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 In the LA Times today Michael McGough is pushing Rush Limbaugh for Congress. It would put Limbaugh, he argues, in a better position to help President Obama fail.
I think instead that Limbaugh should make a run for President in 2012. First, he's already the de facto head of the GOP as Rahm Emanuel pointed out yesterday. This fact became even more clear in the last 24 hours. Yesterday RNC head Michael Steele said "No, I am the head of the party" and at the same time criticized Rush and his show. Today Steele is apologizing for those remarks. Limbaugh is easily the most popular figure among GOP voters. If Sarah Palin for VP was such a great idea based on how she fired up the base, increased donations, etc., Limbaugh should clearly be seen as manna from heaven. Imagine the contributions. And unlike Palin he is capable of speaking in complete sentences. But as popular as he is among the far right, he is simultaneously the least popular media figure on the scene today. A Gallup poll last month shows Independent voters against him 2-to-1 and a previous Gallup poll from 6 years ago is much the same. Another poll last fall showed Limbaugh less popular that Jeremiah Wright. And check out this poll by Rasmussen two years ago showing Rush Limbaugh as, by far, having the highest unfavorables of the media personalities they polled. Al Franken was among the first to capitalize on the deep well of animosity Americans have for Limbaugh. His 1999 book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" spent 23 weeks on the best seller list and helped launched his career as a political commentator and, sometime soon, as a Senator. I think that book may have ultimately made it harder for Franken to be taken seriously as a candidate but, that issue aside, he clearly tapped into a reservoir of Rush hate. A run by Rush would crystalize everything people already believe about the Republican party and virtually guarantee continued minority party status for the GOP. So I second McGough's call: Run Rush run! For President.
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