We expect to see conservatives blame Obama for the economic crisis which began under Bush. We expect to see conservatives blame the health care crisis on past government involvement and deny the fact that health care is an area which the market is unable to handle on its own. While there are many policy areas where we expect the Republicans to be in denial about the failure of their views and blame others, Rush Limbaugh is taking this to new extremes in blaming Barack Obama for Mark Sanford’s affair.
Hat tip to Talking Points Memo for the audio embedded above and here is a partial transcript from The Plank:
[Obama’s] trying to kill spirit. All this ‘hope’ and ‘change’–he’s trying to kill it. You know how many frustrated Americans there are out there at what’s happening?
This Sanford business: I’ve got to tell you, one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind…. What he did defies logic…. He up and leaves for five days, doesn’t leave anyone in charge of the state in case there’s an emergency. This is almost like, ‘I don’t give a damn, the country’s going to hell in a handbasket. I just want out of here.’ He had just tried to fight the stimulus money coming to South Carolina. He didn’t want any part of it. He lost the battle. He said, ‘What the hell. I mean, I’m — the federal government’s taking over — what the hell, I want to enjoy life.’…
I’m not [kidding]. My first thought was he said, ‘To hell with this. The Democrats are destroying the country. We can’t do anything to stop it. I gave everything I had to stop it here in South Carolina.’ … Folks, there are a lot of people looking at life and saying, ‘screw it.’ They’re saying, ‘screw it.’ Before Obama takes away their money, before Obama takes away their house, or the economy takes away their house, there are people who are saying, “To hell with all this…. I’m just going to try to enjoy it as much as I can.’
If Sanford had not returned and had remained in Argentina with his mistress, would conservatives have said he had gone Galt and proclaimed him a hero?
The next time Rush is caught using OxyContin, will this be Obama’s fault?
I guess we oughta blame Obama for creating idiots like Limbaugh. I can’t believe people swallow this kind of crap.
Once, I was in Longmont, CO on a personal matter. Upon returning to Denver I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The interstate going north looked like a parking lot – thousands upon thousands of cars just sitting there. You would have thought it was the second coming. They were all headed to Ft. Collins to hear this fat head speak at the football stadium. It scares me to think that there really are that many stupid people
rush is a moron..so sad about MJ and Farrah onthe same day ..Sanford didn’t need Obama’s permission nor did the government affairs drive him to take off for 5 days secretly..was his passions for Maria
Ron actually makes a great case for how badly people can over-react to satire and/or tounge-in-cheek humor. Does anybody on this blog believe that Ron blames Obama for the deaths of Jackson/Fawcette? Of course not, now, you may think Ron is funny or maybe not, but he even explains he is being ridiculous. I don’t expect any Rush haters to find anything he says funny, but I listen to him almost everyday. To his audience, he is doing humor in this particular case. Before I even knew where the S.C. gov. was, I made a comment on the Gun Toting Liberal (TM) blog that the govenor was taking the “underground railroad” to escape the enslavement of stimulus money but a Judge legislated from the bench a “Fugitive Stimulus Act” to force the govenor back to his state to spend the money. I doubt Rush got that from me, and maybe nobody thought it was funny. But hey, I’m use to the opposition always accusing us of “cherry picking” facts or comments when they do the same. Did I hear anyone say Sotomayer?
As you listen to him regularly you would have a better sense than me as to when Limbaugh is doing humor. Listening to the segment I had the feeling that Limbaugh might have realized he was using some hyperbole but was generally serious.
Regardless, I saw this worth mentioning but not as anything major. This is hardly the same as when conservatives cherry pick comments to smear someone as with Sotomayor.
Well,he made himself deaf,
When can we see him go MUTE (SWEEEEEET)
Mike,
Perhaps the problem is that virtually everything Limbaugh says sounds ridiculous to me, making it hard to tell when he is being serious and when he is joking when he says something ridiculous.
Thanks Ron, I really appreciate your acknowledgement that I may understand Rush better than some, including you. The reference I made to Sotomayer was my own “Awakening” when I heard facts about her and statements she made, but they where, as we say “cherry picked” and I went off convinced that she was really terrible. Then I researched, and as of today, I would say if I had a vote on her confirmation, I would fully support and vote for her. What still bugs me to some degree, not about her, but about society in general is the “zero tolerance” that is imposed on some but not others. If such a statement had been made in reverse, that person, whoever they were,no matter what the context, would have been done. I can’t prove that, but I believe it.
Rush Limbaugh Blames Obama for Sanford's Affair – Liberal Values … http://tinyurl.com/kth6p5
Rush Limbaugh Blames Obama for Sanford’s Affair – Liberal Values … http://tinyurl.com/kth6p5
Rush Limbaugh Blames Obama for Sanford’s Affair – Liberal Values … http://tinyurl.com/kth6p5
Rush Limbaugh Blames Obama for Sanford's Affair – Liberal Values … http://tinyurl.com/kth6p5
Of course blame the President or the federal government for an extra marrital affair. Conservatives have this whole “this is the end times mentality”. Its very scary and it is so easy to blame someone else for your problems. Rush was probably praying to whatever deity supplies his drugs that Obama would get into office. After all if the country fell apart under another Republican what could he do? He couldnt sell his half brained theories with that. He needed another Dem. President. On a side note Sanford had a very lousy relationship with his own party that controlled the senate. He burned his own bridges there and with his wife. Amazing. But Pres Obama pushed Sanford into bed with his mistress and killed his “spirit”.
Now, there you have it, and they still wonder why we voted the way we did!!!
Very sad about two deaths that can not be separated from our global genetic social quilt, Which President Obama had nothing to do with. As far as that Gov. Sanford, it is so increadable selfish, not to mention the public embarrassment, shame and pain that he caused his family, is owed all to him alone! Rush needs to go back to school and take classess on Marriage and the Family along with Cultural Diversity.
Sample cut v.s. whole show, since I listened to the whole show yesterday, I knew Rush wasn’t blaming Obama for the affair. but in the sample cut posted here, which I just listened to, it is true, that part Rush isn’t trying to be funny. He is arguing that Obama is an emotional downer, there was no “therefore Sanford had an affair”. You could say that Rush is trying to connect Obama’s policies not to the affair,which I belief Rush acknowledged started befor Obama even took office, but the wacky, flippant, way Sanford “dealt with” what Sanford knew would be the public discloser of the affair.
Sanford’s family and career are just the latest public sacrifice on the altar of enforced monogamy.
Fritz,
Do you hink Sanford should resign from office?
To me, besides deserting his state and fouling his family, he is turning out to be another political hypcrite.
Elliot Spitzer made his name as a crime busting attorney and would probably been Obama’s AG. Once he broke the law committing crimes he busted people for earlier, he was done.
The problem with those who tout themselves as holier then thou, when they aren’t (as none of us are), they have to pay the price for their actions equal to their words.
It was the same when Newt was running around on his wife when he voted for impeaching Clinton for lying about running around on Hillary. Newt doesn’t have a chance.
One-by-one, the rebub presidential contendors end up getting caught with their pants around their ankles. Instead of saying their are at a higher moral level then the rest of us, how about saying they have the same weaknesss the rest of us have? It makes their mistakes far less fatal.
Battlebob — to me the only relevant thing (for resignation) is whether there was a real state issue with having the governor MIA for a week without notifying his staff or the Lt Gov. It’s not like the state forces were going to fire on a Federal fort in the meantime.
Fritz,
Then you must also agree that the Bubba-Monica tryst was not worthy of impeachment. After all, nothing meaningful came out of that…
Battlebob — yep. Even though technically the impeachment was about perjury. But still, an utterly stupid waste of time and energy.
The only thing that should have happened to Bill Clinton is that Monica’s father should have been allowed to have a free punch at his chin for “I didn’t have sex with That Woman”.
Yes, the free punch sounds fair. (But technically her father would want to punch her for having sex; not for denying that he had sex.)
No, he would want to punch Bill for the disdain in his voice when he said it. When I first heard Clinton say it I had two thoughts:
1. Yes he did have sex with her.
2. If I were Monica’s father I would be only a short time away from being tackled by a Secret Service agent.
Im sure Rush meant it as much as Evan Thomas meant about Obama being “sort of God”
Responding to Mike Hatcher’s comments way back up there in # four –
I’ve reviewed that tape several times and I just don’t get a feel for tongue-in-cheek. Admittedly I make a point of never listening to or watching him, so perhaps I’ve missed something (doubt it from what I’ve read). But my mom always said you have to have brains to have a sense of humor. Frankly, I just don’t see either one in RL.
Leslie- You are correct. First, while I was talking about the overall show for the day, I was saying it was mostly in jest, but in a later post, I agreed the specific cut of the tape was not said as a joke. (That cut though I argued didn’t try to blame Barac for the affair which started before Obama’s election) what I said in (post#11) was Rush was trying to make a connection to Sandford’s handling of the exposure/confession of the affair to a dispondancy of Spirit of which Rush blames Obama to be a contributor. If you missed my follow up posts, blame me as they didn’t post my last name like the first did.
Nah, the problem with Clinton and Monica is that Bill was physically in the oval office (with Monica under the desk) but mentally in cosmic bliss when he was talking about serious security issues; quite similar to going MIA without notifying anybody. Plus the perjury thing, and leading the country on a wild goose chase to show off his degree while his party demonized the paid investigator who followed orders of both Reps and Dems when doing his investigating. That said, Rush’s continuing and worsening absurdities are making me ashamed I’m reg’d to the same party, and prouder than before that I not only voted for, but canvassed for, Obama.
What Rush say’s everyday is so counter productive an un-American. His comments surely influence a lot of people. This scares me. What a lot of uneducated listeners do not know is that this man is an entertainer, commentator and not a person who reports the whole truth. He has and probably still uses drugs, he is a bigot, racist and a want to be. He critized H. Clinton on not being able to join the armed services, saying that the reason was they did not make uniforms large enough to fit her ankles and derrier. Why was he Excused? Had to do with His A–. I really feel sorry for Rush as he was probably abused in some way as a child or by Choice
RT @ronchusid: Rush Limbaugh Blames Obama for Sanford's Affair #p2 #p21 #topprog http://t.co/VMVoROBa
Rush Limbaugh Blames Obama for Sanford's Affair – http://t.co/L2Ty2uAf