RUSH: Mitt Romney last night in Schaumburg, Illinois, at his campaign headquarters after his win in the Illinois primary. And I just want to remind you that not long ago you were calling, writing, "Rush, this long Republican primary, it's killing us! Because none of these guys are any good and they're incompetent and it's just killing us. And the press is beating them up." I said, "No, no, no, no. No, no, no. A long primary is fine. It's a great vetting process. It's the rules anyway. There's no changing it midstream now. It's conservatism on display, and whoever wins this is gonna have to nudged to the right in order to win it."
And that is happening as evidenced by Romney's acceptance speech last night. And remember, it was Daniel Henninger and his Wall Street Journal piece last year who pointed out that Romney doesn't naturally reside in the conservative right, but he's gonna have to be nudged there. And this long primary process has done that, at least as far as Romney's public statements. What he really thinks, we'll find out. In fact, Cookie, did we ever get that CNN sound bite that I asked for this morning? Is it at the bottom of the news stack? Okay. I'll find that. Here comes Romney from last night. See what you think of these.
ROMNEY: The simple truth is that this president doesn't understand the genius of America's economy or the secret of the American economic success story. The American economy is fueled by freedom.
SUPPORTERS: (applause)
ROMNEY: The history of the world has shown that economic freedom is the only force that has consistently lifted people out of poverty. It's the only principle that has ever been able to sustain prosperity. But over the last three years, this administration has been engaged in an all-out assault on our freedom.
RUSH: The crowd ate it up. We hope he means it. Watching it last night, that's how I reacted: "This is good. This is good." I turned to Kathryn and said, "This is his best victory speech yet. I just hope he means it." Here's the next bite...
ROMNEY: Under Barack Obama, those pioneers he mentioned would have faced a very difficult time trying to innovative and invent and invest and create and build jobs. You see, under Dodd-Frank, they would have found it almost impossible to get a loan from their community bank. And, of course, the regulators would have shut down the Wright Brothers for dust pollution.
SUPPORTERS: (laughter)
ROMNEY: You know? (chuckles) And of course the government would have banned Thomas Edison's light bulb. Oh, by the way, they just did, didn't they? Right now! Yeah.
SUPPORTERS: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: I mean, it's right there. Even the people on the other side of the glass here at the EIB Southern Command are smiling and laughing at this. That's dead-on right. "[R]egulators would have shut down the Wright Brothers for dust pollution [and] the government would have banned Thomas Edison's light bulb. Oh, by the way, they just did." Here's the next one...
ROMNEY: Every great innovation, every world-changing business breakthrough, begins with a dream, and nothing is more fragile than a dream. The genius of America is that we nurture those dreams and the dreamers. We honor them. And, yes, we reward them. That's part of what's uniquely brilliant about America. But day by day -- job-killing regulation by job-killing regulation, bureaucrat by bureaucrat -- this president is crushing the dream and the dreamers, and I will make sure that finally ends.
