So, in that spirit, I’ll do the same for you. You’re not hearing what Limbaugh said. Even if there was some ambivalence to his first saying he hoped Obama would fail, although it seemed clear enough to me, everything about the man, from his direct comments on this matter to his persona and philosophy make it clear what he meant.

Indeed, nothing could be more common in political life–or any other realm of human existence for that matter–than to hope for the defeat of policies one believes will be hurtful. You couldn’t have it more backwards: Limbaugh is hoping Obama will fail so his policies will not bring harm to America, not that Obama’s policies will be enacted, then America will be hurt, and so Obama will be a failure. Rightly or wrongly, Limbaugh takes it as axiomatic that the polices will be harmful.

If a “conservative purist,” as you put it, were elected to the presidency and wanted to implement an anti-abortion, prayer-in-the-schools, end-gay-rights, what have you agenda, do you honestly expect that liberals would say, “Let’s give the president what he wants and see if it helps the country before we condemn him. It would be treason to hope he will fail.”?

The “birthers,” as you term them, are a sliver of a sliver of the conservative movement. Your exaggeration of their role is as unfair as your condemnation of Limbaugh.

Actually, in light of the vitriol that came from the far right, Obama sounded damn reasonable.

It is all relative. And as long as the far right continue to rail against the impure, Obama will be given more time to do more damage.

Strange some people can be fooled so easily. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on their part. Obama is exactly who I thought he was, nothing has surprised me. Nothing.

Me either. I thought Rudy would have been a better choice but he didn’t seem to attract any funds.

It might already be too late. Obama will have damaged our relations with countries like Poland and others possibly beyond repair. His whipsawing of US positions on things like missile defense in Europe and policies toward Syria, Iran and Israel and going to make other nations believe we can not be trusted. What we promise can not stand longer than an election cycle here in the US because the next President will just change the rules.

We have no integrity anymore. Diplomacy rests on a foundation of integrity and consistency. It will force us into more wars because any diplomacy will be a matter of the other side simply waiting out the current administration to see what the next will bring … like Iran did.

The manipulators still need to do more to tank the stock market to change the Obie supporters. Amazing that they still stand by him at this point.

Steele made a gross tactical mistake as did Cantor.

They had better learn to anticipate the Democrats’ antics and unite in the next election.

What I would hate to think is what happens if the stock market hits 3000 and Obie says, “Sorry, we have to raise taxes to all of you.” Or that Obie will finally get the idea that true free markets do actually work, implement it, then win the next term.

We need to stop the infighting and unite in the next election. If there is one.

Look, no Democrat ever got elected by playing to the far left and no Republican will ever get elected playing to the far right. The reason is simple math.

The Democrats have 40-some percent of the population, the Republicans have 30-some percent, and the remaining 30 percent are “other”.

Neither party will ever get elected by their “base”. Democrats and Republicans alike play to the center during general elections in order to capture that center that they both need in order to win. The party that gets the most of the moderate vote wins, period. It isn’t opinion … it is simple arithmetic.

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Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), said Gibbs was trying to create a distraction by responding to Limbaugh.

“What we are seeing is a desperate attempt by Democrats to distract attention away from a multi-trillion dollar spending spree taking place in Washington,” Ferrier said. “Creating a boogeyman to change the subject does nothing to alter the fact that there are 9,000 earmarks in the omnibus spending bill, that the economic stimulus bill contained no Republican input or that their budget would increase taxes on all Americans.”
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/white-house-fires-back-at-rush-limbaugh-2009-03-02.html
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I don’t know what Obama’s obsession with Rush Limbaugh is; but, he certainly has one. I hope Rejpubs figure out a way to use this to their advantage.