One of the consistent, indisputable and well-deserved comments made about GOP spokesman Rush Limbaugh is that he is a brilliant man.
And he is.
Take his well-publicized remarks that he hopes Obama will fail. More precisely, his extended and detailed remarks on this subject, on his radio show on February 13, 2009:
I’ll say it again. Not only do I want Obama to fail, I want this package to fail. I want this to blow up in their face.
I hope the stimulus bill fails. I hope it does exactly what we know it will do, blow everything to smithereens and not do one thing that has been promised. Apparently, experience is the greatest teacher, and when these poor people who think Barack Obama means a new house, a new car, a new job, when they find out that’s not what Barack Obama means, maybe then they’ll see. So I hope that happens.
I hope Obama fails. Now the bill has passed the House. I hope when they implement it, that it fails. If I hope it fails beforehand, I better hope it fails afterwards to be consistent, right?
No matter what else anyone says about these remarks—thoughtless, callous, unpatriotic, selfish, irresponsible, etc.—there is no getting away from it that they are just brilliant.
Mr. Limbaugh’s comments are brilliant because, in a nutshell, Mr. Limbaugh has nothing to lose. In fact, he wins either way.
Let me explain.
As has been proven in recent weeks, Mr. Limbaugh’s “brilliant” remarks and subsequent antics have earned him a tremendous amount of publicity; have excited and energized his “base,” the dittoheads; have increased his ratings and his audiences; and, as a result, have increased his “obscene profit” margins, regardless of what has happened to our economy.
Additionally, as Mr. Limbaugh’s hopes are realized and the economy continues to “blow up in their face,” the more he will be proven right, the more publicity he will get, and the more disenchanted people will join the dittoheads ranks—all good for Limbaugh’s bottom line, and his ego.
Finally, since the wisdom of buying gold has been extensively promoted on Mr. Limbaugh’s program recently, I am sure that this brilliant man takes his own brilliant advice to heart and has quite a bit of that yellow stuff stashed away for when his wishes come true. Limbaugh will be sitting pretty in his gold-plated mansion in southern Florida. Too bad for average Joe.
But, what happens if Mr. Limbaugh’s wishes don’t materialize, if the stock market bounces back, if the economy recovers, if Obama doesn’t fail.
Well, Limbaugh wins again.
First, his sizeable stock holdings (now amply augmented by additional “low-hanging-fruit” stock acquired at ridiculously low prices with the “obscene profits” made as a result of his success discussed above) will reap the obvious benefits and explode in value, more than restoring Mr. Limbaugh’s pre-hope-for-failure fortunes.
Second, brilliant Mr. Limbaugh surely will find a brilliant way to convince us that it was his ranting and raving that saved our economy, our country, from the failure that he had “symbolically” hoped for. Because, after all, his hopes and words were intended to do exactly that: to rally Americans to help steer Obama’s failure-bound ship of state into safer, more conservative waters. And, voila, it worked.
Talk about a win-win proposition. Brilliant!
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.