Rush Limbaugh talks to the UK Telegraph:"I have days where I feel I've left half my brain at home and I'm not functioning 100 per cent, but I don't think the audience would ever know it, and there's never a day I don't want to do it. I prep it, but I don't think about it until it starts. At noon today I had no idea what the first thing was I was going to say until about 20 seconds into the theme music."...
His audience is now 12 times the circulation of The New York Times, he tells me. "And you can add up CNN, MSNBC and Fox, and my audience is 20 times that. They have no pretence of objectivity. They are activists now and they make no bones about it. CNN, MSNBC and Fox all opinionise. Like I do. They acknowledge this, and so it has become a battle between the two medias. The liberal media see this Obama candidacy as historic because race is a big deal to them. They think this country committed Original Sin. I actually believe that most of their support for Obama is that they are creaming in their jeans about the historical nature of the campaign. They want to be a part of it.They want to make it happen. They want a stake in it. They want to be able to say they did it if Obama wins."...
"I am truly colour blind and I wish everyone else was. We Balkanise when we say only women can represent women in Congress and only Jews can represent Jews and only blacks can represent blacks. It's bullshit. We all want the same things. Prosperity and a decent education for our kids. Treating this country like it is stuck 50 years ago is bullshit; we have made more progress than anyone over this. Get over it. If Obama says stupid things I'm not going to say they are not stupid because he's black. He's running for President, for God's sake. It's the Left who has been racist by agonising about whether he is black enough. Is he authentic enough? Does he have a civil rights record? For me he's a liberal. That is reason enough to oppose him."
Lots more at the link. I like this part about whether he cries:
"Don't cry easily. Get close to crying then I stop it. A movie or a book will get me misty-eyed. It's always happy ending good stuff that gets me crying, not bad stuff."
"Last time?" Long pause. "Last time was when my little cat died. Five years old. Had a stroke. I had two cats and this one had the personality and almost humanlike behaviour. Pets are like sports: you think you can invest a lot in them without consequences."
... He seems to know himself well, knows he can be selfish and that he cuts quite a lonely figure – just him and his remaining cat rattling around in that big house.
Aw. (And you thought
straight men with kitty cats was a bogus trend.)
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31 comments:
...just him....rattling around that big house..."
some things are best left alone and by themselves.
His audience is now 12 times the circulation of The New York Times, he tells me. "And you can add up CNN, MSNBC and Fox, and my audience is 20 times that.
And yet ... .
Limbaugh talked about this interview and story yesterday on his show, and he said it was pretty good. He corrected the record: Chuck Norris is not his neighbor. That's the only thing he mentioned as not being accurate, although he said there were a few other things like that.
and yet what? Lefties still don't like him?
... it seems that he can't out-influence them.
(I just think that stuff is fairly meaningless, is all.)
Truth be told, Limbaugh has never been able to influence the outcome of elections. That became clear long ago, 1992 to be exact. His first big election after he hit the bigtime. He worked very hard to get Clinton defeated that year, much harder than he's working this year against Obama. He knows his limits now.
Limbaugh is an entertainer, and to the extent he preaches, he preaches to the choir. At least for the most part.
His audience is now 12 times the circulation of The New York Times, he tells me. "And you can add up CNN, MSNBC and Fox, and my audience is 20 times that.
And, beginning 3 weeks ago, Limbaugh's audience is larger than the evening newscasts of CBS/Couric, NBC/Williams, and ABC/Gibson combined.
I have days where I feel I've left half my brain at home ... but I don't think the audience would ever know it
Ditto!
Limbaugh does not pretend to be unbiased, unlike the NYT, et al.
(And you thought straight men with kitty cats was a bogus trend.)
And how do you know he's straight? He wouldn't be the first outspoken conservative to have a wide stance.
There's a huge talent gap between the left and the right. My problem with SNL is not that they are unfair but that they are so good at it. Limbaugh is a few clicks to the right of me, but my heart rejoices in the skill of his shiv handling.....I am not convinced of the pathos of a man living alone in a huge mansion and mourning the death of his beloved kitty. If I could fly to the Dominican Republic on a private jet with a vial of viagra, I am sure I would be able to find enough pussy to console me for the loss of my cat. Perhaps there is a certain amount of pathos in that story as well, but individual tastes vary.
Truth be told, Limbaugh has never been able to influence the outcome of elections.
1994. 2000.
But, as Limbaugh says often enough that it can't be ignored as false modesty, he's an entertainer and a ratings-grabber first. I don't think he spent the '92 election mocking Clinton and Perot in order to help GHWB. He did it because they were funny characters the way he portrayed them.
Another target of his lampooning over the years has been McCain. He used to do a fine impression of him; maybe he still does, I don't listen very often. He will thrive whoever wins. I think Limbaugh's got another 5-10 years before he becomes irrelevant.
1994-2000
I don't buy that at all. Those races were going to turn out the way they did with or without Limbaugh. Limbaugh couldn't even influence his like-minded and fellow Republican majority in the Senate to properly conduct the impeachment trial in 1999, which they gave away in pre-trial stipulations.
Limbaugh's influence is nonexistent and a myth. People who agree with him like him, and those who don't are not only rarely won over, but often viscerally hate him, which makes him radioactive to a not insignificant degree.
Spread Eagle wrote: "Limbaugh's influence is nonexistent and a myth."
I agree with you that Rush is best at energizing those of us who more or less agree with him.
But I do not think your comrades see him as no threat. The so called Fairness Doctrine is being talked about to silence Rush specifically.
Trey
those who don't are not only rarely won over, but often viscerally hate him
I used to viscerally hate him, but I was won over. Come to think of it, I'm not sure that I've viscerally hated anyone since I stopped being a liberal.
A liberal, who I know in person, recently told me that she couldn't stand to socialize with any conservatives (i.e. me) and that the tyranny of Bush had driven her to feel that way. That's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of visceral hatred but much more broadly applied.
Is there some connection between liberalism, and I'm not talking moderates here but far left, and visceral hatred?
Freeman,
Yeah, I've been there.
On the left, the right is not presented as having arguments, but as being evil and standing in the way of Utopia.
You don't see any credence given to the idea that people should: a) be encouraged to be self-reliant; b) be personally charitable rather than forced into it.
This is spun as selfishness, solely and completely. It has not merit as an argument. If you don't want the state to appropriate your material wealth to give to others, you're evil and greedy.
How can you not hate people who are evil and greedy.
Is there some connection between liberalism, and I'm not talking moderates here but far left, and visceral hatred?
This from a crowd who believes that Obama means to destroy America.
This type of group-think is nothing but a gross display of ignorance. Of course, those on the right have nothing but love for liberals as they accuse them of "palling around with terrorists", call their enemies thugs based on made up attacks, believe them to be socialists or communists, think they hate their grandmother's and the like. But those on the left, they are the only people who show hatred. Of course you assume those on the right are morally superior, otherwise you would have to question yourself and your allies.
This from a crowd who believes that Obama means to destroy America.
Oh, now I don't think I know anyone who thinks he means to...
Also, there's a big difference between dislike or thinking someone has bad judgment and actual, visceral hatred. The former is "He's wrong," whereas the latter is more like "That evil mother f@#$*$ makes me want to f#$%ing puke!"
If you think that political hostility in real life is equal on the left and right, you are mistaken. I've been on both sides.
Rush: ""I have days where I feel I've left half my brain at home and I'm not functioning 100 per cent, but I don't think the audience would ever know it..."
Says a lot for your audience.
Duh.
Something I've never understood about Rush Limbaugh fans taking great pride in referring to themselves as "dittoheads."
Why would any thinking person want to admit that they're merely repeating what Rush and his followers say and think?
I like Rush. I appreciate his sense of humor. I agree with him often, but not always. I don't like cigars, for instance.
John and Ken reading a CNN transcript (Oct 2, 1998) of Larry King interviewing Perot attacking the mental health of Clinton here real audio.
I liked the voices, and getting around CNN not letting them use audio by creating their own.
Unfortunately J&K are more into the outrage genre these days, which gets better ratings than amusement at the passing scene.
Rush has stayed pretty much with the same thing forever, having good points and tune-it-off-for-a-week themes where he loses his self-deprecating humor, eg abortion and the decline of social standards.
"He hates being photographed, for example, because: 'They are going to try to get the most embarrassing or unflattering shot of you they can.' "
Certainly Rush is right about that. Just look at the picture in the reference article. Photoshopped monster lighting.
I like Rush, I just missed being a charter dittohead by a month.
He's best with political analysis, he's often very insightful.
He can get tiresome at times, as he has been for the last month or so.
The 'doctor shopping' charge was just a trumped up political prosecution. His rights were trampled and the left cheered.
If I could talk to Rush I'd advise him to retire if Obama wins.
We know Obama has no respect at all for free speech or political diversity.
I expect that if Obama wins Rush will wind up a political prisoner. Literally.
Something I've never understood about Rush Limbaugh fans taking great pride in referring to themselves as "dittoheads."
What's hard to understand about that?
It's human nature to appropriate the slurs made against you and hold them with pride.
It's where we get "Pajamas Media", it's where we get "Redneck Woman", it's where we get the name "Christian." I'm sure there are any number of other examples.
Rachel was me.
Damn, I thought we had added another sensible person to the rolls....
Something I've never understood about Rush Limbaugh fans taking great pride in referring to themselves as "dittoheads."
Why would any thinking person want to admit that they're merely repeating what Rush and his followers say and think?
It looks like you don't know what "dittos" means when callers say that on Limbaugh's show. It doesn't mean "I agree with you," or anything like that. In fact, it's quite possible for a liberal democrat who disagrees with all of Limbaugh's political stands to be a dittohead. Limbaugh has said over and over again "dittos" means "I love the show, don't ever stop doing it."
Truth be told, Limbaugh has never been able to influence the outcome of elections.
I disagree. Limbaugh influenced this election to a large degree with his "Operation Chaos" in the primaries, although not in the way he intended. After it was obvious that the nominee would be Omaba, Limbaugh encouraged his listeners to vote Clinton so to lengthen the primary and "bloody him up." But the result was the opposite; Obama was forced to visit more counties, shake more hands, talk with more voters, and get more debate experience during that wildly extended primary. It probably gave him a few more points in the general election polls right off the bat.
But then, Limbaugh is not exactly a political genius.
I'm sick of being told that because I'm a liberal I...hate more, liek Obama because he's black, whatever else. Every now and then, I get steamed about some conservative bullshit and find myself wanting to make grand statements about the way the other side is, but then I remember that I know people on both sides that act stupid, selfish, short-sighted-whatever it is that's bothering me. The guy above who said he hasn't hated since he stopped being a liberal and suggests that being a liberal make you a hater,is HATING. Come on, man. Drop the labels, drop the bs. I'm not voting Obama because he's black, I wouldn't vote for Keyes, for crying out loud. I'm voting for him because I believe decades of conservative policies have weakened my country and I want it run by somebody who will do 2 things that I do: Pay the bills and resolve conflicts in a reasonable, peaceful manner. You can disagree, but don't tell me why I think the way I think. I am not a 2-dimensional object for you to hold up and scoff at.
I don't listen to Rush much, as I work during his show and might catch 20 minutes at lunch in the car if I'm eating out, which is rare. But I've been listening since his national debut. He's been an undeniably formative force in shaping my own political opinions, and I regard him as a mentor, along with Michael Medved. It is sad that he's alone with his cat. Reminds me of the sorrow of the old guy that lost his cat in the Kurosawa film Madadayo. Rush needs a woman. Above all else, he needs a woman.
"Above all else, he needs a woman."
He's had a few....I guess he's just not very good at keeping them.
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