Incredibly revealing segment on the Limbaugh show today.
El Rushbo was attempting to state his position on same-sex marriage. Apparently his listeners kept complaining that he'd been obfuscating up to now.
Some context: Garafalo pegged Rush a few years back as a 'self-loathing narcissist'. He's demonstrated again and again his deep desire to be loved, by Americans, by women, by friends. But his ego gets in the way, and it must kill him to know that he's widely despised, mocked, and discredited.
Today, he stated his position on marraige equality by way of analogy: Same-sex couples desire something that society has heretofore rejected - broad acceptance of marriage equality. Same-sex couples demanding marraige equality is therefore analogous to Rush demanding to be 'an Obama,' by which he means, at bottom, widespread admiration (it's a bit more convoluted - according to Rush, Obama is accepted and loved by society for all the wrong reasons, blah blah blah).
So Rush sputtered on for a couple minutes, in his typical half-joking tone, with this analogy. 'I want to be an Obama!'. Paraphrasing (for real) 'I want society to change their opinion of me! I want admiration like Obama! It's not fair, society should learn to love me! I am discriminated against!'
But, taking the analogy to its conclusion, life ain't fair...and Rush is painfully aware that he'll never be widely admired, loved, revered, no matter how much he desires it so.
It was stunning to hear. Honest to god, i felt sorry for the man by the end of it. He faded out to commercial, then came back and pulled his typical "illustrate by way of absurdity" card. But as was the case with Ms Fluke, we know that he was simply hiding behind humor to make his point.
Anyway, I hope people get a chance to hear it, and that the Flush Rush groups do a more in-depth diary, with audio, hyperlinks, context.
UPDATE:
This is how it begins:
If I were to say, "The Obama family has more rights than I do. Obama's family, which hasn't been elected to anything, get millions of dollars in government benefits. They are globally admired in a way that I'm not. My self-esteem is wounded. The world loves the Obamas and they don't love me. Therefore, I want to be considered an Obama. From now on, I want to be an Obama so that people respect me and love me...."
It goes on and on.
It's in the latter third of this transcript: Full transcript at RushLimbaugh.com.