Like a behemoth "oliphaunt" out of Tolkien's The Return of the King, the fearsomely bloated bulk of Rush Limbaugh has once again glommed its way into our nation's collective consciousness, with his mighty public pinings that the President's policies should fail.
Unlike in the past however, President Obama and the Democrats have played the Big Fat Idiot's renewed publicity masterfully, in more ways than one . . . including at least one Big Fat Way that has not been thoroughly explored yet.
Rather than cower in fear and try to appease the off-the-charts mouth breathers who represent Limbaugh's listenership, the Obama administration has confronted the Big Fat Idiot head on, and made a public pitch to portray His Bloatedness as the "energy and intellect* of the GOoP." Of course, Kossacks like us mostly agree that painting the Big Fat Idiot as the titular leader of the RepubliCon Party makes perfect sense.
Why?-because Limbaugh represents only the furthest right-fringes of the conservative movement. He's not interested in getting more RepubliCons elected, he's only interested in his market share. That's it. And the more Limbaugh is viewed as the face and gaping maw of the RepubliCon Party, the more the moderates and independents who helped put Barack Obama over the top in 2008 will flee from the regional rump of the Old (grand?) Party. This has been well-hashed out in the traditional media, and should come as news to no one.
The potential downside here, as has been most thoroughly speculated upon by some Very Concerned pundits in the corporate media, is that the Democrats may just be making Limbaugh even more famous, i.e. giving him an even larger audience. But is this really such an issue? Is there anyone (ahem) left in the far-right fringes of the conservative movement who DOESN'T listen to the Big Fat Idiot? And if so, was there EVER a snowflake's chance in hell that these folks would ever vote for Obama, or any other Democrat? I think not. The so-called downside here's a phantom in the imaginations of some Very Concerned pundits who would probably kill their own mothers to have the name recognition of His Bloatedness.
So what's new in this analysis?
I submit to you that focusing the media attention on Limbaugh - whose desire to see Obama fail was specifically economic in context - provides the President with some much-needed political cover.
A-dub-ada-dub-ada-dub-aba - whuh?
It's pretty simple. It's been well established that opposing the President's economic initiatives is a no-brainer, politically, for the RepubliCons. If these policies work, the President and the Democrats will get the credit for reviving the economy. If they don't work, the GOoPers can say: "See we told you so, and we opposed these policies!" Pretty straightforward right? Right.
But making Limbaugh the bloated, sweaty face of the RepubliCon Party turns out to be an especially masterful stroke if the President's economic policies fail. Why?-because if the economy DOESN'T turn around, then President Obama and the Democrats can say:
"Look, Limbaugh and the RepubliCons wanted these policies to fail, and watered them down every step of the way to make sure they failed. Without the support of at least a couple Republicans in the Senate, and the Blue Dog Democrats in the House, we can't pass ANYTHING through Congress. We had to water-down our own proposals to get the votes! It's not our fault the economy still hasn't turned around. It's the Party of Failure's fault for forcing us to water-down our economic initiatives, so that they could achieve their political goals."
Political cover folks, in the entirely likely event that the so-called 'economy" hasn't turned the corner by 2010, or even 2012. And aside from the positives found from a narrative standpoint, such a story also retains the added bonus of being ABSOLUTELY TRUE.
So making Limbaugh the face of the RepubliCon Party turns out not only to improve the Democrats' and the President's standings among moderates and independents, who want nothing to do with far-right ideologues like the Big Fat Idiot; it also provides some much-needed political cover should their economic initiatives fail to turn around the economy in the near future, i.e. "We had to water-down our proposals as a sop to the Party of Failure."
There's some big brains there in Democratic Party these days - a refreshing change from the "Administration" to which we've most recently been treated.
Ain't it nice to have the Smart-Asses in charge, instead of the Dumb-Asses?*
*Hee hee! "Intellect"