Patterico's Pontifications

2/17/2021

Rush Limbaugh Dead at 70

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:52 am



[guest post by Dana]

His passing was announced this morning:

Conservative talk show radio host and Republican party icon Rush Limbaugh has died. He was 70 years old.

His wife Kathryn announced his passing on his radio show Wednesday, saying Limbaugh died earlier this morning.

“Rush will forever be the greatest of all time,” she said.

Limbaugh had been battling advanced lung cancer since February.

Back in October, Limbaugh provided this somber update on his show: “You know, I wake up every day and thank God that I did. I go to bed every night praying I’m gonna wake up. I don’t know how many of you do that, those of you who are not sick, those of you who are not facing something like I and countless other millions are.”

Love him or hate him, it cannot be argued that for decades the iconic conservative was one of the most influential and listened-to people on the right. His influence extended from the everyday Americans who faithfully listened to his program, to the Republican party, and to Republican members of Congress. He was not only known for his influence within the GOP but also as a leader in America’s culture wars. There can be no doubt that he was the dominant force in shaping right-wing media. And there can also be no doubt that Limbaugh’s on-air support of Donald Trump helped propel him to the presidency as listeners ended up supporting the candidate in 2016, and again in 2020. That speaks to the incredible influence he had on conservative Americans and their politics.

His obituary can be found at the New York Times..

RIP.

–Dana

75 Responses to “Rush Limbaugh Dead at 70”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (fd537d)

  2. I enjoyed his wit before he became a shill and apologist for evil.

    Dave (1bb933)

  3. Dave, the rest of the week are a great time for people to find only nice things to say about Rush, or to find something else to talk about.

    Time123 (d1bf33)

  4. R.I.P.

    Rush Limbaugh ‘has assumed room temperature…’ an often used Limbaugh line.

    Met him in Manhattan. Interviewed for a gig w/t show back in the day; first to tell you he was an ‘entertainer’ – and cleverly used elemens of current events and politics of the 80s– and the void left to lonely interstate travelers and tractor drivers in flyover country- to build an audience through syndication to ride to good fortune– and created opportunities for lesser moto mouths to rule the AM airwaves. He smelled, too: literally. Very bad ‘BO.’ A pure radio man; TV not his forte- as he and Ailes found out; but without doubt, Limbaugh was a stellar marketer and along w/t likes of the late Larry King nd Don Imus– even Howard Stern, revitalized the power an dollar value of AM radio advertising; and was immeasurably helped by Reagan killing the Fairness Doctrine.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  5. I call ’em like I see ’em.

    “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

    Dave (1bb933)

  6. “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

    Reaganomics.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  7. I can count on one hand the total times I heard his voice or saw him on the internet, but I acknowledge the impact his words had on persuading so many to his views. May he rest in peace, and his loved ones be consoled and condoled by people of goodwill.

    felipe (630e0b)

  8. Dave, now is not the time for ill-advised asperity – much less to double-down on it.

    felipe (630e0b)

  9. It’s too bad he ended his life and career on a such a politically bad note, but RIP and comfort to his friends and family.
    I was a big fan of his show, all the way back to the late 1980s, but my regard for him waned in the aughts and I stopped listening in the early teens.
    He was an important voice, especially in the pre-FoxNews era, when there was no else out there in talk radio, when there were few media outlets out there that consistently communicated conservative points of view, and it was a target-rich environment. He filled a void, left there by biased mainstream media, and for that he should be commended.
    Today, it feels like the pendulum has swung the other way.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  10. @5-

    Very good.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  11. I’ll go with hate.

    https://twitter.com/RhetoricPJ/status/1362089913823461376?s=20

    Rush Limbaugh had a regular radio segment where he would read off the names of gay people who died of AIDS and celebrate it and play horns and bells and stuff.

    Victor (4959fb)

  12. Rest in peace, Rush!

    nk (1d9030)

  13. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/02/17/rush-limbaughs-biggest—and-most-controversial—moments/

    “August 1988- After years as an itinerant local DJ and talk show host, Limbaugh launched his nationally syndicated midday radio show, eventually bringing his style of conservative talk radio — a relatively new medium — to hundreds of cities.

    • June 1992- President George H.W. Bush reportedly carried Limbaugh’s bags into the White House for an overnight stay, amid a months-long effort by Bush to court his support, an early signal of Limbaugh’s unique influence over conservative voters.

    • November 1993- Time featured Limbaugh on its cover, alongside fellow broadcaster Howard Stern — by then, Limbaugh claimed an audience in the millions, and outlets began documenting his confrontational and often crude style: referring to feminists as “feminazis” and his obsequious fans as “dittoheads.”

    • December 1994- A group of newly elected Republican members of Congress invited Limbaugh to speak at their orientation, casting his show as a key part of the party’s electoral success that year and a counterbalance to a media landscape they viewed as hostile — Limbaugh told lawmakers, “this is not the time to get moderate.”

    • October 2001- Months after signing a massive $285 million, nine-year contract, Limbaugh revealed to listeners that he’s almost entirely deaf due to rapid hearing loss, but he would continue hosting his show with the help of cochlear implants.

    • September 2003- During his short-lived stint as an NFL commentator on ESPN, Limbaugh suggested Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb “got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve” because the media wanted a Black player to succeed, a remark critics perceived as racist and likened to a pattern of questionable comments by Limbaugh (he promptly resigned from ESPN under pressure).

    • April 2006- Limbaugh was arrested on prescription drug fraud charges in his home state of Florida, following years of addiction to painkillers (prosecutors later agreed to drop all charges if he agreed to enter rehab).

    • March 2008- Limbaugh chuckled after a caller compared then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to Curious George, a cartoon monkey — Limbaugh apologized to Obama later on and insisted he’d never heard of the well-known children’s cartoon character.

    • April 2008- As Obama’s primary campaign gathered steam, Limbaugh encouraged his overwhelmingly conservative listeners to weaken Obama by switching parties and voting in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton, an effort Limbaugh dubbed “Operation Chaos.”

    • January 2009- Four days before Obama’s inauguration, Limbaugh urged Republicans not to work with the incoming president and declared on-air, “I hope he fails,” setting the stage for eight years of fervent Obama criticism (at one point in 2010, he threatened to flee the country and move to Costa Rica if Obama’s healthcare reform efforts passed).

    • February 2012- Limbaugh called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she publicly advocated for universal contraception coverage, drawing nationwide outrage and causing dozens of advertisers and a few radio stations to drop his show (Limbaugh later apologized for his choice of words).

    • September 2016- Limbaugh declared that “conservatism lost” when Donald Trump won the Republican primary, though he quickly pivoted to supporting Trump during his presidency.

    • September 2017- Days before Hurricane Irma hit Florida, Limbaugh implied the media was intentionally exaggerating the storm’s severity, a baseless claim that some critics warned could hamper officials’ efforts to evacuate at-risk residents — Limbaugh, for his part, evacuated his Palm Beach home several days later.

    • February 2020- Limbaugh told listeners he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, but he continued to host his show, taking occasional breaks to seek treatment.

    • February 2020- Trump awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his State of the Union address, a move criticized by many.

    • December 2020- After weeks of repeating false allegations of voter fraud in last year’s election, Limbaugh wondered aloud whether the country is “trending toward secession,” though he later clarified he doesn’t support the idea and “probably” never will.”

    Michael J. Fox has yet to be heard from.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  14. When the Right is wrong:

    “It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump… Now, I want to tell you the truth about the coronavirus … I’m dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold, folks. The drive-by media hype up this thing as a pandemic… Ninety-eight percent of people who get the coronavirus survive. It’s a respiratory system virus.” – Rush Limbaugh, ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show’ 2/24/20

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  15. Rush catapulted Talk Radio into the stratosphere…..and was a clever and shrewd political analyst for years. Obviously his style of humor and rhetoric wasn’t for everyone, but he certainly mainstreamed many conservative ideas and arguments….and had a positive influence on many GOP politicians. I was fundamentally disappointed by his enabling of Trump….as he was possibly the one influential person in right wing media who could have single-handedly derailed Trump’s candidacy and elevated an alternative. so, that too will become part of his legacy. Sure he said some dumb things over the years….especially his McNabb comments on MNF….but that’s the nature of being a “talker”. Eventually dumb comments will emerge. His rhetoric, however, was not steeped in hate or anger….at least of what I remember….it’s been years since I’ve heard him on radio. His listeners loved him…and he will be missed by many. The problem is that what he left behind recently is a big problem with our politics….it’s a shame he won’t have the opportunity to help fix it.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  16. At least he lived to see Trump acquitted twice.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  17. Headline: Tucker Carlson: Rush Limbaugh’s commentary was different ‘because he meant it’

    You have to wonder why this surprises Tucker.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  18. The peple running thre show today don’t come anywhere near the q

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  19. quality of Rush Limbaugh. They don;t even seem to understand him.

    The show will have a great chance of dying.

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  20. Rush saved his worst work for last, selling his political soul in furtherance of a con man president. It’s not easy to have fond remembrances when there was so much bitter taste from his last half-dozen years on radio, so I think I’ll just leave it at that.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  21. They played today an excerpt from 2018 in which Rush said that if the Democrats won control of the House there would be many investigations but there wouldn’t be an impeachment.

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  22. 17.Headline: Tucker Carlson: Rush Limbaugh’s commentary was different ‘because he meant it’
    You have to wonder why this surprises Tucker.

    What’s to wonder:

    “The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you’ve got it made.” ― George Burns

    Limbaugh was first and foremost, an entertainer.

    Tucka is not.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  23. His rhetoric, however, was not steeped in hate or anger….

    Except it was.

    Ask Michael J. Fox.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  24. As long as I’m spitting on the grave I should note that through his long career Rush was pretty vicious towards drug users and yet, surprise, was himself violating drug laws.

    He seems to have been a talented radio host who used his talents to make the world a worse place and was along the way a hypocritical jerk.

    Victor (4959fb)

  25. The left hated Mr Limbaugh because he was the first to break the stranglehold of the left on the mass media.

    Mr Limbaugh has now returned his “talent on loan from God” to the Lord.

    The Dana in Kentucky (c3b452)

  26. Jason Whitlock might want to make some “too soon” calls to EIB Radio, Sammy.

    urbanleftbehind (37a636)

  27. The only substitute host who was half good was Mark Steyn. Jay Diamond does, or did, a show like his.

    I think it’s possible that Rush didn’t want a good co-host, so he would look good, but he should have changed that policy in the last year, but maybe he didn’t care what happened to his show. Maybe all the people he cared about were taken care of. He had to notice the poor quality of his substitute hosts. Ratings alone (I am guessing what they were) should have told him that.

    Rush always didn’t care about all these things that a person was told they were supposed to do to extend their life because he said, we are going to die anyway.

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  28. I have to admit, I never heard one of his shows. Never read any of his books. His brief ESPN career is the most I actually ever heard him say.

    Hoi Polloi (15cfac)

  29. Mr Finkelman wrote:

    The only substitute host who was half good was Mark Steyn.

    No one was going to measure up to Mr Limbaugh, because his talent was simply on another level. He had the easy quips, he had the salesmanship, he had the sources, he had the talent, and he had the ‘golden pipes,’ the voice which drew in listeners.

    The guys with the tremendous voices usually don’t go into political shows. They go into sports broadcasting (which Mr Limbaugh did, with the Kansas City Royals), they go into advertising, and they go into the non-controversial stuff. If they’re British, they go into Shakespearean acting before becoming Jedi knights or British officers in World War I Arabia.

    The Dana in Kentucky (c3b452)

  30. Mr Polloi wrote:

    I have to admit, I never heard one of his shows. Never read any of his books. His brief ESPN career is the most I actually ever heard him say.

    Mr Limbaugh tried to move into television, and had his own Rush Limbaugh TV Show, but it quickly petered out; he was a radio talent who simply did not translate well to television.

    The Dana in Kentucky (c3b452)

  31. Evil he has caused is still with us.

    asset (8bf1f5)

  32. Victor tweet: “Rush Limbaugh had a regular radio segment where he would read off the names of gay people who died of AIDS and celebrate it and play horns and bells and stuff.”

    This is patently false….and would have gotten him fired immediately. If this was true, there would be more than a random tweet to support it.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  33. I called him a number of times on his local New York show, which was broadcast from 10 am to 12 pm (a separate national show, not heard in New York was broadcast 12 pm. Eventually the two shows merged and the local show on WABC was dropped. I managed to get through only once , in 194, because everybody was listening to Senate testimony. I said that Bill Clinton wanted to put all investigations of himself into the hands of a lawyer he could trust. Rush Limbaugh asked, who?? “Robert B. Fiske Jr.” I said. Rush Limbaugh commented that some people had said (something like that)

    I garbled the name of the Clinton appointee Fiske had defended. It was the wrong person.

    The judges appointed Kenneth Starr.

    Blll Clinton didn’t like him because he was the only person in the media who got things at least half right about him.

    Limbaugh would say, as a joke, America Held Hostage. (a play n what Ted Koppel did in 1979-1980)

    Limbaugh said his show would last past Clinton. Sort of like as if Colbert said he was not dependent on Trump.

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  34. 32. Yes. I don’t remember anything like that. But I was only listening since 1988. Limbaugh reminded me alittle bit of Dave Dawson.

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  35. felipe (630e0b) — 2/17/2021 @ 10:23 am

    now is not the time for ill-advised asperity – much less to double-down on it.

    There’s some value in letting people express themselves freely. It gives a more complete picture of a person.

    For example, if you give someone room to lie and they do you’ve learned something.

    frosty (f27e97)

  36. AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 2/17/2021 @ 1:25 pm

    It happened AJ, for a few weeks in 1990, until the blowback became too much. You and I probably didn’t hear about it because it was so short-lived.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  37. @20. Reaganaurics.

    Born, nurtured and nourished amidst the gaudy, gilded cesspool of Ronnie’s go-go 1980s– and his killing of the Fairness Doctrine. Just like The Donald.

    They are the GOP.

    They are you.

    “Hosea 8:7 – “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  38. @28. Rush Rooms in restaurants [even in 1980s NYC]- and his “‘Rush To Excellence’ Tours” – vile, though successful from a marketing POV- gatherings across the land; cultivated the dark side of the GOP— virtually identical to Trump rallies of recent years.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  39. At an appropriate time I’ll be first and least forgiving on the dogpile. But not today. If despite our disagreements, we can’t allow the bereaved a decent interval before excoriating their loved ones, can we agree on anything?

    R.I.P.

    lurker (59504c)

  40. Just another dead doper.

    — Rush Limbaugh

    john (cd2753)

  41. frosty (f27e97) — 2/17/2021 @ 2:17 pm

    Quite right, frosty, quite right.

    felipe (630e0b)

  42. Nah! There’s no principle to be found. Some jagoffs just don’t know when to shut their pieholes.

    nk (1d9030)

  43. For whatever it is worth, here’s Snopes on Limbaugh’s ‘Aids Update’ feature.

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rush-limbaugh-mock-aids-gays/

    john (cd2753)

  44. Cant wait for the next boooosh to die

    mg (8cbc69)

  45. Like I was saying ….

    nk (1d9030)

  46. “Rush and I stood on Reagan’s shoulders.” – Newt Gingrich, Fox News, 2-17-21

    ‘How can I make his death about me’… eh Newt?

    Turds of a feather…

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  47. “It happened AJ, for a few weeks in 1990…”

    Wow, I suppose different times and all….but I had never heard of that before….it’s shockingly cruel…..and thankfully short lived….but…wow….not good for karma…if you believe in that

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  48. it’s shockingly cruel…..

    Most of his bits were then; he labelled teen Chelsea the ‘White House Dog’; did anti-Jewish bits;some of his stuff could make Imus blush– but he knew his audience well then; back in the day at lunch time you could see people around midtown Manhattan plugged into their personal Walkman radiocasette players listening out of fascination… gotta give him credit for saving AM radio as a financial revenue stream– and for the capability to just talk for 3 hours a day, five days a week; enough hot air to generate his own climate change.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  49. @48-
    He was Trump before Trump.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  50. Much of what I feel about Rush is contained in this post and comments:

    https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/02/an-elegy-for-fake-piety#disqus_thread

    For Rush, cruelty was the point. He claimed he spoke for people shut out of the political discourse but who he really spoke for were heterosexual white men upset that they were no longer unchallenged masters of America. And they loved his insulting everybody else.

    Victor (4959fb)

  51. At an appropriate time I’ll be first and least forgiving on the dogpile. But not today. If despite our disagreements, we can’t allow the bereaved a decent interval before excoriating their loved ones, can we agree on anything?

    R.I.P.

    Agreed. Thank you.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  52. Jonah finished with this…

    In his 1992 bestseller, The Way Things Ought To Be, Limbaugh wrote:

    This, ultimately, is why the issue of character is so important. Liberals wig out when character becomes an issue, because many of their candidates are of dubious character. Yet, it matters greatly to voters. The Perot “candidacy” illustrates just how important character is in choosing leaders, and I find it almost laughably ironic that it was his principles (character) that the Perotistas cited most often as the reason they supported him. He made promise after promise, then broke them all. I shouted till I was without voice that his entire campaign was based on the profound deceit of manipulating people into thinking they had created his candidacy, when in fact it was he who had orchestrated the whole thing for months before anyone knew what was really happening.

    Without question there is a rising clamor for change, not only in our political institutions and establishment, but in the policies and directions which emanate from them. The key to change, though, will be found inside, not outside the system among politically experienced people who are ethical, honest, and moral—characteristics that do matter, despite how loudly they are pooh-poohed by the liberal elite.

    Outsiders, and those who present themselves as such, will ultimately end up as carcasses strewn across the countryside, false prophets of a false premise.

    I prefer this Limbaugh—not the one who unshakably followed his audience, no matter where he led it.

    Or, put another way, Limbaugh’s words expired some time in 2015, when character no longer mattered.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  53. Mr Montagu wrote:

    Or, put another way, Limbaugh’s words expired some time in 2015, when character no longer mattered.

    I know that I am in the minority here, but 2020 gave us a choice between a man who is an absolute [insert slang term for the rectum here] but whose policies were mostly the rights ones, and a guy of seemingly good character but whose policies will lead this nation to rack and ruin. To me, policies mattered far more!

    Joe Biden sure looks good, doesn’t he? Most presidential-looking President since Woodrow Wilson! But he’s going to try to destroy our oil and gas industries over global warming climate change, he’s reopening the country to illegal immigration, despite the fact we have millions of Americans out of work, he’s promoting ‘transgenderism,’ and no only does he support an unrestricted abortion license, he’s issued executive orders which will have American taxpayers paying for abortions overseas and wants to repeal the Hyde Amendment, and have the taxpayers paying for some abortions here.

    Joe Biden goes to Mass every Sunday, looks great in a President, doesn’t it, and then he turns around and makes a mockery of what he says he believes in setting his policies.

    Yeah, I’d take the absolute [insert slang term for the rectum here] any day over great guy Mr Biden!

    The Dana in Kentucky (c3b452)

  54. 27. Mark Levin said on his radio show last night that Rush didn’t (he used the present tense) pick his substitute hosts – his staff did – and he didn’t even listen to them, but relied on his staff to tell him how they did. I guess they picked them on the basis of falling into the same market niche – whixh probably means attracting the same advertisers.

    The only ones he picked personally to substitute were Sean Hannity and himself – he was long ago,=. He couldn’t substitute now because he works for a different company.

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  55. I had a love hate relationship with Rush. On the one hand he was very funny and he did an amazing job of conceptualizing conservatism. My hate side of Rush I will explain with this point. Everyone who is saying that Rush supported Trump, that is not entirely accurate. Of course Rush supported Trump, but it is much more than that, he gave Trump the path to the White House. I don’t have the time to research this but I feel 90% sure I am right on this. I was an avid listener to his program in the spring of 2015. Ted Cruz was set to be the guy, and then it was like one day Rush was on the Trump train and then everyone else fell in line. And why did Rush support Trump? This is what I didn’t like about Rush. You see his main goal wasn’t to advance conservatism or make the country better, his main goal for the program was as he would say numerous times, was to extract large fees from the advertisers on his program. That is why I believe he supported Trump. Trump would boost his ratings. So RIP Rush. I will miss hearing his voice on the radio but as with all things in life I believe it’s time for the next generation to take the reigns.

    ah-non-ee-mouse (b6adda)

  56. I went to Dan’s Bake Sale.

    I believed in Rush. I listened for many years when the larger media would slant too far to the left for my taste. I thought he was great.

    As time went by, I started to notice a shrillness in his voice. Not like Hannity or Levin, but still there. He went from common sense conservatism to a more radical and insulting show. I didn’t understand it. And I began to feel like money was more and more the motivator.

    Then Donald Trump came along. And that… I really didn’t understand. The man who was a liberal donor a couple years earlier is now the savior of Republicans? The con man from Manhattan was the cure we desperately needed? I thought Trump was dangerous, and I was right. How did Rush not see it?

    I do believe that Rush was a decent man. But, for whatever reason, he allowed himself to be conned. And he lost a bit of that common sense. Something I could never have imagined back at Dan’s Bake Sale in 1993.

    noel (9fead1)

  57. You people are the remains of the Lincol project.

    mg (8cbc69)

  58. Didn’t the Lincoln Project got rid of the problem guy? Now, it’s the Republicans’ turn.

    noel (9fead1)

  59. Yeah, I’d take the absolute [insert slang term for the rectum here] any day over great guy Mr Biden!

    This is why I picked Door #3, a protest vote for a Republican not named Trump. Biden lost me on policy, and Trump lost me on character. Hmm, instead of “lost me”, more like never had me.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  60. Only Donald Trump could have gotten Biden elected President. We all know that.

    nk (1d9030)

  61. Rush Limbaugh I think had stopped running his musical parodies (legal issues?) but he kept them long after he’d become deaf and, I think, unable to listen to music.

    Sammy Finkelman (7e803d)

  62. noel @58. The Lincoln Project got rid of everyone. It stopped raising money. It never was much more than a scam.

    Sammy Finkelman (7e803d)

  63. 55. ah-non-ee-mouse (b6adda) — 2/18/2021 @ 3:23 am

    Rush was on the Trump train and then everyone else fell in line. And why did Rush support Trump?

    He always supported the Republican nominee – not doing so was a non-starter for him – and when he determined that Trump couldn’t be stopped, he supported Trump.

    Sammy Finkelman (7e803d)

  64. “Yeah, I’d take the absolute [insert slang term for the rectum here] any day over great guy Mr Biden!”

    This seems to follow the school of thought that character in leaders doesn’t really matter….it’s only the policy proposals….and in some cases….just the policy rhetoric that matters. This is a historically risky perspective, because eventually crises emerge….crises that require honesty, exprience, wisdom, discipline….well, many of the virtues that we hope to pass on to the next generation. Did Trump handle the Covid crisis well? Was he honest, careful, thoughtful…or was he most concerned with how events would effect him politically? Crises bring out the character that you’ve developed over your life. Are your instincts to lie, cheat, steal, lash out, and care mainly about yourself….or are they more noble and thoughtful? Conservatives usually want people with a clear record of service….someone who has been tested…a demonstrated leader….rather than a reality TV personality….with a long list of questionable business dealings.

    Presidents wield enormous power…are the voice of the nation….set a standard for conduct and behavior that are on view for all to see. It’s dangerous that a President applauds dictators, speaks disparagingly about the freedom of the press, proposes executive actions of dubious constitutionality, attempts to have a foreign government investigate his rival by delaying military aid, turn savagely on associates that don’t give him his way, disrespects and is dismissive of long-time allies, routinely dances around obstruction of justice, mischievously provides cover for those who wish to divide us by race, and finishes by promoting wild and false conspiracy theories that question the validity of the vote….and ultimately lead to the sad images of January 6th. Four more years, would we have seen anything different….or are these moral choices built into the character of the individual…and those he chooses to surround himself with?

    There is no existential crisis that requires us to choose unethical leaders. This is manufactured fear and anger to make other people money. We can have good leaders…we just have to remember why we need them….

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  65. It is about the voters’ pet peeves policy. There was nothing wrong with Dukakis’s character, and even less compared to Lee Atwater’s who won the 1988 election for 41. As for Perot, he was a businessman who knew how to create demand for his product (which happened to be him), just like any other free market entrepreneur Rush.

    nk (1d9030)

  66. 64. AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 2/18/2021 @ 7:27 am

    There is no existential crisis that requires us to choose unethical leaders.

    It’s not existential crisis’s that require it.

    It’s s campaign system that leaves us with very few choices, and works like a demolition derby.

    Did Trump handle the Covid crisis well?

    Better than most would have, not as good as could have been done,

    Was he honest, careful, thoughtful…or was he most concerned with how events would effect him politically?

    He wasn’t too thoughtful but he was very open – not enough pen – to inmovation and Manhattan projects. Not thoughtful enough to distinguish all that well between good ideas and bad ones – and politically cowardly. When he came under criticismHe would drop good ideas, like fast getting out to everyone the monoclonal antibodies that had cured him.

    He was most concerned with how things would affect him politically. It was a good prod most of the time. Of course he was too much for opening and for restoration of normalcy. He was also somewhat misled by Dr Fauci on how long this would go on.

    Sammy Finkelman (7e803d)

  67. News azwareness department:

    One person I know told me that she had been listening to Rush Limbaugh since about 2016. She didn’t know he was sick. She was finding other people substituting and didn’t know why. When she got the Fox News alert she thought at first he had died of corona. (she was sad about Rush dying)

    Sammy Finkelman (86c6e0)

  68. They’re going to keep on playing old (extended) sound bites of Rush Limbaugh on the EIB network. With particular emphasis, it looks like, on general philosophy.
    This site and its archives

    https://www.rushlimbaugh.com

    will remain available.

    Sammy Finkelman (86c6e0)

  69. They kept news pf his death very tightly held and Rush didn’t speak in detail about his condition or describe his medical treatment. They would tend to promise he would be back sooner than he would.

    One caller yesterday said she tuned in (expecting or hoping) to hear Rush Limbaugh.

    Sammy Finkelman (86c6e0)

  70. I grew up listening to Rush when I was younger, and still did on occasion up to the present time. I agreed with much of what he had to say while sometimes disagreeing with him on occasion from time to time, becoming more frequent in the Trump era. Like most of us here, I strongly disagreed with his fervent support of Donald Trump. That was the aspect about Rush that disappointed me the most, given the influence he had with the GOP base.

    When one views the totality of Rush’s career, I still think he did more good than bad for the conservative movement.

    Rest in peace Rush.

    HCI (92ea66)

  71. I don’t understand why Rush was surprised (and touched) by all the accolades in the last year.

    A form of imposter syndrome?

    Sammy Finkelman (1e81da)

  72. The main thing Rush did was very simple. He would have all sorts of news stories printed out (and I think one text search he did was for anything with his name, although that often did not become his main point) and he would have sound bytes collected. The printouts sometimes would get lost on his desk. He would talk about them as he ran across them again and he would also call out soundbytes – they had numbers.

    Sammy Finkelman (1e81da)

  73. They are running a lot of Rush speaking, as they did not on days when he was absent. His last day broadcasting was Tuesday, February 2 (Groundhog Day)

    We get commentary plus excerpts of Rush.

    Sammy Finkelman (c95a5a)


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