Limbaugh: He's As Big As You Make Him

There's been a lot of heavy weather over this heavy man on the radio.

Saturday, conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. In his own dojo, Limbaugh spoke to his people as most would speak to like-minded people: Unashamedly, abrasively, and loudly.

Notice that when you're speaking to like-minded people, you don't have to say anything with a lot of substance to get a rousing applause.

Obama — well, his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, who speaks for him, anyway — was on the offensive within 12 hours, speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation" and claiming that Rush is the voice and intellect of the GOP, and paying no compliments by doing so.

A columnist asked me, the youngest and therefore most technologically savvy individual in the office, how to register to comment on his own column. Apparently, criticisms were being levied and he wanted an opportunity to rebut.

I told him about a boxing rule I had heard: Don't fight below your weight class, meaning of course, don't sink to someone else's level. Let the words speak for themselves, take criticisms and move on, giving no credibility or leverage to the nay-sayer. Shake them haters off, I said.

The same rule should apply to Obama and Rush: Obama would do well to just ignore him completely.

Not to say that Rush doesn't own some clout. He's no elected official, but he carries himself as if he has a public mandate. He is articulate. He is compelling. These are not debatable opinions, but objective facts. No one has done anything close to what he did in 1994 with Newt Gingrich, which is use an entertainment medium to shift public policy and tilt Congress.

Love him like a saint or hate him like the devil, Rush Limbaugh is good at what he does. He also finds himself in the fortuitous circumstance of being a member of the Out Party.

Nobody likes to kick a dog while they're down. As Capt. John Miller in Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks wisely stated that gripes go up, not down; The American Public will have more to say about the In Party than the Out, and will thereby give more credence to Out. As Keith Olbermann still bashes Bush and Rachel Maddow lowers that eye brow, both struggling to remain relevant, Limbaugh is finding his feet and a broader audience than, say, the last eight years.

Obama charged House Republicans with ineptitude, claiming that nothing was going to get done so long as they "did whatever Rush Limbaugh tells them to do." Emanuel is chaining Rush to the Republican party, which is really rather redundant. That's not news to anyone.

While it may be a smart tactic to represent a somewhat vilified caricature in order to damage the opposition, it'd be smarter just to let him spin his wheels. You're only encouraging him to do what he does best.

And maybe that person with whom you find so much disdain will weed himself out in the end. Hey, it could happen.

Limbaugh vs. Obama Leaves Little For the Imagination

So there's been a dust up in the wee-hours of President Barack Obama's four-to-eight year tenure in the Executive branch, though not between legislators, as he has sufficient ammunition in both the House and the Senate.

It's between Obama and Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talking head of radio and early 90's lore.

Apparently on Rush's program, while lamenting the $825 kajillion stimulus that irks most conservatives, he went so far as to say that not only does he hope the stimulus package fails, but that he wants Obama himself to fail.

"My response? My response is only four words," Limbaugh spouted. "I want him to fail."

When the President began addressing a collection of House Republicans — who unanimously voted against the package — Obama quipped, "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."

That'll show 'em.

Now the media is really charging this thing up to make it a much-ballyhooed heavyweight slug match between the forces of the Right and the Left. Maybe it's because there's no one left in active governance who can pose a formidable challenge to Obama and his Leftward Legion. Maybe it's because Rush is just that type of explosive personality who will generate discourse and viewership.

Maybe there just hasn't been a decent heavyweight boxing match in years, a decline possibly brought on by the advent of UFC cage fighting or perhaps the growing gargantuan and therefore sluggish size of current heavyweight boxers. Why does Radio Shack ask for your phone number when you buy batteries?

I don't know. But I digress.

There are not only problems with the fight, but a fundamental flaw in the fight to begin with. It's a real cart-before-the-horse thing, only now the carriage is flying at about 88 miles per hour. And there's plenty of blame to go around on both sides.

First off, for the Rushians (MOTHERLAND!!!). What the hell, man. This was just a stupid thing to say. Limbaugh is a very influential person. I'll even take that further; he's really, genuinely funny. He often makes great points, and was a bludgeon for the Newtonians who took charge of the Legislature in 1994.

But the stimulus package is about more than just President Obama. The President of the United States has thrown all of his chips in on this economic package for the good of the American people. This is not an endorsement of that plan; I think it does lack a certain rigidity you'd expect when throwing skyscrapers full of money at a problem. But this is the apparent way we're going to go, or at least something like it, as even the GOP's idea still throws billions and billions and billions of dollars at the problem.

But the result is serious, either way. American well-beings hang in the balance, and to call for this plan, for the Presidency to fail is bush-league. Vote against him, call for others to vote against him, do everything you can to bend the powers-that-be to what you may have rationally concluded is the best course of action. But to hope that Obama fails?

Had Matthews or Olbermann called for Bush to fail in Iraq, although a depression isn't as serious as war, Limbaugh would have been up in arms. Both deal in livelihoods.

But then Obama had to give this guy a credible voice. In my line of journalism, I've run across a number of constructive criticisms and vicious complaints, often an indistinguishable line. The best course of action to malevolent complaints and fits of irrational ill-will is to ignore completely. Just walk away; they're only words after all.

Then the usually tame and inclusive Obama sent a divisive cheap shot to the capable faculties of House Republicans. No one wants to be told they aren't thinking for themselves, or that they're being manipulated by a larger puppeteer. It's quite a shot to the ego, especially if the puppeteer is a radio talk show host. And let's face it — the Legislature isn't filibuster proof. If Obama really wants to be bipartisan, which I believe he honestly does, such remarks aren't warranted, and only give credibility where it is apparent credibility is undue.

So now this thing is a big talking point mess, which is to say a mess of BS. Media hither and yon are really talking up this brouhaha, ad naseum and ad barf-eum. But the end result cancels out; Rush will spew whatever is on his mind (be it his own thought or his own need to simply grab attention), Obama will slip up and get divisive, but only every once in awhile, and the stimulus package will either work or it wont, regardless of what anyone has to editorialize about it.

The two cancel out each other. End result: Nothing much. Kinda makes you wonder what the last 62 column inches were all about in the first place.