Posted on 02/27/2009 1:17:18 PM PST by Checkers
You can’t help but admire Rush Limbaugh’s talent for publicity. His radio talk show is probably—reliable figures only go back to 1991—in its third decade as the number-one rated radio show in the country. And here he is in the news again, trading verbal punches with the president of the United States.
Limbaugh remarked on Jan. 16 that to the degree that Obama’s program is one of state socialism, he hopes it will fail. (If only he had said the same about George W. Bush.) The president riposted at a session with congressional leaders a week later, telling them, “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.” Outsiders weighed in: Limbaugh should not have wished failure on a president trying to cope with a national crisis; Obama should not have stooped to insult a mere media artiste, the kind of task traditionally delegated to presidential subordinates while the chief stands loftily mute. Citizens picked sides and sat back to enjoy the circus.
For Limbaugh to remain a player at this level after 20-odd years bespeaks powers far beyond the ordinary. Most conservatives—even those who do not listen to his show—regard him as a good thing. His 14 million listeners are a key component of the conservative base. When he first emerged nationally, soon after the FCC dropped the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, conservatives for the first time in decades had something worth listening to on their radios other than country music and bland news programs read off the AP wire. In the early Clinton years, when Republicans were regrouping, Limbaugh was perhaps the most prominent conservative in the United States. National Review ran a cover story on him as “The Leader of the Opposition.”
(Excerpt) Read more at amconmag.com ...
Yeeeeee, more publicity for Rush.
Derbyshire is a pretty good writer who Rush has read from on several occasions... but this is is amateurish. His facts are all wrong.
The Rush Live Thread ping list might be interested in this.
Stopped reading Derb a long time ago...
John Derbyshire endorsed Ron Paul in the last election.
I happen to like ol’ Derb but it’s clear here that he doesn’t actually listen to talk radio.
His most serious charge is the accusation that El Rushbo and the rest of the gang slavishly enabled GWB in his free-spending ways, which is a mystery to me.
I can’t imagine any pundit who more thoroughly excoriated Bush for his various cockups (NCLB, Harriet Miers, “immigration reform”, signing Mcain-Feingold and the first bailout, etc.)
I doubt if Rush has ever read Derbyshire’s writing except to point to him as a RINO, or one of these self-proclaimed “high brow” conservatives.
For Derbyshire, the pleasure of looking down on people, without concern for his own lack of credentials, is the joy of life for him and most of the National Review writers, I am sad to say.
Of course, they have their lick-spittle followers in the media echo chamber — but, the commentators do not overshadow the elected political leaders.
Isn't it very risky for the GOP to abdicate so much power and influence to unelected media personalities (no matter how good they are at their craft, and no matter how good their message is)? Wouldn't the GOP be better off if it put its elected representatives before the camera or microphone more often?
Derb is only vaguely conservative...
Author must have hung ooon to the ‘breast feeding’ sthick a little too long..
Conservatives have never had, and never should have, a problem with elitism.
Maybe but Republicans sure as heck do. If this guy was sincere he'd aim at liberal republicans (virtually all of them are at the national level) and link arms with conservatives, not the other way around.
So...Derbyshire whom I always read even though he rambles some at times, THINKS all Conservatives listen to Country Music!?
Stereotyping is quite the Liberal trait John. Have you gone to the Dark Side?
Double Thread ALERT! This was posted before and discussed quite extensively, but feel free to continue - reminding your fellow conservative about how we already tried running a moderate and look what that got us so let’s not do it all over and over again simply to appeal to a nitwit like John Derbyshire.
Well Derb muh boy, if you don’t think Rush is to your taste, start your own radio program. Isn’t that the way to do it, don’t complain, compete.
What do you mean abdicate? We have a first amendment here, they can’t shut him up, thank God.
If Republican leaders have something to say there are always reporters available to write it down.
Last I heard it was 20 million listeners.
“What do you mean abdicate? “
I didn’t mean the GOP (or anyone) should try to make the commentators shut up. I just meant that (IMHO) it should be more aggressive itself. For instance, why is it allowing BHO to label Rush as the spokesman for the GOP? If that isn’t challenged, it’ll become “fact” in the public perception.
The money line.
Mr. Derbyshire is the guy who wrote "Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn't anyone rush the guy?" right after the VA Tech shootings. However he also advocated the killing of Terri Schiavo.
He has written eloquently on the subject of illegal immigration. He is also an excellent writer on the subject of mathematics. I recommend his "Unknown Quantity: A Real And Imaginary History of Algebra" and "Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics"
He is however a self described elitist and apparently not at all comfortable with populists. From his lofty perch he doesn't see how valuable Rush and talk radio in general are in affirming the conservative beliefs of average Americans. I doubt he values conservative activism and he would probably be shocked if he ever saw what goes on here. It's all just an intellectual exercise to him.
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