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How Much Does Rush Limbaugh Matter?
Real Clear Politics ^ | 3/2/09 | Jay Cost

Posted on 03/02/2009 1:23:46 PM PST by lewisglad

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To: Two Kids' Dad

Jennifer Carpenter.. yea, that will work!


41 posted on 03/02/2009 2:12:59 PM PST by mnehring (!!!!!!!SHRUG!!!!!!!!!)
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To: marron

“Not enough think about persuading people that your ideas are right. Most people including politicians aren’t capable really of persuading people.

Thats Limbaugh’s forte.”

Since Rush went nationwide in the early 1990s, the GOP has lost the popular vote 4 out of 5 Presidential elections. (won 2004; lost 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008)

I enjoy Rush. He is smart, he is right on most topics, he is an entertainer, he is funny.

He is NOT making MORE conservative voters. The twenty percent winning percent above is reality.

He is divisive. He uses the style which is not working, calling names, making fun of enemies, telling them they are stupid.

The GOP needs popular candidates, even more popular than Rush, but has of late shown a destructive propensity to eat its own.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.


42 posted on 03/02/2009 2:18:29 PM PST by truth_seeker
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To: lewisglad
"First, from the perspective of electoral politics, Rush Limbaugh is not much of a factor. That's not to say he is unimportant in other ways. He influences lots of people and is certainly important from a cultural perspective."

Reagan won two landslide elections and there was a conservative movement before anyone had heard of Rush Limbaugh. There were maybe three major conservative media figures most Americans had heard of or seen on television in 1980 (George Will, William F. Buckley, Jr. and Jack Kilpatrick from Agronsky & Co.).

Rush may change some people's minds by his confidence or humor, probably turning off or offending others (mostly liberals, feminists or some moderates). Lightning rod. Activist liberals spend more time obsessing, agitating and worrying about it primarily because of the kind of anti-liberal jokes Limbaugh tells, complete with voice impressions and Shanklin's songs (similar to SNL). Since they are not used to being made fun of and satirized (they get free passes mostly from the MSM), it's a shock and they are a bit outraged. It goes back to his voice impression of Jesse Jackson and his definition of feminism as a way "unattractive women get access" to attention and the mainstream of American society. So he has agitated liberal feminists and African Americans.

But the image of Rush as the mastermind boogieman of the Right, which liberals use in these anti-Rush panics, is overblown and exaggerated. They just can't stand it that someone with his views is that popular and successful. It's about silencing dissent and opposition. Deep down they probably also know that it's funny.

The Shanklin parody of ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" about Obama crashing the stock market that Limbaugh plays is a riot.

43 posted on 03/02/2009 2:33:00 PM PST by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: lewisglad
When you get right down to it, elections are fought over the state of the union and the country's opinion on how the majority party has managed the government.

That's what happened, partly, in 2008. Mostly it was because That One was perceived as 'cool', compare to the 'old man', and white voters were anxious to prove that they weren't racists, and would vote for a black candidate.

44 posted on 03/02/2009 2:41:28 PM PST by SuziQ
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To: truth_seeker

“He is divisive. He uses the style which is not working, calling names, making fun of enemies, telling them they are stupid...”

Is this statement about Rush, or Obama, Pelosi, Reid, etc...???

My goodness...


45 posted on 03/02/2009 2:47:28 PM PST by J40000
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To: J40000

These people hate Rush so much because: He’s like the guy at the magic show explaining away EVERY illusion the magician is trying to do.

And like a magician who has a guy like that around, the commies HATE him and will do just about ANYTHING to get rid of him.


46 posted on 03/02/2009 2:49:26 PM PST by J40000
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To: lewisglad

Jay Cost, Rush Pays.


47 posted on 03/02/2009 3:08:40 PM PST by manic4organic (We Are S0 Screwed)
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To: J40000

Respond to the entire post.

How about the 1 out of 4 record?

You like talk, or results? Entertainment, or political power?

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.


48 posted on 03/02/2009 3:11:42 PM PST by truth_seeker
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To: J40000
These people hate Rush so much because: He’s like the guy at the magic show explaining away EVERY illusion the magician is trying to do.

My nominee for post of the day!

49 posted on 03/02/2009 3:13:01 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: truth_seeker

No. The problem is that Rush is one of very few doing what he does.

The principles in which conservatism is rooted used to be taught as a normal part of a normal upbringing, and a normal part of a normal education.

That is no longer the case.

He is very effective, but he can’t do it all himself. Get things back in balance and there is no need for Rush Limbaugh. He’s “divisive” because he’s one of the last ones standing. And if they jam the “fairness doctrine” into law, he’s gone too.


50 posted on 03/02/2009 3:27:57 PM PST by marron
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To: truth_seeker
Not enough think about persuading people that your ideas are right. Most people including politicians aren’t capable really of persuading people.

Thats Limbaugh’s forte.

Since Rush went nationwide in the early 1990s, the GOP has lost the popular vote 4 out of 5 Presidential elections. (won 2004; lost 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008)

I enjoy Rush. He is smart, he is right on most topics, he is an entertainer, he is funny.

He is NOT making MORE conservative voters. The twenty percent winning percent above is reality.

He is divisive. He uses the style which is not working, calling names, making fun of enemies, telling them they are stupid.

That supposes that the Republicans nominate conservative candidates for POTUS. And you will get an argument from many here on that proposition. For example, I myself registered at FR a decade ago with a handle which suggests that I was not happy with the Bush formulation of "compassionate conservatism." He could have done a lot to help the conservative element in the Republican Party, and instead he allowed the Republican Congress he inherited to go native in Washington.

Then we had (gag!) John McCain. Conservative? No way.

So if you want to blame Rush for the Republicans' fortunes, you have to blame him for the failure of the party to be conservative. And certainly Rush was making the right noises today when he read the riot act to Michael Steele - asserting that Steele's job is not to criticize conservatives but to get rid of the open primaries and make sure that Democrats don't choose the Republican candidate in 2012. Can I have an amen?

Because if the Republicans nominate another John McCain or Bob Dole, the party will celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Bull Moose Party's second place finish in 1912 by finishing third again in 2012. Whether you or I or anyone else likes it, or doesn't.


51 posted on 03/02/2009 4:02:27 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The conceit of journalistic objectivity is profoundly subversive of democratic principle.)
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To: truth_seeker

Though a mere talk show host, yes he is divisive, a polemist. Many of those who agree with his opinions, and enjoy listeniung to him pillory the more liberal portions of the so-called establishment, seem to forget that...

Agreed. Though he has many fans, he has offended so many, for so long (by engaging in ridicule and outright insult) that they, the political opposition, will not, cannot hear the man. Or any other conservative, or Republican. We are all devils in their eyes. There is hardly any talking or reasoning many of them out of it.

I cannot count the times, when I was trying to un-do liberal media lies (with the facts) I'd hear, "where do you get you're info, RUSH LIMBAUGH?!?" [slobber, slobber...]

The current crop of Democrat Party, White House holding spin doctors (the phrase 'spin doctoring' coming into the lexicon during Clinton era) see an easy, ready-made target in Limbaugh. And it's working...

Demonize him, then automatically anything & everything the man has ever claimed to stand for is further demonized, thus neutralizing much of the entire spectrum of criticism of their policies, including all of that criticism which is well deserved, but more importantly, that criticism which should be carefully considered.

Rush is a critic, but paint him with the crime of being a polemist while they're at it, and among the electorate they get to run up the score with cheap points...getting away with it while simultaneously not recognizing or admitting to the unrelenting wall of polemic based rhetoric still emanating from the left. From even their own mouths...Which they now have the perfect cover for, hiding behind the smooth talking, supposedly consensus seeking, posturing Obama.

But here I am, acting a small Limbaugh, calling them names.

Though not a frequent listener, I have heard him say (to folks who, not entirely unreasonably, were asking him to tone it down)

We all understand his "feelings" in this matter...

However;
The Charge of the Light Brigade was brave as all get-out, but it wasn't smart military tactics.

Years later, massed charges into machine guns in the Great War (WWI) and then again later in some of the fighting during WWII, was plain, flat-out bad "general"-ing.

If we want to win, we need to change our tactics.

Some people around here think Steele fragged Limbaugh or something...

hey Rush, quit crying. When the rage & tears stop maybe you can calm down, stop, pick the rice grains out of your backside, ruck UP and carry on. But you'll get no Purple Heart. You threw those grenades, yourself.

52 posted on 03/02/2009 7:07:23 PM PST by BlueDragon
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To: truth_seeker
Since Rush went nationwide in the early 1990s, the GOP has lost the popular vote 4 out of 5 Presidential elections

You are misinforming with that line. Are you aware of the misinformation or unaware?

Clinton won twice, but only because of Perot. He never won even 50% of the popular vote. 92 & 96

Bush won in 2000 and 2004, winning the popular vote only once.

Obama won this time.

The presidency has been won twice with the popular vote the last five times, and it's been a split. I'm willing to bet unless Obambi suspends elections he's going to be swept out even uglier than he was swept in.

53 posted on 03/02/2009 7:17:06 PM PST by Lakeshark (Thank a member of the US armed forces for their sacrifice)
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