Wanted: A Villain to Play the Foil to Obama's Hero

JNS, did you have a gander at the comments to MS's post below?
I'm not sure you really want to wade into this one, too.
On the other hand, there are fewer physical dangers in Swampland than in Cartagena, so if you're willing...

What an incoherent pile of drivel.
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The President doesn't need a foil. The Media needs one. The Narrative needs a pair of opponents. The real shocking thing that is going on is that, unlike after 9/11 (a much smaller crisis than this one) Republicans are not pulling together for the sake of the country, but rather obstructing what needs to be done.

JNS-- So you decided to join the Republican driven narrative that the white house is picking on Rush. I get it you don't want to be out of the loop, you don't want to be irrelevant. Of course you've added nothing to the conversation and traded any modicum of journalistic ethics you might have retained -- but so what right?
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Congratulations, its affirmed, the last time we called you on following the GOP talking points over that non-existent CBO, you were harried and hadn't checked properly. But clearly that was no accident -- because oops you did it again.

@Joe -- Of course she read Michael's post. she saw 382 comments and said oh man how do In get that. I never get more than 30 comments even on a good day. I'm gonna get me a piece of that.

oops In = I

Thanks, Jay. This was so sane and clear-headed, I was surprised to see that it was written by a Time magazine reporter.

White House has spent all of 20 minutes talking about Rush this week, as early as January Obama had Limbaugh in his sights.
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this is gross intellectual dishonesty. In both cases you cited, Gibbs was asked specifically about Limbaugh -- to say that "Obama...had Limbaugh in his sights" when your citations are to questions asked of GIBBS specific to Limbaugh is irresponsible.
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The media is cares more about pushng this story than does the White House. Its like your insistence on pushing the "class warfare" meme --- you can't talk about complex issues, so you create/magnify artificial conflicts.

"Democrats and the media have alternately tried to promote Rush Limbaugh, Eric Cantor, Sarah Palin and the clearly not ready for prime time Bobby Jindal"
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I'm not sure what you mean here. These people are promoting themselves by saying destructive and stupid crap. The dems may be jumping on the stupid crap they say, but what f**k are they supposed to do? The media gives them air time but they are not forcing them to say stupid crap.

So if you really want to add something why didn't you say something like when the GOP trots out Ari Fleischer you know they are in trouble. That's the big gun they drew out the last time they had a problem with a press secretary (Scott McClellan) and now he's going Mano a Mano with Gibby right.

JNS, Jay beat me to it. The media needs one.
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Obama is like Mike Tyson in his prime, he didn't need a "foil". He was the champ. You can line up contenders all you want, just like the GOP, but nobody's touchin' him right now.
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"the lack of a figurehead is perhaps the silver lining of the party's leadership vacuum:"
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Republican playbook 101: Act like your weakness is actually your strength and see if anyone buys it.

Democrats and the media have alternately tried to promote
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Umm... are you aware that there's a GOP out there too? Is David Frum just off his rocker over Limbaugh, like the folks at the Corner think? Or not?
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Does Limbaugh run the GOP or not?
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You are correct that media sucks at reporting the news, choosing to write about foils and the choice thereof in lieu of substance. So maybe if we keep talking, we can find more common ground out there.

I nominate "ignorance" as Obama's nemesis; that way citizens and journalists can join the fray, if they want.

It's all a game, eh?

What made the "Epic Struggle" between Obama and Clinton so interesting was the fact that once the primary was settled, they were going to have to switch back to being BFF's. That made a significant part of the drama revolve around questions as to who had "crossed the line" and had excessively trashed their opponent. One of the results of all this manuevering is that suddenly everyone assumes that the secret to Obama's success is that he plays nice and has 'risen above' standard political maneuvering.
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The fact that it's all horse$4!^ seems to have flown over the heads of the commentariat. Obama is a politician. Anybody who expresses surprise that he acts like a politician or worse yet, talks about how 'shameful' it is that he acts like a politician needs a serious narrative adjustment procedure. The proper tool, of course being a ball-pein hammer.

More and More I think the bloggers here waited until they got their talking points before blogging about this. Either that are they stealing their opinions from other websites and presenting them as original thought.
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Some Republicans have taken to blaming the media for conflating the idea that Limbaugh is the leader of the party.
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“He's no more the head of the Republican Party than The New York Times prints the talking points of the Democratic Party,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “I say that with all due respect.”
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“I think MoveOn.org affects the Democratic Party quite frankly more than Rush Limbaugh affects the Republican Party, in terms of elected leadership,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
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But Graham added that he doesn't “think it's healthy” for talk radio or other interest groups to have too much influence over policy so “you can't make rational decisions.”
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19641_Page2.html

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...And now Limbaugh is daring Obama to come on his show and debate the issues. Limbaugh's an opportunistic clown, which is probably one of the reasons why the the right-whingers like him so much.
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If Limbaugh, the de facto head of the GOP and drum major for the lemmings of the right wingnut-o-sphere, wants to debate Obama, the thrice-divorced drug-addled gasbag will have his chance to prove the correctness of his views when the 2012 election season comes around. That, or prove that the conservative movement...
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..."is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

First we had Time's Michael Scherer with his the-Democrats-made-Rush-do-it nonsense (click here for a chuckle), and now Times' David Von Drehle tops that with his painfully dumb take on the Limbaugh story.
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Headline:
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Criticizing Rush Limbaugh: Over the Line?
That's right, Rush is now the victim.
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Read, if you must:
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Sooner or later, most presidential administrations make some version of the Sun King's mistake. "L'etat c'est moi," Louis XIV of France is said to have declared - "I am the state." To criticize the man becomes downright unpatriotic. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs crept up to that line - even put his toe over - as he tried to capitalize on the anti-Obama declarations of talk-show behemoth Rush Limbaugh.
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Got that? Reporters asked Gibbs about Limbaugh. Gibbs answered, and now Gibbs is at fault because, according to Von Drehle, the arrogant White House is trying to silence dissent.
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Von Drehle, completely making stuff up, claims the White House has dubbed criticism "unpatriotic."
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http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/

'Gin up the base'? The Democrats are merely trying to expand Rush's audience from the true believers to the undecided voters. Coincidentally, that's Rush's goal too.
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The recent apologies to Rush Limbaugh show that Rush is calling the shots in the Republican party. Why should the Democrats ignore their most prominent critic? From their perspective there's no better Republican face than the 'I've got mine & the rules don't apply to me' Rush Limbaugh.

JNS: Good job linking nearly every noun, verb and adjective in your story. It helps to see where you are coming from.
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But I think you overlooked Obama's true nemeses at this point in time: The Financial Crisis and the Struggling Auto Industry. *These* and the issues that concern us outside of DC.
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Jay: Back in December/January, you provided *excellent* coverage of the Auto Industry's troubles and the efforts to secure loans (not bail-outs) to see them through. Please continue!
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Away from the Dark Side you should stay! Of Rush post no more!

In case I didn't make myself clear, I'm not sure of anyone who cares to claim the White House is pristine. But the only people who seem geuinely surprised that its not are MS and JNS.
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If they weren't pointing and laughing at Rush they'd be derelict in their duty. And as I said in MS's thread, to highlight and ridicule the Malkin/Palin/Rush/Coulter wing of the Republican party is to perform an important Government function in that it clears the path of idiots and means that they can focus on the real opposition to their agenda instead of faux-populist outrage that has driven debates in the past.
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The issue isn't WH involvment. It's Scherer's peculiar appetite for smelling salts.

Lets recount the history of the Rush Limbaugh "story"
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First unprompted Limbaugh makes a statement about bending over and grabbing his ankles and saying he wants the President to fail. No nuances at that point AT ALL. Just that he wants him to fail. Period.
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Second in a CLOSED DOOR MEETING President Obama makes a comment to the Republican Leadership that they can't listen to Rush Limbaugh and expect to have constructive bipartisanship. Just like the gossipy little kindergarteners they are Republicans rush out from the meeting to make off the record statements recounting what President Obama said.
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Third Rush Limbaugh makes other comments about hoping Presidnet Obama fails. Phil Gingrey says something in opposition then has to go back and kiss Limbaugh's ass. This is picked up by several talking head shows.
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Fourth Rush Limbaugh promotes falsehoods about the stimulus plan that get parroted by the GOP showing that they apparently didn't take Obama's advice. The term "porkulus" which Limbaugh coined is used by such Congress folks like Senator Grassley, and a false health care rationing story about a health IT provision in the stimulus bill promoted by Rush Limbaugh is repeated over and over by several Congressional Republicans.
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Fifth Robert Gibbs is ASKED QUESTIONS BY THE SAME ASS HOLES WHO ARE NOW SAYING ITS WRONG TO TARGET RUSH about Rush Limbaugh's statement. He doesn't attack Rush personally but he says that he doesn't believe its appropriate for most Americans to be pulling for failure. At the time he makes no mention of Rush being the leader of the party.
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Sixth Chris Matthews among others starts asking the question of if Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican party. This is after Governer Mark Sanford opposes Rush then just like Gingrey comes back and kisses Rush's fat ass and asks for forgiveness.
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Seventh talking heads start asking Republicans if they agree with Rush Limbaugh. Hilarity ensues.
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Eighth Rush Limbaugh as keynote speaker for CPAC where President Obama is accused of not being a natural borne citizen, a socialist and jokes are made about nuking Obama's city of Chicago, and he again reiterates wanting Obama to fail. This time with a little nuance so as to try to cover his ass. But nobody thinks to ask him how America will rebound if in fact President Obama's policies fail.
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Ninth Rahm Emmanuel picks up the meme and takes it over the endzone by saying what has already been posited by numerous talking heads and that is that Rush is now the defacto leader of the Republican party.
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Tenth Mike Steele goes on DL Hughley's show and calls Rush's show incendiary and ugly, by 6pm the next day he follows the script and kisses Rush's fat ass and asks for forgiveness. Hilarity again ensues and Steele is threatened by anonymous Republican figures that he is going to lose his job if he doesn't knock off "slamming" Rush
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Eleventh talking head shows again ask several Republicans if they agree with Rush.
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Finally Robert Gibbs IN RESPONSE TO A QUESTION FROM THE SAME ASS HOLES WHO ARE SAYING THE WHITE HOUSE TARGETED RUSH says they press should go ask Republicans if they agree with Rush.
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Now how this is targeting Rush Limbaugh is beyond me. The Republican party is on Tee Vee plenty enough that I think if they don't want Rush to be seen as the leader of the party all they ahve to do is say he isn't. But they won't even utter the words "Rush was wrong" for fear of him. The MEDIA drove this story. The MEDIA asked all the questions about Rush. The MEDIA wanted a foil for President Obama who hasn't said anything in public about Rush being the leader of the GOP. The MEDIA kept asking Republicans if they agree with Rush. And now to cover their own ass the MEDIA is trying to point the finger at the White House. Sorry but you can save that sh*t JNS. You spent more time in writing this post than the White House has done addressing Rush collectively in public. Just because the hacktacular GOPoltico writes a story asserting there was some kind of conspiracy doesn't make it so. And guess what JNS when YOU GUYS stop asking questions about Rush Limbaugh the story will go away. So look in the frikkin mirror before you hit that fainting couch if you want to see who is responsible for this story.

It's amazing! People in the media, like JNS, apparently have no responsibility for what they report on. If it wasn't for those all powerful "strategists" pulling their puppet strings, they could be covering serious issues like Michelle Obama's scandalous bare arms.

What is different from what JNS and Michael are saying and John Boehner is saying? JNS, Michael and John just happen to approach this issue in the excat same way.
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Make no mistake: This strategy did not develop out of thin air. Democratic pollsters began laying the groundwork for this effort last fall. What's particularly regrettable is that all this is unfolding at a time our nation can least afford it.
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President Obama has said that we must change the way Washington operates in order to address the unprecedented challenges of today. I hope that those inside and close to the administration begin heeding his advice, because the change-the-subject campaign they are employing is the oldest trick in Washington's book. This isn't about the leadership of political party officials or the influence of radio hosts. It's about the need for both parties to work together toward real solutions to end this recession and put Americans back to work.
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