For some reason, in the middle of a lengthy "Morning Joe" segment dealing with President Obama's obvious failures as a leader, host Joe Scarborough on Thursday felt the need to bring up conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JOE SCARBOROUGH: The fact that the President waited to talk about the SEALs and then just kind of put that in on the end of a press conference. “Oh, and by the way.” Somebody in the White House doesn't get it. Somebody in the White House is clueless. When you have 30 Americans die and it's treated that way when, again, I’m, I'm baffled.
This was some real silliness from Scarborough. Let's recall what Limbaugh told Fox News's Sean Hannity on January 22, 2009:
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: You're the leading voice of opposition, conservative, and have defined conservatives for over two decades. You celebrated you r20 years on the air, by the way, nationally syndicated, congratulations.
RUSH LIMBAUGH: Thank you.
HANNITY: Coming off record-ratings year for you, but you -- you are a passionate conservative. You've defined conservatives for many people in this country for years. He represents the antithesis in terms of his world view.
So then the question becomes, do you want him to succeed?
LIMBAUGH: Now -- this -- I am so glad that he asked me that question. That you asked me this question.
HANNITY: I'm glad to.
LIMBAUGH: I'll tell you why. I am hearing many Republicans say that -- well, we want him to succeed and prominent Republicans. Yes, we wanted -- they have laid down. They have totally -- they're drinking the Kool- Aid, too. They have no guts to stand up for what their beliefs are because they're afraid of criticism, they're afraid of being called racists, they're afraid of not having gotten with the program.
Now success can be defined two ways. I said earlier I don't know about this guy. I really don't. I've got my -- I've got my suspicions, and they're pretty close to convictions, but we're going to have to wait to see what he does. Now if he turns out to be a Reagan, if he adds Reagan to his recipe of FDR and Lincoln, and if he does cut some taxes.
HANNITY: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: If he does not eliminate the Bush tax cuts, I would call that success. So yes, I would hope he would succeed if he acts like Reagan, but if he's going to do FDR, if he's going to do the new, new deal all over which we will call here the raw deal, why would I want him to succeed?
Look, he's my president. The fact that he is historic is irrelevant to me now. It matters not at all. I -- if he is going to implement a far left -- look it. I think it's already decided. $2 trillion in stimulus? The growth of government. I think the intent here is to create as many dependant Americans as possible looking to government for their hope and salvation.
If he gets nationalized health care, I mean, it's over, Sean. We're never going to roll that back. That's the end of America as we have known it because that's then going to set the stage for everything being government owned, operated, or provided.
Why would I want that to succeed? I don't believe in that. I know that's not how this country is going to be great in the future, it's not what made this country great.
So I shamelessly say, no, I want him to fail, if his agenda is a far- left collectivism, some people say socialism, as a conservative heartfelt, deeply, why would I want socialism to succeed?
Two and a half years later, that question is even more valid given what we've seen this President do.
He has indeed failed, and wishing for him to succeed at doing what he's been doing since Inauguration Day is like hoping for your own doom.
As I wrote Tuesday, all this media cheerleading for Obama has had a hand in his ineptness because his fans in the press have continued applauding as he's fallen on his face dragging the country with it.
What he really needs are more members of the media to aggressively criticize him when he errs.
Maybe then he'll change his ways and actually give people something legitimately worth cheering about.
