Perhaps lightning rod was misused, I meant the President is so strong in his convictions that he has driven the liberals to despair, kind've like in the Wizard of Oz with the cursing of Dorothy by the witch as she melted away in unbelief.
Actually your analogy of lightning rod was a good one. A lightning rod protects the house from the damage that lightning might cause if the house were hit without one. It safely channels the effect of the lightning to the ground. Bush has done this with the verbal and libelous lightning hurled at him, and thus shielded the house (nation) from its effects, which would have been troubling had he launched similar vituperative attacks in response.