Rush Limbaugh: I’m Kind Of A Big Deal
Radio host Rush Limbaugh makes it known that he finds himself extremely wise and important.
Limbaugh: “It Ain’t Bragging If You’ve Done It”
Limbaugh: “You Don’t Know What It’s Like To Be Right As Often As I Am.” From the November 8, 2010, edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: I told you I was gonna have fun with this story: “Twinkie Diet Helps Nutrition Professor Lose 27 Pounds.” I love stirring the conventional wisdom pot, as you know. And I love being right. It’s a — folks, it’s a thrill. I have to tell you, you don’t know what it’s like to be right as often as I am, particularly when you’re simply following instincts. When being right really doesn’t have that much to do with formal education. Just being street-wise smart, just having common sense, having the guts to say what you know to be true regardless what the reaction to it is gonna be, and then when it eventually is all proven like “I hope he fails,” all this stuff.
What have I told you about diet and exercise? Exercise is irrelevant. What matters in losing weight is what you eat, pure and simple, and it’s how much, nothing more than that. And everybody tries to tell me I’m wrong, that I don’t know what I’m talking about. And every time a story comes out on this I am validated, and nobody has ever said, “Rush, you know, you were right about this.” [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/8/10]
Limbaugh: “The Center Of The Universe Is Not The RNC. It’s Right Here.” From the July 6, 2010, edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: So, yeah, Steele says things from time to time I disagree with. Sometimes he says things that are even odd. But the center of the universe is not the RNC. It’s right here. The Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
What Steele said is not worth the attention that it’s received. It’s getting it only because the Democrats would love to write the story that Republicans fired a black guy. That’s what they want. The head of the RNC is not the Republican leader. He’s not the conservative leader. That’s me. He is the RNC leader. Members of the Republican National Committee will decide his fate. His term perspires [sic] in January; he’s probably gone. But that’s up to them. [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 7/6/10]
Limbaugh: “Glenn Beck Is A Result Of My Success.” From the October 13, 2009, edition of NBC’s Today:
JAMIE GANGEL (reporter): Glenn Beck. Do you worry about the new guy on the block?
LIMBAUGH: No. 1988, I’m the only national conservative voice. Now look at conservative media. Look what I have spawned. Glenn Beck to me is right on, daddy-o. Glenn Beck is a result of my success. [NBC’s Today, 10/13/09]
Limbaugh: “In My Heart And Soul, I Know I Have Become The Intellectual Engine Of The Conservative Movement.” From a July 6, 2008, New York Times article profiling Limbaugh:
For his part, Limbaugh sees himself as a thinker as well as showman. “I take the responsibility that comes with my show very seriously,” he told me. “I want to persuade people with ideas. I don’t walk around thinking about my power. But in my heart and soul, I know I have become the intellectual engine of the conservative movement.” [New York Times, 7/6/08]
Limbaugh: “I Sold Nine Million Books Without Ever Doing A Signing.” From the February 1 edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: The Haney Project, and I’m going to address this. The next episode’s tonight at nine o’clock — and, by the way, thank you because the rating numbers have built every week. Golf Channel told me, “We’re used to maybe after two weeks they start going the other way.” I said, “No, they’re gonna keep building here.” “What, are you gonna do more interviews?” “No, I’m not gonna do any interviews.” I sold nine million books without ever doing a signing. I didn’t do one interview for either of those nine million books. [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 2/1/11]
Limbaugh: My Golf Teacher Says He’s “Never Seen This Much Improvement.” From the February 1 edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: So after tonight I hope I don’t get any more questions, “Well, is he helping you?” Because that’s all I’ve gotten. And of course we’ve only got one episode left to shoot. You’ve only seen three, but there are five more. We shot two in LA over the weekend with Al Michaels with one of them, and then me and Haney in the other. Now, no, no, no, no, we’re not doing the last one in China. I’m not gonna tell you where the last one is done, we’ll draw a crowd, I’m not into that. No, no, no. It’s gonna be done in a foreign country, but it isn’t gonna be done in China. Now, I’ve told you all along, episode five — episode five is the gold standard, episode five you don’t want to miss. Tonight’s episode leads into episode five. Tonight you’ll see me playing better with Rosow. This leads into next Tuesday’s episode in the Bahamas where — just don’t miss that one. Then the next one after that, don’t miss that one. Episodes five and six, do not miss.
I’m saying this before I’ve seen them edited, but they’re gonna have to really screw up the editing to make these look bad, because it was — these are home run episodes. And then episode seven we just finished taping and based on what happened there, don’t miss that one. So tonight is the fourth episode, the halfway point is the first time that anybody’s going to see — and I’ll give you just a little indication. Next episode in the Bahamas, a week from tonight, Haney says — I don’t know if it makes the cut, I don’t know if it makes the show, he says, “I have never had, I have never seen this much improvement when I haven’t been around.” Well, that’s unfortunate because their cameras haven’t been around at the time so — but it’s all going to start coming together here, folks. [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 2/1/11]
Limbaugh: Everybody Supported Obama But Then “There Came One Voice. It Belonged To Me.” From the January 21, 2010, broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: I’m very uncomfortable with me being the issue, but I have been a lot of this year. And this is one of those things if I don’t say it, it won’t be said, and this one is fundamentally true. There are four things that went wrong. And the first one, the first one: Five days before he was immaculated, I said, “I hope he fails.” That burst this messianic, celebrity-tard bubble that Obama was in. Up until that time, everybody — every Republican, every Democrat, everybody in the political class — had censored themselves and were talking about the historic nature and how we must drop all partisanship. We must all work together to help this historic president succeed in his job.
And there came one voice. It belonged to me, El Rushbo, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling Maharushi. I simply said, “I don’t like his policies. They are going to destroy the country as we know it. I hope he fails,” and that took away all of the gilding. That took away all of the stars. That took away all of the celebrity that forced him into a political bubble, even before he was immaculated. Had that not been said the rest of these three things might not have gone wrong. Had I joined the fray and had I come before you on this program and behind this microphone and had I said, “Folks, we’ve got to stand down. This is too important for the country. This is too historic. We cannot afford for this president to fail. We must –” not only would I have lost over half of you forever, but we probably would have health care today. We probably would have cap-and-trade by now. Maybe not on cap-and-trade because the Climategate thing. And you never know. I mean, the Tea Party people and the town hall people might have been able to stop health care on their own. I’m not saying I was a singular player here, but there was only one person who dared treat this president as any other president is treated — as a political figure. [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 1/21/10, emphasis added]
Limbaugh Responds To Gallup Poll On Attitudes Toward Global Warming: “The Nation Is Thanking Me.” From the March 11, 2010, edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: Great news, folks, and, you know, I gotta pat myself on the back here for this one. “Gallup’s annual update on Americans’ attitudes toward the environment shows a public that over the last two years has become less worried about the threat of global warming, less convinced that its effects are already happening, and more likely to believe that scientists themselves are uncertain about the occurrence.” I mean, folks, I have led the charge on this for well over 20 years. The nation is thanking me. The numbers are pretty big here, more and more people are now figuring out that this thing is, well, not a hoax yet, but over-exaggerated to the point that they don’t believe it anymore.
Climategate, all the stuff at East Anglia, all the fraud uncovered at the UN has gone virtually unreported in this country because of Marxist journalism theory. So I say, who is responsible for this dramatic turnaround in what Americans think about global warming? I love the headline that goes with the story: “Americans’ Global Warming Concerns Continue to Drop.” So the American people getting the facts on Al Gore’s fraud, his scam, and the big lie. [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 3/11/10]
Limbaugh Takes Credit For MA Senate Election, Stalling Health Care Reform, Cap And Trade — But It’s Not “An Ego Thing.” From the February 10, 2010, edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: I know this sounds like an ego thing, it’s not. I’m trying to make a point here. Imagine if I had gone with the flow and said, “OK, he’s a new president, deserves a honeymoon, we gotta give him a chance.” That was the Republican call to arms, that was the conservative intellectual call to arms. We’ve gotta give him a chance. He’s a centrist, he’s well spoken, we gotta give this guy’s ideas a chance. I was the most public opponent to all this. What if I had gone along? If I had gone along, I don’t know where we would be. Would we have gotten health care in August? Well, that’s arguable, Snerdley. I don’t know that we would have. We might have had cap-and-trade. Would there have been a Scott Brown? Because, you know, the grassroots from which came the tea party, they were out there, too. They weren’t buying any of this. They weren’t going to give Obama a pass, and look where we are now.
And I consider myself a grassroots person. I’m not a political aficionado in some media capital. I’m a guy on the radio who has closer ties with the people who make this country work than I have with politicos, politicians, intellectuals and effete snobs in Washington and New York. [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 2/10/10]
Limbaugh: “I Have No Competitors”; “Things Only Take Off When I Mention Them.” From the July 2008 New York Times article:
Limbaugh has a deeply conflicted attitude toward Sean Hannity, his one-time stand in and now perpetual No. 2 on the Talkers list. He speaks of the younger man with the same condescending affection that Muhammad Ali once showed Jimmy Ellis, a former sparring partner turned challenger. But he wanted me to remember who is the Greatest. “I have no competitors,” he said. “Hannity isn’t even close to me.”
Hannity became a touchy issue in the late spring. For more than a year he was on what appeared to be a quixotic campaign to raise the issue of Obama’s controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Then the story exploded. Not only that, Hannity also led the pack on Obama’s connection to the former Weatherman leader William Ayers. Operation Chaos was still garnering attention and amusing listeners, but the election news was being made elsewhere.
From New York, I sent Limbaugh a teasing e-mail message: “Hannity has been first and hardest on the Reverend Wright controversy and the Bill Ayers thing. Is it possible that he is running a separate Operation Chaos with superior intel?”
Limbaugh didn’t dispute that Hannity was first on the Wright and Ayers controversies. But, he wrote: “Things only take off when I mention them. That is the point.” [New York Times, 7/6/08]
Limbaugh: Republicans Are “Probably All Waiting For My Next Leadership Step To See Where I’m Going To Take Them.” From the February 19, 2010, edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: By the way, did Romney give old El Rushbo a shout out in his CPAC speech yesterday? Well, folks, it is now safe to talk about Obama and failure. You know, I own the words fail, failure and failed. I mean, I’m the one — courageously, I might add — that introduced them into the political world little over a year ago when it comes to Obama. And here’s the AP story: Republican Mitt Romney blistering President Obama for a squandered inaugural year filled with policy failures, broken promises. He blames Obama for failing the American people. He said that’s why Democrats will lose the majority come this fall. Well, you notice now, my friends, how easy it is for Republicans to use the word failure? See how this works? This is called being on the cutting edge. And they’re probably all waiting for my next leadership step to see where I’m going to take them. [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 2/19/10]
Limbaugh: “I Am So Rarely Wrong.” From the March 2, 2010, edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: Yes, I know, the gun control bill is about Chicago. Snerdley tells me he’s getting spammed. See, this is what happens — a minor, a minor — this is verbal dyslexia. It’s insignificant. Where is Chicago? It’s in Illinois. It’s a Chicago gun ban. I know this. I am so rarely wrong, I’m not allowed to be wrong. When I make the tiniest of faux pas — not even a factual error — the tiniest of faux pas, it is like a tsunami sucking the water off the beach. People call, “you tell him” [unintelligible]. Snerdley puts a little note in the box, “I’m getting spammed in here, would you please correct it so I can get back to my job?” So that’s what I’m doing. [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 3/2/10]
Limbaugh: “It Ain’t Bragging If You’ve Done It.” During the January 21, 2010, broadcast of his radio show, Limbaugh stated:
LIMBAUGH: Now, you know that I have manners. I was raised properly with a great set of core values, and one of those is to not brag. And, of course, it ain’t bragging if you’ve done it. It ain’t bragging if you can do it. I think it was Babe Ruth who said that. But as you know, I do not like talking about myself. I’m very uncomfortable with that. [Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show, 1/21/10]
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