"I hope he fails" ????????

''I hope he fails.'' -- Limbaugh

It is, of course, a calculated outrage.

Meaning, it was spewed by a clown in the media circus to kick a familiar sequence into motion: angry denunciation by bloggers, pundits and supporters of President Barack Obama (the ''he'' whose failure is hoped), followed by Rush Limbaugh refusing to retract a word, a courageous truth teller who will not be moved. And, trailing behind, like the folks with brooms trail the elephants in the circus parade, Limbaugh's devotees, complaining that their hero has been misquoted, misunderstood or otherwise mistreated. ``What Rush meant was . . . yadda yadda yadda.''

A calculated outrage.

And knowing this, knowing how frequently and adroitly media are manipulated by self-promoting media clowns who defame conservatism by calling themselves conservative, one is tempted to let the statement pass, to make its way unimpeded to the dustbin like so many other manufactured controversies. But occasionally, it's necessary to intercept one of them and hold it up to the light..................

floridafun wrote:actually if i recall correctly, the media have made a mountain out of a molehill on this one..what he said whas he hopes the obama liberal policies fail, after he made numerous other comments about obama. what a great way to keep his name in lights tho..wonder why its any bigger deal than anything else he has said all along.

Why politics has become so destructive
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@miamiherald.com
This one is for Doug.

He was one of maybe 2,000 readers who fired off e-mails in response to a recent column criticizing that paragon of political analysis, Rush Hudson Limbaugh III. I excoriated Limbaugh for saying of Barack Obama's presidency, ''I hope he fails.'' As is generally the case when you exact a pound of flesh from Brother Limbaugh's hide, his legions of listeners were vociferous and unstinting in his defense.

They claimed I misquoted him (the quote was cut and pasted directly from Limbaugh's own website). They claimed Limbaugh was referring not to Obama's presidency, but to his supposed desire to institute a socialist government (except that Limbaugh was, by his own admission, responding to a question about his hopes for Obama's presidency).

Doug, however, made neither of those arguments. His e-mail said in its entirety:

``I see your (sic) Mr. Sensitive when it comes to someone saying something bad about your guy. But I had to go 8 years watching, reading, listening to you ravage George W. Bush. Just who has the Class here?''

His subject line: ``you ravage Bush we ravage Obama.........................''