Posted on 03/05/2009 10:58:45 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
He talks for hours every day. He gets paid to talk. Just talk. Doing it well is no small thing; witness the number of people who have tried to be him, or be the NOT-him, and failed. But he doesn't have to build a coalition. He doesn't need the votes of the other side to earn his check. He doesn't have to write the legislation, convince Olympia Snowe, raise money to keep the lights on, put his name on the ballot. All the things he doesn't have to do give him the freedom to be as effective as he is at what he does.
Trying to beat him at his own game when your own game is played by a different set of rules is a losing proposition. He knows that.
The Republican Party's chairman and even some of my Democratic friends need to remember that.
When I first started doing talk radio, I listened to Rush Limbaugh in the morning to figure out how to do it. I don't mean, obviously, that I studied Rush to figure out my positions on issues; I've been doing issues my whole life. I studied him to figure out how to do radio — how to talk about issues in a way that engages people, creates a community of the audience, makes them want to hear more, connect, join the club. Rush is wrong on almost everything, by my lights, but the lessons I took from him weren't about substance, but about craft. By my lights, no one is better at it.
To dismiss Rush as mere "entertainment," as Michael Steele, the Republican Party's chairman, did this weekend, understates his abilities and influence. To a very large extent, all of us who do television news or politics are in the business of entertainment. President Barack Obama's speech craft is a form of entertainment. Fox News (for whom I work) has mastered a sort of lively and engaging approach to delivering news that, regardless of the content or what you think of the perspective, is quite simply more fun to watch than many of its competitors. The best and most successful news-oriented Web sites are also, frankly, creative and engaging and, yes, entertaining.
But he is not the leader of the Republican Party. He may be the guru; he is certainly a powerful voice. But his job is not to write the opposing bill, to decide when to compromise and when not to, to participate in the process of making the sausage. He doesn't need to reach out to the middle, the way politicians do. Calling him "the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party," as Rahm Emanuel did, only gets him more attention and more power, and it makes it more difficult, not less, for the Republicans, whose votes the president ultimately needs, to defy his naysaying.
That is not to say Rush should go unchallenged or unanswered. The blogoshpere is full of smart, savvy, creative progressive voices, who can and should engage Rush. Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann should give him their best. It always has disappointed me, frankly, that there are so many Rush wannabes filling the radio waves and so few opposing voices.
One of the many decisions I regret in life was the one I made to turn down a very generous offer to fill the hours against Rush on what was then Los Angeles' major talk station; I said no because I was too loyal to the host I would be replacing. That host ultimately was replaced anyway and insisted on my weekend slot when he did. So much for misguided loyalty.
But the fact that Steele felt the need to apologize to Rush attests to the fact that it was a mistake to attack him in the first place. The attention Rush is getting right now from the White House chief of staff and the chairman of the Republican Party will increase Rush's ratings, but it is far from clear to me that it will make it any easier for Republicans to cross the line and vote with the president. Harder, I would think. Rush wins this game, which is why those who play on a different field should stay away from his.
The level of discourse in this country would be so much higher if others did the same. The hate that pours from DU, AirAmerica, Olbermann, Kos, etc. prevents them from having to articulate their positions...
Which, of course, is probably the point.
Susan is showing some signs that she is smarter than she looks.
It is time they figured out that this time the natives are restless enough not to be easily pacified.
If they don’t soon blink, and back away from the Abyss, this could get really really bad.
You're right, there's only Air America, NPR, and all but one TV channel. Oh, if only we had a doctrine of fairness to...
Wise counsel from Susan about Rush. Will Obama and his minions listen?
Great article. Thank you for posting. I like Susan’s straight up honesty. I often disagree with her but as a fellow USCer she is smart, experienced, kind, straight shooter, savvy, and I am sure a great professor. I am sorry to hear too about her loyalty and how she was rebuffed. I appreciate her candor on Rush and she is absolutely right on.
>Will Obama and his minions listen?
No! They are our overlords! They should not dare to condescend to speak with one of the “common folk”! How dare you even hint at such irreverent and insolent behaviors! [/sarc][/cynic]
Rush discusses the ideals of conservativism (and Michael Savage is wrong to say that Rush backed Bush at every turn).
Too many on the Left have to shield their real goals from public consumption. They tell their base what they want to hear and tell someone else something else behind closed doors (”they cling to guns and to religion”).
Even this White House spouts hateful rhetoric (the AG’s “cowards” comment, the way that the Obama team is demonizing Rush Limbaugh and trying to drive a wedge in the GOP). Obama said he would be a uniter and not a divider but I don’t see him crossing the aisle to make any concessions or putting himself out there to discuss matters with his critics. He’s taken the attitude “I won and I have executive priviledge” which is the same “my way or the highway” attitude Bush’s critics tried to pin on W.
The panoply arrayed against Rush (Hussein, Gibbs, Emanuel, Carville, Begala, et al) speaks from visceral hatred.
Oberman, Matthews, Letterman, all sorts of lippy libs lashing out are undone by their inner nyah-nyah punk.
Rush has great stores of principle, an abiding fluency with the founders' dialogues of the day, the crucible of history, the shrine to individual freedom and the reverence for the Creator.
Susan can't ascend above logic because her passions are the urge to put the thumb on the scale at this moment and this moment ad infinitum to right some social wrong.
Conservatism is not any such gyration of a tracking poll.
She actually believes that social justice stuff--for the rest it's just window dressing for the naked thuggish power grab.
To these hollow men Rush will always be the untouchable hologram.
Obama flat-out lied about "listening to the voices of those who didn't vote for me".
He only comes to life when he has an opportunity to slam the opposition, and no one calls him on it.
Savage is just a moron, simple as that.
Heh heh! Leave it to Susan to twist the knife, all the while sounding so wise and above it all. I'd say Rahm won't like this piece at all.
Does anyone else see it like that?
She regrets turning down this opportunity to suffer a humiliating failure? She doesn't actually think she would have had any success, does she? Her little "counsel" here is inconsistent and the only good thing about it is I didn't have to listen to her irritating voice rasp it aloud.
Speaking of Oberman, Ann Coulters weekly article is on him. Funny! It seems he went to Cornel alright, but not the Ivy League Cornel, which does not have a degree in ‘communications’. The cornel Agri-business side does. And while not being Ivy League it has produced a lot of NHL players. But it is not an IVY LEAGUE school like dunderkoft say it is.
“He talks for hours every day. He gets paid to talk. Just talk.”
Definitely wasn’t talking about the pres since all he does is read off a telepromter.
Hmmm, Emanuel, Begala, Carville??? Are they just getting even for Rush’s Operation Chaos??? All of these men were Hillary’s boys 8 years ago. Obama is just a puppet as far as they are concerned, just getting back at Rush for them not having the RIGHT person in the presidency.
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