All over the net we see the left celebrating the idea that Rush Limbaugh has a higher profile:
Politico:
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel charged Sunday that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.”
Emanuel, speaking in deliberately soothing tones, told anchor Bob Schieffer on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Limbaugh has been up front about “praying for failure” by President Obama.
Washington Monthly:
It’s a strategy with all kinds of appeal. Limbaugh is not exactly a respected public figure (drug-addled shock-jock who’s actively rooting for America’s decline), but Republicans continue to hold him in high regard. With that in mind, Democrats and Limbaugh, oddly enough, have the same goal: convince the general public that he’s the ostensible head of the Republican Party.
Greg Sargent:
Top Democratic operatives are planning a stepped up campaign to promote Rush Limbaugh as the public face of the GOP — an effort that will include recruiting Dem governors to make this case on talk shows, getting elected officials to pen Op eds arguing it, and running more ads pushing it, a senior Democratic operative says.
Key leadership staff in the House and Senate, and in all the political committees, have been encouraged by senior Dem operatives to push this message wherever possible, the operative says.
“I’m encouraging everybody to go out and say this,” Paul Begala, the well-known Dem strategist, just told me by phone. “I’m hot for this. Let’s get this out every way we can.”
All this talk is foolish. Combine the Democratic party’s efforts with CNN’s decision to broadcast the entire Rush Broadcast adds up to a lot of people who will actually be exposed to not the caricature of Rush Limbaugh that the media creates but the actual person with actual ideas and belief and the ability to articulate them (Andrew Sullivan not withstanding).
Since Rush also very leery of phony ambush journalism he is able to deliver a tight message when he appears as a guest on various shows.
As our democratic friends seem to have forgotten 1994 lets point out that a person doesn’t become the most popular radio host in history and remain so for two decades without being able to communicate. CNN’s attempt to turn the speech into something it wasn’t isn’t effective when people have actually seen it.
Combine his skills with the likely result of the Obama policies and I suspect we will see conservatives with a lot more seats in 2010 and maybe even a different result in 2012.