Rush Limbaugh may have laid the groundwork to make himself the King-Maker of the Republican Party for 2012.
Rush Limbaugh is playing a con on the Republican Party, in an effort designed to make him the single most important player in picking the Republican nominee in 2012.
Okay, okay, this may be a wild-ass theory but let me run through it, and then say what you think. The only premises you have to accept are the following; Rush the Hutt is very smart (and if not smart, then clever), he is extremely good at assessing politics, and most importantly he has one major goal; increasing the wealth and power of Rush Limbaugh.
It has been clear from the start of this Presidential election campaign that this race is the Democrats’ to lose. Every major indicator, like wrong track/right way polls point to a Democratic victory. Now, imagine that you are little Jabba the Limbaugh, and you see the Republican Party heading towards defeat (one indication; an habitual cross-dresser was the GOP’s front-runner for months).
Do you lash yourself to the mast and go down with the ship, or do you figure out a way to make this work to your advantage. My bet is that the big bad boy from OxyContin Junction went for door number 2. First, you stake out the ground that you are the true keeper of the conservative flame by saying something like "I am a conservative who puts the country first, not a political party or a particular nominee."
And then you drop the bomb - remember the stir this caused?
RUSH: Jim in Kansas City, Missouri, I'm glad you called, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: Earlier you had mentioned that when the time comes, you're going to announce or get behind somebody, and I'm just wondering, what's your selection criteria for picking a candidate, and two, how do you decide when that time is that you're going to announce? I'm more interested in how you pick a candidate. Because especially this year with -- there's really not a true conservative. How do you narrow it down?
RUSH: That's an excellent point. I don't have a time frame, just to address that first. I don't have a time frame.
CALLER: All right.
RUSH: And I also, I can see possibly not supporting a Republican nominee.
CALLER: Hm-hm.
RUSH: And I never thought that I would say that in my life.
This established a safe position for Limbaugh. He could then play among the candidates with the understanding that none of them were "really" conservative. And play Rush did, he furiously tried to peddle Mitt Romney, by far the least and most dubious conservative as the best choice for conservatives.
Romney won the Protestants. Romney tied Huckabee with evangelicals. Romney won the pro-George W. Bush voters. Romney is the primary second choice of Giuliani voters and Thompson voters and McCain voters. Romney won the immigration hardliners. Romney won the upper middle class earning between $100,000 and $200,000 annually. Romney won the terrorism-oriented voters. Romney won the self-identified conservatives and the self-identified very conservatives. Romney won the values-oriented voters. Romney won the white voters. Romney won the tax-cutting voters. As this blogger writes, "In short, Romney won the Republican Party's idea of itself, and that, too, is a big deal. If you're white, Protestant, anti-abortion, you go to church on Sunday, you think well of the president, you want lower taxes, you hate terrorists, you make a good living, you want to do something about immigration, you live in Florida; chances are you voted Romney. The question before Florida was whether McCain could win in a closed Republican race, and now we know he can. The question now is whether he can win with conservatives, and in Florida McCain did not."
Once Romney decided to stop spending his money, the Republicans were left with the much more conservative John McCain, to whom Limbaugh has given lukewarm support but plenty of criticism for not being conservative enough!
So now Rush is in the Perfect position. If McCain wins, Rush will claim it’s because he rallied reluctant conservatives to him. And with McCain likely to serve only one term, 2012 may be just as wide open as 2008. But if McCain loses (which remember, was going to be the likely result for any rebublican) then Rush will claim that it was because millions of conservative voters could not be persuaded to vote for someone with such poor conservative credentials. And who is the only man who can lead the conservatives back to the Republican Party in 2012 – you guessed it – Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh, the stand-alone king-maker of the Republican Party. If that doesn’t send chills down your spine! Brrrrrr.
What makes it weirder is that if Romney had been the nominee, in the expected Republican loss in November, Rush’s plan would still work, because while less flawed than McCain (in Rush's mind), Romney also did not did not measure up to Rush’s conservative standards – he was just the least worst.
There you have it. Rush Limbaugh may not be an evil genius, but he is evil enough to have decided to exploit the high probability of a Republican loss to enhance his own stature. It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for them.
Let’s all help Barack – when speaking of a certain cave-dwelling terrorist – his name is Bin Laden and only Bin Laden– first names are only for people we like.