Last Wednesday and Thursday, the Fox News Channel aired Sean Hannity's interview with conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

As many readers may have missed either all or part of these segments, both are herein presented for your review.

What follows are videos from both nights embedded below the fold along with full transcripts:

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Rush Limbaugh has been the focus of the political world of recent months. He has been viciously attacked by the left and even criticized by so-called members of the Republican Party like Colin Powell.

I sat down with Rush earlier today to get his thoughts on all the criticism that he has faced and his reaction to Obama's Muslim nation comment. And also his thoughts on the country's turn toward socialism.

Here is part one of my exclusive interview with nationally syndicated radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: Rush, great to see you.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, TALK SHOW HOST: Great to see you, Sean. Welcome to paradise.

HANNITY: It is paradise. You look great. I was last here in February.

LIMBAUGH: Right. I weighed 290 in February. And it was fun, believe me. It was fun getting here.

(LAUGHTER)

It really was. It got to be too much. So I've lost 58 pounds now and I'm at 232, so I figure 32 more to go. I want to look like you.

HANNITY: Because I work out a lot like your brother so...

LIMBAUGH: I don't work out at all. I play golf and that's it.

HANNITY: Listen, you've been commenting a lot on your show about state-run media. You actually used the phrase, "I have become an American pinata."

LIMBAUGH: Yes.

HANNITY: The new game in the beltway is to bash Rush. You're in the news almost every day. What's going on?

LIMBAUGH: Well, I think it's primarily because the Republican Party or the - whatever - the opposition to Obama has not surfaced politically in Washington. It's thus - you know, those of us who are consistent on the radio or on television criticizing, we become the focus. For whatever reason, the Republican Party - at any level - has chosen not to take Obama on and chosen not to try to attach him to any of the disastrous things that he's doing.

I do. And of course, Liberals need a villain. They need a demon. They can't win a debate in the arena of ideas. They need a demon and they need somebody to villainies and demonize and I'm it. And I'm happy to be.

HANNITY: But apparently there's even focus group that it was polled by Greenberg and Carville and the rest of these guys...

LIMBAUGH: Yes. You know what? Here's the way I look at that. I'm a guy on the radio. I can't raise anybody's taxes. I can't send anybody's kids off to war. I can't take over General Motors. I can't do anything. I can't exert control over one other person's life - I can't. And yet they're polling me.

I take this is a major career achievement. They are polling me as though I am a legitimate political figure seeking office. So the result of the poll, whatever the approval number is, is irrelevant to me.

HANNITY: Your ratings have never been higher.

LIMBAUGH: No, they haven't. And - you know, we're not having a recession on our business side either.

HANNITY: I agree.

LIMBAUGH: So they can do all they want to try to make me this demon and villain. But to me, it's a major career achievement to be polled as though I'm a political figure that can change people's lives with power.

I mean, I can change their lives with inspiration or influence. But I have no power over anybody.

HANNITY: All right. So last time I'm here, I asked you this question that ended up - people talked about it for how many months. And the question was: Obama and your views, they're the antithesis. And I said, all right, so do you want him to succeed? You gave a very long answer that got reduced to "Rush wants Obama to fail."

LIMBAUGH: Right.

HANNITY: Which wasn't what you said.

LIMBAUGH: Well, in a sense it was - but it was. I don't hide from it. I do want and I still want Obama to fail.

Let me try it this way. And I've seen your interviews with that great guy from the U.K. - what's his name?

HANNITY: Hannan.

LIMBAUGH: Right. And I have all these other people - the Republicans will say, well that's a horrible thing. We don't want the president of the United States to fail. We want our president to succeed.

OK. You want him to succeed.

Does that mean you want Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court? Does that mean you want the government running the mortgage business in America, having control over most of the banking system? Do you want the government making automobiles that nobody wants to buy? Because that's Obama succeeding.

If you want the president, Barack Obama, to succeed then you want the government taking over more and more of the average daily life of the American people.

I don't want that. I define America succeeding by virtue of Obama failing.

I love America. I want everybody to succeed. He's making it harder for that to happen, particularly, Sean, the middle class.

We can talk about what he plans to do to the rich, the people who make $250,000 or more. But he's closing off the American dream to people. It's the middle class in this country that historically has made this the greatest country on Earth because of their pursuit for the American dream - however they define it.

Their pursuit of excellence, trying to be the best they can be, working hard, and to move themselves up the economic ladder. He's just shut that off.

HANNITY: It's interesting here. But you were very clear. You had said if he adds Reagan to FDR.

LIMBAUGH: Right.

HANNITY: And to Lincoln, that - a lot of context and texture now has evolved. A lot of the things you're saying.

LIMBAUGH: Right.

HANNITY: He's apologizing for America's arrogance. He's taken over car companies. They want to dictate CEO pay. All of these things have been unfolding.

LIMBAUGH: Right.

HANNITY: Socialism is America, the Obama vision for America.

LIMBAUGH: And fascism. We must not be afraid to use that word either. It's a combination of the two.

No, I don't back away from anything I've said about President Obama and his policies and his plans. I don't know him personally. I don't wish him ill as a human being. But he's my president. He's all of our president. His ideas and his policies matter.

I can't remember who said this, but you know this is something that I've thought long and hard about repeating in this interview with you: If Al Qaeda wants to demolish the America we know and love, they'd better hurry because Obama's beating them to it.

He wants to impose his values on America. He's running around apologizing for the country.

Sean, I'm telling you, this guy has grown up - he was taught that there's something inherently immoral and unjust about America. And now that he leads it, he thinks it's great. Finally, America is moral. Finally, America is just. And it's his duty to run around the world and apologize because he thinks, he's been taught that everybody around the world hates us and doesn't like us to the degree that he doesn't like the country the way it was constituted.

HANNITY: Well, he said - when he went to France, that's when he first used the term "America is arrogant." He goes to Prague, talks about a world vision, a world without nuclear weapons. The morning after, hours after, North Korea fires a missile over Japan. Chavez, Ortega - sits through a 55-minute diatribe.

LIMBAUGH: OK, stop right there. Two things.

HANNITY: Yes.

LIMBAUGH: Two things: First the nuke business.

HANNITY: Yes.

LIMBAUGH: It's OK for Iran to have nuclear power. It's OK for the North Koreans to have nuclear power, as long as neither nation makes a bomb out of it; right?

Well, what are we doing? We're going to windmills. We're going solar power. We're going to build little lawnmowers with two seats on them that nobody wants to drive at his direction. We're letting the rest of the world go nuclear and we can't because of a single movie, "The China Syndrome"?

Hugo Chavez - you don't know this today because you got in late last night, and you've had to prepare for this interview - Hugo Chavez, a story just broke this morning made a joke. He said: "Fidel Castro and I, if we're not careful, are going to end up to the right of Obama."

HANNITY: Wow.

LIMBAUGH: This guy has nationalized General Motors. I mean, Hugo Chavez is praising Obama as being further left than he, Chavez, is. Now, there's a running competition. You can keep a chart here of who's nationalizing more, Obama or Chavez.

Now you could say Chavez has nationalized more businesses, but the ones that Obama is in the process of taking over are probably worth more. So it's probably neck and neck.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: And coming up, more of my exclusive interview with Rush Limbaugh. Plus the same president who insists our country is not a Christian nation is now calling us a Muslim nation?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: More of my exclusive interview with Rush Limbaugh straight ahead. Plus we have the outrageous video of John Murtha erupting when a reporter asked him to address the latest charges of corruption against him.

And President Obama has said the U.S. is no longer a Christian nation. And now that his worldwide apology tour is continuing in the Mideast, he says we are one of the world's largest Muslim nations.

Really? Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: We continue now with more of my interview with Rush Limbaugh:

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: You've been in the middle of this running dialogue, let's say, with Colin Powell, and he's saying, "No, Rush isn't going to get his way." I thought that the Republicans had their moderate candidate in the last election.

Conservatives didn't win the nomination, it was John McCain, who was a moderate, who Colin Powell said he liked and now Colin Powell is mad at you. Colin Powell voted for Obama.

LIMBAUGH: Yes - again, this is something that somebody smarter than I am is going to have to explain to me. How is it that all of these quasi-conservatives and Republicans are running around oh, my gosh, we've got to keep Colin Powell in our party.

Would somebody tell me what Colin Powell has done for the party? Name an issue that he has championed for Republican Party. I can't think of one. Name anything Obama is doing that Colin Powell has disagreed with. I can't think of one.

You're right. Colin Powell endorsed - strategically - at a point in the campaign to destroy the McCain campaign, endorsed Obama. Why in the world do we need somebody who lovingly voted Democrat, endorsed the Democrat, after the Republican Party nominated the classically moderate candidate, Colin Powell says this party needs to nominate?

Well, we've got to get the Hispanic vote, Rush. We - that's why we can't be too hard on Sotomayor. Right. Well, we had a president and a presidential candidate author amnesty for illegals. And that didn't get us the Hispanic vote, did it?

So pray tell, what in the world has Colin Powell ever done for the Republican Party that makes him so valuable?

HANNITY: How do you go - my question for him is, how do you go from supporting Reagan - whose values are the antithesis of Obama's - or even W, to supporting the socialism, the world view of Barack Obama?

LIMBAUGH: I have the answer. I have all the answers, and I'll explain them to you.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: OK. That's why we're asking the questions. Go ahead.

(LAUGHTER)

LIMBAUGH: Colin Powell, I think, is trying to - and he's succeeded now - re-ingratiate himself with the Washington/New York establishment. I think two things were a factor in his endorsement of Obama.

First one is race, clearly. Nobody has the guts to say that, but I mean what else could it be because we just discussed the ideal moderate Republican candidate was nominated, and Powell is off to (INAUDIBLE) to support Obama, so race is clearly a factor.

But also and very close to this, I think Powell is humiliated over the fact he was sent to the United Nations to make the case for weapons of mass destruction and then none were found.

And I think he's profoundly embarrassed about that and his life since has been about rehabilitating himself and his image with the people who hated the Iraq war, who mock Bush on weapons of mass destruction, so this is about a legacy. This is about Powell trying to rehab himself with the people that matter most to him, the D.C. establishments.

So those are the two explanations. It's not about issues.

HANNITY: Sotomayor, about her, and we know - we all know the quote about what she said about Latina women with the richness of their experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male.

You said those comments absolutely disqualify her and it made a lot of news, quote, "reverse racism," because you said that's reverse racism.

Why don't you expand?

LIMBAUGH: And I got a little grief from people for saying that there's no such thing as reverse racism, just call her a racist, so - and they're right. That is a racist thing to say and it's bigoted. And she would bring, no question about it, racism and bigotry to the court, if she is confirmed.

But, Sean, I've been thinking about this, and there's something else going on with Sonia Sotomayor. We don't know what she thinks about Roe versus Wade. She hasn't said. Now we know that she's Catholic. We know that she's Puerto Rican - Hispanic Catholic. They tend to be devout.

She has no record. She hasn't said much about it. If, and I'm speaking for me personally, if I learned, if I could be assured, that she is actually a pro-life person and does think that Roe versus Wade is bad constitutional law, and if she would rule on the right side on the life issue, I might look past this racism and even deal with that, but that's something very, very important to me, and she could be stealth in that regard.

And I know that - well, there's no record. Normally most liberals, they love to tell you how pro-choice they are and abortion. She doesn't have any of that.

HANNITY: She is a reflection of Obama's racial identity.

LIMBAUGH: Absolutely. I think Obama wants his mirror image on the court. He wants a radical on the court. Obama talks about the Constitution in terms of he's constrained by it. And numerous speeches he's said Al Qaeda not constrained by the Constitution. He has referred to the Constitution as a charter of negative rights.

Now when you and I hear that, how in the world can the Constitution be negative? To him the Constitution doesn't spell out what government can do. The Constitution limits government. He doesn't like that.

I think he wants, and he's said on many occasions, that the court needs to take - he hadn't done enough on redistribution, it needs to use empathy in the law. He wants people on the court who will make policy. She is - that's why I think the hearings on Sotomayor ought to be full bore whether she gets confirmed or not, full bore. Find out who she is, all about her, because we'll learn and be able to inform the American people who Obama is. That's key.

HANNITY: But it is interesting because that term racist, racial is radioactive, but - and Chuck Schumer said, he made the comment that, you do so at your own peril if you go after Judge Sotomayor, and I found that comment pretty interesting because I'm thinking well, that didn't stop you and your fellow Democrats from going after Miguel Estrada, remember, the - he's a Latino memo or Clarence Thomas or even Alberto Gonzales.

LIMBAUGH: Well, see, that's another thing. They tell us you go easy on her because - our own people say we've got to go easy on her because we want the Hispanic vote. Really? The left went after Clarence Thomas, tried to destroy him. Did they lose black votes? No. They went after Estrada, all the Hispanics you mentioned. Did they lose the Hispanic vote? No.

They're just trying to shut us up. A racist is a racist. You know, they may think, Sean, it's too shrill to say. They may wish I would tone it down, but nobody has refuted the charge.

Nobody has said no, she's not a racist. In fact, the White House has said if she could do it again, she'd say it differently. So they want a do-over. With Obama saying that...

HANNITY: Would you get a do-over?

LIMBAUGH: No. None of us get a do-over.

HANNITY: Never.

LIMBAUGH: No.

HANNITY: Did Frank Ricci get a do-over?

LIMBAUGH: No. That's the point. But - she brings racism and bigotry to the court. There's no other way to describe it.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And tonight, we continue with my part two of my exclusive sit-down interview with Rush Limbaugh, where Rush reveals whom he has chosen to take his place as the supposed head of the GOP and why President Obama could soon own the national media. Let's check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: You came on the air one day and you said, "I resign as the head of the Republican Party."

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Titular head.

HANNITY: Sorry.

LIMBAUGH: Titular head of the Republican Party.

HANNITY: Quoted accurately, yes.

LIMBAUGH: Because I was not the head of the Republican Party. I was named the head of the Republican Party by the White House, by the Obama White House. What they were trying to do was get Republicans, elected Republicans, to throw me overboard, disavow me.

What they would love to do, Sean, at the White House level is really marginalize mainstream conservatism and mainstream conservatives, because that's the primary opposition to Obama. And if they could gotten a couple of Republicans to go out and say, "Yes, Limbaugh is off the reservation, he's a nut, he's a wacko," it would have been a success and a homerun. So, that's why they named me the titular head.

So, I decided to resign as the titular head of the Republican Party and anoint Powell as - since so many of our brains in the conservative, quasi-conservative media and Republican Party, think he's the model Republican. OK, he's the leader.

HANNITY: Well, if he was so accurate in America's desire for more government, more services, higher taxes, they're willing to pay for them - those are the comments he made - then he seems to be out of sync with even the voters in California, of all places.

LIMBAUGH: Well, that's a - I'm glad you reminded me of that, because he did say Americans want to pay higher taxes and they want bigger government, and then the California vote came. He's clearly - this is my point - he's clearly out of touch, as most people inside the beltway are.

The longer you live in that town, that town becomes your world. And Washington is not America. I mean, it's a great city. There's great things to do there. I don't want people to misunderstand. But the political and social structure of Washington, D.C., there's no resemblance to how life in this country takes place.

Government and everything there is number one, two and three in everybody's lives. And out in the country it ain't.

HANNITY: No.

LIMBAUGH: It's their job. It's their kid's future. It's these kinds of things. And so, the idea that somebody who believes government ought to grow and grow and grow is the ideal candidate or identity factor of the Republican Party is absurd.

HANNITY: Do you see any leaders emerging, some people that you're watching, that you like? You were pretty disposed towards Bobby Jindal for a while.

LIMBAUGH: Yes. You know what I've learned? I'll tell you something. I am - because of this profile, high profile that has been bestowed upon me, I'm not going to mention names.

HANNITY: But are there people you see?

LIMBAUGH: Yes.

HANNITY: There are?

LIMBAUGH: There are.

And I think others are going to emerge as Obamaism continues to happen.

Yes, there are. I think others are going to emerge as Obama continues. I think President Obama is an angry man. They say he's cool and calm and. I think he's cold. I think he's angry.

The people that he ran around with and who mentored him, that matters. You tried to call attention to it. You were the first out of the box with the Reverend Wright and the Bill Ayers stuff. And people didn't want to hear it because they have a cult-like association and attachment to Obama.

But the fact of the matter is, the way to understand him is he wants to return the nation's wealth to its rightful owners. He comes from a belief that those in America who have succeeded have done so on the backs of the poor and the disadvantaged. They've had their wealth stolen from them. That's why he wants to cap CEO pay. That's what he doesn't want them to be flying their jets to Las Vegas. He can take two G-5s and three helicopters to New York for a date that you and I pay for, but if I pay for it, even myself on my airplane, I get castigated because it's somehow not cool.

I think he just - If you want to understand what this man is doing, what his policies are about, returning this nation's wealth into its rightful owners. That's how the UAW, the union, ends up with a major ownership stake in Chrysler and GM.

HANNITY: And debt holder are put aside. Hang on a second. If Karl Rove is right, and he's arrogant, and Rush Limbaugh is right, and he's angry, and Sean Hannity is right, and he's radical - you made the same point as I have - that's frightening for America.

If all of that - because I think it is. I think the America we knew, Rush, I think it is going away, and I don't think people see what's happening. I think by the time it's all finished, we're going to have trouble.

LIMBAUGH: You know, I'm not yet fatalistic about the country. There's still time for this to be stopped. There are the elections of 2010 and there are the elections, of course, of 2012.

If you look at polling data, his approval numbers are pretty steady at 63, 64. That is much, I think, guaranteed by the state-run media, the way they report. But if you look at polls on issues, issue after issue, you'll find that on most of them the majority of the American people, like, don't want Gitmo closed.

They don't want bailouts at General Motors. Most of the American people, a clear majority disagree, policy-wise, with everything he's doing. Yet, has this wildly high approval rating. He's very charismatic, demagogic, and it's not what he says that has people captivated. It's how he says it.

HANNITY: Obama said to the BBC the U.S. can't impose its values on other - you know the quote I'm saying - cannot impose its values on other countries.

LIMBAUGH: Yes. It's a typical Obama straw man argument. He comes up and says, "America, we can't impose our values." Well, when do we?

And what are our values? The next part of the question. What are our values? Freedom...

HANNITY: Liberty.

LIMBAUGH: Democracy. He says those are universal. So after he says we can't impose our values, he defines our values. You can't impose freedom. We liberate people.

Somebody is going to have to tell me, Mrs. Clinton, who's been marginalized, by the way - she's over there at the State Department with nothing to do. She's running around the world, telling other countries they have to do gay rights the way that we do. I think that's imposing our values, his values on the rest of the world.

On other aspect of this, somebody's going to have to convince me I'm wrong. I think Obama has got something against Israel. This - you know, letting Iran do this. Telling Israel it's got to stop imposing values. Hey, Mr. Netanyahu, stop doing your settlements. Stop defending yourself. Who's imposing what on whom?

It's Obama imposing his view of his around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: And we continue now with more of my exclusive interview with radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: We saw what happened in California. We see the takeover at GM. They want to monitor CEO pay even for companies that don't get any government money.

LIMBAUGH: Right.

HANNITY: They're taking over banks. They're taking over financial institutions. It is the definition of socialism. What does this mean - let me give you the debt numbers. You know them as well as anybody. We quadruple them in a year. We quadruple the deficit in 10 years. We'll be paying nearly $1 trillion on interest on the debt in 10 years.

What does this mean? As you stand back - you were talking earlier about the middle class and the impact it's going to have on the middle class. What does this Obama economy look like, assuming he doesn't get a second term, after four years of Obama economics?

LIMBAUGH: Well, most of the stimulus spending, for example, doesn't go into effect until 2010. There's a chance that those elections would dial some of that back. But if this man succeeds, Sean, it's going to be 25 years rolling this stuff back.

And if they get nationalized health care, they are going to be able to control every aspect of our lives, because you get in a car the wrong way, it could impact health care costs. If you eat popcorn with coconut oil, it could impact health care costs.

If they get that, then people have no idea the control over their lives the government will exert. And that's got to be stopped. That is intolerable, to go single payer government socialized medicine.

I want to say one other thing, even if I go overtime here. People ask me about the Fairness Doctrine all the time, and I've been watching something here. Newspapers are losing money. Advertising revenue is down, circulation. But radio companies, too, Sean, television companies, their advertising revenues are down.

Now, individual shows, my show is up.

HANNITY: So is mine.

LIMBAUGH: Yours -- but radio stations ownership groups - advertising as a whole is down. Now what happens if they have to file Chapter 11? What if all these radio companies can't make their debt payments next year or the year after that and have to go Chapter 11? If Obama is controlling the banks, and the banks then will or will not lend to the broadcasters and the newspapers to make them solvent, we could reach a point where Obama controls radio and TV, because he will own it by virtue of the banks he controls owning it.

This is a very stealth way - you don't need the Fairness Doctrine; you don't need localism. And people say that will never happen.

Well, did you ever think that government and Obama would be dictating the kind of cars GM and Chrysler make? Did you ever think Obama would be dictating what people on Wall Street can earn? Did you ever think that the mortgage business would be controlled by a single man, Barack Obama? Nobody ever thought that.

So, if you think that the media in this country cannot also be owned by Barack Obama, think again. Well, that's the path we're headed down.

We have to stop and shout, and stop this and oppose it. This is not the America that you and I grew up - I said earlier if Al Qaeda wants to demolish the America we know and love, they'd better hurry, because Obama's beating them to it. I read that in a British column. I think it was the U.K. Telegraph. Now, it resonated with me because this guy is changing the America we've come - I think he's got a big chip on his shoulder.

HANNITY: It's frightening.

LIMBAUGH: It is. It is seriously frightening. And we look out, where are the American people. Sixty-four million or whatever voted for the guy. When are we going to wake up? The Democrats really - the people who voted for him really want this kind of America.

HANNITY: Don't you want the Republicans to wake up. You see, of all the contortions they've been going through about who their head is and whether or not Reagan conservatism needs to be, you know, pushed in the past. And this new modern version of a watered-down conservatism or watered-down Republican Party.

I think Reagan spelled it out pretty well in March of '75 when he said, you know, no pale pastels. Bold colors, bold differences. If they can't distinguish themselves now from Barack Obama and socialism, and Jimmy Carter national security...

LIMBAUGH: Exactly right.

HANNITY: ... This is it.

LIMBAUGH: It is the greatest opportunity they've had to draw that contrast between what Obama represents and what traditionally the Republican Party or conservatism. The problem with the Republican Party is the old guard, country club, blueblood, Rockefeller types are now learning it - the Colin Powell types, the Tom Ridge types. And they want to share in the power. They're content to share it as losers.

The Republican Party right now is not led by conservatives. That's - there are plenty of conservative Republicans in the party, but it's hard for them to get noticed. But you can't wait for the Republican Party, Sean.

HANNITY: Yes.

LIMBAUGH: At some point, somebody in that party is going to emerge and carry the banner forward. In the meanwhile, there's a population out there that has to be told the truth. And if the party's not going to stand up and do it right now, we have to.

And I think at some point they're going to get over their fear. Right now it's still early. We're just past 100 days.

Republicans are still deathly afraid of being criticized for criticizing Obama. They don't want to attach Obama's policies to him, and Obama doesn't either. You know, Obama is still blaming Bush.

I think he's - I think he's just a sitting duck target politically to score major, major points for the traditions and values that made this country great to triumph again.

HANNITY: Listen, he jokes about the Special Olympics. He gives an iPod to the queen and speeches of himself. He flies an airplane over New York and spends 300 grand. He goes on a date with his wife to New York, as you mentioned earlier.

LIMBAUGH: And he's been to all 57 states, and he said that we need to hoist values. It's - I mean, he's got...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: If George Bush did this...

LIMBAUGH: I know. I know. Well, look, we just have to come to grips. There's a double standard. There's a double - he's loved and adored by the state-run media.

Obama's blaming Bush...

HANNITY: Yes.

LIMBAUGH: ... for all that he inherited. He is escaping so far any attachment to the disasters that he's causing. At some point that is going to change. And that, I think, I'm hopeful, is when the elected class of conservatives and Republicans will rise up and take the baton and run with it.

HANNITY: I don't think there's any way it can't happen. You mentioned earlier I'm optimistic. I think there's going to be a lot of damage done in the meantime, but it's got to happen.

And you know what? A lot of people I think are going to come through and say, "You know what, Rush? You were kind of right about all this stuff."

LIMBAUGH: Yes. You know, I joked the other day. I told people - when I claimed I'm America's pinata. And I said, you know how people always say, "Why didn't somebody tell me?" I'm the guy telling you. And I'm going to keep telling you.

Sean, I'm optimistic, too. You look at FDR and what did we get after FDR? We got 40 years of liberalism. We're not going to have 40 years of liberalism after Obama.

There is an opposition media. There is an opposition to this kind of destruction that's being made to this country, done to the country. Whatever he does, we're going to be able to roll it back. And I don't think he's going to be able to get away with as much as he would like to. There is simply too much attention being brought to bear on it.

So and if - we're America. We are Americans. We still have the freedom to do what we want and to be who we want to be. And you have to be optimistic when you have that kind of ability.

HANNITY: Rush, it's always a pleasure.

LIMBAUGH: Thank you.

HANNITY: I appreciate it.

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.