not. This is God's room. He just thinks he's Rush Limbaugh."[Laughter] [Applause]

00:07:29 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

So you see I'm not pompous. [Laughter]

00:07:35 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Now, seriously, for those of you watching on C-SPAN as well, and on Fox, I want to tell you who we...

00:08:06 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Let me tell you who we conservatives are: We love people. [Applause] When we look out over the United...

00:09:25 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals....

00:10:59 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

We don't want to tell anybody how to live. That's up to you. If you want to make the best of yourself,...

00:11:32 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

We love the people of this country. And we want this to be the greatest country it can be, but we...

00:12:19 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

We don't hate anybody. We don't -- I mean, the racism in this country, if you ask me, I know many...

00:12:59 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

It was not us asking whether Barack Obama was authentic. What we were asking is: Is he wrong? We...

00:14:04 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

You know why? We want the country to succeed, and for the country to succeed, its people -- its individuals...

00:14:40 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Well. Take a look, someone has to say this -- I am thrilled for the opportunity to say it in my first...

00:15:55 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

For those of you just tuning in on the Fox News Channel or C-SPAN, I'm Rush Limbaugh and I want everyone...

00:17:58 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

For example, we gather here -- I understand that. I talked to David and Lisa in the super exclusive...

00:19:20 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Now, let me speak about President Obama for just a second. President Obama is one of the most gifted...

00:21:50 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

The freedom we spoke of earlier is the freedom, it's the ambition, it's the desire, the wherewithal,...

00:24:08 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Have you ever called to complain about whatever they do? They say, yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags...

00:25:06 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

They don't have the right to take money that's not theirs, from the back pockets of producers, and...

00:25:44 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

President Obama is so busy trying to foment and create anger in a created atmosphere of crisis, he...

00:26:24 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

What's the longest war in American history? Did somebody say the war on poverty? Smart group. War...

00:28:02 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Ladies and gentlemen, there ought not be any poverty except those who are genuinely ill equipped....

00:28:50 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

George Will once asked Dr. Friedrich Von Hayek, tremendous classical economist, great man, 1975, George...

00:29:42 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

They don't care about paying for it. All that's just words. All that's just rhetoric paying for it...

00:30:48 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Congressman Frank's definition of affordable housing is you get a house you don't have to pay for...

00:32:24 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

So what liberals do, and I say this again to the -- another thing, I know people in the country are...

00:34:32 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Now, let a conservative say something like that and he's brought up before John Conyers' committee...

00:36:00 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

They're the people that hire you. They're the people that are going to give you a job. They're the...

00:38:32 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Now, this is not prosperity. It is not going to engender prosperity. It's not going to create prosperity...

00:41:09 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

(Crowd chanting "USA")

00:41:24 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

It is not their task, it is not their right to remake this nation to accommodate their psychology....

00:42:21 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

I have learned how to tweak liberals everywhere. I do it instinctively now. Tweak them in the media....

00:42:56 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Well, the one thing, and there are many, but one thing that we can all do is stop assuming that the...

00:44:23 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Remember, they covered the Lewinsky thing, so that's my -- bipartisanship occurs only after one other...

00:45:50 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Where is the compromise between good and evil? Should Jesus have cut a different deal? Serious....

00:46:47 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

The American people -- it's a tough challenge. I admit -- I admit it's a tough challenge, but it's...

00:48:23 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

They're going to overreach. At some point, at some point people have got to realize none of this is...

00:49:46 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

So you say how is he getting it done? Dumb down public education. Emotions. And the ongoing -- this...

00:51:02 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

John Kerry [Boos], who served in Vietnam. [Laughter] Think about this, and, by the way, Barney Frank...

00:52:04 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

And we find out they hired some liberals to entertain, but it still wasn't good enough. They hired...

00:53:10 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Sad thing, sad thing is it works. They've created class envy in so many average Americans that they...

00:53:46 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

But all of a sudden John Thain's thrown out. John Thain is thrown out. He's humiliated and embarrassed;...

00:54:36 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

If you ask yourself this, you'll realize your life is no better off. That the Democrats and Obama...

00:55:27 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Now let's talk about the conservative movement as it were. We, ladies and gentlemen, have challenges...

00:57:10 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

For the purposes of this occasion, I'm not going to mention any names, I bet with you I won't have...

00:57:50 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

And that we needed to adapt our appeal, because, after all, what's important in politics is winning...

00:59:14 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

We have to. You see, to me it's a no-brainer. It's not even something to me: How do you get rid of...

01:01:01 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Conservatism -- for us to make the decision that we've got to figure out policies, to get the Walmart...

01:03:12 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

That's not why they invited Senator McCain. They invited Senator McCain because he happened to be...

01:05:04 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

I loved it when the Soviet Union went down and the wall went down and the liberals in our country...

01:05:48 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

By the way, explain that to you. This is a funny story. Show you how I can hijack a news cycle even...

01:06:44 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

So as I'm flying home from lunch, I'm watching television and I see that the word has leaked out that...

01:07:30 CROWD

No!

01:07:32 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Hell, no. His purpose -- and his purpose really wasn't to change theirs -- his purpose was to anoint...

01:09:16 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Conservatives are naturally happy. We seek happiness. We pursue it. It's part of who we are. So what...

01:10:16 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Don't go the Oprah route and say gotta be friends with my parents, my kids, first and foremost. Understand...

01:11:44 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Have any of you seen the movie -- I'd never heard of it, but I happened to get a DVD the other day....

01:13:22 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Joe Biden, ladies and gentlemen, was watching CBS -- when did you start here? Thursday. You might...

01:15:38 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Two other things and we'll get out of here contractually over time. The president's stimulus package,...

01:17:57 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

It didn't take long for people to get fired up when they figured out that they're going to be paying...

01:18:38 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

[Applause]

01:18:52 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

As I say, we want the best: Happiness for everybody. Now, about my still-to-me mysteriously controversial...

01:19:59 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

This notion that I want the President to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we've got....

01:20:29 CROWD

Yes!

01:20:30 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

They certainly did. They not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure. There's...

01:21:42 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

Let me add a caveat here. My friends, I know what's going on. I know what's going on. We're in the...

01:22:53 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

I want the country to survive as we have known it, as you and I were raised in it, is what I mean....

01:23:24 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

I mean, there's some people you can't say you want the President to fail. Ladies and gentlemen of...

01:24:53 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

So as you leave here, as you leave here optimism, confidence, not guilt, it's not worth it. There's...

01:25:51 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

In fact, for those of you watching my first national address and still hanging in there, we really...

01:26:31 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

I want to thank all of you so much for everything that you have meant to me and my family in my life.

01:26:40 Limbaugh, RushTalk Show Host

I understand it's mutual. And I hear people -- you have made my heart grow so much that it barely...

01:28:29 Unidentified Speaker

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