Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails

Rush Limbaugh recently responded to various Republicans who have expressed a desire to see Obama succeed as president. Here are some samples of such expressions of hope:

"It's not time to look at the partisan end. We had a long and very difficult campaign that has stretched us and divided us," said attorney and Republican adviser Tom Rath.

"It really is time to remember real people are hurting. There are real issues and it's time to find common ground. He seems to be a person who emphasizes that."

From Republican leadership in D.C.:

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas joined in the GOP praise of Obama's emphasis on taking responsibility for leading the nation out of crisis. "Republicans will work with him because we also want to get to a good place," said Sessions. "But he will be held accountable as all of our presidents have."

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, echoed Sessions' bipartisan sentiment. "The next four years will be marked by considerable challenges -- but also considerable opportunities for all leaders in Washington, regardless of party, to work together on behalf of the American people," he said in a statement.

You get the picture.

Limbaugh responded:

If I wanted Obama to succeed, I'd be happy the Republicans have laid down. And I would be encouraging Republicans to lay down and support him. Look, what he's talking about is the absorption of as much of the private sector by the US government as possible, from the banking business, to the mortgage industry, the automobile business, to health care. I do not want the government in charge of all of these things. I don't want this to work. So I'm thinking of replying to the guy, "Okay, I'll send you a response, but I don't need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails." (interruption) What are you laughing at? See, here's the point. Everybody thinks it's outrageous to say. Look, even my staff, "Oh, you can't do that." Why not? Why is it any different, what's new, what is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. Liberalism is what's gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here. Why do I want more of it? I don't care what the Drive-By story is. I would be honored if the Drive-By Media headlined me all day long: "Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails." Somebody's gotta say it.

Worse yet, Limbaugh attacks the very idea of civility in the inauguration:

Reasons number 249 and 50 why I'm not a Republican. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has been chosen to introduce Vice-President-elect Biden at a bipartisan dinner in Washington on the eve of the immaculation. Biden was one of Hagel's closest friends in the Senate. "Bipartisan dinners also held that night honoring McCain and Colin Powell. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina will introduce McCain at a dinner." So all these Republicans are being honored on the night before Obama is immaculately inaugurated, as though they're part of the Obama administration. Our presidential candidate is being honored. I can understand liberals honoring their losers, but I just -- (tearing up story)

And this is the rub. Rush can't fathom the idea that you can work civilly with one another while maintaining your values and principles. If people from different sides of the aisle aren't yelling at one another, how in the world will he maintain his base of listeners waiting for more red meat?

A good friend of mine, when presented with Rush's statement that he wants Obama to fail, responded by asking if I wanted Bush to successfully go through with military tribunals of Gitmo detainees, environmental deregulation and a repeal of the estate tax. The truth is, of course, that I didn't want those policies implemented.

The important distinction, however, is why I didn't want Bush to succeed in implementing his agenda. I believed that Bush's policies would doom us to failure. And today, it appears that Bush's policies have largely led this country right toward the path of failure.

Had Bush's policies lead to better security and peace, more prosperity for all Americans, better health care, better education and a better quality of life, I would have gladly celebrated those successes. I'm no ideologue - I advocate for policies which I believe to have the greatest chance of helping this country succeed. I don't care who proposed them, and I don't care if someone calls those policies "conservative", "liberal", "socialist", "facist" or "anarchist". What I care about are results.

Rush Limbaugh makes no such distinction. He wants Obama to fail because he is a Democrat and Limbaugh perceives Obama's policies to be "liberal" and "socialist". The fact of the matter is that not only is Obama a Democrat, but so are a large majority of the House and a nearly three-fifths of the Senate. Like it or not, the American people listened to what Obama and the Democrats were selling and they bought it.

This is why I asserted on Twitter tonight the following:

Rush Limbaugh says he hopes Obama fails. What a D-Bag. I never want to hear a peep from him about patriotism. We're toast if Obama fails.

I am not saying that Rush Limbaugh isn't patriotic. I'm sure he loves this country as much as any other American citizen. What I am saying, though, is that his statements leave a serious impression that he would rather see this country suffer under policies he terms "liberal" and "socialist". Not once does he assert that Obama's policies will lead us to failure - only that they don't meet the standards of his strict ideology.

But it's hard to give Rush the benefit of the doubt when he sells himself out with nuggets like this:

I'm happy to be the last man standing. I'm honored to be the last man standing. Yeah, I'm the true maverick. I can do more than four words. I could say I hope he fails and I could do a brief explanation of why. You know, I want to win. If my party doesn't, I do. If my party has sacrificed the whole concept of victory, sorry, I'm now the Republican in name only, and they are the sellouts.

(Emphasis mine.) When your goal is personal victory in times like this, then I have to question where your heart and your head are.

The question isn't whether Obama's agenda will be implemented. The question is whether those policies will succeed. I certainly hope they do.