Probably reflecting the overnight conventional wisdom-ABC's Halperin said on Morning Joe...

[underpants]

The Morning Joe show is basically the morning "Here is what we have decided on overnight" for the newspaper/punditry DC crowd. Fox Friends is slightly different in that they take the conventional wisdom and apply their spin on it.

So they are talking about both Gingrich and the Alabama Rep. who both called Rush Limbaugh to profusely apologize to him for daring to say something that remotely could not be seen as praise.

ABC's Mark Halperin actually said, "this is a problem...for President Obama" I'll see if I can find a video or transcript.

the Guy from New York Magazine (Heilemann??) correctly stated that this is NOT good for the GOP. They do not want Rush to be the face of their party. He mentioned how successful Reps have been connecting Dems to "liberal icons" over the years (he meant Jane Fonda, Streisand, etc.) and that now they are attaching themselves to Rush who is "not the face of the majority of the country"

Halperin was being serious. He actually tried to turn it around and say that Rush Limbaugh was trouble for Obama. What Halperin doesn't get is that aside from Rush's formidable past (for the GOP) anyone tuning into his show will be let's say surprised by both his snarky attitude and they will feel left out of endless inside "jokes". You really have to be indoctrinated into the world of talk radio for it not to be shocking. We saw the public introduction to talk radio but in a much more ready for TV presentation-Sarah Palin.... and people found it to be weird, nasty, and unhinged within about 2 weeks.

[sampsonblk]

1. That's good stuff - nt

[lamp_shade]

2. Here's what I love. The President made a remark about Slimeball (I don't even remember

what it was). Look what happened. How many republics have publicly made fools of themselves over this? Many. How many Democrats? None.
Did The President make any further remarks? No
And what is The President doing now? :popcorn:

God love Our President.

[underpants]

3. If Obama is really that smart

they have real problems on their hands

IF he really set out the bait and let them rush (sorry) to it is like this it is brilliant.

The Repubs are all light and no heat. Message and perception-conquer the news cycle and then wake up to do it all over again the next day. No thought of cohesion or storyline.

[uponit7771]

10. Time will tell, it makes sense to legitimize Rush and make him the face of the GOP

...because moderates will run away from these nasty bastards as fast as they can

[Kahuna]

4. I sent MJ an email already telling them that Halperin is wrong..as USUAL..

and that Heidelman actually has it right.

[underpants]

5. A huge problem here is that Rush is not allowed out into the light

Have you seen him recently? He looks like hell.
Seriously, I saw two videos of him and he looks bad. So bad that I sent him a nice email on it-I mean he looks that bad.

They can't have Rush come out into the light and Rush's great advantage is that he controls the mic (all talk radio/TV have that advantage)
there is nothing about him that will stand up to exposure to the public nor will it stand up to the minimum of critque and analysis

[MattBaggins]

6. Mark Halperin vs Rick Sanchez

Which one of these mental giants is the most stupid of the two?

[Kahuna]

7. They both rely waaay too much on drudge as their spin source. nt

[OneGrassRoot]

8. Unfortunately, there are supposedly 30 million listeners....

And, if they weren't dittoheads before, if they didn't support President Obama, they will get sucked into the hatred, the typical "you're either with us or against us" mentality.

Maybe it seems like there are so many genuine limbaugh republics because I am, unfortunately, surrounded by them, and they have gotten RABID since inauguration.

[uponit7771]

9. Again, if you're not USED to listening to Rush being sucked into his hatred is hard. He'll most ...

...likely tone it down for a second but it's smart to make that bloated bastard the face of the GOP and either watch the GOP run away from him or embrace him in defense then watch the moderates votes come in.

[OneGrassRoot]

11. Oh, I agree....it's pure comedy, albeit sinister comedy....

for those NOT used to hate radio. I agree.

I also agree it was brilliant for Obama to help with making him the face of the GOP. I loved that!

I think I'm just a little shell-shocked at how rabid "they" have become in one week. It's as though they really didn't think Obama would be sworn in and rather than stay in a state of shock for a while, they went into pure violent hatred mode. Like I said, that's my experience, at least. :)

Oy.