A new poll is out that measures conservative talk show host and GOP powerhouse Rush Limbaugh’s favorable rating. And you look at the South Pole polling numbers and you wonder: with these numbers just who is Limbaugh trying to emulate? His biggest fan..the popularity challenged former Vice President Dick Cheney?

Over the past few weeks, the White House has been casting right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh as the head of the Republican Party, and based on a new CBS News poll, it appears they may be onto something: According to the poll, Limbaugh’s favorable rating stands at just 19 percent, a full 43 points lower than President Obama’s.

On the other hand, Obama’s poll numbers may go south if he gets super-glued to the AIG bonus fiasco. On the other OTHER hand, Limbaugh’s poll numbers could go south even more as he gets more exposure (for instance his recent rant defending the AIG bonuses would not play well with Mrs. Smith in Peoria who just lost her home).

One tidbit the poll found: a lot of people don’t know or have an opinion about Limbaugh. And another (file this one in your “No Duh” file)tidbit: many Republicans love Rush while a whopping number of Democrats most assuredly don’t:

Limbaugh’s unfavorable rating, meanwhile, stands at 40 percent, while 41 percent say they don’t know or don’t have an opinion. Not surprisingly, the conservative commentator, who has said he hopes that the president’s economic policies fail, is far more popular with Republicans – 47 percent view him favorably – than with Democrats, just seven percent of whom view him favorably.

The poll also found that Republicans are relatively pessimistic about the future of their party. Just 40 percent believe the party is going in the right direction, while nearly as many – 36 percent – say it is going in the wrong direction. Among all Americans, just 27 percent say the party is going in the right direction and 48 percent say it is going in the wrong direction.

Is the Republican party a party that’ll stop and get directions?