Lawrence O'Donnell: Limbaugh Racist for Saying Obama Smoked Weed and Snorted Coke

Noel Sheppard
July 17th, 2012 12:34 AM
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UPDATE AT END OF POST: O'Donnell responds.

It's really becoming difficult keeping track of all the things the liberal media claim are code for racism these days.

On MSNBC's The Last Word Monday, host Lawrence O'Donnell accused conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh of being racist for saying Barack Obama smoked weed and snorted coke (video follows with transcript and commentary):

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL, HOST: In the spotlight tonight, Republican campaign strategist Rush Limbaugh. Rush thinks Mitt is doing a terrible job of fighting back against the team Obama attack on Mitt as a pioneer of outsourcing. But Rush thinks he knows why Mitt isn't hitting back hard enough.

(BEGIN EDITED VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Romney knows how to do this. He did it to Newt and he did it to Santorum. He knows full well how he has to do this. But I know what they think they're up against. They got the first black president, independents...It's easy to go after Newt or Romney, because they're conservatives and everybody hates conservatives anyway...But we can't go after poor old Barack that way, because he's a minority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O’DONNELL: And so Rush decided to teach Mitt how to go after a minority. Rush thinks Mitt should be hitting Barack Obama as a lazy, drug-taking beneficiary of affirmative action. Rush didn't use the word "shiftless," but Rush threw in every racist stereotype he could in his advice to Mitt.

See if you can find "affirmative action" in the next clip O'Donnell played:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIMBAUGH: “Okay so Mr. Limbaugh, since you have the answer to everything, then what would you suggest that Romney do, if he do?” Okay, fine! “Look, pal, when I was out creating jobs, investing in businesses and growing this economy, you were at Columbia smoking weed and snorting coke. You write about it in your book, you talk about how you got into Columbia, the Harvard Law Review, and you didn't have to do anything. That was what’s great about it. You loved getting into Columbia because all you had to do was go to class, get your grades, and smoke a little weed while I was out building the country when you were doing that.”

Notice any reference to "affirmative action?" Not there, is it?

In fact, if you had read or heard that clip without knowing who Limbaugh was talking about, could that have just as easily been a white guy he was referring to?

Haven't lots of white kids smoked weed and snorted coke in college? They did at the two schools I attended.

So exactly what makes any of that racist?

Regardless of the absurdity of the premise, O’Donnell then went into a predictable rant about how Limbaugh is a drug addict that flunked out of college and Obama by contrast is God’s gift to mankind.

And by the way, the current White House resident wrote in his book that he smoked weed and snorted coke in high school NOT in college. That was an important distinction for O'Donnell who then brought on two perilously liberal guests certain to agree with everything he said.

After the introductions, O’Donnell said to the Grio’s Joy Reid, “Joy, all of those racist stereotypes that Rush was using are things that Mitt Romney can't say. Rush says very, very effectively. There's no mystery to what he's talking about there. Is it your sense that the Republican campaign is kind of, in a sense, relies on Rush for this?”

“The thing is that Rush Limbaugh is speaking to an average age 67, even older than Fox News,” Reid replied.

“These people out in the hinterlands who live where his syndicator owns all the stations and force places this radio show which allows him to seem successful,” she continued. “It seems like he’s talking to 20 million people. Of course, evil technology and the people meter has showed he really actually isn’t.”

“So he's got a declining sort of product,” Reid sneered. “He's got an angry, miserable base that feels they're the true victims of American history, right? The blacks got everything. The women got everything. They're so lucky. We've got nothing.”

“Rush Limbaugh had a privileged existence,” Reid continued. “He was born to an upper middle class family. He had every advantage, and he just couldn't get it done. This guy is president of the United States. Are you kidding? He thinks he's better than you. That’s what Rush Limbaugh's message is.”

It would be funny if it wasn't so scary.

By the time we get to Election Day, anything anyone says about Barack Obama that isn't high praise is going to be called racist by these shameless shills.

Lord help us.

(HT Barry Popik)

*****Update: Late Monday evening, O'Donnell responded via Twitter.

As I tweeted back to O'Donnell in response, does he lie to his viewers because they let him?

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