On Tuesday, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh responded to a caller who claimed the Tea Party would rally around either Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann or Ron Paul instead of Romney or Gingrich.
"All right, once again, let me bring some reason and sanity to all this," Limbaugh said.
"We just heard that the Tea Party is gonna support Ron Paul, Santorum, Bachmann, or bust. And this guy is not a Tea Party caller. This guy's a Ron Paul caller."
Digging into a Gallup poll showing Gingrich leading Romney 37 - 22, Limbaugh found that Paul currently polls at seven percent among Tea Party supporters.
"The Tea Party is not the Ron Paul campaign," Limbaugh said.
"Ron Paul has nothing to do with the Tea Party, zilch, zero, nada. There is no way that you can back Ron Paul and also back Bachmann and Santorum."
The reason Limbaugh cited is foreign policy, which he said "has nothing in common with Tea Party foreign policy" and "nothing in common with Bachmann or Santorum foreign policy."
"Ron Paul did not start the Tea Party," he said, adding "Ron Paul is not the Tea Party."
He also took issue with the caller's insistence that the two-party system needs to go:
Now, that caller also said -- and all this is so predictable, it happens every four years. "That two-party system, two party madness, we're not gonna put up with anymore, Rush, and you're part of it. You're part of the two party establishment, we know you." Let me tell you something. If two party madness is the issue, why did Ron Paul leave the Libertarian party to run as a Republican? Ron Paul's not running as a third party; he's not running as a Libertarian; he's running as a Republican. He's involved himself in the two-party system. And Ron Paul has led the way with tens of millions of dollars in earmarks.
He followed that up by addressing Paul's position on the September 11 terror attacks - a position that got him booted off the advisory board of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom.
"Ron Paul blames America for 9/11. That's not what the Tea Party thinks. It's not what conservatives think."
Paul recently said that America's foreign policy was partly to blame for the attacks, and he has said that America should extend friendship to Iran instead of levying sanctions.
Observing that no other Republican has Paul's position on 9/11 or foreign policy, Limbaugh observed:
Bachmann, Santorum, Gingrich, Romney, none of them blame the United States for Iran nuking up. None of them blame the United States for 9/11. I love the way these Ron Paul supporters try to tell us who is or who isn't conservative, when Paul is a Libertarian. Ron Paul's a Libertarian, used to belong to that party but knows he can't win as a Libertarian so he comes over and joins the Republican Party. He says he could relate to and understand the Occupiers. The Tea Party doesn't think that.
"I'm simply telling you what is," he said, insisting he was not attacking the Texas Congressman.
More on Ron Paul at Examiner.com can be found here.
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