This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the same old song and dance
By Simon Maloy

Rush got the second hour rolling by noting that on July 5, Vice President Joe Biden said that the Obama administration and everyone else had misread the economy. So not only does Rush have nothing new to say, he wants to talk about things that happened a week ago. It must have been tough for him to get through his entire vacation without weighing in on Biden's comment like he did on Sarah Palin's unexpected resignation as Alaska governor. Anyway, Rush then noted that Obama said that the stimulus plan, as Bloomberg reported, is working “as intended.” If it's working as intended, said Rush, then we have to assume that 9.5 percent unemployment was intended. And Obama means it when he says that it's working as intended. Rush warned us that what he was about to say is “shocking” -- the circumstances which Obama intended are exactly why Rush wanted Obama to fail. It is Rush's firm belief -- because no one is this economically illiterate -- that they're doing this on purpose. They're depleting the private sector. He wants more chaos. And, said Rush, Obama “apologized for this country again” in Russia, saying that “we had nothing to do with the Cold War.” Yeah, yeah, Obama wants chaos, wants to destroy the country, apologized for America, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. And Rush still thinks this is “shocking”? We've heard this rant so many, many times before, we're not sure it still qualifies as “shocking.”

And by the way, Obama didn't “apologize” in Russia, nor did he say that the United States “had nothing to do with the Cold War.” Here's what he actually said: “I think that it is very important in this part of the world to acknowledge the degree to which people struggled for their own freedom. I'm very proud of the traditions of Democratic and Republican presidents to lift the Iron Curtain. But, you know, we don't have to diminish other people in order to recognize our role in that history.”

After the break, Rush returned to Obama's statement that the administration hadn't “misread” the economy, but rather that it had “incomplete information.” Government and politicians always have incomplete information, said Rush, but they think they know everything, and that's why big government is always a failure. We already know the stimulus has failed in its stated purpose, said Rush, so how in the world can we trust these people to handle health care? Obama doesn't want any of this to work, and Rush said he knows that seems like a “radical” thing to say and is hard to believe, but there's no other explanation because no one is so economically illiterate to think that what they're proposing will actually work.

Rush's first caller thought that the administration is getting the American people “psyched up” to “run for cover,” and then repeated Rush's claim that Obama wants his policies to fail. Rush said on health care, the Democrats have proposed a tax on the wealthy to pay for health care. How many taxes on the wealthy can we have? As far as the stimulus goes, said Rush, only 6 percent has been spent, and the money that's been spent thus far has gone to state governments to help deal with their deficits. The majority doesn't get spent until 2010, an election year.

Another break and Rush came back saying that CNN aired a portion of Anderson Cooper's interview with Obama, and Cooper asked him why, if they had incomplete information on the economy when the stimulus was passed, would he not have done anything differently. Obama said that the stimulus is a two-year plan and is working exactly as anticipated, but the enormous loss of wealth from the recession may require some re-evaluation. If they do a second stimulus, said Rush, there should be no doubt that they are trying to kill the economy. It's patently obvious what's going on, it's just going to take some people pointing out who's responsible for it.

Then Rush cited RedState.com in noting that Tim Geithner said last week that what the economy “is going through is a very necessary and healthy adjustment.” Rush wanted to know how 9.5 percent unemployment is necessary or healthy. Rush then took a call from a young man who disagreed with Rush's thesis that Obama is trying to destroy the economy. Rush yelled at him for a few minutes about the stock market, and then he told us a story -- on his golfing vacation, he asked the course designers who was investing in these golf courses. They're coming from California, they said. They're leaving because California is going down the tubes. That's all well and good, said Rush, but where do you go when the federal government is out of control? Rush also noticed that every car he saw when he was at these golf communities was an SUV, and he thought that there's no way Obama is going to get these people to give these cars up. But he's going to try, he said, make no mistake.

There's so much economic misery across the country, but there's nothing being done to improve it. Instead, Obama is throwing up roadblocks. Look at Tim Geithner -- he thinks losing your job is healthy.

Coming back from the break, Rush had a question for us: How many of us think the economy is not that bad? Rush then wanted to know if we remember last spring when gasoline hit $4/gallon. He said that we heard every day on cable news how $4/gallon gasoline was ruining people's lives. But now we're in a recession worse than any we've seen since 1982, and none of these hard-luck stories are in the media. We've heard this one before, too. And once again, we see that Rush came back from an entire week off without one original thing to say.

Rush closed out the hour with a call from a woman who said she was in Sonia Sotomayor's 1972 high school graduation class, and Leahy's comment about Sotomayor not having access to the classics was wrong because they read Shakespeare and the Brontë sisters. Rush said: “All right, you are telling me that you had to take Shakespeare, that you had to read Emily Bronte. Well, those are -- [m]aybe those are not the classics that -- maybe the classics are Marx and Hegel.” From there, Rush entered into an extended discussion of what constitutes a “classic” piece of literature, with Orwell's works and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest failing to make Professor Limbaugh's cut.

Greg Lewis and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 2

“Socialism” watch

LIMBAUGH: All right, you are telling me that you had to take Shakespeare --

CALLER: Yes.

LIMBAUGH: -- that you had to read Emily Bronte.

CALLER: Yes.

LIMBAUGH: Well, those are --

CALLER: Absolutely.

LIMBAUGH: Maybe those are not the classics that -- maybe the classics are Marx and Hegel.

America's Truth Rejector

Falsely claimed Obama said the United States “had nothing to do with the Cold War”:

LIMBAUGH: It's really not even a question of wanting Obama to fail; he has failed -- not the way I wanted him to fail. He's succeeded in his mind. He has succeeded. This is my whole point. This is a man with a chip on his shoulder. This is a man who seeks to get even. He apologized for this country again on this latest trip.

He said we had nothing to do with the Cold War; that we had nothing to do with anything. No, no, no, we had -- this is after apologizing. And I just -- I believe this man has as his intention to cut this country down to size.